(Wilbur and Tommy are both in this chapter, so swear warning. (Honestly most of these need swear warning now tho-))

(while editing, I found it was sort of hard to tell what was a flashback or not from an outside perspective so I decided to make all of the flashback stuff in bold since I already use italic for thoughts n' stuff, but I know some stuff might not be very clear (sorry!). If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!)

Wilbur was leaning on a tree, watching the nerd lab from afar. His job was to make sure everything went smoothly from outside, but it was most likely because they didn't have a real job for him. He didn't really mind, watching the spectacle of a disaster that it was, so far was worth the ride and he got to take credit for helping without having to do anything probably.

The day had been weird at least, hectic at most.

He had gotten up as normal, then gotten the message to meet at the prison and whatnot, rushing over and missing his morning coffee. Which was annoying, since he practically needed caffeine to survive at this point. Then, after being tired and sort of unnerved that "Dream had escaped" was what he woke up to, everyone else that wasn't already there arrived at the prison.

Skeppy had been one of the last to show up and Bad was ecstatic when he showed up, before immediately getting into a small and short lived argument. They fought like an old married couple, which was amusing for a few seconds before Sapnap interrupted it and the Prison warden, Awesamdude, or Sam for short (though he was actually very tall), showed up.

The warden said some sort of speech Wilbur wasn't really listening to. Yada yada prepare and stuff. Basically, get stuff for a few days trip as we try to catch this insane guy quickly.

Sam had offered the chance to leave and go home and forget this entire ordeal, but despite being tired and sort of only half involved in this thing, curiosity took over and Wilbur didn't take it. Neither did anyone else, which showed they were curious enough to go through with this too. 

"Guess I wasn't the only one who wants to know what the hell is going on."  Wilbur thought to himself and chuckled a little. He turned towards the lab building.

"Guess that's what Fundy and Tubbo are trying to figure out, huh?"

Another curious person who probably shouldn't have been so involved in this was Tommy, who had rushed into the conversation out of nowhere and demanded he be involved.

"Well go figure he would do that." He thought to himself. "Talk back to the warden of all people. Kid's got guts."

Wilbur had been the fool to insist Tommy join the gang, which, after being dragged into another thing (this godforsaken heist) was starting to seem like a bad decision. Example one, this moment, right now, happening in front of Wilbur's eyes as he clicked pause on his flashback to stand up better off the tree and watch Tommy.

Tommy was walking around aimlessly, bored out of his mind. The guard from earlier was slumped down and leaning against the wall of the building; Out cold thanks to Badboyhalo. Tommy leaned closer to get a better look at the guy, and jumped back when he heard a muffled buzzing noise from the communicator on the guy's belt.

Someone was calling the passed out guard, and, for obvious reasons, the guard couldn't answer.

"What do I do Wilbur!?" Tommy panicked. He assumed the buzzing would wake the guy up and so he swiftly pulled it out of his belt and was now holding it in shaking hands.

"Well don't touch it!" Wilbur whisper-argued, wading through the bushes as he tried to get to Tommy.

"I'm already touching it! Should I answer or-..."

"NO! Don't fucking answer it!" Wilbur yelled quite a bit louder. He glanced around quickly to make sure no one was near enough to see or hear them.

"No one in sight, phew." Wilbur let out a breath, before realising Tommy was still being an idiot in front of him. 

"Well what if the person calling gets suspicious?!" Tommy argued. "I'm going to answer it." Tommy said, clicking the button before Wilbur could yell at him, run at him and get the communicator away, or both.

"Wai-"

Wilbur stopped short as the ringing stopped and a quiet voice was heard through the communicator. Tommy put it on speaker as a reflex so both of them could hear it.

"Oh this fucking child-" Wilbur thought to himself, mentally facepalming.

"Hey Garroth! Why did you take so long to answer?" The voice on the line asked, probably another guard.

Tommy's eyes went wide and tried to signal to Wilbur for help, but it was too late, and Wilbur couldn't do anything.

"Uhm- hello? Are you there?" The voice on the line asked again after a few seconds of silence.

Tommy coughed and tried to lower his voice to what the knocked out guard's voice had sounded like earlier when he was talking about himself.

"Oh hey- cough- sorry about that-. I just uhm- slipped?" Tommy looked towards Wilbur, who had his hand on his forehead in embarrassment. "Yeah I dropped my phone and it took me a second to answer, sorry." Tommy said in the lowest and gruffest voice he could muster, trying to sound like the guard who was apparently named Garroth.

"Hey are you ok? You sound weird..." The guard on the other line asked suspiciously.

"And we're doomed now." Wilbur thought as he accepted their fate of getting caught once this conversation was bound to go south.

"Y-yeah -cough- I think I'm a bit sick is all." Tommy fake-coughed and kept up the deep voice.

"Oh sorry dude, are you still able to go to the guards' meeting? It starts pretty soon." The guard mentioned, throwing Tommy a little off-guard. (get it?)

"Uhm- meeting?" Tommy asked, stupidly. Wilbur gave him a glare that did all the talking for him: 'You are stupid' or something along those lines.

"Yeeeaaahhh? Don't you remember?" The guard asked, probably raising his eyebrows on the other side.

"Oh must've slipped my mind!" Tommy kept up in his gruff voice, coughing again when it got too high again. "But uh yeah! I'll be there-"

"Do you even remember where it is?" The guard on the other end sounded worried and annoyed at the same time.

Tommy looked at Wilbur for any help, but Wilbur just shot him another dead panned glare.

"My god, how has this child not gotten caught yet?"

"U-uhm--" Tommy stuttered, trying to keep up the voice as best as he could.

"Alright then, after I wrap up this loop I'll find you at your post and we can walk together. Ok?" The guard on the other line offered.

"Hmm, he might actually pull through?"

Tommy had a simple thing to say: "No thanks" or "I'm ok I remember now" or "I think I'm too sick and I'm going to head home" but the idiot wasn't thinking (big surprise) and decided to screw it all up in a sentence.

"Uh yeah sure thanks dude.-"

"Oh fuck-"

"-Gotta go now- some guy in a beanie is singing a stupid song on guitar and I need to make him shut up-. Bye." Tommy mumbled an excuse, trying to keep up the voice, and quickly ending the call.

Tommy started to speak, but Wilbur interrupted before he could get a word out.

"Oh Tommy you're a fucking idiot." Wilbur scolded, stealing a glance at the guard propped against the wall after he took his hands away from his forehead.

"Oh come on Wilbur, he didn't suspect a thing! I think I played off the voice pretty damn well for only hearing it for a few seconds; Plus he had an American accent!"

"All you had to do was say 'no, I don't need you to come over here.'" Wilbur explained like it was obvious. "Now whoever was on that line is going to come here, see him passed out, and get us caught!"

Wilbur could pinpoint the second Tommy understood, with his eyes going wide for a second before glancing to the ground with a frown.

"Wilbur I'm sorry-"

"We were doomed the moment the phone rang. It's alright, but we need to keep an eye out for the guard now." Wilbur instructed, and Tommy nodded.

"Can't Badboyhalo just knock him out too when they all get back?" Tommy asked.

"Maybe...., if he doesn't get caught in the hallways with the others first." Wilbur considered.

"We should stay near the bushes though, in case the guard on the phone gets here. Hopefully, if we're very lucky, they leave without seeing us." Wilbur said, walking back to the trees as Tommy trailed behind him.

Wilbur took his place back on the tree, at an angle where he could see the building, but the guard wouldn't be able to see him if he woke up. Tommy sat on the ground and drew in the dirt with a stick, still clearly bored out of his mind again. This time though, Wilbur could read the worry on his face.

Now that everything was back to quiet and boring watching, Wilbur let himself recount the events of the day again, daydreaming to put it simply.

The Hermits that had showed up extravagantly and it was really nice of them to take care of everyone's shops without question or asking for anything in return. Wilbur didn't have anything that needed to be looked over in his absence, so he had wandered around the groups trying to make a mental list of everything he needed and where he would get it. Another thing that was on his mind was a guitar. His had been sadly shattered in the hub fight, well beyond repair, and he wanted to get another one before they left. Hey! If they're getting camping supplies, that would mean they're probably going to camp, and what's better than some camp songs to relieve stress before sleeping under the stars. (under the stars...where wild animals could tear you apart limb from limb and you could get ambushed by Dream in the middle of the night and stress is the last thing that's going to help you sleep to get the much needed energy for what is assumed to be a ton of walking. :) He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. The very back.)

So he wanted a guitar for campfire songs!

He spotted Niki and waved as he walked over to the group she was in. Tubbo came over to the group shortly after with a bee nuzzled in his hand, looking a little worried. It made much more sense now.

"Guess he was worried about the heist-... it hasn't gone too badly though." Wilbur figured, glancing at Tommy and building, seeing everything was clear, and then going back to his flashback.

Tubbo gave the bee to the Hermit in the bee suit and ran back to Fundy, probably planning the heist now that Wilbur thought about it.

Tommy and Niki had mentioned something about seeing Techno and Phil at their ice place for gear, which Wilbur still found odd, and Wilbur mentioned one or both of them might be able to help him find a guitar.

"I could still ask them for help with that after this thing...." Wilbur considered it over. As long as they weren't too busy it seemed like a good plan.

Niki and the Hermits helping her, or "her entourage" as he called them, walked off in the direction of her shops, leaving Wilbur and the gremlin child alone behind the building.

"Wilbur isn't this awesome!? We get to go on a real life adventure! To Earth!" Tommy's eyes shone brightly in front of him, even with the shadow from the prison covering the sun.

"Yeah yeah Tommy. It's awesome, but you need to promise you'll stay safe. I only convinced them to let you go because I believe that you can keep calm and stay out of trouble in an emergency. Can you do that?"

"Calm is my middle name, big man!" Tommy said with confidence. 

"Just promise me that you'll stay safe, and watch out for Tubbo too. You have horrible impulse control and I don't want that to get you killed."

"Well I'll have you know I have amazing impulse control!" Tommy argued.

"Heh, yeah right-" Wilbur thought to himself, remembering the talk.

"But ok, I promise Wilbur."

Wilbur looked at Tommy on the ground in real time and smiled a little. He was drawing in the dirt with the stick, and it sort of resembled a bee and a very messy raccoon? It was like a toddler drew it.

Wilbur glanced back up at the building he was supposed to be watching, and immediately snapped out of his thoughts.

Tommy noticed the sudden change and followed his gaze to the window Wilbur was looking at. There was movement, and the shadowy figures of two people walking around. With closer inspection, they both quickly realized it was Fundy and Tubbo.

Tommy perked up quickly and gasped, "Wilbur they're getting the crystals! They're almost out!"

Wilbur put his hand out in front of Tommy to stop him from running forwards.

"Huh?"

"They're opening the window, we don't want to distract them or they might drop it."

Tommy peered closer and noticed Tubbo sitting on the counter and Fundy walking around for a bit.

"Wait- where are Sapnap and Badboyhalo?" Tommy noticed.

"I'm not sure... maybe they got caught up in the hallway?" Wilbur said, looking over towards the doorway the group had entered from. No one was there. "I'm sure they're fine." Wilbur mumbled, hardly loud enough for Tommy to hear.

They both kept watching the scene. Tubbo and Fundy both opened the window together and Tubbo slid through, before taking a pouch from Fundy.

Wilbur saw the problem before it happened. Tubbo only had one hand on the door and was obviously struggling to hold it up, and Fundy's hat was slipping from his little fox head.

It happened pretty fast, Fundy's hat fell on Tubbo's face and it was just enough for Tubbo to slip up and the window crashed down, locking instantly. Tubbo tried at it again from the outside but it was no use, and Fundy scratched at the window from inside.

"We need to go help!" Tommy exclaimed. Wilbur put his hand on Tommy's chest to stop him from moving forwards again.

Before Fundy could shift back to normal to get the window, there was a light from behind him, followed by a moving shadow.

For a hopeful second, Wilbur thought it was Badboyhalo coming to help from behind, but there wasn't a figure that could've been Sapnap following, and his hopes dropped.

Tubbo saw it too, and quickly ducked down, leaning on the wall with his hand clamped down on his mouth so he wouldn't be seen or heard.

A guard walked in and shut the door behind him.

Fundy put up a good fight, but was ultimately captured and put in a box from what the two could see, left by the window with books holding the top closed.

The second the guard left the room, shutting the door behind him, Wilbur and Tommy rushed to Tubbo who was still curled up against the wall.

"Tubbo!" Tommy exclaimed, rushing to his side and kneeling down.

"Tommy? Tommy!" Tubbo jumped up and gave him a huge hug.

"I-I I tried to hold it up, but the crystals and the hat, and I slipped-" Tubbo started to ramble.

Wilbur nodded and put his hand on Tubbo's shoulder. "We saw the whole thing. It wasn't your fault; The window looks really heavy."

"Where are Badboyhalo and Sapnap?" Tommy asked Tubbo.

"They- they-" Tubbo paused. "T-the g-guards saw us in the hallway." Tubbo stuttered. "Sap and Bad pushed us through the doors and held them off so we could get the crystals. I don't know..."

"Ok ok, listen to me." Wilbur cut Tubbo off so he couldn;t freak himself out more. He spoke calmly and clearly, but with urgency in his voice. Tubbo looked up at Wilbur while Tommy helped him off the ground, and both waited for him to continue.

"A guard is on his way over here as we speak."

Tommy glanced to the ground while Tubbo looked confused, but Wilbur didn't elaborate.

"You two need to hide in those bushes and wait for Sapnap and Badboyhalo to get back. If they don't for whatever reason, you will go and get help. Do not try to save us yourself. Do you hear me?"

"Wilbur, what are you saying?" Tommy asked.

"I said do you hear me?" Wilbur asked again a little more harshly. Both of them agreed, and so Wilbur continued.

"I'm going to get Fundy."

"But how? The window's locked and the hallways have guards and cameras!" Tubbo said.

Wilbur took a long deep breath and faced the window in front of them. He turned his head and looked back at the two boys.

"Go to the bushes and do not get caught."

They immediately complied, running to the bushes without another word. He heard their footsteps growing quieter, refusing to look back as he chose to focus on himself before it was too late.

He focused on the cold feeling growing in his chest slowly. Concentrating carefully as to not break the flow of energy coursing through his body. 

He stood up straighter and readjusted his arms ever so slightly away from his body and rolled his shoulders as he separated his legs. A cold mist washed over him, blooming from his chest while his head tilted backwards. He took a gasp of air in and without jumping, he lifted his legs up a few inches off the ground and floated. He heard the very loud gasps and noises from Tommy and Tubbo far behind him, but ignored them fully as he felt his fingertips buzz with a soft, but cold energy.

He opened his eyes, which no longer had pupils, and started at the wall in front of him. Letting his feet move towards the ground again, without them actually touching the ground, he held out his arm and watched as it passed through the wall.

It felt like the air had just gotten colder in the place the wall was, and if his eyes weren't open, that's all he would've assumed it was. He drew back at the touch.

"Been quite a while huh?" He chuckled silently and focused his attention back to what he needed to do.

He sucked in his breath and tightened his eyes shut before stepping into the cold air. And forcefully moving as quickly as he could through it.

He was in the room of the lab. His eyes were still closed, but he knew it because the cold had stopped and the air was still. He hesitantly opened his eyes and looked around the room quickly, eyes landing on the box Fundy was in almost immediately.

Wilbur quickly went over, not even bothering to walk around the desks or chairs in his way, because he didn't need to. His hand fased through the stacked books on top of the box as he tried to grab them and he frowned. He looked at his slightly transparent hands and swiped at the books again, going through them and doing nothing.

A thought came from the back of his mind and for once he decided to listen to it.

"Alright, let's hope this works."

Wilbur focused on only his hands to go back to normal, solid. He had one eye closed to concentrate so the other could watch his hands to see if anything happened.

He took a deep breath and forced energy into his shaking hands, sucking in a hopeful gasp when they turned to their normal and not-so-transparent color. He let go of the concentration for a second and the opaque color started to retreat back to his palms, to which he quickly focused the energy back into his hands to keep them solid.

It felt straining on his hands as he lifted the books, half at a time, like the books were made from solid lead.

There was some shuffling in the box as Wilbur took the second half of the books off, and he was almost surprised Fundy didn't immediately jump out the second the heavy weight was released.

Wilbur flipped open the cardboard lid and relaxed his shoulders as his hands buzzed cold again and the slightly tinted blue-transparent color washed back over them.

Fundy was a tiny fox, tucked into the corner of the box with wide eyes towards the stranger looking down on him. He must've assumed Wilbur to be a guard at first since the room had held nothing but silence. Now though, with Wilburs face in the clear room, Fundy relaxed a little bit, before giving him an odd look.

"Oh, probably because I'm-... well whatever this is..." Wilbur figured, before deciding he should say something.

Even still, before he opened his mouth to talk he stole an extra glance at the fox in the box. His head was cocked to the side, and instead of just blank confusion, he looked like he examinying his face in detail. Like Fundy had seen this side of Wilbur before, which didn't make sense; Philza was the only one who knew.

Wilbur was probably overthinking it. How much could a fox face expression say anyway?

"Fundy-" He whispered, a little afraid a guard could still be outside of the door. "I'm here to get you out." He said after what felt like forever of silence.

The fox shook his head a little and looked up at Wilbur, nodding once.

Wilbur walked over to the window while Fundy Jumped out of the box and hopped on different counters to get to the one in front of the window.

Wilbur fazed his body through the counter and looked at the window. Fundy motioned to the little clicks that had to be pushed in to lift the window open.

For a moment, Wilbur wondered why Fundy didn't transform back to human, but then realised he was probably tired and was waiting for a more relaxed space to do it. Plus he might not be able to fit through the window again which would be a problem.

Wilbur focused energy back into his hand, making just them solid, and clicked the buttons inwards before lifting. It was actually way heavier than he thought it was and he only got it a crack open before it threatened to slip from his grasp. He looked at his transparent arms that faded into his opaque hands and tried to stretch the solid feeling farther down. Surprisingly it worked, and his arms were solid past his elbows, allowing them to rest on the table and prop up his hands to open the window a fair bit more. 

Without hesitation this time, Fundy crouched down and wiggled his way through with his ears folded behind his head. Once he landed on the soft grass patch below, Wilbur let go of the energy and relaxed his arms, letting them fade back to transparency. The window shut with a loud clap as he let go without another though. Fundy looked worriedly towards it until he saw Wilbur simply walk through it.

"Guards are coming soon, we need to get to the bushes." Wilbur stated, floating through Fundy towards the bushes and trees, and waving his hand for the fox to follow.

Fundy's fur shivered and his fur spiked up after Wilbur floated through him and Wilbur just gave him an apologetic look before continuing to the bushes.

Fundy followed him quickly, scampering across the ground and hopping over the nearest bush when they got there. Before Fundy could react, he was scooped up in Tubbo's arms in a hug and cradled like a baby. Tommy and Wilbur both snickered before Fundy wiggled out of Tubbos grasp and shook himself off before glaring at Tubbo slightly.

"Sorry, but you're so cute like that!" Tubbo said, breaking the silence.

Tommy and Tubbo both tried to hug Wilbur, but their arm's passed through his body like it was cold mist, and they stepped back.

"Woah, that's weird." Tommy mumbled and Tubbo nodded too.

Wilbur chuckled a little. He could see they wanted to bombard him with questions about how he did it and why he doesn't do it more often and things like that, but patiently stayed quiet knowing they could ask him later.

Fundy shifted back to his normal self and put his hand on his head like he had a headache. "It's been awhile since I've shifted that long." He shook his head trying to brush the pain away. "Thanks for getting me out of there Wilbur... I don't know what I would have done without you saving me..." Fundy said with full sincerity in his voice, giving a slightly sad smile towards Wilbur.

The smile still held a twinge of confusion when they made eye contact, like Fundy still recognized Wilbur from somewhere he couldn't place. It confused Wilbur as well, because of course Fundy knew Wilbur, they were friends, but this look made it as though Fundy hadn't seen him for a while, or maybe had seen him in a place he couldn't have been? Whatever it was, Wilbur didn't understand, but maybe Fundy would explain it later willingly. He ignored the look Fundy was giving him and spoke to clear the silence.

"You're welcome." Wilbur nodded back, still hovering a few inches off the ground with his legs bent ever so slightly. That was all that needed to be said, and both of them knew it.

"Alright guys," Wilbur whispered, dizziness starting to crowd his mind. "The- the guards are going to be here soon. Where are Badboyhalo and Sapnap?" He asked Fundy.

"Guards?" Fundy asked. He glanced at the building and saw the one guard from earlier still there, "sleeping".

"Tommy was a fucking fool and now another guard is coming over." Wilbur explained no further, but Fundy didn't ask more, accepting that answer.

"Bad and sapnap split from us to fight in the hallway. You mean they still aren't out yet?" Fundy asked, looking to the back door they had gone through to find it empty still.

Wilbur's eyes felt heavy and his vision was blurring but he held himself together as long as he could.

"Nevermind. I'm sure they're-... fine." Wilbur continued, "Sapnap can turn into a campfire and Badboyhalo can do that shadow swimming thing, I'm sure they'll get out soon enough, just-..." he paused and shook his head, which only hurt it more.

"Wilbur, are you okay?" Tommy asked.

He looked at his own hands and couldn't tell if they were opaque or transparent at any second. A brighter color was fading in and out of them, slowly taking over and making his body feel warmer and heavier. He was swaying a little bit and his vision was colliding pictures, like he was crossing his eyes.

Wilbur tried to say he was fine and continue on with his sentence, saying that they needed to stay safe and get out of here the second they saw the other two, but the words refused to leave his lips before it was too late. He collapsed backwards and his world went dark just as he felt his now solid back hit the ground.

"Well that's going to hurt later...." He internally sighed, "This is why I hate using fucking magic."

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Hello and thank you for reading! I'm so sorry this chapter took so long but it way harder to write than I thought and I actually have to separate this into two parts because it got too long (4785 words!) I'm actually writing another mini book about Hermitcraft which is also why this one took so long, plus trying to finish the Stress Cookies mini book soon too. I also want to make an actual title card for both of these books but I maybe we way over my head for how much I wanna do and my drawing app isn't working (it deleted an 8 hour drawing ) so fixing all of that might take some more time. Thank you so much for the patience and have an amazing day or night!