Wilbur gasped and jolted upwards. The air was piercing cold and stung his lungs, but his face felt oddly warm to the touch, and he wasn't shivering.

He exhaled, but couldn't see his breath in the cold air.

He looked at his surroundings, to find himself sitting in a white void of nothingness. At first he couldn't tell if he was actually sitting on something or floating until he tried to stand up and he could, on what felt like less than solid ground.

That is, until it started to crack underneath him. Tiny shards of the paper thin floor fell into a downwards abyss, and the cracks only grew towards Wilbur. He took a few wary steps backwards but the pressure only made them crack faster, and before he could scream he was falling.

Well- sort of?

The cracks climbed up the walls around him and shattered into dust that was blown away quickly, leaving him in a dark grey empty space, but he wasn't actually moving, downwards or other. He was still standing, despite the falling feeling he had felt earlier, but didn't try to explain or question it. With the seemingly imaginary wind, a figure appeared behind him.

"Hello again!" A soft voice that sounded strikingly similar to his own, said in a calm and friendly tone.

Wilbur sighed.

"Hello again."

He turned around to face the figure and looked him up and down. It wasn't like he needed to, he already knew what he looked like, but a part of him hoped it was different this time. 

Nope!

His hair floated upwards and almost acted like smoke as parts separated, floating upwards and dissipating. His eyes were blank white, but still friendly, and he smiled with his head cocked to the side. He was wearing a bright yellow sweater that contrasted his blue tinted skin that was slightly see through if you looked hard enough. Wilbur didn't, and avoided eye contact instead, taking note of the fact he was floating with bent legs while he was standing on nothing.

"It's nice to see you, Wilbur, always is! It's been so long."

"Yeah, it has been." Wilbur said, crossing his arms.

A cold silence hung between them for a few moments before Wilbur spoke up.

"What-" He hesitated. "What should I call you by the way?"

The figure looked questionably at Wilbur, but didn't say anything.

"You know my name, but we never get so far as to where I can ask yours. This time, I feel like I have a little more time here." Wilbur looked around, there was nothing to look at but it helped him avoid eye contact. "Wherever here even is..." He mumbled, uncrossing his arms so he could wave them to emphasize.

"Well I guess I don't really have a name, I don't need one, but if you want to call me something I guess we can come up with something?" The soft voice said, looking at Wilbur expectantly.

"Ghost maybe? Spirit?" Wilbur considered, forcing himself to look in the other's eyes for a second. "You seem like one-." He said and passed his hand through the other's body to prove a point.

"Oh oh! Since you're Wil-bur, what if i have 'bur' in my name?"

"Bur then?"

"No no it's not enough-...." The figure mumbled, before his eyes went wide with a thought.

"Ghostbur!" He did a full spin in the air and lifted his hands into the air .

"Ghostbur?" Wilbur looked at him.

"You said I seem like a ghost, and spirit-bur doesn't sound right."

"Alright then, Ghostbur it is." Wilbur sighed, satisfied, and closed his eyes. 

There was a moment of silence, and Wilbur could tell Ghostbur's eyes were on him.

"What are you doing?" He spoke softly.

"Waiting to wake up, it usually happens around now doesn't it?" Wilbur said, hesitantly opening his eyes and seeing the same barren landscape as before. This time had felt longer, but not this much longer.

"Do you not like being here? Is it because you don't like me?" Ghostbur dropped to whisper almost, but it was clear as day when there were no other sounds around them to drown it out.

"No no it's not that-" Wilbur said a little nervously. "I just hate passing out and feeling so drained every time I phase through things."

Ghostbur didn't make a sound, but Wilbur could see him visually relax at that.

Wilbur thought for a moment, and then turned his head towards Ghostbur, meeting his eyes.

"Why do I pass out each time? It's not like I'm raising the dead or summoning a demon? Why does it take so much out of me?"

Ghostbur had a calm smile, and broke his gaze away from Wilbur.

"How often do you use magic?"

"Well, never-. Apart from the phase stuff that is." Wilbur admitted.

"And how often do you use that? How much do you push yourself each time?"

Wilbur sighed. He felt like he was talking to a therapist.

"Only when I need to, and I guess quite a bit? If it's only for important things then I usually have to push myself-... I guess."

"There's your answer."

"What?"

"You never practice, and when you do, you push yourself too much. That's why you alway faint." Ghostbur giggled.

Wilbur took a second to think it over. It was still dark, with a sense of glowing light around them. Dust was setting where the ground should be, if there even was one, and the tone seemed calmer than before. He knew he was still passed out back at the hub, and the other's were probably worried. Normally, by now, he would've woken up and they could all go on with their lives, but for an unknown reason he was still here.

Wilbur looked at Ghostbur and tried to focus his eyes on anything past him, but there wasn't anything to see. He decided to continue to ask questions, seeing as he weirdly still had time to.

"Why are you here, and where is here?"

Ghostbur went to speak, and found that nothing came out when he tried to explain.

"I'm-.... I'm not sure." He mumbled.

Wilbur looked around the black emptiness, and a memory came to him for a split second.

"Wait- I remember! I was going to ask you-.... something..." Wilbur paused trying to get the memory back. It was slipping from his fingers like sand and he couldn't get the words from the tip of his tongue back

"Ask me what?"

"Wait wait-"

Wilbur scanned the area again, since the black void of nothingness seemed to be what reminded him.

"Void"

"ARE YOU A VOID DEMON!?"

"Void-...?" Ghostbur thought for a second, and then laughed a little. "No, I'm not one of them."

"But you know what they are-" Wilbur accused as he realised.

"Yes...."

"Do you know anything more about them? Could you tell me? We really need to know, our friends are in danger and anything on how to stop or cure them would be-"

Wilbur stopped mid sentence when he felt a cold rush of water splash over his feet. He looked down to see it.

"Cure? Void demons aren't a disease or curse." Ghostbur continued, not noticing the water yet. He was hovering over it still anyway.

"No no, but our friends are possessed by one or- or something..." Wilbur rushed, really wishing he had been paying more attention to the details. The water was rising quickly, almost up to his knees now, but Ghostbur didn't mention it. He actually didn't even seem to notice it.

"Do you know anything that could help us? How it happened? What could fix it? Weaknesses? Strengths? anything?"

Wilbur looked around and tried to find the source of the water, but there were still no objects around him to point out. It was strikingly cold, but he still didn't shiver, even as a buzz ran up his spine and gave him goosebumps.

"Possessed? Hmm that's interesting." Ghostbur said softly, ignoring the last questions. Wilbur noticed he was now waist deep in the water, and it was at least up the legs of Ghostbur.

"Don't you notice it?" He asked.

"Notice what?" Ghostbur cocked his head to the side.

"The water that's flooding- whatever the fuck this place is!"

Ghostbur looked down and finally saw the water that was climbing up his own waist, and starting to reach Wilbur's shoulders.

"Oh."

Ghostbur looked Wilbur in the eyes.

"It was nice to talk, please don't be so afraid to visit again, ok?" Ghostbur hummed and stared out into the distance.

Wilbur was treading water now, trying to keep his head in the freezing air, rather than the freezing water.

"Wha- what?" Wilbur took a moment to realise.

"W-wait you didn't answer all of my questions!" Wilbur sputtered out a gulp of water as he tried to keep his head above the water.

"Bye Wilbur! Say hi to-" His voice faded out to nothing, along with the rest of his body.

Wilbur was utterly alone, and freezing in the ever growing water. His hair was sticking to his face and he finally felt the shivers take over his body. His arms felt like lead, dragging him downwards the more he tried to tread.

It felt like the dream had had enough of his struggling and decided to get the inevitable over with. A strong current pulled Wilbur underneath the surface of the water, rendering his movements useless.

He tried to see anything underneath, but the lack of lights was working against him. He felt his eyelids go heavy as he let out his last bit of air.

Bubbles floated in the direction that looked like up, and his vision faded to black.

Wilbur gasped and jolted upwards. The air was warm and filled his lungs, but his face felt freezing, and he was still shivering from the water.

"Nice to have you back, Wilbur." A voice said with relief. Wilbur looked at the person and recognized it as Fundy as his vision cleared. Water dripped down his chin and his hair was sticking to his face.

He looked at everyone around him as his heart beat rapidly "Fundy, Tubbo, Tommy, Badhoyhalo? Sapnap?"

"I told you not to use so much water." Tubbo said, snapping Wilbur out of his thoughts.

"Sorry about that, Wilbur. I just wanted to make sure you'd wake up-" Tommy apologized.

"W-what happened?" Wilbur asked.

"We should be asking you that!" Tommy said, "You go ghost-mode through the wall and save Fundy, then just pass out!"

"U-uhm..."

"Was it magic exhaustion?" Bad asked to the side of him. "From what these three told us, it sounds pretty close."

Now that Wilbur got a better look at him, he could see bags under Bad's eyes and crumpled clothes. The man looked exhausted himself, and Wilbur suspected the same reason he had said.

"Yeah I think so," Wilbur answered quickly. He looked over to the bushes, and saw the building.

"Wait, only the building?"

There was no guard leaning against the wall anymore.

"How long have I been out?"

"Only a few minutes, 10 maybe?" Fundy said. He noticed Wilbur looking towards the building and decided to explain.

"While you were out, another guard came, woke him up and they left. Guard 1 was saying he had a weird dream, probably us, and guard 2 said they had to hurry to some sort of meeting, so they left." He shrugged.

"How did you two get back? Wouldn't either of the guards have seen you on their way?" Wilbur asked Bad and Sapnap.

"We ducked behind the dumpsters outside when we heard them, and walked over here once they were inside." Sapnap explained.

"Good thing we didn't have to fight those muffin heads." Bad said, "I don't think I could last another fight..."

There was a moment of silence between all of them, which was weird because Tommy was there.

"Right so if we ever do that again we should make a better plan-" Fundy said.

"If we ever need to get crystals from this damn place again we are throwing a chair through those fucking windows and getting them that way." Wilbur interrupted. His wet hair was sticking to his face which didn't make that threatening of a look, but Fundy got the point.

"Ok fair enough-" Fundy said.

Bad muttered a 'language', but Wilbur ignored it.

"Alright then, is that it? We did it?" Tubbo asked hopefully.

"Wait, did you guys get the crystals?!" Sapnap asked quickly.

Tubbo held up a small pouch proudly. For a second everyone looked confused at the size before Fundy clarified it was a small magic bag of holding.

"How many are there?" Tommy asked curiously. He had never actually seen them for himself. He swung his arm to the pouch and missed up by a mile as Tubbo held them up higher so he couldn't reach it while they were all sitting.

Fundy coughed, "I'm,-" He paused. "I'm not sure there are enough for everyone, but we can deal with that later." He quickly changed the topic. "We still individually need to prepare and this took longer than I thought, so we should get going now."

Sapnap glared and exhaled through his nose. Wilbur swore he saw smoke, but that was probably his imagination. After all, he hit his back sorta hard on the ground. Sapnap looked annoyed, but also tired, and not in the mood to outrage about it, luckily for all of them.

"Alright, let's get prepared ourselves." Sapnap sighed. "Me and Bad are going to Ant's shop for potions, any recommendations?"

"SPEED!" Tommy smiled. "I'm already fast, and now I can go lightning quick!"

Bad nodded, and took note of it in a mental list. (The mental list has muffin stickers on it if you're wondering.)

"Strength might be helpful," Wilbur said, "Dream is practically solid stone, and not even an axe to the head did much."

Bad gave him an odd look but noted it anyway.

"As many instant health and quick heal potions as you can get." Fundy nodded.

"Nightvision." Sapnap added, "Not everyone can see in the dark like you and Ant, and we don't want to be blind in the dark while they all have glowing eyes."

"What about slow falling?" Tubbo offered, "I've always wanted to try one of those!"

"Tubbo, this is serious." Fundy looked towards him.

"No- no Tubbo has a point-" Sapnap defended him. Something flashed behind his eyes and his hand closed slightly, moving the grass underneath it. "If we fall off something, those could be lifesavers."

"Alright!" Bad smiled and stood up. "We'll see what we can get. We should hurry though, time is running short."

"Yeah yeah, you just want to get back to Skeppy." Fundy teased, standing up too.

"Hey!"

The others had a short lived laugh as they stood up too. Tubbo handed the pouch of crystals to Fundy who put them in his coat pocket.

"Alright men," Wilbur started. "and Tommy-"

"HEY I AM A MAN TOO-"

Wilbur ignored him and continued, "This was fun, but I hope we never do it again."

"Agreed," Sapnap said. Bad nodded next to him and the others looked like they were thinking the same thing.

"See you all at the Earth gate at 3 then?"

"Yup!"

"See ya!"

"Mhm"

"Bye!"

Sapnap and Bad walked together towards where Wilbur assumed the potions shop was, and Tommy and Tubbo skipped off to Techno and Philza's.

Fundy lingered a moment longer awkwardly and pretended to check the crystals in his pocket.

"Something wrong?" Wilbur asked.

Fundy rushed forwards and gave him a hug. Wilbur was shocked, but didn't pull away.

"Thanks for saving me, really Wilbur."

Fundy broke the hug quickly and Wilbur rested his hand on Fundy's shoulder.

"I'll bring the metal chair for the windows next time." Wilbur chuckled and nodded. It broke the tension, and Fundy laughed with him for a second.

Wilbur waved as he split off, while Fundy went to the bushes a few feet in the other direction to grab the armor he had. It had been a long detour, but if it meant their safety, it was worth it. Wilbur also wanted to go to Techno and Philza's for a weapon or two, and maybe, if the time allowed, some help with shopping for a guitar, but he didn't go in the same direction as Tommy and Tubbo.

First priority was coffee. 

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Thanks for reading and have a great day or night!