"I feel like I failed."

Wilbur hears the words from Techno, early morning, rising sun.

"What?" Wilbur croaks back, still waking up.

"Sorry," Techno said gruffly. "Was talking to myself."

It should've been a cue to end the conversation.

But Wilbur didn't understand cues.

"What does that word mean?"

"What?"

"What does that word mean?" Wilbur asks again to the darkness because Techno carries it with such heaviness. "'Fail'?"

Techno lets the silence go on for a bit before he says, "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes."

"Well," Techno cleared his throat. It was raspy. Had he been crying?

"It's when you don't do something you should've."

"Oh."

---

It is more blinding white than usual when Wilbur enters the cafeteria for breakfast.

Maybe it is because it contrasts so much with the bleeding, wounded boy being shocked like a floundering fish on the floor.

He is not bleeding golden ichor, he can see it himself because that blood is red and dripping and warm and not fucking beautiful.

Tommy cries out, a shattering sound.

It's the only thing you can hear in the quiet, cold cafeteria.

No one says a thing.

No one says a fucking thing.

It hurts Wilbur's ears.

Do you hear it, universe? He asks, he pleads maybe.

Will you help him?

But nothing does.

Tommy's cries could shake trees to their roots.

Too bad they were too far away to hear him.

And Wilbur wondered.

And Wilbur wondered.

People called him a monster.

People called him heartless.

Then why

did this child's cries

fucking

tear

his heart

to pieces.

Tommy's voice gives out as the little box is pulled away.

But he's still standing.

He's still standing.

He will not fall.

He promises.

And his eyes ask, to the world, unsure, confused, to a world that won't listen.

Is this love?

Is this love?

Is this love?

"What are you!" The guard barks.

And Tommy's voice is small, lonely, broken, but he knows what he has to say.

Wilbur's heart speaks his part with him, as though it is comfort, phrases imprinted in their minds, maybe to hold on, maybe to comfort.

Wilbur wants to scream too, but he can't.

Tommy looks so alone.

"I am a hero." He whimpers out, even though it had never seemed less true.

I am a villain, Wilbur whispers with him.

"I am righteous."

I am evil.

"I- I serve the foundation."

I serve the foundation.

"Because the foundation makes the world-" Tommy chokes out.

Because I need to face my crimes.

"It makes the world a better place."

"Good." The guard seems to nod smugly. "Lift up your neck."

Wilbur can see the fear in Tommy's eyes.

And yet he does it.

Because fear.

And hatred.

And pain.

Is all he knows.

"I have to make you good and pure."

Wilbur's blood boils and it bubbles and it feels like it is bursting out of his skin.

Maybe this is failure.

Maybe this is failure.

He has failed.

And the voice screams at Wilbur as it feels the heavy weight of the gun:

Shoot him, shoot him, SHOOT HIM, VILLAIN!

And before he knows it, he is out of his seat.

Eyes.

Eyes.

Eyes.

And his fingers pull the trigger, him and the gun lashing out with the same violence.

They were one.

They were killers.

And the guard falls.

The guard that tried to make everyone good and pure fell.

Blood splatters against the hero's cheek.

Villain, the voices screech.

Villain, villain, villain.

Give us a good show, the eyes scream. Give us a good show, a good show, a good show.

Wilbur stares numbly. The silence is deafening in the room.

"Oh, fuck."

Techno stares, his mouth open.

Wilbur thinks he is mad.

And then he stands up with a grunt.

"Well," Techno announced frankly. "Guess we're going then."

A girl with purple hair in front of Wilbur suddenly stood up, her screeching chair breaking the silence.

1, 2 steps, she's in front of him.

Wilbur tried to pull away, but she pulled the gun from his grip.

She pointed it to the side without looking and the gun went off with a bang.

Wilbur flinches, a delayed reaction. He looked to the side.

A guard cradled his shoulder in pain.

"Couldn't wait, could you fucker?" The girl cocked the gun again nonchalantly.

Wilbur was still staring numbly at the pool of blood forming when Techno grabbed his shoulder roughly, pushing him towards the doors. "Let's go."

"Wait." Wilbur stopped him, looking back at the young boy looking down at Schlatt, looking down at him in confusion, like he couldn't figure out why JSchlatt was on the floor. It wasn't a part of the script. "Tommy."

"No, we're leaving." More gunshots and Wilbur blinks twice, not moving. Techno tugs on his arms. "Wilbur, let's go."

Wilbur ignored him, running over to Tommy.

His arms were cold and purple as Wilbur pulled him away.

With another crack, the girl was on top of a table, grinning wildly.

She drove her arm up, muscles showing in her black tank top, face shining in the white lights. She pointed the gun at the ceiling.

"BELIEVE IN GRAY!" She shouted, out of breath. She grinned.

"VIVA LA REVOLUTION BITCHES!"

"Minx!" Techno shouted from the doorway, Wilbur and Tommy next to him. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

The girl smiled at the people before jumping off the table. Yells echoed from across the cafeteria, and she jammed her foot into a fire alarm, water sprinklers spitting water from the ceiling. The doors closed with a slam behind her.

Wilbur's shoes slid across the slick floors and he clutched onto Tommy's wrist as he ran after Techno, racing down corridors he had never been down before. Techno pulled him and Tommy into a broom closet. The girl slammed a chair into the door behind them.

"There's too many of them near the door." Techno panted out, looking out the dirty window. "Where's the car?"

"Skeppy's around the corner." The girl said, holding her ear. "Niki said she'll take care of them."

Wilbur looked at both of them with growing confusion when he saw a black pod in both of their ears that he had never noticed before.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Wilbur blurted out.

"Name's Minx. Pleasure to meet you too." The girl said, rolling her eyes and sliding on a Kevlar vest as she reloaded the gun in her hand. She spoke funny, Wilbur thought. "And I'm here to save your asses."

"What the fuck is happening?" Tommy said, finally coming out of his shock. "Who's Niki? What're you doing here? What in the fucking shit is-"

Wilbur covered his mouth, shooting him a dirty look. Tommy responded with one back but stayed silent.

"I see her now," Techno said as a woman with an unassuming polka dot dress bounced into view, her blond hair framing her face innocently as she clutched a light blue purse in front of her shyly. She walked up to the front of the building where guards stood menacingly.

"She's gonna take out the guards?" Tommy exclaimed rudely, eliciting another dirty look from Wilbur.

The woman suddenly thrust out a red heel, striking one guard in the stomach, and hooked another guard in the face.

"Yup," Minx said blatantly.

Techno smirked as he swung the door open.

The girl curtsied, smiling sweetly as she pulled a gun out of her purse.

"Hello, darlings." She said with a light, summery voice. "Terribly sorry about the mess out front."

"Took you long enough," Techno grunted.

"Fuck off, Techno." The girl said with somehow an even sweeter voice.

"Now, I'm Niki. And I'm assuming you are Wilbur and...?"

"T-Tommy." Tommy stuttered out, surprised.

"Pleasure to meet you, Tommy." The girl replied, unzipping the back of her dress. Wilbur covered Tommy's eyes, but underneath was a black bodysuit. She sniffed, shoving it away with her foot as she turned to Minx. "Never liked that blasted thing. I'll keep the heels though."

"Now, let's get the hell out of here, shall we?"

Niki and Minx led them through the doorway, Techno watching the back. Wilbur caught a look at the unconscious bodies lying at the front before a blue convertible squealed, stopping in front of them.

A man with spiky black hair with chunks dyed blue smirked from the driver's seat.

"Get in losers, we're going shopping!"

Minx and Niki laughed as they hopped into the back seat. Techno climbed into the front seat, scoping the area.

"C'mon now loves, don't be shy!" Niki urged as Minx reached into the trunk, pulling out a gun bigger than Tommy. "We've got some lovely foundation guards on our tail."

"Where are you taking us?" Wilbur said apprehensively, holding an arm out to cover Tommy.

"Wonderland," Minx said sarcastically, peering through the scope of her gun. "Get in the fucking car."

Without him looking, Tommy had clambered into the back seat, flicking on and off the little lights that blinked on the inside of the car.

Wilbur bit back his fears with annoyance as he climbed after him.

His stomach lurched as he was thrown against the doorway when the man at the wheel floored it, wheels screeching against the asphalt.

Wind rushed to his face, through his hair, through his chest.

It was scary.

It was exhilarating.

He looked to the side to see Tommy sticking his hand out of the side of the car, trying to catch the wind.

He could hear the crack of guns and bullets erupt from behind him, louder than the roar of the wind.

Minx's and Niki's palms collided soundlessly as a car skidded to a stop behind them, holes in its rubber tires.

"TAKE THAT, MOTHERFUCKERS!" He hears Minx shout, hair whipping in the wind, fist in the air, loud, powerful.

The car lurches into another turn, and Minx falls, crashing to the side, Niki holding on to her hand as she leans off the car, hair inches from the blurring ground.

She's laughing. They're laughing, Wilbur notes.

These people are either really fucking crazy or really fucking brave.

Or maybe both.

That's possible.

Wilbur's body seems like an empty shell in comparison, tossing against the black seats and trying to hold on as they turn again and again.

The car pulls into a flashing red and white building and lurches to a stop. The man with the blue hair pulls back the driving stick.

"Hey, hold up wait, Skeppy why the fuck are we at a 7/11-" Minx asks, hair frazzled against her face.

The man vaulted over the car door, not bothering to open it. His blue hoodie flaps in the wind. "I promised Bad I'd get him something."

"We're in the middle of an active car chase here- HEY HEY-" Minx stands up, shaking her fist in anger. "GET BACK HERE SKEPPY YOU CRAZY BITCH-"

As the man retreats inside the building, glass door swinging shut behind him, Tommy turns back, calmer and softer than Wilbur's ever seen him.

"Who the fuck are you?"

Minx looks down at him, blowing the hair out of her face with an exasperated expression. "We're the Grays."

"Why'd you take us?" Tommy demanded, but there wasn't a lot of forcefulness behind his words. "Bring us back."

Minx rolled her eyes, and Techno finally spoke up from the front seat. "Trust me, kid, you don't want to go back."

"Why the fuck not?" Tommy snarled back, and Wilbur was too tired and too in shock to stop him.

Niki looked back at him sympathetically, something that Wilbur thought caught Tommy by surprise because the wild beast in his eyes lessened. "Oh, hon, they'll hurt you if you go back there."

"So?" Tommy said, unconcerned. They hurt him nonetheless. The blood is still on his cheek. Bruises litter his arms. They litter his soul. "They won't kill me. They need me."

Minx sighed.

"Yup, that's a fucking hero if I ever saw one."

---