Archive of Our Own ^beta

It is, at the very least, difficult to see your dead twin brother standing in the corner of your tiny home, staring at you with white eyes and a small, bloody smile. Techno thinks anyone he could ask would agree with him.

The hybrid stares at the apparition for a few moments before shaking his head and deciding that he is either hallucinating or still dreaming. Either way he needs to get up, and with a deep sigh, he does so.

Techno fully didn’t expect to be going insane this early on in his life, but it was bound to happen sooner or later with all the shit he’s been through. He guesses that it’s fitting that it would be his brother’s death by their father’s hands that would finally do him in.

He eventually glances back over to actually look at the bright yellow clad being that he’s been catching sight of out of the corner of his eye the entire time he’s been preparing for the day. Wilbur’s drifted closer to him at this point, looking at him with his head tilted and it makes an uncomfortable shiver work its way down his spine. The blood continually dripping from Wilbur’s mouth was now sliding down his cheek from the position that the ghost was holding its head. Techno shivers once more before he looks pointedly away again and walks out of his house.

If he just ignores his insanity, it’ll go away too. Right?

It does not go away. If anything, it gets worse.

Ever since Wilbur had appeared in his house after his nightmare, he had been seeing him constantly and picking voices out in the wind that sounded like his brother. What he would have previously thought was just the wind beating against the walls now sounded like his name being spoken through bloody lips, it now sounded like his brother chanting look at me, look at me, look at me. Techno hadn’t looked at him since the first day.

Where Techno had previously managed in shoving his emotions and feelings deep down inside his chest and not dealing with them, his tactic of push it away, don’t look at it, don’t acknowledge it, wasn’t working as well with being certifiably insane.

Everyday the whispers grew in volume until they were almost recognizable as a human voice. The amount of times Techno had whirled around thinking he heard someone or something creeping up behind him was getting higher than he was comfortable with.

It all came to a head one night after weeks of dealing with the apparition of his brother that was supposed to be buried deep in the earth.

Technoblade, look at me!

The voice seems to echo off the walls of his house and come at him from all directions. It startles him so badly that he drops his half eaten potato onto the ground. It’s the loudest he’s ever heard the voice get, and it sounds exactly like Wilbur used to when he was fed up with something his Techno had done when they were both younger and still living with Phil.

With a shaky breath, Techno plants his elbows onto the table in front of him and not so gracefully lets his head drop into his waiting hands. He feels tears come to his eyes again, but this time he knew he wasn’t going to be able to stop them. It was hard enough trying not to remember that his brother was dead whenever his voice wasn’t right in his ear. He pushes his face more firmly against his palms as he finally feels the tears escape.

Was it sad that he couldn’t even be alone and let himself cry freely?

“What do you want?” He mumbles into his hands, his first time verbally acknowledging that something was in the room with him.

He hears a confused hum in return.

“What do you want from me? You’ve been here for weeks, why?”

I can’t want to be around my own twin brother?

“You’re dead!” Techno finally bursts out, pulling his head from his hands sharply and glaring towards Wilbur, tears slowly making their way down his cheeks. “You’re dead and I’m not! That’s not how any of this works!”

Wilbur frowns and floats closer, raising a hand to wipe at Techno’s cheek. Techno feels nothing but a slight brush or air.

Tech…

“Don’t!” he snaps, “Don’t- Don’t make me miss you any more than I already am! Please.” The last word comes out as a whisper.

But, Tech… I’m right here.

“But you’re not!” Techno stands up quickly from his chair, phasing right though Wilbur, before pacing the short distance to the opposite wall of his house and turning around to do the same thing to the other side. He could feel himself starting to get worked up, frustrated that his own mind was making him go through this.

“You’re not here, and you’re not real! You’re fucking dead! You’re dead and in the ground and I’m just making you up as some fucked up form of coping because you’re dead and I watched you die!”

Techno, I know I’m dead, Wilbur says and Techno glares at his brother before resuming his pacing.

“Well, at least you're self aware,” he grumbles sarcastically, his gaze now locked onto the floor below him.

You didn’t let me finish, Techno, Wilbur reprimands gently, just like he used to whenever Techno would get too worked up for his own good, I know I’m dead, but I’m not gone! See? He smiles and does a little twirl to show himself off, doing nothing more than frustrating Techno further.

“You’re not, though, Wilbur.” Techno finally stops his pacing and looks at Wilbur, his eyes burning, “Why the hell would you come to me if you were actually a ghost? Why wouldn’t you go to Tommy? Or Fundy? Or even Niki for god’s sake! Why me? Because I know for a fact you wouldn’t have chosen me first. I know you and you know me too well for that. Eventually? Maybe. But I haven’t heard from anyone since Tubbo became president, and I know I would have if someone had seen you other than me.”

Wilbur looks taken aback for a moment before frowning again, I tried, alright? I tried. They couldn’t see me, none of them could, not even a hint of them hearing or seeing something. And then you left. I could feel it when you left L’manburg. It was like… Like I was standing out in a snowstorm slowly freezing to death as you got farther away, and eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and just followed you here. And you know, the first night I was here, you saw me, you thought I wasn’t real and ignored me until I was strong enough to actually yell at you, but you did see me, and that was more than anyone else. I don’t know why, Tech! I don’t even know how I died...

That makes Techno pause, “You don’t remember how you died?”

Wilbur shakes his head slowly, a frown on his slightly transparent face, I don’t. I heard people talking about a lot of things that I don’t remember. Schlatt I think his name was? I don’t remember who he was at all, but I heard so many people talking about him, even Tommy and Tubbo!

“You don’t remember Schlatt? What… Wilbur, what is the last thing you remember?”

The ghost paused for a moment, thinking, before finally answering, I remember winning a war, I remember holding an election, and then… I don’t really remember much after that. And now I’m dead! He seems entirely too happy when he says that.

Techno sinks onto his bed with a sigh. Was he really going to believe this? Was he truly about to believe what he had thought was a figment of his own imagination for so long? He rubs his face in his hands before speaking again.

“Wil, tell me something I don’t know about you, something that I wouldn’t be able to make up.”

It was silent for a moment before Wilbur started his story. The story of how he and Tommy had left the Antarctic Empire to make their own way in life, out from under their father’s wings. They had made the nation now known as L’manburg, they had sold drugs and then fought Dream for the nation they were trying to form, how they won that war and everyone was so happy, how they reached their freedom after so much hard work.

He told stories of Tommy falling into holes on their long treks across so much land that it all blurred together, of making fun of their younger brother and Tommy snarking back just as viciously as he always did.

Wilbur told stories of when it was just the two of them living with Phil, stories that Techno didn’t even remember until Wil started retelling them.

By the time his dead brother stopped speaking, the fire had dwindled down to mere embers and Techno was staring at the gruesome depiction that Wilbur had now become.

“You know, I’m actually glad that you don’t remember the bad parts. It’s probably better that way…” The pink haired man trailed off for a moment, staring into blank white eyes, “Welcome back, Wil. I missed you.”