Chapter Text
He rolled out of the simple boat and flopped into the sand. Uncaring of the fact he’d have to wash his clothes later. He was already covered in travel grime and hadn’t been able to change for days. He’d been sailing for a week to reach this island. Even if it wasn’t the right island he’d probably stay here for a while to build a better boat.
He squinted up into the sky. The sky was clear, just as it had been for the past three days. Barely a cloud to be seen and not a hint of rain. He was lucky he didn’t need much fresh water as a nether hybrid or he would have never survived the trip. The juice from the fruits he’d been eating was enough even though it wasn’t pleasant and he wanted to find some water almost as much as he wanted to keep lying on solid ground.
He huffed to himself and lurched upright. He ignored the twinge in his arm from the rough treatment. He hadn’t been kind to his still healing body in getting here and who knows if this island would be safe enough to relax on.
Waking up in his mortal body six months after dying hadn’t been easy. He’d been arguing with the other gods his whole time he was “dead” that he wanted another go in the mortal world. They’d been stubborn but Techno had fought harder than he’d ever fought anything before. He couldn’t leave Phil alone. Kristin had been in the god court but hadn’t been allowed a vote since she was too close to the matter. Both as the Goddess of Death and as his godly mother. She wanted him with her, to have time to rest, but also knew that Phil was missing him fiercely. Having lost two of his children in close succession, though through vastly different circumstances, Phil was a walking wound of grief and pain.
Phil’s immortality was a painful curse as much as it was a blessing. Kristin’s blessing on him let her commune closer with him than any other god. Those other gods including Techno. He wasn’t allowed to casually speak to Phil as he had in his mortal form. He was now bound by the godly rules of interference. And Kristin’s claim on Phil marked him as firmly off-limits to all other gods.
Techno and Phil had been close. Something that was somewhere between father-and-son and brothers but best friends nonetheless. Phil being Kristin’s husband made him, technically, Techno’s step-father, but when they’d met Techno hadn’t needed another parent. Phil naturally fell into a parental role, especially once the other two joined their group, making their duo a trio and then a quartet.
Techno scoffed bitterly at the memory of Wilbur. A man he’d considered to be like a brother that had hidden the depths of his depravity from them all. Techno had it on good authority that Wilbur would face his judgment and punishment.
Techno shook his head. No use thinking about that waste of space anymore. He had to find Phil. He’d spent two months healing his body that had withered in its death state and then the next month and half tracking his best friend down. If he’d kept track of the days right, it should be April 15th now.
He got up and dragged his boat further onto the shore and secured it to a tree. He then started climbing up the hill. He’d followed the raised train tracks connected to a nether portal to the main island but hadn’t gone right up to the train station. He’d spotted many buildings from a distance and started to take in all the details now that he was closer. He jumped slightly when he fully took in the giant sea serpent rising out of the water. It took a second for him to realize that it wasn’t a living sea serpent. He’d thought it a building from a distance and it actually was.
He only knew one person capable of building something like that. He felt the smile on his face grow at the thought of Foolish being here too. Foolish might be a pacifist builder now, but Techno still had fond memories of the destruction the two of them had created eons ago.
He started moving towards the central area. Taking care to stay out of sight. He didn’t want to be seen by whatever power controlled this island and took Phil. He had managed to find the Tommy of this new world, but the boy wasn’t the same one Techno had known most recently. He’d recognized Techno and ran at him crying. Techno had caught him and returned the desperate hug. The rift between him and his younger brother had been something he’d regretted severely once he’d realized that they’d been driven apart by Wilbur’s manipulations.
He’d learned about the differences of this world, how Tommy remembered Dream SMP in his nightmares but had a new life now. He had a life with his friends but hadn’t heard from Phil in a while and was worried. He’d been the one to give Techno the name “Quesadilla Island” that led him to where he was now.
(Techno had also noted that Tubbo was the most changed in this new world, missing his hybrid features and scars and a few other physical differences. Most notably, Tubbo looked at him with a similar grief and longing but, and this part didn’t make sense, it seemed more aged than it should be. Like Tubbo had a longer time to come to terms with his supposed death and also wasn’t as surprised to see him as he should have been. “ Not yet,” chorused the voices in his head. So Techno had shrugged it off and focused on Tommy.)
Techno zoned back into the present as he heard the sound of laughter. He ducked and hid himself the best he could. He listened and heard… Spanish? He waited a second and listened closely.
“Pinche pendejo Bobby! Ya basta culero!” He heard the sound of someone being punched and more swearing. It was definitely Spanish though. He was able to understand most of it, what he missed was probably more swear words. He glanced out from his hiding spot and saw a young man wearing a red sweatshirt chasing after a little boy who was cackling and waving around a sword. The little boy was wearing blue overalls and a white t-shirt. Techno noted the dragon-hybrid markings on the boy, a tail, horns, and scales on his arms, legs, and face. He watched as the man managed to catch the boy and hoist him up into his arms. The boy squealed but he was smiling so Techno wasn’t worried.
“¿Qué hicimos tu madre y yo para merecer esto? Eh, pequeño bastardo?” The boy just cackled again and then displayed an impressive use of inventory magic to switch out his sword for a notepad and pencil. The boy wrote something and shoved it in his fathers face causing the man to shout and jokingly shake the boy before tossing him up in the air before catching him and setting the boy on his hip to walk away while still talking.
Techno hoped that if Phil wasn’t on this island, that his Spanish was up to par in order to ask for any information and possible directions. He waited till the father and son were out of his hearing range before moving forward again.
He made his way to the wall that seemed to divide the island and made his way along it cautiously. Keeping an eye out for anyone else. He was about to try and climb up the wall when he heard a laugh he recognized. It wasn’t Phil, but someone he remembered from Smp Earth. FitMC of 2B2T. Last Techno knew, the former ally of the Antarctic Empire had made his way back to the wasteland he called home and made a name for himself there as a historian and base hunter. He had done his best to keep up with Fit’s broadcasts but hadn’t been able to since his resurrection. Though, if Fit was on this island, there probably wouldn't be any new broadcasts to listen to.
He had no idea if this Fit was the same Fit he had known or if this layer of reality had altered their history enough for Fit to attack him if seen. So he made a break for a hole in the wall a bit further down the wall and ducked inside. The hole went all the way through the wall he noted. There were strange cut-outs on each of the walls. He wanted to look around further but Fit was getting closer. Techno’s eyes widened as he realized that Fit was likely coming this way to use the tunnel to get to the other side of the wall. He looked for a place to hide and spotted a ladder that started half-way up the wall leading into the ceiling.
He had no idea where the ladder would lead but it was his best bet. He couldn’t risk being seen until he found Phil.
He rushed over and jumped to catch the bottom rung of the ladder and haul himself up. He shoved the trapdoor open and barely got it closed behind him before Fit’s voice sounded at the entrance of the tunnel.
“Ramon, I know it isn't ideal but he’s your other dad. He means well.” Techno then heard a softer mutter, “He better, I’ll kill him if he tries anything. Being a single parent is better than the other option.”
Techno held still as a statue as he heard Fit walk on. He processed what he heard and puzzled over it. Fit had a kid? Since when? Did Fit pick up a kid in 2B2T and then get out, or was the kid a recent addition after getting to Quesadilla?
He heard Fit’s voice fade away and relaxed. Letting out a sigh and flopping over to consider his options.
But then he heard a sound. A sound that was much closer to him. As in, in the same room as him.
He bolted up and raised his hands to fight before his eyes recognized what was in front of him. His snarl, meant to intimidate his opponent, immediately choked in his throat.
There was a little girl sitting curled in a corner of a cut-out in the wall, similar to the ones below. She had long, curly, black hair that was dirty and tangled. She was wearing a ragged dress of plain white fabric with no shoes. Tear tracks ran down her dirt covered face. Her eyes were wide and fearful but Techno couldn’t help the tug on his instincts when he saw that she had red irises like him. He then noted her horns and scales. They were dirty and dull but Techno’s piglin instincts could never miss that they were golden underneath the grime.
She was a dragon-hybrid. Just like the little boy he saw. Was she a sibling to the little boy? But what was she doing in this cramped attic covered in dirt?
And why did she have eyes just like his?
He cleared his throat and flinched back when she flinched. Oh gods. This was so awkward.
“Are-,” he swallowed, trying to force his social awkwardness down, “are you okay?” She just stared at him. “Umm. Do you need me to go find someone for you? Your parents?”
Her eyes welled with tears.
Oh no.
He whispered to himself, “Please, please, don’t be an orphan.”
He made the darker joke regularly, but he would never actually hurt a kid who couldn’t fight back. His whole bluster about orphans was because he was so awkward around kids and had no idea how to interact with them and the idea of orphans just made him unbearably sad.
He awkwardly moved closer to where she was sitting. He kneeled down next to the ledge and tried to speak as gently as possible. “It’s okay. Uh, I can uh, help you look for them? Or, uh, find you a new one?”
She sniffled and picked up a notebook and pencil that he hadn’t noticed sitting next to her. Her eyes kept darting back and forth between him and what she was writing until she finished and turned it around for him to see.
He read it out loud. “No one came for me on adoption day. I’ve been all alone. I have parents somewhere but They said they weren’t on the island and didn’t know who they were.”
He noted the capitalized “They”, likely meaning there was some entity that had put the little girl here and then left her.
“How do you know you have parents if they weren’t here?” As soon as he said it he bit his tongue. Great job Techno, way to be sensitive. The voices jeered at him but he brushed them off. They’d been weird ever since he’d resurrected his mortal form, they were easier to tune out now than before, sometimes he could even forget about them.
She turned her notebook around and wrote more before turning it back to him. She had started to relax as they interacted. No longer curling up as tightly in the corner. She offered him the notebook this time, not just holding it up. He took it gently with a smile that he tried to make as not-awkward as possible.
“My features. All the others got features from their parents when they were adopted. I got mine too but my parents weren't here.” He looked her over again. Noting idly that her black hair was similar to his mothers. Her cheeks were a bit hollow, like she hadn’t been eating. Which if she had been trapped up here for who knows how long… He brushed that off for now, focusing on her features. He noticed that she also had Kristin’s nose. He paused. His eyes met hers and he was instantly enraptured by the red that he usually only saw in the mirror.
Blood red eyes that were unique to him as the Blood God given mortal form.
No. It couldn’t be.
He tried to suppress his panic, continuing to look her over and seeing that her ears were pointed like his and, most damning of all, she had tiny baby tusks. So tiny that they were barely noticeable with her pointier than human dragon-hybrid teeth. But he was looking and couldn’t deny it no matter what his initial reaction was.
“Oh.” He whispered out loud.
She looked at him, eyes wide and innocent and a spark of hope slowly building in the depths.
He held out a hand to her and her face split into a breathtaking smile. She grasped his hand and her entire hand barely wrapped around two of his fingers. She was so tiny.
He helped her out of the wall cubby and onto the floor. She stood there but didn’t let go of his hand. Techno knew he was tall, he was almost seven foot tall, but the top of her head didn’t even reach his waist. He guessed she was maybe a bit over three feet tall? In human children he knew that meant they were young, but he had no idea about dragon-hybrids. Her cheeks were hollow with hunger but still had that softness of baby fat.
“How old are you, little one?” She blushed at the nickname but held up her free hand with five fingers.
Techno immediately felt his heart jump into his throat. She was barely older than piglin children were to be able to leave the burrow, and she had been left abandoned in this attic for who knows how long. She was smaller than a piglin-hybrid child, or a human child for the matter, should be.
A runt.
He chuffed softly and watched as she perked up and immediately focused back on his face. She had been looking at his clothes, eyes likely catching on the small golden embellishments sewn into the garments.
Not just a runt. His runt.
“Okay little one. Why don’t we get out of here? Get you some food and find some place safe? I just got to this island so I don't know where anything is around here.”
Her smile was blinding and she hopped in place and let go of his hand to clap happily and then write in her notebook, which he hadn’t realized she had gotten back and disappeared into her inventory before summoning it back.
He definitely didn’t feel an immediate empty ache in his heart when she let go of his hand. Definitely not. He was a hardened warrior and literal god, he was absolutely not going to lose his senses at the prospect of having a child under his care.
Never mind that a brute's highest honor was to have and defend his family and bastion. That his instincts were already calculating how long it would take to create a secure burrow and fortress to hide her until she was the stronger.
She turned the notepad to him and he read, “I would like that. Does this mean you’re my dad?”
His breath caught. There was a moment of pause in his brain where everything ground to a halt before the voices all started screaming a various cacophony of “YES!” “BLOOD CHILD!” “OUR CHILD” “OURS!” He pushed them all down and to the back of his brain and focused on the little child before him. He knelt gently and slowly raised a hand to cup her cheek. She melted into the touch and he felt a satisfied rumble build in his chest in instinctual response.
“If you want me to be, I’m pretty sure those features of yours match mine, little one. You have my mother’s hair and nose, and you have my eyes and my tusks and ears. I don’t know anything about raising children, I have a little brother but I didn’t take care of him much when he was your age. But if you’re willing to trust me, I promise I’ll do my best.”
Tears well in her eyes and for a moment he was terrified he was about to be rejected but instead he found himself with an armful of crying child and could only respond by wrapping his arms around her in a hug. She was even smaller in his arms but she fit there so perfectly. He let the soothing rumbles bubble out of his chest and calm her. Gently brushing over her hair.
How long they sat there he wasn’t sure. His brain was lost in the instincts of, baby, my baby, my piglet, my shoat, mine. He imprinted her scent into his brain and knew without a doubt that he would burn the entire world to the ground to keep her safe and happy.
Phil would laugh at him if he could see him like this.
Wait.
PHIL!
He had been completely distracted with the little one. He’d completely forgotten that he was on this island for a reason.
He had to find Phil.