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𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

Trees zoomed past Eris' vision as she sprinted through the forest, the various shades of green blurred by her troubled and fogged up mind. Only one thought repeated in her mind as her legs carried her through the sea of trees and plants; Tubbo.

The confusing words Dream had spoken earlier had been put on hold, having nowhere as much priority over the wellbeing of her friend.

Passing by a familiar clearing, Eris came to a halt, seeing two figures in front of her.

Tommy was bent over Tubbo's body, holding him in his arms. At the sound of the cracking leaves he looked up, eyes glazed over but set in anger and fear, "Eris!"

Eris fell to her knees the moment she was at the teen's side, frantically eyeing the injured boy up and down, "Is he alive?"

Tommy nodded slowly, "He passed out though and I can't carry him. He is so much heavier than he looks."

Eris' eyes fell on the arrow that was still in Tubbo's shoulder, the dark green fabric of his shirt coloured red with blood. The bleeding was not as severe as Eris had expected however, but still the immense feeling of worry seemed to drown her.

"We have to get him home, Tommy." Eris said, patting Tubbo's hair gently before eyeing the blond in front of her, "We'll carry him together. I'll get his legs and you'll have to carry him by the waist. And whatever you do, leave that arrow in there. It's probably the only reason he's still alive."

"Okay."

Eris positioned herself in front of the boy's legs and picked them up, while Tommy did the same. He made sure to hold Tubbo by his waist as low as possible so as to not disturb the projectile in his shoulder.

After that the two teenagers set off in the direction of L'Manberg as fast as they could without hurting Tubbo even more.

Even when it normally would have taken around thirty minutes to get to L'Manberg from the embassy, Tommy and Eris managed to do it in twenty.

The moment the familiar black walls came in their view, a last shot of adrenaline made its way through the two teens and gave them the needed strength to carry their exhausted bodies and injured friend home.

"Wilbur! Fundy! Somebody!" Tommy screamed when they set foot inside of L'Manberg's walls, immediately making way to the medical area, "Help!"

It took a few seconds before both mentioned men came running from a building, shock written on their faces. Fundy immediately took Tubbo out of Eris' and Tommy's hands before taking him away under a lot of protest from Tommy, who followed him into the tent.

Eris couldn't seem to process what was going on around her as everything seemed to collide with her at once. Subconsciously she reached to the top of her head, before quickly dropping her hand to her side again in disappointment.

"Eris, what the fuck happened?" Wilbur suddenly spoke, grabbing the younger girl by the shoulders.

The words snapped Eris out of her absent state, meeting the brunet's demanding stare, "Dream. Dream happened."

"What do you mean, Dream happened?" Wilbur questioned, retracting his arms from the girl's shoulders as he noticed that her shoulders tensed at the action.

"What I mean is that Dream was there. He knew we were there. Him, Sapnap and George ambushed us."

At Eris' words, a frown appeared on the older burnet's features. He looked to the side for a moment, making sure nobody else could hear their conversation, "You mean that-."

Wilbur was cut off by the sound of an agonised scream, followed by an angry, pitched shout from inside the medical tent where Tubbo and Tommy currently were.

The two brunettes quickly made their way inside, leaving their previous conversation to rest.

The sight of Tommy holding down Tubbo while Fundy tried to remove the arrow from Tubbo's shoulder was a nasty and saddening one, making Eris' heart feel heavy. She felt heat rise through her entire body and a small lump form in her throat, which she quickly swallowed away, this wasn't her time to be sad.

"Eris," Fundy suddenly said, without looking the mentioned girl in the eyes, "a little help!"

Eris nodded and quickly made her way over to Fundy's side, who was simultaneously trying to remove the arrow from Tubbo's shoulder as holding him down.

Shoving Fundy's hand to the side, Eris took over the position of holding down the younger teen as effectively but gently as possible, all while listening to his screams of pain.

"Fundy, hurry the fuck up- he's hurting!" Tommy shouted from the opposite side of Eris. He had one hand on Tubbo's shoulder while the other held onto Tubbo's hand. The white skin around the outline of Tubbo's hand that was wrapped around Tommy's signified the death grip he held on it. It looked painful even, but Tommy didn't seem to care or even notice.

"I'm doing what I can, alright?" Fundy replied absently, focused on removing the projectile from the brunet's shoulder, "It won't take long, but I just need to do it properly."

Eris looked on as Fundy applied pressure on Tubbo's shoulder, preventing more blood loss while carefully pulling out the arrow from his shoulder.

Then, in one yank, he pulled the wooden arrow out, with one last deafening shout from Tubbo before his thrashing slowed and he sunk back into his bed, unconscious.

A noticeable sigh escaped Tommy's lips as he sat down on a chair that was placed next to the bed, his pale hands still intertwined with Tubbo's

"Are we done? Is he going to be okay?" Tommy asked, eyeing Wilbur, Fundy and Eris in desperation.

Fundy shook his head while he leaned over Tubbo, applying pressure on his shoulder with a white cloth. "I can't say for sure, but I think he'll be fine. As long as the bleeding stops and it won't get infected it should be okay."

The silence that followed after Fundy's words swallowed the room. All the events seemed to come together in Eris' mind as she could sit down and take a breath for the first time in a few hours.

She let go off Tubbo's shoulder and leaned on one of the other beds, a sigh leaving her dry lips.

The little silence that hung in the room was cut short by Tommy after a minute or so. "I'll fucking kill that bastard. That son of a bitch just shot him. He shot Tubbo! He called him useless and then shot him. I will kill him!"

The words left the blond's mouth in a record of time, the words seemingly falling together in one big mess of anger and hatred. His little rant was cut short by Wilbur, who interrupted him. "What even happened?"

Tommy opened his mouth again to reply, but Eris decided it might be smarter for her to do the talking in this situation, and so she beat him to it. "We were ambushed, that's what happened. Tommy and I were standing guard outside of the embassy while Tubbo made the potions. There was an explosion from behind the embassy and when we went inside to investigate, Dream, Sapnap and George were there and they had Tubbo. We managed to escape, but we didn't have any of the potions. Then Tubbo said he had a bag with potions hidden somewhere so we tried to find it. But when we found the bag, Dream was there. I didn't see him. He shot Tubbo."

"How did they even know we were there, Wilbur?" Tommy suddenly asked, looking up at the oldest brunet, "We rarely ever go there, they couldn't have known!"

Wilbur did not reply for a moment, staring at a wall in thought.

They couldn't have known.

He couldn't have known.

"It could have been a coincidence." Wilbur replied slowly, crushing the deafening silence in the room. "It's our only outpost outside of L'Manberg. It would make sense for them to check it every now and again."

Eris looked up at Wilbur with scepticism written in her icy blue eyes, "Are you sure?"

Wilbur nodded before waving a dismissive hand, "It doesn't matter for now. We still need to prepare. We have two days left and we are one man down. Are there even any potions left?"

Tommy shook his head.

"Fuck." Wilbur said, sighing the word away under his breath.

It looked like he wanted to say something else, but at the last second he seemed to change his mind and made his way to the exit of the medical area, disappearing into the sunlight.

Eris hesitated, deciding whether or not she wanted to follow him out, but decided against it. Instead, she looked up at Fundy, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I need some new bandages, can you fetch me those?" Fundy replied, gesturing to a wooden cabinet that was placed against the wall.

Eris nodded and walked over to collect the needed material, before handing them to Fundy and taking a seat on the opposite side of Tommy.

She looked down at Tubbo's unconscious figure and sighed. She should've been more on guard. She should've made sure they had escaped Dream. But she had trapped them inside of the embassy, hadn't she?

She took the younger brunet's hand, caressing it with her thumb absently, allowing her thoughts to consume her mind.

It was around an hour later when Fundy left the medical area, seeing as the sun had set and it was time for dinner. Both Tommy and Eris had declined the offer of food.

"Eris?" Tommy whispered eventually, still looking at Tubbo's sleeping form.

"Yeah?"

"Do you believe that it was a coincidence?" Tommy asked.

Eris let out a thoughtful sigh, thinking about the reality of the situation for a moment.

They couldn't have known.

"I don't know." She eventually replied, "I mean it could technically be a coincidence."

"I don't believe in coincidences." The blond replied dryly, looking up at Eris, "and I know you don't either."

A small humourless smile appeared on Eris' lips at the statement. Because it was true. She did not believe in coincidences. But that's not the reason for her slight smirk. It was the sheer fact that Tommy and her were so very alike in what they did- and thought for that matter.

"What are you saying, Tommy?"

Tommy shot a quick glance to the exit of the tent, which now showed nothing more than darkness, before looking back at Eris, "Somebody must've told them. I don't know how, but that's what must've happened, right?"

"That's what I thought too." Eris whispered back, "An explosion? That doesn't happen randomly or as a coincidence. They were prepared."

Tommy nodded. Then, the look he gave of confirmation changed to one of slight panic, "Wait-, the potions. They're still all at the embassy. They're still up for grab."

"Shit." The brunette replied in realisation, "Dream can't get them-, those potions are our only advantage."

Tommy stood up from his seating position, untangling his fingers from Tubbo's, "You stay here. I'll get them."

"Are you dumb?" Eris asked rhetorically, standing up as well, "You are not going out on your own. It's already dark outside. Wilbur will get our head. Besides you need to be here for Tubbo when he wakes up. I'll go get them."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Eris spoke decisively. She knew she could handle herself fine in the dark. She had sneaked out so many times before after all.

"Okay then." Tommy said, sitting down next to Tubbo again, "But if you're not back in two hours I will come and find you."

Eris made her way over to a chair that was placed beside the exit of the medical area and picked up a jacket that lay on top of it.

As she threw the oversized coat over her shoulders, she shot Tommy one last look. "Don't worry about that. I can handle myself."

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A/N:

yooo- i'm very sorry for not updating. i'm in my last year of high school and my final exams are in two months so i'm really busy with school n shit. i also kept hating this chapter so i rewrote it a bunch of times- sorry about the wait

thank you guys sm for the 1k reads tho! that's so cool

please let me know what you guys think about the story so far (i love comments and feedback so don't be shy :])

i'm gonna go play some non-competitive solitaire now- bye bye

love you,
blue