Chapter Text
when tommy awoke he was in his cell again. he was lying on the floor, still a bit exhausted. he groaned.
“what the hell…?” he muttered, the memories flooding back to him. the dog, the fight, the wolf, and sapnap. oh, sapnap. tommy felt the tears well up in his eyes and wanted to die. “fuck!” he cried, throwing his head back.
“tommy!” a voice called from a cell next to him. tommy raised his head and looked at one of the slits in his wall. it was tubbo. “are you okay? i heard everyone screaming and then you were dragged in here, you’ve been out for at least three days!” tubbo exclaimed, his blue eyes big with worry. tommy rubbed the sleepiness away from his eyes.
“i got out and attacked the crowd.” tommy explained, his voice heavy with grief. “the tranquilized me and put me here, i’m surprised they didn’t kill me honestly.” ‘i wish they did.’ he added mentally.
“oh. why’d you attack them?” tubbo asked, tilting his head to the side. the two were distracted from the conversation as scratching was heard on the other side of them. the boys looked over, watching silently and george squeezed through the slit in the wall and into tommy’s room.
“tommy!” he said, fear radiating off of him. “where’s sapnap? he’s not in his cell, it’s been far too long. what happened?” tommy let out a sad warble.
“he’s… he’s dead, george. they shot him.” tommy whispered. the only sound in the room was the ragged breathing of the three. george wailed.
“no!” he spat, “you’re lying!”
“i wish.” tommy muttered, looking down. “i tried to help him. we had to fight each other but we didn’t want to, quackity shot him. i climbed out of the cage and started attacking the crowd, but they caught me before i could do any real damage.” tommy’s eyes glittered with a mixture of fear and anger. “sapnap told me to get us out of here.”
“i heard somebody in a cell next to me talk about the rink shutting down. apparently we’re all going to get auctioned off. i didn’t believe them at first but it seems like that might be the case now.” tubbo piped up. tommy shifted and sat down on the cold floor.
“probably. we’re fucked, dude.” tommy groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. dried blood was still stuck to his claws and he assumed that they hadn’t bothered to spray him down like they normally do. “sapnap would know what to do.” the boy mumbled. george had gone quiet, probably pondering what he did to deserve this.
“sapnap knew what to do, tommy. that’s why he told you to get us out, because he knew that he wouldn’t make it.” tubbo said, his expression sad. “he realized that if either of you died, the other would snap. he’d been here the longest, he’s seen auctions. he wants us to escape during an auction.” tommy thought for a second.
“good thinking, tubzo, but the question is how? how do we escape without getting killed or getting caught?” tommy explained. tubbo frowned.
“i don’t know.” tubbo admitted, sighing in defeat. “they’re gonna notice if we aren’t there.” tommy nodded in agreement.
“yeah, that’s my point.” tommy said, “whenever i win a fight, they put me in these tiny metal cages made for dogs or something. they’re flimsy, but too strong for me to get out. maybe you can kick yours apart, tubbo… but they’d get you, probably.” tommy hissed. the boys quieted down, thinking of some sort of plan. tommy made a growling noise and ran his fingers roughly through his matted hair. he reached behind him to preen his right wing’s feathers, lost in thought.
his mind wandered back to the man with the mask that he had seen just before he had passed out. ‘what was he doing there?’ tommy questioned himself, ‘he didn’t seem like any of the other guys there. why was he wearing such heavy clothing? why wasn’t he scared?’
“i’ve got it!” tubbo exclaimed, tommy and george directed their attention towards the ram.
“let’s hear it, then.” tommy said with an encouraging nod.
“everyone will wait until one of us get sold, then, that person will escape and cause as much havoc as the possibly can to distract everyone so the other two can break out.” tubbo rambled, “together, we’ll try to unleash as many of the other hybrids as possible and everyone will be too afraid to try and stop us! if we act dangerous, they’ll perceive us as dangerous.” tommy grinned and george waved his tail enthusiastically.
“that’s good, we’ll just have to work as fast as possible.” tommy hummed. “everyone in?” tubbo and george nodded.
“for sapnap.” george murmured. tommy smiled, fearlessness pumping through his veins.
“for sapnap.”
…
tommy didn’t sleep that night. his thoughts were polluted of images of the masked man. tommy sighed, resting his head in his hands. why did it matter anyway? tommy had never been so interested in the people that came to watch the fights, he was always too focused on the fighting, so why did he care now?
it was early morning, very early morning. the sun hadn’t yet risen and wouldn’t be doing so for another three or so hours, but tommy still couldn’t sleep. he knew that he should save energy in case the auction was soon, but no matter how hard he tried, sleep just wouldn’t come.
tommy stood and began to pace around the small cell. he could hear the soft, slow breathing from tubbo’s cell and he knew that his friend was asleep. george had gone back to his own room, saying that he needed some time to himself. tommy understood, of course he did. george and sapnap were close, just a bit less than tommy and sapnap. george would sleep in sapnap’s cell when he had nightmares all the time, they were like two peas in a pod. peanut butter and jelly. george wouldn’t be okay for a while, and neither would tommy.
the only difference was tommy didn’t have time to grieve, he had to prepare for this auction. he couldn’t help but wonder if the masked man would be there. there was a tapping noise from the front of his cell.
it was a guard.
“you’re coming with me.” the guard grunted, letting himself inside. he handcuffed tommy’s hands behind his back and clasped his mouth shut using some weird metal contraption. tommy couldn’t do anything but throw one last fleeting glance over his shoulder as he was dragged outside and to the stage.