Chapter Text
1.1
At this point, Tubbo was beginning to wonder just why the universe hated him so much.
It had seemed like a blessing, at first. Going to sleep in Snowchester and waking up as he signed L’Manberg’s Declaration of Independence? It was a dream come true. It had taken him a minute to get his bearings, and it took until Dream was handing back his Declaration of War for Tubbo to realize that no, this wasn’t a dream, he really was in the past.
There was so much he could do. So much he could change. He wasn’t Wilbur or Tommy or Technoblade, he probably couldn’t make everything better, because he wasn’t the main person to act at any given time and therefore less prone to making history-altering decisions, but there were still so many things he could do better. Things he could do to make the world a kinder place.
He was able to talk Eret around, so they didn’t become a spy. Without the final control room, they all had an extra life, and Wilbur wasn’t nearly as consumed with paranoia. The elections still happened, and Schlatt still won, but Tubbo made sure everyone knew Fundy was a spy from the beginning, and so Fundy was still trusted and his and Wilbur’s relationship didn’t crumble. Technoblade still betrayed them, but Wilbur didn’t die. Fundy became the president, and Philza stayed mostly loyal to L’Manberg, and Tubbo could fade into the background and help Tommy get his disks back.
He stopped Tommy and Ranboo from burning down George’s house. He alerted Wilbur to the forming Butcher Army ideas, so they were shut down. Techno still tried to destroy L’Manberg anyways, but the country and its people were united against him. When the day Tubbo had travelled back in time rolled around, L’Manberg was still standing, if damaged.
Sure, Tubbo still had to deal with Schlatt, and the man’s abuse, was still blown up by Techno’s firework, and sure, no one ever helped him with his own problems, or noticed he was struggling, but everyone else was happy, and so Tubbo was happy.
And then he found himself signing the Declaration again. And again, and again, and again.
At this point, he wasn’t even sure that his worst actions warranted this much punishing.
Tubbo finished signing his name once again and stepped back with a sigh. Another time loop, another war. The same messes over and over again. And there seemed to be nothing he could do to change it.
A familiar groan broke Tubbo out of his dejected musings, and he looked over to see Tommy running a hand through his hair, looking blankly at the declaration in front of him. He looked… tired. And weary.
Almost as if he’d already done this before.
Something like hope sparked in the back of Tubbo’s mind.
On what seemed to be instinct, Tommy looked back at him, and after a second, his eyes widened, that same hope filling up reflecting back at Tubbo.
Maybe he wasn’t going to be so lonely this time after all.
~
Tommy cornered him behind the camarvan the second they were alone. “Do you remember?” He demanded, desperation leaking into his voice. “The original timeline, doing all of this before?”
“I do, I do.” Tubbo managed a smile, feeling like he was taking a breath of fresh air for the first time in so long. “I remember all of it. The revolution, the election-”
“Pogtopia,” Tommy butted in, starting to smile himself. “The - the festival, Wilbur blowing everything up.”
“Ghostbur. Exile. Doomsday.” Tommy’s face fell and he nodded. “Tommy, I’m so sorry-”
“I know, I know.” Tommy waved him off. “You already apologized a million times before. That shit’s getting old, I already forgave you. Besides, after that is our final battle with Dream, and we won that! Remember?”
“Yeah.” Ender, this was Tommy. It was always Tommy, of course, but this was the original Tommy. Tubbo couldn’t stop smiling. “And Snowchester, and your new hotel you were building.”
“That’s right!” Tommy huffed. “And I didn’t get to finish it. I never get to finish it!”
Tubbo blinked. Never…?
Tommy saw his confusion. “Oh that’s right. Ah fuck, how do I put this… listen, Tubbo, this isn’t - well, it’s not-”
“Not your first time in the past,” Tubbo guessed, something heavy settling in his stomach. “Me neither. It’s my sixth time doing this.”
Tommy gaped at him. “Me too. But it was just me, I was sure you weren’t with me!” He grit his teeth. “This is so fucked up.”
“Yeah. And I had it the same. You weren’t - weren’t in the same time loops as me, I guess.” Tubbo shrugged. Tommy was clearly freaked out, and so was he, but he could be calm for both of them, like always. “But now we’re looping together.”
“We are.” And Tommy threw his pride out the window, and Tubbo found himself in a tight hug, which he quickly returned. After so long, it was so nice.
“What do we do?” Tommy muttered. “Are we just stuck looping like this until we find a way out? Is there a way out?”
Tubbo held his best friend tightly. “I don’t know. But at least we’re together again. We’ll figure this out. We always do.”
Maybe the universe didn’t hate him. Or maybe it hated both of them. But at least they were together, and that was enough for Tubbo.
1.2
It was the night where they would find out if Tommy would be exiled or not. Everyone waited around the obsidian walls with baited breath.
Underneath his mask, Dream smiled. Everything was going exactly to plan. There was no way Tubbo wouldn’t exile Tommy, after all of Dream’s threats. The boy would crumble under the pressure of keeping his worthless country safe, and then not only could Dream work on getting the second disk from him, but he would have Tommy all to himself.
L’Manberg’s cabinet arrived, Tommy looking nervous, Tubbo looking somber and guilty. Perfect. Dream waited for Tubbo to climb up onto the obsidian wall next to Dream, and Dream forced his posture to relax. It would be best if he didn’t look too excited for this outcome. “Well, Tubbo? Have you made your decision?”
Tubbo took a deep breath. “I have.” He let it out as a sigh, then turned to look at his cabinet. “As President of L’Manberg, I hereby exile Tommy Innit… and Tubbo Underscore.”
…
...What?
“By letting my VP burn down King George’s house, I have shown that I am unfit to rule,” Tubbo continued, oblivious to Dream’s surprise and anger. “Therefore, I will be passing the presidency to Fundy, a founding member of the country and one who I believe will lead it to prosperity, while I accompany Tommy in exile. This mistake is on my shoulders, and I intend to correct it.”
“Of course,” Fundy offered. He didn’t seem surprised by this turn of events. In fact, Quackity was grinning wildly. Tubbo must’ve told them what he was planning beforehand. Dream fought the urge to snarl.
Tubbo then gave Dream a weary smile. “If you would, Dream, please escort us outside of the SMP.” With that, he clambered down the wall and over to Tommy. The other boy still seemed nervous, but he swung an arm around his friend and grinned up at Dream.
This wasn’t how things were supposed to go, not at all. Still, they wouldn’t throw him off. He was Dream, and this was his realm. He would keep his cool.
“Are you sure about this, Tubbo?” He implored. “You’ve been a fantastic president so far. No one blames you for what Tommy has done.” He smiled, although they couldn’t see it. “I certainly don’t. And if I don’t blame you, then why would your friends in L’Manberg?”
He could see the other cabinet members bristling at the slight, like intended. But Tubbo, strangely, seemed unperturbed. “Thank you Dream. But this is a decision that we of L’Manberg have already agreed on. It’s for our country to decide, even if you feel differently.”
Fundy coughed. “Indeed. And as the new president, I’m going to have to ask you to escort them out, Dream.”
This wasn’t the plan.
Ghostbur, the annoying shell of a man, joined them as they were setting out the boat. “Tommy! Tubbo! Are we going on a vacation?”
“We sure are, big man,” Tommy agreed, although his smile was a little strained. “Want to come?”
“Of course, I would love to come!” Dream scowled as he undid the ropes. Just what he wanted, another of the original L’Manberg idiots to join them. It was supposed to be him and Tommy, not him and the three Stooges! Things couldn’t get any worse than this.
After about thirty minutes out at sea, Tommy let out a loud groan. “I’m so bored. Tubbo, got anything you can think of to pass the time?”
“You bet!” Tubbo agreed. “Ninety-nine potions of strength on the wall, ninety-nine potions of strength…”
Dream gripped the oars of the boat so hard the wood splintered under his hands. It’s for the disks, he told himself.
The disks were starting to look less and less appealing.
1.3
“Tommy, what exactly are you doing?” Tubbo asked, as he squinted up at the cobblestone tower. It was massive, and it nearly reached the block limit. And there were at least four others like this scattered around the SMP.
Tommy jumped from out of one of the windows, landing safely on the ground with the splash of a water bucket. “I got bored,” he announced. “We’ve won L’Manberg’s freedom again, and it’s gonna be a month or so before the elections even start.” He shakes his head. “Seriously, how did we get through this the first time without getting so bored?”
“We were too busy enjoying the peace after months of war,” Tubbo answered sensibly. Personally, he liked these little lulls, where nothing bad happened. “And your answer to this boredom is to build cobblestone towers?”
Tommy nodded, grinning. “I’m gonna cover the entire SMP in them, and then connect them to one inside L’Manberg territory, and claim all the towers for us.”
“That actually sounds like a fun idea,” Tubbo admits. “I’ll help you then!”
“Will you now?” They both turned to see Dream looming over them. “No, I don’t think you will. I think I’ll be killing you first.”
Tommy’s breath hitched. “O-Okay, we’re gonna go now.” He grabbed Tubbo’s arm and sprinted. “See you, bitch!”
“We really need to get better at fighting,” Tubbo muttered, as Dream chased them down. “We can’t keep running every time things get shaky.” The memory of the mountain top battle, Dream bearing down on him with his axe, flashed in his mind, and he shuddered.
Despite his still panicked expression, there was a glint in Tommy’s eyes. “That’ll be our new goal for the next bunch of loops then. We get better and better at pvp until we can both beat Dream at least most of the time. That way we can really start standing up to him.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
1.4
“Did you know we have a second inventory now?” Tubbo said, the night after the declaration was signed again, as they were resting on the wall and looking up at the stars.
Tommy blinked. “The fuck? Seriously?”
“Seriously. Last loop was a code-loop, so I was messing around a bit, right?” Tommy nodded. The way their world worked was strange, and it was even stranger in the loops. Sometimes it was a bunch of connected realms, and the SMP was just one of those realms. Sometimes the realms were called Servers, and it was like they were in some sort of game, where people could literally hack into the code of the different worlds.
Sometimes there were no realms at all, and it was just one singular world, which they nicknamed solo-realms. Those times there could be anything from hundreds to thousands of people living in L’Manberg, and so those were the times it was extra important to prevent events like Doomsday.
“Okay, so I was wondering if we show up differently in the code, and as I was shifting around, I realized we have some sort of second inventory. It’s not like our normal one, where you can only put a certain amount of items inside though, it’s more like… a really large, interdimensional bag to store stuff in.”
“And it’s just us who have it?” Tommy clarified. “Do we still have it in this world?”
Tubbo grinned. “That’s the thing! Not only do we still have it, but I put the Bane ‘O Bees in it last time and didn’t take it out when the loop ended, and guess what?” He then proceeded to summon a very familiar black-purple axe, extremely sharp and glowing with enchantments.
“Holy shit,” he breathed. “It’s like an Enderchest for time loops! You’ve gotta show me how to do that.”
~
The Dream Team prepared for the first battle against the newly formed L’Manberg. In all honesty, Dream was confident that they would crush the so-called country easily. No one there was an expert fighter, and none of them had good armor. There was no way they could stand to the rest of the SMP.
At the very least, if Dream and his friends gave them a show of force, they might give up and stop messing around. He hoped they would. He rather wanted things to go back to normal.
“They’re coming!” Punz shouted, and Dream readied his axe as out of the trees sprang the five fighters of L’Manberg.
And they were wearing fully enchanted netherite armor, with just as highly enchanted netherite weapons.
“How-?” Was all he could get out, before he was assaulted by Tommy and Tubbo. It should’ve been an easy takedown, but to his surprise, they actually had him on the ropes, working together so smoothly it was like he was fighting a single entity. It was all Dream could do to defend himself.
“Grinding, bitch!” Tommy cheered, as Fundy knocked Punz out with his sword, and Wilbur forced George away from Dream with his bow. The general looked almost as perplexed as Dream was, but he was smiling in his amusement.
For the first time, Dream had a bad feeling about this.
1.5
“Okay, I’ll bite,” Tubbo said, as they watched the citizens of L’Manberg cheer for Wilbur as their official president, the other running parties looking slightly put off, but also agreeable. “How did you get Quackity not to pool votes with Schlatt?”
Tommy smirked. “It was easy, really. Fifty separate alarm clocks, all hidden in and around George’s bedroom. Big Q never worked with Schlatt because his running mate actually showed up this time around.”
Sure enough, George was there, with barely-noticeable bags under his eyes, looking rather agitated.
“That’s brilliant,” Tubbo decided. “I wonder what other problems we can solve if we make sure George doesn’t sleep through things?”
Tommy snickered. “Most of them, probably. But we should make sure the presidency goes well this time before we set up anything else. Don’t want a repeat of the first time we got Wilbur to win the election. And I hid those alarm clocks real good, he’s not getting rid of them anytime soon.”
~
“Wilbur Soot, if you don’t exile Tommy, I will build these walls to the block limit! I will hire guards, Punz and Sapnap, to patrol the exterior, no trade, no one leaves, or they get slaughtered inside!” Wilbur almost stepped back from the force of Dream’s anger, but managed to stay still.
Inside though, he was reeling. How could he choose? L’Manberg, his country, his people, or Tommy, his little brother?
Dream was grinning now. He could see it, since the mask only covered the man’s nose and eyes. “L’Manberg can be independent, but L’Manberg can’t be free-”
“DREAM WASTAKEN, YOU BITCH!” This time, Wilbur did jump at the sound. So did everyone else.
There, storming up to them, was George, goggles perched precariously on top of his messy hair, massive bags under his eyes, and a furious expression.
Even Dream seemed stunned. “George, what-?”
“No, no, I’m asking the questions here. What that fuck is this?” George gestured wildly at the rest of them. “First you make me king, then you dethrone me, and now you’re using the fact that I was king as an excuse to fuck around with L’Manberg? After you put Eret back on the throne?”
Dream frowned. “George, Tommy burned down your house, I’m doing this for you-”
“No, that was Ranboo and me,” Fundy spoke up from behind Wilbur. “You just blamed Tommy and refused to hear otherwise.”
George glared. “I guess we know where your priorities lay, Dream. It’s not certainly not with me or Sapnap, is it? Well, I forgive whoever burned down my house, so if you try and punish someone, it’s for no one but yourself. That’s the only person you care about, anyways.” With that, he stomped off.
Dream followed, a panicked expression on his face. “No, George, wait! It’s not like that! GEORGE!”
There was a moment of silence as the L’Manbergians watched them go.
“So, does this mean no one is getting exiled?” Ranboo asked.
1.6
“So things have been messed up before,” Tommy said. “But this is a whole different level.”
Rather than starting the loop at the signing of independence like normal, the two of them had found themselves at the readings of the election results. It had taken a minute for them to realize anything else was wrong, but once they had…
This time, there were memories, different ones, that told a different story of the world around them.
Despite the constantly changing nature of his relationship with Phil and Techno, Wilbur had always been Tommy’s brother, no matter what. But this time was different.
This time it was Tubbo who was Wilbur’s brother, and Tommy who was the family friend. Tubbo who had the discs, who fought in the final duel and gave said discs up, who was Wilbur’s vice president, and Tommy who followed him around constantly.
“I’m honestly not sure what to do with this loop,” Tubbo admitted. “I mean, we’re too late to change the election results, so I guess I’ll be kicked out, and you’ll be the spy then?” He didn’t seem happy about that.
“I guess.” Tommy frowned. As much as he hated going through it himself, he wouldn’t want Tubbo to have to go through Wilbur’s Pogtopia madness on his own. “Actually, I’ll just run out with you two. I’m more than skilled enough to escape Manberg’s goons anyways.” It wasn’t overconfidence. This was his thirtieth loop, the twenty-fifth he’d done with Tubbo, and after all that time and practice, the two of them could more than hold their own against even Dream by themselves. They were even starting to gain ground on Technoblade.
(And wasn’t that a strange thought? That one day Tommy would be skilled enough to beat Techno?)
“Alright,” Tubbo agreed easily. “Let’s go totally off track for this, yeah?” He smiled, calming down the nerves in Tommy’s chest.
“Definitely.” If Tubbo was taking Tommy’s role this loop, that meant Dream was going to try and put him in exile. And Tommy refused to let that happen.
1.7
“What if we try to make L’Manberg something other than a democracy?” Tubbo offered, the night after they had won their freedom. The other four members looked at him blankly, only one of them being able to fathom why he would say such a thing.
(Four because Eret hadn’t betrayed them, this time. They were betraying them with increasing rarity, Tommy had noticed. Tubbo theorized that it was due to the fact that between him and Tommy, L’Manberg kept crushing the Dream Team, and so Eret had no reason to switch sides.)
“What do you mean?” Fundy furrowed his brow. “What would it be, if not a democracy?”
“I was thinking of a constitutional monarchy,” Tubbo explained. “Wilbur could be the king, and the four of us could be his parliament. If we write down that the monarchy and parliament have equal power in our nation, then we all get a say in what goes on. And we won’t have to worry about things like elections, because all of us are involved in the government.”
“Sounds good to me,” Tommy piped up. He was getting a little bored of the monotony again anyways. Eret nodded in agreement.
Wilbur deliberated for a moment. “Alright, I suppose that makes sense. But “King” sounds too SMP-ish. How about Duke instead?”
Tubbo raised his hand. “Everyone in parliament who’s in favor of the monarch being renamed to Duke say “Aye!”
“Aye!”
Dream narrowed his eyes, looking genuinely perplexed. “Wait, you’re saying L’Manberg is…”
“A theocracy,” Wilbur explained gently. “Tommy and I are priests of Church Prime, and therefore the benevolent rulers of our nation. One can live here without worshiping Prime, of course, but they will be expected to follow certain norms and live under our laws.”
“Right. Sure. That makes total sense.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” Tommy nodded sagely. Tubbo tried not to laugh.
Tubbo winced, looking out at the neon jungle that used to be the peaceful and beautiful L’Manberg. “You know, maybe we should’ve thought about what Schlatt and Quackity would do when we structured L’Manberg solely around capitalism.” The men in question had bought everyone else out and currently ruled over the rest of their small society.
“Yeah, we kinda fucked up on that one.”
“So, you guys aren’t having any elections?” Quackity asked. “Doesn’t that seem unfair?”
Tommy shook his head. “Haven’t you heard? We’re a direct democracy. We don’t have any leaders. If someone wants to make a change, they propose an idea, and the rest of the country votes on it. That way everyone has equal power.”
“That does make sense.” Quackity looked much more reassured, if a little disappointed.
I thought we were doing dictatorship before communism,” Tommy pointed out, looking over the sea of posters, all containing the hammer and sickle.
Tubbo sighed. “Yeah, but you know. We kind of already go through that under Schlatt.”
Tommy winced. “Yeah, that’s fair.”
“Doesn’t it seem unfair that only the original five founders of L’Manberg can hold positions of power?” Quackity pointed out.
Fundy just shrugged. “I dunno what you mean. This is an aristocratic oligarchy, and we were all made nobles when the country was formed. If you don’t like it, you could just leave.”
The two time travelers stared out at a sea of explosions and lava casts. There was nothing left of L’Manberg, just stragglers fighting over meager resources, and Technoblade laughing in the distance. “I don’t know what we expected,” Tommy finally said, voice hoarse.
“We had to try anarchy at some point.” Tubbo looked upon the grim scene with a sad expression. “At least Techno seems happy.”
Tommy scoffed. “Yeah. He stopped by Wilbur and I to tell us how proud he was of what we did, and how great of brothers we are. Total bullshit. Fucking asshole.”
Tubbo put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Once the last few people move on, how about we turn this place into a tourist trap? Starring “Technoblade and his Terrible Ideals.” Would that make you feel better?”
Tommy imagined Techno’s face when he realized they were going to use him as a reason not to try anarchy, and finally smiled. “I think that would help, yeah.”
1.8
Things were very, very wrong.
Eret knew this as soon as they woke up not in their castle, but in their pre-revolution home. When they went to their castle, they found that it didn’t exist. And after sprinting to the crater of L’Manberg, they realized that not only was there no crater, but there was no L’Manberg either.
How did this happen? Had they time traveled somehow?
...Could they change things? Not betray L’Manberg? Fix their mistakes? Prevent Doomsday?
There were so many possibilities, it was almost overwhelming.
And then the memories that weren’t theirs hit. Eret rubbed their head and tried to process these new memories, but it was hard because they didn’t make sense!
Apparently, Wilbur and Tommy had continued with their drug empire rather than make L’Manberg, had gotten many of the residents addicted to their drugs (not potions, drugs, wasn’t it just potions last time?) And had formed an actual cult around said drugs.
Said drug was Blue, the thing that Ghostbur had given out.
Eret rushed to the camarvan, almost stumbling with emotion as they saw it there, the original one, still standing.
Tommy and Tubbo were at the window, scar-less and joyful, grinning at them. “Eret!” Tubbo exclaimed. “Are you ready to try the wonders of Blue and devote yourself to the cause?”
“I really just don’t understand,” Eret admitted helplessly, still slightly overwhelmed at the sight of them looking so happy. “I thought Blue was Ghostbur’s thing and we were starting L’Manberg, I don’t-” It occurred to them that maybe admitting they were from the future to the two teenagers wasn’t a smart idea.
The boys exchanged looks. Tubbo dropped the poster he was holding. At once, they both jumped out the window, and Eret found themself being tackle-hugged by two yelling boys, the three of them flying to the ground.
“Holy fuck, you remember!”
“You know! You know, we’re not alone anymore, holy shit!”
“This is so fucking pog, I can’t believe it.”
“Woah, hang on!” With great effort and a bit of soreness, Eret managed to sit up. “You guys have travelled in time as well then? We’re not making L’Manberg this time? I have no idea what’s happening, could you please explain?”
The two shared guilty grins, and Eret couldn’t help but smile. They’d clearly come so far since their last fight.
“It’s a long and interesting story,” Tubbo said. “We’ve got so much to tell you.”