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Currently the cells were quiet, that should have been the warning that something was about to happen. Tommy was wide awake, as he usually was, whatever schedule this planet or jail or wherever he was had, did not sit right with his circadian rhythm. A couple months ago Tommy would be complaining about his unusual sleep schedule to his friends at school. Being on a different planet and possibly even a different galaxy, he didn’t care about his sleep.
The quiet only lasted for maybe a couple minutes more. Soon as he even registered the odd air encompassing the cells, the quiet disappeared. It was replaced with shouting. Footsteps started to creep in as well, mixed with the sound of something being dragged down the stairs. The shouts turned into yelling and squabbling, something about someone grabbing an arm and taking that leg there, careful don’t drop it now.
“If you drop it Zelley it will wake up.” A disembodied voice hissed out at the others. Tommy could finally make out their words, the buzz of the translator implanted at the nap of his neck started up. The first ship Tommy had been on was torture, constantly experimenting on his body. One of those experiments happened to be a translator, which Tommy had tried to rip out multiple times now.
They were bringing some poor alien in to meet the same fate as him. Tommy almost felt bad really. They hadn’t brought a new competitor in a week or so. Tommy killed the last new one they brought in. He hasn’t fought any aliens in about a week. Tommy was just the greatest fighter ever it seemed. They were absolutely terrified of him, no fighting meant other things though. A couple days ago they made him just stand in the pit with no one to fight. There wasn’t even an audience that time, except for about four slug and insect looking aliens that just stared.
Tommy was rushed out of his thoughts when the dragging and shouting stopped in front of his cell door. Three of the bug headed aliens, each with six limbs were holding up the body of the poor alien they were bringing in. Tommy couldn’t quite make out what it was yet, it simply looked like a bundle of pink.
For some reason they had stopped in front of his cell door. Another alien, that had a slight green hinge to it and one that Tommy had recognized as being some leader for the guards around here, came up and stretched its thin lanky fingers to the lock screen. The door wasn’t really a door, more so a force field that constantly glowed red and made an annoying humming sound that Tommy had turned out by now. A slit in the red force field turned off.
The green lanky fucker stepped aside to let the bug things toss the pink and black sack inside his cell. It landed with a heavy thump. Were they wanting Tommy to fight not in the pit? The thing was face down on the red dirt covered floor, but the alien was huge, bigger than anything Tommy had fought yet. This was his cell, and Tommy wasn’t keen on sharing.
“Hey what the fuck! You can’t just -” The shock collar around his neck went off when he stood up, sending Tommy’s knees buckling and his body to the ground.
“Bad, bad. No. Don’t kill, no.” The lanky green one was always so trigger happy with his shock collar. It closed the force field back up before Tommy could even catch his breath. By the time he looked back up the aliens had gone, leaving him with a body that Tommy hoped wasn’t dead or something. If it was, it would smell.
The pink looked to be fur covered skin, similar to a short haired fuzzy creature from Earth. It had a skin tight black shirt on and some sort of pant material that seemed to have some type of padding on it. The pants were more like shorts, and the rest of its legs below the knee ended in hooves. Still the thing had a more human build, and still Tommy really hoped he didn’t have to fight it.
Tommy sat back and watched it. It seemed to not need to breathe as frequently as him, Tommy watched the slow rise and fall of the back. He couldn’t believe they just dropped the fucker in his cell, no warning or anything. He tried to relax and get some sleep before the next day.
The thing didn’t stir much throughout the night and Tommy fell into a fitful sleep, constantly waking to see if the thing had moved. He felt bad just calling it a thing, Pinky seemed to be a better nickname for now.
When Tommy awoke for the final time he found himself in his usual corner, with a shadow over him. After a second of his eyes opening, staring up at the pink shadow, Tommy screamed. Pinky jolted backwards.
“What the fuck man? What makes you think it's alright to stand over someone like that? I didn’t even do that to you!” Pinky just looked shocked for a second standing only an arms length away.
Standing up Pinky was tall, really tall, and broad too. Looking at its face Tommy saw what looked to be a scrunched pig nose, just beneath two tusks jolted out from a rather large mouth. Tommy had to suppress a chuckle by how much the thing looked like a walking pig.
“You speak common?” Its voice was gruff, and Tommy couldn’t read any emotions in the tone, did aliens even have emotions?
“No, I speak English.” Tommy really hoped that Pinky was smart enough to figure out he had a translator, in all honesty Tommy didn’t even really know how it worked, it just did.
“You just spoke common though.”
Tommy didn’t reply, out of mystique not stubbornness of course. This Pink guy could guess about him all he wants, his lips were sealed shut.
“You spoke common and you’re human.” Well guess the guy was smart.
“Yeah you got a fucking problem with that?” Tommy shifted to sit up a bit more, Pinky’s gaze was unrelenting. Even as he stepped back to sit down at the opposite wall, his red eyes never left Tommy.
“No, I’m a deathworlder too,” Even sitting down the fucker was tall and huge and brooding. It really wasn’t fair, “There were rumors about you, about a human in the fighting pit, I didn’t believe them.”
“Yeah? Well jokes on you I don’t even know what a deathworlder is.” Tommy sneered at Pinky, it wasn’t like he had anything to lose anyways. Aliens were constantly surprised by him, shocked and terrified. Only serving to fuel his confidence.
“It’s like a classification system for beings from deadly worlds, planets that aren’t fit to harbor life but do anyway. It’s an outdated system the federation put in place.” Pinky leaned back and rested his head on the rock wall that separated each cell. His gaze finally relented as he closed his eyes.
Tommy hummed in response, space politics seemed weird. He wondered when they would bring in food, judging by the lights being on it wouldn’t be long now. Behind the buzzing of the forcefield Tommy could hear screaming and begging in different languages. None of the words seemed to filter through to be translated. The noise meant that it was morning though.
“Technoblade,” Tommy’s head whipped toward Pinky, Technoblade apparently who gave no notion of a facial expression. At some point in the night a shock collar had been put on Technoblade, too. It creeped Tommy out that he didn’t remember them coming in for that. “Do humans do names or?”
“Of course we fuckin-” A clang sounded down the other end of the hall. They were in the last cell that seemed a bit more separate from everyone else's. The clang signaled the one meal they had, “Tommy, my name’s Tommy.”
Not a single alien the entire time Tommy had been in space had asked for his name. They simply called him human or earthling, most of the time they barely even called him anything. Tommy wasn’t sure if they realized he was sentient or not. He tended to snarl and fight for his life most of the time anyways.
The cart of food was being rolled down closer and closer. Tommy liked being handed his food, not only did it mean he was getting to eat, but the small bug-like alien that handed the food out was a true joy. It was the easiest one to mess with out of all the aliens running this place, it was the most skittish.
The alien Tommy dubbed Buggy (he was great at names really) appeared in front of the forcefield with two trays in hand. Its fly like wings carried him off the ground slightly, and as he edged closer to the forcefield a slit at the bottom opened just wide enough for the trays to be slid under. Tommy made a sudden dive for the first one, sending Buggy flying backwards and making a high pitched vibration. It squealed as it quickly flew away.
“Yeah bitch! Run away!” Tommy called after the frightened alien, they were all frightened of him as they should be but Buggy especially. Tommy grabbed the tray and sat back in his little corner, putting the tray in his lap.
“Why would you scare a Diptera like that?” Technoblade stood and slid his own tray closer to him to be out in front of him.
“What's a Diptera?” Tommy was already tearing into the packaged slop, it tasted of cardboard and had the texture of porridge, but it was something to eat.
“The species of the guy you just frightened.” Technoblade started to open the thick plastic that surrounded the slop, except he merely tore off the end and started to slowly pour it into his mouth.
“Oh, well got to keep up appearances and all.” Tommy gulped down the rest of his package, choosing to lick the inside of the thick plastic-like substance to get all the bits of food he could from it. He opened the clear liquid encased in the same substance more carefully, water was precious here. There had been a couple days where he didn’t get a packet, so he made them last. Tommy tore off the smallest hole and took a sip before carefully digging a hole and placing it in the dirt.
“Is this all we get each light cycle?” Technoblade asked, now having finished his slop in a much cleaner manner.
“Yeah, sometimes the water is forgotten though so I would saviour it if I were you.” Tommy sat back, trying to relax and not wonder if he would be made to fight Technoblade. He started to plan if the guy had any weak spots that he could exploit.
Technoblade purred in response, the sound coming from his upper chest. It made Tommy’s breath hitch for a second from the unfamiliarity, but it quickly recovered. Aliens were weird.
“What was that sound you just made?” His curiosity overtook him, now that he actually had an alien willing to converse.
“Oh, it's called a chuff. I expect it's similar to the vibration you made earlier. A sign of agreement is the best term for it.”
“Oh.”
Silence took over the two. There was movement and shouting starting in the cell area. Electric shocks could be heard followed by screams. They were picking the fighters for the day.
Technoblade stood up, stepping closer to the forcefield in order to see what was happening. He wouldn’t be able to see anything yet. They had just started the picking. Technoblade may not even have to worry for a day or two, Tommy didn’t have to fight for the first two days when he first arrived.
Of course once they eventually got to Tommy and Technoblade’s cell the forcefield was lowered, the guards shocked both of them to keep them from trying anything. Both fell to their knees as electricity shot through them. Tommy was grabbed by his arms by a stronger lizard-like alien and taken out of the cell. There was no point in fighting these guards, it would only lead to non-stop shocks. A feeling that Tommy was not keen on repeating.
“Fucking pricks! The lot of you! When I get to fight you it’ll be your last fucking day!” Tommy knew the limits by now, the outright fighting would go nowhere, but the delayed stumbling was his favorite, along with the array of insults he continued to scream. “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!”
In between insults Tommy could barely make it out, but he heard Technoblade’s gruff voice calling out for him before it was drowned out by the forcefield’s buzzing.
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They had given the hairy alien a weapon. They had never given any of the aliens Tommy had dealt with before a weapon. It was some shiny metal looking stick, but it was enough for the hairy alien to get a hit on Tommy, a hit to the side of his head. Everything went black.
When he came to, the world was ringing, he couldn’t move or even breathe for a couple seconds. Panic started to rise, if he couldn’t move then he would die. He was in a fight, all they wanted was death. This was a fight to the death. Now Tommy was the one on the ground, maybe he was dying, maybe he was dead.Tommy only heard ringing. The lights above him shined way too bright for his liking. If he closed his eyes maybe it would all go away.
Something made a gurgling noise beside him, falling to the ground with a quiet thump. The fall shook the ground beneath Tommy. Something had fallen right next to him and he was just laying there. Tommy had to move, he had to get up. He was still fighting the fucker right?
In a blink Tommy was standing, he doesn’t know how he stood up but he was standing. The lizard guard aliens were coming into the sandy pit now, coming towards him. They were saying something, hissing at him in some foreign language that washed over Tommy like water. The crowd around him was going wild, though Tommy could never see with the blinding lights.
He had to move, panic was setting in now, spilling over in the form of tears. His heart was pounding in his ears. He didn't really think he just ran towards one of the open doors lining the pit. There the ringing in his head would stop, surely it would stop.
At the cusp of the door the lanky green bastard stepped in front of the only exit. Tommy let out a guttural scream as electricity pounded through his body from the shock collar, so this was how he was going to die.
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The next time Tommy awoke his head was pounding, everything was red and fuzzy. He thought he was in the fighting pit still, he needed to get up if he wanted to live. He shot up straight from laying down. His vision swam and if it could get any worse, his head exploded in pain.
“Easy, now,” a hand with claws was on his chest, pushing him back down to the ground, and who was Tommy to debate the hand? “Tommy what happened?”
The only response Tommy could give was a huff.
“Tommy, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what happened.” There wasn’t much expression, but the sentiment was still there. Tommy opened his eyes slightly and was met with pinky’s face, the name felt wrong when he thought about it. It didn’t seem to matter in the moment though.
“Hit… my head… some metal stick.” Thinking too much about the words caused his head to pound hard. There was sweet silence for a moment.
“Heh? How are you not dead?” If Technoblade was human Tommy would say he was mad. Tommy whined at the sudden emotion from his voice. Pushing himself backwards til he was propped up by the wall. “Any other species would die from a head hit.”
The last bit didn’t seem like Tommy should have overheard. Tommy really didn’t want to move, but as he was taking in his current state he realized how thirsty he was. His eyes flicked towards his corner where he usually had his water buried.
“Do you want your water?” Technoblade asked, Tommy didn’t see the need to respond using words, simply nodding his head. The movement was a bad decision, and he whined again from the sudden throbbing.
“Don’t move your head, do you want water?”
Tommy just responded to this! Why wasn’t Technoblade getting it? It made tears well up in his eyes. He felt ridiculous, so he took a shaky breath, “Yes.”
“Alright, I’ll grab it for you,” Technoblade was crouched in front of Tommy, all he had to do was stretch out his arm to grab it. Instead of just handing it to him though, Technoblade kept the container in his hands. Tommy reached out for it, “No, let me do it.”
Tommy was weary about letting the alien hold the water while he drank, but his head was pounding and he really did not feel like moving at all. He gave a whine as a response, hoping that Technoblade understood. Which he seemed to as he slowly got closer to Tommy with the water holding it up to his lips with one hand, with the other he held the back of his head up slightly.
“Drink it slowly.” Technoblade warned. His clawed hands were on the nap of Tommy’s neck, where the couple bumps and raised lines of the translator were. It would be uncomfortable if not for the throbbing pain that Tommy currently felt, dulling whatever sensation would arise by the translator being shifted.
Tommy did as he was told, not wishing to argue. All the fight was gone but still buzzing just underneath the surface. In case Technoblade got any ideas that he wasn’t still human. He held up the wrapped water up to Tommy’s lips and slowly drank. Tommy let his eyes slip closed. In another universe, back on earth, the moment could be taken as gentle. Oh so humane. Emotions started to bubble up again and Tommy felt so small, like he was a child again.
There was a rumbling that made Tommy’s eyes shoot open, the sound was coming from Technoblade who was leaning above him. The sudden light made his head throb. The room started to spin.Tommy shut his mouth, swallowing hard to try and quell the wave of nausea.
“Tommy sit up for a moment,” Technoblade was still making that rumbling sound as he placed the water to the side, “I want to see something real quick.”
“Wha-?” Tommy immediately felt uneasy, but he wasn’t one to dwell in the current state of his brain. He definitely had a concussion if his symptoms were anything to go off of. He doubted that Technoblade even knew anything about human health.
“Sit up for a moment.”
“Okay,” Tommy grumbled but moved his hands to brace and push himself half up. Technoblade’s clawed hands were still on his back and helped to guide him. He pushed slightly forward so that Tommy leaned over a bit, showing the back of his neck.
The rumbling noise that Technoblade was making increased in volume and speed.
“Tommy, is this a translator on your neck?” Technoblade’s claws ran over the ridged skin, still puffed up by the wires and small metal plates on the back of Tommy’s neck.
The room was spinning and his head was pounding, all Tommy wanted to do was to fall asleep. That would help the throbbing headache, and the spinning room. Yeah that was a good choice.
“Tommy,” Technoblade mixed his name with that rumbling, “please tell me this is not a translator.”
He stayed silent, unsure of how he should respond, he really did not have the energy for this. Tommy’s eyes were already fluttering shut.
“Tommy?”
“How did you think I could understand you bitch, think us humans just know that language… What did you call it? Common?” Tommy spat it, but instantly regretted the defensive emotion, a pit forming in his stomach of guilt. He probably shouldn’t instigate Technoblade. He shrunk in on himself, Technoblade lowered him to the floor.
“Did the runners here do this?” Technoblade drew away from Tommy, and started to pace around the still humming forcefield.
“What? No, no it was the ship that abducted me that put the translator in.” This made Technoblade stop by the corner of the room, looking out into the hallway lined with similar cells to theirs.
“Right, okay,” Technoblade was standing by the buzzing forcefield. He went silent for a moment, “Okay here’s what’s going to happen.”
“wha- , Technoblade it’s really not that big of a-”
Technoblade chuffed, “My crew is going to be here soon, hopefully by the end of the cycle. We can treat you on our ship, get that translator out of your head. You should just rest. I won’t let them take you again for another fight.”
“Hold on, what are you even talking about, taking me to your ship. I’m not about to get abducted again by some pig alien.” Tommy didn’t want to do anything, sure the offer was nice, but from experience in space the place was more brutal than Earth. There was no trust in space, Tommy wasn’t even sure if they knew what that word even was.
“Rest now runt,” Technoblade came closer, crocheting in front of where Tommy was still propped up on the back wall, “my crew won’t do you any harm. We can help you get out of here.”
Technoblade’s eyes were red, fully blood red, but Tommy would swear in that moment there was a flicker of human kindness.
“Would you help me get back to Earth?” The conversation was starting to weigh on Tommy, his energy was waning fast as his eyes began to take longer blinks.
“We can try runt, but piglins can not make promises they may not be able to complete. Rest now, I’ll wake when they bring food.”
Tommy hummed in response, the growing silence was nice to quarrel with the pounding headache that was still underneath his temple. Closing his eyes made the dizziness return tenfold, but Tommy wasn’t going to pass the opportunity for sleep. If only for a moment to let his head stop throbbing in pain.
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Tommy awoke to sirens. Lights were flashing. As soon as his eyes opened, his head exploded causing him to let out a whimper of pain. The throbbing became in tune with the screeching siren. His gut swirled at the noise or the fear that suddenly overtook him, Tommy wasn’t sure. He opened his eyes more to find an empty cell around him.
Lights were flashing in the dingy hallway. The cell’s barrier was still up, but looking down the hallway there were some cells without their barrier. There were two trays on the floor, one had been eaten already and both water containers were still there.
Tommy registered that he was alone, Technoblade nowhere to be found. The whole scene made his head throb and the world spun harder than when he last awoke.
Distantly there was noise, shouting in some language that wasn’t being picked up by his translator. It sounded like screams of all sorts, gurgling, howling, screeches. It was too much. His head was reeling, the room was spinning all around. Was he back on the ship? That first ship that had picked him up?
Tommy tried to stand, using the wall for balance. The fear and adrenaline overtaking him, screaming that he needed to move. Bad move.
His stomach lurched as the movement. Tommy threw up on the floor in front of him. That probably wasn’t good. Tommy leaned over himself, just trying to battle out his emotions and physical torment.
Adrenaline was screaming at him to move, to run. There was no where to run in the first place, the barrier was still activated. His body was urging him to sit down, to curl up in a ball and wait for this to pass. The room would stop spinning eventually. Tommy always hated throwing up, especially with nothing in his stomach, there was nothing more to even throw up.
There were footsteps and shouting at the entrance to the cell hallway. Someone was babbling on, his translator couldn't quite pick up the words, but it registered as begging. Then there was a high hiss, something thumped to the ground. A silent shink of something being sliced. Stabbed maybe? Oh god, Tommy was going to die. They were raiding the pit cells. They were going to kill everyone, including Tommy in this state.
The tray, the tray was a harder metallic material that was black. It would do as much as any weapon would. Tommy used the wall to get up again, stepping over the mess he made to grab the improvised weapon. If this was it, then Tommy wasn’t about to go by some alien, he would go on his own terms thank you very much.
The steps drew closer, there were a couple of the hissing sounds still happening. Tommy geared up, the barrier was still on, but being the last cell in the hall he tried to crouch along the wall to be able to have some element of surprise. The sirens were still wailing, his head was still pounding. The dizziness was manageable by now at least.
Tommy saw a shadow emerge around the corner, the alien was small and the first thing he noticed was the giant pitch black wings on the guy's back. The alien turned its head, the body following a moment later.
Something eerie dawned on him. The alien almost looked human with feathers growing from its skin that turned into its entire body mostly covered with the black feathers. It had bird feet for, well, feet. The alien wore green armour, around its chest and the top of its legs, similar to that worn by the guards in the fighting pit. It was holding a metallic looking pistol in its hand.
“Hiya mate, Techno is coming to help get this barrier turned off.” The guy had more of a sing-song voice to him. If Tommy’s head wasn’t throbbing in the moment he would chuckle at the bird-like nature of the man.
Just as the words were being spoken, sure enough, Technoblade came into view dragging the green fucker’s body with ease. The fucker was covered in a thick green liquid, some had splattered onto to Technoblade as well. Greenie had slashes all over it that no longer oozed out the green blood, it looked thick and congealed. Technoblade was wearing the black armour that the guards had obviously been wearing before.
“Hello,” Technoblade dragged out the ohs, as if this was the most casual situation in the world, “Glad to see you awake.”
“Wha-? Awake?” Tommy spluttered, trying to process Technoblade outside of the cell. Everything was a bit hard to think about still, “What’s going on? How did you-?”
Shouting starting again at the top of the hall. Beams of light started to fly through the air, causing the two aliens to duck and crouch at the commotion.
“No time,” Technoblade grabbed the thin wrist of the green fucker and jammed its hand on the scanner on the wall outside the field. The red forcefield dropped, “Just follow us, we will keep you safe, runt.”
Tommy was still clinging to the side wall, unsure of what to do. The bird guy had stepped in front of Technoblade and was using the thin gun shaped weapon to return fire at the top of the hallway. The sirens never seemed so loud. Tommy’s head spun, still he used the wall to push himself up, dropping the tray to the ground.
The world dipped beneath Tommy, causing him to tilt to the other side. Someone let out a squeal in front of him. In a moment clawed hands grabbed his shoulders to steady Tommy’s balance.
“Okay, runt. It’s okay, let’s get you out of here yeah?” Tommy slowly realized it was Technoblade holding him up right. Technoblade pushed Tommy to lean on his side, tucking his face into his chest and started to take a couple steps forward. Chills went up Tommy’s spine being so close to the fuzzy pink alien. Technoblade was warm, warmer than anything Tommy had felt in months, like the sun on his skin.
What choice did Tommy have to say no? To stay in the fighting pit? The shock collar never weighed so heavy. Distantly he looked up at Technoblade, there was no shock collar on his neck anymore.
“Clear, we have to move, now.” The sing-song voice sounded harsh, a sense of urgency laced with the words. “Can he walk?”
“Tommy, can you walk, or do I need to carry you?” Technoblade was looking down at Tommy, the nausea and dizziness were returning. It was all so much for his pounding head, he was floating and wanted to float. Tommy whined, like a child, “Ok runt, up we go.”
Tommy’s world spun dangerously as he was hoisted into Technoblade’s arms, he felt like a child for sure, but having gone months without touching anyone the contact was nice. It felt even better as he hid his face in the armour plate. It was hard, but it was dark, lightening his pounding head if only a tiny bit. It was better than nothing.
Tommy was distantly aware of the shouts that followed them as Technoblade ran with him in his arms. Tommy wasn’t even sure if they called the limbs arms. Everything was so far away. The darkness and warmth were nice. Every so often there would be a flash of light that crept near, but it didn’t seem to matter.
For the first time in a long time, Tommy felt safe. His concussion would go away eventually, and the way Technoblade had promised he was sure there would be some dotting. Tommy did not mind. The rumbling vibrations that Techno was making soothed him to a floating sleep.