Chapter Text
Deathworlders are those who come from a Deathworld, a species and planet that are so dangerous and inhabitable that the Commission marks them as off limits.
The Terra Deathworlder didn't behave how they'd been taught they would.
It was brought to their cage a rotation after they were all captured. Bodily tossed into the cage while still stuck in some large bag. Just as he was debating whether or not to take the risk to try and open the bag and help the poor creature out, they had no way of knowing if it was sentient or not, two limbs had shot out of the bag. Forcibly ripping it open enough to move its hands toward the rope tying the bag shut. It was the first time he had seen hands like that, no fur or scales for protection, and the way they were able to move their limbs without seeing what they were doing… It was frankly terrifying. He was surprised it was able to move around so quickly, usually traffickers drugged their new 'merchandise' to keep it compliant until they had it completely locked away.
His terror from earlier returned, a terror that had doubled upon realizing they were all now stuck in the cage with a Deathworlder.
A'zawa moved to the front of their group, trying his best to keep the students out of the Deathworlders' sight while Hi'ashi warned them of what creature got tossed in. It didn't seem to notice them right away. He took the opportunity given to him to try and observe them, this is the first time a Terran Deathworlder has been seen in space in nearly eighteen Swirls. The Commission had marked Terra off as a Deathworld level 8 over a hundred Swirls ago. He can't see any scales, and the only fur they have is on the top of their head with two thin strips of it above their eyes. Did they not have any type of protection for their skin? Or was their skin similar to Kir'shima's and could harden for their protection? The clothing it wore wasn't like any he had seen before, it was odd that a Deathworlder would be wearing clothing to begin with. Having clothes meant having someone that could make them. According to the Commission, that wasn't possible. Especially not for Terra.
They had digits on their feet. Not nearly as long as the ones on their hand, but still longer than he's seen on any other species besides av'ans. However, av'ans had claws, not actual feet. It felt weird seeing how the tips of their feet digits would curl and press into the ground before relaxing.
Getting captured by traffickers was the last thing any of them were expecting to deal with while on a supposed secret trip sponsored by the school. They've already been here for longer than A'zawa was comfortable with, not that he could find any reason to feel comfort while knowing that his students were here, in danger and being forced to fight. He can't risk the Deathworlder coming near them.
It was difficult getting Eri to trust them, she was transferred to their cage half a rotation before the Deathworlder appeared.
F'ae sprites were supposed to be extinct, but that's not true now that they've met her. Heroes were taught about the extinction of the F'ae sprites. Wiped out by Overhaul seven Swirls ago. Which means she must be like him, the last of their species. She had only just started talking to them without fearing how they would respond when the Deathworlder came. Now it's like they're back to the start, trying to earn her trust and convince her that she'll be safe with them. Not that they've managed to keep her safe. He knows that every time she's taken from the cage, they're experimenting on her. The only one who she doesn't shy away from is Ash'do, and that may be because they're both females. He's thankful that she's willing to step up and watch over Eri.
The Deathworlder didn't notice them right away, too busy using its hands to… pat their body? Regardless, when it finally did notice them crowded in the corner on the opposite side of the cage, it just stared at them.
Despite the harmless looking limbs, they were definitely a predator.
He could tell that the challenge was getting Bak'go worked up. Coming from a species that was taught from a young age to never back down from a fight, seeing his student struggle not to lunge at the Deathworlder because of his and Hi'ashi's warnings made him feel incredibly proud. He's come a long way from the start of the term. Only he wished Bak'go wouldn't stare back at the Deathworlder. The others knew not too, already looking down the moment the Deathworlder started turning toward their direction. A direct challenge like that could result in a fight whether they wanted it to or not. The only reason why he was meeting the Deathworlders' gaze, purely by accident, was so he could use Erasure, not that it seemed to make any noticeable difference.
It was somewhat of a relief to see the manacles latched around the Deathworlders' legs.
.
.
.
He leaves them alone and they leave him alone. A simple agreement that they came to without needing to speak to one another. Had this been any other situation, he would've jumped at the chance to speak with actual aliens, but he doesn't know their language and they more than likely don't know Japanese, Spanish, or English. If they do happen to know an Earth language, then there's a high possibility of it being one he doesn't know.
The cage they're in is rather cramped, from what he can tell these aliens all seem somewhat familiar with one another, so either they knew each other before getting captured or they bonded before he got tossed into their cage. He really hopes they don't try ganging up on him. Getting tossed into this cage the way he did left his body sore, and he wouldn't be surprised if he had had a few bruises pop up and just didn't notice they were there. He never bothered checking for them, mostly because he didn't want to show that he had any type of injury near potentially harmful aliens. From the moment he woke up here they all have been avoiding him, staying on their side of the cage and looking away whenever he lets his gaze wander their way. The one had kept eye contact with him when he first woke up, but hadn't looked over at him since then.
The only one that outright stares at him whenever they think he's not paying attention is the alien that looks like a black panther, only with six eyes, three tails, and some rather shaggy looking fur on its head. It has fur all over but the fur on its head is longer. The panthers' eyes are definitely going to haunt his dreams. Why the hell did they keep randomly turning red and glowing? It only happened while looking at him too, none of the others in the cage had to deal with being glared at.
He thinks they've been here for a while longer than him, or they've had to deal with different shit from their kidnappers.
Most of them look rather… rough. Their clothes are all dirty and torn in various areas, and there's a few splotches of orange on them, but he's not sure what that is. It smells kind of fruity.
Whatever it is, it seems to worry the aliens. The panther and the… bird? The big yellow bird, despite it having four eyes it still looks like a bird. Either way, the panther and bird seem to get really worked up over seeing any of that orange stuff on any of the aliens. The only one that doesn't have any on them is the small gray and white alien, the one with red eyes. They must be the youngest of the group, what with the way the others all seem to hover and concentrate on them. They also keep the small one in the middle of them all whenever lights go out and the aliens move into what he can only describe as a cuddle pile. The youngest doesn't seem particularly comfortable, but then again they are locked in a cage.
Besides those three, there's a few other aliens in the cage.
There's one that looks like some weird mix of a dragon and a human, but with a snout, red eyes, oddly spiky ears, and very light yellow nearly off white scales. He can't see it clearly, but they have a set of wings pressed pretty tightly against their back. He doesn't seem to have a tail, but they definitely have claws. They're wearing the same gray jumpsuit as everyone else. It's the alien that had kept eye contact with him when he first woke up.
There's another one with bright indigo eyes that's sort of like a dragon but might be more of a lizard. They don't have any wings, or a tail, and they're a pleasant shade of yellow that looks very shiny, almost like glitter. They had light purple strips along their sides. If he hadn't seen them at lights out then he would've thought they were that bright all the time. The other two seem to be of a different… race? Species? They definitely don't look like they could be part dragon or lizard. Not even a gecko. They're more like foxes, the mythical kind not the actual animal Earth has.
There's the yellow one, with bright yellow eyes that look like they're glowing. It has a black streak, sort of like a lightning bolt on the one side of its fur on top of their head. There's black stripes in their fur around their arms and two tails. The last alien is also fox-like but with lavender colored fur, the fur on its head is sticking up all over the place, with long ears, and… seven tails? Does the number of tails determine the hierarchy or social status between the aliens? Despite how utterly terrifying this is— this is also sort of really cool. They don't seem to have dark pupils, theirs are white and their eyes are a light lilac color. Are aliens more like what humans perceived aliens to be like or are they more similar to Earth's mythical creatures?
The only time he finds himself with all of their attention on him is whenever the guards would come by pushing some weird looking cart with food and water for all of them.
Every time, without fail, the guards would shove the meals into the cage at him. Then Sero would have no choice but to grab his portion and carefully push the tray with everyone else's portions to the other side of the cage. They always seemed so surprised when he did that… did they all really think he'd eat everything? That's way too much for him! Besides, the weird food they keep giving them looks like dry dog kibble, it's a struggle to get it down. When he was younger his cousin had dared him into trying actual dog food, at the time it wasn't really bad but it wasn't good either. He was lucky it wasn't wet dog food. It doesn't help that this alien food keeps making his stomach cramp up, he's surprised that he hasn't thrown anything up or had to rush to the bathroom section of the cage. It doesn't have any flavor, and while water doesn't normally have flavor, the water they give them kind of tastes like strawberries. He thought the aliens would like it, but they all were rather hesitant on drinking it.
He really hopes he hasn't been accidentally poisoning himself.
None of the aliens seem to be having any negative reactions to the food and water. The little one seems to enjoy the water though. A few times he saw the panther and bird sharing some of their water with the small one. Every time when the guards come back to collect the trays is an odd occurrence, the guards don't want to come into their cage and for some reason the other aliens never push it towards the door. Sero ends up collecting everything and carrying it over to the door, it's not hard to do and he'd rather be the one to do it then risk the guards getting irritated with them all.
Are the guards purposely shoving the food at him each time to try and get the aliens to attack him?
With the way they treat the others, he thinks the panther and bird might be the oldest of the group. He's not sure how old exactly, but they might be around his age? Maybe older? Sero never had the chance to learn that much about aliens, the government only revealed that aliens existed about twenty years ago, despite there being a lot of proof of aliens apparently trying to invade from over a hundred years ago. All he knows is that stuff he's seen or read about from movies, comics, and novels growing up. Nothing factual or concrete.
From what he can tell, nothing about this is like what people like to fantasize about.
Although the belief in aliens probing humans is kind of right. They mostly kept measuring his limbs and his height. There was a few downright terrifying instances where they took what looked like a homemade scalpel and had scraped off quite a few layers of skin from his back. He doesn't know what the point of it was, but anytime he bled they seemed so surprised about it, and would cover the wounds up before dragging him back to the cage. He's not sure if it will scar or not, but he's pretty sure they have scabbed over by now. A few of them tried shoving some metal thing into his mouth but Sero ended up biting the thing and it snapped in half. After that the kidnappers' avoided going near his mouth. Even going as far as to have a strap across his forehead to keep him from lifting his head anytime they examined him.
He hasn't seen the other aliens in that room any time he's been taken there. They don't take him there often, not anymore, at first they were dragging him there for what felt like every other hour. Now it's at random, but they've been keeping him there for longer than usual as they started shifting away from what they've been doing toward what felt and looked more like experiments.
He had punched the one alien when it tried ripping out his nails. Sero had thrown up when he realized that his fist went through the alien's chest as though tearing through tissue paper. He was left with his arm, up to mid forearm, sticking out through the aliens back while the other aliens in the room had started screaming.
They started shooting him with darts and when he later woke up in the cage, besides noting that he had a splitting headache, his arm was cleaned up.
Now he knows that the fruity orange goop is actually alien blood.
He's exhausted, and he knows he's more than likely to have a few scars after this. Mental and physical.
Not knowing when they were going to come for him left him too anxious to fall asleep. Any sleep he did manage to get was fitful and never as long as he needed.
Today was no different. Lights went out a little while ago and the aliens have all already enforced their cuddle pile. It was adorable. He was curled up in his corner of the cage but sleep was evading him. He's tempted to try pacing around, to get rid of this restless energy, but he hasn't been able to stand in this cage since waking here. Both because the cage is kind of short and because he's been trying to stay curled up to try and retain warmth. The cold hurt the joints in his elbows. Crawling to get his meal and drink is the only time he moves from his corner.
He's gotten pins and needles in his limbs enough times that it doesn't bother him as much as it used to.
If he had to guess, the cage is probably about five feet tall, which means he'd have to hunch over regardless because he's five foot, ten inches. Nearly six feet, and he's still growing. Both his parents' sides of the family are tall, it was expected that he would be too. So yeah, he can't comfortably stand or pace around here. Which absolutely sucks because there were a few instances where he forgot that he had to stay hunched over and ended up hitting his head on the ceiling a few times.
Sero had to bite his lip to keep his yell muffled as he turned over to see glowing red eyes staring at him.
Seriously? What is this alien's problem, he hasn't done anything to warrant being glared at!
If he didn't think it would get him clawed, he would've glared back, but for the first time Sero simply stared at the red eyes. Let's see how they like being stared at! At family gatherings he was the one who always won the staring contest with his nieces and nephews, and he knows he's seen this alien blink before. Plus he was kind of curious about what their eyes actually looked like, and whether or not they would try to outlast him.
The longer he stares back at them, the more the alien's fur starts puffing up.
He can't help but grin when the alien blinks first. Only, his grin is quickly wiped off his face when the alien jolts as though struck, back arching and tails hovering above them. He's pretty sure he can see something that's a light gray, starting to move in between bits of the alien's fur. Almost like it was about to push it's way past the fur. The other aliens start waking just as the door at the end of the corridor slams open, Sero watches as they all scramble to their feet– Paws? Claws? He'll just stick with calling them feet since everyone has something different. Sure they're making more noise than usual, but it's not like this is the first time they came during lights out for him. They haven't been here recently for him, so this was kind of expected. Is this the first time the aliens were woken up by it? Have they not noticed him being taken from the cage before? Maybe it's scaring them then… Sero tries not to jump when the bird lets out a squawk and the panther hisses at the guards. The red-eyed dragon-like alien starts growling, and he can see how they're all making themselves look bigger. The lizard one is pushing the small gray one behind them and the two foxes are moving in front of them. They all look like they're about to start a fight.
He can't understand what any of them are saying. He doesn't know why, but based on what he can see, the aliens seem to think that the guards are coming for the little one. They– they haven't been taking the others when he wasn't in the cage, have they? The idea of that little one being experimented on frightens him. He hasn't actually had to deal with anything that bad, nothing like what he was warned about on Earth, but it was still scary. It's why he wishes that none of his fellow prisoners had to go through it. It's not hard to tell that the aliens he shares the cage with are scared, and the guards seemed to be enjoying it.
God-damnit… He really hates bullies. The guards all shove their way into the cage. He wasn't sure if he should try saying something or doing something about this, but then that choice was taken from him the moment one of the guards pointed their long baton at the cat alien. The moment he saw the way electricity crackled at the end of the two prongs drilled into the baton, he lunged forward as best he could in this tiny ass cage. It was obvious that no one was expecting him to make a move. The guard had no way of bracing themselves before he tackled them to the ground. The taser baton goes skidding out of reach, but Sero keeps half an eye on it just in case one of the other guards tries to go for it. His cage-mates aren't moving, probably frozen in fear, but Sero doesn't pay as much attention to them as he does the guards.
It's because of how vivid the memory of killing that alien was that Sero did his best to hold back his strength.
Not that it seemed to make any difference as gently pulling on the guard's arm had it snapping completely to the side.
The guard starts screaming, and Sero has to scuttle backwards to avoid the other taser batons shoved toward him. His fellow prisoners seem to be snapping out of it, and the dragon one snaps it's wings open as it goes for the guard trying to sneak up on Sero. Oh.
He'll need to remember to thank them once this is over with.
That's two guards he doesn't have to deal with. The one who's arm he broke still hadn't gotten up, and the dragon alien is dealing with another. That leaves two more guards. Sero kicks his leg out to the side, surprised when the taser baton he was aiming at breaks. Why is everything so… fragile? Is it because they're in space? Does gravity effect how strong everything is? The guards start yelling, he doesn't know what they're saying but whatever it is has the cat and bird rushing forward to push themselves between them and the guards. Sero's kind of surprised that they're technically covering him from the guards too. They probably don't realize what they're doing. They've been avoiding him this whole time so there's no reason to think they'd try to help him. Sero takes a moment to see where the others are at.
The lavender fox is with the dragon, the both of them tag teaming the guard. The small one is hiding behind the lizard and— holy shit! There was another alien?!
It's nearly as small as the other one, maybe a head taller. This one's pink, very fluffy looking, and it has two yellow horns sticking out of its head. Is this one a kid too? Don't make assumptions, there's a chance they are all kids or all adults.
Sero doesn't have time to keep looking at them, instead he has to spin around to avoid the taser baton aimed at his neck.
He lets instinct guide him as he swipes the guards legs out from under them before punching them in the face. He's really glad he took a few martial arts lessons growing up, plus it helped that his cousins and uncles would help him learn how to fight. He can feel their face cave in under his knuckles and it's disgusting. He tries not to acknowledge the clumps sticking to his hand or the fruity orange alien blood on him.
A yelp from behind him has him spinning around to see the cat alien holding its back leg off the ground and the bird cawing at the guard.
Shit. Shit, did they get hurt? Obviously they did, but how bad is it? It's not– it's not fatal right? Alarmed, Sero dove across the cage and pushed himself between the guard and the bird alien just as the guard swung their arm around with some long brown thing in their grip. Sero hissed as he felt the skin on his arm get torn open. Oh God, what if he hadn't been there? What if that had hit the bird alien? Sero avoids the claw the bird tried clamping around his shoulder, the guards leg snaps the moment he kicks it from the side, he doesn't hesitate in grabbing them by the arm and pulling the guard toward him while his other arm shoots forward in a punch. Don't gag. It smells like fruit, just pretend it's fruit juice and not alien blood. Sero's head jerks to the side, eyes searching for the last guard and whether or not those two aliens were okay fighting it—
They won. The dragon and purple fox won. They don't look any worse than before, and there's no visible injuries.
He's just… not going to look at the guards. Yeah, or the splatters of blood around them. There's no blood around the guard the dragon and purple fox took down. Did he– Sero killed them, didn't he? Swallowing, Sero stumbled, his body jolting in alarm as something slammed into his leg, nearly knocking him over. The dragon alien lets out a shout, jerking toward him only to freeze when Sero looks over at him. A quick glance down shows the small gray and white alien clutching his pant leg. They're shaking… oh they must be terrified, especially if the guards really had been there for them.
Cooing softly, Sero crouched down and carefully scooped the small alien up into his arms.
They buried their head into his neck, Sero couldn't feel any tears but that didn't mean they weren't crying. They had to be with the way their shoulders were shaking like that. He wants to cry too. He made sure to keep an arm around them so they wouldn't fall, but his other hand - the cleaner of the two - was used to rub circles on their back. When he had to babysit his baby cousins, quite a few of them would have meltdowns if anything was too loud or became too much for them. Most of the time they would come to him for comfort, or to his mom. He misses her so-so much. He misses all of them. Sero began softly humming, not any real song, just a small little melody that he hoped would help soothe the alien.
He's not sure if there are other guards, but they're more than likely going to be other aliens on this ship. There's no way of knowing just yet whether or not they'll be enemies, but there's only one way to find out.
Standing here doing nothing isn't going to help them.
He's getting out of here and he's going to bring these aliens with him. Hopefully, they'll stay relatively friendly once they get out. Maybe one of them can even help him get these manacles off? The chain between them is long enough that he can move easily, but the metal is cold and it's annoying having them on.