Archive of Our Own ^beta

The subway tunnels were the worst-smelling place in the city.

And that was saying a lot, considering Technoblade spent a good few years in the living units situated under the waste disposal plant. You'd think his sense of smell was already completely obliterated from that. But any time he had to venture out into the commercial district, he was reminded of how bad Skyblock could get.

The streets were littered with trash, human feces, and puke. Techno read a headline a while back that said the council of aldermen had decided not to run clean-up anymore in any districts with a security rating below five. They said they couldn't risk the health and safety of their valuable government workers like that.

What that meant for the health and safety of their presumably non-valued citizens was left unspoken.

People didn't care about making an effort to keep things clean, and Techno couldn't exactly blame them. It was hard not to fold with the crappy living conditions on this part of the space station. You either cared too much, or you didn't care at all. And the second one was decidedly the easier option.

"How long will it take before you're back?" Tommy asked over the communicator.

"I'm at the subway stop now," Techno replied, adjusting the earpiece. "Give me ten min-"

His sentence was cut short as he descended the final step onto the platform. A City Safety Enforcer had taken up post at the gates where people could scan their tickets to board the subway, and two more could be seen standing behind, fully geared up and keeping a close eye on the crowd.

"Make that an hour," Techno finished instead.

"What?" Tommy could be heard standing and walking across the room. "What's wrong?"

"Enforcers at the subway," Techno said.

"Shit. Can you blend in and sneak through?" Tommy asked.

"Let's find out."

Techno held his hand up against his ear. Staying on a call while moving around was not suspicious in the slightest, and he could use his palm to try and conceal his face. It had been a long while since he had a run-in with the cops, but that didn't mean they wouldn't recognize him. Techno's picture was probably on a list somewhere as one of Skyblock's most wanted fugitives.

He eased his steps somewhat, squeezing himself between the people approaching the subway gates, tucking his chin into his chest. Tempting as it was to look up so he could see when the Enforcer's eyes were on him, that would only make it easier for their implant to scan his facial features. Techno busied himself with his watch, pretending to be checking how many credits he had available.

The throng of bodies around him slowed down at the bottleneck of the gate itself. An elbow jabbed into Techno's lower back, and the scent of sweat got sharper. If his apartment were closer and the station shutters kept open longer, Techno would have picked walking over taking the subway any day. But things had been a little tense lately, and Skyblock's elected officials had reacted to said tension in their usual drastic, self-serving way. In this case, the station had a strict curfew of 9 pm, when all the shutters would close, their simulated day-night cycle kicked in, and oxygen recycling was reduced to a fraction of what felt comfortable. Being outside wouldn't just get you arrested, it could literally kill you if you had asthma or anything similar. Techno couldn't risk being late.

"Techno?" Tommy's voice returned through the earpiece, still accompanied by the rustling of him moving. Techno could distantly catch Phil saying something too.

"I'm almost in," Techno said softly, not wanting to draw attention. The person in front of him was scanning their watch.

As they stepped through the opened gate, Techno slipped into the gap they left behind. He pressed his wrist to the scanner, watching the yellow arrows turn on the display while it extracted his currency. Another reason to hate the subway. Like anything run by the government, they had completely phased out cash. Every single payment had to be digital, to make it easier for them to track citizens. Shops taking any other form of currency than credits could have their license revoked or worse.

Obviously, this didn't stop people from bartering or trading on the side, and Techno suspected the authorities were well aware of it. They just had more pressing matters to attend to than a local food cart that allowed people to pay in non-credit ways. The rampant criminal activity, drug abuse, illegal markets, sex trafficking, widespread unemployment, failing infrastructure, and abysmal healthcare, for example. To name just a few issues that were plaguing Skyblock.

After the longest three seconds of his life, the yellow arrows abruptly blinked out and changed into a green check mark. The gate opened and Techno stepped onto the platform.

"I'm through," he breathed out.

"Fuck, okay." That was Phil. Techno didn't ask when Tommy handed over the communicator. "What stop are you getting off? I could send Wilbur to-"

"Don't," Techno cut in. "Curfew, remember? If they reduce oxygen rotation early tonight, he'll keel over dead."

"I heard that, you fucker," Wilbur said, though he wasn't in the call.

"Did you put me on speaker?" Techno asked, chuckling.

"Tommy was worried," Phil said.

"Tell him not to be, I'm getting on now."

Techno should not have said that.

The moment he raised his head to check the number on the train approaching the platform, he noticed from the corner of his eye that one of the Enforcers was talking into his walkie while looking directly at him.

"Ah…" Techno said.

"Ah?" Wilbur asked, loudly.

"An hour," Techno said. "If I'm not back, move bases."

He didn't wait for a reply before hanging up on them, and sliding the earpiece into his pocket. He pressed the buttons on his communicator that would wipe it and return it to factory settings. Annoying, but if he did get caught, he couldn't risk it tracing back to the others. The train was inching to a stop, and Techno glanced at the Enforcer again, trying to judge if he could get on before the cop reached him. The doors opened, and Techno non-gently pushed onto the carriage, then immediately made a sharp left so he could get to another door in case he'd have to get off again. He saw the other two Enforcers left outside were also on the move. He'd definitely been identified.

He got back off the train quickly, not wanting to be caught in a closed vehicle. A raised voice called out behind him, and Techno took off running. He sprinted the length of the platform, then jumped down onto the tracks behind the last carriage.

"Freeze!" one of the Enforcers yelled.

A few people on the platform were shouting at being shoved, the fact that it was so busy working in Techno's favor to buy him a few extra seconds with the three Enforcers needing to navigate the dense crowd of commuters too. If he were lucky, he could keep a head start on them and slip away, then take the long way home.

He ran into the tunnel while sticking close to the wall, blinking harshly as his implant adjusted to the darkness. Everything gained a strange, fluid green tinge when Techno's night vision activated. Fuzzy edges bordered every object, and Techno had to squint down so he wouldn't trip over any loose cables, but as long as he kept going straight ahead until he reached an emergency exit, he couldn't get lost. After a minute, his breathing was getting strained. It figured that the city wouldn't bother with oxygen recyclers down here.

He could see a bright light down the tunnel.

Techno almost deluded himself into thinking he'd found the exit. Those should be lit up with fluorescent too. But this was something else if that whistling noise was any indication.

He pressed against the metal wall right as the train sped past him, the screech deafening for a moment before Techno's implant muted the sound to a more bearable level for him. Hot air blasted him in the face, making his hair fly around.

He hoped the train hit one of the Enforcers.

Probably not. They would definitely see or hear the train coming too, and if the tunnel was spacious enough for Techno to avoid it, the same could be said for the Enforcers, even with the bulky armor. Techno didn't waste time and started running again.

Eventually, he found an exit, though he almost missed it in the dark because the emergency light didn't work and the door had been covered in a heavy layer of graffiti. Techno pulled the horizontal bar that was the handle, only for the door to be locked.

That had to be a safety concern.

He grabbed his knife from his pocket and jammed it into the side of the door. The blade heated until the bright glow of the metal burned every blink of Techno's eyelids, moving it back and forth in an attempt to melt the lock faster. The train honked loudly off in the tunnel. Techno could hear heavy footsteps approaching, every thud echoing in the dark. He had to hurry.

The blade cut its way through and yanked down with a snag. Techno pulled on the bar again, only to find the bottom of the door still jammed on something, maybe rust from how long it stood there unmoving. He curled his hand around the edge to pull as hard as he could, forcing the door open wide enough that he could slide through. The sharp rim cut into his flesh, making Techno wince, but he didn't let go.

He managed to get it open, right as he heard another shout from one of the Enforcers. Techno didn't have time to close the door again behind him, quickly taking off down the maintenance passage. This was where things got tricky, since there were several offshoots for him to go into. If Techno were unlucky, he could trap himself in a dead end.

Years of looking at Skyblock's sewer schematics had to pay off now.

Techno tried to take the route that would lead him back to Main Street. While it wasn't the nearest to his living unit, it would be the place with the most pedestrians still outside this close to the curfew. Techno had the best shot of outrunning the Enforcers where it was busy, or if worse came to worse, he could try and blend in, hide out, heck, he'd spent the night in a sleeping depot if he had to.

When he found a ladder, he couldn't afford to double-check if he had the correct one. He simply climbed it two rungs at a time and pushed against the hatch at the top. Techno half-expected it to be locked too, but maybe somebody else had been using it to get in or out of the subway tunnels, because it opened without any resistance.

The noxious air of Skyblock greeted him like an old friend.

Techno almost gagged as he climbed the rest of the way up, using his foot to push the hatch back into place. Looking around, Techno noticed a container nearby. He pulled it over the hatch for good measure.

All in all, not the cleanest escape he'd ever managed, but not the worst either.

He quickly put his hair into a bun and pulled his hood over his head, before shoving his hands into his pockets and speed walking out of the alley onto Main Street itself. The scent was twice as overwhelming as it was down in the subway, though in an entirely new, uniquely terrible way.

Whereas the subway tunnel and the commercial district reeked, Main Street was just on the edge of the better parts of the city. The parts where people lived who actually had decent jobs, could afford proper housing and the consumerism that Skyblock tried to sell them on. The sort of people who aspired to be everything the commercials told them they should be, and had the means to make it happen.

Or the ones who were born into those means, mostly.

Techno's implant adjusted quickly, shutting off the night vision but still giving the stark contrasting lights around him a more muted glow. Techno had never been more grateful he'd had his implant adjusted for sensory overstimulation. It was a pricey upgrade - like any upgrade made to brain implants after you reach the age of twenty was - but definitely worth it. He didn't understand how people could live like this. Long, slim, metallic buildings towered over Main Street from all sides, their sleek appearance grossly undercut by the digital billboards attached to them that were rapidly cycling through different colorful ads. Music blasted from almost all directions, coming from the outdoor speakers of various restaurants and stores. The entire scene was overlit and oversaturated, a profuse mess of stimuli. The scent was just another layer of 'too much', a cacophony of spices and grease that mingled badly with perfumes, body odors, and the artificial air fresh scent Skyblock pumped through the oxygen supply. Techno hated it.

He made his way down the street, vaguely in the direction of his apartment, though not straight there. He wanted to make certain he wasn't being trailed by anybody before he went home. A holographic model beckoned at him alluringly, trying to tempt Techno into the lobby of the hotel it sat in front of. This specific type of display usually meant there were adult services for hire inside.

Looking up, the windows still showed a fake sunset.

Techno always wondered why they didn't simply show the vastness of space outside. He figured that it made sense at the start, when most people on the station were those once living on Earth, or at least had parents or grandparents who did. But these days, that was a rare occurrence. Why mimic an atmosphere that didn't exist anymore, that nobody missed? The windows were huge to avoid claustrophobia, but there was a noticeable flicker to the image, a few dead pixels when you really squinted that no amount of effort could trick your brain into thinking they were stationary birds.

An Enforcer was moving through the crowd up ahead.

They had a relaxed posture, and while they were on duty as implied by the armor and the stasis gun slung over their arm, they were not in a hurry to go anywhere. They hadn't spotted Techno. They were just patrolling.

Techno stopped at a storefront window and pretended to be enthralled with it, showing his back to the Enforcer while hunching up his shoulders. Several android models were set up in the display, each one with a blank expression and lifeless eyes. Signs at the bottom told consumers what they specialized in, and what they cost. Only recently had androids become available on the private market. They were a luxury right now, the simple manual labor bots long staples for companies and producers, but having an android at home was a rarity. The sex model, the childcare one, they cost more than the average person in Skyblock would earn in a year. And if anything, they were probably another means the government could use to spy on its citizens.

After the Enforcer passed, Techno continued walking.

Gradually, he exchanged the overwhelming ambience of Main Street for winding alleyways, buildings crowded closer together, neon signs winking on every corner. Techno felt more in his element there, though he kept an eye out over his shoulder. He couldn't see any Enforcers following him.

Still, he took another detour, and by the time he was about ten minutes away from his apartment, Techno could hear the shutters fall shut. Light cut out, a half-hearted attempt to project fake stars on the inner walls of the station about as much effort as Skyblock's government was willing to put in. Everybody should be inside by now. And those who weren't would be soon. During the day, the hum of the oxygen recyclers was so soft, it automatically faded into the background of all the other noises a space station made. But now their absence filled the hollowness with an almost eerie silence.

Techno coughed into his elbow, instantly feeling his inhales cut short.

His first instinct was to walk faster, but that would just have the opposite effect of making it even harder to catch his breath. So he restrained himself, and he kept going until he finally rounded the corner that would lead to his living unit.

The building was a little smaller than most in the area, only about five levels. The entire top floor was a loft, however, which was where Techno lived. He rented it from a friend of a friend of a friend, which meant somebody who he'd done enough favors for that they were willing to skimp on the price a little and let Techno do custodial work rather than use credits to cover part of the expense.

Techno opened the door with his fake ID and then locked it behind him. He took the stairs two at a time, relieved at being able to breathe properly again inside. Once he got to the loft, he stepped through without hesitation.

And almost instantly got tackled by Tommy.

"Techno! What the fuck, man." Tommy pulled back but held on to both of his elbows, shaking him. "You can't pull shit like that, you scared the crap out of us."

"I told you it'd be an hour," Techno said with a laugh, shrugging both out of his jacket and away from Tommy's clinging grip.

"We tried calling you and you didn't answer?"

Techno pulled the communicator from his pocket and threw it onto a side table. "Had to fry it. They'd be able to trace my most recent calls if I got caught."

"Is that Techno?" Phil asked, appearing at the other end of the hallway.

Techno snorted at the sight of him. He was wearing his shoes and a jacket, clearly in preparation for going out if he felt he had to retrieve Techno himself.

"Hey Phil." Techno walked past him into the living room. Wilbur was at the kitchen island, tapping away at his laptop. Techno passed by him too, going straight for the fridge. "Hey Wilbur."

"No 'hey Tommy'?" Tommy asked while following him.

"Hey Tommy," Techno offered. "You got a hug out of me, that's more than the other two."

"You can hug me anytime," Wilbur said, not looking up from the screen.

"Sadly, I'm all hugged out," Techno deadpanned.

"You weren't followed, right?" Phil asked, leaning against the counter while Techno got some food out. He was positively starving.

"I was careful," Techno said.

"And the mission?"

"Eeeeeeh…" Techno held up his hand and wiggled it. "Nothing useful yet, but I think we're getting close." He went to exchange tips with an informant. Most of it was rumors and hearsay, though there could be some leads in there.

Phil smiled, coming to clap him on the shoulder. "Fingers crossed. You're bleeding, by the way."

"What?"

Before he could do anything, Phil had already snatched his wrist. "Did you cut yourself on something?"

Across Techno's palm was a thin gash. Some dried blood clung to the edges, not too much. His implant must have squashed down on any pain stimuli instantly, so Techno didn't notice.

"I cut myself in the maintenance tunnel," he said.

"Let's get it cleaned and wrapped then," Phil said, pulling him over to the kitchen island to sit beside Wilbur. "You're up to date on all your shots?"

"Don't get rabies," Tommy said seriously.

"Rabies?" Wilbur asked, laughing. He closed the laptop in front of him.

"That's the one you get from cutting yourself on rusted metal and shit, right?"

"You're thinking of tetanus," Phil said. "Though I don't think there's been any reported cases of either those diseases popping up on Skyblock ever. How do you even know about them?"

"I'm smart!" Tommy defended.

"Probably just read about them online," Wilbur said, to which Tommy let out an undignified squawk, but did not deny the truthfulness of Wilbur's statement.

"I'm sure I won't lose my hand or anything," Techno said.

"Pity. They got some really cool prosthetic models these days," Wilbur offered.

Phil finished wrapping the white gauze around the cut. "Just make sure to run your diagnostics a couple of times, then you'll know if it does get infected."

"Yeah, thanks dad." Techno took his arm back and stood up again, making to grab the food he'd pulled out of the fridge.

Phil looked absolutely mortified at the comment. "I'm barely ten years older than you, you shit."

Techno smirked, and Tommy very gravely nodded his head when he replied. "Fatherhood is more of a state of mind when you think about it."

"If I had kids, I'd have raised them better than you lot," Phil complained.

"You'd need to get a wife first," Tommy said.

"If any of us could get a wife, it's definitely Phil," Wilbur said, playing along with the ridiculousness of the conversation, to Techno's silent amusement. He was too busy shoving cold leftover noodles from last night into his mouth.

Tommy went back to looking offended. "I could get a wife!"

Phil cackled. "You can't even get out of bed in the morning, mate."

"Speaking of that-" Wilbur got up and ruffled Tommy's hair, only to seamlessly transition that into grabbing his shoulder and steering him towards the bedroom. "We need to be up early in the morning tomorrow as well. So now that you know Techno is safe, time to nod off."

"It's barely half past nine?" Tommy said, frowning.

"We need to be up at five am, Tommy." Wilbur pulled him along more insistently. "And we all know how grumpy you become if you haven't gotten your beauty sleep."

"Make sure to keep it down when you leave," Techno said. He had no intention to get up before the artificial sunrise. Wilbur offered him a two-fingered salute.

"I'll turn in early too," Phil said, watching Techno work his way through a second takeout container. "I wanna head down to City Hall tomorrow."

"Is that safe?" Techno asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll keep my wits about me. Or pay bail if I get arrested. I'm the only one with a proper job."

Techno laughed, shaking his head. Phil closed the bedroom door behind him a moment later.

Another reason Techno didn't want to be woken up at the crack of dawn tomorrow was that he wasn't planning to go to sleep anytime soon. He dragged Wilbur's laptop towards him and opened it back up. Techno had not braved the commercial district for no reason. His leads had to pay off. And if they didn't, they needed to find fresh ones.

If Techno did his work right, did it thoroughly enough, then in a few months from today, they could topple the Skyblock government completely.

---

Technoblade did not get woken up early, but he did get woken up by a pounding at his door.

He groaned and sat up, blanket pooling around his hips. His alarm clock said it was almost noon. Phil would have gone out a while ago, and the other two might already be on their way back. Actually, that could explain the pounding. Wilbur forgetting his fake ID again.

Yawning, Techno got up and shambled into the living room. He was still tired, and in hindsight, he would blame that for the reason why he didn't react quickly enough.

"Dave Stevens?" the person out in the hallway said, voice raised. "This is City Safety Enforcer Unit Eight. Open up!"

Techno turned, but he didn't get a chance to do anything before the door blew off its hinges. He got a glance at the heavily armored group outside, then the cold numbness of stasis-induced paralysis seeped into his body. He tripped and stumbled, and ended up hitting the ground face first.

Immediately, the Enforcers rushed inside. A boot landed on Techno's lower back, followed by a knee pressing his entire torso painfully into the floor. The pressure was enough to make him gasp, and his lungs trembled to force out the air in their frozen state.

"Dave Stevens, you are under arrest for crimes against the regime, trespassing, terrorism, and incitement to violence. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court."

Techno could hear the words, but they didn't sink in. All he was really registering was gratefulness that Phil, Wilbur, and Tommy had gone out today. Techno's fake identity was the only name on the lease. Even if the Enforcers knew who he truly was, chances were they had no clue that their timing had allowed three other known felons to slip from their grasp.

"Get him up," one of the Enforcers said. Techno's wrists had been locked inside metal restraints, and with a hand on each arm, they effortlessly lifted him onto his feet again. "Take him down to headquarters. The Warden is going to want to deal with him personally."

While he said it, the man retrieved something from his belt. Techno yanked against the hold on his body when a glint of silver caught the light, though the stasis made it feel more like a twitch. Weak and pathetic. The syringe was held up casually, cloudy white liquid inside. This was bad.

Noticing his reaction, the Enforcer laughed. He wound his fingers into Techno's hair and tugged it to the side. "Don't worry, mister Blade. You'll just feel a pinch."

Though the actual prick wasn't noticeable against the stasis, the subsequent burning in his veins was. Techno couldn't move, he couldn't scream. He could only feel the pain spreading through him, overtaking every inch until it was a relief when he finally passed out.

---

The City Safety Enforcer headquarters was an unassuming building in the capital district.

Techno had seen it before, both inside and out. Strangely, it always irked him how humble they made the building seem. The wolf in sheep's clothing metaphor came to mind. No, they didn't need a huge government building to house their secret police force. That would imply the safety of Skyblock was in jeopardy, and their citizens had something to be afraid of. The authorities couldn't have that.

But being brought inside that building would have been a better sign.

He didn't know where he was. An isolation cell, maybe. All the walls were made of concave metal, the kind that wouldn't let a sound slip through. His wrists remained tied behind his back, and his ankles had also been restrained against the chair he sat on. The door was solid metal too, with a little window at the top that currently had a dark black shade over it.

Tracking time was difficult, so Techno didn't know how long he'd been sitting there either. His head lolled to the side, neck straining at the effort to keep it up under the influence of the sedative. Thankfully, the pain had numbed down a bit, though he couldn't feel his extremities anymore. He blinked lethargically at the floor, trying to find a texture in the smoothness. Anything to keep his mind in the present. He had to hold his focus. Find a way out of this. Make certain the others were safe.

He needed-

The door opened suddenly, noiselessly.

Techno's face pulled together, blurry vision almost unable to focus on the man who walked in. He wasn't wearing the usual Enforcer uniform, but something about him exuded such nauseating superiority that Techno would put a fortune on him being an Enforcer all the same, probably a high-ranking one. They all walked with the same straight spine and pushed back shoulders. They all radiated with the same sense of being better than everybody else.

This man's face was a mask of indifference.

"You're The Warden," Techno guessed, mouth clumsy around the words.

Walking further into the room, the man stared at him for a moment. He didn't say anything. Not until he grabbed Techno's chin and tipped his face up.

It made Techno's brain feel like it was sliding to the back of his skull, mushed into the hard rounding of his parietal bone. He almost heaved, but swallowed it down forcefully. The Warden seemed like an unpleasant sort. He'd probably not appreciate it if Techno puked all over his fancy combat boots.

Techno winced when a small penlight was held to his face, the brightness swirling in front of his eyes for a moment. The Warden hummed as he put it away. It was a pleased hum.

Which couldn't mean anything good.

"Dave Stevens." The Warden put his arms across his back. "Techno Blade. What other names do you go by?"

Techno stayed silent.

The Warden sighed, disappointed. "You can make this easy for yourself," he said. "We'll find out one way or another."

Stubbornly, Techno held his tongue, closing his eyes so the fogginess of his sight wouldn't bother him as much. Puking could be a good thing after all. This room felt so sterile. The Warden might leave to clean the vomit up if Techno did puke.

Maybe automatically, he was bracing for a slap. It wouldn't be the first time Enforcers fell back on alternative methods of punishment. But any pain he was expecting stayed absent.

He could hear a light click, and when he opened his eyes again, The Warden had taken a data pad out of his pocket. He was moving his finger over the display.

"You're good at staying under the radar," he said. "I'm impressed." The flat tone would indicate the opposite, annoyance rather than awe.

"Thanks," Techno responded. "How did you find me anyway?"

He wasn't entirely expecting an answer. But The Warden didn't pull his gaze away from the data pad. "Your blood."

Techno exhaled around a laugh. "Seriously?"

"When you entered the subway, you scanned your identification and it registered as Dave Stevens. But we found DNA traces in the tunnel you escaped through. And when we tested those, they came back as belonging to a wanted criminal. Curious, how that works."

Slightly, Techno slouched back in the chair. Crap. He was really caught by cutting himself on a maintenance door. Phil was never going to let him hear the end of this.

"That blood could belong to anybody," Techno said. The Warden did look at him then, clearly not entertained. Techno shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

"You've built quite a record for yourself," The Warden said. "Public endangerment, terrorism, and is this a count of illegal protesting? You've been a busy man."

"Funny how those are all crimes for which the government changed the definition in the past ten years," Techno said. That comment, The Warden didn't deem to acknowledge.

"We know you couldn't have done all of this alone. Too much planning, too much work. The items we found in your apartment indicate at least two accomplices." The data pad was folded shut again. "I'm going to need their names."

"And I'm going to need a lawyer."

The Warden's lip twitched. They both knew Techno did not want a lawyer, nor would he benefit from one. Skyblock wouldn't let him stand trial. Even if they did, it would be a farce. Techno wasn't going to walk away from this even if he did have the best legal counsel in the world.

He needed to stall for time.

If the police didn't know who his accomplices were already, then they hadn't found any useful information in the apartment or on his devices. Phil and the others likely realized he was arrested by now, so they'd be in hiding, wiping all their traces. Techno wouldn't give the Enforcers anything. He'd rather take the fall for this alone.

Obviously, Skyblock's officials must have expected this loyalty.

The Warden made a noise, almost a sigh. "Like I said, you can make this easy for yourself. Or we can use other methods."

"Torture is so last century."

Barely, The Warden seemed to smile at that. "You're not wrong."

The man turned, and walked to the door. Techno would think it strange he'd leave after so little prodding. True enough, he only went to receive something from an Enforcer standing outside in the hallway.

A pen? No. But it looked like one.

"You know, brain implants are so common these days. Our estimates judge that only a tenth of the population is currently lacking them," The Warden said slowly. He was holding the device with two fingers, tapping it on his other palm. "Most hospitals put them in at birth since the newer combinations of electronics with organic material make it so they don't have to be replaced anymore for every growth spurt."

Techno thickly blinked through a frown. The drugs made it so hard to think, but he understood that The Warden wasn't giving an ominous speech without reason.

"The built-in protections got better with time, too. For the longest while, the council wouldn't even dream of giving us the permission to develop technology that could tamper with them. Terrified of it being turned on them, I suppose." The tone was close to mocking. "But with the rise of terrorism, their tune changed quickly enough. This is a prototype. You will be one of the first to experience it in action."

Techno's heart sank as The Warden cupped his chin again.

"Don't try to resist," he warned. "I've heard that makes it hurt worse."

Lightly, the pen tapped against Techno's temple.

And then his head burst open with pain.

If Technoblade was asked afterward to describe the experience, words that could contain this agony would fall him short. He wouldn't know what it felt like to have every layer of his brain peeled back one by one by one, slowly grating the soft tissue away, but it had to come close to this.

He jerked against the restraints hard enough for the chair to screech over the floor. The Warden kept a steadfast hold on his chin, though, kept the device right where it was so it could continue to make his skull feel as if it was boiling from the inside. Literally. Heat was blossoming alongside the stabs of pain, as if the implant itself was on fire.

"A brain implant is connected to the spinal nerve. In turn, it connects to the entire body." Somehow, The Warden's dull speech broke through Techno's anguish. "Imagine what we could do with that."

When his chin was released, another gasp strangled out of Techno's aching throat. Aching why? Had he been screaming the entire time without realizing? He slouched forward, kept partly upright only by the painful pull of the handcuffs on his shoulders that prevented him from collapsing fully.

"We could eventually use it for complete body control of another living being, I've heard." The Warden laughed, the joke completely hollow. "Well, I wouldn't know much about that. Scientific stuff. I'm more of a practical person."

Sharply, Techno inhaled, tasting blood on the back of his tongue.

"Names," The Warden said coldly. "Now."

"So all you're threatening is high-tech torture?" Techno coughed out. "I was expectin' something more exciting."

Making his own brain implant generate the pain for them was close to ironic. Techno could imagine it as a headline on the Skyblock noticeboards. No more need for the Enforcers to get their hands dirty. Yet another step in the inevitable march of progress that made Skyblock worthwhile. Faster, more efficient, and easier.

But The Warden looked at him impassively, and Techno knew that was not all.

The data pad appeared again, laid flat on one hand. "I've always marveled of how convenient it would be if we could read out somebody's brain the same way we can read out a computer file. All that information at the tips of our fingers. It would make my job a lot more simple."

"You must have had a miserable childhood," Techno said.

The Warden quirked his lips again. "Sit still."

Techno couldn't move anyway, the drugs would have made him too weak to put up much of a fight even if he wasn't tied up, and the echoes of pain drained whatever energy remained in him.

Once again, the device was laid gently against the side of his head. Techno didn't feel much this time, no sparks of electricity piercing every nerve he had. No flames burning his brain from the inside out. The only notable thing was a wave of lightheadedness, like all the blood was rushing away from him.

"Their names should be somewhere in here," The Warden muttered to himself.

Techno shut his eyes, his teeth clenched so hard he could feel his jaw ache. Vomit crept up as the dizziness increased. This was worse than pain, he decided. The sensation of somebody dipping a thumb into his frontal lobe, digging around where it shouldn't.

"Once I have the information I need, there are other applications of this technology I'd love to see at work," The Warden continued to speak. At this point, he was probably not expecting Techno to pay much attention. He talked purely for his own benefit, stroking his own ego. "Implants can affect the entire brain. Wiping memories would be trivial. Or rewriting the parts of somebody's personality that make them unfit for society."

"You're sick," Techno spat out.

"No, you are. Head filled with silly notions of rebellion." The Warden smiled at him, showing his teeth. "But no harm, we can fix those right up."

Everything shook. Techno assumed it might be his brain finally imploding, the continued pressure simply too much for him to bear, and making his skull cave in on itself. The pain returned, twice as intense as before, forcing him to choke on the iron flooding the back of his throat. But then The Warden's hand fell away, and he turned towards the door, and Techno realized that the shaking was real.

The lights cut out, plunging the room into a moment of darkness where only the glow of The Warden's armor was visible. Then a red emergency light started pulsing. The Warden walked out into the hallway, the door slightly ajar behind him when the electronic lock failed to activate.

Once Techno was done heaving at the unpleasant sensation of having his brain pried open, he yanked his body to the side. The chair tipped, and Techno's temple hit the metal of the isolation cell. He barely felt it.

His hope that the action would spring open the restraints on his limbs turned out to be fruitless.

But he could feel the metal tremble against his cheek, making his eyelids flutter. The entire station shaking with the force of something. Gravity thrusters failing? Were they finally going to fall from the sky and into the remains of the earth below?

Techno didn't know. And he was too tired to feel any fear.

If that was what was going on, he was as good as dead anyway. So it didn't matter if he closed his eyes and let unconsciousness pull him away from this.

---

At one point, he woke up again on the cold metal floor with a strangled gasp of pain when Phil touched him.

Techno couldn't see anything beyond vague swirls of color and motion. The only reason he knew it was Phil at all was because the man's voice did somehow pierce the rushing in his ears, making Techno wince. He couldn't make out what Phil was saying, and he couldn't respond, only recognize him. He breathed painstakingly, slowly, deeply, trying but failing to push down on the nausea quickly overtaking him. Everything was still shaking. Techno whined, and hands had to help him roll over onto his stomach when he vomited suddenly. The sourness did not help to pull him back into awareness. He fell into it, cringing inwardly at how gross all of this was, though anywhere except inside his own mind, Techno was far too exhausted to react.

Those hands tugged on him again, fond enough not to let him drown in his own puke, it seemed. How gracious. The emergency lights blinked on and off continuously, a hypnotic rhythm burning into Techno's brain as multiple people flitted around the room. He couldn't think.

So he stared until his eyes rolled into the back of his head again.

---

The next time he woke up, he was only slightly more lucid.

Techno bolted upright in the bed and retched, throwing up all over his own chest and lap. His throat burned with it, indicating he'd done this many times over the last hours, maybe even days. Every muscle in Techno's body felt as if somebody had used them as a dishrag, wringing them out and squeezing them when they were done with him.

His vision hadn't cleared much, so all Techno had to rely on was his hearing.

Tommy's voice was next to him this time, forcefully lowered in an attempt not to make Techno feel worse, while fingers were brushing the bangs away from his face. Asking Phil for- for something? Help to clean Techno up properly?

An arm wound around his shoulder to help him stand, and Techno sagged into it, not caring that it almost toppled whoever was attempting to get him up. The soiled blanket was peeled away, and then his shirt. A wet cloth was used to wipe his face, gently pressing over his closed eyes.

Techno could only see two possibilities. Either he'd been saved, or he'd died. And either seemed equally as appealing with how wretched he felt.

Right as his legs started to shake from keeping on his feet, too weak to keep it up even with Tommy's support, he was lowered onto the mattress again.

Definitely dead, because this felt like heaven.

Phil's warm touch picked up his wrist and used it to extend Techno's arm, laying it down outstretched against the sheets. A brief pinprick of pain was swallowed by the tide of comfort that washed over him, though not completely enough for Techno not to notice it. They were putting in an IV. He needed fluids and nutrients, and if he wasn't able to eat or drink in addition to being unable to keep anything down, intravenous was the best method.

Phil's voice carried softly through the room. Techno knew he was talking to Tommy and Wilbur, most likely. But despite that, he couldn't stop himself from trying to focus on the words.

"-no more seizures in a while, so that's good."

Ah, that would explain the… the everything.

"How long before we can remove it?" Tommy asked anxiously.

"We'll see-"

Whatever else Phil said was lost to the darkness that Techno gratefully sank back into.

---

Five days.

That's how many more days it took for Technoblade to gain enough of his strength back that he could get out of bed and walk around, using the cane Phil got him to accommodate for his tremor. The medical professional they had over said that the trembling would fade. A side effect of the damage to his brain tissue as a result of the removed implant being messed with, alongside other symptoms such as the seizures (mostly gone now, thankfully), the persistent vomiting, and vision loss.

Techno would have been up and about a little earlier, but every time he so much as shifted too often in the bed, either Phil or Wilbur would appear hovering sternly in the doorway with their presence. And then he'd often think better of it.

Being able to get up and move around was great, though. Techno hated sitting still, and he was kind of going stir crazy. Especially since they had more work ahead of them than ever.

"You know," Techno said, leaning his elbow onto the side of the couch, "If I knew being arrested would kickstart the revolution, I would have done it ages ago."

"Don't joke about that." Lightly, Wilbur smacked his knee, also leaning forward.

"We didn't risk years of planning by getting you out, for you to be callous now," Phil added. He was standing across from them, pacing back and forth while finishing up his texts to their new informants.

"Not callous," Techno denied. "I'm just saying, blowing your way into the City Safety Enforcer headquarters finally knocked some common sense into the general population. We could have used that energy on our side months ago."

"I think the classified documents we leaked to the public are what knocked common sense into people," Phil said. But he stopped to cross his arms, and smiled at Techno.

He shrugged. "Potato, potato."

"The ends do justify the means sometimes," Wilbur said.

"As long as the means don't end up being so fucking dangerous ever again," Phil said. "We thought we lost you." There was something vulnerable there, eyes still caught on Techno.

Techno waved his hand. He had enough of them fussing over him in the past few weeks to last him a lifetime. Sooner or later, surely Phil would stop bringing it up. "I'm fine. And ready to get back at it."

"The only thing you need to get at is dinner," Tommy said from over in the kitchen. "It's done, by the way. You can say thank you now."

"Let's taste it first," Phil said with a laugh. "We might need to postpone the gratitude until after the food poisoning."

"Hey, fuck you," Tommy yelled back.

"Do you need-" Wilbur started, but then cut himself off. Techno's right hand was already clutching his cane, the other used for bracing himself against the armrest. Wilbur's arms had come up for support, but he dropped them quickly at seeing Techno's unwillingness to accept help.

"We need to plan our next move," Techno said. He could practically hear Wilbur roll his eyes behind him.

"Dinner first," Tommy warned sharply, turning away from the stove. He was wearing an apron, though Techno didn't have a clue where he got it.

"Yeah, yeah," he agreed. It had been a hot minute since the smell of food didn't turn his stomach, so that was a good sign.

Toppling the government would be best done on a full stomach anyway.