Chapter Text
Jabber was truly surprised by his own actions. He wasn’t planning on having blood on his vital instrument, not in this amount at least. He moved Zanka off of himself, checking if he’s still breathing. Feeling the other guy’s chest moving he breathed with relief.
“Sorry buddy, you’re gonna have fun by yourself for now.” He murmured, seeing how Zanka’s pupils got dilated. “You know, these are hallucinogens, at least from what I remember… This should keep you down until I figure out how to get out of here…”
He nervously looked around the cave.
“Where are we..” he asked himself. Standing up he could feel his ribs throbbing from pain. He gritted his teeth, his hand instinctively grabbing his side. “Fuck.. at least one is broken for sure, you’re an asshole.”
The moment his feet moved to take a look around, his ears caught noises from a drugged man. He looked around just to see Zanka laughing, maniacally.
“Damn, you must have real fun” he scoffed, dropping his plan of looking for a way out. Other cleaners will find him eventually, right? Keeping his distance he sat down, crossing his legs, looking at Zanka. “As much as I would love to join your fun, it hurts to laugh right now. It’s your fault, you know that, right? Asshole..” laughing only grew louder with every word, it seemed that Zanka could register what was said to him and this was his only answer. “Fucking sadist..” he shook his head. A few minutes passed with him watching the blonde just laughing, blood staining his clothes more and more.
The moment he sat was the moment Jabber was confused beyond himself. How did he manage to sit down?! Those hallucinogens were not weak, Jabber puked for a few days after testing it! But Zanka? He was still high, but somehow they just seemed to stimulate him? He looked at Jabber with this absent gaze, taking his vital instrument in hand. Jabber, not sure what was going on, activated Mankira, ready for anything.
“Hyo..” left Zanka’s lips in between his maniacal laughter. After a few seconds he lunged at Jabber, a stronger version of his Assistaff aiming for his throat. “Oh how I HATE you, Hyo!” He yelled, confusing Jabber for the person from his past, that basically took away everything from him.
Jabber, confused, tried to dodge the attack, barely succeeding.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Jabber, confused, looked behind himself. There, with a gun in hand, stands Riyo. She looked tired, resignated.
“At least you’re in better shape than me.” She scoffed, walking over to her friend, gun still pointed to the enemy.
“Thanks, you look like shit” Jabber retorted. He tried to laugh, but his ribs were a big problem in that. “Shit that hurts..” He murmured, his hand catching to his side. “He got me good tho.How are the rest of the team?”
“Dunno, we need to find them, c’mon” She helped him get up, guiding him out of the cave. Jabber wanted to believe he was stronger than his curiosity, but he wasn’t, he looked back at the blonde, making sure he still was alive.
Zanka was on his stomach, Assistaff next to him in its rough shape. He could see the hatred in the blonde's eyes the moment their gaze met. Jabber would be lying if he said that something warm wasn’t forming in his stomach.
“Fuck..” he gasped, turning his head back.
— — — —
Zanka couldn’t remember much after the moment he was stabbed by Jabber’s jinki. He knew that he saw something, but what? Don’t ask him. He groaned from pain, shifting from his stomach to his back. He didn’t even wanted to look at himself, he already knew that Zodyl will be disappointed in him, he fucked up. His whole body was throbbing from pain, there wasn’t probably a part of his body that didn’t hurt.
“You lost” Cthoni's voice filled the room. Zanka let out a breath of annoyance.
“Yeah, well, he drugged me and I was shot.” He murmured, slightly opening his eyes.
“That’s your excuse?” She looked around before walking over to the blonde. “Come on, we need to go and get you patched up.” Cthoni helped him get up, opening the portal to Raider’s den.
Zanka already knew how all of this would go. He would go to the medic, they would patch him up, give him an earful of insults, get to his room and basically wait for Zodyl to call him in for another earful of disappointed talk.
The moment he was left alone, grip on his jinki tightening, eyes locked in the space on the wall where Cthoni’s portal was. He was furious. He wasn’t strong enough, he knew that already! So why did everybody feel like they have the right to remind him of this fact?!
His side burned with pain the moment he tensed his muscles, reminding him of the need of medical attention. With a frown on his face he moved his feet, prompting himself on his Assistaff. Corridors leading to the medical room were all the same, dark, barely any light coming from the lamps. His side was still bleeding, less than before, but it still left a red path behind him.
The medic took care of him, not being careful with pain, which only pissed Zanka off even more. His skin was decorated with scars, proof of how hard he’s working to become stronger. Some of those scars were from missions, some from punishments, he never looked at them as something worth talking about, they simply were there.
Reminding him.
All the time.
— — —
“Fuuuck he really did me good!” Jabber exhaled sitting comfortably in the back of Cleaner’s car seats. “But seriously guys, never again, I won’t be able to do anything for at least a week! Fuck my ribs..” His hand shooted to the side of his body, like it could help him in any way.
“Eishia will take care of you when we get back, don’t worry kid” Enjin said, sitting down in front of the wheel. After everyone got to the cars, the way back to the Cleaners HQ began. There was a lot of noise surrounding Jabber, everyone seemed to either analyze what happened or try to move their minds to anything other than events of this day.
But Jabber? He was lost in his thoughts. Looking out of the window, his mind traced back to the blonde he was fighting. Was he alright after Riyo shot him? He’s not dead from what she said, but what if he was left there alone? What if no one from Raiders decided to look for him?
What was he doing? He shouldn’t be worried about his enemy! Even if he was the reason why Jabber finally seemed to feel anything true to himself after so many years. He still was an enemy. Even if he had won, if not for Riyo, he would end up injured worse, or even dead.
He gritted his teeth, closing his eyes. The pain from his side was not getting any weaker, but for some reason, it wasn’t so… bad anymore. One could even suggest that it gave him some sort of comfort. Was that even a thing? Everything from this day was so confusing for him which made him want to get back to his room and simply be left alone. That’s what he was doing when confused with his emotions, he didn’t know how to regulate them and not wanting to lash out on anybody, it was safer to just pretend like he wasn’t there. But that was not an option right now, he needed to go see Eishia, take care of his health, if not he will be nagged about this from Riyo or Enjin.
Darkness from getting to the tunnel stopped his overthinking. He slightly shifted his posture to sit higher and see what’s happening ahead on the road.
They got to Cleaners HQ, who didn’t need to go to medics simply either went to their bedrooms or to the dining room. Enjin escorted Jabber to Eishia, he knew how dread head liked to sneak to his room without checking his health.