Chapter Text
Technoblade was raised in the forest, alone
No friends. No family. No protection. He wasn’t even sure when he was born.
All he knows is the welcoming embrace of the forest, and a hazy memory of heat.
Not that he minded being alone. It was all he knew at 8 years old. But there was always something in his chest that ached for something. Some presence he was missing that he couldn’t articulate. So, he searched. He walked day in and day out, searching for what he was missing. But of course, he was a child. He didn’t know what he was searching for, let alone how to find it.
So he just searched. Walked along the paths carved out by the animals of the forest as he followed the feeling in his chest for an answer.
And one night, he finds it.
Sort of.
---
Technoblade had spotted the smoke from the village before he saw the lights. Or heard the shouts. Stupidly, he had followed the sounds, curious as to what it was.
He came upon a dark building sitting high up on a hill, overlooking a town as different beings flew in the skies and set fire to the place below him. The door to the building was left open, and Techno slipped inside, covering his ears to escape the noise, but also to quench his curiosity.
He didn’t hear any voices, but he did hear intense humming. It made his teeth hurt as he walked along a long hallway, lined with bars and cold metal doors that shimmered a purple color in the dull lights from the lanterns on the walls. He went to touch one of the doors when he heard someone grunt down the hall. His pointed ears perked up a little bit at the sound, and he looked towards the noise.
Just down the hall, he saw a purple glow coming from behind some bars. He tilted his head and walked closer, looking for the source of the sound. And then he saw it. Red eyes met golden ones, as Techno made eye contact with a boy with brown hair. A boy wrapped in chains that glowed purple and hummed loudly.
The boy looked almost as startled as Techno was. Techno tilted his head at the boy and eyed the chains on him. He wondered why he was chained like that, and what this place even was. He put his hands on the bars in front of him, looking for a way in to help him. Something in his chest told him to help. He needed to help.
The bars were just far enough apart that Techno was able to slip through them, but just barely. The boy watched him with shocked eyes as Techno approached him, peering at the chains curiously. “Uh..” Techno looked up at the noise the boy made. “Hi..Uh, are you with Phil? I don’t recognize you..”
Techno tilted his head, not understanding the words. He looked back down at the chains around him and tugged on one. It shimmered in his hand, making his head hurt just from holding it for a few seconds. He put it back down with a puzzled look before the boy spoke again, catching his attention. “Over there.” He nodded with his head and Techno followed his gesture. “There are keys hanging up. Y-You need those to get these off.” Techno looked back over at him with blank eyes, not understanding a single word coming from his mouth.
He watched as the boy thought for a moment then held up his chained wrists and made intense eye contact with him. Like he was trying to communicate with him. “These?” And then he pointed to the wall again. “Those..”
Techno followed his gestures, squinted, and saw something dangling off the wall just outside the bars. He stepped back to the bars, looked at the boy again and pointed. He nodded eagerly, smiling. “Yes! Yes, get those and bring them here.”
Techno looked back at the things hanging from the wall and squeezed through the bars again. He got up on his tiptoes and knocked them from the hook they were hanging on. They fell to the ground with a jingle and a clatter before he scooped them up. He looked back at the boy who was nodding eagerly at him. “Yes! Yes, ok- Now come back to me.” He waved for techno to approach him.
He slipped back between the bars with the strange thing in his hands and approached the boy again. The boy held his wrists up to him and tapped the thing in his hands. “Use that. Use them here.”
Techno still didn’t understand a word he was saying, but he squinted at the cuffs on his wrists, finding a small hole. He looked at the hoop in his hands and picked up the piece of silver dangling from it. With an encouraging tone from the boy, Techno put it into the hole, and it clicked. The humming stopped and the glow on the chains died down as they fell off of the boy. He beamed when the boy stood up and dusted himself off. “You’re a lifesaver!! Thank you so much, uh- What’s your name?”
Techno just tilted his head, still smiling that he had helped. The boy spoke again. “Oh, right.. Uh, look just,” He held his hands up to him and waved a bit as he took a step back towards the wall. “Just stay here. I gotta get Phil. Do you understand?” Techno blinked at him and watched as the boy reached the wall and gestured at him. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Then he watched as the boy shifted. He seemed to fade out, and then he disappeared through the wall. He scrunched up his nose and he approached it, putting his hand on it in an attempt to follow the boy. But no matter how much he pushed, he couldn’t go through the wall like the boy had.
He heard new sounds. Voices and footsteps running closer to him, but he didn’t bother to look. He scrunched up his face and pushed against the wall more, trying to follow the boy. “What the fuck??”
Techno turned, and saw a tall person with a lantern in his hand staring at him through the bars. He tilted his head at the man who sneered and stepped away. “Where the- How the hell did you get in here??” He looked down the hall, where more voices were. “Schlatt!! Schlatt, the phantom escaped!!”
“WHAT?! HOW THE-” The new voice came with a new man, and he froze when he saw Techno, who just peered at him with a blank expression. His ears turned down when the man’s face twisted with rage. There was an explosion on the other side of the wall, and Techno jumped, running to the bars. He squeezed through them, and past the new people. “Grab it!!”
Techno screeched as he felt something snag his hair and yank him back. He tried to swat it away, but his hands just hit a body that was much stronger and bigger than his own. One of the new faces had grabbed him by his loose-hanging hair, and he didn’t like it. It hurt.
He struggled in the grasp of the stranger as he was pulled away and down a flight of stairs to a place where he couldn’t really hear the sounds from above. It was cold and stuffy in this new place, and he didn’t like it one bit. “Keep it down here until morning. Then we’ll figure out what to do. We need to get back up there before more of them escape.”
Techno was tossed into a small room with a steel door that was shut tight behind him. He put a hand to his head, trying to rub away the pain as he looked back and watched the people walk away. He sniffled and rubbed at his head while he sat against the wall. He didn’t understand why they’d hurt him, or why they were so loud. He didn’t understand what the noises meant. What the sounds outside were, or how the boy had walked through a wall but he couldn’t.
He huffed and scrunched up his face. He didn’t like these new faces. They’d pulled his hair and were too loud. They were mean.
---
He had no idea how long he was down there, but by the time he heard voices again, he was hungry. He watched as the door opened up, and the two people from before stood there, talking amongst themselves as Techno watched with careful red eyes and rubbed his nose. It was too cold down here.
They turned their attention to him. “What are you?”
He tilted his head at them, not understanding the words. And they looked at each other again. “I’ll bet it doesn’t speak like the other one.”
One shook his head. “No no, I heard it. It made a noise when I grabbed it’s hair.” And they looked back at Techno curled against the wall. They reached for him again, and snagged him by his hair, making him shout in pain as he struggled to get away. “See?? It can talk. Or at least make noises.” He was shaken a bit. “Speak.”
Techno didn’t understand their demands. Just tried to push away the hands that were locked into his pink hair. He was tugged again and he whimpered. Tears stung his eyes as he clawed in vain at the hand in his hair. He couldn’t understand what they were doing or why they were doing it. He didn’t understand the words they spoke, or what this place was. He just wanted to go back to the forest and disappear among the foliage.
The two people spoke to each other, before a blade was pulled from a belt. There was another firm tug upwards, the sound of something slicing, and Techno stumbled back down to the floor with much less weight on his head than he remembered. He reached a hand up and felt the back of his head. Part of his hair was gone. He could see the ends of the pink locks fall in front of his face, much closer than he was used to, and he looked up at their faces. One of them tucked the blade back into his belt, and held up the pink hair in his fist.
The other nodded, satisfied. “Get it to the center of town. It’s young, so it should be easy to break. But for the love of the gods,” He pointed at the one holding the hair. “Do not let those monsters see it. If they found out we had another, they’ll turn right back around to get it.” He turned and left, leaving Techno hurt and confused with the one who cut his hair. “Keep it inside when it’s not working. And for fucks sake, teach it how to speak.”