Chapter Text
The first time Techno met Philza, it was in a haze of something like bloodlust and fear.
A sword had been placed into his hands, a directive given to him that had been given dozens upon dozens of times before.
Kill them. Leave their blood splattered over the floor. None should be left standing.
It came in a rush - a man larger than himself, bigger and stronger than the relatively young and similarly-aged kids that Techno had been made to face before. He was supposed to be the lamb to the slaughter.
And truthfully, he nearly had been.
Nearly immediately, he felt the difference in power, in skill, between himself and his opponent, and an unfamiliar feeling crawled up his throat. Fear, something that he didn't get from the younger opponents, the ones he knew that he could kill easily. They weren't much of a challenge for him, not anymore.
But this opponent, this fighter - he was bigger, stronger, and more skilled than Techno was. He found himself defending himself more than attacking, stepping back step by step until he found himself being crowded by the chain fence that separated him from the roaring, bloodthirsty crowd.
The roaring, the screaming, the noise and the way that it rang in his skull reminded him how to fight.
He was the Blood God, that was what they called him. A messy fighter, one that left opponents in pieces, bathing in their blood, an unstoppable force even with how young he was. The voices around him screamed their need, and Techno wasn't going to let down the boy that he shared a cell with.
So he lunged forward, rolling past the man's ankles before he could react, hopping to his feet and running, just to gain some distance-
But a hand clenched into his hair, stopping him in his tracks with a strangled cry. The pink strands were held taut as he was yanked backwards, thrown to the ground. He tried to roll away again, but still caught a foot to the ribs, the strike making him wince as he lashed out with his sword. It caught the man in the shin, hitting into bone, but doing nothing to truly damage his opponent outside of splitting skin.
And that's how the axe started to come down on top of him, a look of dark pride and glee on his opponent's face, and Techno had just a split second to recognize that he would not be returning to Wilbur that day.
Yet, he was confused when a shining blade reached out of what seemed like nothing, a tear in reality, to stop the blow. The man standing above him didn't even get a chance to stumble back before his weapon was sent spiraling away, out of his hands.
Then a figure stepped out from the tear in reality, and drove that impossibly beautiful blade into his opponent's gut. Merciless, quick, unwavering.
The noise of the arena's patrons only grew, excited screaming over the letting of blood, no matter whose it was.
But the figure ignored all of that, blue eyes flickering back and landing on Techno, who scrambled to his feet and once again held his sword at the ready. It didn't matter that this man had stopped his death so far. He was in the ring, and there were still two of them standing.
"Hey mate," the man said, his voice soft and filled with something that Techno was almost unfamiliar with. It sounded like Wilbur when he was helping Techno wrap his wounds with shaky, inexperienced hands. "Why- why are you here?"
There was a disturbance at the edge of the ring, voices shouting over the din of the room, people getting shoved apart.
Techno stared back at his new opponent. The ringleader wasn't happy with what had happened, apparently. That meant that Techno had to kill this man, no matter if he had just saved his life. If the ringleader wasn't happy, he would take away Wilbur.
That couldn’t happen.
So he lunged at the man, even as his fingers squeezed around the grip of his sword to keep them from shaking. He had no chance, this man had taken on his previous opponent with such ease and grace, Techno would never be able to win. But he had to try.
But the man just blocked, parried, stepped away from Techno's swings. He didn't make an attempt to try to strike back, or do anything more than block and avoid his hits, simply letting the boy circle them around the ring.
It continued until the ringmaster got to the fence, and saw the scene - Techno felt his eyes burning, wet tears trying to claw at his eyes. He had to kill his opponent, for Wilbur. Wilbur couldn't be left alone, he wasn’t a fighter, he would never last in the ring, not like Techno had.
The rattling of the fence gate being rolled open was a surprise, as he looked away just for a moment. There were many of the ringleader's men following him, guns in hand, a couple of people with useful powers behind the man with slicked back hair and dark eyes.
"Ey, how the hell did you get in here?" The ringleader walked up to the man, his own weapon coming to rest over his opponent's heart, fearless in the way he ignored the sword still in the man's hand. "You better start explaining real quick, we don't appreciate strangers waltzing in unannounced here."
But his opponent's eyes simply stared back, though Techno could see the way the look behind them hardened from the near confusion they held before. "I..."
"What is it, bud? Can't find your words now?" The gun pressed harder into his skin.
But Techno's opponent ignored the ringleader, and instead looked over at him. Light blue eyes met his own red ones, and something like pity found him, anger building behind the cool blue.
The ringleader just scoffed, following the man's gaze. "Oh, did you want the reward for defeating the little Blood God? Enough to step into the middle of a fight? Idiot."
And then the ringleader grinned, turning back around and ushering his guards back out of the fenced in area. "Alright! We haven't done this in a while, how about this. First one to kill the kid and survive, fifteen hundred dollars, free for all!"
That got a roar from the crowd, excited and bloodthirsty. Techno's original opponent looked shocked at the change, his eyes flickering over to the boy with pink hair, who started shaking with the sword in his small hands.
Techno knew there was no way out of this. He’d seen the crowd, the way the fighters that entered tore each other apart.
And yet, as the first few hard, overconfident fighters stepped through the gate and into the ring that was quickly growing more claustrophobic, his opponent settled himself into a fighting stance, prepared to take on the wave of people coming for them.
Techno knew that there was no way he could beat them all. And yet he held his sword steady anyway, bracing himself.
What he wasn't expecting was to see wings sprout from the man's back as he twirled, the white tips of feathers being stained with blood as they seemed to slash through the oncoming wave of fighters coming to kill Techno.
He could only stare as the first wave of fighters fell, and then the next, sword and terrifying, blood-red wings flashed.
His opponent's slaughtering of his enemies was a dance.
One that Techno watched with wide eyes, still clutching onto his sword, until the opponent turned and dove towards the boy. He wasn't sure what to expect, but he didn't expect for arms to wrap around his middle and carry him backwards, further back that he should have gone with the wall behind him-
But then he saw the tear in reality close behind him, leaving him and his opponent in something like silence after the roaring of the fighting ring, a quiet that Techno found disturbing.
The sword he still held was currently resting against his opponent's back, if he just brought his arms up and plunged it down-
"Are you okay, mate?" The man's voice caught him by surprise, the softness of it.
It reminded him of Wilbur, again.
Techno wriggled his way out of the man's grip. His opponent? Or an ally, now, if he had fought to protect him? He wasn't sure anymore.
He just looked around, sword clenched in his hand, and felt some of the chill begin to emerge from his skin as his mind started to relax in the silence. They were in some sort of thin, long cell - walls on either side, though it seemed like there were openings on either end of it, letting in a blinding light that hurt his eyes. Not very secure, if you asked him. It seemed so vast, compared to the one he shared with Wilbur.
Wilbur.
He had to get back to Wil.
He turned back to his opponent, there was no time to worry about where he was or what this man wanted from him, this man had taken him away from Wilbur.
"I have to go back," he said, voice cracking with misuse.
"Back? There's no way in hell I can go back there mate, those people-"
"I'll kill you. Put me back, I can't leave, Wilbur is still there," he said stubbornly.
The man with the blood red wings stared down at him with a sad look. "Who's Wilbur?"
"Wilbur is Wilbur. I need to go back."
"I can't do that, mate. I'm here to protect you."
"Put me back or I'll kill you and fight my way back." A snarl was in his voice this time, a threat that must have been pathetic to the skilled, terrifying man in front of him.
But that seemed to strike some sort of chord within him, at least. The man raised an eyebrow, but pursed his lips all the same. "... alright. I'll help you find this Wilbur, but you have to listen to me, and stay close. I'll keep you safe."
Techno didn't believe that for a moment, but he had seen the man kill not just two minutes ago. So he nodded, and waited for that tear in reality to open. It was back to the fighting ring, back to the only world that was familiar to him. For Wilbur, he would do anything.