Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rudo supposed he should've really known better. He knew to be careful when going through trash, but.. He pants heavily, running through the hallways, barely dodging guards and bullets.

The guards behind him yell and scream after him. He could almost roll his eyes at them. If Rudo hadn’t grown up doing this, he wouldn’t have understood what they were yelling.

Now he knew it meant stop.

He divided behind a wall and relaxed as the guard's footsteps slowed to a halt. “Find the trash, at all costs!” Truthfully, the only word Rudo truly understood was trash, the rest was inferred. Cityfolk share all the negative words with the Tribefolk dialect. As if to say, “I’m talking about you and you should know it.”

Rudo shook his head. He shouldn’t linger for too long, he was pretty sure they would find him if he just stood there.

.

Rudo bit his lip as Regto tied a bandage tightly onto his arm. The bullet had grazed his arm and the older man had the nerve to be such a worrywart about it!

Regto cleared his throat, looking up at Rudo from where he was kneeled. “Have you been studying at all, Rudo?”

Rudo blinked hesitantly. Studying. Since the Slums didn’t have any schools like the City did, most people go without an education. They lived off the information inherited from their parents. School was a privileged institution.

Education was a privilege.

Yet.. Rudo had been lucky enough to be adopted by a very educated man. A man who spent too much time on the Cityside, eavesdropping on parents, teachers, and children. Listening for new lessons he would want Rudo to inherit.

Regto gave Rudo at least one test a week, depending on the topic. He had one on a rather simple topic in a simple day or two. This time, it was the history of Language.

The same one Rudo’s been learning since meeting Regto.

He rolled his eyes and Regto bursted out laughing once more. “I don't understand why it’s so important.” He mumbled, looking at his newly wrapped shoulder, the blood actively seeping through the bandages.

Regto looked at him with knowing eyes. “You know why, Rudo.” He said in the polite Citymen dialect. The Citymen dialect was clean, clear of stutters and sounds beautiful to hear, probably after years of trying to differentiate themselves from Tribefolk. They were almost close to creating their own language. “To understand Rudo!” Regto rolled his shoulders, standing from his kneeling position, and sitting on their couch.

Rudo pursued his lips but otherwise said nothing.

“Now..” Regto's face lost its humor, eyes dimming into something far more serious. Rudo straightened instinctively. “Don’t go to that dumpstersite anymore. You won’t get away with this next time.” Regto said in that horrid dialect, sounding exactly like a guard.

.

Rudo excitedly ran to his and Regto’s home. Chiwa had expected his gift, his trash. She had accepted it and now he had something that was his! He really wasn’t trash. Giddily, he closed his eyes and sped his pace, hoping to get there quicker.

He wondered what Regto would think of his success, of course it was Regto, so he was sure the man would find something to point out and call him out on.

He pushed the door open, ignoring the pit in his stomach at the slightest open door, “I’m home.” He said, pushing the door more open, letting light into the dark room. “Listen Regto, I talked to Chiwa—”

Briefly, he imagined Regto, turning around and returning his greeting dimly—

Regto was on the ground, stomach gushing with blood, blood seeping down from his mouth. Blood where blood was not supposed to be. A weapon deeply buried in his stomach.

A dark figure stood over him.

Rudo barely had time to process. Regto was on the floor, bleeding out, and his attacker stood over him, looking at Rudo. “H.. Hey!” He shouted before he could think. This figure had attacked Regto..! He would have to report this. He has to get this attacker on the ground! His feet move and suddenly—

He’s on the ground choking on his own spit. The masked figure quickly grabbed something he had dropped (had he robbed them? This figure had the nerve to hurt Regto and steal from them? Oh he could get back at this guy. He could kill this guy. He could—”). The figure rushed out the room, leaving Rudo with Regto.

With Regto.

Rudo rushed up, rushing to Regto. But he seemed to have moved too quickly, having ended up slipping on the man’s blood and then falling in it. He ignored the way the red easily stained his white outfit, choosing to focus on Regto.

“R.. Reg..” Rudo sucked in a heavy breath, looking down at Regtos almost still form. “Regto!” He grasped the man's shoulders. Regto needed a doctor, he needed something!

“R..” Rudo startled, staring down at his dad. “Run.” She choked on his own blood and Rudo winced. That really wasn’t a good sign. He could feel his heart racing in his chest, panic rising. Regto wouldn’t— He needed to do something! Quick! But before he could take off, Regto spoke again. “This shitty world..” He reached his hand up and grabbed on Rudo's hood harshly, pulling him down to listen. “You’ll have to change it…” His voice faded off as he coughed once more.

Rudo's lips part and then close again. Confusion cleared in his mind. What did Regto mean? Change the world..?

BZZZ!!!

Electricity shoots through his bones and he finds himself falling limp to the ground. Just before he could regain his bearings, there’s a knee on his back and a hand on the back of his neck, pushing him down.

“Keep still!” The City dialect rang loudly in his ear. The person on him shifted, as though moving to talk to someone else, “The murder has been apprehended at the scene!” Again, another world both dialects had similar filtered through his brain.

Murder..

Wait.

Him?!

“Wait! You’re mistaken!” He rushed out in his dialect. The guard however, doesn’t make any move to stop, placing the cuffs on Rudo's wrists. He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand his dialect. Quickly, Rudo runs himself through the words he learned from Regto. “It’s not me.” He shook. “It can’t be me.” He mumbled only to himself.

Switching dialects doesn’t seem to work. If anything, it makes matters worse. The guard tensed up and the grip on his tightened. The pain shot from his wrists to his hands, the pain was nearly blinding.

“Besides, Regtos is still alive..” His eyes drifted to his dad and his heart dropped. The man's eyes, once bright and mysterious, were now dimmed, seemingly looking at nothing. The man stopped moving completely, blood still flowing out of him at a steady pace.

“What nonsense are you saying?” The guard says. “Don’t try to make excuses murder. You’ve got his blood all over you.”

Rudo flinched. He couldn’t get himself to look down. He was no murder. He didn’t kill Regto. That blood was there because.. He looked at Regto once more. Becuase.. He hadn’t killed Regto, he knew. He knew—

He hadn’t killed Regto!

He hadn’t!

He really—

.

“You have committed a felony in this beautiful, sacred land. Unsatisfied with just scavenging garbage and polluting our streets…” Rudo despised the way the Cityman seemed to speak to the crowd instead of him, as though he was trying to entertain others rather than convict him, “he has committed the filthiest act of all… Murder! Even if that person is a Tribesman… we will not tolerate murders living on this land, not even for a moment! Therefore you are sentenced to death! Let the Abyss swallow up, filth and all!”

Rudo bit his lip, glad for the man to finally stop yelling. But.. But, what the actual hell? He stared out at all the people, a mix of both Tribesfolk and Citymen.

He hadn’t killed Regto.

His eyes drifted across people who have known him his whole life. Who had bullied him his whole life. Who—

“Chiwa!” Rudo almost startled himself from the volume of his voice. He shook it off, that anger was putting him on edge, even of himself. “Chiwa! Regto was killed!” He silently winced, she obviously knew that. “I beg you to find who did it—”

He cuts himself off as Chiwa drops his gift to the ground. He watched her through his gift away like trash. He watched her eyes drift off to the side. He watched her turn him back from him. He watched her walk away and fade into the crowd. He watched leave him behind, turn on him. Turn on him as though he was trash.

As though he was trash.

“All the filth to the Abyss!” The Tribesfolk dialect.

“All the filth to the Abyss!” The Citymen dialect.

“All the filth to the Abyss!”

It’s over this they unite.

Over this they turn on him based on assumption.

“You’re the filthy ones.” Rudo growled darkly, something dark and overwhelming taking over his mind. His mind goes back to all the abandonment he felt by these monsters. Both in the City and in the Slums.

“All the filth to the Abyss!”

“You have eyes, yet you cannot see the trash you are!” He screamed. How dare they? Call him the filth? Call him the trash when he so clearly is innocent?

“All the filth to the Abyss!”

“Your ears deny hearing the truth!” He spits. He thinks back to how Chiwa had the nerve to turn her back on him. Rudo had been nothing but kind and truthful to her, and yet she ignored his words. Ignore his truth.

“All the filth to the Abyss!”

“All of you!” He glared.

He watched as the man brought his hand down, signaling to the executors it was time to let him down. To let him fall to his death. To let him pay for a crime he did not commit. To let him pay for a crime committed by..

Rudo blinked and then focused in. “It’s you.” Just beyond the main executor's hand, was that figure. The figure that had killed Regto. The figure that had caused all this pain towards him.

KA—CHACK

The rope snapped and Rudo felt his body start freefalling. But just before—

“I’ll send you to hell.”

He thinks of the figure standing over Regto's body. He thinks of Regto’s cold body lying motionless on the ground.

“All of you.”

He thinks of everyone in his life that had ever called the nerve to call him trash.

“Every.”

He thinks of the guards and the glimpses he used to see of Citymen from beyond the gate.

“One.”

He thinks of Chiwa who turned from him and called him trash.

“Of you!”

He screams. He could imagine how it looked to those pieces of trash. A murder, falling to his deserved death. Screaming about revenge even though that’ll probably be the last they see of him.

He thinks of the figure standing over Regto.

“I will kill you—”

The world darkens.

.

The world is still dark.

But there’s something—

Just beyond that..

He thinks he hears voices.

But it murmured to low and the dialect.. no, the language doesn’t sound the slightest familiar.

It dark and he’s falling and—

.

Rudo groaned and shifted. His back ached and his head felt as though it had been bashed into a wall several times. He groaned again, rolling onto his side in hope of finding a better position to… sleep?

Actually, Rudo let out a yawn, he wasn’t sure how long it had been since he slept this well. But god did his back ache with constant pain. Choosing to ignore his back, he sat up, ignoring his throbbing head.

He groaned again softly. Then he sucked in a heavy breath and—

That breath might as well have been his last. Breathing in physically hurt his throat. Taking a breath felt as though you swallowed something dark and sinister that had nothing but bad intentions, it scraped itself into you nose, into your body.

It stunk.

Peeling his eyes open made his head only ache more, but he ignored it in favor of taking in his surroundings. This was not the City or the Slums. It was significantly worse than the slums.

Someone had killed Regto.

Then Rudo got blamed.

That means… This was the Abyss.

Rudo used to promise himself everyday that he wouldn’t be like his father. He wouldn’t be killed. He wouldn't kill. And somehow he ended up in the Abyss, without doing any of that.

While looking around, a large shadow cast over himself.

Now that was weird. He blinked. There wasn’t supposed to be anything else here. Just himself.

Fearfully, he turned around, praying for his sake it wasn’t destructive.

He turned and—

What the hell kinda garbage monster is that?!

.

Rudo gaped at the man inside the mask. Had this guy.. saved him? That trash monster's debris was falling on him.. so that meant this guy must’ve saved him?

Curiously, he looked at the man. His clothes were odd, colorfully weird. The clothing makers from both City and Slums agreed white was clean and sleek, therefore the only thing they made.

That meant this man.. wasn’t from City nor Slums. He was from down here? Was he.. He looked like one, but.. “Are you even human?” He murmured in his mother dialect. “What in the world is this place?! What the hell is that monster?” He opened his mouth, as if to say more.

The man wiped his mask to look. Then he slowly dragged two fingers pushed together along the line of his mask. Then he held a finger in front of his mask. The universal signal for silence.

Rudo really tried to not let the irritation show on his face. But nonetheless his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes narrowed.

The man loudly groaned.

“Shut up for a bit.”

Rudo froze.

He hadn’t understood a single word in that sentence.

Shit.

Of course the Abyss had its own language.

Chapter Text

Regto found words an interesting thing, often going on long rants about theories and ideas about them. He used to say it was good for Rudo, that understanding how languages are made was just half of the struggle and learning that language was the other half.

Naturally, Rudo inherited this knowledge.

Severely years ago, long before the Cityfolk created the Slums, it was said that there had been many languages. So many diverse languages, each one similar to another, yet so very different. Those languages got lost along the way. Different parts of the city went from City and Slums.

When the Slums were created, it had first started off with just a wall. No doors or gates leading to the other side. Just to strictly separate populations with two separate governments. The situation only lasted for about ten years, but those ten years were long enough to have a lasting effect.

It became two heavily segregated communities, mixed enough among themselves to form two different dialects.

Whilst the City had mostly stayed with their original light tongued, sharp, breathy language, the Slums had changed. A dialect, they called it. The Slums grammar had gotten lazy, there was no need to read or right. The vocabulary had shortened significantly, using the same words with multiple different meanings, based on tone alone. The pronunciation got more gruffy and most words sounded like the other.

Regto had made sure Rudo knew this.

“Shut up for a bit.” That was gruffer, sharper, louder, so more open, and breathy than he’d ever heard before.

It wasn’t just another dialect, it was too different..

Rudo clenched his teeth, glancing around his soundings. He needed to think clearly, he sucked in the filtered air and shook his head, ignoring the burning hatred at the reason he was in this mess in the first place. More steady and quietly, he spoke to the man again, “I don’t understand you.”

The figure, who Rudo now knew was a man based on his voice, ignored him completely. Rudo bit his lip to keep himself from bursting and letting his emotions come out. Regto wouldn’t approve of that at all. But jeez! Did this guy even hear him?!

“Did ya hear me? I said I can’t understand you!” He repeated, this time in his normal volume of voice.

This time, the man tensed up, and focused his mask on him more. But instead of showing any sign of sharing Rudo's confusion, he made the same shushing gesture as before. He watched as the tattooed man let out a long but silent sigh. “I said shut up, kid.” His words were similar to the ones he had said before.

Just as jumbled but certain.

And definitely not a language Rudo understood.

Rudo pursed his lips under the mask, ignoring how his clothes stuck to his skin in a completely unfamiliar way. Silently, Rudo assessed his situation. He had been dropped into the Abyss, and now he was here, with this man who could hear him clearly, but just wasn’t listening. Rudo desperately wished for this man to listen to what he was saying.

There was no way this garbage world was all there was. With this garbage language he didn’t even understand. Stay calm and think it out.. Okay.

“Listen to me,” Rudo grunted out, “I’m from above. I got dropped down here, and you're not listening to me enough to notice I’m not even speaking your language!” He raised his voice a bit towards the end, but he silently hoped his message came across clearly enough.

The man seemed to finally hear him, he shifted to look down at Rudo. His masked head tilted before the man let out a sigh. “Listen kid, I dunno what you're mumbling about, but you're seriously I told you not to make any loud noises!” The man shifted once more, the trash beneath his feet crinkling loudly.

Rudo flinched as the trash squeaked and crumbled. Rudo hadn’t understood a single thing the man had said to him, but maybe that signal earlier had been wrong. The man was being so much louder than he was! Quietly, he curled his top lip up and snarled, “Listen to me! I. Don’t. Speak. Your. Language!” Rudo shifted more steadily on his knees, hesitating slightly when the trash dug into his knees.

Rudo watched helplessly as the man tensed up and started yelling. “Shut up, little shit!” Rudo noted how you could almost hear the end of each.. word? “How privileged are you Sphereites?! Thinking you can drop trash down here and then you start mumbling to me?!”

Rudo hated the way the man's voice screamed. The voice was so much louder than what would have been normal on the Sphere, the tone just had to be anger. The downwards tilt, that anger, it was something that could clearly be recognized across languages.

Rudo had no choice but to ignore the man, his lack of understanding the language hadn’t diminished his ability to tell when people were angry.

The ground (ground? Trash?) shook beneath him, sending harsh vibrations up his body.

Rubo’s eyes widened at the sight of a large garbage monster. Maybe even the same one he had taken out moments ago.

Rudo watched as the man stayed calm, his stance shifting only slightly. He startled when there was a masked head abruptly rushed to his face, “I said shut the fuck up and you don’t listen!” He pointed an accusatory finger towards Rudo, a finger Rudo was all too used to. “Thanks to you, they know we’re here!” He pointed behind him.

Rudo winced gingerly as his gaze followed up- up- and—

The man began to speak again, but Rudo kept his gaze on the thing lurking behind him.

Rudo jumped instinctively as the man pointed an umbrella, one that he hadn’t even noticed, at Rudo.

For a second, he wondered if this man would kill him. If the mask he’d given Rudo was just a trick for trust, that he was really working with that thing.

The masked man lifted his umbrella to the side and—

It lit up. It went from an older umbrella to a newer one, shiny, almost glowing.. Rudo then realized how it had sharpened significantly. An average umbrella turned weapon.

He once more entertained the idea of a betrayal, but the man pointed his umbrella toward the trash and— The umbrella spun.

Rudo stared at the man, stunned.

This guy was jumping around, killing each one of those garbage things, one after another.

Rudo frowned dimly. Was this technology that only existed down here..? If he could get his hands on something even remotely like this.. he could most definitely get back at those bastards above.

The man seemed to appear in front of him. Rudo couldn’t keep himself from staring. How had he even moved like that? Could Rudo ever move like that?

Rudo jolted as the man pulled off his mask to reveal— A younger looking man with blonde hair with matching yellow hair. He had large piercings on his ears, and large visible tattoos going down his neck. The man grins and speaks once more, “My name's Enjin, kid.”

Rudo’s eyes widened, this would be the perfect time. With the guy's mask off he might finally be able to explain! Rudo opened his mouth, ready to speak.

Rudo finds his mouth clicking shut as the man doubled over and started coughing, putting his mask back on. He straightens once more, before pointing an accusatory finger at Rudo.

Every muscle in Rudo’s body told him to get up and explain himself—

But—

His world turned dark.

The last thing he registered was landing hard on the trash below him.

—

Rudo peeled open his eyes, lashes still crusty with sleep. The sky was cloudy, grey and dull. Nothing like the blue and rarely cloudy sky he’d grown accustomed to his whole life.

The following thing Rudo sensed was the trash beneath him. At first it felt as though the ground itself was moving, but he found that wasn’t the case. Instead, he was being moved, trash catching on his clothes before letting up and getting snagged onto something else. Some sharper pieces of trash dug through his clothes, creating what was probably tiny cuts along his back and legs.

The next thing is more unusual and significantly more worrying.

There were chains wrapped around him.

Actual chains, the kind used to weigh down heavy things. But considering that Rudo wasn’t heavy at all, it was more suffocating than anything.

It reminded him of being dropped. How those of both City and Slums were so quick to discard him as trash. Easy disposable trash. A fiery anger started to burn inside his chest.

Rudo would kill them.

He would kill every single of them.

He would ensure a painful end for that guy who murdered—

Rudo was brought out of his thoughts as a particularly sharp piece of trash dug into his leg. He gasped loudly as it dug in and dragged alone his leg. It probably wasn't deep enough to cause bleeding, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

From in front of him, that same unfamiliar voice spoke, “I don’t know if you remember but my name is Enjin,” Rudo titled his head back to look at the man. The man had his umbrella opened above him, his beige coat shifted with every step.

Rudo watched nervously as the man stopped and crouched down in front of him. The man then tilted his head to look down on Rudo. He practically felt the older man's gaze through his mask.

“Why don’t you speak?” That loud language rang through his ears, much louder up close. Rudo could tell by the upward tilt of the man's voice that it was definitely a question. A question he had no answer to.

Unfortunately for the man, Rudo was tied up, tied up by a man who wouldn’t listen to him no matter how hard he tried. Rudo curled up his lips beneath the mask, and let out a snarl.

The masked man seemed to finally hear him, his shoulders rested and he let out a long sigh. The man then took off his mask, but only the one covering his eyes. “I can’t believe this. You fall from heaven, I save you, and you go and pretend to be a fucking mute?” The man glared at him. There was a harsh hatred in his voice, one that made Rudo shiver from the harshness of it. Then the man's eyes brightened, filling with an emotion Rudo wasn’t used to. “How about we make you speak, kid?”

Rudo watched in slow motion as the man grabbed the end of the chain he had been using to drag him, and booked it. 

Rudo hardly practiced the way the ground went from piles of trash to a flatter surface. What he did feel, was when the masked man thought it was a good idea to fling Rudo onto the ground before him.

The man raised a hand, “I’ll leave the rest to you.” It was said seriously enough that Rudo tensed up. The man then waved a hand and turned around to..Leave. All that yelling and he dips?! Didn’t that guy have questions?!

The quietly fumes, wondering if he’d hear him if he shouted now. Would he turn around? Or would he keep on ignoring—

CLICK. CLACK.

Rudo instantly went stiff.

He slowly turned to face behind him. Behind him were trucks with an odd swirly writing on it. Was this.. their language? It would probably be helpful if he knew how to read or write the way those from the City did. Rudo only knew basic level things, just enough things to get him by in the Slums.

Rudo got drawn out of his thoughts when he saw several men begin to approach him. Rudo assumed he hadn’t noticed them getting out of the trucks. They were all wearing a gas mask, but their clothes were much simpler than he’d ever seen before.

They all spoke in that unfamiliar language the masked man from before had used. They all speak to him, probably directing questions and speaking to him.

It was here Rudo comes to the realization he’s completely alone in this, not a single person here would understand him, and they wouldn’t understand him.

The man in the middle, maybe the leader, asked a question, directed to him again. “Where did you come from?” This time the whole group went silent, waiting for an answer, an answer they probably wouldn’t get.

Rudo licked his lips before finally using his voice, “I can’t understand you.” He spoke loudly, hoping to get his point across.

The group around him froze once more, except for the man in the middle who perked up. The guy crouched down to Rudo’s level.

“Did you,” He pointed at Rudo, “fall down,” he does a motion with his hand where it went completely still and fell to the dirt, “from the heavens?" The man pointed up.

Rudo could finally feel his eyes sparkling. The man was probably asking something like, did you fall from above, but it was progress. After all, these guys listened way more than that masked man from before did. Rudo nodded aggressively, hoping the motion meant the same thing from across societies.

The men very vibrantly brightened, throwing off their masks to celebrate. Rudo flinched at the oddness, but chose to ignore it. At least there was some understanding! Maybe these guys would have an idea on how to get back.

The ringleader looked at him with a smile but puzzled eyes, “I figured the Skypeople would have a different language than us..” He gestured wildly, “I wasn’t expecting it to be so.. different?” Rudo watched suspiciously as the man got closer, this felt.. off.

“You think he’s fakin’ it?” The guy to his left spoke up.

The middle man shook his head wildly, before reaching out a bold hand and grabbing his face. “Probably not, there's not a hint of understanding behind his eyes..”

Rudo pulled away as soon as the man got too close to his eye. Who did this guy think he was?! Just because there was a little understanding between them, doesn’t mean he could go touching him!

Then the man with dark hair lifted his hands to Rudo's face, making sure he had his attention, and brought it down to his chains.

Rudo let himself relax as the man loosened the chains. The guy gave a reassuring smile before softly saying, “This kid hasn’t got a single clue.”

Rudo knew then and there these men were significantly better than that blonde from before.

These guys tried to understand him, rather than ignoring him.

These guys smiled kindly while the other guy only yelled.

These guys—

—

A bunch of lying bastards.

This group was a bunch of lying bastards.

The leader grinned at him, looking much more pleasant than Rudo was feeling. “We’re gonna make money off of you, kid.” He said strictly. His eyes narrowed before he raised his hands once more. “We,” he gestured to himself and his group behind him, “are going to make money,” he rubbed three fingers together as Rudo felt his blood boil, “off of you.” He pointed at Rudo.

Rudo had never been good at reading people, preferring to stare blankly at them. But here? Here Rudo could practically hear his gestures.

Money.

They were going to make fucking money, off of him?

The Slums had people desperate enough to sell things that they shouldn't. Rudo knew damn well what that meant. Had they sold off people who’d fallen before? Based on their earlier excitement, they had been celebrating him. Him, as a whole. As in.. alive?

Rudo was brought out of his thoughts as the man snapped his fingers in front of his face. He glared as hard as he could at the man, who only smiled harder.

He reached out his other hand and the guy to his left handed him a bag. Rudo watched helplessly as he poured a bag of trash over his head. He shivered slightly as the smaller pieces got stuck in his hair, and slid down into his hoodie's hood. The larger pieces rolled off his head onto the floor just before him.

The man then reached out wordlessly pointing at Rudo before going forward and grabbing a fist full of his clothes. Rudo growled and pulled away the best he could in that angle. It was hopeless, nonetheless the man let go.

The man finally spoke again, “you guys drop trash on us,” he gestured around and back at the leftovers, “and that garbage made the air poisonous!” The man put his hands around his neck in a signal Rudo knew meant deaf, then the man gestured to nothing and he found himself at a loss. “And now we have garbage monsters that threaten our lives,” the man gestured his words by putting his hand under the fallen garbage and shaking. Rudo only felt more confused. Had he been able to understand what these trashbags were saying, he could actually talk back.

Rudo was startled as the leader clicked off whatever kind of muzzle they had on him. He opened his mouth, ready to yell or something but then—

A handful of the large leftovers were stuffed into his mouth. He choked, quickly trying to get the indigestible parts out of mouth before it could get lodged in his throat.

The man in the middle laughed loudly before taking another piece and stuffing it to the back of his throat.

It’s invasive.

So very invasive.

Rudo would scream if he could breathe.

The piece of leftover was cold and way too large to be swallowed without chewing.

He choked again as the man shoved it even deeper.

This man was going to kill him.

So Rudo did the only thing he could do.

Like an animal would to its attacker, he ignored all human instinct and bit down hard. His teeth dug through the skin until he hit a part that he couldn’t bite through.

Rudo barely registered the man pulling his fingers away, or, his bones away. Rudo kept his jaw clenched, feeling the skin start pilling up on his teeth as the man tried to escape the inevitable.

The taste was disgusting.

At first all he could taste was that metallic taste of blood, against his nerves, he dramatically chewed and swallowed a small bit. It was almost sweet, a distinct taste that he’d never had before.

He could feel the flesh go down his throat.

He could vomit.

He was gonna—

“How could you—!” One of the other men yelled, but his voice cut off, sentence ending too quick.

All Rudo could feel was a burning hatred.

These people down here were using him for their own profit..

The chains dug into his wrists.

The Tribesfolk and Cityfolk were oh so quick to discard him.

Both above and below people were the same, he decided to himself.

It was so unfair.

Rudo let that bubbling anger in his chest seep into his bones. From now on, he promised himself he wouldn’t be afraid to let loose.

He let that rage finally consume him.

—

The next moment he has a moment of clarity is probably seconds later.

A soft yet firm grip on his arm startled him out of he looked down at the man before him, two fingers only bone, eyes absolutely filled with fear. He almost killed that man. His gaze followed the hand on his arm, nervous to see who would stop him from killing another human being.

Rudo sagged slightly when he realized the tattoo covered hand belonged to that man without any masks this time. This was the man who saved him. And wouldn’t listen.. And left him with these crazies…

Speaking of the crazies, they had been passed out across the area.

He had done that.

Rudo looked down at his glove covered hands before wincing at the pain flickering through. His hands hadn’t hurt that much in years. It might’ve had to do with that thing he did. Where he grabbed everything and it just started to.. fly?

He startled when his nose started bleeding, seeping the bandages on his arms.

The man then gestured to himself and said something that Rudo couldn’t fully hear.

Rudo found that odd because this was the same guy who had been ignoring him not so long ago. Then it hit him, this guy was probably watching Rudo, he must’ve seen how those other guys went non-verbal for him and used large gestures to speak.

The man continued on with his gestures, but Rudo found himself blanking out, his vision blurring before—

—