Chapter Text
Timeline: second fight between Jabber and Zanka.
The moment Jabber was separated from the rest of the Cleaners he knew it would not end pretty. He looked around a bit confused, what was this place? What was the Raider's plan? Mankira was already ready when a portal opened, showing Zanka of all people. A guy he was fighting before, and won.
Smirk on the blue eyed raider only reminded Jabber to be careful, after all, raiders proved to be dangerous. And Jabber fighting alone? Sure, he could get the job done, the problem was if he would end up as the only one alive? That would be bad, Enjin for sure would get angry, so that was a big no way.
“Hey there” Zanka bringed him back from his thoughts. “Aren’t you excited for our fight?” His staff was also ready, radiating blue light only showed how determined he was to make it hurt.
That thought alone made Jabber fight off a smile from appearing on his face. He liked when it hurt. And Zanka? He didn’t hold back.
“Are you still with that bad attitude? Be careful, or I might start to like it.” he couldn’t hold back his smile anymore.
A few seconds of silence. With that, the fight began. Metal hitting metal. Fast movements, Zanka somehow stronger than the fight before. Jabber did a great job at dodging punches that were thrown his way, but the moment when he noticed a pool of some kind of toxin, the hesitation, that was his mistake, because that gave Zanka the window he was looking for. A strong punch to ribs that Jabber barely succeeded at stopping sended him flying from the impact.
“Ahh” Zanka seemed bored, pushing back his hair with free hand. “Come on Mr. Weirdo. I’m getting bored here, do something interesting finally.” Zanka slowly started approaching Jabber who looked around, slightly confused, slightly nervous. “Or you can simply die, I don’t care really” Zanka finished, raising his staff with the bottom part pointing at the cleaner. The bottom part was strangely sharp and ended like a spike.
“Shit” left Jabber’s mouth. Before Zanka could strike him again he jumped back, dodging again. He looked at the small pool of bubbling toxins next to him. He bit his bottom lip waging the consequences that this one could’ve brought. “You bored? Then what about this?” He made his decision. By placing his hand over the bubbles he let them burst out and hit his hand, and Mankira. He let out the sound of pain at the same time as Zanka started laughing.
“You crazy as fuck!” Zanka laughed looking at Jabber’s vital instrument turning green. “Oh, I knew you were a freak, but you’re a freaking masochist on top of everything!” He sounded weirdly excited if you ask Jabber.
He didn’t stop here though. Jabber made a swift move, letting the overflowing toxins leave his blades which caused it to fly straight to Zanka who was still laughing. Using his staff he was able to stop most of the droplets from hitting him or his clothes. But most is not all, his cheek still got burned, which made his feral smile to fade. Only slightly, but still.
“From what I recall… Last time you won from drugging yourself with your own stuff, right?” The calmness in Zanka’s voice made Jabber uneasy. That was true, he drugged himself to win last time, something he wasn’t really proud of since other Cleaners don’t allow him to do this for his own sake, but it was the only way out! “If you wanna get high on your own stuff, let me help you with that.”
Before Jabber could do anything, the Raider somehow turned a pool of poison upside down, making it fly toward him.
The ground that fell on Jabber hissed from toxins that made Zanka smile. He watched for a few minutes, waiting for the Cleaner to do something, anything.
“Oh come on, there’s no way that killed you dude.” He yelled, rolling his eyes. No sounds made him raise his eyebrows. “That’s it?” he murmured to himself. “Last time he got worse and he was still up, the hell?” Slowly he started approaching where Jabber stood. “Huh, he did run” Jabber was laying on the ground a few meters away from where the toxic pool landed. “Maybe the impact threw him away.” Zanka shrugged, walking to the guy. The sound of his boots was the only thing anyone could hear except for the bubbling toxins. “Maaan, I was hoping for a better fight, you know? I’m disappoint-”
Jabber’s hand grabbed Zanka’s ankle before he could finish his sentence. Raider fell to the ground and before he knew it, Jabber was on top of him, Mankira ready to strike. Jabber’s face was slightly busted from the toxins and blood mixing with dirt.
“I’m not that easy to kill” he said, barely fighting the groan of pain that was trying to escape him. “Fuck that hurt..” he mumbled, placing Mankira closer to Zanka’s throat, who was watching him with slight surprise in his eyes.
“So you’re not dead, how nice.” A smirk on Zanka’s face came back. “I was hoping to have a little more fun with you after all.”
Jabber noticed that Raider’s staff suddenly grew bigger, a few spikes growing on the handle, like it could stab you if you grabbed it any other way than it was supposed. That made Jabber lose focus again.
“Shit-!” before he knew it, roles were reversed. He landed on his back, Zanka on top of him, his staff hovering over his throat now.
“You look way better down here, Freak” Zanka said, hammering his staff next to Jabber’s head. “Oh don’t look at me like that, you know you like it” Zanka’s hands shifted from holding his staff to holding Cleaner’s throat. Slowly he applied more and more pressure, choking him.
Jabber didn’t want to admit it, but it was hot. Dangerous, after all Zanka wanted him dead, but for the first time in life he understood what he liked. He liked the pain. Not exactly from his Mankira, neither from other toxins he’s secretly testing on himself, but from another person, like this, pure pain. His hand moved without him thinking. He grabbed Zanka’s hand, not to pull it away, but not to bring it closer, he was just holding him there. This made Raider laugh.
“Oh you’re that crazy!” He laughed, putting more pressure into it. This time, it was Zanka who from all this excitement didn’t notice when Jabber moved. Cleaner’s claw from the other hand buried deep into his side.
That's when this fight was over.