Day 18 - Forced to watch with hurt!Techno and a tiny bit of hurt!Ranboo

Other characters: None

Other tags: Described torture

Summary: There's victory in breaking the unbreakable (if only for a moment)


"Take that one. He'll be easier to break."

Ranboo pressed back against the wall, legs pulled up in front of him. A meager shield, shallow support. Desperation given shape.

Oh, oh no, no no no no no no

"He doesn't know anything," Technoblade said from next to him. "He's useless to you."

Their captor stopped mid-motion, arm still outstretched making to grab Ranboo's wrist. Ranboo nodded, hair falling into his eyes. He was a coward, pathetic.

But the burns on his face hadn't healed yet, his knees were still sore. They had been asking the same questions over and over and over again and Ranboo hadn't come any closer to coming up with an answer that would satisfy them. He had tried telling the truth, he had tried lying. He had tried being silent and he had begged.

Techno had screamed at them enough that his voice had given out.

(But this wasn't an interrogation. They weren't content getting the information plain because if that were the case; they had given them everything they wanted already.)

And Ranboo could stand all of it, but he didn't know if he could stand torture.

The man clicked his tongue, pale eyes settling on Techno instead. "Fine, you want to have a go?"

"I didn't say I know anything either," Techno spat back. "You're chasing ghosts. But if you think you can beat it out of me, be my guest."

Ranboo couldn't do anything but watch. What they had done before was nothing compared to this. Ranboo couldn't stand the loud noises, the manhandling, having their eyes and hands all over his body pushing him around. That had already been too much for him.

But Techno?

Techno didn't make a peep while they dragged him to kneel in front of them, when they ripped the shirt off his back, when the belt came down upon it. He didn't do anything but clench his jaw and grunt under his breathe while they lashed him, so many times that Ranboo couldn't keep count.

The blows were heavy, hollow sounds of meeting flesh. But the metal part caught on the skin and ripped it off, blood pouring down Techno's back. Every few minutes they stopped and repeated their questions. Technoblade held his tongue.

Even when they got frustrated and pushed him down, exchanging the belt for their boots and fists, Techno didn't react.

Ranboo did.

He pulled on the iron keeping him chained to the wall. He yelled until his throat hurt with it. He felt the helplessness like an eclipse, obscuring all else and blotting out reason.

When they were done, they left Technoblade there on the floor and he smiled at Ranboo with bloodied fangs and too much pride in his eyes.

(As if this was something to be admired.)

Hours went on, days came by. The men always returned, always brought some new form of pain to inflict. After the time they'd brought out the clippers and used it to tear the claws from Techno's hands without stopping even once to ask their questions, Ranboo knew this had become a game to them. Answers were secondary now to the challenge put before them.

How long until you could get a spine to break?

Ranboo still begged, but the words had turned into white noise. He still asked them to stop, but his obvious despair was none more than an added layer of thrill for them. They reveled in making him watch.

It truly couldn't get any worse.

(Somewhere, some god must be laughing in the face of Ranboo's thoughts)

Almost a week had passed when Technoblade caved.

Ranboo knew he himself would not have lasted a day, that most would not have lasted that much longer. Somehow it still came as a surprise when the constant sound of their captor's taunts was undercut by a sob.

Not very loud, not very distinct.

But Ranboo picked up on it, ears pinned back against his skull.

The men did too, and stopped to pull the hair back from Technoblade's face.

And through the grime and blood, there ran twin tracks of tears.

"Well, would you look at that," they said, thumb pressing into Techno's cheek as if they needed to feel the evidence of their torment. "The Blood God might be human after all."

It snapped - the chains around his wrists, something inside him.

(Ranboo didn't remember much of what happened when enderwalking. As scary as that could be, he wasn't scared of what happened during them. It was more the concept of a loss of autonomy that he feared than the losing itself.

Sometimes, he could even be grateful.)

The blood that covered these walls, the floor, them both. It wasn't just Technoblade's anymore. Ranboo knew the majority of it wasn't Techno's.

Distant, he could sing the echoes of the pleasure he felt while he did it. No memory would be strong enough to filter through, but he knew enjoyment when it lingered. Awake now, Ranboo would not mourn. Techno turned his head into his chest and sobbed again, louder. His shoulders shook and Ranboo held them.

And human did not even begin to describe it.