Chapter Text
Phil whistled a simple tune as he strolled through the crimson fortress, black wings and green robes brushing the floor and black claws that faded into normal skin at his elbows scratched along the walls. A skeleton peeked out from a faraway hallway and started shooting. The arrows slid harmlessly over his head, and Phil smirked. He pulled out a dagger from his belt and threw it into the creature’s dark ash rib cage.
The dagger separated its spine into two pieces and it crumpled to the ground. He continued walking past the pile of bones. It was by pure chance he glanced down the hallway the skeleton had come from, and it was intervention from the gods when he decided to explore it. His whistle echoed off the red brick walls and his steps were silent.
The whistle cut off suddenly with a shrill note as he turned a left corner. In front of him was a small slot in the wall with prison bars locking something in it. He knelt down and peered into the cage.
A small child with bloody mangled pink hair and scrappy clothes too big for his body stood in it, his head brushing the top of the space. His arms were hanging limply by his sides, covered in scars and gashes and burns so terrible they were black. His legs were the same, but the left one was swollen and turning purple in the middle of his calf. The boy kept his eyes on a collar around his throat, metal and threatening and painful.
“Lifetaker, what the hell?” Phil breathed as he looked the child over. He leaned in closer and saw he had one tusk peeking out from his lips, the other one seemed to have been brutally removed. Phil heard the distant sounds of a horn being blown.
Crap, he thought. Damn skeleton must have revived and alerted the others. He sighed and examined the bars. They were sturdy enough to hold the child back but practically twigs against Phil.
“Well,” he reasoned. “Can’t leave you here.” He ripped three bars out of the wall and ushered the child out. The child kept his eyes down and cautiously moved forward. The sounds of mobs were growing louder and Phil clenched his jaw and turned back to the kid.
“Ok mate, I know we just met but we need to run so I’m going to pick you up, ok?” The child didn’t react, keeping himself as small as possible while standing. Phil shrugged.
“Answer enough for me.” He swooped the boy up in his arms like an infant and started running back down the hall.
The boy tensed and was clearly trying to stop himself from shaking. Phil smiled down at him.
“Sorry, but we might have to fly.” The flood of monsters grew closer, groans and hisses becoming almost deafening, and Phil scoffed.
“Yeah, screw it. We’re flying.” Phil took a sharp right and opened his wings, encompassing the hallway in oily darkness. He sprinted down the hall to a large balcony.
“Hang on mate, this is going to be a bit of a tough takeoff.” As soon as he could see the lava beneath the fortress Phil leapt off the edge and soared over the blood red landscape. The child clung onto himself, scared stiff. Phil looked down and smiled warmly.
“You might want to close your eyes.”
The boy promptly shut them tight. Phil dived down and landed in front of a Nether portal. He stepped through the purple swirls and tensed as the tug and pull of the Nether and the Overworld split his atoms apart and melded them back together. The wrong sensation blinded him, but he managed to step through to the other side.
He sighed in relief as he came out to a clay and wood house in a small clearing of a snowy forest. Snowflakes melted as they hit his green and white striped hat. The snow crunched beneath his feet as he walked towards the house. A small whimper escaped the boy and he immediately looked down in concern. The child’s amber eyes were still shut tight but tears were leaking through.
“Ahh shit. I forgot I was going through the portal with someone else. Mate, you alright?” He muttered as he walked on. The kid nodded a bit and tried to wipe away his tears.
“Hey, it’s ok, you can open your eyes now, we’re not flying anymore.” He opened the door and put the boy down on the couch. The kid hesitantly opened his eyes and he tensed immediately at his new surroundings. His eyes darted around the room, spotting weapons hanging from the walls and leaning on the kitchen table and he tried to shrink into the couch. Phil followed his gaze and tried to comfort him.
“Hey, it’s ok I don’t use those on children.”
The kid shrank back further.
Phil sighed and combed a hand through his blond hair.
“Yeah, that probably just made it worse, huh?” The child just stared at him, watching for any sign of danger.
“Ok, let’s just move you to the kitchen.” Phil walked to the kitchen and quickly cleared the weapons out and put them in an ender chest. He smiled and turned back to the boy.
“All good. Do you need help walking? Your leg looks pretty bad.” The kid shook his head and moved slowly, trying his best to hide his limp. Phil watched, wincing every time the child put weight on his bad leg, until he made it to the kitchen.
“Alright.” He picked him up by the shoulders and put him down on the edge of the table. Phil left the kitchen and came back a minute later with a medical kit. He started dabbing disinfectant on a towel and prepared a knife, bandages, and gauze. It wasn’t until he was about to start dabbing away the dirt that he realized the boy was shaking.
“I’m just treating your wounds, it’s all going to be fine.” His words didn’t stop the trembling, in fact it seemed to make it worse. Phil sighed and clasped a hand around the kid’s ankle. He tried to squirm out of Phil’s grasp but his hand only tightened.
“I need you to stay still.” The boy immediately stopped, every muscle in his body freezing.
“Thank you.” Phil whispered as he dabbed the towel on some cuts around his legs. He tried his best to focus on what he was doing, but the only sound in the room was the child’s unsteady breathing from the heavy collar. He flinched as Phil dabbed a bit too hard and Phil put the towel back on the table.
“Ok, this isn’t working.” Phil sighed and rubbed his nose bridge. “Let’s just start with taking off that collar. You can’t breathe right.” He moved to unclasp the sides, but before he could the kid’s eyes widened and he bolted off the table.
“Wha- hey!” Phil went after him as he darted to the door. He pulled as hard as he could to get the door to open but it wouldn’t budge with his feeble strength. Phil grabbed his hand and the boy fought back, wriggling and trying to get away.
“No- stop mate! You need to stop!” Phil reached for his shoulder and he bit down hard on Phil’s arm, blood seeping from the sides of his mouth.
Phil quickly grabbed both of the child’s arms with one hand and held them behind his back. He wrenched his arm out of his jaws and cornered the kid, raising his heavy wings like walls. The boy’s breath quickened, eyes like arrows looking for an exit. Then he looked into Phil’s eyes for the first time, and deep guilt and pain speared Phil’s heart as he saw his reflection in it. Lifetaker, I look like a monster. A cold hearted winged man stared back at him. Phil let go of the kid’s hands and he stood just like he did in the cage, keeping his eyes on the metal around his throat and letting his arms hang by his sides to resign himself to any fate.
“Look, I’m sorry mate. I’m not the best at taking care of others. I’ve been living on my own for eons, I kinda forgot what kids need.”
Phil dropped his wings.
“I know I went around this wrong, but please, let me help you. I promise, if you want to go back to the Nether I’ll take you there, but for now, I just want to help you.” The kid just stared, confused and terrified. Phil sighed.
“You probably don’t even know what I’m saying, do you?” The boy stood for a minute, and then shook his head timidly.
“So you can understand me?” The child nodded.
Phil smiled.
“Well, that’ll make things a lot easier. Can you talk?” He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
“That’s ok.” Phil knew enough about the terrors of the three realms to know the kid was definitely held captive by someone, and decided to try and clear it up.
“Is it because of something they did to you or because of not speaking for so long?” The boy tapped his foot twice.
“The second one then?” Phil questioned.
He nodded.
“We can fix that. It’ll take some work but we can get your voice back. But I’ll only help you if you want me to. Do you want me to?” He hesitated for a few minutes. And then he nodded. And then Phil grinned.
“I’ll do my best. Can I start with taking off that collar?” The boy shook his head frantically and Phil pulled back, keeping his arms in front of him so the boy could always see them.
“Ok, we won’t do that. Can I start by asking your name then?” The boy looked down at his collar and turned it roughly until a row of numbers was below his chin. He pointed to it.
“That’s an ID number for the mob fighting rings..”
Phil examined the number and looked back at the boy’s face.
“Were you in one of these?” He shrugged uneasily. Phil sighed.
“Well, was there something else they ever called you? Something that wasn’t a number?” The kid turned the collar a bit more and pointed to a jumble of badly scratched letters.
“Did you do this?” The child nodded. Phil squinted and tried to make out the writing. “Tech..no.. bad? Is that your name?”
He shook his head and tapped on a few more marks. “Ah, Technoblade. Is that it?” He nodded.
“Well then, Technoblade, it’s good to meet you. My name’s Philza, but you can call me Phil.”