Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Oliver hugged his torn jacket closer to him, trying to ward off the cold as he slunked through the shadows of broken buildings in the dead of night. This town had clearly been hit hard over the years, and likely didn’t have many intact places left for him to explore, but he had to give the search a shot. He was well past hungry and tired and sore from all the walking, yet he kept on going. Even if he found nothing indoors to eat, it was safer to be there than staying outside.

The world had turned apocalyptic ever since the giants from space appeared out of nowhere nearly ten years ago. The desians. It was as crazy as it sounded, as if a fantasy book had come to life; spaceships appeared out of nowhere in the atmosphere, hosting beings of incredible size and power who were frightening in nearly every manner. While they were bipedal like humans they looked more beast than man, with scaly, rough skin of various colours. Some had multiple limbs or tails, and almost all of them were adorned with sharp horns and teeth and claws. But, despite their differences, the one thing they all shared was their big glossy soulless black eyes.

Whatever they came here for, they didn’t care much for sharing the planet. They simply eradicated the forces who fought back- entire military armies swiped with one arm, massive tanks crushed with one kick. The human race didn't stand a chance against them, and the desians liked to keep it that way.

Those who could fled underground for safety, in bunkers and basements and cellars, but the rest fended for themselves above ground, hunting and scavenging for their lives. Money had become obsolete, laws were thrown out the window as power grids fell offline, and any structure of authority washed away like sand into the sea as people plundered and stole all that they could amidst the chaos. The lands were anarchic and most of the people that remained were either hostile or strictly kept to themselves, too afraid to be a part of any noise that might attract unwanted attention. 

Thankfully the streets that Oliver walked seemed rather void of life, and he sighed in relief as his eyes landed on a partially crumbled gas station. There might be something of value inside there, even if it was just another lighter or something old and stale to keep him from starving. If anything at all it gave him a place to rest his aching legs, and he eagerly crept closer to it like it was a pool of water in the desert.

As usual, the front door and all the windows were barricaded. Most business owners had locked up their shops or boarded the walls and hid inside when the disaster struck, but it was clear that no one had been here for quite some time now. 

Oliver slipped quietly to the collapsed side of the building, spotting a decently sized hole through the rubble that he could worm his way through. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but he’d been in much sketchier situations before. 

“Slow and steady…” The brunet whispered encouragingly to himself as he crawled through, and he was entirely successful except for the tip of his foot catching the edge of a broken brick at the last second. A few pieces of the wall crumbled down some more and he sucked in a breath, preparing for it all to collapse, but nothing happened. The crumbs of dust and debris fell to the floor and everything shifted about an inch or so, but nothing more. 

The boy let out a deep sigh, keeping an eye on it for a few more seconds to make sure he was in the clear before turning around to investigate. He pulled his flashlight out of his bag and carefully looked around, turning over fallen shelves and looted machines in search of anything to aid him in his travels. 

As he looked he came up with less and less, finding practically nothing of use in the entire building until he wound up in the back offices. There, on the ground in the corner was a long screwdriver with a bright orange handle, next to a beige backpack. There were bloodstains everywhere in this room and it smelled absolutely terrible, but thankfully there was no body or attackers still present.

Oliver quickly grabbed the tool and the bag and rummaged through it, practically kissing the dirty cans of tuna and corn that his shaky hands found inside. This was more than enough for a meal for him, and he thanked his lucky stars that this had been here to find.

But he’d never been very lucky for too long.

In the distance a low, rhythmic sound drew closer. He hadn’t recognized it at first, too distracted by his discovery of food, but once he heard it his blood ran cold. Those were footsteps. Huge footsteps. What the hell was one of them doing way out here?

As quietly as he could he stored all of his things into the new bag that he’d found, and flung it over his shoulder. It was in much better condition than his old one, or even most of his clothes for that matter-- Everything he owned was either stained or torn or both, all patched up sloppily by his own unpracticed hand, but he did the best with what he had to work with. Which, unfortunately, wasn’t a lot most days.

He practically held his breath as he exited the putrid room back into the store, careful not to trip into anything in the dark. The flashlight had been stowed at his side, and he frantically glanced around for somewhere to duck out of view through the cracks as the menacing footsteps only grew closer.

His eyes lit up as they landed on the counter, holding a beaten and broken register, and he made his way over to hide behind it. But the wall that he came through couldn’t handle the rumble of the ground as each approaching step lightly shook the street, and it collapsed inwards violently. 

Oliver let out a short scream as part of the roof lost its support and came crashing down too, almost crushing him if he hadn’t backed up a few feet in surprise.

But what scared him the most was the silence that followed. His chest heaved up and down and a hand raced to clamp over his mouth like he could shove the noise back in. It was quiet now-- much too quiet. The footsteps had stopped completely, the desian no doubt hearing his startled noise amongst the building’s cave-in, and Oliver could only pray that they wouldn’t care enough to investigate. 

He shut his eyes and shrunk to the floor as he backed himself into a corner of the two remaining stable walls, vividly reminded of how he’d lost his family. He could clearly remember the sight of those massive hands pulling apart their old shelter until it was just rubble, seeing his father scrambling back as he pushed for Oliver to escape, yelling at him to run and not look back. But he did look back, just in time to see him being carried away in the beast’s hands like a frightened animal, captured and helpless. 

It'd been almost a year since then, and Oliver had remained hidden among the shredded remnants of society somewhat successfully until now. He would have traded anything in the world just to know where his dad had been taken so he could go and get him back, but everywhere he looked was only empty, desolate land. Nobody knew what happened to the humans that the desians took away- any that disappeared in their grasp were never heard from again.

So Oliver trembled in his skin as the footsteps resumed, growing ever closer. The vibrations in the floor ran up through his body, and despite him not wanting to look he couldn’t help but watch as the collapsed wall began to shift once more. He stared fearfully as large chunks of brick and concrete were tossed aside like they were nothing, hands as big as he was tall clearing away the debris.

His arms flew up to protect himself from a few bits that fell from the broken ceiling, which was ripped away and placed in the parking lot surrounding the building with a sickeningly loud scrape. He was fully exposed to the brisk open air now, staring face to face with one of the enders of the world.

He was terrified, but he couldn’t move or make a sound. He could only sit there and stare at the giant’s otherworldly features in the pale moonlight, hugging his knees as close to him as they could get. He could see flashes of silver and midnight blue as the giant moved, but his gaze stayed glued to the deep black void of their eyes.

They were like an abyss, mysterious and empty of emotion, cold and calculating as they stared him down. Oliver knew that to this monster crouched in front of him he was nothing more than a frightened rodent or some pest to do away with, and he could do nothing to stop it.

Agonizing moments of silence ticked by before the desian said something to him, something loud and foreign that he couldn't understand, and Oliver flinched at the sound.

He shrieked bloody murder as a dark blue hand came towards the building, inching closer to him, and all caution was thrown to the wind as he shuffled back along the wall to get away from it. But he knew he was trapped, and the dread sat heavy in his shaky limbs as his eyes darted to their claws.

"NO, NO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" He screamed, grabbing his knife and holding it in a trembling white-knuckled grip. It definitely couldn't do much against something of that size, but having any sort of defense in his hands felt better than nothing.

Miraculously, almost as if the giant could understand him, the hand stopped a few feet away. Oliver looked up from the approaching digits in shock and surprise, searching for any sort of recognition in the other's alien face, but there was nothing there. And in that moment of hesitance, that small little pause, the fingers closed the rest of the distance and wrapped around his tiny form.

"L-LET ME GO, YOU BIG OAF!" The brunet shouted angrily, writhing in the other's surprisingly gentle grasp as he was brought out of the dusty building. He moved enough to wiggle his arm free, the one still holding the knife, and with all his strength he dug it in as deep as it could sink and dragged it down it's thumb, spilling dark blood.

The giant hissed loudly in pain but instead of being dropped like he'd hoped the grip around Oliver merely tightened a fraction, sucking the air out of his lungs, and he immediately stopped fighting in fear of being squeezed to death.

He hated everything- the desians and their cruelty, the unwanted touch that felt like he was suffocating, the way his stomach churned as the ground disappeared further and further beneath him, the unfairness and helplessness of it all.

Tears streamed down his dirt-caked face, his anger bleeding into desperation as a box came into view through his blurry vision; It was roughly the size of a small bedroom, with a plain black door on the front.

"No, no! Please no-- DON'T!" He screamed some more, yet yell and kick and thrash all he might, the desian didn't budge. It simply lifted the boy over to the hole in the top, and placed him in gently without sparing so much as a second glance.

Oliver was quick to leave their grasp, but he liked this new empty prison even less. 

"LET ME OUT!!!" He pleaded all he could, voice cracking and raw. He pounded mercilessly against the wall with his fists, checked every possible point for structural damage that he could abuse, to no avail. He even threw himself against the locked door in hopes that it would break free of its hinges and he could ride with it to the ground, but it stayed steady in its place and only left him with a sore arm.

He was left in there with nothing but pain and silence to comfort him as he thought about the rest of his life.

Whatever a desian wanted a human for that didn't just involve outright killing them was probably a fate worse than death. He'd even attacked this one and it still didn't crush him, meaning that it wanted him for something else. A cold shudder of fear ran through his trembling body and he backed himself into the far corner again, wishing on any star above that he could get out of here.

He wasn't done with living- he was still young, had things he wanted to do and see at least once in his life before it ended. At the very least he couldn't die without seeing his dad once more, or hearing his voice or feeling his strong arms around him.

They walked for quite a while. For just how long he couldn't say, but he knew they must have covered tremendous ground with the giant's massive strides. Oliver held himself tighter, wishing he'd just been crushed instead of whatever this beast had plans for him. He felt himself grow miles and miles away from anything familiar, and he couldn't stop the horrible sobs that wracked his body.

The giant said nothing as they ventured on into the night.

Chapter Text

The second sun was going to explode. Every desian knew that as fact, and the sense of impending doom loomed over them like a guillotine about to chop. The dread in the air was so bitterly palpable-- No one on any planet in their system could calculate exactly when it was going to happen, but they all knew that it would be soon.

For it was prophesied, and a prophecy had never gone unfulfilled. 

Every citizen in the star system did all that they could to abandon their lives and flee into the distant stars upon hearing the news, charting courses to any and all other habitable locations throughout the universe. There were few and far in between that actually met adequate living standards, but the journey was necessary if they wanted to live.

However, some stayed behind. The thirteen planets in the massive solar system didn't entirely empty-- There were still desians left, whether they didn't have a ship to fly or were too attached to their land to leave or because they were simply interested in spending their last moments witnessing the death of the world. But many of them fled, in personal ships and colony fleets, until their home was but a shell of what it once was. 

Rubin had been shoved onto one of those colony ships one dreary day after the news broke. They weren't even supposed to be on it, but a spot had cleared and they weren't going to complain about nabbing a one-way ticket out of there, far away from the ticking time bomb of gas.

They spent a few years soaring through space, doing whatever work the crew tasked them with, before the ship's systems finally found a suitable match. They didn't think there would actually be much out here, at this lonely desolate star. It was a risk sending the fleet to the small planet but it had to do. There simply weren't any other nearby options-- the other planets and neighbouring systems were all either vastly uninhabitable or already full of other desians, and going back home wasn’t an option. 

When they landed on Earth they were quick to study their new environment, learning the ecosystem of the micro fauna and flora all around them. And when they came across the primitive humans they were quick to study them too, fascinated at such an abundant new discovery; They were hardly bigger than mice to most desians, and, as such, were treated as so. 

The humans' resistance in the beginning was an admirable effort but their retaliation didn't last long before they all abandoned pride and swapped fighting for hiding. Their feelings were so strong it was nearly intoxicating-- Rubin had never felt such unmasked emotion from an animal before, such intense fear and anger peppered with bits of awe and wonder. It was a power trip for most desians to see them flee and scurry beneath their feet, feeling their terror sharp and tangy in the air as they squeaked to one another in cries of help.

Needless to say it was ugly for quite a while. Most desians got over their fascination or grew bored of the reactions they received over the years, now seeing humans as nothing more than minor pests. Some took the little things into their homes, keeping them to watch over or toy with or pampering them like pets, but they were all so fragile and insignificant that most didn't bother to put in the effort.

Yet, despite the brutish nature of their kin, some desians felt sympathy for the things- Rubin included. After all, the humans witnessed the involuntary destruction of their world too, and had nowhere else to run. They were definitely intelligent, though maybe not on the same level, but they deserved to live their lives here nonetheless and eventually enough desians banded together to form an organization to help protect their dwindling population.

Rubin decided to join this force, not thinking much of it beyond saving the species. They'd never really spent much time around humans, or had any sort of interaction with one before- It didn't bring them delight to be feared if it wasn't out of respect, so they made a point to just avoid them altogether.

But something in them changed one day, when they saw the human compound. They found it fascinating to observe them in action, whether it was just conversing with each other as they went about their day, or the little tasks they busied themselves with, or the teamwork and communication and trust that they all had in one another. The kindness, the friendship, it all radiated a much different feeling than any desian could give off. 

It was… pleasant.

The means of getting the humans to the compound was much less pleasant, however. They never seemed to want to go by choice, so they were met with force. It’s simply the re-homing process, but it hadn’t gotten easier for Rubin over the years of rescuing. They hated the absolute terror they were greeted with, hated seeing their tears and hearing their screams for help, for anyone to save them, as if that’s what Rubin wasn’t already doing.

Admittedly, they’d been a little rough at first. They didn’t know just how fragile a human was, or how frantically one would try to get away once they got their hands on it. This resulted in more than a couple accidental injuries, but through a bit of care and practice they’d learned how to handle them and found a proper way to carry them around on long journeys.

And tonight Rubin was out once more, on another hunt for any more souls to save. While most humans were diurnal beings it was just as common to find them in the dead of night, usually hiding in burrows and broken buildings, scampering between the shadows. This tiny town seemed as empty as it looked as the giant picked their way through the streets, keeping a sharp eye out for anything moving. It was eerily quiet, like always, but after another step their attention was diverted to a crumbling building down the block, and the scared yelp that came from within.

There it was.

Rubin couldn’t fathom how so much pain and fear could radiate from something so small, but it only seemed to increase as they grew closer. Their eyes narrowed slightly as they landed on the gas station, the strongest source of panic for miles around. It was a dirty old building to begin with, broken and scarred from forced entries and improper care, but the one side looked hardly more than rubble as Rubin knelt to the ground beside it. Very carefully they pulled away the wreckage, hoping that they wouldn’t find some half crushed human at the bottom of it all.

Thankfully, it looked fine. It was extremely shaken and pressed up as far away from them as it could get. It didn’t look injured and the desian figured that was a good start, but these conditions certainly weren’t liveable for any sort of being.

“C'mon, let's get you out of there..." Rubin sighed as they carefully reached forward. Like everything else that was small on this planet it simply cowered away from them as their hand grew closer. Even their slowest movements seemed to somehow terrify the poor thing even more-- but this one had actually backed up and drawn its weapon before it could be grabbed, unlike most they had ever encountered.

Hesitation clung to them for a brief moment as they met the wild look in the other’s bright eyes. It was clearly yelling at them, but they couldn’t understand a word of what the thing was pleading. They’d never bothered to learn any human languages because they felt it would only make the fetching harder. Actually understanding every word that was said as they bargained for their lives was not something Rubin was keen on experiencing; The language barrier of the situation was like a nice blanket on the cruelty of it all- but they didn’t need to know any words to know that this one was scared out of its wits.

The desian took advantage of their brief distraction, quickly hooking their fingers around them and pulling them out of the dark as carefully as they could. The human squirmed and writhed in protest, and had actually managed to break an arm free and cut their thumb with the blade. Rubin sucked in a breath through their sharp teeth and their grip involuntarily tightened, but it didn’t last for long. 

“Feisty one, aren’t you?” They commented as they swiftly deposited the human into the box, and plucked the knife out with a grimace at the blood that dripped down their hand.

Like the others this one hated the container too, but it was the best way to get this done. Rubin was contemplating giving the tiny weapon back, as they didn’t want to take away any of their defenses, but as they listened to it throw itself around the room in hysteria they decided against it. The last thing they wanted would be for the other small ones to open the door to a big bloody mess; they hadn’t been fetching for too long, but that would surely put a stain on their reputation.

After a few minutes of walking, the human settled down a little. The terror was still thick in the air, now mixed with heavy doses of anxiety, remorse and depression that only made Rubin walk faster. They wanted nothing more than to show the little one they’d trapped that they had no intentions of hurting them and that they were bringing them to safety, but it seemed no human could understand their signals. So they walked in silence, knowing that any comfort they did try to give would only come off the wrong way.

Eventually the faint glow of the human village came into view, and Rubin slowed their pace. They’d grown used to being cautious around here, not wanting to step on anything the humans had built or any who decided to run away. They blinked, their eyes easily scanning for hazards in the dark as they walked the lone road to the edge of the claim. The desians had agreed to never go inside unless they were dropping more supplies or people off, and even then it was at designated areas far away from any living structure. 

As Rubin approached, so did a small group of curious humans with lights who seemed to always keep watch at night. They immediately recognized the box and the giant carrying it, and made space for them to set it down. One lone human approached the box with the key to it’s door, but Rubin didn’t stick around to watch the welcome party knowing that their presence would only make things worse.

Instead they simply left in silence and slinked into the darkness, aching to subdue the slight stinging in their hand.