Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The HIA system—the Hostile Intensity Assessment system—was used by the Universal Union to assess how dangerous a planet was, they based it on three main factors:

1: A planet's physical features: terrain, climate and weather.

2: A planet's dominant life force, like whether or not it's sentient, how aggressive or friendly it is, if it's a hive mind or individual-based, general stuff.

3: A planet's well-being, to give a few examples: how polluted it is, how close its core is to imploding or exploding, how close its sun is to consuming it, if it's fractured, how its atmosphere is holding up. (Sometimes the third factor is non-applicable because not all planets have a core, sun, atmosphere, or inevitable event horizon.)

Once the HIA system is used, the planet is classified as belonging to one of five types of planet:

Classification ᔑ: The safest type of planet. Planets of this classification include the surrounding solar system in the classification. Planets in this classification are typically highly policed to protect the peace, unless they are newly discovered, in which case after the HIA system has confirmed the classification, supplies are sent nearly immediately. Planets with this classification are generally considered to have extremely friendly people and very low crime rates.

Classification ʖ: The second safest type of planet. These planets are generally the same as Classification ᔑ planets except for the fact that they're less policed and there are more freedoms for the people, however, crime is freer as well. Planets with this classification are generally considered to have fairly friendly people and reasonable crime rates.

Classification ᓵ: The third type of planet is fairly safe, though they are typically ranked this way because a few or maybe even all of the surrounding planets are unsafe and have an...unsettling attitude towards visitors. Planets with this classification are generally considered to have welcoming enough people and low-medium crime rates.

Classification ↸: Typically, these planets are either deathworlds or have an extremely violent species roaming it, occasionally both, when visiting these planets a guide is highly recommended as they are considered very dangerous and not tourist safe. Sometimes, on these planets, only a chunk is allowed to be observed, the rest is cut off to any and all outsiders. Planets with this classification are generally considered to have flippant and/or aggressive people and medium-high crime rates.

Classification ᒷ: These are the worst of the worst, on a need-to-visit basis, these worlds are mostly deathworlds, mostly inhabited by war-driven species with a thirst for blood or sociopathic species with an apathy towards everything and everyone. These planets are not open to tourism of any kind, deals can only be made with the dominant species for scientists or diplomats to visit with a guide that guarantees their safety. Planets with this classification are generally considered to have violent or murderous people and extremely high crime rates by the UU's definition of crime.

The discovery of Delltikae and its inhabitants warranted the creation of a new type:

Classification ⎓: Do not land, do not enter the air space, do not enter another planet in the solar system, do not enter the solar system, do not enter the galaxy, do not enter the surrounding hundred galaxies! DO NOT ALLOW THE DOMINANT LIFEFORM TO BE MADE AWARE OF THE EXISTENCE OF OFF-PLANET SENTIENT BEINGS.

Ranboo was quiet, that's just how they were, it was thanks to their head buzzing to the tune of The Walk at all hours of the day/night cycle their "owners" had chosen. The Walk made it easier to do as they were told and complete any labors that their "owners" required without the typical mental strain that came with being unwillfully employed.

Ranboo was also quiet when The Walk wasn't present, though that was not often, as The Walk not being present was saved for when there was something that required their genuine focus and not just a mindless drone to be told what to do. They were drawn out to pay attention when they were being sold, it wasn't a new thing and they were back in The Walk spon enough, it didn't phase them like it did the first time that it had happened, what did phase them however, was what they were expected to do.

Ranboo was not a fighter and they certainly weren't someone who should hold their focus under stress for more than a day/night cycle, but they could no longer afford to listen to The Walk if they wanted to keep their head.

They were forced to focus, forced to fight alongside people and animals who hated the situation they were in and by association, everyone in it. Ranboo was snapped or screamed at on the constant by beings that Ranboo was supposed to entrust with their life, so they let the nature of "everyone for themselves" take hold and allowed everything that breathed to melt into meaningless blotches.

The blotches came and went, sometimes they would leave and never come back, sometimes a new blotch would stay for a bit then pass through, sometimes a new blotch would stay for good, sometimes a bunch of blotches would go out on a "mission" and only a few would come back, one time only one blurry figure came back after many figures left, but that one was taken away never to be seen again less than ten artificial day/night cycles later.

Ranboo could always tell the difference between this blotch and that blotch, it was their basic prey instinct to identify the features of a predator and their basic predator instincts to identify the features of prey...Ranboo really tried not to notice, though, it was for their own good, if they couldn't recognize anything then it meant that they probably wouldn't be viably threatened, or, y'know, get attached to anything.

Well, you know what they say: all good things must come to an end.

✧⟢✦⟣★⟢✦⟣✧

The ship was readying for takeoff, which to Ranboo meant that the newcomer was particularly volatile and that Ranboo's "owners" didn't want to break whatever it was in whilst grounded.

Ranboo had been lounging in the cell that they shared with three more beings. The other three didn't seem to be sapient, then again, Ranboo knew that sapient people went into the same cells as other sapient people, so either Ranboo wasn't considered sapient here or all four of them were sapient...they wouldn't put any money on the latter.

The ship startled and began shaking furiously, like the pilots had skipped all the safety procedures and cautions and just started takeoff...Oh! OH! The ship rattled dangerously and Ranboo struggled to stand, usually they had a few minutes, not today, they supposed. They moved through the force of the quakes with great effort to get to their ledge and lay down. Ranboo managed to press the button that made the straps in the edges of the ledge fly out, snap together in the air and tighten according to the body shape of the being occupying the ledge.

Ranboo was secured seemingly just in time as the ship came to a terrifying stop with all of the engines heated up and ready, the only being in their cell that was not secure scrambled onto its own ledge and slammed down on the button.

Ranboo warble-whispered numbers that could only be comforting to them. It was better to count than to be caught off guard. "One, two, three,"

"four, five, six,"

"seven."

The ship threw itself, catapulting high into the air before beginning to free fall, Ranboo experienced maybe four seconds of weightlessness before the ship violently caught itself again and the engines groaned to life.

The worst part was over and the ascent had begun, though this part was shaky and uncomfortable, once they hit space it would be smooth sailing, at least, until their next...excursion.

But that would be awhile from now and Ranboo had plenty of- they were docking.

They blinked rapidly as The Walk's effects ebbed away and out of reach, Ranboo hated when it did that. They never used to hate The Walk, they used to love it more than anything, The Walk used to steal them away from the difficult moments and into a realm that was nothing but fuzziness and comfort, but now? Instead of stealing Ranboo themselves, it stole Ranboo's time and forced the moments that Ranboo hated closer and closer together.

The door to their cell slid open with no indication other than a beep and Ranboo was reminded just how badly they didn't want to do what they were about to have to do as they dragged their eyes over to the opening.

The person on the other side of the door was not the person who collected them for "work", no, it was the person who collected them for feedings or for enrichment, sometimes both.

All of the other creatures darted out, except for Ranboo, who kept a cautious shuffle going, the person on the other side of the door waited patiently. Ranboo didn't know how long it'd been since the violent takeoff or how far they were from the planet they were just on, but chances were it'd been awhile since anyone had eaten, since they certainly hadn't eaten this automated day/night cycle.

They got to the door and the person turned on their heel and started walking, leading them down the hall to the recreational room, so yeah, enrichment, great, that was good, there was a clock in the recreation room, which meant that they could see how long they were stuck in The Walk.

The recreation room was a circular room that was made mostly of clear metal, with the exception being the floor and the floor being made of solid tile because most people found the sight of being both under and over the endless galaxy disorienting.

The room dipped around the rim, making room for real soils and grasses of all kinds, there were nesting materials scattered around along with couches and chairs. Ranboo wasn't sure why the owners of the ship bothered with making such a nice thing for the people and animals they forced to do their bidding, but hey, was Ranboo going to complain about receiving minor amounts of good treatment instead of completely terrible treatment? Absolutely not.

They walked towards the center of the room where some kiosks were waiting, the kiosks didn't accept any payment, but the better you did during "work", the more options you had to choose from. Ranboo looked down and saw the indigo lights flashing, indicating that the kiosks were open, they clicked a few buttons and were eventually presented with bars of protein. They did have quite the range of options, but they did not take more than they needed, they enjoyed nothing about what they had to do to survive, and they certainly wouldn't reward themselves for it.

Ranboo collected the bars and walked past the kiosks, they sat down at the edge of the room, their claws in the grass, they looked up at the clock whilst they took their first bite and...oh, it'd been twenty-three hours since they'd last eaten.

No wonder the kiosks were open.

Eventually one of the guards appeared next to them, the person tried to make eye contact, but Ranboo immediately ducked their head to avoid it. Something is yelled at them, but not in common, never in common...though they don't know what it actually means, they do recognize it as a command, it's said fairly often and it is said to everyone, it's something along the lines of 'follow' or 'come here'. The words are seemingly interchangeable.

Ranboo, despite not having eaten in an absurd amount of time, wasn't really hungry and had still only taken a bite out of one of their three tasteless bars. Ranboo seriously considered just stopping and eating later, but they knew that they wouldn't get to bring the bars back to the cell with them.

Ranboo made their decision and their jaw unhinged and with a weird pop and what sounded like a muted yell, if that made any sense. They downed their 'meal' and stood up. The guard looked extremely uncomfortable, but took the chance to turn around and start walking away as soon as Ranboo was fully up.

This didn't happen often, so Ranboo could only imagine this was a health check, or maybe a separation? Ranboo was basically the rule for a technicality when it came to being a deathworlder because they were exceedingly gentle with everything, they could only guess that their "owners" saw this as them lacking the all of the usual predator instincts because they were young, but really they were just determined not to make any enemies here. Sometimes, when a newcomer arrived, they would take anything predator-like from the recreation room and put the beings in another room or back in their cell, which sounded right, because medical visits were usually periodical and there was a new visitor.

Ranboo followed along with this new person, even when they passed the separation room and felt the familiar disappointment of knowing that they were going back to that cramped room- Ranboo shook it off and kept following, they were barely aware of their surroundings for a minute because they knew where they were headed, but then the guard took a left instead of continuing forward.

Ranboo just stopped, trying to keep their brain working while the guard kept walking...were they supposed to wait here for someone else? Well, the door to the left hall had been left open, but not the one that led to the cells, so maybe...? Okay, it's not like the guard had given the order for them to stay, so it was probably okay to follow, even though they've never been allowed in there before...Okay, this would be fine.

Ranboo took one very cautious step over the threshold and nothing happened, so they started walking after the guard.

The guard stopped at the end of the hall and waited for them, which they appreciated even though it probably wasn't for their benefit.

The hall did continue to the right, but to the left there was a staircase and Ranboo was nudged onto the first step and then handed a tray full of food and some sort of liquid. The guard was speaking for a good minute before looking at Ranboo, again trying to make eye contact, Ranboo avoided their eyes and looked at their forehead instead, the guard pointed at the door at the bottom of the stairs, and said three words which Ranboo had come to dub as 'go' 'drop it' and 'follow'. So...go in, drop the tray, and come back, or follow whoever was inside?

Ranboo didn't dwell on it and just focused on the 'go' part, they got to the bottom of the stairs and the door opened with a hiss, something clattered when they tried to step forward and they found a bunch of trays full of food dropped there...oh...they looked back and the guard wasn't even there anymore.

Ranboo breathed in, then nudged the trays to the side and stepped in, the door closed behind them with another hiss and then the door in front of them opened.

Ranboo was greeted with the sight of an extraordinarily large cell, the walls, floor, and ceiling covered with bright red padding.

On the side of the room that Ranboo was closest to, there was nothing and it was devoid of any and all signs of life.

In the middle of the room, there was a heap of black powder forming a line from wall to wall, separating the room into halves.

On the side of the room farthest from Ranboo lie a broken down gravity-negating bed with the mattress torn out, blankets pulled into a heap on the floor with some foam—presumably from the torn out mattress—sticking out of it, a bunch of food and liquid reserves behind the heap, and some odd symbols on the wall behind the reserves in the shapes of 'FUCK YOU'.

Ranboo stepped into the room, exercising caution as they did so, when the door hissed shut with the airlock they were tempted to look back, but they were quickly distracted by the heap moving, it continued to rustle for a solid few seconds before a limb emerged, following that, a head, but not just any head, the head of a deltzit.

A deltzit.

A deltzit looking at Ranboo.

A deltzit baring its teeth.

A deltzit rising from its nest.

A deltzit, looking at Ranboo, baring its teeth and very slightly risen out of its nest.

An extremely unwanted spike of fear ran from their brain through the rest of their body as the deltzit stared. It took Ranboo an embarrassing amount of time to realize that the deltzit was eyeing the tray in their hands, not them.

Oh! Yes! 'Go, drop it, follow', perhaps Ranboo wouldn't be eaten if they gave the deltzit its food?

They decided to go against their instincts and go towards the deltzit, they figured if they delivered the food as close as possible to the deltzit and then retreated into the corner of the room it might forget they were ever there.

This was apparently, no, obviously the wrong move.

A few strides were fine but when Ranboo tried to take a fifth step the deltzit screeched and rose all the way out of its nest and to its full height! Ranboo, naturally, jumped back, they dropped the tray in the process and by doing that sealed their fate as the deltzits dinner.

Ranboo scrambled back and into the corner of the room in order to get as far away from the deltzit as possible.

The deltzit huffed when Ranboo stopped moving and got low again, it inched forward until it got to the line of black powder and pushed the powder into place until the line was even again. Seemingly, Ranboo had ruined it when they stepped on it.

The deltzit grumbled and then looked over at Ranboo, its piercing blue eyes taking in every inch of Ranboo like they were a meal, and, in the interest of fairness, they were about to be.

Or...or not...the deltzit blinked and dragged its eyes away from Ranboo before retreating into its nest, burying itself within the blankets once more.

The airlock slid open about twenty feet away from Ranboo with the simple command sounding from a detached voice: "Follow."

Ranboo took the opportunity to bolt.

Ranboo was not very strong, or smart, really they had no outstanding qualities other than being a vuidspett and having the ability to teleport, they didn't know the names of very many species, none of the species on this ship were recognizable, but everyone knew what deltzin were, even through the fog of The Walk they'd of known, absolutely everyone knew, simply because of just how deadly they were.

But that was over now.

Ranboo managed to register the door sliding shut behind them before they took the step through the next door and began following the guard that was waiting for them.

✧⟢✦⟣★⟢✦⟣✧

"I really don't think that thing is going to eat anyone, you're being dramatic."

"Yeah, sure, because it didn't eat anything on the last ship it was on!"

"So it has a taste for dreinds, do either of us even look like dreinds? Besides, we're testing its interaction with unarmed living things today!"

"We're what!?"

"Well, I mean, we're not, they are." He pointed at the guard walking an unsuspecting vuidspett towards the deltzits room.

"W-Why are we doing that!? That doesn't seem at all productive! If we're going to sell a deltzit, it doesn't need to know how to deal with unarmed-"

"Yeah, we're not selling it anymore, apparently the higher-ups thought it would be more productive if we just used it on missions and whatnot."

Xey took a moment to process.

"...Why're we sacrificing a vuidspett, I've only heard good things about it and I'm pretty sure we only have one?"

"We do, and as far as I know it's because it mostly maims its assignments and only if the assignment attacks first or if it's directly told to maim them, otherwise it's pretty peaceful, even towards its few predators...I think they're hoping if it doesn't attack the deltzit the deltzit won't attack it, which saves them the trouble of having to train the deltzit not to attack everything that's unarmed and moves."

"I was told it did attack some of our guards."

"Well, yeah, but that was before they drew the line with the powder and gave it more powder to mark its territory with, remember?"

"No, I don't remember, this is my first shift watching it."

"Oh...right...then you gotta simmer down dude, if you can't handle just watching it you should see if you can get transferred."

"Yeah, maybe."

Chapter Text

So, apparently, Ranboo's brush with living, breathing, snarling, hissing, growling and barking death was simply not enough of a fright suffered on their part for their owners to be satisfied. The ritual where Ranboo would be forced bring food to something that clearly didn't care for their presence at all was a daily thing, specifically on the fourteenth hour of every day...though at least Ranboo was afforded the kindness of not being left wondering when their next great fright would be.

To Ranboo's surprise, their cellmates noticed Ranboo's extra daily excursion and were therefore treating Ranboo noticeably colder in return, though Ranboo didn't know if that was because their scent had changed, if they seemed to carry an extra layer of fear on them, or because the others thought they were receiving preferential treatment. If it were the latter, they would gladly trade situations with any one of the others.

Speaking of, their internal dread had hit a high point, so it was bound to be soon that they were dragged off and made to feed the thing– Ranboo wasn't entirely sure why it was them that had to do it in the first place...then again, their owners typically fed everyone twice a day, so Ranboo could only imagine that there was someone else in Ranboo's predicament, but at night...they shuddered at the thought of having to be near the deltzit while it was hungry and tired.

Ranboo watched as their cell door opened to reveal the same guard who had been collecting them for the past six days. The person gestured because they knew that they didn't need the verbal command to get Ranboo to start following them.

It all happened too quickly, one minute Ranboo was a tightly wound ball of anxiety in their cell and the next they were a nearly cracking ball of pressure in a deltzits cell! They followed the routine of setting down the tray just short of the line that was drawn and speeding back to the door to wait for it to open perfectly, which meant that they were just so close to being able to melt into a puddle of relief. There was only one issue, the door was not opening.

They turned around nervously, the deltzit was used to the routine of it by now as well, it seemed, because it was halfway back into its nest with the tray in tow when it looked up at Ranbop. The hair above its eye moved upward and the hair above its other eye scrunched–oh, they did not like that at all! Was that some sort of threat? Ranboo did not want to be killed by this thing, thank you very much!

Ranboo looked back at the door and loudly warbled for it to open, all they got was a strangled noise and their voice sore from almost never being used, they seriously considered stopping and accepting their—although violent—death, it would certainly be a kinder fate to them than them bringing death to others like they did now...

The deltzit barked and they were right back to warbling.

Ranboo didn't stop until they worked their voiced into screaming along with unhinging their jaw, they were stubborn and refused to die–

They flinched when something touched their arm, they closed their jaw with two deafening clicks as they turned around and saw...it.

Ranboo, although realizing it was much too late, decided to go completely silent. The deltzit huffed and barked at them, they cowered and it dropped their arm, Ranboo bolted into the nearest corner, pressing themself into it as hard as possible as though they could weld into the wall if they tried hard enough.

"Please don't eat me." Were the words that Ranboo uttered when the deltzit didn't attack yet made no move to get back to its nest. The common tongue, no, the common language,was the only one that Ranboo had learnt outside of the one used on their homeworld, they learned it prior to touring the stars because they figured it would be universal, just their luck that their species had a reputation for being semi-sentient and only semi-sentient sometimes...but hey, if just this once fate would take pity on them and allow this deltzit to somehow know or have any understanding of common, everything would be fine as long as they devised a compelling argument for them to NOT be the deltzits next meal.

Fate had no pity and was a cruel, cruel force, then again, the deltzit only barked again before turning around and moving back to its nest, folding back down and beginning to eat, Ranboo promised—no matter how disgusting and at the same time violently terrifying it was to watch—not to gag to avoid any more attention.

Luckily—finally some luck—Ranboo was not forced to endure the deltzits meal for long, because the door slid open with a much too familiar hiss and they were home free!

✧⟢✦⟣★⟢✦⟣✧

Over the past four days, Ranboo had been forced to spend more and more time with the deltzit each day, over an hour the last time, then Ranboo was given a private cell. They didn't own any belongings as that wasn't allowed, so there was no hassle in moving them, but there were a few surprises, like the fact that there were two beds! Not ledges, beds! Well, they actually were ledges but with very comfortable material embedded in them instead of the regular uncomfortable and freezing-cold metal!

Ranboo had been on this ship for months and had never received a soft surface to sleep upon, but they'd been seeing the deltzit for eleven day/night cycles and all of a sudden they were given such nice things and a room of their own? Also, they'd have to be a fool not to notice that they haven't been called out for work in awhile.

Contrary to the belief that was based on the reputation that their species maintained, Ranboo was not stupid, they knew that they were being rewarded for not attacking the deltzit and 'playing nice' and they knew that if the deltzit hadn't been killed or sold already, it was probably here to stay, which meant that the second bed was going to be used for something, and Ranboo had a pretty good guess as to what.

Ranboo—in the interest of self-preservation and a want to not live in constant fear once the deltzit began sharing a room with them—decided to try and be friendly with the deltzit.

The time for terror rolled around again and Ranboo was as ready and relaxed as possible, then their new door that wasn't nearly as silent as their old door slid open and their anxiety was right back up there where it belongs.

Ranboo warbled to themselves as they walked behind the guard, they were trying to calm their nerves and keep their vocal cords in use at the same time, though the noises died out as soon as they were directed down the stairs. The trays in the airlock had long-since been cleaned out, making the transition from door to door to door clutterless and therefore much easier.

Ranboo stepped through the final door and was greeted with the sight of the deltzit already waiting for them with its two front limbs extended towards them and its paws flexing in a swift manner that made the wiggly parts of its paws hit the connecting part of both paws.

Ranboo obliged the phantom grabbing and actually put the tray into the deltzits grip. The deltzit seemed shocked—¿offended?—by Ranboo's gesture but allowed it without attacking nonetheless, so Ranboo took it as a win. Ranboo stood and began retreating into the corner before remembering that this thing was going to sleep in the same room as them and they didn't want to set the precedent that as long as it was in the room, Ranboo would be the one to flee.

Ranboo sighed, they gathered themselves and walked back over to the deltzit, they sat as close to the line as they could without seeming like they were trying to infringe on the deltzits territory. Even so, the deltzit looked up and without a second thought leaned forward and snapped its jaw at Ranboo. Ranboo was against the wall within the second, that instinct in them that needed to transport them as far away as possible from the threat in their midst rarely showed up but every time it had so far Ranboo was more than grateful.

Ranboo sunk down and onto the floor as their hearts thudded out of rhythm, trying to move blood through a recently voided body. Just a few feet away from them, the door slid open with an oh-so familiar mechanical hiss, ensuring Ranboo's freedom, but all Ranboo could do was pant as their body tried to recover.

What their instincts had forgotten in their rushed need to get away was that Ranboo would be immobile for quite a few seconds and the deltzit would be fully operational, not that their instincts would have been concerned, so far the deltzit had shown no interest in leaving its nest-

There was a bark that came from above them, Ranboo forced their eyes over to their left and were met with the sight of the deltzit's hind legs. It was standing. Bipedal. Ranboo's eyes trailed up and found its upper limbs bent with its paws on the part that connected its torso to its legs. Eugh...oh! Much more disgusting than its oddly-bent limbs were its teeth, sharp and thin, like they were made to bite, probably because they were– did Ranboo mention that those same teeth were bared and the deltzit was still barking at them!?

Ranboo jumped up as soon as they had recovered and gotten past the shock of the deltzit being out of its nest and ready to eat them, they bolted, the door was so hasty to close behind them that it nearly cut off their tail. The deltzit, surprisingly, did not follow them to the door and Ranboo could clearly see it move back to its nest and continue its meal like nothing happened.

✧⟢✦⟣★⟢✦⟣✧

Ranboo wasn't called out to see the deltzit again for ten full day/night cycles and in that time they were brought out on work twice and both times Ranboo behaved terribly, they were violent, terrified, and completely absent-minded about the damage they were causing. They were lavishly rewarded for such.

Finally, they saw the same guard who escorted them to their visits with the deltzit approach after setting yet another extremely frazzled looking animal free in the recreational center. The person demanded Ranboo to follow with that same command and Ranboo was...less than willing, nonetheless, many tugs of their arm and much groaning from Ranboo later, Ranboo was once again in the airlock.

The room was worse for wear, padding from the walls had been torn out and the deltzit's nest was now a mess of scattered and loose blankets and pillows instead of the tight heap they were before. Ranboo hadn't thought that the loss of a kill could generate this much emotional release...oh, Ranboo was truly and utterly done for.

The deltzit was far in the corner, curled up and still on its side of the room, though the line that used to be in the middle of the room was just scattered dust now.

They warbled softly in greeting to the either extremely distressed or extremely violent deltzit, hoping to any and every deity that Ranboo didn't believe in that it was the first and they could be of comfort instead of made into food, then the deltzit stood up—to its full height yet again—and dashed full speed at Ranboo, lunging right before it got to them. Ranboo cursed all the deities for the death they were about to suffer.

Unfortunately, Ranboo did not get to pass out and miss the horrifying experience like they had hoped, instead they were slammed into the wall with the force of the deltzit and then pulled along to its nest, presumably so that it could enjoy its newest kill...

Ranboo was shoved down to lie on their back and then the deltzit kneeled next to them with its knees that bent the wrong way, well actually, they had seen those types of knees maybe once or twice before- the deltzit barked quietly and- wait, could that be achieved? A quiet bark?

It took Ranboo a minute to catch up with the deltzit's constant barking to realize that it wasn't barking at all, it was yipping– no, not that either, it was more like yapping at Ranboo, which was fine with Ranboo because it yapping meant that it wasn't eating them.

The deltzit did not cease in its yapping for a long while, nor did Ranboo's hearts stop beating extra fast every time they saw the deltzit's horrifying teeth, which, by the way, got bigger the further back they went into its mouth. Ranboo could see all of it from their unfortunate position on the floor but they didn't dare to move, to remind or worse, make the deltzit aware that Ranboo was still alive and in fact not ready to be eaten.

Eventually, the deltzit looked up from Ranboo's nose to meet their eyes only for them to flinch and try to scramble away, this was not allowed by the animal holding them captive, evident by Ranboo being pressed back down into the nest by their chest. The deltzit moved Ranboo onto its folded legs, with their back on one of its upper limbs.

Ranboo wasn't entirely sure what to do, they couldn't flee but they weren't being eaten, and that only brought the idea that deltzits liked to play with their kills to the front of their mind. Fortunately, the deltzit didn't leave them to stir for long and instead of being silent, started humming. Call Ranboo crazy, but they knew a melody when they heard one.

Ranboo's pupils involuntarily dilated at the music, it'd been so long since they'd heard music and it reminded them of the first time they'd ever heard a song and the deltzit didn't exactly make the warmth of their feelings go away when it started yapping along with a hummed melody, somehow carrying it into– words?

Ranboo breathed out slowly with a breath that they didn't know was in their lungs. "You're so far from home."

The deltzit tilted its head with an abrupt end to its song. It brought to mind the first time Ranboo had been isolated after- "You probably have a pack back on Delltikae, huh?"

The deltzit just stared. Ranboo couldn't help but notice that the connecting parts of its upper limbs and torso matched the color of the room.

"I'm gonna call you Red, if that's okay."

Red seemed okay with this development, because when Ranboo stopped making noise, it went back to humming and yapping at the same time.

Ranboo decided that they rather liked Red. Enough to fall asleep next to it, anyway.

Chapter Text

Tubbo was trouble, he knew it and everyone around him knew it, he'd been trouble since he had come out of his brood cell early and survived, he'd been trouble in school and he'd been trouble on every ship he'd ever boarded—which is why he was only ever qualified for temporary assignments—and therefore Tubbo was practically shunned from every space he dared to occupy, except for the space he had with his most recent crew. Tubbo's most recent assignment was amazing, it has lasted longer than all the others and for the most part, the entire crew could put up with him and his endless antics perfectly, perfect to the point that he considered them to be his swarm and he knew for a fact that they considered him their individual equivalents.

It was a fairly odd crew, though, with the seemingly random species selection and alarmingly small number of people in the crew for the size of the ship, it was bound to have its quirks, such as the crew being bounty hunters!...Tubbo didn't mind at all, in fact, he thought it was pretty cool, but he had also been blinded to the costs that came with being associated with people who hunted down other people because he hadn't seen any of the consequences for himself. Well, the blindfold was being taken off now, figuratively and literally.

Strangely enough, this was far from the first time Tubbo's been kidnapped, but this was the first time he'd been kidnapped under the circumstances of being a crewmember of the S8I.

Now that Tubbo could actually see, he was very aware of the person in front of him, they were a citeweal, but more importantly, they—as far as Tubbo could tell—were the only person wearing a translator, and they used it; "What do you want?"

One of Tubbo's antennae flicked in an indifferent gesture. "To go home?"

The metal-plated being in front of him let out an unamused huff. "Why were you following us?"

Tubbo tilted his head, more trying to display innocence over curiosity. "I wasn't?"

The other glared at the wall behind Tubbo like it would make Tubbo cooperate with them before they dragged their eyes back onto him. "What were you all the way out here without the rest of your crew?"

"Collecting rare plant samples." Tubbo blinked with his inner eyelids in a faux display of friendliness. "The moon next to-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." The citeweal stopped paying attention to Tubbo, their attention turned to one of the three people who had brought Tubbo in, they yanked their translator off of their neck, disabled it, and put it away before they began yelling at the other guard.

It's a real shame that they hadn't given Tubbo's green earring another glance if they didn't want him eavesdropping.

"We do not need this kind of attention right now, especially with- why would you take the runt? Are you a untranslated!?"

The—what Tubbo can only assume is a—lesser officer looked only slightly ashamed. "There's no need for that sort of language, besides, you should be grateful, what if the S8I is really hunting us?"

"If you suspected such a thing then you should've alerted me and then me and your superiors would've handled it, but since you didn't, I now have to deal with the fact that the S8I's crew is most definitely hunting us because we've kidnapped their only young!" Tubbo had had no idea that citeweals could hiss in the first place. "What exactly do you think is going to happen to us when our ship gets attacked by three experienced bounty hunters?"

Now the other guard looked defeated, as if they were a child being scolded. "We'll probably end up in jail..."

"No, we'll be eaten by a untranslated the second the doors power down."

The junior officer paused and looked up with a truly surprised look. "Is that what you're worried about? You gotta learn to lighten up dude, that thing isn't gonna eat anyone, ever since it pack-"

"It bit someone last week!"

"Xey left with all xer limbs attached, didn't xey!?"

"Oh I cannot deal with the likes of you right now!" The citeweal let out an annoyed exhale. "You know if this falls back on us badly I can't save you, right?"

"I am one, no, two hundred percent confident that nothing bad will happen!"

"That's not even- alright, fine, since this is your problem through-and-through, have at it, but don't break this." They pulled their translator out from where they had stored it away and tossed it at the lesser officer, the lesser fumbled and barely caught it.

"Wait- what? Me? Wait-" The door was already closing behind the citeweal.

The junior turned to Tubbo for the first time and attempted to puff themselves out to look larger than they were, they hung the translator around their neck and started up; "Alright listen here, we're going to be gracious and return you to your keepers provided that you persuade them not to follow us, as your capture was an honest mistake."

Tubbo let his wings buzz in indignance instead of answering this asshole because how dare they think that Tubbo had keepers. The aforementioned asshole stared at Tubbo for a few seconds, seemingly getting more and more frustrated before they looked down and awkwardly turned on the translator. Tubbo hadn't even noticed that they'd forgotten.

"Um...we'll return you to your guardians if you have them promise to not to attack us."

Tubbo stared at the person across from them. "You're an idiot."

The dimwit took a step forward in what Tubbo thought was a rather threatening manner. "Do you want to die?-"

One of the other guards who brought Tubbo in and who Tubbo thought was another junior officer put their hand on their co-worker's elbow and rumbled out a purr of sorts. "We don't have to threaten them, we can just throw them in with the untranslated until they're scared enough to comply."

"Yeah, but what if the beast attacks them? It might think that we are trying to replace the untranslated and I don't know about you, but I don't want to hand a mangled child that first came in perfect condition over to the S8I."

"Okay, but consider this, if it does attack, we'll have a frame of reference for what the bond actually is that we can give to the department upstairs..."

Tubbo, now nervous at talks of some sort of beast attacking him, piped up. "You know that I can hear you two, right?"

They both looked away from each other and at Tubbo, before the main one began speaking again. "Good news, we've decided to afford you time to think it over!"

"Now hold on-" A gesture from the guard who hadn't spoken to Tubbo yet had a third guard coming out of the shadows and to the center of the room. Tubbo actually began to struggle against the binds they had him in but found it to be a useless effort as he was picked up.

Tubbo seethed at the disrespect. "Put me d-"

Suddenly, there was some sort of limb over Tubbo's mouth which Tubbo couldn't identify as either a paw, hand, hoove or just an arm in general, not that it mattered. They hurriedly left the room and Tubbo was carried down a long series of turns and elevators which eventually ended in a heavily reinforced set of two doors that held a swarm of animals and people all of which common sense dictates should never mix...yet there wasn't any fighting-

Tubbo was beginning to get a sickening feeling about the kind of ship that he had stumbled across, a few of the animals that Tubbo could see here required major permits to gain so much as the ability to take them off-planet, Tubbo would know because he's tried, they take revolutions to manage and are highly monitored by the U.U. and this, with the animals exposed to all these other animals so openly...this certainly isn't allowed, so Tubbo feels safe in his assumption that this is an illegal operation.

Tubbo was no stranger to poachers, illegal experimenters, or just your average kidnappers, but he'd never seen it on such a large scale, because there were at least five hundred living beings in the room who weren't staff and even though every single being was in some sort of uniform, Tubbo could tell that they were being held captive here based on what the actual guards were wearing.

The person carrying Tubbo turned a corner and he was really wished that he had worn those contacts that Wilbur had suggested that auto-translated words because the door that they walked through—along with every other surface here—was very clearly labeled and he couldn't tell where they were taking him and it was really starting to piss him off. He'd ask the person who was carrying him, but he was pretty sure that no one here spoke common, which was ridiculous because if you're going to be handling this many critters you ought to be able to talk to them-

When Tubbo was finally put down, he was in front of an open door, the room looked lived in but Tubbo had no more time to dwell on that before he was pushed in by the guard with a very apathetic; "Hope you don't get eaten." that Tubbo knew they thought he couldn't understand.

The door slid shut and Tubbo was left in solitude, purple light washed over him as opposed to the bright white lights in the hallway, one of the beds in the room was unmade and clearly used and the other was made and very clean, so he sat in the clean one...Tubbo could only guess that the beast that was mentioned earlier lived here, an involuntary anxious buzz wracked his wings, then again, and again. Tubbo reminded himself that the people who called whatever lived here a beast were the same people who took conscious people and animals and imprisoned them to do who knows what, so maybe there was no reason to be afraid and they were just trying to freak Tubbo out.

Tubbo repeated that there was nothing to be afraid of in his head for a very long time, so long, in fact, that his eyelids drooped down in preparation for sleep. Still nothing new. Tubbo shook himself out of his tried state and got up from the bed, he walked towards the door and looked it over, he was an engineer, he should be able to figure this out, even if he was not at all familiar with the technology!

Tubbo tried tapping the door all over the surface area, looking for a hollow spot or any other signs of a hatch that led to an internal system, when that didn't work, he resorted to scanning the entire room for any sort of internal system and felt more than defeated when he found nothing, not even a weak spot! Although he was discouraged, he knew that he could still resort to pressing along the seams of every single tile from floor to ceiling for even the slightest give, even if he didn't want to because of how long it would take him to complete.

Tubbo was right, it did take a long time, but what he forgot was just how much effort it would take to remain airborne for so long in order to reach the upper walls and ceilings, his misstep was made glaringly obvious when he sat down on the bed he had originally chosen and immediately flopped over in exhaustion.

Hours—or maybe minutes—later, the lights were still on, Tubbo was almost sure that a night cycle should've started by now because of just how tired he was, even with the added factor that he had just been airborne for quite some time, he shouldn't be as tired as he is. Tubbo sighed and stared at the ceiling, he'd been lying on the bed for awhile, although completely exhausted, he was still kind of expecting a monster or something to join him and either way, sleep had never come easily to him in new places.

Despite that, he was tired and it didn't seem like anything was going to change anytime soon, nor was there anything he could do to change the situation by himself, so he forced himself into unconsciousness by giving in to the normally very ignorable Call of The Queen.

✧⟢✦⟣★⟢✦⟣✧

Tubbo woke up with a gasp, sitting up with his wings buzzing way too fast, way too anxiously. The Queen's Call did tend to do that to stiikers who are no longer members of The Hive. With The Call being so far away, it somehow manages to bring him to the dreamscape, but he can never receive any orders—but that was the norm anyway—so he was kind of just wandering around in a dead and yellow void...anyway he was pretty sure that he'd heard a vwoop when he sat up and he'd like to open his eyes to investigate now.

Tubbo took a good look around the room.

Tubbo spotted what vwooped.

Tubbo blinked at it, he was careful to look at its forehead and not its eyes, it blinked back.

Tubbo wished that he'd stayed asleep.

"Ha-hey big guy, y- well, shit, they weren't lying." Tubbo's voice was upsettingly squeaky and nervous, but in his defense, he was staring at a vuidspett, it seemed to have some sort of mutation in which half of its body was white and the other half was normal, but even so, there was no mistaking it for something else.

The vuidspett just stared back. Tubbo knew that vuidspetts had been growing in increasing amounts of sentience over the past few hundred standard revolutions, to the point that a few of them had gained communicative abilities, but it was extremely rare and even if it wasn't and this one could speak, there's still no guarantee it wouldn't eat Tubbo.

The vuidspett took a few moments to move before it went back to its mess of a bed, startling Tubbo out of his thoughts. The vuidspett paid him no mind as it made itself comfortable, half laid down and half sat up with its elbow propping its upper body up. Okay, well, that was probably good, it didn't seem violent or thirsty for blood.

Tubbo figured chatter couldn't hurt, if only to let the vuidspett know that he was friendly by using the softest tone he could manage. "Just so you know, I wouldn't taste good at all, in fact, you'd probably die if you ate me, I carry a lot of venom in my blood."

The vuidspett shook its head twice in a gesture that looked nauseating, its head tilted and its ear flicked when it was done moving, staring at Tubbo like he had done something truly extraordinary, which naturally made Tubbo worry for his safety.

Tubbo wasn't sure what idiot that controlled his brain decided that more chatter was the way to go, considering that was what seemed to get him into trouble in the first place. "Uhh, sorry-"

"You talk." It was the vuidspett that cut him off and it—¿they?—seemed shocked by the revelation that Tubbo could speak, the notion left Tubbo stunned. "Oh that's- that's good, hello there, friend."

How was Tubbo supposed to process that? He had lucked out with a vuidspett that not only had the ability to communicate with words, but was also friendly???

The vuidspett continued to stare before they dropped back against the bed. "Nevermind, I am hearing things."

"No! No, you're not, sorry, you just- uh- you startled me."

The vuidspett's tail swished slightly. "I've never seen you before, are you new here?"

"No! Queen no, I was kidnapped."

The vuidspett's ears turned downwards at the same time. "Sorry to say so, friend, but those two things kind of mean the same thing here."

Tubbo thought about that for a second, but realized that dwelling on it wouldn't do him any good. "Not...for me, I have a crew, and they'll come for me when they find out that I'm gone."

The vuidspett seemed to mull this over before their tail started moving in what Tubbo thought was happiness. "Oh. Alright then."

"What?" Tubbo really didn't mean to be rude, but he couldn't see how anyone could be happy in this situation, unless the vuidspett thought that that meant that they would be saved and in that case they were probably righ-

"It is...not to be taken as offensive to you, but I was hoping that you weren't a permanent addition to my room."

Tubbo could understand, privacy was important, especially in a place like this. "You're fond of your space, then?"

The vuidspett purred, which Tubbo found to be immediately fascinating to him, as he doubts many people have ever heard such an entrancing thing. "No- well, yes, but it's more so that I have a roommate and I'm very fond of it."

"It?" Tubbo questioned, silently wondering if vuidspetts had the level of consciousness required to love a pet, his intuition told him no, but his intuition also told him vuidspetts couldn't have more than question and one-word reply conversations, yet here he was.

"I- they, I suppose, they don't really talk though, not...more than mimicking." The vuidspett explained.

"They aren't sentient?" Tubbo questioned.

"I hadn't really thought about it...they're certainly smart, but I don't actually know."

"What are they? I majored in exobiological anatomy, so I'd probably know if they are or not." Tubbo was violently upsetted by the idea of a person being forced into the mold of something non-sentient, so if he could help, he obviously would.

The vuidspett seemed to mull it over, before saying something that Tubbo hadn't even considered. "I...don't know what they are."

"You...oh." Tubbo's wings buzzed in sympathy, there probably weren't any schools on Entricau and even if there were, there was no way of knowing if the vuidspett had been brought here by force or...born here.

Luckily for Tubbo, the vuidspett decided to pick up the conversation instead of letting Tubbo just sit with that. "Oh! Wh- I'm so sorry, I should've asked by now, what name do you prefer to be referred to as?"

"I'm Tubbo, it's- no worries, I'm a stiiker by the way, just in case you didn't know, what's yours?"

"Ranboo..." They paused for a long time. "Uh- I'm a vuidspett."

Tubbo let out a little bit of air in amusement. "Yeah, yeah, I figured." The first word ever spoken by a vuidspett to someone who was not a vuidspett was quite literally 'vuidspett'.

"Uhm...do you have any preferable pronouns?" Ranboo asked after a moment of thought.

"Oh! Yeah, right, he/him, you?"

"They/them."

The conversation trailed off, but Tubbo didn't really want it to end, like, he was talking to a vuidspett and it wasn't at all like watching a recording of someone else doing it, the real act of him doing the talking was so much more exciting! "What's your roommate like?"

Ranboo seemed to physically light up, their eyes began to glow a little brighter and everything. "Oh! They're great, t-the best, ever."

Tubbo's wings twitched up and down in an attempt to display a similar happiness. "That's- I'm sure, but I meant what they're like personality-wise or just trait-wise, like descriptions of how they act." Tubbo used every word he could think of to make sure that his request for information didn't get lost in translation.

"Oh, alright, hm, well for one they're a little violent but I think that's just because they're here and not in a calmer environment, um, they're very sweet and-and clingy, they like to nest a lot and, oh yeah, they're kinda messy." Ranboo said after a moment.

Tubbo let out more air in amusement. "You're one to talk about messy." He gestured to the mess that was Ranboo's bed, he was only hoping to make a joke though.

Ranboo's lips upturned at the ends unnaturally, like they were threatening to show their teeth. "Oh, em, actually you're in my bed."

Tubbo's wings buzzed in alarm and both the threat and the idea that he was in a possibly territorial vuidspett's territory. He moved to get up. "Oh, shit, I'm sorry."

Ranboo held one clawed hand out, leaning far enough forward that said sharp-as-knives claws were just above Tubbo's chest, who was already at the edge of the bed. "No, I-I prefer it to you being in their bed."

Tubbo scrambled back to the wall, where he was out of reach of such a deadly being. Tubbo's wings were beating against the wall and beginning to hurt along with his anxiety amping up, but he couldn't get them to stop.

Ranboo's lips went down and back into their normal shape before they let out what Tubbo can only describe as a sad noise. "I'm sorry, I did not mean to scare or threaten you, I did not- I forgot about the teeth thing."

"How did- you forget???" Tubbo was out of breath, but still curious because teeth were always unfriendly.

"My roommate does it at me when they've won or they're about to drag me into their nest, I suppose I've begun to copy them unconsciously, because I didn't mean to do it to you, I apologize."

Tubbo thought that over. "How long have you been roommates? You've started copying their mannerisms."

"Oh...hm...about two months at this point."

Tubbo blanched. "Y...You've been here for- I'm so sorry."

"Oh! No! I've been here much longer, Red arrived here a two months ago, I-I used to share a room with three others, but then I got moved."

Tubbo could guess that Red was the roommate, but whatever little bit of happiness he felt at having a bit of his curiosity satisfied was quickly overtaken by a sickened feeling clawing its way through him, filling every part of him with the need to fix it. "How long have you been here?"

"Oh...I guess..." Ranboo looked down at their claws, holding a few up and down. "Thirteen and then...no, um...a-a little under thirteen months?"

"You've been here for almost a revolution!?"

Ranboo paused. "I don't think I've ever thought about it like that, but yeah."

Disgesting that was probably one of the hardest things Tubbo's ever had to do.

"W-What um, what were you doing before this?" Tubbo asked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Oh, erh, mostly menial work, mining and whatnot."

"On Entricau?"

"No, it was on...I don't actually know, they never told me."

"Who never told you?"

"My owners."

Tubbo didn't know how he could've been misunderstood. "No, no, like I meant before this." He gestured all around him before coming to a realization. "You've had more than one 'owner'?"

"Yep." Ranboo didn't seem to be swayed into unhappiness or happiness at the subject at hand, they acted like it was the norm.

"How many have you had?" Tubbo wasn't sure what morbid part of him decided to ask, but he regretted it the second that he put it into the air, because he really didn't want to know.

"Hm." Ranboo was deep in thought for a while, occasionally huffing before they gave an answer. "Five."

Tubbo swallowed and his wings buzzed as he processed that on top of everything else he'd been forced to process in the last..well he didn't know how long it'd been. "So...what did you do before your first?"

Ranboo seemed genuinely delighted at the question. "Oh! I charted the stars! It was wonderful."

Tubbo blinked his inner eyelids a few times in an attempt to outwardly display the same amount of the joy that Ranboo held in their voice.

Before Tubbo could lead into another question, Ranboo opened their mouth. "Where are you from?"

Tubbo immediately felt himself lighten up, pride at the mention of his origins streaming through him. "The Hive- mm, Verrsio, Verrsio is my home planet."

Tubbo paused when he saw the confused look on Ranboo's face, like Verrsio wasn't enough said...it probably wasn't, not to someone like Ranboo anyway. "It's a hive planet, every single person has their role and they all play that role perfectly for The Queen, it's called a hivemind, we'd all receive orders from The Queen and follow them blissfully."

"So...the people here dragged you away from your hive?" Ranboo had an unprecedented amount of despair in their voice.

"No, no, I have another crew, much different from Verrsio, I uh- I never really fit in on Verrsio."

Ranboo tilted their head. "What do you mean?"

"Er- I was born early, something shook my whole sector when I was a pupa, most of the other pupa, larva, and eggs fell out, and most of them died, I didn't, obviously, but uh- I didn't exactly develop the part of my brain that receives The Queen's orders quite right, so...I could never work and I disrupted the order and uh...anyway, the point is, I left, I wasn't taken."

"I understand." Ranboo's tail was now wrapped around their torso in what Tubbo thought was a self-soothing gesture. "I had a similar experience when I left my home planet."

"Really? I thought vuidspetts were extremely close-knit?"

"Sometimes, sometimes not, but it wouldn't have mattered in my case, I am tainted and therefore rejected."

"...Tainted?"

Ranboo slowly gestured to the half of them that was white. "Tainted." Ranboo repeated the word before elaborating. "They believed that I was a sign of tragedies to follow, and they wished me death, eventually I managed to leave."

"Ah..."

The conversation was drawn to its unnatural end as a loud buzz of an alarm began and repeated for several moments, Tubbo was worried, it was much too soon for anyone on the S8I to have caught on to his disappearance. "What is that!?"

Ranboo was stood up with their hands on either of Tubbo's shoulders within seconds. "Do not panic, it is only a precursor to the nightlights coming on in place of the evening lights."

Tubbo tried to trust that but then the lights shut off completely and he jumped up, he was then grabbed and hoisted up, presumably by Ranboo. Tubbo was held in a constricting manner until low, orangey lights came on and only then was he set free from Ranboo's death grip.

Tubbo let his wings buzz as indignance, annoyance, and anxiety flew through him, he wanted to yell because of the brief anger that came with being 'handled' but he wasn't blind to the fact that he was in the room with a predator, and so he had to be nice. "Please, um, please don't do that, I can't stand being picked up."

"Oh. My apologies, my roommate requires it to calm down and I assumed you did too because...um, again, my apologies. Since uh, night has started, I'm going to sleep, if that's alright with you."

Tubbo's buzz of affirmation seemed to be enough of compellence for them because Ranboo got into the bed that they were previously on and turned to face the wall.

Well, at least Tubbo had had some sleep earlier and could enjoy the non-harsh lights whilst awake.

Chapter Text

Nobody was coming for Tubbo. Ranboo would never say it out loud, it would be so unnecessarily mean of them to take away Tubbo's source of hope, but it was true, nobody was coming for Tubbo and it was only a matter of time before Tubbo figured that out.

When Ranboo was first enslaved, they had held onto the hope that some form of law enforcement was bound to come to the rescue within days but then those days turned into weeks and those weeks into months, and suddenly Ranboo had run out of hope. Hope was what kept Ranboo from The Walk in the beginning...they could never take that from Tubbo, Tubbo did not have The Walk to run to when his hope finally ran out. A hopeless and completely escapeless existence is something that Ranboo would never wish upon anyone, much less impose onto someone.

Aside from their worries about Tubbo's mental health, Ranboo was worried about Tubbo's physical presence in Ranboo's room. To be clear, they obviously loved having a roommate that they could actually converse with—just a week prior it was honestly looking like that was something that they were never going to be able to do ever again—but it also meant that Red wasn't in their room.

Red wouldn't be kept in an intake room forever, sure, it could be kept in there for quite some time, but the ship only had a few of those rooms and new intakes appeared on a weekly basis, so eventually Red would have to be put into a permanent cell, lest it get attached to an intake room and the ship loses one of their extremely important few.

This question of what would be done with Red made itself into a dilemma for Ranboo and a very worrying one at that, if Tubbo were to stay inside Ranboo's room permanently, that'd leave no room for Red, and if that were the case, then one of two outcomes would befall Red; outcome one is that Red would be reroomed and probably grow attached to whatever being its handlers found fit, and outcome two is that—as devastating as it is more likely—Red would be euthanized.

Now, one might think that such a thing would never take place and that Ranboo was violently overreacting, that deltzits like Red were rare, that a deltzit that followed instructions from something other than another deltzit was unheard of and therefore too valuable to just get rid of. Well, not too long ago when Ranboo was seeing the early signs for the first time, they would've agreed, said it was nothing, and gone about their day, but Ranboo did not have the luxury of ignoring it this time around.

Ranboo would not lie and say that they hadn't noticed Red growing attached to them, void, when out on work tours, Ranboo's words seemed to take precedence over the team leader's! Not to mention that Ranboo was the only person the deltzit would listen to when it panicked.

Red had seemingly pack-bonded to Ranboo and Ranboo was extremely fond of Red in return but the problem with that was that Red was aggressive towards everyone else when Ranboo was a factor and prior to their current arrangement, it was fine because Ranboo was around Red every minute of every day and able to correct bad behaviors within an hour, but since Ranboo wasn't around nearly as much anymore and had no clue how Red acted when they weren't a factor, they could only assume that that was how Red acted when it was alone as well. Since they no longer shared a room, Ranboo could not correct bad behavior on the spot or even know that bad behavior had occurred...which unfortunately meant that if Red had offended someone in their time apart, then Ranboo had no way of making amends for its actions.

So, to get to the point, Ranboo did have evidence of Red being prepped to be put down; Red was being brought out on mission every few hours, usually the crew here would save deathworlders like Red and Ranboo for important or particularly difficult missions that had to be dealt with in a timely manner, but Ranboo had seen Red be taken out for the average work trip more than five times over the past three days, not to mention Red was being purposefully overworked during training to the point that it would either get violent with its handler or just collapse.

Red's handlers were purposefully exhausting Red so that Red would not fight its euthanization.

Now when Ranboo would be taken into the intake cell to see Red, it was immediate to pull Ranboo into its nest, curl around them, and then sleep like it was dead, Ranboo worried every time that Red wouldn't wake up and that whatever needed to be administered for Red's death to occur had been administered and Ranboo was too late and- Red would always wake up in the end, easing Ranboo down from all-consuming terror as it opened its jaw to draw in as much air as possible before releasing it all in one sigh, a sign of tiredness if the past few weeks with Red had been anything to go by.

Red's constant exhaustion was reflected during meal times as well, with Red now prioritizing sleep. Ranboo idly wondered while Red took a nap on them if deltzits pulled more energy from rest than they did from food.

When Red actually managed to be awake during free times, it reminded Ranboo of a young vuidspett, it would cling to Ranboo's arm and quietly demand meaningless affections like being carried or nuzzled, Red had grown a little food possessive despite the fact that it now gave most of its food to Ranboo instead of actually eating it.

Ranboo had taken a little too long in their stupor of fear over Red's impending death to realize that Red saw them as something that required care and protection, it became more prominent on occasians—which had been dwindling in frequency since Red's exhaustion had begun—when Red was actually allowed to work with Ranboo on dangerous missions, keeping Ranboo's safety above completing the main objective.

Ranboo had briefly considered the possibility that Red viewed them as its young, but Ranboo waved that possibility away when they really inspected Red, Red had no horns, no unhinging jaw, no particularly pigmented skin, and no claws, well, actually, its claws weren't very long, but it did have them but if anything, that would make Red the young one...

...Ranboo didn't like to consider the idea that Red was a baby or still in its juvenile stages, no, they positively hated the idea of it. Ranboo's innards coil and twist every time they think about the possibility that Red has a pack or protector out there with no idea what happened to Red or if their young would ever be returned to them-

Ranboo was hit in the face with a packaged treat. They blinked the purple glow out of their eyes and looked down, finding their claws entangled harshly in the fur on top of Red's head.

"Sorry." Ranboo said. Despite the language barrier, over the past few weeks Red had picked up a few key words from Ranboo like: 'attack, stay, come/follow, sorry, thank you, back down/don't attack, no/bad/negative, and yes/good/affirmative' and in turn, Ranboo had picked up some of Red's communicative shouts, such as: 'fuck, shit,' and 'ow' along with some sort of involuntary rapid exchange of air when Red was amused.

Red appeared to have found Ranboo's apology acceptable because it rearranged Ranboo's claws in its upper fur instead of removing them and settled back down onto Ranboo's lap. Ranboo gently scratched Red's head in further penance and Red began to let out small bits of air with its lips peeled back to show off its teeth, Ranboo copied what they had come to know as a unique friendly gesture and showed off their own teeth, which brought on more exchanging of air from Red.

Ranboo was brought out of their hazy comfort state by Red's handler approaching with cautious steps. Ever since Red had sunk its teeth into its previous handler, it had been treated like a live bomb that might explode at any second, and Ranboo was all for it, not because Ranboo encouraged violence, but because Red was no longer being yelled at or threatened in any way, which—who would've thought—made Red much less aggressive.

Ranboo heard the familiar command of "Come/follow." from Red's handler and Red huffed in response, clinging to Ranboo for a few extra moments before rolling off of Ranboo's lap and getting onto its lower limbs.

Red's handler didn't move and looked at Ranboo expectantly. Ranboo looked around and when they confirmed that there was no one else in their vicinity that could be on the receiving end of that look, stood up.

Red's handler walked them both out of the recreation room and through a series of hallways that eventually ended in the corridor that contained the medical bay. Oh, great. Red was not fond of the medical bay, though Red didn't fight the entering of it anymore, Red was still put on edge every time they got close, even now, when just a few seconds ago Red was on the verge of falling asleep, it was wide awake and very alert.

Red's handler waved them both in, taking them through the usual medical room and to a side room. The process was not new to them, Ranboo had been used to calm Red during check-ups and routine treatments a few times over the past few weeks and Red always required a private room just because it scared the other patients. During these visits, Ranboo usually just helped Red onto its handler's bed of choice and then stood next to it to be available for physical support and contact.

The bed in this room was significantly shorter than the others, like, essentially just raised from the floor, and the bed was much wider too- actually, when Ranboo got a good look at the room, they realized that this was a different private room than the ones that Red normally occupied, this one's layout was different, and it was darker in lighting. Red's handler was busy gathering a bunch of supplies and laying them out neatly on one of the counters while Ranboo situated Red, they had to sit on the floor just to be eye-level with Red.

When Red's handler finished their preparations, they attempted to lead Ranboo out of the medical bay which Ranboo immediately refused, leaving Red's side seemed like a bad idea given the circumstances of Red's situation. In response, Red's handler gestured angrily to themselves for a few moments and then positioned Ranboo to hold Red as still as possible. Ranboo had only done this twice before, vaccinations were one of the things that Red was violently firmly against, no matter how they were guaranteed to help it.

Ranboo sat down on the bed behind Red and held both of Red's upper limbs straight up in the air, they pinned Red's lower limbs down to the bed with their legs and by the time Red grasped its surroundings and realized what it was being held still for, an area of its skin was already disinfected.

Red thrashed as hard as it could and then began to screech. Ranboo tightened their grip and listened to a deafening noise come out of Red as a syringe went into the left side of it's neck.

Red's handler pulled away after a moment, taking the syringe with them, but instructed Ranboo to keep holding Red. Red did not cease in its squirming, luckily for Red, it was not another shot that awaited it, but a treat! Unfortunately for Red's handler, Red chose to snap its jaw at them, so they gave the treat to Ranboo instead, Ranboo tried to feed it to Red but, well, it seemed that Red was in a bitey mood.

After a few minutes Red grew sluggish, which was unusual because Red would never allow itself to fall asleep in the medbay, but Ranboo could chalk it up to the recent overexertion it had suffered...ignoring the paranoia that was filing at the back of their brain, Ranboo stood up with Red draped over their arms because Red was no longer holding itself up.

Red's handler made quick work of leading Ranboo out of the medical bay, but not back to the recreational rooms, not even back to the intake room that Red was occupying, no, the handler lead them to a hallway Ranboo had come to think of as the place where people went to die, no non-staff ever came back unless they were helping staff transport the selected being...but Ranboo had never known what was inside. They didn't care to find out now, either.

Red's handler kept walking but Ranboo refused to cross the threshold, at least until it hit them that the thing that was killing Red had already been administered, Red was dying whether Ranboo followed or not, it was only a matter of if it died near a stranger or near Ranboo.

Ranboo fully picked Red up after their realization and carried after Red's handler. After walking through several corridors, Ranboo was carrying Red through a door that Red's handler had opened and gestured them into, Red mumbled something in its haze whilst Ranboo lowered it into a nest-like area, Red looked up at Ranboo and all Ranboo could see were the veins in its eyes popping out from the white.

Ranboo attempted to make Red comfortable, but the little one seemed to be happy with whatever Ranboo did, so they had no reference for what was better or worse, they settled for surrounding Red with blankets and then covering Red with them up to its neck, Ranboo didn't want them to die even slightly cold.

When Ranboo was finished bundling Red up, they laid down next to it. Red was their only friend, they hadn't had a friend in years and even if forced, Red had taken to Ranboo and handed over its trust readily, only for Ranboo to aid in its death. Even if Red's death was inevitable, if it retained any cognitive function before death, it was going to remember that Ranboo was the one to get rid of it and that was the thing that broke them, no matter how self-centered or selfish it was, they couldn't stand the idea that Red would hate them in its finally moments.

Ranboo wrapped their arms, legs, and tail around the still-warm Red and began to warble out apologies in a tongue that they could barely remember after all this time of not hearing or speaking it. The apologies were addressed to Red and the pack that lost Red the day it was stolen away for this.

No matter how badly Ranboo wanted to be awake and alert when Red passed so that Red would know that it was not abandoned, Ranboo's emotionally exhausted brain would not agree with their plan, and kept trying to make Ranboo rest. It eventually got to the point where Ranboo was fighting a losing battle against The Walk and desperately trying to remain aware. A paw on the side of Ranboo's face made The Walk shut its wretched whispering.

Red grumbled something out before pulling Ranboo into its chest with a surprising show of strength for something that was dying and rolling on top of Ranboo. Red proceeded to play with Ranboo's horns and hair in an extremely sluggish manner until finally its full weight was allowed onto Ranboo and its head was hanging over Ranboo's shoulder.

Ranboo had managed to witness Red's last moment.

Ranboo's not sure that they've ever experienced a more horrible feeling, not even physically, the excruciating feeling that took over Ranboo for a few agonizing moments before The Walk rushed back in was something that Ranboo never wanted to feel ever again.

✧⟢✦⟣★⟢✦⟣✧

"So this is really it, huh?"

The two of them were watching a sleeping deltzit and vuidspett curled around each other in the send-off room.

"Yeah, it's so unfortunate, but better it than us, right?"

"Yeah, I know, I'm just thinking about all the opportunities we've been afforded since getting it, you know? I mean, we've made more progress these past months than we have in years and it has barely had to get its hands dirty."

"Yeah, real shame, at least we aren't being eaten alive though."

"Nope, just arrested and imprisoned, probably for the rest of our lives over some stupid little stiiker..."

"You could always throw yourself out of the airlock, or, y'know, take what we gave the deltzit, it's not a bad way to go either."

Xer head tilted. "What did you give the deltzit that was strong enough to kill it?"

"Well y'know how the freaks keep manufacturing all these drugs on Delltikae for themselves?"

"Yeah?"

"They made this one, dunno its name, it's like a relaxant, a lot of them take it to sleep or something, but the dose we gave this one would kill like sixteen oletes, so it's basically guaranteed to die."

"Wow. Can I see it?"

"What, the drug?"

"Yeah."

They rummaged in their pockets for a minute before coming up with a bottle that had a label with the smallest bit of deltzi lettering: 'THC: 2,000 mg'.

"What's this?" Xey pointed at the lettering.

"Oh, all the important stuff that deltzits usually put on their bottles, that one was on every package of the drug," They pointed at the 'THC' part. "and the other stuff...I don't actually know, something about measurements- ask the lab if you get the chance."

"Okay, well, I'm gonna go listen to music since the world is essentially caving in right now." Xey turned around and left, bottle still in hand.

"Have fun!" They called after xem, knowing that the likelihood of xem going to jail were now slim-to-none.