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The Origins community is different from anything Technoblade has ever experienced. Past the surface differences - floating structures, nonhuman residents - there’s a sense of, well, community like nothing he’s ever seen. The strange group is always there for each other, always supporting and helping to overcome their individual weaknesses. One person’s skills can make up for another’s shortcomings, and they are always happy to help each other.
(Not without a fair bit of lighthearted ribbing, of course, but what’s a family without some casual bullying?)
Technoblade has a very specific set of skills, most of which he puts to use farming carrots these days. His status of one hundred percent human makes him one of the few people in the valley able to tend to the crops at all times, unhindered by rain or sunlight or any number of other issues. The others were more than happy to allow him to take over these responsibilities when he first came to the community, though Tubbo still helps out on occasion.
He likes farming. It’s nice to work with his hands, to nurture a plant from new growth to maturity and then start the cycle anew. And it’s the least he can do to repay a community that was gracious enough to welcome him, despite being a human. Even now, two years after arriving in Origins, he still feels the need to pay them back for letting him in.
Farming isn’t all he does, of course. His specific set of skills - a joke Tommy and Tubbo keep making, despite no one else really getting it - also extends to helping out the others. Little errands, gathering materials, mining trips, hunting trips, that sort of thing. Odd jobs. As much as he likes farming, it’s nice to break up the monotony with whatever one of his friends needs help with.
Today, Ranboo needs his assistance. The tall, regal Enderman is working on a building project, and they’ve run out of glass. “Obviously I could go get it myself,” Ranboo tells him. “But I have more important things to attend to.”
They also don’t like going out of the valley, and especially dislike the river running not far away. Water and Endermen don’t mix particularly well.
So Technoblade grabs his shovel and sets off, climbing the carefully disguised path out of the valley and setting off through the thick woods that surround it.
It’s a lovely day. Not many of the valley’s residents like leaving the safety of their community, so the forest is mostly untouched. The closest human village is many miles off, so the animals are unaccustomed to seeing a strange two-legged beast tromping through their homes. It makes them curious, watching him from tree branches and bushes. He’d never seen a deer before coming here.
He’d never seen a wild boar before coming here either, which was an issue the first time he ventured out into the wilderness and found one. He had only been saved from being gored by Philza’s quick intervention and sharp talons. Now he keeps an axe at his side and a hunting knife in his boot.
There’s a clearing up ahead. It’s a landmark Techno uses to navigate, and usually one he passes by without incident, but today he stops as he enters the knoll. There’s something…off about the area. The grass has been tamped down in large patches, small divots dug into the ground below in places.
Techno kneels down, tracing a hand over the disturbed earth. The uniformity, the depth of the holes, it almost looks like…
He puts a hand on his axe and surveys the area with a more critical eye. There’s not much more evidence to fuel his suspicions that someone has been here. A few broken branches, some plants that look to have been stepped on, but that’s not unusual for the local wildlife.
Technoblade has seen the result of groups of humans moving through an area before, been one of those humans, and he knows what tent spikes look like. However, there’s not much he can go on from this. Whoever was in the forest did a good job of covering their tracks, and it hasn’t rained recently enough for there to be prints in the earth he could follow.
Reluctantly, he leaves the area, trying to dismiss his worries. If it was anything at all, it was most likely a group of stray hunters trying to catch some game. Not close enough to be a danger to the community.
Still, he keeps one hand on his axe as he makes his way to the river.
Technoblade doesn’t like worrying. He’s spent a lifetime of being the one with the plan, the one with the solutions, the one with so many contingencies and traps that his enemies would cower at the mere idea of incurring his wrath.
He’s spent his time in Origins trying to move away from that mindset. Philza and Sneegsnag were the group’s protectors. They defended the valley from intruders, and they did it well. Most of the time, no one knew about any danger until after it had been dealt with. Techno had offered to help and had been kindly but firmly turned down.
“Mate, you’ve done a lot of fighting. Don’t you want to take a break from that?”
“Yeah, but -”
“We’ve got it handled. And, don’t take this the wrong way, but these people have seen too much human violence already. This is a safe place for them. I don’t want you to remind them what they’ve escaped, no matter how good your intentions.”
It had stung, but they were right. Unfortunately, Phil and Sneeg were off on one of their scouting/resource gathering missions; Phil’s instincts didn’t let him stay in one place for too long.
So Technoblade worries and plans and doesn’t tell anyone.
He keeps going out on his errands and he keeps finding things - more tent divots, cleanly chopped branches, a scrap of discarded leather - but he tries to keep his paranoia in check. As far as he knows, it’s still nothing more than a harmless group of campers, and none of the signs have been close enough to the valley to indicate that they’ve been discovered.
At home, he polishes his armor and sharpens his weapons. It’s been a while since he’s had to fight, but he doesn’t want his skills to be rusty if the worst happens. He practices at night, moving through forms as quietly as he can.
The problem was, it feels good. It’s been so long since Techno’s picked up a weapon for anything other than hunting game, and it makes his blood sing in his veins. It was a thrill he had tried to distance himself from. But he can’t deny that it feels right to hold a sword again.
He’d been a warrior. He’d been a great warrior, a feared general, a force on the battlefield. That had been his life for years and years. It was what he had been raised for, trained for, and he had been the best.
But…he’d put that behind him. He’d left the fight behind him, not caring about the title of deserter they’d branded him with. The death had haunted his dreams and waking hours, pursuing him like a physical thing, chasing him across the land and to places no one had ever gone before. And eventually, it had chased him here. A place where he could rest and put his past behind him and no one would know or care what he had once been.
With Phil and Sneeg gone, it’s time to take up that mantle again. It’s Technoblade’s responsibility to protect the people that had taken him in.
The sword forms flow clumsily, but there’s a power to them. And it doesn’t matter if he was perfect or not because Sneeg and Phil are gonna be back in a matter of days and then he can tell them what had been happening and they’ll take over and he can go back to farming.
Yep. It’s gonna be fine.
He’s forced to admit that everything is not fine on the fifth day after the Initial Incident (Techno’s been keeping notes, he’s thorough, okay).
Wilbur finds him in his normal spot, checking on the crops in the garden by the nice little cottage Scott built for him. “Hey, Techno! Could you - wow, you look like shit.”
Techno hasn’t gotten a lot of sleep in the last few days, but he didn’t think it was that bad. “Wow, thanks,” he says mildly, no bite to his words.
Wilbur adjusts his sun hat and goes to sit in the little shaded area Techno built for him. “No offense, man, it’s just - when was the last time you slept? I can literally feel how sleep deprived you are.”
“Hey now, I got a good 4 hours of sleep last night. I feel great.”
“Hmm. I would recommend a nap but I don’t think you would listen to me.”
Techno stands up, brushing the dirt off his hands. “You know me too well, Wilbur. So what can I do for you?”
“Sleep?”
“Nahhhhh.”
Wilbur scowls. “Fine. I was going to ask if you could check my rabbit snares. I’m running low on potions of leaping. And in return I will give you….this!” He pulls out a little bottle full of purplish liquid.
Techno squints. “Poison?”
“Chamomile, valerian root, magnolia bark, and a little lavender to help with the taste. I call it…” he flourishes dramatically, “Nyquil.” Techno looks at him blankly. “Helps you sleep.”
“Uh-huh. And you just happened to have this on hand?”
Wilbur shrugs. “Like I said, I could feel you being tired from all the way across the valley. Perks of being dead and a phantom, I suppose. Now get me some rabbits, and then take a nap, you silly man.”
Techno reluctantly goes.
He’s just checked the last trap when he finds the wild boar.
It’s dead, luckily, lying on its side on the earth. There are two arrows with the fletching snapped and splintered embedded in its neck, and the marks of a sword carving through the chest and side. It clearly hasn’t been dead long; no scavengers have come to pick the bones clean and the blood hasn’t even fully cooled.
Hunters wouldn’t just leave their prey here to decompose. At least, not the kind of hunters that would be interested in mere animals.
Technoblade takes out his hunting knife and carefully pries one of the arrows out of the beast. The arrowhead has a metallic sheen. These hunters are professionals.
Panic makes his heart beat faster as he glances in the direction of Origins. There are clear tracks heading that way, a trail of broken branches, trampled leaves, and boot prints that even a child could track.
There are hunters in their sanctuary.
Techno rushes back the way he came.
When he arrives, the valley is eerily silent. At first, Techno can’t see any sign of danger, but then he notices the doors left open, swaying in the slight breeze. He approaches the first one - James’ house.
“Hello? James?” He calls, pushing open the door. There’s no response. It doesn’t look like there’s been a fight, but there are heavy boot prints scuffing the wooden floorboards and a pile of books that’s been toppled over.
Techno backs out of the house, one hand clutching his axe, the other his knife. He scans the valley again, trying to pick out any sign of movement. Nothing, nothing - there! Down by the water below the Pube, something is moving. He squints at it and makes out a flash of pink. Niki?
He approaches warily, moving stealthily downhill. As he gets closer, he can see that Niki is waving furiously at him. “Niki? What’s happening?”
She shushes him, grabbing his arm and pulling him down among the rocks and reeds. Her face is a mask of panic and fear. “Techno! There’s, there’s people here, human hunters I think -”
He nods. “I know. Where is everyone? Are they safe?” Niki just shakes her head.
“Most of them were on a mining trip but… the others were in the Pube when the hunters went up. I managed to hide down in the water so they didn’t see me.” She hisses with frustration. “I wanted to help, but…being out of the water would just make me a target.”
Technoblade pats her on the shoulder in what he hopes is a reassuring manner. “It was a good decision. Did you see anyone get hurt?” Or worse, he doesn’t say.
Niki worries at her lip with sharp teeth. “No. But Wilbur managed to hide when they came and then went up to try to save them. He hasn’t come back and I don’t know how they would capture a Phantom without…” She doesn’t finish the thought, but they both understand what she means. The only way to capture someone who can turn intangible would be to hurt them enough that they couldn’t.
At that moment they hear a crashing noise from the building above, followed by a yell. They both flinch and Niki sinks down lower into the water.
“I’m going up there,” Techno decides, flipping the knife around in his grip.
“Are you insane?! They’ll kill you, Techno!”
“Ah, but you see, I know their weakness. It’s an ancient human secret.” Niki cocks her head to the side, frowning. “Very sharp objects.”
This startles a laugh out of her, and she gives a wobbly smile. “Be careful, Techno. Don’t do anything dumb.”
“Would I do somethin’ dumb, Niki?” With that he walks away, ready to wreak havoc on some poor, unsuspecting hunters.
He takes out the first easily, The guard at the door to the Pube is too busy looking at the ladder to notice Techno sneaking up the back way. He strikes the man in the back of the head with the hilt of his knife, sending him crumpling. Techno eases the unconscious human to the ground lightly.
The man doesn’t bear the insignia of any army Techno recognizes, but there is a symbol stitched to his gambeson. Two spears crossed over a pair of curling ram’s horns. So not just some random hunters, then.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Techno glances up to see another hunter running towards him, sword out. Bruhhh. He stands up, quickly backing away as the hunter takes a swing at him.
On the next strike, Techno parries the blow with the hilt of his axe, twisting his wrist to catch the blade in the joint of the axe and pulling it out of the hunter’s hands. The man stumbles forward, off balance from losing his weapon, and Techno takes him down with a quick swipe of his knife.
The commotion seems to have alerted the hunters inside, however, and three more men push out of the door. Two of them brandish spears, while the third raises a strange weapon not unlike a crossbow. Seeing this, Techno backs up, trying to get to cover.
He’s not fast enough. There’s a mechanical click, a thwip, and a net comes flying at him. It catches him off guard and he falls to the ground, struggling to get his bearings under the thick weighted rope.
Techno attempts to saw at the rope with his knife but stops when he feels the sharp tip of a spear placed at the back of his neck. He drops the knife.
“Get it inside,” one of the hunters says. Technoblade is dragged to his feet, wrists held tightly behind him. Another hunter picks up a knife - his knife! - and cuts the net away, while the third ties his hands together.
“Are you really stealin’ my knife?” Techno says mournfully and earns a backhand to the face. That’s gonna bruise.
The hunters drag him roughly into the Pube, forcing him to the ground in front of the leader, a man with close cropped hair and a military bearing. The man doesn’t really acknowledge him. Glancing to the side, Techno can see Tommy, Tubbo, Beau, and Jack tied up and gagged against the wall. Several of the bottles have been smashed, their contents leaking onto the ground. And sprawled on the floor with a growing welt on his forehead is Wilbur.
“Wil? Wil!!” The phantom groans and twitches but doesn’t wake up. Technoblade glares at the leader. “You’re lucky he’s alive. Or I would’ve killed all of you.”
The leader finally looks down at him, but addresses one of the other hunters instead. “What is this?”
“Bird one?” Says a stocky man.
“No feathers, idiot. Starborne, maybe. Those can be hard to identify,” another says.
The leader nods, stands and walks over to Techno, grabbing his chin and staring into his eyes. “Not Starborne…” He tilts Techno’s head back and forth, examining, even pulling up a lip to see Techno’s teeth. “Hm. Some sort of pig, maybe? A Nether beast?”
Technoblade shakes his head away from the man’s hand, glaring at him. “I’m human.”
The man raises an eyebrow. “A human? Among these creatures? Not a very good lie.” He circles around. Techno can feel his gaze, feel it dissecting every part of him. “Unless…”
He nods to one of the hunters, who grabs Tommy and pulls the gag down. “Avian. Is this one telling the truth?”
“Fuck you, you piece of shit motherfucking bastard son of a bitch I’ll kill you -” The hunter replaces the gag and Tommy’s swearing fades off into muffled grumbling.
“Hm. Threaten the bee, would you?” His subordinate pulls out a knife and holds it to Tubbo’s throat. Tommy pales and starts nodding rapidly.
“So you are human. Tell me, what are you doing with animals like these? Surely you don’t prefer them to civilized society.”
Techno stays silent, glaring up at the man. The leader holds his gaze for a long moment and then waves his hand, looking away. “Actually, I don’t care. If you want to live like an animal, you can die like one. We have what we came for. Men! Prepare them for transport. We’ll come back for the rest tonight. This traitor here should do nicely for bait.”
The rest of the hunters grab his friends, forcing them to their feet despite their thrashing. Jack kicks out at one of the captors and gets a hard punch to the stomach. He doubles over and the hunters begin to drag him away. Another pair of them seize Wilbur’s unresponsive body.
Techno can’t take it. He can’t take losing his friends. “Wait! Wait, stop!”
The leader barely glances his way. “And why should I, traitor?”
Techno takes a deep breath. “Take me instead. Please. Leave them alone, they’re not hurting anyone.”
The man laughs. “Do you know how much creatures like these will sell for? There’s quite a competitive market for their kind, you know. This little blaze alone could make me rich.”
Techno raises his head, shaking the hair out of his eyes. “Not as much as I’ll go for, if you bring me back to the Empire. You’ll get the bounty for bringing in a deserted general and all the fame.”
One of the other men whispers “General Technoblade? By the gods…”
Another says. “They say he had pink hair and a scar on his cheek, just like that one. You don’t think…”
The leader looks closely at him, staring at him with that discerning gaze for a long moment before a cold smile stretches across his face. “Men, I believe we’ve found a much better quarry here indeed.”
He grabs Technoblade by the arm, pulling him up. “Congratulations, General. You just bought your friends their freedoms. Until the next group comes, of course.” The hunters release their prey, shoving them back towards the corner. Techno’s friends - his family - scream, but he refuses to look at them as he’s pushed out the door.
It will be better this way. They’ll be safe. This is my responsibility.
What better way to repay the ones who saved him than with his life?
The hunters swarm him, replacing his rope ties with steel manacles and gagging him. Now that his identity as the famed warrior has been revealed, they stare at him with vicious glee. It must be quite the ego boost to say that you captured the Blood God.
It doesn’t matter what happens to him, as long as they’re safe.
Techno closes his eyes.
Next to him there’s a thwip, a crack, and a thud. Techno opens his eyes to see one of his captors lying on the floor, choking on his own blood, an arrow through his neck. An arrow with very familiar black and white fletching.
Around him hunters cry out, reaching for weapons, but it’s too late. They fall one by one, laid low to a storm of arrows as a shape on the horizon resolves itself into an avenging angel.
As the last hunter falls, the leader pushes Techno in front of him and holds a knife to his throat. Philza lands in a flurry of black feathers, bow drawn and eyes hard. “Put him down, mate,” he croons, voice promising death. On his shoulder, Sneeg brandishes a trident.
“You’ll let me go this instant, creature,” the leader snaps, voice cracking, “or I’ll kill your little human right here.” He pulls the knife closer and Techno has to strain his head back to avoid his throat being slit.
“Oh, I don’t think so. Do you really think you can come into my valley, threaten my people, and get away with it? You’ve messed with the wrong fucking community.”
The man screams, enraged. The knife raises and Techno meets Phil’s eyes, trying to reassure him. Trying to say goodbye.
Then the arm around him loosens and falls away.
Techno stumbles forward and Phil grabs his shoulder to steady him. He turns around, confused and disoriented, only to see the man’s body crumple to the ground. Wilbur stands over him, still looking woozy, holding Techno’s knife.
“You’re so fucking stupid, man, why would you…I mean, why…you can’t just…” Wilbur sways back and forth and Techno rushes over to steady him. “You dumb self-sacrificing idiot. Techno, I think I have a head wound.”
“I think you might be right, buddy.”
The others spill out of the doors, now free from their bindings. Tommy punches Techno on the arm and then fiercely hugs him. “If you do that again I’ll kill you myself, you dick.”
“Noted.”
Phil ushers them all inside. At some point, Niki swims up, joining in on everyone simultaneously reprimanding and comforting Techno.
After everything has calmed down a bit, Philza pulls Techno aside. “Want to tell me what happened?”
“Well, I started noticing signs of people in the woods while you were away and -”
“Not that. What made you think you should give yourself up like that?”
Techno looks away from Phil’s piercing gaze and doesn’t say anything.
Phil sighs. “Techno…you tried to protect the kids, and I can’t fault you for that. But your life isn’t worth less than any of us here. We protect our own, and you’re one of us. No more of this self-sacrificing, alright?”
Technoblade nods and Philza pulls him into a hug.
Origins is a strange community, unlike any Techno has ever been in before. Here, he has a life free of violence. A life worth living. And a family that loves him.