Chapter Text
Zanka POV
Zanka stifled a groan as he readjusted his body in the crowded restaurant. Around him the rest of his group enjoyed their meals with gusto after their successful mission. The trash beasts had been huge, and Zanka hadn’t struggled, until he got whipped into a stone wall by a dying trash beasts tail. After that, he had been so pissed he didn’t feel the pain as he helped the others take out the rest of the bastards.
Now as he sat on the creaky leather seat, his adrenaline was worn off, and he was ready to go back home to HQ. He finished his meal, the hunger taking a backseat to the crushing pain in his ribs. He winced, then straightened as he caught Enjin’s watchful golden eyes. “What’s up kid? You feeling okay?” He asked leaning forward to hear Zanka over their rowdy group.
“I’m good, just gonna head home early.” He lied easily as he stood up. “Want some company?” Follo asked from the table next to them. Zanka shook his head, then reached up to fix his blonde bangs. “I’m fine I am just gonna take a quick walk then go home.” He grabbed his staff from where it leaned on the wall. The 22 year old said a quick goodbye then waved his friends off as he walked towards the door.
He grimaced once out of sight, letting out a deep breath as he slowed his pace. It wasn’t that far back to HQ, and once there he would just ask Eisha personally if she could get him some pain meds, without having to go through a full body scan. He refused to look weak, even more so when nobody else had gotten hurt the way he did this time. ‘I would have gone if it was serious, this is nothing.’ He thought to himself as he continued walking home. Zanka was so stuck in his head, he didn’t even realize he missed his turn. A loud crash got his attention, and he was disoriented when he looked up and didn’t recognize his surroundings right away. “Crap, such an idiot.” He groaned as he turned to walk back the way he had come. He was panting by the time he made it back to his missed turn, but he knew if he sat down, he would struggle to stand back up, so he leaned against the alley wall using his staff as a crutch to keep his balance.
He hadn’t realized before how damaged his body was, but he was too stubborn to use his communication collar to ask for help, at this point his pride was definitely taking point. He hated feeling weak, it just reminded him of everything he went through as a kid, always being the last choice, always being the fuck up that his siblings scoffed at, and the lone child his parents turned their nose up at. His father’s voice sounded in the back of his mind, ‘what a disgrace, just pathetic,’. “Like I don’t fucking know.” He grumbled. Zanka pushed off the wall but moved too fast and ended up throwing his weight fully on his staff. The bottom of the curved head of the staff smacked into his forehead, causing his vision to grow dark. “MOTHERFUCKER!” He shrieked, as tears sprang up in his eyes. ‘This fucking day cannot get any worse.’
Zanka opened his eyes, just in time to take a swift punch to the face. He flew back into the wall, losing his grip on his staff as he fell. “Yo, Zanka my man what’s up.” The magenta-eyed man watched as Zanka struggled to sit up. “Shit dude, I didn’t mean to kill ya, at least not yet.” With that, Jabber launched himself into the air, Zanka rolled just in time as the man landed where his chest had just been. “Fuck off.” Zanka managed to gasp out as he clutched his ribs. He wasn’t sure if the rib had been broken earlier, but after that hit he was sure it was. Jabber cackled ominously, “Come on man, don’t be so boring. I want a real fight.” Jabber licked his lips excitedly as Zanka rushed to grab his staff. The minute he got his hands on it though, Jabber landed a kick to his back that through him straight to the ground again. This time when he landed he heard a distinct crack as his head bounced off the pavement. He lay still, trying to breath as his body refused to move. The taller man moved in front of him, crouching so low that one of his locs landed on Zanka’s hand. Jabber grabbed a handful of his bangs to lift his head, Zanka couldn’t stop the scream that ripped up from his throat.
“Fucking hell man, don’t tell me I broke you? Why are you being so boring today?” Jabber slammed his head into the ground, then lifted it again. “Don’t tell me, you already givin’ up?” He let Zanka’s head fall to the ground. “This is fucking lame. Oh well, since I got you here, I might as well make you useful.” Jabbers eyes glowed I the dark alleyway as he activated Mankira, “I got this new compound I have been dying to try out, tell me how this feels.” He said as he sliced the back of Zanka’s neck. Zanka couldn’t breathe, the poison burned as it spread through his body like wildfire. ‘Make it stop, Stop.. STOP’ The words were stuck in his head, then as if heard by some divine force, all the pain went numb. He took as deep of a breath as he dared, as a chilly fuzziness set in. Jabber poked at him curiously. “Its not traditional, but it is basically just a truth serum. Not as fun as just slashing you with poison, but the boss wants me to test it out.”
“What does it feel like?” Jabber asked clinically.
“Cold, so cold.” Zanka shivered. “Do you feel this?” Jabber slashed his back, but Zanka could only feel a dull drag where the claws raked into his skin. “Doesn’t hurt.” He answered. “What do you want right now?”
“Wanna go home.” He answered. Jabber scoffed, “Wow, thought you were gonna say you wanna kill me or something good. Your pretty disappointing ya know that?”
“Yes.” Zanka answered, a tear slipped out as Jabber rolled him onto his back.
“Dude your so emo, I thought you would at least tell me something like I dunno… who was the last person you kissed or somethin’.”
“Follo.” Zanka breathed out. Jabbers eyes widened incredulously. “Oh-ho-ho who is that? You got a girlfriend?” “No.” He answered truthfully. “Who is Follo?” The taller man sat crisscross as he asked, grinning like a lunatic. “He works with me.” Zanka managed to say around clenched teeth. “HE? Like dangly bits? Like backdoor only?” Zanka shivered again as the chill set his body trembling. “Y-yes” he mumbled.
“Huh? Oh hey your looking more blue than usual dude. You gonna pass out on me?” Zanka opened his mouth to speak but all he managed was a wheezy breath. “ Damn, just when we got to the fun bit too. Oh well cant be helped.” Jabber stood up, then kicked Zanka so hard in the head, he passed out.
Jabber POV
Now that he was looking at him good enough, Jabber could see the cuts and bruises on the other mans body that didn’t come from him. “Psh, no wonder you were a shit fight today.” He grumbled, already losing interest. “You better get better soon, I’m gonna be expecting that rematch soon.” Jabber turned to walk away, but just then he heard footsteps coming from just outside the alleyway. Curious, he ducked into a doorway, just in time to see someone step around the corner.
“Damn boys look what we got here.” The sloppy looking man in the front bellowed upon seeing Zanka’s body. Two more men entered the alleyway behind him. One wearing a beanie that had so many holes his hair was sticking though it, and the other with a shirt that looked like it had more holes than Swiss cheese. “It’s that cleaner brat.” Beanie said with a slight slur to his words. “The prick hit me so hard last week I still gotta damn bruise on my chest.” Holey shirt spat out. “Ay boss we should take ‘im with us, tie ‘im up and break that stupid stick of his. See if those giver bastards can even fight without their stupid toys.” The men laughed as they approached the fallen boy. “Damn, somebody sure put the work in on him.” The Sloppy man chortled. Jabber felt a strange rush of fire in his chest. These idiots had no idea.
In the past 5 years, he and Zanka had gotten into plenty of fights, and Zanka didn’t need the fucking staff. He was strong enough to fight against even Jabber without it. Like the time he had managed to wrestle one of Jabbers rings off, and then because he couldn’t use Mankira, Zanka had kept the fight fair and tossed his staff to the side. Jabber had been exhilarated, they were so evenly matched, if Noerde hadn’t shown up when she did, he might have actually been in trouble. But Zanka still threw Jabber his ring, he hadn’t even attempted to toss it into the murky water in the sewer they had been fighting in. It hadn’t mattered that he didn’t have his staff, or that Noerde had shocked him so bad his hair lifted up. Zanka was just so… good.
Jabber was pulled from the memory as the crashing sound of wood on stone boke the quiet night air. The boss and Holey were pulling off Zanka’s uniform, searching through his pockets and taking whatever they could find. The rage simmering in Jabbers chest flared, as he watched Beanie slam the staff onto the concrete again and again. Jabber didn’t think, but his body, it flew. Mankira was fully activated as he slashed at the pathetic men. They dropped Zanka, screaming as they tried and failed to dodge the razor sharp claws. In seconds, the two who had held Zanka were lifeless piles of flesh on the ground.
He swung his head around, seeing that Beanie tried to hold up the staff to use against him, but Jabber snarled at the stupid man, and knocked the staff from his hands. He grabbed the man by his face and slammed his head into the wall. “How do you like my stupid toy?” Jabber asked sarcastically, the man screamed around Jabbers hand, as he sliced Mankira into the mans stomach slowly. “I really don’t like people fucking with my plans, and you breaking his vital instrument means I don’t get to fight him. Nobody is gonna get in the way of our fights you got that?” Jabber yelled. The man gurgled as he roughly yanked Mankira out of his stomach. Jabber stepped back with a frown, as the man wrapped his arms around himself and fell to the floor.
Jabber wiped Mankira off on the mans shirt, they let Mankira turn back into rings as he turned back to Zanka’s body. The men had managed to take off his cleaners jacket, and his top shirt, leaving just a faded white tank-top to cover the top half of his body. Jabber tsked, then grabbed the fallen jacket and shoved Zanka’s shirt into the pocket. He lifted the blonde man up onto his shoulder, surprised to find he was heavier than he looked. ‘Son of a bitch what does this dude eat?’ He thought as he draped the jacket over the top of the staff. He knew where the Cleaners HQ was, most everyone on the ground did, but dropping him off at home? He regretted it already.
Jabber sighed. “This is so lame. I'm so gonna whoop your ass the next time I see you, gotta carry your scrawny ass so you don’t die by some punk ass no name. I swear if someone I know sees me, I’m totally gonna stab you okay? Just sayin’.” Jabber continued threatening the passed out man as they walked.
When they finally got to the cleaners building, Jabber moved more cautiously. He scoped out the front door, and seeing nobody around, he took the chance to leave Zanka on the path leading up to the door. He tossed the jacket and staff on the ground next to him and stood back. ‘Either someone sees him, or he dies.’ He thought morbidly. He quickly knocked on the door then dashed back to the side pathway. When nothing happened he resigned himself to leaving without getting caught, thankful that nobody could see what he did and think of it as doing a good thing. He held his breath as the front door opened, and a tall blonde with glasses gasped then started screaming for a healer. He waited until the front door shut, then quickly ran through the courtyard to leave.
Zanka POV
Zanka woke to the sound of quiet murmuring, coming from the side of him. He squinted his eyes open against the bright lights and groaned as he stretched his body beneath the soft sheet. “What the fuck were you thinking?” Enjin roared. “Eisha was in here half the night trying to mend your body, why didn’t you call for backup if you got into a fight?” Zanka shrank down at the tone of his voice. He cleared his throat, then slowly sat up in the bed.
Rudo, Enjin and Riyo were standing to his right, and Follo, Gris and Eisha were standing to the left. “ Semiu just about had a heart attack, you were practically dead at the front door, so she dove into your head to see what happened, you should have gone straight to the infirmary after your mission, that psycho could have killed you. Yet by the grace of whatever fucking Deity is above us, you somehow made it all the way home in your condition. Eisha says you must have taken your jacket off to use the cold as a buffer to keep you awake on the walk home. The last thing Semiu saw through your eyes was that maniac kicking you in the fucking head.”
“Maniac?” Zanka asked. Eisha touched his leg over the blanket. “Ms. Semiu informed me that someone named Jabber was who you fought with, what do you remember?”
Zanka shrugged, “I remember fightin’ the trash beasts, we won and went to eat after. I didn’t think my injuries were that bad until it started hurting at dinner,” he admitted slowly, “After that I just remember walking home and I can kind of remember running into someone but I couldn’t remember who.” Eisha nodded and wrote some notes onto her notepad.
“Sounds like a slight case of amnesia, possibly from how much you got hit in the head yesterday, or it could be from whatever Jabber injected you with. I flushed your body as much as I could, but your going to have to be on bedrest the rest of the week, that way I can clear you to go back on missions. For now though, your team leader has been advised that you are on Medical Watch and you haven’t been cleared to return to your missions. Sorry but even I can’t force a concussion to go away.” The girl dipped her head then left the room, so they could talk privately.
“Well fuck.” Zanka breathed.
“You are not to leave the house, you will stay on bedrest like she said, and you will never scare us like that again.” Gris stated calmly. Zanka blinked owlishly in surprise at that.
“We thought you died.” Riyo whispered as she hugged him with tears in her eyes.
“Get better.” Rudo said loudly, the man still struggled with heartfelt moments, but he was much better than he had been half a decade ago. The rest of the team gave him hugs and murmured their own words of encouragement, and then Enjin dismissed them all. When the door shut, leaving just Enjin and Zanka, he exhaled roughly. “Im sorry.” Zanka said tiredly.
Enjin nodded his head slowly. “I know. You have to realize, you gave us all a good scare there, let them hover and help you for a couple days. It will do the team good to be reassured that your alive and getting better. I don’t know how you made it home in that condition, but we are beyond grateful that you did.” Zanka nodded, tears falling from his eyes at his shame. “It’s okay kid, you did good. Im glad you made it home. You’re like a little brother to me, I can’t imagine you not being here.”
Enjin ruffled his hair softly as Zanka blushed. He was speechless.
“Now, get your ass back to sleep, I gotta update Corvus and then I’ll send someone up with some food for you. Doctors orders so you better listen.” Enjin threw him a quick smile as he headed to the door. Zanka breathed in and out deeply as he lay his head back down. He lifted the thick sheet up to his neck, then allowed the thoughts to leave his mind as he drifted back to sleep, where he dreamed of the cleaners, trash beasts, and glowing magenta eyes.