Chapter Text
Ranboo doesn’t know where he is. He just… woke up here. The enderman hybrid looks around and makes out outlines of bars trapping him in the room- no, cell. This is a cell, Ranboo thinks with fleeting panic. And it’s fucking small. Why the fuck am I in here?!
He gives a panicked enderman vwoop and blinks in the pitch-black room. He really doesn't know what to do so he resorts to just standing there, fiddling with his fingers and trying to keep his breathing straight and even.
After a few minutes of standing and Ranboo starting to panic a lot (because where the fuck is he?!), the faintly dim lights flicker on. He looks around: There's a small cot, much too small for the 6’8 enderman hybrid, and a little desk next to it with paper and pens on it. He hears metal clinking and keys being turned and a door opening.
"Hello, Ranboo is it?" A man says urgently.
"Where...?" Ranboo starts but the man cuts him off.
"If you really want to know, we have decided all enderman hybrids are dangerous to regular hybrids and have taken them to a facility to be locked up for life," He says tiredly, as if he was bored.
Ranboo is hella confused. Terror doesn’t grip him quite yet. "But- but we haven't done anything to you or anyone. And why just us? Not other hostile mob hybrids?!" He’s starting to get angry.
"That doesn't matter. Now, you’re going to behave or you'll regret it, I promise." He shakes something with his hand, and Ranboo realizes that he's holding a cup. With water inside of it.
Water hurts Ranboo more than any other kind of acid and it burns and seeps into his skin mercilessly and painfully.
The amount of pain is different for every hybrid, and Ranboo’s just unlucky that it's almost agony with just a few drops for him. Probably just a few drops of the horrible liquid can make him scream in pain.
With a gulp and still staring at the cup, he nods shakily. "Good," The man says, seemingly satisfied.
He reached over and undid the handcuffs and Ranboo rubbed his sore wrists.
"Now, I am going to leave you here and bring you some food, maybe tomorrow. Make yourself at home, and get comfortable. This little room is where you’re going to be spending the rest of your life in," He says with a smirk. "And if you try anything, I can and will put you in a tank full of water, so really I suggest you don't."
Ranboo nods. Panic grips him again and his breathing gets heavier and heavier.
Enderman hyrbrids haven’t even done anything, so what the fuck are they playing at?!
Eventually he steadies his breathing and goes over to his not-so-comfortable cot that’s too short for him. He curls up on it and is already missing his family, and his best friends: Tubbo and Tommy.
Tommy is a raccoon hybrid, and Tubbo is a bee hybrid, so they should be safe even if the government is taking up multiple kinds of hybrids that they find "dangerous".
His parents and should be safe too, they're all fairly passive mob hybrids: His mom a sheep hybrid, and his dad a wolf hybrid. That doesn’t stop Ranboo from coming up with the worst possible situations including them all being locked up. Ranboo has always had pretty bad anxiety, and it surely doesn’t help him now.
He sighs and tries to go to sleep to rest his agitated brain. The teenager just ends up squirming on his cot for what seems like hours, but he’s successful after a long time.
Ranboo woke up the next day and briefly forgot where he was before remembering with a grim thought: If they locked up all the enderman hybrids they could find, why is no one else here? He supposes he'll ask next time he sees someone, but he's not sure if he'll get an answer. He realizes he's starting to get a little hungry. Hopefully someone brings food soon.
Soon after waking, Ranboo gets up and starts pacing around, not because he's stressed (well he definitely is), but he just needs something to do. They gave him drawing paper and a couple of pens but he's not interested in drawing right now. He wants- needs- to move around.
A long time after pacing around and doodling random things for a bit to distract himself, someone comes and unlocks the door to the cell.
The teen looks up from his little drawing of a cow and nervously faces the person who just came inside. Of course, the half-enderman doesn't look the person in the eye because endermen hate eye contact, and so do they.
The man wears a content and relaxed expression, but that doesn't calm down Ranboo any bit. It's fine, he's just checking on you and he's gonna give you some food and leave, he reassures himself and eyes the cup of water in the person's hand nervously.
He also notices, however, that the man does not have any food. Why doesn't he have food? There should be some shouldn't there?
Oh god what if they starve me- maybe to death? He panics silently. No, no they would keep me alive... right?
He speaks. "Hello Ranboo, just coming up here to check on you," he says with a smile Ranboo knows is fake. "We have also decided-'' He starts, but Ranboo cuts him off.
"Why is there nobody else here? You said you locked up all the enderman hybrids you could find, so why am I the only one here?" He says rather quickly before he can stop himself. They shut up immediately and stare at the cup. The man in front of him shakes it and Ranboo makes an agitated enderman sound.
"I would watch yourself if I were you. But, to answer your question, yes, we have other enderman hybrids here. You're alone only because we only had twenty five cells to start with, so we had to make one hurriedly for you in another room. Now I suggest you keep your mouth shut from now on if you know what's good for you," He replies sort of persistently.
The hybrid didn't really expect to be answered, but was not very pleased with it. He supposes he wouldn't really be pleased with any answer, but at least he got one.
"Now as I was saying, we have decided since we now have captivity of you and we don't know too much about enderman hybrids, we're going to experiment on you lot. You're going to be one of our main subjects here. Now, how old are you?" He asks.
"W- what?!" Ranboo says, very panicked. Frantic questions burn in his mind.
What are they going to do to him? Will it hurt? What if they torure him? Are they going to kill him? He was the main subject? What? What the fuck? No. How? No no no no fuck! He starts to breathe heavily as he feels a panic attack coming. No no not now, please not now. His tail swishes agitatedly behind him to help calm him.
" I said your age . And calm the fuck down now or I'll splash this on you." He shakes the cup yet again but that only makes the poor teen panic more as he struggles to breath but also is hyperventilating at the same time. He tries his best to calm down using the breathing technique his mom taught him to help with panic and anxiety attacks. He doesn't get them often, but it still helped.
The technique somewhat works in the moment and he calms down enough for the guard to seemingly relax. "I'm s- sixteen," He says, still very nervous and scared as to what the fuck is going to happen to him, but he doesn't show it, much.
"Right, you're going to come with me," And he grabs Ranboo's arm tightly.
The sixteen year old gulps and the man leads him out of the cell with a firm and very tight grip on his wrist and keeps pulling on him aggressively.
They go through a short hallway before going into a room that is also like a hallway, but is lined with... cells. Cells full of enderman hybrids. Most turn to face him and he internally shrinks back from the amount of people looking at him.
He didn't even notice he stopped until the man aggressively yanks on his arm and almost sends Ranboo toppling over him. "Sorry," he mutters while still looking around. The man sighs angrily and continues leading him over to… wherever they’re going
Ranboo feels tears threatening to flow down their cheeks at the looks they’re getting. Some people are giving him sympathetic faces while others look slightly horrified and one woman even mouthed, "I'm sorry" at him with a solemn expression. He nodded back nervously.
Then when he gets to the end of the hallway-room he sees someone that really horrifies him.
That little girl in the cell can't be more than 7 years old. 7 years old. And she's trapped in a cell with little food and no family. It's cruel , how can people lock up a small child like this?! Rambo wants to say something to her. He doesn’t. The girl curls inward and looks at him with silent and almost pleading eyes. Ranboo’s heart breaks.
How the fuck can they do this to an innocent little kid?
They’re pulled out of his thoughts by another aggressive and rather painful yank on his arm. "Come on, hybrid. Do you want me to pour water on you?" That bastard is wearing a smug smile. Ranboo makes an agitated enderman noise and shakes his head frantically. They walk towards their destination and Ranboo looks back at the cells with a nervous look.
They reach the experimenting room (A fairly large square room with plain ugly gray walls and a couple of cots and chairs lining the back wall. There are some medical supplies on the table in the far right corner as well, and a metal table attached to the wall), and the man lets go of Ranboo's wrist and harshly shoves them towards the cot. He takes the hint and sits down, tail still swishing nervously behind him.
He sees the tub of water on the table and fights down the urge to run. No no no please not water it hurts so bad, he thinks frantically. He doesn't even realize he was breathing heavily until the awful man says, "I said calm the fuck down, or I'll pour that whole fucking thing on you." He says irritably, pointing to the tub.
That didn't help him calm down, in fact it made it worse. He tries to calm down the best he can, but it doesn't quite work. The man comes over and flicks some water onto his skin.
Ranboo doesn't scream because he won't, he won't give that monster the satisfaction, but he screeches an enderman alarm call and hisses in pain as he grabs his arm. It takes so much to hold down a scream, even though it can't have been more than eight drops of water that landed on his arm.
Each drop is like fire on his skin. It seeps into it mercilessly and refuses to calm down. It's horrible, worse than horrible. But he won't scream he won't scream-
The man that just flicked water on him turns to leave. "Someone else is coming to perform the experiments. Now, you’re going to want to behave for her, because she is way worse than me, I fucking promise. ” The man smirks and leaves
Ranboo gulps, still clutching his arm in pain that has subsided a little bit but not very much.
He waits for a few minutes on the cot before getting up and pacing around. He can just run...
No, no, he can't, because if they catch him Ranboo doesn't even want to think about what they would do to him. They obviously don't care if he gets hurt and they even seem to enjoy seeing him get hurt, and that thought makes him sick.
" Hybrid! " Someone yells and Ranboo yelps. He stops in his tracks and runs to the cot in fear that he would get punished for getting up.
"Did Josh not tell you to not get up?" The woman that just came in says rather angrily.
Ranboo shakes they’re head in pure fear. "No ma'am, I- I was just s- stressed so I got up and was pacing. I wasn't trying to leave," He tells her frantically.
She makes an annoyed sigh and makes her way over to the table with medical supplies like needles and syringes and a couple of bandages, and the tub of water.
"First off, we're going to take some blood tests. Are you scared of needles?"
Ranboo shakes his head nervously. He's not very scared of them, but he doesn't like them very much.
"Good. Because if you squirm around then I'll have to punish you," She says sternly.
Ranboo gulps and nods his head to show that he understood. The woman picks up a few syringes and walks over to the cot.
She takes three blood tests, he counts. One on his forearm and two more on his shoulders. He tries his best to fight down his enderman instinct to hurt her for taking his precious blood. That's his. What use did they have for it anyway?
"Interesting. The blood is a purplish-red," she mutters to herself, and walks out of the room. "Don't go anywhere, I'll be back in a few minutes," She tells him coldly. He nods.
She said a few minutes. That should be enough time to go see the others for a minute or two, he thinks. He's terrified of getting caught, but curiosity and anger drive him to get up and walk over to the hallway-room containing the cells full of enderman hybrids.
When he gets there, some of the hybrids turn to face him, some with a look of sympathy, and some curiosity and sadness.
A young looking adult speaks up. "Are you ok? Did they do anything to you? We heard an enderman screech. What happened?" He asks Ranboo.
"I'm ok. Someone just splashed a little bit of water on my arm and it hurts like hell for me. But I'm ok, I promise." The guy looks concerned.
"But how are you here?" He asks. Ranboo replies, "She left for a few minutes, and I wanted to see someone. But, I really don't want to get caught, so I should go back now. It was nice meeting you. What's your name? Mine's Ranboo."
"William," He says, and that reminds Ranboo painfully of Wilbur, Tommy's big brother. He misses the two, Tommy's family is like his second family.
Ranboo smiles, "Nice meeting you William. Bye!" He waves and heads back, tail swishing rather happily after him. But it stops as soon as he gets into the room. Someone is waiting for him back in the room. And she looks angry. Very angry.
Ranboo backs into the wall nervously and he can't breath. Why can't he breathe? Just breathe! Just fucking breath! But he can't. He's too scared.
fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck-
"I thought I fucking told you to stay put, enderman. Now I'm going to have to punish you for it. Where did you even go? Were you trying to escape?" She says coldly and horribly calm.
Ranboo shakes his head and finally breathes, but it comes out shaky and uneven. "I- I was just t- trying to see some of th- the others because I was bored, I swear!" He stutters out with panic laced in his tone.
She tsktsks and he winces, "I suppose it was to discuss escape routes or something?" His eyes widen and he shakes his head frantically, "No no nothing like that! I just wanted to say h- hi to someone." He finishes his excuse quietly, now realizing just how dumb sneaking off was.
"Well, we weren't going to do anything painful today because it's your first day here, but since you've acted up, I think we'll go ahead and start with something a little more physical. What'd you think about that?" She says it slowly, and she seems satisfied at the prospect of hurting him. That makes him even more scared, and he flicks his tail rather violently.
He just sits there, frozen, partially wide-eyed, and his tail flicking violently behind him in an attempt to calm down the natural enderman instinct to launch himself at her to protect himself. An enderman would always choose to fight, even if it knew it was going to lose, and Ranboo always wondered why. Why would they choose to fight and die rather than run and live?
Perhaps they didn't have a choice. Not in their eyes, anyway.
He doesn't trust himself to move. He's afraid that if he does, they’re enderman side will overtake him and try to kill her.
She walks over to the tub of water, picks it up, and brings it over and sets it down on the cot. Then she smiles, not a playful or friendly smile, but a smile full of malice and twisted satisfaction.
"Right, I'm going to ask you a couple questions before we move on to the more physical part," She says with that twisted smile of hers. How can someone just hurt someone else on purpose and like it? It's sick.
"Your name is Ranboo?" He nods. "You are sixteen, correct?" He nods again, a little zoned out from anxiety. She snaps sharply in his face and startles him. "Pay more attention!" She just about yells and Ranboo winces again.
She exhaled sharply through her nose and continued with the questions. "Does water hurt you badly?" He nods. "How bad? On a scale of one to ten," She asks and she sounds genuinely curious. "M- maybe eight or nine?" She actually smiles at that. "Oh we are going to have so much fun then."
Ranboo can’t help it. "B- but you said you were just experimenting on me. Not fucking torturing me!" He sputters, utter panic and anger rising in his throat.
"I can do whatever I want with you as long as you're here. Well, except kill you of course, but that doesn't mean I can't make you want to die. Technically I'm not really supposed to torture you, but you're in my hands now." Again she smirks and Ranboo has to hold in in a distressed enderman screech.
Fuckfuckshitshitshit- what the fuck is wrong with these people?! Why the fuck would they like torturing people and be okay with it?!
He gets pulled out of his thoughts by a harsh slap and he yelps in surprise and pain. "I said fucking pay attention. Do you want me to use water to get you to snap out of it?" She says coldly. He shakes his head frantically and stops when he sees her dip her hand in the water and scoop out some. He can't help the whimper that bubbles up in his throat.
"Are you going to behave or should I splash all this on you? Perhaps the whole tub?" She asks accusingly
"No please. I'll behave." He says in a quiet voice.
She drops her cupped hands and the water splashes and almost reaches Ranboo, but he yelps and jumps out of the way of it. The woman laughs, "Well, let's get started then shall we?"