Chapter Text
Kris's favorite video games always featured a hero on their way to rescue a damsel in distress, who was locked away in another castle with the promise of a rewarding kiss at the end. Usually Elnina and Lanino were happy to take on those roles during the program, but when the parents put on the weather channel, occasionally Tenna had to fill in. It never bothered him when he had to don the mantle, so to speak, of the princess dress.
That's what it meant to be the boss, he told Spamton, after the Addison laughed his head off about it. He found it less funny when Tenna made him be the hero of the quest, though.
He just never thought that aspect of his past would come back to bite him.
Tenna huffed another sigh as he smoothed the dress down again. The stretched fabric barely yielded to the pressure, and for the dozens time he gave up on getting it to do anything. Despite the rigid form, though, the dress and blankets were surprisingly soft. Much better than the cheap studio suits from a lifetime ago. Much, much better than the rags and plastic tarps he'd gotten used to. At least the birdcage wasn't nearly as cold as the dumpsters.
Yeah. He shouldn't complain about the accommodations.
He wondered how long Spamton would want to keep him here. Practically as soon as he'd locked Tenna away, he threw back on his Vee-Are thingy and started barking at the Fun Gang to hurry up. The ruler of ADWorld, whose function was to get Lightners to click on anything and everything, suddenly couldn't usher the kids through the levels fast enough. He cut corners and hurried the fights, and once or twice he even skipped the ads, willingly.
Realistically, he probably just wanted the troublemakers out of the way, before Susie's temper wrecked havoc on ADWorld permanently. But Tenna couldn't help the sliver of hope that maybe it had something to do with Tenna himself. That maybe Spamton had better things planned, now.
Like torturing Tenna until he gave up his secret.
Tenna's dopey little smile faded at the thought. After all, Spammy made it clear what he wanted. He expected Tenna to finally fulfill his end of their years-old deal, and the Addison made it clear that Tenna wouldn't be going anywhere until he got what he wanted.
Not that Tenna was opposed to staying, exactly, but... he couldn't give Spamton what he wanted. Heck, his head still ached from his punishment earlier, for trying to speak out at all.
The message from the benefactor was the same as always - a warning of what happened when he broke the rules. And if his body had been so destroyed after the first punishment, Tenna couldn't imagine the recompense now.
It'd kill him.
With a soft groan, Tenna flopped back onto the blankets, keeping his arm draped across his head. Everyone treated his new form with a casualness that made his metallic skin crawl. Angel, even just having his head in arms reach was better than nothing.
Though it wasn't like he could do much about it, if someone got the idea to take it from him again. He grip tightened when he thought about Jevil, tossing his head, dancing with his body, flinging him around-
"Hehehehe!"
Tenna bolted upright, flinching away before he realized who exactly had arrived.
"Jevil?!" Tenna blurted. He gaped at the familiar clown, who was cheerfully laying against the bars of the cage. "What are you - how did you- ?"
Jevil laughed, unhinged as ever. His head and neck bobbed with the force of it, and Tenna winced in sympathy.
"Why, why! I was sent, sent!" he crowed, bouncing on his feet. "The kiddies were so worried! They told me to find you. How fun, fun!"
Ah. Well, at the very least, it was just Jevil who'd seen him like this. Jevil quickly earned the title of strangest darker Tenna had ever met - and he'd met Seam, for goodness sake. Point being, he'd hardly have a coherent opinion about Tenna's new... situation. Be it the dress or the cage or his raging blush at both.
Almost like he read Tenna's mind, Jevil's smile went even wider. "Don't be shy, shy," he said, sticking out his tongue. "There's nothing wrong, wrong with needing some help."
"I'm fine. I can handle a little humiliation," Tenna said. Which would have been patently untrue, ten years ago. Luckily, after hitting rock bottom and digging for all he was worth in the muck below, he hardly had any room left for embarassment or shame. "I guess you could say I deserve it. Haha."
"We'll see, we'll see!" Jevil agreed. And then he marched to the padlock on the door, comically oversized to about Tenna's height, and started fiddling with it. "Now I can be the key!"
All at once, that familiar sense of alarm shot through Tenna. He stumbled to his feet, swiveling his head on the lookout. "Wait, I - I don't know if this is a good idea. Spamton is - he might -"
"Oh, don't worry about him," Jevil sang. He poked his hand further in the keyhole, giggling. "He's so busy, busy! Fighting the kids on the big screen!"
Tenna swallowed, glancing back where Spamton was standing in the chamber-control-thing. He had on that spiffy set of helmet-goggle-doodads that let him operate the hologram-whatzit. It was all way past Tenna's head, but he knew at the very least that Spamton would have reacted to Jevil showing up, if nothing else.
If Spamton was distracted, this was finally Tenna's shot to get out of here. But...
"I...I think I finally get what you meant." Tenna gestured widely, fingers brushing the silver bars. "About being free. About... wanting."
Jevil's grin grew sharper. His entire arm jammed into the lock now, rummaging for all it was worth. He barely seemed to notice, his attention so zeroed in on Tenna.
"Oh, oh?" he asked. "And what does the Lord of Screens want, want?"
What a question. The last time he'd been asked such a thing, he'd been offered power, and money, and fame, and everything he could imagine.
But he'd only ever wanted one thing.
Jevil tilted his head, grinning brightly but refusing to give in. Tenna bit back a sigh - of course Jevil wouldn't let him take the easy way out. Of course he'd have to say it.
"Just... let me have this." Tenna held his head tight against his stomach, felt the plastic casing dig into his skin. "Before they throw me away. I just... I want...."
He'd left, years ago, without ever saying it. Never let it be said that Tenna didn't learn from his mistakes.
"I want Spamton," Tenna confessed. His voice buzzed with static, his head sparked, his body ached, and he loved Spamton with everything in him. "I want to stay. Please let me stay."
"Oh please," a voice scoffed behind him, and Tenna's speakers made a horrid sort of popping noise. His arms locked tighter against the casing, feeling it creak a warning in his vice grip. His knees screamed in protest as he scrambled backwards, scooting until his ass hit the bars in the back, screen flickering. "You're not going anywhere, pipsqueak."
And there was Spamton. Jevil dangled from his fingers by his tail, a complete opposite to the all-encompassing, firm hold Spamton had on Tenna all day. Spamton's expression strained between his award-losing smile and a flash of something darker as he glared down at the clown.
"I told you to back off," Spamton snarled. "And tell the little brats that they'd better scram, if they know what's good for 'em. This is my TV. Mine." Without waiting for a real answer, Spamton summoned a pop up window for express shipping and flung Jevil into it carelessly. The whole thing vanished with a bright chime, jester and all.
Then it was just Tenna and Spamton.
Spamton turned his head slowly. The smile was gone, faded into something far more neutral. "And what are we gonna do with you, huh?"
Tennna couldn't help it - he flinched back.
Spamton's expression went stormy again. With jerky movements, he snatched the padlock to the cage, wrenching out a digital key and wrestling them together. Tenna was determined now, though - just as quickly, he jammed his head back behind his body, keeping a tight grip on the bars. His dress, unruly as ever, poofed up from the static electricity in the air, nearly blocking his view.
He wasn't helpless, damnit, and he wouldn't get thrown away without a fight.
Turns out, it was all for nothing anyway. Because as soon as Spamton pried open the lock, he snatched the cage up, flipped it over, and dumped everything through the door opening. Tenna's metal hands scrambled for purchase, but a solid whack from Spamton jolted him loose, and then he was falling-
Straight onto a mound of fluff. Tenna barely had time to catch his head, flat on his back as he was, as Spamton snatched the corners of the blanket and-
Darkness closed in on him. Very soft darkness, sure, but that didn't take away the fact that Spamton had, undoubtedly, caught him in a makeshift sack.
This day just couldn't get any better. First being dragged away from Kris, then shoved in a cage, and now this? Heck, at least in the cage he could see! The bag around him shifted suddenly, lifting and swinging just a little, and it was all Tenna could do to cling for dear life as Spamton carried him away.
All it would take was one good swing - maybe against a piece of furniture, a drop to the floor, heck, a hefty swing into the wall would be enough to shatter him beyond repair-
No, no, no. They'd meant something to each other, once. They'd been close - as close as possible with a mountain of secrets and lust and a ticking clock. Surely Spamton wouldn't - he couldn't - please don't -
When the corners of the blanket fell again, Tenna braced himself for the landing, only to have the entire ground spring beneath him. It was so soft, and warm, and when he finally got his screen tilted up, he immediately recognized the bed he'd landed on.
Angel, it had been ten years, and he was in Spamton's bedroom again.
Tenna had no idea what expression his screen was making, but whatever it was caused Spamton to turn bright red.
"This is just a precaution!" He snapped, cheeks heated. "In case the little brats send their damn [clowning around] for another jailbreak! They won't find us in here."
Us. Tenna fought very, very hard not to start glowing pink while Spamton cursed and huffed and pointedly didn't move an inch away from his position on the bed.
In the bright side, all the rough and tumble had finally worn down the dress. It smoothed down as Tenna knelt, letting it pool around him. When he risked another glance at Spamton, his red face had gone a deep scarlet, and Tenna tried not to feel smug about that.
"Don't...don't you need to go?" Tenna asked, trying not to make eye contact. "You've got those kids to entertain, right?"
"Pshh, them?" Spamton waved a hand, visibly unimpressed. "I've got the Mike.com trio managing them. Should be on their way out now." His blush faded, and his smile got sharper. "That means I've got plenty of time to get my answers."
Uh oh. Tenna cursed his own big mouth and shuffled backwards, hoping it wasn't too obvious.
"Um. So. About that," he stammered, a new fear setting in as Spamton leaned closer. "I already told you that I... I can't-"
"I don't care about your excuses," Spamton snapped. Hands slammed onto either side of Tenna, making the bed spring him into the air. It was all he could do to keep ahold of his head as he collapsed. "You owe me this! I deserve this! And you're gonna give it to me!"
Anger and terror burned through him, and Tenna let go of his head to jab a finger up at Spamton. "I can't! I've already lost everything, Spamton, don't you think I would tell you if I could?!" He steeled himself and used a leg to help angle a glare up at his partner. "This stupid body is punishment for signing your deal at all." He could feel himself losing steam, wilting until it was all he could do to add quietly, "If I tell you my secrets, he'll - he'll kill me. I'll... I'll die, Spamton."
Silence. Tenna didn't dare look around the bedroom - he already knew every inch of it in perfect detail. The messy closet, with half-hung shirts drenched in Spamton's awful cologne. The drawer full of ties that Tenna used to borrow religiously, since he could never keep track of the stupid dots on the end.
He knew this place. He'd known the man who lived here.
And then Spamton leaned down. His cold stare, the one that made other businessmen shrink away in the most civil of meetings, was aimed right at Tenna's screen. The long, cold anger of a man who was done waiting.
"I've waited for ten years, Ant," he said, low and serious like Tenna had never heard him. Absolutely unmovable, powerful, the god of the world making a decree, he commanded, "You're either gonna give me answers, or die trying."
Okay. This was it, then.
He'd always known Spamton would be the end of him.
Tenna swallowed. His hands shook around the casing of his head, and he pressed them hard against his stomach.
"Before I agreed to your deal," he started hesitantly, "and before I ever met you, the Dreemurrs were the only people I ever knew. And I played their shows and made them laugh, but... I was lonely. My only family, and I didn't know them at all."
Tenna could practically feel Spamton's impatience radiating around him, so he clicked off his screen and charged on.
"One day, I met someone. Someone... unbelievable. And promised that they could let me see into the Light World. Into Heaven. All I had to do was... sign their contract. So I did."
The air around Tenna was getting hotter, sparks starting to jump around his antennas in warning. He ignored it - there was nothing else to do.
"I could really see them. I still wasn't there, but... I could see the Dreemurrs. My family. I saw their smiles, I saw their joy. It was... amazing."
Nearby, Spamton scoffed. Tenna blinked his vision on, wincing, and hurried to add, "I could see the day they brought the laptop home, too. So I asked the man on the phone about it, and they told me to introduce myself to... to you. Said it'd change my world forever." He let out a bitter laugh. "After that, I was sold. I believed everything he told me without question."
The heat started burning against Tenna's metal skin. He clenched his fists tighter and tried not to singe the stupid dress.
"Then he started telling me... more." Angel, how to describe it? "So much more. Things that were... impossible. About life, and fate, and the dark worlds themselves. It was..."
Spamton's expectant gaze settled on his shoulders like a lead weight.
Like a noose.
"It was the Prophecy," Tenna said, and all at once, the burning crashed through him. Tenna gasped, his head slipping from his fingers as he doubled over.
Keep going, he willed himself.
"Lord of Screens-" Burning, burning, it hurt, oh Angel it hurt. He curled in on himself, as though there was anywhere he could escape the torture.
Tenna screamed in agony, but he was so close. He had to keep going.
"Tenna! Tens, wait-" Spamton sounded suddenly so unsure of himself. Tenna could barely hear him over the crackle of electricity in his servos.
He owed Spamton this. He just had to push, keep going, ignore the pain, make it work-
"Cleaved," he gasped between convulsions. He felt like a live wire, wracked with trapped electricity. "Red. By. Blade-"
His speakers peaked and, with no warning, blew out. And with that system failure came another in his visuals, and his auditory. His code fried, his wires melted, and - and -
When the darkness swept over him, Tenna wished he could smile.
At least he'd finally given Spamton what he wanted.