Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everything happened so quickly.

His mate's face staring down at him as Grian tipped over the edge of the abyss.

The void snapping at his code. Cold leeching into his bones as bits of data were chipped away.

A sudden change to warmth.

To wind.

Then impact.

By the time Grian's mind caught up with the present, he was prone on the ground. There was red splattered in his vision, on his hands sprawled in front of him, and lines of gray curled over his head before splitting off into a mess of broken angles.

Scared and confused, he tried to pull in his wings, only to scream when the action was met with pain lancing through the limbs at the slightest movement. Grian looked over his shoulder, biting his lip to keep another noise from escaping as he tried to figure out what was wrong.

The same broken and twisted metal that surrounded his head had done the same to his wings. Not only were they crooked in a way that screamed broken bones and torn muscles, but the forked metal disappeared into his feathers in multiple places. The coating of red on the iron that matched his primary feathers gave away where the metal went after being blocked from view.

His wings were broken. Even as the pain surrounded his mind in a hazy fog, the realization was unimpeded. Even if he managed to escape the twisted metal, he'd be flightless. Grounded. Doomed to the danger that lurked on the surface with no way to escape.
The thought made Grian wonder if it was worth trying to get himself free. If living was worth it if his wings were ruined with no hope of recovery.

Tears started to form in his eyes as the pain and sorrow left him in the form of a loud whimper.

Despite the state of his wings and his questionable will to live, he looked back to the ground in front of him and dug a hand into the earth. Grian pulled himself forward, gritting his teeth at the stab of pain it caused. Then he did it again.
If he was going to die, he didn't want to die surrounded by twisted metal that only ever made bad memories. He would escape it, leave the scrap behind, and find some ditch to die in instead. It was a better way to go.

Every bit of ground gained didn't do much to help him escape. It felt like Grian was moving, but the metal never moved away from his vision. Everything ached more and more as time went on. It was getting harder to move, and his eyes blurred with tears.

After several minutes of struggling, Grian heard something beyond the treeline that surrounded his little clearing of hell. He froze, trying to figure out what it was through the haze of pain.

Was it a mob? It was hard to tell if it had gotten dark enough yet for the trees' shade to provide opportunities for things to spawn. If it was, he wouldn't survive the way he was now. Alone and pinned to the ground. The idea of yet another path towards death had a whimper leaving Grian before he could stop it. Which only made that possibility more likely given that said mob could find him by that sound alone.

The noise solidified into definitive footsteps. Footsteps that were coming closer and closer.

Grian cried out as he made another attempt at escaping, fingers scraping the dirt as he made little progress in his attempts to crawl away. He hadn't even moved by the time he let his body collapse, panting with exhaustion.
The mob theory vanished as the footfalls became heavier. Player footsteps.

For a moment, his heart soared with hope. Maybe his mate had come to get him. To tell him this had been a test. One that Grian likely failed, but that wasn't new. He would be more than willing to make up for it like always.
Then the player spoke, crushing that hope in its place.

"Scar, buddy. I think we really need to have a talk about--" The voice cut off, interrupting itself with some kind of garbled shout.

Grian did his best to turn towards the player. He could just barely make out a man with fiery hair staring back at him from behind a tree. A tail with the same fire as his hair lashed behind him. His red eyes stared the avian down as he sniffed the air, trying to scent the other.

He stomach dropped when he picked up the spice of an alpha.

As soon as he realized his mistake, Grian dropped his gaze, whining apologetically at the no-doubt annoyed alpha. He couldn't afford to anger him in his condition. Especially being alone as he was. The spot on his neck that once held his mating bite throbbed with the reminder.

The footsteps came back after a few moments of silence. Grian whimpered as the alpha stopped near his head, kneeling down to his level. He tried to curl in on himself, to prove he wasn't trying to pick a fight by making himself smaller, but it only succeeded in jostling the metal in his wings and earning another whimper.

"H-hey there, little guy. You, uh, You don't look so good. Do you need some help?"

Help? The alpha must have wanted him for something, then. Or saw some kind of value in Grian, even with his mangled wings. He nodded with another whine. "P-please, alpha."

The alpha made a wheezing noise. "O-oh boy. That's, uh. We can talk about that later. Let's see if we can't get you free in the meantime, okay?"

Grian nodded again, going limp as the alpha started poking at the metal that surrounded him. He tried his best to stay quiet while the other man worked, but couldn't hold back a sharp chirp when a harsher tug moved the bits stuck in his wings. "Sorry! I didn't--"

"No, no, you're okay! I shouldn't have done that." The alpha was still and silent for several moments. Grian took the chance to crack open an eye to see why. The man was sitting on his heels, frantically typing something into a communicator as his tail lashed behind him.

He'd met enough blaze hybrids to recognize agitation. Tail flicking like that was usually only moments away from smoke and burns.

Maybe he wanted Grian to be vocal about his pain? Or freeing the avian was more work than he had thought? Either way, he gave another apologetic whimper. Something to make the alpha aware of how grateful Grian was.
It had the alpha looking back at him, meeting the omega's gaze again.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, little buddy. I'm just messaging for some backup. This is a bit too much for just me to handle."

Oh, Coders. That meant a second alpha. While Grian was still trapped and vulnerable.

His eyes started watering again as he sniffed without quite meaning to. The air was thick with his own wilted scent, but he could also smell the alpha's... fear? Distress? Some kind of sour tone that clashed with the usual spice.

He'd be confused if he wasn't already aware of how inaccurate his sense of smell usually was. The man was probably angry. Upset with the omega and the situation he was now dragged into.

The blur in his vision that made up the alpha shifted, moving. Before he could make out what was happening, a hand settled in his hair.

Grian tensed. He should've expected not to get out of this without some kind of beating or doing something to make it worth the alpha's while to help him. His mate was nowhere to be seen, no protection to be had from any alpha that came across him. Just like this one.

He tried to beg, to make an offer of his own, but it was hard to get anything past a hiccup or sob. He couldn't move his wings or body on his own without severe pain. Grian kept his posture as submissive as possible with the new contact, waiting to see where the alpha was taking it.

Maybe the alpha was contemplating asking for pleasure in exchange for his freedom?

Grian was fairly good at pleasuring alphas. He couldn't do much for an alpha beyond that, but he could give pleasure. Though with how he was pinned, the only thing he could offer was his mouth if the alpha wanted something before freeing Grian. That could've been what the hand in his hair was for.

He was still for a few beats, tense and waiting for the harsh tug of the other man's patience running out.

But it never came.

Instead, the alpha started... petting him? It was enough of a shock that Grian's tears stopped with a quiet noise of confusion.

"It's going to be okay. My buddy's gonna get here, and we're going to get all those wires off of you," the alpha soothed. Which was weird. It'd be calming if Grian wasn't so thrown off from the un-alpha-like behavior.

He kept waiting for the grip to change, to turn harsh and controlling. But it never did. It just kept petting his head and running through his hair.

It almost felt wrong. An unnerving level of affection that had Grian hesitantly reaching out to grab at the alpha's pant leg, tugging hopefully with a whine in an attempt to navigate back to familiar territory.

But the alpha just kept petting him.

Was Grian doing something wrong? Did the alpha just like seeing him trapped and injured? Did he want Grian to struggle so he could get off to the sight of him in pain from fighting to free himself? There had to be something Grian was missing.
Several more tugs and whines met with quiet affirmations went by as Grian became more and more distressed trying to figure out what this alpha wanted. The thought came to mind that the alpha lied about someone else coming to meet them. He wasn't sure if that was more confusing than anything else so far, but he was running out of ideas.

Then there was a new set of steps coming closer. The alpha's friend.

That answered one question and possibility at least.

"Tango? You around here, my dude?"

Grian sniffed at the air hesitantly, not able to catch much beyond the overwhelming scent of the alpha next to him.

"Over here, Ren!" The alpha--Tango--relaxed a bit as 'Ren' came closer to them but still sounded strained. "Need a bit of help getting these metal wires off. I tried helping by myself, but couldn't get anything off of him, really."

There was a quiet whistle. "That's a real mess. But I brought the shears, so hopefully we'll have our friend here free in no time."

Grian couldn't stop himself from shaking with a quiet whine. On one hand, getting free sooner was nice. On the other hand, Ren sounded almost frighteningly happy about the idea of getting him out of there. Which meant bracing himself for whatever reward the alpha wanted for getting dragged into this.

Tango's hands finally left his hair, moving down to touch his back again where he was caught in the metal. A set of strong legs knelt down near his face, and he internally tried to calculate how big an alpha of that size would be. He was bigger than Tango, at least. Not that it mattered much. If either one took him while injured, he'd probably have to bite his tongue not to scream and annoy them.

Grian sniffed again now that Ren was near him, trying to scent any strong emotions off the alpha to know if he needed to submit more. He didn't want to get in trouble. But he couldn't make anything out. Tango's scent still burned in his nose too much.

There was a light tug to the metal, just like the first time Tango started messing with it. But this time, there was a sharp snipping noise followed by some of the tension falling away. Grian shivered as multiple hands worked around his back, occasionally leaving before another snip rang out.

A particularly rough change in tension led to some of the metal digging into his wings harder, causing Grian to cry out. He was quick to muffle it down to a whimper when both alphas started brushing along his back and hair.

"Hey, hey, it's alright, buddy. Just got a bit of a bigger chunk out of the way." Ren's voice was a lot less strained than Tango's had been. More steady, at least. "You're doing great so far."

Grian took a deep breath to calm himself down, to behave. Or keep behaving, apparently, given Ren's complement.

And he finally caught a whiff of Ren's scent.

He had expected another strong alpha scent to overwhelm his senses, more spice burning his nose, but it was so different. It was an omega's scent. Something light and easy. It made him relax, just a bit, knowing that he wasn't alone at the mercy of two alphas. There was someone who would probably treat him okay nearby. To redirect the alpha's attention from being solely on him.

Someone less prone to the impulsive urges to harm that an alpha had. That Grian was mildly surprised hadn't made Tango sabotage his own efforts to get Grian out.

His focus came back to the present as he felt fingers nudge his shoulder.

"Okay, we got most of the loose bits free, but we need to start looking at the stuff that's caught up in your legs and wings. We'll try and be careful, but we want to get you out of that thing as quickly as we can so we can get you out of here," Ren quietly assured.
"Just stay as still as you can for us and we'll get you out of there," Tango added. "You can grab one of us if you need to, but your wings and legs need to stay as still as you can manage to keep them."

He whimpered again, but managed to speak, "O-okay. Thank you, Alpha."

He felt Ren's hands pause and shivered, wondering if he had been wrong to use the title. Was he Ren's alpha, and he didn't want to hear someone else call him that?

But neither man said anything further, instead resuming their work.

Both remained quiet for a bit as he felt hands move down his back slowly, starting to work on moving and cutting metal. All the while, one of them stayed within sight each time they moved. He focused on the legs of the men as best he could, to give him something to distract from the pricks of moving wire mesh.

When a piece moved and dug into his wing harshly, he cried, his body going stiff as he tried not to struggle and let his wing thrash. A hand settled on his back, rubbing a calloused thumb over the tense muscles.

He cried, but stayed as still as he physically could. To behave for the alpha watching him. His wings giving a twitch that made him cry harder.

"Oh sweetheart, I know," Ren said, "We're trying. Once it's all off, we can get you some potions and a nice, comfy bed, okay? Help you get somewhere comfortable."

He whined, giving tiny nods and hoping they'd notice how eager he was for that. For somewhere safe to rest until Grian could leave them alone. Before Tango's kindness wore off when he realized how useless of an omega Grian was.

There was purring, soft welcoming omega purring, and he wanted to cry in relief at the noise. More snips and hands moving something, and one of his legs was free.

"He'll need a lot of rest after this," Tango said, sounding somehow more panicked than he did. And he was the one trapped. "His leg is pretty messed up. That's nothing to say about the rest of him."

Ren purred again, fingers moving through his hair in a somewhat familiar motion. Tango was petting him again softly. If it wasn't for the other omega's purring, it would've sent him into another panicked spiral.

"Yeah, he's in pretty bad shape. Like his wings are..." Ren trailed off at that, hesitant.

Grian sobbed at the words, knowing how bad they had to look. Twisted and broken on his back. Ugly. Mangled. Ruined compared to the beautiful mass of colors that they usually were.

"Oh sweet thing, it's okay," Ren assured. "We'll have someone help. You're okay."

"I think I can move this piece near his hip," Tango said, his hands moving off his hair.

He whimpered again, but felt more weight leave him. The hurt in his body became more apparent as he got dizzier and less metal lay on him. He let his eyes slide shut, whimpering as he tried to ignore the pain.

"Dude?" Ren said, gently patting his hair, "Are you okay?"

" 'm dizzy..." He managed to mumble to the other omega softly, " 'n tired. Hurts."

"We're going as fast as we can without hurting you more," Tango assured as another heavy piece moved off his back, taking weight off his wings.

"... know, thank you," He assured softly.

Grian's wings were still pressed tightly to his back, trapped in a tangle of wires even with the heaviest piece now gone. He had to keep himself from trying to push against the metal, knowing it would only make the points of contact dig in that much harder.

The removal process moved back towards his head again. The shears sounded close enough to his ear for him to make an effort to press the feathers flat to his head.

It was quiet, minus the occasional snip. Then there was a shift as another chunk of metal came free, leaving his vision.

Then there was a low growl from Tango.

Every instinct in Grian went wild, whimpering and trying to shrink away from the angry alpha. But he stayed still and quiet, not squirming or fighting like his hind brain wanted him to.

This was just the alpha finally acting the way Grian expected. The man's own set of instincts pushing forward and taking over.

Except it stopped almost as quickly as it started.

Replaced by purring.

The dual tones of Ren and Tango's purrs settled something in the avian's chest, making him fall limp even as one of them rubbed his upper back, right near--

...Oh. He'd forgotten about the stinging necklace of bites around his neck, too distracted by the pain everywhere else. The growling made sense now. Tango must have seen the proof of his failure to keep an alpha happy.

Where his mate had made sure to remove every sign of the bond they'd had.

One of the men was saying something in a soothing tone, but it was hard to focus on the words. Everything seemed so far away. At least they were quick to start chipping away at the metal bars, again. Even if it was probably in an attempt to get rid of him sooner.

They were less careful, now. Less gentle. It barely took a few more moments before there was a jolt in the mesh of metal and the ends pushed hard into his wings. He cried out in pain, wings twitching to throw off the thing hurting him. It only succeeded in making things worse.

Ren was quick to move back into his line of sight, kneeling by his head and petting his hair. It didn't scare him the way Tango did when doing the same action, but it wasn't enough to stop the strangled noises that left Grian's throat somewhere between a whimper and a sob.

"Shi-- Sorry, sorry! That was my fault," Tango's voice shook hard. "I touched the wrong bit and-- it just--"

"Hey, it's all good, man. It was an accident," Ren reassured the alpha. The man's scent felt stronger for a moment, helping to soothe Grian's distress back down to quiet whimpers. Then to his surprise: "Maybe you should step back and take a minute to breathe, dude. Maybe check the server logs with those admin privileges of yours. See how our friend here got onto the server."

Grian thought the alpha would get angry. Yell about how an omega shouldn't tell him what to do. Instead, the man was quiet beyond some shuffling he could just barely pick up.

Ren leaned over him, shears still in hand, and quietly worked at a section of metal near his right wing. It was only a handful of moments before the other omega spoke back up again. "Can you tell me what happened here, my dude? What got you all tangled up?"
It took a few long seconds for Grian to even register the question. Even longer to try to think of an answer. Everything was hazy.

"Fell," was the only thing he could get out.

Ren let out a noise of confusion before Tango saved him from trying again. "I found him like this. I heard a crash and some whimpering. Thought maybe it was Scar, but instead..." The alpha's tail lashed in and out of his view. "...Yeah."

"That's... something, alright." The omega hummed.

The snips were longer apart now. It felt like most of the metal was gone at this point. At least what was wrapped around him and not stuck in precarious places.

Things hurt less now. The pain felt further away.

"Okay, found some stuff about his entry to the server, but it doesn't make a lot of sense," Tango called out.

"How so?"

"It's not the standard player joining logs. It happened about the same time Doc was lagging out the server, so there were a lot of errors logged around that time. I thought maybe that made the server skip checking the whitelist or something, but..."

Grian felt Ren sit back, putting the shears down. "But what?"

"The join message wasn't for a player. It was for an unknown entity. The server had to rebuild some of his code because it came through corrupted and translated some random numbers into his spawn coordinates. Which doesn't make any sense! The server should've recognized at some point that he was a player and corrected that. Alerted Xisuma or something. Even now, his spawn coordinates are probably--" Tango cut himself off with another one of those sharp wheezing noises. "Ren, come take a look at this."

The other omega left Grian's side. Which didn't bother him as much as he thought it would. He was starting to get really sleepy, actually.
It wouldn't hurt to close his eyes for a minute, listening to the other two men whisper to each other.

------

Ren knelt down next to Tango, looking at the admin screen. "...I don't know what I'm looking at, my dude. It's a lot of numbers and stuff."

Tango highlighted a section of Grian's player data - or entity data, apparently - that was blank. "This is where his entity tags should be. The stuff that tells the server what kind of entity he is. It's blank. That's why the server didn't try to match him against the whitelist."

The omega's eyes widened in understanding. "It doesn't think he's a player? Can you fix it?"

"It's above my security. Xisuma can fix it, but until then, the server's not registering him as a player. So no messages, no block update audits, no--" Tango froze. His gaze snapped back to the avian that was now more still and red then he was comfortable with. A sinking feeling built in his gut. "No respawn."

The implications must have hit Ren at the same time as it did for him because both suddenly scrambled back towards Grian.

His eyes had closed at some point while they were talking. He was still breathing at least.

Ren started gently shaking Grian, trying to rouse him. Chest growing tight, Tango refreshed the data he had opened for Grian in his admin panel.

The health stat had ticked down from 3.5 hearts to 2. In just over a minute.

"We need to take him to Xisuma. Now." Tango dismissed the panel. He quickly checked over the remaining metal Grian was trapped in.

His wing wasn't looking good at all, and there were still some points that dug into both his bad wing and parts of his back. But the majority of the weight was gone. What was left was, for better or for worse, pressed close to him enough that it wouldn't be hard to maneuver around.

Ren managed to get the avian to open his eyes again, even if only to small slits. Tango didn't waste any time, moving to scoop up the omega with Ren's help. Grian made a small noise of confusion.

"It's alright, dude," Ren soothed, running a hand through Grian's hair. "We're taking you somewhere safe, alright? Just stay with us until we get there."

"Message Doc, too. Have him meet us at X's base." Ren pulled out his comm and started typing. In his arms, Grian gave a quiet whimper. "It's alright. We'll be there, soon."

With that, he started running towards Xisuma's base with Ren on his heels.

Chapter Text

Grian didn't realize he stopped paying attention to what was going on around him until he heard knocking from somewhere nearby. His head rolled away from Tango's shoulder towards the noise. He blinked until the brown blur in his vision sharpened into a door. He whined, looking up at Tango slowly. It hurt to turn his head.

"We're here, just give Xisuma a moment to get to the door," Tango said. At least he thought so. He was watching his mouth, and it moved at some point.

"I think he's pretty out of it." Someone was brushing back the hair from his face. He tried to focus on the hand, but his eyes wouldn't stop on anything. He also thinks that he's moving a little now. Up and down, like a boat. "Little dude's lost so much blood. And the pain's probably pretty bad, too."

Ren made a worried, purely omega sound towards him and he tried to make a small noise in return. He couldn't quite make it right, but Ren purred in response anyways.

"Fuck, where is X and Doc?!" Tango hissed. Grian curled into himself, or at least tried to. He wasn't sure he actually moved at all.

Ren growled at the other, leaving him confused. Why was Ren growling at the alpha? Wasn't that just going to get them both in trouble? He whimpered, ready to beg for forgiveness from the alpha, when there was a clicking noise. He looked back and then blinked at the door as it opened.

There was some sort of pink... something in the doorway. Something tall, probably, stared at the others before practically jumping out of the way to the side.

"Get in, then start explaining Tango," The serious voice said.

"Getting in." They were pushing past the pink guy, and Grian could feel Tango look around, "Has Doc shown up yet? This guy really needs help."

"I swear, he said he was close," Ren snapped. "Give him a minute. We don't live near here."

He didn't know who Doc was, but it worried him more. Was it someone who was going to hurt him? Did they just want to take him somewhere to make it easy for them to mutilate him more?

He whimpered involuntarily, burying his face against Tango's throat for a moment. Tango paused as he set him down, moving carefully then petting his hair again. The movement was soft enough to dampen his noises of distress.

"Fuck," He heard the new voice say. A hand was gently moving him. "His wings-"

"Yeah, they were pretty badly tangled up in a bunch of metal when I found him," Tango said, "We were gentle as we could be, but they were already torn up like this."

"Doc should know how to help," Someone said. It was hard to keep track. He could feel another hand move near his face. He responded by hesitantly nudging at it tiredly. It was some kind of glove, not a bare hand. The pink guy. He must be Xisuma, now that he thought about it. It was his base Tango said they were going to.  "I'm sorry, dear, help is on the way."

He tried to scent the new man, whining softly when he pulled back for a moment.

"Oh, okay," He said softly, pushing his wrist back near him.

Grian gratefully scented him, trying to place it. Honey sweet but with something else behind it, something sharper mixed with it. Not omega soft, but definitely not alpha strong and overpowering. It took him a moment to categorize it as beta.

He whimpered softly at that, letting his head fall back onto whatever he was laying on. At least that meant he was safe-ish around Tango right now. The alpha should know better than to do anything in front of betas. Grian felt the beta pat his cheek gently after that, the man gently soothing him.

"I think we might need to do something before Doc gets here." Tango sounded further away than he expected. "Potion, or even a command of some kind. He's really low on health, and respawn isn't an option."

"Not...?" Xisuma paused. "Okay, that's... that's not great. I can only really add potion effects in terms of commands for healing. But it'll be faster and more effective than a potion. Let me get that going."

"Can we also get that wire off his wings?" Ren asked. He sounded distressed. "I think that's part of the reason he's in pain."

Xisuma was quiet for a moment.

"I think we should wait for Doc," The beta finally said. Grian whimpered when a twitch of his wings caused the pain to flare up for a moment. He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but the object under him seemed to be vibrating. "I'm sorry. Ren, I know it sounds bad, but we don't know if they're keeping his wings from more damage or not. We need to get someone who knows what they're doing here before that."

"But, X-" Ren whined softly, fingers in his hair again as he felt another dizzy spell hit him.

"I know, Ren. I know." The beta said, moving away from Grian.

He tried to keep from whimpering and whining when left, trembling in place. He didn't want to be a burden. He tried to make himself small, whimpering again when one of his wings twitched. He gasped quietly, eyes closing and whining again.

"It's okay sweetheart," Ren said again, moving closer to his head to start petting him, "Doc's close, okay?"

Grian found he was close enough that the scent of everything else was out of his ability to recognize, just the other omega so close his scent was overpowering.

He shivered when Ren shifted, but there was just shushing. Hands gently petting his hair and keeping him calm. He inhaled the nice scent again, shakily sighing and whining quietly.

"And the command should hit in three, two..."

A new sensation had Grian jerking in Ren's arms. It was like the dizziness increased tenfold while his body lit up with a tingling sensation. He couldn't stop the whine from escaping him as he clutched the other omega harder.

The pain seemed to flicker, almost. Like his body couldn't decide if it felt better or worse. His neck no longer ached, but in return, his bad wing felt even worse.

It felt like the conflicting sensations went on for hours before suddenly pausing. Grian fell limp with another whine. The pain was marginally better, but the dizziness and fog were worse.

"Okay, he's back up to 4 hearts." Grian couldn't decide if he appreciated the beta's help or hated him for it. "Not a great reaction to it, but he should be stable enough to not die before Doc gets here."

He didn't fight when hands started gently petting him and instead focused on the scent of the other omega, trying to place it. Hoping it would keep his mind working long enough for whoever Doc was to get there.

Something not overly sweet. It was woody and pleasant? Shivering, he sniffed at him again, shaking as he tried to place the scent with something he knew. Something familiar, but far from unpleasant. Soothing in its familiarity. It was nice to scent someone so close to him who wasn't trying to actively hurt him. That hadn't happened in a long time.

He heard more movements, eyes fluttering open and whimpering when he couldn't scent whoever it was. Just Ren's scent full in his nose, and he groaned quietly as his fingers rubbed his back.

"Keralis," Someone said -- Xisuma maybe? "Something wrong?"

"I could smell a lot of distressed scents, Sheshwammy," A new voice said. Grian could barely hear the beta purring softly at the new guy. "I came to make sure everyone was okay. Who's this?"

"We don't know yet," Xisuma said. "Tango found him out in the forest, injured and twisted up in metal. Luckily, Ren was nearby to help. They brought him here and messaged Doc. We're just waiting now."

"Poor thing," Keralis said. He felt another hand gently ruffle against his hair for a few seconds. "He's so frightened."

Grian whimpered at the words, surprised at being discovered. He thought he was hiding his terror at the situation better. No one else had mentioned him being scared. Maybe they just liked seeing him this way. Keralis didn't seem bothered by it though, gently scratching at his scalp.

"It's okay, sweet face," Keralis assured, "This is a frightening situation. It's not bad to be scared."

He whimpered softly at his words, but let himself relax. The other rumbled at him in the same alpha way Tango did earlier. Grian made another attempt to pull away from Ren and look for the new person. He almost jumped upon realizing the alpha was standing over him, looking down and blinking slowly.

It was a dark haired man with wide eyes and an easygoing smile. He continued to pet his hair and give soft assurances. Telling Grian that he was okay and being good.

It was that last part that finally had Grian relaxing completely. The bit of reassurance he was looking for.

"Oh thank fuck, Keralis," He heard Tango say with a heavy sigh. "I tried, but apparently I'm not too soothing. How do you always manage this? Even with omegas you've never met?"

"I just have a magic touch around sweet faces, sweet face," Keralis said. "Not everyone can do the same."

Grian whined quietly at them, unsure of why. Keralis smelled... weird, now that he was close. There was an alpha spice to his scent, strong but not overpowering his senses. But otherwise, he didn't have any distinguishing smell. No secondary sweetness or anything that was so typical to every person. If he was able to focus enough on that missing part, he would probably be put off by it instead of letting the brief concern fading into the background of his mind.

"Doc's coming, you said?" Keralis asked.

"He's close, I swear."

"I believe you, Ren," Keralis assured. "That's not what I'm worried about."

"Keralis?" Xisuma said, fingers also in his hair now. Why was everyone obsessed with his hair?

"Hey dear," Grian blinked in confusion -- when had he closed his eyes? -- at the alpha in question. "Can you focus on me before Doc gets here?"

He forced himself to make a noise, almost passed out again under the soothing scents and gentle hands, "Mhm."

"Good, I'm gonna give you a warning about Doc, okay?" Grian felt his fear spike at Keralis' words.

Why did he need to be warned about Doc? Was he mean or easily angered? Did he have something against avians? Or just omegas? Was he going to hurt him as soon as he saw him?

"Shh, no need for that, sweet face," Keralis said gently. "This is just so you don't get too scared, okay? Doc's on the big side, and he comes off rough, but I promise he's nice. He just seems scary at first. There's no need to get upset if you think you did something wrong. He's not mean."

Grian whined, closing his eyes. Maybe he could black out again before Doc showed up.

"Promise," Keralis said softly.

He let out a soft whimper at the word, letting his eyes stay closed. It was nice to be promised that Doc wasn't as mean or scary as he seemed, but he was still focused on something else.

Keralis had said Doc was big. Grian thought Keralis was big, so how big could Doc be? The thought of an alpha -- why warn him if he wasn't another alpha? -- even bigger than Keralis was terrifying.

He shivered, eyes squeezing tighter as he curled towards Ren.

"Sorry, sweet face. I know it's a scary thought."

Chapter Text

After Keralis' explanation, things in the room were quiet. The only sounds were a few murmured conversations that Grian couldn't hear and the rustling of his hair from Ren's petting.

Grian didn't say anything about the large alpha that would be arriving, but he hid his face and let out a shaky breath. He bit his lip to keep any noises from escaping and drawing attention to himself again. It was bad enough they knew he was scared. Now they were spending energy trying to help him keep calm. Not wanting him to panic anymore. Panicking made things difficult for them, and they shouldn't have to expend the effort on him.

His eyes flew open at a sudden change in the air around him, gasping and staring wildly around when the scents all shifted. He couldn't tell if the shift was positive or negative. That wasn't what shocked him, though: a stronger scent flooded the room as the door closed with a quiet bang.

He let his eyes focus on the new arrival. The alpha's scent was registering as calm, but so strong. A spicy scent and something like the forest mixed together. Insanely strong, not entirely unpleasant, but it scared him.

Calm scents don't flood rooms. And Grian was notorious for getting that scent identification wrong.

The strong scent was met with Ren's scent suddenly going sweeter.

"Doc!" Ren's tone betrayed how happy he was at the sudden appearance of the alpha. Which hardly made any sense. Why would any omega be happy to see an alpha that big? "Thank goodness you're here, dude!"

"Sorry about the delay. I got here as quick as I could," Doc's voice cut through the fog in his head sharply.

Even if he had never heard it before, Grian would have understood this was Doc. The voice was a deep gravel, low and borderline terrifying. Paired with his appearance, it immediately sent his body into overdrive.

The face of the other man was human enough, but green with the fur of a creeper, and half of it was metal. While his one normal eye was looking at Ren above him, Grian could feel the red light of the second eye boring into him. He was rough looking, and it scared Grian.

He wanted to hide under his wings, to bury himself under anything to get out of that red glare. Out of instinct, the long appendages tried to pull close around him. He screeched in pain, panicked, and suddenly, there was a heavy hand on his back.

Shockingly gentle for how strong it was.

"Woah," Doc said, voice softening suddenly. "Take it easy. I'm not going to hurt you."

Even with him biting down on his lip again, a muffled whimper was no doubt audible to the alpha, who sighed.

"Ren, I think my scent's scaring him. Can you get closer to him to help him drown it out?"

Ren was moving onto the table next to him within seconds. Hands shifted him so he wasn't looking at Doc and set Grian with his nose pressed against his belly. The woody scent helped clear out his senses more, though whether it cleared the panic entirely was debatable. He couldn't smell the alpha anymore, but he still knew he was there.

But it was a more comforting scent and let him at least pretend Doc wasn't staring at him.

He hesitantly nuzzled closer, trying to drown out the alpha scent as much as he could. He made a sound that even he couldn't tell was meant to be an apology or not.

"It's fine," Doc assured. "I'm sorry I scared you like that. Don't feel bad about panicking. It happens a lot when people meet me for the first time. Ren doesn't mind helping you relax."

"He's right," Ren added. "I didn't think about how strong Doc's scent is. All the Hermits are so used to it that we don't even think about how it might affect strangers. It really was just us not really thinking about it."

Grian pushed his face against Ren's stomach at the reassurance. The other omega responded by pushing his fingers into his hair and petting him more. He tried to focus purely on the pleasant omega scent right next to his face. He could still smell Doc's scent though, overpowering and so so close to him.

He felt hands gently move to his neck, gentle as they lifted his head slightly. He whimpered, but Ren stayed close. There was a rumbling noise, but he tried not to focus on it. Flinching as he felt fingers touch his torn up neck.

"I don't know who would-" Tango's voice started, only to be cut off.

"Later," Doc's voice was calm, but there was a slight souring to his scent. "Let's get him patched up and able to actually rest first."

Tango quieted with a rumble back at him, but he didn't sound angry this time. Or maybe he just couldn't tell because of how much the other omega filled his senses.

He flinched and whimpered as he felt hands cleaning his neck, his hands twitching each time. The command that restored some of his health earlier stopped it from bleeding as much, but it didn't do much to make the process any less painful.

Soon, there were hands in his. Grian couldn't tell who's they were, but he squeezed at them. He was grateful, if a little guilty, for them trying to help him more. For sparing him even this small amount of kindness.

Doc was shockingly gentle with him as he cleaned his wounds. Grian kept waiting for something to happen. For the gentle brushes to turn into fingers pressing into the partially-healed wounds just to hear him cry. But they never did. The alpha's hands kept working until he felt something being wrapped around his neck firmly.

Was he being collared by the strange alpha? A sharp pang of panic rushed through him, wondering if his nightmares were happening all over again. If this was some way to claim him without placing a bite.

A sign of an alpha's ownership over him, but without the commitment of needing to grant him protection. Marking him as taken, but free game regardless.

Before his thoughts could spiral any further, he felt it wrap around his neck again. The action made Grian relax, realizing it was bandages; protecting his torn up neck from everything else happening to it. Simple and completely understandable. They probably were still debating the idea of keeping him around at all, let alone anyone jumping at the bit to claim him for themselves.

Which was fair. He was damaged goods. Anyone with eyes could see he was already thrown away by another alpha.

When he finished, Grian found himself trying not to pass out against Ren, eyes pricking with tears as he tried to avoid thinking about everything that led up to this situation. Part of him was shocked that he had survived this long with how bad he felt. He had probably bled everywhere, making a mess of Xisuma's home.

There was a nudging at his shoulder and a rumble that felt like it flowed straight through him. It took him a few moments to realize it was Doc speaking and that he hadn't understood a word that came out. He was too tired to tense up when the alpha knelt closer to his head.

"Hey." Grian forced himself to look up. His flinch at Doc's eye came out more as a shiver. "There you are. I'll need to take off your clothes to keep going. Can I?"

He felt confused at the question. Doc was an alpha. He didn't have to ask permission from an omega for anything. Especially when he was as big and intimidating as he was. He could just do it, and there was little Grian could do against it.

His job was to provide for his alpha. Or, well, any alpha now that he was...

Regardless, Grian was supposed to be ready for any rough handling. To give out to any alpha that asks. But to his confusion, Doc didn't seem interested in mating or touching him at all, just trying to patch him up.

He managed a mumbled, "Yes... it's okay."

"If you need to sleep, you can. Ren's got you," Doc hummed. Probably tired of having to deal with the omega while conscious.

"Yeah, go on and sleep," Ren encouraged.

Grian found himself listening to the gentle voices, all encouraging him to rest.

/////

Everyone watched as the omega fell asleep, his neck wrapped firmly to protect it from more damage. He was still attached to Ren even in his sleep, nose against the junction of the larger omega's hip.

The room was quiet for a few moments. Just to be sure the avian really was asleep.

"Okay, now, what's going through your head, Doc?" Tango said, drawing his attention momentarily.

Doc didn't respond immediately. He went back to the omega, focusing on turning his head long enough to patch up the cuts and rub ointment on his bruises before watching him turn back to nuzzle into Ren.

Doc started working the torn up top off the omega next. He tried not to note the torn up holes in the back, showing just how much the clothes weren't built for the tiny avian. Hybrid custom clothes weren't unusual or even expensive to acquire. Making neat holes for wings could be done easily even if they did not have easy access to a shop. But even if the holes were neatly made, the shirt was still far too big. It looked closer to a dress or hospital gown than anything practical.

Whoever had given him the shirt simply didn't care to make it nice or comfortable for him.

This fact became more obvious when he finished cutting the shirt enough to start to peel it off, only to find it was the only article of clothing the avian had.

"Doc," Xisuma's voice cut through his mind as he worked on it, "What were you thinking when you saw his neck?"

"... I've heard about this happening before," He said with a grumble after a minute, attempting to control his temper, "Alphas tearing at omega's scent glands to keep them from mating. Either because they're rejected or because they don't want anyone else to go after them. Sometimes just to be cruel."

He heard the other two alphas immediately start growling. He had to force down the deep rumble he wanted to let out in response.

It was a disgusting practice, and Doc had thought so since the moment he'd first heard of it happening. It was cruel to take away an omega's free will, especially in such a violent and painful manner.

He listened to the omega whine in his sleep as he gently bandaged and cared for his torso. Ren was soothing him as much as he could, fingers in his hair while Xisuma held his hands and let him squeeze at them whenever it hurt.

He carefully rolled him over so he could bandage his front as well, being as respectful as he could while not missing anything.

Whatever alphas had done this, had done it in as sickeningly a way as they could. Tearing at the omega's skin and leaving bites and tears in delicate places. Even worse, the avian was covered in just as many scars, with some injuries difficult to tell if it was new or an existing one reopened by the rough landing. Regardless of age, Doc covered them, then moved down to his hips.

Doc worked methodically, letting the tiny omega cling to his mate while he tried to help.

Usually Doc would find a stranger, even an omega, being all over his mate like that annoying. He wouldn't do anything about it, knowing that Ren wouldn't leave him, but it would still irk him to no end. However, he felt no ill will towards the avian currently shoving his face against Ren's thigh. It wasn't hard to figure out why, at least. The small, injured form drew more attention from the protective parts of his hind brain than jealousy.

He had to pause for a moment just to take in the vast number of scars littering the upper thighs of the omega. Some looked rough and ragged, while others were clean lines caused by a blade of some kind. It was hard to tell if it was better or worse that some of the scars looked almost completely faded away.

It took a deep breath and some counting to resume cleaning and bandaging what he could.

Doc couldn't imagine the situation Tango found him in and gave silent praise to the other alpha for having any semblance of calm. Especially considering calm was far from Tango's natural state. He was torn to shreds under his clothes from whatever had happened before and torn over the clothes from whatever had happened earlier. He had to work to clean him up and get him more comfortable. It was no wonder the omega cowered as much as he did. The emotional damage would have been just as harsh as the physical. Doc didn't even let himself think as he cleaned between his thighs, already knowing what had to have happened to cause that damage.

He'd clearly lost a lot of blood and was still in danger of dying. He sighed as he finished with his legs, going back to his arms as Xisuma managed to squirm away from his hands to slip new boxers over his legs. Giving him some decency even if they were obviously too big for him.

"Alright Ren, I'm gonna need you to cooperate with me here."

Doc moved to pick up the omega, listening to Ren grumble at him removing the smaller man from him. He sighed at him as he moved the omega carefully to lean against Ren's chest and tried to support the mangled wings on his back.

It wasn't pretty. Doc wasn't an expert in wings by any means, but even he could tell they were in rough shape. The right wing was almost covered in wiry metal that bent and stabbed into the limb. It was at a bad angle on top of that, held in place by the metal. The left was only marginally better. Some of the metal reached over to it, but nearly as much as the right. It didn't have as bad of an angle as the other one, which gave him some hope.

"I'm gonna need help for this. Trying to realign and splint wings on my own won't happen," Doc said calmly.

Soon everyone else was near him, and he grabbed the left wing gently. Tango was quick to take the weight in his hands, staring at it as he held it as delicately as he could. He looked panicked to be holding something he knew was so delicate in his hands.

Any other time, it would make the larger alpha chuckle. But right now, he just had to hope it wouldn't get in the way of helping.

Doc immediately checked to see if it was dislocated in any way, sighing when it was.

"I don't like the sound of that," Tango muttered.

"I'm going to need you to keep that wing still, Tango." The alpha in question went still as he tensed, the only movement coming from a quick flick of his tail. "Keralis, could you make sure the other doesn't flail either? Ren-"

"Make sure he stays still?" The omega said, arms already moving to hold him still to his chest.

"Yeah, his wing is dislocated," Doc said grimly. "This will hurt."

Tango flinched at the words, but held onto his wing as firmly as he dared after that while Doc placed a hand on his back and felt the avian twitch under his hands. The wing tried to twitch under his grip as well, but he just grimaced before he pulled his wing.

He forced himself not to flinch when the omega screamed, the wing under his hand trying its best to fight against him and nearly managing to do so.

Doc hadn't expected so much strength in any part of the tiny avian, panting and screeching while trying to flail in Ren's grip. He should have realized that his wings would be strong as they'd need to lift him off the ground.

"You're okay," Doc tried to soothe. "I'm trying to set your wings. I know it must hurt, but I'm trying to help."

The omega was crying messily now, leaning against Ren's chest and hugging him tightly. A number of pleas were spilling from his lips, and it took all of Doc's self-control to continue working. The smaller was shaking as he settled his hand over the same wing, working from the base to the tip. He gently worked his fingers over them, lining up every little bone that was broken and taking string and sticks to line it back up and keep it still.

Doc used shears and Xisuma's help to remove what little metal there was in the wing.

As soon as everything was properly placed, he bandaged it and gently had Tango hold it against his back as he turned to Keralis who was holding the other wing.

"One down," Doc said to the omega still crying on Ren, "I'm sorry it hurt."

He whimpered, cowering against Ren's shoulder. His other wing was trembling against his fingers when he touched it, not dislocated at least. However, it was a lot more tangled in wire. Leaving broken feathers and blood sluggishly dripping from the long, trembling wing.

Xisuma was quick to join him again. It took longer to remove the metal this time. Several times, they had to stop and delicately remove the sharp wire from the avian's wing before bandaging the open wound left behind. Doc had never been so thankful for the experience of bandaging False a handful of times over the years.

Before long, the wing was freed of its cage, even if it was almost just as much bandage as feathers. Doc felt bad as he prodded around the limb, feeling for the fractures that caused the bad angle. Thankfully, it was only a matter of lining up the delicate bones until he was back at the tip of the wing. Another set of sticks and strings were wrapped around it to help it heal right.

The avian was sobbing again, Ren holding him tight to his body. He whimpered as Doc wrapped the wing just as firmly until he could bring both close to his back. After a moment, he decided to take another set of bandages to wrap around the man's torso to press them firmly to his back. It would be uncomfortable, but the more they moved, the longer it would take to heal.

"That's it," Doc promised, pulling his hands away.

The alphas all moved away from the small omega, letting Ren hold him gently and rock him. The omega would be much more soothing to him than any of them, which was fine. He had been hurt so badly, and he deserved some comfort.

Doc backed away further, looking down at his now-red hands until he found Xisuma pulling him to a cauldron full of water.

He grunted and quickly started to clean his hands, scrubbing off the blood quickly. He didn't want to keep blood on him after something like that. Part of him knew it would take more than a simple wash to get the sick feeling off his hands, though.

Chapter Text

The room was silent for a few beats, save for the splash of Doc's hands in the water.

"It should be okay to give him a few sips of regen to help with the healing. He's in bad condition beyond just the injuries, so too much might do more harm than good." Doc looked away from the cauldron to see the admin avoiding his gaze. "...What?"

"He was losing health pretty quickly when he came in. We had to give him some instant health effects by commands to stabilize him."

Doc sighed, working the blood from his fur low enough in the water to hide it from anyone else's sight. "That might've been the right call. But let's avoid any more potions for a couple of days while we keep an eye on him."

They both turned towards the man in question. Keralis was attempting to coax Grian into drinking a bottle of water while Ren continued to pet his head. The omega hesitantly sipped at the water, eyes darting between the various alphas in the room with a nervous look. With only half of the bottle empty, he pulled back, whimpering as he closed his eyes.

"It's fine," Ren assured the small male. "Just rest now. You're all patched up and deserve some real sleep. You can drink a bit more later."

Doc finished cleaning his hands, listening to the strange omega murmur to Ren softly. It was just quiet enough that he couldn't make out the words his mate was listening to. Ren just hummed to him, starting to purr and shift them so the avian was gently leaning into his chest.

He looked tense even as he fell asleep.

"Thank you, Doc." Xisuma gave him a pat on the shoulder. "I don't know what we would have done without you."

"It's nothing," He assured with a shake of his head. "He needed the help."

"I wish he didn't. But at this point, there's not much else we can do."

Keralis sighed. "Sweetface is so hurt and scared. It makes me want to put him out of his misery."

A few sharp intakes of breath went around the room, but Xisuma, already used to Keralis by this point, just responded with a firm, "Well, we're not going to do that. We're going to do our best to help him get back on his feet and in full health. Away from death."

Keralis pouted, but Tango took the chance to speak up before the alpha could say anything else. "Who's keeping an eye on him, by the way? Until X can trace where he came from, we can't exactly call for anyone to take him back to the hub and anyone looking for him. Xisuma has his admin duties, and Keralis just proved he's not caretaker material."

The alpha pouted. "But he's so cute..."

Tango continued on. "Anyways, he's obviously jumpy around alphas and he has some less than great social expectations based on the way he kept calling me 'alpha'. I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable by making them deal with that. "

"Keralis was fine, but that's just how he is," Ren pointed out. "He comes off so weird that plenty of people don't notice he's an alpha at first."

"What if it were a soft scented, easygoing alpha? He might be alright with them," Doc hummed.

"I can only think of Scar who fits that bill," Tango said, "But another omega would probably be best, right? Just to avoid incidents."

"I agree, a beta or omega. Even with how kind Scar is, our friend here might react badly if we hand him off to a strange alpha. We just need to figure out who can keep a good eye on him and be close enough for Doc to get to easily," Xisuma muttered.

"I don't care about the distance, just choose the person who can do it best," Doc dismissed quickly. "I'll make the trip to keep up on whether he's doing okay."

Xisuma looked grateful at that, nodding.

"Then there's the problem of whether there are alphas around the omega often, too," Ren pointed out. "Like I might suggest Joe since he's happy to stick around his base and build, but Cleo is always around him and she frightens some alphas. So he's out immediately."

"Right..."

"Stress and Iskall are both off server doing their vault thingy, Hypno and xB are doing their horse totally-not-a-cult thing, Gem's so new I don't think any of us want to put this on her, and Bdubs has managed to kill succulents while trying to take care of them," Tango listed off. "Not a whole lot of options, really."

"... what about Zedaph?" Keralis said, earning everyone's attention. "Impulse would understand, and he already knows Tango. Besides, Zedaph's a sweetheart, and he's been sticking in his base pretty often this season doing whatever it is he's doing. He's not gonna scare him easily like someone else might. And he's further away, so there won't be too many accidental visitors."

"I don't mind asking," Tango said, much more relaxed now that plans were being made, soothing away the twitchy man's anxieties, "I'll also warn Impulse quickly since we tend to stay together most days. Maybe he can go work on his factory for a while so we can help our buddy out."

"Yeah, Impulse can be... overbearing on accident," Xisuma said, frowning. "Not that he means harm, but if he meets him, make sure both sides are equally warned. Just to try and avoid any problems."

"I will," Tango assured, on his comm and quickly messaging both of his mates.

"Doc, how long do you think he'll need to heal before he can take potions to help?" Xisuma asked, earning the hybrid's attention. "I want to give Zed at least some sort of heads up."

He heaved a sigh, shaking his head a little and trying not to think about what had clearly happened to the omega and how angry he got because of it when he realized.

"Ah, that's the thing. It's not healing that's the problem," Doc said, flinching as he looked at him, "I kinda understand why you guys didn't notice, though."

"Doc," Ren's worried tone had him wanting to go and comfort his stressed mate, "What does that mean?"

"He's severely malnourished. That's the real issue with giving him potions, not the state of his body. Though that would also make it risky to take potions, too," Doc admitted, a sharp breath coming from Xisuma, "You probably didn't notice because you were focused on him being an avian and how light they generally are, but he's underweight for even a small avian. His ribs are visible, and he's practically just skin and bones. His body doesn't have the energy to use a potion."

"Fuck," Xisuma cursed, looking back at him now.

Doc supposed they were now seeing what he had already noticed. How unnaturally small the avian was, the sight of his ribs obvious against his sides. His wrists were fragile looking, and he was small to the point of worrying.

"Poor thing," Ren murmured, stroking his hair. "No one was helping you, were they?"

Doc couldn't help but agree. There were hints everywhere on the omega's body and demeanor that betrayed some level of horror he had gone through. He almost didn't want to try to put the pieces together just because the image it was already starting to form was disturbing enough.

The entire group was tense as they watched the avian's chest move a little faster than it should in his sleep. It was hard to tell if it was because he was an avian, because of his malnutrition, or because of some other injury or illness.

Tango stared intently at his communicator, but even he could tell that he was upset. His scent had gone sour when he'd realized the condition of the omega. Doc hoped he would be able to handle helping Zed with the longer-term care of the omega. If not, there was always a chance they could relocate him to someone else's base.

"Impulse said he's fine with it and that he'll be sure to be careful when they're introduced," Tango announced. "Zed's okay too, said he'll help. Should I warn him about the malnutrition too?"

"I would," Doc said. "So they both know that he can't have potions and can start working on meal plans. There's going to have to be some special dieting involved, probably."

Tango nodded and went back to typing. He watched the omega shiver in Ren's arms. Doc hoped that he'd do okay once he was with Zedaph, knowing the omega was generally sweet. At least when he wanted to be.

The ram could be crazier than he was sometimes, but he knew how to at least mostly tune it down. Mostly.

"When he wakes up, someone should warn him what's going on and that they'll have to move him again," Doc hummed. "Now I'm gonna go so that my scent starts to air out at least a bit and he can calm down more when he's awake."

"I'll come back soon, Doc," Ren assured. "Once he's calm and on the way with Tango, I'll head home."

Doc nodded, walking close enough to kiss his cheek before he left. The little omega would be just fine with Ren.

Chapter Text

Grian was slow to wake up. His nose was pressed firmly against someone's shoulder, with their scent glands close enough to let him get a scent of something woodsy and comforting. For a moment, he felt himself melting into the embrace.

Then he practically jolted awake as reality sunk in.

He couldn't remember the last time anyone held him like this. He hadn't done anything to deserve it in some time, always doing something wrong to piss off his alpha. Not to mention, he didn't know anyone who smelled so nice and comforting.

The wrongness of the situation had him tensing while his ear tufts flicked about, trying to catch wind of the sounds around him. He needed to know what was going on so he could prepare himself and act accordingly. The last thing he needed was to embarrass Sam because he couldn't behave right.

Fingers were petting through his hair, catching on the feathers surrounding his ears a few times. There were several different people talking around him. Grian didn't know the voices, but no one was yelling or sounded angry. Which meant he was at least somewhat safe.

But he couldn't hear Sam, which meant he wasn't safe at all.

He couldn't smell them or tell if there was any underlying annoyance with his nose pressed firmly to the other omega. Another alarming thing. There weren't ever other omegas at Sam's house.

"Hey," A calm voice said, gently shaking at his hip, "You awake, dude?"

The other voices stopped talking at that, but Grian didn't want to lift his head yet. He wondered how upset someone was going to be with him. He didn't remember why he was all warm and tucked up with another omega. Part of him didn't want to break the moment; to do something that resulted in it being taken away because of how bad he was at following rules.

The hand in his hair paused. A different hand moved to his hair after a moment, warm fingers pressing against him. He couldn't help but start trembling, waiting for the grip and yank that would signal the end of whatever this comfort was.

After several long seconds, the hand was still gently petting him. But that was still more than enough urging to tell him that he couldn't stay cuddled up like this any longer. They were giving him a chance to get up on his own. Best to get up now instead of taking the risk of finding out when those fingers turned harsh and bruising. He shouldn't be pushing at the kindness he was being offered already.

As he lifted his head, he tried to glance up at the man holding him. He earned a smile as they made eye contact. Grian tried to return it, knowing it was probably weaker than was liked, but no one scolded him for it.

"Do you feel a little better now?" The omega asked, tone gentle.

Grian paused, confused. What did he mean 'feel better'? Grian hadn't felt that bad when he'd gone to sleep, right? At least no more than usual.

He tried to shift and sit up before saying anything, but immediately went stiff as his body finished waking up and flooded him with pain. He didn't even sit up all the way before falling back into the other man's chest.

Everything hurt. It didn't feel like there was an inch of him that didn't hurt. He couldn't even pinpoint one source of pain before another one stole his attention away.

He whined quietly, hoping that no one in the room would find him annoying for it. It just hurt too much to stay silent.

"Shh," The other omega hummed. "Do you remember what happened?"

Grian tried to focus on the dark haired omega, blinking slowly as he tried to remember why he was in an unknown room with a bunch of strangers. Why he was allowed to cuddle with another omega. Why he couldn't hear nor see his alpha anywhere. None of which were normal for him.

It took him a couple of moments, but Grian slowly pieced together little bits of his memory from before that moment. Each hazy fragment had him frowning and whimpering, in spite of his efforts to keep quiet.

The argument.

His alpha's patience finally running out.

The fall.

The crash.

He had to bite his lip to keep from sobbing as he remembered his world had fallen apart, leaving him with just a few scraps to try and piece things back together.

Which left him in a predicament. He no longer had the protection granted by having an alpha mate, and he was now on a server with who knows how many alphas that could take advantage of that.

Even if they were nice now, that didn't mean they'd stay nice, especially given how terrible he was at being an omega. His alpha's patience had been herculean given he allowed Grian to stay for so long despite his many mistakes. Really, he should've known it was only a matter of time before he was kicked out.

He just wished Sam had kicked him to the streets, not tried to dump him in one of the server's holes to the void. It was a miracle he was even still alive.

Grian managed to nod, realizing he had been quiet for maybe a bit too long. He considered staying silent, given how often he put his own foot in his mouth, but he couldn't help the quiet, "I remember..."

The other omega smiled brightly at him. Probably glad he wouldn't have to remind Grian of his new position and not waste any more time establishing the pecking order.

"Good," Another voice said.

Grian glanced over to the beta in the room. He was doing something with a screen, but it was too far for him to read any of the text. The server admin, probably. It wasn't easy to remember all the names; most of his recent memory was a hazy blur, but he was pretty sure he had them straight.

The beta was Xisuma, the omega holding him was Ren, and the alphas were Keralis and Tango. He remembered another alpha, but the scent was going slightly stale, making him wonder how long he'd been asleep since the alpha had come to patch him up.

"Alright," Ren said, making Grian look up at him. "We've got a few things to tell you now that you're awake, okay?"

Grian nodded again.

Was he going to be asked to leave now? Grian would understand if he was. He didn't know how he'd gotten on the server in the first place. He vaguely remembered them mentioning that it was a whitelist server, so he shouldn't be capable of getting onto it without help. They probably just didn't want to kick him to the curb while he was still bleeding out. Which was something that he knew was incredibly kind because they weren't required to be so nice to him.

Or was there going to be someone who would punish him for breaking into the server, even on accident? Some people were protective over their private space, and it was hard to tell what went on in a whitelisted server to begin with. And without him on the whitelist, he could be here for the rest of his life, and the outside world would be none the wiser.

Assuming anyone was even looking for him.

Grian didn't know how long he sat there panicking before another voice started to talk.

"So we've got a few people willing to help you and look after you until you're feeling better," Xisuma said, tone careful. "Tango is one of them, but you'll be staying with his mate, Zedaph, to be more specific."

Grian tried to be careful as he turned to lessen the pain that flared up each time he moved around. He looked at Tango, who gave him a smile. His teeth were sharp, but the smile itself seemed rather soft somehow.

"Me and Impulse, the other part of our mated group, will be around a lot too. We'll make sure to give you a heads up when he comes around, though, so you don't get started by him just appearing, and I'll try and make sure to warn Zed before I come too," Tango said. "And Doc will be around to keep an eye on your injuries and tell us how you're doing physically. Bandages and stuff we can deal with, especially Zed."

Grian nodded again, knowing that even if he'd rather stay curled up with Ren, he should be thankful that they were taking the time to explain to him what was going on instead of just sending him off.

After all, they were giving him a chance to prove himself. To show he can get along with another omega long-term and see whether or not Tango wanted to keep him. It was probably his best shot at avoiding being kicked back out to the public servers, where an unlimited number of alphas would be waiting to jump the second he landed.

He had to do his best to please Tango. The man had saved him and now was giving him another shot at a comfy, safe life under an alpha's protection.

Grian couldn't afford to mess this up twice. Especially in his current state.

Despite his best efforts, Keralis must have picked up on his reluctance to leave.

"We know you like Ren, but we also know how much Doc scares you," He said. "And Ren is Doc's mate. So if you're with Ren, Doc will be around. At least until you're feeling better and not scared of being around him, Zed will be better. And Zed is sweet. You'll be safe with him."

Grian didn't have anything to say to that, not knowing if it was the truth or not. They could be saying that this Zed was a nice guy, but that didn't mean it was true.

But they patched him up and gave him an opportunity to heal up and be useful later. To keep him around until he wasn't damaged goods anymore. It was an investment, one he hoped they wouldn't regret taking.

He could be a good omega.

He had to be a good omega.

"Come on," Tango said suddenly, drawing his attention.

Grian knew what that meant, trying to shuffle off Ren's lap to stand up. He barely made any progress before something grabbed him.

The feeling of arms around his waist had him giving a small chirp of alarm as he fell back into the other omega. But Ren just purred to him and he let himself go back to being limp in his arms. Tango moved up to him, pulling him from Ren's grip and shifting him up until he was draped against his shoulder and all but sitting on his hip.

"Come on, let's go."

Grian looked over at Ren, who was covered in blood, and he let out a quiet whine. He left such a mess behind.

"Sorry," Tango muttered, his hands moving to hold him more carefully, "Didn't mean to hurt you."

He stifled his noises, wondering why the alpha was even worried about hurting him. He hadn't been complaining about the pain, just about making a mess and not being left to clean it up, which meant that it would come back up later. Something for Tango or the others to use against him, to prove he owed them. More than he did already.

His trial had barely just begun, and already he was failing again.

There wasn't anything he could do about it now, though. He was already being carried out of the house, the door swinging shut behind them and cutting off his view of the others.

Grian rested his head on Tango's shoulder, closing his eyes as he was taken away to his new (temporary) home.