Chapter Text
Semiu sat at her desk going through mission reports. The one that she was mainly focusing on was the one that occurred a couple days ago when members of team Akuta and Child were kidnapped and brought into a trash beast. Apparently the Raider's new boss has been experimenting with artificial trash beasts and trying to figure out a way to bring down the sphere. And while basically everyone, minus a few questionable individuals, would be totally fine with the sphere being destroyed, the raiders made it personal when they decided to kidnap members of the cleaners.
Despite loving her job all the reading can get a little tedious at times. She lifted up her glasses to rub her eyes.
At times like this she would usually call Cthoni, but that wasn't much of an option right now. For the past week she'd been either ignoring her calls or been "too busy" to talk, and while Semiu understands that, when being too busy is the only excuse for a whole week it gets kinda suspicious. Not to mention the fact that in other times when Cthoni's work was getting busy she would still call every once in a while, just to get a quick break from the stress.
It was confusing. Semiu just hoped she hadn't done or said something to upset her.
She tried not to think about that too much and instead picked up another report and got back to work.
-----------
Now was Jabber the smartest person Ever?
No. And he knew that.
But was he an idiot?
NO!
So why Cthoni had been stand-off-ish, not talking to Semiu, and overall just looking all depressed, and thinking he wouldn't notice was beyond him.
He knew something must've happened for her to be this mopey...He just wasn't sure what.
So he decided he was gonna figure. it. out.
The first step was finding out where Semiu lived, or at least where she worked...or just somewhere close so he could find her. Cthoni wasn't gonna tell him anything so his best bet was finding Semiu, asking what happened, somehow fixing it, and getting them back to normal.
He knew they went on a date to some restaurant about twenty minutes away from where he and Cthoni lived, so if there was a town or someplace with a lot of shops near there he could start his search.
-----------
It had been six whole hours of walking around, getting lost, and finding a town that was probabably(?) a safe bet to look around, and yet not only could he not find Semiu or somewhere where she might work, but when he asked around if anyone knew a tall woman with dark skin, yellow eyes, really short white hair, and glasses everyone said they "don't think so".
He'd look for her again tomorrow, he had more free time ever since lil' miss bang bang braid shot him and Zodyl told him he should "heal more before getting back into work". He hated resting, it made him antsy, as Cthoni would say, and it was boring as shit.
He looked around the alleyway he was in.
"Huh..it's close by, maybe i'll drop in, she might've seen Semiu at least"
...
A few twists and turns later he was face to face with the front door of Alice Stilza's clinic. She's patched Jabber up more then once before, and thankfully she never asks a whole lotta questions about how he got messed up. She's honestly the only doctor any of the Raiders trust, which was helpful in situations like a couple days ago when he got shot like ten times.
"YOOO ALICE! HOW YA DOIN'!", Jabber burst through the door with a large grin plastered on his face.
Alice was patching up a patient sitting on the first bed with gauze wrapped around his leg. Alice didn't even look up while wrapping the gauze.
"OH WELL IF IT ISN'T THE PUNK WITH THE BULLET WOUNDS, WHAT DID'YA DO THIS TIME!"
"Hey relax I didn't do nothing! I was in the area an' thought I'd stop by"
"WELL IF YOUR STOPPIN' BY THEN YOU MIGHT AS WELL TAKE SOME MORE GAUZE, YOUR GONNA NEED IT, AND YOU!", she stood up from her chair, keeping her eyes on her patient, and walked to her desk, "YOU'RE ALL PATCHED UP NOW GET ON OUTTA HERE"
The patient left as fast as he could, he probably wouldn't be back if the look on his face was anything to go by.
"Y'know sense I am here I was wonderin'-"
"THERE'S THE REAL REASON YOU'RE HERE! WHAT DO YOU WANT?"
"I'm lookin' for someone, a woman about six feet, mid to late twenties, dark skin, short white hair, glasses, seems to wear white lipstick a lot-"
"SOUNDS LIKE ONE OF THE PEOPLE MY GRANDDAUGHTER WORKS WITH", Alice was sorting medicines as she talked- er, yelled.
"..Huh"
"HER AND SOME OF HER COWORKERS'LL COME BY EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE TO PICK UP SOME MEDICINE"
"I'm gonna go ahead and assume you ain't gonna gimme an adress to the place she works at?"
"YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL I EVEN GAVE YOU THAT INFO!"
"I am, I am..I gotta get back home, I'll see you again eventually, see ya Alice!"
"YOU BETTER NOT HAVE ANY MORE BULLET WOUNDS NEXT TIME!"
"No promises!", he smirked as he left the clinic.
...
"Well looks like I'm staking out this place for the next couple days, should be easy enough", he headed back home, he'd polish Mankira and get a bit of rest before coming back tomorrow.
It looked like his plan was moving along smoothly.
...
It did not in fact go along "smoothly".
...at least not in Jabber's eyes, after all he'd been sitting on a building close to Alice's clinic so he could see who went in and came out, and he'd been up there for forever (one day).
Honestly if this was how his search was gonna go he might just try and convince Zodyl to give him the location of that info broker.
...oh, that's someone new.
Jabber leaned closer off the edge of the roof, eyeing a tall guy maybe in his thirties. The important part though was that he went in without any (visible) injuries and left with a box of what was probably medical supplies, and he was wearing some kind of uniform looking thing, it looked a little familiar but he couldn't figure out why. Either way this guy could definitely know Semiu.
Jabber waited until the guy was almost out of the alleyway before carefully jumping onto a balcony and eventually landing on the ground.
And right before the man turned out of the alley.
"Hey man! You got a second?", He pushed his lantern behind his back and pulled his hood over his head.
The man turned around. He had short blond hair and a scar over his left eye.
"Can I help you?", Jabber looked over the man, sure he looked strong, but Jabber could tell he wouldn't be a fun fight for him, best to just get this over with as soon as possible.
"Yeah, I'm looking for someone ya' mind taking a look an' tellin' me if you've seen 'em", Jabber held up a crumpled piece of paper, it didn't have anything on it, but Jabber just needed the guy to get closer.
"Uh- yeah sure", The man walked up to him, there was some caution on his face but he still walked closer, ready to help.
But before he could react the pink glow of Mankira's claws had swiftly wrapped around the man's neck as Jabber backed him up against the wall.
The man had one hand on Jabber's wrist and he was trying to grab something out of his pocket with his other hand.
"Ah, ah, ah, I just wanna talk, I wouldn't pull anything if I were you", Jabber wrapped Mankira's claws around the man's other hand.
"I'm lookin' for a woman, about six foot, mid to late twenties, dark skin, short white hair, glasses. Sound familliar?"
A flash of recognition flashed across the man's face, a look that he clearly tried to hide but failed in doing so.
It seemed like this guy knew who he was looking for, now to figure out where he needs to look for her.
"Now look, I've been pretty bored these past couple a' days and I have a hunch you know who I'm looking for by name, so maybe if ya' just give me the address of where you work I won't do nothing to ya, besides you wouldn't be a fun fight anyways"
The man grit his teeth as a look of realization spread across his face.
"You. You're that raider"
"huh..we know each other or somethin?", Jabber didn't exactly have the best memory when it came to names and faces, especially when the person wouldn't be an entertaining fight.
For some reason the man looked a little upset.
""You-..YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!"
Jabber face stayed in the same confused expression.
"Yeah that don't exactly help shorten the list"
"I'm the supporter you stabbed when you tried to kidnap Rudo!"
...
...oh yeah that guy.
"Oh yeah you're that cleaner lackey who tried ta' stop me from taking the sphereite! Wait how did ya even survive tha-.."
...
This guy must work with Semiu....and this guy works for the cleaners...
The realization hit him like a truck, and not in a good way.
The supporter-guy must've noticed since he started to look for a way to escape.
"Well...guess I don't need that address anymore. I know where to go", he stared into the supporter's eyes "You survived once why don't we see if you can do it again"
Jabber didn't waste any time before stabbing one of Mankira's claws into the man's neck, it wasn't one of the strongest poisons he had but he'd definitely be knocked out for a little while. At least he didn't have to worry about him trying to call Semiu or some cleaners.
The man's eyes closed and he slowly slid down the alley wall. Someone would find him, and he was near a clinic for crying out loud, he'd be fine.
Jabber had more important things to get to.
-----------
Someone had been following her, she knew as soon as she left the Cleaner's HQ, and yet no matter how many ridiculous turns or stops she made she could tell someone was still on her tail. There was something about it though, it didn't feel...malicious, or at least not in the "I'm gonna rob you" or "I'm gonna kidnap you" way. Whoever it was, had been watching, waiting to make a move. She assumed they would try something when she was alone or back home, so she took some extra turns and a few stops on the way back. At this point though, she'd been out for long enough, she knew she could take whoever was following her, and if it was on her turf even better.
She started walking up to the front door, it was a smaller one-story but she was one person, she never really needed more than that, when she got to the door she realized the person who was following her had moved. Not away, they hadn't left, in fact they seemed to be in her house right at that moment. A quick look over with Eyes was all she needed to confirm there was definitely someone in there, someone who was probably waiting for her to come in. So she placed the few bags she had from her errands off to the side before quickly opening the door. Only to see a familiar set of gold bangles adorning long dreadlocks sitting on her kitchen counter, additionally some familiar clothes as well, she just couldn't place where she recognized them from.
"Didn't expect to see you here", "How'd you even find out where I lived?", even though she already knew that he followed her home from her work, and assumed he'd gotten the address of where she worked from Cthoni she was still curious to see what exactly he'd say.
Jabber looked up at her, it was odd, it felt like he was seeing her differently than before, then again he definitely knew she was a cleaner now but she didn't think that'd give him a whole defensive air around him. He started to mess with his rings while he slowly got off her counter. Meanwhile she shut the front door and turned on the living room light switch.
"When was the last time ya talked to her?"
Her? Did he mean Cthoni?
"You mean Cthoni? Maybe a week or so, you gonna tell me why you were waiting for me in my house?"
"She hasn't been talking to you lately has she"
It was posed as a question, but his tone made it sound like a statement. It wasn't a wrong statement though.
"What is this about? Did something happen?"
"Just gimme the answer"
"...she hasn't, she told me work's been busy lately. Now what's going on?"
He ignored her question.
"Tch, yeah, sounds like her", he had a faint dissapointed look on his face.
There was a moment of silence, and the longer it went on the more annoyed Semiu started to become.
"Jabber. What's going on, is Cthoni okay?"
"Do you know?", his eyes had a faint look of anger in them. Like he was holding back from something, trying to get the answers out of her first.
"What? Jabber you're not making sen-"
"Do you know what she's realized? Cause I do", he didn't give her a chance to respond before speaking again, "I've seen her do this before, everything'll be goin' fine but then something happens and she starts to slowly back away, and somehow she's so damn good at it that people won't even realize she's barely talked to them in days, and soon they'll barely be able to remember her"
What?
He wasn't making any sense.
"Jabber", she took a few steps towards him. Why was the fabric on his clothes so familiar?
"She found out you're a cleaner, honestly I expected you of all people to pick up on some of these things, after all you're perceptive as shit"
...There's no way Cthoni's actually avoiding her just because she knows she's a cleaner. Sure she looked a little shocked when she found out but...it's not like Cthoni would do all that just because she found out Semiu was a cleaner, right?
...right?
"Jabber what do you mean? She might've looked a little shocked or concerned when she found out I was a cleaner but-"
"Oh I'm not done yet", his eyes stared right at her, like he was trying to pick up on everything he could.
"Y'know if a regular person found out the person they liked was a cleaner it'd be impossible to figure out what would be goin' through their head...but", he reached behind him to unclip something off the sash tied around his waist and tossing it onto the ground, "when you're someone like Cthoni", a crazed grin spread across his face,"the first response is to kill that person!"
She looked down at the purple lantern by her feet.
oh.
so that's why.
Every small suspicion that she had shoved out of her mind came crashing right back into it.
It all made perfect sense, why she'd always felt a strong presence of anima around Cthoni, and why she immediately stopped calling Semiu after the last time they saw each other, everything.
She always knew something was a little "off" about Cthoni, but she didn't want to believe it, she didn't want to believe that Cthoni could possibly be dangerous. She was a sweet person, someone who would start to get flustered just from a cute pet name like sweetheart, someone who, despite calling him an annoyance multiple times, seriously acted like a mother figure to Jabber, so she took all of the suspicions that she had about Cthoni and tucked them away.
A facet of Semiu's vital instrument was that it let her see what was inside a person, or what made up that person, and she'd seen all sorts of bad sides in people, after you see more and more bad sides you start to become a little paranoid, but with Cthoni it was different, she just didn't want to believe that Cthoni had something that bad inside her, she couldn't believe it, so she chose to push those suspicions down, and it worked...until now.
She really liked Cthoni.
She still did. Even with the all the realizations that came to her, not only was Cthoni a raider but Jabber was too, and Semiu had most likely met four raiders, but she'd also been face to face with the leader of the raiders.
And yet she still really liked Cthoni, even now.
Is that why she didn't want to believe Cthoni could be dangerous...did she really like her that much, that she'd push away any feelings of distrust.
...Well she must, after all that's what happened.
Jabber had gotten back on the counter while she was realizing everything. She looked back up at him finally finishing processing the information.
"Y'know Cthoni must've liked you a whole lot if she's doin' her whole 'slowly fade away from her problems' shtick", he was fidgeting with the rings on his fingers, rings she now realized must be his vital instrument.
"...so..If Cthoni chose not to kill me..is that what you're here to do?", they looked at each other, "Cause I can't say I won't put up a fight", she shifted her stance, not to a full on fighting stance, but one where she could dodge an attack if she needed to.
...
"...no..I'm not gonna kill ya..you're too important to her, even if she's trying not to think about that"
...
"I know you said she liked me enough to 'slowly fade away' instead of killing me, but to most people 'not killing someone' is considered normal", she crossed her arms over her chest, she didn't want to let her guard down, even if it might've been too late for that.
"Maybe, but I dunno if you noticed, but Cthoni ain't exactly 'normal'...and besides I've seen the way you two look at each other, it's like those cheesy romance movies ya' see during the holidays"....."Look I've never cared about the whole 'raider', an' 'cleaner' thing, besides she totally loves you, so just go for it, don't let your jobs get in the wa-"
"Whoa, whoa, hold on.. did you say 'loves me'?"
there's no way...that can't be true, sure they like each other, but love...that's a whole other thing.
"uh-yeah c'mon! I've seen her smile more at you then like-..the entire time I've known her! She barely ever smiles or laughs at any of my jokes and yet I've seen her smile at you just existin'! Even I can tell that's love, and I'm absolute shit at those kind'a things"
She chuckled at that.
...
"She cares about you too y'know.. a lot, even if she doesn't realize it herself", she said. Jabber looked back at her, eyes wide, and full of all sorts of emotions. She knew Cthoni cared about him and she wanted to make sure he knew, even if he already did.
"...yeah, yeah I know, she's taken care of me sense I was like nine-er somethin'....I should probably head back, Cthoni might start ta' get suspicious if I'm gone for too long", he hopped off the counter and started walking towards the door.
"Yeah that's probably a good idea, besides I've got something I need to do"
He turned back to before he put his hand on the door knob.
"Just..try an' get her back, y'know...I don't like seein' her all mopey like how she is now, you really do make her happy", he looked down at his feet by the end of his sentence, his last plead to Semiu.
She smiled up at him, "I will, trust me, she makes me happy too"
A small smile appeared on his face.
"Oh! And before I forget, one of your supporter 'lackey' guys, the buff one with blonde hair and a scar over his eye, yeah, he's kinda knocked out in front of Alice Stilza's clinic"
"...what?"
He looked back at her with a blank stare.
"Imeanitwasbarelyevenascratchanditsnotlikeigavehimanythinglethalokbyeee!", and with that he stepped out the door, slammed it behind him, and bolted.
...
Y'know as much as this mattered she should probably go get Gris, hopefully he was safe...safe-ish at least"