A/N: all chapters are finished and just need editing but i'm drawing at least one scene for each chapter. OC's origins are inspired from the trailer for 'Death of the Outsider'. Playing Dishonered 2 and reading n52 Klarion adds more context but not necessary. For chapter art and other goodies go to my profile since doesn't like links
The Void.
A mystery to many. It is not exactly a place, and its much older and stranger than one could ever know. It is infinite and it is nowhere, ever-changing and perpetual. From ignorant lips it is a place of wonder, a place of endless possibilities. Oh, the yearning in their eyes!
Yet I saw none of it when the Void entered our sky; when blood was in the streets; when their loved ones turned on them.
I saw their eyes as we crossed blades; as they align sights of a gun with me; as I tear off every Overseer mask; and those eyes have long lost that wonder and innocents. Now they look at me with distain, as if I was the cursed that brought about their misfortunes.
I openly laughed at them, full of bitter and contempt.
They waste their last breath, spitting out curses and blood.
Chaos was leveling the great city of Dunwall. At night we watched from the Tower as an entire districts fall into ruins and for once both the Royal Protector and the Empress could not stop it. No, they had to focus on keeping the rest of the city from collapsing. Thus the task of saving the world fell to my mother, the Royal Interrogator and more importantly the person with the most understanding of the Void and the Outsider.
I helped the best I could, attacking outpost the Empress and Royal Protector marked for me, capturing Overseers for interrogation, guarding the Empress as a protest on the Tower doors turned into a riot. My magic pierced the throats of nobles I talked with at court, my blade went through both abandon children and soldier women. Even my mother had to help quell the battle.
Afterwards the Empress watched, her subjects fleeing to plot another assault against her while me and my mother laughed and walking atop warm corpses, talking as if flour were on our faces. The Empress stopped us, frustration and anguish clear on her face even if her tone was leveled. She asked how we remained so unaffected by the end of the world.
I answered with a smile, "When you are hunted for being born all you know is blood and chaos." The look on her face was that of sympathy and love; the kindness only my mother and sister had given me. So intense it pierced my heart and unnerved me. I gestured to the death and ruins around us to escape it, "Welcome to my world, my dear."
It took the Outsider's death for the end of the world to finally affect me. And it was because I was unaffected.
The Outsider was the source of our magic, our powers; without him this mark that the Abby cursed me for is just that, a mark. Though they continued on, unhindered in a way I could never achieve. The Empress continued to rule and cross blades with assailants. The Royal Protector remained every vigilant, blood never drying on his hands now days. The Royal Interrogator never ceased to love and support me, her infamous smile never aimed at me.
But at night I know they talk in secret. Why does my powers remain? Was it because I was born the mark? Have I tapped into another source of power during my journeys in the Void?
Those nights I laid in bed, more anxious than any battle could have made me. Scared, I was scared. My family has always rose above the struggles of the world but now we face the Void. Those night I've always failed to summon the courage to confront them.
One night I woke to a scream.
Magic rushed in as the space around me exploded as if I was journeying to the Void. But the chill wasn't there, instead of black shards they were a red I've never seen before. Heat searing the air in waves. They slammed into my wall and took on the form of a blue skin witch.
We looked at each other.
Horns. Marks on both his hands.
I spelled first, a tendril of black and blue magic pinning him to the wall as I reached for the Outsider's knife. My heart was beating wildly, blood rushing through my veins but my body refused to wake up so fast. I pointed the knife at him, "Who are you?!"
The witch boy yelled back in a language horribly butchered and old, almost old Serkonan. I understood a few words: Lord, chaos, release, death, attack and Teekl-
A cat jumped on me from behind, growling as I screamed. With a quick pulse of a repulsion spell the cat was thrown off. It didn't hit the wall, instead I used Far Reach to grab it and pull it close. My blade was poised to thrust deep through its chest but I paused.
Humans are monstrous creatures but animals? I sighed, I could barely kill a wolfhound let along this small cat- "Argh!" I was slammed against the wall, a powerful and burning force hitting my side.
The witch boy sneered. I was lifted into the air with a simple gesture of his hand. Red talons nearly crushing my chest, "Who am I? I'm a Lord of Chaos," He said with a sneer, "Here to watch the show." With that he vanished into red and black wisp, that cat of his gone too.
I fell to the floor and quickly knelt before the ground he stood on, feeling the ground and his odd magic. Chaotic and primal… Similar to the Outsider's but young- And hot! Way hot, I hissed and pulled my hand away. His magic burned something not quiet under my skin.
The language, the clothes, magic- He wasn't from here.
There are things beyond the Void, things within the Void that not even the greatest natural philosopher could dream of. My mother speculated about other worlds. I never thought any of them true until my side bruised with each breath.
I turned on the lights and quickly got dressed. The day has begun though the sun has yet to rise. I informed the others of the intruder.
The Empress seemed alarmed. A potentially dangerous stranger lurking among Dunwall Tower. The Royal Protector ever mysterious seemed indifferent and frustrated, my mentor ordered me to find him. I did so but looked at my mother's face. She didn't meet my eyes but focused on writing in her research book.
My entire day was spent searching and in a meditative state trying to feel his magic without getting burned. I chased it all around Dunwall to find several dead bodies and a beating in progress.
A swift spell of Thorns stopped the assailants. The victim screamed and fled. My heroics was rewarded with rocks, knives, and words full of venom. Black and blue tendrils caught the knife and threw them back with force, almost going clean through the chest of the thrower. They stopped and fled with screams after that.
Just like rats, confident in numbers until one fall. I scoffed.
"Haha! How merciless!" I looked up to see the witch boy floating in the air. I tried pulling him down with Far Reach but he slapped my magic aside! What? I stared up at him, mouth agape while he threw his head back and laughed more. The cat I should have killed meowed on his shoulders. "Find the person that summoned me? Oh fine! But how about some fun along the way?"
"Summon…" I muttered watching him disappear again. I took to the rooftops and continued my search again. I stopped when an explosion shook the ground. My blood froze, I felt like one of those captured scenes in the Void. I turned my gaze to Dunwall Tower.
Fire and smoke bellowed up.
No… I remembered the words he spoke. How about some fun along the way? I quickly traveled across the rooftops, burning my magic until it was empty. I kept using Far Reach even as my mark bleed and blood spread across my tongue. My lungs burned and pricked but I only pushed myself faster.
Everything after was a haze of panic and chaos. Somehow explosions kept ripping the gates apart. An unearthly fire crawled along stone. The courtyard was flooded with the desperate, the broken, and Overseers. The guards, the Royal Protector and Interrogator tried to hold them off. A few slipped through only to be pulled back by my magic and onto the Outsider's knife.
I fought alongside both my mentors as explosions kept quaking the grounds. We retreated and retreated, the entire city running through the ruins and flames to storm the Tower. Finally we were in the throne room and the Empress was fighting beside us.
I was throwing dead bodies across the hall, using Thorns on men that tried to sneak behind mother. Bodies kept coming at us and I just attacked anyone who attacked me. I had enough. I screamed pouring magic and blood into the ground. Every stranger floated off the ground.
This is the move that made me infamous throughout the Empire, the move that the Abby curses, that brought the Royal Protector to our door. During the coup, I've destroyed troops of Clockwork Soldiers by floating them and slamming them to the ground. If this spell could mangle metal, human bones stood little chance.
"Klarion, Now!"
… Mother?
When haze lifted I was already on the ground, the rocks and dirt dug deep into my skin and wounds. I threw myself onto my feet, standing in a puddle of my own blood and looked around. Gone was the corpses that littered the throne room. The walls of Dunwall Tower were now burnt trees. The night sky had too many stars and the moon was far too bright.
Standing before me was the witch boy, hands clasped together and eyes wide with excited curiosity. "Klarion… Klarion Bleak?" I heard the Empress and my mentors mutter that name a few times while I listened in the halls.
He raised a brow and kept that grin, "Oh?"
My mind skittered over the events of the day, his words breaking through my foggy memory. "Summoned… My mother summoned you," I muttered softly. My body was shaking, body drained of magic and everything I had. I sat upon the bloodied ground, weak but certain. That was my mother's voice in the throne room. "She knew your name, she was the one that summoned you."
"Yep," Klarion said, releasing his hands from each other. He was walking circles around me, eyes roaming up and down as I examined him back. "She promised a good show if I did one favor."
"To save me," I scowled. Was this what they talked about in secret? The lack of surprise on their faces… "Send me back!" I yelled standing up.
"Can't," Klarion said with a casual shrug. "I was summoned there not- Hey!" I pulled him to me, coughing as my magic ate my body. He easily broke the tether and sent me flying black with a blast.
It wasn't like my mentor's Windblast or my Thorns. It was solid and burning, like a strike from hot irons. My eyes watered at the pain flowing from my lip and I licked the wound even if there wasn't much blood- Argh, it was completely split! I pushed myself off the ground and managed to dodge another blast. My body couldn't evade for long, my legs gave out and sent me tumbling to the ground.
Klarion grabbed my throat. I gasped but no air came through. He pulled me off the ground and to his face. I watched it distort and corrupt, a hollow grin of utter glee. His eyes were completely black.
It reminded me of both the Outsider and my mother.
"Foolish girl, your mother said nothing against killing you." Even his voice had a mystic echo.
I pulled the Outsider's knife from my belt, magic pulling the shattered pieces from the void and mending it together. My vision faded and I drifted as I plunged the knife into him.
He let out a startled scream and threw me aside. I struggled to breath and cough at the same time. Klarion doubled dover and held the wound, other hand smearing blood across his fingers with utter disbelief. A red portal opened behind him and he left without a word.
My long groaned broke the silence and I laid back on the dirt. Everything ached and burned, heartbeat making everything throb. Then I felt something that didn't belong. I reached into my coat, and pulled out my mother's book.
My idiot mother who found a way to save me from a dying world.
I stared up at the unfamiliar sky and cried.
Years later. New York. Necropolitan Club.
Music hammered through the club, it was loud and fast. A melody of hard rock and pop. The music sent soft vibrations through every part of the building. I may not be on stage tonight but I sang along, "There are times I wanna leave, there are times I wanna scream!" The noise, chaotic symphony soothed something deep in me, something beyond a heart that shouldn't be beating.
Something I didn't get in all my years in Dunwall.
I scoffed, there's a thought that hasn't crossed my mind in a while. "And if the sky begins to fall, you'll be the shelter where I run." Maybe that's why I like this place so much. So different from the quiet walls and well-mannered aristocrats. "You're everything I'm not. Beautiful chaos!"
"Hmm," A warm body pressed against my back, a warm breath on my neck and hands warm through my security shirt. "Still loving that accent and voice, Outsider." I laughed, a little nervous as my heart fluttered and because it was the most used pick-up line on me. "Come on, babe. One dance?" She purred, hips moving in a way that was definitely not dancing.
Her hands started to play with the scarf tied around my waist. Specifically, the fur half sown into the collar. I quickly grabbed her hand and pulled it away. "Don't touch the fur… please." Why are humans here so touchy?
"Sid! I'm so sorry!" Her friends came to rescue me and separated us. I only gave them a smile and watched her lecture her drunk friend for a moment. "You can't just grind up on people like that! Come on."
"But she's so hot!"
"The employees are off limits," She said squishing her friends slightly red face. She took her by the hand and looked at me one last time, "I'm really sorry, Sid."
"If I got a penny everything that happened I'd be as rich as Luthor," I said with a smile. Yet no matter how many times that happen I'd never get used to it. "Go have fun and you, my dear," I looked at the women grinding on me. "Behave."
"Yes, ma'am." She winked. The two ladies disappeared onto the dance floor.
I continued walking around the club, singing until the band finished Beautiful Chaos by Sick Puppies. One of the reasons why this club is so popular was because there wasn't a lot of fights. Meaning there wasn't a lot of things for me to do as a bouncer.
"Haven't you heard the rumor? The workers here are witches." The other reason is because of talks like this one. I slowed down, trying to find the gossiping group of new comers. "I mean, the bartender's name is Necrot! One of the bouncer's is called Outsider!"
"I hear she bewitches people, that's why this place is so popular." I gasped and tried to suck it back in. Instead I ended up coughing softly. Bitch! I haven't done that in forever!
"It's popular because people like you fall for the gimmick!" The third said. I could hear her eyes roll in her voice and I saw the women doing so in the corner of my eye. I was about to walk away when she spoke again. "There's no such thing as magic!"
Oh! Oooh, you do not say those words in coven's den. I stalked forward. What could I do to scare the girl? A repulsion spell under her feet to make her float? Nah to obvious. Bewitching her to make he a babbling idiot? Too boring. Maybe something more… Necropolitan?
I pulled out my phone, magic just barely misting out of my mark and through my glove. A few spells of technomancy later and the nonbeliever checked her phone.
"No such thing as magic? What's wrong with a little mystery?" She read out loud. Her head snapped to her friends. "Very funny!"
"That wasn't us!"
"Then who?!"
Now she's scared! Let's push it a little, more shall we? I looked through my phone, magic giving me access to everything on her phone, credit cards, passwords, both some very tasteful and not so tasteful nudes. Flirtatious messages and very interesting panicked ones.
Floating chairs, sudden combustion, small wishes of fortune and so much misfortune coming true? Denial is the first step, my dear. I sent the message. The closeted witch didn't read it. Instead she put her phone away altogether.
"Just some stupid spam," She muttered with a casual scoff. Her hands were shaking so slightly in the dim lights. I sneered and pocketed my phone. That should haunt her for a while. Ideally, she comes back so Coal can do his thing.
The club was just a front after all. A light to attract the punk sorceress where Coal can refine his buddybots and a place where I can meet my clients. I haven't had much work since Beelzebub and Swag went into hiding and Agent Moody only comes to me when someone's life is in danger, when I need to put someone's life in danger, or when I need to pretend to put someone's life in danger.
I grinned, interrogation jobs were always fun. They'd laugh when I first walk in- a tiny attractive girl with a sweet smile- but as soon as I my magic start repelling their skin from their bones they stop and start cursing like those Overseers.
Overseers… Ugh, another thought that hasn't crossed my mind in years. I stretched and continued my rounds about the club, enjoying the music and atmosphere.
Tonight is way too slow- Wait…
I stopped and looked around. There was a magic in the air that wasn't straight edged like Coal or Necrot's technomancy. It was hot, alive and wild; like Beelzebub. But… it reminded me of something else. It didn't go through me like I was the Void, the magic pushed against me. It took Piper and Noah years to figure out. I followed it to the back, towards elevator and offices. The magic was… old and primal like-
"Meow!"
By the Void! I jumped and looked down at my feet. An orange cat with runes stared up at me. I took a deep breath and knelt down to it.
"A familiar? How old fashioned," I muttered with a smile. No wonder the magic felt old. The cat flicked its tail at me, swatting my face as it walked into Coal's office. I peeked in. Coal was talking with a witch boy in a cliché suit and horned hair. I tried not to sneer at it but I guess his pierced ears added a little punk to make up for it.
For once I cursed the loud music in the club. I couldn't make out a word they were saying but it didn't look like they were arguing. I wish I had the Empress' Shadow Walk. Turning into a creature of shadow and fog to crawl in sounds good about now.
Instead the ratted me out, jumping onto the client's shoulder and meowing loudly. The witch boy turned towards me, a brow raised and head tilted curiously. I made a show of rolling my eyes, trying to be casual about being caught so soon and so easily. I was about to close the door and walk away when Coal waved me in.
"We were just talking about you," Coal started. That explains why his aura was prodding me. "Outsider, this is Klarion," I studied him a little with my own magic. "A Lord of Chaos." That explains why their aura was able to poke me and why theirs felt like I was sticking my hand in a fire! Ow. I hissed softly as I pulled my magic back. They… giggled under their breath. I glanced at them.
They felt that?
"They found where Beelzebub and Swag are hiding."
I stood straight and stopped wincing in pain. "What?"
"Klarion agrees to tell us where they are if you get him a sample of those Swagbots-"
I absolutely beamed at my new client, "Deal!"
"They're coming with you." Coal finished.
"Oh…" I looked at Klarion up and down. They don't look like much- except a little cliché and cute- but then again they're were actually able to detect me so that must mean something. I smirked. What can a Lord of Chaos do? "Think you can keep up with me?"
For a second their face went blank. Then a grin spread across their face, eyes a little wide. It was little adorable, I admit. "You have no idea who I am."
I raised a brow. Should I?