NOTE: This story takes place before the events of Cave Story, and considers the Best Ending to be true. Some spoilers may follow, so beware. Also, I do not own Cave Story nor any of its characters or other properties. This is only fanfiction made for entertainment purposes and nothing else. That said, hope you enjoy the story. It will be 4 chapters long and I'll try to keep the updates monthly, at the very least.
1. Loneliness and Misery
In the blue sky that stretched to the horizon, cloudless and clear, there was an island. It floated gently and slowly, casting a shadow on the ground below as it drifted purposelessly like a cork in a calm lake.
Inside this impossible island there was a massive system of caves, ruins and other strange constructions. A multitude of creatures, from tiny humanoids to behemoths of steel burrowing in the sand, strived inside. An underground world floating in the sky.
It's in a cave this story begins.
Misery was contemplating the scenery below from the vantage point of a high cliff with a bored scowl on her face, tapping her staff idly on the ground. Below her a huge frog jumped clumsily after an equally overlarge insect and a jellyfish glided gracefully in the air, lighter than a feather.
Misery leaned on the wall with a slouch, and looked at a distance, her eyes unfocused. She was slim, pale and looked very much like a lost soul or romantic poet, alone and melancholic.
The effect was spoiled by a green blob suddenly flying in her direction, planning to flatten her on the ground.
Misery was startled and quickly dropped her lazily mysterious pose, pointing her staff at the creature and sending three balls of dark energy that vaporized it in mid-flight. The threat was gone, but Misery's heart still thumped from the surprise. After looking around she calmed down and returned her expression to an even darker scowl, glaring at the other monsters farther away. So she was too annoyed to notice the figure that had silently teleported just behind her.
"Having fun?"
Surprised for the second time in a few instants, Misery turned quickly and saw the face of her mother, Jenka, staring calmly back at her. She looked very much like a shorter version of misery, a bit more tanned and with long blonde hair instead of short and dark green. Her eyes though were much different, and betrayed more wisdom than her apparent age could possibly have. She looked like in her early thirties and her gaze calm, serious and unflinching.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Muttered Misery, still startled and displeased by the sudden intrusion when all she wanted was to be alone. Her mother raised an eyebrow but ignored the rude tone, replying:
"Just wanted to know how you are doing. No need to get angry."
"Can you at least not sneak up behind me?"
Jenka looked briefly at the monsters slouching at a distance, ready to hop into the air and menace any intruders that approached or provoked them. Then her eyes focused back on her daughter's defiant expression. "I thought it was best not to teleport in your line of sight, especially when you're tossing highly aggressive magic around like confetti," she replied dryly.
"I was caught by surprise, that's all," said Misery, her pale cheeks flushing slightly.
"What are you doing here, anyway?"her mother glanced at the gloomy surrounding area, the moss covered walls and the gravestone-like sentries posted below, ready to spit energy waves if attacked.
"I needed some time alone, ok?" She rolled her eyes impatiently and brushed some of her short hair away from her face. "Isn't it enough that I'm a prisoner here, now I have to be constantly watched as well?"
"Not this conversation again..." Jenka sighed, breaking her serene expression for the first time before being interrupted by her daughter.
"I've been kept in this island for all my life! I can count on my fingers the hours I spent in any other place, always under your supervision! 35 years! 35 years stuck in this place, with no one like me to talk to! Except, of course, you!" Misery stopped for a moment and caught her breath. Her hands were shaking from the outburst and now that the bravado had ended, a bit of fear crept in her mind. Her mother was clearly the most powerful of the two, and discussions like these tended to end badly for Misery. Not physical pain, of course, thought Misery. She was too refined for such things. Instead she gave her some task she hated or cut away one of the few entertainments Misery had. It was punishment, and made all the worse for how morally uplifting it was supposed to be.
"I said it before. I will let you go when you are old enough. When you are experienced and ready. The world... The world can be a cruel place," Jenka's voice grew distant and fainter at this, dropping down to a whisper. "I don't want something to happen..."
"But I DO know enough! I'm already 35, I know magic, even the advanced..."
"It's PRECISELY because you are a powerful magician that you need to be experienced, and self-controlled!" snapped Jenka. Her calm expression changing for the first time in the conversation into an angry one. "You may have years of living, but your mind is still of a teenager! Mopping around and brooding, as if you were the saddest creature on earth. Destroying the guardians in fits of anger, or on your whims."
"What should I do then?"
Jenka paused and breathed slowly, regaining her serene and detached manner before answering. "You could create."
She looked down and then pointed to a creature that was making its way carefully in the cave below. It was small and with short, white fur covering its entire body, from the sole of its feet to the tip of its large ears. It was walking carefully and staying away from the other guardians as best as it could. It had not noticed the two witches standing on the top of the cliff. "Look at the Mimigas, for example." Jenka continued, her expression going soft and a small smile showing on the corner of her mouth. "I created them to be intelligent and fierce warriors, to better protect of the island. However, they were TOO intelligent, I think. Soon enough they started forming communities, gathering food by other means and even honoring their dead. It was, I must admit, quite unexpected from what I had initially planned. But I allowed them to thrive and be as they wanted to. They may have weakened over time, not hardened by constant battle or over-strengthened by magic, and yet..."
Jenka's stopped speaking, lost in nostalgia, and she didn't notice the scowl Misery had once again. She raised one eyebrow, looking down at the unsuspecting Mimiga and with a wave of her staff sent a lightning bolt upon the poor thing. It yelped when hit by the sudden attack and ran away the opposite direction, dodging the other guardians' attacks while whining in pain and holding its ears. Jenka awakened from her reverie with a start and turned angrily at her daughter, who replied "these things aren't good for protecting ANYTHING anymore! Look! They've gone weak! You just like them because they remind you of your stupid dogs!"
And with those words she teleported with a flash before her mother could find any reply. Jenka opened and then closed her mouth, still surprised speechless by the outburst. She slowly calmed down again and thought to herself. She could follow Misery, of course, but it would be useless. When Misery and she had an argument, she would sulk for a few days at the very least. She was a good girl, but prone to fits of anger, depression and moodiness. Even her name pointed that out. When she froze her ageing, a ceremony of the highest importance to all mages, when they had to create a new name to themselves and to the world, what did she choose? Misery. And Misery it had to be.
In the dark cave, unseen by anyone, Jenka's face did a scowl that resembled her daughter's much more than either would care to admit.
-
Deep in the island's heart, in the middle of its vast waterways, Misery lay down on her bed and stared at the ceiling, her thoughts far, far away from the small room she called her own. It was a fairly cramped place, with a shelf filled with notes, annotations and scraps in one corner and a computer on the other. Misery liked the place for its isolation, which was not a problem for her teleportation anyways, and the sound of running water that helped her calm down. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine herself in a riverbank, looking at the small animals and insects thrive under the lazy sunlight, far away from that floating island.
Misery sometimes thought about her father as well. She had never met him, and so her imagination often made him a wonderful man, a powerful sorcerer, maybe a hero of some kind. Maybe he would come to the island one day and take Misery away with him, to live in the surface, to show her the world, so vast and mysterious. Many people have fantasies like these at least once in their lives. What if my parents weren't really my parents? What if I was secretly special from everyone else? What if I went to another world suddenly and was told that I was a prince, a princess, a magician? It's a common thing. The Changeling Fantasy.
Misery could control magic in a way normal humans could never hope to do, and lived in a place filled with wonder. And yet, inside that cramped room, Misery dreamed of a different life.
They had fought again, and this was bad, Misery thought to herself after calming down alone in her room. Her mother had the power to free her from this place, and angering her could only make things worse. Dreaming of being freed by someone else was good, but she couldn't rely on others.
Her mother's words came back to her, about creation and its delights. And how she smiled while describing the mimigas. Maybe the way to impress her mother was there? Creation magic was not out of her reach, although Misery favored aggressive and fighting magic much more. Creation was her mother's specialty, as the entire island showed. But maybe she could give it a try.
-
"Not this... No... This won't work either..." Misery tossed another scrap away and then looked around her. This was the labyrinth, a mixture of the island's scrap heap and home of the Gaudis, protectors of yet another creation of her mother's. She was always secretive about the importance of some things, and Misery couldn't understand why there were so many guardians in this island, or why the center was completely off-limits to everybody, including her own daughter. "She's probably just paranoid," muttered Misery, under her breath. She floated to a high ledge with only a door on the end and opened it, entering the room.
It looked like a hospital. There was a table, and a shelf filled with medicine bottles and bandages, among other things. There were two frog-like creatures sleeping in the corner of the room. Doctor and nurse, it looked like. Misery remembered something about them, the two took care of any injured Gaudi around, and were generally helpful. But her attention went to the corner of the room. There stood a robot with a large and grey body, shaped like a box. Its eyes stared straight ahead impassively, probably didn't have any commands to follow, and Misery walked up to it with an interested look. It was sturdy-looking and yet something in it just begged to be brought to life. In one sense, it was already alive. It was a robot, and by the look of things its main function was help in the infirmary.
"But not if I can help it..." Said misery with a small smile on her lips. She looked around to confirm that both doctor and nurse were still sleeping soundly and then silently concentrated on a spell... The image of the silent robot blurred for a moment and then, without much fanfare, there was a second robot that looked exactly like the original. Misery smiled, breathing deeply to recover from the effort, and then concentrating once again disappeared in a flash of light along with the original robot.
-
As Misery was busy with her newfound project, Jenka was equally concentrated in her task, inside a much darker and emptier cave.
"Aw, not AGAIN!" complained the dark indigo colored mushroom. But Jenka ignored the thing's voice and grimly stuffed it inside her bag. It would grow again in time. She had a task to do ahead of her, and although she did not look forward to it at all, there was no other way. And better do it while Misery was still busy sulking by herself, she thought. Then she closed her eyes and began to dispel the island's central barrier. Inside the island, there was only one place you could not teleport to, as long as the barrier was up. And Jenka had to go to that place right now. She had no choice, it was her self-imposed duty. Her burden.
Her brother.
-
And on the top of the island, amidst runes and magic inscriptions, the newly-created being opened its new eyes and looked around. Misery smiled expectantly at it, exhausted by all she had just done. Creation was no easy task, even if what she did was closer to modification. But she had created something indeed, she thought. And now was the time to test it.
"Who are you?" Misery asked. The thing looked at her with its big, innocent eyes and answered:
"I'm Balrog, your creation and servant."
"Excellent!" She said, her excitement growing. She had created something, after all. A personality. "Now, Balrog. You will protect me from any pest that comes to annoy me and do the tasks I ask when I cannot be bothered. You understand? "
"What are these things for?" Balrog pointed his flap in guise of an arm at the symbols all around him, a curious expression in his face.
"Hey, are you listening?"Misery demanded, her proud expression beginning to show traces of doubt.
"Yes, yes. Of course. I'll do whatever you ask of me," Balrog quickly amended, turning back to her with a slightly guilty expression, like a puppy being reprimanded for chewing on the sofa.
"Good. Now stay here for a moment. I need to introduce you to someone else. Be polite when you meet her, ok?"
And saying that she concentrated and with a flash of bright light disappeared. Balrog was not surprised because he knew his creator could do that. The knowledge was just there inside his mind, like his name and many other things. He didn't question or wonder about it. Balrog looked around curiously and smiled. Then he walked closer to one of the symbols on the floor and prodded it with his foot.
-
"Jenka. You still have not given up?"
The figure that stated this sighed in despair and bowed slightly his head, eyes still firmly closed. Jenka let her eyes travel quickly on the scenery around her before focusing once again on her brother. The floor was nothing but bones and remnants, and the air was heavy with an oppressive and tortured atmosphere. She was in great danger, she knew that. Every time she did this, she knew well enough the risk. The room diminished Ballos' power severely, true, but he was still dangerous and uncontrollable. She could not put her guard down for a single second, and never taking her eyes away from him, she answered. "I have to do this. It's your only hope for redemption at the end of this madness," and after a moment of painful silence, she added softly "I'm sorry."
She took out the mushroom from her bag and levitated it to her brother. His eyes then opened angrily and all pretense of calmness was lost. He threw a wave of ribcage bones at her, sharp as spears, and she deflected them inches before they could hit her. "LET ME GO. LET ME GO OF THIS ENDLESS HELL. FREE ME OR I WILL..." But his rage was cut short as the mushroom was hurled inside his throat. He choked and shut his eyes, stopping the attack. And then, slowly, his expression became one of pained anguish.
"Why, my dear sister... Why do you keep making me remember?"
-
Misery had looked for her mother everywhere, at no avail. She scowled again, her anxiety at her mother's reaction to the newly-created Balrog not eased by this strange absence. Misery closed her eyes and searched for her mother's presence. It was not something she did often, but this situation was different. She wanted to impress her mother or convince her she was not just an irresponsible brat. She searched the island and then finally located her mother... Inside the island's center. The forbidden area. And the protection covering it was gone.
When she realized this, Misery agonized for a few moments on what to do. She was curious about this out-of-bounds place almost as much as she was of the surface, but that could make her mother even angrier than before. She should just wait until her mother came back. Introduce her to Balrog. Prove her she could handle the world. And hopefully her mother would come to understand. Hopefully. If she bowed down her head and obeyed, her mother would surely allow her outside. Surely. That was the right thing to do...
-
"I do this because you must remember," Jenka said, her eyes never leaving Ballos. "You must remember who you were... And you have to come back to yourself. To who you are. To control this wild magic inside you now. You HAVE to remember, my brother. So you can recover."
It's a pity Jenka was so concentrated on her brother, because if not, she would have noticed a figure teleporting silently behind a pillar and peeking carefully at the situation.