A/N: This is a back-story for a black mage from my fic 'Broken'. It doesn't contain any spoilers for it in case you haven't read 'Broken' and may want to, this story takes place before the events in 'Broken'. There will be language throughout and some occasional violence, just to warn you. And for those who have read 'Broken'… I hope you like this, I know you guys really wanted to read this pokes wonwingangel
'They'll never be good to you,
bad to you.
They'll never be anything,
anything at all.'
'Mechanical Animals' by Marilyn Manson
Chapter 1
Darkness, the mind explained. Complete darkness, there was no light. Understandable. All there was was darkness and a mind taking shape, a mind trying to understand his surroundings. The mind was capable of this, it was programmed well, but its current situation was confusing. The mind began to ache.
Until it came up with an answer, it was confined. To what? The mind was unsure, but there was no light, and movement was… not possible. What was the mind confined in? A head, a different part of the mind answered. This side was perhaps, more logical, but it wasn't developed. This part of the mind explained that, this being wasn't made up of only a mind. It had a body.
It took a few minutes, or perhaps, hours, for the whole being to come together. The body, strong and powerful, the first part of the mind, programming, and the other half, a sense of… self; it all came together. This is what made no. 239, a black mage of 'c' type, the newest and most powerful of the black mages. But this black mage was not complete yet, in terms of awareness. It had no sense of self.
But after a while of being confined to darkness, the programming spoke. 'Try moving.' It said. It wasn't pure programming anymore; it was formed in slightly with the other side of his mind. But the being thought about this for a moment, about moving. Finally, he tried to raise his arm, but it didn't move. He tried his other arm, same outcome. No. 239 felt his eyes blink in minor confusion. His programming became confused again. It claimed he should be able to move, unless he was injured or stuck. He wasn't injured, his programming accessed, he must be stuck.
No. 239 blinked again. For a long while he did nothing. Then his programming told him to move, he tried to raise his arms, but nothing happened. Soon, the other side of his mind concluded that this was a big problem, this was dangerous, this shouldn't be happening. He panicked, both sides of his mind felt fear, an uncomfortable emotion, especially for a first emotion.
This fear overtook him; he began moving his entire body in panic. His head hit the sides of… something. It hurt; the pain was strange to him. But he kept moving, more and more recklessly, pain kept coming but he wanted to get out. He wanted it… he…
"Uhhh…."
"What is it now?"
He wanted out, out of this confined space. The fear was spreading and it was hot and sickening like that of a fever…
"T-the box is moving…!"
"You're probably just imagining it! Just get it in the barrel before the Cargo Ship gets here, we're already behind by a week!"
"I'm serious! It's moving!"
The sounds outside meant nothing to no. 239's young mind, he just wanted out…
Light was hot, and blinding. It flashed hard into his soft yellow eyes as he tumbled out of the now broken box he was placed in. He fell out onto the ground, it was soft with fresh green grass, and he gazed out at the blue sky through his narrowed yellow eyes. His breath was quick from the effort made to get out; his whole body ached from the force he used to break out. Sunlight was nice, so was the big openness of this large field…
"…I-I told you."
"Uhhh…."
No. 239 let his eyes open fully; he gazed up at two, humans. Humans, they gave him orders, they are in control, you need to listen to them, his programming told him. They stared down at him, in fear and confusion at the mage lying before them.
"This isn't good…"
"Uh, what do we do with it…?"
No. 239 heard a sound, he liked the sounds, this sound was the sound of footsteps, his programming informed him. A new human came up.
"What is going on? Did you numbskulls let that mage out? Do you want to lose out deal with Alexandria! Do you understand how dangerous this is!" The voice yelled angrily. No. 239 didn't like that, it made him want to do better, to please, that's what the programming made him feel.
"N-no! The box just started shaking and it broke out! Honestly!" One human pleaded slightly.
"I don't want to hear it! I'll listen to your excuses later; we need to get it out of sight before anyone sees it! You guys get ready for the cargo ship and don't breathe one word about this! It could lose us our deal with the Queen! Now get back to work!" The angry voice went off again and once again No. 239 felt the need to do better, except the need was painful this time.
The angry human left and the two others stood there, confused. No. 239 wanted to get up. He felt the need to be standing before these humans, to take their orders. He struggled to stand on his new, weak legs. His head felt heavy and teetered a little bit but he quickly gain balance and stood at attention to the two humans who had stepped away considerably. They exchanged glances in slight confusion, neither of them had ever dealt with an active mage before and neither had the training to do so.
Finally they decided to get a new box to place him in, no. 239 didn't fully understand, he knew he was in a box, and now they were getting another one. He wondered why but his programming told him he wasn't supposed to wonder why, so he stopped. He really wanted to look around now that he was standing, but he knew better, so he stood rock still staring straight into the rather nervous-looking human. Within a moment the other human arrived, carrying a long wooden box under his arm. He propped it upright and opened the front, it was empty, what was the box for?
"Okay so, um, I guess we just tell it to get in right?" The human who had carried the box mumbled to the other human.
"Yeah," The second human replied, who turned back to no. 239. "Get in the box."
No. 239 stood for a moment looking at the box. It was the exact same as the one he got out of, it was rather small. He took a step forward, proceeding to carry out the command, but paused. He didn't like the box, it was too small for him, and it was dark and uncomfortable. He took another step towards it, the humans watching him, but he still didn't want to go in. He stopped and stared at the box, they would close him in, he would be stuck again, and he didn't want to be stuck.
"Uh, why isn't it going in?" One human asked the other. No. 239 knew he had to carry out the order and tried to take another step but he couldn't bring himself to do it, he was scarred of the box.
"I dunno," The other human replied. "Maybe he's broken, you know? From breaking out of the box?"
No. 239 stared into the box, listening. The human said he was broken, he wasn't supposed to be broken, he was supposed to go in the box. But he didn't want to go in. He took a step back in fear. One of the humans let out a annoyed sigh.
"We're in trouble…." One human complained.
"You sure as hell are!" A voice barked from behind no. 239, it was the angry human from before. No. 239 instantly turned to face him; he stood at attention again, hoping that would make the human happy with him.
"Boss!" A human exclaimed, flustering slightly. "We tried to get it in the box but it won't go in! I think it may just be a defect…"
"A defect?" The 'boss' replied, staring at no. 239. "I've heard of mages breaking before, I heard that they turn on their masters, run off, expensive wastes they are. Not supposed to break at the manufactures though, don't tell anyone about this."
The other humans nodded their agreement, looking at no. 239 in a nervous, disgusted way. The boss backed away slowly, picked up a piece of the broken wood from the box no. 239 was in and approached the mage. No. 239 stood there, looking curiously from the human to the wood in his hands. Then in a sudden flash, the human raised the wood and struck no. 239's hidden face.
No. 239 didn't know how long he was asleep for but he woke up, his face filled with pain. He groaned quietly, and tried to raise his hands to his face but they didn't come up! He panicked, finding that his hands had been bound to… something. It was too dark to see. He stopped struggling to try and see where he was. Soon, his eyes got adjusted to the blackness; he saw that he was in an enclosed space filled with piles of boxes, the same type of box he came out of.
His breath quickened, his growing fear of dark enclosed spaces had caught up with him. He attempted to stand up, but the strong rope bindings on his hands made it impossible to. He pulled at them in fear, but it didn't help his situation. He wondered how he had gotten there. He remembered the human hitting him hard, he supposed that humans did that when he didn't do what they wanted, but he didn't remember anything else. The human probably put him in the dark room and tied his hands down to the ground, why did it do that? His programming didn't have any answers, it simply told him that he should listen to them and follow their orders, maybe this is what the human wanted him to do…?
He rested his head on the wall behind him, listening to the odd puffing and mechanical sounds from outside of the room. He also heard the distant voices of humans, he struggled to hear them but he couldn't make the words out over the puffing and other weird noises. But soon some voices came nearer, he sifted slightly to try and hear them better…
"I realize that we still owe you, how much was it?"
"80,000 gill! You buffoon, can't you even keep track of that?"
"Oh my, um, yes. You see we've been working on building a –"
"I don't care what you're buildin'! I want some goddamn pay!"
"Well, we uh, don't have it right now you see… we're getting another payment from the castle –"
"For what? Sittin' on your ass?"
"Uh, it's actually top-secret but… I have something you can have for your payment!"
"Yeah? It better not be any goddamn tomatoes!"
"Uh, yes well… Let me show you this…"
A large door creaked open; the dim light poured into the small dark one no. 239 was confined to. He sifted in his place on the floor, pulling at the binding ropes helplessly. Two human stood in the doorway, a small weak one and a very large strong looking one. No. 239 tried moving further from the large human, he didn't want the human to hurt him like the last one did. But instead the human stared at him in a confused and disgusted expression.
"What in hell is that?"
"It's a black mage, Alexandria's top secret weapon. We've been making hundreds of these for her majesty. They are very powerful; they can cast more black magic then the most powerful red mages! And they follow every human's commands."
They large human snorted in disbelief, looking the cowering mage up and down with a sparkling greed in his eyes.
"And why in the hell are ya givin' me one? A top-secret weapon?"
"This one didn't make the product standards for Alexandria, but it'll be fine for you."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean!"
"Uh, I mean it'll be fine with you because, uh, it'll still take orders and work."
"So it's like a slave…"
"Yes, a doll if you will. One of these C types would probably be worth oh, 200,000 gill. But we don't have anyone to sell it to, so I'll give it to you for the rest of the payment."
The large human shoot the other a dangerous look, making the other one jump. The large one grunted slightly and turned back to no. 239 who was pulled at his bindings again, wishing to be away from the foul-smelling human. But the human grinned and laughed a strange, cruel laugh.
"I'll take it."
Decent? I hope so, please leave a review!
