Warnings: Spoilers and Fiction. If you haven't finished both games I wouldn't read this. The spoilers are immediate. You were warned. Also, this is a work of fiction and I will be coming up with much of my own storyline as I work with the characters we already know and some npcs for the sake of extra folks as needed. This is an Emily/Outsider story and there will be elements of romance but they will come in a bit later to slowly ease into the romance.

Story Name: Black Out

Chapter One: Silence

"Silence is unabatedly hungry…it seeks at all times to take over, and if allowed, it will drown you, it will drown everything in the end…"

The Outsider -

The world turned off.

It was gone.

The connection I held to the cosmos for centuries, time beyond most mortal's comprehension of it - was gone. The world seemed more a void than the realm I'd called home since the time of my rebirth. The well of my incredible knowledge of both past and future had dried up and I felt parched for so much more than water. What was this?

The girl…girls, a pair of them…a half-born and a highborn…

Empress…

…she'd gone to face Delilah through the painting. What then? They were in the void…I had felt them…but I can't remember specifics other than they fought. Why did it hurt? I'd felt pain before, I still remembered well enough the agonies of my mortal life despite the time I spent separated from it. I had been poor in my mortal life. Now though? It ached everywhere, though no place as acutely as the loss in his mind. The void…I could no longer feel it…and its loss was as harsh as an arctic field without a coat – biting into me. Did Emily lose? …had Delilah finished what she started? Had she stolen the void from me?

Impossible.

I was overreacting, Delilah had not been placed in the void as I had – she had taken a part of me but not the whole – that much I could still feel. A hole inside of me that was missing after Delilah's spells – it was small at first but larger now. She'd stolen more of me then…she'd somehow locked me in the mortal realm. But to what end?

Emily Kaldwin.

The one I called the Empress…her name was Emily. Empress Emily. It sounded a bit silly when you thought about it put together that way. The damned girl…was supposed to kill Delilah, everything had been laid out in a way to get the girl to murder this grand larcenist. She surprised me, she'd picked the least likely path and saved even the very woman that had arranged her mother's murder and her father's mystical imprisonment. That had stolen her throne.

…and I'd called Delilah clever. What a wasted sentiment on an overdressed bandit…

I paused at the thought. When was the last time I'd taken something so personally?

Never…

It wasn't a comfortable recognition. Nor was it completely true…I certainly planned to blame and curse many people…when I was still alive. When I was still deluded I could escape my fate. The stillness for some is what they require for focus, but I was so accustomed to the noise that this silence had my mind reeling…trying to dig for a drop of water in a desert. I was distracted with many unneeded thoughts as I tried to device what may have occurred. What had happened to me?

I blinked once, then again, squinting my eyes at the bright light glaring at me from nearby. It wasn't the sun; if the irritating glossy glare didn't give that away the hum of electricity did. The room was blurry at first, lots of shadows difficult to make out beyond the glare, but there were leaves, vines…I knew this place…this was the same room Emily had left from to enter the void. The throne room of Dunwall…

I picked myself up, stumbling a moment on the uneven floor. I hadn't been knocked down in millennia either. I wasn't enjoying most of these reacquaintances with the 'mortal' realm. The pain was starting to leave me, but I was still aware of it after so many centuries without. A glance showed me the statue that was Corvo Attano among a dozen or so other stone statues. Closer to the glaring spotlight was a body I recognized. The very Empress I'd pushed toward Delilah's removal…the last mortal I'd given my mark to, one of the few in the world that could call upon my power…

I picked my way over the uneven ground, frowning at the tepid speed of human movement. I reached down to touch the Empress, pausing a moment at the feel of something under my fingers, the coarse thread she'd been forced to wear in her days spent retaking her own throne. It was the first thing I'd felt in centuries and the sensations as I realized they were there overcame me a moment. The slight scent of the girl beneath the heady dirt. The coppery metallic tang in the air from all the blood that had been spilled here. The hum and sparks of the wiring that kept the glaring light on, casting the room in shadow beyond its narrow focus. I shook my head of the distraction, I didn't have the leisure to enjoy or condemn the minute details of mortality.

Her head hung at first when I lifted her up slightly, limp and delicate, little more than the child she'd been during my first look at this city. I shook her shoulders, causing her head to bob back and forth. For a moment she was so unresponsive I would have feared her death if not for the warmth beneath her thick clothing. I couldn't let her rest, she had to tell me what had happened.

"What happened in the void?" I demanded, my voice slightly harsher than I'd meant it but it was hard not to overreact. Losing all my visions and whispers of the world left me feeling vulnerable for the first time since my new life had started. I was a bit out of practice with moderating myself in a human body…I didn't like it. I didn't like any of this…had I just been born a third time?

Two more lives than most get…

"…Ow…oh, I'm awake…my head…O…Outsider? Is this…"

"It is not a dream, this is not the void. With Delilah, what did you do?" I interrupted her to further expand my query. Whatever had happened I needed knowledge to fix it, and while I remembered much without my connection to the void I lacked what I really wanted to know.

"The ritual, her ritual, I built an extra corrupted rune to put on her throne…I thought it would stop her. She's not here." Emily looked as confused as I felt. She had little for a poker face when she wasn't actively trying. I suppose I couldn't blame her for being shocked, I shouldn't be here. I let go of her to leave her rubbing her arms while I went to inspect the throne. My dark eyes looking it over swiftly before I sighed…it wasn't right…Delilah's spell was off to begin with - if only slightly. By itself it wouldn't have done incredible harm…but the extra corruption had driven it past the realm of normal control.

So, this had been what evicted me, what had allowed the crook to take more of my essence? Would Delilah replace me then? I shook my head at myself for the repeated worry, dismissing it as immediately as earlier. No, I still had strength, I'd simply been cut off from the void somehow…which meant Delilah was likely trapped inside it. If it wasn't for the specific trade being me I probably wouldn't have minded it. She couldn't take what I had however, she was too power hungry, too eager. I earned my power specifically by not wanting it the day they cut my throat…

"Um…are you okay?" Emily sounded nervous, not a common sentiment from the strong leader she'd become in her days looking at her empires failing from the bottom.

I turned, blinking at the items that had begun to float into the air, when I wasn't paying attention to my powers they'd simply started to activate in reaction to my displeasure. I would need to be wary of that given the amount of mortals here. Dunwall was crawling with as many humans as the sewers during the rat plague…

"Empress! Empress Emily are you all right?" Calls of guards trying to break down the door interrupted my thoughts and I forced my attention on Emily again.

"I…need time…tell no one else I am here. Not even father dearest. I will meet you in your room, at sunset, alone." I wasn't accustomed to either making requests or giving orders and was simultaneously bad at both. Still, a crack in the wood didn't allow me to make any apologies, I vanished into shadows just before any witnesses arrived on scene that could connect me to having been here.

I was on the rooftop a moment later, my mind reeling from the relocation. Teleportation in the void was easy enough but in the mortal world there was so much more to assail you when you moved so suddenly. The fresh air was a nice change, and the taste of the salt near the ocean a strange one. The wind was powerful, harsh on my chest so I let it push me into a seated position against the slant of the tiles. I didn't feel weak per say, just disoriented…I hadn't used my magic in the world of men and I had to adjust to it. Perhaps this was how those with my Mark felt the first few times they used it. If it passed for them, it would undoubtedly pass for me as well. I would sit on the roof for a while and try to figure out how to fix this, watching the horizon as the sun began to rise. I'd left her with an entire day to get whatever affairs in order she could while I thought about how I could fix this closing of the void…

Emily –

In the end, I wasn't sure if I had won or if Delilah had. The battle was long and I'd defeated so many of her doppelgangers by its end that I figured one of them had to be the real one…then again. The way everything hurt I was starting to doubt that possibility. This was worse than the time I took the several stories fall while training with Corvo, and I'd broken a lot of bones then. I wasn't sure if everything or nothing was broken, but I knew everything was agony. My left side felt warmer than my right, my stomach churned and if I'd eaten anything any recent hour I knew it wouldn't still be there. Was something moving me? I haven't felt vertigo in ages, not since I managed to adjust to pulling myself across distances with the mark's powers - but it was not pleasant. Why wouldn't they stop and just let me keep my eyes closed?

"…Ow…oh, I'm awake my head…" That hurt the worst as I blinked my eyes open, prepared to admonish whoever was shaking me so violently to stop when the words instead mutated into shock. "O…Outsider? Is this?"

"It is not a dream, this is not the void." He said immediately. Seeming able to read my thoughts no matter what world he was in. His voice was urgent, insistent, it was the most emotion I'd heard out of him since most of our interactions tended to be strange history lessons. "With Delilah, what did you do?"

"The ritual, her ritual, I built an extra corrupted rune to put on her throne…I thought it would stop her. She's not here." I said, explaining as best I could while I tried to wrap my brain around what was basically a god just leaning down next to me in my destroyed throne room. I was relieved when he let go so I could rub my arms, they hurt where he'd pressed his fingers in while shaking me. I supposed it could have been worse given the power he'd been able to give me. He…shouldn't be here though, that much I knew. Had I screwed up something without realizing it? Should I have just tried to kill Delilah instead of incapacitating her with the magic?

I was still a novice after all…what if I only had made things worse by trying to help?

The room had moved, stones and metal were floating up off the ground and there was a slight wind curling around the dark-haired man staring at my handiwork. If I had to guess, I'd say it was a very bad sign if he was telekinetically lifting parts of the room. When the statue of my father started to shift, I grew scared enough to speak up despite not wanting to.

"Um…are you okay?" I knew I sounded scared but who wouldn't with a god having just woken you up with such a poor attitude? If he wanted to kill me what could I do? He was the very creature that I'd drawn power from during my quest to remove Delilah.

He didn't look at me, which was just as well. His gaze was unnerving even when it was in a dream state – I wasn't sure how well I'd take them here in reality. His eyes were darting this way and that over the throne as he seemed to be trying to come up with an answer, then the guards outside spoke for him. "Empress! Empress Emily are you all right?"

I didn't know anyone was even still alive here, it came as a welcome relief to hear that there were still people in my country willing to back me as they called my name. That recognized that I'd been here fighting for them. I swallowed though when I looked back and the Outsider had his full attention on me. Even in the real world his eyes were depthless pools of darkness, I felt my chest start at the intense stare. I didn't know what I should do, I half wanted to run until he spoke, his uncertainty was nerve-wracking but severed the momentary terror his gaze inspired.

"I…need time…tell no one else I am here. Not even father dearest. I will meet you in your room at sunset, alone." Then he was gone. I didn't have a chance to reply to his remarks. What could I even say? As far as I knew I'd just hit my head hard during the fight. Then his words sank deeper.

Father!

I ran to the statue, relieved as the stone started to fade from my father's face at my touch. I'd managed to save him after all. We would have a lot to discuss. He didn't know anything after this nightmare started, and with the Outsider here I wasn't sure it was over.

End Chapter

Whee, I really liked the idea of this pairing after learning more about the Outsider in the second Dishonored game. I don't know why but I just really like it. Hopefully I'll continue to have the time to work on it. I really loved Dishonored 2 and I hope they make more games. Thanks to any readers/reviewers for your time!

-Aura