This is kind of a 'what-if' fic for Easter I wanted to do based of one the video games I liked, specifically it's ending. It's called Sundered and this story follows one of the possible endings though it's more positive than the actual ending. Anyone who hasn't played Sundered I recommend it, it's pretty good.
Unsundered
When Eshe volunteered to go out into the desert to search for some old Valkyrie technology the last thing she expected was to get pulled into the absolute hell that was the city of Eschaton and into the clutches of an eldritch abomination called the Shining Trapezohedron (or as she called him, Trappy, on account of the fact that she couldn't pronounce his actual name). She had been sent out to salvage some things that could be useful, and to help with the rebuild of civilisation after the Great Rebellion.
Eshe didn't remember the Rebellion, as she was born not long after its success. The corrupt governments had long since been overthrown and people who genuinely wanted to help humanity took their place. Things were going well for the most part and humanity was on the mend, but things were still rough. The main source of salvation lay in Valkyrie technology. Eshe was sent out to see if there was any such technology around in the desert. She was one of the best finders in the new civilisation, and was often sent to all manner of tombs and other places to seek the advanced tech. Eshe wasn't sure where the talent for finding the Valkyrie remnants came from, it was just something she had.
Of course that talent was only outshone by her talent for finding trouble, and boy did she find trouble.
She felt pretty stupid to be honest, because the scientist, Zuri, who told her about the Valkyrie tech, was quite explicit on avoiding any and all Eschaton ruins.
"Unnatural phenomenon occurs there, I might even say 'supernatural' were I not a woman of science. Even so, be very careful to stay away from any Eschatonian ruins."
And guess what Eshe went and did. To be fair she was caught in one hell of a sandstorm at the time.
When she first stumbled upon the ruins of the Eschaton she had been totally unprepared for what happened. The suddenness of her kidnapping was quite unpleasant, and the nausea she felt afterwards didn't help. How the hell did these Eschaton people even tolerate this pagan crap? They probably thought it was a good thing. Eshe didn't, in fact after this she was going full atheist. She had spent the first several minutes after her sudden kidnapping via tentacles puking on the ground before she got moving.
And all this crap happened even before she met the Shining Trapezohedron. The red artefact spoke to her, somehow knowing her name and saying she had a dark purpose.
'The bastard was probably the reason I'm here in the first place.'
To be honest she would actually pity the creature if he wasn't such a smug bastard. Granted the actions of the Valkyries (that is of course if the Shining Trapezohedron's words were to be believed) were dick moves, but still… the Eschatonians weren't much better, worshipping deities that wanted to 'cleanse humanity' and all that other junk wasn't exactly a step higher on the morality ladder.
When Eshe acquired the Shining Trapezohedron as a weapon she was certainly grateful and glad that she had the tool necessary to survive, but when she heard about the whole 'corrupting her abilities' she decided that old Trappy wasn't to be trusted. She wasn't going to mess with any eldritch crap if she could help it, no matter how tempting the power was. She had destroyed every Elder Shard much to the Shining Trapezohedron's fury. The supposed god had not been happy with her defiance, though Eshe didn't really care. As far as she was concerned her escape was all that mattered, and the Shining Trapezohedron was just another tool for this end. If he had a problem then he should just try to stop her. The abilities and upgrades to her technology were an added benefit as well, all the better for when she returned. The better the tech, the better her people thrived.
Of course the whole journey wasn't all sunshine and daisies, in fact she was quite sure she needed therapy after this, because on top of the mental strain brought on by dying repeatedly some of the creatures she faced were horrific, so horrific she couldn't put it into words. The Dominion, the Hysteria and the Rivalry were definitely the worst, especially the Hysteria. Frankly out of all them she took the most pleasure out of killing Hysteria, especially if what the Shining Trapezohedron said about him was true.
Killing the Rivalry was a bit harder on her, especially considering that she had murdered General Waters, the man who was regarded as a hero by most of the current civilisation. Upon seeing him pull out the Elder Shard in his death throes she decided to give him a salute out of respect and said, "The world out there is doing better now, General. Your dream is realised. I'm sorry you didn't get to see it." She could have sworn that he looked at her then, a final bit of sentience within the maelstrom of insanity that had claimed him so long ago.
"Bah, only with us is there salvation, Eshe, you know that." The Shining Trapezohedron snorted. As per usual Eshe didn't answer him, but then suddenly cursed out loud.
"Damn it."
"What is it?" the eldritch creature asked.
"I wanted his autograph." She admitted with a faint blush. She knew that technically he would have been dead for years were it not for Eschatonian nonsense bringing him back to some mockery of life, but still a girl could dream. For once the Shining Trapezohedron was silent, and she had a feeling if he had a mouth it would be agape right now.
"I read your mind, Eshe. I know what an autograph is… why?" the creature asked. Eshe made an 'I dunno' noise, shrugging her shoulders before going on her way. She felt pretty good about herself, it's not often when someone actually manages to confuse an eldritch god.
It wasn't long until she made it back to the Sanctuary and found a purple orb of energy floating in the air. Hmm, yeah, that looked like her ticket out. She struck the orb with her blade and suddenly the entire world went black.
And suddenly she was falling. She totally didn't release a girly shriek the moment she fell, definitely not.
"Of course not, Eshe," The Shining Trapezohedron chuckled.
"Quiet you." She growled. The creature laughed, "Well, looks like you finally made it here. Let's see if you'll still be useful." Eshe landed on the ground, wincing at the impact that rang up her legs. She heard the floating meteor creatures before she saw them, and was soon fighting all manner of creatures, the ones she found in the Valkyrie Base where the Dominion resided. Hacking through them was easy enough, as the massive robots that fired lasers at her took some time to charge, more than enough for her to escape. She eventually started dropping again.
"I'll admit, you're a stubborn woman." The Shining Trapezohedron said.
'Part of my charm, Trappy. Zuri thinks so, when she isn't annoyed by it.' Eshe thought cheekily. Eventually she landed on familiar purple ground and sighed. She had a feeling she knew what was going to happen. She was going to fight Eschaton's residents next, those bat creatures, the teeth/tentacle things that flung themselves at her, the massive cloaked tentacle monsters that teleported and those freaking cultists spamming tentacle walls everywhere.
Seriously what the hell is up with Eschaton's propensity for tentacles and teeth? Killing them was certainly a workout, but nothing she couldn't handle by now. Part of her mind was in awe of humanity's ability to take things in stride once they got used to things. At the beginning of her journey those tiny creatures she bumped into before she found the Shining Trapezohedron terrified her, and now she slaughtered eldritch beasts with little more than annoyance.
And once again she was dropping, most likely to a place that's similar to the cathedral place.
"You have no idea what's waiting for you." The Shining Trapezohedron growled.
'Technically I do.' Eshe snarked back. She found this place to be a problem, because this place was filled with those freaking gas things and those shield using shotgun toting asses. She didn't see the wall clinging flesh lumps as problems and at least she didn't have to deal with the floating brains that shot out massive lasers though.
Once again she dropped, and the Shining Trapezohedron's tone turned venomous, "You'll never get out of here."
'We'll see about that.' Eshe growled back. If the Shining Trapezohedron sought to stop her then she'll take it down too. She landed on the ground inside a forest filled with purple lamps. 'Well, this looks ominous.' She could see a massive purple portal ahead but something was inside it… oh, dear. Something big was climbing out of the portal. The Shining Trapezohedron started laughing at her.
"Eshe, meet Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos." He cackled. Eshe stared at the massive head, torso and arms of the beast that roared at her. She sighed and then rolled her shoulders.
"Alright, big boy… bring it on!" she wasn't worried. She can't really die anyways so she'll keep coming back and oh shit here it comes. It swung a massive arm and Eshe barely managed to dodge to the side. She was very grateful she had the propulsion engine, otherwise she would have been paste. As per usual with the big enemies Nyarlathotep had three big purple crystals inside him, and Eshe luckily had plenty of hoops to use her grappling hook on to get to them. She went for the top one first, hitting it with the sword as many times as she could before a portal opened and massive black skulls came flying at her.
"Oh, boop," Eshe whimpered. She turned the blade downwards and used the ground pound attack, hitting the middle crystal in the process before impacting the ground in an explosion of flames. Only problem is now another portal opened in front of where she just landed and more black skull things were headed towards her. She ducked and dodged frantically to get out of the way when several small lights appeared around her.
And then the lasers came. Eshe yelped and started moving quickly, trying to dodge but taking a few hits on her shield before the barrage ended.
It was probably the stress or her hidden silly streak but for some reason when she stopped dodging and the barrage of lasers came to an end she pointed one finger at the sky like she was doing some sort of dancing pose. No attack was incoming, mainly because Nyarlathotep was staring at her with an unreadable expression. Eshe gave a sheepish grin in response. The Shining Trapezohedron groaned, and she could have sworn she heard the sound a face palm.
"My pawn's an idiot." He sighed.
"What do you mean, 'pawn'?" Eshe cried out, insulted at the creature's words. Nyarlathotep roared at her, and Eshe responded with a slightly less intimidating noise, "Eep!"
She made her way up the hoops, aiming for the top crystal again and managed to destroy it this time before Nyarlathotep used the portal attack. She went for the middle one next, hitting it with one of her finisher attacks and barely managing to destroy it before another laser barrage started. This time she didn't do anything silly afterwards and decided that now was a good time to test out the cannon upgrade she got after destroying the final Elder Shard. She landed on the ground and the cannon transformed, using advanced technologies to turn from a somewhat large but compact device on her back into a gigantic gun. She fired and a massive fireball streaked towards the final shard.
"Holy crap." That database entry she found when she upgraded the cannon that went on about how the Eschatonians shouldn't underestimate the Valkyrie division wasn't unfounded. She fired more shots, and eventually the final crystal was destroyed. Nyarlathotep gave a final roar before slumping over, dead. Eshe gave a sigh of relief before the Shining Trapezohedron started cackling madly.
"Eshe, my little pawn…" it roared. Its tone was filled with eagerness and hatred. "You refused my help, and now I shall crush you!" the small artefact that was originally worn around her neck floated upwards and went over to the fallen god. "The creature you see before you is my true form!" Eshe tensed, noticing that she couldn't summon her sword now.
'Of course I can't. The Shining Trapezohedron was the sword. But I still have the cannon.' she thought.
"You will regret… EVERYTHING!" Shining Trapezohedron bellowed.
"Hammy bastard, aren't you?" Eshe taunted with a smirk. "But I regret nothing. I got people to go back to, and I'm taking all the stuff I got with me, except for you of course." After everything she went through, all the pain and all the deaths she suffered, this betrayal and incoming fight didn't feel all that dangerous in comparison, and she had something to fight for: she fought for her people, and the Shining Trapezohedron couldn't begin to imagine the strength that gave her.
It was certainly more strength than she really needed. The Shining Trapezohedron was nowhere near as strong as Nyarlathotep was. She wasn't sure why he was so weak in comparison but it didn't matter. The Shining Trapezohedron roared in hatred, swiping at her and sending several missiles at her. Eshe, who had long since gotten used to dodging numerous projectiles, avoided them with ease. She ran up the wall with her gravity boots ('Pathetic, my ass.' She thought) and leapt off, aiming her cannon at the Shining Trapezohedron. She fired and the monster recoiled in pain as the massive fireball struck it with powerful force.
"No! I am a god, you are a mere human!" the Shining Trapezohedron roared.
"Puny god." Eshe snorted in response. "To be beaten by a mere human. Except that's the story of your life, isn't it? First the Valkyrie Division screwed you over, now I'm finishing the job. You shouldn't underestimate humanity." She smirked at the monster as it raged. A final cannon shot and it started shuddering, a massive face transforming repeatedly as it screamed.
"How could this be? Noooo!" it was straining to keep its form, but it was a losing battle. Eshe chuckled and aimed the cannon once more.
"Hey, Trappy. Nice working with you, and I thank you for helping me up to this point. But if you think you're stopping me from going home you got another thing coming. Get out of my way, you pathetic excuse for a god!"
She fired, and Shining Trapezohedron disintegrated before the cannon's wrath. Eshe lowered the cannon, letting it go back to its more compact form and taking a steadying breath. "Phew." She said. "It's over, now I need to…" she looked up at the portal, which seemed to look… unstable. Without the Shining Trapezohedron there the portal was becoming undone, it was going to close soon, leaving her stranded.
"Oh, like hell!" Eshe bellowed, grabbing her grappling hook. She grappled upwards rapidly before using the final grappling hoop to throw herself at the portal. She flew through the air, using her upgraded leaping device's triple jump function to clear the distance except… it wasn't enough. She wouldn't get through. But wait, she had an idea.
The cannon came out and Eshe angled it downwards, away from the portal. The recoil was always a pain in the ass for her, but now it was time to use it to her advantage. The cannon discharged and she flew through the portal. Purple and black surrounded her, and she thought for a moment that she was too late until she was tossed out of the portal's other side and landed heavily in the sand. Eshe spat out some sand that she got in her mouth and got up, dusting sand off of her. She looked up just in time to see the portal shatter above her. She looked behind her and saw the same Eschaton ruins she found before her… side journey into the city below. She watched them crumble into dust and decided to flip it off as one final insult towards the gods of the cursed city.
She then heard a crackling noise at her hip. Her radio, she'd forgotten all about that thing.
"Eshe, Eshe! Are you there, Eshe? Come in." Eshe lifted the radio to her face and replied, "Eshe here."
"Oh… thank goodness… we thought we lost you. When the sandstorm hit we suddenly lost all trace of you. Did you find anything?"
"I did, Zuri. I found a few bits of Valkyrie technology, fully functional and definitely worth a look, but I doubt we can go back to the place where I found them."
"I see… also, Eshe." Zuri's tone was too innocent, and Eshe became on edge. "I have a trace on your location now, so please explain to me why you are next to an Eschaton ruin, you know, the place I told you not to go to?"
"Err… the sandstorm blew me off course? I got lost, Zuri, what do you want me to say?"
"Did anything happen, Eshe? Are you okay?" Zuri asked.
"I'm fine. As for what happened… Where. Do I. Begin?"
00000000
"So that's your report?" the main councilman, Edgar Rogers, asked. Edgar was Eshe's boss, and regularly sent her on her Valkyrie relic hunting missions.
"Yes." Eshe responded.
"You wandered into an Eschaton ruin…"
"Sorry, but yes."
"Got taken by the creatures that inhabited it…"
"Yes."
"Fought your way through several eldritch abominations…"
"Quite bravely, too." Edgar smirked at Eshe's lack of humility.
"And then you killed a literal god, and escaped through the portal that brought you there in the first place. Is that everything?"
"Yes, sir." Eshe nodded. "The Eschaton gods shouldn't be a problem. Even if Trappy's still alive then he can't get through, the portal broke after I used it." Edgar leaned back, humming in thought.
"Well, that's good. Never cared much for those Eschaton lunatics. The equipment you found is of good quality too. The boys and girls in the science lab are working on them now, you've made a great contribution to your people, Eshe."
"Thank you, sir." She smiled.
"Now, I believe that going to Eschaton ruins was against your orders, but you were caught in a sandstorm so official punishment won't be forthcoming…" Edgar smirked. "That said, however, I believe your wife is quite… annoyed at you." Eshe went pale, and gulped.
"Can I have the Valkyrie stuff back? I need to run." She requested. The gravity boots would possibly save her from her wife's wrath. Upon seeing Edgar shaking his head she sighed and left the office.
Ten minutes later she returned to her home, and saw an unamused woman standing there. Zuri wore a plain white shirt and trousers. It looks like she just got back from the lab.
"Hello, Eshe." She greeted. Eshe winced, not because of Zuri's slightly cold greeting, but rather the words themselves. Her wife briefly sounded like the Shining Trapezohedron for a second when he first greeted her. Zuri's fury cooled upon seeing Eshe's troubled expression.
"Are you okay, Eshe? What happened down there?" she asked. Eshe walked over to Zuri and held the shorter woman in a tight grip.
"Zuri, you have full permission to yell at me later, but right now I have had a long day. I am tired, psychologically scarred and will most likely have nightmares for the foreseeable future. For now… just let me hold you. I thought I would never escape that hell, never see you again."
"Oh, Eshe…" Zuri embraced the traveller back, closing her eyes in contentment before sniffing. "Eshe, I know you've had a bad day, but you smell awful right now. Have a shower." Eshe leaned back to look at her wife's delicate, round and very cute face, her blue eyes staring at Zuri's green eyes.
"Only if you come with me," She said in a cheeky voice. Zuri rolled her eyes, but nonetheless started moving towards the bathroom, her rear swaying enticingly. Eshe followed her, and soon she had forgotten all about Eschaton and the Shining Trapezohedron.
00000000
Deep below in the caverns of Eschaton, something stirred. It had sensed the deaths of its brothers, and so it rose. The being that felt his sibling's death was incandescent when he learnt of what had happened.
These pitiful creatures dared defy them? These beings were little more than ants and yet somehow they managed to stymie the Great Ones' plans? How dare they!?
…No matter, there was still time. He was eternal, after all. But he would like to hurry, as he knew that human lives were short and soon his brother's killer would perish and his vengeance would be denied.
I WILL NOT SUFFER YOUR SINS, LITTLE ANT. YOUR CRIMES WILL NOT GO UNPUNISHED AND I WILL AVENGE MY BROTHER'S DEATH…
SO SWEARS N'YOG-SOTHEP, THE NAMELESS MIST.
And that's a wrap. This is kind of a happy Easter Monday chapter I came up with after playing Sundered. I wanted there to be a happy ending so I figured I'd make this short. At the moment I'm plotting my next story and I have written my first chapter. I want to make some more notes before committing to writing the whole thing however, that and the second season that the next fanfic is based on is coming out… that could ruin a few things…
Also for anyone who isn't familiar with Lovecraftian lore, the Nameless Mist is Nyarlathotep's brother.
Well, until then… see you soon.