Author note:

ALRIGHT so we have officially moved out from the canon time-line (for now, don't worry we will be back on track soon) but this is necessary I swear!

Just bear with me, I know the genre has shifted quite drastically in the past few chapters but we NEED it for the development. This is going to be epic, trust me. But we gotta walk this through one step at a time.

Thank you to the persistent readers. (anonymouscsifan and LittleBlueRobyn, I'm looking at you)

Also, I can't spoil anything but I just need to let someone know. I've finished Ch 11 and OH YM GOD you guys had better prepare yourself. I am sooo excited. So. Excited.

On another note, it is now exam season and i will probably be slowing down the updates for the next two weeks. Gotta aim for that H1, ya feel?

I doubt I'll be able to stay away long though, I love this fic too much.

But anyway... Enjoy now!

Chapter 9

A Little Longer in Dreamland.

/ - Chen POV - /

Today was the day. The media had been tipped with Colby's involvement in the hack and E-corp would be forced to publicly announce his treachery. Chen couldn't wait to get started on his newest assignment. He'd been observing Elliot since Gwen left for China, but the weirdo hadn't changed his routine at all. If anything, he seemed to dive deeper back into his old habits.

Maybe Chen's suspicions were just that, suspicions. It really seemed as if Elliot was unfazed by Gwen's absence. He went to work, as usual. Went straight home, as usual. Spoke to his dealer, as usual.

In fact, Elliot didn't seem to be doing much different from his usual routine. He made no contact with fsociety and spent the majority of his time getting high and laughing at his phone. Like a lunatic, really, Chen mused.

He would never understand how someone could be as messed up as Elliot. The poor guy was broken from his past and yet made no sincere effort to change his future. Would he accept that he would cry over his loneliness forever? It was pathetic.

Chen halted his thoughts as he watched an unfamiliar girl walk up the steps to Elliot's apartment. He had seen her around the area a number of times, but she'd never entered the building before. To his shock, she reappeared a few moments later, Elliot in tow.

"This is too easy." Chen muttered to himself as he waited for them to move further before following them. The two were oblivious.

They stopped to grab frozen yoghurt and Chen wanted to rip his ears out, listening to the girl talk on and on about stupid nonsense. Was this person really a member of fsociety? Really?

At the subway, Chen nearly lost them. The girl pulled Elliot onto the train carriage as the doors were closing, and Chen himself had to shove someone out of the way to squeeze on, a carriage down from them. As the train moved, Chen caught sight of two other men.

Amateurs. Really? They didn't trust me enough that they sent two others?

The rest of the train ride was uneventful. Elliot remained still as the girl babbled on throughout the trip. Chen was grateful he was at least in another carriage. If he had to listen to her whinging any longer, he was sure her tongue would be carved out and thrown away by now.

He was so glad that Gwen wasn't like that. She hardly ever complained. Although she did voice her opinions when it made her upset, she was never the one to uselessly whinge the way this girl was doing. It was why she was so precious to Chen.

The thought of Gwen made him a little sad. She was still in China, making progress from what he saw through her phone. There had been a number of outbound messages to an unknown number, but those messages were encrypted and he hadn't been able to decipher them. He assumed they were for Tyrell. Only someone like that maniac would go to that much effort.

When Elliot and the girl disembarked the train, Chen waited until the doors were just about to close before he exited. He followed them from a while away and observed as they entered a building with a large amount of graffiti on its walls. Funsociety? As in fsociety? Wow, these hackers really had no sense of humour, he thought.

Rustling through his bag, he brought out pea-sized cameras and audio recording software. It would take a while, but he had to set these up at the entrances and windows to the place. He wouldn't be able to enter until after all the people had left, but there was still work he could do while the little hacker gang had their gathering.

/ - Gwen POV - /

How had she gotten in this predicament again? Oh, that's right. She'd been reckless and they'd caught up to her. So stupid.

Thinking that she'd make a meal for herself on her third night in China rather than eat out, Gwen had ventured out from her AirBnB to find a grocery store. She'd walked mindlessly around looking for a sign that was recognisable as a grocer. Everything was in Chinese and she'd been silly and not taken that language in high school.

Would have been helpful right about now.

Oh yes, and as soon as she stepped into the first grocer she found, she'd been knocked down and pinned on the floor. Her arms were tightly locked behind her and she didn't even try to resist. It was futile.

So here she was, tied to a chair in a dark room that stank of piss and faeces. These guys really had no creativity.

"Did you really have to copy all the damn spy movies out there? Like geez." She called out into the empty room. As far as she knew, she'd been here for a couple hours, alone. But they were watching her, it was clear. Why wouldn't they?

Were they waiting for her to unravel? To go insane?

Tough luck boys, I'm already as crazy as you can get.

A screeching caught her attention and her eyes tuned in on a movement on the far wall of the room. A door?

A man stepped into her view, his face hidden behind a black mask. In fact, not a single part of his skin was showing. He was, in all senses of the word, wrapped in black clothing from head to toe.

"Why do you follow us?"

Odd, Gwen noted. The accent was definitely not similar to the other Chinese accents of the area that she had grown used to on her few days here. Perhaps a rural region then?

Or perhaps not Chinese.

"Um, because I felt like it?" She knew being snarky wouldn't reward her, but she was at her wit's end. In the three days she'd been here, all she'd gotten was that photo of the man and his associate the other day, as well as an emptied bullet she'd pried off the wall at the fourth location. These guys were dangerous and she couldn't think of why Tyrell was interested in them.

He was an executive, for heaven's sake. It wasn't as if he was an overlord who needed people to be killed off. The man was a fucking suit, not a badass.

Regardless of her frustration, Gwen had checked up on the make of the design of the bullet and found that it was fired from a custom-made hand gun that originated in Japan a couple decades ago. Really? Was she that surprised? A lot of custom hand guns came from Japan. It really hadn't narrowed her search down any.

And to top it all off, the stranger had stopped messaging her. What was the guy up to?

"Do not be insolent."

Smack.

Gwen's head flew sideways and splitting pain wracked her cheek. The guy packed a punch despite his small frame. His hands felt a lot tougher than regular hands. Knuckle-busters, maybe?

"Sorry, I forget my manners when I'm tied to a fucking chair."

Another smack. "What have you found out?"

"Uh… That you're a bunch of kids who like to smoke together and go into not-at-all suspicious dark rooms." God, what she'd do to be back in Elliot's room and arguing with him right now. Even that kind of frustration and pain was better than this. This beating just reminded her of bad, horrid memories.

There was a crackle and then the man whispered something incomprehensible into his… mouthpiece? Gwen couldn't tell from where she sat. In fact, running the sounds back over in her head, she wasn't entirely sure he had spoken English.

The man didn't spare her another glance as he left the room. Gwen breathed out a sigh of relief. Had they really given up that easily?

/ - Elliot POV - /

They wanted to blow up Steel Mountain. Blow up Steel Fucking Mountain. And Mr Robot didn't give two shits about whether or not people died. These were not the people Elliot wanted to surround himself with. He wanted to save the world, not kill it.

These people were insane.

By the time he arrived home, he was almost hysterical. The thought of someone dying made him sick. These people, they weren't hacking the conglomerates for the greater good. They were doing it because they could, because it made them feel good about themselves.

Once again, he was alone. No one thought like him and so no one understood him. Elliot rushed into his apartment, ignoring Shayla who had peeked her head out to watch him hurry past.

He was alone. Alone, alone, alone.

The tears came before he could stop them and in his corner, rocking himself and sobbing hysterically, Elliot felt smaller than ever.

Why did he even think that he could fit in at fsociety? Why had he even tried. They'd just let him down, like everyone else did. He was alone and he had to stay that way. It was horrible and made him go insane, but it was safer.

Alone, alone, alone.

He didn't know how long his panic attack lasted for, but the weariness in his limbs told him it had been a while. Break-downs were never easy and it was worst for him because he didn't want to accept it. He fought it and it consumed him ever the more.

No one in this world was as alone as him. He would be this way forever, always looking into other people's happy lives through a glass wall. It was a happiness that he would never be able to achieve. When would he learn that? He was alone, and even in his loneliness he was alone.

No one else was alone like he was.

No one.

Elliot ignored the first buzz from his phone. He just wanted to be alone, whoever it was could wait. Nothing was important anymore.

Go the fuck away.

The last part of that though elicited a scream out loud. He clutched his head as the buzzing continued. Kept clutching his head and wailing until it stopped.

He waited a few moments before picking it up, tears blurring his vision. It was a missed call. From who?

It took him a couple blinks to get the tears out of his eyes, and when he focused and looked at the number, his eyes widened.

"Gwen."

That's right. There was one person in the world as lonely and broken as him. And he had pushed her away. Really, he was the worst. He had blamed her for making him feel worse, had blamed her for remembering the things he couldn't. He had even taken joy in making her feel lost, helpless and alone.

That's the monster he was.

As Elliot continued to stare at the missed call message, another message popped up in the notifications. A media file, sent from Gwen.

He opened it.

And then everything was on fire.

She looked worse for wear, her hair matted down and her head drooped in front of her. The photo was dark but Elliot could see the bruises formed on her arm. God, he wanted to murder something, anything. She was just as alone as he was, even more so. And he had left her to fend for herself and she had been captured.

While he was what? Prancing around with a bunch of wannabe heroes? How was he going to save the world if he couldn't even save Gwen?

"What do I do? What do I do?" Elliot forced the tears back, he had to think clearly. The person holding Gwen evidently knew about him and knew that they had a connection. Why had they sent that image? Had they read over the messages? But those messages between Gwen and himself self-destructed upon read. So how did they know?

Elliot paused, realising.

They had a man on this side too. Someone had been watching him this whole time. Someone knew he was getting close to Gwen. Someone knew what he was capable of. That was why they had sent that image.

Fuelled with new determination and anger, Elliot wiped his eyes with his sleeves. He was going to save Gwen and when she was back and safe he was going to apologise. It didn't matter that he couldn't remember her now. He knew her, his mind knew her even if he couldn't remember.

Elliot was sick of being alone.

He didn't want to be alone anymore.

End Chapter 9.