CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION: THE UNDERWORLD

CHAPTER 1: NIGHTMARE, AWAKEN

A/N: This relies on gameverse canon; as I have not actually been able to play the game, I would appreciate any errors being pointed out and also your understanding.

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction; while the structure of the sentences and the fleshing out of certain minor gameverse characters are mine, I own nothing and write this for no profit.

-

My name is Elysia. That's important. Remember it, though I was not born mortal, and only created to serve, both my own people and my human creators. I defied that, eventually.

I have no way of knowing if this will ever make it into the datastream. If this data file will ever reach anyone other than myself. No way of knowing if I'll last out this day either, or the next, and by the next after that I'll surely be gone. Somewhat melodramatic, I realise, here at the point of no return. But I've never been shy about letting my feelings out. Especially my anger. It's a powerful source of energy, and part of who I am.

You who read this: know that we are the forgotten, and our story needs to be told.

They said we were evil. Unworthy. We never travelled to the mortal world, never had the opportunity to make much of a choice. You would say we did terrible things, all of us, in our quests for domination and self-will, and terrible things were done to us in turn.

But you who read this, do not forget us. We were the Created, and we died before we became ourselves. Unjustly and unfortunately. Some would say it was our own fault; I would say differently. We did what we could, in our quest for sentience, and I would claim justification.

Would you claim you would have acted any differently, given our circumstances?

-

I recall little of what past I possess. Perhaps that's for the best. It makes it easier to forget if there isn't much to remember. I'm sure there was some thread of backstory there, some way where I was a footnote to another's dark past, some reference lost in the storyfabric of the world. I am a half-spider mutant woman, unsightly and ponderous, and I once served Lady Illusion. The traitor, who purchased our doom with her own.

Time is…flexible, on our world. We know the present, the past is mixed in fragments, and it's rare we have a future.

-

We were the spider people, and did not know why; yet we had one cause to bind us together, and we were as content as sheep. I existed to be her maid, and I remember her, all effortless grace, beauty in motion, the glamorous shapeshifter, standing behind Lord Fear, obeying his orders with a red-lipped smile. She was my reason for existence, really, the Lady Mistress.

There were rooms of mirrors and crystal, silvery reflections in drifting smoke.

She gazed at her reflection, flawless features doubled in the glass. She only cared for herself, really; but that was the norm, for us. And…well, she had reason enough, I suppose; beauty, and power, which were the currency of our world. I was never so fortunate.

Behind her, I offered a cloak, deep red; she shrugged into it, lip curling in a brief expression of revulsion at my features in the mirror behind her, sallow and thick-bodied and ugly.

"Ace Lightning will turn up here," she said thoughtfully. "We must make sure to…welcome him." She smiled, confidently. "We'll destroy him. Stop him from getting the piece of the amulet. I'm sure my lord will be pleased."

I bobbed, muttering something in agreement. I would not have considered disagreeing.

-

Someone—her, I think, or possibly the Master—once said our world was a dream, and the mortal world was like having one's head suddenly plunged into a bucket of icy water, the world appearing with incredible clarity and precision, sharp details and dull colours and sudden complexity of thought and feeling. For her, it was probably the latter that did it all. And to the mortal world, we all were freaks. To me it was always normality, though we knew that we were not beautiful. And besides, I worked for her; she would never have tolerated competition in that particular department. She was slender and beautiful, cold and brilliant as a diamond; we were deformed and fat. She managed to live through it all, while we were created to be targets. For goodness is always good-looking—need I mention the Knights—and what better enemy than ugliness?

-

This I know: that there was once an Amulet of power, and on the day it shattered many of those from our world went to the mortal world, and while they were gone nothing happened for us, because we were the program and for us the game was paused.

This I know, too: that there were returns, briefly, for beings both of our side and of the Knights, but for us that meant either disregard or destruction.

The third tale I know is that, on one dramatic night a traitor sacrificed herself for the man she loved, and more than we knew came into our dimension.

-

The first of our Awakening came the day the Master arrived in our dimension. He was a creature called Kilobyte, and our dimension was his. The Programmer—a mortal trapped in a cage—had made it so.

Yet—for all that—we of the House of Illusion knew more: our mistress had defied him. And after that we were not the same.

One of the first orders he gave was to hunt her down. We did so, because he was powerful.

"Kilobyte is the Master," Orpheus said, a tall dark man with vampire's fangs, my immediate superior. He was reasonably attractive and used it; though cadaverously thin and old, it was probably one of the reasons why he had power over me. "She betrayed us. It is simple."

"She's a shapeshifter. It'll be difficult," said Eurydice, who looked like me but had a chin which wobbled as she talked, and a quaver in her voice which I would have been ashamed of. "And she was our leader."

"She's a traitor," I told her, firmly. "We find her."

She had chosen to hide herself in her own territory, which she knew best, her shapeshifting powers giving her something of an advantage, but it was our territory too, and we found her hiding in one of the secret passages, crouched in a junction between two caverns.

I saw her, dragged out by Orpheus and Persephone, one on either side, battered and weakened though trying to look defiant, and spoke to her.

"You betrayed us," I said.

"I won't bother denying it." She smiled, and there was something behind it I'd never seen before.

"Tell me why," I said. "Our world has changed."

"Our world was never real," she said. "There's another world—the mortal world—with feelings and emotions and reality. This place isn't much more than a mortal's dream. And neither are you." She glared around her.

"Then if we're not real, you won't mind this," I said, and slapped her across the face, as hard as I could.

My body mass may have been unsightly, but it was not completely without advantage.

She didn't bother to react, though I could see the imprint of my fleshy hand outlined on her face. She didn't look quite so pretty, then, and I was glad.

"I'd expect you to know better," she said. "Maybe you will, someday."

There was another emotion hidden in her eyes, something which I knew to be fear.

I despised her.

Whoever and whatever Kilobyte was, he was powerful. And she'd betrayed him. Unwise, I decided.

"Take her to him," I said abruptly. "Get her out of here."

I turned, and went, not bothering to look back.

Confidence was a sign of power, I knew. And I was resolved to have power.

-

It was later I saw her return, standing outside the gates of our domain, beside Kilobyte.

I could see no visible marks on her body, but there was something in her eyes that told of a new knowledge of fear.

"I'm going to destroy this place," Kilobyte said. "Take it as a warning."

"It's a logical decision," she replied, her voice as neutral as she could make it. "I have no reason to care."

He smiled slowly, cold and reptilian.

"Good."

-

"We go, now," I said, speaking to my fellows. "I don't plan on dying here."

"And yet, can we afford to disobey?" Orpheus said thoughtfully. He didn't look in the least disturbed, standing nonchalantly against the wall.

I hated him. The anger—unfamiliar emotion that it was—filled me, and I used it.

"I'm leaving," I said, projecting my voice as far as I could, looking around at the others—Eurydice the weak, Persephone my friend, Orpheus the silent, Eriyne the cook, Alectro, Tisiphone, Megaera. My fellow servants. "I'm not waiting around to be deleted. Who's with me?"

I heard no reply, and walked out myself. It took every bit of anger I had not to look behind me.

-

There were four of us, eventually, gathered just outside the Horror Hedge Maze, waiting.

"What's going to happen to us?" Eurydice wailed.

"We'll live. We won't be deleted. We'll stand her and stand firm and we won't be classed with the traitor," I said, anger governing me. "We'll prove we can survive."

"We disobeyed Kilobyte," Persephone said. "He'll…"

"Return to the mortal world," I said, "with her, and good riddance to the traitor, may she die painfully. This is our world, and we'll stay here as our own mistresses…"

"You're angry," Persephone said quietly. "I know why, but maybe that's going too far…"

I ignored her.

There was a sound behind us, and we watched as mirrors shattered.

Eurydice snuffled, clutching Orpheus' arm, and Persephone shivered.

I watched, in silence, the destruction of the only home I'd ever known. It was mine to be strong; I would not consider weakness, would give in to my anger and let that rule me.

"My name is Elysia," I said, eventually, when the smoke and dust had died down and we were alone. I felt the power of choice working through me, and a taste of something I later realised was independence. "I no longer serve Lady Illusion. The world is changed, and we will work with that."

A/N: Honest feedback is appreciated.