When You Give a Man Power

Chapter 1

Brief flashes of light in between the darkness. Occasional thrumming and buzzing of what sounds like vehicles are moving around. The sounds of people walking around in large numbers. I hear, see, and feel all of this in between consciousness and unconsciousness as my eyes open for oh so brief moments. I groan as I really don't want to get up as I feel one hell of a headache.

I even smell the area around me and its horrible at times as it smells like rank gas coming from an open sewer grate and other times it smells like sweet but strong perfume mixed with sweat and other things I can't make out. The pounding in my head starts to lesson as time goes by and I realize I have to get up considering I'm quite certain my apartment didn't have these smells, this amount of noise that is overwhelming me along with how cold it is where I'm currently laying.

I feel the coldness of what seems to be metal and concrete as I finally start to stir and fully wake up as the headache I was suffering from finally faded away which I find strange. All the headaches I have ever had don't just go away like that especially when it was as bad as it felt.

As I open my eyes fully as I stand up, I have to close them immediately for how bright it is like I have been in the dark for longer than is considered healthy and finally see the sun. It got so bad even with my eyes closed I had to cover my eyes with my arm to block all of it.

I slide back down to the concrete as I plop onto my side as I quietly groan some more. I feel nothing but confused at what is happening right now. I just went to bed at eleven after playing some games, but I had to work the next day, so I went to bed early. And wherever I am at is most certainly not my bed in my apartment.

Slowly ever so slowly I pull my arm away and open my eyes and rapidly blink them to clear them and make it easier to see. After several painful moments of doing this can I finally see properly. And what I see puts pause to any other thoughts for some time. I look down a rather well-lit alley. It's even more surprising how I don't see any lights around to illuminate it. In fact, my sight is better than it's ever been, far better than even when I wear my glasses.

I have to look around in awe as this is what I has to be like for people with perfect sight. I could get used to do this, though I will say this alley is disgusting. Trash, slime, and dirt mixed with who knows what else is in this foul place. And I now realize I had been on the ground in this place, and I may have been lying in it.

And I think that realization just ruined my appreciation at being able to see again. As I check myself over to make sure I don't have any grime on me which thankfully there is none though I do notice that I am not in my own clothes. I look myself over and see I am wearing a leather armor outfit with some plats of metal strapped to my chest, forearms and shins. I even have some guns on me with daggers?

What? I have never owned a gun in my life. The daggers being the same. I look over the two guns in their holsters on each side of my legs, a 10mm pistol and a sawed-off double barrel shotgun. The shotgun I can easily tell what it is, the pistol I have no idea how I could immediately list off on what kind of gun it was. In fact, now that I look at it more, I realize it looks just like the ones from Fallout, except it's real. The daggers are just simple iron daggers, nothing special about them.

Something gets my attention when I hear noise quite close to me. I silently stand up and walk over to where I hear it coming from next to a dumpster. As I slowly make my way over to try and see what it is and if it's a person maybe they can help me. I see someone looking through a black metal box.

Though I have to look again to make sure my eyes are not deceiving me despite my improved vision considering what I am looking at. It was a hairy rat standing on two legs. A large humanoid rat. Any thoughts I had about getting any help ground to a halt as I just stared at it, with its back to me, the only form of clothing it has was brown shorts covering its legs with a hole for its long tail to come out of while having a brown leather vest with nothing else to hide its brown furred body.

I just stand there staring at it as I don't know how to comprehend this whole ordeal. Then it stops looking at whatever it was as I see some muscles along it's body tense up as it starts to look behind it seemingly sensing that I was watching it, seeing me stare at it with awe. "You got a problem?" It says to me as I see it's beady black eyes and large teeth from the lower jaw shows it's self as it speaks English.

What the hell. Where am I at, and what is this thing. Me not giving it a response seems to draw its ire as it starts taking some steps closer to me before it yells out, "Boys we got ourselves a kriffing tourist in here!" After he says that I hear steps as I count at least five others with how each individual sets of steps sounds to me, three coming from behind this thing and two at the other end of this alley.

Wait. How do I know that? Never mind that, I'm about to get robbed if not worse if I don't do something. I stand back and raise both of my hands up to my chest, "Look we got off on the wrong foot. I'm lost and don't know how I got here, and I didn't mean any offense. Just give me some directions and I will be out of your nice alley here."

He? I'm assuming it's a man, stops for a moment and seems to ponder as he looks me over for a second or two before coming to a decision. "The armor and weapons. Me and the boys will be taking them." He says to me while eyeing me up and down like a piece of meat. Surprisingly I am not intimidated at all like how I have been all my life. If anything, a part of me takes offense to what he said.

"Keep your hands where I can see them, you so much as move one of those hands I will shoot." He says to me as I hear a weapon being drawn out of a holster made of leather. I look up and see his right arm reached into the inside of his leather vest and is pulling out a weird looking pistol. Wait, that looks oddly familiar as I keep my eyes on it and him.

As I am trying to figure what that pistol is and how I know it the rat's friends have shown up. Three of them stand behind him and I see they are rats like him, they are shoulder to shoulder with some space between them while the other two are coming from the direction I heard all the people from.

They are positioned so they won't hit each other and keeping the other two on the other end to get me from both sides and pin me in. Shows experience and them having worked together before it would seem. Not even questioning where all this knowledge and experience is coming from not to mention my senses being dialed up to eleven.

"Keegar, go and get his weapons off him." The leader I assume of their group says, "And don't go complaining about it being dangerous considering how many blasters we have on him he isn't going anywhere."

I hear steps coming from behind me, "Why do I have to do it." They say with a whine. They obviously still follow through with the order despite their reluctance, I can especially tell with the beating of this one's heart behind me sounding like a machine gun in my ears. How can I hear that?

"Because I said so, and Lurch is a better shot than you. I trust him to at least hit this guy, and despite how inexperienced this pretty boy here seems at playing bounty hunter I still wouldn't trust you." Their leader says to him getting a laugh out of the others as they take amusement at their comrades' embarrassment.

"Now don't get any funny ideas here, we wouldn't want to scar you or worse. After all, we could get a lot of credits for someone like you considering how rare your kind is and killing you would just be a waste." The leader says addressing me, and what does he mean my kind? Humans are a rarity or something around here?

I hear mumbling of some colorful insults to the leader from who I assume is Keegar as he moves closer to me as he is reaching for the shotgun. I feel nervous all the while this whole thing has been going down as that old friend of mine rears its ugly head again, but it melts away as a cold calmness soon envelops me as if I have been through things like this if not worse, like it's just another day at my job. Then I react just as his hand touches the handle of the shotgun.

I spin around faster than any of them could react and reach out and grab him with my right hand and I see it's another rat like all the others as I knock a weapon he had in his hands out of them and into the wall with a quick punch of my left arm arm as he starts to register what I just did as I grab his throat and lift him up in the air and move him with his back facing the leader and his three subordinates.

And as I move my impromptu shield into position, I casually pull out the 10mm from its holster with my free hand as if it's second nature to me and without looking at the target I still know where he is as he is lining up a shot at me and pull the trigger on the pistol in my hand as I don't even pay any mind to the enemy behind me as I hear the bullet enter his head and the sounds of blood impacting the walls and floor of the alley.

I don't even acknowledge what I have done as the body is falling back while I move my shield forward and angle him so he takes most of the shots. As I glance over his shoulder at my opponents, they are now reacting to me as they seem to hesitate at fist at what just happened but soon school their features as they attempt to stand and fight me.

They don't hesitate any further as they now know that if they don't, they will die. Now opening fire on my shield as he is chocking with me firmly keeping my grip on his throat. He attempts to try and pry my arm off his throat as he grips my forearm, but to no avail. When they pull the triggers of their weapons, I'm surprised for a brief moment to see red energy bolts come out of their weapons.

All the shots were absorbed by my shield as they writhe in pain for a few seconds before the third shot they take ends their suffering, some I notice have a look of remorse in their faces at killing their comrade. I ignore it somehow when I should be freaking out and make steady progress as I move closer while they continuously fire a wall of red bolts at me as I try to get them to use up all their shots.

As I continue to take step after step, constantly with them shuffling back looking more and more unnerved, one of them starts to panic as he occasionally glances over his shoulder while I start to change plans noting that several of them have already fired off enough shots that normal ballistic weapons would have run out by now and would need to be reloaded.

His nerve seems to break as he immediately turns around and tries to run causing another rat to turn and yell out to them as I take advantage of the distraction with a shot to the side of their head right through their temple as they crumble to the ground and the runner I shoot in the back right where I believe their heart to be sending them sprawling across the alley floor unmoving.

Their leader with his last remaining comrade looks more and more deranged and panicked as I can see so many emotions flit across his face, especially his eyes. I give them this, they haven't stopped firing their weapons. Each shot from the subordinate is aimed at where my feet would be since my shield isn't big enough to cover them. Despite this, I time his shots with me avoiding them just as he shoots where he thinks I would have been.

The leader of the group on the other hand has constantly shot the same spot around the neck of his dead comrade. Realizing that he is trying to sever the head from the rest of the body, so I lose most of my shield, I take my impromptu shield and toss it at the two remaining rats. The leader is hit face first with the remains of his fallen comrade's body and the other remaining rat had to duck to avoid it, but that momentary lapse of shooting is all I needed.

I take aim before he has any chance and send a bullet right between his eyes snuffing his life out. I run faster than I should be able to as the leader is still getting the body off himself. I my other gun out of its holster as I aim the sawed-off double barrel shotgun at the rat as he struggles with the body.

"Don't move." I say in a cold voice that even makes me hesitate at the sound of it, as the rat stops all motion and looks up at me with fear filled eyes. Breath coming out in ragged gasps as he stays like this for a moment before I look down at his pistol still in his hand. "The weapon, slide it over to me slowly."

Doing as I say he takes his gun and puts it on the concrete and slides it over to me where it stops resting at my foot. "Look, we weren't going to kill yo-"

"Shut. Up." I say to him not having none of his crap right now, and I'm certain he can tell as he clams up immediately. I don't know what is happening to me or how I became so scary and badass. I have never fired a gun in my life unless you count a bb gun when I was six. And I just killed five people.

I'm thirty-one, and I don't know how I have this armor on me or the weapons and why they all feel so familiar to me. And why my senses are dialed up so high.

I feel another headache coming over me again, and I rather get this over with as the rat is still staring up at me with fear on what I am going to do. I let out a long breath as I settle down, and the coldness that had overcome my mind lessons but only slightly. "Here is what's going to happen." This gets his attention as he focuses on every word I say as if it's a lifeline.

"You are going to get up and run down that alley and not look back. You will not do anything other than that and if you do, I will end you. If I ever see you again, I will put you down. Do you understand me?" I say to him with more of that coldness leaking into my voice as I speak to him.

"Yes, I d-" He stops speaking when I level the shotgun at his face forcing him to put his head against the ground of the alley as the end of its barrel is brushing the side of his head as his one eye is looking at me while he shakes like a leaf with ragged breaths escaping him.

"I want you to repeat what I said." I speak quietly to him.

He manages to stammer out what I want, "I-I-I'm g-going to get u-up and run down the a-alley." He gulps and gets some control of himself as he closes the one eye looking at me before opening it, "And if you ever see me again, you will kill me. I understand and will follow everything you told me to do."

"Good." I say as I bring my shotgun away from his head and I relax a little as I take my finger off the trigger knowing that it's over as he scrambles to get up as he forcefully shoves the body off him as he is slipping and falling on the blood on the ground. He gets back up and runs covered from head to toe in blood as he runs further and further down the alley as he finally gets to the other end and out of my sight when he turns the corner.

I take the shotgun and open it up as I pop the spent shell out of it as if I have done this before as work around the gun like a pro and look for a replacement shell on me. After a few seconds of searching, I find three on me. Realizing I should check for spare ammo for the pistol, I do and find that there is no extra magazine or bullets to replace what I had used. Well, looks like I need to make the shots I have count. That or just use some of the new weapons I just got from these guys.

After that last morbid thought I put the weapons back into their holsters as I walk up into one of the alleys walls and put my arm against it as I lower my head pondering what the hell all of that was as I try to figure what's happening to me. Why do I feel nothing about killing those people? I know full well I'm not a psychopath or a sociopath, I had plenty of empathy for other living things. I would go out of my way to avoid hitting squirrels on my way to work for crying out loud. So why do I feel nothing now?

I sink down into a sitting position as I turn around to sit down with my back pressed against the wall not caring anymore about all the grim on the walls, between my personal crisis and me being partly covered in my shields blood. The headache getting worse and worse as it pulses. I bring my gloved hands up to my face rubbing circles across my temples in a vain attempt to make the pain go away, because I don't like sitting here in an alley at the scene of some murders that I just committed, and I need to find help.

Getting up I move to find help and figure out where I am at, as I try to do this after giving up on easing the pain, I make two steps before the pain amplifies enough to bring me to my hands and knees. And as quickly as the pain comes, it goes away leaving an odd sense of clarity that I didn't have before. And above all else, I have some answers to some of my questions.

As I stay there on my knees, I feel all the memories pouring into my head. Memories that are mine yet are not but are familiar in some ways. I stay like this for who knows how long as I at first struggle to comprehend what I am seeing.

The memories all playing out before my eyes, showing two lives I lived with the first being a survivor searching for their son as they lose their innocence over the course of their journey barely helping anyone and those that I did were only because I thought they would be of use to help me find Shaun. As I go from battle to battle getting stronger and smarter after each one.

The other was a land of snow and ice, where I am about to be decapitated only to be saved by a black dragon. Alduin the world eater I realize when I see him in the memories. I never got to face him or any dragons for that matter.

Instead, I journeyed and grew stronger over the course of it, especially when I found myself in the Thieves guild going on a journey to collect all of the stones of barenziah which I accomplished along with taking care of Mercer Frey and getting the skeleton key and joining the Dark Brotherhood and that whole debacle, ending up as their listener.

I would occasionally go out to the Mages guild, but only to acquire spells I thought were of some use. As the memories go on, eventually they end abruptly as I made a journey to Castle Volkihar when the Dawnguard had been formed taking Serana back to her home.

Despite it sounding so simple, it was anything but that as the memories of both those lives played out before me as every detail was so vivid as if I had lived it for both of them. My own memories supplying some answers. The Skyrim character I had done that run with was a newer one that I never got any dragon shouts or killed any dragons because they never spawned since I never went to bleak falls barrow with the following questline that would get the dragons to spawn.

I was attempting to get all of the stones of barenziah for the first time and did and kept the skeleton key like I always do since it's nice not having to break a lock pick and make grinding lockpicking easier. Besides that, I just role played a character I had made which was a high elf. Same with my Fallout character, just tried to focus mainly on getting Shaun while killing most of anything that got in my way barely doing any quests to help anyone unless it had to do with Shaun.

After all of that I manage to integrate these new memories, I get up realizing I still don't know where I am. Figuring out where I am at is a priority, though I stop and look over to the dead bodies, particularly eyeing the weapons I will be keeping and the others just find someone to sell them to. I think I am starting to take some bad habits from these memories…

As I walk over to examine the weapons, I notice the smell of iron in the air and I am surprised how I missed it before. It smells so sweet. Stopping as I smell it wafting off of me, I hold up one of my fingers as I slide it along my other forearm as it gets some of the blood off of it. My eyes zero in on the oh so sweet nectar.

Opening my mouth and with my tongue about to lap it up to get a taste I stop, realizing what I am about to do and close my mouth while taking the offending finger that I look at with disgust and bend down to wipe it on the shirt of one of the rats.

Okay, that almost happened. So, I think I can confirm that I am indeed a vampire that the memories had supplied. Would explain my enhanced senses and me about to eat the blood of one of these things. Who knows what diseases I could get from that. Wait… I don't get diseases anymore. I can't even be poisoned. Heck, last I checked I don't even age anymore. I guess besides the whole blood thing being a vampire isn't so bad.

Finding something to at least be happy about, considering this whole situation I am in I have to find something to ease the tension. Walking over I take off a robe one of the rats used and made into a makeshift sack to put most of the weapons in while looking them over. Some look unfamiliar while the leaders pistol looks familiar, yet I still can't place it. As I put them in the sack, ideas start going through my head on how they work and what modifications I could do to the ones I keep.

This makes me pause as I hoist the sack over one arm, realizing that I was smart compared to other kids from school and long after I left high school but not smart enough to have all the ideas and theories run through my head with all kinds of complicated science and math. Just more to unpack as I start to ponder on this, my thoughts go to the special attribute system from Fallout. I may have gained that along with the correlating skill number values and 'perks' that my two-characters had. Well… That's something I suppose?

I walk over to grab a rifle left on the ground as I look over, I see the black metal box the rat was sifting through when I saw him the first time. Screw it, already got the weapons might as well see what it has in it. Stepping over to it I try to ignore the stench of the dumpster with all the overflowing trash coming from it mixing with the still sweet smell of the blood mixing with it.

I walk over and lift the lid up. Looking inside I see a note next to the items that immediately get my attention. A cracked black crystal in the shape of an ornate sun that I recognize as Azura's star. The other a simple yet eye catching key, which I recognize as Nocturnal's skeleton key.

Grabbing them I place the key in one of the pouches on my outfit, and head over to another rat and take its shirt and tie it up to make a makeshift satchel for the star considering I have no room for it on my own outfit. Making a mental note to get better ways to carry these around I focus on the last object of interest being the note.

"To 'Corvo Attano'." What? That is not my name. I realize much to my chagrin that is what I named both characters after playing through the Dishonored series for the first time and went with Corvo's name. But my name is… My name my parents gave me is- I can't remember my real name?! I can remember my parents faces, my friends and even the bullies that were the worst of the bunch I dealt with along with their names save for my families last name.

But I can't remember my own name. I suppose it's not the worst thing I've dealt with by this point despite it further making me feel worse. Focusing on the rest of the note, "Next to this note, you will find two items of interest to you. Know that both of these items you can only use once, and they are gone forever."

That part gets my eyes to widen. That is infuriating, considering both of these become nowhere near as powerful as they would be with that limitation. "I wish you the best on your journey and know that these two items are the only things that will be given to you, and you will not receive any help besides these items. You have thirty days to use them, or they will again be gone forever. Use them wisely!" And that is the end of the note.

No name given on who did this or anything. They don't even tell me where I am at. I have thirty days to use these, and I can only use them once. Sighing to myself as I pinch the bridge of my nose trying to suppress my growing anger and frustration on just what is all of this, having a inkling of what is happening.

After I take a few calming breaths, I notice something is happening and watch as the box and note still in my hand turns to dust as it all falls apart. Brushing my gloved hand off, I start walking to the area with people still moving around and talking to go and find help. Though that brings a good question now that I think about it. Why didn't anyone call the police or the equivalent when the shooting happened?

I mean, the shots were loud and what is stranger is how people are still around after the shooting. You would think they would have run away from it. I guess I will find all of that out when I exit this alley as I smell chemicals and other things in the air getting stronger as I get closer. Oh boy, heavily polluted area that could give me cancer. Just what I needed on top of everything else.

At least I'm immune to that since vampire for the win. As I walk closer to the alley, I realize that with me being a vampire, not necessarily a win now with one big weakness I forgot I have now as I look at my new nemesis. I see sunlight at the end of the alley. No one walks by at the end of the narrow valley entrance despite me hearing them, but I stop. I can't see anything except the dirty smudged side of a building across from me with no defining features.

What do I do now? Hesitating for several minutes I just stand there hidden in the shadows as I ponder on my dilemma. Do I just wait here till night? I don't want to do that though, but it's either that or just getting incinerated. I decide on a compromise finally after much deliberation. I take the light gauntlet off of my hand and see how it's pale golden in coloration with no blemishes or anything.

I need to see what I look like by this point I think to myself as I try not to focus on the pain I am about to feel as I do arguably a very risky and dumb thing right now. I take my index finger and slowly reach out to the light. If I get burned, I can always heal it a with restoration spell. Though I don't know if my memories will match up one to one in how I ready the spell and use it. There may be discrepancies considering my circumstances of how I ended up wherever I am.

Knowing that I need to stop babbling and get this over with I slowly move my finger forward, as the anticipation of what is going to happen mounts, I stay just a millimeter away from the light my mind helpfully supplies to me as I hesitate. Sweat beading my forehead. The stress and anticipation killing me I stay like this for several seconds. Finally, having had enough I send it the rest of the way.

Nothing. Sweet, sweet relief floods me. It's there in the sun, with no burning or fire forming on my finger! Not even feeling weakened at all now that I think about it. I smile with glee, happy that I don't have to fear such a crippling weakness. That happiness stops and turns into confusion at how I am not burning from this. This should at least do something to me since both my original memories of what little I knew of Elder Scrolls lore and my memories from Skyrim tell me that this should be burning me.

I will take it regardless considering I can walk among other people in the sun, but it's confusing. Either way with me confirming I'm not going to be set on fire when I step into the sun, I take my first steps out of this alley, and I feel the breath taken out of me on what I see before me as I take it all in.