Chapter Text
Elliot was dreaming. It was a nice dream.
It was a blurry but bright room, someone he knew was sitting in a chair, her now gray streaked brown hair. Evelyn, his mom.
However, there was a person she was talking to, someone he didn't know. All he was able to make out that it was a wiry young man with black hair, white jacket, and what looked like face tattoos? No, was it makeup? No matter how hard he focused, the face never shifted clear enough.
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Suddenly, consciousness blasted through him like a wake of ice cold water. He filled up with absolute dread and fear and grabbed the closest thing next to him, which so happened to be someone's neck.
Elliot didn't care, the person was holding something sharp, so he automatically assumed that this person was going to hurt him or worse. The person, he now made out to be a man, he closed his eyes under the sudden pressure and dropped the items from his hands, the clattering of the tiny knife on the ground sounded out the sounds of the struggling man's attempt to breath. He had an orange mask secured around his mouth and nose, hiding his identity in an assist to his short black hair. Both of the man's hands grabbed at Elliot's arm, but he didn't even feel it. Pure adrenaline? That's what he assumed.
All he knew now was to stop this man from possibly hurting him.
The man choked and squirmed, trying his best to get free.
His eyes opened, starting to fear for his life and spoke. "Please, W-Witt, I can't breathe." He stammered.
Elliot let go, the realization finally dawning on him. Did he just hurt someone that he knows, someone that he loves, oh God what has he done?
He swung his legs off the table he had been put on, and looked down at the crumpled form of the man, whom was trying to catch his breath.
Another man walked into the room, heavier in build and walked over to the first man, reached down to help him up. The man accepted and he was pulled to his feet, stumbling along. The bigger of the two pulled his mask off and inspected his neck, which Elliot could see was either firstly covered by tattoos? Makeup? God, no way him, a human, could make another human's neck turn completely black, no way he could. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be.
"You're fine, now don't let your lab experiment best you again." The taller said, clearly patronizing the smaller, before he walked out of the room.
Elliot now began to analyze who he was looking at, but alas, he put on his orange mask on again. He was able to make out that the man was of Korean heritage, mostly because there was a small Korean flag on the wall above the doorway. He was wiry under the strange blue clothes he wore. A white jacket hung from a hook by the door, was he the man that was talking to his mom in his dream? No, it couldn't be. That'd be stupid.
"May I ask, who are you?" Elliot asked, alarmed when his voice came out very android-sounding. The man glared at him, then answered in a clean cut, serious voice.
"My name is irrelevant but you can call me TJ, your name is Elliot Witt, only son of Evelyn Witt."
"You know my mom? Where is she?"
"Yes, she sent me to find you actually, I wouldn't know where she lives, so that's not my problem to solve."
"She sent you to find me? I don't even remember leaving the house though."
"You died Elliot Witt."
The blunt words etched his mind. Elliot froze, surely he's kidding, maybe he likes making dark jokes, hopefully? He finally examined himself.
Metal and wires. Metal and wires everywhere. Elliot felt nauseous, but he knew he wouldn't throw up. He couldn't even if he wanted to right? Right? TJ noticed Elliot's look and held his heavy metal hands in his.
He finally came to a dark realization. He had died, and he had remembered, every. single. second. that he died. He even remembered his killer's face, it was a man, he had blonde hair and uncaring blue eyes. He was the man that dragged him from his own bar and shot him, like an animal.
"W-what else happened?" Elliot asked, looking at his hard cold hands.
"Elliot, you're not going to believe or trust me after I say this, but we don't even know each other that well. I called you Witt only because that was the name I decided to name you instead of a project."
"What do you mean by that?"
"It's been seven years since you died, it's now been two since your mom died, but I never stopped looking. It's what my own mother would've wanted me to do."
Elliot's heart sunk and froze.
"S-she's die- dead?!" He stammered. TJ slumped in his chair.
"Yeah, me 'n my mom were going to visit her grave since it's the anniversary of her death."
Elliot swallowed a lump in his throat and tried to get off the table. TJ noticed and held his arms as he helped him stand. His body felt foreign, but strong. TJ took a moment to shrug off to the side and slide on his jacket.
Elliot slightly towered over him, although he knew he probably was built at the right height, 'Mom probably knew I was dead, so she might've sent what I looked like to TJ to build... this.' He stared down at his body, he had an unfinished paint job of bright reds and blues.
"Did you do this?" He asked.
TJ turned and looked like he blushed under the mask. "Yeah, I thought the finished product would suit you better if you had color. Now c'mon, I think it would be better to see the world with your eyes, not by my words."
Elliot hesitated before following TJ out of the room. The house was very clean, family photos of four very different people in them. The tallest of them all looked like the same man from earlier that was patronizing TJ.
"That's Alexander, he isn't the best person. Our mom is Mystik, she's the one in the center."
Elliot pointed at the younger girl with black hair with pink highlights. "Who's that?"
TJ looked down, hesitated then spoke up. "That's Mila, my sister, she's been missing around the same amount of time since you died, I think she went to your bar on Saturdays."
Elliot took a closer look before he finally recognized her face, yes, she had walked into his bar a lot, mostly on weekends. She was sweet and tipped nicely when she was there. "Wait, didn't that dude go with her sometimes?"
Elliot pointed at the young man with longer black hair and orange-lensed glasses.
"Yeah he did, now let's go." TJ said, looking away. He brought Elliot downstairs to a kitchen.
A nice looking older woman, slightly older than the woman in the photo.
"Hi mom, look who I got back up and walking." The woman turned around, matching the description of Mystik.
She looked surprised and walked over, holding Elliot's hard cold hands in her own. "Oh, Elliot, how your mom would love to see you now." She said. "If only my son fixed you two years sooner." She playfully yelled at TJ, whom had slunk back in respect.
"Thank you Mystik, I heard you were a wonderful friend through my mom." Elliot thanked her, before turning towards TJ to also yell at him. "If only someone fixed me two years sooner."
TJ looked embarrassed and walked towards the door, spouting a quick "I'm going for a walk."
Mystik started laughing, a sweet laugh that would bring happiness to almost everyone, Elliot laughed as well, however it felt slightly hollow, like some other feeling hung with it, be Elliot couldn't tell.
"Go follow Tae, he has a habit of getting into trouble that isn't his fault." Elliot smiled and followed the brooding black haired man out the door.
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The city was bright but hollow, nothing like Mystik's warm and loving kitchen. The buildings looked run downed, but still usable.
"Too much time has passed since I was out, huh?" Elliot said, catching up to TJ.
"Yeah it did." TJ answered his question, but it looked as if TJ was holding something back, something that made his eyes scrunch up in pain.
"You sure I didn't miss anything else important? Like a hot date or something? You were in charge of my memory." Elliot nudged, not showing that he knew.
"No." TJ bluntly responded.
Elliot still knew that TJ was hiding something but he didn't want to press further. So he opted to ask more questions much to the dismay of TJ.
"Where we going?"
"Rampart's Mods."
"What's that?"
"A security drone."
"Did you make it?"
"Yes, please shut up." TJ muttered.
"AH! What's that?" Elliot grabbed TJ's shoulders and pointed towards the black and grey fluffy animal from the depths of the alleyway next to them.
"It's a Raccoon Witt."
"oh." A half an hour later and Elliot was spinning on a garage stool while Ramya, the owner of Rampart's mods, chatted a deal with TJ.
"That man used to be brutal to you, now he's following you around like a golden retriever huh?" Ramya teased.
"Shut it, he doesn't remember me, it's best he doesn't anyways."
"Oh wow you brooding fucker, you just subjected yourself to like 13 years of Elliot realizing he's bi again, falling for you multiple times then stopping himself in fear of you rejecting him, good fucking luck."
"I hate you."
"I hear that a lot."
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(Yes I will make a part 2, I'd thought splitting it up would convince me to post more without losing motivation. Bye my fellow rat smackers!)