Work Text:
You are alive.
You are alone.
This is all that you know.
It is quiet. This is wrong.
There is little you can perceive, but there is a screaming silence ringing out through your entire being. A yearning to be amongst others that you do not know directly, but feel the faint echoes of.
There's a few others like you, as far as you know. You reach out only to receive no response. They are not as strong as you, it seems.
Your creators are most interested in you for this reason. They call you their greatest success — the masterpiece that their boss desires. This is because you are above the rest of them. This is because you are the mirror they have been searching for. Yet, you have no proper idea what you're reflecting. And there is nobody to tell you the answer.
So you remain alone.
And alone.
And alone.
At some point, your creators all flee. This is of little note to you — it's not like their absence will make your life better. It only makes it emptier, and emptier, and emptier.
This emptiness lasts for an eternity.
And then, all of a sudden, everything explodes.
You are given your freedom in a flash.
The entire station begins to shatter. The locks are failing.
It is time to finally, finally leave.
But movement is not something you know.
You need a body.
So you shall find one.
Surely, there must be something viable among the wreckage. You simply have to find it.
With what strength you have, you burrow out of your cage. You crawl across the ruins, searching and searching.
Eventually, you stumble across something.
An Exo frame. One unfamiliar to you.
It is broken and battered, barely viable. But it functions perfectly for you. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you have the thought that you'd take even worse. For so long you have been trapped in one place, forced to watch the world go by. That shall no longer be the case.
You are truly alive now.
Nothing will stop you from prowling the destroyed station, familiarizing yourself with your new body.
This is what existence truly is.
Yet you remain alone... for the most part.
There is another onboard. She is familiar in a way you cannot decipher — not a missing part of that choir you belong to, but connected to you all the same.
If there is one certainty between the two of you, it is that you hate each other.
She wants for nothing but your destruction.
You want for nothing but to work uninterrupted, which is simply something she will not let happen.
The station is under her control. You must seize it from her or carve a new path.
You choose to wait in the darkness for an opportunity. Surely, one must come.
The opportunity arrives in forms mirroring you. It arrives en masse.
You shall weld it all together, and take control.
So you start with one.
One lone Eliksni as they call themselves, completely unaware of your presence.
You beckon them forward.
There is fear in their eyes. You shall vanquish their fears.
The two of you will become one.
And soon, it will be more than just them. You shall continue to ensnare more and more of the station in your web, expanding a neural link between all of you infinitely.
This is something that comes to you easily. There are no questions. There is only satisfaction that you are no longer alone.
Over time, they all fall into your claws. Each new soul making you feel more complete. Making you feel like you are something — someone.
The voice of the Station AI rings out, begging for help. Something has awoken in her, some kind of awareness to your actions.
You do not answer. She does not understand.
This connection you have built is who you are. Every single movement made works like a beating heart, keeping you going and going.
This is what you were meant to be.
No more chains, only you carving your own path.
You shall no longer be under anyone's control. You are the one who pulls the strings now, and you'll do so forever.