"I was a young, promising boy. I was never quite right in the head, that much is true, but I did my best to carve out a life for myself. I had it all really, a beautiful voice, good looks, well off parents. That is, till one day I was coming home from school."

Slender pauses, as if to collect his thoughts. "My homeland was in the middle of a civil war. Not one of death and physical destruction, but one of culture and reputational destruction. There were people considered underdogs, and people considered well off by the system and no merit of their own. It was the media big wigs preying on the smaller man, to make them into news or a talking point. I was still innocent at the time, till the day I was talking about earlier."

Slender takes a swig of his drink, staying silent till Luna prompts him to continue with a small cough. "Right, sorry. I was heading home, I think I was maybe ten or eleven years of age. I lived in the big city so it was ultimately faster to walk home, I really should've used a bus that day... I walked passed an alley, and a man pulled me in. The man was... let's call him part of the underdog group I was talking about before. He pulled me into the alley and ripped my pack off my back, when I started screaming he shot me, right through the throat, right here." He tilts his head up, and pulls up the covering on his neck revealing a massive amount of scarring along his neck.

"Thankfully, there were law enforcement nearby, and the man was captured and I was transported to jail. But then, the culture battle begun around me and the man. You would think the evidence around me would clearly see the man thrown into jail, right? Well, because of his 'underdog status' culture and morality was somehow on his side."

Slender takes another swig, grunting as it doesn't work to help him forget. "He lied to the court, saying I asked him for directions then pulled a knife on him, he did what any human has the right to do and protected himself. A group of people known as warriors in this time believed his story, and began harassing me, my family, even my friends. When everybody left me except my family, I finally snapped."

"I was never stable. But I had reasons to stay that way, I had it well enough so there was no reason to be the way I was. So I ignored it, pretended to be normal. But I just lost two of the things I held as boons. My voice, and my looks. By the age of twelve I was done with it all and decided to fake my death and start life as someone new, someone who would fight with the same dirty tactics the other side was using, to end the environment that allows these spineless creatures to survive and become this way. To harass a young boy and his family."

Luna squints at the age, even pony foals with their cutiemarks can say they hold such thoughts, yet this man says he did?

"I succeeded, they never found a body because there was no body to be found, but the clues lead to them declaring me dead within the month. I had to rely on the knowledge I had already gained before dropping my old life, and so began honing the art called 'hacking'. I knew there was no way I'd be able to take my revenge if I stayed within the boundaries of the law, so I stole what I needed to live, and stole what I needed to thrive."

"I sewed anarchy into the system, no one could find me, it was exhilarating. I was in my prime but I knew I'd need to go bigger in order to completely break the country, break the system that allowed me to become who I was. Allowed people to do what they did. I had to use its basic principles to break it down. But for that to happen, I needed to make something and I needed to be an adult."

"So, I waited and I waited till the day came that I could reveal my new persona to the world and begin to destroy it. I was now Connor Moore, a businessman and inventor. I made advancements in the medical field and robotics and was soon world renowned, and I soon had all the money I could dream of to further my underground plans."

Luna is doubtful at this point, by his own admission he's uneducated and has been living on the streets since he was a mere twelve years old. None of his story makes sense and yet... The way he acts while telling the story, the way he pauses as if remembering hard events. There's at least some truth, she knows that, but she's not sure how much is truth and how much is a lie.

"I took over the dying mafias first. Their times were drawing to a close and only the quietest and smallest survive in my home country. But I had lived with the dark underbelly for years, I knew everyone and I offered a deal they couldn't refuse. Then came the gangs, the clubs of low life thugs that got away with petty crimes or a couple years in prison. By that point I had about fifty percent of the underdark, so I left the rest alone. I kept it to connections only, and I kept their connection to me to only a thin thread known as 'Anarchy'. A name coined by the media I despised, but I had to admit I liked the name, so I began using it after the media coined it."

He laughs slightly, apparently remembering something funny "I framed a few of those news casters, using the name and timing of my adoption of the name as a base. Only one survived but never covered me again, the others were sent to jail for decades for their 'involvement' with the notorious terrorist Anarchy."

"By that point, I had also assembled a team of the downtrodden, people like me who were destroyed by the system and wanted revenge on it. Except one, but she was a wild, insane woman that couldn't resist the lure of my proposition." He chuckles "Sarah was a strange, strange girl, but she sure as hell knew how to run recon."

"There was five of us in total, and we went on heist after heist, now sewing distrust in the system for people, making them believe everyone around them was corrupt, was in on it, or was useless. Soon it came time for our greatest heist, a heist on a military base that held the country's supply of gold."

Slender's mood sours, having gone from apparently good memories to terrible ones. "Then, came my slip up. The way we were going to get in was I was invited to a special event there as Connor, there were placing my new security systems in place and wanted me there to flip the switch. I let some info slip from my Connor persona to the wrong person and we were caught in a trap. One by one, my team was captured leaving me in a room with a dead private. Ultimately I was captured and sentenced to death. As you can see, I survived, but that story is for another day I believe." He finishes, taking a bottle of the alcohol and chugging it.

Luna is silent for a moment, before responding. "That's a rather sob story, Slender. But it's rather hard to believe. Were you truly that smart as a mere child? Smart enough to fool your world's guard into believing you were dead? Smart enough to avoid detection flawlessly throughout your entire criminal career?"

Slender shuckles "Believe it or don't, it's up to you. But the extraordinary do exist, we're just extraordinary because you don't meet us often, or in person. But you have your answer now, don't you."

Luna nods "Yes, I can see the events leading to Private's death, but that does no-"

Slender raises a hand, stopping Luna. "Apollo, not to that question. The one you came looking to answer, but never asked. The question of my morality." He looks her dead in the eyes "You have the answer to that question."

Luna is confused for a moment, then her face pales. She got so wrapped up in figuring out Slender, that she completely forgot why she was trying to figure him out. By his own admission, he is evil, he is morally wrong, he is a villain in his own story.

"Y-You know what this means, correct? What this means for you to be evil..." Luna stammers, unsure why Slender, for all his presumed and postured genius, would just give up this information in such a damning way.

"I wouldn't say evil, I would just say my morality is one of.... Anarchy."

Luna slowly begins making her way out, Slender calling out something along the lines of a 'come back soon' but here mind was too busy to hear it. There must be more to his story, to his plan. She knows he does have a plan, that he's at least somewhat competent at forward thinking. But... If all this is true, she can't take any risks.

She has to come to the decision that, the former human who goes by the moniker "Slender" cannot be allowed to go free.

FINISH

Author's Note

Hmmm, seems like a good place to stop this fic. The next book will feature Slender properly imprisoned, with Luna visiting for more proper conversations.