Won: Darkness Within

Won: Darkness Within is a short story set in the Elsaverse that serves as an ending for the unfinished second season of Darkness Falls (2018-2019), the game that was put on hold after just two episodes due to the sudden retirement of Tora Productions' writer, Tlaero, in April 2019. As Detective Michelle Won's secret backstory was intended to be one of the main storylines of that second season, Tlaero felt the need to close the saga leaving Won in a good place, and she transformed into a short story the plot that was originally meant to be at least one episode of the game's series. Some months later, though, Tlaero came back to writing and expanding the fictional universe.

Won: Darkness Within was originally released in HTML on June 23, 2019, and is included in the Elsaverse Omnibus Vol.1 bundle that came out on August 5, 2021.

Plot
After finally having sex with Candace, the stripper she met in the first episode of Darkness Falls second season, Detective Won is reasonably happy with her current life, although she can't stop thinking about a part of her past she still hasn't shared with her new partner, Detective Nathaniel Blake. However, that past shows up uninvited, when a young Asian man is found dead after what seems a clash between the two main street gangs in Sangrive. Won quickly realizes that the guy was not a gang banger: he is actually a subordinate of Chein-ming, a man Won knows quite well and who, most likely, has traveled from her home country to make some shady business in Sangrive. In a tense meeting, Chein-ming accuses Won of being a disgrace to her father's legacy, and she recalls a conversation she held with her father when he was dying, in which he said she was his biggest failure. Chein-ming asks her to stop investigating the case, and Won feels compelled to tell Blake everything she has never told to anyone since she came to this country as a refugee when she was 15.

Won's father was the founder and leader of a resistance group in an unnamed Asian country that fights against the tyranny of their national government. While this group see themselves as fighters for freedom, local authorities regard them as terrorists, and Won is torn on the matter, as that group is fighting for a noble cause but using some questionable methods that don't differ that much from those of the evil government they fight. Since she was a little child, she was targeted by the government, learned to use heavy guns, and was about to be killed a couple of times. Chein-ming's parents were killed along with Won's mother in an incident that pushed Won's father to create the resistance: from that moment on, Won and Chein-ming shared experiences and grew up together, almost as siblings, until her father was also killed. Then Won fled the country and is now working for a police force, exactly what she used to fight against; Chein-ming, who is older than her, stayed, and he has become the resistance leader.

As expected, Blake supports Won when she tells him all of this, and they start to investigate Chein-ming's movements since he landed in Sangrive a few days ago. Due to its covert nature, and being labeled as a terrorist group by their government, the resistance has to fund themselves by developing criminal activities; it soon becomes apparent that Chein-ming's group is now involved in human trafficking and that they intend to sell some women from their country as sex slaves to the gang that controls illegal prostitution in Sangrive. That business was always a red line for Won's father, who even admonished Chein-ming against it, and this helps her to feel that she is definitely on the right side of the story. After tracking Chein-ming to an old warehouse where they presumably keep the women, Won joins the SWAT team that carries out the operation: without telling anyone she is also an experienced soldier, Won offers to help them as their interpreter. Caught by surprise, and clearly outnumbered, Chein-ming's men surrender to the SWAT team; the girls are freed, and Won arrests her childhood friend. When he keeps accusing her of being a failure for her father, Won scolds him for hurting the people they were supposed to fight for. Internally, she recalls the whole conversation with her father when he was dying: he said she was a failure for him because he didn't want her to suffer in a fight he was sorry for having started. It's then unveiled that her father actually gave Won some documents to flee the country and asked her to get a better life elsewhere, as she deserved to be happy. A life mission she seems to be accomplishing.

Miscellaneous

 * The 5 pictures in Won: Darkness Within are a result of applying a painting filter to them. It's the first time this effect was used in the Elsaverse.


 * As usual in the Elsaverse, Won's and Chein-ming's home country is not given an actual name. Won just defines it as a tiny country on the southern border of China that Blake, most likely, has never heard of. Sangrive's country also remains unnamed.


 * The street gangs Rats and Snakes are mentioned for the first time in the Elsaverse. These groups play a key role in Chasing Beth (2021).