The door was shut behind the young woman with a resounding click. The indoor windows rattled, shaking some of the dust that had built up on the dark green blinds. She stood there, hands folded in front of her as she stared at the ugly turquoise and off-white tile floor. The sound of boots on tile made its way around her towards a wooden office desk.
The desk's surface was marred with coffee mug-stains and a collection of neatly organized stationary. Awards and commendations hung on display just over a computer monitor, ranging from "Medal of Valour" to "Exemplary Bravery", all bearing a single name: Elesis Sieghart.
"Have a seat, Aisha," the red-headed woman said, sliding a worn lounge chair in front of her guest. The young woman took it, adjusting her long, purple locks while the red-head flopped onto her office chair across from her with a heavy sigh. As Aisha sat there quietly, she could feel Elesis's eyes searching her. Aisha kept her attention to the tile floor, fidgeting nervously as she fingered a small golden band wrapped around her right ring finger.
"I called your grandfather," Elesis said, glancing at her computer screen and closing a few windows, "So he should be here to pick you up in about… thirty or so minutes. Coffee?"
Aisha heard the flick of a switch and the soft bubbling sound of a kettle followed soon after. The young woman shook her head, quietly declining to the offer before returning her gaze to a crack on one of the tiles. She nudged it with her toe and the tile scraped against the concrete under it.
"Alright, then. Since we have time," Elesis continued as she placed a small recording device onto the desk. Aisha glanced up at Elesis, who plastered on the best, comforting smile she could onto her face.
It didn't help.
"I want you to do something for me… while… it's still fresh in your mind, if you could."
Aisha stared long and hard at the recording device, her mouth opened to speak, but nothing came out. Her finger spun the ring in her hand once more as she tried to find the words to explain exactly what she wanted to convey. But there was just so much. Where to begin? Where to end? Would any of it even make sense?
It felt like minutes had passed before she spoke, yet the soft tick of the clock seemed to crawl on for an eternity between seconds.
"I," she began, her voice rough after not speaking for what she felt had been ages, she shook her head, "I don't-"
Elesis shifted in her seat, leaning back with another sigh accompanied with an understanding pout. "If you don't want to talk about it, I completely understand. My little brother was caught in the mix, after all, and it's hard for me to even think of… But you were there. And I just want to get the details straight. The sooner we can figure out what happened, the sooner we can bring those accountable to justice."
Those accountable. Who really was accountable? Was everyone? Was anyone really at fault? Was it-?
"Was the witch involved in any of this?"
Aisha blinked, her purple eyes fixing onto crimson, "Huh?"
"The Witch of Elysion," Elesis said, "Was she the cause of all this?"
"Th-that's… hard to say for sure."
"But she was there, wasn't she?"
"I… I believe I saw her," Aisha muttered.
"What'd she do?" Elesis fired back quickly, "Aisha, I know this is difficult but people were hurt in this incident; my brother is in critical condition."
"I don't think she intended to-"
"All I need is a reason," Elesis interrupted once more, cracks in her calm, comforting expression beginning to slip through, "Just tell me she was the one that did this and I'll have the entire police force hunting her down. I can do it-I will."
The kettle dinged and it was then that Elesis realized she was standing, leaning over her desk and caused the purple-headed woman to sink into the lounge chair.
"S-sorry," Elesis cleared her throat. She turned and began pouring the water into a cup. "Coffee?"
"You… already asked me," Aisha mumbled.
"O-oh. Right. Yeah. One lump or two?" Aisha could see Elesis's hands shake as they handled the cup.
"Two please," the young woman said, a defeated neutrality in her voice.
Elesis slid a cup with a printed line separating the words "bad cop" and "good cop" from the top and bottom of the mug, respectively. Aisha took the cup, letting the heat warm her hands as she gazed into the black oil at the reflection of her own face. Did she really look like that? Lost and confused? It probably didn't make Elesis feel any easier staring at a face like that. She probably read it as one of a scared and bewildered bystander to the chaos that happened just an hour ago. But it was more than that. Much more. And frankly, Aisha was at her wits end. This wasn't supposed to happen. She made a promise to never let it get this bad. One person can only do so much. She needed help. But who could she turn to?
A hand was extended across the desk and it gently cupped hers. As if answering her question, Elesis gave her a genuinely comforting smile, "It's okay, Aisha. You don't have to say anything. I understand."
Aisha could tell her-no. She couldn't. She absolutely could not. After what happened to Elsword, Aisha didn't want anyone else close to her to get involved.
The purplette's eyes met with Elesis's once more. In those red pools, Aisha could sense a feeling of desperation. She deserved to know. More than anyone else in the world, Elesis needed to know.
Aisha exhaled, her eyes falling on the small golden band on her ring finger as she tried to compose herself. Her body trembled as she opened her mouth to speak once more.
"I'll… tell you what I know," she began.
Aisha hurriedly made her way down the busy arcade district of Elysion Tower 5. Just the sheer amount of civilians that crowded the streets at this hour made her sick to her stomach. Still, this was as close as the taxi driver could get without being restricted to the pedestrian-only streets of the enormous shopping zone. The taxi flew overhead, honking wildly as it forced its way into the grid-locked sky-way that ran directly over the district.
Her window was closing, or rather, the shop she wanted to get to was closing. Of course her work shift would end at the later half of the evening. Of course Tower 9, where she worked, would be at the opposite end of the metropolis super-structure from Tower 5. And of course traffic had to be at its busiest even at this time of night on a weekday. As she pushed her way through the crowds, she watched in horror as a Nasod android began closing the gates to the hardware store she had tried so hard to reach in time.
"No, no, no, no!" Aisha threw herself at the glass door only to find it locked. The android paused, turning its head to her and flashing her a customer friendly smile before giving her an apologetic bow.
"We're sorry, but the Replacement Shop is closing now. Please return at normal business hours tomorrow at-"
"I just need to get in there real quick!"
"We're sorry, but the Replacement Shop is closing now. Please return-"
"Gah!" Aisha pounded the glass with her fist before giving the door an angry kick with the tip of her pointed heels. She turned, leaning against the door with an exasperated groan as she listened to the distant drone of emergency sirens. She stared up at the holo-projected night sky high above, its stars replicating that of the outside world had it been a clear night. In reality it wasn't a clear night. Squinting past the beautiful galaxy-laden stars, Aisha could just make out the flashes of lightning outside Tower 5… and… what appeared to be something else in the sky.
Another flash of lightning and Aisha's eyes focused on the speck. Contrary to what she thought, the object wasn't outside, rather, it was inside the dome. And it was hurtling… towards her!
It drew closer; flashes of white, pink, and blue could be seen. It slammed into one of the sky-taxis, sending it rolling out of control onto the busy district and before Aisha knew it, she had to dive out of the way as the object came crashing into the shop she had just tried to force herself into.
Screams filled the streets as the sound of shattering glass and crumbling stone could be heard throughout the area. As the initial ring of her ears dissipated, through the torrent of panic and chaos that surrounded Aisha was dazed but relieved to find herself largely unscathed. She lifted her head, trying to regain her bearings when voices from within the shop caught her attention.
"Stay out of this, witch. This matter is none of your concern!" the male growled.
Aisha, still rocked from the impact of the object, turned her attention to the source of the voice. Peeking into the destroyed shop, she spotted a man clad in high-tech suit of white and blue armor plating. He stood at medium height and his face was hidden under a thick plated helm. At his side was a massive looking weapon which, at first glance, looked like nothing any normal human could hold with two hands let alone one like he did.
A pile of rubble began to shift as a hand came out from under it. After a moment, another hand appeared as a woman dressed in what appeared to be an elaborate white and pink suit that did little to protect her body pulled herself from the wreckage with as little as a few scratches across her body.
"You don't have to do this! We can resolve this peacefully!" the female voice yelled.
"Peace? Peace?! That thing killed my father, and you want peace?!" He pointed skyward and Aisha followed his gesture to a black speck high in the sky.
"Elysion police! Hands up! Both of you!" a familiar redhead with a party of five other officers appeared, guns drawn and pointed at the two people within the ruined shop.
"Elsword…" Aisha whispered, trying to help herself up. He didn't seem to hear her as his focus was strictly on the witch and the armored man.
"She's not well!" the witch argued, "If you just give me a chance to speak to her-"
"If you don't let me do this, I'll give you plenty of time to speak to each other when you're both rotting in hell!" the man then turned to the police officers, "And that goes for all of you as well! I won't let any of you get in my way! Not when there's a more dangerous criminal on the loose! If anyone should be arrested it should be that thing up there!"
With that, the man pulled a lever on his weapon, loading a round before flipping it and mounting it on his shoulder. He pointed the cannon at the speck in the sky. "This is for murdering my father!"
"No!" the woman pulled herself free and threw herself at the man, knocking him to the side just as he pulled the trigger. The red round shot out of the cannon at an angle that horrified both of them. It connected with a steel beam that supported the rest of the building. The resulting explosion caused the surviving walls to crumble onto the streets and on top of fleeing civilians… and on the police officers.
"So it was the witch's fault…" Elesis concluded, listening intently as she leaned forward on the desk, "That's all I wanted to hear. I'll let the press know that the Witch of Elysion is no doubt a criminal."
"Well… no not exactly," Aisha muttered, her voice shrinking in volume as she gripped her untouched coffee mug.
"You said it yourself, she's the one that redirected the shot that injured dozens and could have very well killed my brother."
"She didn't mean to… I think…"
"You think? You think?!" Elesis ran a hand through her red locks as she tried to piece together a sentence that wouldn't degrade her professionalism, "I've been trying to put that witch behind bars for three years. You should see the casefile for that crazy woman. I have an entire bookshelf dedicated to her crimes. Property damage, assault, theft… I might as well just check everything off the list! And you think she didn't mean to hurt all those people?"
The purplette didn't know where to go from here. This was as far as she could go without outright saying it. But wasn't that the idea in the first place? That enough was enough? In her head, she could hear grandpa scolding her for the hundredth time: "You're only one person. It's okay to rely on others for help."
To an average person, this would make sense. To an average person, it would be absolutely fine to turn to others for moral support. Aisha couldn't. Not without putting the lives of the people she cared about at risk.
Aisha didn't. And all of this happened to Elsword, anyways. She couldn't go on like this. Not alone.
She shook her head. "No. I know she didn't mean to. The witch would never willingly bring harm to others… especially Elsword."
"Unbelievable. Aisha, would you listen to yourself? You're defending a terrorist! With a track record as expansive as hers, what makes you think she even knows the name of the officer she almost killed?"
"Because!" Aisha began but stopped herself. This was it. She knew once she crossed that line, there was no turning back. And as she stood at that metaphorical cliff edge, she hesitated, fear overcoming her.
Aisha couldn't tell her.
She had to.
But what would Elesis think? What would she say?
"Aisha…" the redhead's brow furrowed as she leaned forward on her chair once more, her trained eyes read the woman's expression as clearly as a book, "You're hiding something, aren't you?"
The purplette swallowed hard, her eyes searching the room for something-anything that would help her in this moment of truth. Her purple orbs fell on the recorder sitting between them and she held her breath as she slowly turned her focus back on Elesis.
"Elesis… despite all the ups and downs I've been through with your brother, you're still my friend, right?"
"Of course! You're practically my little sister. But what does this-"
"And no matter what, you'd always have my back, right?"
"Aisha?"
The purplette's eyes fell on the recording device once more. Elesis immediately picked up on this, and the lieutenant slowly reached for the device, stopping the recording and setting it aside. Worry stricken, the lieutenant turned her attention back to Aisha, expecting the worst from the young woman. She had no idea what she was about to get into.
"The witch would never willingly hurt Elsword… because I would never hurt him."
"Aisha? What are you-"
"I'd never willingly put other people's lives in danger. All I'd want… all the witch would want is to save lives."
It took only a moment for Elesis to process what she was saying. And then it all clicked. Her eyes widened, her body tensed, and she nearly fell out of her chair when she stood up. Aisha saw as Elesis's hand subconsciously reach for her gun. It hurt seeing her react so strongly to the revelation.
"Aisha! You're…!"
The young woman nodded, "I am."
Elesis slowly shook her head. "No. No, no, no. This is a joke, right?"
"It's not."
"But you could've killed my brother!"
"I saved him."
"How?"
"No!" With her free hand, the witch raised her staff and the ripples of space reverberated off of the crown. Time slowed to a crawl around her as the witch tried to wrench herself from the ruins. The heavy click of a fresh round being chambered into the cannon was distorted as time passed by the milliseconds. One by one, her limbs were freed, the metal and concrete cutting deep into her skin. By then, the round hand been chambered and the cannon was in the process of being mounted on the the man's shoulder. She threw herself at the armor-clad man just as the slow spell came to an end, knocking him off balance. They both watched in horror as the round connected with the last support column that held the rest of the building up.
The building lurched and groaned as the final wall came crumbling down on top of the officers standing at the shop entrance.
Time was slowed once more as the witch rolled off the armor-clad man. She, unaffected by the time shift, hurriedly pushed through the building's dust and debris as she searched for each individual police officer. She found one, pulling him to safety as a steel beam was just about to crush him. The second was on the floor, and she dragged him out and away from the crumbling column. The third and fourth were shoved aside into the street.
By then the second of slowed time was almost up. She hadn't found Elsword yet.
Pushing through the debris, she found him, arms up as a large portion of concrete and steel was mere moments from crushing his body. With her time nearly up, she quickly raised her staff, channeling a second spell that filled the falling debris with a glowing white light.
The second was up. Time resumed its normal pace.
Elsword fell on his back as the sound of crushing debris fell around him. A sharp pain filled his lower body. A slab of concrete had crushed everything from his waist down.
"I missed… that one…" someone said with a labored grunt.
Looking up, Elsword's eyes widened as he saw the witch standing over him with an entire building segment balanced precariously on her back.
"Sorry… officer," she gasped, "but could you please… move to safety? I can't… hold much longer."
The redheaded police officer nodded, struggling to move under the weight of the concrete.
"Hold on," the witch grunted. She shifted her stance, and with a swift kick, the block was moved aside. Elsword cried out in pain.
"Cry about it later! Move, now!"
"It's getting away!" the armor-clad man shouted, his eyes trained to the sky. At the corner of her eye, she saw the man make a hasty retreat at the sound of approaching sirens.
"This isn't over, witch!" In one powerful leap, the man in the suit was gone.
Elsword crawled his way weakly out of immediate danger and seeing this, the witch dropped the crumbling building wall.
"After that… he fell unconscious. And the rest is history," Aisha said, cradling the coffee mug in her hands. Her focus remained solely on the black oil, but she could see Elesis's facial expression through the liquid reflection. She wasn't happy.
"And you expect me to believe all of this? To just take it at face value?"
"Why would I lie to you now?"
"You say you're the witch. I've known you since you were a kid. You wouldn't hurt a fly."
"And that's the mentality that I have whenever I go out there to save lives!"
"You are not the witch!"
"I am!"
"Prove it."
Aisha tensed at the order and, looking up at the woman, she saw that Elesis wasn't playing around anymore.
"Alright… fine," Aisha tentatively set the cup aside, standing up off the chair and away from the desk, "Just… promise you won't shoot me when I do the whole… transforming stuff."
"The what?"
Before Elesis could make sense of what she was saying, a bright flash filled the room. Her clothes dissipated, leaving her wrapped in a layer of light. Her hair whipped about wildly, twisting into curls as the ring around her finger created a mystical pink thread that began to coil around Aisha's body.
The thread knitted itself into a white and pink outfit, one that Elesis immediately recognized as the witch's. Aisha's hair was magically tied into pigtails and the ring created a staff that she took in her hand.
As the transformation completed itself, a strange aura surrounded the witch. Although her face was clear to see, there was something about it that made her unrecognizable to the uninformed spectator.
The witch stood before the lieutenant, her shyness getting the better of her as Elesis looked her over.
With her little exhibition done, the witch exhaled, the clothing dissipating around her and replaced with her ordinary work clothes from moments earlier. The hair fell from their curled pigtails to the simple untied straight style and the aura that had hidden her identity all but vanished.
The entire time, Elesis stood with her mouth agape, unsure of what to make of the situation she had unknowingly gotten herself into.
"Why would you reveal this to me?" Elesis asked, her voice as serious as ever.
"Because, believe it or not… I need your help."
"My help?" the lieutenant scoffed, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have you arrested here and now."
Aisha shut her eyes, sighing as she tried to calm her own emotions down. To have someone else close to her turn on her like this… was too much to bear.
"Because your brother wouldn't have survived this long without me."
Elesis was silent for a long moment. She clearly wasn't going to let up that easily. Of course she wasn't. She was, after all, one of the few people Aisha looked up to.
"I don't believe you. The witch has done nothing but cause trouble in my city-"
"And yet you insist I wouldn't hurt a fly!" Aisha pleaded, "Please, Elesis. Believe me when I say this, all those bad things that you think the witch has done? They're wrong. She was there to prevent it from getting any worse. What kind of officer would have the strength to stop a runaway sky train? What kind of officer would have the speed to save children from burning buildings? What kind of officer would be able to apprehend armed robbers without firing a single shot?"
"One that follows the rules and prevents the incidents from happening in the first place!" Elesis fired back, "I get it. We're not as strong or fast or have abilities like you, but the way I see it: wherever you go, trouble follows. And I'd rather all that trouble follow you to maximum security, where you belong."
She straightened up, watching Aisha as the words sunk in. Yet when Elesis saw the pain and incredulity build in those bright purple eyes, her expression softened. This was Aisha, after all. She always had her back. Here she was asking for help and Elesis was threatening to throw her in jail. And if what she was saying was true… then her brother...
A knock on the door. They both turned to it as an officer poked his head in.
"Uh, lieutenant? Someone's here to pick up Miss Landar."
The two women stared at each other for a brief moment and Aisha could feel Elesis glaring straight into her soul. She shut her eyes, waiting for the arrest order.
A heavy sigh.
"That's her grandfather. Tell him she'll be down in a moment."
Aisha's eyes shot open as Elesis sank into her seat, exhaustion heavy in her eyes.
"Will do," the officer shut the door, leaving the two to wallow in the tension of the room for a moment longer.
Aisha waited but the lieutenant said nothing more. "Y-You're… not going to arrest me?"
"Tiffany's," Elesis muttered, reaching for a cigarette.
"Huh?"
"The diner. I want you there at eight AM sharp tomorrow. We'll discuss your situation then."
Aisha stood there, bewildered at the suggestion. "So… I'm off the hook?"
"If you're so much as a second late I'll have the entire police force ready to escort you to your cell. I know where you live, after all. Don't make me regret this."
A/N: Thanks to Taee and Akina for editing this! Cover art was created by Oleoys from the Elsword Amino! Thank you so much for a job well done! New story, old idea that I've been rolling around in my head for a few months. This is the story I've mentioned a few other entries ago. Hopefully this is something you all will find interesting. let me know what you think!
