Crime and Punishment

Disclaimer: I don't own Elsword, if I did I would've –!

Piece II – Cries of the Heart

Oh how cruel life was. When you thought that things finally turned around for the good, it would just crush you cruelly by showing you otherwise. It would crush you as you'd desperately cling to what goodness it supposedly gave you. It will laugh as you cry and plead for another chance to start again – to right what was wrong. But it would just simply say to you, 'I wonder, now?'

It was truly a cruel, unfair and sad life for it brought no rewards to people, especially to those who worked so hard.

Blood splattered on the ground with the rain trying to wash it off from the earth. Parts of the ground were frozen and some were burnt to black. Maybe it was from the lightning that kept striking or perhaps the bluish flames that mercilessly danced on the ground even though it was raining hard. Harsh gusts of wind blew through the torn clothes and burnt hair of the purple haired couple. The woman had her body impaled by sharp ice shards that were brightly painted with red, red blood. The man's body was burnt to a crisp that more and more ashes started to fly away with the wind. However, their faces were not wounded, which proved to be quite unusual. The weirder thing was that both of them were smiling.

Standing above them all was a small girl at the age of nine.

Her wide eyes looked crazed with the addition of the blood that adorned her small face. She looked so calm yet so crazy at the same time. The tips of her fingers were still burning an otherworldly color of blue. The girl was responsible for everything. Aisha couldn't bear to look anymore that her knees gave up and her mouth let out a shrill scream.

No one noticed nor cared. Maybe there was just no one around the two purple haired girls who seemed to be just the same person. One was a lot younger while the other was on her late teens.

Aisha clamped her hand on her mouth as tears leaked from her wide purple eyes. "This didn't happen." She denied as she shook her head, "I don't even remember this! I don – "

Of course she didn't remember such because she never really remembered anything before she joined the mages association. She just had one goal at that time that she really didn't care about her past.

"Pursue more power."

Why did she greedily want more power than she already had anyway? Did she really just want to be stronger? Maybe it was for fame? Or perhaps, to rule above Elrios?

No.

No.

"I don't want to think about it anymore!" She screamed yet again as she continuously shook her head. "Just let me go back! Let me go back to where I was before!"

She looked pathetic. Her form was curled up as she had her hands on her ears as if trying to block out the sounds of screams. There were none though, but she continued to cover them. She couldn't even feel her body anymore since she was so cold from the rain. Her mana shield was long gone, and she had nothing to protect her from the ice cold rain.

She just wanted to go home and pretend that this was just a dream. A very surreal dream that she definitely wanted to forget.

Purple lines appeared around her yet again. They swirled together until they became a blur by its fast acceleration. A bright light of white flashed and soon faded away to reveal the calm scenery of shrubbery and trees. All of these were not noticed by the mage, though.

Home was where she sent herself. She didn't know how she did such a thing but she was back to her normal timeline still curled up as she was a moment ago. It was a different place than before. Ruben was the place it was called by many.

It was hard to breathe. Her chest hurt so much that she had to clench the spot where her heart lied underneath. Her eyes closed as she gripped her shirt tighter. More tears left her eyes as she continued to sob noisily. No matter how much air she gulped as she cried, the pain wouldn't go away at all.

Hurried footsteps soon joined the singing birds.

"Aisha!"

The kind and worried voice of a certain green haired elf didn't pass through her ears. The mage kept crying and was now burying her face in the middle of her knees. The elf rushed to her crying friend and softly touched her shoulder as if saying 'I'm here'.

"What's wrong, Aisha? Hey, it's me, Rena." She tried to comfort the mage in ways she could.

Maybe with that name, her brain finally worked a little. Aisha looked up and hugged the kind elf that had been like a mother to her. More tears leaked out of her eyes, but this time it was of relief rather than agony. She sobbed as she was buried in the warmth of Rena's body.

"Oh my! You're freezing! Let's get you warmed up." Rena smiled kindly at the mage and then winked at her. "A nice and long warm bath will calm you up."

A long and warm bath did the trick, alright. Aisha was down from sobbing to sniffling as she sat on a very soft chair that she could feel herself almost being buried under. The scent of porridge soon assaulted her nose as Rena brought the said food. The elf sat down on a chair directly in front of Aisha after putting the food on the table between them.

Rena smiled and pushed the bowl of steaming porridge near the mage. She sniffled one last time before slowly taking the food. Taking the spoon and scooping the food, she blew it a bit before eating it. This continued for about three more scoops before she settled the bowl down.

"Rena…" Aisha started off and she stared downwards.

"Yes?" Rena patiently asked as she smiled again. She had always been one to smile a lot.

"What if…what if yous see something that you don't remember happening but something shows you that that scene really happened before? Would you believe it?"

"Well, it depends. I may have forgot…"Oh dear, I'm not that old now, am I? "About it, but when you do see it or someone tells you it happened," Rena pointed at her heart. "My heart will tell me whether it really did happen or not."

Aisha looked up at the elf and smiled. She stood up and thanked Rena for the delicious food and for comforting her. She thanked Rena with all her heart.

Rena simply smiled at her and didn't ask more. She just waved her hand goodbye at the mage whom she knew had a piece of her heart broken. She gazed at the mage's slumped shoulders, her attempted brave façade, and her clenched hands. She just hoped time would heal her wound before it completely bled out.

Add sighed as he stretched his back and hands, popping joints that were long deprived of movement. He looked outside his window towards the never ending blues skies.

He loved his Dynamos that he solely used his time making it more advanced and powerful. However, as time passed, he also gained a strange want to go back and change his past – to save his mother. He could remember her long white hair and ocean blue eyes. He could imagine her smile that always warmed him up inside, and her voice that made his insides tingle.

A week ago, he finally read what he needed to go back to the past. He needed the pure energy of El. He searched and searched from the time Aisha would start reading until before midnight. Three days ago, he finally found it. He had about 42.72 percent of success to arrive on the exact time and timeline he wanted. Add would stop the people who killed his parents and then be happy for what he did for his old self.

Together, they'd live a happy life.

That's what he always thought.

Two days ago, he tried and went back to the past. He managed to do that but instead, he was greeted by a scene where a boy who resembled himself as a child, smiling happily under the care of his mother and father.

He was happy there.

Add was angry and frustrated.

"This can't happen!" He vehemently disagreed. "But…no! Even with such discrepancy rate I'm pretty sure with my calculations. Am I that Unlucky!? Was not almost a half percent good enough to let me go back?"

It was silly, really. Why'd the other him get to have such a good life while he didn't? Isn't it quite unfair?

He had struck the ground that time in frustration. He never really used his hands during combat which made him quite fragile. Blood came oozing from the wounded flesh and pain came in afterwards.

"Damn it all!" He screamed to himself as he shut his eyes tightly. Some salty drops of liquid came trickling down his cheeks.

"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it." He repeated it like it was a mantra of sorts while punching the ground lightly again and again.

After a lot of cursing and punching, he left without doing anything at all.

What was the power he had acquired for? What was the frantic research which he spent countless of sleepless nights for? Was there no reward for him at all?

Add pathetically let out a small and mocking laugh at himself. He was strong now, but it was all for naught.

He gazed outside just because. He needed the time to just simply sit there and watch the skies in a daze. Maybe he could just reminisce or perhaps think about a new way to go back to his original timeline in the past. Just some goals in his pathetic life, he guessed. Being as dazed as he was, he never really heard the continuous knocks that were getting louder and louder by the second.

Bam!

The loud noise of a door being forcefully opened with much force that it knocked at the wall hard was all he needed to snap out of it.

"What the heck!?" Were the wise words of the Mastermind.

A fuming mage appeared before him. Her eyes were red at the sides, but he could only assume that it was of anger. He was a little scared but didn't show it. Who knows what she could do? He could remember Elsword being burned by magic which resulted with the red haired guy being able to feel the pain of his skin burning yet he wasn't physically hurt at all. Add could tell it was torture.

Aisha put a hand on her hip and sighed. "You were so out of it that I had already been knocking loudly," She really emphasized the word. "For about twenty minutes that my knuckles finally got red and hurt! Sleep if you're sleepy! Sleep on nighttime though! Don't just doze off in the middle of the day!"

Ah, a lecture, huh?

Add being himself, he laughed maniacally which didn't surprise the girl.

"My house is my house, you dumb girl! I set my own rules here, not you setting your rules here!"

Aisha just rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, yes. I know, I just wanted to yell at you for no reason."

In actuality, Aisha had just been knocking for about two minutes and just wanted to let out some frustration out on the teen. After being comforted by Rena about an hour ago at Ruben, she walked aimlessly for about half an hour before she decided to go to her friends' houses for some company.

She went to Elsword and Elesis' house first since it was nearer than the others'. Having a bad case of bad luck, she came to a door that had a note that Elsword was on a training camp with the other Red Knights and Elesis went travelling.

She decided to take the Cobo service going to Altera to visit Raven's house only to be greeted with another note saying that he was still training new soldiers. Deciding that maybe Eve was going to be present, she went to her drone-made castle and was greeted by Oberon who said, "I'm sorry, but Queen Eve is still asleep from upgrading my dearest Ophelia for weeks. It would be best to let her shutdown for the meantime."

She soon got Cobo to send her to Hamel to visit Chung since Ara went back to her own continent. The spear bearer said that she'd be back after settling some things right. Aisha went to the palace that was now almost finished from the repairs. She found the prince with his father, Helputt, having a nice talk with tea served before them. She simply couldn't disturb the familial bonding they had for no reason at all.

As a last resort, she decided that she would just annoy Add. He had the weirdest reactions to almost everything that would surprisingly make her laugh. After encountering such a scary scene moments ago, maybe all she needed to do was to laugh and maybe things will just soon follow.

She'd just forget about it unconsciously.

She continued to annoy the white haired boy in indirect ways and laughed twice within five minutes.

"Add."

The Mastermind was quite annoyed by her incessant talk about random things that he had to let out a long sigh, "What is it this time?"

"Tell me. Can you change the past without any consequences at all?"

Add quirked a brow. He certainly wasn't prepared for that kind of question. The mage he knew never talked about the past, but now she's asking if changing the past would have consequences? He could only guess nothing about this sudden change.

"I've never thought about the consequences, really. I actually never tried changing the past yet."

Dangerous curiosity sparked in her eyes. "Oh? So you're going to try it, when?"

"None of your business, you obnoxious girl."

Aisha's brow furrowed when he called her obnoxious.

"I'm definitely not obnoxious!" She took a big breath, "Anyways! You can travel through time right? I'm just curious and all about those kind of things. Tell me something informative!"

This definitely annoyed Add. He was just so stressed this day and the girl really had the nerve to ask a lot of questions in which he wouldn't want to answer even if he was in a good mood. He decided to stop this whimsical game that the mage was playing with him. He needn't anyone to know what he planned to do. He was the type that didn't want anyone nosing their way into his own business. What's his was his only.

"Just stop asking already! I'm tired of hearing your stupid little questions! Go away and find other people to play with." he pointed at himself, "Not with someone whom all of you regard as a lunatic!" He yelled at the surprised mage with much vigor. The last part wasn't what Add intended to say, but what was done was done.

"Wha –"Aisha was about to say something in return but was cut off by Add.

"Just leave me be today." He ended it with a sigh.

Aisha looked down on her shoes and turned around towards the opened door. She bit her lower lip as she faced the exit of the room.

She walked slowly and said, "Maybe, at first I regarded you as a loon, but not anymore. You just have a unique way of expressing yourself. That's all there is to it." As she neared the door she came to a stop and turned her head around to see Add looking at her with slightly widened eyes. She smiled, "Can I come back tomorrow, though?"

Add ran a hand through his hair and looked away from the mage. He had his normal expression back on his face and replied with a small grunt as he always did. All he heard was a small giggle before everything went as silent as it normally was. He let out a big sigh and noted to himself that he really needed to have a vacation one day.

After that, he went to his bed and slept soundly.

As night came, the cries of two teens could only be heard by the wind as it passed, trying to comfort them through its cool breeze and ethereal whispers.

A/N: Heh…finished chapter two at last! It was because there was no internet connection that I was away from the temptation of downloading new Animes and Mangas (Elsword too.) Anyways, thank you very much for the reviews! Thanks S0RCIERE for pointing out my mistakes in a nice manner. I took them into consideration and used it as to try and improve my works. I actually edited chapter one a bit. Had an argument with my brother about Aisha's powers on being able to travel back to time though. He's silly, I noted that as a DW she had Time and Space power. Add here is also a mix of being a DE and MM. Here, he didn't vow to destroy anything. Read and Review (Nya!). Fin: 01/06/15

-PauleenAnne