To Twist Fate 3

Just Watch Your Own Backs


Add pulled up a monitor from thin air as his dynamo's projected the screen, it emitted a faint purple aura in the dead of night.

[1:20 AM] the time read in the corner of the screen.

His barely heterochromatic eyes flashed over to the numbers before returning to the main screen. Insomnia always was one of his problems.

The Altera core... The fall of the Nasod race... When did this all happen? The Nasods were a powerful race before he fell into that blasted library, so why did they all disappear?

His best guess was that he jumped forward in time.

That damn library filled with Nasod books that got his parents killed in the first place.

Nasods. It's contradicting to the teen, why he would be so obsessed with an object that cause him such total despair in his life. Maybe it was in his blood.

Add's eyes flickered over the time again.

[1:22 AM]

He sighed, this night was progressing slowly.

Suddenly a tracker lit up on his screen and Add immediately shifted attention towards it, but it didn't seem to be what he was looking for.

He didn't remember installing this tracker on anything before.

Highlighting it and checking its properties, he found a label.

'Subtract' [1]

What? Subtract? The opposite of him?

He couldn't help but feel he forgot something important.

But he ignored the feeling and dismissed the notification before closing off his screen.


The campfire faded out higher and higher it reached, sparking into embers that flew from the free flames.

It illuminated a young girl, dressed in black and teal as she took in the stares of the four around it.

"Do you think I'm going to explain when you stare at me like I'm some sort of freak show?" She barked towards the leader, the young boy with red hair.

He looked perplexed at Deol, desperately glancing at the girl with purple hair for advice, seemingly.

"Introduce yourself for one." The purple-haired girl hissed.

"O-oh okay, my name is Elsword." He said to Deol.

Deol simply shifted her gaze to the next person, that being the mage.

"Aisha." She huffed.

"My name is Rena." The elf smiled softly.

"I'm Raven." Nasod-arm said.

So she knew everyone's name already, she should be inclined to tell them hers, but the criminal nature inside her screamed at her to run and flee.

Deol looked at Elsword again, "You already know my name, no?"

"Actually I don't." He said. Deol replied with a blank stare.

"Well..." She looked over to the fire, "Name's Deolda. Just call me Deol because I hate that name."

"That's an odd name y—" Elsword started.

"So is Elsword, moron." Aisha said, hitting the boy over the head.

Deol let out a light snicker, a smile was visible on her face.

"You seem to forget why you're here." Raven said bluntly.

Deol stopped mid-laugh before nodding and sighing. Interrogation. Riiiiight...

"Well," she rested her chin on her hand, "Story telling time, hoo-ray." She said sarcastically, "I'm from a different timeline." Deol casually dropped the bomb, they probably wouldn't believe her anyways.

But they just nodded, signaling her to continue.

Agape, she just continued her narration, "I was a slave for... Two years. I jumped through time in order to catch up to my brother who had also jumped, but I arrived earlier than him. In order to survive... Well, I suppose you can fill in the gaps."

"Your story is a little... Extreme, so to say." Elsword scratched his head.

"Shut it Elboy, her story is quite believable. In my old continent I have seen books about time travel, but it was never completed due to lack of magical formulas." Aisha locked eye contact with Deol, "I'm sure she's telling the truth."

"Sibling love is so wonderful!" Rena clasped her hands together, "You must care for your younger brother so much!"

"Older." Deol said, taking a stick and poking the fire.

"W-what?" Aisha asked, "You're looking over your OLDER brother?" She immediately turned to look at Elsword.

Everyone else followed.

"I'm busy! T-training?!" He held up his hands in defense, "Besides, my sister doesn't need me to look after her!"

"She looks after you." Raven said.

"Raven, I thought you were on my side!" Elsword wailed.

'These people... Are the famous El Search Gang...' Deol winced as she saw Aisha hit Elsword with her pointy staff, 'And yet... They're so childish...' Rena smiled creepily towards the two bickering teens, and they stopped abruptly.

'I'd be foolish to let them end me.'

"What are you going to do to me?" She asked, breaking the energetic atmosphere.

"Just get some sleep today," Rena smiled, "We'll take care of things tomorrow."

Easy escape route.

"Okay." Deol replied.

Fully intent on leaving.


Apparently the world had other plans for her. Rain pounded relentlessly against the tent fabric, obviously not giving any opening for her.

The mud on the ground would not help to hide the sound of her footsteps and why would she want to step in the disgusting muck anyways? It'd stick to the soles of her boots and—

Deol blinked.

And blinked.

And blinked.

Sleep was impossible at this point.

Anxiety and fear.

That's all she felt.

What would they do to her in the morning?

Would Glave help her?

Would she never find her brother?

She couldn't cry. She couldn't. Not because she didn't want to, but she didn't know how to.

But this was sadness, no?

Fingers traced over to under her eyes, to her eyes, taking something out from them.

Eye contacts.

Deol blinked once again, pink-purple eyes faintly glowing in the dark.

Nasod implants.

She couldn't cry. Her tear ducts, destroyed from monstrous experiments that improved her sight.

Unsure of herself, her fingers sweeped below her eyes again.

She couldn't cry.


Sunlight cracked through the tent as Elsword unzipped the door to Deol's temporary bedroom.

As the light made her peel her eyes open, she shrieked, "What the hell?! I'm sleeping here!"

Elsword then got dragged away by Aisha, but Deol swore she heard cries of bloody murder in the distance.

"It's that kind of morning isn't it?" Rena said, startling Deol.

As the rogue stepped out of her tent, she was met with a terribly... unprofessional sight.

Aisha was sitting atop of a fainted Elsword, berating the unconscious boy to never enter a girl's tent without her permission. Raven was trying to get the campfire going again with his nasod arm, and Rena was standing beside Deol offering a few berries.

"Uhh..." She cringed as she saw Aisha's heel dig into Elsword's calf.

There was definitely a whimper there.

"Don't mind them, it always happens." Rena smiled.

"Perverted ingrate!" Aisha yelled, bashing her staff onto Elsword's head.

"Calm down, Aisha." Rena was still smiling.

Deol walked away from the scene cautiously and headed towards Raven. He was still struggling a bit with controlling the flames that spewed out of his arm.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, attempting to fire out flames again.

"You're doing it wrong..." Deol said, a little unsure.

"How would you know?" He raised an eyebrow, unconvinced.

"I wouldn't," She waved a hand dismissively, "I just remember a few things about Nasods." Her eyes softened slightly, "My brother is better though."

"Give me your advice and be on your way." Raven said.

Deol smirked, regaining her false arrogance, "Well, all Nasods have a 'core' be it just a limb or a full robot. I imagine you already know of that. So all you have to do is take that core's power and, in your case, channel it through your hand to your palm." She pointed towards the circle on his palm, "The result should be explainable."

"That's what I've been trying," The man sighed.

Deol shook her head, "You're probably in conflict with your prosthetic. You have to accept it as a part of you." Her eyes gleamed, "Only then will you properly be able to control it."

Raven thought for a moment before trying again, successfully lighting the fire.

Deol smiled, "See? I'm always right."

Raven looked at her with a blank expression.

This girl thought she was always right. Was she really so stuck-up and arrogant? Or is it a facade?

Surely it would not end up being the same in every cliche.

Deol stared at him back, "I'm not weak."

And so she said.

"All that's happened is enough for me to realize the outcomes of situations. I can't foresee the future, but I can take what I know to determine the most probably outcome." She explained.

Rena walked over, placing some plants on a rack over the fire.

"Hey you two, having a decent conversation?"

"Explaining what I know about Nasods." Deol replied.

"Deol." Rena said as she looked at the ground.

"Is it about what's going to happen to me?" She asked plainly.

"Well... Would you like to come with us?" The elf offered.

Deol would have done a spit-take had she had water.

"E-excuse me?! W-Where did t-that idea come from?!" She exclaimed.

"Well... You're not crimeless, sure, but we're not either." Rena pointed out, "Raven may have been under Nasods' control, but he terrorized Altera. Aisha practices Dark Magic, that's as bad as it gets for magicians." She thought for a while, "Elsword is probably the most crime-less out of all of us."

"What about you?" Deol asked.

Rena grew solemn as she said simply: "You'll find out in time."

"But this is my issue!" She growled, "I don't need anyone to look after me, I don't need any help."

"We don't want to see you dead." The blonde argued, "I've seen many die in my lifetime, and I refuse to let you die before you meet your brother again. Besides, where else would you go other than the villages? Your face may not be known, but you can't just continue killing and stealing for no reason!"

Deol stood up, "It's not for no reason! I'm doing it to—"

"To survive?" Rena pointed at the younger girl, "There are other options! You could decide to work as an Explorer, at least help someone else when you can!"

"I am!" Deol shrieked back, "I've killed those who used child labor to do everything that brought them to success! I've suffered so much as a child and I don't want to see anyone suffer the same way I did! Isn't that helping someone else?!"

Rena did not say anything, but her gaze was still locked with Deol's.

"You're killing. You're taking."

"It's all a testimony of strength."

"What makes you say that?" Rena's voice returned to normal.

Deol dropped to her knees as she buried her head in her hands. She started laughing after a while. The chuckles drawing out slowly and dripping with insanity.

"Everything that's happened to me." She said, with a new coldness in her voice.

The black-haired girl stalked back to her tent, going to dissemble it.

"Are you leav—"

"Don't worry elf, I'm not going anywhere." She tilted her head back to lock gazes once again.

Her eyes weren't crazed, they weren't sad either.

They were blank.

Deol turned away again.

"Just watch your own backs."

"Because I'm not watching yours."


((A/N:

[1] I ran 'Subtract' through Google Translate. Got Deolda. Whoopwhoopwhoop I'm so original.

Thank you toooooo... tsunshun, and SuzukaMizuchi for following/favoriting!

Sorry for the delay, had an school entrance exam yesterday and I've been grinding for the millennium fox recently. 27/70 ;w;

Anywayyyyyyssssss... So I wanted to fill something in. In terms of storyline, put it this way:

-The Elgang are, in terms of storyline, almost done the Altera segment. They came back to Elder because of Add wrecking havoc

-So basically, in level terms, Deol would be at least 10 below them.

Another thing, which job should Deol advance to? Owo

(Imperial) Rogue - Value Thief - Shadower Bandit [Bandit, sort of a robin hood theme. Her personality would be playful, mischievous, immature and while she is quite selfish in this branch, it becomes more of a facade than in other branches.] "I'll take this from you, thank you very much!~" "I trust you don't need this anymore, Mr./Miss/Mrs.? You did? Sorry then!~"

(Rebellious) Rogue - Blood Thief - Night Lord [Assassin, basically a mercenary. Personality here would be serious, cold-hearted, and emotionless.] "You're worthless. Of course I wouldn't spare you mercy." "Please, maybe if you shut your mouth instead of whining for mercy, I'll give you a few more seconds."

(Transform) Rogue - Life Thief - Phantom Master [Reverts back to criminal. She strikes a deal with Glave, giving him all her sanity in exchange for no remorse and power. She can't find a way to do good and she cracks under pressure, becoming a reasonless killer again. Personality being: sadistic, cruel, and merciless.] "Kekekeke!~ I'll steal your soul next!" "Oh whoops! My hand slipped, don't worry, arms grow back. In the afterlife."

Yep yep, those are the branches I came up with.

Replies to reviewsssss:

WielderoftheSilverSword: SENPAI PLS UPDATE-/shot/ Here's what happens next! You can also sort of choose with the job branches owo

Babylon1914: I made someone happy qwq I never knew it was possible qwq

SuzukaMizuchi: IT NEEDS ALL THE LOVE-/brick'd/

tsunshun: Woah someone likes my character qwq Yeah I'm aware time travel isn't very original... Can't really think of someway else though... q q Maybe I could have made DiE (from a different timeline where he still remembers Deol but she died) pick her up, no? Why did I only think of it now...

If you have made it too the end of this dreadfully long A/N, I congratulate you. ;w;

Anyways, till next time everyone!~))