Thank you everyone that submitted names for Elsword and Eve's child!

I will credit specifics at the chapter's end, as I wound up using all names submitted.

(Except for Apple. Since this name goes to an Epic NPC, I did not want to use it for this manner.)

This was done in a Main Name, Nickname, and Codename manner.

You will all understand after the chapter is done!

Hello everyone! This is a sequel to my Elsword story series. The series is currently two full stories and a companion short story series.

The stories the series consists of are Relearning the Seraph, Finding the Blazing Heart, and Anecdotes of a Small Child.

Relearning the Seraph is story one of the series, mainly an ElsEve. It gives the main premise that the series is founded on, as well as why Seris is alive.

Yes, Seris is alive. Relearning the Seraph explains why, but this story gives an inklet of a hint too.

Finding the Blazing Heart is the second story in the series and is a relationship developments between Chung and Elesis. It also contains a Pichu.

I do not own Elsword or its characters. But I ship Elsword and Eve, Raven and Seris, and Chung with Elesis.

I own my conceptual format of Seris; including her class I made called Body of Light. My boyfriend and I share joint ownership of Cedric.

My boyfriend and I also own the "mystery child" that appeared last chapter, and is finally discussed in this chapter.

Speaking of my boyfriend, check out his stories! He is called The Lost Son of Gaia on here, and would definitely appreciate readers!

(His Elsword stories are a treat, please don't miss out.)

Please enjoy and review!

Classes:

Elsword: Rune Slayer

Eve: Code Nemesis

Rena: Wind Sneaker

Raven: Blade Master

Chung: Deadly Chaser

Aisha: Dimensional Witch

Ara: Sakra Devanam

Elesis: Blazing Heart

Embracing the Future

~/~

Chapter 1: Bitterly Soulless

'Her heart is shattered by the images she'll never forget; the skeletons that stole her innocence...'

Ara just blinked when Raven removed the child from her arms. He had a stern face, one that clearly showed that Cedric had fully crafted the man's parental instincts. Even Elesis and Chung knew for sure that they weren't ready to become parental, they hadn't even married yet. Honestly, how could they become parental when they were still in the process of dating? Raven glanced over the child, frowning slightly in confusion. Why...he felt like she familiar, like he had held her before. Her hair was long and dark purple, nearly to the floor. It was clearly unkempt, as was she as her pale skin shone with scars, cuts, and bruises. A small knot on the back of her head proved Elesis' point that the girl had been knocked out, whilst the household Pichu whined from her owner's shoulder. Seris had gathered Cedric and was approaching Raven, who carried the child to a couch, and placed her there. Slowly, the blond woman set their son by the girl and looked to Elesis while her husband tried to make the unconscious child comfortable.

"You said she was acting like a brat?" Seris raised an eyebrow.

"She kept screaming at us that she hated us, and didn't want us anywhere near her," Elesis sighed, "-we were just trying to find out if she was okay."

"She literally slapped me in the face," Chung added, rubbing his cheek slightly.

"Yeah! He was just trying to help. So I finally had to hit her in the back of the head with my wand," continued Aisha, frowning a bit.

"I was in my Eun state so I had to wait before I could go make sure everyone was okay," Ara bowed sadly, "-we were afraid I'd scare her more. So I had to carry her here instead."

Seris frowned a bit as Eve and Elsword walked in, with the nasod still carrying the child she had built. Aisha blinked at the strange child in Eve's arms, before nudging Elesis, Chung, and Ara to make sure she wasn't seeing things. With surprised looks developing on all of them, Raven turned to the sight next while his wife continued trying to make the mysterious arrival comfortable. The child picked up on everyone's confusion as Elsword once again broke down laughing, very nearly falling on the floor as Eve looked at him softly. She chuckled too, amused at the complete confusion she had caused her friends at this instance with the new child that she hadn't announced was incoming. In fact, given that no one had met the small human-robot hybrid that Eve had developed, absolutely no one understood what had happened.

"Who...is that...?" Aisha inquired, raising an eyebrow at Elsword's laughter.

"She...looks like...wait, was Eve pregnant?" cried Ara.

"She can't get pregnant, she told me so!" protested Elesis, pouting slightly at the notion.

"Well then...yeah okay, seriously who is she?" Chung tilted his head.

"I'm going to guess this is why I heard Elsword screaming and then laughing earlier..." Raven muttered softly, nudging Seris to get her to look up.

"Eh...?" Seris murmured, confused as well.

"My amazing wife literally built me a child today," Elsword sputtered in laughter, falling to his knees and holding his stomach as he continued.

"He thinks its hilarious," Eve explained, a gentle smile on her lips.

"Hello..." the small child greeted, "-nice to meet all of you. My title is Code: Future Hope. I am a humanoid built with robot parts and special processes with DNA instructions from a human as well as nasod coding. I am therefore a human-nasod hybrid."

Eve nodded, "She even has a beating heart."

"How did you manage that?" Elsword replied, looking up from where he was, surprised.

"I have my ways," the nasod queen nodded softly, quite proud.

"Alright then..." Raven sighed, "-we have...Code: Future Hope...and an unidentified child."

Elsword and Eve raised their eyebrows at the sleeping child, while she set down the other one, letting the girl wander towards the other one. Cedric was poking lightly at the unconscious one's face, while everyone watched the newest child in motion. Her body was that of maybe a six year old, about two years over Cedric, but she was not much taller than him. Noting his behavior with poking the sleeping girl, she proceeded to poke his face. This put smiles on the group's faces as Elsword stood back up, putting an arm around Eve gently, hugging the woman close to him as he pecked her cheek. Meanwhile, everyone took the time to introduce themselves to the new child one by one; including Cedric. Then an issue arose...

"So...can we call you something besides Code: Future Hope?" Ara inquired.

"Mother and Father have not established my non-codename as of yet," She answered softly.

Eve tapped her chin, thinking, "Mira? For miracle?"

"Hmm..." Elsword thought about it, "-or Elsa? Sel? Selelsa? I like Mira though..."

"I like Elsa though..." Elesis pouted slightly.

"Sel sounds nice," Chung responded.

"Selelsa is pretty," Aisha chimed.

Eve rolled her eyes, "What if we name her Mira and then everyone uses those as nicknames?"

"Those are my names?" The new child looked around at everyone.

"They are," Elsword smiled at her, his expression softening even more when she hugged him.

"Good! I have names!" cheered Mira.

Eve smiled lightly, giggling a bit as everyone agreed to the circumstances of the idea. The joy was short though when the other child awakened, sitting up quickly with a cry of 'Get away from me!' and slapping Cedric away from her. The small boy screamed when he hit the floor, Seris immediately running to him as Raven whirled around towards the girl and the remainder of the ElGang gasped in horror when Cedric began to cry. Seris gathered him in her arms, glaring over at the new arrival.

"Hey, calm down! There's no need to hit children!" cried Aisha.

"That was my son. You best have a good reason for slapping him," Raven murmured darkly.

"He was near me," she snarled angrily, "-that is plenty reason!"

"It's no reason at all!" protested Ara.

Seris rose quickly, her hand drawn back slightly, although Raven stopped her quickly in midair.

"Love, take care of Cedric. We can't hurt her, she already got hit in the head by Aisha..."

Reluctantly, Seris revoked her once-incoming action, and quickly went back to her tearful son. Mira ran to help Seris and Cedric, with whatever good she could do as Eve and Elsword laid eyes on the child who was now being restrained by Elesis holding her arms. Although, the small purple child was kicking and screaming at the Blazing Heart while Chung exhaled carefully, trying to make any sense of the girl's shouts.

"I hate you all! All of you! Release me! You have no right to hold me! How dare you? No one held the evil man that murdered my family back! No one! I haven't killed anyone!" she screamed.

"Quiet!" called Raven, his voice resounding, "I can't think in all of your yelling!"

Winding herself like a spring, she stretched herself enough from Elesis' restraining hold on her to literally kick the man in the face, Raven himself stumbling back in surprise. The entire group called to him in concern, watching as he wiped a little blood from his lip; Seris rushing up to clean it with her handkerchief while Mira tried to comfort the son of the house. No one quite understood how they would ever get past the fact that blood had been drawn from Raven by a small girl kicking him in the face. He didn't seem all that surprised though as the cries from Cedric began to ease out slowly. He was calming down, thanks to Mira as Seris returned.

"It's alright Ceddy..." Seris whispered, kneeling down beside them.

"It'll be okay. I won't let the scary one hit you again..." Mira nodded, her arms around the boy.

"Why does she have so much anger...? I mean, I get that people got murdered or something, but this is ridiculous..." grumbled Elesis grudingly.

"What is wrong with you!" exclaimed Elsword, tossing his arms into the air out of frustration.

"I think we should be more concerned that she actually drew blood from Raven..." Eve murmured, carefully pulling her husband's arms down from the air.

"I'm fine..." Raven huffed, "-what's your name?"

"Like I would tell you!"

"You don't have one do you?" He responded, raising an eyebrow.

For the first time since waking up, the girl fell silent before slowly shaking her head.

"I'll name you then. I'll think of something. You said your family got murdered right? I lost a lot of things I held dear, a very long time ago. I even, for three years, lost the woman I loved most."

"Don't act like you care about me! Don't even name me! I hate all of you, but especially you two!" She pointed at him and Eve, poison practically in her voice, "I detest all of you, I wish you all were dead!"

"Me?" Eve gasped in surprise, Elsword raising an eyebrow in confusion at the pointing finger.

"I think you need to learn some respect," Seris murmured, her swords beginning to glow white in reply to her abilities, "-you injured my son! Leave my husband alone! You need some love, and some respect! Too much hatred, that's quite enough of it!"

"Love? It doesn't exist! It never has!"

"It does! I'd swear to it until my final breath was taken!" cried Eve immediately.

Aside from the girl's dark, cold laughter, the room was silent. Elsword smiled proudly at his wife, the group marveling in hearing Eve say something they never thought she would ever say when they first met her. She had really grown...and they all knew she would credit Elsword if asked. From the nasod that swore she had no feelings, that she didn't need friends, and definitely swore that she didn't want to be loved...she had become the one to immediately scream that it existed. Despite her battle with her own code, with her own race's emotional inhibitions, and her own flaws, the queen now knew what love was.

"It exists," the queen nasod repeated herself.

"It doesn't! And I won't be subjected to hearing such preaching from any of you! Only betrayal, abandonment, death, and loneliness. That's it. Love doesn't exist, it never will!"

Elesis muttered under her breath, still holding the child back to prevent any harm from coming to anyone. But everyone glanced over to Cedric when they heard Mira call his name. By the time they did though, the small boy had already walked back to the couch, and climbed it. Slowly then, with a gentle smile on his face, he just hugged the girl. He embraced the very reason he had a small bruise on his tiny arm now...the reason he had a bump on his head...and the reason his body was rather sore. Even though she fervently felt fury for the entire group, and had clearly said so. The child's innocence and love was unending, his mother gasping softly as Raven wound up closing his eyes with a chuckle. After all, the man knew his son was perfectly safe with everyone present and alert now.

"I'm sorry I scared you...I just want to be your friend..."

Mira blinked, then ran over too, hugging both children, "I want to be friends too!"

"Get off of me! Get off me, now!" screamed the girl, struggling more.

"Alma," Raven nodded suddenly.

At the sudden, random insertion, the entire room looked over at the standing man who had spoken. His claw was as always, but there was a strange look in his eyes; a look of recognition for whatever reason. The black haired man looked right at the girl, who scowled at him with fury in her reddish-colored eyes as the two children hugged her. It was infuriating for her, she couldn't stand this ridiculousness! Why was she being named? Why weren't they hurting her, and just restraining her? She didn't even understand, but she only felt angrier. There was this wish to just annihilate every single one of them, especially these two hugging her so tightly.

"Your name is Alma. I'm naming you, and we're all adopting you. Particularly Seris and I."

"What?" Elsword gaped.

"She kind of hates us all, you know..." Eve raised her eyebrow.

"Hurray, a friend!" squealed Mira and Cedric in unison.

"Huh?" Ara looked up.

"Say that again?" Aisha replied.

"Yeah...I'm not feeling fatherly..." Chung glanced slightly to Elesis.

"That's definitely not happening!" protested the Blazing Heart immediately.

"Never! Not in a million years!" screamed Alma in dismay.

Seris just looked at Raven, her eyes careful as she searched his face. But she understood, and she would never protest. She believed in his decision, and if he felt that they could raise this unruly one, then she would never go against him. After knowing him and being his sweetheart for so very long, the blond had learned to never doubt him. She stood up, her wavy and slightly curled blond hair flowing long down her body as she came fully to his height on her own, her green eyes twinkled as she nodded to him. Her gesture earned her a smile and nod back from him, as he walked closer to her, standing by her side as they looked at everyone else.

"I'm on your side dear. Promise," Seris nodded, complete faith in her husband.

"Thank you dear," He replied softly.

"This is an outrage!" screamed Alma in fury.

Suddenly, the door opened again to reveal the blond elven girl in the group. Except, she had a strange basket in her arms while looking around at everyone in confusion.

"I'm home! Ah...what did I miss...?"

Alma let out a loud, rumbling growl, and Rena glanced over at her. She then murmured something under her breath, and then huffed loudly.

"Alright, come on guys. I wasn't gone that long, why are you people popping out children in the wake of a single woman? None of you were pregnant last I saw!" Rena pouted at them.

"Pregnancy lasts nine months, Rena. You were gone for less than a day..." Chung tried to point out.

"For the record," Eve chimed a bit, raising her hand, "-I did build mine."

"Yeah and the rabid growling nutcase is a child those four dragged home from Residential Area 3," Elsword added.

"Elsword, be nice-" Raven tried.

"You don't know anything! Don't refer to me like some object!" screamed the child.

Rena cringed, holding her ears and letting out a huff as she shook her head, her blond ponytail whisking side to side as she held tightly to the basket she seemed to be also trying to protect.

"I swear you guys...why do you always get into trouble when I'm gone?"

"We get into trouble even when you are here!" quipped Aisha.

"Ah...what's in the basket?" Elsword attempted to change topics.

"Just my new baby brother!"

There was a small pause in everyone's thought processes, although Alma continued to struggle fiercely, followed by...

"...what!"

The name Sel came from Kyuunii (Used as nickname)

The name Elsa came from Kamichi77 (Used as nickname)

The name Hope came from LucasTheCookie (Used as portion of the codename)

The name Mira came from XceLsisDeo (Used as main given name)

Mira, derived from Miracle, simply fit the best from what I had at heart for her since the child was a miracle built for Elsword as the reviewer noted. Hope was a close second, but I didn't want to abandon the nice suggestions outside of those. Apple is nice too, I admit! But as an existing NPC name, I did not want that route.

The name given to the other child, Alma, is the Spanish word for "Soul" (Enjoy your trivia for the day!)

I hope everyone enjoyed, and will review!

See you all next time!