ASPECT

By MargaritaDaemonelix

Chapter 1

So this is how it ends, you think to yourself. I return to hell once more.

When Elesis began to assemble a team to go to Altera, you'd immediately volunteered yourself. Despite Chung's almost desperate insistence, you stood by your decision. "Master Nasod is dead," you'd reminded him. "Is there anyone else there who I'd genuinely be afraid of?"

"Dr. Alterasia," Agatha had suggested. "The ambassador for Ran Haan. Add Kim, even."

But you're not afraid of Alterasia, as crazy as he is, and you're certainly not afraid of any ambassador from Sander. Even Eve's strange ex-fiancé, who is unsettling, doesn't phase you anymore. One of your best friends is in danger, and you'd be damned before you let her die.

Chung was added to the team without even anyone even mentioning it. Like you, there's no way he wouldn't go to rescue Eve. You had to barter for your position, mostly because Chung was concerned and so was Raven, surprisingly. You forget sometimes that he's just as much a victim of Altera as you were.

The last person to go with you is Elsword. He has to represent both himself and Aisha, who has a sprained ankle and will probably need some time to recover from it. They're both close to Eve as well, after all, and they worry just as much as you about her safety.

Elesis sends you all off with no fanfare, only a somber "good luck" and a gentle hug. Raven doesn't quite meet your eyes as you pat him on the shoulder and offer him a smile. He only manages a quiet "goodbye" before turning to leave, brushing his artificial hand past your shoulder for a heartbeat.

Unlike with Aisha and Elsword when they went to intercept Eve and Chung, this mission is carried out with few words. You all understand how urgent this is - even though no date has been publicly set for the execution, every day could be Eve's last, and she's waiting for all of you to make your way to her as quickly as you can. With no way of telling how quickly time is running out, you just have to hope that Eve will bide her time and play her cards until you can get to her.

Elsword does his best to keep all your spirits up during your trek through the forest of Elder. It's murky and dark, even in the daytime, and sunlight hardly makes its way through the foliage above. He makes jokes about how stupid the forest creatures are, throws a rock at a squirrel and pretends to not have stepped in a ditch of mud.

Chung, on the other hand, is constantly deep in thought and still barely talks to anyone. You really don't have much to talk about, so you just respond to Elsword's jokes and quips appropriately, remind both boys to drink water, and pat Chung on the back when he looks like he's about to falter.

His eyes aren't quite focused on anything, and yet he looks like he's fixated entirely on the road ahead. Soundless words come and go from his lips, but they never leave the tip of his tongue.

You're constantly worried for both him and Eve, but this is a new level of stress altogether. With news of Eve's possible execution at any second, you're ready to run all the way to Altera at a moment's notice. You know Chung would do the exact same thing in an instant, but he's so broken right now that you're genuinely beyond worried for him, like a mother worries for her children.

God, you feel old. Sure, you don't baby Eve and Chung, per se, but you're more than just a friend or an older sister to them. Older sisters don't remind their younger siblings to drink water, and they certainly don't clean up after their younger siblings. A natural maternal protective side of you emerges when it comes to Eve and Chung, and you're not sure if you like it.

"How about we make stop here for the night," you suggest, when Elsword's jokes lose their strength and Chung's eyes start to glaze over. "We can rest until the morning, and then we can keep going."

"We're wasting time," Chung interrupts bluntly, his voice flat. It's the first time he's spoken in hours. "Eve could be dying right now, and we'd be letting her die."

His words sting, but you wrack up a smile and put your hand on his shoulder. "Look, Elesis's contact in Altera said she's got at least two more days, right? Eve is going to be strong for us," you tell him. "We need to be strong for her. And right now, you're at your weakest, both physically and mentally. You need to rest, Chung."

He's silent again. You focus on him, gripping his shoulders tightly. It becomes clear after a bit of this that you're pretty much holding him up.

"Fine," he finally relents, shaking free from your hold. "But we need to get up early tomorrow and keep going."

You exchange a worried look with Elsword, but say nothing as you begin to set up camp for the night.

It's hard to watch Chung suffer like this.

Rena starts a fire and puts on a kettle of hot water to rehydrate your military-esque food, humming something quietly to herself. Whatever it is, it calms Chung down, because every time her voice falters, he tenses up again.

She's trying her best, and you really appreciate that she is. Out of the three of you, she's probably the most level-headed one in spite of the situation. She steers Chung away from walking into trees, which occurs much too often since he really isn't watching the road in front of him, and periodically talks to him softly, reminding him of your mission.

Right now, she's making dinner, so it's your turn to take over the reins. "Hey, Choongles," you tell him, sitting down next to him on the fallen log. "What's up? You wanna talk?"

"How do you do it?" He blurts, exhaling deeply before continuing. "How do you keep your emotions in check without letting them swallow you whole?" He gestures wildly at the fire. "You've had to face sudden things happening. Aisha killed a man and the two of you literally packed up and moved overnight. How did you not flip your shit entirely?"

"Language," comes Rena's lyrical voice.

Chung just sighs and deflates further. "I wish I could cope with this better," he admits. "I've been dragging the rest of you down. Maybe I should just go alone, so you don't have to put up with this."

"That's just stupid," you declare, smacking him in the shoulder. He looks up, a little miffed. "We're not going to let you just march into hell by yourself. We're just as worried as you are, Chung. There's no way we'd let Eve get murdered by them."

You catch Rena's gaze for a moment. Keep him talking, she mouths, before turning back to stirring the food she's making.

"How do you typically destress with things like this happening?" You ask. "There's no way you don't at least open the window and scream."

"That's more of Eve's thing," Chung says. "She opens the window and sticks her face out in the wind until she's less stressed. Sometimes she locks herself up in her workshop and makes and breaks things until she runs out of parts." He pauses for a moment. "We don't really have a lot of super stressful situations, but when we do, I just hit the training room and beat up a few of the training dummies until I'm less on edge."

"Okay, so clearly neither of you have been taught to deal with stress in a healthy, non-destructive manner," you mutter, before looking back up. "But it's good that you're expressing it outwardly instead of bottling it up. Aisha does that… much too often."

You think about coming home to find Aisha's hands wrapped in crimson-stained bandages, and shudder. "There's only so much stress you can take, right? So you gotta," you gesture lamely, "eh. Get it out of your system, y'know?"

Chung stares at you blankly for a while before turning away. For a moment, you're scared that you've said something to offend him, but then he opens his mouth and lets out an earth-shattering scream.

Rena drops her ladle. A flock of birds is shaken into flight. You cautiously remove your hands from over your ears. "Feel better?" You ask.

He nods, looking a little dazed. "Yeah. I think." Hey, it's still better than nothing.

You grin at him, and he grins in reply. The laughter doesn't quite reach his eyes.

From behind you, Rena picks up her ladle again and continues to hum.

The clouds over Feita start to dissipate the day after you send your brother, Rena and Chung off. The light rain that's been a blanket over the mountain for the past few days fades, and sunlight filters through the remains of the broken dome, turning the city gold and white.

While Aisha recovers from her sprained ankle, you've made a point of bringing her progressively weirder and weirder foods from around the city. She's now strong enough to wander around with just minimal support, although the doctor wants her to keep it wrapped up until it fully heals.

"Maybe we should get pomegranate juice," you muse as you lead her through the marketplace. "I know Coda got some fresh pomegranates two days ago. Or apple fries, have you had those before?"

Aisha smiles as she pushes her bad foot forwards a bit. "Eve really likes those," she says. "Chung made some for us while we were in Altera."

That explains Rena's for them, at least. "Alright, I'll just have to surprise you with something else, then," you declare, rolling up your sleeves for dramatic effect. "What about sriracha chips? Or escargot, those are really good!"

You end up getting burritos from Largo's stand, with extra hot sauce. The sauce leaks out like a river of red when she cuts the burritos in half. "Spicy," she crows, wrapping them up in parchment paper, then tin foil, and handing them to you.

Aisha rises to the challenge and gets just as much hot sauce as you, which only ends in the two of you poking at the untouched halves of your burritos and trying not to cry. "So much for that, then," Aisha laughs/cries, taking another hesitant bite and looking like she regrets everything.

"I can go get us something cold to drink," you suggest, even though you kind of like the adrenaline rush from the spice. It's almost as if the whole world is on fire, which doesn't sound like that bad of a feeling. "Maybe bubble tea, or just straight up cold milk."

She waves the thought off. "I feel terrible having send you off to do things," she says, patting the spot beside her. "Just stay and talk a while. The spice will fade."

So you return to sit on the park bench, and the two of you stare blankly at your burritos from hell. "We're going to have to eat those sometime soon," you mutter. Aisha nods. Briefly, you wonder if you can just eat half the burrito, and put the rest together to form a whole burrito to give to Raven.

Aisha glances at the children playing in the park, deep in thought. Maybe she's wondering if she can convince them to take the burritos. "Not now," she says, and you can't help but agree. "Let's give it a bit of cool-down time."

The breeze is starting to get warmer in the noonday sun, which inevitably beats down into your eyes. "Does Elsword still cook?" You ask, sighing as you lean back and close your eyes. "Anne taught him how to make some things before I left."

Aisha's eyes light up. "He's actually a pretty good chef," she says. "Although he doesn't nearly stack up to your mom. Err, miss Anne."

You feel a laugh bubbling up in your chest. It's strange to know that your brother trusts this bookish girl enough to tell her that the two of you are adopted. "Did you know that Elsword tried to run away from home when we told him?"

Surprise instantly lights up Aisha's expression. "No way," she cackles. "How far did he get?"

"Well, the key word really is tried," you admit, laughing. "Which is unfortunate, because he barely made it out of the neighbourhood. He hid in the park for half an hour before I found him there." You shake your head, a little exasperated. "He didn't think it was possible at first, the fact that we were adopted, but then he kind of realized that I knew and I'd been living with it all along, so I think he just rolled with it."

"Do you know who your biological parents are?" Aisha queries.

You shake your head. "I know they looked nothing like us," you admit. "Which leads me to believe that we were raised by a nanny or something. But the woman I remember as my mother had blue eyes, and my father had red eyes like mine and Elsword's."

The little fragments of your earliest days that still remain in you are happy and yet numbered. A woman you might have called your aunt, with short, choppy hair and blazing eyes, along with her gentle husband, whose curious gaze reflected the moon. The swish of a swatch of pink fabric - or hair, you can't tell - over your cradle. The room where your mother worked, illuminated with the light of the world.

Somehow, the control room is one of your clearest memories of childhood. You remember every button in perfect detail, what each knob did when you turned it, and all of it is narrated by your mother's sweet, gentle voice, guiding you through each operation. Open the reservoir. Raise the temperature. Minimize wind loss in the northern quadrant.

You don't understand the words together, but somehow, when you look at your mental image of the control panel, it makes sense. "I think my mother was a woman of a lot of power," you tell her quietly, "and my father was one of her assistants. I'm also pretty sure their marriage was secret, and Elsword and I were born and raised in secret."

Aisha's eyes narrow. "There's a few women in power in Elrios who could have fit that role," she surmises. "The Abbadon family in Sander, for one, has had several strong female matriarchs. Their last matriarch died three years ago, I think, and besides, they claim high Alteran heritage." Her glance flickers nervously. "No offense."

"None taken," you chuckle. "I've done some research on my own, too, and by the looks of it, there's virtually no chance my biological mother could have been any of the prominent women in Elrios of the last generation." You frown as the wind threatens to tear away the wrapper of your burrito. "That only raises more questions. Maybe Els and I are from overseas? Maybe Maple, I know there are a lot of people there with red eyes and red hair."

"That could be possible… But there are other possibilities," Aisha says. "How familiar are you with the Elian faith?"

"Uh." Anne and Lowe are religious, but not aggressively pious. You do wear the blue El gem of the Elian faith, although you don't openly practice like some of the folks in your old neighbourhood. "I've read the scriptures, does that count?"

"That's more than enough," Aisha says, and you subconsciously let out a breath you didn't know you were holding. "Like, the first book aside, the saving grace of Elrios is the El Lady, right?"

"The Lady of El will cleanse the earth and grant us life," you recite automatically, "and with her arrival on earth with come hope for all the children of Elia. Are you suggesting my mother was a priestess of the El Lady?"

Aisha looks like she's about to burst at the seams, but there's a bit of frustration in the way her brows furrow, like she doesn't know all that she wants to know. "I'm thinking of something," she says very, very quietly, "much, much more ambitious. It may not even be possible, but now that you mention it, things might start to line up."

You shrug. "I guess I'll leave you to it, then," you tell her. "I've never been one for conspiracy theories - not religious ones, anyways."

Seris is still a conspiracy theory, you think to yourself. What are the chances, anyways?

"How's your ankle coming along?" You ask, suddenly eager to turn the subject away as a wave of existential doom hits you. "Is it still sore?"

"A little," Aisha says. She reaches down to feel it, but unlike the past few days, she doesn't flinch in pain when her fingers come in contact with her ankle. "The doctor said it'll take about a week or two to heal completely, and besides, my body's not exactly good at repairing itself."

"Then we'll just have to feed you good food until you are good at repairing yourself," you hum. "Nothing a cold glass of milk can't fix."

The conversation wanders away, into the world of foods from all around Elrios. Aisha describes Anne's cassoulet in perfect, tantalizing detail, and it makes your mouth water. You counter it by describing her croissants, right out of the oven, and you nearly make Aisha cry because regardless of whether Anne is your biological mother or not, her cooking is just really, really good.

"Does Elsword take care of you?" You ask, not caring that Aisha's face instantly goes bright red. "Gosh, I sure hope he does. I'm gonna sock him if he doesn't. He deserves to be socked if he's not treating a lady nicely."

"Elesis, it's not like that," Aisha protests. "We haven't really… reached that level yet. Besides, he is kind. He carried me through the city when we first came back, when I really couldn't walk."

"Yeah, but that's a given," you scoff, leaning towards her with an almost diabolical grin on your lips. "Pray tell, Aisha dear, have you two been up to something while you were in Altera?" When she flushes even more red, you waggle your eyebrows at her. "Shall I ask Chung and Eve when they get back?"

"Please don't," Aisha squeaks, shaking her head. "I mean… I don't know if we really need anything right now, Elsword and I. And I don't even know if we're on that level yet." She buries her face in her hands. "Please end my miserable existence, I don't need to suffer like this."

You laugh out loud. Were you like this when Ara first wandered into Feita, four years ago? "Hey, it'll pass," you offer. "Don't worry about it. I won't make fun if it makes you uncomfortable." You put on a serious face for a moment. "But seriously, if he hurts you, I will actually kick him out of the city and leave him to the wolves."

Aisha manages to remove her hands from her face, and puts on a grateful smile. "I think that might be a bit excessive," she says. "But regardless, thank you, Elesis. I didn't think I could learn this much more about Elsword through talking to you, but I guess I have."

You grin and make a quick salute. "Aye. You ever need someone to talk to, a shoulder to lean on, someone to get some creepy person to fuck off, just tell me."

"I'll keep that in mind," Aisha says. Her bright smile quickly turns to a frown. "We still have two half burritos that haven't even been touched."

You sigh. "Yeah. I'd forgotten about those for a moment."

Her eyes glimmer with mischief. "We got the same type of burrito, right?" She lifts your untouched half and puts it next to her own. "Two halves form a whole. Now, who can we give this to?"

"Raven," you tell her immediately, and she grins.

Well, it's good to know that your brother's (potential) future girlfriend has just the same humour as you do. "Let's wrap this up and see how Raven reacts," she cackles, and you can't help but agree.

You offer the burrito to Raven while trying to smother your laughter. He accepts it wordlessly, just kind of sits himself down in the kitchen and eats it calmly.

Both you and Aisha are a little disappointed in the lack of reaction, but you open the fridge the next day to no milk whatsoever, so you're not sure what went down in the Raven vs. burrito fight.

You're not too sure you want to know, either.

You wake up to the sound of wood splintering.

It's not a pretty noise, but you hear it often enough on the farm. Slowly, you open your eyes and try to adjust to the fading light of the fire.

There it is again - the grunt, the crackle of wood, the quiet muttering that follows. You awaken fully as you realize that it's Chung, and instead of sleeping, he's whirling his Destroyer through the air with deadly accuracy, practicing his hand-to-hand combat against… trees.

Stifling a yawn, you crawl to your feet, looking around the area. Rena is peacefully sleeping against another tree, wrapped tightly in her cardigan with one leg drawn up to her chest for balance. The fire seems to be dying down a bit, so you grab a handful of dry leaves from the nearby pile and toss them into the fire, blowing gently until the flames come back to life. When you're satisfied with the intensity, you move another small log into the pit, allowing fire to consume it as well.

Chung is still attacking the tree with deadly accuracy. You watch as he steps, two, three, four, lunges, and swipes out with his Destroyer, before tucking it back in to use as a shield, twisting it to match an imaginary opponent's attack. His next move is more focused, probably meant to rip the weapon out of his opponent's hands before lunging forwards again to smack them down.

Every move he makes is clear and calculated, even if it looks like an elaborate dance of weapons and furiously flailing arms. You realize that he must be developing counterattacks to the things he himself was trained to do, so that he can go head-to-head with any Alteran guard and take them down. Every few swings, he turns around, faces the other direction, and thinks to himself before whirling back into action.

As you watch his training, however, you realize there's something very off about the way he strikes the tree. He's constantly aiming for the roots, striking out towards them like he's trying to sweep the enemy out from under their own feet. It leaves his upper body susceptible to attacks, which you're sure he can handle, but a well-placed bullet could take him out instantaneously.

"You know, you need to cover for your head sometimes," you say out loud when he pauses for a moment to rest. He freezes for a moment, but then turns to face you as you walk over. "Your visor and helmet will only be able to block out so much."

"I know," he says, dropping his Destroyer to the side. "I'm still working on that."

Beads of sweat line his forehead, which make you wonder how long he's been training on this rather chilly night. "Take a break, bro," you tell him. "It's like, what, two in the morning? Have you not gotten any sleep at all?"

"It's three twenty," he corrects. "I woke up at one and couldn't sleep."

"Thinking about Eve?" You ask, and the way Chung's face melts tells you that yes, he has. "Seriously, Chung, we're going to save her, even if it's the last thing we do."

"I know." His voice is almost as lifeless and cold as it was when you returned to Feita. "I'm still kind of in shock, I guess." He shakes his head. "One moment, we were so close to escaping, and then the next, she was… Gone."

The way he hesitates to speak makes you wonder if this is the first time he's come close to losing someone like this. "If you're going to train," you suggest, "maybe you can pick up other strategies that aren't quite conventional." You point at the tree trunk, which stands firm against the Destroyer-shaped groove in the roots. "Instead of always sweeping people's feet out from beneath them, you should go for their faces."

Chung squints at the tree. "Most Alteran forces have visors and helmets like mine, y'know."

"Yeah, but they'll lose their balance and visuals if you slam them in the face." You grin as you take the Destroyer from him. "Always go for the nose. Sometimes they'll stumble back and have a sneezing fit. Take it from a guy who spent his childhood getting in fistfights with the neighbourhood kids."

With those words, you step away from Chung, turn your dominant shoulder to the Destroyer, and slam into the tree.

It doesn't tip over, but there's a boom that shakes the nearby birds out of their perches. "Whoops," you manage, handing the Destroyer back to Chung. "Now you try. Push it up and put your shoulder into it."

Chung inhales sharply, nods, and faces the tree. "I hope I don't break the tree," he says, and charges.

The boom that resonates from his impact against the tree is louder than yours, mostly because Chung is much more experienced than you with the heavy weapon. However, the cracking noise that splits the air (and the tree!) afterwards is surprising.

You and Chung stand awkwardly as the oak tree wobbles and tips over, crashing to the forest floor with a boom. "Uh, timber?" You laugh weakly, shrugging. "Nice work, Chung."

"What are you two doing?" You turn around to find Rena rubbing her eyes sleepily, assessing the damage. "It's four in the morning, what are you doing awake?" She snaps. "And destroying trees, at that! Haven't you considered the birds and small animals that might have lived in that tree?"

She tucks her cardigan back around her, clearly too tired to deal with the consequences of your early-morning tree destroying adventures. "If you two stay up any longer, I'm not making any coffee for you in the morning," she says, sitting back down at the base of her tree. She's out cold in moments.

You glance over at Chung. He's fighting to keep a smile off his face - the first time he's smiled since your escape from Altera. "That was stupid," he mumbles, clapping you on the shoulder. "It is really getting late, I guess. We should get some sleep."

"Alright then." You pat him on the back and return to your own tree. "Night, Chung."

As you sit back down at your tree, you realize the fire is dying again. The gust of wind from the falling tree must have nearly blown it out. You feed it another handful of leaves, blowing lightly until the flames flicker back to life.

You sit down once more, wrapping your jacket over your torso. On the other side of the fire, both Chung and Rena are already fast asleep. There's a small smile on Chung's face as he sleeps, and tranquility lines his tired features, for the first time since Altera.

He looks peaceful.

A/N: please end me, mobile killed my formatting, I'll come back and fix it when I get home (EDIT: fixed!)

sorry for no update last week, I had exams and honestly? post-exam depression hits like a brick

realistically I shouldn't be making more AUs but I keep making more AUs, so the zombie apocalypse fic is going up next week. updates will be sporadic

anyways I have IB Theory of Knowledge rn and it's much more entertaining than expected, this is the level of philosophical bs I like

~Marg