MJC: Chapter Twenty! WOOH!

Chung: Um, you do realize that you have several other stories that have past the twenty chapter mark?

MJC: YES, but this story is already a four fifths of the way through. Only five more chapters left.

Chung: Four, actually.

MJC: EXACTLY!

Chung sighs.

Chung: My-Joyful-Chaos does not own Elsword.

Chapter Twenty:
Interrogation Leads to Wonderful Things

Third PoV

Aisha Ostrum was just strolling around. She was in a relaxed mood, and the day was peaceful. She was in a deserted part of town, where the buildings were only a step above decrepit. It was odd, she contemplated. It was almost November, yet not a harsh wind nor nearly a tiny sign of chilliness. She decided to shrug it off, and dismiss it as the areas climate.

A sudden breeze, however, did start to pick up. The purple haired girl's head tilted to the side. She could've sworn it was dirt dry only moments ago. The sun was setting, thus the sky and earth were ablaze with tendrils of scarlet, violet, salmon, and light variations of blue.

It was unsettling. This wasn't supposed to be happening. They were in the town of Lanitoris for El's sake. She paused in her stroll, glancing around in suspicion. The wind continued to breeze past her, pushing the two spike twin tails sitting atop her head into her face.

Sputtering a bit, she removed them from her eyesight. The whispers stopped. The absence of the wind left the silence that only ever ensues when something bad was going to happen. Aisha knew this from experience, as it had not only happened several times in a classroom, but also other not-so-friendly environments.

Aisha began to turn around to inspect the space behind her when heel grounding against dirt drew her attention away. With a flicker of reflected light, an air-splitting blade whipped from a sheath, and was pointed directly at Aisha's neck. She blinked.

Summoning her staff in less than a second, she flicked her own blade into the other's path. s the two blades sizzled and cracked against each other, Aisha drew her eyes to look into her attacker's. They were green. Not a natural green, but more like something you might find a student wearing on a field trip to an amusement park.

A cloak hid the attacker's hair and body(though it was still quite obvious she was a woman). Those almost iridescent seeming eyes pierced Aisha's own lavander surrounded pupils. A shiver danced down her spine as she leaped back in an attempt to dodge the blade as it skid out from under her staff.

Said staff twirled in her fingers as she prepared a spell. The attacker, however, revealed a strung bow, and an arrow dripping with intimidation. The purple headed girl's eyes widened when she realized it wasn't intimidation but actual poison plopping drip by drip into the dirt from the arrow's point.

Not that the poison appeared to be needed, as the arrow point seemed almost as sharp as the short sword the woman had previously wielded. Despite these thoughts, Aisha's breath caught halfway up her throat, and she threw herself to the ground.

A twang resounded, and the arrow flew above Aisha quick as, or so it seemed to Aisha, sound. A shriek rose to erupt from the back of her throat, but for whatever reason, it refused to make anymore of an appearance.

Muttering a bit of an incantation, Aisha managed enough mana to teleport to on top of a nearby building. The figure on the dirt path whipped her head around, obviously looking for the purple head. Those unnaturally neon irises quickly found her. Cursing, Aisha glanced around.

There were no passersby.

Not bystanders.

No help.

She choked back a bit of a sob, and cast a shield of mana around her. The woman seemed to hop onto the building with as much effort it would take to skip a step while running up the stairs. Aisha whispered,

"Phantom Breathing: Dark Fall." A curtain of dark energy collapsed around the woman from the gaping mouth of a phantasmal Angkor. After which, she sent a petite Angkor in the woman's direction before hopping to the ground.

It didn't seem to take long before the woman recovered, albeit she stumbling a bit. She took off after the escaping purplette.

To be perfectly honest, Aisha was frightened. Her magical prowess wasn't exactly... Impressive, in her opinion. It was average in her eyes. She knew the woman knew what she was doing. Stalling was all Aisha could muster up.

Well, stalling and running.

Opting for the direction of town, as she didn't think the woman would want to draw any attention to herself, Aisha dashed. Before she could get far, just as she was looking back to see if anyone was following her, she stumbled upon(over, rather), a very relaxed Elsword.

He grunted when Aisha's foot collided with his side, and she fell head first into the dirt. Scrambling up, the girl ignored the fact that the boy was in the middle of the road.

"C'mon." She gasped out, tugging the red-headed boy's arm.

"What is it? You look like you saw a ghost." He allowed her to pull him up.

"We need to get more into town." She stated, a bit breathy, fatigue clearly settling in.

"Why?" The boy's question was answered as a cloaked figure leaped off a nearby building, and in front of the two. "Oh." Aisha waved her staff, breathing out a,

"Binding Circle." The woman froze, and Aisha backed away, preparing to run. Her wrist was latched onto by Elsword, however.

"Let's finish her." He suggested in a gentle tone, drawing his sword an smiling enough to light the world up. Shoulders slumping, Aisha nodded begrudgingly. She breathed out another incantation, enhancing their attack power. Smiling a thanks, Elsword prepared a mighty slash.

He swung just as the spell wore out, making obvious contact with the woman's abdomen. A gush of air blew from her lips as the air was forced out and she was flown backwards. Getting up, though her cloak was now nearly tatters, the woman, now revealed to be blonde, and very filled out, drew her own sword again.

She dashed towards the pair with all the speed and grace of nothing that could really live on earth. She managed a good slash at the red-head's shoulders, causing it to practically gush cerise liquid. Aisha hurled a gravitational orb of dark energy at the woman, causing her to pause before slicing the boy's cheek too.

He appeared stunned as Aisha pulled him away, and whacked the woman square on the head with a mote blunter side of her staff. The woman faltered before springing back into action, and kicking Aisha's legs out from underneath her. The girl fell to her butt.

Before either Aisha or the woman could move, Elsword solidly struck the woman on the back of her head with the pommel of his sword. Her eyes bulged a bit, almost rolling up to peer into her head before they refocused a bit, and she managed to slice Aisha's cheek before falling onto her side in a heap.

"That was almost easy." Elsword chuckled. Aisha shot him a look. "What?"

"It was easy for you." Pouting a bit, the girl crossed her arms.

After a bit of scrounging around for something to restrain the woman, some rope was found, and securely knotted around the woman's wrists, and ankles.

"I'm not sure if that'll hold her." Aisha stated, still pouting a bit.

"Why was she even attacking you." Aisha once again gave Elsword a look. This time, it was full of incredulity.

"You can't tell who she is?" That incredulity carried over into the girl's voice. Elsword looked at his female comrade, then scrubbed his eyes, and once again looked at the unconscious woman.

"She's an elf," he pointed out, not only with his voice but also his index finger pointing at the pointed ears. Aisha smiled bitter-sweetly.

"Yes, but who is she?" Elsword once again scanned the woman. After a bit of contemplating, he realized that he recognized the skimpy clothing and even the woman's sword. The bow strapped to her back also gave a major hint to her identity.

"Is this that Watcher lady who's after you- er, the 'other' Aisha?" He asked, leaning towards the very purply girl. She applauded slowly.

"Good job." Elsword frowned. A groan interrupted the two's conversation of sorts, and both of their irritation-filled eyes darted to the elven woman. Said woman seemed indifferent when she glanced at her target, and the red head.

"Hi," Aisha began. "Um, I was wondering if, since you've been defeated, then could you inform us a bit about Ran?" She asked in as sweet a voice she could muster despite the annoyance beside her. The Watcher grinned with less elation then a phoru with diarrhea. After a moment of this, she finally replied.

"Only because I really hate that son of a b**ch." Her tone held more than a little bitterness. Aisha clapped in response.

"Wonderful, than we agree on something!"

"Wait, why did you attack Aisha if you hate your employer?" Elsword questioned, nose scrunched up in confusion. The Watcher's expression dropped into stoic compliance.

"Money's still money, even when it's from a Demon Lord." Aisha chewed her lip a bit.

"So, that's your only relationship to Ran? To get rid of his proverbial trash for a few coins?"

"I believe you've misunderstood. I don't just throw the trash out, I pick it up, I litter it on the ground. I do every step, probably including providing what was used to make it into trash. But money's money." A small shrug lifted the Elf's shoulders a bit.

"Care to elaborate?" Aisha sighed.

"Let's just say that I'm a neutral party here. Though, for a good price, I could provide some crucial information as to why Ran is trying to obtain so much El." She suggested. Aisha was officially decided. This woman was an absolutely greedy thing. How much money did she need? Or, rather, want?

"What's your price?" Elsword queried, eliciting an astounded look from Aisha. As the elf iterated the amount of money she wanted, both the teens' eyes went wide.

"Do we even have that much between the two of us?" After much change counting, and digging through pockets for more change, they finally managed to cough up enough to barely reach the Watcher's standards. They recounted in front of her, so she wouldn't throw a tantrum, then she began to spill her guts.

"So, basically, Ran had a young sister years ago who was killed. He was so overcome with grief that he became, well, Ran. And now he's collecting El to resurect his dead sister?" Aisha repeated, looking the woman in the eye a bit skeptically. The elf nodded.

"You missed a few details, like his lover's death, and the fact that he wasn't Ran before, but then was possessed by the demon Ran, but yes. That's basically it." Aisha pondered this for a moment. "He's going to attempt to get his hands on a large shard that is probably the only thing keeping, was it Os(?), alive. You ought to hurry and stop him." A grim smirk marred the pretty woman's features.

"How do yo know this?" Elsword inquired, eyes narrow. The elf shrugged.

"It easy to find the skeletons in the closet when you are the closet." Both teen's gave her an odd look. "Can you untie me now?" They obliged, though warily. She didn't leave though. She seemed oddly uncaring about the whole situation.

"I have to tell Aisha. Well, other Aisha. You know, from Ri-I mean, here." Aisha rambled, staring holes-to-China in the ground. A hand fell onto her shoulder.

"Calm down, just head back to Os, and I'll handle it here." The red head gave her a cross between a smile and smirk, which came out a little odd. She nodded despite, and before she could stop herself, had held him in a .5 second embrace before dashing off.

A sigh emit from the red head, and when he thought about it, he forgot about his original purpose in this town.

Aisha bounded into the basement of her other self's house, and activated the familiar rune. It glowed with a plethora of iridescent colors of every shade and every movement before she hopped through.

A clear serenity washed over her, though the urgency remained. She didn't even fast walk through Elisium, she enjoyed the peace a bit. It still took less than a minute to reach the other Gate.

Before long, she was tumbling onto the concrete basement world. Taking a moment to get her bearings, she hurried out. It was mid afternoon, according to her only now remembered cell phone. She was very happy that her apartment was less than give minutes away. She still ran the whole way.

Bursting through the front entrance, she only mentally noted that Rena was missing. She abandoned the elevator when it took longer then five seconds to reach ground level. The stairs wouldn't be so tedious or closed in anyways.

It took a whole minute and forty-two seconds before she remember that she had a key with her when she discovered the door was locked. She had knocked several times, but no one answered.

"Hello?!" She called frantically, only slightly unsure of her urgency. It constricted her chest like a Python. It was just a notch under painful. after a minute's worth of searching the apartment, it became apparent that neither Aisha from Ri or Angkor was home. She groaned, rather loudly.

"I guess I'll have to search around town." She sighed, preparing her mental state for the indefinitely horrifically long search for the two.

MJC: Apologies for the bad quality, I wrote this two hours straight and didn't feel like editing.

Eve: As per usual.

MJC: Welp guys, I feel like I wanted to put a crap ton of info here, but I completely forget what it was... This chapter was a bit boring though, wasn't it? That fight scene kinda dragged, and there was barely any dialogue. Also, I made a bit of a change to a future chapter so I had to change a bit of the future chapters timeline... Aw, well, it wasn't big. Actually it really was. Basically, a character death explanation(Aren/Ran's lover) doesn't get an explanation, and the story's gonna end a bit more sadder, but also better in my opinion.

Eve: Are we done here?

MJC: WAITWAITWAIT! Thank you Rosa for being loyal ! You are officially my most appreciated reviewer of the... year? Yeah, year.

Eve: Powering down.

Toodle-loodles,

~Eve

MJC: That's my line!

Raven: Deja vu!