Parallels- an MCSM AU [COMPLETED]

FIFTEEN- Lonely Ones

Essa finally glances up at him. She does not have her bandana on anymore, and he is once again struck by how strangely pretty she is. There is a strange sort of delicateness to her face that does not suit her personality, accented by her slanted brown eyes and framed by her long black hair. Her eyes drop back to her research, and she says in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, "Deviations, Aiden. Things happened differently there."

He huffs. "I know that. But what? What changed that let him live?"

She has the gall, then, to look directly into his eyes and lie. "I don't know."

She knows. She knows exactly what caused every single deviation, and she knows how she could've changed it. She knows, she knows, and he is aware that she does.

With another annoyed huff, he leans away. "What are you going to do with them? They're prisoners for now, but are you planning on leaving them there forever?"

She assumes a thoughtful expression. "Mm...no, not forever. I'll figure out what to do with them once my plan is complete. Once my world is perfect again, then I'll deal with them."

He scowls. Essa's plan is a twisted, complicated thing, and even after years and years by her side, he is still not entirely sure of all its details or how it ends.

That does not matter too much, though, because he has promised to be loyal to her, and he's not intending to go back on that just because he doesn't understand how her brain works. He knows she has good intentions and is striving for a happy ending for all of them. That is enough. It has to be enough.

So he follows her lead. He does what she says. He is her guard, and her informant, and whatever else she needs him to be.

He has since stopped asking himself why he chose to be any of those things.

Essa looks up at him again, with earnest brown eyes. "I'm so close, Aiden. It's unbelievable. I'm so, so close."

"How close?" He presses. The answer will not mean too much to him, and he knows this, but he asks anyways. He has never been good at understanding how exactly the timelines work and why they do what they do.

She purses her lips. "I don't have an exact time. All I can really do is wait until the newest timeline is ready, but after that it will only be a matter of a week or two. As long as I can keep the other Primes out of the way, everything will be fixed within the month."

A faint smile darts across her face. "Less than a month." she says, obviously savoring the words. "I've been working on this for how long, and now it's less than a month before everything's set right. Everything."

She again returns her attention to the sets of papers that cover the desk, picking one up and examining it briefly. Aiden watches mutely as she does this, his head full of too many thoughts.

She has indeed been working on this for a long, long time. It was roughly six years ago when she first learned of the timelines, first began delving into the secrets that now drive her entire life.

Six years ago, there had only been two deaths. She had not yet lost everything, not yet begun to spiral down into the dark, vengeful woman Aiden knows her to be today. She had been fascinated by the timelines, but she had not yet begun to weave her elaborate plan. That came later, after more tragedies occurred and more lives were lost.

Sometimes, Essa frightens Aiden greatly. She says strange and terrible things, reacts to events in ways that he doesn't know what to do with. She has always been a little unusual, but sometimes her uniqueness is too uncanny for even him.

Sometimes, in these moments, he forgets that she was not always like this, that many years before, she was simply a girl with dreams of being a hero. A girl with friends, in a life she enjoyed, a girl who still went by her own first name.