Parallels- an MCSM AU [COMPLETED]

FIFTEEN- Lonely Ones

Though she does not have a place in the graveyard alongside said friends, that girl died a long time ago.

"What are you going to do?" he asks.

This is a common question between the two of them, almost like a game. If the mood is lighthearted, he will ask what she will do when she succeeds, and she will rattle off something optimistic and hopeful and never-quite-within-reach. If they are feeling a bit more somber, he will ask what she will do if she fails, and she will say something grim and determined and occasionally terrifying.

She will never, ever, say anything about giving up.

Now, she looks briefly up at him again, waiting for him to continue. He is still not sure which question he is going to ask.

Essa takes matters into her own hands, flipping idly through a few pieces of paper before finding the one she wants.

"When I succeed...I'm going to go here."

He looks politely at the sketch she holds up, which looks a little like a portal and a little like a gate and a little like neither of those at all. Across the top is written, in her familiar handwriting, the word 'Else'.

"Else." He comments. "Where or what the fuck is that?"

Her smile is bright and wicked as it flits across her face. "Nowhere, and nothing. And yet, at the same time, everywhere and everything."

He rolls his eyes. Essa is full of riddles, and while her more cryptic ways of speaking can be fascinating at first, they get obnoxious very quickly.

She sits down at the chair behind the desk, leaning her elbows on the wood as she speaks. "There's a something else out there, Aiden. Something so far beyond everything we know. A brand-new dimension, but not like these ones. Different, in nearly every way. No monsters. No blocks. No god-forsaken Primes."

He shakes his head, trying and failing to picture a place like that. "How can something like that even exist?"

"That's one of the many things I have yet to find out. It might take me awhile, but I will. You can bet I will."

He gives her a questioning look. "Really? So, after taking the reins of the dimensions and plunging everything into chaos, your next big scheme is to travel to another universe entirely?"

She gives him a demure smile. "That does seem like a logical next step, doesn't it?"

"Essa, I think every 'logical' bone in your body has long since deteriorated, if any ever existed at all." he says with a frown. "What are you even going to do in this new universe, anyways?"

She arches a dark eyebrow at him, her elegant face the very picture of secrets yet to be told. "Well, that depends on what's there, and what the people are like, and how I'm feeling at the time, and how easy it all would be to, I dunno...conquer."

Somehow, he is not surprised that she says this. He has, after all, heard quite a bit of her idea of a perfect world. But for some reason, the words settle uncomfortably somewhere near his stomach, giving him an overall heavy, uneasy feeling.

He doesn't enjoy the sensation of doubting his leader.

She does not seem to notice his discomfort, returning to poring over her pages and pages of plans like she was before he arrived.

"It takes a very broken, twisted soul to do the things you're planning to do. You know that, right?" Aiden remarks as he turns to go.

Essa's slight smile widens into a wicked grin. "Thanks. I thought you'd never notice."