Parallels- an MCSM AU [COMPLETED]

FIFTEEN- Lonely Ones

hi so this chapter is gonna be a little weird because it's 3rd person

i will admit this is sort of a filler chapter, but i just really wanted to write something more about this version of Aiden. he's a pretty important character overall but i realized i didn't really have too much character development for him and i wanted to fix that

also, the title is inspired by the song at top because i freaking love that song even if it's not totally relevant to this chapter lol

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Lukas's abandoned shouts ring through Aiden's head for the whole rest of the day. Justifiably angry, left-behind Lukas. Confused, worried, searching-for-answers Lukas.

Breathing, alive, real Lukas.

He can't wrap his head around that one fact.

Alive, alive. How is he alive? What changed?

He has not fully understood himself in years.

Why did you make that choice? Why did you say that? Why did you agree to go with her? Why did you pledge your loyalty to what you knew was the wrong person? Why did you walk away?

He doesn't know.

Essa is nowhere.

He knows, of course, that she must be somewhere. But she does not seem to want to be found, which makes her as good as nowhere.

He searches the underground fortress for ages. She is not in her quarters, nor any of her usual haunts. She would not be anywhere aboveground, not after that nasty fight.

On some level, Aiden does not even know why he's searching for her. He wants to know, of course, how the appearance of the two Primes will change her plan, but that is not urgent. He wants to demand if she knew that the Lukas of that timeline was still alive, but he already knows that too. Of course she knew. She knows everything.

Maybe he'd just rather not be alone.

Because, at the moment, he feels very, very alone.

Finally. There she is, in the shadows of the map room. He could swear he looked down here earlier, but maybe she wasn't here then. Or maybe he just didn't look hard enough.

Aiden does not like this room, not in the slightest. It makes him uncomfortable, all the charts and notes and scribbled drawings splashed messily with black ink. He is uneasy with how Essa acts when she's in here as well, all cryptic and ominous and strange.

Of course, she is cryptic and ominous and strange even at the best of times, but in here, it is somehow much more noticeable.

She is standing in front of one of the tables, tracing her fingers down a shambolically scrawled list of events. He doesn't know which timeline she's currently studying, and doesn't particularly care.

Essa doesn't look up when he pushes the door open and enters the room, though her pet pig comes bounding over to sniff at Aiden's legs and beg for pets. Aiden obligingly scratches behind the pig's floppy ears, thinking that Reuben acts more like a dog than anything else.

"How was your chat with them newbies?" Essa asks. She is still not looking at him, and, were they not the only two people in the room, Aiden would wonder whether or not she was talking to him.

Instead of answering her directly, he says, "That was Lukas in there. Really, honestly him. He recognized me."

"Yep. Thought so."

She is very infuriating sometimes, and she knows it. Aiden doesn't bother to question why she's being difficult at the moment, just rests his hands on the desk and leans towards her. "How? How is it him? Why is he alive?"