Eve watched them as they took in their surroundings, a prominent smirk still faintly etched upon her lips. "A~h. Is this too hard to comprehend?" She flipped her silvery hair over her shoulder, puckering her lips as if she just ate something sour. "I don't think so, so we'll just move along." Eve spread her fingers, and a flock of ravens flew out from the hedges, surprising everyone.
"You died!" Elsword spat, grabbing Aisha and tugging him behind her. Eve assumed a wounded look, lifting her eyebrows in mock hurt.
"Oh, so is this what humans think is dead now?" She lifted her hand to him, shaking it, before sitting down on nothing again. She was sitting, but hovering. "But anyways, this is -"
"Where are we, and who are you?" The one with black hair demanded, the white streak in his hair dull and gray in the night. The girl with green hair shrank behind him, looking uncertain at everything she was looking at, as if might attack her at any given moment.
Eve took and released an annoyed breath, before snorting. "Humans, as always, are so stupid. I just said that this was Wonderland. Are you deaf?" She crossed her arms, her gaze switching to the three in the corner with a spark in her eyes. Then she raised her hand, looking bored. "Okay! That was introduction to Wonderland! Go!"
And then all the participants of her 'game' fainted, collapsing where they where. Elsword and Aisha, given their positions, had collapsed on top of each other, Elsword smothering her under him. Eve swooped down to where they where, tugging him off of her. "That must've been uncomfortable," She cooed to Aisha's limp body. "But it's okay, now."
Then she turned to the moderators, the ones who keep them on track. What were their names again? The ones who looked like her were called Proto and Watermelon or something like that... Ah. Apple. Not Watermelon. Right. "Take them to their separate dimensions. I want them placed on opposite sides of each Wonderland."
The one she could care less about, Speka, stepped forward with a polite bow. "Who should we put in which dimension?"
Eve considered, licking her lips as she stared down at her participants. "I want those two in the same Wonderland," She indicated to Elsword and Aisha. "And those two, those two, and those three. Might be tricky for the love triangle couple or whatever so do what you must. Haha, better yet, put the girl in the middle. Alright, chop-chop. Get going. Lazy." She gestured at Rena and Raven (of course she knew their names. She wasn't stupid) and Elesis and Aren and then at Add, Chung, and Ara. "Hooo~ this is going to be fun! Send out the duplicates."
Immediately, in front of her, test tubes lighted up. Inside, were exact carbon copies of her participants. Her 'decoys'.
Oh, how she was going to enjoy this.
Rena woke up in a hedge maze. It was different from the one she was in earlier, she could feel it. Cautiously standing up, she touched the hedge with her hands, carefully surveying her surroundings. No, it was just a hedge maze. But where were the others? More importantly, where was Raven?
Well, she -
"Hellooooo~~ can you hear me? Probably, I'm going to speak anyways. So, this is Wonderland! Actually, this is a lot of Wonderlands. Butttttt. Anyway." The person with silver hair that had seemed to know a lot about this world was speaking. "My name is Eve, and this is your Wonderland. You're on one side of the maze, and your significant other is on the other side." Eve laughed, and it was a horrible noise. It sent shivers down Rena's spine. "Let's see if you can make it there!"
Then the noise stopped. No, literally, everything was dead silent except for Rena's soft breathing. She cursed, something she rarely did, and stared up into the black night sky. There was no moon, no stars, no nothing.
If one could call it that, it really was a 'Wonderland'. Well, there was nothing she could do but go and find Raven. She took three steps, shivers tingling up her spine from the eerie quiet. As a nature lover, she hated silence like this. It meant something was wrong.
Wrong, indeed.
The air was thick, and Rena felt like there was a pressure in her stomach. She kept on moving, the hedges twisting in odd angles. At one point, she noticed a black hedge. When Rena went closer to inspect, she realized the hedge was completely covered in black crows, who immediately took to the skies after she saw them. The air was filled with static bird calls, and then it was quiet. Again the only thing she could hear was her own ragged breathing.
The question for now was: Who was this Eve, and why was she doing this? Is she even still asleep, in fact? What, just what was this? She had so many questions but one objective held firm - find Raven.
As she went in longer, she realized that she was getting nowhere. The odd twists and turns made no sense - was she going in circles? She realized this as she came upon the same hedge that the crows had been sitting on earlier - except it wasn't a hedge anymore. It was just a writhing mass of black thorns, a faint green light emitting from them.
The light crackled once, and Rena was face-to-face with herself. Actually, two of her. They looked identical to her, but were wearing different clothes. One had a side ponytail with a black string looped around it, and the other wore a stern expression with a wave of long hair.
"Wha..." Rena backed away, the hair on the back of her neck prickling with shock and alarm. They... Their feet weren't touching the ground! "W-who are you?" She managed, her back pressing against a hedge.
The one with the ponytail snickered. "Awww. I guess little Archer hasn't looked in a mirror lately, eh? Or do I just look like a carrot? Do I look like a carrot?" The other her directed the question at the... Other-other her.
"Pay attention, Sneaker. We need to get this over with." The other one said, her expression hardening (if that was even possible - she looked like she wanted to murder Rena) for a brief moment. "We are you."
"Idiot," Sneaker added, twirling her ponytail with her finger. She glided next to Rena, who had started sweating, and said, "You're really a scaredy-cat. Does your own face scare you that much? Haha, that's stupid."
"You're calling yourself stupid?" Rena retorted, her arms trickling with cold sweat. The prickles in the hedge behind her dug into her back, making it very uncomfortable. The scarier one was the one with the longer hair - she didn't smile, looked like a teacher. A very vicious teacher.
Sneaker looked taken aback for a moment before she released a coy grin. "Ohoho. What should we do with her, Watcher?"
Sneaker and Watcher. Ooooookay.
"We do what we were told to do." Watcher said, putting her hands on her hips. At this point she finally began to move, her feet still not yet touching the ground as she 'walked' towards Rena. "We want you to make a choice."
"Wait - wait... You still haven't answered my question. Who are you and what are you doing? How, how are you me? Aren't I me?" Rena was sure that she wasn't making any sense, but then again who would in this situation?
"You're you, but we're also you. And since you're you, that makes us another you that makes you you. Wait, what?" Sneaker seemed to have confused herself, dizzily spinning herself in circles. Watcher gazed at her emotionlessly, and then sighed.
"We are you. Another you. Now shut up and listen to what we have to say." She brandished her finger at Rena's face, and a cold shiver went down the latter's spine. "We want you to choose, got it?"
"Choose... What?"
Sneaker burst out laughing, this time spinning forward. At this point she was hovering above the hedges, and all Rena could see was a blur as she spun. "Oh my gosh, you're so dense! It's the thing that you've always been asking yourself, stupid! That thing, that thing!" She was laughing so hard, Rena found it hard to understand her.
At this point, Rena was getting increasingly frustrated. "Just tell me what you want from me!" Nonetheless, Sneaker started laughing harder and Watcher opened her mouth.
Watcher's eyes flashed a dangerous red - which Rena suddenly noticed. Unlike her green eyes, Watcher's and Sneaker's were a definite blood-red. Her hand dazedly went to her eyes as Watcher said, "We represent two sides of you, Archer. The one that wants to stay with your boyfriend," She gestured to Sneaker, who'd finally calmed down and was wiping away her tears, "And your future."
Rena's blood went cold. These people - her - was asking her to face something she'd been pushing back from the moment she entered university. "You... You want me to..."
Sneaker grinned. "Yepperoo. You've been avoiding this, haven't you?" She twirled her finger in the air, and then snickered. "Well, Archer, you can't run from this anymore. Make up your mind." She held out her hand, and Watcher did likewise.
They both said in unison, "Which do you choose? Your boyfriend Raven or your future?"
Rena hesitated.
This... This wasn't something she wanted to answer.
So she ran.
A/N: So, I have some things to explain. These other Renas, like they call themselves they are Night Watcher and Wind Sneaker. They're like Rena, but they were conjured up by Eve to mess with them. How they came to be isn't really an important part of the story, so I thought I'd explain it here if that little segment in the beginning wasn't clear enough.
Rena's backstory on this is next, and I'll explain what the duplicates mean by 'choosing'.
