5 Who's Who and Where's the Real One? (1)

"Can I say it now?" asked Lyra as she removed Apollo's hand from her mouth. Apollo nodded and gave a quick thumbs up.

"This person, she's not the person I was with a while ago," said Lyra slowly squatting down to further look at the person's face, "She looks just like...me." she said as she assessed her from head to toe.

"A doppelganger." mumbled Apollo rubbing his chin, "this is a common trope to confuse the readers, I have a bad feeling about this." he said warily.

Lyra further inspected the unconscious woman and found something notable. As she turned the body over a number was marked on the woman's nape indicating the number "246."

"Hey, take a look at this." she gestured Apollo to look at her finding, "Can you check my nape if I also have a number?" she moved her hair and exposed her nape to Apollo.

"Fourteen..." said Apollo his mind processing the meaning of their findings, "Does that mean—"

"It looks like I'm the 14th doppelganger." said Lyra in a heavy tone, cutting Apollo off.

The unconscious woman moved a little as her consciousness started to return. Her eyes opened and noticed the two looking at her with curious eyes.

"W-who are you two?" she said in a low voice.

"I'm Apollo and this is Lyra." introduced Apollo wanting to trigger a reaction with Lyra's name.

"M-my name. I-I'm also Lyra. You're a clone too?" asked Lyra (246) slowly standing up.

"Yeah, just now I found out. you're aware that you're a clone?" asked Lyra (14) back helping her stand up.

"Yes, I know that I am the last clone created." said Lyra (246) placing her arm over Lyra (14)'s shoulder.

"Wait, does that mean we all have different memories?" questioned Lyra (14) as she slowly walked towards Apollo, "Hey, why are you so silent suddenly?"

"I didn't think the Author was capable of creating a main scenario." mumbled Apollo as his thoughts ran amok.

Lyra (14) rolled her eyes up and looked towards Lyra (246), "Tell me, what do you know. What's your story?"

"When I first met Apollo we were flirting in a bar..." said Lyra (246) in a low tone looking down on the ground. Her face was slowly turning red. She glanced at Apollo to check for a reaction but he was standing there lost in thought with no care for his surroundings, "...and when he left, my entire world turned black and suddenly I found myself in this situation."

Lyra (14) looked at Apollo with confused feelings, she was feeling heavy because another woman was interested in him but at the same time the woman is just another version of herself which was understandable. She didn't know what to feel, she just blankly stared at the Apollo who's lost in his own train of thought.

After a few seconds of silence, Apollo finally snapped out of his thoughts and asked pointing at Lyra (246), "You said you met me, correct?" Lyra (246) nodded her head to confirm his question, "But, I don't recall meeting you. Only the Lyra which was with me." pondered Apollo, "Does that mean I also have a doppelganger?" he mumbled.

As he was about to go into deep thought a cry for help was heard once more.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

Apollo's suspicion deepened. He quickly located where the scream came from and instantly teleported there with both the Lyra's in each arm. Both Lyras were shocked at how Apollo boldly held their waists before teleporting, but they welcomed his embrace albeit a bit too flustered.

As they entered the scene a person was shivering in fear in the corner of the cave. There were no monsters or humans threatening the person, but she was screaming in fear. Apollo tilted his head wondering why she was so scared.

He calmly walked over to the person while assessing what's currently happening.

Splattt...

As he was walking he felt something get crushed by his footsteps. He quickly stopped and lifted his shoe to check what it was. He stepped on a small cockroach that was innocently minding its own business.

The person quickly stopped shivering as she heard the cockroach's life being taken by Apollo.

"A-Apollo?" muttered the person as the fear that rendered her unable to speak slowly disappeared.

"Lyra." responded Apollo back. The person was what he expected, another clone.

"You remember me?" she asked back her voice slightly trembling.

"Well..." Apollo quickly gestured the other two behind him to walk towards him, "...there's three of you now."

She looked at the other two Lyras, not a hint of surprise was on her face. She ignored the two and quickly looked back at Apollo.

"I'm Lyra the 69th clone." said Lyra (69)

Apollo chuckled for a moment and spoke, "Nice."

Lyra (69) tilted her head and spoke once more, "This reminds me how we first met, Apollo. You saved me from insect like monsters the size of elephants, due to that incident I fear every insect I see no matter what the size." she rubbed her arms trying to calm herself from the traumatic memories of the past.

"I don't remember that at all." said Apollo bluntly, the other two Lyras looked at him and he just shrugged, "Hey, there's no point in me lying." Both Lyras simultaneously rolled their eyes while Lyra (69) slightly frowned from what she heard.

"Hey, what happened after I left?" asked Apollo, since both of the Lyras can't remember anything after he left in their memories.

"A one armed man approached me all of a sudden and gave me a note," said Lyra (69) as she quickly rummaged through her pockets, ", after that..." Lyra (69) held her head and a pained groan escaped her mouth, "...sorry, I don't remember anything after that."

"One armed man? No, It couldn't be." mumbled Apollo as he tightly held the marble in his hand, "The other two don't remember anything after I left, but for some reason you have memories of what happened after I left." Apollo reached his hand out to grab the note.

He opened the note and read it out loud.

"Hello Apollo, you must have already known that there are 246 clones that I have created. All with different memories of you. The real one is located in the cavernous labyrinth where I have scattered the clones everywhere, if you don't find the real one in time. Every Lyra clone will perish.

You're probably thinking why you need to save them when they are just clones. Each Lyra is an innocent human which I have kidnapped and turned into Lyra, giving them false memories. If you want them to have their normal lives back. You need to save them, aren't you the...Protagonist?"

As he finished reading, silence dawned upon them. Apollo slowly crumpled the note and set it ablaze with his unexplained powers. A heavy aura surrounded the place they were in, Apollo was clearly upset.

"How dare this person..." said Apollo angrily the place they were in started to shake, "...give me a puzzle to solve."

"You're angry about that?" sighed the three Lyras simultaneously. Lyra (14) facepalmed at what he said.

"Oh right, also the lives the person put in danger, Of course." added Apollo, "I'll save them. Don't worry," Apollo puffed his chest and pointed his thumb at himself, "I'm the protagonist!"