BEWILDERMENT

Opening his eyes, Evander and Shun were inside the infinite sky loop. The place was a space with a sheepskin sky and bright green grass, just like the painting in the museum. In the middle of that there was only a table with clones of both Evander and Shun but only one was the real one.

"Then this is your heaven," Evander said in unison along with his clones.

"I painted that piece of art, maybe I had been here before," Shun replied along with his clones.

"Not bad at all," Evander said, looking around at the rather unreal landscape.

Shun laughed loud and clear, putting his feet up on the table.

"I told you to join us, we wouldn't be here right now," he frowned, "I liked you."

"It's true, we could have been good friends but I only have one purpose and I'm loyal to that," he leaned towards the wind boy.

"I understand that too," he bowed as well.

For a few seconds, they stood face to face with their elbows on the table, every movement they made, every word that came out of their mouth was automatically copied by their clones.

"You know, your painting is missing a bit of darkness," Evander uttered causing Shun to shiver.

Shun became alert and paid attention to his surroundings, expecting the sky to turn black just like in his painting but that didn't happen, at least not at that moment. A loaded gun materialized on the table, Shun was surprised and didn't know what to think.

"So, that's your heaven? The clones are for you and this weapon, what are you up to Evander?"

"You are aware that we are not travelers right?" he looked at him, "at any moment we will forget that this is a loop and we will never be able to get out..."

Shun's eyes widened, cold sweat ran down his back, he didn't want to fall into madness or be trapped forever without knowing that he is trapped.

"The weapon is to keep us awake, plus it will also help one of us get out of here," he frowned without taking his eyes off him.

"What are you talking about?" he swallowed.

"It seems like I'm talking to the wall," he rolled his eyes.

"Grr, I really don't understand you," he growled.

"We'll run out of bullets until one kills the other," he looked up at the clouds, "when one dies, the blood will stain your kindergarten drawing and the loop will break, now you understand me?" he smiled slightly.

Shun bit his lip at the comment and at the thought of dying. He had finally understood Evander's plan, each one would have a turn to use the gun and shoot any clone until they found the real one, there was even a rule of not shooting or if the gun didn't fire it would still count as a turn, it would be quite a challenge.

"Are you kidding?"

"Not at all," he handed him the gun, "you start," he leaned very relaxed on the back of the chair.

Shun's expression changed from bewildered to doubly bewildered.

"Hurry up, we don't have all day," he commented sarcastically.

"I won't," he put the gun on the table.

"Come on, don't say you don't feel like shooting me," he raised an eyebrow.

Shun simply couldn't, if he missed the first time there was nothing to ensure that Evander would hit the target the second time.

"No," he said, very sure of his decision.

"Okay, then it's my turn, if you want to waste yours that's your problem."

Evander grabbed the gun and fired without a second thought, directing the bullet towards one of his own clones.

"See? It's not that difficult."

"This guy is crazy," he thought as he watched him act, "why you? Why yourself?"

"Nothing assures me that you are not camouflaged like me."

Shun took the gun and shot the Evander who had taken the gun a few seconds ago believing it was the real one but it wasn't, the clone simply disappeared. Each time it was his turn to take the weapon, a different clone carried out the action.

Every time Shun took the gun his hands shook, the stress consumed him in every second that he had to face the bullets, although of course, he would not shoot at his own clones even if it meant that Evander was one of them, he was so proud that he wouldn't shoot himself.

"Damn," he thought.

Each bullet was one clone less than hundreds that were there and the worst thing was that within the loops the elapsed time was unknown, they could have been fired for years and yet the bullets were infinite.

On the other hand, in the real world, darkness had taken over the earth, Ocean with the help of Ebon had locked the entire surviving population in the loop of infinite night where only fear, uncertainty, loneliness, disappointment existed and any negative emotions. That loop brought out the worst in people.

Those closest to him were in mourning, mourning Ronda's death.

"Zev," Luna approached.

Zev looked at her with a confused expression.

"I'm sorry Luna," he uttered.

"Where are the others?" She sighed, "Milo, Evander and Shun."

"Luna, Milo died," he confessed, his voice shaking and breaking.

Luna was processing the information, she thought Zev was joking about it but seeing how he bit his lips and held back his tears she could deduce that it was true.

She fell to her knees on the floor wondering how that was possible, under what circumstances, at what moment. She looked at the palm of her hands and tears flowed from her eyes and fell onto her skin.

"I'll never see him again..." she murmured as her saliva fell down her chin thanks to her crying, "how he died?"

"He didn't die as such, but was murdered..." Zev said touching her shoulder.

Luna opened her eyes and turned to look at him.

"Who did it?"

Zev was slow to respond, he didn't really know how to say it was Ocean, he wasn't even sure about revealing it.

"Answer me!" She hit him with a reality check.

But Zev didn't answer. Luna began to cry hard, looking in all directions until she noticed Ocean, who was motionless in the darkness, with red eyes and veins jumping on her face.

Luna frowned, using her power, she noticed that Ocean's temperature exceeded the limits, suddenly her red eyes looked at her and as if she were watching a movie, Luna looked at Milo's death.

"Was you!" She pointed.

She ran towards Ocean without a care in the world and attacked her with a closed fist.

"Because you did?" She screamed with a blow that Ocean didn't even feel.

"It's not personal..." she replied dryly.

"You should not do it!" She paused to cling to her, "I wanted to see you and tell you what had happened between him and me, I wanted your advice..."

"I don't care," she replied without any emotion.

Zev walked over to Luna and pulled her away from Ocean.

"Don't pay attention to her, she's not serious, of course she cares but not now, she's not her, I know you can feel it," he murmured.

Luna looked at Ocean again, her temperature was still exceeding the limits, something was definitely not right.

Luna, too upset, let go of Zev and ran away from there. Meanwhile, a thick black liquid came out of Ocean's mouth, knocking her unconscious. Ebon had left her body.

As he left, Ayden attacked him but Ebon was able to defend himself well although he was injured.

"Why are you attacking me?" asked.

"Because you wanted to kill Ocean, I won't let you hurt my sister."

"I don't plan on killing her, I can't kill any of you, much less you," he gently cupped his cheek causing Ayden to blush.

Ebon smiled proudly.

"It seems I can still make you blush," he brought it to his mouth. Ayden frowned and took his hand away.

"This is the worst shit ever," Barret interrupted.

Barret carried Ronda's body and Ayden carried Ocean's body. Without Evander, it was up to him to take the lead so he ordered Maeko and Ayden to leave there to find a solution and free the boys from the infinite sky loop.

The war between civilians was still going on, Jolene clung to the idea of not letting them escape, she would keep their heads as a trophy if possible, so with her entire army she attacked them until she managed to kill one of them.

Unfortunately for them, Barret caused a strong earthquake that was destroying everything in its path and with the darkness of the infinite night loop, people's demons came out of their deepest hiding place...