Welcome to Gaia! ::

Slipping out of Lonan's embrace, Elle walked slowly towards the vision...eyes still wide with confusion and shock. She stopped, just a few paces from the other woman, and really looked.

If there was a difference, aside from manner, Elle couldn't see it. She could feel, though, something swelling and dire. Some kind of terrible strength in will...a desire that almost brought Elle to her knees, the longer she focused on it.

Elle's hand tightened on the jar she carried, pulling it protectively towards her ample chest. "What do you want?" She extended her other hand slowly, reaching for the vision before her in dazed curiosity.

"Asra, she is not the same as our Elle. Just..... do not trust what you see." His voice was soft, barely audible to the youth standing near him. Still the edge was tense, foreboding. He could feel the itch on his scars. The cup was nearly ready to spill again.

"We are obviously not they. Look elsewhere." The tension in him kept winding tighter. He felt like a rubber band ready to snap. The sense of wrong just wouldn't go away and the mimic was just making him more nervous. After all, how many mimics in nature were deadly?

This was getting weirder and weirder..

"I.. uh.. what?" Asrafel blinked at Lonan vacantly. Of course she's not the same as Elle, Asrafel talked to himself. She's just.. the same. You know? Of course not.

He was more surprised at how uncharacteristically cold Lonan was being. He had never seen him this way! It was a little disconcerting. He bit his lip and looked from one person to another, confused and frustrated.

Elle's suggestion sounded, for the moment, like the best option. For now..

"It depends. Where do you think they would be? I've really got to find some of my friends too, and it's kind of an emergency.."

Lonan knew he was worrying Asra and Elle but it couldn't be helped. Hades he was worrying -himself-. But the air around that double practically twanged against what he knew Elle -should- feel like. "As am I, Elle. Being a reflection is no cause for alarm, neither is being a duplicate, but..."

He felt the first of the scars open, just a little bit, enough to turn alabaster lines red. "Elle, Asra, just ..... be wary. This feels wrong." He would not be this tense, his scars would not be tearing, if there were nothing to worry about. For now the best he could do was ignore the twinges he was feeling and keep a keen ear on the duplicate.

Elle looked down at the hand held out to her, and smiled. She took it without a word, and took a few steps forward to stand at her original's side. She took the time to inhale briefly, and discovered that Elle smelled delicious. She was sure she did not smell nearly as delicious as her original, which was, perhaps, why the other man was so hesitant towards her.

As she thought of Lonan, her eyes flickered instinctively towards him for but a moment; but it was enough to notice the red scars. Her smile faded into an expression of worry.

"I think you're bleeding," She whispered towards the man. "Are you all right?" She turned to Elle once more, as if Lonan might ignore her question, and asked again. "Is he all right?"

Had there been a battle before all this? What had she missed?

"He's...understandably wary. Please..." Dropping her voice, twisting for a moment to face her reflection, Elle tightened her hand gently in the other woman's. Half of what she said was not carried by her voice...instead, she willed as much power as she had into the space between them. "Don't let my trust be misplaced." It wasn't a warning. Elle's words carried the weight of a wish, and she brushed the woman's cheek gently with the back of her hand before turning.

Even as they started off, following the direction Asra had indicated, Elle was trying to put things into place. She wasn't a fool, there was something very strange here, but as she'd mentioned, their very existence was strange. It was the fact that the Other had to ask, about what Lonan was feeling, about his state. Lonan was guarded, but any empath could have answered the Other's question...and Elle began to wonder just how deep their similarities ran. Was there a soul there, to match her own?

"We should find the others. Asra, lead us? Lonan, let us know if..." She paused, picking her words carefully. "If anyone else approaches?" Elle stepped up onto the rocks and settled her generous hips to one side, planting her weight and pulling to aid the Other up. The worry was still stirring, distantly, and she wished she'd taken one of the roots from Lonan's jar.

..which, of course, he would be. A dark shadow passed over the group just as they had begun their journey, and Asrafel was attacked by a puff of dust as something landed in front of him. When the dust cleared, he peered curiously at the man in front of him.

"Lonan, what's wrong?" Asrafel would ask him, and Lonan would uncharacteristically grin. He reached out for the boy, grabbed him by the neck, and held him up. Asrafel was already flying, but the chokehold was tight, and he grabbed at Lonan's hands desperately. He couldn't breathe.

With a flick of his wrist, Lonan sent Asrafel down into the rocks beside him, where the boy crumpled like paper and lay still.

Oops. That wasn't Lonan at all, was it.

Elle gasped, eyes wide as another...another Lonan settled. "ASRA!" Everything happened too fast. The jolt that ran through her, Asra's shock and pain, hit Elle in a sickening wave. Lonan had been right...and Asra was hurt because she hadn't heeded his warning.

Reaching out, Elle pulled the closest person into her for comfort. Her fingers closed around the other woman's arm, tugging at her slender wrist. Elle realized, distantly, that her reflection didn't react as she did, didn't double at Asra's pain like it was a punch to the gut.

They are...not us... The thought was somehow heartbreaking.

"We're not angry with you! Please, don't...!" Tears sounded in Elle's voice as she called to the terrible reflection of Lonan before them. She knew Lonan's strength, and the thought of facing it, like this, terrified her. "Don't fight!"