Omen's POV
As I pulled Mike to his feet, the mirrors surrounding us began to fade away, and we saw two people waiting for us. A girl (or a woman?) with a waist-length caramel ponytail and a short white-haired man with short white hair with a carefree smile. Immediately, I noticed that his left eye was inconspicuously covered.
"Sharon Ricci and Xerxes Break." Mike greeted them solemnly.
I stared at him in shock. That was a 180-degree change from just now.
"Aww, don't be like that, Mike," Xerxes swung his arm around. "After something so heartwarming like that? We saw everything the moment you guys entered Wonderland."
Mike scowled at him before pushing him away.
Sharon approached me and gently clasped my hands. "Welcome to the Dark Horse Organisation. We have been waiting for you."
"Why didn't you guys come out when we arrived in Wonderland?" I asked.
"They wanted to see proof," Mike answered. "Proof that we weren't like the Elders or the Creator."
I was confused. Aren't Mike and I part of the same group as the Elders and the Creators? Sharon noticed my confusion and quietly guided me into their headquarters. Along the way, I realised that part of the place was made into portals. However, these portals were very special. They were not the usual glowing ones we typically used. Instead, these were more like one-way mirrors of specific scenes in the book.
Sharon explained as we walked. "Unlike the Guardians of the Forest, people of the Dark Horse Organisation are self-aware characters. We believed in shaping our destinies differently from what the story had written us to be. Thus, we experiment on the possibilities of what would happen if we made a different choice at an important storyline."
"That's just like the fanfiction universe that Mike just discovered…." I mumbled. "You mean that we don't have to maintain the story?"
"Pfft." Xerxes giggled and rolled his eye. "Maintaining the storylines was what Ravenna believed was the role of the Guardians and what they were created for. But as you can see from our extended work," He waved at the portals around us.
"… We could do so much more other than guarding the stories against external dangers. That's why there are so many branches of Guardians. My lady didn't see eye to eye with that stubborn robot and created our place from scratch."
I pondered what was said and observed my surroundings. "So… what we believed in was not the only answer? A guardian doesn't have to maintain the stories. We can not only protect but influence the path of the story?"
"Of course, we have limitations since we are not the story's authors," Sharon cautioned. "Certain laws within the story must not be broken, or it destroys the entire world the story is set in."
"Enough said," Mike spoke up suddenly as I contemplated her words. It felt like I was growing closer to understanding what my abilities are actually for, but that bubble of thought was broken. "Dark Shadow and his people destroyed the Library, and with its last remaining strength, it sent us here. Even… even Imagination was taken away."
"We felt that." Sharon nodded with a serious face. "He's still preparing something, or we would have been gone from his idea of a story."
She showed us to their meeting room. I gasped in shock because it felt like a tornado had entered. Books and papers were littered everywhere. It was challenging to see where the chairs were. There was only a small and narrow path to the table.
"The fanfiction idea is slightly different from what we are researching on," Sharon pointed out as she pulled out some data from who knows where. "Think of the theory of the story and the author. Fanfiction can be based on one original story, but multiple authors can exist. Hence that same story need not be based in one world. But the multiverse theory is the opposite. You can have one author but many variations of the same story."
She gestured to Xerxes, who pulled down slides hanging from the walls. They were information being gathered on Dark Shadow and his people.
Damon Windsor was a demon King who broke out of his world after he personally killed his lover. Countess was an unfortunate lady who, after a lifetime of sexual harassment, got forced into a marriage and, by some trick of fate, got an illness that turned her into a vampire. She killed her abusive groom and broke out of the world using her newfound skills. And Dark Shadow… there was nothing on him.
Mike shared the information we had on him, and Xerxes updated it. Taking a step back, we took a moment to look over the data. Dark Shadow's story was that his wife and child died while he was away. He died without ever knowing whom the killer was despite spending his entire life searching for them. Sharon looked apprehensive as she mulled over the information we had given her.
"This is much more serious than I thought," Sharon commented. "That means they got together because they had one thought in mind. Revenge against their fate. Hence, this explains why Imagination was stolen away."
"They want to rewrite their fates completely." Mike caught on to her thoughts. "They want to be the gods of their own stories."
My back turned cold.
It turned out that the villains were crazier than I thought they could be. Fundamental laws were placed to maintain balance in the stories, worlds and universes. To believe that Dark Shadow, Countess and Damon Windsor wanted to use Imagination to rewrite everything.
"Why haven't they done anything yet?" I asked. "Since Imagination is so crucial to their plan and they had it in their hands, why the wait?"
"They may be waiting for the right moment," Sharon replied. "If they want to rewrite, they have to do it when everything is aligned and all the portals to everywhere opened. And the perfect moment is…."
"… The lunar eclipse." All of us spoke aloud. That was the moment when the moon, Earth and sun were aligned.
"Young lady, it's tomorrow." Xerxes checked the calendar. "Just a day."
"There's not much time. Alert everyone," Sharon hurriedly cleared up the things and opened the door. She looked over her shoulder with a determined expression. "Tell them to prepare for war. Rest up before we embark towards Dark Shadow's castle."
"This time, it's the real war." I gulped nervously as I heard Mike say those words.