What do you mean you made no mistake in not giving the killer a reflection?" Jet leaned forward.
"That's impossible." Sunny's eyes widened in terror.
"I'm afraid that it is possible, little brother." Mordret nodded grimly.
"How the hell is it here in the waking world?" Sunny questioned.
"That is the million-dollar question, isn't it?" Mordret smiled.
"Yes, it is," Sunny nodded.
"Are you two going to tell me what the hell you're talking about, or am I going to have to start guessing?" Jet rapidly tapped her foot in annoyance, her frustration at the lack of explanation clawing its way to her voice.
"The Dream Hunter is one of the others." Sunny looked at her with a grave expression.
"Excuse me? Detective, you didn't sneak anything to drink while we were on our way here, did you?" Jet raised an eyebrow so high that Sunny thought it would fly off her face.
"No, I didn't, Mordret knows more about them than I do; he'll be able to elaborate and explain it better." Sunny shook his head and looked at the Emotionless Prince.
"Please, enlighten me on who these others are." Jet looked at Mordret.
Mordret smiled at the one-way mirror, touching it.
"Not a who, Ascended Soul Reaper, but a 'what'. The others are children of Mirage, or as everyone else calls her, the demon of imagination; they are creatures made from the nobodies that dwell in nothingness, created into reflections." Mordret paused, waiting for Jet to take in the lore.
"To make something from literal nothingness is a process I won't even pretend to understand. You're sure this is how they came to be?" Jet asked casually, but Sunny sensed a hint of fascination in her tone.
"Yes, at least that is what the lost runes told me, and of how Mirage came to make the first reflection and soon after, every reflection in existence. The creature of reflections that is currently slaughtering humans usually resides beneath a citadel known as the Bastion of the Dream Realm. Still, they also reside in every mirror that you see because every reflection that you see of yourself is another, but docile, serving its purpose." Mordret explained.
Jet nodded, her eyes slightly wide, as she processed the new information. "What are their ranks?"
"They have none; they can be as brittle as a mundane human or as strong as my father and the rest of the sovereigns, or worse." Emotionless Mordret, or as Sunny usually likes to call him, 'Blankdret,' grimaced.
Jet summarized the situation with a deep frown. "So we have a reflection that's somehow gotten out and gone rogue. But based on what you said, they can't just get out themselves; otherwise, humanity would have been wiped out decades ago, so someone had to let them out purposely. However, that raises questions about how many were released and why they were allowed to go free. Who let them out? And as far as sightings go, there haven't been any reports of people seeing evil twin versions of themselves."
"That is because this reflection is now intelligent enough not to show its face; the longer people acknowledge their existence, the more powerful they become, and this reflection has been killing people for over two months whilst being acknowledged by a megacity that holds hundreds of millions of people." Sunny slightly turned in his chair to face Jet.
The woman made a face at his statement and tiredly sighed. "At least we know what we're dealing with now, we just have to figure out its goal if it even has one. Maybe it's just killing just because it can."
"One step at a time. If you take too many steps, you end up tripping and ending up back where you first started." Sunny quoted something that Jest told him as a child.
"I suppose you're right," Jet nodded.
"So it's simple, all you have to do is find someone who doesn't have a reflection." Mordret sat back down.
"So all we have to do is find out who doesn't have a reflection in a megacity that holds hundreds of millions of people, respectfully, your highness, it's not as easy as you're making it to be." Jet almost rolled her eyes, but stopped and chose to close them momentarily.
Mordret held up his hands in a defensive gesture. "I said that it was simple, not easy. But I am certain you will catch this creature and destroy it. It is not the first time we have encountered these issues. As children, we had our fair share of encountering such creatures, Ascended Soul Reaper."
"Do you have anything else?" Sunny asked, ignoring Jet's stare
'Blankdret' shook his head and slightly frowned at him. "No, unfortunately, I don't, but if I do, then you will be the first to know."
"Thank you, tell Seishan I said hello," Sunny told Mordret, and the prince of Valor stood up to leave.
"I will, it was very nice to meet you, Miss Soul Reaper, you have a perfect partner that you're working with! Have a good day, Sunless." He bowed and left the room, but stopped when Sunny called him.
"Mordret!"
"Yes?" The Prince of Valor turned back around.
"Do the others bleed?" Sunny asked.
"Yes, they do, but it depends on the person they are reflecting on, whether or not they actually bleed, and even when they do, they never acknowledge their wounds. At least the ones who haven't gained sentience don't, I can't say for the ones that have." Mordret fixed his tie with a smile.
"What about its personality? Anything we should be looking out for in a creature that looks human?" Jet asked.
"I'm afraid not, Ascended Soul Reaper, you see, because it is a reflection of a person, which means its personality is the complete opposite of that said person. For example, let's say you have a neighbor who is the rudest person you've ever encountered. The other would be the nicest, most polite person you've ever encountered, so much so that you would have thought they hit their head too hard with the complete one eighty their personality did." Mordret sat back down across from them and continued once Jet nodded.
"Another example would be my father; everyone knows that he is very standoffish. But if he suddenly began giving my sister and me hugs as well as smiling with happiness, then we would immediately know that it is not our father, known as the king of swords, but instead the other."
"Thank you. Is there anything else we should know?" Jet pulled out a small notepad along with a pen and began to jot down notes about what she was told.
"They have glassy eyes," Mordret told her, getting her to stop writing and eye him, then look at Sunny, who nodded in confirmation.
"You must be joking?" Jet asked incredulously.
Mordret shook his head. "It's true, my father had my sister Morgan fight and kill her reflection as a child with Sunless, Saint Jest, Ascended Nightingale, and me watching. The three of us were only kids as well, but it is something one does not easily forget. It is also not something a child should have to see or do, but it doesn't matter now. The reflection of my sister was emotionless at first, but the longer she spent fighting it, the more it showed emotion and awareness of its surroundings."
"What kind of childhood is that?" Jet frowned.
"Not an ideal one, I can say that much." Mordret smiled sheepishly, after all these years it was still a strange sight to see. considering that he didn't bother putting up a mask around Sunny.
"So if it has feelings now, who's to say it didn't get bored and just start killing for the hell of it?" Jet asked.
No one answered.
***
Five Hours had passed before their conversation finished. Jet stood up to stretch, Sunny stifled a yawn, and Mordret stood up, pulling out his communicator.
"I am sorry but it seems that my time is up, if you need anything else you know where to find me. Visit me whenever you get the chance, Seishan has been wanting to see you." Mordret patted Sunny's shoulder and bowed to Jet then left the room.
A few minutes after Mordret left, Sunny was left with more questions than answers.
Who let it free?
Were there more than one of these creatures hiding within the city?
A voice suddenly pulled him from his thoughts.
"Detective, I know I'm a master but I can't be that beautiful to you." Jet was staring at him with an amused expression as he realized he had been staring at her while he was lost in his thoughts.
"Says who?" Sunny smiled to himself as Jet opened her mouth to say something then closed it. He had Jest to thank for teaching him to be quick with his words due to his flaw.
He stopped smiling and silently stared at the drawing of the murder scene again.
"What are you thinking, detective?" Jet composed herself and looked at him curiously.
"I'm thinking those forensics should hurry up so we can look at the scene. I'm also thinking something here doesn't add up. I'll be back." Sunny stood up and left the interrogation room for a few seconds before coming back with photos of the previous crime scenes. Sitting back in the chair, he spread the images out on the table, taking out the pictures of the victims' mangled bodies.
Jet watched him with a slightly confused expression, prompting him to explain his thoughts.
"So, the dream hunter spends the last two months specifically targeting criminals, the worst of the worst, but suddenly they change tunes and murder an innocent mother. While we were driving to the murder scene an hour ago, you said that lunatics like this don't follow logic, but it just bothers me." Sunny stared at the photo with a frown.
"Yeah, and I still stand by that statement. This 'other' creature is just another lunatic in my eyes," Jet scooted her chair closer to Sunny's to get a look at the photos as well.
"Maybe so, but it still doesn't explain why it came here to NQSC instead of anywhere else in what remains in this world." Sunny glanced at her, then looked back at the images.
"It does actually, you said it yourself, Detective, the more people it's around the stronger it becomes, and what better way to do that than to go to NQSC, the megacity that holds the most people out of all the quadrants around the world."Jet pointed out.
"Yes, I agree with that theory, but how did it know? Until they are around people, they are just mindless killing machines without any hostile intent because of their alien nature. I highly doubt it simply wandered around the dream realm until it found a gateway and entered the waking world." Sunny asked, only getting a shrug from Jet in response.
"Hopefully we'll know more when we can actually investigate the room where the murder took place, but in the meantime we still have interrogations to get through don't we?"
Yeah, we do, I'll call the first witness in, there's only three of them so it shouldn't take long." Sunny sighed and stood up moving to the door only to be met with Lieutenant Static's electric blue eyes boring into his.
"The prince of Valor was telling the truth about everything but I want to know your opinion on this, you've known him your whole life. What do you think?" His handsome dark face held a neutral expression as he stepped into the interrogation room and stared at Sunny.
His question was obvious enough, 'Do you think he's the Dream Hunter?'
"It's not him, Mordret has Ascended Seishan, Master Sebastian watching over him twenty-four-seven and occasionally when Saint Gywn isn't busy with planning events and meeting she watches over him too. I don't think she would be able to handle it if her son turned out to be a serial killer. And Mordret has been occupied with the business side of Valor for the past year on top of that well before these murders started happening. Besides, his other selves would have already said something about it."
"They could lie for him, all seven of them are the same person after all." Lieutenant Static pointed out.
"True, but the six of them all have guilty consciences and we already had Master Nightingale ask him when the murders started happening, sir." Sunny nodded.
"And?" He raised an eyebrow.
"And Mordret said that he barely has time to do anything other than work and killing people is far too messy as well as time-consuming as opposed to quickly annihilating their soul." Sunny explained getting a nod from his lieutenant.
"Alright, that's not the only reason I came here though, there is something else." Static motioned Jet over to him, she stood up from her chair and walked over to him.
"What is it?" Jet asked.
"I'm calling off the interactions for the witnesses." His tone was grave in a way that Sunny didn't like at all.
"Why is that, sir?" Sunny gave a confused look.
"Because they're all dead." Static looked at them both.