Iggy blinked. One moment she had been with Synthia and Rynne, and after another flashback (this time of her simply playing with her dolls in her old castle bedroom) she was back in the last passenger car. Looking to her left, she saw Christoph look at her as he noticed her change in demeanor once again. Or at least, the illusion of him did once again.

He called out her name. Iggy nodded in response. She shuffled out of the booth over toward Synthia who, unlike before, had no worry held in her eyes. There was no concern that creased her features. No awareness of the severity of the situation they were in. Or rather, their real world counterparts were in.

However, she did furrow her brow with worry seeing Iggy’s beleaguered expression. Drone like, Iggy dragged the group over to the end of the car and explained her situation. She was feeling immensely fatigued by the entire situation.

Livian scoffed in disbelief. The others took her more seriously. They asked the same questions as before, and Iggy relayed them to the best of her ability. Of them all, Synthia looked the most concerned. That look of concern creased her features once more. Iggy felt some parts grateful for it, others worried.

But wait, this wasn’t the real Synthia! Right? There was no reason to be worried about this.

So they set out from the train car as before, walking up in the same manner as before. Leaving Christoph at the end, rescuing the other passengers, keeping the flow of time constant. So far, so good, all the while looking for when Rynne or, even worse, the actual perpetrator behind this incident would pop out from the shadows to attack.

Reaching the upper train cars, Iggy grew tense again. This was where they had encountered Rynne before, and she had to be ready for anything. The scene played out almost exactly like before, except this time everything vanished except for her. Looking at Synthia’s and Livian’s fading forms, she reached out to them. Desperate to drag them back with her, to claw at their vestiges, to ensure she wouldn’t be alone. Yet all the same, they blew away like smoke.

Turning around, she saw Rynne. Stoic, silent and unsympathetic. She asked her what the goal of this was. Shaking her head, Rynne simply said, “The real me is still up above. What she has sent you down here for, you must figure out for yourself.”

She vanished in the next second. As Iggy blinked, her environment shifted back to that of the last train car. Just as startled as before, she whipped her head around, ignoring Christoph’s look of concern. She clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palm to find some sort of consistency, no matter how painful.

Once again, she explained the situation to the others. They moved up the train car, careful to avoid any other new obstacles, yet their route remained the same. Yet all the same, upon reaching Rynne Iggy’s surroundings were blown away like smoke and she was left crying in frustration.

“Again.”

Another pass up the train. Explaining, rallying them together, trying to make progress.

“Again.”

Now that she thought about it, she wasn’t experiencing any flashbacks this time. Perhaps that meant she was doomed to repeat the same, lonely loop over and over? In some ways, that was more terrifying than going even deeper. At least there would be a sense of progress there, but here she kept being sent back to the start without any explanation.

“Again.”

Again to do what? What was the point of sending her back? What was she supposed to do differently? Rynne had outlined absolutely nothing besides having Synthia land a hit on her, and where that left Iggy, she had no clue.

“Again.”

Stupid.

“Again.”

It was all unfathomably stupid.

“Again!”

Why the hell was she the one being forced into doing this.

After a whirlwind of repeated, failed attempts, Iggy found herself panting in frustration. She was on the verge of tears, not letting any spill due to her own pride. Clawing at her face, she screamed as the illusion of Rynne stared at her coldly.

She yelled at it, demanding answers. Demanding something other than this torturous crawl through repeated failures. She’d tried everything by now. Switching up who went up the train car, charging on ahead, trying to go back into the previous train car. She even tried to dive into the distorted car like at the start of this whole mess, but Rynne’s image had only repeated the word “again” and sent her back to the start. Now here she was, defeated.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Have you truly tried everything?”

Iggy’s eyes snapped open. She was saying something other than “again” for once.

What is it? she begged of the illusion. How could she possibly escape? What vital piece of information was being withheld from her which was extending this ceaseless onslaught of repetition.

“And therein lies your problem,” was all she got in response. Blinking, she was sent back to the start. Slumping down, she sighed. The Christoph illusion merely took this for a sign of fatigue and let her be. Before trying anything else, Iggy decided to collect her thoughts and take a simple breather.

She was clearly being forced to endure this for some reason, however inexplicable it was. And truth be told, she was growing very tired of facing consistent failure.

Looking around, she saw everybody’s peaceful faces. All at ease, all relatively content. Unaware of their situation and that they would never reach their destination with a madman pulling the strings. If this were all based on her own memories, then maybe staying in them a while wouldn’t be too terrible. Especially when compared to other memories of hers. Those would’ve been far less preferable, in all honesty. At least here she had some peace and quiet for a little bit, even with the screaming infant that had been reappearing each time.

Maybe she could just rest her eyes. She couldn’t be faulted for relaxing a little bit, right? Especially after all that had transpired.

Just as she was about to drift off to sleep, a hand shook her shoulder. Opening her eyes, she saw Synthia leaning over Christoph to reach her. She tried to shake her off, but still, she was persistent. Just like the real one she knew all too well.

Synthia asked her what was wrong. She brushed her off still, rebuffing her questions and telling her to go away. Still she kept asking. A few more questions later and Iggy’s frayed patience snapped.

“I said leave me alone!”

It had come out harsher than she had intended. Even she winced a little at how much vitriol she had poured into those words, but it was too late. Synthia recoiled and, for the first time ever, seemed dissuaded from her goal. She slunk back to her seat while the others looked at Iggy in surprise.

They shouldn’t look at her like that. Honestly, they had no right to look so surprised. They were all fake! Figments of her imagination reconstructed by dimension altering magic and who knows what else. The entire situation was so ridiculous, and Iggy would like nothing more than to wallow in her own thoughts.

Honestly. It shouldn’t be a surprise she’d act this way...

The hand shook at her shoulder again. Synthia was back, even fiercer determination in her eyes. Finding the situation awkward, Iggy tried once again to more gently push her away. Back to her seat, back away from her. Back where she wouldn’t be hurt.

As Synthia kept trying to talk to her, Iggy’s mind wandered. Thinking back, she hadn’t had very many friends. Will, Phil and Dill were more beleaguered errand boys she’d goad into doing what she wanted, and there weren’t many other people about her age she found herself hanging around. Socializing simply felt too... odd. Especially after the events that had led up to her living in Asphodel in the first place. And even before then, she’d had little time to interact with people given her position.

Which had led her here. On some who-knows-what mission to transport a mystical weapon of power across a country while pursued by a monstrous mercenary, people who could distort time, small-town crime bosses and that was only the beginning. Had she made the right choice? Was she really not cut out for this? Part of her just wanted to go home, and yet...

“I don’t think it has to be as complicated as you’re thinking.”

Looking up, Iggy focused on Synthia. She was putting on the biggest, widest smile she could muster. Just for her.

“I mean, I guess you’re worried about our whole situation, right? Wondering if we’re going to make it, if you’re really gonna be okay doing this, if you’re up for it, but uh... I don’t know if any of us really know what we’re dealing with. That’s all the more reason we have to trust each other, right?”

Something seemed to click into place inside of Iggy’s head. For the first time in what felt like forever, she let a natural smile grace her expression. “I think you have a point.”

Gathering her resolve, Iggy cleared her throat and stood up, ignoring everybody’s looks of confusion. “Okay then, Rynne. Show yourself. I know you can hear me. I think I might get what you’re trying to teach me, but I’ll be honest, you need to give me a little more than this.”

Her surroundings once again vanished like smoke. Synthia was the last to fade away, her image giving Synthia a big thumbs up and that same wide smile before she did. In her place, Rynne appeared.

“You the real one?”

She nodded. “What have you learned?”

Iggy sighed. “I don’t know if it’s so much learning as it is realizing something you’ve always known.”

Rynne said nothing, arms folded. She then snapped her fingers, and all of a sudden Iggy was next to Synthia once again. The real one, this time, judging by how her eyes lit up when she saw her. Her forehead was sweaty, hair clinging to it.

“Whoa, Iggy, you’re back! And alive!”

“Well, she did say she wasn’t going to hurt us,” Iggy said. Surprisingly, much of the frustration she had been feeling before seemed to have gone away. That alleviation of stress was a godsend. “And I think I know what she wants now.”

Wiping her brow, Synthia leaned in. “Yeah?”

“All this time, we’ve kind of done things all disorganized,” Iggy explained. “I mean, even going up the train we barely knew what we were doing or what we would encounter. We let that asshole trap us. So for the sake of getting out of here, why don’t we work together to beat her?”

“But she said for me specifically to fight her first.”

“True, but she never said that had to be equated with you fighting alone, did you?”

The light of epiphany shining in Synthia’s eyes, she nodded in agreement. “Okay. Yeah, I get that. I like the way you think, bestie.”

Iggy chuckled weakly. “Okay, you can get away with calling me that just this once.”

Getting fired up, Synthia pumped her fist as she twirled the Mioja around. “Okay. I’m getting psyched. Let’s beat this girl and see if we can’t fight our way out!”

“You’ve got it!”

Having heard their resolve, Rynne appeared in front of them. She had drawn her bow at the ready, arrow nocked and ready to fire. “Interesting conclusion you’ve arrived to. Let’s see if you can carry it out.”

The girls rushed at her, giving their all to escape their situation and truly working together for the first time.