In the center of the platform, this shadowy world seemed so much larger than before. It was very much like sitting in the center of a large vase, staring out at the world through a filtered lens. She knew there was a steady base below her, as her feet were planted firmly, but beyond that? There was no way of telling what remained outside of the vase. Just a slightly condensed light above her, illumination from the stain glass below her, and an empty sea of darkness around her. She held her sword close. Though it hummed with Junpei's familiarity, it felt anachronistic in her hands. Wrong. She felt tiny, insignificant in this fishbowl of darkness.
"Well, done ...you can fight well enough against that which is without."
Ami hunched into a defensive stance, a response to the voice's call, while her sword hung awkwardly at her side. She wasn't surprised, nor did she look for the source of the voice. This strange form of vision quest wasn't over, just as she'd predicted. It only meant there were going to be more enemies slogged at her.
The sword grew brighter for a moment, as though responding to the voice's call- a lost sibling calling to its brother. There was a nagging in her mind, urging her to take a step forward.
The moment her shoe touched the reflective glass, everything cracked, just like the staff. Whatever light source was keeping the stain glass illuminated burst forth, streaking white lines across the darkness, and opening up the world before her. The vase she had been standing in was cracking. Ami took a preemptive step backward, but it was too late. The damage was done. A foothold, a staircase- there was nowhere for her to run. She needed stable ground. Was this her challenge? Was she supposed to find a way out of this?
Gravity decided it was done playing games. Her footing gave out beneath her, and for a strange moment, it seemed as though the glass was floating around her, suspended in a cloud of particles. Shards rushed towards her, one or two cutting her skin as she fell. An empty blackness was rushing towards her once more, her braid trailing about her as she plummeted to the ground. Her stomach lurched, but she kept a firm grasp on the sword. She had a feeling she'd need it.
A floating sensation came over her, and she realized she wasn't streaking towards the ground anymore, but gently hovering. One foot touched the surface, and she used to to steady herself as the other came down.
This place was very unlike the remarkable stained glass she'd been standing on earlier. Gray splattered across her vision in various forms- cobwebs, glass, mirrors. The shards that had fallen with her with spewed across the ground, all glowing with a feeble pulse, as though this place was alive. Breathing. Pulling her in. Ami spun a few times, sword extended. Unfamiliar territory bred unkindness in her. She vaguely wondered if this was a tomb, a resting place, when the voice spoke again.
"So lets see what lies within."
Not just any voice. Her voice. A whisper, from behind, that matched the exact tone that came from her own mouth. For a moment, she looked down, thinking it actually did come from her. Then, slowly, she turned around-
-to see a mirror image of herself. No, that wasn't quite right. There were two details askew. The first: Junpei. Where the mirror should've held a sword, a more intricate, fantastic version of Junpei was materializing. Golden spikes jutted from the top, runes pulsing with a vibrant yellow against the deep black ebony of the staff. Though her own sword had been buzzing in her hand, now it was silent, as though lulled by Junpei's presence.
The second: a sickly smile pasted across the other Ami's face, one of her genuine ones, as a look of placid happiness glowed on her face. "Congratulations on making it here. I'm surprised you managed to do anything, quite frankly. My intuition said you'd fall at the first pillar, crying like you always do."
Ami was too shocked to do anything. It wasn't every day that you saw yourself, and certainly not like this. The adrenaline she'd built up from her first fight had finally worn off, and now she was disposed with slackjaw expression, unable to move her feet.
"Look, see even now you're just standing there stupidly, like Madeline is going to come in screaming bloody murder while Marcus shields you and whispers reassurances. Can you do anything on your own?" It taunted her, and Ami fell for it. She snarled and took a step forward, but it was foolish. Her defense was wide open and just like the real version, the fake Ami wasn't stupid. The doppleganger took the opportunity, ran forward and slammed into Ami's stomach with the sharp end of Junpei, ridges cutting into her skin lightly and ripping as Ami scooted back a few feet. There was no hesitation in its movements, just brute force and a mastery of skills that Ami could only hope to develop.
A deep red welled across her white shirt, and Ami hesitantly put a hand on it. Her fingers gained a pinkish-red hue, as her breathing grew ragged, surprised even. When was the last time she'd bled like this? Really bled, not just the blood that she occasionally saw from scratches. This was something that would require stitches, maybe. Ami choked back a scream, in the form of a gasp, as tears formed in her eyes. Not necessarily emotional ones, but seeing herself bleed like crazy was shocking enough to garner an instinctive reaction.
Before she could retaliate, the doppleganger was on her again. This villain didn't spend time with wordy speeches. She was perfect, reacting quickly and not sparing any mercy as she batted Ami across the room, smashing her into the mirror the dopplganger had come out of. Ami, of course, had no choice in the matter, but to be flung like a rag doll- though she did keep a fierce grip on her sword. If she was dislocated from her weapon, there was no hope at all. As she impacted with the mirror, she slumped down, legs folded with her back against the now-smashed mirror.
She couldn't get up from her slumped position. Her arm felt wrong. Rather, her arm felt cold, and ... wet. She didn't bother looking at it. A bloody purple shard next to her revealed enough for her to not look.
A thick laugh escaped her, as she realized this was what it felt like to be truly human. No runic guns backing her up with a temporary shield- this was a new powerlessness. She imagined now that her real body was probably racking with seizures by now as she slowly died in the real world. How stupid she was, to be hopeful. She should've never taken this risk, never gambled her chips for a stupid coat and rank. Self-preservation had always been her mantra, and the one time she took a chance? Of course it would get her killed.
The sad thing? She really thought she'd had a chance this time.
Before she could let herself die peacefully a spear slammed down next to her head. Jagged crystals on the end of Junpei punctured the mirror behind her, tangling with her unkept hair. Her eyes traced up the staff, eventually meeting with a pair of cold reddish-brown eyes, not unlike her own. "And?" Ami spat ruefully. If this doppleganger was going to kill her, she might as well get it over with.
"What? No parting sorrows? No words of traumatic horror as you gaze up at your doom and wonder where it all went wrong? No- that's probably too dramatic, isn't it. Especially since there's nobody to bid farewell, adieu." Ami was silent, her eyes dead with congruence. "Have it your way." The air rushed as the metal fins sliced through the air, coming towards her chest.
The doppleganger frowned as resistance met her spear. Ami's hand was holding the spear back, now bloody as her flesh was ripped by the metal blade. The other Ami hadn't expected this, but it was no matter. She pushed harder and the blade slide down further, tip against Ami's chest. Ami groaned under the effort, and a smile crossed the other Ami's face. "Why?"
"I have people to say goodbye to," Ami grunted between her teeth as she exerted the effort to keep herself alive.
Now while the doppleganger fully intended to kill Ami, she was a curious sort. This nuance interested her- she'd been sure Ami would just give up and let death come to her, as seen in the past. For her, this was like playing with her food before she ate it. She wanted to play with Ami a bit. "Who could possibly put up with you?" The spear relented, returning back to the ground. While it was a relief to not have it pointed at her chest, Ami knew any sudden movements would have the blade slashing across her throat. The other Ami wasn't showing mercy- Ami was smart enough to recognize when she was being toyed with.
Her arm flopped down uselessly by her side, and Ami gritted her teeth. She didn't want to talk about -friendship- and -feelings- but what choice did she have? Her executioner was asking. "Kat. She's very kind, and we share a room. I'd like to thank her for her friendship and solidarity. Lex. He's very kind and I would admit to having a sort of ... fondness for him, the same way I feel fond of Marcus." Ami could've listed others- Tori, Madeline, Wilson, Sasha- Gale to some extent, she supposed. There was a certain range of information she wanted to give this foe though, so releasing all of their names at once could prove disastrous.
"Surely you think higher of them than they do you," the doppleganger conceded, as though she was puzzling through it as well.
"No," Ami said, with whispered repetition, "No." Though she didn't bother explaining it to the doppleganger, she'd had such suspicions. She'd worried that they were doing it out of pity, that they would drop her in a moment's notice, that they would "throw her under the bus" so to speak- countless options had run through her head, because that was how Ami sorted things. In the end, she realized that ... they were just her friends because they were her friends. There was no intricacy nor logic to it, no magical formula that would make them stay or go. There was no explanation to it, and Ami feared that there were no words to explain something without explanation.
That didn't mean nightmares didn't still plague her. She still had her doubts, she still had days when she felt like walking straight to the pods and never coming back out. Ami was, although hunter, also human.
There was a silence as the doppleganger mulled over her words, the same way Ami mulled over conversation. Eventually, Ami filled the silence with a quiet, "Junpei."
The other Ami's eyes flicked down to her weapon, as though something was wrong. "Junpei's been dead for a while. He's not coming back- I wield him, not you," she pointed out, though she was a bit uneasy about the statement.
Ami's face grew darker, and she admitted, "I know. That doesn't mean he wasn't my friend. I understand why he doesn't want to come back." A complacency loomed around her, as though making peace with that fact, but the lingering look of pain remained on her face.
"It makes you weak."
"Someone has to be the weakest link."
"It leaves you dead."
An odd look crossed Ami's face, something between amusement and pain. "Honey, I was dead a long time ago."
The other Ami rolled her eyes, looking at Ami with disgust for such a cliche line. Even as a double, there were just lines you didn't cross.
In that singular moment that the doppleganger let her guard down, Ami swung her legs out and stood up without using her arms. One benefit of fighting yourself? Ami knew her weakness. Ami's balance and stance had never been particularly solid. Her leg snapped out in a sort of half-round house kick across the doppleganger's core, knocking her back and giving Ami space from the sharp weapon.
Any instance of pain that was previously on Ami's face had vanished. The expression of hurt dropped from her face in the moments it'd taken her to get up. The pain in her hand and along her arm was one hundred percent real, but the stomach pain? Entirely exaggerated for the point of dropping the other Ami's guard. The fact that she'd been wearing a white shirt that day was coincidentally helpful in her endeavor, as the material made the small cut look worse than it was. Ami's strong point had always been her ability to control her emotions, and faking weakness was no difficult task.
Surprise and recognition crossed the other Ami's face as she stumbled backwards, but she didn't waste time with questions. She quickly swiped Junpei in circular motions and began pushing Ami back towards the edge. Ami returned the slashes with her own sword, but with one arm dead it was apparent that the shadow would soon overtake her.
"What's the point in fighting?" Her voice cut through the swings, as both opponents looked for an opening on the other. Ami was two feet or so from the edge, the other Ami one swing from pushing her off.
"I don't know!" Ami said, slight smile on her face. It was nice, for once, admitting that she didn't know. She was slowly learning to accept the fact that there were some things she simply couldn't handle.
"You have no weapon," it spat back.
"I do," she said, confidence beaming on her face, though it still held a frown. "And we clarified his name is Junpei."
The weapon in the shadow's hands began to dissolve, small particles of light breaking away from the main trunk that disappeared into the darkness. She looked irked, but continued swiping in an attempt to throw Ami over the edge before the weapon disappeared altogether. It was too late though. As the blade was about to hit Ami, the entire thing burst into light, as the small shadow creatures had done on the stained glass pillar, followed by small green balls. The other Ami looked alarmed, unsure what to do with herself.
Ami, on the other hand, hand never felt more in sync with herself. The other Ami crouched and turned to run, but Ami threw her small sword, pinning the other Ami's dress to the ground. In the same motion, Junpei appeared in her hands, as though summoning him had never been a problem.
The entire room began to shake, mirrors falling to the ground and shattering, untangling cobwebs as they fell. Ami looked around, paranoid of her surroundings, but feeling more confident with Junpei in her hands. Though the weapon hadn't spoken, there was a familiarity she could sense in the way his runes pulsed, the way she held him. The other Ami didn't move, caught under the sword that she couldn't pry out of the ground. Ami hesitated, but a voice stopped her.
< Let's go home! >
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