Ice-cold water dripped from Ena's clothing as she crawled out of the lake on all fours, a sea of memory invading her head like a bullet digging through her membrane.
"... What did you do to me?"
Ena whispered under her breath, her words shooting toward the doppelganger. With it came an undescribable malice that filled Ena's emotions to their peak, drowning her despite being out of the lake. Anger, sadness, and trauma all foiled up into a single cloth, which confused her mental state.
She was already facing incredible trauma, but it seemed to stack even more as the seconds passed.
The doppelganger only chuckled at Ena's presence, laughing as if she had told a joke. "I barely did anything; all I did was stand here, while you remembered."
"... Do you think I'm stupid enough to believe this!?"
"Well, you aren't smart enough to know if it's fake either, can you?"
"You little!—"
"Shit?" The doppelganger said, as if taking the words out of Ena's mouth. "Does it ever strike you why the 'Prideful' Ena doesn't like having caretakers and servants around her despite effortlessly using her daddy's money?"
Ena's eyes widened, illuminating a faint glow through the mist as she listened to her words to heart whilst staring at the ground.
"How you would easily order people around and yet push away any servant that comes your way..."
Each word seemed to weigh the last; Ena wanted to deny, but there were no words that could rebut hers. She tried to speak for herself, but ended up only biting her lip, making blood leak out of her lips.
"And with our ability, I'm sure you found many anomalies in our bodies; things... that don't match up."
And with every word weighing, the more she went deeper into a spiral, eating her alive, starting with her sanity.
"Your rebellion against having servants isn't Pride, it's our body coping."
Then she snapped, every part of her body reacted, her blood, her mind, her soul jumped toward the doppelganger, her hands targeting the doppelganger's neck.
Her body flew toward her, putting all her anger into her grip while she pinned down her doppelganger. Their eyes met, the only source of light illuminating the mist. With their gazes locked, Ena pressed her thumb deeper into her Adam's Apple, blocking all airways from exiting or entering.
Straddling her hips, making sure that she couldn't escape whatsoever, though it seems like the doppelganger had no intention of escaping with that innocent expression of hers. She didn't know why, but that 'innocent' face felt like she was mocking her, Targetting her only—as if enabling her.
"Why..."
Without hesitation, she raised one of her hands from up over her shoulder and dropped it on the doppelganger's face.
"Can't you just..."
Then another one, and another one, she was relentless, never stopping even for a break once.
And with each punch getting heavier and more powerful than the last. Making the doppelgangers' blood paint the ground around them, crushing the ground beneath them.
"Shut, Annoying mouth of yours!?"
She couldn't stop, and wouldn't stop even if she had the choice; she just wanted her gone, she herself was an anomaly that brought constant reminders of her guilt and shame—wanting her gone was only natural.
Time went by fast; seconds turned into hours in just a single moment. Ena hadn't acknowledged her surroundings until now; it had turned night, the mist that swallowed them blended well with the darkness, their only light source being the dim stars and the crescent moon that lingered above.
And even after all that, every bruise Ena inflicted upon her old self, making the doppelganger soft. Skin was bleeding and ragged, and covering her entire body with nothing but bruises, she still had that expression that frustrated her.
Even when the surrounding terrain had shifted and was reshaped into a new land, the doppelganger always seemed to have the time to mock her and her efforts.
"I'm getting déja vu, you had beaten me up like this in the past, and even earlier, but it was all useless in the end. I would always disappear when you always had your guard up, making you confused..."
Ena clenched her jaw tight, and just as the doppelganger had said, she had disappeared when she most expected it, just a single blink, and she was gone.
"... And would appear right beside or in front of you—maybe even behind—and show up all fine with no bruises to be found."
Droplets of water dropped to the ground, despite there being no rain, and her clothes dried.
"Why...?"
"Why what? Why did this all happen? Why did Haru have to die? Why am I like this? Why so many whys... But I won't pretend what you're asking for."
The doppelganger pressed her index finger against Ena's scalp, her knees bent as she stared at her.
"Why you're remembering all this now, especially just after Haruo died..."
"It's because of Haruo's death..."
"What?"
"When he died, it triggered an awareness in your body, you might not know, but muscle memory plays a key role in remembering things, and because of this, a chain reaction happened, which made you remember the missing memories father kept from you. In this case, the trigger was excessive trauma."
"... If that were the case, then how was I not able to remember it when my dad died?"
"Because Haruo was there... He became an anchor for your emotions, providing a clearer guide for your feelings. Though trauma still lingered, it wasn't a mess, a mess like before."
"I see now... What are you?"
"Huh...?"
"At first, I thought you were a reflection of my guilt or hallucinations, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore... You have access to my memories, thoughts, and even knowledge, but some things don't add up. You know more than I do..."
Ena stood up from the ground and summoned her daggers, her eyes still leaking, and with them, her eyes twitched every second. Her posture wasn't great; it was tilted at best, but that didn't stop her from driving her blade near her throat.
"That isn't all, whenever I would try to harm, two things would happen, either go through you or make contact; and I could feel the contact, it's not an illusion, it's real, but the most obvious one of it all is that you have a will of your own."
Her blade was directed at her neck, both staring at each other, both not daring to leave the gaze. "So I'll ask you this only one more time... What are you?"
The doppelganger only smiled and stepped away into the darkness, her body blending in before it all disappeared, leaving only her haunting ruby eyes as the last to disappear.
Voices from far in the woods echoed to the lake, then to Ena's ear. She shot a glance at it, sensing multiple figures closing in on her direction. It wasn't long for her to figure out who they were, as they were the only ones near the place.
"Where could she have gone...!?" Leo said.
"I heard a loud sound coming from here!" Isaac pointed out.
They kept circling the forest until they came to a frozen lake. That's when they saw two pairs of blood red eyes glowing in the dark as it stared at them, a stare that could scare anyone else if they saw it. The gaze sent a chill through the entire division; a great hostility that they hadn't met before.
It was Ena, they knew it was, but she felt like a stranger; she wasn't the same one they had seen just a few hours ago, but what was it? What made her different than before, they weren't so sure anymore.
"Ena...?" Isaac spoke, breaking through the silence.
In response, Ena turned her whole body parallel to theirs; she had her blade out, which made them instinctively assume a stance. Her blade disappeared into thin air—as she went forward, she went past them, bumping her shoulder into Isaac's before vanishing into the woods.
"Hey...!" Tatiana exclaimed after her.
Leo only pulled her back, snapping her finger as a flame illuminated their surroundings, giving them a clearer view through the mist. The frozen lake was different from what it had been before; it was disoriented.
Tiny puddles, unnatural terrain, cracked ice in the lake, and more; most parts of the lake were out of proportion, with some being destroyed.
Rocks skew from the sky, the trees sliced into bits, and the mountain... It was demolished, not like the parts, but full on destroyed, till there was nothing left. The whole place was a mess, like a battlefield.
"What the hell happened here...?"