She was a wall. Smoked and coarse, Ivy couldn't read her like the other girls. Even her form carried something alien yet familiar - as if the heiress's shortcomings were self-inflicted.
Together they raged.
Against the same cold, matted darkness.
Alia slid back, twisting her waist as she began to retrieve a pin from her black hair. A stream of liquid metal spewed forth from the silver, comb-like object, forming a curved blade that bent almost like a whip. Ivy escalated things in her own way, projecting a few shattered fragments of her mindscape upon the darkened floor, illuminating it like a moon-swept mirror.
That gave her a bit of light, if only a little. Ivy still had to worry about the dancer's new armament. But by then, simple exhaustion had been replaced by a strange melody in the back of her mind. It warmed her soul.
Someone was watching.
She could feel their eyes burning into the back of her head.
"You're one of us, aren't you?" Ivy probed, hoping to chip away at Alia's confidence.
Alia furrowed her brow, spinning like a ballerina across the glass surface as her blade extended outwards. "You don't even know what you're talking about."
Ivy raised her staff to block, flinching back as the blade nearly wrapped around to cut her nose. She wasn't nearly as comfortable with danger as Alia. Still, she seemed to hold her back with presence alone.
Alia knew something she didn't.
"You know what I'm talking about," the heiress spat, standing in the center of her illuminated defense. "And you're afraid of it."
"I use you. Forever trapped, I am not," Alia spat with increasing anger. "But do call me out, why don't you, when I hesitate to charge a raging beast. That's all you are. More than Lunae's people ever will be."
Ivy didn't need words to illustrate her skepticism. It only took one look to enrage Alia further. With an open palm, she leapt into the air and called upon a swirling vortex of purple energy. Calling it a miniature black hole would have been an absurdity, but the small orb in her hand did indeed carry a level of gravitational influence.
Ivy surmised her chances and built a wall of angular shapes before darting away.
Not fast enough.
Alia hurled her home-made bomb at the floor, shattering Ivy's projections in the process. The heiress went sailing and soon found herself lost in the dark. With no choice but to take her chances, Ivy prepared for battle, staff and baton in hand.
A figure darted past, followed by another. She knew Alia was strafing her. Feigning a sluggish response, she waited for Alia to attack before striking with her baton.
Another illusion.
She expected as much, using her vision to measure the energy signature from Alia's fake. Ivy hid her pleasure and prepared for the next attack. Alia came again, and she swung low at what she believed to be the real dancer.
Instead, the tip of her staff came to a sudden halt, stopping inches from what could only be described as a floating mirror.
"What?" Ivy's eyes widened as she tapped the mirror gently.
She could see herself, stripped of all skin and laid bare.
A Mimic.
Just like her mother.
A hiss came from her left, causing the heiress to cock her head. The silver knife that came hurtling towards her narrowly missed. But upon passing the heiress, another mirror formed behind her, accepting the knife and allowing it to reappear through its twin and strike at the heiress from her front.
A perfect trap.
Ivy caught the knife by the edge, wincing as it carved through her soft tissue. The mechanical part of her hand faired just fine, but after having been struck by the image of her own endoskeleton, she wasn't pleased to see it.
"Hideous, aren't you?" Alia's voice spoke through the shadows. "Does Lila really know what's down there behind the perfect tits and soft skin?"
"We're all ugly deep down," Ivy grunted. "You can't escape it either."
Nearly a dozen mirrors formed around the heiress, following her wherever she went. Alia's maze was everywhere, and soon another knife began passing through the mirrors in an endless loop.
"Can't I? People die when their flesh is carved from their bodies. Lila won't have to see me walk home to her like that. Maybe I'll spare you, just for that bit of fun," Alia taunted. "See how much she loves you then."
Ivy bid her time, considering her next move very carefully as Alia began to chip away at her. Several more gashes appeared on her dress, yet she stayed calm. She had to.
"Jealous?" Ivy hid her pain with a growl, twirling her staff and baton remotely with a patient grasp.
"Oh," Alia laughed. "You don't get it, do you. So naïve, all of these girls. Thinking it comes down to love, and bonds, and pleasure. You're all cursed. And we? We don't get to love. We rise or drown."
The dancer called upon another swirling mass of void energy, smashing both the mirrors and Ivy's defense.
"Then why target Lila? Surely it's not just empty insults," Ivy panted, her ambience flickering.
She tried to send her weapons flying towards Alia, the dancer having revealed her position with her mighty attack. But Alia was fast, using a mirror to intercept Ivy's assault before sending them right back to sender. Ivy released an ugly groan as her own baton struck her side.
"Because that stupid Psion thinks she can fix you!" Alia continued her rant. "The audacity!"
"Well, I'm sorry no one ever came for you," Ivy responded in a strangely genuine tone. "Maybe we don't deserve it. But I can't just shut her down. Not anymore."
Alia huffed loudly, "Don't patronize me."
"What then?" The heiress took a knee, offering herself up for the final attack. "Want me to call you a dumb, ugly bitch? A thief? You're beautiful, talented, and I'm sure you'd make someone very happy. Truly. But that cuts deeper, doesn't it?"
"Because at the end of it all."
"Unlike me."
"You're just wasted potential."
Alia hated those words. She had heard it so many times before. But how did Ivy know?
She was above the heiress by then, dangling by the threads of her ribbon with another void in hand. The finishing blow was mere moments away.
Too easy.
Alia stifled her attack, opting to use her knife to cut the heiress open while she was still awake to feel it. She made sure to shroud herself before dropping to the ground without a peep. Ivy reacted sluggishly, her eyes widening as the edge of the blade entered her view.
"Huh!"
Alia expected to hear the heiress squeal. But something was wrong.
That was her voice.
Ivy was gone, replaced by a mirrored image of the dancer. Alia stumbled back and clutched her own belly.
"Impossible," Alia stared herself down. "I..."
The mirror portrayed a frightened image - a girl who couldn't help but be her own worst enemy. She took a moment to pull herself together, explicating the mirror as a wave of panic washed over her. Alia hadn't made the illusion.
"My turn," Ivy spoke with the dancer's tongue.
Alia turned to find another copy of herself, this time fighting with equal measure. She parried her own blade well enough, knowing its tricks and quirks better than anyone. Yet upon mounting her own assault, Alia was met with an infuriating revelation.
Just a shadow.
"I'm not a beast, you see," Ivy taunted with a disembodied voice. "I'm a copy. Your copy."
Alia searched deep inside herself, shutting down the shadowy plane in a bid to cut Ivy off. It seemed to work as a forest came into view. The pair had evidently found themselves far from the Aerie.
"A blank slate," Alia looked down at a patch of blood in the grass. "Good for you. Still just as tired as the real thing."
"No," Ivy responded with a determined voice, revealing herself to the dancer a few feet away. Her eyes shimmered with a silver glow. "You'll see. They're a part of me now."
Alia gasped as a glowing revolver coalesced into Ivy's hand, its pale flames running hot with the passionate ambition of the girl she hoped to kill. She tried her mirror technique, only for it to shatter uselessly against the sheer might of Sonera's mimicked strength. Alia retrieved her curved sword before attempting a retreat.
Too slow.
Ivy was already behind her, darting faster than Alia could process using the Earthling's speed. Out of options and desperate for a second wind, Alia called upon the darker reaches of her power and pushed the heiress away with a large black hand - its scaly appendage slithering out from a portal behind her.
"This isn't over," she coughed.
"I know." Ivy slid across the floor, dropping her graceful stance for something more befitting her true identity. "But know this. I'm ending it might way," she pointed forward confidently.