Chapter Six: Face Yourself
Her estimation had been right. Upon reaching the top of the staircase leading up to the tenth floor, Ruby found that it didn't open up onto another empty hallway- rather, the way was blocked by a large wooden set of double doors, similar to the entrance to the entire castle. She braced her hands on both of them, and pushed inwards, and they opened easily, swinging away from her to hit the walls at the end of their arcs with a deafening smash.
The tenth and final floor of the castle was one vast room, with its ceiling open. The rafters criss-crossed across the space above her head, forming a chaotic sort of cats-cradle. Ruby's gaze travelled down to the rest of the room, which was richly decked out in tapestries and expensive-looking carpeting. From the doorway, a long red carpet travelled the length of the room, leading up to a set of steps, and at the conclusion of that, a throne- upon which a very familiar figure sat, a crown lying crooked on his head and a red cape around his shoulders.
As she approached, Clancy opened his eyes- yellow, Ruby noted, so this was probably the one she had met earlier on the fourth floor- and smiled. "Heya. Took you long enough to get here."
"Got held up by some shadows," she said, and frowned. "What did you do to Clancy?"
His expression went from amiable to flat in a split second. "I'd rethink that question if I were you, Rube."
"Right, because you are Clancy- you said so before." Ruby stepped back and tried to think. The person who claimed to be Clancy but really clearly wasn't leaned forward in his throne, steepling his fingers together. It was sort of distracting. "You look exactly like the version of Clance- uh, sorry, you- that I saw on the Midnight Channel. Yellow eyes and everything. But what does that-?" She stopped, and went oh. "You aren't him, but you are him, you're some sort of, I don't know, facet of his personality?"
"Astute," said Not-Clancy, and crossed his arms, "and yeah, that's about the amount of it, but you're not the main character here- not right now. I think it's time we welcomed in our very special guest, don't you?"
Ruby narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking abou-?"
He snapped his fingers, and a door from nowhere slammed open, sending Clancy Crew- the real Clancy Crew tumbling across the room and slamming into the far wall, where he crumpled into a heap. Ruby yelped aloud in almost unconscious sympathy, and scrambled towards him. "Clance!"
She grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him up and checking he was okay, and he opened his eyes and blinked at her, before breaking out into a genuine, relieved smile. "Ruby!"
"Touching," commented Not-Clancy, surveying the events from his throne. At some point, he had gained a sceptre- golden and with a large, shiny knob at one end. He was twirling it absently from hand to hand. "Also completely insincere, and you both know it. We're not happy or excited to see you at all, are we, Clancy?"
Clancy struggled to his feet with Ruby's help, and stared at his doppelganger in open puzzlement. "What? Who-?"
"You, idiot," Not-Clancy deadpanned, catching the sceptre in a neat two-handed grip, and holding it horizontally out in front of him. "Any moron can see that- Ruby figured it out easy enough, but you- put it together, me- who looks like you, talks like you and thinks like you?" He tossed the sceptre again, brought it down onto the ground with a sharp crack. "I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count."
"Wh- you're me?" Clancy took a step forward, taking the scene in- the room, the carpet, the throne, the perfect clone of him lounging on it.
Ruby tugged on his sleeve. "Come on, let's go- don't waste your time on this bozo. He doesn't know what he's talking about, trust me."
Clancy glanced back at her, and was on the verge of saying something, but then- "Oh sure, listen to Ruby," his copy jeered loudly, flipping the sceptre through the air and catching it. "It's what you always do, isn't it? Ruby knows best, Ruby can save me, Ruby's the smart one here, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. Is anything in your life not about her?"
Clancy stiffened, and took several steps away from Ruby before she could say anything. "Shut up," he snapped. He looked pale.
"Never the smart one, never the brave one- why would anybody ever put up with you?" Flip, twirl, catch. "It's not as if anybody actually likes you, anyway. You've never actually done anything worth liking, have you?"
Clancy took a step towards his double, shaking off Ruby, who was trying to pull him towards the double doors. "What are you talking about- none of that's true! People like me!"
"Oh, stop whining," said Not-Clancy, rolling his eyes. "I'm just pointing out what we already know, what you already think. You're just some lame kid, some loser who isn't good at anything except screwing up and-"
"Stop it!" Clancy yelled, hands balling up into fists by his side. "You're wrong, that's not-"
"Oh, it's not?" His double caught the sceptre one last time, and then spun off the chair, planting his feet on the ground. "Then why doesn't your dad love you?"
Clancy's mouth dropped open, and his hands flapped weakly at his sides.
"Okay, that's it," Ruby snarled, and dashed forward, intent on single-handedly fighting the boy with the crown, but he snapped his fingers and she went flying into the furthest corner of the room, just as Clancy had earlier, colliding painfully with the wall and sliding down to the ground.
"This is between us- stay out of it," the Not-Clancy directed at her, and then turned his attention back to himself. "And speaking of that- you never fight your own battles! Honestly, it's pathetic. You want to save yourself, but you're so weak- you think to yourself, oh, Ruby would do a better job of it than I would- and then you have the nerve to be jealous of her!"
"I'm- I'm not jealous of Ruby!" Clancy stuttered, and Ruby tried to pull herself up from the ground, mainly failing. "She's my friend, and she's-"
"She's so much better than you," his opponent taunted. "So clever, so brave, helps you without complaint, why can't you be more like her, your father says, and oh, you resent her for it, don't you?"
"I- I-"
"You want to be the hero for once," Non-Clancy snarled, yellow eyes flashing as he stalked down the red carpet and over to Clancy, somehow managing to tower over him despite them being the same size. "You want to save her, be the one that gets the good end of the stick for once- you want her to fail and you to succeed, and worst of all, you want to gloat about it! Take her down a peg! Prove to everybody that worthless Clancy Crew isn't so worthless anymore!" They were now nose-to-nose, eyes locked together- one's gaze terrified, the other firey and resentful. "And you know what the worst bit is?" he breathed, nearly a whisper. "You'll never have the courage to do it." He shoved Clancy away, sending him sprawling on the carpet. "Coward."
Clancy choked and sobbed, tears running down his face. "You- you! No!"
"So tell me," the other Clancy said, crossing his arms, and raising his crown-adorned head- staring down at himself, sobbing on the floor. "Who am I?"
"You- you're not me," Clancy said through his tears fervently, trying to slide away, but failing. "You're not me- and you'll never be!"
"Wrong answer," said the other Clancy, and shifted. The golden crown on his head morphed into a jagged, writhing mess of living thorns, spilling down to envelop the rest of his body, which grew quickly- he doubled in size, and then tripled, and it was barely even recognizable as humanoid any more. Its arms extended, becoming two long beams with clawed ends. Oddly, it now resembled an old-fashioned set of weighing scales, but only in a very abstract sense. The creature still retained the sceptre, which seemed to have become part of the middle part of the scales, and the red cape, which hung, tattered, from the back of its neck- far too small, and yet caught in the rest of its form, unable to escape.
From where the head appeared to be, two vast green pools opened, glowing malevolently, and stared down at Clancy, who was still on the ground below the creature, frozen in fear.
"I am a shadow- the true self," it boomed, still in Clancy's voice. "And it's about time you get what you deserve."
Clancy didn't make a move to resist, even as the creature swept a vast limb-claw out and plucked him from the ground like a rag doll. "You're afraid of everything- let me give you something to be properly afraid of."
In the corner, Ruby had finally managed to shake off the daze that had come from being thrown into a wall, and climbed doggedly to her feet, staring at what was going on in horror. It dawned on her, quite suddenly, that if she didn't do something, Clancy was going to die, and not pleasantly either. Barely thinking about it, she ran towards the throne, and jumped, aiming for it at an angle. It shouldn't have worked, but it did- she hit it, used her momentum, and pushed off into the air, soaring towards the Shadow that currently had Clancy in its grip. "Get away from him!"
It batted her aside, even as she tried to grasp onto the thorns, to get a grip- she went flying again, but this time managed to roll with the impact- it barely even hurt, and she was able to get to her feet again. But it was obvious that simply jumping it wouldn't accomplish anything.
Something flashed into her mind.
"Upon agreeing to this, you will gain something referred to as a Persona," said the woman. "It is a side of yourself that shows itself when you face the world around you."
Igor nodded. "Perhaps you can think of it as… well, let's say a façade of determination you wear to face various difficulties in life."
Ruby blinked, momentarily startled at this sudden flashback from what she had previously assumed to be just a really weird dream- and then she heard Clancy scream- a wordless sound of pain, and she reacted purely on instinct.
She sprinted towards the thorn monster, sliding between its legs, and came to face it on the other side. Her face was tight with determination, and her heart was pounding in her chest.
"PERSONA!" she screamed, not really understanding why or how, and a warm glow filled her chest, quickly increasing to something so hot she could barely stand it- and something erupted out of her, flashing bright white. It unfolded- vaguely humanoid in shape, covered in glittering silver armour, bright wings glittering, huge and wonderful and impossible, and hovered above her. It didn't have a face, just black carapace and white, blank eyes.
Ruby looked up at it, and a word came to her mind in a voice that wasn't her own- Musca.
She grinned, despite the situation. "Cool," she whispered.
Then the thorn-grown Shadow growled again, jagged fingers digging into Clancy, and he cried out again, and Ruby remembered where she was and what was happening. She swept her hands up into the air, moving on instinct alone, and gasped aloud as the being above her, Musca, wrapped its long spindly fingers around her wrists. Its wings buzzed sharply, and she was lifted into the air with seemingly no effort at all- coming to hover directly in front of what seemed to be the Shadow's face.
"Ruby, how," yelled Clancy, momentarily distracted from his dire situation by this apparently impossible scene.
If Ruby could have shrugged in confusion from where she was, she would have. As it was, she glanced up at her unlikely insectoid ally, and nodded towards the Shadow, trying to convey 'let's go get him'.
Musca seemed to understand, and its wings beat faster, blurring into near-invisibility. They zoomed forwards, going directly towards the Shadow's face and those glowing green eyes. Ruby's hair was being whipped in all directions, flying into her eyes and making hard to see.
As they neared the Shadow, only inches away now, Ruby disentangled herself from Musca's legs, and dropped down seconds before impact, falling down towards the Shadow's thorny chest at an angle. She landed on a relatively clear section, and immediately began climbing down, trying to reach the area where Clancy was being held. This time- unlike the last time she had tried to climb the Shadow- it didn't try to bat her aside. It was more preoccupied by Musca, who was maybe a third its size and currently attacking the Shadow's head for all it was worth. Its wings had become shining, razor-sharp blades that cut back the thorns that made up the Shadow's physical form. Ruby would have taken the opportunity to admire the scene if she hadn't been busy trying to navigate the prickly maze of what served for the Shadow's arms.
She swung herself over the final couple of thorn loops, and ended up right next to Clancy, who- for his part- was doing his best to wriggle out of the tight, painful grip. She dug around in her pockets, and came up with her pocket knife. She flicked it open, and started sawing at his constraints.
Clancy managed to free an arm. "Rube, what was that? You just started glowing, and-"
"You're going to fixate on the fact that I was glowing and summoned a giant fly?" Ruby whisper-yelled back, brushing hair back with one hand and furiously cutting away. "Over everything else that's going on today?"
"That was gonna be my next question- Ruby, what's going on?"
She yanked at one particularly thick vine, pulling it away from the rest and letting it tumble to the ground. "I actually have next to no clues, believe it or not- how 'bout we just focus on getting out of here before your evil twin here realizes you're escaping?"
Clancy freed another arm, and then with Ruby's help, a leg, but his other leg was still caught fast. Ruby scrambled over, holding on tight with one hand and still sawing away with the other. "What are you talking about, you know everything!"
"I don't- ugh, these stupid vines- know everything, that'd be ridiculous." Ruby gritted her teeth and tugged. "Were you actually listening to this guy?" She poked a finger at the thorny body of the Shadow, casting an incredulous look at Clancy. "You do know that you're worth ten of me, right? He's full of-"
"I never said that it was the truth," snarled the Shadow, flicking its wrist and finally succeeding in swatting Musca away, just as Ruby snapped the final vine holding Clancy in place, and pulled him to his feet, so they were both standing on the uneven platform made up of the Shadow's arm. "Just that it's what we believe."
"Oh darn," Ruby said, which was an understatement, and glanced downwards. "Clance, do you trust me?"
"What sorta question is that?"
"The sort that could save or end your life- come on, do you trust me?"
"I- of course I trust you, why-?"
"Great," said Ruby, grabbing his arm. "Jump."
