Arle seeks out her double. Doppelganger Arle isn't so keen on their reunion in the void between dimensions, but what Arle has to say changes everything between them. Requested by puyohero on tumblr!

Unify

A flash of light burst behind her. A door, one that should not have existed, creaked open.

Doppelganger Arle did not turn. Even when quiet footsteps scorned her ears, she refused to look back. She already had enough torment dealing with sounds buzzing in her head and voices of dead whispering to her.

"Hi."

The simple, quiet greeting cut through the silence that would stretch for eons. Her meditation interrupted by her copycat, Doppelganger Arle remained still. She sat with her legs crossed and hands poised on her knees. Her head was bowed, hardly moving to even acknowledge Arle standing behind her.

"How did you come here?" she asked, keeping her gaze fixated on the ever-stretching white plane.

Arle's footsteps echoed in the dismal void as she came closer. She could hear their heartbeats echo among the nothingness. She could hardly stand being in such a cruel, strange, blank environment. The plane between dimensions, a land where only immortals could prevail and suffer, left her with chills racing down her spine.

She stepped in front of her doppelganger and sat down in front of her. Hands on her knees, legs stiffly crossed, she mirrored her in every way. Only the hues coloring their hair, eyes, and armor differentiated them from the untrained eye.

"I played a lot of Puyo to get here with a friend who can travel through dimensions. They said it was a lot of fun so they helped me out," Arle said, her smile mild.

Doppelganger Arle wondered who could hold such power to traverse to her specific void among countless dimensions. She raised her head, taking in the odd gentleness crossing Arle's face.

"You're confused, right?" Arle chuckled. "When you disappeared, I was worried. I thought I'd never see you again."

"And you probably wouldn't have. I lost." She leaned back and sighed. "I won't be coming back. There's no place for me in that world. Now, get lost before I decide to take your place again."

Pursing her lips, Arle watched her doppelganger shift her gaze to her old boots. Rips carved through her double's cape, the fabric seemingly ready to tear at the slightest tug. Cracks cut across her chest plate and threatened to climb through her shoulder pads. Resting in her lap was her Pierrot mask, the once vibrant colors faded to dull shades with a thick layer of dust settling around the round nose.

Her demeanor, once cruel and bold, was that of a miserly victim. Before Arle could speak again, she tightened her grip around her mask. Anger flashed in her glare before going out like a wispy flame. Destitution was all she had to her name that she shared.

"I won't leave, and you can't run away this time." Arle reached forward and placed her hand over the mask. "Let's talk. One and one, let's talk."

"There's nothing to talk about. It's not as though…" She trailed off, glancing over her shoulder. Expecting a dramatic interruption was common in the life she once shared.

"No one is gonna ruin this. My friend is looking out for us. I promised I'd play even more Puyo with them if they stayed as my lookout." Arle flashed a bright grin.

"What a powerful friend you must have for them to stay hidden so well." She narrowed her eyes. "Just what is it that you want? You've already defeated me. You've already asserted your place as the Arle of that world. Are you here to gloat?"

Arle shook her head. "I already said we need to talk. I'm not leaving until we do."

The urge to strike down her insolence panged in Doppelganger Arle's chest. Arle was speaking as if she knew the pain she had endured for hundreds of years. Such confidence forced her to grind down on her molars and pull her glare into a tighter squint, creasing her brow with tired lines.

"You did everything you did, hypnotising Satan, stealing Carbuncle, because you said you were Arle." She moved closer and slipped her hands over Doppelganger Arle's tense palms. "You're right. You are Arle."

It was as if the very air was sucked free from her lungs. She gawked, letting her mouth hang open. No sound emerged, not even a shocked gasp. She couldn't even try to breathe as Arle continued.

"But I'm also Arle. I'm Arle Nadja, and you're Arle Nadja. The two of us, we're both Arle Nadja." She relaxed her shoulders and tightly held her doppelganger's hands. "I don't want to fight you when I think you've been in pain for a very long time."

Doppelganger Arle wrenched her hands away and clapped them together. Her wide eyes scoured for any deception. She had been betrayed too many times in her life to simply believe such pure words. They must have been laced with deception even though Arle recoiled, her smile swapping for a tight frown.

"Why did you come here? You came here just to say that after all I've done to you?" Doppelganger Arle spat, and Arle quickly shook her head.

"Not at all! I'm not here to fight. I think about you so often. I think about what you said, and I can't imagine what you've gone through." She pursed her lips. "I don't know anything about you, and at the same time, you don't know about things that I've been through."

She hesitated. Arle had a point. They diverged on certain parts of their life. When they split, Arle lived through events that Doppelganger Arle could not experience. Differences emerged in the timelines that created two unique halves who could never form again.

"When I learned that you had been languishing away in here, I couldn't stand you being all alone! It's not right that you're stuck here while I'm out there playing with people that...you probably knew...I think." She trailed off, her own uncertainties troubling her thoughts.

"I knew them long ago. Schezo, Rulue, some others who weren't...fortunate." Classmates from long ago crossed her mind. A passionate girl with blonde hair and a scarlet bow smiled and faded away into hellfire.

Pushing off her knees, Arle stood up. She extended her hand to her double and wore her heart on her sleeve.

"Let's go home together. You don't have to stay here by yourself." She giggled. "Besides, Carby is waiting for us at home."

"Carbuncle? Carby is...waiting for me?" she whispered, memories of a lost life twisting in her head. Tears brimmed in her eyes and wet her eyelashes. Her lips quivered, threatening to spill open her sorrows.

It was all too good to be true, but for a girl who lost everything, she had finally been given hope.

Bowing her head, she reached forward and clutched Arle so tightly that she feared she broke her hand.

Yet, she didn't. Arle pulled her up and drew her into a tight embrace. The girls, each having gone through different pain, held each other in wordless solidarity. Both Arles remained silent, stiff in their hug, and even though tears rolled down the former double's face, her sister comforted her.

"What a spicy scent…"

"Eh?"

She parted from her baffled savior. "You smell like curry. It's pungent in your armor."

Arle yelped, leaping back a full foot. "Eeeeh? D-don't say things like that! I wash my clothes really thoroughly even though I wear them through all 365 days in a year!"

Arle laughed as her blue armored sister fumed. Wiping her eyes, she took in a deep breath through her nose. She held Arle's hand and let the pouting heroine guide her towards the door she had refused to gaze upon where a strange creature waited.

"Ready to go? I can't wait to play Puyo with two Arles! Maybe I can even find a dimension where Dark Arle is her own person and make it three on one!" Ecolo exclaimed, tapping open the golden dimensional door.

"Well, if you do, we'll be sure to welcome her, too!" Arle said, and her sister nodded, happy to have found peace at last with her other half.