Amy's eyelids pried open, and Fischl beheld the dawn of a new day.
Sloughing off the specter of sleep, Fischl was met by Oz, perched on her bed while sunbeams threw her familiar's shadow across the room.
"Oz, my dear companion, your Prinzessin hath returned from that twilit shore, where I glimpsed another of our miraculous futures. Surely this must be an omen…"
"Mein Fräulein, you had quite the dream, I suppose."
Getting ready for work, Fischl shrugged into her dress to join her parents for breakfast. Ever since visiting the Golden Apple Archipelago, Fischl learnt to treasure these silent moments with her parents more. She was trying to love 'Amy' enough to tone down 'Fischl' around them. She was Fischl, but she was also Amy. Exercising acceptance of her flaws and the strength to overcome them comforted her parents, enough to get them to ease off nowadays.
"Another splendid breakfast you've conjured, dearest progenitor."
Still, 'Fischl' bled through eventually. Oz joined Fischl at the door, the feathered clap of his wings gusting upon her blonde locks. Her father, bless his heart, took it all in stride.
"No problem. Have fun out there, Amy!"
"V - Verily," Fischl sputtered, stifling the embarrassment which colored her cheeks. "Now, Oz, let us grace our retinue with our resplendent eminence, at the crossroads of fateful destiny!" "Indeed, it's always a good idea to be regularly punctual, mein Fräulein."
And she was off. Another day, another Mora.
Signs of a brewing catastrophe set Fischl's intuition on edge upon being hailed.
"Oh, Fischl. I saw you went ahead in a hurry, did you forget something back home?"
"Um," Fischl masked her bafflement with offhand pleasantries, "commendable concern, my subject! The Prinzessin shall remember your devotion for all eternity! Fare thee well."
Oz added, "And goodbye to you, sir."
Fischl left, the lingering distaste of both party's confusion refusing to leave Fischl's mind. Who could he have seen, if Fischl had just arrived in Mondstadt? From there, it was a trip into bizarrity which compounded the niggling suspicion in the back of Fischl's head.
"Ad Astra Abyssosque. Welcome to the Adventurers' Guild. Unfortunately, Adventurer Fischl, you have already claimed today's reward. Please come back for more commissions tomorrow!"
"Fischl, what was that about 'Honkai' you were yammering about just now? What book did you read this time to get such ideas from?"
"Hey, Fischl, you were calling for Traveler and Mona to meet you at the Dawn Winery. When'd you get out here?"
And noble though the Prinzessin's spirit was, even her patience wore thin, and she ended up standing before the Dawn Winery.
Fischl seethed. "Is there mayhaps a nebulously immanent disinformation campaign, or a subversive plot to strike at the heart of the Immernachtreich, the Prinzessin?!" Fischl swallowed her frustration, and evened out her temper. "Still, the Traveler is a fellow drifter between worlds, so we must honor our arrangement if it is decreed by the threads of fate."
She stepped into the Winery.
And the world stopped spinning as Fischl laid eyes on another Fischl, talking to Traveler, Paimon and Mona.
Silence descended upon the Winery, suffocating in how it waited upon her to do something. Yet all thought evaporated from Fischl's mind upon facing down a crowd of expectant glances, telegraphing their questions as clearly as a yell.
Venti hiccuped, "Oh, wow, this drink ish strong if it's gettin' mhe to shee double ten drinshs innnnn…" He hit the floor with a meaty thud, and a few customers set their drinks aside after that commotion.
A prank.
Fischl's bullies had dressed like her in mockery of the Prinzessin's eminence, and to be regaled with such dark times filled Fischl with a flash of white-hot rage. Though it petered out, as the salve of time had healed over emotional wounds, the cauldron of difficult emotions left Fischl rooted to the spot, dumbstruck.
Her only saving grace was that the imposter likewise dealt with her own dark thoughts.
Paimon exclaimed, "Huh? There's another Fischl?!"
"This is getting out of hand…" Aether said, " … Now there are two of them!"
Ah, Traveler and his occasional stutter.
To be reminded of his tic snapped Fischl out of her thoughts. "A doppelganger! It seems, Oz, that enemies of the Immernachtreich have conspired to overthrow and replace the Prinzessin! To me, subjects, take arms and defend your Prinzessin!" Striking a dramatic pose, her flood of proclamations were infused with a lick of aggression.
The imposter struck her own pose. "Your disguise may bear a commendable verisimilitude, but I am the one and only Prinzessin Der Verurteilung! Cease this tasteless parody, or face the Prinzessin's wrath!"
The temerity of the imposter! Just because she could pose a little! "Do thou believe us unenlightened? As it is written in the tomes of apocrypha, 'On a fateful night, should one chance upon a doppelganger, it is a mythical being seeking to kill and replace onesel - "
"I'm the true Prinzessin der Verurteilung! Cease, I say!"
The one, now two voices of reason cut in at this point.
"Mein Fräulein, it would seem they are indeed Fischl and Oz, as much as we are."
"Mein Fräulein, they seem to be the Fischl and Oz of this world, identical to the Teyvat we hailed from in every way."
"What?!"
Mona muttered, "Oh no, they're starting to form an echo…" She'd clapped hands over her ears, likely to little avail.
Paimon piped up. "Wait, but weren't you talking to us about this Sheek-sal?"
The imposter started, but was halted by Oz clearing his throat. "Mein Fräulein, a thousand pardons, but brevity might serve to better get to the heart of this matter." The imposter nodded, biting back her objections. "Upon crossing planes, mein Fräulein was known as the 'Outworlder,' taken under Schicksal's patronage and care. We were drafted alongside Schicksal's Valkyries, women with exemplary combat prowess, to fight the Honkai's manifestations."
Paimon chimed in, "Right, the Honkai create monsters! Sure sounds like a scary place!"
Aether nodded. "'Outworlder' and 'Fischl' would help to differentiate between you two."
Fischl spun towards him. "Traveler! Surely thou art discerning enough to pierce the machinations of dark powers in high places, which - "
Aether held up a palm to her flaring temper. "There's a chance this might be an elaborate prank…" "…but there's another talking Oz right there."
Fischl's retorts died in her throat. To dress as her was one thing, but to perfectly recreate Oz took effort unbefitting a simple prank. The truth, however improbable, was more likely than whatever scenario Fischl conjured to explain the Outworlder away.
A slam of the door drew everyone's attention to the door, occupied by Jean. The Dandelion Knight's face had clouded over with such stormy emotions, Fischl's gut sank at the thought of this situation only getting worse from here.
Jean called out, "Fischl?"
"Yes?" Two voices answered. And though the Outworlder was too far in Fischl's blind spot to warrant a mild turn of her head, she knew deep in her gut the doppelganger likewise glanced at Fischl.
To be so attuned to another who shared her identity lodged a knife of cold terror in Fischl's heart, but she didn't let any of it show. The Prinzessin mustn't so easily show weakness.
"There's two - ?" Jean shrugged off her disbelief with impressive haste. "There's no time, you need to get outside and explain what you just did." Her tone tolerated no dissent, and Fischl wasn't one to disobey a Knight of Favonius' orders.
Getting outside, an infectious terror had overcome the citizens. Fischl followed the crowd's newfound interest in looking up at the sky, transfixing all observers.
Her breath was seized by a sleek metal ship, larger than Mondstadt, flying without means of staying adrift. It was as though Stormterror had rolled into town again, though Stormterror did not wield cannons the size of houses, trained on a civilian populace. So grand in size, its awe suffocated Fischl under the weight of such majesty.
The side of the flying ship read, 'HEV IMMERNACHTREICH.' Its shadow rolled across Mondstadt in a blackening umbra.
Darkness spread. Spirits fell.
Jean asked, "What did you do, Fischl?"
And only now did the consequence of this phenomenon truly sink in. This was no Golden Apple Archipelago, where Fischl could resolve the phenomenon in private. No, Fischl was now in the eye of this hurricane, which swept up all of Mondstadt - nay, likely all of Teyvat in its wake. Crushed by the weight of such realization, Fischl's thoughts again fled her mind as wind slipped through one's fingers.
"I - I," she glanced over at her other self. The confusion which colored the Outworlder's expression might as well be a reflection of Fischl's own, for how could one explain away such a paradigm shift? When presented with technology and scale so alien to their world?
"I… I don't know," Amy answered.
"I've detected an Archon in that building, Kaiserin. Should we open fire?"
"Not yet," Fischl cut him off. "If we're going to drop anchor, it might as well be in the weakest nation we come across. Send down a diplomatic party. Establish where and when we are, and bring me those two Fischls who look like me."
"Thy will be done, Kaiserin der Verurteilung."
Another Fischl stepped out into Windrise, her military outfit earning curious glances from passersby. Nobody dressed like that unless they were going off to war, and Fischl's incredulous glance roamed over a landscape untainted by craters, razed ashes and corpses.
"Isn't this Windrise?! And that's," she swallowed, "the Tree. It wasn't burned down?! Don't tell me, was there no War in this Teyvat?"
The Tenshukaku's silence was broken by metal clashing at the edge of hearing. Raiden's polearm clashed against the intruder's bow, who broke off and reengaged with the ferocity of a hurricane. Swatting away incoming arrows, Raiden's polearm uppercut drove the intruder to retreat, gliding past a parting shot which nicked the fabric of Raiden's shoulder.
The intruder was skilled, undeniably so.
Raiden called out, "Who has trespassed upon my Tenshukaku?"
"Insolence. It is you who trespassed upon my Tenshukaku." Blonde locks flashed in the Raiden Shogun's vision, wings of sparking thunder spread from the intruder's back. "I am the Raikou Shogun, Archon and ruler over the Pure Land of Immanent Thunder, Inazuma. Let your arrogation be struck down. Musou no Hitotachi!"
Raiden's own sword manifested in a peal of lightning. "Foolishness. Musou no Hitotachi!"
The Celestial Guardian Model 02, F.I.S.C.H.L., was confused, or as confused as a mute, unthinking servant of Celestia could be. Its eldritch form floated down Dragonspine, investigating the phenomenon which displaced F.I.S.C.H.L. from its own timeline.
"Oz, my dear familiar, our journey hath taken us to another world. We are strangers in a familiar land, and I hear the voice of fate, its call is now treacherous and strained. After the Gotterdammerung of that previous world, congratulating the one who hath overcometh his own despair, to be called to this world is no accident of the fates."
"AT Field activated, mein Fräulein. Though seeing how we're in Teyvat, with no anomalies, you'll likely have no need of me, your EVA."
"Verily. But one can never hope to be too careful as a Wanderer Between Worlds." Fischl's purple pilot suit clung to her figure, marked with '02' while her Vision hung from her waist.
"What is she?!" Bandits had backed away from the stranger they'd held up, but were struck down by the onslaught of some unknown matter.
"Hark! For I, Fischl, am the Herrscher of Delusion, and destiny has put you in my path to be smited! Gedankensache!" With maniac glee, the Herrscher directed her imaginary matter to rain down, the flash of blades reducing all who stood in her path to splatters of blood.
"Sorry. What did you say, Madam?" The Fatui agent was losing patience with the woman before him. The things she said made no sense!
"I said," the blonde whipped up a pose, "I am the Thirteenth Harbinger, La Strega! Now, esteemed subjects of Snezhnaya, take me to her eminence, the Tsaritsa!"
"Fufufufu…" A voice commentated over the various Fischls brought into this timeline, each of them painted upon tears in spacetime which gathered like compound eyes. "Now that all the pieces have gathered on the board, let's see how things turn out. Let the dream live on, forever and ever…"
