Chapter Fifty Nine
The Doppelgängers
ELSA
Elsa raced through the corridors of the Legion's stronghold. It was identical to Swynvort. She wondered if it was called the same thing here, but she didn't have the time to ask. Janus needed her help.
Pounding down the spiral staircase, she exited and turned the corner, heading straight for where Janus and her shared a room in Swynvort. It only made sense that here on this earth, it would be in the same place. Arriving outside the room that supposedly belonged to her counterpart, she put an ear to the door.
"I don't understand." She heard a male voice inside, which sounded exactly like Janus' filtered one. "How-"
"Has to be some kind of sorcery." Another voice hissed. This one sounded exactly like her own. Elsa's skin crawled. So her doppelgänger and both versions of Janus were in there.
Anna's warning came to mind. They weren't supposed to interact with their counterparts, no matter what. No one knew what the consequences would be. The ramifications, the possible fallout…No. Elsa set her jaw. It's too late. They've already found Janus. I can't let them kill him.
"I'll make him talk." Her doppelgänger sneered. "We'll see how he likes frostbite."
It was now or never. Taking a deep breath, Elsa squared her shoulders. Then, she applied her foot against the door with all her strength. The latch gave way and the door to the room swung open. She stood in the doorway, hands hovering at her waist.
The other versions of Janus and herself whirled round, and Elsa had to fight hard not to reel backwards. She blinked. This was the first time she was actually seeing doppelgängers. Before, she'd found the concept infinitely difficult to grasp, and here she was, seeing them in the flesh. It was a truly disorienting experience and she had to fight not to backpedal in shock.
An unmasked Janus was inside the room on his knees with his hands behind his head. His hood had been drawn back, and his black mask was in the hand of his doppelgänger. The other version of Janus was dressed similarly to him, the only difference being that his mercenary outfit was more armoured and lethal, and the mask looked different too, shaped more like a skull. He cocked his head towards her curiously.
Though she couldn't see his eyes from behind the mask, she imagined that he had an incredulous look on his face too. It took her a moment to register that Janus' counterpart on this world was in love with his version of her. The complication of it all made her head hurt.
"You." Her doppelgänger whispered.
Elsa studied her doppelgänger. Now she understood why Ingrid had picked up the deception so easily. Her alternate self looked so vastly different that it was frankly alarming. The facial structure and features were the same, and so were her height and build, but everything else wasn't.
The "Alternate Elsa" wore a sleeveless, revealing black dress that flaunted her curves and cleavage, her skirt tight around her thighs and showing off extremely pale skin. She wore thigh high black boots with matching fingerless gloves, a crystal shaped necklace hanging from her slender neck and resting on her collarbone.
Her skin was alarmingly pale, even more so than Elsa's. And I thought mine was as pale as it could possibly get. She was slim and beautiful but had a deadly, subtle posture to her stance. Perhaps the greatest difference was her makeup and hair. While Elsa was used to applying some eyeshadow, her doppelgänger seemed to use it as an intimidation tool. Her piercing blue eyes were accented by thick dark eyeshadow which gave her face a sunken look, yet still looking deadly attractive.
Dark red lipstick gave the impression that she had just killed someone and drank their blood. There was a certain cocky half smirk on her face that made Elsa uncomfortable. And then there was the hair. While Elsa's was platinum blonde and done in a French braid, her doppelgänger's hair was almost stark white, long and straight, with bangs on her forehead and the rest falling in front of her shoulders.
Elsa found herself wondering how any version of herself from any reality would want to look like that. It was the one look Elsa herself would never try, and yet a version of her did.
"You're…" The Alternate Elsa sounded incredulous as she stared back into her reflection. "-you're…"
"I'm you." Elsa felt her throat get tight. "And you're me."
"Is this some kind of sick joke?"
"No." Elsa said cautiously. "Look, I know it's hard to understand, but we're not here for any trouble."
"Wrong." The other Janus said. His low, filtered voice sounded menacing.
"You stepped into hell and expect to leave untouched by the fire?" Alternate Elsa hissed. "Hell, you really are a dumb blonde."
Levelly, Elsa met her gaze. "We don't want to fight you. Let us leave."
"You're delusional." Her doppelgänger sneered. "I don't know who you are, but you're not leaving this place alive."
Elsa's jaw tightened. Her hand hovered by her side.
The two doppelgängers had turned their back on Janus. And that was their biggest mistake.
Janus drew a dagger from a holster and stabbed it straight into his counterpart's thigh. The masked Janus growled in pain and staggered to a knee, and Janus threw his weight against his off-balance doppelgänger.
The Alternate Elsa gasped and turned around. Elsa saw her opportunity and took it. She lunged forward and dragged her doppelgänger to the ground, hoping to subdue her quickly before a fight ensued. That was however incredibly naive of her, as she realised belatedly.
Her doppelgänger screeched as Elsa yanked her off balance, and both of them fell messily to the ground. Alternate Elsa recovered quickly, moving even faster than Elsa knew she herself was capable of, getting on top of Elsa and pointing the flat of her hand straight at her. Ice swirled on her palm, dangerously close to Elsa's face.
She grabbed Alternate Elsa's wrist and pulled her sideways, scrambling to her feet quickly and distancing herself from her evil twin. From the peripheral of her eye, she saw the two men clad in black backing out of the room, still engaged in fierce hand to hand combat. At least with both versions of Janus out of the way, she and her own doppelgänger would have more room to fight.
Elsa squared her shoulders and set her jaw as her doppelgänger paced around her. Here we go.
JANUS
Janus scooped up his fallen mask from the ground - the one his counterpart had ripped off his face, and rolled into the doorway as a falchion blade was swung at him. Coming back up to his feet, he hurriedly clicked the mask back in place and pulled the hood over his head. But even with his appearance in check, he couldn't deny the fact that he had no idea how to best his equal. Or more honestly, his better.
Prometheus had no restraint, just like he himself had been in the past, with no concern for morality, choosing to ignore right or wrong. He fought more viciously, faster and with the intention of killing whoever stood in his way regardless of who they were. It was like looking into a fractured mirror, and Janus was again haunted by the fact that this was who he used to be.
He'd known that he would have to confront his past, coming to this version of reality where he was still a cold-blooded mercenary. But never had he imagined that he would literally have to fight his evil doppelgänger, a much darker reflection of himself. It wasn't like Janus was a saint now, but Prometheus' ferocity unsettled him.
Janus caught the glimmer of light reflecting off Prometheus' gauntlet blades and threw himself low as the doppelgänger lashed out, aiming to cut his skin on the curved blades. A blade of his own slipped into Janus' palm, and he gripped its hilt. He whipped it towards Prometheus' off hand, hoping to puncture a muscle unguarded by armour and slow him down.
But of course, his doppelgänger knew exactly how he thought. The falchion sword came up, intercepting the dagger and in the same motion made a downward cut at Janus. Fading to the corner, Janus unhooked his bow from his back and nocked an arrow.
They were in the corridor now, fighting and slowly moving towards the stairwell. It was a miracle that the other sorcerers weren't anywhere in the vicinity, as this part of the compound was relatively quiet and secluded as compared to the rest of Swynvort. At least that gave Janus the peace of mind that he only had his doppelgänger to worry about, and that was more than enough.
Running towards his counterpart, he shot an arrow straight at Prometheus who caught the arrow in his off hand. In the time that Prometheus stopped the arrow from embedding itself into his chest, Janus closed the range and sprung up, delivering a vicious knee straight to the solar plexus. Normally, a blow like that would have ended the fight with a common opponent, but this was no common opponent. Prometheus sported armour plates at various weak spots on his outfit.
All his attack did was stagger Prometheus, who back-pedalled and struggled to regain his balance. Though disappointed, Janus pressed his attack. Landing on his feet after what was meant to be a finishing blow, Janus immediately barrelled forward, throwing his shoulder against Prometheus' chest. Then without hesitation, he stooped low and rammed his body against the already stumbling Prometheus.
His doppelgänger fell to the ground in a semi-daze, and Janus immediately tried to pounce on top of him. However, Prometheus had enough presence of mind to roll sideways, pick up his fallen compound bow off the ground, and strike at the back of Janus' knee with the bow. The limb of the bow impacted Janus' leg and sent him faltering.
Prometheus spun, nocked an arrow and shot it at Janus, all while he was still low to the ground. Janus caught the arrow just before it went through his eye, and threw it aside, bringing up his own bow to parry Prometheus'.
This can go on forever, Janus thought to himself in annoyance as he riposted in vain. Though Janus was giving it everything he had, the two of them were equally matched in skill, speed and strategy. His doppelgänger knew his every move, and vice versa. There was no clear way to finish this. Which just left Janus with one option. His eyes flicked to the bandolier across Prometheus' chest. A risky gambit. But to end this, Janus knew he had to try.
Pulling away from Prometheus' compound bow, Janus rolled free and came up to his feet. A straight jab to his jaw and a boot to the chest sent Janus reeling, but he managed to catch another boot before it connected with his body again and he twisted. A low grunt of pain came from Prometheus, and the doppelgänger managed to slip his wounded ankle out of Janus' grasp and kicked his kneecap with such vicious force that it drove Janus to a knee.
Prometheus then followed up with a merciless roundhouse kick to the side of Janus' head, sending him sprawling. As he hit the ground, Janus forced himself to stay conscious, vision blurred and in monochrome. Stars flitted and danced before him, and he blinked hard to pull himself back to reality and past the pain.
As his doppelgänger surged forward to finish what he had started, Janus drew his legs towards his chest, and released what remained of his energy like a spring. His legs rocketed upwards, connecting with Prometheus' chest. Mustering his strength, Janus used the momentum to pull himself to his feet, and smashed a forearm into the side of Prometheus' jaw. With his free hand, he unhooked a certain pellet hanging on his doppelgänger's bandolier. Before Prometheus could counter or stop him, Janus hurled the pellet right at their feet. A split second passed and something began to glow. Then came a coruscation of light, a controlled explosion sending both of them reeling backwards, ears ringing from the deep thundering boom.
ELSA
Alternate Elsa got to her feet, hair in a mess. She narrowed her eyes, and her eyeshadow made her look all the more crazed. Teeth gritted, she growled in frustration, inching towards Elsa with her fingers flexing. Elsa watched her carefully, trying to think what she herself would do in a similar situation. The complexity of it all really made her head hurt. It was a moot point anyhow. This alternate version of her was so different from her, and it looked like she was hell bent on killing Elsa.
The doppelgänger lashed out with a deadly plethora of ice knives. They whipped towards Elsa with dreadful speed, but Elsa was quick too. A barrier of thick ice was raised from the ground, intercepting the ice knives mid air. The icicles impacted the barrier and fell away uselessly, all momentum lost.
"I don't believe it." Alternate Elsa hissed. "What-"
"I told you. I'm you, just from a different world." Elsa said exasperatedly. "Why won't you believe me?"
"No, it's a trick. It has to be. You can't be me!" Alternate Elsa snarled, hurling a torrent of ice at Elsa.
Elsa blocked it with a stream of her own, ice hitting ice to practically no effect. Cold air spread from where the two sorcerers' magic met, casting a chilly mist across the room. Through the cold fog, Elsa saw her doppelgänger's eyes grow wide.
"See for yourself!" Elsa snapped. "If I were an imposter, would I be able to do this?"
Alternate Elsa formed a large icicle in her gloved hand and advanced towards Elsa. A vexed groan escaped Elsa's throat. This doppelgänger of hers was too rash to see reason. How could she be so dense to ignore reality that was being dangled right in front of her face?
In self defence, Elsa formed an icicle of her own, wielding it in a regular hammer grip. She wasn't exactly one who dabbled into armed combat. Her doppelgänger however seemed at home with it, switching her grip to that of an icepick grip as she closed the gap.
Elsa faded backwards as Alternate Elsa swung her icicle at her, parrying it like she would an actual sword. It seemed that her counterpart had no qualms about fighting dirty. As Elsa parried the attack, the doppelgänger shot out her palm, connecting with Elsa's chest. Ice flowed at an alarming speed and strength, sending Elsa flying across the room from the impact.
She hit the wall, plaster and stone chipping off, and felt a numbing pain spread across her back. Closing her eyes for a brief second, she allowed her vision to clear. Standing up, Elsa nursed her chest where her evil twin had hit her with a potent blast of ice. Her chest felt incredibly sore.
Elsa tried to ignore the pain. Her doppelgänger was set on murder, but Elsa knew she had to end this without killing her.
Looking up, she was just in time to see Alternate Elsa hurl an icicle at her the way one would throw a javelin. She dropped to the ground as the icicle flew over her head and smashed into a hundred tiny fragments against the wall. Instinctively, she shot both her hands out towards her doppelgänger. Ice flew out, trapping Alternate Elsa's legs in a thick block before she could skip out of the way.
The doppelgänger tripped up, carried forward by her momentum, and hit the ground with a messy thud. But before she could react, the ice fractured quickly. Then came a terrible sound, one of ice fragmenting and exploding into a thousand smithereens. Ice flew in every direction and Elsa had to crouch swiftly, forming a small barrier of ice to hide behind to prevent the shards of chipped ice from embedding themselves into her skin.
Cold mist settled upon the room, and when it cleared, Alternate Elsa was on her feet once more, snapping a hand out. A counter-blast of ice hit the barrier and destroyed it, the sheer impact tipping Elsa backwards.
With a nasty snarl, Alternate Elsa lunged at her, pinning her to the ground. "You can't beat me, and you know why? Because you're a fake. You're not me."
"No," Elsa said. "I realise that now. I will never be like you. The thought of it disgusts me."
"And you disgust me." Her doppelgänger spat back. "If you really were me, you'd have finished me off without hesitation."
"I'm tired of trying to explain it to you." Elsa legitimately felt tired of it all. She just wanted to get back to her own world and be done with this horrid world. "I am Elsa, just nowhere as mad or bloodthirsty as you are."
"I don't buy it." Alternate Elsa snapped. "How can you be me?"
"How do you think Janus and I knew to come here? That the Legion is based in Swynvort and that this compound even exists?"
Alternate Elsa narrowed her eyes.
"Janus and I came from another world." Elsa knew that she was breaking the rules by talking to her doppelgänger, but was too tired to care anymore. "A world similar to yours. We needed to talk to your Pilgrim."
"Why?"
"That's none of your concern."
"I'm making it mine." Alternate Elsa had a small smirk written at the corners of her lips.
Elsa brought her temple up, smashing it into her counterpart's. As Alternate Elsa staggered back in a daze, Elsa scrambled to her feet and put some distance between herself and the doppelgänger.
"Imposter or not, you're going to pay for that." Alternate Elsa raised her hands again, pointing them straight at Elsa.
Elsa was just in time to dive out of the way as an enormous wave of ice swept past her. She kept her body low, shooting out her hands at her doppelgänger's legs, hoping that she could floor her again. But that was wishful thinking on her part.
Dancing out of the way before Elsa could freeze her again, Alternate Elsa formed two icicles in her hand and whipped them across the room. Elsa moved her body briskly to avoid the knife-like weapons, but one nicked her as it flew past. Drawing in a brief but sharp breath, Elsa clutched her upper arm where the icicle had torn her sleeve and drawn blood.
Another stream of potent ice slammed into Elsa's belly, and she found herself driven into the wall. Her stomach burned and the impact from the hard wall left her back sore. She groaned softly, struggling to lever herself to her feet. Alternate Elsa bulled forward, slamming her shoulder into Elsa, forcing the breath out of her with a pained oof.
A bony forearm was placed against Elsa's collarbone, pinning her to the wall. Her doppelgänger had her other hand against Elsa's stomach, ready to freeze her. She was in such close proximity that Elsa could smell her cherry scent.
"You've lost," Alternate Elsa taunted, pressing her forearm tightly against Elsa's collarbone and neck. "Know when you're beat."
"What happened to you?" Elsa's voice was strained and raspy. "When did you-"
"When did I become the Snow Witch? That's none of your business. All you need to know is that I'm going to end you, right here and now. Imposter or not, there can only be one Snow Witch in this world. And that's going to be me."
"You're Ingrid's favourite assassin." Elsa winced. "But you have no heart. No moral compass. You're just her mindless cold-blooded killer."
"I'll show you cold-blooded." The hand on her stomach began to grow colder as icy particles swirled around the Snow Witch's hand.
"Wait."
Both Elsa and Alternate Elsa turned to see the two men in black at the doorway. Elsa's heart sank.
Apparently Janus' counterpart had gotten the better of the exchange, having dragged Janus back to the room. Janus was masked and hooded, but even then there was no mistaking one for the other. His doppelgänger's mask was more fearsome and his uniform more armoured and dangerous.
Hands bound at the wrists, the masked Janus was dragged into the room by the back of his collar, and tossed disrespectfully at Alternate Elsa's feet. She smirked in satisfaction at Janus, and turned back to Elsa.
"You see?" She said in a mocking sing-song tone. "We're better than you both. And now you're going to die together." She turned back to her lover. "Well done, honey. How did you manage to beat him?"
"Simple." Janus' doppelgänger kicked him viciously and put a boot on his back. "He was no competition. Just a soft, weak shell of what he could have been. It wasn't hard."
An agonised, muffled murmuring came from Janus, as if he were trying to say something but couldn't.
"What did you do to him?" Elsa shouted, filled with worry and concern as she watched Janus writhing on the ground.
"I'm afraid I broke his jaw." came the cold answer, devoid of emotion.
"Fantastic." Alternate Elsa grinned at Elsa, her hand still pressed against Elsa's stomach. "I'm afraid you won't get the chance to watch your boyfriend die. I'm going to let him watch me kill you first, and then I'm going to have my fun with him."
"Wrong." An arrow whizzed through the air, and struck Alternate Elsa's thigh. She screamed, the piercing screech echoing in Elsa's ears like a bell. The snow witch crumpled to the ground, screaming and clutching the back of her leg where the arrow protruded from.
Blinking in confusion, Elsa stared at Janus' counterpart.
"Come on." Janus' doppelgänger peeled off the mask to reveal that it was really Janus, though both probably looked identical. "We have to get out of here."
There was no mistaking Janus' tone towards her. Without the shadow of a doubt, Elsa knew it was him as she stared into his eyes.
"Janus." She gave him a quick hug. "It's you! I was so worried."
"I'm alright." Janus winced. "Relatively." He reached down towards his doppelgänger and peeled off the mask. Elsa saw that the doppelgänger had been gagged behind the mask, rendering him mute and unable to warn his evil girlfriend of the hoax.
"That was…brilliant." Elsa remarked. "How did you-"
"Later." Janus took her hand. "We have to go now."
Elsa nodded hurriedly, ignoring the agonising cry of her evil doppelgänger and reached into her coat pocket. Out came the device that Anna had given her, and she stared at it blankly for a second. How do I…
Thankfully it came back to her, and she configured the device to open the portal back to their own world. Then, she pressed a button on the glass slab, and a portal opened a few feet in front of them, shining blue and shaped like a rectangle, looking more sophisticated and polished than Tracy's Crossing Points.
"Move!" Janus snatched her arm and dragged her towards the portal with an air of urgency. The portal seemed to have a time factor on it and it was closing fast. Elsa almost stumbled, but found her feet beneath her, and sprinted towards the blue portal with the device still in hand.
A precise, painful volley of ice hit Elsa's hand, and sharp pain shot through it and up her arm. Crying out in pain, her fingers loosened on the device and it fell to the ground. For a brief second, she hesitated to pick it up, and her eye caught her doppelgängers.
Alternate Elsa was by her lover's side, glaring at Elsa with vengeance written across her face. Janus' doppelgänger had been cut loose from his restraints and was now reaching for his dagger.
"There's no time!" Janus doubled back and grabbed Elsa's arm again, pulling her forward towards the portal which had shrunk to half its size.
"Don't let them get away!" Janus' doppelgänger shouted.
"Get back here!" Alternate Elsa screamed, throwing another stream of ice at the two escaping figures.
Elsa and Janus dove through the blue portal in the nick of time as it shut just a second later. Dazed, Elsa looked around. Her surroundings were all like a blur to her as the adrenaline began to wear off and her injuries caught up to her. Her hand felt numb, her arm was bleeding, back ached and stomach felt bruised. Somehow, they had managed to escape alive.
"Are you alright?" Janus looked equally banged up. His face bore the fresh scars of battle, with blood trickling down his nose and lips cracked. He reached out. "Let me see your arm."
Elsa allowed him to take her arm gently. "I'm fine." She said, ignoring all evidence to the contrary. "We should get back to Anna and the others."
Janus froze. "The device."
Blinking, Elsa stared back at him. It was then that she remembered. "Shit."
"It's still on their earth." Janus's face tightened. "Our doppelgängers have it now."
"Ugh." Elsa pressed a palm to her forehead. "Sloppy. Careless! I might've just opened a new can of worms."
"No time to worry about that now. Nothing we can do." Janus sighed. "Did you manage to get what we came for?"
"Yes." Elsa forced herself to forget about the doppelgängers. "I got everything." She stood up, and surveyed her surroundings.
Janus and herself had teleported back to their world all right. The pure white landscape was hard to mistake. It was dark and snowing again. They were on the hill where the Coalition had been camped, but now it was empty, bearing only the traces of an abandoned army camp. Apparently the Coalition had resumed their march towards the capital of Exon.
"We're probably a day behind them." Janus remarked.
"Probably." Elsa started down the side of the snow covered hill. "Come on. We need to catch up with the rest."
Author's Commentary:
I had planned the entire key plot points of this novel before I started on it. So it was really coincidence that I wrote this chapter about the doppelgängers and alternate realities and all at this particular point in time (2020). I just got out of watching TENET in the cinema, and the experience was beyond phenomenal. So it's just a nice little bit of coincidence that I'm writing this slightly mind-boggling chapter so soon after watching this massive time-reversed blockbuster in the film. Can't say it hasn't inspired a little bit of my writing as I'm listening to the TENET soundtrack right now.
Anyway, I'm leaving the door open (figuratively and literally) for the doppelgängers to make another appearance somehow. Maybe in a separate story after we're done with the Empire War Trilogy, our heroes' doppelgängers will come back to haunt them in some way. A Snow Queen vs Snow Witch story sounds like something I'll like to explore in the future.
(EDIT) As of now in May 2022 at the time of this chapter's release, I find it funny how Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness just dropped. I honestly never planned for the timing to line up so nicely when I wrote this chapter close to 2 years ago. But here we are.