Stepping through the door and bursting into action, eerily silent, was a reflection of their own party. Annette watched in panic as time seemed to slow down, barely registering the shock of making eye contact with herself, or something that looked like her, before Nina– or, Not Nina, rushed Will. She felt herself shouting out, pointing, and she felt, rather than saw, movement in the periphery of her vision. She felt like everything else had fallen away, and all she could see was the malice on a face she had started becoming familiar with, and the weapons raised at her friend.

This moment felt long; far longer than it should have been. The gravity of the situation had pulled her in, distorting her perception. But, just as abruptly as it started, it ended. A see-through grasping hand appeared on Not Nina’s right, pulling gently, diverting her attention before real Nina slammed bodily into the fake, throwing it off. Will slashed at it as it stumbled past off course, before stepping back and settling into a more defensive posture.

Annette gulped in air, her field of view suddenly widening out from her tunnel vision, watching her party and the opposing party settle into a tense staring match. Heart racing, hands shaking, she raised her staff in front of her. She jumped at a hand on her shoulder, glancing back at a grim-faced Gerald. “Breathe. That was a probing strike. They were hoping to catch us by surprise, I’d bet.” He pulled away a bit, calling out to the others, “Be cautious. We don’t know the extent of their capabilities, but if they’re anything like the mirrored monsters, they’ll have very similar capabilities.” He glanced at the opposing party, grimacing. “Let’s just hope we’re not a bad matchup for ourselves.”

Will and Nina glanced at each other, a quick understanding passing between the two. “If our capabilities are the same, a one-to-one matchup is a bad idea,” Nina said, turning to Gerald. “You know what we have to do, right?” He nodded solemnly back. “Then let’s do it., Annette, give support where you can.” She said while turning back to the reflections of themselves.

Now, she thought to herself, let’s see how they handle this. She crept forward, Will trailing just behind and to the side, eyes wide and unblinking, watching for sudden movements. As she got near, she heard a faint buzzing from Annette’s direction, like a low hum. As the sound passed over her, it filled her with a burst of energy, and she chose that moment to strike, surging toward Not Will. As the reflection raised its shield, she feinted, changing direction to charge at her own approaching reflection. We need to take out my copy first so our backline isn’t vulnerable, she thought, blades rising to strike the fake.

She felt a hand on her arms, slowing and redirecting her swings, while the copy cleanly stepped outside her range. She watched in surprise as faint, spectral hands lifted off her, and she growled, glancing at the other members of the fake party. Not Gerald was concentrating on his spectral hands, lined in black, rather than real Gerald’s silver hands. Not Will had engaged real Will, blocking him from– blocking him from getting to me, she realized with a start. They had the same idea. With sinking dread, she sweeped back across the party, noting Not Annette with–

She blinked. Were those bees coming out of her staff? They were! She viewed the bulbous end of the staff with new eyes, watching as a small army of bees filed out of folds and holes in it. She had to clumsily throw herself out of the way of an imitation of her own blades as she had let her focus slip a bit too much. She settled back to focusing on herself.

Will grunted, frowning. Damn it! Now we’re locked into one-on-one matchups. He glanced down around himself and his opponent, noting several hands and bees. So many bees. So, 3v3. Nina rolled between himself and his opponent, followed quickly by Not Nina, trying to skewer her doppelganger. Two 3v3s? He shook his head. Either way, not good. He sucked his breath in at a sharp stabbing sensation on his back, stumbling back to fend off a strike from Not Will perfectly timed to take advantage of his momentary lapse of attention. He frowned again. Almost too perfectly timed.

He disengaged, taking a moment to survey the combat. His party was harried and flustered, while the clones were calm, quiet, and efficient. They each supported each other as if they’d been working together for decades, rather than the short time the real party had been together. Nodding to himself, he came to a quick decision. “Disengage and retreat! Fallback to the rooms we’ve already explored!” He called out, pointing his sword back at the door they came through. The others nodded grimly before doing their best to disentangle themselves from the fight, sporting stings, bruises, and minor cuts as they made their way. The reflections let them go easily, and didn’t pursue.

-=-<^>-=-

They lay panting a few rooms back, watchful but recovering. They had thrown what furniture they could find against doors as they went, and had likewise barricaded the room they were in now, about halfway between the foyer and the mirror they’d crossed over.

Will set his canteen aside, thirst satisfied, and eyed Annette, and her staff. “So… Bees, huh?”

She flushed, nodding. “Bees.”

He sighed, dragging a hand down his face. “Well… That did not go well. At all.”

Gerald nodded. “And yet, at the same time, you could say it went exactly as expected. They are copies of us, and they tried to do exactly what we did.” He shook his head, letting out an exhausted breath, “and they kicked our asses doing it.”

Annette raised a shaky hand, shoulders hunched a bit. “I… feel like part of that was my fault. My copy was much quicker to start sending out the bees, and I don’t know if the way I spread them out was useful during the fight.” She lowered her head. “...sorry.”

Nina waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. Your inexperience fighting isn’t the issue. Actually, it might be a key to understanding what just happened.” She said, folding her arms across her chest. She looked at the other two. “You guys got a feel for it, right?”

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Gerald stroked his chin, nodding slowly, and Will frowned. “There was definitely something off…” He tilted his head, thinking. “When they came out and I saw myself… I expected to be fighting an exact copy, but something about it didn’t feel quite right.”

Nina nodded. “Yeah. It felt more like we fought a reflection of the party, rather than ourselves. Just our capabilities, and nothing else. Not our fears, concerns, or inexperience,” she nodded at Annette. “And that’s a problem. There’s no way we can beat them head on, not when they think like us and act like us.”

With a grunt, Gerald lifted his arm. “And not when our limbs are swollen to twice their size with bee stings.”

Annette gasped, quickly grabbing her staff and moving over to examine their wounds. “I’m so sorry! I should have taken care of those right away!”

He patted her on the shoulder in response. “This was your first real taste of danger in combat, right?”

She nodded, eyes a little watery.

“Then don’t worry about it. This kind of thing takes time to get used to, and none of our wounds are particularly life-threatening,” he glanced dubiously at a row of nasty bumps on his arm, swollen and red, “right?

“Are you allergic to bees?”

“No… Not that I’m aware.”

Will snorted. “Then I guess we’ll find out.” Nina cracked up at that, and Gerald just shot him an expression of mock betrayal.

Annette chuckled, wiping her eyes. “Well, you should be fine. I can speed up your healing and pull out any toxin the bees may have left with my healing.” Saying that, she lowered the head of her staff, bringing the bulbous end, which the party now knew to be some approximation of a bee hive, towards his wounds. As she held it over him, it began to buzz lightly, before excreting a thick, amber fluid from its papery layers.

Gerald’s brows climbed as he watched a thin layer of honey coat his arm. “Interesting…” As Annette finished coating his wounds and moved on to assist the others, he watched the scratches and stings, marveling as they shrank before his eyes. “So, more of a regenerative healing than an instant heal.” He turned his arm about, looking at it, noting that the honey darkened where he had been stung. He looked over at their healer. “This removes poisons and toxins as well?”

She nodded. “Yup! It’s not the best for really devastating wounds, but it’ll work on anything superficial, and it’s good for your skin. You can eat it too!” She glanced at the poison marring the golden liquid where they’d been stung, and the blood floating about on their cuts. “...Mostly!”

Will froze, honey and blood crusted hand near his mouth. He nonchalantly turned it about as if inspecting it, and looked up to Annette. “Seriously though, what’s with the bees? I thought you were from one of those churches that worship people, of all things. That wouldn’t give you bee powers.”

She grimaced. “Well, I was from one of those churches…” Shaking her head, she sighed. “It’s a long story, and I don’t think we have the time for it right now. I’ll tell you later.”

Nodding, he turned to look suspiciously at the door they’d come through. “You’re right. We need to figure out what to do about those guys.”

Stepping forward, Nina raised a hand. “Actually, I have an idea about that…”

-=-<^>-=-

Several minutes later, and a few rooms further down, they lay in wait. They’d decided on an ambush of sorts, with room for them to fall back if needed. Now all they had to do was wait for the reflections to travel back along their route. They didn’t need to wait long.

As the Nots cautiously opened the door and filed in, they were quickly swarmed. Literally, with bees, and figuratively with blades and spectral hands. The room very quickly fell into a fast paced melee, very similar to the initial encounter, but there was a key difference here. Now, they’d had time to prepare.

Will stood his ground, shield raised and sword flicking out occasionally, carefully placed to protect his party while also impeding the ability of the other party to traverse the room. He focused on his counterpart, carefully herding the dupe so that it felt the need to guard its own backline fighter. Will was a shepherd, blocking these slower members here. Not Nina, he left to real Nina.

Real Nina was, just like last time, the focus of both her copy and their support members copies. She didn’t have the room to be aggressive and go for a fatal blow. At the same time, she wasn’t aiming for that now. She glanced at Gerald, who nodded. Just got to hold her off for a bit longer now. Carefully dodging and deflecting blows, she watched, and waited. There! Not Nina stopped, hesitant. Nina held her breath, daring to hope. Slowly, begrudgingly, the reflection walked towards the door– not the one it had come in through, but the one that headed further on their path. Grinning, she called out. “It’s working! She’s leaving on schedule!”

She heard a deep thunk followed by splintering wood as Will hit the ground next to her, sliding past, shield shattered. He groaned, getting up. “Great–” He barely had time to speak before a frenzied Not Will pounced. Nina joined in the fierce exchange, assisting him, but the now twisted reflection was unrelenting, and did not show any concern for the damage it took. As surprise gave way to panic, suddenly a pair of silvery hands appeared, stalling Not Will just enough for a lethal strike.

Panting, the melee fighters turned to find the others equally winded, standing over their own clones.

Annette let out a shaky breath, looking at Nina appreciatively. “That was good intuition. I wouldn’t have guessed they took as long to leave a room as we took to clear it on the way in.”

Will nodded. “Just wait for them in a room we were hardly in, lock the slowest down, and they’ll separate themselves. We–”

“We don’t have time for this right now.” Gerald cut in sharply. “Nina’s reflection has had time to get down the road, and we don’t know what happens if she reaches the mirror.” He turned to the others, expression intense. “We need to go, now.”

Nodding, the group pushed through after the escaped reflection, throwing caution to the wind. Nina herself was in the lead, being the fastest, and quickly burst back into the storage room where they had left the mirror behind. She was just in time to make eye contact with her reflection. It grinned at her manically, crooking a finger at her before dashing off. She growled, and gave chase.

From just a bit behind her, lungs heaving for air their mad dash, Will watched with dismay as Not Nina reached the mirror. She spun on her heels, pausing for a brief moment to wave at her original before stepping back into the mirror. Through the mirror, just a second before Nina reached it—

And bounced off.

Will gasped, his steps faltering for a second before he redoubled his efforts, pushing past his shocked companion, making eye contact with the nightmare reflection as she raised her blades, ready to bring them down on their one way out. He roared in response to its glassy laughter and charged.