Taylor found herself in a stare down with her eerie captor.
“Who the hell are you?!” she growled, shaken by the situation.
Dressed in the standard Order cloak, and with much nicer armor than anything Taylor was currently wearing, the Other Taylor even had her hair up in the same intricate bun. Taylor moved her hand, half expecting the Other Taylor to mirror her movements, but the other woman barely reacted. A faint sign of amusement encroaching across her face and the obvious change in position were the only signs to show that she wasn’t still frozen.
Now that Taylor could get a good look at the woman that was supposed to be her, Taylor could see that the two weren’t exactly the same after all. It wasn’t subtle either, she could see that the Other Taylor seemed to carry herself differently, radiating an aura of confidence and responsibility that the current Taylor couldn’t even imagine having. It was if the person before her had survived countless battles and seen untold things.
‘Are those new lines on her face?? Why would a copy of me have lines on her face that I don’t have? Sure, there was something about six months, but this is still a game. Is there an aging mechanic that I don’t know about?'
It hadn’t been long since her dopple had revealed herself, and while Taylor was busy examining her, the Other Taylor was busy doing the exact same thing.
“Funny. I always thought I looked taller than that. And what’s with that mask? I don’t ever remember wearing something that edgy. Don’t tell me it was Mac’s idea. I swear, that man is like a child sometimes.”
Taylor had no idea what to say. Confusion had become the new norm for her ever since she had ended up in this place. Nothing made sense to her, and she couldn’t seem to keep up with the pace of development. Deciding that remaining aggressive would come off as childish, Taylor chose to approach this confrontation from a different angle.
“Bitch, don’t change the subject. I asked who you are. Why are you wearing my face and why are you doing this to us?!”
‘Real mature, Taylor,’ she groaned sarcastically to herself, trying not to show the discomfort on her face, ‘That’ll show her.’
She hadn't intended to yell out insults and sound so hysterical, but something about the woman was starting to cause Taylor to lose her sense of awareness and her ability to think straight.
The Other Taylor raised her eyebrows at the sudden insult but didn’t say anything to address it, her attitude almost seemed to say that it didn’t matter anyway. She simply nodded to acknowledge Taylor's position and waved a hand in the air casually, two chairs rising up from the floor between them. The Other Taylor motioned for them to sit before taking the chair in front of her for herself.
Seeing no reason to refuse to sit, Taylor took a seat in the remaining chair, which she noticed had arm rests that weren’t on the other chair. Now that she was sitting, she realized that she was becoming more and more disoriented by the second.
“Now, listen to me Taylor. Wow, that’s weird to say,” Other Taylor laughed quietly and shook her head before getting back on track, “You have a lot of questions and I wish we had the chance to talk more, gods know it would be nice to unload with someone that would get it, but we don’t have it.”
In her dazed state, Taylor could still understand what the woman was telling her, but she was having trouble coming up with something to say in response. She knew that she should, the things that were being said so casually seemed to have even deeper meaning, but the thoughts slipped away almost as soon as they began to form. The Other Taylor continued speaking, clearly anticipating that the conversation would be one sided.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“I’ll just give you the short version. Even though you won’t remember any of this, hopefully the impression will help later down the road. To be honest, I didn’t expect you to survive the separation. I guess we all tend to underestimate what we’re personally capable of when pushed into a corner. Then you even managed to maintain your sense of self as a pure consciousness, which is honestly a level of crazy I didn’t know I had. So, even if it’s only temporary, I knew that this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
The Other Taylor scooted her chair closer to Taylor, seeing that the slumping woman was slowly beginning to lose her ability to keep herself upright, and helped her lean herself back in the chair.
“I guess we have less time then I thought. Ok. That makes this easier, in a way.” Other Taylor sighed, “I’m just going to be blunt. Taylor. You aren’t real. None of this, this place, this reality, is real.”
‘Yeah, no shit.’ Taylor thought vaguely to herself, while Other Taylor’s next sentence made Taylor feel stupid for wasting her limited thinking ability on being a sarcastic ass.
“You probably just thought ‘no shit’, and, while I understand the sentiment, you misunderstand me. I’m not talking about this in the sense of a video game. I’m saying that you, your existence, is literally not real. You are a copy created by someone to try and get to me. I am the real Taylor Mitchell.”
‘Blade…Runner…’
“No, this isn’t Blade Runner. More like Gemini Man,” Other Taylor said, starting to talk faster and seemingly reading Taylor’s thoughts again, “You as a person exist as much as I, or any one else for that matter, but your existence uses a scan of my consciousness from back before everything happened. What you’re feeling right now? It’s the effect of being too close to me when I’m active. The system recognizes you as part of me and is trying to assimilate you. There’s no time to explain it any further. Just know that, even though you are going to forget everything that’s happened to you since you woke up, it doesn’t mean your pain has to be in vain.”
Taylor’s vision was close to gone and she was barely registering anything that was being said anymore, her mind almost completely shrouded in fog.
Leaning close to make sure that Taylor could hear her, Other Taylor spoke gently, “Try to internalize what I’m about to tell you next. It’s important that you can get this information to Mac after you wake up. Ready? Tell Mac this, don’t trust Ollie. It isn’t what it says it is.”
Sitting back up and looking at the rag doll that was Taylor, Other Taylor frowned.
“I’d try to get you to remember more, but that might be more than I can hope for.”
Taylor’s consciousness began to crumble. As everything went back, she thought she could hear the crazy woman saying one last thing, though most of it was lost to the abyss that had come to swallow her up.
“…tell…I…don’t….rescued.”
----------------------------------------
Hot.
She couldn't breath. Taylor woke up staring at smoke coiling above her on the ceiling.
She shot to her feet, adrenaline coursing through her as her danger senses screamed at her to run. Ignoring them, Taylor took a look around. She pieced together that she had been lying on the floor at the foot of the couch where Kaitlyn, the prospect she had been trying to help, had been placed. She noticed that the woman was no longer there, and neither were the parents or the other prospect, Aiden. It seemed like they had just left her.
Oh, and the house was on fire.
Accessing the system to see what was going on, she received several notifications telling her that Mac had been trying to reach her for well over an hour.
‘An hour? Did I get hit with a status effect?’
It was plausible. A few effects, like hypnotized or unconscious, would create a blackout or time distortion effect similar to real life.
‘That’s what I get for using a skill on an unknown condition.’
Frowning, she looked at the map to see where he was and but saw much more immediate trouble.
Judging from the several large red blips moving in and around the village, she deduced that the village was currently under attack by a large antagonistic force.
Clenching her fists, Taylor disappeared from the room, leaving parting words lingering in her wake.
"Let's go."