Copycat

I made it to Tony's house. His mom said he wasn't there, and hadn't been for over a week. My next bet was Kyle. I figured he might know. So I made it to his house and knocked on the door. He answered, looking really stoned.

“Dan!” he exclaimed. “I haven't seen you in ages man!”

“Hey bro,” I said. “I gotta talk to you.”

We caught up with each other after that. Turns out, he's been paying attention to my blog, so he already knew a lot of what's been going on. After a while of talking, I asked him about Tony.

“I don't know man,” he said. “He hasn't spoken to me that much lately. I think he's been busy with detective work or something. Every time I see him, he's always looking through documents, and he'd step away sometimes to make phone calls to some guy.”

“Do you know where he is now?” I asked.

“No clue,” he said.

“Well, I have one place left to look for him,” I said.

“Where's that” he asked.

“The old church,” I said. “He said something about it in his voicemail.”

“I'll go with you,” Kyle said.

“You sure?” I asked.

“Like hell I'm letting you go alone,” he said. “Look at your fucking arm!”

“I guess you have a point,” I said. “Alright, if you insist.”

As soon as we walked out the front door, I was slapped hard across the face by Seraph. Very hard.

“Okay, I deserved that,” I said.

“Gee, you think!?” she shouted at me. “It's been months, Daniel!”

“I'm sorry!” I said defensively. “I was possessed by a Dying Man shard! I had to leave for everyone's safety!”

“And what about when you got rid of the shard?” she said. “Why didn't you come back then!?”

“My arm is badly injured and using the Godsway is fucking painful,” I said.

That comment was met with another slap.

“Ouch!” I said. “Okay, I'm sorry! I'll make it up to you!”

“Oh, will you?” she asked, grabbing me by the earlobe and pulling hard.

“Ow!” I exclaimed.

I touched her hand and gave her a small shock with the Convocation's power.

“Look, I'm really, really sorry for being gone so long,” I said. “But right now, something's going on with Tony, and I have to figure out what's happening.”

“Fine,” she said, sighing. “But this conversation isn't over!”

“Okay,” I said.

So, after all that happened, we made our way down to the church. As soon as we got there, I could tell something was wrong. Someone else was there. Someone I didn't wanna see right then.

“Let's split up for a bit,” I told them. “I'll check inside.”

I opened the door. The place was still torn up from my fight with the Archangel. And in the middle of the wreckage, the other me was standing there. The Devil Killer. Although, he wasn't wearing his normal torn coat. Instead, he was dressed in the exact same clothing as me, right down to the blood stained bandages on his arm. He had his samurai sword in his hand. As if on cue, my own wakizashi appeared in my working hand and burst into flame.

“I've been waiting for you,” he said.

“What's with the clothes?” I asked.

“I'm going to kill you now,” he told me. “Then, I'll will assume your identity.”

“They'll hear us fighting in here,” I told him. They'll come in and see you trying to kill me.”

“And when that happens, they won't be able to tell us apart,” he replied.

“Except for one small problem,” I pointed out. “Our weapons are different. They'll be able to differentiate between the two of us.”

“Oh really?” he asked. “Tell me something; do you understand what power a Devil Killer gains from the Empty City?”

To demonstrate my knowledge, I focused on some rocks lying on the ground a few feet away. They rose into the air and few straight at him. He cut them all into pieces with his sword before they could hit him.

“I see you're learning,” he said. “True, the Empty City grants us geokinesis, but it goes deeper than just that. Allow me to show you.”

The blade of his sword glowed brightly, and in a few seconds, it shrank down to the size of my own sword.

“What?” I asked. “How did you do that”

“The Empty City grants a Devil Killer complete and total control over all matter, if used right,” he said. “I can not only manipulate it, but I can alter the size and shape at will. Now, I just use some of the Bride's power, and...”

His sword burst into flames, just like mine.

No more talking. He charged at me, and our blades met with each other. I fought back, and as I guess, the others heard us and ran inside to see two identical Daniels swing flaming swords at each other. Everything about him, even his fighting style, was a perfect mirror of myself. He even faked being in pain from his arm. And he pulled it off. We were exactly the same, impossible to tell apart. Almost impossible, anyway. There was one thing I had that he didn't; a handgun with infinite ammo. I reached into my belt with my injured arm, ignoring the pain, and grabbed the gun. Just as I pulled it out, he slammed into me with his shoulder, knocking it from my hand. He tackled me and pulled us both into the Godsway for a moment. We both reappeared a few feet from each other. My arm felt like it would fall off, and he was faking the same pain I felt. I had made the difference between us clear for a moment when I had drawn my gun, but after vanishing and reappearing like that, we were back to being indistinguishable. The gun had landed right next to Seraph, who had picked it up. Yes, I seriously got into one of those situations.

“Shoot both of us!” the other me said.

“Do it!” I said. I didn't wanna get shot, but it seemed like the only way to stop him. “Shoot us both!”

“I have a better idea,” said another voice.

Tony stepped out of the shadows and snatched the gun from Seraph's hand. Both me and... um, let's go ahead and call him Dark Daniel... froze. Neither of us had noticed him here before.

“Tell me something,” he said, raising the gun and pointing it at the space between us. “What's the last thing I said to you on New Years?”

It suddenly occurred to me; Dark Daniel didn't appear in this universe until after the fight I had with Tony, and I hadn't posted what he said on my blog. There was no way he could possibly know what was said.

“Um...” Dark Daniel said. “Go fuck yourself?”

Waaay off.

“And one last thing,” I said, quoting what Tony had said that night. “If you get your dumb ass killed by the Fears, I swear to God I will drag you back from Hell and beat the ever-loving crap out of you.”

Tony and I looked each other in the eyes for a moment, and then he smiled.

“Close enough,” he said, turning the gun to Dark Daniel and pulling the trigger.

The bullet tore through his chest, and he collapsed in a pool of blood. Tony approached me. Instead of helping me up, he reached down and tore the bandages on my shoulder aside, exposing the bullet hole from when I had shot myself.

“Yep, it's you alright,” he said.

“Been a while,” I said. “What's going on What was with that voicemail?”

“I found some stuff,” he said. “I thought you should know about it. Unfortuanately, there was some disturbance.”

“Is that so?” I said.

“I'll explain things later,” Tony said.

“No you won't,” Dark Daniel said, getting to his feet. “Because I'm going to kill all of you right here and now!”

He had changed. His skin was now completely pale, and black markings in the shape of Nightgaunt wings covered his eyes. His hair, which had been brown and slightly curly, like mine, was now dark black, and was straight and pointed, like hedgehog quills. He tore the bandages from his arm and grabbed his sword, which changed size again, becoming about twelve feet in length. He raised it and brought it back down. I shoved Tony out of the way and grabbed my own sword.

“What happened to replacing me” I said. “You won't be able to do that very well if you kill all my friend!”

“I don't care!” he shouted, swinging his sword sideways. I barely blocked it. “I'm gonna kill you!”

He had lost it. His hatred had completely overwhelmed him. He swung his sword again, knocking the wakizashi from my hand. He raised his sword again, prepared to behead me. As soon as he brought it back down, a man appeared before me, blocking the sword with a five foot long daito.

“Excuse me,” the man said. “Wielding oversized samurai swords is my thing.”

“Akihiko!” I said. I took me a second to recognize him, but It was definitely him.

“That's not my name anymore,” he said. “I change it frequently.”

“So what should I call you then?” I asked.

“I've gone back to using my old name,” he said, swinging his sword with such force that Dark Daniel was thrown backwards. “You may call me Hideaki Kelterry.”

“Out of my way!” Dark Daniel said, charging at Hideaki.

Hideaki sidestepped the attack and slashed with his sword, sending Dark Daniel flying again. He then grabbed me by the arm. For a moment, I caught a glimpse of a tall, decrepit tower, before landing face first on the deck of a ship hidden away in what appeared to be a grotto. Hideaki appeared again, carrying Kyle, Seraph, and Tony.

“Where the hell is this!?” Kyle asked. “Who are you?”

“You'll know what's going on soon enough,” Hideaki said.

I looked around for a moment, before realizing what this ship was. I've seen it before. The same exact ship from my subconscious.

“This ship,” I said. “This is...”

“The Tantalus,” someone said. I looked up at the helm to see a man dressed in an old pirate's longcoat standing there looking down at us.

“Who... are you” I asked.

“My name is Garrot Kelterry,” he said. “And boy, do I have a lot to tell you, Daniel Xavier Ferris.”

“You... know me” I asked.

“I know a lot,” he said. “But I can't tell you everything til our other acquaintance gets back.”

He vanished bellow deck, locking the door behind him. Hideaki had also left. So... here we are, in an old pirate ship, which somehow has internet access... Great...