Chapter 3: Stage 3

"Well I reckon that's that." The Engineer flipped everything closed again and gave the teleporter a quick manual spin. "I got a one-time connection set up to wherever it is you came from. Just walk on up and you're golden."

Melia nodded absently, staring straight ahead.

"Somethin' on your mind, ain't there?"

"...The opposing army you fight. What is their goal?"

"Well, I dunno what I can tell you on that front." The Engineer crossed his arms and thought for a bit. "They stand for Reliable Excavation and Demolition, but they've got their hands in a lot of pies, and a lot of their intent is behind the scenes and unknown to us. Come to think of it, our own headquarters is a bit on the shady side - we're called Builders League United, for the record - but to an extent I don't much care. As long as I'm havin' fun and the pay's good, it don't really matter to me what the end goal is."

Melia couldn't help a look of disgust from showing. "You kill endless duplicates of people for fun?"

"Me? Nah, I don't like the killin'. I more enjoy keepin' the team topped up with my machines. I mean, if some dumb sap wanders too close and my sentry takes 'im out, then yeah I'll have a laugh, but it's only 'cause I know he's not really dead." He looked around the respawn room and continued in a quieter voice. "Can't say the same fer the others though, I swear the killin's a game to most of 'em. Well, at least we ain't killin' civilians; everyone on this property signed up for this. 'Cept for you I guess."

The long-range teleporter, sitting in the corner of the room, finished its slow power-on sequence and lit up. Melia stared at it for a moment before looking away.

"I cannot leave until we discover why I have been scanned by the enemy."

"Suit yerself, ma'am."

"Okay men," the Soldier hollered, "we're almost done with this godforsaken wasteland. All we need is two more points and that rocket is ours!"

A cheer rose up from the other guys.

"Now based on what I've been told, those RED tapeworms called our strategy pretty well in stage two, so it's time to change it up. Medic, I think invincerabulnaty would can-opener these narrow corridors nicely."

The Medic nodded and went to the resupply cabinet, exchanging his Kritzkrieg for a stock Übercannon.

"And as for our surprise tactical advantage," he continued, pointing at Melia, "this time she'll be the distraction instead of the lynchpin. With the enemy focusing on her invulnincibiliby-ness, the rest of us can just head straight for the first point and cap it quick. And from there, all we need is sustained pressure to break through to the end! Let's move!"

More confident but still slightly worried, Melia followed the team outside and through the concrete building that would serve as the staging area for the next attack.

"So here's the deal, missy." The Soldier addressed her directly. "Those RED meatheads will be focusing on you now, but we're one step ahead of that. You have eight seconds to draw attention while we cap this first point. Make sure you get to safety before that time runs out!"

Eight seconds. That's more protection than Reflection gives me. This shouldn't be much trouble.

The Sniper, who was looking out the gates through his scope, spotted something interesting. "Have a gander at this, mates. Their Demo's got a shield on."

"He does?" The Soldier snatched the rifle and peered through the scope upside-down. "He does! Interesting. That means we'll have to watch out for sudden charges instead of stickies. And lookie here, that's a Battalion's Backup! They thought we'd stay with the Kritz? They think we're that predictable? Hah!"

Irritated, the Sniper snatched his weapon back and started cleaning it with his sleeve. "And who's wearing their Buff Banner right now, mister smartypants?"

The gates opened. Everyone backed off from the doors to avoid the initial burst of incoming fire. Once it subsided, they stepped outside and gathered behind the building on the left.

"To move on, we need to know where the sentry's set up," the Soldier said suspiciously loudly. "Man, if only we knew whether it was on the left or the right, we'd be golden."

A few seconds later, someone from the far side of the building whistled.

"Whistle, first option, today is an opposite day, it's on the right." He prodded Melia, who had summoned a wind elemental to boost her footspeed. "Get out there and distract the sentry so we can get through, then fall back."

"Very well." Making sure that the Medic was ready, Melia stepped out from behind the building and dashed forwards. Seeing a bunch of red in the corridor to the right, she gave the order. "Now!"

She could feel a massive amount of alien energy being injected into her body. It was honestly a little bit sickening, making the world turn fuzzy and distorted, but at the same time the bullets bouncing off her shining clothes didn't hurt at all. She tried to focus on wading through the metallic wind to keep the sentry's attention.

"Get out of here!" The RED Demoman sneered as he dramatically pressed a button on a remote.

Melia suddenly felt herself flying through the air. The cause was obvious in hindsight: the enemy Spy had tricked them into thinking no stickybombs would be on the field, so she didn't even see the massive cluster under her feet. With no way to control her flight, she was propelled over the row of buildings on the right and landed front-first on the ground nearby a metal bridge between two upper decks, moments before the effects of the Übercharge dissipated.

Dizzy from both the über and the unplanned stickyjump, she stumbled to her feet and looked around the narrow corridor. It didn't seem like anyone from either team was chasing her. There were only two ways to go: forwards into unknown territory, or backwards into the heart of the enemy team.

Attempting to attack from behind is folly; I have no way to utilise the element of surprise adequately enough to deal with potentially nine foes. But if I am not being pursued, perhaps I can stake a claim to the final point of interest, and deal with any individuals who retreat or straggle. Mind made up, she cautiously turned the corner.

She found herself in another corridor, with stairs on the left leading to a balcony, and another left turn at the far end. Recalling the chalkboard map, she realised that the final point, and also the rocket, would be around this final corner. But just as she was about to continue forwards, someone else came around the opposite corner.

It was another Melia. Unlike the disguised Spy from earlier, this new duplicate was perfectly accurate and was also dressed differently, wearing orange instead of lavender.

What is this now? The original Melia recalled what the Engineer had said. "One of us comes up with a new weapon or strategy, the other copies it without much trouble."

"You will go no further," the doppelgänger said. "You do not understand what is at stake."

"You are a fabrication!" the original responded. "You cannot be permitted to exist!"

A shootout erupted. Both Melias began summoning and firing elementals down the corridor, which collided with each other to form a brilliant light show. Bolts pierced through flares and winds, but were stymied by aquas and earths, which themselves couldn't get through the trundling ices before running out of power. Sharing the same general thought process, strategy, and unnaturally high ether synergy, neither of them could get an attack by the other's barrage. After about half a minute, they both paused, waiting for the smoke and steam to clear.

With the BLU-allied Melia considering what to do next, the one created by the RED team leaped through the cloud and initiated staff-to-staff combat. It was tentative and overall messy, what with physical offence being her least-impressive attribute, and most of it was a stalemate of misses and blocked swings. Eventually, they each scored a hit at the same time, forcing them both to retreat.

"You do realise you are an illegitimate duplicate? That you must be destroyed to preserve the balance of the world?"

"I will gladly give my life for a greater number of other lives."

The fight resumed once more, with the combatants opening up their repertoire of battle arts, but it was still very much a stalemate. Shadow Stitch covered the ground in trapping dark ether, but summoning a wind provided just enough speed to break free. Putting the opponent to sleep with Hypnotise didn't do much when the independently-aware panels of Reflection were ready to defend against cheap shots. Burst End reverberated around the corridor, but the defensive drop didn't mean much when very few attacks were landing in the first place. Eventually, they both kicked each other in the shins, causing them both to tumble to the ground.

Rolling away from each other, the fourth phase of the battle began with the original Melia raising a protective bubble of energy around herself - a trick Shulk had taught her not long ago. But the opponent caught on immediately; after a single attack bounced off the shield, she simply reached in and grabbed her by the ear, throwing her to the ground. From there, they took to the skies, jumping across the narrow hallway and throwing out both grounded and aerial attacks.

Eventually, the original Melia landed a Spear Break. Knowing that a Starlight Kick was to come, the duplicate raised her shield. Upon the kick hitting the energy bubble, it popped with a definitive shattering noise, the energy release sending the defender into a daze.

That's an interesting effect. I'll have to remember it. Confident in victory, she created a bolt in the head of her staff in order to keep the one she already had, jammed it into the opponent, and detonated the elemental. The force of the attack sent the victim reeling into the top of the far wall, on the RED team's side of the corridor.

But by the time she landed on her feet, she was surrounded by the entire rest of the RED team, arriving from their respawn near the rocket.

Melia was about to retreat when she heard footsteps; the whole BLU team had arrived at her end of the corridor, pumped from successfully capturing five out of six points so far.

It looks like this is about to get quite messy, she thought as both teams deposited sentry guns and exchanged unintelligible war cries. A horn sounded; the RED Soldier raised a triangular yellow flag from his black backpack.

"Eliminate them!" the clone Melia ordered.

The RED Medic unleashed the power of his Kritzkrieg and passed it around, allowing both the Soldier and Demoman to fire devastating projectiles down the hallway. At the same time, the Sniper was clearly charging up his Machina, aiming for multiple kills with one shot.

Something clicked in Melia's head. It wasn't just the right thing to do, it was the only thing that would stop a whole lot of people from being blown up once the critical explosives reached them. And she had just enough spirit to do it. She had pretty much no friendship with anyone on the BLU team, but the affinity they had with each other should certainly be enough for it to go well.

"Follow my lead!" She jammed her staff into the floor, spreading a spiderweb of blue filaments across the ground that connected each of the team members. The incoming explosives made their mark at the same time the fully-charged rifle shot tore through, but no one even flinched, despite being left one step away from death. The Chain Attack was ready to go.

"Thunderous justice of the goddesses!" Taking her remaining bolt, Melia launched it at the enemy Heavy, causing her inner ether energy to ignite into a multicoloured aura. With the defensive buff of the opposing Battalion's Backup active, he shrugged it off about as well as a melee attack. "To you, Engineer!"

"Alrighty then! Dispenser goin' up!" Expending half of his reserves, he plopped a toolbox on the ground that instantly unfolded into a level 1 dispenser, providing a regeneration effect to the entire team. "Go go go!"

*beep beep beep* The level 2 sentry that he had placed earlier eyed the Heavy and fired double-action, but he appeared to still be above his normal maximum health capacity.

*hmmmmmmmmm* The newly-erected dispenser emitted a larger package of healing towards the team's Medic, sending him from near-dead to half-alive.

"I am prepared to do vatever it takes!" Taking advantage of the support chain, the Medic played a medicating melody on his saw, instantly healing almost everyone to max health. "Spy!"

"Yeeesss!" The RED Spy on the enemy side of the field revealed himself to be the BLU Spy. "Pardon me." He eliminated the enemy Heavy in one stab, causing the entire RED team to focus on him, even though they remained unable to act. "Move!"

"Yaaaagh!" The Sniper, who had already maxed his charge gauge before the Chain Attack started, aimed for the enemy Medic. Normally the active Battalion's Backup would have neutralized the damage enough to keep the doctor alive, but the damage chain active from the Spy's backstab was strong enough to kill him anyway. "Tagged ya! Let's go, ya twitchy hooligan!"

"Alright, yeah." Lobbing a baseball into the air, the Scout cracked it with his bat and nailed the enemy Soldier in the head, instantly dazing him and disabling his defensive buff. "Nice catch, dummy! Let's get 'em!"

"Da. Raaaaaaaaah!" Already fully spun up, the Heavy spun around to spray bullets in all directions, revealing the location of the cloaked enemy Spy. "We are not done with you yet."

"Aye!" *burp* Targeting the location of the flickering cloak, the Demoman nailed him with a direct grenade, destroying him instantly. "You're all bloody dead!"

"Oh yeah!" The Soldier activated his own banner with a blast of his horn, allowing the chain to continue regardless of the type of move used next. "At-ten-hut!"

"Uh-huh." The only one left to act, the Pyro gathered his fire energy and launched a Hadoken, which incinerated the enemy Soldier on contact and set everyone nearby on fire. "Hudda hudda huh!"

Melia was stunned that not only had the Chain Attack circled all the way back to her, but that the exact sequence used resulted in her being given the opportunity to unleash an ether-type art at maximum chain multiplier. It was not a difficult decision.

"Opposing me was your final mistake!" She thrusted her palm at the enemy team, unloading an incredible amount of energy down the corridor. She didn't need to see the results to know that it was an unsurvivable attack.

With no more foes left to oppose them, the BLU team victoriously stormed down the corridor and across the concrete bridge over the ravine to the final control point, capturing it almost instantly. High on success, they all started doing the conga.

Melia followed slowly, stopping to observe the carnage she had unleashed on the RED team. Most of the enemy had been simply vaporized by the Mind Blast, only their weapons left. But the duplicate Melia remained, still possessing her cloned staff and necklace, facedown and unmoving, with no signs of life but no proof of death either.

A mysterious woman's voice burst forth from an unidentified source. "Excellent work, BLU team. Your brutal efficiency is impressive. I shall see to it that you receive a bonus. All that's left is to launch the rocket, and the mission will be complete."

Almost immediately, a helicopter flew overhead and dropped a wooden crate, which landed on the concrete bridge and popped open. The BLU team instantly started lining up to take a reward from it. The Scout went first and replaced his trilby with a newsboy cap. Next was the Pyro, who took a fireman's helmet and squeezed it on overtop the glove already on his head. The Medic selected a tyrolean with a feather in the band. The Heavy took out a dark, pinstriped cap. The Engineer replaced his helmet with a white cowboy hat. The Sniper acquired a straw boater. The Soldier threw his helmet into the gorge and put on a peaked military cap. The Demoman donned a tam o'shanter. Finally, the Spy decloaked wearing a new winter jacket.

"Men, this day will go down in history as our finest hour," the Soldier declared. "Let's get this rocket the hell out of here!"

The team raised a cheer and headed inside the building. It didn't take long to find the launch controls.

"Alrighty then, let's have a look-see here." The Engineer sat down, cracked his fingers, and within a few minutes had the launch sequence ready to go. "All's I need now are the co-ordinates."

The Spy extracted a dossier from his coat and passed on a paper from it. "Here."

"Perf-wait, hang on a sec." He scratched behind his ear as he read the numbers. "This don't look right. You sure this is for that empty salt flat?"

"I'm afraid not." The Spy tapped his cigarette. "Ze target has changed, ordered straight from ze top. It iz now aimed at another one of RED's strongholds."

"Sweet land of liberty!" the Soldier exclaimed. "To take out two of RED's bases in one day is a brilliant stroke of planning! Get whoever thought that up a cigar! Not my cigar. This one is mine."

The Engineer shrugged. "Well, if that's what's that, who am I to be contrary?" He input the co-ordinates and initiated the launch.

Melia didn't mind being left out of whatever celebrations the BLU team was most certainly having. Sure, they won, and she could go home now, but it didn't feel all that much like a victory. The RED team would be back somewhere else and the fight would begin once more, with no end in sight.

She couldn't resist having a peek in the crate of hats though. She didn't quite get why these grown mercenary men were so obsessed with fashion, but if there was anything left over that seemed decent enough, she could take it as a memento of her unexpected journey.

Clumsily bending over to reach the only hat left in the box, she eventually grabbed it and stood back up. It was a tea hat, with six roses on the band. It certainly didn't seem like something that anyone she had met today would be interested in. She guessed that whoever had delivered the crate noticed that she was present, and added a more feminine reward to the box. Placing the hat on her head, she was about to turn around and head back to the teleporter in the BLU respawn room.

Suddenly, her vision was filled with a blinding white light.

An old man sat at a desk. He was exceptionally aged, well past the point where he should have died already, but he remained alive. He sat in what appeared to be an old rundown mansion, full of red and brown decor, with a giant machine inset into one of the walls. A dozen servants milled about.

The outside of the mansion was now visible. A giant "R" emblazoned onto a large window was the centerpiece. The land was arid yet grassy.

While it remained daytime, an approaching light was visible over the horizon. It was the rocket. It was closing distance at remarkable speed, and in no time, it crashed directly into the mansion and exploded, leaving a blinding light.

The vision faded. Melia found herself sitting on the ground, having fallen over with the unexpected disconnection of her senses.

What...what did I just... She looked down at the newly-darkened Vision Gem on her necklace. So...this rocket is about to...that can't have been a military installation? Were those civilians?

The rocket, still perched on its launch rails, started hissing and emitting steam.

A massive amount of conflicting thoughts competed for space in Melia's mind. She felt responsible for helping the BLU team take the rocket and launch it at the innocent people she had just envisioned, but at the same time the RED team probably would have done very similar if they had won the skirmish.

I have to stop it, she decided. Destroy it before it can launch. But how? I'd have to get right up on it and-

There was suddenly a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around to see the clone Melia, as equally distraught as her, with her pendant also no longer glowing.

"I know what must be done."

The pair looked at each other for a moment as the rocket began to expel smoke.

The orange-garbed one moved first, taking shelter inside the emptied crate. "I will need to engage the enemy sentry gun," she said.

The original Melia looked over towards the buildings near the rocket; the Engineer had moved his sentry up to guard them and upgraded it to level 3, but it was currently in sleep mode.

"You are aware this is almost certainly a suicide mission?"

A scoff. "You said it yourself earlier, that I am not supposed to exist. Is this not the most fitting way to go about it?"

The rocket ignited, spewing flame out of its nozzles.

Out of time to discuss, Melia fired a bolt at the inactive sentry. Rustled out of its slumber, it detected the orange Melia's headdress and fired its rockets, launching the crate she was in towards the slowly-moving rocket, allowing her to grab onto its exterior. The crate fell away as she clambered up the accelerating rocket's surface, searching for a weak point.

Once the rocket cleared the buildings and slowly began to turn away from vertical, she found a hatch and pried it open with her staff, revealing a dense network of electrical components. It was far too low-tech for her to comprehend, but it looked like a very good place to focus her attack.

Raising her staff into the air, she summoned three bolts and jammed them into the rocket as hard as she could.

The rocket exploded into a massive fireball, casting intense shadows across the sunny landscape. Moments later, the shockwave roared over, blowing a huge gust of wind over everything.

Melia stared up into the slowly-dissipating cloud of smoke with mixed feelings, relieved that the problem had effectively solved itself, but still anxious at how it happened.

"What the hell's going on out here?!" The Soldier burst out of the building and looked up. "Damn it, the rocket blew up! It didn't even get anywhere!"

The Engineer followed, trying to calm down his teammate. "Woah there, soldier boy. It's a shame, sure, but we still took out one o' them RED bases in record time. Still a good day's work."

"Rrrrrnnngh." The outspoken one grumbled and stepped back inside.

Shaking his head, the Engineer patted his sentry and walked out to meet Melia. "I ain't gonna ask if you had a hand in that malfunction, I don't care in the least. But here." He handed her a comically large gift-wrapped box. "I don't got a clue what this is; we found it in the control room. Probably belonged to one of the REDs. If you don't want it, I'm sure one of us will take it."

Melia cautiously removed the top of the box to find a sealed can of orange paint, labeled "Mann Co. Orange". The back of the label claimed that "Just one coat of this 100% Mann Co.-approved paint-like substance will apply a permanent* color to any of your favorite** cosmetic items. *Can be reversed with Mann Co. Paint Remover, see nearest Mann Co. depot for details. Not available in all regions, especially Vermont. **Some restrictions apply. If this paint doesn't take on your item, you can take it up with ME, SAXTON HALE, AND I WILL BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH MY BARE DAMN HANDS.".

"Ah, orange paint," the Engineer confirmed. "That oughta look good on that hat you've got, if you choose to keep it that is."

Melia didn't hesitate. She pried the lid of the can off and dunked her new hat inside. After letting it sit for a few seconds, she took it back out of the now-empty can, completely dry and the same shade of orange as her sacrificial doppelgänger.

The Engineer nodded. "Well, I reckon you want to get back to your world. Thanks for your help, ma'am."

"I likewise appreciate your help, but if I may be frank, I would prefer to never see you again."

"Can't disagree with that. Some universes just shouldn't be mixed, an' I hope they stay apart. All's it did today was complicate things. But have a good one, will ya?"

"I shall. Farewell."

Melia turned and walked back to the teleporter that would send her back where she belonged, hopefully removing the last trace of connection between the two worlds.