I'm not your girl anymore / I'm not that tween that you drove here for
~~~
The statement takes a moment to set in. It's so silent you could hear a pin drop, as everyone deciphers what they just heard. The tension in the room could be burst by the pin you just dropped.
Justin feels sick, almost. It's not Dan, but it's something else. But it's still Dan, in a sense. It's got his face, got his voice.
"What...?" Squid confusedly gets out.
"God, are you dense? I'm not Dan, in the traditional sense." 'Dan' says, rolling his eyes. "Oh, wait, of course you are. You're a damn squid."
Squid sputters before yelling out in indignation. "HEY!"
Now that he's facing towards him, Think can see 'Dan's' attire in full. A sky blue blazer with navy lining and collar, overlaying a white blouse with an even darker tie. A belt strapped over his waist, with a golden buckle similar to his blazer's clasps which stands out against the blue of his attire. Dark grey jeans which don't affect the striking outfit. Boots. Perfectly intertwined with the aesthetic of the mansion. Looking at him now, Justin realises how much this doesn't even seem like Dan. Dan would never wear something this formal, hell, he'd probably say that it's too tacky and tight. He much prefers the loose feeling of a jacket.
He holds an axe gripped tightly in his hand, with gold buckles and a diamond blade, with netherite carefully infused.
Justin can't help noticing that whatever he's facing, he's kept Dan's goggles on.
He's brought back to what's happening by a yell from Squid.
"What even are you if you aren't Dan, then?!" The cephalopod shouts, annoyed.
"Oh, honey, that's a secret." He laughs, before holding his axe up at Squid's throat. "But since your friends are in too much shock to process anything, I think it'll be a good idea to get rid of you now, don't you agree?" Squid looks back at the duo at the door, terrified and asking for help.
With that look, Justin snaps out of his frozen shock and pulls out his weapon, dashing between Squid and 'Dan' and pointing his sword down towards the attacker's neck. It's weird, honestly. Fighting someone who's so much shorter than you.
"Oh no you don't."
"Ah, there he is!" 'Dan' chuckles, shaking his head slightly. "Done running away from your problems then, huh?"
"...What?" He's caught off guard. What is he referring to? "What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. Running away to escape punishment..god, you're truly an awful person."
How on earth does he know that?! He did tell Dan, yes, but Dan had been offline for a while when Justin left. But, if this isn't Dan like he said, then how..?
He must look confused, because 'Dan' appears to read his mind.
"Oh, I know everything your dear Dan knows. He told me, even. It's upsetting, how that's one of the first things he mentioned..."
Justin's stomach does a flip. Is it true? Does Dan really feel that way?
He's about to ask another question when an arrow narrowly misses his face, and lands square in the middle of a wooden plank. Whipping round, he spots James with his bow and arrow pointed at Dan, breathing heavily. Dan only laughs.
"Oh, there he is. The coward finally works up the strength to attack, yet he can't even shoot on point." He taunts. There's so much venom laced within those words that it physically makes Justin recoil.
"I'm not a coward. And I doubt Dan ever said any of that. Whatever you are." He spits out, with an air of fear mixed with bubbling anger.
"Oh, James, you really are quite stupid, aren't you? You mask your fear with a fake confidence that the slightest poke could shatter."
James' face darkens as he loads his bow again.
"Go on, shoot me. You can't attack me in any way that matters. The actions you take don't matter, after all."
James flinches. Justin tenses up, and he can hear Squid hiss beside him. All three have their weapons pointed at the threat, ready to strike at any moment. Yet none of them actually attack.
"Who even are you, anyways?" Squid yells again, moving out from behind Justin to get a look at the imposter in front of them. "And why do you think you have the right to use Dan's face and voice like a damn rag doll?!"
'Dan' simply laughs in response.
"Who we are doesn't quite matter to you, and I doubt it ever will. Not when we kill you, after all. Then you'll join us." Justin makes a mental note of the use of the plural pronouns.
"Dan, please! You must still be in there!" James cries out, sounding sympathetic. "I know you are! Don't you remember us? We're your friends!"
"Look, we don't care that you're Dan's friends. It doesn't matter." Dan spins his axe slightly. "But if you want to fight, so be it. Let's fight."
And so, a fight begins.
James releases his arrows at Dan's head, only for Dan to dodge them easily. The whips of the arrows pierce the air, at incredibly fast speeds. But still, Dan's able to dodge them, to the point it's superhuman. He even tosses one back, looking more smug than anything else.
Justin looks over to Squid to coordinate something, but Squid simply points to the wound on his arm. Oh, right. That's still bleeding. Justin watches Squid cutting his trouser sleeve up to his knee, and then turning it into a strip. Then he turns back, focusing on the fight.
He lunges towards Dan's hip, attempting to make a gash and bring him down. He doesn't even manage to slice through the clothing, if the clang of the axe clashing with his sword tells anything. Dan only needs to swing his axe to the side to send Think flying across the room. He nearly loses grip on his sword, but he keeps his grip on it strong as he hits the floor and slides along the wood, ignoring the mild pain of the scratching. He gets ready to run back to see Squid jump towards Dan's head as James shoots his arrows only for Squid to get thrown along the floor in a blaze of blue and Dan to let the arrows shatter the glass behind him.
Things only ramp up in pace from there on out. The trio take turns in trying to get hits on Dan yet nothing seems to work, no matter how many new attacks they do. At some point, Justin tries to kick Dan down from under but he only gets a near-miss hit from the axe coming down above his head. James remains out at long range, getting his courage back and shooting arrows left and right but Dan doesn't worry at all, dodging them all with ease. Squid uses the tentacles on his back to launch himself into the air, jumping down onto Dan's neck. Dan nearly gets hit, but he grabs Squid by the arm and slams him down onto the floor. He's cushioned by his tentacles, so all Think hears is a loud squelch. Squid simply dusts himself off after the blow and nods towards Think in a certain direction, and he gets the hint and begins running around so he's behind Dan's back. A new plan that will hopefully get this fight over with, that will catch Dan off guard. He's gotten quite used to this routine, after all.
Squid shouts out, making eye contact with Dan.
"Can't break me down that easily, punk!"
"Who're you calling punk, fish boy?" Dan sneers in return, holding his axe up.
Squid jumps in first, fending off Dan's axe with his own. Justin can hear the ear-splitting grinding noise of the blades rubbing against each other. Yet it doesn't matter, because with that he lunges forward and attempts to slash through Dan's back.
He manages to slightly singe through the fabric on Dan's blazer before being noticed, and Dan whips around and grabs him by the neck with his free hand, but not tight enough to strangle him.
"Smart. But you're not good at hiding things."
Ouch, no need for the emotional taunting. Justin kicks away to release himself from Dan's grip, falling onto the floor. He uses his right hand as his boost and jumps back up, backing towards the wall behind him. Squid on one wall, him on the opposite, James by the entrance and Dan by the shattered window.
An idea comes to him in the blink of an eye, and he grabs onto it before he can lose it.
He looks over to James, who's shooting at Dan again, and then looks at Squid, and nods.
The duo launch towards Dan at the same time, jumping up to corner him by the wall. James, although confused, continues shooting, and they all swing to hit Dan.
If he went right, he would have been hit by Justin. Left, and he would've been hit by Squid. Forward and the arrows would strike his head. Back and he would've fallen out of the window. The smug face he hasn't had faze the entire fight falls for a second, before his smile becomes psychotic.
There's something they haven't considered for, after all. The roof is high for a reason.
A blinding light and then a strong wind causes Justin to fall back on his butt, and he looks up in confusion.
Two translucent white wings stream off of Dan's back. They're flapping slightly, and he's up in the air. It's almost like he's some sort of bird. A bird that's a pest sent from hell.
"What the- that's not fair!" Squid yells, angry. That hit was almost perfect!
"You should've considered that, boys!" Dan chuckles, in that same way he always used to. A pang beats in Justin's heart. It's almost like this is Dan, but yet he knows it's not.
"How the hell- where'd you get those wings from?!" James cries.
"Aww, are they too close to Pigeon's, Cya? Too bad that guy died. I'd have loved to kill him again."
James' eyes widen.
Justin's internal conflict must show on his face, cause next thing he knows, he's blocking Dan's axe from hitting his face. Always in the moments of weakness, eh? He grimaces and pushes upwards with his sword parallel to his face, using the weight of both his hands. He keeps eye contact with Dan as he uses more force in a fight than he's ever used in his life.
Then, he suddenly pushes all the way forward, not getting a hit but sure as hell confused. Why would Dan let go?
"AGH!" Dan cries, whipping around towards James.
Justin then sees the arrow clear in the middle of Dan's back. The blood staining the back of his shirt. It's painstakingly obvious.
James stands with his bow loaded and pointed at Dan's head.
"Guess what I do does matter, doesn't it? Doesn't it?" James hisses.
"Well, I see. I see how it is." Dan claps slowly. "I see how it is."
"Aww, what is it?" Squid smiles with malicious intent. "You're a sore loser?"
"You'll wish I wasn't." Dan growls, before clicking his fingers and flying up into the air.
And with that, a mass of pillagers suddenly surround them and immediately begin attacking the three players. Evokers, vindicators, ravagers.
Think immediately begins slashing at the group, aware that his sword may break during this fight and trying to use it wisely. He jumps onto a ravager running at him and stabs his sword into its head, allowing the black blood to splatter onto his face - he then instantly has to jump off to fend off the vex lightly cutting him from a nearby evoker, kicking a vindicator out from behind him and then stabbing the evoker and oh god it's too much. It's too much for him to handle at once - he's getting swarmed. It's the same for the others from what he can see over all the blue heads. He screams as much.
"IT'S TOO MUCH! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!" His throat hurts, and he hopes it can be heard over the clanging of weapons.
He looks up to Dan, flying above the chaos near the corner, smirking. Revelling in their suffering. His wings seem to be illuminating the corner around him, but his view of the area is blocked by a pillager getting up in his face.
"I KNOW, BUT THEY'RE BLOCKING THE EXIT!" Squid hollers back from somewhere in the mess. And he's right, the door they came in from is completely blocked by ravagers.
James' eyes go over to Dan and he notices something.
"GUYS! OVER THERE! BY DAN! A DOOR!" He screeches, voice straining above the noise.
Dan's face goes from smug to angry in a second, as he realises what James means and pulls away from it, attempting to hide it again. But it's too late, cause James is already there, and Squid and Justin run through the angry pack to get to him. Squid runs in and uses his axe to break down the door, revealing a dimly lit, narrow staircase going up. It looks like they'd have to go single file
"You were not supposed to find that." comes the angry voice behind them.
"Too bad!" Squid teases, before running up the steps, making loud footsteps. James runs in next, leaving the room open to Justin. He's about to step in before feeling a cold hand on his shoulder.
He shrieks as he's thrown away from the door, slamming into the wall on the other side of the room. His whole body and back begin burning up. While all the other hits Dan got may have hurt, this burns like hellfire. Feeling his vision blur up with pain induced tears, he rubs his eyes, puts on a brave face and tries to get up.
He lunges out to start running through the crowd again. Only to see both his escapes have been blocked. With obsidian.
An unrivalled terror sets in as he realises that there's no escaping from this. He's backed into a corner, in terrible pain, with a bunch of pillagers surrounding him and a villainous creature taking pleasure in his pain. With no way out. This is the end, isn't it?
He doesn't scream out for help, for his friends. They probably wouldn't be able to hear him anyways. Either way he knows he is going to be in a world of pain soon. Dropping his weapon and falling to the ground, Justin sighs and closes his eyes. He's lost.
"Make it quick." He mutters, waiting for the first blow as the pillagers close in on him.
But that blow never comes. The pillagers disappear. He opens one eye to see 'Dan' simply standing over him, axe in hand.
"Aww, you're so cute when you're close to giving up. But no, I won't let you go just yet. I want to have a little fun first. And I'd much rather you fight back."
~~~
A/N nearly forgot to update, whoops. Justin may or may not be kinda screwed.