Cicilia De'Reignhardt Vs Elizabeth Brooks: The Doppelgangers Clash!

(Referencing this topic)

Cicilia sighed heavily and shook her head, staring into the mirror of her backstage ready-room. Her gaze kept being drawn up to that scar over her eye... no matter how hard she tried to divert her attention elsewhere... Stupid expressions, flexing, it mattered not. Every time, that long, smooth scar kept her attention... The other ones weren't so bad in the sense she could keep her eyes off them... The cuts and stab-scars  along her arms and body specifically Cicilia WANTED to look away from... Memories of that time... And Margaux's perverse smiling face... They just got her SENSELESSLY angry... The single scar, however... she scowled at... It wasn't long after the "event" that caused this damage did Cicilia fall into a losing streak... Maybe it was because she was still recovering by the time she returned to the league... The doctor DID say that she needed a bit more time but what did HE know? What was a few more days? It could've been that the damage was permanent, forever crippling the German's ability to preform... There was warning of such a thing, one of the things she respected about her physicians were that they were brutally honest.

...But then, it just could've been that Cicilia wasn't the same woman after that...

She didn't want to admit this... this weakness to ANYONE, but she had felt a little... apprehensive before each battle. Before, Cicilia threw herself in like someone threw a grenade into a warzone, her fist flying this way and that like shards of shrapnel! THERE was NO hesitation, NO need to know who her opponent was! She reveled in the feeling of battle, how STRONG she made herself feel...

That had changed.

She found herself looking up her opponents much more, spending time in her room (granted, with her girlfriend) with her phone in hand, watching matches, studying up on their techniques and style when she could've been training to CRUSH them with overwhelming force! She found herself glancing away reflexively from her screen every time it blinked off lest she catch a reflection of her face upon it's dark plastic, an ache in her chest replacing the triumphant release every time she saw the face of a WINNER... what was her face. She felt like a coward... She used to not NEED to learn about them... Now...? It was almost like she HAD to in order to eliminate this... overwhelming sense of anxiety...

...It had gotten easier to look over time... After all, she was forced to stare at her reflection every time she did a touch-up with make-up... making those scars disappear little by little... They were easier to look at because she knew they were there... but she couldn't see them... She could feel the tighter skin where it came together imperfectly react to the makeup on top of it... She stared at that one eye intensely... as if her look could scare her skin into healing correctly, the sheer intensity willing it to be.

...That was, until it was time for her match. It took one of the aids putting a hand on the German's shoulder to snap her out of her trance, the Boxer flinching in surprise at the contact! She turned her gaze toward her, looking her way as if deciding how to react... before blowing past her and into OUT into the view of the crowd... before the perverse lure of the mirror drew her back in again!

Appearance:

Spoiler:

Cicilia didn't so much look at her opponent as she made her way down to the arena, her head down-cast, her eyes locked on the floor... It had never been this bad before, this... NEED to keep her face hidden... The feeling of the makeup was stronger... she could feel it like patches of mud on her face... Uncomfortable... sticky and heavy...

By the time she slipped into the ring, she FORCED herself to look up... and was SHOCKED by the woman she saw! Sitting across from her, the German took in the sight of a woman who almost entirely MIRRORED her appearance in a great many ways! Granted, her hair was shorter, she had bigger assets AND she was taller... But... That FACE... that skin... it was as if they had taken it from her and slapped it on this woman! Cicilia's hand instantly rose to her eye where the scar was hidden, blinking softly, quietly as she stared at the girl in front of her...

She did not say a word... Not to greet Elizabeth nor to mock her... She simply stared... shocked, a few fingers massaging that old, closed wound.

When Elizabeth finally opened her eyes and stared back at Cicilia something seemed familiar about her appearance. Sure it was pretty much like looking in a mirror but there was more to it than that. It was many things: the look of shock on her face, the empty distance in her eyes, the faint scar on her face. In other words Cicilia was emotionally and physically damaged. 

Having spent time in the military trauma was something she was well aquanted with. Without a word liz slowly got to her feet and cautiously approached Cicilia. Finally, she closed the distance between them and firmly wrapped her arms around her future opponent's back. With her chin nuzzled against Cicilias neck Elizabeth murmured "its okay... It's okay..." Instead of ending the hug right there Elizabeth lingered, letting Cicilia choose when to break away.

Cicilia suddenly found herself embraced by the taller woman, her sanguine eyes widening in shock as she nuzzled against her shoulder, whispering that is was.... 'okay...' She didn't have to ask what she was talking about to know... Some of her make-up must've came off when she touched her face, revealing her scar to her opponent... The Boxer stared straight ahead into nothingness as this stranger just... held her close and assured her it was just fine to feel vulnerable... It was as much a shock to hear those words... as it was to hear them from a stranger! Cicilia might've been able to hide her pain from Sayumi for a while (though she was sure she was onto her), but this woman just cut through all of it and figured it out at a glance...

There was a certain ice that had gripped the German's heart after that night in the alley... A mere annoyance at first... but she hadn't dealt with it at ALL since then and it had grown into a mighty force... to the point she found it hard to even look at herself... Moments of shame and self-loathing had become a regular staple in the boxer's life not long after she had thought herself ridden of these feelings, the familiar sensation of weakness flooding her... a familiar sensation of failure almost always ripping away what made her who she was... She hadn't cried once since that night, never expressed to someone (not even Sayumi) how much in pain she was... how she didn't know what to do....

...Cicilia's eyes began to water, her body beginning to shake as those soft, gentle words SHATTERED the chains around her heart, those wounds left behind becoming more and more obvious... One might think Cicilia would push her away, PUNCH this woman for daring to think she deserved to get this close... But she couldn't... It... it hurt too much... She couldn't... she...

Cicilia sobbed softly as she wrapped her arms around Elizabeth, hiding her face in her shoulder much to the confusion of the audience... What was THIS? A soap-opra?? WHY WEREN'T THEY TALKING SHIT!? WHY WEREN'T THEY FIGHTING!?

...She couldn't stop herself. There was so much buildup... and now that the cork was out of the bottle, there was no stopping the flow....

Elizabeth smiled gently as Cicilia let out a torrent of tears. She didn't know what was eating at the boxer but she was happy to ease her burden with a few words and some old fashion hugging. Liz greeted Cicilias acceptance of her embrace by tightening her hug ever so slightly. "There there... Let it out..." 

Suddenly the audience cut into their special moment with a wave of lazy Boos.

Elizabeth chuckled. "Pardon my French Cicilia but fuck them. We got all night to fight, you take as much time as you need..."

"Y-you..." Cicilia mumbled, her face flashed red not just with the dryness that resulted with her tears... but the embarrassment that was brought forth from crying in public... AND in some random girl's arms!

...What a fucking shit-show... Cicilia's self-consciousness practically developed a separate identity with how fast it exploded, the German almost entirely focused on the sounds of the crowd beating into her ears, ignoring the taller woman who had her face... She didn't know who this was... What the hell was WRONG with her that she would just throw herself into this girl's arms and reveal her heart? Was she fucking STUPID!? Ah, and here came the self-loathing that was bred from her humiliation, the German's heart sinking ever further into her stomach as her sobs muted into nothing... One would think letting out something would've helped the boxer feel better and perhaps it did for a time...

...But this wasn't fucking normal... a De'Reignhardt didn't just break down in front of hundreds of people ON THE JOB and in the arms of some girl who bore a resemblance. It was disgraceful, it was fucking stupid... she had no idea how she was going to be able to show her face in this place again after something so WEAK!

Quickly, the boxer pressed her palms against Elizabeth's shoulders and SHOVED her back, the German unable to look her in the eye after how much of a pathetic fool she had made herself out to be. She couldn't wait to get home and explain to Sayumi what the hell had happened today... No doubt she'd been watching or will watch this fight after it was done... She couldn't wait to explain how she just threw herself into another girl's arms because life was too fucking hard.

...Yeah, that was going to fly REAL well...

"G-get away from me...!" Cicilia snarled, running her palms all over her eyes and cheeks in an effort to erase any evidence of her breakdown.

Elizabeth felt a bit taken aback when Cicilia suddenly shoved her away. "Geez, I was just trying to help... I thought we were making a connection..." With her arms crossed under her perky breasts, Elizabeth watched Cicilias mannerisms closely. Based on her doppelgangers aversion of eye contact and real tears the Iron Belle judged this bit of rudeness to be a result of her emotional distress.

"Perhaps she doesn't need a friend to comfort her but a villain to try and vanquish..." Elizabeth suddenly slammed her fist into her open palm. "I've got it! I can be that villain!"

Elizabeth suddenly exploded with phony wicked laughter. "muahahaha! Well done Cicilia! You saw through my ruse... I thought I could worm my way into your brain and break your spirit..." Elizabeth wriggled her fingers together and grinned for effect. "Since your so smart I guess we'll just have to settle this the old fashioned way... With our fists!"

The Sovereign of Strength suddenly lowered into a grapplers stance. "If you're done crying like a baby we can start this thing!"

This whole interaction invoked a whirlwind of emotions in Cicilia and Elizabeth's mistake in that provocation... she had just transmuted all of them towards anger. Oh... She saw it now. This was some fucking trick in order to get Cicilia to humiliate herself in front of a crowd. Ignoring the cartoonishly stupid laugh her larger doppelganger threw out there, The German was positively fuming with how EASILY she was used! It was like... She was completely broken at the hands of this woman, a woman who with, just a hug, revealed how vulnerable Cicilia was at this moment...

"Tsk..." She growled her hands falling to her sides, her cheeks burning with the embarrassment that had been inflicted upon her... How dare she... How dare that BITCH do this to her.... What gave her the RIGHT?

The German didn't say a single thing. There was nothing to say... Her outrage and loathing for her opponent grew so fast and burrowed down so deep... the capacity to say anything meaningful just left her. Whatever was going through Elizabeth's head that could justify such an act was the WRONG thing...

She would feel the consequences in due time.

Cicilia raised her own hands, shifting into her boxing stance, her body rigid, her vision tunneled on her opponent... and all the parts of hers she aimed to break.

Elizabeth steadied herself as she witnessed Cicilia shift her posture both mentally and physically. The bloodlust shined in her crimson eyes.

"Looks like we got a fight... Time to get serious... The best option is probably a test of strength. That way she can't use those deadly hands of hers."

Hoping the Boxer wouldn't just mow her down, Elizabeth slowly raised her hands and stepped forward. "Easy there... You look kinda tense... How about a little test of strength?"

...The moment Elizabeth stepped into the German's reach, she stepped into something she'd be better off hiding from... The boxer lashed out with an utterly RUTHLESS right hook at the woman's head the moment she moved to lock up, her knuckles aiming to dig in DEEP into the girl's temple! Her counterpart might've tried to help the German by giving her an outlet in the form of a villain... but villains were the LAST thing the Juggernaut needed! She wanted friends, people she could smile at and care about... not more people to hate!

...Whether or not pissing the boxer off was what she wanted, this was what she would get as the Juggernaut advanced on her like the war machine that she was, throwing blow after heavy blow at the woman's head, trying to knock it off her neck! Jab-jab-cross, jab-hook-hook, UPPERCUT....

Her assaults were relentless and the boxer gave very little openings in terms of counter attacks by design... Everywhere Elizabeth might attempt to slip or duck around, Cicilia did her best to mirror that movement, to always be in her face... to make her feel claustrophobic in this fight! She wasn't going to let her get away with making her cry... faking friendship only to laugh in her face, jokingly or not! ...It was fucking embarrassing and the only thing you could think to do was LAUGH!?

...Unacceptable.

What was most disturbing was that the boxer made not a sound. Not a growl, not a roar... not even a hiss. She simply attacked without a sound... except for the noise of her fist finding flesh within which to bury themselves.