Chapter 27: Scene 27 – Tasting Tea (VOTE: ROUND 1)

There was one rule that all Magical Warriors knew to follow: never engage with PT#0. Calico Dearheart was the source of all this mess, and she had been the one to bring Malice to Earth. Gaia had known she would be at this site, but she didn't expect the witch to be so…

"I'll consider it, I suppose. Why are we sitting across from a Magical Warrior?" Amanda's dungeon avatar had a pleasantly layered voice, uncertain and harmonic. Gaia could spend all day just listening to her speak. "I'm still figuring out why you've brought her to my core."

Behind the dungeon avatar was a monitor with a mirrored screen; it reflected the room and bathed it in dull purple light. Gaia could nearly reach out and crush it from her position at the table, but she did not wish to risk angering the woman beside her. Her fingers weakly wrapped around a teacup in the absence of any actual move to make, and she stared at the black, amber liquid within. Corruptea. Gaia would have to be careful to imbibe very little of it.

Gaia blinked, trying to process what the witch was saying. She didn't look Calico in the eyes. The books had warned her about meeting the gaze of the Witch Queen. It wasn't that she would turn you to stone, but something was domineering about her. Meeting her eyes would bring you under her thrall. She elected to keep her eyes just below Calico's chin, gazing at her gentle smile of sharp, white buttons. "I could shatter her core in an instant. It isn't that far from where we're sitting."

"I don't feel comfortable with you bartering my life in a game, Calico." A frown flashed across the screen of the dungeon avatar, the only thing sitting in front of the monitor with the silvered screen. "I wanted to talk to the Magical Warriors, not to play life or death games."

"No," Amanda whimpered with a horrified expression. She clutched tightly to her shoulders, trying not to panic. "Anything but that." She couldn't stand to give up everything she'd become, to return to that shell of a person she was.

"She can't do that, Amusement Box." Gaia chimed in. "Don't listen to her. There's nothing that can undo the transformation of Malice."

Gaia trembled. Sparing Malice had crossed her mind several times that day. With that said, she was not about to let Calico take advantage of her naivete like this. "You wouldn't be so foolish as to tell me the way if there was. That would negate your only advantage."

Gaia closed her eyes, trying to think her way out of this situation. She had very little working for her. Trapped with the most powerful Malice on Earth and her brand new protege... brand new protege? She could work with that. Her eyes flicked open, and she turned to face Amanda. "Amusement Box, you can't let her scare you like this." Gaia slammed her gauntlet onto the table, causing the mechanical angel in front of her to cower in fear. "Ignore her threats. Being a normal person isn't so bad; it's better than this. I can help you, so trust in me."

Amanda made furtive glances between her guests. She didn't understand why Calico had brought Gaia to her doorstep like this, nor why Gaia was trying to turn her against Calico. Gaia couldn't understand that there was no turning back. Once she'd accepted who she was, the beautiful girl she was? Even if she could snap her fingers, turn back to normal again, undo all the damage she might cause?

To do that would be...

What's the phrase Holly used? "Ego-death," Amanda stated simply, and the words clicked in her mechanical brain. Instinctual fear flooded her body. That was the way to kill Malice, wasn't it? To smother their essence entirely, to make them into someone else. Her eyes widened as the unsettling realization of her weakness crashed down on her shoulders.

Amanda sheepishly obeyed Calico's commands. "(Please, just play the game,)" Amanda whispered to Gaia. "(I don't want this either. We should be friends.)" Amanda reached out, shakily draining the tea against her monitor-head and letting the red liquid spill into her lap.

Gaia nodded her head to Amanda's words. A plan was brewing in her head; it was clear from the exchange during this tea-party that they shared a mutual enemy. If she could bring the dungeon core to see that she was the enemy, it would give her an advantage; one Gaia was willing to utilize to its fullest potential.

"Let's hear the rules, so I can get my gauntlet back." Gaia looked at the spot below Calico's neck, where the yarn grew into a thick bouquet of fluff. She'll have to figure out a way to shave that cat clean. Gaia wasn't about to be cowed by the fact she was out of her league.

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