Chapter 30: Scene 30 – Tasting Corruption

Amanda extended an onyx claw in the spitting image of Gaia's gauntlets. The onyx was cracked, dark wax seeping through the fractured surface. A fire burned inside the gems with the shade of a pink candle. "Accept my offer, Nebulossom Gaia," Amanda echoed in crystal and distorted tones, wiggling her sharp fingers. "Become mine and... well, we can conquer the world, can't we?"

The screen on top of Amanda's head flickered. Gaia was shown a vision of her teammate, currently in the throes of love and honey. She was barely recognizable, drenched in honey black as tar. Her skin was starting to slough in places, making way for a teal, furry shape. Gaia could barely piece it together; that was the fur of a Venusian Pandabug, the alien creatures representing the planet Venus. "No," Gaia uttered, staring the screen down.

"Novaerator Venus has already fallen, absolutely smitten with my cute face. I imagine the rest of your team will join her when they arrive." Amanda's face changed once more, showing three Nebulossoms at the gate. Luna, Mercury, and Mars had all gathered outside, no doubt intending to mount a rescue mission. Gaia's fist clenched with worry, squeezing her onyx gauntlet tight enough to produce glowing fractures along the surface.

"We've been dancing around to mom's tune for a while, but I think it's about time we have a change in management!" Amanda's fist thumped the table, shocking both Gaia and Calico. The Tyrant was showing her displeasure openly, corrupted symbols blaring across her screen.

"You!" Amanda pointed accusingly at the witch. "Shut up! I'm talking to my wife. We can work on your attitude later."

"To be clear, I did not agree to take your hand in marriage." Gaia frowned. "I'm not about to sign my soul over to darkness either. There has to be some loophole to this, System." Gaia looked to the only source of sanity in this madhouse of mirrors for answers.

Amanda drummed her claws on the yarn and wax countertop, trying to put a big smile on her screen.

"For both of us?" Gaia blinked. "What are you afraid of? You're the System. You built all this." Amanda leaned into the conversation, clearly interested in where this was headed.

"She built all this? The same lady who has the Tapestry running through her veins?" Amanda looked for answers. She had been informed of nothing; for all Amanda cared she was born twelve hours ago, at the same time she'd crawled out of her shell. Discarded those things that made her a human, made her a man, and embraced her cuteness and womanhood wholeheartedly.

"She built everything. All of the Neverlands is her doing," Gaia filled Amanda in on details that, in retrospect, were probably not a great idea to share with a monster holding half the controls to the Earth in her hands.

"Poetic, but not the point. Who could possibly threaten you?" Gaia closed her eyes, puzzling this situation together. On her first day on the job, she was saving the universe. Great. Absolutely fantastic stuff, wonderful when it happens in books; not so much in Reality.

"Well. That's obvious, isn't it?" Amanda shook her rectangular head. "There's only one person here who could threaten the System. It isn't you, and it isn't me. I didn't even know she existed, and you're on her side; that leaves Calico. Am I wrong?"

"You're not." Gaia's head began to clear. "She turned you, tried to turn me; she started us playing this game from the start. Neither of us wanted to play a game that eats away at the core of our personhood. So who benefits if we win or lose?"

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"Well, I think I do, but I can't reason my way as to why." Amanda pondered. "I don't know. I'm new to this game."

"New to this game? That's right; you're a fresh Malice." A plan began to form in Gaia's mind. "You want me to shake on this deal so badly, right? Become your priestess?" Gaia held out her gauntlet. "Deal. I'll become your priestess and take your corruption." Two blue flames lit up amidst the pink candles.

"Deal!" Amanda held out her gauntlet to embrace Gaia's own, and the blue flames snuffed out. Black ooze began to spill from between their fingertips, crawling into the gaps of the gauntlet and up Gaia's arm. Gaia reeled as she felt her mind link to Amanda's own, slicing third parties out of their conversation. Gaia's lips parted in silent prayer, and Amanda's screen flickered in error.

"You don't mean that," Amanda whispered back.

"You're new to this game, Amanda." Gaia grinned. "You said it yourself. That means you don't know anything. But there are two things I've learned while studying as a Nebulossom. The first is that gods hear all prayers sent their way."

"Even the perverse ones?" Amanda was terrified. She thought those were private! Images of lifting Gaia's panties on her figurine flashed by Amanda's screen, unable to contain herself from thinking about her more human activities.

"--most thoughts sent their way. For the record, gross!" Gaia's face burned bright red. "But that's not what I meant to say! The second thing is that you don't know the true nature of Malice!" Beads of sweat began to drip from Gaia's face. "You are not a creature of hatred and despair, Amanda! I take your corruption and reveal your true form!"

Amanda's body slowly melted away, her body dissolving into a morass of wax. The creature known as Amanda screamed. Her claws tried to scrape at her body and mold it back into shape, failing to hold her skin in place as it fell away. She fell to her knees and cried, holding onto her shoulders. Hoping the damage was insignificant, Amanda looked into a mirror and saw an unfamiliar face. A half-melted monitor dripped into the floor like candlewax as she burned away. There was no cute girl in the mirror.

"Calico...?" Amanda stared blankly at the message in front of her, and then at the tall catgirl made of yarn. She'd expected unkindness, but not this.

Amanda held her stare on the cat as her vision began to fade, looking her dead in the eyes. She couldn't see a shred of guilt in those tangled knots. "No, Calico. You're not." Amanda's head fell off her shoulders, smashing to the floor in a shatter of glass and candle wax. After that, there was only darkness.

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