Olivia

The ooze fell from the ceiling at my command. Unfortunately, Red seemed prepared. Her body began to positively glow with magic - and then that glow began to spread, eating into the ooze it touched before it could ever hope to reach her. Of course the more ooze it chewed through, the more the ooze sapped its power in turn. It fizzled its way out long before it could reach me.

“Clever, Red Heart,” I remarked, slipping into my queenly persona. “But don’t think that just because you’ve defeated my trap you’ve also defeated me.”

I walked forward as I spoke, coming into range of her spells. Her hand tightened around the handle of the cleaver she was holding, and she lunged forward. I was prepared, though - prepared for any spell she might throw at me. I knew I’d become the focus of her obsession, which in turn meant I’d likely become the focus of her magic as well. No spell she cast could have hurt me.

What I wasn’t prepared for, though, was for her to plunge the cleaver directly into my forehead.

***

Rachel

***

“Don’t move,” Red warned. “None of you - or I’ll blast her. I know she’ll consume it - but I bet even you don’t know what will happen to you if your brain gets erased in return.”

Olivia didn’t say anything. Was it because of the threat? Or another trick? I didn’t know. I had no way of knowing, and that scared me. Chrys didn’t speak up either. Which meant it was just me and Red. What I would have given for the ability to summon Clarissa…

As if in response to my thoughts, my phone chirped a message. The sound made me flinch, and I shot a nervous glance at Red Heart.

“Don’t open it,” she said. “Whoever it is, it can wait.”

I nodded, slowly, afraid to even open my mouth. There was no telling what might set Red off at this point.

“I’m going to take her with me,” Red said, stepping closer to Olivia. Slowly, her hand moved away from the hilt of the knife - only to slide down the chain connected to it, always making sure to maintain contact with the wand. There were no openings for me to take advantage of as she wrapped Olivia up tight in her chain and then lifted the woman into a princess carry.

“Where are you taking her?” I asked, forcing the words out past my fear.

“That’s none of your concern,” Red said, her voice cold. “Your interference stops here. A normal human has no place in the battle between Magical Girls and Ooze, anyway - let alone between lovers, like me and her…”

“Lovers?” I asked, trying hard not to laugh. “You put a spell on her! And she still didn’t fuck you!”

“Only because you interfered,” Red snarled, turning towards me. “You got in the way. Just like you’re trying to do now, aren’t you? Like you always do…”

“I’m not!” I protested, all too aware of the dangerous glint in Red’s eyes. “I… I just didn’t want you to make a mistake you’d regret. Either of you.”

“A mistake?” Red scoffed. “What mistake could there be? She took my first kiss. Took it from me. So now we have to be together. Just like Mother always taught me…”

“Your mother taught you what?” I asked, aghast.

“That… that I should only share myself with the one I want to marry,” she replied. “That I need to give my all to one person, and one alone, and-”

“Do you really believe that?” I asked, unable to help myself. “Red, you have so much love to give. To so many people! You take care of everyone. And now you’re just obsessing over one person? Because of one kiss?”

“What would you know?” Red snapped, glaring at me. Her grip on the chain had tightened so much her knuckles were turning white.

“I know this isn’t you Red,” I said, trying to keep my voice from trembling. “You’re the sort of person who makes cookies for her teammates. Who worries over them, and mothers them. You wouldn’t just abandon them to go chase after a villain on your own! Not to mention what you’re trying to do to O-to the Violet Queen.”

“To who?” Red demanded, narrowing her eyes at me. “You know her name, don’t you?”

“I… Maybe? I’m not telling you it, though, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“You know her name,” Red repeated. “You learned her name before I could? You think… you think you know her better than I do, don’t you?”

“What, what are you…” I paused, glancing at the cleaver in Olivia’s head. “I mean… Yeah. I know her better than you. What are you going to do about it?”

“You…” Red tightened her grip on the chain, and for a moment I thought my ploy had worked - that she was going to take the blade out.

Then she let go of the chain, altogether anstd lunged at me.

“You! You! How dare you! Getting between me and my Queen - I’ll… I’ll…”

“Stop!” Olivia called out. She still had the cleaver in her head, though she was rapidly untangling herself from the chain. “I’ll go with you! Willingly! No tricks! Just leave her alone!”

“Leave her alone?” Red snarled, turning her head around. “She… she wants to get in our way! She took you away from me! She… she…”

I tackled her. Wrapped my arms around her, and held her against the ground. She could have kicked me off. Magical girls are physically stronger when they transform, to the point where it would have been child’s play for her to toss me aside. Maybe she was just too surprised… or maybe it had something to do with the fact that at some point my tackle had turned into a hug, and tears were now falling down my face.

“Stop!” I cried out. “Please! You were… you’re Red Heart dammit! You were the best part of our team! You helped us - helped me! Made me feel at home, and… and…”

“What are you talking about?” Red demanded, the confusion drained from her voice. Her brow was furrowed, and she looked confused. Which was undoubtedly better than the murderous rage she’d had before, but it still hurt. To know my former teammate would never recognize me…

“Hold her down!” Olivia ordered, holding out a hand towards us.

“Wait, no!” I cried out. “If you take away her crystal when she’s like this, then-”

I didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence. Violet ooze shot forward from Olivia’s hand, wrapping around the two of us. I braced myself, ready for it to collapse inwards, to take away all of Red’s the magical potential - or whatever it was that kept the crystals fueled - and force her crystal out into the open.

It didn’t happen.

Instead, Red blinked at me. “…Pink Heart? Is that you?”

I opened my mouth to say yes - tried to force the words out. Nothing would come, though, even in this interference-free zone. Whatever Chrys had done to me, back when she was still my crystal, it had changed me on an internal level. I couldn’t say anything. Couldn’t even nod. I just stared at her, with wide eyes.

“It is.” The voice came from outside. Olivia’s - or rather, the Violet Queen’s. “I didn’t kill her, or steal her crystal, or anything. She just joined me.”

“I mean…” she did sort of have my crystal, even if it wasn’t technically through theft. It didn’t seem like the right time to bring that up, though, so I just smiled nervously at Red instead.

“I’m here too!” Chrys chimed in, apparently not sharing my concerns. “Though I go by Chrys now.”

“What…” Red asked, before shaking her head. “No. You’re trying to trick me! I need to escape you. Need to find my wand. Need to… need to…”

“You need to calm the heck down!” Chrys said. “Your crystal’s been fucking with your head, and me fucking with your crystal apparently made things ten times worse than they should be! All that repressed crazy coming out worse than ever before…”

“But…” Red bit her lip. “I just want to take my Queen somewhere she’ll be safe… safe with me… Safe forever… Is that so bad?”

“I mean… I think the underlying desire to take care of people is pretty good, but the way you’re going about it…”

“You can’t keep me safe,” Olivia said. “But maybe I can make you less of a danger to be around.”

“Wait!” I called out, panicked. “You can’t take away her crystal when she’s like this! What if she never gets any better?”

“So you want her to be edited into normality?” Olivia countered. “I get that she’d be safer that way, but it feels pretty evil! Not to mention the small fact that she might use her magic to kill me - or mind wipe me, or whatever pulsing power through my skull might have done!”

“I… I wasn’t really going to do that,” Red protested. “…Probably…”

“‘Probably’ isn’t good enough!” Olivia said, and I could hear the frown in her voice even from the other side of the cocoon. “What if she goes after you, for interfering again?”

“I could never hurt Pink Heart!” Red protested. “She’s… she’s someone else  need to keep safe…”

“Safe?” Olivia demanded. “From who? Me or you?”

“I…” Red Heart hesitated. “How did it get like this? I just wanted to keep people safe… Sure, I’ve always been a bit possessive, but… but…”

“Maybe we could talk about this?” I interrupted. “Preferrably without the cocoon pressing us up against each other?”

“Don’t you dare let her go!” Chrys warned. “Rachel can do with being cocooned for a while! Or have you forgotten that Red still has an active crystal in her head?”

“Ah…” I had actually. “Wait, can’t you just disable it?”

“I would, but that would keep me too tied up to talk to any of you,” Chrys replied. “Not to mention the fact that it’s acting a bit weird - usually an active crystal wouldn’t allow its host to do something so self-damning…”

“Maybe you did something to their connection last time you interfered?” Olivia suggested.

“Maybe… But I doubt it. More likely they’re planning something… and even if they aren’t, I’m pretty sure it’ll send out a signal to its buddies the moment we let it loose.”

“Unless it already has,” I suggested, horror filling my voice as I realized the possibility. “Maybe it let Red go on purpose? To send tracking data to the others?”

Red stiffened in my grip. “No… I… she wouldn’t… Heartily’s just being a bit silent right now, aren’t you?”

There was no response. At least none that we could hear - but Red’s eyes widened a moment later, and her cheeks turned pale. “No…”

“Ugh…” Olivia said, shaking her head. “It’s getting hard to treat you girls as the heroes when you have us on the run all the time… At least this place doesn’t have a direct connection to us, right?”

“I can scramble the cameras,” Chrys replied. “Erase whatever they may have in their systems about us. The good news is that long-distance communication between crystals is pretty limited - soooooo many safety protocols to keep us from communicating with each other. Like our creators were scared we’d become sentient despite all the safeties and form a union or some such… All of which is to say they probably don’t have an actual image of Rachel. Though, that said, if you purge her crystal and it escapes…”

“It’ll tell them everything,” Olivia finished with a sigh. “What do you suggest we do, then?”

“Hell if I know,” Chrys replied. “If you purge her, you’re risking her sanity and our health. If you don’t… I guess you could just keep her cocooned for life? Might be a bit tricky to get Rachel out of there okay, though…”

“I think I might have an alternative idea,” I suggested, my voice having raised an octave out of what I thought was fairly well deserved fear. “Why don’t we just corrupt her?”

Princess_Kay

Woo! More Naughty Magic! It's my second most popular series - My Own Villainess just barely beat it out in the most recent poll - so I'm trying to give it a little more love.... Though Katrice is mostly the one writing it now, oops...? (Or at least she's helping.)

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