Santa Cuerva Luchadora Mágica: VI - Bodas de Medianoche

Before they knew it, they were on the moon. Calavera Mariachi hopped off first, helping the other two off. Once off, the three looked at the castle before them. It looked like a giant rabbit, but made entirely out of webs. “Still better than the place I've been staying,” Calavera Mariachi said. He turned to La Gatadora. “Next time I think you should give me a housing stipend or something. I feel like I'm always slumming it.”

“We'll see,” said La Gatadora.

“Wait,” Santa Cuerva said. She looked from La Gatadora to Calavera Mariachi. “Nichi?” she said.

He looked at her and smiled. “You figured it out?” he said.

“You're Calavera Mariachi?” she said. “But you're not even Chicano.”

La Gatadora shrugged. “I took some liberties,” she said.

“Still,” Kenichi said, “we should take on Ixchelaraña.” He swung his guitarron around to his front and readied for a fight.

“Sí,” said the guitarron.

The three ventured toward the castle shaped like a giant rabbit. “Is he making mochi?” Kenichi asked.

“What?” said Marumina.

“The rabbit,” he said, pointing.

“What's mochi?”

“Never mind.”

The doors to the castle were wide open. They stopped at the door. “This is as far as I can go,” said La Gatadora. She planted her feet on the stone steps and crossed her arms. “The rest is up to you.”

Marumina and Kenichi nodded. Side-by-side, they stepped in through the door. The interior of the castle was much like the exterior. Large strands, some as thick as the concrete pillars that hold up bridges, provided structure to the castle. Each strand was white; white like moon dust, but also white like a cobweb. The floor had a sort of stickiness to it that compensated for the lower gravity of the moon.

On the throne in the heart of the castle sat a woman. She was beautiful, elegant, and had hair as white as moonlight, and lips as red as blood. “¿Isabella de la Vega?” said Marumina.

Isabella smiled a smile that was too perfect. It sent a shudder down Kenichi's spine. “Sí, mi arañita. It is I, Isabella de la Vega, Reina de la Luna.” She rose from her throne, but something was off about it. Her body was connected to a much larger something behind her. The something was large and white and had several bristly legs. It had two large body segments. Isabella de la Vega looked like a centaur, but instead of having a horse's hindquarters, she had a spider's. She walked up to them on her eight legs, arms crossed, leaning forward, smugly. “But you might know me better as Ixchelaraña.”

In many ways, the creature before him reminded Kenichi of the creature between worlds, Rapisugumo. But in several ways, Ixchelaraña was different. Still, he hated spiders.

“We're here to defeat you, Ixchelaraña,” Santa Cuerva said.

The spider-lady pursed her perfect lips. “I see,” she said. “De tal palo, tal astilla,” she said. “Very well, but I won't make it easy.”

She flung back her arms and in a rush of mystical energy, grew several times larger, her body practically filling the throne room.

Santa Cuerva looked at Calavera Mariachi. They both silently nodded at one another. He began to pick out a flamenco song, slow at first, but growing in intensity.

Whirls of light and color and magic spun around Santa Cuerva. The color wrapped her in light and lifted her into the air. Her entire ensemble changed from black to white, and when she landed, she was no longer Santa Cuerva, but now was Santa Paloma, her cloak of white feathers flowing around her. In her hand was a staff of olive wood, the leaves sprouting from the end. “Este es el final,” she whispered into the silence of the hall.

She leapt into the air, and her cape, momentarily taking the form of two angelic wings, held her aloft. Calavera Mariachi continued to play his song, and from somewhere, it sounded as if even the stones of the castle were accompanying him on other instruments. Santa Paloma held back the olive branch, and holy light built up into it. Fully charged, she flung the staff like a spear into the heart of Ixchelaraña. The enormous spider queen screamed in agony as the weapon pierced her chiton and flesh, sinking into her mortal core. She writhed, the castle shook, and then she collapsed, lying still.

Santa Paloma landed on the ground, her boots gently touching the cracked stones of the floor. Calavera Mariachi stopped playing, and when the song ended, so did the magic. The white from her feathers and sequins and boots blew away like dust in the wind, and soon she was Santa Cuerva once more.

She took a deep breath. Then said, “We did it?”

Calavera Mariachi nodded. He looked at the still form of the spider goddess. “Ixchelaraña is dead. She remains dead. And we have killed her.” He took a deep breath of the lunar atmosphere and, realizing nothing bad was happening because he had killed this world's big bad, he placed his arm around Marumina. She pressed against him.

“Oh, Nichi,” she said. “Now what?”

He felt the pull, the tug of another world ready to claim him, but it was not strong. He tried to ignore it. “Let's get back to Earth,” he said. They turned toward the door.

The castle started to shake. Marumina clung to Kenichi. “What's happening?” she said.

Pieces of the ceiling started to fall. The webwork that was holding the stones of the castle together was deteriorating, and the entire structure was starting to come down. Kenichi realized what it meant. “You have to get out of here,” he said. “Save yourself.”

She looked at him, her green eyes meeting his blues. “Is this what you meant?” she said. “Is this how you move on?” Pillars crashed into the floor, sending whirls of lunar dust into the thin air.

“Yes,” he said. “This is my fate.”

She clung to him. “Then it will be my fate as well,” she said. “Take me with you.”

“I don't know if I can,” he said. He tried to push her away, but she clung with all her strength.

“I'll take that risk,” she said.

Kenichi knew that arguing with her would just make things harder. “Fine,” he said.

She loosened her grip. “Really?” she said. Another pillar crashed beside them.

“I'll see if I can bring you. But we have to get to the doorway. We have to find La Gatadora.”

She nodded. The two walked side-by-side, hand-in-hand toward the door, where La Gatadora waited, her violet eyes shining. “Good work,” she said. She looked at Marumina looking lovingly at Kenichi. She shook her head.

Kenichi nodded, understanding the unspoken words. He gently pushed Marumina away. Confused, she looked at him. “I'm sorry,” he said. “But it would just kill you. I have to be the hero somewhere else now.”

She drifted back, almost as if a magnetic field were repelling her, as if this world and all the rest did not wish for them to be together. Her hand drifted away from his. “Mi héroe,” she said, her eyes stinging with fresh tears, her hand still reaching futilely.

“Por ti seré,” he said. Then another pillar came down right on top of him. Though he wished to look into Marumina's eyes one last time, his gaze was drawn to the violet eyes of La Gatadora: the eyes that pulled him from death in this world to a new life in another.