"Well, let's see," Triple's counterpart purred as they both sit down. "I'm not quite sure where to start. Seeing as it's a time loop we're talking about here, it's hard to say where the beginning actually is."

"A... time loop?"

Other Triple looked at her as though she was the biggest idiot on the planet. "Yeah, that's what I just said. Don't make me retract my earlier statement about you not being dumb." She sighs dramatically. "The point is, there has been a time loop that has gone on for who knows how long, repeating who knows how many times. And each time, it has gone the exact same way. Take a look." As she spoke, Triple's counterpart raised her hands, creating a square of shadow between them. It then began to display pictures of Six and Triple's journey through The Maw like a TV screen. Except, Triple realized as she continued to watch, it wasn't their journey. In this version of events, Six his alone, desperately fighting for her life all by herself.

"Are you sure?" Triple asked skeptically as she eyed the scene. "How come I... I mean you... why aren't we there?"

"Oh, we're there." Other Triple replied mysteriously. No sooner had she said this then a scene of Six being effected by the Hunger Curse began playing. It was the third one, where she ate a rat to satisfy the evil parasite living in her stomach. As she began chowing down, Other Triple began poking at the vision like a touchscreen, slowing it down and panning away from Six, revealing Triple standing silently in the shadows, watching. Playing it on normal speed revealed that she had only been visible for a fraction of a second before fading into the shadows again.

Triple was tempted to protest these obviously fake visions, to call her counterpart out on her bull. But she decided in the long run to see this to the end before judging it.

And so she watched. She watched as Six devoured the nome, and then moved on to do the same to The Lady. Then Triple did it. She fulfilled her original plan to take control of Six's body and use their amplified power to slaughter all the Guests and abandon ship. Even though it was very similar to the last time, the tone of the situation was completely different.

Cut to Six now without her raincoat, listening to a music box that sounded awfully similar to a song they had heard before. She seemed to be in control of herself, or Triple decided not to kill Mono at this time, because she worked with him. There were some worrying things, though. For instance, Six did not stop herself from brutally killing a Bully like she had when these events actually took place. She also casually broke the fingers of a mannequin hand, warmed herself with a fire that someone happened to be burning alive in, and kicked the corpse of an unfortunate Viewer.

And then The Thin Man appeared. Without Triple there to help defend her, Mono couldn't do anything about Six being taken away. When he reunited with her again in the Signal Tower, the same room she and her counterpart sat in now come to think of it, Triple couldn't help but gasp. What had that monster done? Six was now gigantic and monstrous, a creature that looked no different than all the corrupt adults. She seemed to be docile though, recognizing Mono and responding to his voice. Her attachment to the music box though? That was quite concerning. It made sense for Six to cling to something that made her feel safe of course, but this was very out of character for her. It was almost as though she was hypnotized by the thing, like The Viewers with their precious televisions. They would try to kill you if you got in the way of their entertainment, and so would Six, apparently.

Mono managed to beat her, much to Triple's relief, and soon she was back to normal. The children had to run not too long after, desperately attempting to avoid the true horror of The Tower. The bridge broke. Six made it across, but Mono wasn't so lucky. He took a leap of faith, Six reaching out to catch him.

Time froze. The Flesh stilled, waiting. Six stood, hesitant. Mono dangled over the abyss. A tendril of shadow, a whisper in Six's ear. Humming.

"No!"

Other Triple grinned. Six let go. Mono fell and grew until he became "Dear Eye, no!" The Thin Man.

"Then we and Six would be back on The Maw, and the cycle repeats!" Other Triple concludes, dismissing the scene with a satisfied smirk.

Triple just sat there for a moment, stock still, trying to figure out what all of it meant. "So," She said, addressing her counterpart from a different time. "That would make you a version of me from the future, but also the past at the same time. Weird..."

The alternate Triple nods. "Mmm-hmm."

"And The Thin Man... he went after Six because"

"Because she betrayed him, yeah." Alternate Triple finishes with a smirk. "He's only aware of the loop near the end, unlike me. You see, I, that is to say this the version of us you are speaking with now, wasn't happy about this situation. At least, not at first. It was very annoying, getting so close to freedom I could taste it, only to have it snatched away. But then I realized that since I was the only one aware of the loop, I could use it to my advantage. Control of my own life was all I wanted at first, right? But why should we stop there if we don't have to, huh? Not just control our life, but everyone's." She smirks, fangs gleaming in the dim light.

"And that's exactly what I did. With each repeat of the loop, I got closer and closer to the source of what the call The Corruption. When I look back on it now, people totally should have been able to figure out what it really was a long time ago. But I'm getting off track. The point is, everything was going perfectly according to plan. Last loop I was so close to contacting the source, that I was sure this would be the last run. But, of course, no system is without its kinks." As Alternate Triple stared unblinkingly into her eyes, pupils growing and shrinking periodically, Triple knew that whatever her counterpart would reveal next was going to be big.

"Somehow, and I still have no idea why or how this happened, you spawned without memory of any of the last loops. This would have been fine had you done what you did the actual first time."

"I didn't." Triple spoke up for the first time in a long time. Her alternate self's monologue had made her sick. She had thought that she'd stopped herself from hurting Six in the end, but apparently that was far from the truth. It turned out she had hurt her sister over, and over, and over again. Caused her to eat her own mother. Made her betray her only friend. As much as she wanted to dismiss this as a bunch of elaborate lies, it made so much sense. Why some things seemed so familiar, why The Thin Man, Mono went after Six. Despite how different the two looked, they shared the same powers.

Still, as disgusting as it all was, the fact that she had defied the rules by nothing more than free will, had broken the cycle gave her a tiny spark of hope.

"You didn't." Alternate Triple agreed, sneering. "You revealed yourself to Six. You lifted the Hunger Curse. You helped Mono save Six multiple times. If there was a chance for you to do something different, you did something different. Time and space itself got so messed up because of you that the timelines burst open at the seams, allowing me to slip through. Good thing too, because this place" she motions to the room around them. "would not have survived without a host."

"Without a host..." Triple allowed those words to linger in her mind for a moment, digesting them. The implications hit her like a train. "You mean—"

"Uh-huh! I'm The Broadcaster now! So your choices, weird and stupid as they were, actually paid off in the end. We've won! Finally, after all this time, I am truly free. And you can be, too."

"What are you getting at?" Triple asked, voice low with suspicion.

"We can merge together, become one. You would get all the memories of the previous timelines back, and be even more powerful than you already are. As for me, I... well, um, hmm what exactly will I get out of this? Ooh! I know! I can be comfortable in the knowledge that my alternate self isn't reeking havoc on the universe anymore. So, what do you say? Are you ready to claim what is rightfully yours?"

"Uh... I don't..." At first, Triple was tempted to reject this offer outright. But then she thought about it. If she merged with this other version of herself, would that mean she'd be in control? Could she bring Six and Mono here and turn this place into a home they could all live safely together in with no more fear of being hunted down and slaughtered? "What about Six and Mono?" She asked.

Other Triple scoffed. She tried to hide it, but Triple could still see it plain as day. "What about them?"

This wasn't a good sign, but Triple continued anyway. "What will happen to them should I accept your offer?"

The other shadow girl just waves off her concerns. "Who cares? They served their purpose already, so they're no longer important."

Triple clenches her fists, digging her nails into her palms. As she is a shadow and thus how no blood, she doesn't bleed. "You clearly don't know a thing about me if you think I'll agree with you on that." She hisses through clenched teeth.

The other her is unphased. "Oh, I know who you are, Triple." She spoke the name as if it were a slur, eyes narrow and bitter. "I was only offering because the idea of destroying myself is a bit uncouth, but if it comes to the point where there can only be you or me, well... it's gunna be me."

"Uncouth!?" Triple repeats incredulously. She stands up, leans forward and locks gazes with her counterpart. In her anger, her pupils are even narrower slits. "After all you've done, after all the people you have hurt, are hurting as we speak via The Transmission, that is the thing you have a problem with? Seriously?!"

Other Triple just chuckles. "My dear counterpart. In this world, there is no time for something so fickle as morality. You do whatever it takes to survive, or you die. That's it. That's the only rule." She seemed to want to say a lot more, but suddenly the ground begins to rumbles. The walls bend and jiggle a bit, in a way that no walls should be able to do. In the distance, Triple could catch a few odd squelching noises over the din of the roaring shadows, which seem to be growing in volume.

"What is—" She started, and was nearly thrown to the ground by the sudden movement of the floor beneath her. It was rolling and swaying wildly as though she was back on The Maw, and an intense storm was brewing. She floated upwards to avoid being taken out by the misbehaving floor, watching in confusion as the room continued to move.

"Ah," Other Triple sighed, not ruffled in the least. She still sat comfortably, the patch of floor her shadow chair sat on holding completely still amidst the chaos surrounding it. "It would seem The Eye has grown impatient. It wants me to make a decision so we can get on with things."

Triple wasn't sure if she was imagining it or not, but the walls of the tower were beginning to look a little bit red. "The Eye!?" She exclaimed, doing her best to keep away from all the walls. "As in, The Eye? The god that so many people worship?"

"That's the one!" Other her stood up now too, returning the shadow used to make the chairs into her body. "And it looks like it wants to participate. I don't know why since you're pretty insignificant, but you don't just say no to the wishes of a being such as this."

And then the madness went from one hundred to one million. The walls of The Shadow Tower bulged and then burst, revealing a horror unlike any she had ever seen before. Walls of oozing, bubbling, reeking flesh, hot and red. With not just one eye, but hundreds, maybe even thousands, in every color imaginable. Other Triple was on her knees now, bowing to the abomination. "Oh, great Eye! Why have you chosen to grace us with your presence today?"

If Triple were human, she probably would have vomited. The Eye, if this truly was The Eye, didn't look anything like the intricate carvings meant to depict it implied. It was disgusting. Absolutely disgusted. Like I would imagine the source of The Corruption to look, she realized. Is all this flesh its own, or did it steal it from its victims? The Viewers, perhaps? They have no eyes, and yet they can see. Very complex magic, no doubt.

Somewhere in the middle of Triple's musings, her evil counterpart had apparently somehow been communicated with The Eye, for she was facing her again, brimming with twisted excitement. "Ooh! I get it now! This is another one of your gifts! Oh, how generous you are! Mind if I explain it to my counterpart here before you begin? ... Excellent! Well, it's really quite simple. Everyone calls it The Corruption, but it's actually The Eye's gifts to people like the legions say. For instance, The Eye gifted a girl who was bullied in school constantly with a school and her very own where she is the boss, so long as she passed on its legacy. The Eye gifted kids who wanted to not worry about being afraid with the chance to play for all eternity, as long as they keep their grades up and don't bonk their heads. It gifted a doctor who wasn't respected for his craft a hospital all his own and a steady supply of patients. And it gifted a woman who wanted to rid the world of evil and ugliness with a vessel just for the job. At the same time, it gave a blind man who couldn't fit in a place to belong, two brothers a kitchen where they could cook in peace forever, and countless starving people a place where they could never be hungry again. And now, hehehehehe! Now, it's gifted me, a girl who was unable to control anything, with the ability to control everything! I'm ruling by The Eye's side now. Every gift given, every new place created, we choose it all together now! It's paradise, all I could want and more right at my fingertips!"

The dark shadow didn't stop herself from laughing again, and Triple could do nothing more than look on, horrified and disgusted, as she attempted to process all she had learned. The source of The Corruption, what she and Six had been looking for all this time, was right in front of her at last. Though it sickened her greatly to see a version of herself by its side, happily helping to spread the misery it had wrought on the world. Still, maybe there was still hope for this situation. Maybe, if she really gave it her all, she could do what she and her sister had set out to do? Granted she probably had no chance in beating this thing, but in a situation like this where she was almost certainly doomed, would it hurt to at least try?

"Judging by your expression," Her counterpart continued, in a casual conversational tone that did not fit this situation at all. "I've failed to convince you of the truth. But I knew I would fail before I even spoke with you at all. Because you are a glitch. A mistake. An error that must be corrected. And we will correct it."

As her counterpart readied her shadows and The Eye advanced on her, Triple felt a strange feeling bubbling up from deep within her. She wasn't sure what exactly was causing it. Maybe it was the fear of the situation, or the shock, or something else entirely. Whatever it was, even though she was almost certainly about to die, she felt lighter than air. She felt untouchable, like nothing could ever hurt her no matter how hard she tried. "Oh, so that's it?" She says, voice high with a tone it had never held before. "You think I'm a mistake? Do you? Huh? Do you?" And then, she began to laugh.

She laughed so hard that she was practically folded in half, spots swimming before her eyes as tears roll down her cheeks. Her enemies freeze in their tracks; they weren't expecting this at all. "Oh! That's hilarious! That's absolutely rich! Ahahahahahahaha! You think I'm a mistake, yet I am the only sane person in this room!"

Other Triple just shook her head. "You've obviously lost it."

"Oh no no no, quite the opposite. I haven't lost it, I've found it! I've found all of it! These little lost things have found their way home, and now they must be spoken. Well they're actually big lost things, but that doesn't matter right now. Let me rebuttal your claims from earlier. The Teacher is a girl with an unfortunate childhood and an even more unfortunate encounter later in life. There is nothing good about her circumstances, especially now that she is hurting children just like she used to be. The Bullies are porcelain terrors. The Doctor's "craft" is turning people into mannequins. There is no world where that should be respected, especially not this one. The Lady? Well I'm sure she meant well in the past, but there's nothing good about her left now, especially since she contributing to creating you!" She shook her finger harshly at her counterpart, the angry fire returning to her eyes. "You! You are a delusional maniac who worships a false god and plays with people's lives like they're nothing."

Other Triple scoffs, but her bravado has faded considerably. "First off, The Eye is not a false god. It's right here. Second, I am you, idiot."

"No." Triple replied firmly, voice devoid of doubt or desperation. "I'm not you. We are more different than night and day. And I am not the mistake, you are. Each and every idoration of you before me is. I'm glad I made different choices this time around, especially now I know what the alternative is." She shutters, then ignores the other her completely and turns to The Eye, who has been watching this exchange with an unreadable expression. It's hard to read the expression of a bunch of flesh and eyes, after all.

"And we mustn't forget about you!" She continues, almost in a singsong manner. "You. The Eye. The source of The Corruption. The one we've been searching for all this time. You are by far the most fowl, ugly, and visceral thing I have ever had the displeasure of encountering. And I've encountered a lot of ugly things, your doing no doubt."

Other Triple looked absolutely livid at this blaspheme, but Triple couldn't care less. "H-h... How dare zo—"

"Shut up!" She snapped, stopping her counterpart in her tracks. "I'm not talking to you." She turned back to the Eldrich horror, whose eyes seemed to have narrowed. Again Triple didn't care, as that untouchable feeling had still not left her. "There is one thing that my counterpart and I have in common. When we set our minds to something, we never give up until it's done or we can't go on anymore. It's gotten especially bad since I met Mono since he is much the same. We go out and keep trying to do something dangerous, then Six'll be all upset with us for it. Speaking of Six, I agreed to help her stop The Corruption, y'know? And now that I have the opportunity to try, I will. Not just for her, but I'd like The Corruption to end myself. It'd be nice to live in a world where you aren't either fighting for your life or taking them. So." She stared into one of the thing's many eyes and spoke clearly and firmly. "Right now, I intend to either destroy you, or remove you from this world at the very least, or die trying."

"Ooh good!" Other Triple said in excitement. "We were planning on destroying you anyway! Let's do this!"

And then they were advancing again, and the most intense battle Triple had ever participated in began. It became clear right away that The Eye had made a huge mistake exposing itself like this. It may have great power over the world at large, but its physical body was as fragile as the internal human flesh it resembled. With the fact she was in the Shadow Realm greatly boosting her powers, Triple was able to form great black blades with her power, cleaving large bits of the god's body off as though it was a gigantic piece of meat. Blood spilled freely from the holes in great torrents, and eyes bounced and rolled on the floor. It was unthinkably disgusting, and by the third cut, Triple was almost completely soaked in the stuff. But if she was able to dismantle this monstrosity, it would all be worth it. Even if she had to, shutter, take a bath. It wasn't that she didn't want to be clean, but the water would floe inside her body and it was really quite weird.

Other Triple shrieked in distressed and did the best she could to defend her ally. Since she had more experience than Triple, her technique was a lot more advanced and graceful. And she might have succeeded had The Eye not been so incredibly large. As it stood though, she couldn't possibly block every blow.

"See your god?" Triple shouts as she continued to pelt the being with blow after blow. "See how easily it comes apart?"

The other shadow was too far gone for words now though, and just screamed again. She began creating blades like Triple's to try and parry the blows, but she just couldn't block all of them and Triple would just move to a place she wasn't defending. Then one of them hit her, and she burst apart. Triple took the time it would take for her enemy to reform to double down on the bigger threat, creating sets of quickly spinning blades like small fans and sliding them along every inch of the creature she could reach. Bits of gore sprayed out, landing on everything in sight including in Triple's hair, and The Eye recoiled back, possibly from pain. If a thing as twisted as this could feel pain, that is. The wounds that Triple had created were now gigantic holes, so deep that she could probably fit her whole arm into one. Something else also caught her eye. The liquid that now leaked from The Eye was now thick and brown, oozing slowly down its form like corn syrup. On further inspection, Triple realized that this was because the flesh closest to its core was in a state of decay, the blood old and gooey. So it was literally rotten to the core.

As The Eye sat their bleeding, trying to fend its attacker off but failing miserably, and as Other Triple finished reforming and began screaming incoherently again, Triple noticed something. A thing she didn't know she would feel in a place like this. It was dark, massive, and threatened to destroy her completely if she wasn't careful. It was The Eye's life force. Its soul, if you will. And if she felt that, that meant she had at least a shot at taking it. Not that she wanted something so tainted inside of her, but it would be an easy way of offing this thing if she let it. A quick blow to the face insured her counterpart would be subdued long enough to do this successful, and with a whoosh she was upon the predator turned prey. Thick arms of darkness probed into the wounds, feeling out for the thing's core and taring into it. It was slow going and a massive struggle, akin to that first sip of a thick milkshake through a straw. But Triple couldn't, would not give up. And soon she had it flowing, going in and immediately coming out of her again, drifting slowly up and into the unknown like smoke from burning rubber. The flavor was visceral, much worse than the souls of The Guests, sort of like the way a bit of meat tastes after being stuck in your teeth for a few days, but much much worse. All and all, a terrible experience for most parts.

"Nooooo!" Other Triple screamed. She tried to rush to The Eye's aid, but the cloud of acrid life force made her cough and gag, causing it to be impossible for her to get close enough. "Stop! Stooooop!"

Scrambled visions assaulted Triple's mind as she continued to pull, no doubt The Eye's attempts at manipulating her. Sloppy attempts to say the least, probably since the thing was so out of it now. After what seemed to be eternity, the flow stopped. The Eye shivers gelatinously before fading away with a small floomp sound. No gory explosion, no otherworldly shriek, nothing. Just the still silence of death. Or that's what Triple hoped. For all she knew, The Eye could have just retreated somewhere. But that was only because she was unaware of the chaos going on all around the world.

"Y-you said we would be together forever." The small, broken voice brought Triple out of her haze, and she turned to find her counterpart, all maniacal glee gone from her as suddenly as The Eye had vanished. She was now little more than a husk of what she used to be, hollowed by her purpose, her freedom, disappearing before her very eyes.

"I'm sure it said a lot of things," Triple said between pants. "But none of them are true. The Eye is... was a monster. It—"

A sudden stabbing pang tearing through her abdomen cut her off. It felt as though her insides were being cut apart by the blades she had used on The Eye not too long ago. Then a rumble, loud and demanding, echoed throughout the room. Triple fell to her knees with a gasp.

The other girl laughed, not bothering to move from her own kneeling position. It wasn't like any of her other laughter though. This was low and scratchy, laughter of someone who had lost everything. "Looks like The Eye granted one last parting gift." She motioned towards the chunks of flesh and eyes lying in steaming puddles of fluids all over the floor. "Well, you have what you need. So go ahead."

Triple only gave them a short look, turning up her nose. Why would she eat that junk when she had something even fresher? Not only that, but this was someone who had taken pleasure in doing the same to another over and over again. If anyone deserves this fate, it was her. And as for Triple, well, she wasn't completely blameless either. She too had cast this hunger, and lives were taken because of it. So this was justified. This was fair. And in a way, she supposed that it was, in a way, a gift.

Her counterpart didn't seem to be going anywhere, Triple took her sweet time approaching her, allowing herself to take everything in. She walked, one heavy footfall after another, letting herself feel the pain she had subjected Six to. Each labored breath, every gurgling cry from her stomach, and every deliciously disturbing thought.

The other girl laughed again when she saw Triple couldn't care less about the flesh, instead moving determinedly towards her. "Oh, of course." She drawled. "I should have known. You talk big, but deep down you really are just like me."

She smirked, and the expression never left her face. Not even when Triple shoved her against the wall and ripped her throat out.

A/N: Holy crap! Four thousand words! I had no idea this chapter would be so long, but I'm really proud of it. Please let me know what you think I'm not really used to writing gory or dark stuff (I usually just write cute fluffy stuff which is coming up next don't worry) so your feedback is really appreciated.