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A/N: If you like the story and wanna support it, leaving a few reviews would really help promote my work, and I would be so grateful. But regardless thank you for reading and donating your power stones, you guys have been absolutely blowing the bonus chapter goals out of the water!
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Gwen shouldn't have been so shocked by death, considering that for the past year she had been immersed in New York City's criminal underworld, but her mind couldn't let go of the fact that within the span of ten minutes, she had witnessed three lives snuffed out in a gruesome manner. Her struggles had stopped long ago, and now Gwen stared at the grass in front of her, wondering where it had all gone wrong, 'I should have stopped him sooner...a part of me trusted him...I thought he would help since he gave me the suit.'
The same suit that now bound Gwen's arms and legs, 'How stupid could I be?'
The sound of footfalls across dry grass made Gwen pick up her head, and she found Gideon standing over her using his crook like a walking staff, despite it possessing the razor-sharp edge that had, mere moments ago, dripped with blood.
"What now, Spider-Woman?" Gideon asked, his voice devoid of mockery—genuinely curious, as if he still believed she might see reason. "Do you still intend to fight me?"
"Yes," Gwen hissed through clenched teeth. Her eyes burned with fury as she glared up at him, every fiber of her being resisting his calm. "You're a butcher in holy robes—following orders from someone with a god complex and the blood of thousands on his hands!"
Gideon exhaled through his nose, slow and deliberate, like a man trying to quiet the storm within. "Then your mind is still closed," he said, "Sealed off from the truth. From the reality that exists beyond your limited moral framing. There's no use arguing with someone who's still shackled by fear."
His detached certainty grated against Gwen's nerves like broken glass underfoot. Rage welled up in her chest, raw and wild.
"'Truth'?" she spat. "Is that what you'll call it when Genesis tells you to wipe out an entire city? When he says its people are 'tainted'—will you still pretend it's righteous then? How do you justify that kind of slaughter, Gideon?"
Gideon didn't flinch. His expression remained impassive, as though her outrage were merely weather passing over stone.
"If my god commands it, it will be done," he said simply. "But I know that is not his way."
He stepped forward, and there was a strange softness in his voice now—an echo of pity, not arrogance.
"All will be offered the choice. To enter his kingdom. To embrace a paradise where corruption no longer festers in flesh, mind, or spirit. A world healed by divine design."
He paused, eyes narrowing just slightly.
"But for those who refuse that grace… they must accept whatever end their resistance brings. It is not punishment—it is the price of free will."
Gwen could only shake her head, "Well you were right about one thing, there is no point in arguing with someone that so batshit crazy."
Gideon opened his mouth to reply when suddenly a powerful aura that made Gwen's spider-sense flare up, swept through the tunnel, causing the very air itself to grow heavy, "Do not waste your words on her, my Son, she is not ready yet to receive my light."
Gideon and Gwen both looked as Genesis slowly levitated toward them, his hands folded behind his broad, muscular back, "You've done well, Gideon. I could not have chosen a better guardian for Sanctuary."
In the blink of an eye, Gideon dropped to his knees, "I was only to do so thanks to the powers you entrusted to me, my lord. You've turned my faith into a weapon to utilize against your enemies. I could ask for no greater honor."
"Oh my god, get a room!" Gwen shouted as she glared at Genesis' hood, knowing the maniac could see her, "Or at least let me get out of here and give you two some privacy."
"While I have no prejudice against the sexual orientation of my followers, I'm afraid I only find the female form appealing," Genesis replied in such a straightforward tone that Gwen had trouble figuring out if he was being sarcastic, "But I know that is not what you wish to talk about...you're wondering what happens now...if I'll let you leave Sanctuary alive."
"Well, you don't seem to have any qualms about killing people, so why don't you get it over with?" Gwen spat, knowing full well she was antagonizing a potentially godlike being with untold levels of power.
Genesis sighed, "I will not kill you, Spiderwoman, unlike the sinners that intruded upon my kingdom, I know that even without my help, you will be a tireless agent against the corruption."
Gwen had to muffle a sigh of relief from leaving her as Genesis waved his hand and her suit reverted to normal allowing Gwen to slowly rise to her feet fully aware that Gideon was watching he like a hawk for the slightest sign of aggression, "Alright then...now if you could take back your suit...Blessing, I can be on my way."
"No," Genesis answered, refusing Gwen's request without a second thought, "You will keep my blessing and use it in your fight against corruption."
Gwen snarled at the god, "And as a way to control me if I ever try to put a stop to your insane plans, right?"
Genesis said nothing at first. His face remained hidden behind the radiant helm, but Gwen could've sworn—just for a moment—that he smiled at her. A subtle, knowing warmth. Then, with the grace of something not quite bound by gravity, he turned and began to drift away, his voice echoing with quiet authority.
"Gideon, please escort Spider-Woman out. There is much that demands our attention now. This place is no longer safe."
Gideon hesitated. "Are we abandoning Sanctuary, my lord?"
For the first time, Gwen caught something rare in the guardian's voice—uncertainty. Grief, even. And when Genesis replied, it was not with force, but with something deeper: sorrow dressed as serenity.
"Sanctuary," he said, "was never stone or soil, nor the boundaries marked by scenery. It is the invisible thread that binds us. The sanctuary I promised you lives in your faith, your devotion, and in the divine architecture of trust between us."
He paused, his golden aura flickering low like the dying embers of a sacred fire.
"I swore to protect you, not through walls, but through my presence, my word. The moment you were forced to draw your blade as its guardian… the moment the agents of corruption found this place… we crossed a threshold."
His voice grew quieter, edged with something that almost resembled regret.
"I came too close to failing you."
A long silence followed, pierced only by the faint sound of his energy-laced form moving deeper into the chamber.
"But we will not fall. I have carved a new path—fashioned from living light and the certainty of renewal. You will take it. You will lead the others."
He stopped then, head slightly bowed.
"Sanctuary travels with us now. So long as I draw breath, no hand of corruption will sever the bond between us."
Gideon's eyes shone as he bowed, "Yes my lord!"
Staring at the scene Gwen wanted nothing more than to launch herself at Genesis, but she knew she was absolutely outclassed. Her view of the god was then broken as Gideon stepped into her line of sight and glared down at her, "Alright, alright I get it, I'm not welcome here."
With no other choice, Gwen turned around and walked toward the storm drain but in her heart she swore, 'This isn't over Genesis.'
Gideon watched as Gwen stepped into the storm drain which closed behind her. Once Sanctuary's doors were closed the air next to Gideon shimmered as his counterpart emerged from her obscuring cloak, "You're a better man than I am Gideon, I would have killed her for speaking to my god in such a manner. And it would not be a clean death."
Gideon cast a sidelong glance at Elektra, the First Child of Scourge the Yin to Genesis' Yang, if such symmetry could be called balanced. Where Gideon's appearance remained understated, his simple robes unadorned and his form wholly human, Elektra stood as a stark inversion. Her attire was a calculated paradox: sleek black leather interwoven with silver plating, sculpted not for modesty or protection, but for intimidation and allure. The armor clung to her like a second skin, leaving long sections of flesh exposed—as though she dared the world to try and strike her down.
If Genesis' followers were beacons of quiet grace and inner purity, untouched by mutation or vanity, then Elektra was an unapologetic embodiment of transformation. Her violet eyes shimmered faintly in the low light, too luminous, too steady. Her fingernails had become dark, curved talons and obsidian crescents meant for more than decoration. And when she offered a smile, it revealed a mouth full of razored teeth, an evolutionary aberration sculpted by Scourge's philosophy: that all life must either ascend beyond corruption or be unmade.
In every facet, she was more than human. And perhaps, Gideon mused, that was the point.
"Our gods have different priorities and views on how their followers should worship them." Gideon replied simply with a slight smile as he understood that beyond all their difference Genesis and Scourge were one in the same, working in tandem towards the same inevitability, "Though I can't help but wonder which will claim her in the end."