Gaiaphage

The Gaiaphage, also known as The Darkness, is the main antagonist of the Gone Series. It was among the most powerful beings in the FAYZ, rivaled only by Little Pete.

Description
The Gaiaphage initially appeared as a mass of glowing green crystals that seethed along the ground in the mineshaft. When someone poofs, the Gaiaphage appears before them as a being with green eyes and a fanged mouth. In Hunger, the Gaiaphage attempted to create a new body for itself out of millions of monsters but was thwarted by Duck.

History
More than a million years ago, a race of life-worshiping aliens infected a dead moon with a carefully structured virus with the ability to affect the fabric of reality. They then exploded the moon, sending thousands of seedlings out into the universe. They hoped that the virus would land on lifeless planets and create life. One of the fragments reached Earth approximately 1 million years later. The fragment hit the Perdido Beach Nuclear Power Plant. The impact killed Taegan Smith, the father of Sam Temple. His corpse was driven underground along with the uranium core of the power plant. The uranium and Taegan's DNA allowed the virus to mutate into a radioactive human-alien hybrid monster which went insane and called itself the Gaiaphage, or "World Eater". Instead of creating life, it started to cause other living things in its proximity to mutate. (For example, human beings began to gain powers and animals began to evolve into bizarre monsters.) Some humans were found to be more vulnerable than others because of their genetic connection to the Gaiaphage. Sam and Caine were the only four-bars, and because of his autism and youth, Little Pete became immeasurably powerful.

Power and Abilities
The Gaiaphage, who later becomes Gaia, is one of the most powerful forces in all of the FAYZ. It fears very little and all those who come into contact with it are mentally affected. It is rivaled only by Little Pete, whom the Gaiaphage calls Nemesis. The Gaiaphage has all the powers ever discovered in the FAYZ, (although it is implied that it has trouble learning creation) as long as the person that has the power remains alive. If the owner of a power is killed or for other reasons dies, the Gaiaphage will no longer be able to use that power, which is why Gaia is reluctant to kill powerful humans during Light. However, the only powers that the Gaiaphage actually seems to have itself are Mimicry and Mind Control.

Appearances
In Gone, the Gaiaphage manipulates a pack of mutant coyotes, directing them to capture Lana after it discovers her healing power, and uses her to give Drake his whip-hand after Sam used his power to burn off his arm.
 * Gone

In Hunger, the Gaiaphage begins mentally manipulating Little Pete into giving it a body. It uses Pete's imagination to come up with a body similar to that of a Russian nesting doll - endless bodies, each inside the other, each completely lethal. Lana attempts to kill it, but the Gaiaphage possesses her and uses her to shoot Edilio in the chest. The gaiaphage mind controls Caine throughout the book after waking up from his three-month coma. The gaiaphage then makes Caine recruit Computer Jack, turn off the power plant, steal a rod from the plant's reactor core, and bring it to the Gaiaphage. At the end of the book, Duck Zhang sacrifices himself to stop the Gaiaphage from gaining a body, dragging it down a hole to the bottom of the FAZE sphere using his power.
 * Hunger

The Gaiaphage returns in Lies, having survived Duck's attack and used Little Pete's power to create a female avatar, Nerezza. It used Lana's healing powers and Brittney's regeneration ability to bring Drake back from the dead, although it was partially unsuccessful as Drake and Brittney share control of the body. Nerezza manipulates Orsay into believing that she could see visions of the world outside the FAYZ and the other children into thinking that the "big one-five" (the unexplained disappearance when one reaches the age of 15) would be an escape from the FAYZ. Nerezza ends up strangling Orsay because she refuses to continue listening to her. Nerezza also persuaded Zil to start a riot at the end of the book.
 * Lies

In Plague, the Gaiaphage is shown to be residing in a cave at the bottom of the FAYZ sphere after being crushed through the ground of the mineshaft by Duck at the end of Hunger. Drake approaches the Gaiaphage here after escaping from imprisonment, but changes into Brittney upon encountering it; the Gaiaphage then persuades Brittney into believing that it is God. This way, it has the allegiance of both Drake and Brittney, whom it tries to use to destroy Sam and ultimately eradicate every human in the FAYZ. It intends to 'break free' from the FAYZ, which is described as an egg that the Gaiaphage grows inside. It aspires to be 'born' into the outside world; but in order to do this, it needs to assimilate the power of the person who created the egg: Little Pete ("Nemesis"). The Gaiaphage attempts to eradicate the humans by setting near-invincible mutant bugs on them and retrieve Little Pete with Drake/Brittney, but when Little Pete makes the bugs and himself vanish, Drake/Brittney appears to retreat. After Little Pete loses his bodily form at the end of Plague, the Gaiaphage is shown as more hesitant in contacting the child's now bodiless, yet even more powerful (having lost his autism along with his damaged body and brain), mind.
 * Plague

In Fear, the Gaiaphage is discovered to essentially be the barrier. When it started to turn black, that was a sign of the Gaiaphage's weakness. Lana, Drake, Caine, and others in contact with the Gaiaphage can feel how desperate it is to be reborn. It later achieves this by taking control of Diana's baby, Gaia. At the end of the novel, Gaia, Penny, Drake, and Diana travel through Perdido Beach and are challenged by Caine and Sam in the Battle of the Highway. The two of them fail to defeat Gaia, but the barrier becomes transparent following this, and Gaia, Diana, and Drake flee.
 * Fear

The Gaiaphage is extremely powerful and remains a huge threat to the FAYZ universe.

In Light it continues to use Gaia as a host and kills as many FAYZ residents as it can (particularly non-mutants). During the Lake Tramonto massacre, Gaia succeeds in killing almost a quarter of the FAYZ residents by destroying the settlement at the lake. It also launches an attack on Perdido Beach but is marginally repelled by Sam and Caine.
 * Light

During The battle between Gaia and Nemesis, it is seemingly killed by Little Pete when he takes over Caine's body and they burn each other to ashes. After the battle, the FAYZ wall disappears and everyone is freed.


 * After the FAYZ

Despite having its consciousness destroyed in the battle at the end of Light, the Gaiaphage is still alive in some capacity. Those who venture into the mineshaft exhibit extremely violent behavior and become very mentally disturbed. This resulted in the mineshaft eventually being closed off permanently. The town of Perdido Beach also attracts a large number of disreputable people and organizations such as DARPA think this to be related. It also is still able to give those who go near it powers, although its range only extends as far as the mineshaft.