Author's Note: Yay. This is my first M-rated fic. It will contain swearing, blood, violence, and dark themes such as murder and suicide.
I'm planning to make a PMD story with these characters. It's still in the early planning stages, but I just can't help but write a short story about these two in advance. I hope I'll actually get around to writing the long fic, but at this point oneshots will have to suffice while I finish my ongoing stories first.
Enough of that, let's get on with the story.
Cover (c) Bapazu on DeviantART.
• Execution, she said •
Saber thought if he concentrated hard enough, the iron bars in front of him might look less like iron bars and more like something happier. Like lollipop sticks, for example.
Yeah, they look like lollipop sticks.
No they don't, they look more like uncooked pasta. Only they're standing upright.
No way, isn't it obvious that they resemble candy canes the most?
Two voices in his mind were playing the "that-cloud-looks-like-a-dinosaur" game. They were blissfully unaware of the dire turn of events that had taken place outside.
...
Saber sighed, making his imagination fade away. The steel bars returned to looking like steel bars. A set of steel bars that would soon open and deliver him straight onto doom's doorstep, to be exact.
All thanks to my teammate and the stupid rock she calls her "Relic Fragment", he thought. All thanks to getting tangled up in this dangerous - no, ridiculous - mission that involved Time Gears, a notorious thief named Grovyle, and a popular explorer named Dusknoir who also happened to be a backstabber working for our very enemies, and time/space itself.
He wanted to laugh sarcastically. The irony of it all amused him. What in the world made him think that he, just a good old Nuzleaf with no special anything, save the world from a future of darkness? And he only had a psychopath of a Roselia armed with a stupid carved rock as a teammate.
Indeed, foolishly believing that two small and insignificant members of a larger society could somehow change the world's future, he and his teammate had worked so hard. They'd met the three lake guardians who'd guarded three Time Gears. They'd confronted Grovyle. They'd managed to collect all of the Time Gears. They only needed to climb up Temporal Tower and restore time. They'd been so near to saving the world.
And then this had to happen.
Just one push was all it took to send them tumbling into the very future of darkness they'd been trying to avoid, and then he'd simply woken up with steel bars in front of his face that would never look anything like lollipop sticks or uncooked pasta or candy canes however hard he tried.
The irony of it all amused Saber.
Yup, you thought you could save the world, and now look where the dream has landed you? the voice in his mind couldn't keep from adding.
A front-seat ticket to your
Execution, she said.
...
... ...
...
Concluding that she hadn't received the expected effect, the Grass-Poison-type sitting in front of her own set of steel bars tried saying it again. She rolled the word around on her tongue, she tried saying it a few times each with a different intonation, she whispered it and let it hang in the air like a noose.
"Execution. E-xe-cu-tion. EXecution, exeCUtion. Eeexecuuution. Execution..."
Like Saber, the rose-shaped monster had a voice of her own in her mind, accompanying her in her last moments.
They are going to kill me.
She suddenly smiled. The irony amused her.
Aren't I the one who's supposed to do the killing 'round here?
She remembered her specifically-sharpened thorns at the end of her vine whips. She'd sharpened them herself using a knife. Her thorns are way sharper than those of a normal Roselia.
They're especially good for cutting neck arteries, she'd told Saber some time ago when they were talking about battle strategies. But you have to do it slowly, of course. Otherwise, they would not feel the pain. Pain is everything, you know? In fact, the whole point of this fine art is to capture the picture of pain portrayed on their face.
She remembered the vine whips themselves, which she'd strategically hidden in her beautiful black and purple roses.
So when they think they're smelling roses, they'd be pushing up daisies, she'd joked, followed by her signature musical laugh. Anyway, if shot out with a powerful force right in their face, the best case would be a broken nose, worst case a gouged-out eyeball. Another silvery chuckle. Total recovery, impossible.
She remembered all those outlaws she'd made kick the bucket. Sometimes she punctured them with her exceptionally sharp thorns so that their lives drained out of them like air escaping out of a hole in a balloon. Sometimes she'd simply strangled them while singing them lullabies in her beautiful, musical voice. And then she'd say, "Open your eyes. Look. See those flashes before your eyes? That's your life," followed by another silvery laugh.
No one was supposed to kill her.
She'd ruined too many lives. She was supposed to be immortal. The world wasn't supposed to end. It wasn't supposed to get paralyzed. That was why she had been collecting the Time Gears, right? Maybe she and Saber had different reasons to have been collecting them, but she didn't really care. Let Saber be the hero. She was quite pleased already spilling and seeing blood.
She'd ruined too many lives, and she hadn't had enough.
No, Vertigo couldn't die yet.
"I'm not gonna die tonight," she murmured, eyes twitching and glinting in the darkness. "I don't care what I'm gonna do, I'm not gonna die tonight...!"
That was when a Sableye suddenly passed in front of her cell.
"Wheh-heh-heh, what's wrong?" he sneered, having overheard her desperate murmurs. He stopped in front of her cell. "Don't worry, we'll make sure it won't hurt too much. Heh, you're a pretty one. What a shame Lord Dusknoir's having you snuffed out."
"You know nothing of pain," the rose said with clenched teeth. "Once I get my roses on you moronic bastard, you'll wish you'd never been born."
The Sableye only laughed. "Oh, playing tough, are you? Such a shame! Tough chicks are actually my taste."
"Really? Smart-asses are my taste too. They make the best murder targets. I am glad the feeling is mutual."
Sableye grinned. "Miss Roses, I don't know what you're thinking up, but I'm telling you in advance that there's no way you can escape execution. Once Lord Dusknoir asks for it, it's done. Just accept the fact that everything ends here." With another sardonic laugh, he left.
The beast inside Vertigo snapped.
She ran to the steel bars and shouted after him in bloodlust and anger, "Come back here and fight like a real man, you fucking bastard! Are you afraid of a bunch of little thorns? You disgusting piece of Skuntank shit!"
But the only response she got was another sardonic laugh from somewhere down the corridor.
And she was left in the darkness, along with the last bits of feeble resistance left in her and the malevolent beast threatening to take over.
I'm going to kill him.
Yes yes yes, make him wish he'd never been born.
Strangle him. And I'll sing him lullabies so that he wouldn't be that in pain.
• Twinkle, twinkle little star •
Look. Open your eyes. Do you see those beautiful flashes in front of you? Guess what they are.
That's right, your life! Aren't they beautiful? See, they're glimmering in blue and red and yellow. Do you know what they're saying?
• How I wonder what you are •
They're saying goodbye. Goodbye, flashes and glimmers. Goodbye.
• Up above the world so high •
... Puncture him with thorns. No mercy. His blood will form a beautiful river, red like... I don't know, strawberry juice?
Hey Sableye, do you know what your blood resembles? Does it look more like cherry juice or strawberry juice? I thought it looked like red wine. Rich and dark red.
What? You don't know either?
Well, that's okay, maybe you can't even see it - that's because your eyeball's been gouged out anyway. Didn't you know that? Didn't you feel that? Thought you were smelling the roses, hey? What a shame you're now pushing up daisies, ha ha ha.
No mercy, no mercy.
Yes, I love doing this. This is the fine art of killing. Rule one is no mercy.
I'm going to kill him...
• Like a diamond in the sky •
... Except now they're going to kill me instead.
No mercy, Vertigo, no mercy.
I wonder what they're going to do. Strangle me? Are they going to cut my neck arteries? Are they going to burn me at the stake?
I'm like a witch with no mercy.
And they'll treat me like a witch with no mercy.
• Twinkle, twinkle little star •
What a shame, I wasn't supposed to die yet. I killed you, Sableye. I won't bend under your stupid Lord Dusknoir. If I need to, I'll gladly kill him also. He'll have the honor of being strangled by my vine whips when they're still covered with your blood.
Yes, your blood, you fool, the one that looks like red wine.
Another silvery laugh.
• How I wonder what you are •
No, I won't bend down. Being executed by the enemies? How low-class!
• Up above the world so high •
Hey, you know what? You don't have to execute me after all.
• Like a diamond in the sky •
I'm going to help you by doing it myself.
• Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are. •
...
Saber was on the verge of falling asleep when he was surprised by someone calling his name.
"...Saber."
He jolted up and saw that Vertigo was standing right behind her set of steel bars. (Saber and Vertigo were theoretically in the same room if it wasn't for the steel bars separating them.)
Saber stood up and went over to her. "Hey. You okay? I heard you shouting earlier, but I was so depressed myself that I didn't try to calm you down, sorry-"
Vertigo suddenly interrupted, "I've come to say goodbye."
His heart sank. She's giving up?
"Don't say that! We can't give up yet! We're so close to saving the world, we're only one step away. We can't just-!"
The Thorn Pokémon shook her head with a pitiful smile. "You don't understand, Saber. I didn't mean the execution. I've decided to end everything before then. I cannot bring myself to lower my standards and let my life be taken away from me by those morons. If anyone's going to kill me, it's going to be myself." Now her smile wasn't full of pity, it was full of victory.
Saber's mind practically went numb trying to figure out the meaning behind his teammate's words.
That was when he saw them.
Angry red scars and wounds were circling her wrists. Some were still bleeding.
She specifically sharpens her vine whips. For cutting arteries, she said.
Another silvery laugh.
Saber completely lost it.
"Vertigo, you... You fool!" he shouted, grabbing her hands through the gap between the iron bars. He quickly grabbed a bandage from his bag along with some Oran Berries to heal her self-inflicted wounds.
Vertigo was struggling to pull away. "Let me go!" she demanded. "I can do whatever I want with my life, and I say I've had enough! Sableye's right, we're going to die one way or another today!"
Saber had by now finished dabbing at her wounds with Oran Berry juice, and was starting to bandage her wrists. He said nothing, but his face was twisted into many expressions all at once. Anger. Disappointment. Many others Vertigo couldn't identify.
She was still struggling to squirm out of his grip, but it was like an iron vise. She saw him wrap the white bandage over the wounds again and again, neatly, blotting the beautiful red blood.
He was healing her.
And he was ruining everything.
"Let me go!" she shouted hysterically, her voice feral and unidentifiable. "Let me go and die in peace, Saber! Why won't you let me do this?! Get your hands off me!"
Vines suddenly whipped out of her roses, circling around his wrists. Saber gasped in surprise, and it quickly turned to pain when her exceptionally sharp thorns dug in, drawing blood. He let go of the bandage. He hadn't finished tying it yet, so now it was left trailing in the air.
In the dim light, Vertigo's eyes were murderous as they stared deep into his own.
"Stop what you're doing," she said slowly, "or I'm going to kill you."
...
Even after facing the threat that had just came from his own teammate, Saber only stared right back determinedly, although he was grimacing with pain. He was trying to reach for the untied end of the bandage again. He had to finish healing her.
"G-go ahead," he stammered painfully, trying to distract her from his endeavors to reach for the bandage. "You c-can kill me after I finish tying your bandage."
"I don't want to be healed!" Vertigo hissed, her expression insane. "Why should I stick around, anyway? Tell me, why should I try to stay alive? Who can I return home to, anyway? I don't have anyone, Saber. No one loves me."
Her vines had tightened around his wrists. The thorns cut even deeper in. Blood dripped to the ground.
Saber clenched his teeth, trying to withstand the piercing pain.
"You really are foolish, aren't you," he grunted. "No one loves you? Really, no one loves you? Is that what you think, Vertigo? What about the Pokémon who silently listened to your desperate shouts earlier? Who tried to heal you when you'd given up? Who patiently endured the pain that comes as a price of trying to help you and get close to you? What do you think about him? Did you think he didn't love you?"
Vertigo didn't reply; her face was still dark and menacing. It may have just been in Saber's imagination, but he thought the vines digging into his wrists sort of loosened a little.
Finally it slipped off altogether as Vertigo let out a huff. She turned away but thrust her arms out at Saber. At first he was rather confused as to what she wanted him to do this time, but then he understood that she was letting him heal her after all. He took the ends of the bandages again and began to continue wrapping them around her wounded wrists. Not once did he mind his own bleeding wrists - he was just glad Vertigo had apparently decided to give life another try.
"I hate you," she seethed, refusing to look at him. "I hate you because you always have the right thing to say to stop me from doing anything stupid."
Saber's face cracked a thin smile. "Yeah. Love you too, Vertigo."
...
After that, the Roselia offered to return the favor and bandage Saber's hands. It was messier than when the Nuzleaf had done it - but then again, she was better at inflicting wounds than healing them anyway.
"I would be lying to say that I'm sorry," she said as she tied the ends of the bandage into an awkward bow. "I'm not sorry. You know how much I pride my vine whips and my roses, and you know how much I delight seeing blood. Even yours. Even mine." She looked up and grinned after having finished the bandaging process.
Saber sighed. They were now sitting next to each other, separated by the steel bars.
"I know," he said quietly. "I know all of that. But sometimes..." He trailed off.
"Hmm? Sometimes what~?"
"Sometimes... I wonder why you became this way," Saber went on softly. "Sometimes I wonder what happened in your past that changed you. Sometimes... I wish I could change you back. Into someone you could..."
"Could what?" Vertigo didn't like what he was saying at all.
"You could... You know... Fall in love with." His voice was almost inaudible.
Vertigo burst out laughing. "Oh, no. Not this again. I thought you'd already learned that my heart only goes out to the beautiful art of killing."
"See!" Saber was beginning to get annoyed. "That's what I'm hoping to change. Why are you like this, Vertigo? This is the last day of your life, and you're still going on about 'the beautiful art of killing'? What about the Pokémon around you? Why won't you open up and learn to welcome others into your heart for a change?"
"Because I can't!" she snapped. "Your 'love' and mine are obviously two different things altogether. Come on, explain to me what your version of 'love' means. What can you do when you 'love' someone, eh? Aside from taking pleasure in seeing pain on their face and their blood on the ground?"
Saber clenched his fists. He had run out of words. Vertigo was just too twisted.
He simply stared at her wordlessly. He had always realized that she was rather pretty. She had long eyelashes and alert eyes. Too bad they delighted seeing red blood over anything else. And her mouth, always seeming to be twisted into a small sneer. Too bad it liked to sing dying Pokémon twisted lullabies as their lives flashed before their eyes. Her beautiful roses were purple and black. Too bad they were where she usually hides her thorny vines. And the vines themselves. Too bad she'd specifically sharpened it to be sharper than the thorns of a normal Roselia. For cutting neck arteries, she'd said.
And then another silvery laugh.
Loving Vertigo was like loving a machine gun with someone else at the barrel. Once she was on your side, she was a powerful ally. But if she wasn't, you might just end up dead.
But Saber still found himself falling spectacularly for the machine gun. Maybe he was mad. Maybe he was crazy. But whatever it was, this was his version of 'love'.
"Well?" The Roselia's voice sounded victorious. "What can you do when you 'love' someone?" she repeated. She looked smug.
Saber suddenly knew what to do.
"This," Saber said shortly, but instead of explaining more, he suddenly lurched forward and kissed her.
»̶✽«̶
At first, those beautiful alert eyes flew wide open, taken aback at what the Nuzleaf had just done. However, after a few seconds, Saber saw them close, as if Vertigo was actually enjoying it. His hand moved to her back, pulling her as close as she could get with the bars in the way.
They stayed like that for seemingly a long time.
And then they reluctantly broke off for air.
Vertigo's face was bright red, and she seemed to have found something really interesting on the ground to look at.
"Humph. If that was what your 'love' means, then I can probably... you know. Err. Although it's got nothing to do with murders and blood, I can probably... cope with it. It was... rather... Ahem, pleasant. If I do say so myself."
"Really?" Saber stared at her incredulously.
"Yeah, but don't get any weird ideas!" she snapped. "If you do that again I'll-"
Saber did it again.
»̶✽«
The Sableye that Vertigo had shouted at came back some time later.
"Wheh-heh-heh, your time's nearly up," he said maliciously. "Everything's ready now. It's nearly time for your executions."
He lingered for a moment as if to wait for Vertigo to shout at him again, but she didn't. In fact, Sableye had noticed some weird things since the last time he checked on them. At first, they were sitting dejectedly in a corner of each cell, far away from each other. Now they were close to the steel bars, right next to each other.
Even stranger still, their hands were intertwined.
He finally left with a puzzled look on his face thinking "Whatever happened to those two?"
...
Meanwhile, in their own cells, Saber and Vertigo listened to the Sableye's footsteps echo in the distance.
Saber sighed.
"I guess this is it," he said quietly.
"End of survival," Vertigo said nonchalantly. "Weird. I thought I'd be immortal. I thought getting yourself covered with others' blood makes you live forever, but apparently it doesn't. Oh well."
She glanced sideways at her teammate, who was looking into the distance. His hand lay limply in her own.
"Saber."
He glanced at her. His face looked tired and drained of hope. "...Huh?"
"I need you to know something," she said. She was smiling a small smile, but it wasn't the one she smiled whenever she was insanely psychotic.
"I'm glad to have known you in my meaningless blood-covered life," she said lightly. "I'm glad to have finally tasted a tiny bit of your version of 'love', although I'm sure there is loads more to it that I've yet to discover - and will never discover. But that's all right. From you, I learned that I'm loved. Dearly. ...I don't really understand why, because as far as I can see I'm as lovable as Dusknoir himself. But that's your problem, and I can't change it if you love me."
A silvery, musical laugh.
"Weird. I could have killed you right off the bat, the first day we met, and I could have done that so easily, but I didn't. There must be some reason why I didn't, right? Could it be that it was because I 'love' you too? What do you think?"
Saber had to laugh. "Well, I hope that's the case," he said, and he really did.
...
The Sableye came back not long after, and this time he came with a whole bunch of them. They had with them blindfolds and rope.
"I guess this is it, then," Saber repeated quietly. He turned to his friend. "I love you, Vertigo. Although you're Treasure Town's very own psychopath, I've always believed that you have a good heart inside."
She smiled up at him. "Aaand I guess I love you too." She grinned wider. "You're not bad at all, Saber. You're the guy outlaws would go all the way to kill. And that's a compliment," she added quickly. "I mean, you're that tough... and I guess you've got kindness to match that strength."
"All right, time's up."
The Sableye were opening their cell doors and were pouring in. They completely blocked the entrance. There was no escaping death.
Vertigo gave his hand a final squeeze, and then it finally slipped from his grasp altogether. Saber didn't want to let go, he still wanted to hold her, keep her safe, but he may as well have been paralyzed with despair. He found himself rooted to the spot.
He could only see three Sableye moving towards him with a blindfold and some rope. He could only see Vertigo stand up bravely, smiling gamely all the way.
Even his ears felt numb so that all sounds seemed to be distorted, as if he was hearing through water. But he heard Vertigo's voice, elegant and victorious.
I am ready for my execution, she said.
-end-
Author's Note: And that's the end of the story (and, supposedly, of Saber and Vertigo as well). What do you think of my first shot at an M-rated fic? Reviews mean a lot!
...OK, I'll give you a hint. Saber and Vertigo aren't to die at the hands of Dusknoir and his Sableye. They lived to tell the tale. (They needed to, otherwise I wouldn't write the long fic if they died at this point.) In fact, they not only survived, but they also went back to their time knowing that Grovyle was on their side and they even gained a new permanent addition to their team.
Who is their new teammate? You can find out in Saber's and Vertigo's next oneshot, Our Dear Psychopath.