Final Ward Gallows, End Of… Ridge

Sepullen, the bisharp Rook, and I sit at the edge of a scaffold, looking out at the rest of the town from atop a hill. The claydol watches intently for our target, while I take bitter notice of a noose tangling in the wind behind us. Though I'm a ghost, it reminds me of my odd mortality. Rumor has it that a ghost is only chained to this world by a strong emotion or memory of another pokemon.

Thinking that, it makes me ponder. With their sanity intact, who could ever remember good things of me? Surely not Sepullen, or Rook for that matter. Someone else, someone mad. Whoever it is, I will find them. If they see something in me that others don't, then they be worth pursuing. Though, I will not give up on Sepullen. Not yet.

"Venomitus, attention!"

Swiveling my head around, I'm barely surprised to see the claydol staring me in the face a little too closely. Even when he wasn't the monster he is today, I've always known him as distinctly domineering. I've never agreed with that aspect of his personality, but I suppose that's the reason he's always been our team leader.

"Before we begin our search, there's something you must remember. This town is governed by Vanish the witch. She's cast a veil over the town so that anyone who speaks her name will summon her."

In a formal like manner, Rook straightens his posture and asks, "Permission to speak, Relic Master."

"Granted."

"Why would she cast such a spell?"

Sepullen backs away from me and eyes a massive four-story mansion that lies where the land meets the water. Curiously, from it's chimney spouts fog rather than smoke. The same kind of light fog, in fact, that covers the rest of the town.

"The veil…" I say under my breath.

"Correct," the claydol confirms. "That mansion down there is the dwelling place of Team Fade, the outlaws. The veil was cast so that they can protect their identity. Now, everyone is afraid to say their names for fear of punishment."

I exhale through a faint smile at Sepullen's oversight. He turns sharply back to me and 'demands to know what's so humorous'. So I tell him.

"If you haven't noticed, we're under the veil and you've already said her name."

He stares blankly at me for a moment, then at Rook.

"What are you saying, that after all these years my final moments will be spent pondering a fault of misspoken words? I know we have our disagreements, but do you really think that little of me?" he mocks.

I sit quietly, thinking of a response. It's this action that make me realize the wind has stopped blowing, and the temperature has risen significantly. In the time it takes me to realize this, I'm unexpectedly swept into the air by an unseen force and levitated just in front of the noose. Just behind it, I'm met with a pair of charcoal eyes.

With a grin, I say, "Hello, my name is Venomitus. What's your name?"

"It's hardly the time for games, Keeper," the mismagius says. "Now tell me what you're here for, or I'll hang you on this rope."

For a moment, I wait for Sepullen to respond to her, before realizing he's likely waiting for her to hang me before he does so. Though he'll likely take enjoyment from it, I know that they know that I can't suffocate. Sadists. It's at this moment that I realize how foolish all who seek immortality really are. Because I can't be killed, but I'm not very powerful; I'm nothing more than a walking pincushion waiting to be prodded by every degenerate passerby.

It just so happens that the only degenerate in the immediate vicinity is the relic master, as Vanish doesn't seem to be interested in hanging me just yet. Likely to Sepullen's disappointment, she remains intent on getting an answer rather the putting on a show. In fact, after a long period of silence, she drops me on the ground without a word.

"Did the great Arceus herself create you loves without ears? Respond!"

Of course, I respond with; "Actually, Sepullen was created using a ritual the brings inanimate objects to life, and yes, being a claydol means that-"

"I'll have none of your jabbering. The only talking you'll be doing is answering my question, both of you."

"Are you… commanding me Witch?" Sepullen asks. "I would tread lightly with those words."

"Please, I'm a ghost the revels in harm to others and myself. Otherwise, the veil gives me absolute power here, and is generated using a coat of nevermeltice that can only be destroyed by my own sacred fire. So no, I will not 'tread lightly' on my own sacred ground, love. My word is absolute, and so long as you're bloody here, abide by it."

Even with all her brag, I notice a nearly insignificant quake from her as she says the last part. Could it be that… someone is here in town that doesn't abide by her rules. After studying the works and mentality of Team Fade, it's difficult to think that any of them would be fearful of anything. I'm sure that by that assumption, Sepullen has already made note of a possible enemy.

After a brief silence, Sepullen says, "Fine, Venomitus here has detected the energy of a relic. I summoned you on purpose to get personal permission to search the town, then be out within seventeen hours."

"Relic, you say? By chance, who does it belong to?"

"Rook's intel suggests it belongs to one... Captain Dumpster."

Fractal Bay

"I've seen a lot of things in my time, but this…", I say while watching Dumpster and a drapion carry Sinista below deck. Lorem appears beside me, but even though he's making the same expression he always does, he doesn't seem to be in an antagonistic mood. He just folds his hands and adjusts his posture.

"Looks painful," he starts. "She had it coming, you know. If she had just-"

"Don't, Lorem. No one deserves that… torture."

Sometimes, I almost believe that Lorem isn't part of my imagination. Even with how he is right now, it never occured to me even once to try to rationalize Sinista's pain. The only one at fault here is Witch. If I ever see that mismagius again, I'll… probably do nothing. Next to me, Lorem laughs under his breath.

"On the contrary, Branna, I believe everyone deserves to feel pain on some level. However, I do believe those who torture deserve- Oh… I shouldn't tell you. You aren't ready to hear that, so I guess I should say they deserve something 'really bad'."

Really bad, huh? I really can't tell if he's trying to intimidate me or what, but whatever it is, it's working. Intimidated by a thought, that's a first. It's only when I look over at the ship's cracked steering wheel that I remember; no one's driving the ship, and we're still stuck on an undersea sandbar.

"So, if the captain's takin' care of Sinista below deck, who's gonna get us ashore?" I ask.

Lorem doesn't seem to acknowledge what I ask. Instead, he turns vigilantly toward the town. His eyes seem to track the movement of an approaching object, but looking myself, I have a hard time seeing anything specific through the fog.

"A ghost," he says. "It's not witch again, but… something about this one is familiar. Wait, I know this one! Isn't this the perfect reunion."

He turns to look at me and I can tell that he would likely smile wider if he could. Who could he be talking about? Then again, why ask? It's not like he's going to give me a straight answer. So instead, I turn to him and ask, "Enemy?"

He shakes his head vigorously, "Not to you, not to you. Oh, this is going to be so much fun." Shortly after, he disappears and I shout, "Hey wait, where you- He's gone. Great."

I guess I wait, then. Looking around, I realize no one's on deck. I figure the crew's probably below deck fixing the haul. It's strange, with all the commotion that's happened just within the last hour, it's eerily silent. No winds blow, no waves crash at the bottom of the ship. It's almost as if the day stopped altogether. Though, there is one thing; It's gotten exponentially colder.

Likely because the wind isn't blowing, I'm able to feel an otherwise unnoticeable gust. I blink rapidly when a small particle floats into my eye. As it waters I think, was that a snowflake? It's July if I remember correctly, so why is it snowing?

"So, let me tell you a story while you're out here alone," someone says from somewhere to my right. I look over to find a froslass hovering only a few feet away from the edge of the ship. She looks at me narrowly with her arms crossed. Even despite her demeanor, she doesn't seem hostile.

Like Lorem said, there's definitely something familiar about her. I've met her before, but… where? I suddenly regain a memory. It's of me as a snivy, but I'm with a snorunt and a torchic. I remember that we were… friends? No, we were like family, living on Mt. Blaze. I'm pretty sure that we formed a rescue team together on the air continent. Lyle was the torchic's name, and the snorunt's name was Frost, no…

"You're… Ku-"

"Be careful, Branna. Saying the mismagius' name under the veil just summons her," she warns. "But I don't care for that tripe, so saying my name, especially my true name will freeze you, then disintegrate you slowly in the most painful way possible over the course of the next ten years."

Her voice is monotone and cold, not to be on the nose. To think, after all this time she would become so cruel. I look at her directly when I notice a mass of red form under one of her glassy green eyes. It drips down her face like a tear. The only thing that the froslass bothers to do is catch it on her hand as it falls off her face.

"Would you look at that," she says with almost a somber happiness. "Seeing me now… it's already tarnished your memory of me and yet… I still won't disappear. Which reminds me why I'm here."

She lets down her arms and drifts through the air closer to me, but not too close. I notice her struggling to keep her eyes on me, and it gets worse the closer she comes. She even starts to shiver, not likely from her own cold.

"I came to... sink this ship. Let me explain, I've lived every day for the past twenty years waiting for the day I would be forgotten. I heard some time ago that your friend, Mr. Money, killed Lyle after he went mad. On that day, I thought I would die with him. Tee-hee, how stupid of me. It seems that even after all this time, you still remember me."

It's at this point that she looks away from me entirely and strikes the Antikytherum, breaking it the rest of the way.

"But damn! They just had to be good memories too. When we die, why do we get a second chance?" She lifts her hand from where the steering wheel used to be. I stare at her for a moment. Should I say something? I haven't seen her for twenty-some years, I shouldn't just say nothing. Wait, she's… laughing?

"You know what's funny?" she asks. "When I heard you were here, I was furiously happy. I had a plan too. Dumpster happened to tick me off today, and I heard you were on board. I thought, why not kill two birds with one stone, or two pokemon by sentencing them to the bottom of the ocean. You would die, and then no one would remember anything good about me. The thing is, I can't do it."

Oh, that's no fun, Lorem whispers in my mind. Though a slightly different person than I remember, if she's the same as I knew her, she never did anything without a reason. What will she do now?

"What do you think- No, what do you remember now, Branna? Is this broken shell of the friend you once had worth remembering?" she says in a voice that barely resembles a taunt.

I do remember when we were younger, Frost would tell me her fantasies about where she thought we'd end up in the future. Most of the time, she would talk about having a big base, likely a mansion. Even though she would talk about extravagant things, she never once got ahead of herself. She knew how hard it would be to get there, and she never imagined any version of her future without me or Lyle.

Though, Lyle's dead now, she's on a team with one of the most evil people I've ever met, and I'm in a foreign land looking for my surrogate child. I bet Frost never had any of this in mind when she would talk about being better than 'every rescue or exploration team on the face of the planet'. Even still…

"Fr-," I start, before remembering that awful ice-degeneration thing she mentioned a second ago. "Listen, this… you aren't what I imagined. Even still, I don't want… I don't want to forget you."

Frost averts her eyes at the ground.

"I see," she says. "Then… do us both a favour and sink the ship for me."
I protest, "But the crew-"

"Forget them!" She shouts. "How can you let me go on like this!"

Though she appears angry, I hear the clear desperation in her voice. Does she really want to die that much? Is it really a bad thing; returning from death? I can name a few people right off my head that deserve a second chance. Lyle for one, but unlike my memories of Frost, his aren't good ones. He's dead and yet, I bet he and Frost would trade places if given the chance.

"Fine then, screw 'em," I say. "I'll sink the ship, and it's crew. That'll drown me, and then when I'm gone, no one will remember you. If it's really worth it to you, what choice do I have?"

At first, she doesn't respond. Lorem laughs from somewhere distant.

Finally she says, "This is… below you, Branna. I know you're trying to make me feel guilty, but you know what? Even you should have known that I feel guilty enough. Do you realize that Lyle isn't even a ghost. Do you know what that means!"

She laughs bitterly, "Now there's a story. For the twenty-five years he was alive, neither of us remember anything good of Lyle. Sure, we can appreciate some qualities he had, or respect some of the things he did, but none of it was genuinely good. Rest in peace, dear friend, traitor. Sorry for driving you over the edge, but I'm going to have to do that again to our last living comrade. Then the world can bid farewell to the sorry Team Elemental."

By now, I notice she isn't talking to me anymore, but I also notice that for a moment, she seems happy at what she's saying. It's only then that I realize; if Lyle were here and not the way he was at the end of his life, he could convince Frost give her second life a chance. He wasn't the happiest person, but at least he was persuasive.

"We'll see, Frost, if you can push me over the edge, but until I find Cryptia, it won't be that easy. Till then, remember me as the friend you once had, or the one you still can. Take care of yourself."

Without another word, I turn toward the door to the med bay and enter it, taking a quick glance back at her. She isn't there, 'gone with the wind' you might say.