AN: I do not own anything pertaining to Jean-Paul Sartre.


-May-

"They started off as a pharmaceutical company," Ash said, as we walked along one of the many streets of Eden. "Everyone thought that the vitamins they made – the iron, the calcium, the HP ups and all that – were better than any other's in developing a pokemon's attributes. No one knew that the Arbiter Corporation was already starting the fusion invasion on the surface years before Enfer City was opened, by selling these vitamins that contained microscopic amounts of the Chimera Virus across the regions. With prolonged exposure, pokemon started getting sick, and shortly after Kruismara rose off the shores of Lilycove, the Virus in their bloodstreams changed them into fusions. We caught on to what Arbiter Corp was really trying to do, of course, but it was too late then."

Ash and I had been talking for a while, having left the HQ so Drew could converse with Deryn regarding attack strategies on At Hell's End. Hours must have gone by as I told Ash about what had happened to me, while he explained how the fusion war had interrupted his career as a pokemon master and forced him to practically exchange his dreams for guns. Then, we started in on the war itself, where I took the time to ask some questions about Arbiter Corp I never had a chance to ask Drew or the others.

I looked down. The cobblestones beneath our feet glowed with the light of the streetlamps around us, matching with the Victorian design of the houses and closed shops. I felt like I had traveled through time and into the past, where everything was simple, but all I needed to do to remind myself of reality was to look at Ash. He had matured so much since the last time I saw him. He looked tired. Back in the day, he missed sleep when he was excited, when he had pokemon battles to be won the next morning and achievements to be obtained. Now, he missed sleep because he was scared, because at any second fusions could attack. He looked like a soldier who had seen too much blood and death, not the adventurous pokemon trainer I had once traveled with. I didn't like it.

"I preferred natural training," he said, petting Pikachu, who sat on top of his shoulder, "so I never gave my pokemon any of the vitamins advertised by Arbiter Corp. I still lost a lot of my older pokemon that were in Professor Oak's care during the fusion invasion of Kanto, though." His eyes darkened. "I wasn't there, like I should have been. My mom is safe, but I couldn't save Professor Oak. That's why my old rival, Gary – he's a pokemon researcher, remember? – is obsessed with finding a cure with the other scientists. I can't talk to him anymore. He's practically a machine now." He looked away. "Brock had to leave the Resistance after his wife, Lucy, was killed by the fusions. I can't even recognize Misty sometimes-"

"I'm sorry," I said. I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"This war seems to have changed everyone for the worse."

I swallowed at that, reminded of my own fate. I was suddenly conscious of what Ash really thought of it. "Verdana didn't tell me about the Arbiter Corporation. She made it sound like the invasion would start with Kruismara."

"She lied, which doesn't surprise me. She probably didn't want to take the chance that you would find some way to contact the surface and warn everyone about Arbiter Corp's true intentions. She wanted the upper hand on us, not the other way around." He sighed. "There's also a reopened case going around that a lone fusion had gotten out of Enfer and started biting things before Verdana even had a say in it."

"What? When?"

"It was before the Attack on Enfer City. A fusion had jumped out from the Lilycove train station that led to Enfer, escaped into the forests, and attacked wild pokemon before it was shot and killed by a farmer whose livestock it tried to eat."

I stopped. Memories flashed through my head. Something that had, one second, pushed me out of the way, a bluish blur, part golbat, part luxray, then in another second dashed toward me with the intent to kill. It would have slaughtered me, if it hadn't been for Drew, who fended it off with his roserade and convinced it to fly into the forests outside of Lilycove. It was something that I had never seen before. The very first fusion I had come into contact with, before the Attack on Enfer City, and we had all let it escape.

"May? May, are you alright?"

I shook the thought from my head – and the guilt that had begun to form in my chest. "I'm fine."

"It just disgusts me. I wanted to be a pokemon master, but then pokemon started disappearing and fusions started taking their place. And with this Hivemind stuff, it's like the heads of Arbiter Corp are trying to pull off some sick, twisted version of being pokemon masters. That's why I'm part of the Resistance. I can't sit here and allow them to do this." He pulled out the handgun holstered at his thigh. "I also can't believe I'm holding this – and that I know how to use it. Sometimes, I hesitate when it comes to killing a fusion, because all I can think about is who they used to be. I have to tell myself that they're not who they once were. Not anymore." He put the gun away. "This war has changed me for the worse, too."

We eventually came across a small pond, a stone bridge crossing it. We walked onto the bridge and stared into the water, as it reflected the lights of the vertical city above us, artificial starlight over a city completely encased within a canyon. I gazed into my own red-colored eyes, and I saw the very thing Ash and everyone else fighting the fusions had grown to hate. A sick, twisted version of a pokemon master. A monster.

"This war has changed a lot of people," I said, wondering if the other soldiers in the Regions' Fleets truly respected me for staying on their side, or if they simply didn't say anything in fear that I would turn against them. Avarice's words filled my head. Was I monster just because I was part fusion? Did they all see me as the very thing they feared?

Ash looked my way. I couldn't tell if he looked at me, or what I'd become. "That's why I keep things to remind myself of the older days, the memories worth fighting for." He opened an ammunition pack on his other thigh and revealed that it was filled with various items and knickknacks, not bullets. He smiled and pulled out something that made my heart jump.

A sun-like medallion shined on top of a pink and white ribbon. The medallion looked like it had been cut in half.

The Terracotta Medal.

I felt my eyes grow wet. It was the medal Ash and I had split and shared after we won it from the Terracotta Town pokemon contest, before I departed for Johto and he left to continue his own adventure in Sinnoh all those years ago. I had given my half to my parents for safekeeping and they had probably lost it during the fusion invasion. But Ash had kept his, after all these years.

"Ash, I-"

"If you think being a hybrid makes me forget everything we've done together," he said, "then think again. These fusions can kill me, but…" He grabbed my hand and placed the medallion in my palm, closing my fingers over it. "But they can never make me forget. That's something this war can't change, May."

We embraced. I lifted my fingers and gazed at the memento in my palm, before I gripped it tightly again and buried my face into Ash's shoulder, fighting back tears.

"Pika," his pikachu chirped from his other shoulder, as if to remind us where we were, and we pulled apart.

"It's funny," Ash said. "Everyone thought that city simply had its name for being built in the dark, isolated abyss of the ocean."

I arched a brow. "What?"

"Enfer. L'enfer, c'est les autres," he then said in French. After placing a comforting hand on my shoulder, as if he knew about the doubts raging inside of me, he roughly translated the phrase to: "'Hell is other people.'"


Ash and I separated minutes later to return to our hotel rooms. It was late. We needed our sleep, though I doubt I would be getting much sleep tonight. I took the long way, passing more dormant Victorian-style houses and streets, some covered in advertisements for fusion-killing weapons, all bathed in the yellow and orange glow of the streetlamps. Steam hissed from a nearby pipe, but I still admired the overall silent atmosphere, using the isolation to tap into the Hivemind and hear my fusions' voices loud and clear. They were spread out across the outskirts of the city, with the Leviathan ensuring they didn't get too close to the citizens. Another roar, a closer roar, confirmed the presence of the single colossus fusion in my army, who hid outside, somewhere near the closed canyon.

I felt for the halved Terracotta Medal in my pocket. Ash had given it to me, and reminding myself that it was there soothed my anxiousness.

Many of my fusions growled. They were frustrated, confused, hungry, but simple pokemon food provided by the soldiers would have to satiate their appetite. After all, I wasn't in a position to allow them to fulfill their carnivorous diet.

"Oi, May."

I stopped and turned. Deryn approached me.

"About bloody time I found you," she said. "I tried calling your hotel room, but you weren't there."

"I was talking to Ash." I met her eyes. She looked as tired as everybody else, despite how she tried to hide it, as if someone like her wasn't allowed to be tired. "Are you done talking with Drew?"

"Aye. He's heading back to your hotel room now. But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. By chance, do you have that operator with you? The one that was with you earlier?"

"Operator?" I paused. "You mean Avarice?"

"Oh, is that his name, now? Lovely. Do you have him?"

"Well…yeah." I tapped into the Hivemind. Whispering "Avarice" under my breath was enough for him to appear by my side minutes later.

Deryn hesitated at the sight of him. I couldn't blame her. An operator was responsible for her mother's death. Also just as expected, the pokeball in her pocket burst open, a red light shot out, and her haxorus materialized beside her, growling at Avarice.

She eyed her pokemon. "Haxy! Calm your diddies. This one's on our side." She looked at Avarice. "Nice to meet you, slender-beastie."

Avarice tilted his head slightly at the nickname, but didn't say anything.

Deryn looked back at me. "I noticed your operator there when he was staring at me at HQ-"

"Staring?" I arched a brow at Avarice, but, again, he didn't say anything.

"-and it got me thinking. If he is on our side, then I have something for him."

I blinked. "Uh…"

"Come on. Follow me." Deryn glared at her haxorus. "And Haxy! Get in your pokeball, you numpty."

Haxorus growled his disapproval, but he followed her orders.

I shrugged at Avarice, and we both followed Deryn.


Deryn led us back to the HQ, where she took us down an elevator and into an elegant room I realized was her staying quarters. The bed looked disheveled from nights of tossing and turning, and clothes were strewn across the carpeted floor. A single lamp spread a weak, orange glow. Deryn stopped in front of a large glass viewing case and hit the switch next to it, turning on the lights inside.

Perfectly displayed was a black business suit, with a white undershirt, a black vest and matching tie. The suit's flaps were extended to reach past the wearer's knees, reminding me of Victorian era duster coats. Various buckles here and there provided a gothic/steampunk touch.

"Think it'll fit him?" Deryn asked me.

I looked at Avarice, who walked closer to the case, seemingly intrigued. "This is for Avarice?"

"Aye. Interesting little tale about this suit, too." She pointed at it. "Operator suits, they're called. They were made for operators to help them blend in with human society. When the incognito thing didn't do so well, the suits were altered to enhance their capabilities instead. You see, lass, a main component of operators is ditto. Along with many psychic, dark, and ghost type pokemon that make them your worst nightmare, the ditto component allows operators to stretch their body and change shape without tearing the stitching that makes them so bloody creepy. Ditto are also used in the creation of these suits, so the suit literally works with whatever the operator is doing. Want to strangle someone with a tentacle? This suit can do that ten times better, and make that tentacle a pretty black color, too."

My eyes flashed with recognition. "Alistair was wearing one of these."

"Aye. These suits can be used by operators and hybrids. Since these suits also have the unique ability of healing the wearer, the heads of Arbiter Corp probably find them useful to have."

I remembered the fight with Alistair, how he had used tentacles to keep Drew at bay while he tried to kill me. But, I also remembered Harley, who, as Fenrir, struck Alistair with a pin missile attack, ultimately killing him.

"Alistair's suit didn't heal him, though," I said.

"The suit is only as powerful as the guy who wears it. Alistair probably didn't have the ability to heal himself, whereas those who are more powerful, hybrid-wise, can utilize more capabilities. Meanwhile, operators are already instinctively trained to know how to use these suits to their full potential."

"How'd you get this?"

"I've had it for a while. Remember when I told you about my mum? How an operator killed her? Well, truth be told, I looked for that sodding bastard. He was a pain in the arse to kill. Why? He was wearing this barking suit, and it kept healing him. But, I got him eventually, and I took the suit as…well, I guess I'll admit that I took the suit as a trophy of my revenge, a reminder of why I'm still in this barking war. The thing is, though…" Deryn looked at Avarice, who still gazed at the suit with nonexistent eyes. "I was thinking when your operator was looking at me, how much of a bite in the arse it would be for Arbiter Corp to not only have their own fusions fighting against them, but to have those fusions wear one of their very own choices of fashion while doing so. It's bound to give me a few laughs at the end of the day. Besides, these suits are powerful, and all it's doing in this case is gathering dust. If he promises to stay on our side, then I'll give it to him to use."

"I…" My eyes switched to Avarice. It was obvious that the sight of a business suit reminded him of the few memories he had of when he was Gabriel, of a job he obsessed over and what I could only assume lost his marriage to. It reminded him of his greed. "It's Avarice's choice."

Deryn arched a brow. "Really now? Alright, then." She turned to Avarice. "Your decision. Take it or leave it. I'm done carrying the sodding thing around."

With that, we left. I closed the door behind me and caught one last glimpse of Avarice placing his hand on the glass case, as if his very past stood before him.


My thoughts about Avarice diminished seconds later, because I felt it as soon as Deryn and I entered the elevator.

Something was coming. Something big. Its voice howled through the Hivemind, deafening me – a proclamation that it was going to kill everything it saw. I grabbed onto the wall to balance myself.

"Barking spinarak, May," Deryn said, grabbing my sides to hold me steady. "You alright?"

"Something…" I managed to say. "Something's here."

"What?" Then, Deryn put her fingers to the communication device in her ear. "Are you serious?" she said to the other person on the line. "How big is it? It's a what? Sodding Arbiter Corp! Have you contacted both the Hoenn and Kanto Resistances? Barking brilliant. Evacuate all the people in the northern districts, now!"

"What's going on?" I asked.

"You were right on the mark. It's a goliath." She looked at me, dead serious. "And it found us."


When the elevator reached the top floor, the ground shook with enough force to make me stumble. Deryn and I managed to get out of the building and reach the main street, where humans and pokemon ran away from the northern districts of Eden, screaming, escorted by soldiers and armored pokemon just as frantic. It reminded me of the streets of Enfer, when Kruismara first attacked.

Drew met with us shortly after, breathless. "I heard it's a goliath."

"Aye," Deryn said, having to yell over the panicking citizens. "I doubt it'll be alone. Prepare for a tough fight."

The cavern wall to the far north exploded. Chunks of buildings that had been built vertically along the wall fell to the ground, as if the sky was falling. Everything shook again. I cringed from the loud sound, my ears ringing, the fusion's voice invading my head, monstrous and hungry for blood. From the large hole in the cavern wall, two rockets shot out, struck a building on the opposite side, and blew it up in a fiery burst. A roar filled the air, and the goliath stepped out from the hole, as tall as a colossus.

Its main body consisted of a chesnaught. However, half of its appearance was robotic, including the large, metallic spikes that protruded from its shell, shooting electricity between one another like coils. Pipes and wires that connected various parts of its body – mainly between its actual flesh and robotic plates – filtered blood and the Chimera Virus, one of which had been ripped violently away from its face, hanging down and leaking purple and red fluids. Its right arm was encased in armor – or perhaps it was completely robotic to begin with – with three long blades serving as claws and built in rocket launchers replacing the two spikes that were normally on the back of a chesnaught's hand. Three blastoise-like cannons, screws bolting them to the goliath's flesh, extended from its back – two from its shoulders and one over its head – and were covered in hundreds of widened, vein-filled eyes with small, dot-like pupils, some permanently transfixed in a state of shock, others narrowed, as if weak or dead. They were the eyes of hundreds of magnemite, magneton, and magnezone, all of which had been melted down to construct the weapons of this half-mechanical monstrosity. Its cybernetic spine, from which dozens of wires originated from, protruded gruesomely from the flesh at the base of its neck, the rest hidden away by its shell.

With another roar, the goliath charged its cannons and fired three hyper beams at once at the buildings around it. Dust and debris rose into the air from the destruction. I couldn't tell if it had killed anyone. There were still more people and pokemon escaping from those districts. Various Arbiter fusions that had followed the goliath inside rushed toward the survivors and the rest of us like a wave, claws outstretched.

Soledad appeared by my side, armed. Behind her, Dawn, Ash, and the rest of the members of the Hoenn and Kanto Resistances stood ready. "Did the goliath find you through the Hivemind?" she asked through the chaos.

"No," I said, calm. I entered the Hivemind and called forth my fusions. Red encased my vision, as I took command of a certain fusion in my army. "But it's going to wish it had never come."

And, just as I controlled it, my colossus burst through the rocky wall on the other side of the cavern, roared, and it rushed toward the goliath.