The slumbering beast still slumped before them, barely moving. The only sign it was a alive was the ever so slight movement of its flickering eyelids.

Lurantis felt as if her legs had frozen to the ground below them. She barely dared to take in a breath for fear of awakening the monster.

Marrow slowly waved her flame back and forth in front of its face, muscles rigid and ready to bolt at the first sign of movement.

After a few more seconds of shocked silence, she breathed, "...Yeah. Asleep. Not dead, though."

Even Avanelle had moved from her hunched over position to stare at the creature.

"So… What do we do?" Drampa asked in a husky voice. "If we stay here, it'll probably eat us. I mean, that whole thing's abdomen just seems to be a gaping mouth, and it's taller than me even if I climbed on Bewear's shoulders. But if we try and run, Xeron…" He looked down at the name.

Soft murmurings of agreement moved around the cavern, hushed more by the growling of the gathering storm.

"Well," Symphony piped up. "I could always poison it, just to be safe. A-and to weaken it. But it might wake up…" He tapped his tentacles together anxiously.

Lurantis's head hurt from thinking about their dilemma. "We could try and reason with him. Xeron, that is. I mean he's not totally insane, is he?"

"Not insane?!" Barked Marrow. "He tossed a still breathing, living being off a cliff to DROWN!"

Lurantis flinched back at the truthfulness in her words. She shook her head again. "I-I'm sorry. I don't know. I just-"

"Ah, I see you've found my agent," A voice hissed from behind them.

The group whipped around in horror to see Xeron towering over them.

"No matter. It's not like he was a secret, I just didn't have anywhere else to put him." The bored tone had return to his voice.

Marrow glared in his direction and lashed her tail, but said nothing.

"Anyways," he yawned. "I was given orders to keep your mouths shut in a more efficient way. Apparently they think I can't keep prisoners. We have no use for Alola, as you call it now, for it will not be that way for much longer, which means we also don't have any use for the information you hold." His invisible gaze raked over each of them.

Fury bubbled inside of Lurantis. He treated them like they were toys or games, something he'd grown bored of and didn't want any more.

Before she could stop herself, she growled, "Yeah, you can't keep prisoners because you don't know how. You threw away the only worthwhile one."

Xeron's lights flashed dangerously.

"I'll think I'll start shutting your mouths starting with you."

Lurantis stared at her feet as she walked and tried to keep the shakiness out of her breathing.

Xeron prowled right behind her, keeping her from trying to escape.

The others watched from the edge of the cavern in horror, unable to run with the threat of Xeron's agent still fresh in their minds.

The sky was a dreary gray, storm clouds forming over the horizon and thunder rumbling in the distance. The winds nearly forced her to squint. How fitting. Dreary and terrible.

They kept walking until Xeron stepped over her and stopped in front of her. That haunting red glow still stuck out against the darkness of the approaching storm.

"You've got quite the temper, haven't you?" He growled to her.

Mustering her courage, she straightened and glared back at him. "I guess I do."

He paused, his tail lashing in anger.

"You do," he muttered under his breath. He paced around her, tail still moving lavishly from side to side.

He finally stopped in front of her, reaching down one claw and placing it under her chin. "It's a real shame, you know. You're a pretty one."

Lurantis flinched away from his touch, disgusted.

"Stay away from me!" she spat. He shrugged.

"If you insist." Xeron turned and walked out to the edge of the cliff, gazing at the roiling sea.

"Xuri," he started.

The name alone made Lurantis tear up a bit. She shook herself and narrowed her eyes in his direction, but his next words caught her horribly off guard. "He never loved you. Not like you love him."

The words struck her in the chest; painfully true.

"Well," she struggled for words. "He didn't love you either, that's for sure!"

She could feel Xeron rolling his eyes without actually seeing it.

"Boo-hoo. Is that supposed to hurt? I couldn't care less. Love makes you weak, as you can see." He used his tail to gesture to her.

Lurantis was too enraged to care what he was saying any more.

The rain began to fall, howling through the clearing with nothing to buffer it.

"You know what? He did- he did… love me," Lurantis looked up. "Maybe not how I wanted him to. But he really did. He loved me like a best friend, and that's just as good."

She met Xeron's gaze with a sad smile.

"We can't win 'em all, can we? But I got pretty darn close." Silence greeted her statement.

Xeron slowly walked back around, so that they were no longer facing the cliff. After a few moments, his harsh voice rang out again.

"Wow. Very moving. Puts a whole new spin on the phrase famous last words."

And before she could even cry out, he was already moving towards her with his claws bared, electricity sparking from their tips.

"N-No! Please!" Lurantis wailed, stumbling backwards until her feet were linear with the very edge of the cliff.

The winds whipped at gale force now.

Xeron moved towards her at a leisurely pace, as if this were nothing but a nice stroll, taking his time.

Unlike with Xuri and Skylar.

With nowhere left to go, she sank to her knees, pleading.

Lightning forked like a monster's tongue, illuminating Xeron's terrifying silhouette.

He snorted. "I've given you more than enough chances. You didn't even have to come here in the first place. You could've ran when I killed Xuri. You could've-"

"SHUT UP!" screamed Lurantis. "If you're going to do it, why do you do it already? Why do you insist on torturing me?!"

Xeron snickered. "Well, I've got nothing to do but bide my time until the takeover begins, so thought I thought I'd entertain myself."

His last words came out as a malicious hiss and Lurantis realized how truly dangerous he was.

She shook her head and mumbled under her breath as the lightning-laced claws resumed their approach, but there was no more she could do. She was about to leap up and face him when lighting lit up the sky behind them, silhouetting a figure standing across the clearing.

Xeron followed her wide-eyed gaze and whipped around, not wanting to be ambushed again, but seemed almost confused at what was standing there.

"Who are you?" he snarled, his voice pushing its way through the roaring winds. "Another agent sent to me? If so, come forward." The figure stepped forward.

Even in the darkness Lurantis could tell this wasn't any agent of Xeron's 'agents,' nor was it one of her brave, stupid friends, risking their lives for another they'd met only days before.

"XURI!"

Xuri stood facing Xeron, where he had appeared to be tormenting Lurantis. He heard her cry out before Xeron could even register what was happening.

"WHAT?!" he roared. "B-But I KILLED you! You're DEAD! Why are you here?!"

Xuri didn't waste his energy responding. He had to come up with a way to stop Xeron. But how? This second chance was a blessing he couldn't waste.

He had to do it for everyone- Tapu Fini, his friends, and all the other inhabitants of the islands.

He shook himself and tried to think back to what the deity had shown him.

When he'd woken up, he couldn't even remember who he was. After asking a million questions about what was going on, the striking Tapu had helped him to his feet and shown him a vision in some kind of magic pond.

It had depicted some Pokemon (a word he somehow knew) fighting a creature that looked shockingly identical to him, and after a few moments, it had all flooded back to him.

Xeron.

His friends.

Dying.

Tapu Fini had explained it to him all, and showed him again in the puddle what had happened while he'd been 'in between worlds' and what was happening currently.

She'd told him he was their last chance to save this world, and she had given him her blessing in the form of new life, and that he mustn't waste it.

He'd promised he wouldn't to her, and had been escorted back to the hill by some of her water Pokemon.

As he'd been leaving, she'd been holding her head as if she had a headache, but reassured him she was merely "in trouble with the other Tapus for squandering her power." He hoped she wasn't in too much trouble.

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! Tapu Koko's furious voice flooded her thoughts, making it hard for her to think at all.

You don't understand. The islands, the people and Pokemon- everything will be lost without him, Tapu Fini thought back.

BULL! Koko roared inside her head. IT DOESN'T MATTER! WE WERE GIVEN THESE POWERS AS A BLESSING, AND IF YOU USE THEM SO IDIOTICALLY, WE WON'T HAVE THEM AT ALL! Life and death are SEPARATED for a REASON!

Fini sighed, picking her words carefully as she thought back, Don't worry. The sky gods will be bowing at our feet when this is over.

A few moments of silence, and then, you'd better hope so. We're going to have to hold a meeting on your punishment.

Then he was gone, their thought link severed. She leaned back her shell, trying not to think about anything and let her head stop pounding. It wasn't long before another voice cut in, however.

Um, Tapu Fini?

She sat up again, and thought back Yes, Lele?

There was pause, as if Tapu Lele was surprised she'd actually answered.

If everything okay? I could feel Tapu Koko's anger, and he wasn't even angry at me.

Fini laughed a little bit out loud.

Everything's okay. Don't you worry. This'll all be over soon.

Tapu Lele was obviously confused, but thought back, Alright. If you say so. And she was gone too, obviously not wanting to linger.

The Tapu leaned back, finally able to relax knowing Bulu was too lazy and probably didn't care enough to ask anyways. The worry finally caught up to her.

Could Xuri really do this? If not, her punishment wouldn't matter. Alola would be lost.

Don't fail us, Xuri. We believe in you.

Xuri took a heavy step forward, trying to seem threatening.

Xeron remained motionless.

Lurantis still watched from behind him, her expression a bizarre mixture of excitement and fear.

Xeron scoffed. "You're an idiot. I demolished you with more than ease the first time; it'll be effortless this time."

"Then do it. I'm waiting." Xuri surprised himself with the boldness of his words. He wished he actually felt that boldness.

Xeron growled, his lights pulsing, and readied himself in fighting position, pouncing before anyone could even blink.

Xuri was ready.

He goes for the neck to pin them down.

As Xeron flew towards him, he ducked, and Xeron missed him entirely, nearly overshooting straight off the hill.

"Huh. You've got a few new tricks, have you?" he growled. More like renewed luck, if anything.

"The Tapus are obviously on my side today," Xuri shot back. As if they'd heard his praise, the skies began to clear, the clouds dissolving into the open air and the sun beaming its fiery rays upon them.

Xeron snorted.

"What does that even mean? Well, not like it matters." He pounced again, from such close range Xuri didn't have time to dodge. He was pinned back against the wall, again, horrible memories of pain and fear rushing back. He scrabbled at Xeron with blunt claws, barely putting a dent in his skin.

At such close range, Xuri could see what Xeron had done to himself.

The prongs on his tails looked bent and sharp in a painful way, and all his claws had been sharpened to the point it must have been uncomfortable to move them.

"You've made yourself into a monster," he hissed through the claws. "You don't have to do any of this. Your commander will abandon you as easily as he'll abandon this island. He won't care."

Xeron growled. "You've learned a little more, I see. And you're right. I don't have to. I choose to."

He raised his other set of claws and placed them on his chest, dangerously close to Xuri's now sealed wound. However, he didn't rake into it, but rather push down until the tears began to rip open again from the pressure.

Trying not gasp in pain, Xuri looked down and saw he could see tiny bolts of electricity leaping back and forth inside the half-reopened slashes.

Xeron looked back up at him when he saw he hadn't protested in the slightest. "Fine. You don't care about yourself, do you? Well, I'm sure you care about your friends."

He arched his tail above their heads, slamming it down into the rock shelf next to Xuri and dragging it painstakingly across the wall, causing an awful screeching noise.

As if the noise had broke the trance of some ancient monster, a screaming roar echoed around the island, coming from deep inside the cavern where the others were being held.

Screaming erupted, and his friends pushed over themselves to escape whatever horror was in there with them.

Marrow emerged dragging Avanelle and stared in shock across the clearing.

"Xuri?!" Everyone rushed out behind them, eyes widen and hearts filled with hope. For a moment, everything disappeared. Their Xuri was alive.

And then the moment was broken by the stomping from deep in the cave, making the loose rocks jump with every step.

They all turned and shouted in fear at whatever was coming, running back away towards where Skylar was still motionless.

Xuri winced. He'd tried his hardest not to look in that direction ever since he'd arrived back here. Now wasn't the time for feeling bad, though.

The top of the cavern was bulging as if it couldn't contain whatever was within it.

With a CRACK, the top was smashed to bits by two black, snapping claws. Out in the open stood the beast, towering over even Xeron, eyes ringed with madness and fury, slavering at the jaws, ready to devour whoever stood in its way.

Xeron laughed in that maddening way, and pointed towards the huddled group.

"GET THEM!" he screeched, and the monster obeyed, raging towards them.

Marrow was the first to move, grabbing Avanelle again as the first pair of claws smashed right down where they'd been standing.

Lurantis was back on her feet from where she'd been cowering, whipping her head back and forth in deciding to try and save Xuri or help the others.

"Help them!" Xuri choked through Xeron's claws.

Lurantis nodded at him and bolted off to aid the others. She quickly summoned vines and wrapped them around one of the larger claws, pulling as hard as she could to bring it off balance.

The beast whipped to face her, easily snapping the vines. Snarling, it reached out to grab her before it was intercepted by Bewear, who grabbed the claw and forcing it against the outer wall of the collapsed cavern.

As he struggled, Lurantis shouted, "What are you doing?! Don't just stand there!" The remaining four shook themselves and rushed forward to help, flaming, freezing, and roaring alike.

Xuri continued to tussle with Xeron, but he could tell he just wasn't trying. He seemed more focused on the other battle, only clawing Xuri once or twice and mostly just keeping him at bay.

The other fight, however, was raging.

Drampa continued to throw fiery blasts, mostly just slowing down the towering monster.

Lurantis and Avanelle continued to try and disable the claws, but they were able to break free from every vine restraint or ice attack. Bewear tried to throw punches, but since most of the enemy was covered in spikes it wasn't working out too well.

Marrow stayed back at a distance, tensed against the ground, but Xuri wasn't sure why. She'd always been a fighter- was she just waiting for an opening? There was no time to ponder it.

Xeron had suddenly increased the intensity of his attacks. Xuri had to roll quickly to avoid a lick of lightning aimed at his head. He could see the others were fading as well.

Xeron and his agent were winning a battle of stamina. It was now or never. They had to push with all their might or it was over.

He threw a disarming blow at Xeron, slamming into the side of his head and giving him enough time to scramble to his feet.

"HURRY!" he yelled, voice hoarse.

They all turned to him for a split second as if to acknowledge they'd heard him and then returned to the fight.

"We have to work together!" Drampa bellowed. "Lurantis! Bewear! You take one arm! Avanelle! Help me with the other!"

Symphony hung back, unsure what to do. He turned to Xuri and Xeron tussling, and Xuri could see an idea forming in his mind.

Not Symphony!

If his approach was to go stealthily, he didn't do a very good job of it.

Xeron saw him coming and slammed an arm into him as soon as he got within range, Symphony fell and rolled, groaning, to the side. The beast hissed and shook his arm out. Xuri squinted through his fast fading vision to try and see what was wrong.

It was only then he noticed that Symphony's tentacles were still slightly discolored and purple.

He'd poisoned Xeron!

New strength flooded him as he bounced over and pinned down Xeron.

Xeron snarled in surprise and slammed a claw into Xuri's head. He yelped in pain. The element of surprise had been much too brief.

But the blows were becoming weaker, ever so slightly, giving Xuri a chance to turn a little bit of focus back to the other war.

Lurantis and Bewear had successfully used their vines and brute strength to pin down one arm. Avanelle and Drampa were shooting ice at the other, slowly freezing it to the ground. Suddenly, the tides had turned. The monster was immobilized.

And finally, Marrow moved. She broke into a sprint, heading straight for the pinned down beast- and right past it. Was she running away, after all this? But instead, she leapt deftly up the mound of rocks than had been the cavern walls behind it and leapt into the air.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Marrow brought forth her flames, and on her arc downwards, plunged the flames straight into the monster's face.

Its scream could only be described as pure pain. The monster was blinded and trapped, flailing as best it could but failing to cause any damage.

Xeron had actually to stopped fighting to watch in horror. However, one part was still moving freely, the smaller pair of arms tipped with deadly looking claws on top of the beast.

They were thrashing wildly, and she was still atop the beast.

"GET DOWN, MARROW!" screeched Lurantis, seeing it as well.

Marrow looked up to see them watching, but too late.

One of the claws had connected with her outer skull and clamped down as hard as possible. She gasped as she was lifted into the air, one claw sliding down enough to stab into one of the holes in the skull she used to see out of, giving it a place to hold.

There was an awful CRACK and a wail and the thing threw Marrow down onto the ground.

Avanelle cried out and rushed to Marrow's unmoving figure.

The shock had loosened everyone's grip, and the beast was free once more, throwing Bewear and snapping Lurantis's vines, then using that arm to crush the ice on its other.

Xuri shook himself in despair. He had one more crazy idea, but it might work.

Lurantis looked in his direction, utterly lost, but suddenly there was a moment of quiet and a sudden connection between them, just for a split second.

End it.

Lurantis ran to the beast's face, where the other pair of eyes could still somewhat see them, and shouted, "Hey, you big, DUMB, IDIOT! OVER HERE!"

Something like hurt flashed in the monster's eyes- a moment of sentience?- and then was replaced by that ringed rage as it roared it anger and began to barrel towards her, and she was running towards Xuri and Xeron, and Xeron was so caught up with trying to fight off Xuri and everything fell into motion. Lurantis dived out of the way at the last moment and as the beast began to realize what was happening it tried to stop, digging its feet into the ground and slamming down its tail, but its momentum was too great.

Xuri leapt out of the way, towards Lurantis, and Xeron could only watch in horror, too weak from the poison, as the monster bore down on him.

Everyone watched in absolute shock as the creature slammed into the wall, and thus into to Xeron.

There was complete silence for the longest few seconds of Xuri's life.

Suddenly, with a great groan, the huge, black and yellow beast began to move. "Owww… Everything hurts. Leg, ow, tail, ow, face, OW…"

After dusting itself off, the beast turned and looked in shock to see the group staring. He frowned for a moment. "Didn't your mothers teach you it's rude to stare?"

Lurantis grunted and muttered, "Didn't your mother teach you it's rude to try and kill people?"

He snorted. "My name's Blitz. It's very nice to meet you too." Blitz surveyed the area. "I hope this isn't an inconvenient question, where am I, and who are you people? That last thing I was remember was someone who looked an awful lot like you doing… something." He pointed to Xuri. "It's… so foggy…"

The giant dragon shook himself, eyes squinted nearly closed in concentration.

Xuri and Lurantis exchanged a shocked look.

"Time out," Lurantis called and hissed to Xuri, "How can we trust this guy? He was literally trying to crush us not a whole minute ago and now he's acting really polite."

Xuri stared closer at Blitz's eyes. The rings had disappeared.

"Lurantis," he started. "The rings in his eyes are gone. I think… I think Xeron was controlling him. And now…"

He nodded to the crumpled, motionless form of Xeron beneath Blitz. Lurantis's eyes widened.

"Xuri, do you know what this means?"

He nodded.

We did it, Lurantis. We've won."