Triumvirate

by Renaerys

In an untamed world filled with monsters and beasts, four young people discover that true horror lies not between gnashing jaws, but within the hearts of men and women just like them. [Realistic Pokemon AU] [Mangaverse w/ some anime and game influences]

25. Cinnabar Island, Part 5

Triumvirate, chapter 25: Cinnabar Island, Part 5
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon

---

An invisible demon with needles for teeth and breath like fire gnawed the left side of Marco's face. The Super Potion Lyra had given him did nothing for the pain, but it did stop the bleeding. What remained of his left eye and the inside of his left ear sloughed down his cheek like cottage cheese, blended to hell. Ethan was doing his best to keep him conscious and spraying him with what remained of the Super Potion, but his voice was cloudy and distant. It was like the entire left side of Marco's body had shut down—no sound, no sight, just the demon raking its needle teeth over his flesh and digging deep to his addled brain.

Worse than the physical agony were the memories. They swept over him too fast to sort through and comprehend, a blur of blood and violence. He saw the Cinnabarean soldiers he'd slaughtered, watched their faces twist in shock and fear as they breathed their last breaths and he moved on before they hit the ground. He saw Proton, felt his warm blood splatter his face. Worst of all, he saw Ivy, vividly even now, how she looked when he drove the knife into her on the whim of another.

So weak.

Tears stung his many facial lacerations, but he couldn't stop them as he pictured her falling again and again. The demon eating his face breathed fire along his skin, and he almost welcomed the unbearable burn to forget the look in Ivy's eyes when his steel drove in between her ribs and twisted.

"Marco, can you hear me?" Ethan said.

He sounded so far away, but Ethan's good hand set down the Super Potion bottle and pushed Marco's sweaty bangs out of his eyes. He tried to focus.

"Hey man, wake up!"

"Ethan..."

Two familiar faces looked down at him across from Ethan. Honchkrow sniffed the blood soaking his hair and its beak came away red. It shifted uneasily on its feet. Weavile stood beside it, its natural chill welcome against the burning in his face.

"Shit, he's getting away," Ethan said.

Marco lifted a hand to his ruined face and covered his gouged out eye. Shaking, he cried out as he struggled into a sitting position. He wanted to ask who, but a flash of black armor in his vision followed by a streak of familiar red hair was all the answer he needed. Ariana tossed out a Pokéball, and a Fearow coalesced within the light. She got on and held out a hand for Giovanni, but the limping Rocket Boss cast Marco a final glance. There was fury in his eyes.

"This isn't over," he said, backing away and tossing a small computer on the ground.

Something inhuman took hold of Marco in that moment. The voices in his head of the people he'd murdered under that tiny computer's control seemed to renew their death throes all over again, and he couldn't stay on the ground a moment longer. Stifling a scream from the pain as he moved, he got to his feet.

"Dude," Ethan said, also struggling to stand but hunched unnaturally as he clutched his shoulder.

"Giovanni!" Ariana said. "We have to go, now!"

Giovanni bared his teeth and glared at Marco, hesitant, but he backed up and reached for Fearow's saddle. Propelled by a mystical rage, Marco started after him. With his free hand he reached for the last Pokéball at his belt.

"No," he said, voice cracking. "You're not getting away with this!"

Fearow launched into the air on broad wings, but Marco kept after it on foot. Angry tears streamed from his good eye, and he threw his final Pokéball.

"Hydro Cannon!"

An eight-foot tall Feraligatr roared to life within the Pokéball's flash and crashed to the ground on all fours, shaking it with its girth. Water materialized out of thin air and circled around it, faster and faster. Digging its massive claws into the sandy earth, it spat out a jet of water with everything it had. As though guided by an unseen force, the water arced like a lash and hit Giovanni square in the back. He disappeared within it, completely overpowered, and crashed to the earth under the deluge. Fearow squawked in surprise, and Ariana nearly fell, too, but the attack had only grazed the big bird.

Overhead, a small flock of four Charizard noticed her escape and flew after her, Flamethrowers blazing. Marco didn't bother to watch and see her fate. He swayed on his feet, but sheer hatred and determination kept him upright. He limped forward, but paused when he noticed the Chimera tech Gary had yanked out of him wriggling in the sand. Feraligatr lumbered toward its prize, growling menacingly, and Marco scooped up the tech before following it. Ethan and Jolteon were close behind.

Giovanni was flat on his back on the ground, waterlogged and trembling. The sheer force of the Hydro Cannon had broken his spine in several places, along with a few ribs and all the bones in his arms and legs. He gasped for breath as his lungs struggled to support his caving chest cavity. Marco reached Feraligatr's side and looked down at the man who dared to call himself a father.

"S-Son," Giovanni sputtered.

The wriggling tech in Marco's hand drew his dilated gaze, and his breathing became more labored. Marco sank to his knees and let his hand fall from the side of his face. Giovanni hissed as he got an eyeful of Marco's mutilated face.

"You're not my father," he said, voice shaking with uncontrollable rage.

"I only wanted... It was all for you..." Speech was becoming more and more difficult for Giovanni as blood pooled in his throat.

"Rot in hell, you sick son of a bitch."

Marco lowered the bloody Chimera tech over Giovanni's face, and he let out a horrific scream. The wandering tentacles crawled over Giovanni's face and, sensing a new host, eagerly squirmed to find any opening they could. They slithered through his ears, through his wide eyes with a squelch and small splash of blood, burrowing through the eyeballs and churning them to a cheesy pulp. A few tentacles slithered into Giovanni's mouth and down his throat, cutting off his pitiful screams and his air supply. Marco held the tech down, hand shaking and tears falling, as Giovanni spasmed underneath him. Feraligatr hunched over beside him, snarling as the scent of death filled its sawed-off nostrils.

"Marco."

Ethan sank down beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. The contact had an enervating effect, and Marco slumped. All the rage and vengeance escaped him like air from a deflating balloon until he was nothing more than a husk of throbbing pain. His hand slipped from the tech as it continued to burrow deeper into Giovanni's skull, though he'd fallen still. Feraligatr, sensing its trainer's frailty, steadied Marco with a meaty arm and crouched down. Its massive jaw hung open, and its eyes shifted about the war zone in search of threats. It coiled its long tail around both Marco and Ethan.

"He's gone," Marco said.

Ethan sniffled and stared in morbid fascination at the machine chewing off Giovanni's face. "Yeah, good fucking riddance."

"Ivy..."

"C'mon, let's go find Lyra. She went to help Ivy."

"Did I... Is Ivy okay?"

"Let's go see for ourselves. Can you walk?"

He couldn't even stand up anymore, and from the looks of Ethan's etiolated, clammy pallor, neither of them was going to get far on foot today.

"Feraligatr, help me up."

The heavyset gator lowered itself to a reclining position, but before he got up, Marco paused and glanced back at Giovanni. A small pin carved in the shape of a feather inlaid with jade was stuck to his left breast next to the red Rocket 'R'. Hesitating only a moment, Marco retrieved and pocketed the small pin, then finally hauled himself onto Feraligatr's back. Ethan stood up and slung an awkward leg over the blue gator's back, and Marco helped him get situated behind him.

A crippling wave of pain flared in Marco's face, and he nearly fell off Feraligatr's back from the ensuing dizzy spell, but Ethan kept his good hand on his shoulder and steadied him.

"Buncha useless blood bags, the two of us," Ethan tried to lighten the mood.

"Lyra's still standing."

"Right, like anything could ever knock that chick down."

He searched for their third companion and found her with Blissey huddled together with Ivy's friends. Marco clutched his wounded eye and patted Feraligatr. "There she is. Let's go."

Feraligatr lumbered back to the group, slowly so as not to knock the boys from its back. Jolteon, Weavile, and Honchkrow hopped along at its side.

Giovanni lay dead where he'd fallen, forgotten, and the Chimera tech that had eaten through his face fell still, no longer viable without a living host.

---

Lily had all but forgotten her own pain as she stared down at Ivy through thick tears. She'd stopped convulsing and now lay still and unmoving. She wasn't breathing, but Gary continued to shake her and call out to her.

"Ivy, please," he wept.

Lily's heart broke with every melancholy plea. Ash kneeled beside her, trembling as tears ran down his cheeks and Mismagius looked on above him, frowning deeply as it felt Ash's sadness as though it were its own. Lily's Pikachu nudged Ivy's shoulder, but it got no reaction.

"Why isn't it working?" Ash said.

Lyra looked up, her eyes glazed with unshed tears. "Blissey's Softboiled can bring people back from the brink. It's stronger than any Potion, but..." She sniffled. "But if she's dead, then—"

"She's not dead," Gary interrupted, his voice strained with anguish. "Ivy, wake up, please wake up."

"Oh, Gary," Lily said.

"No," he spat, glaring between Ash and her. "She's not dead! She's not—"

Ash closed a hand around Gary's arm, startling him. "Gary."

The two childhood friends locked gazes, and Lily could barely watch as she saw the light of Gary's last hope leave his eyes. He began to shake as a wave of fresh tears flooded down his dirty cheeks.

A low tremor shook the earth as Ivy's Tyranitar lumbered toward them and squatted down next to Lily. Its head was three times the size of hers and bore black phantom lacerations along its snout and jaw from an old battle with Sabrina's Hypno. Its yellow eye swiveled, tracking Ivy's face, and it lowered its head to hover just over her body next to Gary's shaking hands. When it growled, the sound came out sounding more like a whine, if dinosaurs could whine. Lily blinked, suddenly overcome with a fresh wave of despair.

Gary hovered over Ivy, his thumbs still rubbing her cheeks and smearing dirt and grime with his fallen tears. "Please," he whispered. "I can't do this without you. "

He leaned down and kissed her forehead. Espeon mewled in distress as it watched its trainer fall apart.

Tyranitar nudged Ivy's side gently and made a low grunting sound in the back of its throat. Lily wiped her eyes and took Ivy's limp hand in hers. She tried to steady her breathing, but the idea of a world without Ivy, who'd changed her life and brought her into a world where she could be more than she'd ever imagined, was unthinkable. She'd never had a real friend before her, always more interested in the dead than in the living. She squeezed Ivy's hand and sniffled.

And when something squeezed her back, she almost jumped out of her skin. Blinking the tears from her eyes, she squinted at their clasped hands. Ivy's fingers twitched and closed around hers, and Lily dared to hope.

"Ivy?" she said, voice shaky.

Lyra leaned over her middle, and Blissey patted its tummy where the mystical egg it had toted around once nestled. Tyranitar growled and nudged Ivy again, jostling Gary.

"Her wound," Lyra said.

Ash and Lily peered at the knife wound that had stopped bleeding a little while ago. It leaked a thick, silver liquid that pooled in the broken armor and emitted a rancid, black miasma, curling and smokey.

"Ivy," Lily said again, squeezing her hand back.

"No way, is she..." Ash trailed off, afraid to say it aloud and shatter the fragile hope that had settled over the group.

Gary kept his eyes on her face. "Ivy?"

"Oh my god." Lyra traced a finger around the knife wound, and it came away slick with silver liquid. "It's gone."

Gary looked back to confirm it himself, but a hand on his thigh drew his attention back. Lily could hardly breathe as she watched Ivy's eyes crack open.

"Ivy!" she exclaimed.

Gary lost what little composure he'd had left and scooped her up under her shoulders. He fisted a hand in her long hair and stared into her half-lidded eyes. She brought the hand Lily wasn't holding up to his face and gently touched his temple.

"Can't get ridda me that easy," she whispered.

Overcome with grief and joy, Gary pulled her into a crushing embrace and sobbed into crook of her neck. "Oh my god," he said. "Oh my god."

"Ivy," Ash said, wiping his tears.

Lyra was smiling through her own tears, and she covered her mouth in awe.

"I thought I lost you," Gary said, still clutching Ivy like she might float away at any moment. "God, I thought..."

"You think too much."

Ivy rested her cheek against him, and he pulled away to look at her. Careless of their audience, he gripped her hair tighter and kissed her fiercely. It only lasted a moment, but Lily laughed through her tears despite herself, overcome with relief.

"Pesky woman," Gary whispered against her lips.

Ivy laughed and hugged him again, shaking as her tears spilled over his shoulder. Tyranitar made a huffing sound and hovered just behind Gary's shoulder. Gary pulled away so she could reach for the big dinosaur. Tyranitar nudged her chest with its snout, and she wrapped her arms around its head, barely able to make a full circle around it.

"Still here, boy," she said.

Tyranitar growled but allowed the contact and let its eyes droop in contentment.

"Ivy," Lily said.

Ivy patted Tyranitar and turned to embrace Lily and Ash, who together lifted her up off the ground.

"I thought we lost you there for a minute," Ash said.

"It's a miracle," Lily agreed.

Gary let them have their moment and approached Lyra. She swallowed and stood up next to Blissey.

"Lyra, right?" he said.

She nodded, and he held out his hand.

"Thank you. I dunno how you did it, but thank you."

She accepted his hand and shook it. "You're welcome, but I didn't do anything. Not in time, anyway."

"What?"

Lyra patted Blissey on its tufted head. "Blissey's Softboiled can heal any injury, even mortal ones, but it can't revive the dead." She looked over his shoulder at Ivy, who was still tearfully reuniting with Ash and Lily. "Whatever brought her back from that, it wasn't me and Blissey."

Lily caught the way Gary was looking back at them like Ivy had died all over again, but before she could say anything, a fearsome Feraligatr walked right up to Lyra and Gary and shoved its face against Lyra's chest. Blissey yipped angrily and tried to back away, but the oversized reptile ignored it.

Lyra laid a hand on Feraligatr's toothy maw, and she lit up like Christmas morning. "Marco, Ethan!"

She ran to Feraligatr's side and helped Marco dismount, but Ethan groaned and slumped.

"Please don't make me get off. I feel like my fucking arm's gonna fall off."

Lyra slung Marco's arm over her shoulder and sniffled. "Marco..."

"I'm okay," he said softly. "Relatively speaking."

"I have to get you to a hospital."

"Ivy, is she...?"

"She's okay," Gary said, holding out a hand for Marco.

They sized each other up a moment, and for a second Lily was afraid Gary would lash out. But he didn't, and Marco hesitantly took his hand as a crutch.

"You pulled that tech off me," Marco said. "I owe you one."

"As far as I'm concerned, we're square." Gary nodded at Lyra.

"You saved her?" Marco asked Lyra.

"She's alive," Lyra said, smiling a little.

The sight of Marco gave Lily pause. His face looked like that Feraligatr had taken a bite out of it. Haggard and unable to stand on his own, she could hardly believe this was the same Marco that had commanded the red Gyarados and nearly killed her. Ivy burst out laughing and crying and reached for him, and with Lyra's help Marco met her halfway.

"Oh my god, Ivy," Marco said, squeezing his good eye shut to hide his tears. "I'm so sorry, I knew what was happening but I couldn't... I had no control—"

"It's okay, I'm okay. I know you didn't have a choice." She pulled back and laid a hand over the flayed flesh on the left side of his face. "We have to get you to a hospital. We can talk later."

"Some common sense," Lyra said. "Now I know how he stayed alive all those years before meeting me."

Ivy and Lyra exchanged a look, and despite the horrors they'd both lived through in this war, they smiled at each other.

"I'm pretty sure there's an insult against me in there somewhere," Ethan said. "Someone remind me later to think of a comeback."

Gary went around Feraligatr to help Ethan down. "C'mon, I've got a faster way to get everyone back to the city."

"Oh, yeah? Whatcha gonna do, lecture me until I haul my own ass to the hospital?"

Ash laughed, and Gary shot him a dirty look. He approached, and Lily followed him. Holding out a hand to Ethan he said, "Ash Ketchum. I have a feeling you and me'll get along great."

Ethan blinked down at the offered hand. "I'd shake your hand, but this arm hurts like a bitch, man."

Ash's Pikachu squeaked happily and joined Lily's Pikachu on the ground, where the two of them nuzzled Ethan's legs. Ethan's gaze alighted on Lily and he managed a lazy smile for her.

"Hey, and you are?"

"The girl who fried my Gyarados," Marco said.

Lily blushed, and for a moment the ache in her left arm was the last thing on her mind. "Um, I..."

"No shit?" Ethan said. "Then I guess we'll all get along. That red Gyarados tried to kill me the first time we saw her. Still haven't gotten over that. You got a name, Lady Vengeance?"

"Lily," Lily said, still uncomfortably warm.

Ash put arm around her waist, which did nothing for her blush. Mismagius floated closer to Ethan's eye-level and grinned. He recoiled from the Ghost's stench.

"Gary, hospital?" Ash said.

All around them, the war was slowly pittering out as survivors and their Pokémon surrendered. The Cinnabarean soldiers took hostages and corralled them into lines to march back to the city. Lily saw Carvalho no longer mounted on his majestic Rapidash shouting orders. The back of his armor was sprayed red with blood, but he seemed well enough to be barking at his subordinates.

"Hey!" Rosa jogged to the group looking worse for wear. A sleek Leafeon trotted next to her, bladed tail swishing as its dark eyes scanned the group for threats.

"Rosa," Gary said. "Glad to see you're okay."

"Likewise, but I can't say for how long. Look."

She pointed south toward Mt. Cinnabar, which was belching thick, grey clouds of ash and smoke. The winds carried the ash south toward town. Lily looked around, but there was no sign of Blaine.

"Where did Blaine go?" she asked.

"I saw him take off with some woman on a Charizard. They were headed back to town," Rosa said.

Typhlosion wandered back to the group and sized up Feraligatr, but the blue gator paid it little mind and it nudged Ethan gently in the back. Ethan tried to turn around and greet it, but swore when his injuries pained him.

"That volcano looks like it's gonna blow big time," Ivy said. "Blaine must be trying to stop it. We have to help."

"The only thing you're gonna help is a nurse with your medical history," Gary said. "Same goes for you guys." He indicated Ethan and Marco.

"Lily, you should get to a hospital, too," Ash said.

"So should you," she shot back. "We all need help, but we're all gonna be dead if that volcano explodes. I'm helping Blaine. I can deal with a little pain."

She felt Marco's one-eyed gaze on her profile, but he said nothing.

"We don't have time to argue," Lyra said. "We can deal with everything else once this is over. Right now, whoever's able has to get to that volcano and figure out what the hell's going on before we're all dust. Gary, you said you could get us there fast?"

Gary reached for a Pokéball at his belt. "Yeah, but you won't like it."

"Marco needs medical attention. I don't have to like it, it just has to work."

Gary tossed out the Pokéball and Alakazam materialized. Espeon went to its side and sat down, purring.

"Alakazam can Teleport us all. Take my hand."

Everyone recalled their Pokémon and clasped hands in a line that ended with Alakazam. Lily stood between Ash and Ivy, and her Pikachu perched on her good shoulder.

"Hold on."

Before she could mentally prepare herself, the ground fell out from underneath her and left her stomach behind. Lily opened her mouth in a scream, but before she could even inhale the breath, she was back on solid ground and stumbling to catch her balance. Pikachu groaned on her shoulder and leaned against her head, woozy.

"Fuck you, Gary," Ethan said as he recovered from retching.

Rosa patted him on the shoulder, and he swore in pain. "You get used to it."

Alakazam had Teleported them back to the center of town, but it was almost deserted as civilians headed en masse for the coast to safety. Farther south at the harbor, more mounted Charizard circled in the sky and soldiers directed evacuating townspeople. Lily shivered in dread. Mt. Cinnabar rumbled again and spewed more ash. When she looked up, she could swear she saw the orange flash of magma spurting among the ashes.

"This is bad," Lily said.

A hand on her injured shoulder startled her and she winced in pain, but Rosa sprayed something over the knife wound Marco had inflicted on her shoulder. The Super Potion stung like mad, but she could feel her flesh gobbling up the salve.

"You're welcome," Rosa said softly once the bottle was empty.

Lily wanted to say something to her about her Beartic, about how grateful she was to Rosa for saving her first from Victreebel then from the Dugtrio, but Lyra was asking where the hospital was for Marco, and Gary was looking at Lily expectantly.

"Huh? Oh, the hospital?" Lily felt small under their gazes and took a step back. "Um, right, it's just two blocks down that way." She pointed down the street to the east.

"Good. I'll take them, then meet up with you guys after," Lyra said.

"I'm staying," Ivy said.

"No, you're not," Gary protested.

"Gary Oak, you do not order me what to do."

"You almost fucking died out there!" he hissed. "I think that gives me the right to a say in this."

"Yeah, well, I'm still here and I'm fine. Whatever you guys gave me really worked. I feel like a million bucks."

Ash put a hand each on their shoulders. "Okay, guys, break it up."

The volcano rumbled again and drew Lily's attention. This time she was sure she saw magma jumping from the mouth like fireworks, and Rosa saw it, too.

"Oh no," Rosa said. "Hey, you two, you can both stay behind and argue if that's what you want to do. That volcano's not going to wait."

Lily kept her eyes on the volcano, not believing what she was seeing. In all her life, the volcano had never even so much as smoked. Blaine and his Fire-types were lauded as being able to control the mountain somehow, and given his track record, everyone believed it. But would he be able to stop an active volcano from burying the island now?

Lost in her fears, she searched the sky, wishing things hadn't come to this. A red Gyarados on a rampage was one thing, but a volcano? There was no way to fight that. The ashes rained down like grey snow and fast accumulated in her damp hair. The sulfur in the air burned her eyes, which were red and bloodshot from crying earlier. Ivy, Gary, and Ash continued to bicker, but she paid them no mind. She sniffled and wiped her eyes, and when she looked up again, a shadow passed through the smoke.

"What the...?"

She rubbed her eyes again and followed the shadow. Ashes swirled in flurries to get away from it, beaten asunder by great wings. A thick body and long tail followed the wings, all in shadow as it soared around the volcano. A Charizard?

No, bigger. Way bigger.

Something in her heart recognized the creature before her mind did, and it clenched in trepidation. Magma burst from the volcano's mouth again and cut through the ashy shadows, illuminating streaks of the huge beast as it flew by in the distance. Orange scales, talons as long as swords. The Dragonite had to be forty feet long from nose to tail with a wingspan just as wide. For the flash of a second, she was sure she saw someone riding it, black against its bright orange scales. The Dragon faded back into the predawn gloom to the south a moment later before she could trust her eyes enough to believe what she'd seen.

That Dragonite...

"...and Lyra will meet us there," Gary was saying. "Okay?"

"Works for me," Ash said.

"Then let's get the hell up there," Ivy said, reaching for a Pokéball. But when she tossed it, nothing came out. She stared for a couple seconds at the empty ball in her hand, confused, until a shadow passed over her features and she returned it to her belt. "...Oh, wrong one," she muttered, tossing out Houndoom's Pokéball.

Gary's eyes fell. "Ivy..."

"I'm fine. Are we going?"

Lily didn't believe those words, and no one else did either, it seemed. But there were more pressing concerns at hand.

"The volcano's spewing lava," Lily said. "We have to find Blaine now."

Rosa was crouched on her knees with a hand on Leafeon and another on the ground. "I've already found him. He's in the volcano..."

"What is it?"

"Something's blocking me. I know he's in there, but I can't pinpoint him."

"Then we'll have to explore on foot," Gary said, recalling Alakazam in favor of Arcanine. To Lyra he said, "Come find us when you can."

She nodded and supported both Marco and Ethan on her shoulders. "Don't let that volcano blow till I get there."

Marco grabbed Ivy's hand. "Be careful."

"Worry about yourself."

"There won't be anything to worry about if that volcano blows." Rosa was already on her feet and jogging with Leafeon to the man made entrance. "C'mon!"

"Let's go, ChuChu, Pika." Lily took off after her, and Ash, Gary, and Ivy soon followed while Lyra took Ethan and Marco to the hospital. The two Pikachu were hot on Lily's heels and sparking.

She thought briefly about the Dragonite she thought she'd seen, but pushed the thought to the back of her mind. There would be time for that later if they could survive the volcano. The volcano's interior was maze-like, and Lily couldn't remember which way they'd gone when they were last in here looking for the Gym. But Rosa led the way with Leafeon.

"I felt him down below," she called back over her shoulder. "We'll have to search the lower floors."

"Isn't that where the lava is?" Lily said.

"It'll be everywhere soon if we don't figure out a way to stop it."

Ash, Gary, and Ivy caught up to Lily and Rosa soon, and they were all running together down a long, whitewashed corridor down a flight of stairs. All of a sudden, the volcano rumbled like a bomb had gone off, and Lily lost her balance. She screamed and took a tumble down the stairs along with the others. One of the Pikachu sparked in fear, and lightning tore into the walls. The lamps overhead came loose from the ceiling and fell as the walls began to crumble and the temperature skyrocketed.

"Lily!" Ash called, but his voice was drowned out by the rumble.

Lily rolled to the bottom of the staircase, her sore left shoulder on fire again despite the Super Potion's healing effects. Pikachu squeaked next to her and struggled to stand.

"ChuChu," she said, reaching for the yellow rodent. But when it looked up at her, she hesitated. "Oh, sorry Pika. But if you're here, then where's ChuChu?"

Gary sat up next to her with a groan and shook his head. Dust rained down from his disheveled hair and he coughed. Arcanine whined and nudged him in his side.

"Ugh, what just happened?"

Lily picked up Ash's Pikachu and let it climb up onto her good shoulder. "Looks like the Gym's losing its structural integrity." She wiped her brow. "And I think the AC's busted."

Gary let Arcanine help him to his feet, and Lily didn't miss the way he struggled, his breathing labored. "Not that I don't appreciate the humor, but did you see what happened to the others?"

Rocks, a broken ceiling lamp, and shattered tile piled up in the staircase and blocked the way back up.

"I'm guessing they got stuck on the other side."

Pikachu squeaked as Lily approached the fallen rocks, and she heard voices on the other side. She was about to press her ear to the rocks, but a purple face materialized through the rocks and startled her. Mismagius grinned down at Lily and Gary and billowed as if dancing.

"Could you please tell Ash we're okay?" Lily said.

"What the hell? Isn't that Agatha's Misamgius? Is she here?" Gary said.

"I'll explain later. Right now, since you and me're stuck down here, looks like we're the downsized search party."

Mismagius evaporated into smoke and receded back through the rocks, presumably to relay Lily's message. Pikachu squeaked after it and reached out with its little paw toward the rocks.

"It's okay, Pika. We'll find Ash later, okay?" Lily reassured the yellow rodent. "Gary, are you okay to keep going? Do you need help?"

Gary winced and laid a hand on Arcanine's flank. The orange canine whined and nudged him with its wet muzzle. "I'll manage. Let's find Blaine before this volcano blows with us inside it."

"Okay."

They continued down the hall until they came to another set of stairs. The heat grew more sweltering as they descended, and Lily choked on her breath. Pikachu squeaked on her shoulder, distressed, and she petted it.

"It's okay, Pika. We'll be okay."

The volcano rumbled again, and Gary swore. Lily looked back at him.

"It's starting to erupt," Gary said by way of explanation. He blinked, and for a split second, Lily was sure his eyes had gone deathly white. But it was gone in an instant, and he looked up at her. "I dunno how much longer it'll hold."

"Then we gotta hurry."

She picked up the pace and tried to ignore the pain in her shoulder and the suffocating heat. At the bottom of the staircase, they came upon a door that was slightly ajar. Voices drifted to them from the other side, and Lily pushed past it without waiting for admittance. Nimbus and Blaine where in the room, which was just as hot as the hallway but not because of the volcano's eruption. A seven-foot tall fire blazed in a contained pit in the center of the room, and a hunchbacked, old woman in flowing white silks sat cross legged next to it. Her grey hair was so long it coiled in a gleaming, silver bundle behind her as she rocked back and forth. She wore a thick, black blindfold over her eyes and muttered under breath, ignoring Blaine and Nimbus.

"Miss Kida, Mr. Oak," Blaine said. "You have a death wish?"

"We came to help," Lily said.

Nimbus laughed nervously. "Help? What can you do? This mountain's gonna blow any minute!"

Blaine took a steadying breath. "That's enough, Nimbus. You should have evacuated a long time ago."

"Oh, right, brilliant, and leave you here? The Pyromancer won't even listen to me! I've tried to get her out since I contacted Marla, but she just—"

"Enough, Nimbus," Blaine interrupted him. He went to the large supercomputer on the other side of the room and typed in a few commands. The screen flickered and showed a moving bird's eye view of Mt. Cinnabar.

"Is that live?" Gary said, walking farther inside with Arcanine.

"Marla's recording this as we speak," Blaine confirmed.

The volcano was in worse shape than it had been when Lily and Gary were outside. Lava spurted from the mouth like blood from a slashed artery and ran down the sides to the city below. The smoke had turned black and angry as it roiled high in the lightening sky.

"Blaine, we have to evacuate," Nimbus said.

Blaine watched the screen in silence, flinty eyes hard and deep in thought. "...No. I'm going below."

Nimbus sputtered. "What?! That's suicide! You'll be roasted alive, or maybe worse!"

"Is there something worse than getting roasted alive?" Lily wondered aloud.

"Hey!" Gary crossed the room with some effort but did his best to stand up straight in front of Blaine. "Can you fix this or not? 'Cause as far as I know, even Ignifer can't stop an active volcano."

Blaine pressed his lips together. "I suppose you'll find out." He turned to Nimbus and tossed out a Pokéball. His robust Ninetales appeared and tossed its head at Arcanine, who growled in challenge. "They don't leave this room, am I clear?"

"Y-Yes, sir," Nimbus said.

"The hell we're not leaving," Gary bit out. "What're you gonna do?"

Blaine punched a few more keys on the supercomputer, and the blazing fire in the center of the room parted to reveal a hidden platform. He crossed the room, oblivious to the fire that licked at his armor and stepped onto the platform where Gary and Lily could not hope to follow if they didn't want to get burned.

"I'm going to save my island," Blaine said.

The platform descended, and soon he was out of sight and the flames crept back over the platform to hide it.

"Damnit." Gary went to the supercomputer and studied the screen, which still had a view of the steadily erupting Mt. Cinnabar.

Lily joined him, and Pikachu hopped off her shoulder onto the keyboard. "Gary, can Ignifer really not do anything about a volcano? Not even someone like Blaine?"

Gary clenched his teeth. He was sweating profusely now with the damnable heat in this room. "No, it's impossible." He spared her a glance askance. "But I've seen a lotta impossible today."

Lily backed away from the computer screen, hating how helpless she felt. The old crone's muttering drew her attention, and she wandered closer. Before she could say anything to the woman, however, the earth shook again.

"Oh dear!" Nimbus huddled behind the massive keyboard.

Ninetales and Arcanine looked around, ears flat and hackles raised, nervous.

"Gary?" Lily said, a little more frantic than she'd intended.

Gary tossed out another Pokéball, and Espeon appeared. It swayed in the heat and hissed, but Gary kneeled down and laid a hand on its back. To Lily's horror, both his and Espeon's eyes faded to ghastly white and they both fell silent.

"What the..."

The old crone lashed out and closed her bony fingers around Lily's bum left arm hard enough to hurt all of a sudden. Lily recoiled in surprise, but the crone's grip was iron-clad for such a frail woman.

"Daughter of Dragons, the one you seek is nigh."

"Let me go!" Lily cried out.

"He waits," the crone implored her. "Will you go?"

"Go where? Let go! You're hurting me!"

Another rumble racked the volcano, and the flames in the middle of the room flailed. The crone let Lily go and grabbed at her hair to wrap herself in it, trembling. Pikachu ran to Lily's side and huddled in her lap.

"The volcano!"

Nimbus's voice drew Lily's attention back to the monitor, which showed the volcano erupting in full force now. Magma spewed from the mouth in powerful sneezes and ran down the sides of the mountain onto the streets below. Houses caught fire as the river of lava spread around the base of Mt. Cinnabar, slow-moving but lethal. One of the buildings exploded in an orange and black mushroom cloud when the magma found its gas-powered generators. Gary remained hunched over Espeon, eyes devoid of color, and Lily resolved to snap him out of whatever trance he was in and get the hell out of here. She crawled toward him as the room shook and the temperature soared. Arcanine barked and barked, while Ninetales's nine tails billowed and sparked with unshed cinders.

"What are you?" Gary said in a voice that wasn't his to no one at all.

"Gary," Lily said. "Snap out of it, Gary!"

He screamed all of a sudden and clutched his head. Fingers dug into his scalp hard enough to pierce the skin and pull out hair.

Lily stared at him in fear, unsure what was happening, and another earthquake rumbled the volcano. She and Gary toppled over each other, and the color returned to his eyes as he came to a sliding stop just shy of the dancing flames. Himself again, Gary recoiled on instinct from the fire. It licked his armored arms like it was reaching for him, and he scrambled backwards.

"He waits!" the crone cried out. "He waits!"

"Blaine, can you hear me? Blaine!" Nimbus shouted into some kind of speaker on the supercomputer's keyboard.

A loud cracking sound cut through the din, and Lily winced and covered her ears. She caught a glimpse of the screen, but what she saw could not have been real. The image continued to move as Marla flew with her Charizard, but the volcano itself stood still as death, the smoke and the ashes and the magma. It froze in the streets and over the melting, burning dwellings it had already touched, stuck in time.

What?

Lily blinked, and the magma began to recede toward the main street. It flowed backwards out of alleys and front doors, taking with it its deadly heat. Gary got to his feet, panting, and watched the screen with Lily as he clutched his aching head.

"The hell?"

"Are you seeing this?" she said.

The sidewalks lining that main street became the lava's buffers, caging it in as it flowed in an unnaturally controlled manner down the main street in a straight shot for the eastern harbor, where it dumped harmlessly into the water. A mile of eastern coastline went up in opaque, white steam as the water supercooled the magma and screamed and hissed. Mt. Cinnabar continued to blow, but all the lava it spat up ended up on the main street as though fenced in by an invisible forcefield.

"I'm seeing it," Gary said. "But I can't believe it."

Nimbus blinked up at the screen and laughed nervously. "He... He's done it!"

The volcano continued to erupt, but its output diminished noticeably as five minutes became fifteen, then twenty, until soon the magma began to harden on the volcano's face instead of dribbling all the way down to the street. In the shaky video feed, trainers mounted on Charizard had landed on intact rooftops and released a small army of Water Pokémon, from Poliwhirl to Kingler, and began spraying the lava in the main street, helping it cool and harden. Lily got to her feet, Pikachu on her shoulder, and stared unblinking at the screen, uncomprehending.

Nimbus laughed again and did a little dance. "He's done it!" He punched a few commands into the supercomputer, and the flames near the crazed crone parted once more to reveal the hidden platform. Blaine rose on the platform, swayed on his feet, and fell over.

"Blaine!"

Lily rushed to his side and dragged him away from the flames as best she could. She flipped him onto his back and was horrified to see his armor was smoking. Steeling herself, she worked off the armored glove on his right hand but stopped when she saw his raw skin underneath. It was rotted black and bubbling, like his blood was boiling. The skin over his nail beds was peeling back slowly of its own accord and folding over itself, revealing bloody muscle and bone beneath.

"Oh my god..."

Blaine coughed and attempted to sit up. Nimbus rushed to his side and offered a shoulder to lean on. Disoriented, it took Blaine a moment to recognize Lily and Nimbus huddled around him. But when his eyes focused on Lily, he immediately withdrew his hand and tucked it under his other arm out of sight.

"Blaine, you're hurt," she said. "We have to get you to the hospital—"

"Nimbus, the eruption," Blaine interrupted.

"Over, sir," Nimbus said, hair drenched in sweat but smiling nonetheless. "You've done it, come and see."

Nimbus helped Blaine stand and hobble to the supercomputer, where the image of Mt. Cinnabar had cleared up considerably. Gary shook his head.

"This isn't possible," he said more to himself than the other people in the room. "We should all be dead."

"But we're not," Blaine said. "And my island is safe."

Gary glared at Blaine, and Lily shivered at the look in his haggard eyes despite the sweltering heat in the room. "Is it?"

"Yes," Blaine said a little more forcefully. "And the battle is over, for now. Nimbus, patch me through to Marla and Carvalho. The evacuation is canceled."

Nimbus smiled and wiped the dripping sweat from his upper lip. "E-Excellent news, sir! I'll get on that right away!"

Ninetales nudged Blaine in the shoulder, but when it got a whiff of his uncovered, blistering hand, it curled back its lips and growled. Blaine hid the hand behind his back and patted the big fox on the muzzle with his other hand to soothe it. Lily watched the exchange with a heavy gaze, and Blaine caught her staring.

"That'll be all Miss Kida, Mr. Oak. For now, get yourselves cleaned up and be grateful you survived."

"We did more than that," Gary said. "Team Rocket's finished. We won the war."

Despite his debilitated state, Blaine flinty gaze settled on Gary and seemed to cow him with a single look. Espeon mewled in worry as it looked up at its trainer, and Gary took a small step back.

"No one wins in a war. This was only one battle in an ugly and ancient war that's been going on for longer than you can imagine. Now, get out of my way. I'm going to restore order to my island."

Blaine pushed past them to get to the stairs.

"Wait, Blaine," Lily said. "Um, you can't go that way. There was a cave-in during the eruption." She put her hands up. "Not that we caused it or something, it kinda just happened..."

"I appreciate the concern, Miss Kida, but a few rocks never stopped me before."

He exited the room with Ninetales in tow. Pikachu shifted nervously on Lily's shoulder, and she reached up to pet it aimlessly.

"Dr. Nimbus," Gary said, still clutching his head. "You should get out of this heat, too."

"It is quite hot in here," Nimbus agreed. "It appears the central air conditioning system blew out during the eruption. Oh dear, that'll take some time to repair."

"You too," Lily said to the old crone still huddled on the floor and hiding her face with her hair.

"Oh, just leave her there," Nimbus said. "She hasn't left this room in years, so she won't start now."

"What? You can't be serious," Gary said.

Nimbus only half listened to them as he fiddled with the supercomputer. "The Pyromancer never leaves the sacred fire."

Gary and Lily exchanged a look.

Pyromancer?

A fresh wave of heat swept through the room, and something roared beyond the exit.

"Ah, that'll be Blaine with the way out," Nimbus said, finishing up a few commands on the keyboard. "Shall we?"

Lily's shoulder was giving her a hard time after all the excitement, and exhaustion was fast setting in. She cast a last glance at the strange woman huddled on the floor and headed for the door. Gary was the last one out, and he lingered a moment, eyes drawn to the blazing fire growing out of the hidden platform.

"Gary?"

As though he'd forgotten she was there, he whirled in shock and blinked a few times. Shaky hands covered his ears, and he averted his gaze.

"Gary, are you okay? Before, you were screaming. What happened?"

He looked back at the fire. "I dunno. But I'm gonna find out."

Lily reached for his hand and tugged gently. He was cold to the touch despite the overwhelming heat in the small room. Gary let her lead him out, Arcanine and Espeon on either side of them, and Lily guided him through the door. She looked back to close it after Arcanine had ducked out and saw the Pyromancer standing, the flames obscuring half her form, staring through her blindfold. A baleful tremor ran down Lily's spine, and she hastily pulled the door closed behind her just to get away from that accusatory stare. The woman was blindfolded, and still Lily's skin crawled under her armor.

"Through here, kids," Nimbus said.

Blaine and Ninetales were just ahead where the cave-in had separated Lily and Gary from the rest of their group, but the rocks and debris that had clogged the stairwell were nearly completely melted thanks to Ninetales's Fire Blast. There was no sign of anyone on the other side, and once it was safe to move, Blaine led them over the fast-cooling molten rock up the stairs.

Outside, the sun was finally up and ash coated the streets in a thin, grey layer. The main street was charred black and smoking, where several inches of lava continued to cool and harden under a watery assault from all sides. The air still stank of sulfur, but the breeze from the east was a godsend after the heat of the volcano's interior and Lily almost passed out from sheer exhaustion right there on the ground.

"Pika!"

Ash jogged to Lily and Gary alongside Ivy, Rosa, and Lyra. Pikachu chittered happily and leaped from Lily's shoulder to run to Ash.

"ChuChu, hey!"

Lily's Pikachu ran alongside Ash and bounded toward her, happy to be reunited after the volcanic scare.

"What happened?" Lyra said. "One minute we were out here watching the volcano blow, and the next..." She indicated the sunken main street where Cinnabarean soldiers commanded hordes of Water-type Pokémon to keep up their dousing.

"Whoa, Gary!"

Ivy caught him before he fell over. Blood ran down his forehead and the back of his neck where he'd hurt himself during his Psychic spell earlier. His weight pushed her down, and Lyra had to lend her shoulder to help carry him. He was all but dead on his feet.

"Nimbus," Blaine said. "Get these kids to the hospital and make sure they don't leave until they can walk out on their own. I have business to attend to."

"Oh, sure Blaine, no problem."

Lily watched him go, and before she knew what was happening, Rosa had lent her an arm to lean on.

"C'mon, kid," she said. "Might as well finish what I started to see you safely to the hospital."

"Rosa..."

"I think we could all use some rest," Ash said. "I feel like I got hit by a truck...twice, hah."

The marks on his face had gotten worse and were turning black in places.

"Ash, what happened out there? Where's Gengar?" Lily said.

He rubbed his eyes. "Long story... How 'bout a nap first?"

Ivy and Lyra were already dragging Gary to the hospital, so Rosa, Ash, and Lily followed.

---

For the next few days, Ivy was in and out of the Cinnabar Hospital and the Pokémon Center checking up on everyone's Pokémon and getting checked out herself. She watched behind the wide window that looked in on the Pokémon Center's OR as a team of skilled nurses and surgeons operated on Lily's Dodrio. They'd been reluctant even to try after seeing the state the bird was in when Ivy brought it in, but she'd insisted in her ever charming manner with promises of violence if they didn't try. That conversation was over fast, and she'd been watching them work now for close to two hours.

"You convinced them, I see."

Lyra joined her at the window and peered in. They were both in comfortable plain clothes now that the fighting was over, Ivy in a blue sundress and Lyra in shorts and a tank top, but Lyra also had an ice pack that she held against her bruised face over her left eye, which had swollen shut thanks to the many hairline fractures Giovanni had given her in their skirmish. Otherwise, she was on her feet and as well as could be. After Lily, Ash, and Rosa all checked into the hospital, Ivy and Lyra were the only ones without immediate need for emergency medical treatment and had taken it upon themselves to get everyone's Pokémon taken care of.

"I have a way with knives."

"Don't you mean words?"

Ivy spared her a glance. "Those, too."

They stood together in comfortable silence as they watched the medics work. One of Dodrio's three heads, badly burned and unmoving under the effects of anesthesia, came into view when a nurse moved. Ivy ran her fingers over the glass.

"You know," she said, "I never woulda thought I'd be so worried over a bird. I used to hate the things."

"Marco will be thrilled to hear it."

Ivy smiled and faced Lyra. "I don't think I got a chance to thank you for what you did."

"About that, I don't even know if I did much of anything to help you in the end. Whatever happened to make you wake up, it didn't have anything to do with Blissey or me."

"No, not that. I mean, that too, but that's not what I meant." Ivy took her hand in hers and waited until she had Lyra's full attention. "I mean Marco. We started this fight alone, and I spent so much time wondering if he was okay, if he'd ended up in a ditch somewhere, I don't even know. But he made it through the worst of the worst, and that's because of you and Ethan."

Lyra flushed prettily. "Well, technically it was Gary who pulled that tech off of him."

"Yeah, but that's beside the point. I know because I went through the same thing. Believe me, Marco wouldna made it this far without you guys there to help him every step of the way." She turned back to the glass and Dodrio beyond it. "And neither would I."

They stayed that way for a little longer before Lyra suggested they get something to eat.

"Yeah, I'd like that," Ivy said. "Then maybe we can go check on the others."

"Sounds good. I just have to go pick up Marco's Gyarados at the front desk."

They headed back to the lobby, where Nurse Joy handed Lyra an Ultra Ball marked with a red 'G'.

"Wow, I can't believe they agreed to take care of that thing," Ivy said.

"I guess I've got a way with words, too." Lyra winked at her, and Ivy grinned.

"I can see why Marco likes you."

Lyra almost dropped Gyarados's Ultra Ball. "What? Oh, I dunno about that, I mean... What do you mean, exactly?"

Ivy bit back a laugh. "I didn't mean anything." She tapped Lyra's shoulder. "C'mon, turns out I'm starving."

They headed outside, where a full crew of Cinnabarean soldiers and their Pokémon were still at work cleaning up the destroyed homes and buildings along the main street. The damage had been minimal given the level of catastrophe, nothing short of a miracle, though Ivy suspected it was nothing of the sort. Blaine, however, had been too busy restoring order and heading up the capture and imprisonment of Rocket and JRM survivors to visit the hospital.

The girls decided to grab lunch at a food stall that had been set up by some local fishermen's wives to feed the recovering soldiers as a thanks for their service and for cleaning up the town. After a short wait in line, Ivy and Lyra headed to the docks and sat down on one of the empty piers with a view of the midday seascape, endless blue for as far as the eye could see. Sailboats and trawlers and yachts of all shapes and sizes bobbed in the water where they were moored to the docks, but they were empty. Able-bodied Cinnabareans were busy cleaning up the northern farms and plantations or rebuilding after the eruption. A mile of the east bay was destroyed under tons and tons of black, hardened lava that had decimated the coral reefs. Hardly anyone was without something to do, so the girls were not bothered as they sat side by side, bare feet in the water and munching on roasted Remoraid fillets.

"By the way, how did you end up getting dragged into all this?" Ivy said.

Lyra smiled to herself. "You know, it's kind of a funny story, actually."

"I could use a laugh about now."

Lyra finished off her food and leaned back on her hands. "Well, when I first ran into Marco, he was running for his life...from Ethan. And I mean, he literally ran into me."

Lyra told her about their first adventure together in Goldenrod City. Ethan had been hunting Marco from Cherrygrove City on suspicions of being a member of Team Rocket that had stolen a Pokémon from Elm's care in Newbark Town. The miscommunication lasted until Marco ran into Lyra and broke his nose when he fell on the ground, unable to knock her down. In the commotion, the three of them ended up in the middle of a Team Rocket-infested Goldenrod that ended with the Radio Tower getting blown to smithereens and Gym Leader Whitney smuggling them out of town with an order never to return unless they had a death wish.

"You meet a guy and the first thing you do is break his nose," Ivy said. "Must've been a hell of a first impression."

"It wasn't on purpose," Lyra mused, though she didn't deny it. "I was working for Whitney in her Gym until Marco and Ethan found me. Whitney was pandering to Team Rocket, like most of the Johto Gym Leaders. Team Rocket was just too widespread and powerful, and not everyone was stupid enough to fight them. It was certain death."

"I had a feeling it'd be like that. So, was it a bust? Recruiting the Gym Leaders, I mean."

"Yes and no. Some of them weren't happy about Team Rocket's policies and wanted a change, but it just didn't seem feasible. Some didn't even care. Pretty sure I'll never be welcomed back in Olivine as long as Jasmine's still breathing. We didn't exactly see eye-to-eye, if you know what I mean."

Ivy smiled to herself. "I think I can imagine."

"But it wasn't all bleak. Chuck of Cianwood really saved us when Jasmine went on the warpath. He and Ethan go way back. Guess that's how Ethan knows Gary, from what I gathered."

"Small world."

Lyra let her head tilt back and scanned the clear, blue sky. It was so different from when the two of them had been embroiled in battle just days ago. There wasn't even a trace of the volcano having erupted. Cinnabar was just an island paradise in the middle of a vast ocean again.

"Maybe. But sometimes I think these crazy things happen for a reason." Lyra cast Ivy a glance askance. "Reasons we can't really explain, but somehow they work out."

"What, like fate? Yeah, right."

"You don't believe in fate?"

Ivy set down her empty tray and licked the grease from her fingers. "I believe in myself, and in the people that can stand to be around me. That's more faith than I ever had growing up."

Lyra studied her. "You really remind me of him, you know. I almost feel like I'm talking to Marco instead of you."

"There you are!"

Rosa was heading toward them along the pier. Something round and spiky was rolling along beside her and making a racket on the docks. As it got closer, Ivy noticed that it was tearing up the wooden planks and leaving splinters in its wake. Rosa had changed into a long, yellow skirt and white blouse with her hair long and loose, and Ivy had to stare for a minute to recognize her.

"Rosa," Ivy said, one eye on the spiky bowling ball tailing her. "Uh, what is that thing?"

When Rosa reached them, she looked back at the Pokémon following her as it rolled to a stop. Bits of splintered wood were stuck in between the sharp thorns that protruded from its compact body like a pincushion. Shifty, yellow eyes flitted between Rosa and her new companions, and it huddled close to Rosa's bare leg.

"Oh that's— Ouch! Ferroseed, watch it!"

Rosa kneeled down and carefully placed her fingers in between the sharp thorns on Ferroseed's head so as not to cut herself. The little Pokémon was trying to roll closer to her.

"Ferrah what now?"

"Ferroseed. It's a Pokémon I caught in Unova before coming out here." She hissed as Ferroseed slipped past her fingers and nearly rammed her with its spiky hide, but she caught it in time. "He's very affectionate."

"I can see that," Lyra said, smiling.

"Did you need us for something?" Ivy said.

"Yeah. I was just at the hospital. Lily and Ethan are doing much better, but the doctors have no idea what happened to Ash. They say they've never seen a case like his. I heard one of the nurses yelled at him for still being alive after whatever happened to him, believe it or not."

"Oh, I believe it. That sounds exactly like Ash."

"Anyway, I came to find you because Gary's awake. He's been asking for you."

"Really? Then I should go see him."

Ferroseed had calmed down and rolled closer to Lyra, blinking up at her. She offered it a hand, and Ferroseed rolled right into her.

"Ouch!" Lyra pulled back her hand, which was now bleeding from a few pricks on her palm.

"I'm so sorry," Rosa said. "Ferroseed, that's enough."

The spiny Pokémon looked back at Rosa a little guiltily, and Ivy laughed. "He just wants a hug."

"You're welcome to it, but don't complain to me when you come out of it with a punctured lung." Rosa recalled the attention-seeking Pokémon and shook her head.

"Are all of them like that?" Lyra said.

"If not, then Fate's having a hell of a laugh at my expense."

Ivy stood up and averted her gaze. "Cheer up, Rosa. There's worse things than having a Pokémon that really loves you."

Lyra stood up and bit her lip, unsure what to say to that.

"...Of course," Rosa said softly. "Let's get back to the hospital."

Ivy tried to ignore the damper on the mood, knowing it hadn't been intentional, but she found herself with nothing to say. Lyra came to the rescue.

"So, Rosa, will you be heading back to Unova? We'll probably leave once Marco can travel, too."

"Yeah, that was the plan. I'm just waiting for Serperior to recover."

They walked in silence for a block and passed by a group of people working with a few Magmar to melt and reshape a section of lava that had covered the main street. The idea was to pave the new road over the lava instead of trying to remove it.

"Ivy," Rosa said all of a sudden. "Do you remember back in Saffron when we met, I asked you if you regretted leaving Team Rocket?"

Ivy frowned and took a moment to think. "...Yeah, I think I remember. Why?"

"I wonder if your answer's still the same after what's happened here. I heard that you had an encounter with someone from your old life."

At the reminder of Karen, Ivy crossed her arms and licked her lips. It was impossible now to think of Karen and not remember Umbreon's gruesome fate.

"Why do you ask?"

Rosa stopped walking, and Lyra stopped beside her. "Rosa?"

"Please," Rosa said. "Tell me your answer."

Ivy regarded the older girl, suddenly curious. "Why do you wanna know? Is there something you're not telling us? Did something happen?"

Try as she might, there was no getting a reading on Rosa. The girl was stone faced and implacable, a trait Ivy envied.

"Please, I'd like to know if you don't mind sharing."

There was a short pause as Ivy gathered her thoughts, though it was a question she'd been asking herself over the last few days while Gary slept. "Yes," she said finally. "I regret it. Karen was..." She struggled for the words. "She was like the mother I never had. Even at the end, there was a part of me that wished I could save her, that things coulda been different. She killed Umbreon just to make me suffer, and I still couldn't hate her. God I'm pathetic."

Lyra and Rosa remained silent and listened.

"But it doesn't matter if I regret it, even a little bit. She had to die, they all did." Ivy fixed Rosa with a hard stare. "They did unforgivable things, and they didn't care. Just because I loved her didn't mean I could let her live another day, not after what she did. What she represented."

"Marco said something like that when we found out he was Giovanni's son," Lyra said softly. "Ethan was so mad, he broke his hand punching a wall." There were tears in her eyes as she relived the memory. "He talked about you a lot, Ivy, said you were his family when he didn't have any. And when we found out he did have a father, he said it didn't matter. You can't choose who you love, and you can't choose your family. But you can choose how to live your life."

A knot wrenched in Ivy's throat despite herself. She rubbed her eyes, unwilling to shed tears in front of them. "That idiot," she played it off like it was no big deal. "Always showing me up and acting all wise and shit."

Rosa remained silent. Something in the way she stood very still and seemed to look without seeing held Ivy's attention. But before Ivy could say anything, Rosa resumed walking.

"Thanks, that...helps. C'mon, we should hurry up and get to the hospital."

Rosa led the rest of the way back to the hospital in a bit of a rush, and Ivy found herself following with Lyra. Neither of them spoke, but Ivy watched Rosa's back as she led the way, curious. Aside from what Oak had told them about Rosa, Ivy realized she knew next to nothing about the older girl. The thought disturbed her more now that Rosa had risked her life to help Ivy and her friends than it had before.

They were soon at the hospital and making their way to the recovery ward. The place was packed to the gills, and Blaine had ordered an expansion to the neighboring buildings to accommodate as many beds as possible. The staff and civilian volunteers treated both Cinnabarean and Rocket soldiers as best they could. Ivy kept her gaze on Rosa's back as she passed by wounded Rocket Agents.

Gary and the others were in the back of the building, having been kept together upon request. The staff had curtained off a section of the room for them where they could have some privacy. When Ivy and the others arrived at their small section of the recovery ward, they found Ash in a hospital gown open at the back that revealed more than anyone wanted to see as he talked with a bedridden Agatha.

"Whoa there," Lyra said.

Ash and Agatha looked up from their conversation, and he smiled. "Hey, ladies."

"Ash, put some pants on if you're gonna be walking around. Do us all a favor," Ivy said.

"Huh? Oh. Well, whatever, it's a hospital. And it's so freakin' hot, anyway. If you can't keep your thirsty eyes off my body, then that's your problem."

Ivy flushed with rage and marched up to him. "What the fuck did you just say to me?"

Ash put up his hands, and before she could grab him by the collar, Gengar popped out of his chest and stuck its tongue out at her in a salacious grin. Ivy faltered, and it was only Lyra's steadying hand that kept her balanced.

"Ugh, nice to see you're feeling better."

"I see you haven't changed at all, Messor," Agatha said in her typical unpleasant way.

She was missing her left arm up past her elbow, and the stump was heavily bandaged. Days of lying motionless on a hospital bed and intravenous feeding had not done her any favors. Agatha was even more gaunt and sunken in all the wrong places than she was the last time Ivy had seen her. But there was something different about her, something less fearsome in those judging eyes that belied an exhaustion no amount of bedrest could cure. It made Ivy hesitate, and she swallowed the vituperative comeback that was on the tip of her tongue.

"Agatha," she said curtly.

Lyra went to see Ethan and Marco, who were just a few beds over from Ash and Agatha, while Rosa hung back.

"Where's Gary? I heard he was awake," Ivy said.

"Yeah, he was askin' for you, over there," Ash said.

He indicated a green curtain next to Agatha's bed, and Ivy walked around her to get to it. She pulled it back, and there was Gary lying on a stretcher hooked up to a multitude of machinery and in the same drab hospital gown as Ash. When he heard her pull back the curtains, he opened his eyes.

"Ivy," he rasped.

Espeon was curled up at the foot of his bed, and the sight of it stopped Ivy in her tracks for a breath. For a moment, she was sure she'd seen black fur instead of violet.

"I'm sorry about Umbreon," Gary said. "I dunno if I got the chance to say it. I'm so sorry."

Ivy smiled sadly and went to him. She found his hand and held it between hers. "And I'm sorry about the Professor. I wish you could've seen him one last time, at least."

His face was pulled tight and there were bags under his bloodshot eyes even now. Bandages were wrapped tightly around his head, but still his hair managed to poke out from under them where they criss-crossed. At the mention of Oak, he averted his gaze and clammed up, so she sat down on the edge of his bed and ran a hand over his cheek. He leaned into her touch and let his eyes drift closed.

"Can I tell you a secret?" he said softly.

"Of course."

"I wanted to kill Marco for what he did to you."

When she didn't respond, Gary opened his eyes.

"I've never wanted to kill someone so much, not even Will."

Ivy tried to keep her breathing normal and steady. "Why didn't you?"

He wasn't looking at her anymore, but at visions far away. "'Cause I knew you were dying, and I didn't wanna give those last moments to him instead of you."

Her hand fell to his shoulder and heat pooled behind her eyes. "Well, the important thing is you didn't kill him. In fact, you saved him."

Gary took her hand on his shoulder and brought it to his mouth to kiss the heel of her palm.

"Gary—"

"Don't, please. Let me have this, just for a little."

A few tears fell down her cheeks and dripped off her chin on his bed, but she let him have his moment.

"I love you, you know."

He looked up at her, green eyes wide with wonderment.

"I've loved you since Lavender, but after everything that happened in Saffron, I dunno. For a mind reader, you sure are slow."

"...I can't read your mind."

Ivy leaned over him. "Sure you can."

He hooked his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her down for a slow, sad kiss that she felt down to her toes.

"See?" she said when they parted.

He swallowed and searched her eyes. "Yeah. I think I do."

"Lily, how'd it go?" Ash said on the other side of the curtain.

Curious, Gary sat up in bed and Ivy got up to pull the curtain back. Ash was back in his bed next to Agatha with Pikachu in his lap and Gengar plopped down at the foot when Lily, dressed in an identical hospital gown, approached with a nurse. She dragged an IV stand behind her.

"Fine, I think, but this hospital dress thing is really getting on my nerves," Lily said. "Whose idea was it to have it open in the back? Did they forget that people have butts? I mean, this is ridiculous! They won't even let me wear my underwear, so I had to put on another gown backwards under this one!"

Lily's left arm was in a sling and she had a few bandages on her face and around her middle, but she walked with ease and her Pikachu, as always, was along for the ride on her good shoulder. When it spotted Ash's Pikachu, it squeaked in delight and hopped onto Ash's bed.

Agatha remained silent and dour as she gave Lily a once-over. Ivy narrowed her eyes.

"Agatha, have you met Lily? She's the resident Titan of our group."

Agatha bristled. "We've met. And given recent events, I would think you of all people would be a little more understanding of my suspicions."

"Hey, c'mon guys," Ash said. "Let's not fight, okay? I'm sick of fighting."

"Nice to see you again, Agatha," Lily said with a small smile.

Agatha snorted. "What has the world come to?"

Lily thanked the nurse for her time and scooted back onto her own bed next to Ash's.

"Don't worry about Agatha," Ash said. "You get used to her." He paused before adding, "She's really great, I promise."

"If you think so, then I think so, too."

Agatha watched their exchange but said nothing.

"Hey Lily," Ivy said. "No word yet, but I got the doctors at the Pokémon Center to operate on Dody. I'll let you know as soon as they know anything."

Lily lit up. "Really? That's great, thank you! Oh, I hope she'll be okay. Dody's really a good bird, you know? Soon as I find some normal clothes, I'm gonna go see her and Nauty..."

She trailed off when she spotted Rosa near the curtain with her arms crossed, ever silent and watching.

"Rosa, I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

"Don't worry about it," Rosa said.

"All the same, I'm really sorry about your Beartic. If I coulda done something... I'm so sorry. You really loved him, didn't you?"

Ivy looked between the two young women, and something in the pit of her stomach clenched. Guilt constricted her throat as she understood Lily's meaning.

Why didn't she say anything before?

Rosa smiled sadly. "Yeah. I got him when he was just a little Cubchoo from Professor Juniper. He was a good companion. But nothing can survive an Electrode's Explosion. Don't blame yourself, it was my fault."

Ivy let her gaze fall, suddenly ashamed at how she'd snapped at Rosa earlier. Everyone had suffered in this war, some more than others.

Just then, Lyra reappeared pushing Marco in a wheelchair. Ethan was with her, both his arms strung up in slings. Nevertheless, he managed to be eating a roll that he held onto precariously with his thumb and forefinger.

"Marco."

Ivy looked back at Gary, but he nodded to her and she took that as the okay to leave him for now. She bypassed Agatha's bed and laid a hand on Marco's shoulder. His head and face were heavily bandaged and splotched with blood, and he had a blanket over his legs.

"Over here," he indicated his right side for her to stand. "I can't hear you on that side."

Ivy bit her lip, shocked at the wave of incandescent fury that swept through her at the thought of him being deaf and blind on his left side. He was confined to a wheelchair while his head healed, but the doctors weren't sure if he would ever walk properly again. Lyra smoothed some of his bangs out of his good eye, and he took her hand without a word.

"You know, even with one eye, you'll still be able to catch me sneakin' up on you," Ethan joked.

"That's because you're incapable of being quiet," Marco shot back, though he couldn't hide the hint of a smirk.

"Hey man, I know you're jealous that I always make an entrance, no need to make up excuses for their benefit." He gestured to the rest of the room's occupants.

"True. Whenever you two bust in, Ethan's always the center of attention," Lyra quipped.

"You see what I have to put up with?" Marco said.

Ivy kneeled down so she was looking up at him and smiled. "Yeah. Guess we found some strays on our way after all, huh?"

He blinked and did his best to return her smile. "More like they found us." He turned then to Lily and addressed her directly. "You."

Lily looked behind her quickly to make sure he didn't have the wrong person. "Me?"

"Yes, you. Lily, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Can you... Can you come over here for a minute? I'm not very mobile right now."

Lily and Ash exchanged a look, and Gengar hopped onto her bed on its stubby legs and plopped down beside her. But she slipped off the bed and Gengar frowned, having just situated itself. Gingerly, she approached Marco.

"What can I do for you?"

He looked up at her, and Ivy was sure she saw her shiver a little. She'd heard the story of how Lily had faced the red Gyarados and Marco himself while Rosa and Blaine dealt with Team Rocket, but she couldn't imagine what Marco would have to say to her now. He wasn't the type to hold a grudge when she'd only done what was necessary while he was being controlled.

"You can accept this." He held out his hand, and in the palm rested a small Badge in the shape of a delicate leaf. It was only about an inch long, but it was inlaid with jade and finished in gold.

Lily frowned and reached for the Badge. "What is it? And why're you giving it to me? Did I do something wrong?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

Lily blushed. "You're not the first person to tell me that."

"That's the Earth Badge. Giovanni, that is, my...father," he swallowed, "was the Viridian City Gym Leader. He used his position as a way to give Team Rocket access to Kanto through a reputable network. I was supposed to inherit everything—Team Rocket, the Gym, everything. And when he...well, when I killed him, everything passed to me.

"You stood up to me when no one else did. If you hadn't stopped Gyarados, she would've probably turned the war for Team Rocket. I was so preoccupied with you that I didn't have time to worry about the Cinnabarean soldiers. I don't even know how many lives you saved by coming after me directly."

"What? No, it wasn't really like that, I just happened to be there is all. I'm sure if it was Ivy or Ethan or somebody else—"

"But it wasn't somebody else. It was you. I hear you're a Titan, and that's why you could control my Gyarados. But you did more than that; you stopped her, and you stopped me from killing countless innocent people. I know it probably doesn't mean much coming from a legal loophole, but technically I'm the current Viridian Gym Leader. So I'm offering you the Earth Badge as proof of what you did for all the people in this hospital, and for what you did for me. Now hurry up and take it."

Lily held up the small Badge to catch the light. "I dunno what to say...except thank you. And I'm really glad you're yourself again." She smiled shyly.

"Excuse me, Marco?" a nurse said, pulling back the curtain and poking her head in. "Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt."

Lyra pushed Marco's wheelchair toward the waiting nurse, and Ivy stood up.

"We just finished," Marco said.

"Well, if you're up for it, I'd like to go ahead and administer the next round of treatment. One more and you should be well enough to start walking around again— Oh, you there, Ivy! The doctor's been looking everywhere for you. You never showed up for your blood work this morning."

Ivy backed away. "Didn't I? Hah, sorry, musta slipped my mind."

The nurse frowned. "Well, please don't go anywhere. I'll let the doctor know you're here now."

"Really, I'm fine. You don't have to run anymore tests."

The nurse wasn't having any of it. "I'm sorry, but from the report I gathered, you experienced heart failure followed by an emergency Softboiled treatment administered on the battlefield. By all accounts you should not have survived, so I'm sure you'll understand our desire to monitor your condition."

Before Ivy could get another word in, the nurse shooed Lyra away from Marco's wheelchair and took up the position herself.

"Now then, we'll just pop out to see the doctor and get you fixed up."

The nurse left with Marco, and no one said a word for several moments.

"Ivy," Rosa said. "Is that true what she said? About how you died out there for a while?"

"Wait a minute, it sounds really creepy when you put it like that. Obviously, I couldn't have died since I'm still here." She gestured to Lyra. "Blissey's Softboiled saved me."

"No, it didn't," Gary said.

Everyone turned to look at him as he sat up in bed.

"Lyra, you said so yourself that you were too late administering the Softboiled egg."

Lyra nodded. "That's right."

Ivy looked back at Lyra. "But I'm still here, so obviously it worked. Softboiled's s'posed to be able to heal any injury, right?"

"Well yeah, that's true, but... Ivy, nothing either people or Pokémon can do can revive the dead. What happened with you out there... It was nothing short of a miracle."

"Agatha? Are you okay?" Ash said.

Agatha was trembling and clutching her stump, eyes wide. Sensing her agitation, her two Gengar and Mismagius appeared above her and began to roil in distress. Rosa reached for her, but Agatha jerked away.

She struggled to sit up properly in bed. "I knew it would come to this. The minute I laid eyes on you, Messor, I knew it. You're all the same."

"Now wait just a goddamned minute." Ivy glared at Agatha. "From the moment I met you, you've been nothing but mean and suspicious of me for absolutely no reason. Fine, I don't give a shit what you think about me. But you don't know me. I'm nothing like Karen; that's why I lived and she died."

"Agatha, what's the matter? You know Ivy's one of us, and she's got a point," Ash said.

Agatha shook her head. "You don't understand. She should be dead, but she's not."

"Is that a threat?" Ivy's hand fisted the skirt of her sundress, ready to hike it up and get to the knife she'd holstered to her thigh.

"What do you mean, dead?" Ethan said.

Agatha remained silent for a few moments. Her Ghosts gathered around her, a mass of dark clouds with eyes and hidden teeth. Ash's Gengar hopped back to his bed and watched them, but dared not creep too close.

"Agatha?" Ash said.

She deflated and withdrew her claws, though her craggy face remained ever warped in an eternal grimace. Ivy relaxed a little at the abated threat and let her skirt fall around her knees.

"Tea, please," Agatha said finally.

Ash moved around her bed to the small tray that had been set up next to it and filled her cup from the steaming kettle. Gengar tried to swipe at the falling liquid, but its gaseous hand passed right through it and the Ghost hissed in pain from the heat. Ash gave it a look that said, "What did you expect?" and Gengar frowned dramatically. Agatha laid back against her pillows with her Ghosts gathered about her lap in their corporeal forms.

"I'm sensing a story coming on," Ash said. "Did you have a bad run-in with a Reaper back in the day?"

"I count myself lucky that in my youth traveling the continent, my encounters with Reapers were minimal. They were always hostile, of course. No exceptions. But Sam...asked me to help you." She turned to Gary. "All three of you. It was his last wish." She paused to collect herself and clutched her stump closer to her chest. "I can't do much anymore, but I can tell you what I should have when we first met. Maybe then things will be a bit clearer to you all. Maybe...you'll understand."

"We're listening," Gary said.

Agatha shifted her accusatory gaze to Ivy once more. "Messor, I know you think me cantankerous and rigid. I don't deny it. No use changing at my age. But I'm not the only one you've encountered that flinches at the stench of you."

It took every ounce of willpower—and the flash of warning in Ash's eyes—not to lash out at Agatha. She gritted her teeth. "I don't care what people think of me."

"No, but perhaps you'd care to know why."

"All right, I'll humor you for them." She indicated Ash and Gary. "So go on, then. Why're you so afraid of me?"

"Because you're the only person in this room that has died and lived to tell about it. You cannibalized Karen's darkness when you killed her, and that same darkness saved you from your own demise."

"C-Cannibalized?" Lily said. "You don't mean literally, like..."

Ethan dropped the roll he'd been munching on.

Ivy almost wanted to laugh. "Wow. I've been called a lotta things, but this is a first. At least the other names I earned for a reason. Maybe you really are going senile, Agatha."

"Hold your tongue, insolent girl. Do you want to learn the truth about yourself or not?"

Ivy said nothing and simmered in silence. Agatha took it as tacit acceptance and continued.

"As I was saying, you stole Karen's darkness and offered it up to the original Reaper in exchange for your life, just as many of your kind have done before you. That's why Messor are widely hated and feared. You murder your own kind to extend your life beyond its natural expectancy. Imagine, for example, a Messor who cannibalizes so many of his kind that he gains a kind of immortality. He would be an aberration, a creature of chaos so dark and deep, even his own kind would run in fear of him."

"That's messed up," Ethan said. "Shit."

Ivy was suddenly uncomfortably cold. "No, no you're wrong. That's not me."

"It's the legacy you've inherited, whether you accept it or not," Agatha said.

"Original Reaper?" Gary said, his tone betraying nothing of his inner thoughts.

"An old legend, but like all legends, this one begins with the truth. You died and reclaimed life because it's what you were created to do."

"Created?" Lyra said. "Wait, you mean..."

"Yes. Unlike most of you, Reapers aren't born; they're made. Just as Karen made you."

Like a punch to the gut, Ivy lost the ability to breathe for a moment. Goosebumps prickled her flesh, and she had the urge to hug her bare arms to her chest. She saw a vision of Karen, hunched and hideously twisted under Tyranitar's Earthquake, those dark eyes trained on her.

Karen...made me?

"Bullshit," Ivy said, swallowing the lump in her throat.

"It's true. Most Tamers are born. They inherit their ability from a parent or close relative, the way Gary inherited his Clairvoyance from Sam. But Reapers are made, just as Mediums and Magi are made."

"Whoa, wait, me too?" Ash said.

His Pikachu perked up and squeaked up at him.

Agatha sipped her tea. The cup shook a bit in her spindly hand. "Yes, you and me both. And Magi, the Fairy Tamers of old. Together, the three of them were the first Tamers from which all the rest evolved. Or so the legend goes."

"You said you wanted to help," Ivy said. "This is definitely not helping. And I'm not what you're saying I am. I didn't even know this when I...when I killed Karen."

Agatha turned up her beak-like nose. "On the subject of your ignorance, you'll find no argument from me."

"Well, I don't really care if I was made or born or whatever," Ash said. "If it wasn't for Gengar, Lorelei woulda turned me into a popsicle."

"I care," Gary said softly, gaze hard and unreadable as he scrutinized Agatha from his bed. Espeon looked up from its snooze, suddenly on high alert as it eyed Gary. "Agatha, I think you better tell us why this is suddenly so important."

Agatha took another sip of her piping hot tea and rested the cup on her lap. Her two Gengar made a game out of catching the steam while the placid Mismagius looked on, uninterested.

"The original Reaper," she explained in her deadpan, raspy tone, "also known as Death, for those of you who are slower on the uptake. Like all things, this story begins and ends with Death. But most people shrink in fear from the concept, so our ancestors gave Death another name, one they could envision as a creature of flesh and blood itself susceptible to death—Yveltal.

"This is where the legend wanders into the realm of the fantastical. Yveltal is the name given to a Pokémon, a colossal bird wet with the blood of its victims and dark wings that could bring the night with a single, mighty flap. The story goes that Yveltal, the original Reaper, became greedy for souls and stole so much life that people and Pokémon nearly died out entirely to feed its hunger. Yveltal would have exterminated the entire human race if not—"

Agatha coughed suddenly and spilled some of her tea. Ash steadied her shoulder and took her cup while she heaved. She tried to wave him off, but he held onto her cup until she calmed down.

"If not for the blue hart, Xerneas," she said after a few rattling breaths. "Like Yveltal, Xerneas is the name the ancients gave the original Magus and the incarnation of Life. It used all its power to restore the lives Yveltal had stolen."

"Huh? Wait, so you're saying these two super Pokémon killed everyone then brought 'em all back? Why'd they do that? Seems like a zero-sum game to me," Ethan said.

"Shall I sit here as a convenient target for your asinine questions, or will you allow me to finish the story sometime today?"

Ethan's ears turned red with shame, and Lyra elbowed him lightly.

"Sorry," he muttered.

Agatha shook her head. "Anyway, Xerneas didn't have the power to restore all the lives that were taken, so some brave souls offered to remain dead so that others, children and innocents ripped from life long before their time, could live in their stead. Xerneas couldn't restore them to their former selves, but in exchange for their sacrifice, it granted them life anew by imparting a piece of its own power to them. They were reborn into the world as the first human Magi. As the inheritors of Xerneas's will, the Magi went on to create more life and rebuild the world. That is, until they ironically all died out. Their descendents became the first Clairvoyants, Ignifers, Sylvans, and Syreni.

"But some of the souls Yveltal had stolen didn't want to be restored at all."

Lily shivered. "Who would wanna stay dead?"

"Those who don't fear Death. And, perhaps, those who recognized themselves in Death's image. Death is a lonely existence, and all living things are destined to die alone and in darkness. It takes a special brand of courage, or perhaps madness, to embrace that ultimate unknown."

Ivy caught Gary watching her, and as usual she got the uncanny sensation that somewhere deep down, he really could read her thoughts even though he denied it.

"Yveltal rewarded the souls that agreed to keep it company by imparting its power to them. Thus, they returned to the land of the living imbued with Death's blessing with the promise to return to darkness in the end."

"The first Reapers," Ivy said softly.

"Yes. From them came Deaths' derivative incarnations—Veleno, Crystallos, Volucris, Adamantine, and Caelifer."

"You mentioned the Magi all died out," Rosa said. "You mean they're extinct?"

"For centuries."

"Are you sure?"

"If any are still alive today, they're in deep hiding. But the chances are infinitesimally small. The last Magus died close to four hundred years ago in Kalos. Suicide, like all the others."

All the others. The ominous revelation echoed in Ivy's head like the aftershock of a grenade.

"All the others," Rosa repeated. "They all committed suicide? Why?"

"They went mad. Some power...isn't meant for humans to comprehend, much less dare to wield themselves."

"Creepy," Ethan whispered to Lyra.

Ash frowned. "Well, what about us? You said Mediums like you 'n me're also made. Where'd we come from?"

"And us," Lyra said. "You haven't mentioned Atlas or Fulmen, either."

Agatha warmed her fingers around her tea cup. "Ash, you and I come from those who neither Yveltal nor Xerneas wanted. Among the lives Yveltal stole were those on the brink of death, their natural lives expired but not quite past the final threshold. With nowhere else to go, those wandering spirits possessed the most malleable vessels they could find—human children. Those children became the first Mediums.

"As you know, hosting a Ghost is taxing on the body. So in exchange for the perpetual haunting, the child Mediums gained extraordinary powers of longevity. As for you," she addressed Lyra and Ethan. "The first Mediums didn't create anything because we are nothing. A void can't create or destroy anything, it just is. But nature's response to our corrupted existed created Atlas, Bellators, and Fulmen, the Tamers that can evade a Ghost's ghoulish touches either because they're immune or because they defy Life and Death entirely."

"Surge," Gary said. "He survived that massive Thunderbolt back in Saffron."

"Wait a minute," Lily said all of a sudden. "What about people like me? You didn't say where Titans came from."

"Oh yeah, what's up with that?" Ash said.

"What is 'up' with that is that Titans aren't Tamers at all, not like the rest of us," Agatha sneered. "Their ilk's got nothing to do with our origin myth."

Lily frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means the first Titans were the sons and daughters of Dragons. The three dynasties that remain today all claim to have Dragonsblood in their veins, and that's why Dragons and their descendants can't defy them. A load of codswallop if you ask me."

Lily looked at her hands, small and nimble like a surgeon's. "Dragonsblood? Then that means Lance has it, too."

"What do you know about Lance?" Agatha snapped.

"Lance," Ethan said. "Wait, that Lance? Like, Scary Clair's cousin, Lance?"

"Don't call her that. Clair's the reason we made it to Kanto at all." Lyra swatted him on his broken shoulder, and Ethan hissed in pain.

"Ow!"

"Clair's not the scary one." Marco pulled back the curtain where a nurse had wheeled him back after his treatment. "It's Lance himself we should be worried about."

"Marco." Lyra went to him and pushed his chair back into the room.

He sat stiffly, but there was more color in his cheeks than there had been earlier.

"Lance is a traitor," Agatha spat. "All the Elite Four are."

"Hey, where is Lance?" Ash said. "Sounds like we met the rest of the Elite Four, but he wasn't here?"

Lily was still staring at her hand, eyes vacant and unfocused. Ivy frowned, suspicious.

"No, that was never part of the plan," Marco said. Shifting in his chair, he winced and tried to get a bit more comfortable. The bandages around his left eye and ear were fresh. "When I was with Team Rocket, I learned about my...Giovanni's plans. But like we found out at the Lake of Rage," he nodded to Ethan and Lyra, "they weren't even his plans to begin with."

"What do you mean? What'd you find out?" Ivy said.

"That the true leader of Team Rocket isn't Giovanni at all. He's a a Johto Gym Leader, Pryce of Mahogany Town. But Ivy and me knew him better by his alias—the Masked Man."

"What? The Masked Man was a Gym Leader the whole time?"

"Yeah," Ethan said. "After Lyra 'n me joined up with Marco, we figured out pretty quick that the Johto Gym Leaders weren't gonna go up against Team Rocket. So we decided to kick 'em in the balls where it'd hurt most instead. Maximum damage, you know."

"By the time we got to the Lake of Rage," Marco went on, "we'd discovered the truth about the Masked Man—Pryce—and his role as Team Rocket's true leader. But that's not all."

"It's not?" Lyra said.

"No, I was meaning to tell you this when I was better, but I don't think it should wait any longer. When I was with Team Rocket, I found out about the Silver Wing project."

"The Silver Wing," Lily said. "I was working on that in Saffron. Do you know what happened?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Giovanni commissioned it for a superior. I was with him when he made the drop. He handed it over to Lance."

Ethan groaned. "I know I'm gonna regret askin', but what's the Silver Wing and why did G-Man hand it over to Lance?"

"He handed it over because Pryce told him to. Pryce was the one that came up with the project in the first place. See, he already knew it was possible to control a legendary Pokémon. All he needed was a way to call on it for the right price. For a chance to have a legendary Pokémon do his bidding, Lance was willing to pay it."

"Then it's true," Ivy said. "The Masked Man... Pryce, whatever. He really does have a Ho-oh."

Marco nodded grimly. "Yeah, he does."

"Lugia," Lily said. "That's what Dr. Santos called it, the legendary Pokémon. You're saying... You mean it's real? Lance can use the Silver Wing to summon it? But why?"

Marco shook his head. "That, I don't know."

"Lance," Agatha said more to herself than to the others. "All this for a taste of power." Her Ghosts began to fret in agitation as her emotions raged. "Bruno, and then Sam... All for some narcissistic fantasy..."

"So lemme get this straight," Ash said. "Lance, the badass Elite Four Champion who's s'posed to keep the peace between Kanto and Johto's actually the whole reason we're fighting Team Rocket? And Lavender, and Saffron, Fuchsia... All that goes back to him. All those people, the Pokémon, Chimera." He was shaking with unbridled rage. "Pallet Town, my mom... All 'cause of this one asshole. That's what you're tellin' me?"

Marco averted his gaze. "That's one way to look at it."

Ash turned his rage on Agatha. "You know him. Did you know? Did you know about Pallet? About any of this?"

Agatha just stared, blinking. Ash's Gengar, vicariously agitated as Ash's emotions got the better of him, grew into a sinister cloud over his shoulders that spread like poison. Lyra and Ethan backed off, and even Pikachu whimpered. Rosa had a white-knuckled grip on one of her Pokéballs and looked ready to bolt.

"You were one of them! The Elite Four, sworn to protect the continent and keep us outta war, right? What a fucking joke!"

Ivy stepped forward. "Ash, calm down."

"Calm? How can I be calm? How can any of you be calm? The system, it's all a lie. And for what?" Ash bared his teeth at Ivy. "What'd we even do any of this for? What'd we actually accomplish, huh?"

"Ash." Lily took his hand in hers and searched his eyes.

He avoided her gaze, but Gengar began to recede slowly. "I'm so sick of this. I'm so sick of a few assholes thinking they can screw up people's lives and torture Pokémon and all the other crap we've been dealing with over the past year. And for what, some fucking power trip? 'Cause they're bored?" He pulled off his hat and crushed it in his free hand. "I swear, I'm gonna put a stop to this. Somehow, Lance and anybody else who's involved is goin' down."

"No, we will," Lily said. "I'm responsible, at least in part. I'm gonna stop him, too."

"How do you stop a legendary Pokémon?" Lyra said. "Ho-oh, Lugia, it all seems a little impossible."

"No, it's the opposite," Gary said. "It's necessarily possible. That's what he meant, back in Pewter. It wasn't just a legend—they stopped Lugia once before."

"Pewter? What're you talking about? Who stopped Lugia?" Ash said.

Gary looked between Ash and Ivy. "The Triumvirate. Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres."