Puppetmistress Yuxai

The floor of the shrine was now completely covered in ice, dropping the temperature a few more degrees. Gaia and Alice started to shiver. They did not like the cold. Knowing what to do, they took two Yache berries from their bags and ate them. Instantly the cold left their bodies and was replaced by a slightly warm feeling. Yuxai stared at the two of them with a near-impressed expression.

"Yache berries? Well, it's good to know that the three of you aren't as reckless as my husband."

She swung her arm at them. The puppet lunged forward towards Gaia, its claws glowing with ice energy. Alice took a deep breath and spat out a ball of fire. Yuxai flexed her fingers and moved the puppet to the right, dodging the fireball. Gaia charged forward and swung at it, but Yuxai made the puppet dodge again. However, it didn't dodge the Fire Punch that Seth slammed into its torso.

Since fire melts ice, water started pouring out of the puppet. Yuxai was forced the cut the magic strings and abandon it. Now that there was nothing defending her; she was wide open. Gaia's Spirit Sword was engulfed in flames and grew twice its length. He ran towards Yuxai, his blade in front of him. She floated towards the side, but the Spirit Sword just nicked her twice, making her wince in pain.

"I see. So that's how it is." She hissed. Yuxai raised her hand up to her mouth and bit down on it, the sharp teeth puncturing her skin and letting blood flow into her mouth. She ignored the pain and focused. Ice shards rose from the ground and formed three identical puppets of herself in the air. Blue strings flew from her right hand and attached themselves to the back of her puppets. Now she had three objects that could attack and defend at the same time.

The battle was going to be hard; Team Enforcers knew this already. Two of the puppets flew towards them. Seth waited until one got close, then struck it with a Shadow Claw. It wasn't enough to defeat it. The puppet launched itself on top of him and slammed a hard punch into the Sableye's stomach.

When Yuxai was alive, she wasn't a physical fighter. She specialized in mid-long range combat, which meant she used special attacks the most. Her puppets had only one quarter of her own strength and combined with the fact that her physical strength was low meant that the punch hardly did anything. "Get off me!" Seth shouted before shooting a Power Gem from the stones embedded in his stomach. Rock is super effective against Ice and the puppet shattered into a million tiny pieces, like a baseball hitting a pane of glass.

Meanwhile, Gaia and Alice were fighting the second puppet. Alice slashed a Dragon Claw at it. It nearly connected, but at the last moment the puppet dodged aside. The claw missed by a singled millimetre. Of course, missing in a battle is as useful as a spanner in a set of complicated works. The puppet managed to dodge it because of Yuxai's Snow Cloak ability, which increased her evasion during a hailstorm or snow. Gaia tried to slash it, but he was stopped by Yuxai's third puppet slashing its claws into his side. It scraped some blood from the newly created wound and retreated back to its master. Yuxai leant over to her puppets arm and licked the fresh blood into her mouth. Gaia stared in disgust. Alice didn't notice; she was too busy smashing the second puppet to pieces with her claws.

"Aaaahh…that feels so good!" This got the attention of Gaia's other teammates. Yuxai had an extremely creepy and elated smile on her face. She closed her eyes and focused. Ice shards rose out of the ground and formed a puppet. Blue strings shot out of Yuxai's left hand and attached to the puppet. This time the puppet was standing. And it looked exactly like Gaia, minus the sword and green skin replaced by semi-transparent sky blue ice.

"What the hell?" the Grovyle stammered. He certainly hadn't been expecting this.

Now Yuxai had two puppets, one of Gaia and one of herself. She grinned nastily before flexing her left arm towards the three explorers and sending the Gaia puppet lunging at them. Of course, the puppet only had a quarter of Gaia's strength, but they didn't know that. Gaia swung his sword at his doppelganger. Yuxai made the puppet jump on top of the sword for a second, then jump off again and kick Gaia in the face. The Grovyle fell backwards, blood streaming from his nose. Alice roared and breathed a stream of fire. The puppet dodged around it and sank a Leaf Blade attack into the Gabite's hips. Alice flinched, but retaliated and slammed a hard punch into its neck. Seth rushed forward and smashed the puppet on the head with his Fire Punch. It melted to the ground.

Suddenly, claws slashed him from behind and he fell to the ground in pain. Yuxai's puppet of herself had attacked him from behind and blood was on the fingers of its right arm. Yuxai sucked the blood into her mouth with relish and concentrated. Like before, another puppet was created from ice shard in the ground and blue strings were attached to its back.

"Let's do this!" Yuxai screamed. She lifted her head back and charged up an Ice Beam, then fired. At the same time she commanded both of her puppets to attack. It was hard, having to dodge the beam and the puppets at the same time. Gaia got blasted by the beam in the arm, then had his stomach belted by the Seth puppet's Fire Punch. The Ice Beam didn't hurt as much, the Fire Punch did. What's worse, the punch left a small burn on his chest. It didn't seem like much, but Gaia knew that it would hurt and weaken him at the same time. He quickly took out a Heal Seed and ate it. Then he got up and charged his blade with sky blue energy.

There was a sharp sound of a blade cutting something, and the Seth puppet fell to the ground in tiny pieces. Gaia had used Aerial Ace again. For some reason, that move made his arm move impossibly fast. And because of that, it was now hurting.

Seth and Alice charged at the second puppet, elemental claws charged up in their hands. Yuxai saw them coming and lifted pointed her free hand at them. A large icicle rose from the ground and knocked them back. It hurt Alice more. Even after eating the Yache berry, ice attacks still did double damage against her. Yuxai formed a Shadow Ball and threw it. Just in time, Gaia jumped in its path and used Mirror Coat. The white shield comprised of hexagons reflected the black orb back at its owner. Yuxai used her puppet to shield herself. Unfortunately, the Shadow Ball broke it. She wasn't too worried about this. She pointed her arm again and three icicles rose from the ground, knocking all three explorers back.

Suddenly, there was another sound of a blade cutting something, and Yuxai felt intense pain rush through her body. She looked down and saw that her torso had a large cut in it, and it was bleeding heavily. She looked up again saw that Gaia's sword was charged up with sky blue energy.

"Damn you Aeros…" she growled bitterly. That Altaria had annoyed her with his slightly impulsive behaviour when she was alive. Maybe not as much as Marly or Disaster the Absol, but he was annoying when he wanted to be. A sudden flaming punch to the forehead knocked out of her thoughts and sent her skidding across the floor. Froslasses weren't known for their walling skills. She tried to summon icicles, but found that she was drained of energy. Gaia rushed forward and stabbed her in the chest.

Blood spurted out of the space where her heart should be. She stopped moving.

"It's over," Gaia gasped. He lifted his blade out of the Froslass's body.

"Yes it is." Yuxai slowly got up and faced them. Blood was continuously pouring out of her wounds, "You have beaten me. Congratulations. Let me give you what you came here for."

She raised her hands to the air and concentrated. Blue spheres of light gathered in the air to form a light blue plate, which dropped to the floor. Gaia walked over and picked it up.

"You…" Yuxai pointed her right arm at Gaia. Her words came with ragged breaths and seemed to be at the end of her life. She was fading in and out, like a ghost. "You remind me of your predecessor. He was just as brave and strong as you." She pointed towards Alice. "You're like Sabaku, she was just as violent and caring as you are." She pointed at Seth, "And you remind me of my husband. He was just as obnoxious and likeable like you." And then she smiled. Not an evil smile, not a bitter smile but a true smile that she had when she was alive. "I loved him, I loved him and I loved him. I promised to be with him forever, but eventually I had to break that promise. When the two of us were separated, I could hear his and my hearts breaking. But at last, I can see him again." She smiled again, "Thank you."

With that last sentence, she faded away into nothingness. A blue portal was left behind. Team Enforcers stepped into it and was teleported away.

XXXXXXXX

Back in the stone room, the statue of a Froslass split in half and crashed to the ground.

"So Yuxai is dead," Disaster the Absol stated, "I envy her."

"Shouldn't you be somewhere?" Sabaku the Flygon asked.

"Oh yeah. Sorry. I guess I'll see you guys later." Disaster teleported out of the room, heading for his dungeon in Dark City.

XXXXXXXX

It was raining.

The dark figure that had killed some of the Legendaries was hurrying towards Treasure Town at top speed. A flash of lightning revealed its true form.

It was a bipedal fox, colored greyish-brown with red and black parts. It had a long snout and ears, the insides colored red. A large man extended from its forehead, colored red and black tips dotting it. A green bangle tied the mane on the back.

"Gaia, I'm coming to kill you. I'm gonna rip your guts out and shovel them down my throat." he grinned, "I swear it on my name of Zoroark!"

XXXXXXXX

Garrett was meditating in his garden when he heard a humming noise from behind him. He got up and turned around just in time to see his daughter and her two friends step out of a blue portal.

"Father!" Alice gasped once she saw him, "You're here? Then that must mean—"

"The three of you are in my garden." Garrett replied, "Because the three of you are alive, I assume that you have defeated the guardian?"

"Yeah," Gaia held up the Icicle plate, "We defeated a Froslass and got this."

"Excellent. I knew the three of you could do it." Garrett gestured towards his house, "Let's go inside. I'm sure that you all must be tired."

"We are," Seth said, "Thanks."

XXXXXXXX

Yuxai was travelling along a dark turnnel towards the light. She felt at ease, knowing that she finally was going to die and see her beloved Marly again.

Memories floated back into her mind. Memories that she had tried to forget as part of her duty as a guardian.

She remembered slapping Marly in the face the first time she met him, due to his behaviour.

She remembered the day he deflated a bit and she actually started liking him, as a friend.

She remembered being partnered up with him for missions during the civil war and their friendship eventually turned into love.

She remembered kissing Marly in the medical sickbay after his operation and beating up Aeros and Disaster for playing a prank on her.

She remembered making love with him and the day the two of them got married.

She remembered Marly's touch. She remembered his usual smile. She remembered his kiss.

All of a sudden she heard a voice call her from the end of the tunnel.

"Yuxai! You're here! Come on my sweetheart, I love you!"

She smiled fondly upon hearing the term of endearment Marly used to describe her. "I'm coming Marly," she whispered, "I'm coming, my love."

And when she met him in the grassy plains of the afterlife, no words were exchanged. They simply passionately kissed each other and didn't let go.

They were finally together.