A/N: This thing is gonna be exactly 40 chapters, just like Pokéflute of Time. I did not even plan this.
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Pichu and Clefairy tore across the abandoned Clock Town in the scant minutes they had left before the end of the world. The moon was already closer to the earth than they'd ever allowed it to get. The entire sky above them was dyed a blood red, bathing the landscape in a hellish glow.
"Self-preservation instinct, don't fail me now!" Pichu shrieked as the tremors grew more violent by the second.
"What is your plan when we get up there? Please tell me you have a plan," Clefairy shouted over the incessant ringing of the Clock Tower bells.
"Well, my goal is to charm him into submission and lower his guard with my irresistible fluffiness. Then once his defense is down, I'll just throw my sword through his head."
"I'm sorry I asked."
The staircase leading up to the top of the Clock Tower had long since opened up, and so as they were running toward it, Clefairy grabbed Pichu and hurled him up onto the platform before floating up herself, and together they ascended the stairs to meet the foe who was waiting for them.
Nuzleaf was hovering several yards above the ground, gazing up in rapt anticipation at the moon. As soon as he heard Pichu and Clefairy approach, he turned around to face them, though with Majerkass's Mask on his face it was impossible to read his expression.
"Hmm… wait a minute. I turned you into a Snivy, you idiot! How come you're back to normal?"
Pichu chuckled. "Heh heh, well, that's a funny story. It all started when I was on vacation in the far-off land of Gregvania. I happened upon an old man there, and I still remember the wise words he told me to this day…"
"There is no way this could possibly be going any worse," Clefairy groaned as Pichu continued rambling.
Suddenly Cleffa zoomed in front of her, bobbing frantically up and down. "Ohmygoshsisisitreallyyou? It'smeit'smeCleffa! Youremembermerightyourlittlebrother? Ofcourseyouremembermehahasillyright?"
"Of course I had to open my mouth." Clefairy grabbed Cleffa and threw him off the Clock Tower. "Nuzleaf, has it even occurred to you that you'll be killing yourself along with everybody else if you do this? I know you and this other idiot have at least one thing in common, and that's an entirely selfish sense of self-preservation!"
"Uh…" Nuzleaf actually seemed to ponder this. "I actually hadn't thought of that. Um… maybe this was a bad idea. I wonder if I could just put the moon back or – "
He was cut off as the Great Fairy's Sword came flying through the air straight at his head, bounced harmlessly off the evil mask, came falling back down and embedded itself in Clefairy's forehead.
Pichu looked a little embarrassed. "Uh, heads up, C-Money, I may have just botched negotiations."
Even with the mask on, it was clear Nuzleaf was now pissed. "All right, &*?# it, the plan is going forward. Say goodbye to your precious Termina."
"NO!" Pichu suddenly screamed up at him, and everyone present was taken aback by the rage in his voice. "We're ending this shit now, Nuzleaf! Do you even realize what you've put me through? I've been forced to relive the same cycle of time over and over, trying to kill all the witches and stop my lesbian girlfriend from becoming a Magical Girl, and failing every time! But NOT THIS TIME!"
Nuzleaf turned to look at Clefairy. "What the hell is he talking about?"
"You're asking me?!" Clefairy snapped.
"Right, I don't care anymore. You both get to die now." And then, just as he had done during the first cycle, Nuzleaf spread his arms and let loose a bloodcurdling scream that echoed for miles around, drawing on the dark power within the mask. Pichu and Clefairy braced themselves against the waves of darkness that poured from his body as the moon was pulled down more and more quickly, spreading out to fill the entire sky.
"Great. Just great. Exactly what we needed right now. Pichu, hurry up and play that song!" shouted Clefairy.
"You got it!" Pichu said determinedly, reaching for the Pokéflute of Time before pausing. "Uh… which song?"
Clefairy stared at him incredulously. "The Oath to Order! The song we need to call the giants here! Have you not been paying attention?!"
"Dude, that was three whole giants ago! You still expect me to remember it after that long?"
Cleffa suddenly sprang up out of nowhere. "Don'tworrydon'tworrysis! IknowthesongIcanplayit!" he said eagerly.
Clefairy whipped around and stared at him. "Wait – what do you mean you know the song?!" she almost screamed. "THEN WHY THE &*?# DIDN'T YOU JUST PLAY IT DURING THE FIRST CYCLE INSTEAD OF MAKING ME GO THROUGH THREE WEEKS OF TIME-LOOPING HELL WITH THIS IDIOT?!"
"BecauseyoutoldmenottotouchthePokéflute! Remembersisyoutoldmethat! Butifit'sreallyimportantI'llplayit! I'llplayitsisyaaaaaaaaay!"
Clefairy dropped to her knees while screaming in anguish and pounding on the ground while Cleffa grabbed the Pokéflute from Pichu and gleefully played the Oath to Order. Just as he finished, before Nuzleaf could react to any of this, the ground suddenly began to shake and tremble, and not from the falling moon. Then all at once the rumbling stopped, and there came a very familiar, very angry roar from far over the horizon. Nuzleaf jerked his head up in horror as the roar continued, quickly joined by three more.
"What – no!" Nuzleaf cried as he realized just whom the roars were coming from. He grabbed at his head and started thrashing around in midair. "NononononoNO! WAAAAAAUGGGHHHH!"
What happened next was a sight Pichu and Clefairy would never forget. They stared out over the edge of the Clock Tower in amazement as, one by one, the four giants they'd freed from the temples faded into existence around the edges of Termina. Regirock, Regice, Registeel and Regigigas all appeared, each one stationed in one of the four cardinal directions, before they began slowly and laboriously trudging through Termina Field, covering nearly a hundred feet with every step, all of them converging toward Clock Town.
All the Pokémon who'd been in the process of fleeing town stopped in their tracks and stared in wonder at the sight unfolding before them. The Lillipup began whimpering loudly and tried to run away, only to immediately be crushed underfoot by Regigigas.
"Uhhh, this is really happening and I'm not just hallucinating from being hit in the head a bunch, right?" Pichu asked cautiously. Nuzleaf had dropped to the ground unconscious, the mask still on his face.
Finally the four Regis came to a stop outside Clock Town's walls, standing in place and gazing up at the moon hanging just above the Clock Tower. Then as one, they reached up with their tremendous arms and began pushing upward, struggling and straining under the immense weight of the falling moon as they tried to stop it in its tracks. Everyone in the vicinity stared up at the giants in silent terror for one horrible, tension-filled moment, as the four guardian deities continued to struggle and it was unclear whether they would succeed, or whether they were too late…
And then it was over. The rumbling and shaking of the moon came to a stop, and it fell still in the sky as the giants stood in place and held it up, suspending it in midair. Nuzleaf's threat was no more.
"It… it stopped," Clefairy realized after a quiet moment. "We did it! It stopped!"
"…Sooo, are those guys just gonna have to stay there holding the moon up for the rest of eternity?" asked Pichu as he stared up at them. "That's gonna get kind of awkward. Like what if one of them has to take a dump? Just don't ever stand directly underneath them?"
"SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!" came a very loud, obnoxious cheer as Cleffa came slamming into Clefairy and knocked her to the ground in a hug. "It'syouit'syouit'syouit'syou! Iknewyou'dcomebackandsaveus! ThoughIguessI'mtheonewhosaveduscauseIplayedthesongbutwhocares! Imissedyousomuchsis! ItgotsolonelywithonlyNuzleafaround! Especiallysinceallhedidwasstandaroundlaughingevillyandtryingtokillpeopleand – "
"Stop talking now, or I prove once and for all you don't need a medical degree to perform a tracheotomy. Now where's Nuzleaf, so I can shove his head into his anus for putting me through all this crap?"
Cleffa jumped in Clefairy's path. "Waitwaitsisdon'tbeangryatNuzleaf! Hewasjustlonelythat'sall! Thepowerofthemaskwastoomuchforhimtohandle!"
"Lonely?! That's the excuse you're going to give him? I've been lonely for actual intelligent company for about a year now, and you don't see me dropping moons on people!" Clefairy snapped at him. "Just admit it, the guy was a brat and a moron."
"Certainly… he had far too many weaknesses to use my power," came a voice.
"Yeah, you're right. That little shit's weak to Fire, Bug, Fighting – hang on a minute." Clefairy started blinking rapidly and whipped her head around. "Who just said that?!"
"Uhhh, Clefairy…" Pichu said nervously, pointing over at Nuzleaf, whom no one had actually bothered to keep an eye on for the past several minutes. This was obviously a mistake, as his unconscious body was suddenly dangling several yards above the ground… and it was clear that he wasn't the one making it happen.
"Wait… is that – " Clefairy broke off as she and Pichu realized at the same time who the true villain of the story was.
"A puppet that can no longer be used is mere garbage," said the voice of Majerkass's Mask as it floated over their heads. It suddenly sloughed Nuzleaf's body off of itself, sending him dropping back to the ground. "This puppet's role has just ended."
Clefairy's jaw dropped open. "The &*?#ing mask was alive this whole time?!" she cried. "You're telling me Nuzleaf was being controlled by that thing? Is this about to turn into some kind of afterschool special about drug abuse?"
Pichu was upset for a different reason. "Wait a minute. The final boss is a mask? An actual, talking mask?! This is a complete downgrade from my last adventure!"
Majerkass's Mask fired a searing white laser at Pichu, blowing up a large chunk of the Clock Tower and leaving him a singed and smoking mess. "Still think I'm a 'downgrade'?"
"No sir. Sorry sir."
"I must say, it's been fun watching you all this time, little mouse. Running back and forth on your wild goose chase all across Termina, desperately trying to find a way to bring your precious Regis here… but in the end, not even the Hero of Time was strong enough to beat me."
"Hey! What am I, chopped liver?" snapped Clefairy.
"My apologies." The mask blasted her with a second laser. "Your contribution has been noted."
"Damn straight."
"Well I hate to tell you this bucko, but unspeakable evil or not, you're still just a floating chunk of wood!" Pichu said impatiently. "I'm pretty sure I could set you on fire in like three seconds, or even kick you in half with my wicked martial arts skills."
"Is that so?" The mask started giggling in a quite unsettling, childlike manner as it bobbed back and forth in the air. "Ah, but you don't get it, do you? You've only won the first round. This game has only just begun!" It glanced up at the moon, whose mouth had suddenly opened up wide. "Ah, but I get ahead of myself. Wait there a minute. Let me slip into something more comfortable." A swirling beam of energy came down from the moon and enveloped the mask, and Pichu and the fairies watched in gawking disbelief as it rose up and vanished into the mouth of the giant space rock.
The moon's eyes suddenly began glowing bright yellow, signifying Majerkass's possession over it. "I… I shall consume. Consume… consume everything." And then it began violently shaking and rumbling, sending tremors all throughout Clock Town as it tried to force itself down onto the Clock Tower. The four Regis roared and groaned as they struggled to hold it in place, but it was clear they couldn't hold out for long.
"They're gonna drop the moon!" Pichu cried.
"For &*?#'s sake – you guys had one job! ONE &*?#ING JOB!" Clefairy screamed at the giants. "All right, forget this shit, we're getting out of here! Pichu! Song of Time! NOW!"
"Oh, now you want me to play the Song of Time?" Pichu scoffed. "Forget it! You should have thought of that when you were harming me physically every time I wanted to play it! No, there's no redoing this puppy! We're going up there, and we're going to beat up that small piece of wood until it shouts uncle!"
Clefairy sighed deeply, massaging her forehead. "And how do you propose we do that?"
"That swirly thing's still there!" Pichu said eagerly, pointing at the energy stream that had carried Majerkass's Mask into the moon and looked like it would probably vaporize them on contact. "All we have to do is follow it up! There is no harm that could possibly befall us from this blind and reckless act! TALLYHO!"
He cheered loudly and idiotically, charging directly into the energy stream before being violently sucked up into the moon's open mouth. "WAAAUAUAUAUAUAISHOULDHAVEPLANNEDTHISBETTER – "
Clefairy watched after him for a moment as he vanished. "And with that, he is officially no longer my problem. So long, everyone."
Cleffa jumped up in front of her face. "Ohboyohboysis! DoesthatmeanIcangowithPichuinstead? Iwannasavetheworldtoo! Andthenwecaneatjellybeansanddrinkrootbeerandplayhopscotchandringaroundtherosieand – "
Clefairy stared at him before sighing. "Oh, who am I kidding. I'm the only sane person within a twelve-mile radius. Looks like it's up to me to save us all. Again." She punted Cleffa off the Clock Tower and through the air, where he slammed into Regirock's side before plummeting to the ground. "And with that out of the way, here I go."
She reluctantly followed Pichu into the swirling energy stream, letting out a scream as she was whisked up inside the moon and to whatever nightmares awaited them there…
