Part 5.5 - The Wave
Period Eight - A Shallow Sound
Fate Five: Laza, Sera...
Note: I think I might be missing some spelling and grammar errors. No bueno! Lemme know if anything's a little weird, guys. I'd do it myself, but holy crap, apparently I can't be relied upon, since I've missed them to begin with.
DISCLAIMER! I don't own Pokémon! All characters belong to me and stuff, but any Pokémon involved are of their respective owners.
No matter how shallow my tide became, I always heard the sound of waves.
No matter how shallow the sound, someone was there to hear it.
That someone was me. I was its progenitor. I was the reason for its crash upon the shore, time and time again. I was but an island in an ocean of stars.
It was such a sad sound, the waves. Never did they end, but never would I forget who I was.
I was among them, those waves.
"Friend, you've forgotten who you were before this." argued the girl lost inside of my mind. What a terrible place to be, I thought. For her to say that and I to know it, then her to be the occupant of such a place made me feel like quite the terrible homeowner, lacking hospitality, a welcoming scent or sight. My apologies, Luna. You deserved better than this old, feeble head.
She didn't respond to that. She knew I was right about something for a change. Her silence enshrined her desire to aid me in a passive seat.
The weather was turbulent, the rain torrential, wind ferocious, bringing with it screams from nearby. My nose took to the air. Within this woodland, my Champions where somewhere. They were following me to the source. Very good! This cycle may have had a chance after all. The place born from the Bell was close. They called it the Grove, too.
"Is that a coincidence? That friend from your story gave his home the same name." Luna observed.
I had this answer, but it was so cloudy in my head that not even she could find it.
"In every cycle, Azabell will ring his bell to the earth to create what he calls the Grove, a tiny paradise for Pokémon, and a means to escape and amass an army against me. Even with the early end of Celebi and the incapacitation of Cruce, the Grove has been born." I explained, moving my legs ahead. Onward, busy espeon.
Luna was quiet once more. I reached a point in the dirt trail where the thickets of the woods was closed off, black beyond the tangle of bushes and twigs. Spider silk and rainwater dripped from the old wood. I observed the ground at its base, a trench dug into the mud at a time to enter a point where the twigs had parted, creating an entry point for anyone small enough to crawl through. It bore the scent of no human, though one's shape had passed through here before. That thought buzzing through me, I faced away from the lackluster entrance, a lackadaisical smile crossing from cheek to cheek. I put my gaze high, overlooking the curvature of the dirt road, admiring the bend, how the trees parted for it, holding their arms overhead. Though I couldn't see it from here, this led to the river.
I heard voices, smelled emotions, and sensed Gamma at the river. In this wild card cycle, I could not tell where anyone was at any given moment lest they had enough of my Gamma, but I knew Cruce was there. If he was there, then the Circle must have been with him. The space where my lungs should have been seized up at the obstacle that called itself the Circle. They were my most infamous enemy, smiling at my defeat every cycle, cheering my descent to nowhere. I always met with the desire to ask myself why such innocent kids would have ever thought to wish harm upon someone who only wanted to help them.
Yes, Luna, I understood my definition of 'help' wasn't theirs. Too wide and too tall of a culture barrier had been erected between they and I. They never had let me explain myself to them. Why would they? I was a fascist because Azabell told them so. They feared me, because Azabell told them to fear and hate me.
And, yes once more, I knew what I was doing to humanity was wrong to many a moral compass. You could never force someone to live a way they didn't want and expect a peaceful future. That was who Azabell and the Circle were. Knowing that, I went on to transform humans into Pokémon, some more powerful than others as I saw fit. I transformed adults more slowly, as to compensate with their familiarity to their human bodies, and children more quickly, paying due respect to their innocence. Sometimes, I played with them, manipulating Gamma's power to turn one human into two Pokémon, swap a gender here and there, and even occasionally tweak a person's age. While that could never come without pain, I never, ever wished to hurt anyone.
Yes, some of those changes, in previous cycles, caused a lot of hurt. As more and more cycles passed, I found myself playing with Gamma less, simply leaving people as Pokémon, altering their minds very little. There was a tiresome problem with that. I needed my Champions, and to make my Champions, I needed to take humans—people, away from their loved ones so that they could be my loved ones instead. How rotten, Laza. How rotten indeed.
I wanted to change this world so that I didn't need to be alone. Fate told me I would always be coming here. Fate told me that I would always die here, so I didn't want to die alone. The scariest part of being here was that I never remembered who or why I was Laza. I was just playing the role of the Imaginary King. Azabell was my counterpart, fighting me because he had to. He couldn't even explain why he needed to. He and I became nothing but primordial instinct long ago, aligned only with our resolve to change this world for 'some' better we couldn't quite fully explain. The more I spread, the more I felt I recalled about who Laza was, because the more this world became like mine. The more Azabell pushed me away, the less I could ever recall in cycles to come. Every time, Azabell wins, and I become less of a threat. Every cycle changed, because I could never remember as much as the previous cycle, and thus my actions became different. I only wanted to remember. I only wanted to try to get my memory back.
I always failed, and even if I kept trying, the rewards of any success became meeker, meeker, meeker. The less I could remember, the more the cycle would change, and the sooner I would fail.
However, the cycle has finally changed so much that it has included a new presence of Gamma.
In addition, there remained one integral detail to every cycle:
The Red King, the source of our primal animosity to one another.
He followed Azabell and I round and round, chasing us and playing with our emotions, making us believe that what we had been doing was the only thing we could do just to avoid him. In a way, Azabell and I thought that the other was a piece of the Red King. Mayhaps it was one of the reasons Azabell wanted to destroy me, and one of the reasons I wanted to change the world.
But this world was as real as mine, and these real worlds could never be simplified to one reason. There had always been many reasons, many motives, and many thoughts behind every action taken. This should've been true for every real world.
"As opposed to a fake world?" Luna asked.
A fake world, I thought. I blinked, watching drops of rain run down leaves above, making them heavy, shaking, scents of wet bark dirt wafting about.
"What would a fake world be?"
"A fake world," I began, letting my voice bleed from my mouth like mist, a whisper. "Is an imaginary world. It's a world constructed by the mind, filled with ideals, things Nature would cast a sly grin towards and look the other way. A fake world is preposterous, a product of a child's mind."
"Just like our worlds, then?"
Ah, she played that card. I knew that card well, but I'd never had it played against me. I lacked a response, a proper means of combat. Nary did I speak a word that suggested she was wrong, but my deep breath and calm squint may have been indicators as to how I felt about it. She told me I was no Imaginary King, yet now she was on the side of our worlds as naught but figments of fancy.
I lay my ears flat against my skull and pushed my back legs into the mud, shifting my weight.
"That's right. Your world of Pokémon and my world of Hypera came from the minds of kids. Children, friend."
"Yes," I sighed, relenting. "Gamma is an element of perception. It is something that perceives only everything but itself. In giving a person Gamma, you are giving them another means to perceive the world around them. Another mind, I would call it. When those two minds perceive one another, they communicate. One communicates to the other—the Gamma, which can only perceive the world. This Gamma tells the other to perceive the world how it perceives itself. If its childlike imagination perceives itself as, say a Pokémon, well, suddenly the entire world is full of Pokémon, yes? Mm, eventually. That initial perception has to spread to others, so that they perceive themselves and the world the same way as the first host. I have heard Gamma be called a 'glitch' in our world's 'core data'. To prevent the data from becoming corrupt, an algebraic safety switch must be flipped to correct all variables of the equation. What Gamma does to one identity must be done to all others, and eventually the world itself."
"Thus, Gamma is not from this dimension. It did not spawn from time, nor any space. Where did it come from?"
"I don't know 'how' to answer that question, and I cannot say how 'natural' Gamma is," I admitted, pulling my attention back to the entangled twigs. "But I do know the 'answer' to the question. Have you ever heard the saying, 'if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound'? The answer, of course, is yes. Why? Gamma is there to perceive the noise. Gamma is everywhere to perceive everything. Granted, the energy in the vibrations produced by a tree hitting the ground is far too small to result in any noteworthy phenomenon that we can see or smell. Now, upscale to the greatest event of energy expulsion in the known universe: a gamma-ray burst. These spectacular phenomena of the highest level of electromagnetism in our realm of being are so ludicrously powerful that Gamma not only perceives of it, but is blinded by it. It leaves behind a scar which we can interact with. We call this scar liquid starlight, the visible brain of the universe.
But what is the universe?
If Gamma is the universe's means of perceiving everything, how different do we perceive the universe? I suspect that there is not much difference between our two perceptions. Time has never quite permitted my Champions and I to dawdle in the philosophical branch of Gamma research.
While some call Gamma a 'glitch', I call it a 'source code'. It is balance. It IS natural. But, backed by all of my research, I do not know how. What I know is that a boy named Drew... is becoming the universe.
Evidently, so is another boy.
And so two universes collide.
Somehow, it became my duty to ensure that Drew's universe becomes law, absolute, and final, so that I may exist as the person I barely remember. After all, Drew's universe comes with my world inside of it. It only seems natural that I transform this world into mine. If I change the world, everything I knew and loved will come back.
I've been losing the ability and strength of heart to do that through all of humanity's heavy morals and Azabell's undying intervention. But still, I'm here. I remember my world. Celebi and Azabell are evidence of that world, so it must still exist somewhere.
But I... How can I make Drew's world absolute when there is another Gamma trying to recreate the world alongside me? And you, Luna, a being of that unknown Gamma, inside of my mind... It's unthinkable how things ended up this way.
You know, I...
I made Celebi a promise.
Never would she see the rise of the Red King. I would ensure it. To do that, I had to lock her away with another. His name was Jovany.
I would lock them away inside of a place called the Empyrean Paradox."
I took a breath. No lungs needed, but I felt rude leaving no space for Luna to talk to me.
"And what is the Empyrean Paradox?"
"You could call it a place where data is stored," I smirked, finding the choice of words absurd. "And though I could never enter the Paradox, it has chosen myself and Azabell as gatekeepers. In any cycle, if I do not send Celebi and Jovany into the Paradox, the Red King comes and choke this world with a smoke so foul it echoes throughout cycles. However, by locking those two away, not only do I have a chance at rebuilding the world, but the Red King cannot take it from me."
"Why does that happen? Do you know why you have to seal them away?"
"For that, I have no answer, and, as I can't enter the Paradox, I know nothing about what lurks inside, or what it might look like. I've lived many cycles, and through those cycles, I have battled with trial and error. I've found that Jovany and Celebi are the absolute minimum sacrifice I must make for this world to be spared the crowning of the Red King. I hate the thought of sealing anyone away like that. I do it to Celebi because I often feel betrayed by her. I do it to Jovany because I feel he creates my crime, but I should be grateful to him."
"This insinuates that the 'Red King' comes from the Paradox."
"Yes. He lurks within the Paradox, because he is something that cannot exist. He is a contradiction to the nature of the universe as is constructed by Drew's double perception. On the topic of contradictions, it seems counterproductive to my promise to Celebi to let her face the Red Kind, but, within the Paradox, I can only assume he is far weaker than he would be here."
"And he, too, may operate the 'gateway' between the Paradox and the real world. I believe I know why."
"Mm..." I hummed quietly, solemnly. I sensed dread. "You do not say...?"
"I believe it to be the very same reason one of your Champions would be capable of using this gateway. They are a part of you. They come from you."
"Mmhm, yes. Indeed they do. I entrust them with the same power that the Paradox has entrusted me with." I paraphrased, lips left open after the matter.
"I want you to tell me the Red King's name."
I didn't say a word. I mouthed it to her, thinking nothing of the name that he wielded.
That monster.
That thing of evil incarnate.
"Vyrosia. Your name. Take away the 'Y' and it becomes an anagram of 'Savior'."
"Saviors of Sabre, yes," I agreed halfheartedly. The truth, hidden beneath instinct, was breaching the surface of a shallow tide. "Just some child's play with the cosmetics of words. It's coincidence. My name was always Vyrosia before it became Laza."
"And why is the Red King's name Laza if it is also Vyrosia?"
"Because the Red King—he's," I bit my tongue. Nary should I have felt any pain, but the sting was there. "Bah, Luna, this is not the time."
"But, friend, there is no other time but now. If you want to face the hatred that is Azabell, you must know who the hated one is. Is it you?"
"No. I'm the one who does the hating," I sighed, weary of the words in my head shaking the dust off of the old truth. "I am the one who does the building, the shaping, and the coloring. I was given this life as a Gamma espeon for that reason. I came here to grant Drew's wish and help him become the universe. I can't do it without my Bell. That Bell belongs to me. I will get it back, even if it means I must face Azabell. We shouldn't be apart like this. It would be much less painful if we worked together. I've told many I don't understand Azabell's mind, and that is what drives us apart. I understand everyone in this world but him.
It's only natural. The only other person that I can't understand...
...is myself.
I am a paradox.
That is why I was chosen."
…
A breath of quiet confidence leaving my lips, I brought myself chin-first into the thick shrubbery, my muzzle never touching the wood; instead, I passed through it, intangible, letting my quasi-body become subjected only to a surface where gravity may take it. As such, I could not phase through the ground, rather anything but the ground. I walked through the darkness of the undergrowth, passing into a world that belonged to my mind, my Bell: the Grove.
This was where Azabell was. He was stuck here, because he, too, wanted to remember. What better place to remember than a place of beginnings? On one thing, we could agree, Azabell. I could not rest my laurels on that. We would agree to disagree, and our bodies would do battle.
Only our bodies. Or perhaps our minds?
Ah, yes. Of course. I had no body. I had no need for one.
And my mind? Well, Luna, you were taking care of that, were you not?
There came a light at the end of the cavernous hollow, the twisting of twigs converging to it, desperately reaching out to the light.
No more lies. Let's put an end to this fickle charade.
…
-PERIOD-EIGHT
…
…
…
Earlier
It was a big parade through town, and I was at the front of it! I'd not had the chance to do this in as long as I could remember, which was totally not long at all, so that made me even more excited that I was doing it! Not only that, but it had a purpose. We weren't just out here to entertain a crowd. We were here WITH that crowd. The audience itself was the biggest contributor to our cause. The spirit of Autumnridge was with us and we were about to really drive home all of the nasty, gnarly things that invaded. I had no idea what any of those things were, but—WAIT! I remembered! Scion! That yucky Gamma who I never saw ever, 'cept those thingies—uhm, what were they called again? Symbros? Symbios? Whatever they were, they were a big player for this team. Team Scion. The totes weirdest thing about that team was I didn't know whether or not their leader was on the same side. Did it mean anything different to be on the same side than to be on the same team?
Who was I to ask that? I already knew the answer. Silly sylveon—Sillyveon! I had a thingy like that once—a big adventure that made me look a lot like a traitor. I never meant wrong, but gee, my heart loved tugging me around places that really got me in trouble. I just couldn't remember any names that brought me to that trouble. Hmm, why'd I go and bring this up again? Methinks I got distracted~!
I was with my little sister Nasce and my cutsie-wutsie wittle Nirbie-kun. Too bad he was really off his rocker. He was all frightened and stuff and I didn't know what was scaring him. Was it the thunder? C'mon, noooo, thunder was neat! It was like an explosion in the sky that meant huge volts of electricity were gonna strike the earth! What was there to be afraid of? Nirbie was also an eevee right now. Laza must've made a mistake somewhere. Nirbie was a leafeon, not an eevee! He already ran off once, and I had to tie him up with my ribbons just to keep him from going anywhere else. That was okay though. I liked holding his fluffy tummy against my back. I couldn't help anyone else if they needed a ride now! I was full! I still had Laza's piece from Delta Meadow. No more room for passengers.
Aaaand we had lots of those with us. It looked like a quarter of the whole town was following us! They were all quiet, too. I think it had to do with how bad everything looked. I wasn't really too jumpy myself when I saw just how sick this town was from all the Gamma. Not a lot of it was Laza's either.
...
On these black-tar streets, there were charred homes and trees, overturned vehicle thingies, gruesome smells, and human bodies laying about. I had to stop a few times and turn away, eyes finding something only a little less disgusting to look at.
No no no, this was really bad. This wasn't what Laza wanted the world to look like after he walked its streets and met its people. This was so bad. These humans were hurt by something that smelled spicy. It hurt to sniff, my nose flaring up like I'd inhaled pepper. It did this a lot with the rock in my ribbons, like the Gamma was just a little bit different than Laza's nice, gentle mix of blue. It was this way ever since I left Delta Meadow. Nascoo didn't notice it too much. She would'a been the first one to have said something about it. Come to think of it, I kinda noticed Nascoo had the same burning smell as the rock did. And if the rock had the same painful smell as the bodies, didn't that mean they were connected? I had a nose and my nose worked, but Gamma liked to make you perceive the world all weird-like. It WAS an element of perception!
Nooo, I was a smart sylveon. I had the best sense of smell in my circus troupe and one of the best out of all the Champions. Paired with my brains, there was no way I could be wrong about this. That scent came from my sister. It wasn't Laza's Gamma.
I looked over to the eevee girl following us. She'd come up to me to ask about how Nirbie was doing from time to time. Her name was Katalyn, but she let us call her Kat, even though it bugged her. She was a little bit like Nascoo, but her smell was, er, morbid? Was that the right word? I'unno at all. It smelled like how these bodies smelled without that interruption of spicy Gamma. But, underneath that morbidity was the very same spice. Nascoo and Kat had the same scent as the meteorite piece and the bodies. I deduced! I made a deduction! Yay!
Or was it an induction?
The smell was part-Scion's Gamma, but with a different 'color' to it. It didn't smell so grimy and rubbery, like old absinthe. It had the same sharpness, although with a totally unusual flavor. It was unlike anything I've dreamed of, like a color that you weren't supposed to be able to see, but a smell instead.
I worried that smell might spread to me. I think it already did. I had all kinds of smells on me. Laza's, Nirbie's, and Nascoo's. I might've even had Scion's scent on me and didn't know it, but I think my sister would have said something already. Us eeveelutions were here to back each other up and make sure we were nice and clean for the road ahead.
This road was gross. I barely stomached it. We picked up our pace, covering lots of ground. Nascoo and VC-kun helped the locals get around all of the blockage. Our sights were set on Lee's home. I went there with my sis and VC-kun. We met Kat's daddy there, who I first thought was loopy, then I couldn't get over how much he reminded me of my umbro. I wonder if Laza was gonna call him down. He should! I liked my umbro. Super fun to make do embarrassing things.
Hehe, that was good. I liked the thought of my brothers and sisters and I playing around again, all happy and merry and having an awesomely wonderful time! It was making me feel better. I was getting more and more of my memories back, so I felt like a sister should. Real. Genuine. On the right track.
I hoped it wasn't just an insulated thought.
Even if Nascoo had a weird cross weapon, she was still my sister. Even if Nirbie had a bloody stench to his coat, he was still my brother. Even if Laza wasn't here to help us right now, he was always gonna be my bro-bro.
I told myself all that nice stuff, and then we got away from the land of the dead all of a sudden. The houses on this road looked the same as before, but there were less bodies blocking the path, so my mind cleared up. Did it? I was hooked on the thought of us bonding all over again. I just wanted to keep my spirits high. My ringleader always said to think positive thoughts with a big and beautiful smile on my face. Keep your cheeks rosy, he said. So I did! But, that was part of Serapheon. Serapheon was a girl who had a big family. She felt like she made a difference in her family. How could she be Serapheon when her biggest fear was starting to swallow up all of her confidence? Was she a part of this family?
I thought back to my time at Delta Meadow. I saw a lot of bad things, but I still got through it all. Then, I thought back a minute. Those bodies—they had missing faces, guts, limbs. They were covered in rain and innards. They were like statues, but I knew that they could move at one time. Their scents were so fresh and putrid. Laza would never let that happen if he had something to say about it. Where was Laza? Why did that happen to Autumnridge? Wasn't he always supposed to protect this town? Did some weird Gamma get to him, too?
That was why I was so scared. Nascoo was different. Nirbie was different. Even Laza was different this time. That made me a lot different than my family, even though I really wanted to think they were still my family. But that was all I could do. I could only think it...
I didn't ever wanna tell Nascoo, but I thought I still had someone else. I blocked out my troublesome memories to try and replace them with the ones Laza wanted me to have, but I just couldn't throw them away. There were names that I forgot yesterday and I couldn't ever get them back, even knowing that they started with Z's. Three Z's, like snoring, but each Z stood for a name, and when you put all three of them together, it made a humming sound—not a gross snoring sound. I know it sounded all so loony in my mind, but that's why I never said anything. I was afraid it wouldn't make a whole lotta sense. I didn't want to try to explain it in case it made Nascoo feel like I wasn't her sister.
…
This town was scary.
I felt like how Nirbie must've.
I wanted to close my eyes and open them again in a comfy bed, like I'd woken up from a really bad dream. True true, I wanted to make things right again, and I was happy I could be a part of fun-times parade, but, this time, I didn't know how things would go.
This time.
'This time'?
Were there times before this? Oh, sure there were! Those were the last cycles. Cycles? Huh? Was this a memory? I was remembering something from long ago. Was it long ago? Was it only just recent? I had only been on this world for a couple days, or so I thought. Wait, no, obviously I was here for longer, because I had that false memory—that 'memory sound' with the Z's and the hum. I wanted to go and find out what it was all about, but I had something really important to be doing. I had to go see Azabell.
We were at Lee's house. Kat and Nascoo went inside. VC-kun stayed behind to talk to the nice deerling lady. She was so cute that I wanted to hug her with my feelers! None of us could make VC feel better. Here she was, talking to him with a smile, making him laugh and grin and talk nice and loud like a little boy should. No one like VC-kun should have had to go through this mess. No one at all should have had to! Arceus bless us all if we had to cross another graveyard just to get to Azabell.
It wasn't very far now, I told myself! I sat on the front lawn of the house, front paws straight, perking myself up as high as I could. I let Nirbie down on the grass. He didn't wanna go anywhere. Right when I let go of him, he curled up and plopped over, his tail glued to his belly. I saw him start to nibble on it, soaked and crying. Gee, he didn't take the bodies very nicely. That or the rain. I didn't mind the rain! My fur was thin, so the only real weight water created was in my ribbons, but that didn't bother me 'cause I could just shake 'em dry. Was sure cold though.
"Hummm," I mumbled, sucking in my cheeks and searching for the treeline behind rows of houses on the opposite side of the black-tar streets. "So Azabell's in the forest?"
I already knew the answer: 'course he was! He was there in a place called the Grove.
Nirbie was sobbing incoherently. The poor 'vee. When we chased him around that school—gee, he didn't get very far—we found a really special person! Er, more like 'she found us'. She popped out of the meteorite, but went right back into it when all was said and done. No name or anything! Totally vanished after a couple words of exposition, but hey, what would our crazy story be without exposition, right!?
Besides, it wasn't like Nascoo didn't know her. She called this person Xima. They only had a couple of things to say to each other. I didn't even get to see the Xima person very well because she was all cloaked up and eerie. I barely saw her eyes. In fact, I don't think I would've even known if she was a girl if Nascoo wasn't there. She spoke like she was trying to hide her voice beneath masculinity.
For some reason, this bothered my sister a whole bunch, so she didn't want to talk about it. She thought we had enough pulling our tails as it was. In any case, that Xima girl said we could find Azabell at the Grove. A couple fingers pointing us in the right direction, and we were on our way to the unknown.
Why did she tell us this? How did she know? Why'd she not stick around and join our parade? I wanted to ask her a lot of things. Why the spooky white cloak? 'Cause it was raining? How'd you get in the meteorite, Xima?!
Wah-oh, head was spinning. Better've kept to one thing at a time.
"Yeah. In the forest. Gotcha, Ximmy-Xam." I told myself, the pulse of the glowing rock in my feelers radiating into the skin of my back. I looked back at the rock as best as I could, devoting the texture to memory. It was smooth, almost reflective, its edges rounded. It's shine was natural, coming from within, appearing as though the sun was out and high. It gave off a lens flare as if reflecting a ray of light.
"She's the real danger." Nirbie babbled, speaking quickly with short breaths. He was on his legs now, glancing left, glancing right.
"Huh?" I squeaked, looking at him. What was our eevee up to?
"She looks like me—Kat. She killed those guys—th-those humans." he said.
"Nirbiboo?" I mewed, standing and turning to him, touching at his tail with a free feeler. He jumped and slid his legs apart.
"Aah! Don't! D-don't do that! Why do you think you can do that?! You're not even—you're not even my sister! What sister carries her own brother into danger?! Why would you bring me here?! I don't wanna be here!" he pouted, his voice rowdy, like a child throwing a temper tantrum.
I didn't like what he said at all. The double-pronged tips of my ribbons floated to the ground while I stood perplexed and hurt, thinking of a reassuring word to start off with, all while cold wind flew into my face, drying the roof of my mouth.
Lightning flashed.
"You're scared, huh? You're like me. You should be," his voice cracked, sharp and terrible through his sobbing and inhaling. "Be scared. It's the only way you'll live. I know that because it's the only thing I feel now. I can see everything else. I can see the truth. The truth is scary, 'Sera'." he mocked my name.
"Nir-"
"QUIT CALLING ME THAT STUPID NAME," he cried before me, looking at me with eyes wide, shadows beneath them. The meaning behind his words were as dark and gloomy as his fur, horrible as the scent to his neck-mane. "And DON'T make me come with you. I'm not a PART of your STUPID MISSION, and neither is Nasce. You're the only DIFFERENT one now, so why don't you go be alone and scared and see how it feels!"
Thunder growled...
…
I took a step back, my mouth wider, making a frown so big it hurt my cheeks.
I wanted to reject it. I wasn't alone... Th-that was what a parade was for.
These were all people just like me! We all wanted the same thing.
…
I just looked at the eevee, waiting for another word, another stinger to drill itself into my heart, and another crack of his voice paired with the murky tears under his eyes, their shine only there because of the rock I happened to be holding.
Instead of a word, I got an action. He took off, skidding until he could get traction. He was cursing me on his way off, dashing into the street and leaping through the shrubbery dividing the two lanes of the tar-road. In spite of the behavior he's shown us up to now, he sped off without a single trip-up or error, like he'd been graceful enough to slip out of my grasp all this time and just slyly waited for a moment with me, make me all frozen inside, and beat it like there was no tomorrow.
A sinking feeling.
I felt so low I could barely stand up anymore.
"N-... No sister? I'm no..." I repeated, his blowout on a loop in my head.
"Sera? You okay? What, like..." Joel, that grumpy helioptile boy, approached me. "Uh, hi?"
I looked at him, because that was what he wanted, wasn't it? He broke eye contact as soon as it was made, putting himself back on four legs.
"Sorry," he clamored, clearing his throat so quietly I could barely hear it through the rainfall against the roof of the house. "I won't bother you if..."
I let him finish, but nothing else left his lips. He reestablished a couple seconds of eye contact, but I looked away, finding the familiar victini and deerling. They were looking at me, searching for a reaction. It was silly, 'cause I couldn't give them one. I couldn't give the audience what they wanted.
That... sucked.
How could I be Sera?
"Sera, do you wanna go look for him with me?" VC-kun offered.
"Stay here," I said. I was surprised I could still talk after that shot to the soul. "I'll go."
"But doesn't Nasce need you for-"
"Stay." I growled, a break between the start and finish of the word. I squinted while I said it, leaving VC with a sharp sigh and a turn of my body. That old, slippery streets was where I needed to cross. He went that way, and that was all I knew. He took my heart and bit into it like a crummy little eevee vampire.
I didn't see VC-kun's reaction to my bark. I never raised my voice with anyone that young.
When you were hit where it really hurt, you did things you regretted. It really hurt. I was hurting, and not just because it was Nirbie who said it, but because it was all right.
I started on, a high-pitched grunt blowing out of my angry frown like a jet. I was already running, footfall heavy, splashes loud against the grass, louder in the gutter, and painfully thin on the tar-road. I was across the whole two lanes in a matter of seconds, met with a few short white fences that I hopped over, a couple open wooden gates that I sprinted through, and a gray brick wall that I hurdled beyond with a pause and a squat, a leap of faith and anger, and a sloppy landing. From there on, I was in the wilderness, with no houses or blockades to get in my way. It was all pine, oak, and cedar, mud, bugs, and leaves from here.
…
Did he really mean it?
I had to ask myself over and over, playing back his cruel words.
I stepped over twigs, snapping them underfoot, feeling nothing but the needles and splinters of betrayal.
…
I just ran and ran, thinking what I could have done to make things better.
I came to nothing. Every corner had nothing—no answer. There were no corners. It was like running in circles. How could I fix Laza? Was I even fixing Laza? What was I doing with this dumb rock anyway?!
…
Who was I if I wasn't a good sister? Even my own brother didn't want me around. He was right. Nasce had that curse of the cross in her. She couldn't explain it to me. How was I supposed to understand what it all meant?
And Nirva was so bothered by how things turned out that he gave up all hope and fled out on me, called me nothing better than the dirt I was running over, and took something special away from me.
I couldn't even turn to Laza anyway. He only wanted me to get the rock and that was it. What else did I have to do? He wouldn't tell me. He wouldn't...
What about that Gamma he didn't like? What about Scion?
What if I found Scion? Would he tell me what was going on?
…
I lifted my nose and brought my sprint to a trot, searching for a signature. It was hard to do with the rock in my grip. I should've let it go, but I still wanted it. I was still a scientist. I wanted to do research. That was all I had left anyway, so there was not much of a point in leaving it alone.
Could Scion do something with this? He could never get at it before.
That other culture of Gamma that Laza didn't want me to touch...
What was it all about?
…
The woodland cleared up. I found a trail and stuck to it. Not long had passed, but it was getting dark already.
I didn't know what I was looking for. I didn't know what Scion looked like or what exactly his Gamma smelled like. All I knew was that it was kind of oily. There was a snake girl—Mari—who had that scent. If I found her, I could get some information about Scion and how she was connected to him. The only problem was that she was with Delta Meadow, and I didn't wanna go back there after I came all the way here. There had to be another way. There almost certainly was.
I stopped for a moment.
I remembered something Nirva said. He told me that Katalyn was the one who killed all of those humans on the street.
Was that true? What he said about me was true. I was different, but Katalyn? Sure, she was a little hardcore, but I didn't think she could do something so evil like that. Maybe they were zombie humans?
Ugh, I shouldn't act like an idiot right now.
I just don't know what to believe. Nirbie, did you really mean that? Are you... serious? I always trusted you. I want to help you, but if you don't want that help, I... don't know what to do for you.
…
I was getting somewhere. The trees were starting to look different. At one point, they were arched over a passageway. Now, they were tall and thinned out, standing straight, their branches curling around one another. These were all oaks. Nirva loved oaks. He said they were some of the best trees for climbing, but you couldn't ever get very high. He liked to call them 'sun-hogs', and gave respect to them 'cause they were like him. They took all the sun for themselves.
I thought about that. How'd I do that? Did I remember something new? Did I... need Nirva to tell me I wasn't his sister? Was that true? If so, then I just remembered something else about him. Maybe my memories worked like that. The more I was hurt, the more truth came to me in small packages. I was okay with that.
My right eye was getting hard to see out of. The bottom eyelid felt heavy. It wasn't a tear, but it also was. It wasn't because I couldn't see through it so well, but it was because—well, it was liquid under my eye. I lifted a front paw, winking a little, before putting a feeler forward to wipe my face. I groaned when I did.
It was soft while it was there. Nirbie was here once, in my ribbons, all safe and comfy.
I looked at the bright raspberry red tip of the ribbon. There was a smudge on it where I'd wiped my eye. It was black, kinda like a thinned out molasses. I saw this somewhere before. Did I get some on me—oh! It was Nirbie's weird dark tears. He must've cried on me when I was holding him.
It washed away in the rain, mixing, the colors coming together like pain, a watercolor ride off of my feeler and into the mud.
It came off that easily. So, it shouldn't have been there for that long. I just wiped my face.
Was that my tear?
If it was, I think I had a problem, but I couldn't smell anything different about me, even with something of mine that close to my face. No no, I had to carry on and look for Nirva. That was the real goal here. I was the quickest runner, behind our leafeon-turned-eevee. I could find him in no time. His legs were smaller than mine now, so there was no way he could beat his big sis!
Unless he used mean words.
…
The trees were thin, then thick again, then the thickest I'd seen them, and then they weren't there at all, like there was some kind of unnatural line they couldn't cross. I didn't see anything, but boy, I sure smelled a stink-storm of Gamma around here. This was really different. This was scary. Now I was even more scared.
The ground went from mud and brush to black, solid tar again, roots cracking the ground, puncturing the tar and lifting portions of what should have been a flat plane of this stuff. There were tall poles with short arms that reached both directions. There were more of those vehicles tucked in imaginary boundaries, some on their sides, others upright. Now that I looked a lot closer, there were white lines all throughout this plane of tar, making big rectangles where each of the vehicles were placed. I walked on ahead, the rain calmed to a gentle drizzle mist.
The further I got, the more I wanted to look back. I got so far that I did that—looked back, and saw what looked like an audience leaning forward in their seats, the trees hunched over with anticipation. What was the show, I wondered? Was there something going on in this flat spot?
When I turned around and went on about my walk, I saw a point in the black tar that dropped off into a steep slope, leading to a complex of buildings down a distant street. I must've been on a hill. Humans made this? That was a lot of land to terraform. Well, this big vehicle lot wasn't the only thing that was here. To my right was a gigantic building—the tallest and widest I'd seen so far, with outcroppings as big as other buildings, all sorts of machinery atop them. I couldn't actually see that much from down here. It was just a tall white building with an underpass leading into some broken doors. The underpass—more of an outdoor hallway—had a big red cross on it with the word 'Ridge' just above. The 'G' in the word 'Ridge' was hanging at a jarring angle, improperly screwed in. Windows at the higher levels had been shattered, and blotches of rust and erosive decay marred the building's design, even if it was already rooted to a boring style of architecture. No flare at all.
It was the creepiest thing around. It stood tall over this vehicle lot, a few of the poles in the lot flickering with light. A lot of them were broken, just being shapes against the dark mist, while the few that operated gave me a little bit of sightseeing perspective. All the scents were sure there. Chaos didn't have a smell until now.
I kept my ears standing high. I walked on through this lot, finding that most of the big bulky wagons were grouped up back in the spot near all the root-garbled terrain. Seriously, it looked like the ground had a problem with being covered up. I think I would too. Just in case there were big violent roots beneath my paws, I walked with a steady, soft tread, making not even a single splash against the shiny black surface.
Anyone might've thought me a real nut-show for dilly-dallying up to a building as spoopy-scary as this. It wasn't the building I was shooting for.
There were people here!
They were at the underpass, loitering in front of something glittery. Smelled like Laza's Gamma—like a strong perfume mixed with smoke. It was conforming to the shape of the busted entrance to the building. It was weak, like it had just been put up. Some kind of barrier? Fancy~.
The people here were a mix of color and shape, as appropriate of Pokémon. One of them wasn't a Pokémon though, which made it all the more worth the inquiry. She was...
She was someone I saw yesterday, deep underground. She didn't look much different, her hands behind her back, giving her that terrifying authority over those beneath her, physically and metaphorically. Something was off about her from the last time I'd encountered her though, like she was mournful. Maybe it was just the curve of her snout this time around.
There was a shaymin here, and not the one from yesterday, but I had to wonder if those two were related. The shaymin had a particularly strong stink of Gamma to her—or him? Couldn't tell with those legends sometimes. I was stoked about having a victini with us, but now there were TWO shaymins?! I knew shaymin wasn't a one-of-a-kind deal, but for those two to be in Autumnridge made me really ponder...
There was also a chespin with the shaymin. He wasn't doing a whole lot—if anything, he was just passively standing by, like a bodyguard for the shaymin. In a sense, he made me think of VC-kun more than the legend right there. It was all in his posture. He had the innocence of a kid just pouring off of him like water. Speaking of water, I had to get under that overhang too, because I was really soaked to the skin by now, and I didn't need to be cold anymore.
They didn't even notice me 'till I was right up to the point where the black ground met bright gray ground, like a walkway, with a strip of weird yellow bumps. I couldn't even figure out why these bumps were here. I hopped over them, my paws unnaturally fitting to their shape.
In any case, I was out of the rain! Instant plus~.
"You came all the way here." observed the person I knew.
I gave her my attention.
"How come you're here too?" I asked her. She smiled.
"Normally, I would dare not say a word on behalf of my affiliation to HX, but I've come to terms with the most untidy of circumstances," she mused, her voice like a familiar flatline. "I've arranged a meeting. Nothing more."
"You know her? Who is she?" asked the shaymin, the voice feminine and crisp. Still wasn't sure if it was a boy, but I wanted to play it safe and go with female pronouns!
"One of Laza's," she said, looking above me. "And she even brought the meteorite. My, by your gall, I'd assume you were challenging us to take it back."
I became defensive. I remembered her. O'Brien.
Sam O'Brien. She was the one responsible for building the zorua robot. She was the one who knew Mari. Yeah. I was bad with memory, but I remembered names like those.
"Like hackity-heck you're taking this back! I've seen what you do with Gamma!" I told her, voice ricocheting off the overpass. I really hoped these two little Pokémon weren't all caught up in the Meadow's icky business. I felt my ribbons secure the rock with a tighter hold, wrapping it up like a present.
"Mhmhm," she giggled, fixing her glasses into place. She kept her hand there for a moment, her eyes closed. As if she'd had a change of heart, she took the glasses from her face, let her arm fall to one side, and dropped them to the ground. One lens shattered, while another simply popped out of its frame. I stared at the spot they struck for a moment, before attending the wisp's bright teal eyes. "I can see just fine now. My eyes aren't what they used to be."
"Uhh, what's that gotta do with anything?" I asked her, impatient. The movements of her arms were calm and slow, but her sigh spoke a loud remorse, head lowering as her hands tightened the hair-tie keeping her black ponytail in order.
"It's pertinent, I assure you," she mumbled, fixing her hair. "I'd even argue that it's a reason I've come here."
"Well, ya sure got here quick! It took me and Nascoo and VC-kun a while." I said.
"Naturally. I know my way around," she mused. "This is my hometown. I've cared enough to learn the ins and outs, highs and lows."
"So if you care, why're doing all those bad things?"
"Mmh, now I'm the one who can't answer you. That may be because I have no answer," she muttered, her eyes fixed on the shaymin nearby. "I used to be a man of cold data—a doctor of numbers, analysis, and fact. Do you still see that man anywhere?"
"I've never even met that man." I shook my head.
"You met a skywisp. She's very troubled. She'd never let these things get to her until Gamma took away her dearest friend, used her as a tool, and made us fall apart," explained Sam. All the while, I tried to look beyond her to see what the inside of the hospital was like behind that force field. Was something being protected back there? I couldn't see. Too dark. I listened to what she had to say instead. "Paying attention? You might benefit from it. Well, if you are, then...
This is a small town. Nearly everyone is acquainted one way or another. I've heard Autumnridge to be called a big family by many a member of the town. In my world, caged by gray data and iron science, I stepped outside only on the most permitting of occasions. As a doctor of misfortune, I thought it necessary to deny my face the simple pleasure of the sun. I've done miserable things. When I wake up, this is what I wake up to. Guilt. Death. Dishonor.
In my field of work, you will see people die. This town, small as it is, has shown me the deaths of the ones I know. It is awful, but I can't pry myself away from it. Death is all too fascinating, and when that death grazes by your shoulder, you can't help yourself. You become tempted. You follow it wherever it goes.
But death is a scary thing. I've always wondered if there was way to change it—redefine death. What do we know of death as it's presented to us on a whiteboard or a television screen? Decay of the body? Cessation of consciousness? An extrusion of the soul to a place in the clouds? Depending on what you believe, all of these things could be true.
And, change? A change of the heart? I mean to say that one's person is altered to such depth that he or she can't feasibly return to the same rhythm of memory, the same heartbeat, and the same spirit of personality that he or she walked this old Earth's soil with."
"Sounds to me like reincarnation, not death! Stellar stuff, buuuut why're you getting so into it?" I asked her, almost interrupting her—I still needed to find Nirbie and get back to Nascoo so I could...
Hold on, what was Sam trying to tell me?
Did I have something to do with it? Was that why I had the memory of those Z's?
I leaned in.
"I would think that death is an important, if not, integral piece of reincarnation. I'm telling you all of this because I believe that Doctor O'Brien's life is coming to a close. I was old, yes, with trouble adapting to change. Forced upon me, I had to pretend to accept it. And now, my conviction wavers. Gamma is invading me, reorganizing my thoughts, and replacing my memories. I am dying." she grieved. For a moment, a speckle of purple shined on her shoulders. I mistook it for some reflection, but when it showed again, I had to assume she was... uhm... turning purple?
"I'm glad you came," she smiled at me. "I needed someone to demonstrate this to for my grandnephew. Or, Topher, do you prefer 'grandniece'?" Sam asked the shaymin, labeling her question with the most gentle, genuine curiosity.
I looked at the shaymin.
"Either or is fine, Sammy," said the 'min. So, was she a she or a he? 'Guess it didn't matter biologically! "I act more like a girl. Niece is probably better."
"I see," Sam nodded, a long breath in tow. They were related? "Well, Topher, dear, you must know a 'Zatch Hummings', yes?"
Zatch... Hummings...
My head went all splitty and ouchy-like.
"Zatch? 'Course. He's a really nice guy. I like him." said the shaymin, hesitating to finish. The way she spoke with a happy inflection but no smile on her lips made me think of another person I really liked being around. It wasn't VC-kun or Nascoo or Nirva. Who else was I around for long enough? I searched my own head. Lessee, I sorta liked that Mari Mars duo, but I didn't know them on a personal level. I didn't know how to feel about Sam. She made me nervous...
"And if I was to tell you that Laza has made Zatch his sister, this girl before you?" Sam queried, gesturing to my feet.
"That's... that's silly, Sammy..." the 'min chirped.
I was still watching the shaymin closely. Her small, emerald eyes were stuck in place, looking up into me, through me, and behind me all the same. She was so tiny. Her size made her appear sad. I could sniff it on her.
"We have records that prove it: video evidence of Zatch's initial transformation into this girl. A sylveon, as I've heard her called," Sam continued. The more she went on, the less I wanted to listen to her. It was true then. I totally forgot who I was when Laza made me. He made me out of someone else on this planet, like taking a big wad of clay and molding it into something else. Yeah, y'could do that with Gamma, and I knew it all along. "And based on her actions, I would say that she honestly believes she is Laza's sister now."
"But that's 'cause I am," I tried to argue, even though I knew Sam was right just like Nirbie was. That was what I was afraid of. That 'Z'. "Zatch is Serapheon because she wanted to be. It's like she was always Serapheon. That's just how she—how I perceive of it."
I stood with my ears flat, head-bow ribbons joining my tail against the cold cement, laying about messily.
"Zatch? Isn't that Zelda's brother?" asked the chespin to Topher the shaymin. The latter didn't look him in the eye. She shook her head.
"He was," she said. Suddenly, she smiled. When her cheeks reshaped to fit the smile, I saw a flash of ruby in her eyes, a piercing contrast to her green. It was gone in a fraction of a split-second, and then she closed her eyes. "But that's not your fault. It's nice to meet you, Serapheon."
It hurts...
I blinked.
I felt like a stranger.
I felt like my skin and fur and bows weren't my own anymore.
But, still, all I could say...
"Nice to meet'cha too, Topher."
"I..." Sam paused, vulnerable for the second time since I met her. She looked like she was insulted by our responses to one another. "I-I have a lot to learn from you kids. Under the duress of my work, I could never pardon anything like this. It would grow on me. I'd be haunted by it. My student was... No. Never mind my ranting."
…
We were all so quiet. My head ached. It told me that it hurt again, but not just on a physical level. It hurt inside of itself. I patted my feelers against one another, cleaning off the dust from the ground, then brought one up to my eye—the same that had the black tear. This time, there were no tears, even though it felt like I was crying, that warm, moist feeling of pressure bleeding itself out of your eye sockets heavy in my skull. It felt so hot in there. I thought it might explode.
We waited a little bit, looking back and forth at one another. Topher's eyes were still closed, like she'd seen it all and didn't want to see anymore. I couldn't smell any sadness from the shaymin. She must have been good at covering up her scents. Grass-types did that well! Or maybe my head was too stuffy from all of my Gamma encounters for my nose to work properly.
Still, was that really it? I could have been this person's closest friend only days ago, and we were just gonna leave it at a 'how do you do?' with nothing more?!
I didn't have a whole lot of time to think about that. The sky exploded.
The entire world became as blue as the sea. It was like looking through the window of an aquarium at the bottom of the ocean, lit up by a column of light above the woodland. I homed in on it, the air suddenly bursting with the scent of Laza's signature, so much so that my sinuses were cleared in seconds. I had the urge to sneeze, but I just couldn't get it out!
"Over there! The forest!" the chespin alerted the others.
A loud humming came from the erupting column, whites and blues and pale indigos swirling and mixing like transient pastel color—raw liquid starlight, bound not by gravity. It wasn't like the thunder I'd been hearing all this time. It was a crescendo in volume, until it was a mind-searlingly loud scream scratching the throat of the sky, parting the clouds.
Then, it twisted, snaking over as if it was alive with form. The gap it'd made in the clouds closed, leaving a burnt black hole, scars of navy blue disappearing from the overcast. The liquid ray shivered and looped around, knotting itself, shrinking. It came closer and closer to the forest's canopy until all of the light converged at one point, making that spot the brightest location for miles, so bright that everything else around us looked pitch black. The sound died down, but I kept hearing it in my head, a hum...
A hum...
Hum...
Hmmm~...
…
It was gone. There was a lingering smell of petrol and aloe vera. The wind raged, pushing my ribbons and ears back. I held onto the meteorite just a little bit tighter than before.
After my eyes adjusted to the light again, I stepped ahead, walking as far out as back into the rain.
"What the holy heck was that?! W-was that a Gamma bomb?!" I exclaimed. I gasped so quickly after that I coughed. "H-hey, Nirbie!"
Nirbie might've been over there. Maybe he even caused it. I didn't think he knew how to make a Gamma bomb go off, but maybe something went wrong... w-wrongER with him.
"My God, what has that maniac done?" Sam whispered. I looked back at her to see her quills high, hands cupped around her snout.
"Mm, Sammy, do you want to go check that out?" asked the shaymin, eyes to the clouds.
"N-no, dear, I want to try and wake my grandson again. I'm sure you'd like to see him, too. Why don't we go inside and I can explain everything to you? Your friend can come with us." the wisp mediated, which went alarmingly to the shaymin's amusement, 'cause she giggled to it. I didn't think they meant me when they said 'friend'.
"Yeah, I wanna see him. Do you want to see him too, Serapheon? He was your friend, like I was." Topher looked at me, her eyes like anchors dropping into my spirit and binding me in place. What a weird girl-boy.
"I-I... I'm really sowwy, Tophie-kun." I started.
"I'm positive you'd love him." she insisted. I looked away, making a wide, painful frown.
"I'll come some other time, I promise! I'm just looking for someone right now. Have you, uh... you guys see a black eevee run through here?"
"I don't blame you," Topher commented, like she was ignoring my words, lips pursing wryly as she looked to the entrance of the hospital, still coated with that membrane of translucent Gamma. "Because there's no one there to blame. I guess I'm just too used to it that way. Everything as I know it is falling apart around me. In times like that, I would hope people could change. I would hope this filthy world could become something a little prettier before it implodes. Atticus? Let's go. We're gonna figure out a way to open this barrier."
She and her chespin companion began moving closer to the barrier. I was still stuck in place, looking to the woods, then to the entrance, then to the woods again...
What do I do?
I can't just... I-I can't leave her with that. That's so heartless. That doesn't feel right at all. I don't like this anymore. I don't like being Sera.
I don't fit in anywhere, not even with Nascoo or Nirvie or VC-kun.
I wonder if I can still make it up to Topher somehow. That barrier's no problem to remove; I mean, I can do it. They want to see their friend? Is he in there? I'll help them. I want to be useful again. I want to be a part of something, so... s-so here it is.
I walked away from my anchors. I went right between Topher and her friend, stopping before the barrier. I looked inside, squinting if that made any difference. Of course it didn't! It was pitch black in there. I didn't like the mood it set, but I couldn't smell a darn thing from behind this wall. I gave it a few taps right in the center with my free feelers. It wasn't all even. There were two sliding doors here that were crumbled up and trashed, like someone plowed through the place. The barrier was only filling the space that the doors and busted wall would have, so it looked more like a big crash than anything else.
It gave a long buzz when I touched it. I'd have thought it would have zapped anyone else if they made contact. Perks of being a member of the Gamma club! Not like I had anything to be proud of anymore.
I leaned in and puckered my lips, pressing them to the force field with a quick close of my eyes. I gave a loud 'mwuah', opening my lips and creating a ring of deeper blue, opening wide, creating a hole in the barrier. The ring—more of 'kiss ripple'—terminated the rest of the barrier from there. It tasted like I expected: flowers! Why'd it taste like flowers? Well, 'cause it smelled like flowers! Why'd it smell like flowers? Dunno.
The inside of the hospital smelled nothing like that. I grimaced when I saw into the dark, furnishings and papers tossed about, thick wiring hanging from the ceiling, and metal re-bar showing through broken walls. The tiles had decayed, lights flickering on and off in a corridor somewhere around a corner. The whole inside reeked of ammonia and mold and miscellaneous grime.
"Oh. Thank you," Topher applauded me, walking right by and entering the tattered building with no fear. "We're lucky that you showed up."
"I really don't know about this idea anymore. What do you want to do here again?" I pestered them, watching the chespin walk by.
"We want to wake Cruce up. Maybe even Drew, if we're luckier than we got with you." he said, his voice trembling a little more than his body.
Drew?
"Drew?" I repeated aloud.
"FLKR-HX3 must have purged. That would explain the 'demonstration'," Sam started talking, spouting stuff I didn't get. She stopped right near me, her hands behind her back again. "And yet here we are. What a turnaround... Serapheon?"
I looked up to her inquisitively, finding her seagreen-azure eyes with ease.
"I was thinking over something you told me yesterday. You said that what I am doing is no longer science," she recollected, looking into the abyss of the building. "Paired with everything Mars has tried to tell me, I think I'm starting to understand you both. Hah. Funny that it took my becoming another person entirely to receive the message."
"What're you saying? I don't think you could understand Gamma in just a day!" I objected.
"Oh no, not that. I still don't quite grasp Gamma. O'Brien never will. Did Mars ever explain to you anything regarding Symbis?"
She did. She told me that they were like us Champions.
"Mmhm, that she did! Kinda confusing, huh? I don't get how they work, but I hope that we can all be friends."
"Yes. Yes, that would be very, very nice," she agreed, the speckles of purple sparkling on her shoulders and arms again. She looked at me with the sweetest smile I'd seen all day, like she really meant it, like she had a spirit. "And I hope that someday I fly by and return the favor. Thank you very much for helping us. I've been so worried about my kids here."
"Don't'cha worry about it, Doc! You gotta be with your family, even if it means going into a creepy old place like this. Just be care-care! I don't like the look of it. Smells all garbagey in there." I warned her, winking. I never would have thought someone like this would've fueled me up with enthusiasm!
I mean, I still didn't know if it excused any of the things she'd done at Delta Meadow, but if Sam was slipping away just like Zatch did, did it even matter?
"Much obliged. Take care yourself and, please, try not to break that rock." she chuckled, tilting herself, going horizontal and swerving into the dark to catch up with the others.
I watched her go...
...
Zatch, huh?
I wonder if there was a way to turn back into you so you could be with your friends.
But Topher didn't look like he was dealing with all of this change so well. If there was any way reverse being Sera, would I still wanna do that to Zatch? Put him back here, where everything was going crazy? Not wrong, but crazy. Yeah...
Yeah...
I still had to go and take care of the duty Laza gave me.
But I feel so different. I told Zatch not to be afraid. I remember that much. I said those words. I said he was just becoming him again. Wasn't he always meant to turn into Serapheon? Was there a mistake somewhere?
"Huh!" I gasped aloud. Sam and Topher and that chespin were already well within the building to notice me.
That's... that's gotta be the thingy! Maybe that's Nirbie's issue! Is whoever he was BEFORE Nirva trying to escape from him? I don't know how it involves being an eevee where he's supposed to be a leafy, but still, it's gotta mean something like that.
Yeah!
I REALLY gotta find Nirbie-kun now! When I do that, I'll head straight back to Nascoo. Er, gee, I kind of hope that big explosion didn't have anything to do with the wittle guy.
Welp, either-whats and anywhos, better get hustlin~!
…
I let those three off on their mission to help their friend Cruise or whatever his name was! Good for them~! Even if bonding was gonna happen after being turned into another person, it was still bonding in some way. Gee, I wanted to spend time with that shaymin s'more now. She was the CUTEST Pokémon I had seen all day.
I turned away from the eerie entrance, looking ahead into that vehicle lot. Straight ahead of me was the treeline to the woods, where we saw the big burst.
Oh, but wait, there was someone standing in the lot now.
I couldn't tell who it was. I think it might'a been that Chevy Chevron guy. Oof, he was not the easiest guy to talk to. Huh, he was supposed to be a shaymin like Topher, 'cept all mutanty and sky formy and stuff. Why'd he look like a human? He didn't smell like how he used to, but that cloak was the same as his. It had the red ridges at the bottom making that pattern of triangles. The cloak looked like it was too big for this person, soooo maybe it wasn't Chevy.
"Ummm~..." I hummed, going further a couple paces, tilting my head off to the side, but still watching the figure. The back of the cloak actually looked really funked up. It was all... ripply and wriggly and stuff, with too many folds, like the person was wearing some weird-shaped backpack.
And then the person turned around.
Oh, were you Xima? Hi Xima!
"Oh, it's you!" I bounced, grinning.
"Hm?" she mumbled. Her eyes were pretty much half-covered by the hood, but her white fur, short muzzle, and furrowed lips matched a lot of things Nascoo told me about. Plus, she had the most killer smell, like Gamma went all up and blew up in her face! She might've been part of that explosion, but dang, she got here fast if that was the case, sooo... nope~.
"Howdy-dowdy Xima~! It's me! Sera! You know, 'cause I'm Serapheon?" I said, wagging my tail.
I saw her before, but she was so much more... er... 'there', than the last time at Meter Deeter High, or—uhm, or whatever that school was called. Her white cloak was hiding just about everything, from her feet to her shoulders.
Only this time, I got the wrong vibe after she just stood there all quiet-like.
"Are you doin' okay, Ximmy Xammy? Want a massage? I'm good at those!" I offered. I was the queen of massages when it came to stress or muscle aches. Oomph~. Gotcha right where it felt good!
"What the... W-'the hell?!" she parted her arms, looking down at her own body. When she did this, the center of her cloak parted a little. I took a peek at her form. I wasn't familiar with these bipedal body types all that much, but she looked really pretty, all curvy and cute and stuff. Still, bad vibes! She was frustrated about something.
"What? Whassup? Did'ja get lost?" I asked, my smile sinking.
"Why'm I here?! Holy crap, this makes zero sense. Freaking—agh, and it's raining here and just... such a bad time, man..." she grieved on, one of her blue palms facing the clouds to catch the rain, her nose slightly pointed up. I could see her orange, feline eyes at that angle. Gee, she really acted NOTHING like Nascoo described.
"Yoohoo, Xiiiima~! Over here, Miss Meowstic lady!" I called for her, making it a song!
Oh yeah, huh? Meowstic! She was one of those, 'cept she had three tails. Mutants were cool. That must'a been why her cloak was all jimbly-jambly in the back.
"Yeah, I see you—thanks," she sighed, her hands on her hips, making fists. "Hey, you're uh... Serapheon, eh? Oh, shit, you have the meteorite!" her eyes went wide.
"Wow, language..." I scolded her. Golly willickers me, what was up with that mouth?!
"Sorry, I'm freaking out. Look, just help me out, yeah? I-I-I gotta get back to my own time—well, okay, not MY time, but the RIGHT time and... Christ, this is not working. Can I get your trust? Please?"
Was this really Xima? No way it could've been. And what was with all the talk about time? Her time? Right time? Oh no, not this. Not time travel. Puh-leeease, not time travel. Somebody guffed up hard for there to be time travel.
"Weeeeell," I rolled my eyes, leaving them high. "I dunno, you're different than the Xima I've met."
"Xima? Oh, n-no, it's not like that, I..." she stuttered, rubbing the back of her head. "I'm not..."
"Not what? Not Xima? You soooo don't seem like the Xima type."
"Yeah-ahaha, uh," she laughed, responding so quick to me that she pretty much just cut me off. "Holy crap, this is scary. I don't know what to say to you. I might mess things up worse than they are—I'll get out of your way if you let me jump into the meteorite. If it makes you feel any better, I have no idea what I'm doing and my actions could decide the fate of the universe."
"... Oh."
"Yeah."
"Okay."
"Yeah, sorry."
"Sure."
"So, what's uh... the verdict?"
I literally had nothing to say. I went mindless for a sec. Completely unplugged. I think I was drooling.
I shook my head and squished my head between my available feelers. Focus, sylveon!
"The verdict don't know what she's doin'~." I decided.
"That's not what a verdict is."
"Okay~. What's a verdict?"
"Can I please jump at your rock?" she asked me, throwing her arms forward, annoyed.
"Ooh! So soon? Oh Arceus me, I don't think I've ever had someone so pretty ask me that. I really think you should consider my massage! It's free of charge. Not like I can charge anything to start with~." I flirted, putting both ribbons over my mouth and turning away, still focused on her. I put my two other ribbons carrying Laza's fragment ahead, tempting her.
It was fun, but I hope she wasn't too mad about me making fun of her!
"Yeah, I heard you were the goofy one," she composed herself, standing straight, sighing, then sulking her head off to the side. "You can massage me some other time. I don't even know if we'll meet again soon, and if we do, things got a good chance of being just as bad as they are now. Or, y'know, worse."
"Goofy one?" I blinked.
"No offense."
"The 'goofy one'? That's what I'm known as?! Neh!"
"Could be worse."
"I guess so..." I moped. Why couldn't I be known as the fun one?! Or the colorful one?! I didn't like the sound of 'goofy'. I'd have taken 'silly' over that! Ugh, why not 'shiny' either?
All of a sudden, the meowstic lady went all vibratey! Her body starting waving, like she was getting warped and turned to static. At first, the warp effect was really subtle, but over just a matter of seconds, it started making her even more wobbly.
"No—oh hell, that was fast! Got it! More next time! Little more!" she fluttered. It sounded like she was going underwater, sinking further away.
I reached out to her and bit my lip, feeling a little guilty.
She shook her head to me and closed her hands into fists a second time, letting her body succumb to the warp. She waved so violently that she had no shape anymore, until the spot where her body was burst into fragments of light, little blue orbs of Gamma energy flying from her and freezing in midair. The burst was rapid, like a crack of a whip, with a sound like a bit of antimatter particles coming to a sudden stop after going the speed of light! All... electromagnetic and stuff...
Xima was all gone. She didn't even get to explain herself.
Did I just destroy the universe and all of time forward and back?
Wow, this was bad.
I didn't know we had time travelers other than Celebi in the mix! But, I only assumed Celebi was taken care of by now. I couldn't sit around and wait any longer. I had to hurry and find Nirbie. Sidetracked, maybe. I had a hunch Nascoo was gonna cream my beans for this one. I would've made it up to her with a...
…
Oh...
Gee... Xima distracted me from Zatch for a little bit.
'Guess I just gotta keep moving on.
Nirva? What if I asked you a different question?
Who were you before Nirva?
…
I felt awful. I messed up. I needed to get back to the game.
Holding the meteorite above my back once more, I took off, feeling the cold rush of water against my damp fur. Just as I was starting to dry off, too. Nothing stayed the same for too long. Even Sam was starting to figure that out. Heh, even I was. I was supposed to be the expert, but I was goofing off. Okay, maybe I was the goofy one.
Goofy or not, I could run! I ran the fastest I could, my feet only touching the ground for burst-fire heartbeats at a time. The impacts against my paws were so quick I couldn't even feel them! When I got to the mangled part of the lot, I jumped around the mess, throwing myself back into the thickets and looking for a way back to that path. The path looked important! It had to take me back to Nascoo and the others. Maybe they found Nirbie! Yeah, I had to keep thinking like that!
Not far off now. The woods were starting to smell a lot more familiar. That gory scent was coming back. I didn't really miss it, but at least it let me know where I was. Maybe Nirbiboo was nearby, 'cause he STANK like a riot!
…
I got far! I could only hope I wasn't late to the show. I was one of the main acts!
I came across a pathway with the trees arching overhead. I was here before, but I passed through and went off-road instead of following this trail anywhere. I put my nose to the wet ground and gave a good, effort-heavy inhale. I didn't even need to do it. When I looked back up after walking a yard or three or five (or twenty), I saw a bridge. It was all messed up, but the bridge had people on it! Pokémon! And... other things! Yay!
Wow! All the Gamma! It was like a cultural exchange festival! Just with super dangerous energy alleged to be the reason the galaxies were becoming more distant from each other (A.K.A. Dark matter).
There was a skywispy, and an emolga boy, and a FLOOOOFY LITTLE BUNNY LADY with a big blue tail and bosoms so sumptuous and soft that I could practically feel the warmth from where I stood. Off beyond the bridge was—GAAASP, ARCADIA~!
Oh snap, bosoms for days!
Xima, you might not've let me massage you, but I was gonna get my ribbons into some tight places if it killed me!
But then I couldn't save the world.
I needed to learn how to prioritize. Still, I'm sure these folks wouldn't have minded if I just crept up slowly, on the prowl, getting closer and closer—oop, emolga already noticed me, but that was okay 'cause he wasn't saying anything.
Oooh, the wisp was Mari, too! Caused me to pause for a sec, but she was keeping the floofy girl distracted. She had a scary looking weapon, but I could easily make her drop it! No sweat!
Almost there... aaaaaand...
"Peekaboobs!" I yelled, pouncing onto her! She laughed, fidgeting under me—gee, she was strong! Not strong enough though, Miss Buns!
And then there was groping~.
The end!
…
…
…
Man...
That's who I am now?
I guess it is, huh...
That's not how it ends. It's just how it goes. Until it finds the right direction to go, it can never end.
Part of me—this part that's lost—hopes it goes here and finds me, but I'm not putting any bets down on that. By the way, I have nothing to bet with.
It's weird. I'm Sera. These thoughts are hers and she's hearing them, but she's busy right now, so... unconscious, I guess. 'S that what I am now? Just a subconscious concept?
Nah.
I'm me. I'm Sera. Sera's having a tough time getting used to things. So, until she finds me, Sera or Zatch, she prolly won't be feelin' too hot around others. 'Least I can keep an eye on her. Literally! Her eyes are mine! Heheh...
Sorry Topher. Danithan, you too, dude. I think I know who you are now. It's kinda why I want Sera to look a little harder. 'Till she can figure out some truth, she'll have to do more fighting. I'll fight with her. I haven't given up. Laza's sister doesn't give up.
And I know Zack and Zeldster don't give up either. You're out there. I feel it. Rootin' for you guys.
Let's meet up sometime and jam again. Was fun. I got a new sound in mind.