- Chapter 27: Flight, from Another's Eyes -
She could do nothing as Mona's body hurled through the air. She should have done something. Intercepted her. Pulled her away as soon as she landed. For a precious few moments—moments that cost everything—she watched as the weapon activated under Mona's touch. The two Plates steadily burned brighter as Mona's thrashing reduced to twitching.
Only then did she find that her feet were not adhered to the ground. She dove over to Mona and tried to shake her awake, to keep her alive. Another few moments wasted to her stupidity; she should have taken her off the disc first. By the time she realized, Mona had stopped moving entirely. Eris sat back against her heels, her hands falling to her side.
"No…," she whispered to herself. This could not be true. This had to be a lie.
Mona was not...no. She could not be. They had known each other for so long, been through so much together—how was this fair? How was this right?
She attempted to shake her awake again, still in denial. Before she touched Mona, however, the eevee twitched once. Eris gasped in glee. She lived! She had no idea why, but she could not care less.
Slowly, Mona placed one paw, then another, under her. Almost mechanically, she pushed herself upright, her back to Eris. One of her paws still lingered on the weapon's surface, and the steady glow from the Plates shifted into pulses.
"Mona, y—y…," she started to say, but when Mona turned to the side, the rest of the sentence died on her lips.
Mona's eyes. They were glowing white.
"Mona? What's w-wrong?" she asked the eevee. Not giving so much as a twist of the ears, Mona ignored Eris and faced the oncoming horde fearlessly. By this point, Eris was thoroughly freaked out.
"M-Mona? You're sc-sc-scaring me," Eris stuttered. "Please, t-tell me you're okay!"
No response. The diamond at the center of the ring ignited a sooty gray, nearly blinding her eyes. She shielded them with her arms, yet overhead, she spotted a beam of the same color rocketing through the sky. Its path traced straight into the halflings, but before her gaze reached its end, an eruption of energy detonated right in the middle of the enemies' ranks. The pure concussive force knocked Eris flat on her side. Mona remained utterly motionless, a defiant statue in midst of chaos.
When all had calmed, and the enemy lay incinerated, Mona staggered off the disc. As the light faded from the diamond, she tumbled limply to the ground. Desperately, Eris scrambled on hands and knees over to her.
"M-Mona? Mona!" Eris wailed. Mona's head turned toward her, and she slowly blinked as if she barely recognized her. Eris held her gaze for long seconds, willing her to live. Then, without speaking a word, Mona's head thumped against the ground, and a long breath escaped from her mouth.
"No, no, no," Eris repeated. She immediately felt for a heartbeat.
One thump. Another, slower. Another, faint and distant. Another, still there. Still alive.
Then, nothing. No beat. No pulse.
…No life.
Her vision blurred. Tears trickled down her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around her friend and cradled her, muttering at her to come back, to not leave. She knew it was useless, but she did it anyway.
Endless moments drifted away in mourning. Her vision oscillated between the darkness of closed eyes and the swimming color of a tear-laden reality. She rocked back and forth, back and forth, never letting go of Mona's body.
Someone touched her arm. She flinched at the contact. It was Icarus, wheezing and bent over. The disc had taken some from him, too, but not enough to leave him lifeless. Tucked under one arm was a blanket, bulky with its precious cargo once more.
"We have to go," he said, his voice caring, but firm. Eris shook her head vigorously. She could not leave. Mona was… Was…
"Eris, we have to go!" he repeated more aggressively. He tugged at her arm, and she resisted him. She could not leave Mona here, not in this godforsaken place. She deserved more than this, more than what she got.
"Do you want to die? Do you want to make Mona's sacrifice worthless?!" Icarus screamed rhetorically. Eris's throat tightened. No, she did not. Not at all.
Icarus interpreted her silence as consent. "Then let's go!" She let him pull her to her feet. He did not object to her unfaltering hold on Mona; instead, he guided her down the slope to the canyon at its bottom. People already were streaming into it. The sounds of battle raged behind them, the distraction for their escape. Eris tried not to think of those who were giving their lives on the walls of that fortress, ensuring their safe passage to freedom. Her thoughts became consumed by them regardless, crowding alongside her grief for Mona.
The canyon sloped up and down, switched left and right, narrowed and widened, and confused her bearings until she felt utterly lost. Her arms grasped hold of Mona ever tighter, and she felt no fatigue through the adrenaline coursing in her veins.
At some point, Ray pulled up next to her. He glanced down at the eevee in her arms, and he asked a question she was not prepared to answer: "Why is Mona unconscious? Did she get hurt?"
Eris squinted her eyes shut, trying and failing to withhold tears. She regarded Ray silently and woefully, to which he gave no response save a slight gape in the mouth. He blinked several times in disbelief. How could he not understand she was dead? She was not moving. She was not talking or talking or even breathing. She was gone. Gone!
Lightning rammed against the rocks above, showering dust and pebbles. As if summoned, Dagheer soared into the air and brought his shield to bear. A shimmering wall of gray hexagons spread out in a dome before him, deflecting yet another lightning bolt.
They're still following us?! Eris mentally screamed with dread. Her pounding feet ached with each step; her arms began to quaver from the load they carried. Still, she forged on, her feelings numb to all save fear and despair.
After a sharp turn, her foot caught on a protruding rock. She tumbled to the ground, turning onto her side at the last instant to protect Mona's body. Her shoulder and hip jarred from the impact, and she struggled to right herself. Above her, she witnessed Icarus pawn the disguised weapon off to Ray and march over to her.
"Give her to me," he ordered, wrapping his arms around Mona. She resisted his pull, hugging Mona tighter to her. Icarus bared his teeth in frustration and yanked harder.
No! You can't have her. Not you!
"Icarus, enough!" Ray interjected, shoving the weapon back into his brother's chest. The action disrupted the lucario, forcing him to disengage from Eris.
"What the—," Icarus started to say, but Ray cut him off with, "Just leave her be. We're falling behind."
Icarus glanced between the two of them, scowled, then took off. Ray brushed some of the dirt off of Mona. He gazed at her, his face stone cold and unreadable. "Prick. Let's go," he eventually said. He gently encouraged Eris forward, and together, the two ran after the rest of the group.
The afternoon sun burned high in the sky by the time they found refuge in a relatively small clearing. Dagheer and some others had taken care of their pursuers, earning the others some well-deserved rest. Barely able to maintain her grip, Eris exhaustedly shuffled to the side and plopped on the ground. She let Mona gently roll from her arms and onto her thighs. In her current posture, she seemed asleep, moments away from awakening.
A sob wracked her chest once more. Ray lowered himself next to her, not saying a word. His presence gave her some measure of comfort; at least she was not alone. His previous immutable expression had cracked, permitting his sorrow to expose itself. Raising a paw, he tentatively hovered it over Mona's head, indecisive. He eventually withdrew it. The two of them remained thus until the sun passed from overhead to disappear behind the mountains once more.
"Excuse me."
A medicham approached Eris, kneeling down next to her. She blinked several times, then wiped tears from her eyes. Arceus, she must look like grief.
Gesturing at Mona, he asked, "May I examine her?"
Having no idea how to respond, she merely shifted Mona slightly forward. She did not have the heart to say that she was dead; the medicham could find that out for himself. He only laid his hand on her throat for a few moments before sucking in a deep breath.
"Has her body been this way the entire time?" he inquired. Eris nodded; she could only be held in a curled position, after all. The medicham extended one of her forelegs, finding that it could still bend.
"Odd…," he mumbled to himself. Standing, he continued, "I can help bury her if you'd like."
At his suggestion, Eris immediately hugged Mona tightly against her. "N-No," was all she could muster.
Clearly bothered, the medicham grimaced. "Well…okay. I can give you a while. That sound good?"
Ray glanced from the medicham to Eris, and she gave him her best helpless expression. Clearing his throat, Ray said, "Listen, I think we need some time alone."
"Alright," the medicham said. He swiftly left, a fact for which Eris was very, very grateful. Her gaze fell back upon Mona, and tears pricked her eyes once more. After some time in mournful silence, Ray patted Eris's leg, said he would be back in a bit, and left. She lost him behind a small group of people.
It was then that she realized just how few managed to escape. She estimated no more than fifty remained. So many lives lost, just like the day she left her home. Ghost of the past intermingled with the living, screams of rage and terror amid the somber silence.
Her body quaked. Did it ever end? Was violence as inevitable as night following day? Troubled memories came to light once more: the bloodied and broken body of her father; Lucy, Zane, and Kyle; and Rocky Springs and Yurk.
She had told Mona, all those weeks ago, that she had wanted to become an explorer because of a newfound love she had for such a career. That was a lie, she now acknowledged.
She had truly wanted to be an explorer because she could not bear the thought of losing another friend. Her desire to be an innkeeper had been more of her mom's dream than her own, so her pursuit of it had been aimless and half-hearted. Her mom had taken some convincing to change her mind, but Eris wished she had listened to all of her reasons. The day of the school fire had changed everything forever—a change, she now wished, had never occurred at all.
In the end, Eris still lost her, but in the most painful way possible. If given another chance, she would have gladly severed contact with Mona and blindly followed the path others had set for her. Such distance would have lessened the pain so, so much. In this moment, it was more than she could bear.
Her hands covered her face to hide her shame and fresh outburst of tears.
"Hey," she heard someone say. Peeking from between her fingers, she spotted Ray approaching her. His face had reset itself in its typical apathetic complexion.
Hovering over her, he said, "I found someplace nice. We should take her there. It's…more isolated."
Carefully, she lowered her hands, afraid of what Ray would find in her eyes. Thankfully, he voiced no comment, either out of a lack of notice or a respect to not mention it. Bending down, he cupped his paws around Mona's shoulders.
"Thanks," Eris hoarsely whispered, lifting Mona by her other half. Together, the two carried Mona to the location Ray had selected. Her throat tightened: Ray had chosen a bed of tall yellow wildflowers, bravely stretching toward the narrow sky.
"Yellow…her f-favorite," she choked out, her voice cracking. "It's p-perfect."
"Lucky guess," he simply said. With the sobriety of a funeral procession, they laid Mona down in the center of the patch. The flowers bent over her as her body sank into their midst as if to shield her, encapsulating her in their vivid color.
A light breeze tousled Eris as she and Ray stood watch over her. In that moment, she felt compelled to say something.
"I…," she started, but failed to say anything else. She rubbed a hand over her face, struggling to find the words to say. "You…"
She exhaled in frustration. Ray clasped his paws behind his back. He glanced away from Mona, and for a brief moment, a pained expression tore across his face.
"Mona," she said at last.
She rested her head in her hands. "You were always s-s-so k-kind and helpful and…amazing and just…you. Even when that thing nearly beat you, you fought it. I've n-never known someone as strong a-a-a-as you. You were until the very…very end."
Spurred by Eris, Ray cleared his throat. "Mona, I've never met someone as passionate and driven as you are. I'll never forget you. May Arceus judge you with favor."
Mona deserved every word. Eris wiped the crust from her eyes, her depression culled. Gently, she knelt on the grass and closed her eyes.
"C'mon, Eris! The marigolds are blooming!"
Her heart warmed at the memory, seemingly so long ago. Mona's mom had quite the talented green thumb, and Mona had convinced her to come see them one day in late spring.
"Arceus, what am I going to tell her parents?" she said, craning her head skyward. Then, her gaze returned to Mona. Her breath stuttered, and she broke into sobbing again.
"Goodbye, Mona," Ray spoke in a flat, lifeless voice. Reaching out, he uprooted a few flowers. Picking away the roots, he laid them flat on her body. Eris curled her hands against her knees, her vision blurring. She wiped the tears away, holding her breath on impulse.
That was when she heard it.
She almost thought she was mistaken. No, it must have been Ray; after all, he was right next to her.
It came again: the long, deep sigh of sleep.
Eris gasped, her hands flinging upward to cover her mouth. Mona's chest, which had not expanded with breath since the day Mona collapsed in her arms, rose once, then fell. Rose. Fell. A blessed cycle, a sign of life.
"Eris?" Ray asked, his tone still dull. Unable to find the words, she merely quavered a finger at Mona, her whole body shaking with excitement. Ray examined Mona in confusion, but when her chest moved again, he froze. His jaw dropped until his mouth formed a perfect circle.
"S-Sh-Sh-She…ive," Eris sputtered, so overjoyed she could barely speak. "She's…alive!"
Her words jolted Ray out of his stupor. Springing to his paws, he said, "I'll get help!" and sprinted back toward camp. Eris heard a dull commotion, and people soon arrived with Ray in the lead. Icarus was with them as well as the medicham from before. Eris glared daggers at Ray's older brother, her anger at him burning brightly. If he had not decided to use the weapon, none of this would have happened. And he had the gall to show up like he cared! He did not deserve to feel that way.
The medicham bent down, carelessly crushing wildflowers, and waved over an audino. She grasped one of the feelers dangling from her ears and laid it over Mona's chest. With her other hand, she sent pink pulses into Mona's body. Everyone anxiously waited for the audino's proclamation.
Eventually, she withdrew her free hand and feeler. "I don't know how this is possible. It's a miracle. I've momentarily stabilized her condition, but we need to get her back to camp."
"I'll take her," the medicham offered. He lifted Mona up in his arms; then, he glanced toward Eris. She returned his look of wonderment with one of her own. Others, who had come out of pure interest, parted like mareep and let the medicham and audino pass. As Mona was carried down the aisle, away from the spot of her now never-to-be grave, Eris likened the image to a reversal of a funeral procession, almost like a kind of rebirth.
Ray and Eris pushed to the forefront as everyone dissolved their formation. They reached camp just as the medicham and audino disappeared with Mona inside of a tent. Maple ducked inside, too; the rest of her team gathered outside of the tent like anxious children. Nobody knew what to make of this.
Just as Eris and Ray reached the tent, the audino poked out her head. "Thank you for your concern, but I have enough help in here. Would you please not hover outside the tent?"
"Is it true?" Riko squawked. "Is she really alive?"
"Yes, but if I can't care for her, she might not be for much longer," the audino snapped. Eris's spirit sunk; she had really hoped to be with Mona.
Ray set a paw on Eris's arm. "I need to ask you something," he said under his breath, motioning to the side. Eris glanced back and forth between Ray and the tent. Sighing, Ray tugged on her arm, saying, "That audino isn't going to let anyone in. Let's go."
Reluctantly, Eris allowed Ray to guide her away from the tent. They sat down on a pair of rocks, the tent still in their sights. Team Crescent had also left the tent's vicinity, but Eris could see them holding a heated conversation among themselves.
Ray wiped his face with his paws. Silence stretched between the two, neither sure of how to begin. Eris tapped her hands against her knees and clicked her heels together. Ray lowered his paws and exhaled deeply.
"Alright," he eventually said.
"Y-yeah," Eris breathed.
One of his paws twirled his collar fur. "I didn't want to ask this before, but I feel like I can now. How did Mona die in the first place?"
Eris started, not expecting that question. "W-Well, um, it…"
With much stuttering, she explained how Icarus had tried to use the weapon, only for Mona to stop him. She accidentally landed on the weapon, and it fully activated, killing her in the process.
"Wait, it fully activated?" Ray asked her for clarification.
Eris nodded. She did make that clear before.
"And she didn't burn to ash like Shroud," he stated matter-of-factly. Now that he mentioned it, Shroud had combusted when he attempted to utilize the power of the weapon for himself. Mona's body had remained perfectly intact.
Ray interlaced his fingers and rested his elbows on his knees. "If the weapon kills those who use it, how did Mona come back to life?"
"I…," Eris started to say. She then shrugged, utterly clueless. Ray blinked long and hard. He scratched at his neck, his brow creasing deeply. Eris was struggling to even process that this was real, much less why it was real.
"C-Can't we just be happy she's alive?" she posed.
The corners of Ray's mouth tightened, then relaxed. "Yeah, I guess so. I just was hoping that, if I found out how she died, I could know why she's back."
"Sorry," Eris said, lowering her head. She sensed that Ray was not speaking his full mind but had no desire to pursue the subject further.
"No, you're right. Anyway, we need some food and rest. I heard we're not leaving until tomorrow morning," he said.
"I…could use something," Eris mused.
Together, the two wandered about camp until they found one of the open boxes of rations. After filling themselves, they retired to separate tents.
When the next day arrived, Mona had still not awoken. The audino felt confident enough in Mona's condition that she permitted Eris and Ray to carry Mona together. Ray found a cloth, and the two strung it between them like a hammock. After Mona was snugly tucked inside of its fold, they began their trek eastward with the rest of the Vanguard.
The sun had neared its zenith when they emerged from the narrow canyon into a wider valley. Out in the open, Eris could drink in the sunlight and a slight breeze. She could not stop and enjoy it, for Ray continued marching onward without a care for the pleasant weather.
Some distance into the valley, Ray said, "I heard Sculle didn't make it back." Those words were the first he had spoken all day.
"O-Oh," she said in a hushed tone. Then, she glanced down at Mona. "I h-hope he f-f-found a way out anyway."
"Not very likely," Ray said with a snort. Blinking wide-eyed, Eris regarded him incredulously. Noticing her stare, he cleared his throat and pointedly looked away.
A little more loudly, Eris said, "M-Makes you see h-how lucky we are."
"Sure does," he replied blandly.
Not very talkative today, Eris thought.
"L-Let's just hope we don't r-run into anything else on the w-way," she said anyway. Currently, their distance lay further east, an emergency location in the instance that their location in the Ruins of Eld became compromised. She had overheard others conversing about it; she hoped nothing had ruined it.
Thankfully, their travel remained unperturbed. Their numbers dissuaded wild pokémon attacks, and the air patrols spotted no sign of the halflings. They were safe for now.
A few days after their flight from the ruins, they entered into a valley with a narrow river cleaving it in two. During breakfast that morning, Ace announced that they were within a day's travel from their destination. Mona had still not awakened; she was being force-fed nourishment by this point.
When they reached the valley's river, they paused to refill canteens and drink their fill. The cooling wind from days prior had vanished, leaving them in the sweltering summer heat. Dipping her hands in the current, she splashed herself with the water, sighing with the relief it brought.
"I don't know about her. Do you really believe what they're saying about her?"
"That she played dead? Yeah. I mean, people don't come back from the dead. I don't know why they're insisting on playing cover-up. What makes her so special?"
"She's one of the ones who faced Shroud."
"Her? Don't kid me."
"I'm not! One of the other ones is over there. Plus, I heard that the eevee used some sort of magic disc and killed a bunch of halflings."
At that remark, Eris had to tear her gaze away from the two. She doused herself with water again, pretending to not have overhead them. By the time she cleared her eyes, they had gone.
Rattled, Eris left the bank and rejoined Ray, who was basking in the shade of a knobby tree. Mona lay wrapped in her cloth nearby, also under the shade.
Those comments reminded Eris of school. Her peers had spread all sorts of scandalous rumors about Mona, namely picking on the fact that she had not evolved during all six years she had been there.
If Eris were to be honest with herself, she had her fair share of gossip. She was called a wimp, a coward…she even overhead someone joke that she had autism. Their words still bothered her to this day. That was why she resolved herself to never, ever push Mona about evolution.
And here they were, starting all over again. No matter the time or the place, people could always each other to do all sorts of deplorable things. Eris wished there was some way to fight it, but she would be one person against a raging tide. One would be better served finding shelter than risk being swept away.
"Alright, time to move on out!" a voice shouted out. The wide space quashed its reverberation into flatness.
Ray grunted and pushed himself to his paws. Stretching upward, he rolled out his shoulders. "Hope we don't have to carry her for much longer. I'm getting sore," he said.
Eris's brows creased. Marching over to Mona, she grabbed one side of the cloth. "G-Glad t-to see that…," she started to say, but the rest of the words failed to escape her mouth. Curse how much she could not handle confrontation! How she wished she could tell Ray off for being inconsiderate. He had no right to complain, not after all Mona did.
Ray raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Eris huffed. "N-Nothing," she said demurely. "Let's just…go."
Ray picked up his side of the cloth. Together, they trailed after the rest of the group. Thankfully, they did not have to travel for much longer. The emergency hideout resided at the end of the valley in a spacious cavern deceptively concealed by its tiny entrance. Various crates lined the walls, illuminated by torches that someone had recently lit.
"Let's put here over there," Ray suggested, pointing with his chin to blank space near the back. Not waiting for Eris's reply, he began moving in that direction, leaving Eris to hurriedly pick up her slack and follow.
On their way, they passed Maple. Now on only a single crutch, she could walk and help carry items with her free arm. She smiled at them as they passed, but something about the harshness of her lips and the squinting of her eyes told Eris that it was forced.
"Oh, Maple," Ray said, "where are we going from here? This doesn't seem like a permanent set-up here."
"It's not," she confirmed. "After we recoup here for a few days, we're traveling to an outpost further east, near Hawthorne."
Ray blinked several times, paling. His paws tightened on the cloth.
Maple tilted her head to the side. "Are you good?"
Exhaling, he jerkily nodded. "C'mon, Eris, I'm tired of holding Mona up," he eked out. Leaving Maple to stare at them in confusion, Ray dragged Mona and Eris to the back. The two of them set her down gently, and Ray groaned in relief and rolled his shoulders.
"Dang, she's heavy," he muttered.
What was that all about? Eris thought. What's so bad about Hawthorne?
Ray clapped his paws together. "I'm going to see about food," he said, then left Eris alone with Mona. Eris frowned in concern; clearly, he did not want to dwell on whatever was bothering him.
Eris understood that sentiment, far more than she would admit to him. Relaxing against the wall, she slid to the floor. Her hand landed on the cloth, and she watched Mona's chest slowly rise and fall. Then, she hugged her legs to her chest, silently wishing for Mona to awaken soon.
The Vanguard set out two days later. They wound through the mountains, maintaining constant vigilance for any sign of attack. By this point, Eris's feet consistently ached from the amount of walking, and her shoulders strained. Nobody offered to take Mona from her and Ray; she was starting to think that nobody wanted to be near them.
After a long trek uphill, they finally broke free of the mountains. Eris emerged on the top of a cliff. On either side, the mountains sloped down into foothills. Far in the distance, the ocean sparkled in the sunlight. It curled into the mouth of a bay, and against the bay's shore pressed an expansive metropolis.
Hawthorne. At last.
A fresh breeze caressed her, and she bathed in its refreshing coolness. Staring down at the capitol, a sense of newness crept over her. Today marked a new beginning, for her, for Ray, for Mona, and for everyone. Emboldened, she felt that whatever may come, she would face it head-on to the best of her ability.
Then, a voice spoke to her.
Eris? Can you hear me?
We need to talk.
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