Suffering was a distraction. It stretched out time until every minute ebbed by like a stone eroded by the ocean. Vallion could count the seconds, but it was hard to believe that things were really moving as fast as his lips. Even when he finally did hear the lapping sound of water in the distance, the hypnotic trance of throbbing pain didn't fully let him free. He trudged towards the noise without so much as a thought, pressing through the dew-covered ferns on auto-pilot. An eerie morning mist accumulated on the surface of the white water, gently floating by as the orange morning sun peered across the tops of the trees. The air was cool and humid, so much so that he could nearly feel the cold droplets of the fog against his scales as he meandered onto the shore.
Vallion took a single step into the shallow of the river and dunked his entire head beneath the calm waves. The cold rush jolted him awake as gulp after gulp of icy water went down his throat. He threw his head back and coughed for what seemed like a full minute, but for the first time since the battle, he felt alive again. From that point, his brain turned back on. He was at the river. Judging from the direction of the current, he'd have to head upstream if he wanted to find Panne. There was a hill somewhere in that direction, and she would be waiting in a cave at its top. It wasn't much to work with, but it's better than nothing.
Shaking like a leaf, the Snivy climbed out of the water and onto the shore, pebbles crunching beneath his feet. There wasn't any time to waste. Even if he did have a general idea of where Panne was being held, there was still an entire mystery dungeon to search through. Vallion stared down at the ground as he limped along the water's edge, as if it would take too much of his precious energy to look around. There wasn't anything to see, anyway. All of the beautiful sights this autumn morning would have had were already ruined, if not from his own situation then from the massacre that had occurred not even an hour away. There were a lot of pokemon who missed the sunrise today. It didn't bother him too much, to be perfectly honest, but the effect was still there.
While passing through the forest, Vallion found a lot of the projects Alexander's underlings had left behind. Piles of timber, half-built foundations, and mounds of dark, fresh soil from landscaping. All these signs of life, and not a single soul to be seen. Was absolutely everyone involved with the fighting or something? Even on quiet days, there should have at least been a handful of pokemon running around. The river was the artery of the entire forest, pretty much everyone that lived here would have to stop by at some point. The fact that it was entirely abandoned now gave him the creepiest feeling in the world. There really was nobody left.
"Vallion."
The Snivy swung around so fast that it felt like his joints had nearly popped out of their sockets. He scanned the treeline for the disembodied voice, and eventually got caught on the same blood-red pair of eyes that always seemed to be watching him. For once, Vallion actually relaxed upon seeing the Serperior.
Alexander slithered down from the branches and began to approach him. His injuries were immediately apparent in the crooked way he moved. For as invincible as the Serperior seemed back then, his mortality showed in the wounds that covered his body. There were blackened, burned scales found from the top of his head all the way down to the signed tips of his tail. Gashes were opened up all around his chest, caked with a mixture of coagulated blood and dried mud. There was no telling the internal damage he had sustained over the course of the battle. It was kinda funny, actually, how similarly he and Vallion had ended up.
"What are you doing here?" Vallion called out, not yet taking a hand off his bag of seeds. "Is the battle over already?"
The Serperior gave him a joyless smirk. "Isn't it obvious? We won. What's left of their resistance were either pushed back out of my land, killed, or captured. I sent the rest of my forces north to aid with Reinhardt's battle. I knew about the pincer attack long before they had a chance to act upon it. I shouldn't be having nearly as much trouble with dissidents after today."
Vallion wasn't sure whether to feel glad or disheartened. To be fair, no matter who conquered Poliwrath River today, he wouldn't have really cared. "Well why'd you come to find me instead of helping your partner, then? It's not like I'm going to do anything."
"Because we haven't finished our conversation from yesterday," the Serperior said, turning away and slowly slithering in the same direction Vallion was originally walking. "Come. I can show you exactly where Panne is. It's still a good distance from here, so we have time to chat."
After a moment of hesitation, Vallion decided to follow along. It's not like it was going to change anything. No matter what Alexander had to say, there was only one way this expedition was going to end. He shot a glance towards the white waters and watched fallen leaves be carried further and further upstream until they disappeared into the mist. Once this place finally switched seasons and became autumn, a million more leaves would join these ones and be washed away on the current. It didn't matter what kind of tree they came from, or where in the forest they started. They'd all end up the same, anyway.
"Tell me something, Vallion," Alexander began. "If the Expedition Society is about cartography and exploration, why does it still need to take rescue missions? What's the point in having to rescue people when it isn't even your job?"
The Snivy replied without a hint of emotion. "We're adventurers, so we're strong enough to protect people and prevent disasters. We know geography, so it's easier for us to work our way around. We need funding, and one of the best sources of income is helping others. It's the right thing to do. You helped colonize a wasteland, you should know why rescue teams form."
Alexander grunted in agreement. "Yes, of course. I've been rescuing other pokemon for as long as I've been in this world. That's exactly what the problem is. The danger seemingly never ends. There's always someone in need of help, their lives hanging in the balance of one evil or another. Bandits, wildlings, turns of weather, horrific injuries-the list goes on. This world is a dangerous place, Vallion."
It was difficult for the Snivy to process the discussion, mostly due to the lack of sleep. "So? What, did you intend on ending all despair or something? I fought Dark Matter, I already know that's never something that can happen. So long as the world's still spinning, there will be evil and there will be death. It's just a part of life. You either accept this fate onto yourself, or you perpetuate the very reason Dark Matter existed at all."
"That's what I used to think," Alexander muttered, shaking his head. "After I defeated the Bittercold, I thought everything was supposed to get better. While it did bring back hope, it did nothing to end suffering. The future was something we were supposed to build ourselves. Hope by itself is worthless. You can hope all you like to be rescued from the situation you're in, but it doesn't bring you help any sooner. Reinhardt built Paradise with the hope that it would become a place where pokemon could live together in harmony, but just because a city stands for peace doesn't mean people will bring their peace into it."
Vallion blinked at the shore that stretched before them, a dizziness nearly overcoming him. "Can you get to the point? I'm barely awake right now. What's all this have to do with being the king of this stupid river? Why'd you have to kidnap a child just to prove your point?"
The Serperior paused to breathe in the morning fog. This seemed like a conversation he's had plenty of times before, and it surely wouldn't be the last time. "Think of how a mystery dungeon works. The places you visited yesterday may be on the other side of the valley today. It's constantly changing, but there's nothing new about it nonetheless. There are two ways to stop this phenomenon from happening. The first is to take advantage of size and motion. This river runs much farther than just this dungeon and is constantly flowing from one end to the other. Because of these things, the magic that rearranges this place has no effect, essentially making it a constant in this land of variables. The same thing applies to mountainous mystery dungeons, where the sheer size of the place keeps it relatively the same shape day after day.
"The second way to stop a mystery dungeon is to build on top of it. That's why you find so many ancient ruins teeming with this mysterious energy. Civilizations in the past knew this, but when their societies collapsed and their homes were abandoned, there was nothing stopping the magic from reclaiming the land. It's not the structure itself that brings stability, but the perception of the pokemon that built it. They believe that what they've created is stable-that it won't suddenly get up and move to the other side of the world. The more they mind its presence, the less it can move."
Vallion squinted as the sun finally rose up over the trees and shined right into his eyes. "So you're just trying to build something here to stop the dungeon from working, or what? Why'd you have to turn the entire social structure of Poliwrath River on its head to do that? What does it even accomplish?"
"It brings order," Alexander announced like a judge delivering his final word. "I noticed it with Paradise first. Despite the differences between all the pokemon that lived there, there was always an inclination to come together. Civilized or wild, large or small, strong or weak. It didn't matter who you were if you were a part of the growing new world. Sure enough, it became easier and easier to survive in that place, when not twenty years earlier you'd die of starvation and be eaten by the scavengers that came to pick your bones clean. Pokemon are stronger when they are together, and with togetherness you must establish order. That's what separates us from the scavengers that live by their nature. I didn't come here to sow chaos or destroy lives. I came here to make a new Paradise, and by turning a mystery dungeon full of feral pokemon into a living, breathing city, I will show the world just how powerful and benevolent that order is."
A silence fell between the two of them. The sounds of burbling waters and crunching pebbles filled the space. Vallion found himself chuckling in the quiet. "You're kind of ridiculous, you know that? It's just that you're trying so hard to make this perfect civilization, but you're still leading around a bunch of thugs and wildlings. Doesn't matter if they're building bridges or not, they'll still tear out each other's throats at the drop of a pin just because you told them to. They're the same as ever, even if you do somehow managed to clog up this mystery dungeon with buildings, and by this point you're not much better than they are. Your leadership isn't going to change that."
Alexander hummed. "I think it will, though. Take a look around you. Until recently, the pokemon that originally lived here hadn't laid a finger on either you or Panne. Perhaps they were unfriendly, sure, but I'd already worked them past the point of outright hostility. As for the bloodshed, I...don't condone it, but I don't feel as though I had any other choice. In order to teach these pokemon a new language, I must first use one they already know how to speak. I had to be violent. I had to make shows of my power, and bring my hand down on anyone that tried to contest it. I was unsure before, but now I'm convinced that it's the only way."
It was stupid. Vallion was hardly trying to be a hero, that much he'd already established with himself, but this was just too much. "It's almost kinda sad. You obviously have the best intentions, I think, but the way you've ended up going about this just caused more suffering than you intended to stop. What are you going to do when you build your new city and people start to question your leadership again? Are you just going to kill them like you killed all those wildlings today? Come on. At this point, you've already lost. What you're trying to do is impossible."
Alexander stopped moving. He turned his head just enough to stare the Snivy in the eyes, a deep frown on his face. "Vallion, I am not just another Serperior. I am a human. The duty of humans in the pokemon world is to do the impossible. When all else has failed, and all hope is lost, who is it that carries the weight of the world on their shoulders? Who is it that stands against the indefatigable might of the calamities that would end life as we know it? Who is it that can change the threads of fate with their bare hands? We're not normal people, Vallion. Everything we do, every tiny decision we make, has huge ripples that could affect the lives of everyone on the planet. Destiny favors us, and I intend to take full advantage of that."
"You sound like a nutcase, you know," Vallion interjected, then started moving past the Serperior. "Human or not, you live in this world now. You abide by its ethics and rules. Not too long ago, there was a missing child in this forest. They were being held captive by an outlaw, and a rescue team had to come by and nab the kid and bring it back to its parents. That's what happened yesterday as far as anyone's concerned. That's just the way everyone's going to see it. Your future of peace and lollipops ain't gonna come true if you try to force it into existence, no matter how human we are."
When Vallion glanced behind him, Alexander was wearing a look of pure dejection. For once, he felt as though he could see through those piercing red eyes, or perhaps that his own gaze somehow had more authority than theirs. It made the Serperior seem way more mortal, somehow. Maybe a little more human.
"It's inexcusable," Alexander began, gradually catching up with the Snivy. "I know. I already know. But Reinhardt put his faith in me! I've come this far already, and he followed me the whole way, just like I followed him as we built Paradise from the ground up! I can't just give up! There are pokemon who gave their lives in my name! If I stopped now, then what would be the point of those sacrifices? There are people under me that have never before answered to anyone! I'm so close to cracking the code, I know I am! I just need a little more time."
For some reason, Vallion's chest hurt. He clutched at the base of his neck, staring at the ground beneath his feet. Maybe he was just easily manipulated, but after hearing everything Alexander had to say, the only thing Vallion felt was selfishness. It didn't inspire him so much as it reminded him just how shallow his desires really were. For all the people he's helped, and all the good things he's done, there was nothing more important than Panne. If he had to cheat and lie and kill in order to remain loyal to her, then he would do just that. There was no argument. He knew the difference between right and wrong, but knowing where that line was didn't have to affect how he could and couldn't act. Maybe Alex was the same way.
The raging storm that swirled inside the Snivy's thoughts was interrupted by the first real sign of life since the dawn. Shrill cries of fear rang out through the trees, followed by the sound of a flying type frantically flapping their wings. The shouts only grew more distraught as they drew closer. A Starly shot out of the forest at dangerous speeds, screaming at the top of their lungs.
"Your majesty! Your majesty!" It shrieked as soon as it saw Alexander. It barreled across the sky, eventually crashing in front of the Serperior with a frightening thud in comparison to its size. Vallion was worried the poor thing was knocked out cold from the impact, but it sprang up quicker than a Spoink and immediately resumed its shouting. "You...your majesty! The northern...the north...Reinhardt's side lost!"
He had never seen the Serperior's face contort so quickly. "WHAT!? Tell me where, now! Did Reinhardt make it out alright? How did the Poliwrath get past our choke point?"
The Starly shuddered, its beak moving before it had the breath necessary to speak. "More came..! Two Volcarona...too much fire!"
"Vallion, come!" Alexander commanded before he slithered straight up the river bank.
"What?! I'm not a part of your stupid conflict! Leave me out of it!"
Alex turned one eye towards him. "Panne's near the northern ridge. If Reinhardt's fallen back, she might be in danger."
"Oh." Without any further hesitation, Vallion took off after the Serperior. They crashed through the forest like a tidal wave and disappeared into a sea of leaves and thorns. He could hardly believe he was moving so fast after everything his body had been through, but even then he was barely trailing behind Alexander, who swerved through the trees like an unstoppable arrow. The pain had started up again. It felt like his side was exploding with every step, and he must have taken three for every second that passed. It'd be a lie to say that he'd gotten used to the hurt, but he definitely wasn't about to let it stop him now.
The early morning sunlight flashed across his face like a strobe light. Alexander swung down the branches of a steep decline, Vallion just slid down the side and hopped from trunk to trunk until the ground evened out. He tripped more than once, but tumbling over obstacles was just another way of moving forward at this point. He blasted through the water of a small creek and barely even touched the water. He clipped his shoulder on a sapling and could hardly feel the bruise over his lacerations and broken bones. He couldn't think anymore, he was a wild beast. Red fire burned through his veins instead of blood. He was dying from the effort, that much was definitely apparent, but he didn't have the strength left to care. There was somewhere he needed to be, right now. Someone he needed to see with his own eyes instead of just with his memories.
They came across three pokemon. A Beedrill who had already perished; a Nidorino who bled all over the red circle on its chest; and a Staravia who tried to dive Alexander's neck with its talons. The Serperior dodged out of the way with easy, but wasn't prepared to retaliate against the flying type, who flew off into the distance with a screech. Alex sneered and spit in its general direction. "They know I'm coming. Now they know where I'm going, too. Hurry, it's not much farther now."
Vallion didn't have the air in his lungs to respond. He just kept running, the wind roaring past his ears as he pushed on. The landscape quickly became overwhelmingly vertical as they charged forward. Alexander had no trouble gliding up the slope, clutching the bases of trees with his vines and pulling himself along. Vallion, on the other hand, only had his tiny arms to grasp the roots of sideways bushes as he scrambled up the cliff. He kicked his feet at a pile of loose topsoil, falling even farther behind the Serperior in the following moments. For every meter of distance he earned, there was another dozen waiting for him when he looked up. Panne was at the top! Come on, hurry up! The Snivy choked, vomited up some stomach bile. then continued on as if nothing happened.
About a quarter of the way up, the dirt became more compact, and there were more stones to give the ground some badly-needed foundation. Everything either burned like fire, went disturbingly numb, or somehow did both, but there wasn't much use in worrying about it. When things got a little flatter, he continued to move at the same speed. He started to see things out the corners of his eye-skirmishes. The battle was happening all around him, from the bottom of the hill and all the way to the top. The shadow of two fighting birds passed over him, and he watched as one of the shadows eventually plummeted out of the sky and crashed down somewhere behind him. He lost sight of Alexander at some point, but he didn't need them anymore.
The sun seemed twice as bright at the top. Vallion had to shield his eyes just to look around, glaring into every rocky outcrop and bush that he came across. There was supposed to be a hole somewhere around here, some kind of cave entrance or something. What did Alex say it was hidden around? Did he even say something like that? The hazy nightmare went on until the Snivy eventually caught a glimpse of an opening into darkness from behind a blanket of ferns. Gasping for air, he pushed through without a second thought, and found himself in the immediate company of four wounded pokemon. Each had the same crimson circle on their chests, barely visible in the shadows. They looked up in fear for a moment, saw the ragged Snivy plunge past them, then turned back to the dust and grime, seemingly uninterested.
Farther back into the cave, the silhouettes of Reinhardt and Alexander imposed themselves in front of a small torch. They spoke in hushed, urgent tones, but it sounded like gibberish as it bounced from the walls. He got a good look at the Chesnaught, whose shell plating was almost completely scorched and most of their fur was either burned away or soaked with blood. The Volcarona had surely come, and like Alex feared, they had conquered his forces and brutalized his friend.
Several questions came to Vallion's mind as he approached the two pokemon, but only one of them left his mouth. "Where is she?"
Reinhardt turned to glare deeper into the cave. "She's farther in. We already unlocked the cell, but she refused to move until you arrived. Now it'll be much harder for you to get off this hill alive." He let loose a tired chuckle that acted more like a sigh. "I hate to admit it, but I think I've finally found someone more stubborn than me."
"You'll have to sneak away once the fighting starts," Alexander added. "There's no staying down here. This cave's sturdy, but I doubt it'll survive through what's about to happen above ground. Either way, they're after me, not you. Just get out while you can."
Vallion nodded weakly before he flew into the darkness. He really didn't have much left in him. Merely walking was just as difficult as running used to be, and the suffocating air down here certainly wasn't helping that fact. He leaned against the side of the cave for support, the sharp walls scraping what was left of his scales. His eyes had barely adjusted enough to see the faint outline of a cell, its wooden bars swinging freely on its hinges. Then...
"Panne!" he somehow found the power to gasp out her name. His shout reverberated off the walls and bounced all the way behind him. The Fennekin laid in a tight ball, but her ears sprung up at the sound of his voice. She twisted her head in disbelief, almost as if she didn't truly believe he arrived. Vallion didn't wait any longer, hobbling over into the cell and scooping her up into his trembling arms. Her fur was matted and filthy, but he had never smelled anything so inviting in his life. She coughed and sobbed, but pressed into him like her life depended on it. He didn't even mind how much it hurt.
The first noise Panne managed to make was a series of tearful whimpers. She nuzzled her forehead into his neck and cried, unable to form the words her tongue wanted to. He didn't need to hear them. Still, she tried as hard as she could to form the sentence that was stuck at the bottom of her throat. Eventually, after enough squeezing and crying, Panne managed to speak. "Val...I missed you..."
"God, I missed you too," he replied, nearly passing out at the end. As much as he wanted this moment to last forever, he had to pull away and slump down against the wall. His lungs heaved for air in this stuffy, claustrophobic chamber, and if he didn't give himself room to breathe, there was no getting back up.
Panne was an absolute mess. Her coat was all torn and bloody, and she was covered with a dozen of parallel gashes. Alexander's blades, for sure. The Snivy motioned his hand tenderly over a slash on the side of her head. She winced away at first, but pressed back into him in the following second. She was going to need something to stop infection, and real soon. How long ago did he call the Society? Eight hours? Ten? How long did they have until help arrived? It better be soon. He was going to bite Dedenne's head off if they showed up even a minute late.
The Fennekin gave him a warm smile. She must have read the look on his face. "I'll be okay," Panne whispered. Her voice was normally so sweet, but now it was rugged and hoarse like she'd done nothing but scream for the past twelve hours. Still, she placed a delicate paw against his face and wiped away some of the mud. His heart nearly jumped into his throat. "You're so dirty...Dummy. Didn't even bother washing up before you came to save me. Knights are supposed to be shiny and stuff, and you're not shiny at all. At least you're pretty brave, though."
A commanding shout echoed through the cave. Alexander boomed from the mouth of the cavern, probably giving his remaining troops some last words of encouragement before the final confrontation. Vallion listened closely, but the Serperior remained as resolute as ever. Yet even if they had all the Awakening emeras in the world, there was no winning this battle. It was something like forty-to-one out there, and both the Volcarona were present. It was going to be a slaughter.
"Hey," Panne's tiny voice managed to grab all of the Snivy's attention at once. "There's a bunch of fighting going on up there, isn't there?"
"Yeah, there is," he whispered back, resisting the urge to cough up even more of his empty stomach. "We gotta get out of here. The cave's probably gonna go down once the real fight starts." When Alex's speech ended, it was like a void opened up and swallowed all sound. The only thing in the nothingness was their own ragged breathing. "I just wanna go home."
Panne chuckled softly and hummed. "I don't even know what time it is, but I'm starving. You better have lunch for me when we get out of this."
The two leaned on one another in the dim flickering light. They really had to go, but...he didn't want to move. His tired heart was too busy thumping away, excited at just the fact that Panne was next to him. It was stupid as hell. Even after all this running and suffering and pain, he was still getting flustered about something like this? Vallion cursed to himself, then tilted his head to lean on hers. She returned the gesture, her big ear folding over the back of his head as she got comfy.
I love you, he mouthed. He couldn't put any voice into it, but he could easily make the motions of saying it, and it filled him with absolute bliss. I love you, I love you.
The cave suddenly filled with violent vibrations. Bits of dust and tiny rocks fell on their heads, and there was a vague cracking sound nearby. No time left. They quickly pulled apart, but her warmth stayed with him. "Let's get moving."
Panne only managed to take a single step before she cried out in pain and fell to a kneel. Even with Vallion supporting her, she couldn't seem to move forward.
"I-Agh! Crap!" she barely put any pressure down on her leg. "I forgot, it's totally busted! I haven't even walked since I got put in here!"
His heart skipped a beat. "Here, I'll balance you. It won't be far." The Snivy rotated over to her left side and started the process over. It was awkward trying to find a good way to support her without any vines, but anything was good enough. He could already hear the fighting outside, dull bangs and shouts that echoed through the cave like a hollow memory. They began to crawl forward, one inch at a time until their movements started to harmonize. It hurt like hell, and he could tell that she was hurting, too. It really wasn't much farther!
Another shockwave hit, toppling them over. The cave crackled threateningly around them. Vallion was practically carrying Panne along on his shoulder by now, dragging himself along the ground while she pushed forward. The scone holding the torch toppled over and left them in total blackness. He could hear the roar of an inferno as it spread across the hilltop like a blanket. One more boom, larger rocks started to crumble off the walls. More shouting. There was always shouting. Panne's breath spread across the back of his neck, reassuring him that there was still hope. Inch by inch, step by step. Tears ran down his face and mixed with the dust, but he didn't have the limbs available to wipe it away.
He saw the exit. A cool morning breeze seeped down into the cave, brushing past his face and cooling him down. The light got closer and closer until he could smell the smoke in the air. They picked up the pace of their labored walk until they finally pressed through the leaves of the ferns. The sun was excruciatingly bright, but it was so good to be free that he didn't care. Vallion set Panne down against a boulder and began to wipe at the loose soil that had gotten in his eyes. A feeling of triumph washed over him, indescribable with just his exhausted thoughts. He wanted to turn to the sky and scream, but his blood ran cold when a tremendous cheer opened up from afar, beating him to the punch. Panne nudged at his shoulder and told him to look. He opened his eyes to a disaster.
Alexander's serpentine body was pressed into the dirt by the feet of two Poliwrath-beaten and bloody, but not nearly in as bad of a shape as the Serperior. They stomped on Alex's neck, and the cheering rose up again. Reinhardt was crying for them to show mercy to his partner, but the Chesnaught was held down and ignored. Flying types circled in a hypnotizing flock above the scene, screeching together in utter victory. At the center of the circle were the two Volcarona, who flapped their mighty wings together in a cyclone of smoke and cinders. Behind it all, the forest burned.
"The pretender is no more!" hollered the tallest Poliwrath as every wildling in the next mile responded with a cry. "This land is ours! This land is free! To hell with the false king!" they decreed before delivering another swift kick to the back of Alexander's head.
"Stop!" Vallion shouted at the top of his lungs. Most of the pokemon didn't notice, but the Poliwrath did. They turned to him with looks of contempt and sneered, grinding their heels into the Serperior's back. He couldn't help himself. "He's finished, can't you tell?! Leave him alone already! You have your home back!"
The shorter Poliwrath bellowed with laughter. "Well, if it isn't the cowardly Snivy. What are you doing up here? Didn't you run off while the rest of us fought, even after we gave you our precious supplies? Who are you to be telling us what to do? If it weren't for you bring the Larvesta to us, I'd have already come up there and beat you down!"
"He's not a coward!" Panne screamed back, tears welling up in her eyes. "He came here to save me! You're the ones killing each other over some stupid forest, anyway!"
"Bah! These rescue teams, they have no honor! They just take the money from those they save and run off to their little towns, hollering about heroes and justice!" The tall Poliwrath scoffed, holding his arms out to the soldiers around him. The crowd agreed with a round of thunderous jeers. "You don't know what it's like to really fight, do you? I don't mean those little scuffles you get into, I mean real war! You kids have no idea why we fought today, and you never will!"
Alexander was barely alive, twitching on the ground like a slain beast. There was a fellow human, dying, bleeding out at the cruel hands of these beasts. "Please," Vallion said as he crossed his chest with his two worthless hands. Words were all he had now. It was all he was worth. "Please, just let him go. You'll never see him again, I can promise you that! It'll be the same either way! He'll have the live with his defeat, the same as anyone! Just stop!"
There was a certain kind of hate that each and every wildling suddenly glanced at the Snivy with. He felt every pair of eyes, bearing down on him like the weight of a mountain, tearing holes straight through his flesh. He was dead where he stood.
"You idiot! Why should we let him get away?" the short Poliwrath made his voice heard over the rest of them. "Better yet, why should we let you get away? What's with you, siding with this despicable creature after the fight's already lost! How can the Society even be this stupid? I thought those civilized folk were supposed to be the smartest bunch around, but I guess I was wrong!"
"Shut up," said the tall Poliwrath, bending over to examine what was left of the Serperior's body. "Don't be making even more enemies or you'll be the idiot! Just because these two brats screwed with us doesn't mean we want the entire guild to come down on our heads! If they wanna throw a fit over this, that's fine, but this don't involve them!" They reached down and ripped the golden emera brace straight off of Alexander's neck. The clasp shattered, its fragments shining in the sun as they disappeared in the blackened grass below. It was more than just disarming him-he had lost his crown.
Vallion felt guiltier than he's ever felt. He pressed himself into Panne, searching for any kind of comfort he could get, but it only made him feel worse. They could have sneaked away by now under the cover of chaos, but instead he chose to open his mouth. Now he and Panne were both going to die AND Alexander was still doomed. There was so much hardship that lead up to this very moment, and he had wasted all of it. He didn't deserve Panne's love. He had killed them both.
"Pathetic," the tall Poliwrath muttered, closely examining the emera brace in the sunlight. It was then that Vallion noticed something very, very important. Three emeras remained. Alexander had originally had tore away Clairvoyance and placed Status Immunity in its place. Barrage and Bulldozer were still there, and the Awakening would have disintegrated a long time ago. The Snivy had forgotten until now that there was a fourth emera which he could never identify. Now, that the same unknown emera was now just a swirl of glittering dust, floating away on the smoke-filled wind.
Alexander's final defense was a Toughness emera.
Nobody else noticed when the Serperior started to writhe. The crowd was too busy celebrating their bloody victory, and the Poliwrath were bickering with one another over what to do with Reinhardt. Alexander lethargically lifted his head, glared at the horrible gathering that surrounded him, then began to rise. It took well over a few moments for everyone to notice, and when they did, the abuse rose to deafening volumes.
"Hasn't anyone ever told you to STAY DOWN?" the shorter Poliwrath kicked Alexander in the back. The Serperior shuddered, but didn't fall over. There was a frightening look in his eyes, something so wild and furious that it was completely unlike his oppressive gaze. Vallion felt the same way looking into those eyes as he did when he first saw Dark Matter. It was the end of the world.
"...You beasts," Alexander rasped, blood spilling out the side of his mouth. He got louder, and louder, and louder. "You beasts! YOU BEASTS! LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE! RELEASE REINHARDT, OR I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"
The Chesnaught's expression sunk lower than the deepest ocean. "Alex, stop! It's over, we'll leave! We can still leave!" Reinhardt's words were buried beneath the crowd's voice.
Something was wrong. Vallion turned to Panne and tried to pick her up, but it was like his muscles were frozen over. There wasn't an ounce left of strength in his entire body. He'd used it all just getting here. "Panne, we have to go! Please!"
"Oh, still think you got some fight in you?" The tall Poliwrath laughed and laughed. "Really? Come on, then! Entertain us with a last stand if you're so mad! Let me crush your spine one last time! I'll even let you have the first strike!"
The Serperior shook with rage, but he'd gone silent. The world seemed to slow down before Vallion's very eyes. Everyone's mouth contorted into ugly shapes, but he couldn't hear the shouting. Even the blazing forest was reduced to a gentle white noise. He heard his heartbeat above all else, thumping in his eardrums, rhythmic and rapid. Reinhardt continued to struggle. The Poliwrath taunted and stuck out their chests. The Volcarona spiraled together in a growing tornado of flame. But Alex-Alex was looking up at Vallion. The humanity in him was dead. This was a pokemon, raw and primal, and he wasn't finished yet.
Two crooked vines, broken and limp, somehow managed to pierce the earth and buried themselves deep in the soil. Alexander started to spasm uncontrollably, a breathless scream inaudibly spilling from his mouth. His worthless vines began to pulsate in a sickening way, growing thicker and more gnarled by the second. The convulsions that shook his body caused his wounds to open up even further, but it didn't seem like he could feel them at all. The ground began to shake. The soil started to upturn near the Serperior's tail, his vines spreading outwards like thorny roots. In his death throes, Alexander had summoned the desperate power of Overgrow.
It was already too late. Vallion ripped the seed back from his side and frantically searched through its contents. Four seconds passed, the Snivy ripped his single reviver seed from the bag and tossed the whole thing away. Then, he shoved the seed into his cheek and stepped directly in front of Panne, shielding her from what was to come next. As deafened as he was, he could still hear her call out his name. It was such a wonderful sound. He loved to hear it, even in times like this.
The shorter Poliwrath took a step back, wound up a massive hay-maker, and clocked Alexander straight in the jaw. The Serperior barely buckled, unable to even feel the the impact. A massive black vine reached up from beneath the earth and tore into the Poliwrath in seconds, followed by three more. Then five. Dirt launched up into the sky like a geyser of stone and soil as a terrible quake shook the entire hill. Eight of the vines spiraled into the air and twisted their way into the flock. Dozens and dozens more began to surge through the earth, ripping up everything in their wake in a massive wave. Vallion clamped his teeth down on the seed, pressed his back into Panne, and braced himself. He screamed, but there was no regret. Nothing would touch her.
The Fennekin slipped around him. A flash of yellow appeared before the tsunami of thorns, right in front of him. For a split second, he felt nothing but incomprehensible despair.
Then there was nothing.
...
It was emptiness, true and pure. No thoughts, no comprehension of what was happening or where gravity was. Just a certain blackness from every possible direction and dimension. Even in this sedated state, Vallion felt worried. He had no idea why, but an untouchable anxiousness had shook him down to his core, and it felt like the only thing this dark place had to offer. Was this death? No, he was still alive. He could feel the ground beneath him, if only just the numb, spiky feeling. This wasn't like what happened when Yveltal turned him to stone.
...Panne!
The Snivy's eyes shot open. He saw smoke and dust blot out the blue skies in horrible streaking clouds. He was beneath a bed of brambles, and it was stabbing him all over. Vallion tried to push his way out, slowly working through the spiky mess as the rest of his thoughts caught up. He looked to his right and stopped. There was a mound of yellow fur which was now red.
"Panne!" Vallion called out, ripping at the vines that strangled her instead. His hands got torn up beyond belief, but no amount of blood that spilled out of him could compare to the puddle the Fennekin had been laying in. Oh god, there was so much. There was so, so much. "No, no no no. No..."
Her chest was the source. The fur there was gone completely, ripped away along with the skin. He could see her bones. The air grew deathly cold as Vallion's mind went blank. He tried to stay calm, to think of what to do. Bandage, cloth, anything on earth that could stop the bleeding. He saw the sack the Poliwrath had given him to hold the blast seeds. It was completely torn up and destroyed. He emptied the rest of its ruined contents and shoved the burlap onto Panne's chest. The instant the cloth touched her body, it was almost completely stained red.
"No. God, no." Vallion began to tear off the bandaging that protected the slash wounds on his side. The gauze acted the same as the cloth and turned a deep crimson. He couldn't breathe anymore. The air was too heavy, like it was full of iron and sat at the bottom of his lungs. How? How? What was he supposed to do?
His mouth was empty! The reviver seed had fallen out at some point during the impact! Vallion dove away and instantly began to dig through the blanket of vines. It felt like there were hundreds upon hundreds of blast seeds to sort through, each one tossed away haphazardly as he moved on to the next. Useless. Useless. Useless. Useless! Useless! Useless? There was a smaller seed, still covered in saliva from when it had left its mouth. Its shell was cracked slightly from the pressure he'd applied while he braced for the vines. This was it!
He crawled back over to the red Fennekin, trembling so badly that it felt like the earthquake never ended. Her mouth was already slightly ajar, so he opened it further. She wasn't breathing at all. Vallion didn't want to believe it. He just placed the seed into the back of her mouth and started to move her jaw, crunching the seed up so that it fell into her throat. Their blood started to mix, and it smeared everywhere. The Snivy started to lose his vision, only realizing after a few moments that it was tears clouding his eyes.
All that was left was to wait. He stared for a minute longer, felt his spine start to shudder and crack, and let loose a massive wail to the cruel sky. The blood wouldn't stop coming. It just wouldn't stop. There wasn't anything he could do and the blood just kept coming. He choked on his own spit, whispered her name, and howled in agony once more. The howl became a sob that wracked his entire body like a bolt of lightning. He screamed at the heavens, pleading and praying. This wasn't how it was supposed to end. He knew that this wasn't how this was supposed to end! HE KNEW! HE KNEW!
"V...aal..." An angel answered back. Vallion went silent. He wiped at his eyes, blinked away the tears and blood, and looked down at his love. Panne stared up at him, her gaze still so far away, but aimed at him regardless. Every tiny, fragile breath that left her throat made her broken chest rise and fall so slightly. The Snivy touched the side of her face and caressed her cheek. "Va-al..." she mouthed it more than anything.
"Panne, please. Stay with me," his own voice didn't even sound like him anymore. "I don't want to lose you again. Just stay awake. Keep listening to my voice and stay awake. W-we're going home."
She looked past him, her eyes losing their focus. The thread she was hanging on was tearing. She forced her last words into existence. "I...I love you."
Something inside of Vallion came undone. The world became ice, and all the light in the universe went out. There was nothing left after this. The constellations in the sky would disappear, and the night would be empty. He shook his head. "You don't need to say that yet! When we patch you up and get home, then you can say it! Yo-you can say it all you want! And...and I'll say it, too! I'll say it so much that you'll get sick of hearing it! And we'll-"
"I love you," she repeated herself. Vallion pressed the cloth and gauze tighter against her chest, hoping with every fiber of his being that it was working. Why couldn't it have been him laying there? Why did it have to be her?
"Stop that! Ampharos is going to be here soon! Just stay awake! Please, just stay awake! I-I don't want to lose you again. You know I can't live without you! God dammit, we've already been through this! You promised to never leave again! You promised!" The taste of salt mixed with blood. He didn't like that time was passing. He wanted it to stop. "Please, don't-! You're scaring me! Please!"
I love you. Panne repeated that phrase, over and over. She said it every time she exhaled, which wasn't very often at all. It reminded him that she was still alive. Even in her own surreal world between consciousness and death, Panne was absolutely certain that Vallion was there with her. That phrase was why she jumped in front of him at the last second. It's why they traveled through time together and got put into these bodies. They were always together. They always were.
Eventually Vallion just started to repeat the expression back at her as he laid over the top of her body, applying pressure with his own weight. Back and forth, back and forth. Over and over. Again and again. I love you. I love you, too.
Soon, neither of them had left the energy to do even that. Vallion had ran out of tears a long time ago. He just placed his forehead against hers, and he waited. He listened to every shallow breath she took, dreading every millisecond of space between the next. At some point, they were going to stop. There were other sounds, too. The obliterated hill was full of sounds, of pain and mourning and death. None were as loud as Panne, and nothing in the universe was as important. So long as the Fennekin's exhausted little lungs kept inflating, the world continued to spin. He didn't want to move. He didn't want it. Please. Let this moment last for all eternity.
"Vallion?!" Jirachi called out over the distance.
