Chapter 19: Origins

Tabby's nose wrinkled as she cremated the corpse of the poor soul who had been forced into that armor. His skin had shriveled and turned black as though his entire body had been afflicted with frostbite, his face forever contorted in a scream of agony. How he had talked with his face like that was beyond Tabby, but at the moment she didn't care. She hoped at least that his soul was free to drift into the afterlife, instead of being trapped in some metal shell serving Olivier of all people.

What bothered her was how easily he'd used magic, not to mention the efficiency. Olivier would have to have immense power to bind the ability to use such potent magic to the armor. Maybe it was one of Corinth's buddies that had been trapped inside.

Tabby shook her head and stepped back into the garage. It was likely Floyd would have more answers. She felt a wave of affection as she did so and the rest of her friends turned to look at her. Vanessa, Griffin, and Zero had risked more than they knew coming out there to have their backs. It was their duty, sure, but it would have been just as easy not to risk it due to the unknown factor of the Elite Guard.

"The corpse?" Floyd asked.

"Ashes," Tabby answered, standing next to him. "So Floyd…what is this?"

He frowned. "I'm not entirely sure. Griffin, you're an expert in the Steel type, right?" The older man nodded. "Come and take a look at this."

Griffin stepped forward and placed a hand on the armor they'd laid out across a long workbench. "It's…cold."

Ren rolled her eyes. "An astute observation, Sherlock."

Griffin didn't respond to the barb. "Not that kind of cold. As in…the metal itself, how it was forged. It's steel but stronger. Some type of material that isn't coming to me." He shook his head and stepped back. "Usually I can tell what material a metal is from a touch. This…I can't."

Floyd's hand rasped against the bristling hairs along his jaw. "So it's a foreign material, then. Interesting."

"What's this all about though?" Zero asked, tapping the center sun emblem.

A shadow crossed over Floyd's face. "I'm not sure. Olivier never saw me in the armor long enough to memorize the symbol but…" He looked down, and now that they weren't in the heat of battle, Tabby could confirm that the symbols were exactly the same, down to the length of which the rays spanned the chestplate. "Regardless, it doesn't matter what they're wearing on their chests. If we see these…Elite Guards or whatever, they're enemies." A smile tugged at his lips. "I guess my taste in all black is to our advantage."

Ren made a noise that Tabby thought was growling, but was actually a noise of thought.

"You've got an idea?" Vanessa asked.

"Maybe," Ren said slowly, her red eyes narrowing. "I'll have to think on it." Her maw widened in a toothy yawn. "Truth be told, I'm tired. Boss, I'm going up to the library to mow through some more books. Maybe they'll have the answers we need." Floyd nodded and she padded away out of the garage.

"We should probably follow her example," Vanessa said. "I'm guessing she was talking about Nerevor's private study."

Silence followed Vanessa's statement as the older woman arched an eyebrow. "The one that's locked by magic? The one that could only be unlocked by magic?"

Griffin let out a displeased grunt as Tabby felt herself go a little red and coughed. Zero shook his head and chuckled, muttering "Classic, classic," under his breath, and even Floyd looked a little uncomfortable.

"It…it's necessary," Tabby said. "It's not like we're the enemy here, Nessa."

"Nerevor wouldn't appreciate it," Vanessa replied, though she smiled when she said it. "Just be sure to put everything back, would you? And Griffin?"

"Hm?"

"No tattling."

"Hrm."

Everyone laughed at his sound of displeasure and the group broke off, Floyd flicking the light off behind them as they left the garage with a wince.

"You alright?" Tabby asked.

"Some of the burns haven't healed yet. That lightsaber cuts and burns pretty bad." His hand closed about his side, where the armor was more charred. There was the hint of angry, once-caramel skin underneath. "I'd go to Nurse Joy…er, one of them, but it looks like they have their hands full." The entire lobby was still in an uproar, though things were beginning to settle down as the flow of people coming back from the ambush had stopped.

"Sure does," Tabby said. "C'mon, I'll fix you up."

"You know how to heal?" he asked.

"Not wounds, no, but I know how to heal burns." She grinned and flashed the smooth skin of her hands to him. "Had to learn the hard way, working with fire."

Floyd chuckled. "I guess you would. After you."

###

Later, Blitz curled up in front of the TV that had no channels and quickly fell asleep after the day's exertions while Tabby sat behind Floyd, his chestplate and gauntlets discarded so that Tabby could get to his bare skin.

"Hold still."

"Ow."

"Floyd, I said hold still."

He grunted impatiently. "Can you…" He bit back a curse. "Can you go any faster?"

"There's no telling what kind of stuff that lightsaber could have put into these cuts," Tabby said. "I want to clean them first."

"What about the ones that have already healed?"

"Well, they'll have to take care of themselves." She dabbed as gently as she could with alcohol on a cotton swab, cleaning the edges that had cracked and showed blood underneath. How he wasn't in more pain was beyond her. There were only two minor slashes on his back, but the rest was at his front. She walked around and tilted his head up to get at them fully. A few of them were no longer than her pinky, but there was one that likely would have killed him if it had gone deeper. It was the most healed out of all of them, stretching from the left of his ribcage all the way to his right shoulder. She cleaned it as best she could to get it out of the way, dabbing all the way up his muscular form.

"You should be more careful." She glanced up and smiled as Floyd looked down and arched an eyebrow at her. "I'm serious."

"I believe you," he said. "Unfortunately, fortune favors the bold."

"So does death," Tabby said, cleaning the last of the cuts. "Can't be bold if you're dead." She hesitated. "You also can't keep your promise to me if you're dead."

He frowned. "Which was?"

"No dying."

He laughed. "Yeah, that would make it pretty hard, wouldn't it?" He shrugged."If you'd believe it, this is nowhere close to the worst I've ever been."

Now it was Tabby's turn to arch an eyebrow as she stood up. "Really?"

"Really."

She shook her head and placed both hands on his temples. The faint sound of a chiming bell rang through the room as white light pulsated from Tabby's hands and enveloped Floyd in a gentle glow. The burns on Floyd's chest unraveled, the tight skin and the heat trapped there fading into nothing. Soon, they were all gone save the long one up his chest, which faded into a red welt.

"That one will leave a bit of a scar, but you're all good," Tabby said, letting out a deep breath. "Hopefully your healing abilities will do the rest."

"So I see," Floyd said, touching his own chest. "Thank you."

"So we survived," Tabby said, sitting down next to him. "And with luck, we'll find a way to beat those Elite Guards easily." She paused. "Maybe we could clone you."

Floyd grunted. "Would certainly make things easier," he said, and Tabby laughed. "No, but I agree. The quicker we find a way to destroy those guards, the better."

Tabby nodded. "And afterwards…once we beat Olivier and everything, I mean…do you have any plans on what you're going to do?"

Floyd shrugged, his face impassive. "My best bet is to go somewhere with someone who has a lot of Pokemon knowledge, since that's likely what we were attacked by. I don't suppose I'll be finding the information I need here."

Tabby shifted a little, sheepish. "Yeah, I guess not. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Floyd said. "My entire life has been one big challenge after another, so one more doesn't really matter at this point." He smiled a little. "And I suppose it makes for a nice impromptu vacation, so there's that."

"Usually vacations don't include fighting in a civil war."

He snorted. "Yeah, there is that."

Right about then, the entire building started shaking, a wave of disorientation rolling through Tabby as she gripped the arm of the couch for dear life. Blitz immediately woke from his nap and nearly burned down the room, the pyre atop his head roaring into overdrive as if they were being attacked. The lights flickered violently as though in the midst of a thunderstorm, and a wail of power echoed throughout the building. Quickly getting to their feet, Tabby and Floyd ran to a window near the bed and watched a purple wave of energy sweep over the snowy landscape and far into the distance.

"Oh good," Tabby said, a quaver of relief in her voice. "It's just Nerevor's shield. Looks like it's finally going up." The note of relief was replaced with annoyance. "Don't suppose he could have gone any slower with it though."

"I'm sure he worked as fast as he could," Floyd said, not looking at her. "That's…a lot of magical power."

He was right. Those wards weren't going to let anything save Arceus' Judgment through.

But that also meant, a dark voice in her head noted, that Olivier could build up her army and have it waiting for them whenever they needed to come out again.

"Hopefully that'll put the patrols at ease whenever they go out," Floyd continued. "And I suppose we'll see if Olivier has any tricks up her sleeve…or if that bomb she has is ready or not."

"You don't think she'll blow it, do you?" Tabby asked.

"There's no way to know for sure," Floyd said. "I can't imagine that she'd go through all the trouble of convincing the world that we're in the wrong just to vaporize us all, including the Southern Quarter. She has something else in her game, I know it."

Tabby sat down on the bed with a huff. "We wouldn't be in this mess in the first place if…" She stopped herself and shook her head, though Floyd turned to look at her.

"What?" he asked. "If…?"

Tabby looked away from him, ashamed by the black thoughts rolling through her mind. "Floyd…have you ever been up against someone who you know is wrong…who…who you know is completely insane? Who you know wouldn't hesitate to kill you and throw you away like trash, yet you just…"

"Sympathize," Floyd said, sitting down next to her. "This is about Corinth?"

"It's what he said," Tabby explained, her hands balled into fists. "He was literally going to murder Nerevor and then probably the rest of us, but what he said about Nerevor doing nothing…he's right Floyd." She finally gained the courage to look at him, staring into his deep brown eyes. "Before you got here, we were no closer to throwing Olivier out than she was to actually treating the Northern Quarter with respect. If anything, we'd all just grown complacent with the whole thing. Do your job, don't hit back, don't start anything, don't finish anything. The most we'd done was through me, and we all knew that nobody would be coming for us from the south. It just seems like…" She grasped for the words for a moment. "It just seems like Corinth had a decent point and after everything Olivier's done, especially today, it's really sticking to me."

"That's not a bad thing," Floyd said. "It's a lot easier to sympathize with the guy when you've known him your entire adult life. And I agree; Nerevor probably could have and would have put this thing down a long time ago by force if he wanted to."

That didn't make Tabby feel any better. Had Corinth been right?

"But even if he was wrong about that, he was also right about something else." Tabby raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Corinth's motivations are twisted now. Sure, maybe once upon a time when he lost his mom and dad, it was about making sure it never happened again. But all that talk of putting non-magical beings into their proper place?" He grunted. "Well, let's just say that in our universe, we've had a few nasty people who thought the same thing. Replace the magic part with how someone looks, or what they believe in, and it's the same story, and every single time, it never ends well."

"I guess you're right," Tabby said. She sighed. "I just feel so conflicted, I guess."

He shrugged. "That means you're human, Tabby. Of course you see the good and the bad. I'm sure Griffin and Vanessa and Zero see it too. And I know Nerevor probably feels bad as well. But the difference between you and Corinth was that your ideals stayed true. Your purpose is still in the right. His isn't. And when we win, hopefully you'll have a chance to tell him that."

"When we win?" Tabby asked, though she smiled when she asked it.

"Yes," Floyd responded. "When we win."

Tabby sighed. "One of these days, I'll hear one of your motivating speeches and not need another one a few days later." The two of them laughed at that, Tabby's smile still remaining as they controlled themselves. "Thank you. I needed that."

"You're welcome," Floyd said, clapping her on the shoulder. "Now come on. Let's go—"

"Guysguysguysguysguys!" Ren shouted, bounding into their room. "I got something, BIG! But uh, didn't bring it down here because it's a lot! Come on!"

Tabby and Floyd shared a look, shrugged, and then followed the overly-excited Absol out of the room.

###

"Alright, alright, so buckle in because this is one hell of a Mr. Bones' Wild Ride," Ren said, her tail dragging quickly against the wood of the chair like it did when she was excited.

"Mr Bones' Wild Ride?" Tabby asked, visibly confused.

Floyd sighed. "She gets on the internet way too much. Ren, keep the culture references to a minimum, girl."

Ren pouted, and Floyd actually had to force back a smile. "Okay, fine. Here goes. So, children! Which one of you knows what," she motioned to a very sloppily drawn sun that was supposed to be Floyd's emblem, "this means? And don't you dare make fun of it, I don't have hands so I had to draw it with my mouth. Come on, don't be shy. Blitz, you can't talk so put your hand down. You there, tall, dark and brooding! Give it a go!"

"It's my…it's Light's symbol, I suppose," Floyd said. He'd never given it much thought before. He knew of his heritage, but he'd never studied it in great length. He wasn't even on Christmas card terms with the ancient deity, and the less he had to associate with him, the better.

"See, that's what I thought," Ren said. "I mean, you're right, but also you're wrong. Half-and-half really." She turned to the mound of books on the table. "So I was going through the stuff we pulled out before you almost got carved up like Christmas turkey and I couldn't really find a connection to anything. Then I had a brainwave, right? There had to be a reason Olivier put those suns on the armor. That combined with what the Elite Guard said before he attacked, I knew I had something."

"What he said?" Tabby asked. "Oh, right. Something about…Arceus blessing the day, right?"

Ren nodded. "That got me thinking; what if we crossed this symbol," she tapped it with her claw, "with our books relating to necromancy and shadows and shit, right? Well Beheeyem worked his magic and brought me this pile which I scanned through and finally came up with this!" She placed her paw triumphantly on a book with a bland hardcover named Mysteries of the Cosmos, Vol. 1. "Now, the first thing that caught my eye was this page right here," she flipped it open and turned a few pages to show…

Floyd stiffened.

It was the sun emblem. And not small either. It was huge, taking up the entire page…but there was something different about it. A Pokemon was in the center, and Floyd could only assume that it was…

"Arceus," Tabby said, impressed. "Ren, what…what did you find?"

"It goes way way way back," Ren said. "A long long story short is once upon a time, an ancient civilization ruled basically the entire world. They were some of the first intelligent humans, or at least things that resembled humans, on the planet, and eventually discovered the truth about what created the universe, that thing being Arceus. Eventually the entire civilization disappeared except for small remainders that were left behind and regrew. The most notable of the remainders were these people in the village of Michina Town, who prayed and prayed for Arceus to come down and make their land fertile. Their village was dying, see, 'cause the soil was complete shit, no one could grow crops. Even the Pokemon started leaving. To top it off, a meteor was about to come down right on top of them, Arceus shows up and saves the day, and the people considered it a miracle. They nursed Arceus back to health, and he gifted them with—"

"The Jewel of Life!" Tabby shouted. All of the Beheeyem and Elgyem turned and looked at her with annoyance at her loudness. "Er, sorry," Tabby said in a much lower voice. "I know this story! Arceus separated literal pieces of its lifeforce and shaped them into one big jewel so that the humans could keep it and make the land rich and fertile for living in."

"Yeah-huh," Ren said with a nod. "And in doing so they created this symbol, honoring Arceus eternally. But as it goes, the ancient Michina Town died out, a modern one sprung up in its place, and eventually this symbol was lost until the researchers who wrote this uncovered it in the Michina Ruins."

"So Olivier is branding her soldiers with the sign of Arceus?" Tabby asked. "That's…isn't that kinda a form of blasphemy?"

"Well, here's the rub," Ren said. "How can this symbol be related to Arceus and be on Boss' chest at the same time? Two different universes, right?"

Tabby seemed stumped, but Floyd got it at once. "Zinnia."

"I think that the Draconids were a part of Michina Town at first, or at least its protectors," Ren said. "See, our Draconids love them some mountains. They live in Mount Everest, like, in it. They train their dragons there, and they have an entire civilization inside. Michina is right next to a stretch of mountains on the map, and we were just talking about how Zinnia has probably been here about that asteroid that nearly wiped you all out."

"Wait, wait, wait," Tabby said. "That wouldn't matter, right? I mean, Floyd, your dad literally made your universe, didn't he?"

"Maybe so," Floyd said. "But there's no way to prove that it was made before yours." He reached forward and touched the symbol on the page, his thoughts racing through his brain at a million miles a minute. "If the Draconids still worshiped Arceus when they found a way to get to our universe, this symbol would be passed down to everyone they met. And if the Draconids protected our ancestors like they might have protected the people of Michina Town, they might have spread their beliefs through history way before the first Lightborn touched down on Earth." He touched his chest, even though he was only wearing a shirt and not his armor.

"Then…the Elite Guard that used the same attack as you…" Tabby started. "What does that mean?"

"It confirms that my father and Arceus have more than a little in common," Floyd said. "I don't know if it's a servant or a different form of Light or what, but Arceus must be able to give the same powers to mortals that my dad did to me."

"And they can just enchant that through armor?" Tabby asked. "That's terrible!"

"Maybe so, but it explains why that thing nearly killed you, Boss," Ren said. "It has your powers, just maybe not to your extent…which leads me to my next piece of bad news. While I was reading up on the Jewel of Life, there was another section in there about the rest of Arceus' Plates." She flipped a few pages then pushed the book forward for them to read.

The Ghost Plate

The Spooky Plate, the Ghost Plate, the Plate of Specters, the Plate of the Dead. Whatever its name, this Plate pertains to one of the most unknown and near-unexplainable types of Pokemon there is. Whether it is the souls of the restless dead that maintain a physical Pokemon form after death, the curse of an enemy, or even worse, Ghost types have baffled even the most experienced of Pokemon Professors and biologists to this very day. The Spooky Plate delves further into the mystery of Ghosts, with ancient writings claiming it has the power to manipulate the shadows themselves. Believing the shadows to contain the souls of mortals long past, ancient writings also believed that the Spooky Plate could reanimate the dead, strike fear and dread into one's heart as easily as an angry Nidoking would, and leech away the life force of the living, if only to quench its endless and infinite lust to rejoin the world of the living once more. Such is its nature…and its curse.

"That explains a lot," Floyd said as he finished reading aloud. "Whenever she walks by someone, they seem to cower back in fear. I get that she's a big deal, but it almost looked irrational. The receptionist underneath Central Tower…he turned back to normal as soon as she went around the corner. It must be a strong magical effect…an aura of some kind."

"Nerevor's never been scared of her," Tabby said, tapping her lips contemplatively. "If it really is a magical effect, that would explain why he never was. He's probably strong enough to guard against it without even trying."

"And you would be too, Boss," Ren said. "You're a little weaker than he is, but you weren't afraid at all. And that's not even talking about the horrific light show she put on when she was sucking down souls."

He let out a deep breath…and to his surprise he smiled. "Then we have to assume that Olivier has the Ghost Plate."

"Why are you smiling then?" Ren asked.

"Because there's a very good chance that we know something Olivier might not want us to know. We have advantage-point right now, and if we can find a way to exploit that weakness, we'll have her like a rat in a trap." He looked to Tabby, who seemed to be as excited as he was. "Is there anything you can think of that would be able to stand up to someone wielding a Ghost Plate? A weapon or an artifact maybe? Even a Pokemon would do."

"Well, Ren would do fine," Tabby said. "Ghost is weak to Dark, and Dark resists Ghost. But I'm sure you'll need more than one Absol…not to say you wouldn't give her a handful." She was lost in thought for a moment, thinking hard. Floyd kept his fingers mentally crossed that she would think of something…

The brunette snapped, a wild light in her eyes. "I got it!"

###

"Snowpoint Temple?" the council asked all at once.

"Okay, I'm no wizard," Zero started at once. "But isn't that the big no-no that Nerevor teaches you guys when you start learning magic? To never ever ever ever go up there because the spirits will twist you into a knot and throw you into the depths?"

"Much more serious than that," Vanessa said. "There are items of unchecked power in the ruins. The spirits guarding them have been there since before Nerevor's grandfather was alive, and they're as tough as they come. Any novice would be immediately attacked, if not killed for entering."

"Spirits?" Floyd asked.

"No one knows what they are," Griffin said. "They're entities that lurk in every corner of that damned temple, and it stretches far underground. It's likely that they're Pokemon and that no one has ever gotten a good look at them because, well…they tend to kill anyone who goes in."

"Not everyone."

The entire council turned around to see Nerevor cross the room and stride inside. He looked tired, and leaned upon a wooden staff a little too much as he walked, but otherwise, he seemed fine. Everyone got up from the table to rush over to him, asking him how he'd been and if he was alright.

Floyd's eyes flicked over to Tabby who had stood up but remained rooted in place. Maybe she wasn't as okay as she said she was.

"You've went in there?" Griffin asked, his usual poker face broken with shock at the moment.

The old wizard smiled and took his seat at the table. "Why do you think I imposed the rule in the first place? The Gym Leader before you, Zero…Candace, I believe her name was, conferred with me about who would be allowed inside. I stated that only trainers who had beaten the Elite Four and conquered the Champion were to be allowed inside, and even then, that they were only to visit the first floor and go no further. The guardians do not attack on the first floor so long as there is no malicious intent, but anything below the first floor warrants attack." He frowned. "What exactly is it you hope to find in there?"

Tabby spoke up. "Something to counteract the Ghost Plate Olivier is using to bring the dead back and shove them in their suits of armor." She filled Nerevor in on everything he'd missed from the past day.

"I see," Nerevor said, digesting the information as he laced his gnarled hands in front of his face. "This explains a great deal."

"Is she right?" Ren asked. "Could there be something in there that could help us beat Olivier?"

Nerevor shrugged. "In the few times I have journeyed into its depths, I have only ever made it so far underground before I was forced to turn back. But Snowpoint Temple is ancient, its origins stretching back possibly to the time period of which you researched. It's possible it may contain answers."

"Then I think the risk is worth it," Floyd said. "No one else needs to go if they don't want to. Ren and I have experience going into ancient ruins filled with murderous spirits, and we can do it again."

"You're not going alone," Tabby said immediately. "I'm coming too. We make a pretty damn good team between the four of us."

Floyd nodded, surprised at how much it cheered him that she readily volunteered.

"I should come with as well," Vanessa said. "If we're really going underground…well, the ground is my specialty. If whoever built the temple left any traps or hidden passages along the way, you'll avoid them or find them easier with me."

Everyone turned to Nerevor, who also nodded in agreement. "I will leave it to your judgment to do what is right. The rest of us will hold here. If what you've said is true, we will need to be vigilant for another one of Olivier's attacks and continue to gather intelligence. Griffin, please assign more men to the southern border of the Quarter's ward. It is likely that Olivier will begin to test our defenses, and when she finds that she cannot breach them, she may begin stationing a garrison outside. Zero, I will need to sit down with you and go over a plan of action regarding our younger trainers and initiates. They look up to you, and should disaster fall, I will rely on you to keep them safe." He let out a deep breath and smiled. "As for the rest of you…it seems you have a drive ahead of you. I recommend leaving before first light tomorrow morning. We will meet in the garage before you take off. Agreed?"

No one else had anything to offer, and the council dismissed.

###

Tabby stewed in her room as she stuffed an emergency change of clothes into her go-bag, something like frustration hovering at the edge of her mind.

She didn't blame Nerevor for what had happened, not really. But every time she ran through that night, Corinth's words seemed to grow louder and louder in her skull as they repeated on loop like a bad CD.

"YOU STOOD BY AND WATCHED AS MOTHER WITHERED AWAY INTO A SKELETON, YOU WATCHED AS THESE PEOPLE AROUND ME LOST LOVED ONES LEFT AND RIGHT!"

Tabby shook her head. It was a little scary how easy it was to see his side of the matter, maybe because it had happened to her too. If she hadn't had full faith in Nerevor, if she'd even been a little bit unsure…would she have been in those streets with Corinth? Would Floyd have had to face her with his terrible power, or Nerevor had to look her in the eye as they attacked one another?

"Fernape," Blitz said softly. Tabby looked back and saw the Infernape patting his stomach while pointing at her.

"It's alright, I'm not hungry," Tabby said, trying her best to smile. "You probably are though, huh?" She got up and poured him some of his favorite spicy food. "Eat up, so you can be big and strong for tomorrow."

Blitz frowned at his bowl, then loped over to one of the counters, retrieving a box of cereal and holding it up to her insistently.

That got a smile out of her. "If I eat, will you eat?"

"Infernape!"

She sighed melodramatically. "Fine, I guess it can't be helped. Let's eat."

Knock knock knock.

"Right after I see who that is," she said. Floyd and Ren awaited her at the door, the latter of whom looked annoyed to say the least. "What's up?"

"Did you talk to Nerevor?" Floyd asked. Ren didn't say anything, walking past her and into the room.

"Come in, I guess," Tabby muttered into her breath. "No, I didn't. Should I have?" She let Floyd in the room, who promptly turned and crossed his arms. "I guess the answer is yes. But why?"

"We're about to go into a ruin and there's a good chance we might die," Floyd said. "I think he'd like to hear it from you that you don't agree with Corinth."

Tabby gave him a skeptical look. "You think he's worried about me betraying him?"

"No," Floyd said. "I think he's worried that his someone he considers family blames him for getting two of his favorite students and close friends killed."

Yeah, he had a good point. She hadn't exactly been chatty with him after the meeting.

"I guess I could talk to him before we leave," Tabby said. "Maybe."

"Good." He walked into the small kitchen space between her bedroom and the sitting room. "You have any bowls?"

"Top cabinet," Tabby said. "You didn't just come here to tell me to talk to Nerevor did you?"

"No," he answered. "I also came down here to cheer you up before tomorrow."

"Cheer me up?" Tabby asked. "How?"

He walked over and placed the empty bowl on the coffee table that contained…his phone? It was a makeshift speaker but…

A familiar tune began to bump from the table, amplified from the bowl. Immediately, Tabby's feet began to tap to it.

"Are you…playing my music?" Tabby asked as Come On, Eileen started playing.

"No," Floyd said, confused. "This is my…you know this song?"

Tabby nodded. "Come On, Eileen by the Deoxys Midnight Runners."

He laughed a loud laugh, throwing his head back. "Of course! With all the weird coincidences, our universes have the same music." He chuckled again and shook his head. "Alright, that makes this easier." He held out his hand as the main verse started. "Dance with me."

Tabby could feel herself go red, sputtering as she looked at his outstretched hand. "Why?" she finally got out.

"Because you've been under a lot of stress and done nothing but try to find a way out of the mess for a month straight, to say less of before we'd even met. Come on." He wiggled his fingers.

"You-wha…do you even dance?" Tabby asked.

"Dancing is like fighting," Floyd said. "And I am very bad at it. Come on."

Tabby pursed her lips, though eventually they broke into a smile. "Okay."

Her fingers closed around his as he pulled her into the center of the room, a wild grin splitting on her face as she began to dance.

###

Ren couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Floyd was one of the most no-nonsense people she'd ever met. Back home, the man would rather go into the battlegrounds to train while the school dance took place in the gymnasium.

And here he was, dancing like a madman with the witch of the snow-covered hills.

Come on, Eileen, too rye aye
Come on, Eileen, too rye aye

Floyd and Tabby began to circle each other, bouncing up and down on their heels and growing closer with every line. The brunette's hair was frazzled from the rapid movements of their dance, and the grin that was plastered on her face was so infectious, Ren started to smile too.

Said, come on, Eileen
These things they are real and I know
How you feel

"Fernape?" Blitz asked as the music kicked into its final, rapid tempo.

For a long time, Ren had to watch her best friend, the man she owed everything to, be so…sad. All he had to live for was the next fight, he'd always said it. She just wanted him to be happy, to find something else other than the next fight, something that was worth fighting for. Their little excursion into a different universe had been annoying, sure. There was a chance they were all going to die tomorrow, to say nothing of the future beyond that.

But if they did live…well, maybe Ren would have to play matchmaker.

She let the smile blossom fully as Tabby squealed with delight as Floyd picked her up and spun her around, the Deoxys Midnight Runners playing them out.

"Yeah," Ren answered as the two goofballs fell onto the couch. "They definitely do."

A/N: As we reach the final third of the story, I'd just like to thank everyone for reading thus far. It's been a hell of a journey from Chapter 1, and I've enjoyed writing each chapter more than the last. I hope you guys are all in the same boat as well. As a side note: Ren's character art is up in my deviantArt profile, with more to come. Thanks for reading, and see you next update.