Chapter 20: Snowpoint Temple

Floyd closed the trunk, dusting off his hands. "Alright. We've got five days of rations in each bag, and a 32-ounce water bottle in each. Tabby, you'll be on water duty once we run out, but hopefully you'll only have to refill once or twice before we get in and out again." He rubbed his jaw as he thought. He'd barely gotten the chance to shave half an hour ago. "I can't think of anything else. Ren?"

"Yeah, I've got something," she said. "If we tell you two to do something, fucking do it when we say to. Ruins like these tend not to care about hesitation when they're tearing your head off."

Both Tabby and Vanessa seemed more than a little nervous after Ren's statement and Floyd sighed. "Look, I know it's dangerous. Some people," he scowled at Ren, who gave him a cheery smile in return, "don't know how to ease you into that. But as long as we're careful, we'll be fine. We'll leave in five minutes. Anything last minute you need to do, do it now."

He'd meant that for Tabby's sake, and the brunette gave him a near-imperceptible nod.

Though of course, Ren had to make things louder.

"Ooookay, the bus is leaving in T-minus 5 minutes! All bathroom breaks, after-excavation plans, last minute changes of clothes, must be taken care of before we leave the station! Please keep your hands, feet, noses, long-ass hairs and other appendages inside the vehicle at all ti—"

Floyd scooped up the lippy Absol and all but tossed her in the passenger seat, rolling his eyes with a smile.

He watched Tabby cross the room over to Nerevor for a second before sliding into the driver's seat himself. He started the car, the electronics flickering to life as the heat kicked on.

"So, Boss," Ren started.

"Yes, Ren?"

"When are you going to…y'know."

"No, I don't know."

Ren tsked. "What are you going to do about Tabby?"

"What do you mean?"

"When are you going to bone her?"

"…I really don't care for you right now."

"Look, I know it's not America, but I think I still have the freedom to ask a question."

"You have the freedom to shut the hell up."

"Ooh, meow," Ren said while waving a paw. "Alright, I'll leave it alone."

"Good."

"For now anyways." Floyd rolled his eyes towards her leering grin. "Because after we win this war…well, we might have to do something about Goo-Goo Eyes over there."

"Why are you calling her that?"

"Because those green eyes don't lie, and neither do I."

It was going to be a long trip.

###

Tabby walked up to Nerevor, while Griffin and Zero wisely gave them some space and went to talk to Vanessa before they left.

For a moment, no one said anything.

"I know," Nerevor said at last, "what you want to say."

"There are a lot of things I want to say," Tabby said, guilt gnawing at some of her words.

"You want to say that you partially agree with Corinth," Nerevor said softly. "Is that it?"

There was no point lying to him. She nodded slowly, unable to look him in the eye. "I don't…I know we're doing the right thing, but I…I'd still never…"

"I know, my dear," Nerevor said as he stepped forward. A gnarled hand placed itself on her shoulder, warm and fatherly, and Tabby found herself able to look up again. "I have…failed you. That much is certain. It is only right that you would blame me…as you should. Corinth was right…I should have taken action much sooner. I cannot even begin to justify it. All that I can say is that I was afraid of losing any more of you. I knew Corinth's father before I met your parents, and his death was hard on me. But your parents' deaths…those were by far the worst losses I have endured."

"Then why didn't we…" Tabby started in a small voice. "Why didn't we fight for them?"

"The fault is mine," Nerevor replied, bowing his head. "Your mother…it was her greatest gift. She could not stand to sit on the sidelines any more than your father could. I suppose that in a way…I am responsible."

"Don't say that," Tabby snapped. She took a deep breath and returned her voice to normal. "Mom…Mom knew what she was doing. Even if she…even if it…" She sighed and shook her head.

"I know that your feelings are conflicted, and they have every right to be," Nerevor said. "All that I ask is that you continue to fight alongside me. Every person that Corinth manages to turn is another setback in this battle."

Tabby nodded. She would stay with Nerevor, there was no question about that.

"And Tabby?" She looked back up at his face, and was surprised to see that he was smiling. "It pleases me to see that you've learned from an old fool's mistakes. Fighting so vigorously to protect our front lines until I was able to work the ward around the Quarter…that took courage that only your mother and father could give. And I am so proud of you."

She smiled and wiped at her eyes…then slammed into the arch-mage with a hug. He was taken aback at first, but soon chuckled and patted the top of her head.

"Silly old man," Tabby said, her voice choked. "Everyone makes mistakes." Floyd's words echoed in her head. "Everyone has issues. That's what makes us human."

The arch-mage looked stunned for a moment, then bowed his head, a smile crossing his face. "You're even wiser than I give you credit for. Go! Let an old fool try to correct his foolishness. I will see you when you return."

Tabby nodded and walked back to the car. She would have said the words, but she didn't need to. They'd already been said, in one way or another.

"You ready?" Floyd asked as she slid into the seat next to Vanessa.

"Yeah," Tabby replied, buckling in. "Let's go."

The car pulled out from the garage and onto the street, their course set for Snowpoint Temple, which was nestled in the hills and mountains that loomed in the distance through the early-morning haze.

###

High above, some of Olivier's most powerful and fastest Magnezone zipped through the clouds, completely unseen to the resistance effort and any other eyes that strayed to look into the still-dark morning sky. Olivier herself watched with great interest from her quarters, pleased that there was something to do. Something to distract her.

Because the Ghost Plate had changed her.

Her physical appearance was something she could change. The black shadow in her veins wasn't permanent, and seemed to only manifest whenever she actively called upon the non-passive powers of the Ghost Plate. But some of the physical changes…those were permanent.

She could see in the dark, perhaps even better than regular humans could see in the day under a beaming sun. And she was so, so cold that the outside temperature didn't bother her at all. She could grow no colder, not with the monster that was the Plate residing in her flesh, her spirit.

Olivier glanced away from the video feed and down the length of her forearm, which should have been a mangled, scarred mess. Earlier in the week, one of the guardsmen had…lost faith. In his error, he and his Bisharp had tried to attack her and some of the Liberated that had accompanied her as her personal guard. The Cleansers nearby had cut him into so many pieces he'd been able to be washed down a sewer drain, but the Bisharp had forced its way through and torn a vicious gash down Olivier's forearm before a Cleanser could cleave it in two.

The wound had healed almost immediately, and Olivier had felt nothing but unyielding rage at the man and his Pokemon…and fear at herself.

What had she become?

She needed much less rest than the average human or really the average Pokemon. She had certainly never been slow or weak before tapping into the Plate's reserves of power, but just by looking at, say, a car, she knew that she would be able to twist the metal bumper upon it like it was a pipe cleaner.

And worst of all…the shadows spoke to her.

They whispered in devilish choruses. They urged her to kill and kill and kill, to claim soul after soul, to grow stronger and drink the blood of her enemies as she used to drink wine as a pasttime. If she would simply order the death of this wretched city, whispered the shadows, she could have all the power in the world. The Psionic would kneel before her, kiss her boots and beg for mercy. She could rule Sinnoh. She could rule the world…no, the universe!

And all she had to do was give up control. Let the snarling, soulless thing that hunted in lightless places control her body, mutate her and evolve her beyond that of humans or Pokemon.

The raw fear that absolutely coursed through her veins when the whispers started was all that kept Olivier from relinquishing that control. The primal instinct in her animalistic mind screamed at her that if she did that, if she let go…she would fall and scream forever. No turning back.

So much to the dismay of the shadows boiling inside of her, Olivier kept her power under tight wraps, deigning not to use it unless absolutely necessary. Her little stunt with the necromancy had quite literally almost taken her over the edge. She'd seen her own pallid, gray-streaked face before she had learned how to control herself, and that was nothing she wished to repeat.

But it might be a risk she would have to take soon.

Because the Magnezone zoomed in on a lone vehicle heading even further north from the Northern Quarter. Sanctuary was easily half an hour away from their current position and growing steadily farther away.

There was only one thing that would be worth anyone's time to travel that far north for.

"Snowpoint Temple," Olivier hissed. Her shadow boiled up behind her, crawling up the walls and looming over the screens in response to her anger.

There was a good chance that Floyd was on his way there right now, and likely Tabby would plod along in his footsteps.

They might find a way to defeat her.

Of course, if they came back alive, Olivier would likely be killed anyways. The Psionic had explicitly told her that she had one other duty as the self-appointed governor of Snowpoint; do not let anyone enter Snowpoint Temple.

Why? She had never seen fit to ask, for she likely would have been killed for her trouble. And Nerevor, it seemed, prohibited any of his people from entering the ruins anyways. The fools that went regardless never returned. But Floyd and Tabby were different. Stronger. It was likely they could reach the ruins and traverse them with no problem.

The shadows inside her head hissed suggestions at her, whispered that she could defeat them all at once if she just gave up control. But that would be suicide too, and she knew that.

"Send me our most magically adept Liberated and some of our strongest Cleansers," Olivier said into her intercom. "Have them meet me on the ground floor."

Snowpoint Temple was a problem, yes.

But the problem would resolve itself if those two never came out again.

Olivier strolled out of her room with the screens, her shadow billowing behind her.

###

The drive took longer than Floyd would have liked. Had he been back on his own Earth, he could have fixed the flight mechanism no problem in the car. But this Earth lacked the materials and the technology to do such deep repairs. Still, it was better than walking.

That would have been quite the walk.

Snowpoint Temple seemed to be on the very, very edge of civilization. They traveled up a bumpy mountain road, through winding passes that cut through the towering trees that housed hundreds of colonies of Pokemon. Howling gales roared from the north, the wind tearing off the surface of the freezing sea. They drove for almost an hour and a half, and by the hour mark, most of the car had fallen asleep save Ren.

"You seem anxious," Floyd said.

"Yeah," Ren replied. "You know why."

He nodded. "How long do you think they've been following us?"

"I don't know," Ren said. "Maybe since we left. But they haven't shown themselves, and they haven't attacked yet. What do you think they're waiting for?"

"Maybe for us to get there," Floyd said. "Be extra watchful when we get out." He turned the corner, his eyes widening a little. "And that starts now." He raised his voice a little. "Guys. We're here." Tabby's head came up off the window, while Vanessa stretched and sat forward, looking between the driver and passenger seat through the windshield.

"Wow," she said, a little less than thunderstruck. "I've seen it in pictures and in books but…"

"It's massive," Tabby said quietly.

Snowpoint Temple was less of a temple and more of a fortress. It was a colossal structure of once-gleaming marble, worn down and crumbling from the centuries in the raw fury of the elements. Curtains of thick moss lined the massive stone pillars that kept the temple from collapsing in on itself due to its massive bulk. Floyd was absolutely sure that Sanctuary—all of it—could have fit snugly inside, and he was only seeing the top floor. The entrance alone would have dwarfed even the tallest Pokemon, the tallest monster he'd ever seen.

Except for that demon creature that had gotten him trapped here in the first place.

Floyd blinked away the memory and parked the car, stepping outside and popping the trunk. The others joined him and grabbed supply bags. Tabby let out Blitz and strapped a backpack to his back, while Floyd clipped a few pouches to Ren's furry underside.

"I'd have Vance carry one too," Vanessa explained, "but I think he'd just as soon tear it to shreds on accident when I put it on him."

Floyd nodded, though he didn't know who or what Vance was. "That's fine. Okay, listen up. It's like we said when we left; if Ren or I tell you to do something, do it. If we tell you to run, run. If we tell you to hide, hide. If we tell you to leave us behind and get back to Sanctuary, then do it. If we find the information we need and get in trouble, the car can get you back safely. If worst comes to worst, I can fly myself and Ren back…hopefully. Any questions?" Vanessa, Blitz, and Tabby all shook their heads. "Okay. Vanessa, I want you up front. You said you'd be able to detect any traps that might be inside the ruins." He turned around and craned his neck to look at the tip of the structure that loomed over the hillside. "I have a feeling you'll have your work cut out for you. Tabby, Blitz, you guys will bring up the rear. If we're attacked, hit them from a distance. Ren and I will take the middle. We'll try to get as deep as we can before we need to rest. Let's go."

The majority of the day's light had broken through the puffy white clouds, doing nothing to warm them from the chill of the mountain air so high up. Just as soon it began to get rather cold, they stepped onto the mound of stairs leading up to the gaping entrance to the temple and stepped inside. There was a crack of a Pokeball, and from the light that spilled from the device formed a strange mole-looking Pokemon, with claws and a horn that looked as though it could slash through stone as easily as it could flesh.

"Drill!" the Pokemon shouted.

"This is Vance, my Excadrill," Vanessa said. She patted his horn, and he swiveled around to face them all. "With his help, I should be able to detect anything in the ground…or if we have visitors later on."

"Good," Floyd said. "Lead on, then."

The interior was just as grand as the outside, if not more so. Whoever or whatever had built the temple had built it for functionality as well as fashion. Huge statues of Pokemon Floyd had never seen before loomed over them all like sentries made of stone, the details so fine and lifelike that for an instant, Floyd feared he would turn around and see a basilisk. Or a gorgon. With his luck, it would be both. The marble outside had been weathered down by the elements, but the floor had not, the tile clicking beneath the boots of the group as they walked. Nerevor had told them that the guardians did not attack anyone on the first floor who held no hostile intentions, and it seemed he was true to his word. None of the statues moved or leapt from their plinths to smash them into the dust, and nothing broke from the floor to claw at them with dead hands. No bones or ancient remains littered the floor, no bloodstains…

It was reminiscent of a larger, cleaner tomb.

The statues grew larger and larger, the designs growing more intricate down the line. The statues became less indistinguishable and more…Pokemon-like. They had visible appendages of sorts, and weren't disproportional like the rest. The statues ended just before the largest of the statues appeared at the end of the marble hall, its massive bulk looking as though it could crush the floor in and just keeping falling if one tipped it over. It was of three of the most detailed statues Floyd had ever seen, their features hewn expertly from stone that looked as though it took years. One was tall and menacing, its arms ending in massive blocks that were big enough to crush his head like a grape between them. Another was so expertly crafted that Floyd could tell it was supposed to be made from ice, its arms and legs ending in delicate but vicious points. The last was the squattest of them, with fat fingers and a body that seemed to exist in between a shell of sorts. All three of them bowed before the tallest of the statues, a hulking golem with arms like the thickest of the trees that covered the mountain pass to the temple, and legs that were wreathed in what looked to be fur, strong enough to shatter and shake the ground it walked on. Upon its back was a giant globe; the Earth. It seemed like the Pokemon was carrying it, or maybe holding it up.

"This looks familiar," Ren said, stepping closer. "What's the story behind this?"

"The three Pokemon on the ground are the lesser Regis," Tabby said, her voice distant as she looked at the statue in the middle. "Regirock, Regice, and Registeel. The one in the middle, that big one…that's Regigigas."

Vanessa nodded. "Regigigas is supposed to have made the lesser Regis, and unless I miss my guess," she waved a hand behind them, "the statues leading up here might have been…prototypes, I guess. It's telling a story. The planet on its back is a sign of strength. According to the children's books, Regigigas is able to move the continents around like toys with how strong it is."

"Sounds kinda similar to Atlas," Ren said.

Floyd nodded. "Atlas is a Titan from Greek history. He was strong enough to hold up the skies, and the gods of that time forced him to for all eternity. He's usually made to hold a globe on his back in the statues too."

"Guess a lot of our universe and this one might be mirrored in a way," Ren said contemplatively.

Floyd gave the statue of Regigigas a frown. "I guess so. Come on, we can sightsee once we have some solid answers." There was a wide staircase behind Regigigas that yawned deep underground. The real hell would begin soon after that.

Floyd and the others walked away from the statue…but Tabby didn't.

"Nape?" Blitz asked, and they all turned around.

Tabby was staring intently at the base of Regigigas' statue, the skin around her eyes tight as she squinted.

"Tabby?" Floyd asked. "You okay?"

"I…" She shook her head, but she was unable to look away. It was like there was something there that she could see…but he couldn't.

"Vanessa?" Floyd asked.

"Nothing," she replied. "If there is something there, it's not weighing on the earth." Vance nodded in agreement.

"Tabby, come on. Are you okay?" He touched her arm, and even through her warm traveling clothes, she felt feverish, almost boiling. "Tabby!"

It took her a minute, but her emerald-green eyes slid over to face him, unfocused and dreamy. "Floyd?" She shook her head again, then slapped herself, seeming to come out of it. "Floyd," she said again. "I…I don't…"

"Come on," he said, herding her forward. "Let's leave Regigigas to his subjects."

Blitz offered his arm to his trainer, helping her down the stairs after Ren, Vanessa and Vance. Floyd stepped forward, gave Regigigas one last glance, then started forward, leaving the silent tomb of giants behind.

They descended down the wide staircase for what seemed like an eternity, the path sometimes widening, sometimes narrowing so much that the had to walk two abreast. The air grew warmer as they went down, and Floyd took that as a bit of a bad sign. It was natural heat from the earth…which meant that any Pokemon that enjoyed heat would be down here as well. And they might not take too kindly to visitors.

Vanessa and Vance said nothing though, leading the way with flashlights. Floyd tapped the sun on his armor, the light more than enough to keep their entire party visible.

Tabby stayed silent.

Floyd idly wondered what had spooked her so badly, then focused on the bigger problems.

They'd come across their first set of remains.

Vanessa shook her head sadly and crouched down to examine the molding bones. They were very clearly human and Pokemon remains. The human skull and bones were quite small; the human in question couldn't have been any older than a teenager. Around them were the bones of their Pokemon long past, Pokemon who had probably died defending their trainer…or attempting to.

"That," Vanessa said, straightening up and pointing to a longer skull with a snout, "is a Charizard skull. And those silvery bones there, the ones that look like claws? Scizor bones. This trainer had some powerful Pokemon."

"So do we," Floyd said. "And I'm willing to bet this one didn't have magic on his side. Let them rest, and let's keep moving."

As it was though, they couldn't move very far. The staircase finally flowed into a large hall filled with niches, empty stone plints, and more human and Pokemon remains. A ghostly blue light seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, a mist hissing up from the marble flagstones themselves. A few coffins lined the walls as well…to say nothing of the bones heaped in piles on the floor. The poor soul on the stairs had simply left their bones intact when they'd died.

These ones looked as though they'd been hit with a cannonball to the chest.

"OH, MORE PLAYTHINGS!"

Floyd unsheathed his lightsaber, Ren's horn flared with negative energy, and both Tabby and Vanessa stepped behind him, readying their magic while their Pokemon snarled and stepped forward to defend them.

"It's been soooooooo long…I've been sooooo bored."

Floyd blinked, and a doll was standing at the end of the tomb where he was certain it hadn't been there a moment ago. It looked like a voodoo doll of sorts, a moldy gray with saggy arms and legs and a zipper across its mouth.

"Oh, no," Tabby said under her breath.

"Hello," Floyd said. "We don't want to hurt you. Just let us pass. All we want to do is get further into the ruins without trouble."

"Trouble? Me?" the doll asked. "I do not make trouble. No, no, I help the guardians dispose of wayward mortals who tread below the surface!"

The doll sounded so cheery about this that it was hard not to be unnerved. "I'm guessing you're the reason there's a carpet of bones down here?"

The doll nodded eagerly, rising off the ground. "The guardians don't like trespassers. I was a trespasser. Then the guardians pounded me into dust. Everything was cold. Then I was inside my dolly! And everything is okay, so long as I make sure you don't leave here alive!"

The doll crossed its tiny arms across its body and began to hum with power.

"Ren?" Floyd asked.

"Banette," she answered quickly. "Ghost type, horn is throbbing like a bitch. Everybody be careful."

Floyd nodded. "Then strike quickly. Cut through it!"

The Banette let out a reedy, unstable laugh. "Cut through me? Can you cut through the dead?"

"We'll try our hardest," Ren growled.

Banette half-laughed, half-shrieked, and flung out its hands. An entire score of Banette rippled outwards, then another, and another. Sixty Banette filled the air, all of them chanting and humming as they gathered energy into Shadow Balls. Ren could create copies like that too, but she just used them as illusions, moving so fast that her enemies thought she was in multiple places at once. Floyd was reasonably sure that the Banette's copies could hurt them as well as the original, and if that wasn't bad enough, the piles and piles of bones began to shiver, the blue light pulsing.

"KILL THEM!" shrieked the chorus of Banettes.

"Defend yourselves!" Floyd shouted.

He didn't wait for the Banettes to come to him, instead rushing forward with Blitz at his side, heading for the first pile of bones that began to rise from their resting places.

###

Tabby was torn between ordering Blitz to break dance and allowing him to charge in with Floyd. She watched the bones start to knit themselves back together in their piles, and even as Floyd sprinted forward, one of the Pokemon skeletons, a Magmar maybe, lurched forward with more force than she would have thought possible. Floyd's lightsaber snapped up and seared through the bones with absolute ease, his next strike flickering towards its head. It rolled away, the edges smoking and the beak clattering at the blue light in its empty sockets went dark. Four more skeletons took their place though, and Floyd and Blitz crashed into them.

If Tabby ordered Blitz to break dance now, he'd likely burn them all to a crisp in the tight space.

"I can't get a good shot on any of them," Vanessa said. "If I use any Earth magic, I might bring the whole…get down!"

She lunged over and tackled Tabby behind a stone plinth just as a hail of Shadow Balls screamed towards them and pulverized the ground on which they stood. Banette howled with glee and flung more, Tabby working a ward and placing it around them. The energy slammed into the ward hard enough to make it flicker, and Tabby had to concentrate as to not let it fall.

The Banette was strong, very strong. But if Ren could get in close, she…

"Ren?" Tabby asked as Ren sat down, her nose wiggling. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Shut up and give me a minute," she replied, eyes darting back and forth.

Tabby shared a quick look with Vanessa, who shrugged, just as confused as she was.

Looking at Vanessa let Tabby see the bones coming from behind them out of the corner of her eye.

Arms trembling, Tabby raised one hand and loosed a gout of flame on the first skeleton. It was the Scizor, its iron claws reaching to tear out her throat. The flames licked over its remains and incinerated it in no time, its four-times weakness to Fire sending it to the grave again. But the trainer had come back with the rest of its Pokemon, clattering forward in silence.

"Vance, Metal Claw!" Vanessa shouted, slapping her palms against the tile of the tomb. Tabby felt the flicker of Earth magic ripple from her palms, and even that was strong. Vanessa was incredibly accomplished with Earth magic, and it definitely showed. The ripples flowed over the ground near the skeletons, expertly flowing around the pillars keeping the tons of stone from crashing over their heads and folding the tile the skeletons clattered upon. The ground snapped like cloth in the wind. As they lost their footing, Vance blurred forward, incredibly fast for a Pokemon his size and raked his silver-glowing claws across bone, shredding them like a scythe through wheat. But no matter how many times his claws cut them down, they rose again.

"Burn them!" Vanessa shouted, sending another pulse of magic through the ground. The skeletons tumbled to the ground in a heap, and Tabby thrust her hands out, a boiling wave of flame rolling over the skeletons. They crumbled into dust, shivered, and did not rise again.

"Blitz!" Tabby yelled, crossing her arms and reinforcing the ward as a Shadow Ball hurtled towards her face. It exploded in a shower of sparks, and Tabby moved behind a plinth, raising her voice again. "Burn the skeletons! Burn the—"

A Shadow Ball fell from the heavens and exploded right in front of her, Ghost energy crawling over her flesh and howling with bloodlust, sending her flying back into the wall. Tabby tasted blood in her mouth and tried to rise, dizzied. She saw triple of everything, saw Vanessa rush to her side as Vance covered their back, slashing at skeletons that all but leapt at them to kill her. Blitz roared with fury and cut down three more skeletons with his Fire Punches, their ribcages and heads crumbling at the sheer might from the pyre on his head. Floyd fought like a demon, cutting down skeleton after skeleton and shearing through the multitude of Shadow Balls that flew at him…but it was over. Banette continued to multiply, Bltiz flinging Embers at the copies when he could, but they just regrew again. He was clipped twice, staggering as he wiped blood from his mouth and attacked again. Another Shadow Ball wrecked the edge of the plinth they hid behind, the shards opening a cut across Vanessa's forehead.

If Ren would have done something, maybe they would have had a chance.

Right as the dark thoughts entered her head, the Absol surged forward, sprinting forward in a white blur that leapt atop some of the coffins and plinths as gracefully as a dancer. Banette must have sensed the danger, because it let out another one of its reedy giggles and focused its firepower on the approaching Absol. Ren was much too fast, darting between Shadow Ball after Shadow Ball with a purpose like…

Like she knew which Banette was the real one.

Banette must have come to the same conclusion, because the laughing stopped and a killing haze radiated from its leathery body, rushing forward to devour Ren where she stood.

Tabby swore she could see the smug smirk of Ren's face as the shadow enveloped her…and she disappeared.

"What?" Banette exclaimed, all of the copies looking around wildly.

Then the bones collapsed, the copies disappeared, and Ren landed facing away from Banette, triumphant. A ripple of negative energy slashed through Banette, and it landed on the ground with a squawk of pain and shock.

"Oldest trick in the book," Ren said, the Night Slash fading away. "Do everyone a favor and stay dead, won't you?"

A Fire Blast glimmered behind her fangs, and the Banette gave one last shriek before Ren blasted it to a smoking char where it lay.

Floyd let out a sigh and sheathed his lightsaber, his mask unfolding. "Is everyone alright?"

Vanessa grimaced as Tabby managed to close the cut that smiled down her forehead. "We're fine," she grunted. "Just a little banged up."

"How's your head?" Ren asked, loping over.

"Been worse," Tabby said, letting the magic fade. The cut hadn't even left a scar. "I wouldn't say no to some rest though."

"I wouldn't either, but Snowpoint might not have time," Floyd said. "Is everyone well enough to stand? To walk?" They all nodded, much to Tabby's dismay. "Alright. Then we need to keep moving. Vanessa, how does our path ahead look?"

She pressed her hands to the tile, hot from the fire and fighting. "Deep. The ruins go underneath for…well, a long time. We've got a while."

Floyd nodded, making up his mind. "Then let's go. There's no time to waste."

They'd barely survived, and it was only the first hour. What hells could exist deeper below?

Tabby shuddered, not ready to find out.

A/N: First, thanks to hifivepokemon for the review! Glad to see you're enjoying the story.

Second, next week will likely be a no-update week. I'm getting my wisdom teeth yanked out of my jaw, so I'll be out of commission for the most of it. I want to try and update, but I feel as though I might put out a bad chapter in a drug induced haze. Last, check out the deviantArt for Zero's character art, with Vanessa and Griffin on their way. Thanks for reading, and see you next update.