Chapter 26: Pyromancer Tabitha

Getting through Central was harder than the fight Tabby had just been in, and she had thought that would be hard. She covered the land that had been deserted and not claimed by Olivier's army in no time at all, and managed to steer her speeder bike away from the walls to stop herself from turning into a bloody paste against them.

A few minutes later, Tabby was in the city proper, and it was stark madness.

Zero's message had definitely gotten through to the people, and while some of them may have hated Tabby and the people she was associated with, it seemed that they hated Olivier, the Liberated, and her Elite Guards far more. She was forced to slow down her speeder to what was probably a crawl for its standards and zip past the meandering lines of heavy traffic as families jammed themselves into their cars, nothing but bodies packed within.

If that bomb went off before they were ready, it wouldn't matter what they brought. Tabby was glad they understood that at least.

"Beep beep! Sorry, coming through!" Tabby shouted, preceding her appearance to shocked strangers along the sidewalks. They were smaller families or individuals making their way to the Eastern Docks with their Pokemon or significant others, far more than Tabby would have thought to actually listen to Zero.

When she reached Central proper, she saw why. The regular human guardsmen had holstered their weapons, and were instead using their Pokemon and their authority to speed the flow of traffic to the east. The pillar of shadow loomed in the distance, much closer than before, and Tabby felt the same kind of pressure radiating from it like she had felt from Regigigas, if not a tiny bit weaker.

A blip of white light intersected with the pillar and then disappeared within it.

"Floyd," Tabby muttered. She stopped her speeder bike near the curb and contemplated her next move. If she made for Central Tower, it was likely Corinth might be there…or maybe she should head to the press center. Olivier had called a press conference earlier in the morning. Maybe he was there.

Her thoughts turned to alarm as a gloved hand closed around her mouth and lifted her off the bike.

"Don't fight and shut up if you want to live, damn it!" a voice hissed in her ear.

Tabby's eyes darted around frantically as she was dragged to an alleyway nearby and forced into a corner. Two men stepped in front of her and blocked her from view as the last one kept his hand over her mouth, his bloodshot eyes focused and hard.

"Jonas?" Tabby's muffled voice called out in shock.

"Shut up!" he snapped.

A few minutes later, the shaking of the earth seemed to magnify, and a sound like a thousand boots marching against the street rang in her ears. A column of Elite Guards had started a death march north, and from the looks of it, it had to be almost every single Elite that Olivier had in reserve, maybe 600 of the freakish guards in total at least.

If one of them spotted her, it was over. There was absolutely no way she'd be able to fight that many.

But the guards in front of her didn't waver, didn't offer help to any of the terrified citizens who flinched away from the long procession. They merely saluted, blocking her from view as the soldiers passed. Tabby's heart thumped wildly in her chest, her breathing slight as she tried to make herself as small as possible.

After five minutes, the last of the column marched out of sight. Tabby counted another few minutes and the rumbling in the ground dropped back to its regular levels. They were gone.

She let out a sigh of relief as her legs threatened to turn to water. "I can't believe I'm saying this but…thanks, Jonas."

"Yeah, yeah," Jonas spat, waving her off. "I'm not doing it for you. Don't think I'm not wise to your friends and their little tricks and illusions. I still don't trust you or that old man for one second. But what Zero said…I knew he'd been working with you all for Arceus knows what reason…but…he had a good point."

"Who was it?" Tabby asked.

"She threatened my wife," Jonas said, and to her surprise, a pang of sympathy hit Tabby from his expression. "Add that up with the hell she was creating last week, those weird guards that smell like rotting flesh…no, we were done. Where's your little boyfriend?"

Tabby bit back a snippy retort and poked her head out of the alley. "I saw him flying into that shadow."

"Looks like it's coming from Central Tower," Jonas said.

"Have you heard anything about the bomb?" Tabby asked, checking the speeder bike. Luckily the Elites had left it untouched.

"I was on guard duty at the Hub last week," Jonas said. "From all the commotion, plus Olivier going to visit this morning…well, I think it might be finished."

"What?" Tabby asked, ice slivering down her stomach.

"I don't know for sure," Jonas said, shrugging. "What I do know is once I get a few more people through the Eastern Quarter gate, I'm out of here." He scowled at her, and jabbed a finger towards her nose. "You'd best use that…that magic of yours and that damned Infernape to beat that witch. Otherwise I'll have you arrested and thrown in jail when we come back."

Tabby threw him a cocky grin and nodded. "For once, I think I'm going to follow your orders." She hopped back on the speeder bike. "And Jonas, seriously."

He arched an eyebrow.

"Thank you."

Jonas let out a noise of disgust. "I don't need your gratitude. Now get going!"

Tabby smirked and shot down the sidewalk, heading towards the massive surge of icy power she felt to the southwest.

###

Corinth waited.

And waited.

Compared to the rest of the city, where he was standing was almost hauntingly silent. All he could feel was the thrum of the cold, dead power of Olivier's shadows shaking the very earth itself…and sorrow. A deep pain that was colder than NeverMeltIce. It clawed at his heart like a physical thing, and belatedly, he realized he was crying. Crying for his parents, for Hale, for Lydia, for all of the Liberated who had died today and before thanks to Nerevor and his lackeys.

He owed it to them all to wipe Tabby off the face of the planet here and now.

And it seemed that Arceus agreed with him.

One moment the street before him was empty.

The next, a woman and an Infernape stepped out into the street.

The tears stopped, and Corinth was…confused.

Tabby had changed in the last few weeks. Not physically, except for maybe looking a little haggard. It was in her mannerisms, the way she carried herself. Two months ago, Tabby had always seemed a little unsure of herself, doubtful, cautious. She'd had nothing to believe in.

Hopeless.

In a way, she'd been a perfect candidate to be recruited into the Liberated.

But there was no way the woman standing before him was that same person, because the fire in Tabby's eyes was rivaled only by the pyre of flame that flickered atop her Infernape's head. Every inch of her body screamed danger to Corinth's trained eyes, and she quite literally blazed with the magical power of Fire to his senses.

She'd completely shattered her previous limitations, and there was a chance that she didn't even know it yet.

Turning his head to the north, Corinth saw that power multiplied hundreds of times over, and it was moving south. If the Fire magi reached just a little bit closer, Tabby would be able to fully harness the effects of Sunny Day.

She'd kill him or he'd kill her.

It was that simple.

"Corinth." Her voice was soft, yet firm as she stepped towards him with her hands raised. "We don't have to do this." He stayed silent, and Tabby continued to speak. "If we work together…if we help Floyd beat Olivier…your parents will get justice, along with everyone else killed by all of this…this hatred and prejudice."

"Will Hale?" he asked.

Tabby pursed her lips. "He was working with the Elites."

"Who dealt the final blow? Was it you? Was it Vanessa?"

Tabby was the one who fell silent this time, and the ice around Corinth's heart seemed to drop to sub-zero temperatures.

"It was him, wasn't it?" Corinth snarled. "You couldn't even do it yourself? YOU WATCHED HIM KILL HALE? AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO ASK ME TO SURRENDER?"

"He would have betrayed us the second we turned our backs," Tabby said, though there was more than a note of unsteadiness there. "I'm…I'm sorry Corinth. But there wasn't another option."

"Sorry?" Corinth roared. "Well, I'm sorry too!"

A mountain of ice erupted behind Corinth, waves of cold rippling from the structure to form a protective dome of freezing air around his body.

"I'm sorry that your little boyfriend and Nerevor won't get to see what I do to you!" he shrieked. "I'm tired of you fools and traitors and liars and cowards getting away with murdering your betters! It's time to pay!"

With an enraged, near-bestial howl, Corinth willed the air itself to shoot him forward, blurring towards Tabby with a burst of speed and determined to tear her apart.

###

Floyd cut through the torrent of shadows like a comet cuts through the night sky, light radiating from the sun on his chest and forcibly repelling the shadows from touching him. The pillar of shadow had grown in diameter over the last minute, now enveloping Central Tower completely as well as parts of the neighboring buildings. He didn't even waste time starting at the bottom, and instead flew to the roof, where the top of the skyscraper reached out to touch the clouds.

Olivier awaited him, and she did not look well at all.

Floyd touched down beneath her, looking up at the tyrant for the first time in person in almost a month.

The Ghost Plate was devouring her. Whatever cold, harsh beauty had been present before had been washed away and replaced with graying dead skin and a web of black veins that pumped the shadow into every cell of her body. Her clothes had been artificially dyed a black almost as deep as the shadows billowing around the tower, likely a result of the Ghost Plate itself. Her eyes were like pits into a bottomless void, and Floyd felt a pressure weigh on him as she focused her attention on him.

Olivier had already died. Whatever was standing in her place was…something else.

"The savior," Olivier jeered. "Come to kill me at last, yes?"

"I don't have time for this Olivier," Floyd said. The sound of opening Pokeballs filled the air, and he was surrounded by Onyx and Ren, both ready to fight and the fur on their bodies standing on end. "You know what you are. You know what you've done. It's time to die."

"Oh my!" Olivier cried, feigning shock. She took one step forward and the shadow at her feet split into seven different ones that rotated around her body. "Not even going to offer surrender? How cold of the famed hero of the people! Well I can tell you, my dear Floyd, that you've—"

Floyd activated Light Speed, swooped in behind Olivier, and buried his lightsaber to the hilt through her back. Ripping it upwards nearly cleaved her in two, and another quick chop sheared through her neck like paper.

The charred corpse fell to the ground and dissolved into shadow.

"Fine," Olivier's voice radiated from everywhere and nowhere. "No formalities, then? A shame. But no matter."

Sixteen pillars of shadow erupted on the wide rooftop, and in their places were Elite Guards.

But they were changed.

The armor they usually wore, a carbon copy of his with a color change, had taken on a grotesque, rotting look. The plates oozed black slime. Their shadows danced a mad jig at their feet. A sickening chill and aura seeped from their bodies. Ren barked a curse, both her and Onyx leaping back to keep all of their enemies in sight.

"Do you like my puppets? I do. Their souls are mine, offerings to the void. I can't wait for you to see it when you die! But just before you do, I'll be sure to let you watch Corinth take Tabby's head with your own lightsaber! Or maybe I'll reanimate your body and have you do it yourself!" A mad tone of glee dripped from her words. "So many choices! But I'm afraid it all ends the same way; Cleansers! Kill them all!"

The Elites…no, the Cleansers moved in with chilling silence despite their horrible appearances, and Olivier reformed hovering above the empty space above the streets below, forming a Shadow Ball to blast him and his Pokemon to ashes.

###

Zero zipped through the skies on Snowflake and watched the city from above. To the north, a battle was about to start. An army of…well, probably the rest of Olivier's guards was marching to meet Sanctuary's forces.

True they could Defog the protective spells on the armor but…that was a lot of Elite Guards.

He didn't know who was going to win.

"Stay focused, damn it," Zero muttered to himself. His friends had their jobs and he had his. "Snowflake, get us in closer…right there! See that old guy wavin' everyone onto buses and stuff, with the kids! Drop us there!"

Snowflake dipped down to the street and Zero hopped off, already running as he hit the ground. "Dad!"

"Zero?" his father, Marshall, asked. "Is that you?"

Zero crashed into his dad with a bear hug. "I'm glad you're okay, pops." He'd gone and grown a bit smaller since the last time Zero had seen him, and his graying hair was turning a little white, but other than that, he looked in good health.

His dad hugged him tight, ruffling his hair. "Still, ah, not wearing more clothes? One day you will catch frostbite."

"Ah whatever, we don't have time for that right now," Zero said, waving him off. "What's the word?"

"Everyone heard your story," Marshall said, glancing up the line of traffic. "Docks are only a few minutes from here, but with all of the cars backed up, it'll be years before we get everyone on board."

"It's better than leaving people behind," Zero said. "What are you doing right now?"

"Getting some of the older people onto the buses," Marshall said. "The boys and I are going to walk to the docks."

"I'll come with you," Zero decided. "Snowflake, get back up into the air. Make sure all of our scouts are okay and see if they need any help!"

"Cryo!" Snowflake bumped Zero affectionately and rocketed up into the sky. Zero didn't spare a glance to watch her go, instead turning to help an old man out of his wheelchair and onto a bus.

Hopefully they wouldn't be too late.

Explosions roared in the distance as Zero's stomach twisted into knots.

"Arceus, I don't know if you're listening or not," Zero said as his father began herding some of the Gym Trainers outside. They were all no older than eleven, and were wards of the city now. "But come on man. Give us a break. I got these kids and my dad and everyone else to take care of. Just…let my friends be okay, too."

A plume of white smoke ripped from the ground to touch the sky in the distance.

###

Tabby fought for her life.

If she made a single mistake, she would die. Corinth would make absolutely certain of that.

Corinth roared with all the savagery and ferocity of an enraged Beartic, his fingers hooked into claws as he raked them through the air. With a pulse of freezing air, it thickened into razor sharp shards of ice thicker and longer than her forearm and shot forward in a hail of death.

Tabby took a deep breath and swept her hands before her. The very edges of the Sunny Day spell were available to her, and a howling inferno leapt to her call. Blistering hot air seared the pavement at her feet, reducing it to bubbling grease as the volley of ice shards melted. Corinth leapt up into the sky and kicked downwards with both feet, a withering vortex of cold screaming down to freeze the blood in her veins. She drew the heat from the pavement back into herself and wrapped it into a shell like Corinth had just before the spell hit, and the fatal cold that would have killed a hundred men merely caused a violent spasm to go through her limbs.

She remembered one of the few things from the spell tomes; fire was life, and resonated from the breath.

Tabby breathed fire, her body temperature shooting back up to normal, and returned the favor. She soared into the air, bringing her foot down in a chopping Blaze Kick as Corinth touched down from his attack. A blast of flame as wide as the street itself roared towards Corinth, and it was all the Ice mage could do to maneuver around the blast, the resulting explosion causing his wall of ice to go up in a dazzling array of steam and smoke.

"Go Blitz!" Tabby screamed.

"INFERNAPE!" Blitz shrieked, darting forward. Tabby pressed her palms to the ground, and summoned as much Ground magic as she could hold, raising a multitude of different earthwork walls just wide enough for Blitz to push off of. Corinth stopped his charge and spun back and forth trying to keep track of Blitz' movements. For a moment, even Tabby lost him as he displayed the natural agility and grace of his species, becoming nothing more than a blazing blur of flame as he leapt around. The first attack came from behind, Blitz kicking Corinth square in the back. With a wail of pain, he dug his feet into the ground to stop himself from sliding, then doubled over in agony as Blitz buried his fist to the wrist in his gut. Corinth lost what was left of breakfast at his feet, and Tabby surged forward, triumph carrying her fist home. If she could knock him to his feet, maybe she could still restrain him and make him see reason.

If not…well, Floyd had warned her earlier what she might have to do.

Another pulse of Ice magic washed over the battlefield, and Corinth let loose an ear-piercing scream. Blitz jumped back a second too late as a whirlwind of ice and freezing air erupted from Corinth's body and slapped him fifty feet into the air. Tabby dodged a slab of ice that would have caved her skull in and was instead taken unawares by an Ice Beam that leapt from Corinth's outstretched hand. The Fire magic simmering around her muted most of it, but the impact still hurt like a punch to the face, and Tabby was sent sprawling on the frozen earth, unable to breathe for a moment.

She managed to lift her head long enough to see Corinth lift another hand and blast Blitz out of the sky with another Ice Beam, a gigantic cloud of icy smoke forming from the attack.

His limp body fell from the sky and landed a little ways to the south where Tabby could not see him.

She didn't know what she did next. She screamed, that was for sure, but what she screamed was unintelligible. Maybe it was Blitz' name. Maybe it was just a scream. What she did know was insurmountable, unfathomable rage.

The fire inside of her blossomed into that from a spewing volcano, of rampant lava and fire and destruction, and Tabby let it loose with that one terrible scream. Her hands raised upwards, the earth at her feet parted and cracked, shifting in on itself as she remembered traversing through Registeel's caverns.

Seconds later, a storm of lava erupted from beneath the earth, rising up to devour Corinth where he stood. He swore loudly and called all of the Ice magic he could, beginning to blast fountain after fountain of spewing magma from the earth's core.

Tabby didn't give a damn, and sprinted away to the south. Panic drove her every step, along with the knowledge that if Blitz was killed, she would likely lose control and burn herself up in the process. She already felt feverish.

But luckily she found him. He'd crashed right through the edge of a rooftop, landing in an alley amidst garbage and broken bricks. She cleared away the debris and lifted her best friend's head gently, cleaning away the blood from his nostrils.

"Blitz?" Tabby pleaded, tears shimmering at her eyes. "Blitz, god damn it, stay with me!"

Blitz coughed and sputtered, his eyes fluttering as they looked at her, unfocused. "In…fernape?" he coughed out.

Tabby nodded, sniffling and wiping away tears. "It's okay. It's okay, I'm here. I…I'm so sorry! I…this was a bad idea! I wasn't thinking properly! I should have…I should have never run off! I was stupid to think that I could beat Corinth! You're hurt and I don't… I don't know if I can…"

"Infernape!"

Tabby expected snow, but instead felt his iron grip on her arm even through his weakened state. His blue hand grabbed her chin and tilted her head up to look him in the eye. He brushed away the tears, then drew his hands back to mime.

A shake of his head. A cupped hand to his ear. Two fingers. Then a pointer finger at her head. And then a cupped hand to his ear. Two fingers.

Then his pointer finger to her heart.

Tabby could always figure out the meaning of his grunts and repetitions of his name through context, but this silent message was the clearest of them all.

Was fighting Corinth one-on-one a bad idea? Yes. Was fighting someone who had control of one of Arceus' life forces a bad idea? Yes. Was leaving the fate of Snowpoint…maybe even the rest of Sinnoh up to one random battle a bad idea?

Yes.

She knew that. Her brain screamed at her, called her an idiot, a fool for letting Nerevor, Vanessa, Griffin, Zero, Floyd, and Ren go off to fight this battle. Her brain told her that the smart thing to do, the choice that kept everyone alive, was to go along with whatever Olivier suggested. It was to return Blitz to his Pokeball and run for her life towards the Sanctuary army, because surely she couldn't do this by herself.

But her friends…no, her family…each and every one of them was fighting today, fighting for their lives even though they knew that they could all die here today.

It wasn't a good idea.

But they weren't listening to rationality.

They were listening to their hearts. Hearts that yearned for justice, for freedom, for the Snowpoint, for the world they'd once known.

What did Tabby's heart say?

We can, it whispered, its voice growing stronger. We must. And we know how.

Tabby stood up and took a deep breath. "Blitz. Can you fight?" She helped Blitz to his feet, and he took a few unsteady steps. "I don't need you alongside me, but I need you ready for one good strike. Nerevor is right…and so are you." She smiled. "Thank you, buddy. For everything."

She made a fist, her flames no longer a dark orange, but a bright yellow…almost white.

And they were growing hotter.

###

Corinth leapt back, teeth grit as he let another Blizzard wash over a crater that vomited lava high into the air. The molten rock cooled rapidly and hardened into chunks, and the last of the fountains faded. He then leaned against one of the remnants of Tabby's odd earthwork walls and applied a weak Safeguard to his burned leg. Luckily he'd managed to get away mostly unburned, but the heat of the damn fountains themselves had nearly cooked him in a few places. He bit down on his sleeve as he did so, pain rippling through him in waves.

Lava Plume. How had Tabby become so strong? Her rage shouldn't have been enough to draw out that much lava in such a short period of time.

Olivier would just have to deal with it. Tabby was much too dangerous to be kept alive. He cast his magical senses over the calming battlefield ravaged with miniature volcanoes and frozen rock. He saw the battle to the north, felt the evil magic slightly to the south and…

And a sizzling heat right behind him.

Corinth had absolutely no time to react as Tabby's fist smashed his teeth in.

###

Tabby decided to listen to what her heart was now screaming at her, and it seemed that both it and her brain were in agreement on one thing. Corinth was a 120 pound stick of a 24-year old man who trained his mind, not his body. Tabby had walked Route 217 more times than she could count, sparred with Blitz from time to time, and had passed Vanessa's grueling physical fitness test when she'd graduated with flying colors.

She could kick Corinth's ass.

With a battle cry, Tabby buried her fist into Corinth's mouth, the red light of the Mach Punch dying away as she ducked under a sweep of his hooked fingers and blew him away with a Fire Punch. Corinth screamed as he was sent hurtling back into midair, blood flying from his mouth as he crashed into some of the earthen walls. He managed to catch himself out of a painful crash landing and kicked a gale of freezing wind towards her.

Tabby wreathed herself in white flames, and instead of rooting herself, shot forward.

She understood.

Her teachers had always told her how dangerous it was to be her. To be naturally inclined with fire was to invite destruction. She needed to be controlled, always in control. Never let your impulses guide you, they said. You'll lead anyone you care about to ruin if you ever lose control.

But that was the next step, wasn't it? It was stepping away from the passivity that Nerevor preached, the very thing that had turned Corinth in the first place. It wasn't completely letting go of control, not losing herself in an inferno…but allowing her impulses to drive her, willingly letting her emotions fuel her magic.

That knowledge made Corinth hers.

Her rage burned through the glacial winds Corinth conjured, her wheel of flame smashing through the objects in her path and leaving melted asphalt in her wake. Her rage over people like Olivier who had taken her mother and father away from her, her rage over Corinth hurting her best friend.

That rage carried Tabby to Corinth, and allowed her to bury her boot in his stomach. He gagged again, and was slapped away by a flaming heel strike. His own boots crunched into the ground as ice manifested around his ankles and held him fast. A guttural roar ripped from his throat as an army of floating icicles glittered into existence and flashed towards her head, neck, and chest.

She feared for her life. She feared for Nerevor, for all of her friends and family that had fought so long to get this far.

She feared for Floyd and Ren and Onyx, what they were going through now.

She turned that fear into adrenaline, into pure energy, and flexed all of her fingers towards the storm of icicles. A net of electricity, a Shock Wave more powerful than anything she'd ever done before, tore through the icicles much faster than any fire spell she'd be able to work so close to him. The bulk of the Shock Wave tore into Corinth's chest, and only by sheer luck did he manage to force it to the ground with a strangled cry of determination and pain.

But he was stunned.

Tabby slammed the bottoms of her palms together and focused a white-hot Fire Blast towards Corinth, the heat boiling the pavement and making her eyes water. Corinth managed to raise shaky arms fended off the blast, the flames splitting off into a star formation that painted the sky with its fiery light and sucked the water right out of the air. Tabby pressed on, punching and punching as two gouts of flame shot from her feet and propelled her like ice skates on a rink. From her punches hurtled ferocious lashes of fire that snarled and snapped at a rapidly failing dome of cold air. She circled around bubbling asphalt with all the grace of a Meloetta, trying everything to pierce his defenses and never letting up. Her fire coiled and twisted around the air dome, forcing itself between the cracks and devouring everything it could touch. Corinth tried once to counterattack and was answered with a near face-full of flames for his trouble.

And he began to retreat. He began to slash wildly at the air in fear, cutting scythe-blades of frigid air and sending them towards her unbreakable charge. Tabby leapt up and kicked horizontally through them, the flames lancing right through the bursts of air and rolling over the earth to knock Corinth off of his feet. He couldn't stand, couldn't even recover as Tabby brought the flames from Arceus itself down on top of his head and allowed herself to lose a little bit more control.

The volcanoes around her reactivated, spewing more lava into the sky that Tabby brought hammering down as they reached their maximum arcs. Corinth managed to leap up just in time to avoid getting cremated, but then was immediately hit with some well-deserved payback in the form of a Flamethrower to the chest. A scream of agony echoed over the city block that seemed to be tearing apart from the wrath of her magic, one that turned into a scream of rage as a tidal wave of lava rose at Tabby's call and crashed towards him. Tabby watched with both her eyes and her senses as Corinth used nearly every ounce of magic available to him to counter, a blast of winter air so cold it could have nullified Sunny Day rippling from his hands to freeze the tide of lava in its place.

But it was harder than it should have been. There was no cold air to draw from, no water in sight for hundreds and hundreds of feet in each direction. And in the short time they'd been fighting, the army of Sanctuary had moved just close enough to where Tabby's boiling body could feel the rays of the artificial sun her fellow magi had summoned up.

Tabby flexed every muscle in her body and let out a scream that bore no trace of sanity at all, power beyond her wildest dreams flooding her from the enhanced sun rays.

###

Floyd cut down one of the shadow-tainted Cleansers and gained enough of a breather to see the explosion go off.

For a moment, Floyd thought Olivier had detonated the bomb early, but she looked just as surprised as he did. Even the Cleansers stopped, apparently evaluating the new threat. A mushroom cloud of near-blinding light erupted a little ways to the northwest, so bright you could see it for miles and miles, maybe from both ends of the city.

"What the fuck was that?" Ren asked, panting hard.

The heat wave hit them all a few seconds later, and Floyd knew immediately.

###

The fighting just south of the Northern Quarter line ground to a halt as the giant explosion broke through the sounds of clashing and dying men and women.

Nerevor and Vanessa both gaped at it, exhausted and bleeding from a few minor cuts.

"Tabitha," Nerevor murmured.

His gnarled hands tightened against his staff.

###

Tabby was going to die.

She'd lost control.

She'd listened to her heart, and it had led her too close to the cliff. She was past the point of no return.

She felt sad, not for herself, but for everyone else. She hoped Nerevor wouldn't blame himself. She hoped Vanessa, Griffin, and Zero managed to find some happiness after this was over. She hoped Adam, the bus driver, would finally be able to live in peace.

She hoped Floyd was still alive, and that Nerevor would be able to help him.

"I'm sorry, Floyd," she said to herself.

Her entire body wreathed with flame, Tabby had no choice but to level her hand and prepare her final attack.

###

Corinth watched in awe as the demon that had claimed Tabby's body readied one last final attack. One searing blast of fire that would burn the very atoms of his body from existence and leave nothing more than a smoking gash on the street as proof he ever existed.

But the fool had pushed herself too far. The flames were devouring her even now, and as soon as she fired off her attack, she would die soon after from the strain.

Corinth relinquished his hold on the ice that allowed him to stand and summoned as much magic as he could to lift him off the ground and into the air where Tabby's attack would miss.

And instead of cold air at his feet, he felt only a searing pain down his ribcage that was worse than all of the burns he'd managed to mute. His bulging eyes turned behind him, and clinging to the side of a building was Tabby's Infernape, bloodied and barely hanging onto the ledge, but with his hand still steaming with the remnants of the Focus Blast he'd managed to hit him with.

Ribs cracked and Corinth stumbled to the pavement, barely able to breathe.

Tabby was no longer visible, and instead was a second sun, an unyielding fire, an inferno.

That inferno had a presence, and that presence focused on him.

The only solace Corinth had as his death steamrolled over the buildings, the road, and burned through the air itself was that he'd gotten what he wanted.

"You lose…Nerevor," he spat.

Corinth closed his eyes as he felt Tabby's power reach its peak.

###

Like pressurized air being ignited, Tabby let her first and last Blast Burn explode from her cupped hands and roll over the earth. She'd done Corinth one last mercy; the flames were so hot that he wouldn't feel a thing.

She was conscious just long enough to watch Corinth disappear in her raging inferno, and then dropped from the air, death rushing up to claim her.

Tabby didn't even feel herself hit the ground.