Chapter 28: Zero Hour
Tabby took a deep, gasping breath, and a chorus of voices shocked her to the core. Strong furred arms closed around her and hugged her so tight she almost couldn't breathe. Wind whipped around her face and stirred her hair, and the hand that was planted into the street hurt from the gravel that pressed into her hands.
"B-Blitz?" she asked.
"INFERNAPE!" Blitz shrieked with happiness, picking her up and throwing her around.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy! Ow, ow, stop, stop, crushing!"
Sheepishly, Blitz let go of her and set her down, and a gentler set of hands closed around her shoulders and sat her up. An Absol grinned down at her while a Sneasel leapt up and down wildly, proclaiming what was likely a victory screech to anything that was still around the deserted street to hear.
"Well, well," a deep voice said behind her. Tabby leaned back onto the body that the hands belonged to, and gazed up into a mask of strange material, the sockets where the eyes would be only pinpoints of light beneath a cowl. Strangely, the helm made her feel so safe.
The mask rolled back to reveal Floyd's smiling face that was wet with tears, and Tabby began crying too.
"Welcome back," he said, wiping his eyes. "Good to see you remembered our promise."
Tabby beamed at him even though she was crying and turned, flinging herself into his arms. Ren crashed into them next, coming out of her Mega Evolution, then Blitz, and finally Onyx.
She was home.
"Your fight is not yet over."
"Oh balls," Tabby muttered.
"Odd choice of 'holy-shit-I'm-still-alive' words," Ren remarked.
"No, no," Tabby said. "We need to get to the Hub right now."
Her memory came rushing back to her, and she remembered the certainty in Jonas' voice that the bomb was finished.
"What? Why?" Floyd asked. "Olivier—"
"I know, I saw," Tabby cut him off. "I promise I'll explain later, but for now you have to trust me. I think the bomb is finished…and worse, I think Olivier might have turned it on."
The happiness in Floyd's expression drained until she was left staring at that hardened, determined mask that she'd grown to appreciate so much. "Alright. Can you walk?" She nodded. "Then let's go. There might not be any time to waste."
###
The temporary relief that had flooded through Floyd when Tabby had taken that breath probably could have ran an entire city with how powerful it was. Floyd had felt as though he could bench-pressed the world and fought an army at the same time.
In hindsight, he supposed he'd already done one of those things.
But as they rode for the Hub, he found himself growing even more tired, the adrenaline from Tabby's survival and the fight with Olivier wearing off faster than he would have liked. Ren had already come down into her normal state, and there was absolutely no way he was going to be able to Mega Evolve her again without passing out or killing himself from the strain.
Their Pokemon in their Pokeballs, the two of them hopped on a speeder bike that Tabby had parked nearby before her battle with Corinth and sped towards the Hub. Floyd was light-headed, whether from strain or from blood loss he wasn't sure, but Tabby had either died or come back to life, or been so close to death that she had looked dead. Either one was more than enough to convince her to ride on the backseat as she clutched at Floyd's waist while he drove. Central had almost completely emptied, and the hardest part was navigating through abandoned cars and debris in the streets. But it was better than walking, and Floyd wasn't sure Tabby could do much of that, even if she said she could.
He pulled the speeder bike to the curb, and the both of them dismounted. Tabby swore she could walk on her own and promptly collapsed to her knees. Wasting no time, Floyd picked her up, thankful to have arms that wouldn't give be hindered by such a negligible weight like Tabby's. The results of Tabby's elemental battle with Corinth had to have carried this far, because the Hub's lobby was littered with shattered glass and wilted plants in the lobby. No bodies, but hopefully they'd all evacuated when the ground had started shaking.
"They weren't kidding," Floyd said. "You've gotten stronger than when I first met you, remember?"
Tabby chuckled. "Yeah. Didn't know if I could pull that off back there." She scratched the back of her head. "I guess I didn't, now that I think about it. I'm sorry if I scared you. I…I didn't—"
"It's okay. You're back. That's all that matters."
Her smile, even in the face of what might be certain death, cheered him. "I'm glad we're both still alive."
"So am I," Floyd said. "Now let's see if we can keep it that way."
He hadn't been in the Hub with the lights on, much less during the day, so he noted a few things he hadn't seen last time, or things that hadn't seemed important. There was an elevator, one for workers and patrons, and a much larger service elevator, likely for if Olivier's little plan was ever put into fruition. To the right, at the far end of the wall, was a shutter door labeled "GARAGE ACCESS". The bomb's report had mentioned that it would be prudent to move around the bomb by truck, and there was the way to load it.
"Probably shouldn't risk the elevator," Tabby said as Floyd scanned the lobby.
"Probably not," he agreed. He strode over to the stair access he'd taken a few weeks before and Tabby opened it with her free hand. They descended as quickly as they could without Floyd dropping Tabby on her face, and finally made it to sub-level three.
"Floyd," Tabby warned, looking down. He followed her gaze and saw what she was looking at.
There was a puddle of crimson leaking from beneath the door.
Nodding at each other, Tabby pushed the door's handle and Floyd shoved against the door. Just as he'd expected, it was heavier than before, and the body responsible for that fell over as they entered the large chamber. He set Tabby down and found the light switch from earlier, the fluorescents snapping on overhead.
Tabby covered her mouth and gasped, and Floyd swore under his breath.
They were too late.
It was nothing less than a massacre. A variety of different men and women lay scattered around the room, dead. Some of them had been carved up, but most of them had taken on that graying, deadened look that Floyd knew was courtesy of Olivier misusing the Ghost Plate.
"No one can leak any secrets if they're all dead," Floyd murmured. "This thing has to be finished." He retrieved Ren's Pokeball and let her out, the Absol moving sluggishly. "I know you want to rest girl, but we're not finished yet. Help me look at this thing."
"Oh boy, getting up close and personal with a nuke," Ren said, though her words lacked their usual bite. She really was tired. "How lucky am I?"
They crossed over to the actual bomb itself, and Floyd knew he was right. It was no longer misshapen like it had been before. It was encased in a strange pink and blue metal of sorts…maybe crystal. There was an obvious seal around the center, and two large screens had been installed on either side of the bomb, likely where the timer would display when it was activated. The various tubes and wires that had been connected to it while it was still being built had been disconnected, leaving the bomb on a pedestal of sorts with wheels to allow it to be easily moved about the room. Floyd noted the service elevator entrance before sitting down at the center console.
It was locked this time, and required an employee's ID.
"Ren."
"On it." She dashed off and yanked a poor scientist's card off of her lab coat. She dropped it in his hand, and Floyd held it up to a scanner.
It blinked green, and Floyd was in. All he had to do was make sure that it wasn't going to blow up on them if they removed it from the chamber. Surely there would be a final changelog or a report that they would have left in the system. Of course, if Olivier had been cleaning up after herself, maybe she would have deleted that too.
Floyd navigated to the main menu and saw a list:
Project Failsafe:
Emergency Controls
Weapon Activation
Project Termination
He didn't even have time to consider if it was a trap as the screen flickered and changed.
YOU LOSE
YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE YOU LOSE
"Oh God," Ren muttered, horrified. "Boss…"
"FLOYD!" Tabby shouted in alarm.
He stood up from the computer and glanced over the army of monitors.
Over the blinking red text of Olivier's final taunt, the final trap to ensure that no matter what, they would lose.
He stood and saw the blinking red light of the bomb's timer, now set for 30 minutes.
29:59.
29:58.
###
"Let's go, let's go! Don't push, don't shove! Everyone make your way onto the boat!"
Zero and Griffin helped people up onto the ramp, managing the crowd and trying to stop the public from panicking. So far, no one had been trampled to death, which was a miracle, but the work was slow going. Even from here, Zero could see the traffic still stretching for miles, and the crowd of people that tried to get on the boat and flee with their families seemed to grow every time he looked away to help and turned back again.
"Griffin," Zero said, grabbing his arm. "Dude, this is taking too long!"
"What the hell do you suggest then, Zero?" Griffin snapped. "This is our only option! If that explosion earlier was Floyd dealing with Olivier, it doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet! We need to be out in the water until we're sure our city isn't about to be leveled!"
But the two of them both knew each other too well now not to know what the other was thinking.
If that bomb was coming, there was absolutely no way that anyone was going to survive.
There just wasn't enough time.
###
"What…what does this mean?" Tabby asked, Blitz now out to help her over to stand by Floyd and Ren. "Guys?"
"It means in 30 minutes, we die unless we come up with a plan right now," Floyd said, his fists tightened.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Ren snapped, her temper flaring. "I did not get cut up, get my ribs broken, fall from the fucking sky, and spend all morning on my metaphorical fucking knees fixing that damned car just for Olivier to get the jump on us!"
Floyd closed his eyes, a muscle going in his jaw.
The loudest voice in his brain told him that this was the end. He had never prepared for what would happen if the bomb was activated. This must have been Olivier's backup plan, a plan that ensured that Snowpoint would be destroyed even if she was defeated. It probably hadn't even mattered that he'd logged into the system; just moving the bomb from its position probably would have been enough to activate the trap.
Floyd realized that he was about to die.
He'd come close. The car was back in working order, and by technicality, Snowpoint was a free city again. With Olivier dead, Nerevor and Vanessa could have taken control and declared loyalty to the Pokemon League and the Sinnohian Government. Then he and Ren would have left and started searching for a way back home.
None of that mattered now.
"Floyd," Tabby said, grabbing his hand. "Is…this can't be it…right?"
He wanted to tell her different. He could have said anything. He saw that hope in her eyes, and he realized with a shock that he'd fulfilled his own prophecy. Her trust in him had led her to certain death.
"Tabby…"
"NO!" Ren screamed. "We've come too fucking close!" She shoved Tabby to the floor, and Blitz snarled at her, but Ren didn't care in the slightest. She stood defiantly in front of Floyd, glaring up at him. "You pulled us both from our own wrecked flying car that you built! You got us through Snowpoint Temple! We beat Olivier! WE WON! I will not let you sit here and wallow in the fact that Olivier got the one-up on us! It's been like that since we fucking got here you morons!" She glanced over at Tabby. "You just came back from the fucking dead for this city, and you're going to let that poser Olivier beat you from beyond the grave? You two are the heroes of the day, so start acting like it! Think!"
26:32.
26:31.
"How do we get rid of a bomb this size?" Tabby asked.
"Take it out into the bay," Ren suggested. "We can fly it out there using the car!"
"No," Tabby replied immediately. "We'll kill hundreds of thousands of Pokemon, and there's no guarantee it won't blow the Eastern Quarter away if we don't get there in time."
"You got a better idea, witch? The only other way is either south or north into the mountains, and you're killing Pokemon there too!"
"No," Floyd said. "There's another way."
It was a mad plan he was concocting.
So mad that it just might work.
He tapped the remote control on his arm and summoned the car to the Hub. "We can go up."
Ren frowned. "There's no way with a payload this big we're going to be able to ascend in time. Not with the ratchet-ass repairs we had to make do with. If we had the original flight mechanism to work with, maybe, but…"
"The car can't," Floyd said as the car confirmed it was on its way. "But a Pokemon can." He looked at Tabby. "Tell me you have a little bit of juice left to do some magic with."
"Nothing more than a small flame," Tabby said, shaking her head.
"What if it was to just send a message?"
Tabby nodded slowly. "Psychically? Maybe."
Floyd released Onyx, the Sneasel looking up at him with confusion. "Onyx, I need you to give whatever energy you have left to Tabby. Blitz, Ren, help me wheel this to the service elevator." He glanced down at his partner, who was grinning uncertainly at him. "You're right. We haven't lost yet."
###
Nerevor watched Floyd's car flying off into Central and eventually lost track of it. The battle had to be won if it was still following his orders.
It had been won…but at what cost?
He wanted to sleep and never wake up. He'd failed Marissa…her last wishes to keep her daughter safe, and he hadn't even been able to do that.
What a failure he was.
"Nerevor!"
The sheer exhaustion must have finally caught up to him, or maybe it was guilt. Because for a split second, he swore that he heard Tabby's wonderful voice ringing in his ears.
But as much as he wanted it to be true, it was impossible. He'd failed her, and now—
"Nerevor, can you hear me?"
Nerevor's eyes widened. "T-Tabby?"
"Thank Arceus!" her voice cried out. Nerevor blinked and then focused his senses. He saw the trail of the Psychic link she was using to speak with him, leading all the way to Central. "Listen, there isn't much time! I'm happy to see you're still alive, but I need you to focus up! The bomb is armed, and it's about to go off! We need your help!"
He couldn't believe what he was hearing, seeing, and feeling. He wanted to cry. He wanted to go to her, make sure she was alright, put her to bed and let her rest as long as she liked…but all that mattered was that she was alright. His emotional brain caught up with her request and he managed to pull himself together, nodding. "Of course, my dear. What do you need?"
"A favor," Tabby said. "And a big one."
###
"Yeah, loop that cable there! Attach…you're good!"
Floyd dropped off of the rolling platform and moved to the other side of the bomb, the car hovering in mid air and blowing loose debris and papers from the alley access away as Floyd, Ren, and Blitz moved as quickly as they could to connect the bomb to the grappling cables properly. It wouldn't matter if their plan worked if they lost the bomb in transit.
"Boss," Ren said, loping over to him. "If this doesn't work…"
"I know, Ren. I know."
She nodded. "I love you."
"I love you too." He hated the fact that it sounded like a goodbye. "Is your side finished?" She nodded gravely. "Okay. Then it's not up to us anymore."
He grabbed Blitz and Ren, leapt up, and slid into the driver's seat of the car as the top rolled back to let them in. Tabby was already in the passenger seat, every line of her body sagging with fatigue but her eyes sharp and clear. "Did he do it?"
"He's going to try," Tabby said.
"Then that's all we can hope for. Hang on."
Father, Floyd thought, if you're listening…make your choice. Show me that you're not all bad…and don't let Olivier win.
The timer in the car automatically synced with the bomb's timer outside.
16:29
16:28.
###
"Hear me, Regigigas! The great evil that plagued our city has been defeated, but instead of submitting in righteous battle, she has left behind one fatal trap! It is a device capable of annihilating the land your creators and worshipers entrusted you to protect! Our might combined is not enough! Only the strength of the great Regigigas can save Snowpoint City! O, Regigigas! Awaken! Awaken and save us!"
…
…
…
…
RE-GI-GI-GAS!
The statue began to move.
###
The last hope of Snowpoint rose in the form of a flying car, the bomb jangling below them in a maze of grappling hooks and chains. The weight of the thing was so great that the improvised flight system had some trouble at first, but it would do it.
It had to.
"Punch it, Boss!" Ren shouted.
"Hang on!" Floyd warned.
He shifted into maximum speed, the car angled up as it began to soar through the air at supersonic speeds. The wall of a building stared them down as they began to pick up speed. The car would clear it, but the bomb trailing after them wouldn't. If they lost it and had to re-couple, they were finished.
Floyd pressed down on a button on the center stick.
###
Zero flinched as another explosion interrupted the momentary peace the city was experiencing. It was loud enough to hear over the roar of the slightly panicking crowd, rippling over the city.
"Everyone down! Down! Now!" Griffin shouted. Children clung to their mothers and began to cry as everyone ducked.
Zero closed his eyes and waited for the end.
"What…what is that?" one of the Gym Trainers to the right said in awe. "Is that a car?"
What?
Zero opened his eyes just in time to see Floyd's flying car lift fully into the sky in the distance, a giant pink-and-blue orb trailing behind it.
###
Nerevor and Vanessa watched with the rest of the stunned army as Floyd's car approached them high, high above and sped away to the north, a large orb of pink and blue crystal trailing behind suspended in many cables. It looked like a giant Porygon chrysalis, and Nerevor had no doubts that was the bomb they so feared.
"This is it, huh?" Vanessa asked quietly.
"Yes," Nerevor said. "This is it."
All he could do now was hope.
###
"Ren, how we looking?" Floyd asked, not daring to take his eyes off flying for a moment.
"Bomb's holding!" she shouted from the backseat, glancing out the window. "5 minutes, 34 seconds!"
"Pokeballs!" he ordered. Tabby summoned all of the Pokemon back into their capsules and clipped them all to her belt, gripping the seat for dear life as her breathing skyrocketed. "You okay?"
"Fine," she replied. "Just didn't think this was how my first time on a plane would go!"
The hysteria of the situation got a laugh out of Floyd as they flew further north. The buildings of the Northern Quarter were below, and then behind them. Every second felt like hundreds, and it was all he could do not to drive himself crazy. His heart was running a marathon in his chest, and he could almost feel death closing in on him.
"Tabby."
"Yeah?"
"Breathe."
"I…I am."
"Alright…talk to me about something."
5:00.
Tabby laughed. "About what?"
"Anything."
He heard almost nothing but the hammering of his own heart, the roar of blood in his ears. He heard and felt the wind pushing against the car with every grueling second of the way.
"In…in ancient tradition, when the people of Snowpoint overcome a great obstacle…there's a celebration."
Floyd smiled. "A party?"
"Yeah. A big one."
"A thanksgiving."
"Yes."
He'd never felt as mortal as he did right now.
"And at that party there's dancing in the streets…there's music and food. Celebration. Family. Laughter."
He had no idea how long he was silent for. He didn't want to look.
He did anyway.
2:56.
Where was the time going?
"It sounds amazing."
"It does."
2:50.
"You know, I'm not much for parties but…but I think I'd be willing to go to this one. We…we could dance together again." He looked over at her, and even after a day like today, even in the face of death, she looked absolutely beautiful. Her eyes were wide with fear, but none of it touched her smile.
"You promise?" He nodded. "I'd like that. A lot."
Floyd tilted the control stick, and they began to fall from the sky. Tabby lurched and grabbed at his hand. He took it and refused to let go.
"Floyd…in case we die…"
2:27.
"In case we die…I want you to know that…that I'm really glad I met you."
The edges of the mountain pass up to the Temple became clear through the windshield. It all looked so tiny from up here.
"I never thought I'd be stuck in a universe alternate from my own. But…but I'm glad it was this one." He smiled at her, and she began to cry. "I'm glad I met you too."
2:05.
2:04.
A figure emerged from the temple's entrance, stomping out onto the grounds. Even from up here, Floyd recognized it. And if the legends weren't true, if Regigigas didn't live up to them, it was over.
"Are you ready?"
"No. I…I'm scared. After Corinth, I…I'm not ready to die."
"If you do, you won't be alone." Her hand tightened around his, and he let go of the control stick as he set its target. "Just look at me."
He pressed the eject button, and the both of them went flying into the cold mountain air. He held on just as he promised himself he would, and Tabby's flailing legs wrapped around his waist, her arms wrapping around his neck as they plummeted towards the ground. The car flew off in the distance, and Floyd resisted the urge to watch it go.
He looked Tabby straight in the eye, his mask still unfolded behind his head. If the bomb did go off and Regigigas managed to throw it far enough, there was a chance he might survive with grievous wounds if he had it on.
He didn't care.
He saw the fear in Tabby's eyes. He wanted the last thing she saw to be another human face.
"Thank you," she mouthed over the roar of the wind.
She closed her eyes and hugged him, and Floyd waited for the end.
###
The bomb plummeted towards Regigigas, whose massive arms were already glowing with the might of its awesome latent power. The gold bands at the end of its arms and encircling its shoulders shone like molten rock in the night, even more so as it caught the car and its payload out of midair.
It was such a tiny thing. Regigigas was confused as to why the humans were scared of it.
But the humans who had built the temple it resided in had pleaded him to help both people and Pokemon, and if the Lightborn and his friends were asking, that was all the excuse it ever needed.
Regigigas bellowed its name and lobbed the car with all of its strength into the northern sky.
###
Having recently been rocked by the aftermath of the duel between the corrupted tyrant of Snowpoint and the Lightborn of another universe, all of the northern region was still on edge.
That aftermath was a drop in the ocean compared to the devastation unleashed by Olivier's bomb.
The light from the blast could be seen from space, easily.
The shockwaves followed.
Regigigas had thrown the bomb deep into the sky, and easily over the horizon, and the forests surrounding Snowpoint Temple still felt the residual shockwaves that followed. The trees closest to the north were immediately bowled over, while the rest of the forest shivered and bent to the might of the blast. Snowpoint Temple itself shook on its foundations, and every Pokemon in the forest took cover and held their young close as the world truly did come close to seemingly shaking apart. The very air was charged with energy unparalleled by any Legendary Pokemon besides maybe Arceus itself, the natural forces at work threatening to tear apart the land and cast it into the raging sea to be forgotten forever. The people of Snowpoint City felt the bomb go off in their bones, in their souls. Zero crouched to cover some of the children as Griffin got the others, holding them close as the vibrations continued.
Nerevor and Vanessa clung to each other as did the rest of the army, waiting for the terrible heat to envelop them all. No ward would save them from this.
Every citizen of Snowpoint waited for death to rush in and claim them. They cursed Olivier's name and waited.
And waited.
It never came.
###
Clarence Floyd and Tabitha of Snowpoint awoke hugging each other.
They…
They woke up?
They woke up!
The two of them came to the realization at the same time that somehow…
They were still alive.
Tabby slammed into Floyd with a real hug this time, squeezing him so hard, he thought the bones he really had left would pop out.
And he couldn't care less.
Three Pokemon exploded from their Pokeballs, and the shouting began.
"HELL YEAH!" Ren shouted, her voice echoing over the forest. "WE DID IT! ARE YOU HYPED BLITZ?"
"INFERNAPE!"
"ONYX?"
"SNEA!"
The cheering continued, and Tabby began to laugh. It was a slow chuckle that soon erupted into full blown celebratory laughter. She sagged against Floyd, and as one they sank to their knees in the snow. She'd never been so happy to feel something so cold against her knees, so cold and so real.
She pressed herself tighter into the hug, and Floyd brought his chin down to rest on her head.
"We did it," Floyd said quietly. "We did it."
Tabby took a deep breath…and asked the question that was burning her up from the inside.
"HOW?"
Floyd roared with laughter as their Pokemon stopped their victory lap and slammed in for a true group hug.
###
The entire city cheered as one singular entity. Pokemon roared and stomped their feet, while the men and women of the army, the civilians and their children, everyone began to take up a call.
"VICTORY! VICTORY! VICTORY!"
###
"Nerevor," Vanessa said, and somehow he heard her loud and clear over the symphony of cheers from the army behind them.
"Yes?"
"Corinth believed in what he chose to see. This? This is what we were hoping for."
His beard twitched as his face broke into a smile.
For the first time in quite a long time, Nerevor felt content doing nothing but standing and listening to a city cheering of victory.
"Marissa…Julian…all of you who I failed…I'm sorry you didn't get to see this." He looked up to the sun, grateful for the fact he could still feel the heat of it on his face. "But it is over."
"We won."
The cheers of victory didn't stop after ten minutes. They continued on, reviving itself well into the afternoon and into the night.
It was music to Nerevor's ears.
###
The battle was over.
The city was torn apart. Infrastructure had been damaged from the vibrations Olivier had let off when she'd lost control of her power. There were quite a few melted cars, damaged and outright destroyed streets, car wrecks, overall destruction, panic…
General discord.
There were deaths.
That was a part in any war, no matter how small or how big. The people of all quarters lost someone in the day's fighting. Whether it was a family member who had been slain on the front lines, a friend or colleague who had been silenced by Olivier in the hours leading up to the fighting, or the many, many men, women, and Pokemon who had been killed in the years leading up to today.
That night was a night for them.
They had saved up and prepared for months of civil war. There was food stocked beyond imagination, though it was mostly non-perishables. The people of Sanctuary and the Northern Quarter had most certainly not gone hungry, had not even come close.
But the fighting had damaged a lot of public property. Some people would be without access to their homes, to their money or food in their refrigerators for a time until the city could get back on its feet again and begin to rebuild.
And it was there that Tabby had proposed the idea to begin the healing process right then and there.
Snowpoint City; all of its inhabitants, no matter their background or magical disposition, were invited to a grand celebration of a new age of peace between two very different communities. The bulk of the celebration took place before the ruined Hub, where it was initiated with the building's destruction, signaling the end of forced censorship and a metaphorical reconnection with the outside world.
That would take time of course, but thanks to an effort from everyone, they had all the time in the world.
There was about four months of stockpiled food in total supplies. The most affected quarters had been the North, obviously, and Central, as well as parts of the West and Eastern Quarters. Anyone from the Southern Quarter was asked to wait and let those who would have a harder time accessing a hot meal for the night to go first.
And to Nerevor's surprise, they obliged. Even the most bigoted of them all begrudgingly let wounded magi and those they'd allowed Olivier to propagandize them into hating be first to the hot food.
It was a start.
"Are you sure about this?" Vanessa asked, waiting from afar as the lines began to file through the tables of volunteers doling out food. "We should be rebuilding…or contacting the Pokemon League, or…something."
Nerevor shook his head. "Something greater than all of us is being born here, right here at this very moment. Snowpoint has been at war with itself for longer than some of the people in this city have been alive. Today was the straw that broke the Numel's back, and still, we have prevailed." He swept his staff before him. "Listen, Vanessa. Listen to that. Did you ever think you would hear that sound?"
Bells.
Singing.
The children and adults who did not eat danced in the streets. There was laughter, wonderful laughter and toasts and celebrating. Some people played music, and those rigorously devoted to upholding tradition of the Snowpoint that had come millennia before caught wind of the music and began to sing in the old, dated language. The newer generation that mostly consisted of the Southern Quarter did not lash out. They did not form crowds and boo.
They listened.
Some joined in.
"It wasn't just a way of thinking," Nerevor realized aloud. "For as long as she was in power, Olivier amplified the hatred between us with that wretched Ghost Plate of hers, making us all see the worst of each other. We saw the things that she wanted us to see, and not what we should have seen all along. We are all one blood, and all stem from the same ancestor."
"People." Griffin and Zero threw up their hands as they entertained a large crowd of onlookers. The usually taciturn head guard was downright jovial. Behind them, a group of people were celebrating for a different reason. The couple from before, the man and his fiancee, seemed to not want to wait any longer. The two men kissed, and ran off to the approval of a cheering crowd to find a priest.
"Pokemon." Onyx had brought her pack to dine on the scraps, and was surprised when one of the helpers gave her and her pack two whole plates to share from. Stray Lillipup and Rockruff danced throughout the crowd, mingling with the domesticated Pokemon, yelping and playing and begging for treats and pets. A Magmortar and his fire-breathing master entertained a group of Southern Quarter children, who clapped and oohed and ahhed at the sights before them.
"We are one in the same."
Vanessa thought on that as an entire street seemed to sing in tandem to the same ancient melody. "After this long…you really think we can turn all this around? Forget all about it?"
"We cannot forget," Nerevor said. "To forget would be to make the same mistakes that got us here in the first place. We must remember…and battle on."
Vanessa smiled sadly, her hand brushing her ring finger. "He'd be happy. Vance, I mean. He…he would have loved this. I know Marissa and Julian would as well…everyone that we've lost." Nerevor nodded, waiting.
"And Corinth," she finished. "I think…I think if there would have been another way to make him see reason…he would have liked this too."
"I agree."
They stood together in silence for a long while, listening to the wonderful sounds of a community slowly learning to grow back together again.
###
The Black Sun stood atop a roof and looked down at the mass gathering of light and sound, of rejoice and happiness.
There was something so genuine about watching the results of their victory that he couldn't help but smile. Snowpoint was in for a rough time. The rebuilding physically would be easy enough, especially with Nerevor and Vanessa ending the sentiment towards magic.
The emotional part would be harder.
But for now…this would do.
"Oh brother," Ren said, stepping to his side and looking down at the lights. "Don't tell me you're getting soft on me, Boss."
She shared a grin with him as he turned to look at her. "Afraid so, girl. I just…" He shook his head. "I'm glad we're still here. I'm glad you're still here."
"Me too," Ren admitted, shrugging. "Can't say I'm not salty about the car though."
"When we get back home, you can do all the autoshop you want," Floyd said. "That's a promise."
"Already makin' promises, eh? We haven't even packed to leave yet." Ren tsked and nodded over her shoulder. "Why don't you work on keeping some other promises first, hm?"
Floyd followed her gaze.
Tabby walked towards him on her own power, still a little shaky, but moving. Blitz loped in besides her, a bandage around his forehead.
"I think," Tabby began, extending a hand, "that I was promised a dance."
"That must have been the hypoxia talking."
"Ah ah ah!" Tabby exclaimed. "I remember every good thing that's ever happened to me, thank you very much. And I'd never forget a handsome man asking me to dance with him."
Floyd pretended not to see it, but he watched Ren wink at Tabby from his left. "Alright," he said with a smile. "Just don't step on my toes."
"I'll do my best," she teased, poking her tongue out at him.
She stepped into his arms and they began to sway slowly against the beat of the celebratory music below, the street musicians and the light of the moon making every sad but hopeful step better than the last.
A/N: Forgot about uploading Chapter 27, whoops. Have a double feature for my mistake! One last chapter and an epilogue coming right up tomorrow!