PMD: Warped Skies

by Team Ion

Playing the part of the hero sounded fun at first, until he took a meaty punch to the face. Stranded in a world reminiscent of a game he once knew, a human-turned-Meowth struggles to retain his humanity while filling the shoes of the game's protagonists. Unfortunately, his feet are so much smaller. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, SI-OC. Cover by Bograbbit! Arc 1 complete!

68. Bonus 6: Home

Here we go. Made so much more sense to split this into two chapters.

With this chapter, the Bonus Chapters are complete, and I've got enough of Arc 3 decided upon! Which means my hiatus is sort of officially over! Can't say for sure when the next chapter will be out, but I'll be starting plotting that one out!

Got the rest of its prologue to do first. Let's get this done! And a BIG authors note at the end here, really big. Not End of Arc big, but still very big.

---

"This is a useful dungeon. Having one so close to town but new and small enough that it's not really any danger to the citizens. And being perfect to have secret, clandestine, conversations in. I bet this is where Sunflora gets the goss."

Keira was leading the way, as she always did. Carapace walked with her, stoic as he usually was. Behind them followed a meowth and a riolu.

Keira had wanted to speak with them both. Privately, of course. It wouldn't be hell on their nerves otherwise.

The place of choice? Slippery, slimy, feral-infested Beach Cave.

"You know, I don't actually like this place," Scout commented as he nearly slipped over. He grimaced, his foot having been pressed into something wet and awful. "I swear it's gotten slimier."

"Little slime won't hurt you," Keira said. A drop glooped down from the ceiling, and she sidestepped it. It splayed globlets of green goop on Sean and Scout upon hitting the stony ground.

"Fantastic," Sean said, wiping his face.

"Ah chin up, Scout. You should be floating on air, one of the legendary defeaters of Lucario!" Keira beamed.

"You are far too happy about that mistake," Scout said darkly, wiping something off his ear. "You were asleep. You fell asleep in our battle. That's more insulting than victorious."

"The terms were to unconsciousness," Keira said.

"There were no terms!"

"The unspoken terms."

"You were asleep!"

"Which is unconscious."

"For like five minutes!"

"You were only down for eight."

It was the day after Keira had waltzed into town to beat up three innocent cuties. With the townsfolk finding everyone in the dojo down, it was erroneously believed that Team Ion had managed to defeat The Legendary Lucario or, at least, took her down with them.

At one point, this may have been doubted, and the truth that Scout insisted upon would have been believed. But after saving the world twice, their arguments that she was only asleep due to a sleep seed was ignored as modesty.

Keira was absolutely loving it.

"Think of it as passing the torch," she had said with a shit-eating grin plastered on her face. "One point I was the undefeated mon of the world that everyone wanted to challenge to prove themselves. Now it'll be you. Ha."

Team Ion truly looked forward to even MORE challenges out of nowhere.

"Truly, I haven't fought an opponent so tenacious since Jigglyrough," Keira sighed. "Ah, that was an awful experience. You guys are much more fun."

"Jiggly…rough?" Sean wagered a word in.

"Don't ask," Carapace said, shaking his head. Keira was looking haunted.

"They call it 'Double' Slap," Keira muttered. "That implies two. Not two hundred."

She shivered.

"I remember her just taking a nap and launching you off the cliff when you touched her, somehow," Cara added. Keira gave him a very dangerous look for speaking such terrible lies.

Sean shared a look with Scout before changing the subject back. "I mean, hey, you did better than we did!" Sean beamed. "And that was with four members!"

"Yeah, I just punched you in the face over and over." Keira nodded smartly, looking better already with that cherished memory.

"And kicked me in the ribs."

"That too. All in the name of therapy!"

"I prefer Azumarill's therapy," Sean said dryly.

"Maybe I should give her some tips…?"

"No, I said I prefer hers!"

"On the to-do list then."

"You are a basket case," Cara said. "If you talked to her, you'd end up telling her your entire life story. And that'd be a little much for a town therapist."

"Ah, you're right. Diddly darn."

"Still, how much were you holding back?" Scout asked seriously. "Not that we don't appreciate it; being able to still walk is nice."

Keira snorted. "Tough question, really. Did you stand a chance? Yeah, I'd say so. I didn't go easy on you if that's what you're worried about."

"Seriously?"

Cara rolled his eyes as Keira beamed. "Oh, I wish I could make so many jokes with that word, but this isn't the time."

"She has a sense of tact?" Sean whisper-yelled.

"I heard that."

"With those big ears, I bet you did."

"Someone is cranky," Keira snorted. "Need Cara to take you out back and work that frustration out?"

"I'd be happier being able to eat without having to drink it through a straw."

"Pity," Cara said, admiring his pincers.

"If you want me to tell you that I was going easy on you," Keira said, facing Scout. "I won't. Because I wasn't. I wanted a good fight, so in some regards, I might not have hit you with as much force, but that was because killing my opponents isn't something I'm very much into."

Scout gave a nervous chuckle at that. Kill them?

"It's a lot easier to kill someone than it is to actually defeat them," Keira added, eyeing him before turning back around. "Hit them too hard on the head, stab them in a bad place, or really just stabbing in general."

Somewhere, an audino sneezed.

"Pokémon, and humans for that matter, are damn durable, but things die when they bleed, and it's a lot easier to do that than you may think."

They continued chatting after that morbid note as they walked the rest of the small dungeon. The path of Beach Cave was a little longer nowadays than it was when Scout first arrived in the world, but not much longer.

Keira ranted on about how old she was a few times.

"I thought you were immortal, though?" Scout asked. "Do you even age?"

Keira snorted. "Yes and no. I'm still physically as old as I was before I died, a solid eleven years old! But even though I don't 'age', certain things that get worn down that don't regenerate no matter what age you are, it still affects me. Like the cartilage in my legs. Metal bones, bitch, imagine those grinding on you as hard as Horny Cat does for a couple centuries and see how well you walk."

And she also ranted about her status.

"Don't worship me. Worship Giratina. Worship a conveniently sized lamp. Worship Dunsparce! I actually met one in Paradise; he charmed the pretty boy Virizion. Be more like Dunsparce, not like me. I'm an asshole."

And she gave that special Legendary Lucario depressiveness as well.

"I used to try and be an asshole, more of one at least because I'd like to be able to die and not have the whole world flip out. If nobody liked me, who'd be upset?"

Carapace had looked most upset with that topic, and they moved on.

They had caught Keira up on what exactly had gone down after she was put to sleep. A lot of it she did know but hearing it first hand was useful.

She took the time to get some more specific details than just an overview from last night.

"Yeah, magnagates are fucking awful," Keira said after Sean recounted the experience of going through one. "One of the biggest pieces of evidence for me that dungeons have something to do with Shadow Pokémon."

And Scout told her what Darkrai had told him about the true nature of Shadow Pokémon.

"Darkrai explained a lot of things about Shadow Pokémon," he said to Keira's intrigue. "He said that The Shadow is an actual entity, corrupting pokémon like this. And that it was contained by humanity, that they." He nodded to Sean. "Could absorb and contain it. Over millions and billions of bodies, spreading it so thin that it couldn't do anything."

Keira eyed Sean for a moment but let Scout continue.

"But after AZ, the king of Kalos, fired the Ultimate Weapon in THIS world, it split the world. He killed humanity, and The Shadow got in."

Keira nodded. "I am… aware of some of that," she admitted. "But that's good. I knew humans had something to do with containing it. I just knew it!"

"He also said that legendary pokémon gave up a lot of their power to act as a safeguard in humanity's absence," Scout said. "That's why they're weakened here."

Keira nodded. "Right. After that, dungeons began to appear. I reckon that's why they exist. The Power given up by the legends gave the world some sort of…other way to contain it."

"So, you do think dungeons are shadow stuff?" Sean asked. He and Scout and the others had discussed this before. Darkrai hadn't specifically said that dungeons were caused by The Shadow, but he had all but said it.

'To be contained by the world as bizarre labyrinths of infection', he had said.

"That's why you must work out that stress IN dungeons," Keira said, deciding to say what little she hadn't said those months ago. It felt like so much longer. "These places? They're like… a blister, a wart, a pimple. An infection zone on the planet. I'm pretty sure that they're meant to contain It. So, beating some of that shadow juice out of you, and it actually has a place to go, rather than right back into you."

Cara nodded to this as well. "She has more of a point than you may think," he explained. "You likely have not been forced to face it yourself, hopefully not at least, but Shadow Pokémon possess a fierce regenerative process. This effect flares to restore wounds that would even be lethal as if they didn't happen. Still, we found that this regeneration was slowly taxed if fought within a dungeon itself. More so than trying to tax it outside of one."

"Heh, Shadow's tend to avoid dungeons too." Keira winked. "More reasons to suspect stuff like that. Still, for all my time here, almost nothing has been confirmed. Even IF it was from Darkrai, it's nice to have some sort of answer."

"Would you be able to purify a Shadow Pokémon that way?"

Keira shook her head. "I hoped so," she admitted. "And I tried. I tried quite a few times. It just… it's too far IN them to be fully removed like that. It's already a part of them by that point. You can tax the regeneration but not actually remove The Shadow in them. I'm not a human, at least, I can't do it."

The small pair nodded, but Sean held a troubled look he was trying to mask.

"Speak, Riolu," Cara said, knowing that Keira would be far less gentle than he would.

"I just… does that mean that I could just… become a Shadow Pokémon?" he asked, a flicker of real fear breaking through his expression. "Just by absorbing this psychotic evil stuff that's just anywhere and everywhere?"

Keira considered him for a moment. "That's hard to say, really," she eventually said. "I have no known event where that happened. I mean, if even Kenji wasn't a Shadow Pokémon, then I doubt you'd ever be able to become one."

"Perhaps we should explain the actual process of it?" Cara asked. "It may alleviate some concerns?"

Keira gave a slow nod. "Fair point. Alright. I'm about to learn you some Acts of True Horror." Scout and Sean exchanged a concerned look at that.

"When a Shadow Pokémon kills you, it injects some of that 'stuff' into you," Keira said. "Well, maybe. It's really hard to quantify, but not anyone who's killed by one becomes one. It tends to be some level of bad luck, although those sneaky ones have a higher rate. That may just be because they don't kill as often, usually."

She shook her head. "Either way, when It takes you when you're weak. Something like that doesn't seem to be able to take someone strong. That can resist. That's why it's easiest to kill a pokémon and turn them into a shadow, hard for a dying mind to resist much. The Shadow gets in, regenerates the body. Depending on how much that poor person was still able to resist, they may still have their mind intact. But that's a far worse punishment than those who just become broken monsters."

Like Manectric.

"So, if you remain determined to refuse it," Cara added. "I believe you'll be fine. You went through a magnagate and withstood it. You've been through a lot, but it's never taken you down. You'll be fine, Riolu."

Sean breathed out a sigh, this time of relief. "Thanks. It's… thanks. I needed to hear something like that."

"Can only a dead pokémon become a shadow?" Scout asked, a little morbidly curious.

Cara went to nod, but Keira shook her head at the same time. He glanced at her in surprise.

"No," she clarified. "That's why I said 'strong' not 'alive'. I mean, you mentioned you knew of Cypher and their awful experiments." She nodded to Scout. "That's a living pokémon that gets twisted. Torture, physical injections of Shadow Essence and the like can begin wearing you down."

Her face darkened. "You resist, you fight, you fight so much, but they keep hurting you. They make you think you can't be saved; they make you think it's your best friend and partner doing it to you. They torture you until you break and then offer you what seems like salvation. They might as well kill you; it'd be kinder."

Things fell silent as three pokémon stared at Keira. She raised her paw to her face and noted she had tears. She chuckled, wiping her face. "Right. Sorry."

Things continued to be silent, and getting very uncomfortable at the stares, Keira changed the subject. "Well. Enough of that. I have two other things for you. Storytime and gifts! Presents! And such fun, happy stuff."

"Uh," Scout said, clearing his throat. "Okay. What did you actually want to talk about?"

"Just some other stuff to get off my chest," she said. Ruefully she added. "Much lighter, just some clarifications for the new legendary non-legendary pokémon of our era."

She gestured to Cara and then to herself. "It's a bit of a… misjudgement to say that I, Keira the Great and Powerful, created civilisation here. Like… I've been here for what, two/three hundred years? You think I could have pushed the boat hard enough to do all THIS in that time?"

She gestured so wildly one may think she was doing the jazz hands and distracting from that earlier moment.

"No…?" Sean said.

"How dare you," Keira snapped. "I'm amazing. I totally could have done it. I just didn't have to."

She smirked. "The truth is that communities already existed. Towns already existed. Pokémon were already working together. What was lacking was… a bit of unifying stuff. There was a lack of actual government, still is, but you've got stuff like HAPPI that do… something of a job. Don't really need it, pokémon are less overwhelmingly more, more, MORE than humans."

She formed a Bone Rush and leaned on it. For those that had come to know her, which was everyone here, they realised she did that when her legs were aching too much—serving as a reprieve from that.

"Really, what I did was come in, make a big scene, help out a town. Teach them a few things. I rescued pokémon, I introduced money rather than just trading goods and services. I helped create the Rescue Federation that would be split off into the various things pokémon do with dungeons. I taught them that dungeons could be tackled. I made pokémon talk, built alliances, communities that extended further than their singular towns."

She shook her head. "But I didn't make it in the first place. Very little of it was made up BY me. Rescue Teams? That was an idea made by a little group of pokémon from Square Town, later Pokémon Square, as it came to be known. I took that idea and spread it further, so it got attributed to me."

"The Psychic Network too," Cara added.

"I had a flare of my aura," Keira confirmed, nodding, "connecting to thousands of pokémon over a massive distance, and that got some others thinking. They began testing out psychic links, going further, introducing new members, having some speedy communication. It's not the internet, but it worked, so I suggested the idea elsewhere. Boom, Lucario's idea. I'm the biggest plagiarist in history."

"It's not like you did nothing, though," Scout protested.

"I hardly said THAT," Keira scoffed. "I'm aware I'm amazing. I was literally chosen by Arceus to do this; you'd HOPE It had the right idea. I pushed the boat, and I pulled it too. Things might have gotten here eventually, but when I came here, time for 'eventually' had run out. I also was here to kill Shadow Pokémon."

And they were back to that.

Like a balloon slowly being deflated, the pomp went out of Keira as she remembered. "You know… back to being uber depressing, but… I used to sometimes wonder if I live for a year for every Shadow Pokémon I've killed… I hope not, or else I've got a long time left to go."

"I gave the world a unifying factor," Keira sighed. "I acted as their leader, venerated by many waaaay too much. I brought cooperation and unity. It's so much for just one pokémon to do, and I didn't do it alone. I gave solutions and argued for compromises, but most of the work was done by those who actually belong here. It's their world, not mine."

Cara raised a pincer and set it on her shoulder. She snorted at him but didn't lean out of his comforting weight.

"Were you a Shadow Pokémon?" Sean asked softly.

Keira snorted. "Yep."

It was surprising. Not that announcement, Scout and Sean had come to that conclusion due to the torture talk earlier, and it made sense. It was surprising how much weight seemed to drop from Keira as she said it.

She sighed again, but it was almost a sigh of relief. Cara was looking at her in a mixture of stunned shock and surprise 'it's all falling into place' in his eyes.

"Y-You?" Carapace asked.

"Are you really surprised?" Keira asked, facing him and raising an eye. "Really?"

"I just… never really thought…."

"It's why I'm so brutal with them," Keira said, turning back to Team Ion. "I've killed every single Shadow Pokémon I've ever met here. Because I know. I know what it's like to be one. I can remember that vacant emptiness like it was yesterday. I can remember wanting to feel but being unable to, or just feeling burning hatred or gnawing hunger that nothing could fill."

"But you're not anymore?" Sean said softly.

"No, not anymore." Keira nodded. "It's why I was perfect for this job in the end. Arceus needed a human touch to bring civilisation, and because of my Bond with Felix, I was human enough. And because I had been a Shadow Pokémon and purified… heh, did you know that a purified shadow is immune to becoming one again?"

They did not.

"I was also being sent to purge the world of Shadow Pokémon," Keira said. "And there were so many, and since I was immune even if I wasn't good enough and I did die to them. It'd be no risk to Arceus' plans. Arceus could just get someone else to finish the job."

She leaned back, so old and so young. "Really, I need to stop being so depressing, but I guess I'm just at that age. Of what's coming next, I just want to talk, so I don't regret anything later. I don't know what's going to happen, I have hopes, but we'll see."

That was not elaborated upon; Keira was continuing.

"Shadow's can be purified, so you might think I'm a monster even more." She smiled at them, but they shook their heads. "No? Even though I was saved, and yet I don't let others have that chance?

"How were you purified?" Scout asked.

"Haah. That's the ticket, I guess. Felix. Human. There's not exactly many here, and I fear what might happen otherwise." She shrugged. "Even if it was, they're so dangerous. If it broke free and killed someone else? I'd have to live with that as well. Sadly, it's the safest choice for everyone. And putting them down? Well… it's hard to live with what you've done while in that state. Ultimately, I never succeeded in killing anyone when I was one, but I sure did try to kill the only person who truly gave a damn about me."

"For many pokémon, the guilt of what they did while in that state may be too much. It's not my right to decide that, but I have to choose between them and others, and it's not fair to risk others either. Better that I suffer with the guilt rather than anyone else."

"You take so much on yourself," Cara uttered softly. Tears had hit his eyes.

She grabbed her bag. "I think I've unloaded enough on you three," she said, upturning the bag. The usual pile of mess that shouldn't fit fell out.

"How does your bag fit that much?" Scout broke the awkwardness to ask.

"Delphox enchantment," Keira answered. "It's bigger on the inside. A mismagius was able to make it weigh nothing to me either, so that's nice."

With everything out, she dug her arm right up to the shoulder and began feeling around. It was odd to look at, but anything after what she just said was a relief.

"Aha." She unzipped something loudly and overturned the bag again. Only a few items fell this time, something that looked like a game controller, and some crystals. There was something purplish and crystalline that gave Scout a pounding headache to look at, and two red and white spheres.

"Hang on!" Sean gasped. "Are those?"

"Yep," Keira chirped and picked up both shrunken pokéball's. "See," she began, tossing on up and down, "dungeons are weird places. In my centuries of being here, I've occasionally found some things that don't really belong. I found three pokéball's, I used one of them already though."

She tossed one to Sean and one to Scout. "Careful; if you enlarge it and press the middle button and hit yourself with it, you'll get sucked in," she warned.

"Are you… giving these to us?" Scout asked, stunned. This was the gift?

"Why not?" Keira shrugged. "They could come in pretty useful. Don't know exactly what. You could nail an enemy with one or even one of your friends to save them from a fall down a cliff or something. I won't give predictions; in this world, there are some weird events that go down, and I'd rather not tempt the proverbial fate."

"Thank you," Sean said, and Scout repeated it. "Heh, I actually brought six of these with me but used them all in the Dark Future early on. Before I even met Striker."

"Neat. You can show Scout how it works if the directions aren't easy enough."

"Seems pretty clear," the meowth said flatly, enlarging it and observing the ball carefully. It was made of metal but thin and quite light. The pokéball, a real pokéball in his paws, was amazing. He shrunk it down.

"No one ever said I wasn't Santa Claws," Keira said, chuckling. "Or was it Santa Claus? Eh, doesn't matter."

She smirked at them as Sean continued admiring it. "Did Sean ever tell you that he and I know each other from way back?" she asked, and Sean immediately flushed.

"What's this?" Scout asked.

"Don't do the OwO shit, please," Keira asked, and Scout blushed as well. "But yes. Sean was one of the kids in Solaceon Town. A year younger than Felix. He was Mr Grabby Hands, the one with sticky fingers. Always. Sticky."

"My hands were NOT always sticky!" Sean protested.

"They were when you grabbed me. I'd have bitten them, but I didn't want that in my mouth. Disgusting children."

Cara laughed as well, as Sean grew more flustered.

"Damn. Are you sure you're not Cameron's Lucario?" Scout chuckled.

"Whoever that is, I hate them," Keira said. "Felix was my trainer, and I was his. We made that work, surprisingly."

They shared some smiles after all the grimness.

"I guess the only bit left to talk about is Dark Matter," Scout said, stashing the ball away.

With Darkrai dealt with and the Bittercold before even them, that was the last thing he knew was a threat.

Scout did his best to explain again. He'd told Sean already, so he was able to help with the explanation.

"With how much that's already changed, though," Scout said, uncertain.

"Well, with me around, I'm sure it gets enough negativity to last a lifetime," Keira joked. "But… well, how much do you really have to do?"

Scout wasn't sure how to answer that.

"You've saved the world twice, you two."

"We're not going to do nothing!" Sean protested.

She waved him down. "I didn't say that. But if there is some reincarnated Mew, not sure how that works, and human from forever ago as the ones to beat Dark Matter… well. Why don't you protect that special water, Sean's human, so he can unlock the barrier, take some water, and then when this problem makes itself known, you've got an ace in the hole."

"I just don't know if anything I knew will be the same," Scout admitted ruefully. "It's the first time since I came to know this stuff that I well and truly don't know what's going to happen next."

"Welcome to living like a normal person."

"Thanks. I hate it."

"You'll get over it." Keira sighed. "Well… a piece of advice, one way or another. The world seems to be a bit of a cheeky bastard at times. Things that should not happen at ALL because of the 'likelihood' still happened. I mean, you didn't exist in the story. This Soothe lass didn't exist and has been mucking up who knows what for twenty years! Yet your 'Sky' story still happened mostly the way you expected it to."

She squeezed her eyes shut, with a headache. "Some meta shit there, I think. Too complicated for me to really bother trying to understand. From what I KNOW about time travel, and this should theoretically apply to this as well. Unless changes are HUMONGOUS, things still play out about as they should."

She looked to Scout. "Tell me, you watched a bunch of Ash's adventures?" Scout nodded. "He time travelled more than once, and yet he didn't paradox himself out of existence. Just one small change in one small place. Some train station continues running, and someone's not dead. Yet the world is still pretty much the same despite the assumed ripple effects some media likes to imply."

"Nah." She shook her head. "Time travel has to do something utterly titanic to actually cause a paradox. Like stopping time from collapsing. That's big enough, obviously." And so, she nodded to him. "You actively tried to not change things, so things had an easier go of running along."

"That makes… some sense," Scout said. "But things still did change."

"Well, duh, they still CHANGE," she exclaimed. "It's not like nothing happened differently. Just… the changes tend to be more centralised. Really, what I'm saying isn't that fate rules all, fuck that fate doesn't exist. I'm mostly saying that people are still born as they would have been, and events still generally line up as they may have in the previous iteration. Unless it's a big change. I don't fucking know, I'm a lucario, not Dialga."

"We could probably ask him," Sean mused. "Saniya wouldn't really know."

"In conclusion for today," Keira said, clapping her paws. "I'm sad, don't worry about that. I'll be good very soon. Dark Matter is a bitch, so you can plan a bit out. Since you HAVE changed a lot of what you already knew, things will definitely be wildly different in some ways with that. I've given you pokéball's, don't let this be some sort of things like my Awakening. But it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it."

They nodded.

"Okay. Last thing. Scout." She pulled out a map. "Do you know where Destiny Tower is?"

"Destiny Tower?" Scout blinked. "The Arceus tower?"

"Off to a good start," she said eagerly. She shoved the map in his face. "Any bells being rung?"

Scout hesitantly pointed to the top of the Grass Continent, to the right where some islands were. "Uh, on the coast around there, I think… might have been an island… if I'm remembering right."

"No, that's good." Keira took the map back. "I was told a long time ago of that area. I was just making sure you could back that up and that I wasn't just going senile."

"So… wait, you're going to Destiny Tower?"

"I am." Keira nodded. "It's time Arceus and I have a little chat."

She cracked a knuckle threateningly.

Cara's eyes were shadowed as Scout and Sean looked at her in something unknowable.

"What are you…?"

"Are you… coming back?"

Keira faced them silently. "I think I got enough off my chest for me to not have to say it," she said. "But I will if I have to. I'm going to Arceus. And I'm going there to die."

---

Cara had barely said anything for a couple days.

She was glad he'd come with her, but he was stiffly silent. Painfully silent.

Scout and Sean didn't really have much to say after she let them know her plans. Attempts to talk her out of it were not going to work; she rebuffed them all.

"It's not like I'll stay dead," she scoffed. "Assuming Arceus keeps its side of the deal. I won't be here anymore, however."

Dark Matter couldn't make her stay. Carapace couldn't make her stay.

Keira had lived for hundreds of years. She was tired. She missed Felix. She wanted to go home.

"I've done enough." She hoped.

With Alakazam's help to teleport her across the continent, Carapace had journeyed with her. It wasn't a matter of question; he would be with her the whole way.

They'd reached The Cliff with several jumps and two teleporters. The northmost town on the continent. Small fishing village.

"Thank you for your incredible efforts," Keira thanked Alakazam and then handed him her bag. "I doubt you've really been thanked for YOUR side of things, so here."

Alakazam stuttered at her and almost dropped the bag as she dumped it into his hands. Cara also blinked at her quite a few times. Keira waved, not giving Alakazam time to try and refuse.

"Heh, now he's got to sort out all my junk," Keira chuckled, and that was that. Cara had money if anyone would possibly need it out here.

So then, they went east. It would take a few days to reach the straight separating her from Destiny Tower. There weren't many civilised pokémon in these parts; towns were the way of the rest of the continent—nothing but rocks and sand out here.

Cara trudged silently behind Keira as she walked with a spring in her step. Her long journey was coming to a close. She could almost hear Felix again. She'd held onto those memories so damn hard. Ten years of her life compared to hundreds, but she remembered Sean's sticky hands, and she remembered her days in the sun with Felix, with Lilith, with Miss Norrie, and so many others.

She'd forgotten more about her time here than she had forgotten about them.

Part of that might have been the hundreds of years compared to one decade, though.

"You alright, Cara?" Keira asked as they approached the shoreline. It was a bit of a craggy coast around, mostly sheer cliffs with waves crashing down below. They needed a ride over, as neither of them could swim that far.

"I'm fine," Cara answered.

"You haven't been talking since we left Treasure Town."

"I've spoken."

"Like that, though." Keira planted a staff in the ground and unearthed a rock. Cara paused. "I feel like having a talk is probably the right thing to do here."

"If you want to talk."

"Oh boy," Keira muttered. She faded the staff and turned to face Cara. They had a short trip down to the beach where they'd look for someone to assist them. They were almost there, so close that Keira could feel it. Her soul sang in the gentle breeze.

She crossed her arms and faced her red and shiny friend. "Carapace," she said, using his full name in gravity. "We've worked together for years. There's no one in this world that I trust more. There's no one else that I really give a damn what they think. Come on, talk to me. We don't have much time left to do that."

"It's just that," Cara snapped, words unlodging. "'Time left'. I just…I don't understand."

Keira cocked her head slightly. "What do you mean? What don't you understand?"

"What you think you're doing," he said. "You told Riolu and Meoth that…are you seriously coming here to die?"

Keira chewed her lip for a moment, considering the question. "Yes," she answered bluntly. "In a way, I guess. I don't really know for sure what Arceus is going to do or say WHEN It shows up." She cast a glare at the sky. "Whether It makes me younger or just takes me as I am, I won't be here anymore. I suppose I'm not literally coming around to DIE. I'm here to get my end of the deal seen through."

"Is that all this was to you?" he asked, voice carrying over the waves, and things fell silent between them.

Keira stared at him.

"Just to get your 'reward'?" Cara asked lowly. "Is that why you did…anything?"

Keira took a breath and then exhaled hard. "Yes and no," she said plainly. "At first…? Well…yes. Yes, Cara. I died and was offered another chance if I did something for literally Arceus. Really, what was I going to do?"

Cara lowered his gaze.

"You know, when I came here, I thought Arceus was underestimating me. It told me I was being sent hundreds of years into the past of another world, to have the time needed to achieve Its demands. I thought that was ridiculous; I didn't really understand how large the world was. So, at first, I even rushed it. In my mind, the sooner I got it done, the sooner I could go back."

She shook her head. "I know better now. Even IF I solved it in a day, Arceus would have been asleep at that point in time. After about fifty years, I truly realised how big the task was. AND, by that point, I'd grown to give a damn. It's easy to think of people as numbers, as statistics, but you begin to care when you get to know them. At first, Cara, I was doing this purely so I could go back, but I began to love this place and what I could really do."

"Then why go?" Cara asked desperately. "If you love it here, why go!?"

Keira blinked at him. "This…," she sighed. "Cara, I won't say I became a saint. I've kept myself going mostly with the dream that one day I could go back. It was always going to come to this point. It's part of why I avoid people, not wanting to get attached. Like with you. It sucks, and I'm sorry. But I've made my decision. I made it a long time ago."

Cara bowed his head slightly. They continued standing for a moment before Keira wordlessly gestured to the beach. "Will, you at least see me off?"

Cara nodded, and they walked down to the rough shore.

There wasn't much to be seen. The sand was a faded white and got into Cara's various creases quickly. Keira's feet were long-calloused, and she hardly felt the larger stones poking into her paws.

The deep blue sea flowed in and out, dragging sand back and forth and depositing tiny shells and smoothed stones on the beach. Some coral had washed up, and Keira picked it up and tossed it back into the ocean.

"Not many people out here," Keira groaned as they wandered the beach, they had to step into the water as the cliff, and the shore squeezed down into a quicksand-like straight.

"It's hardly the place for towns to crop up," Cara grunted, nearly sinking to a joint in a particularly wet area.

"I suppose. You'd expect some wildies at least."

No sign of any lapras or anything.

"I really don't want to swim," Keira sighed, looking out to the crystal waves. She didn't know exactly where the island was either, so swimming out would not be wise.

Not when she was dense and sank very easily.

And Cara couldn't swim at all. But he could fly fairly long distances.

"Don't feel like trying to fly me over, do you?" Keira asked, eying his wings.

"I can only support my own body for so long," Cara replied tiredly. It wasn't the first time she'd asked something like that. "I doubt I'd even be able to lift off carrying you."

"Careful, that's getting mighty close to calling a lady fat."

Cara snorted. "You're hardly a lady."

"Okay, I'll toss you into the sea if you keep making smart-alec comments like that," Keira threatened.

"Empty threats from an old spinster."

He ducked under a sudden bone staff. "See, if you were serious, you'd have actually hit me."

"Yes, he would have," Keira said ruefully, then smirked as he rolled his eyes. "Come on, I haven't made a Sirius joke in decades."

"To me, it feels like four months," Cara retorted. He didn't know who 'Sirius' was, only that he could never use the word without getting some sort of annoying joke from Keira about it.

"Heh, at least I can joke about dear old dad," Keira said, causing Cara to nearly recoil. "Hm, what?"

"Sirius was the name of your father?"

"I never told you?"

"No! You just smiled mysteriously at me."

"Huh. Well, that does sound like me."

"That's the father you broke the spine of?"

"Well, I only had the one father." Keira then shivered. "Horrible dreams and definitely not alternate universes aside."

"Your words make as much sense as your plans for today do."

"Which also sounds like me."

They continued until Keira finally spotted her prize. "Aha!" she saw a lounging sharpedo on the beach gnawing on something red and messy. "Ahoy there, good fellow, sir, or ma'am."

"Do I look like some sort of townie to you," Sharpedo barked at the approaching pokémon.

"Well, you're eating something that was probably someone, so I'd wager not."

"It's feral if that doesn't offend you."

"Not at all." Cara's face thankfully couldn't wrinkle in distaste. Keira was a master at not letting anything show on the outside. No one was better at burying feelings than her. "Anyway, I'm looking for someone to take me to the island with the big tower on it."

Sharpedo groaned. "You have the sound of one of those pokémon that is just going to pretend I'm some sort of nice guy who'll do what you want if you ask. Buzz off!"

"Can't fly." She pointed a thumb at Cara. "He probably could 'buzz', though."

"Do not drag me into this," Cara said.

Sharpedo swallowed whatever was left and then rolled around in the sand to clean himself off. "You know what, I'm in a good mood." He bared a sharky grin. "Beat me in a battle, and I might help ya out."

"And, say the unlikely happens, and YOU win?"

"I get to eat ya."

"Fair enough."

"Lucario!" Cara snapped. "Did you not just listen to what he said and what that might imply?"

"Only half listening to both of you." She formed a staff. "Okay, Sharpedo. Now's good?"

He snorted, and then water began to burst up, dousing the beach and being sucked into the thirsting sand. He sprayed a LOT of saltwater into Keira's face, blinding her as more water formed around him, and he began swimming in mid-air. An Aqua Jet spiralling forth as the shark's mouth opened wide.

The Bone Rush was shattered by the flood of water, and Keira was wiping her face from all the watery salt in her eyes. Sharpedo went to bite her head off.

A thundering crack and muffled gasp of pain and all the water splattered on the ground. Cara felt the wind get displaced next to him from a fast-moving, heavy body before a heavy thump caused some sandbanks to break.

Keira continued wiping her face casually. "Never been unloaded on by that much salt," she said, spitting it out. "How is he, Cara? Still conscious and/or alive?"

"Looks like it," Cara said, dropping his Protect. "You could have avoided salty fur had you known Protect."

"You could have avoided being a bitch if you DIDN'T learn Protect," she retorted, marching to Sharpedo. "Yo, probably-not-a-murderer dude?"

She smacked Sharpedo lightly with her staff and beamed some healing light onto him. He groaned and stirred. "He's not dead, Cara!"

"Swell."

"By Kyogre's dick, what hit me?"

"First off, don't ever say that again. Second off, me. I hit you. I hit you with this big bone. Want me to hit you again?"

"No…."

"So, you'll take me to Destiny Tower?"

Sharpedo flopped on the sand for a bit to regain his senses. "Wh-who's to say I won't just drop you in the water and let you drown?"

"Well, firstly, I CAN swim, just not well, and I don't know exactly where I'm going, and I don't want to swim THAT far. Secondly, if you tried, you'd die. Do you really think you're fast, smart, and/or strong enough to NOT die?"

Sharpedo shivered. "Who ARE you?"

"Lucario," Keira said. Even here, even now, even to some crazy wild pokémon, he felt the weight and shivered.

"Y-You could have said that first."

"Your fault for picking the type-disadvantage battle."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"And you know that I don't care. Get in the water." She grabbed him by the fin and tossed him. "I have a date with Arceus. You don't want me to stand the Big Cheese up, do you?"

Sufficiently cowed, Sharpedo waited for Keira to enter the water before noticing Cara still there. "What about him?"

"That's up to him," Keira answered, not looking back.

"…I'm coming," he said. "But I'll follow you from above. If the trip is too far, I may need to be carried by you the rest of the way."

"Great," Sharpedo groaned. "It's not THAT far, but I bet I'm going to be lugging you two anyway. Whatever, hold on, and if you cut yourself, don't come crying to me about it."

Keira latched on, and Sharpedo sped out into the sea.

"Hehe, it tickles," she giggled as the water spray hit her.

"Don't make it weird!"

Cara flew from above, keeping a close eye on the two.

---

"Bye… bye this Castelian Pie," Keira sang as they stepped off the shore and into the wooded trees, giant spire splitting the sky before them through this copse of trees. "Took my levy to the levee, but the levee was dry. And them good ol' boys were drinking whisky and rye, singing `this'll be the day that I die'…."

She cast a smile at nothing. "This'll be the day that I… die."

Cara followed her in dead silence, feet barely making sound on the ground as her big plods took up all the required sound. She was stomping forwards, singing ancient songs she could barely remember, heart thrumming in her chest as it rapidly tried to beat the last moments of its time.

If her heart was trying to beat for every moment, she would still live for, Keira feared her heart would beat forever and would wind up in some museum to be stared at. Or church to be worshipped.

Still, she didn't turn back to look at Cara. The smile had lingered on her face as she held onto Sharpedo's rough scales, feeling Cara's eyes on her from above. It hadn't taken long to swim over, not with Sharpedo's speed, and Cara had touched the ground only a minute afterwards.

Sharpedo didn't stick around to chat.

His gaze was staring holes into her back, but she didn't turn around. He'd see her face them.

"Bye…bye… this Castelian Pie," she repeated, voice light and almost flippant with the subject at hand. Her face was creasing, and her eyes darted to the ground, where she was stepping. "Took my levy to the levee, but the levee was dry."

She took a silent deep breath as she nearly stumbled. If she hit the ground now, she may not be able to get up. Her heart continued pounding in her ears. "The good old boys were drinking whisky and rye, singing…."

She trailed off, swallowed the saliva in her mouth. "This'll be the day…that I die."

Cara was still silent. She could feel him behind her though, her tassels were tingling.

"Come on, Cara," she said, putting forth a laugh. "Finish it with me! We've come this far. It'll be symbolic!"

Nothing.

She cleared her throat. "BYE-BYE, THIS CASTELIAN PIE!" she sang very loudly. Maybe Arceus would hear her from its high tower.

"Just stop," Cara said right before her next line, the words cutting short in her throat, and she nearly coughed.

Keira did stop. Stop walking entirely. "Hm?" She glanced back, eyes moving up to Cara's face. "You know, I've never liked the fact you're taller than me."

"Don't… don't." Cara shook his head. "Okay? This isn't funny anymore. This was not funny at all."

"Okay… what level of grief are you at? Denial, anger, bargaining, or depression? Because this clearly isn't acceptance."

"Just STOP!"

Keira nodded. "Bargaining then," Cara growled at her. "Little bit of anger. I guess we've got time to get weepy, hug it out, depression and then you'll be at acceptance in no time!"

"Keira," Cara said, and she flinched. He said it with the exact same weight as others said Lucario. Almost, at least, less reverence and more desperation. "You… you… you're too important. This just… no. I. No. No! NO!"

His pincers opened, and the swords flashed around him for a moment. Keira took a half-step back before girding himself.

"This is my decision, Cara," she said. Soft but as firm as steel.

"Then your decision is STUPID!" Cara yelled. "You are out of your mind if you think this was EVER an option? Die? What the fuck are you doing? What happened to all that fucking counselling you pushed for to stop this kind of thing!?

"Cara-"

"Do not 'Cara' me, Keira!" Carapace continued yelling. "Stop this! Stop this right now! You're scaring me. If anyone else knew about this, they'd be doing the same thing. You're scaring me, you'd scare everyone, you-"

"CARA!" Keira screamed, voice snapping across the tension and breaking it like a fragile band. Carapace recoiled, shocked. Keira never yelled.

"Cara, I'M fucking scared, okay?" she yelled, spinning around on him, old eyes narrowed into a sparkling glare. "I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know if Arceus is going to be there. I don't know if I'm even in the right time! Time has been so fucked up in this world so often that I don't know for sure, even WITH Sean and Scout around telling me things."

She growled and stepped towards him. "And if It is there? What's going to happen then? Did I do enough, or did my piss-poor, wasted, all-about-me attempt not meet Its standards? Is it going to just send me back again? Or am I going to have to stay here? CARA! If my choice is between staying here forever and DYING, I'm going to choose to die. I'm old. I'm tired. I'm just. So. Fucking. Tired."

Cara's mouth trembled, and his pincers flexed. He could feel his blood pressure spike, his exoskeleton feeling a size too small as the pressure increased, his neck twitched, and he snapped back. "NO!" he roared and bared both pincers. "I will not let you do this! I will not allow you to kill yourself! This is wrong; this is WRONG! You're not thinking straight. You need help, not some tower! I will not let you go any further!"

Swords appeared around him as Keira stepped back, face shadowing. She eyed the swords as they pointed in towards himself and shot in. His body flashed red before more appeared and did the same until he'd boosted enough, forming seven more. "Even if I have to force you," he uttered.

She closed her eyes, her lip trembled, but no tears fell, and when she opened her eyes, they had hardened. "I guess this is my final test," she said thickly, forming the Aura Blade. "The only reason why I survived this long, the only person I lived for, I have to fight. But you know you can't beat me, Cara." She shook her head. "Even if you could, what do you think is going to change here? I made my choice, I already told you that."

Cara huffed and snapped his bag off, tossing it to the side. Before it flew, however, his pincer tore through it and revealed something. Keira's eyes opened. "Don't you-"

She was too late. His pincer snapped shut around the awakening, and Cara burst with Power.

Her jaw fell open, and she stared in pained shock as Cara transformed.

His pincers lengthened and developed saw-toothed serrations, perfect for gripping and crushing. Black armouring appeared around his legs and face in a three-pointed crest. Striated coverings glowed into existence along his shoulders and thighs.

His tapered legs stabbed through a discarded branch as he stepped forth threateningly, wings uncurling and got ready to beat.

Keira's face darkened as he transformed until he began approaching, even more swords appearing around him. "Carapace," she said, voice breaking between a growl and a whimper of horror. "You cannot keep that form without a human to balance it. You'll kill yourself."

"If you can threaten that," Cara snarled, voice warping with the overflow of power.

Her teeth gnashed, and both paws clutched the blade she'd formed. "Fine. I'll just have to take you down quickly."

Then, she moved.

Light flashed, and leaves fell off trees from miles around as a shining bone built of Power and charged with burning aura crashed against a pair of crossed swords and a shield of gleaming emerald.

The swords broke, and the shield cracked immediately as the shockwave from the impact cut Carapace's facial crest and caused branches to fall off several trees behind him.

The Legendary Lucario's attack was stopped, however.

Unflinching from the crack to his face, Carapace swung out with a heavy pincer cloaked in shining white energy. It jarred with her flattened chest spike and cracked ribs as Cara knocked her away like a golf ball.

He pursued, swords flashing back into existence. His wings beat, and he caught her as she bounced off the trees.

The Swords Dance became realised as his body began seeping with red.

The swords were immaterial but still struck hard. Fur fell, lines were sliced in the skin, and blood began to flow as dozens of swords flashed into and out of existence, each being driven through Keira's body.

She touched the ground; it had been seconds since the battle began. Cara loomed above her, raising both pincers shining white as more swords came down to skewer her in place.

Two swords impaled her arms as she raised them to block. They cracked out of existence in a moment, not even drawing blood, but the push from them was enough to knock her back as he slammed down a double pincer Brick Break.

She rolled.

The ground cracked and nearly exploded from that impact; stones being shot out of the ground from how hard he hit the ground. Keira kicked up, sending a blast from the palm of her foot.

She kicked Cara's abdomen, and the kinetic impact knocked him off her. She jumped to her feet and formed a new staff.

Just as he had done, she pursued the falling Cara, far faster than he was.

But he had wings. They buzzed, and he flipped up, avoiding her blow, and formed two new blades. He took them in his saw-toothed pincers and met her return strike with both.

This time they didn't break. Two swords trembled against the staff as they pushed their muscles against each other.

"Stop this," Keira barked, pushing more and knocking him off balance. She didn't follow up, letting him stumble back to sure-footedness.

"Are you going to see sense?" Cara barked. Keira's mouth pinched. "Thought so!"

He came at her again, and she dodged back, his swords had a wider range than her staffs, and she found one buried in her back. Then another. Pushing her back forth and robbing her of her agility. He swung at her again, and she ducked under it and forced distance between them with another Force Palm.

It dissuaded Cara for hardly two seconds.

He came at her again and again. Even as she beat him back, she was hardly doing anything to his hardened exoskeleton. Besides the crack in his face from her initial attack, she hadn't dealt much of anything.

Cara's pincers were far heavier than he was used to, and he wasn't as fast with his Brick Breaks as she was used to. She almost forgot that wasn't the only thing he could do.

A rapid slug nearly cracked her shoulder as Cara punched at her like a rocket. The jarring pain left stinging shooting up and down her left arm.

The other pincer opened as the saw-teeth glinted an even brighter metallic. She jumped back, but a dozen swords appeared around her, forming a physical wall.

She swung back with the staff and began breaking them, but not fast enough to escape again.

He punched forth with the normal pincer as fast as before. She caught it with both paws, just barely. He swung around with the other heavy beartrap-like claw, and she planted her feet and heaved with everything she had.

The Metal Claw-amped pincer missed its target as she tossed him over her shoulder and slammed him into the swords.

"You," she panted, spinning around. "Can't." Her paws melted into darkness. "Beat." She unleashed a Dark Pulse. "ME!"

It bounced off a Protect, and the rings scattered all over, but most were reflected right into her.

"I will not accept defeat!" Cara bellowed, leaping after her as she staggered from having her own worst thoughts bounce back into her.

Her pincers glowed again, and she was getting awfully sick of that. Keira formed a crisscrossed staff and blocked the first breaking blow, and darted to the side to avoid the other. She reformed the shattering staff to full and swung out, and Cara deflected it with a slide of green.

Her attack struck a tree instead and carved straight through it like butter. Cara's pincer shot out and clamped onto the trunk as it began to tilt and ripped it the rest of the way out, swinging out with an entire tree and clobbering her across their battlefield.

Destiny Tower laid in the distance as another tree was torn up and tossed at Keira like a spear.

She had cracked into a tree with enough force to shake all the apples off it and barely was able to eep before the second tree smashed her through it.

Two trees fell as Keira rolled, body glinted with an Endure, most of the impact just sliding right off her.

Keira rolled to her feet and breathed a blast, splintering another tree being thrown at her. She leapt forth and sliced through another one. "What the fuck?"

Most of the trees on Cara's side had been deforested already.

"Stop! Just stop!"

"I won't stop until you do."

"I'm doing the right thing."

"THIS is the right thing?"

"It's MY choice, Cara!" Keira yelled. Her voice broke. "Not yours. Not…yours."

Cara's expression, a flurry of rage and pain, tightened, shivered, broke, his mouth began to fall, and he breathed out a very hot breath.

He began walking towards her as Keira's eyes squeezed shut. "Why do you have to make this so painful?" she asked. "Haven't I been through enough?"

"You can be helped!" Cara said, the anger shifting for a moment. "I know you're in pain, but killing yourself isn't the right way!"

"Cara, you aren't listening to me."

"You've said everything, but you won't listen yourself. What would you be doing if this was me, begging you to let me die?"

"I'M NOT JUST GOING TO OFF MYSELF!"

"WELL, THAT'S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!"

He formed a sword and raced for her. Just one, but one was enough when he was putting far more into it than the others.

Keira reacted almost too late to form her own to block the strike. Her Bone Rush shivered and cracked from the single hit.

They began to duel, Cara's aggressive strikes needing everything Keira had to block. He formed other swords, weaker ones, to try and break her defence, but she took those strikes without even a grunt to acknowledge them."

Her staff continued to crack.

"Please," Cara begged, pushing Keira back step by step to one of the fallen trees. She'd trip eventually. "I cannot just allow this to happen. What can I do? Tell me what I can do to help you!"

Keira didn't respond. Her eyes had gone flat, almost sightless. She bounced a sword strike off her bone and shifted her head away from a weaker one. Her expression had detached like she wasn't even seeing him.

"Talk to me."

"There's nothing to say," Keira said flatly. Her eyes flicked up to meet his. Distant, ancient, and so very sad. "Except this. I never wanted a student. I didn't need a burden. What would I teach that'd be worth it?"

She pushed back against a strike as the cracks in her staff faded away.

"What could I put down that'd be worth keeping? Nothing. It was always going to be this way."

Cara coughed out a heated breath. Keira's expression almost frowned at the heat being blown in her face. "You don't mean that."

"You chased me for how long?" A taunt entered her voice. "You wore me down. You always did. That's what you're trying now. To wear me down. Well, there's nothing left to wear down. I'm done."

Cara didn't respond, but his expression spoke louder than any word. For a Bug-type, he couldn't emote much but how his mouth turned, and his eyes tightened….

It hurt Keira to see it.

Cara swung, and Keira did too. Their blades met in mid-air and clashed in a thrumming blow; more leaves fell off trees.

Then both constructs broke.

Cara hesitated, just for a moment, not sure what to do next.

Keira, however, did not.

She grabbed his head and pulled him down, raising her knee and cracking his head against it. He shouted in pain, face cracking further and recoiling upwards, as a pulse of draconic energy blazed from her mouth, and she spat it right into his.

Cara was blasted back, smoking, from the Dragon Pulse, and Keira pursued. He formed a Protect just in time to block a strike to his neck, but a follow-up Feint shattered it like glass. She punched him in the torso and tossed him against the ground.

She yelled out as she raised her paws, and the sun darkened as she called upon her grief and rage once more. Cara's pincers flashed white as Keira unleashed it on Cara, and he knocked himself up with a pair of swords and met the anger with his own strength.

The rings tore at his body, his Power, at everything as the Brick Break desperately fought against the Dark Pulse. He began to walk forwards, ignoring the pain to his body, bouncing the worst of it aside with his massive pincers.

Keira screamed out again, and the surge intensified.

He was blown away by it.

Cara's shout was drowned out by hers, and she was behind him before he could even think. A bone hit him so hard he flipped into the air, and Keira tossed another Dragon Pulse after it.

Blowing him up in the sky. Cara fell, and once again, she was there before he was with a whole new staff.

Centred at both ends, it was like a dumbbell. Only she was using it as a double-ended battle hammer.

One side beat his chest like a drum and knocked him through one of the poor, abused trees on this island. She caught his leg before he could fly away and tossed him back up and hit him like a tennis ball with the other end, having spun the staff to not lose momentum.

Keira snapped the staff into two maces and chased him. Cara's metallic, mega-boosted body was denting but not cracking, and his eyes snapped open.

She jumped up to hammer him again, and he sent one sword lightning-fast through her. It stabbed straight through and pinned her against the ground before fading, leaving a slice on both ends of her torso. She threw one of the maces without hesitation.

Cara landed and formed a shield, blocking a thrown mace and shattering it. Keira did as he knew she would and ran in with a Feint to shatter it. He faded it right as she swung and caught her wrist with his saw-toothed pincer.

He clamped it and felt something crunch. She screamed and then shattered the other mace against his head, leaving another dent as he formed Steel-energy around his head right in time.

Culminating it, he headbutted her with an iron-hard head and ripped gashes in her arm from the teeth of his pincer. He swung back and clobbered her in the side of the head with the other one, shining white.

Metal met metal, and something cracked.

Yet, like Keira before him, he didn't pursue the advantage and wavered as she got back to her feet. Instead, he spoke again. "Why?" he asked, voice breaking. "Why, just…why? Why taunt me so much if this is what you were planning all along? Why sing such a perverted song about dying? Why teach me at all? Why make things so light when you are only hurting? Is this just a game to you, Keira?"

Keira's expression cracked like his voice. Tears streaked her cheeks in a moment, and she screamed. "MAYBE BECAUSE I THINK IT'D BE EASIER IF YOU HATED ME!"

A pulse of blackness ripped out from every direction of her body, but he parted the darkness with the emerald Protect.

Keira's tassels were rising, and she experienced an aura surge. "I HATE THIS!" she cried.

And then she fell to her knees, and Cara realised she wasn't crying out; she was actually crying.

"I hate this," Keira sobbed, falling to her paws as well and ripped the grass out in desperation. "How dare you do this to me, Cara? HOW DARE YOU!"

"Why are you so selfish!?" Cara yelled back, tears breaking down his face as well. "How dare I? What are you doing to ME? To everyone?"

"Why does this have to be my burden?" Keira demanded. Any rage she had broke again, and she curled down, screaming into the grass. "CARAAAA!?"

He collapsed as well. It was so painfully hot and shuffled closer to her on his knees. Keira fell to her chest and screamed more into the grass.

He didn't go any closer, her tassels still raising and flaring out. He was pushed back from pulses of aura she couldn't control. That she never could.

"Cara," Keira whimpered. "Why? Why did you have to be so persistent? Why couldn't I just keep away from you? I knew this would happen. I knew this would hurt."

"It was my choice," Cara coughed, the grass below him curling from the heat in his body. He saw the saw-teeth of one of his pincers warping slightly.

"Cara…when you disappeared on me, it was one of the worst things I've ever felt in my life. And I've actually been murdered by ice and fire. This is why I don't make friends. This is why I don't take students. This is why I don't stay in places like Pokémon Square or Treasure Town. I'm immortal. Anyone I love will die eventually."

"If I meant so much to you, why did you stop looking for me?"

Keira coughed herself, a weak, wet cry. "You're such an idiot."

Keira raised her head and forced herself to her feet. "Cara," she said, voice shaking as she took in his appearance. "You're going to kill yourself."

Cara stood up as well. "I'm not backing down. You taught me to never back down, not even to you."

She smirked. "Just another stupid lesson from a senile pokémon." She formed her staff before slid her paw up the end, fusing another two bones to it. Aura flared as her tassels lowered and her aura blade shone. "But I got one more for you. I'm not a good person, and you should never have believed that was the case."

Cara was so hot he could barely see, but a sword materialised in his pincer anyway, despite the teeth of the pincers beginning to melt.

Keira met his eyes, and Cara met hers. She moved faster than he ever was.

They both swung out, and a clash of energy rang out—such a simple sound for a simple ending.

Keira slid to a stop as the twin strikes echo faded. She sagged forth and planted her blade to steady herself, listening and feeling for the thump as Cara collapsed to the ground, the body change caused by the awakening beginning to melt off him.

She had slashed a portion of his exoskeleton wide open, deep gash. Heated steam burst forth from the opening, hitting the air rather than his organs.

She whimpered for breath, taking sharp puffs of air through pursed lips. Everything hurt so much. She slowly straightened up, pushing up with the Bone Rush before turning herself around.

A deep gash had made itself home in her fur as well, and her blood dripped to the ground. She took one step, and her staff broke and her legs, losing all feeling, couldn't support her, causing her to collapse. She crawled to Cara's unmoving form.

Gentle light lit her paws as she waved a shaking arm over the slice in his exoskeleton she had delivered to end the battle. It began to close, stopping oozing out his lifeblood.

His eyes cracked open. "You cut me," he said breathlessly. "You knew I was too hot."

"Cara, you dumb, stupid idiot," she whispered painfully. "You could have damaged your organs with that heat." She finished sealing his wound; it hurt but was hardly lethal. "You knew you couldn't beat me. You knew."

"I had to try," he whispered back, pained and more pained for failing.

Shaking, crying, Keira bent her head until it was touching his. She hooked her arms under his and held him against her. "Why? Just… why?"

"You're asking to kill yourself. How am I supposed to just let that happen?"

"Cara… I'm not doing this to die. I'm doing this to go back. Maybe I'll have to die in order to go back, but I'm not going entirely… just… going back to my own world. Where I belong.

"You belong here, though."

"I don't."

"You do."

"No, Cara. I don't. This isn't my home. It doesn't matter how long I've been here. It doesn't make it home."

"You shaped it, though. This world is your child."

"This world is one I guided. It's one I fought and bled for. But it's not mine, Cara. It isn't."

"But why…?"

"I was chosen, asked, to help this world. And I did. I did. But it was always supposed to end like this. It was our deal, Arceus and I."

"Did you not care for us at all? Just so you could get your side of the bargain?"

"No, Cara. No. I did care. I didn't want to. I didn't mean to. That's how it was supposed to be—just a job. But I came to know people, love and care and teach. I didn't want to care, but I did. But it doesn't change the fact that I'm so old, Cara. I'm so tired. I miss my friends, the family I found. If nothing else, I just want to apologise to them for what I did."

"…"

"You asked me why I stopped looking for you? I never stopped looking for you. Ever. Every year I came back to Blizzard Island and looked everywhere I could think of. I have no idea how I couldn't find you. Why I couldn't find you. Story or game, fuck I don't care. I just wasn't good enough. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for saying I did give up on you, I just didn't want you to be hurt when all this happened, I thought if you hated me it'd hurt less."

"…"

"Cara… please. Please let me go."

"…"

"Cara, haven't I done enough? I don't even know. It's up to Arceus. But haven't I? Please tell me I have."

"…"

"Please."

"…Alright."

"You…?"

"I'll let you go."

"Thank you," she said, tears falling onto his face and mixing with his and stinging the crack on his face. "Cara… I never told you this, but you made it easier. My whole life here, it's been so hard. So… damn hard. But you made it easier. You made it easier to keep going. You made it easier to keep fighting. You made… it all easier."

"I'm glad."

Slowly, surely, she took her arms off him, lifted her head, and lifted her body. She had to form two braces around her legs to walk, but she did.

"What am I going to tell people?" Cara asked before she could go.

"The truth, probably," Keira said. "Tell them I completed my mission and have returned to Arceus for the next one."

"Haah."

"It is the truth."

"I know."

She took a step, gazing up at Destiny Tower still looming in the distance. It stretched so high up it disappeared into the clouds—her final journey.

Keira glanced back at Carapace, still on the ground, sniffling and crying quietly. "Goodbye, Cara."

He took a shuddering breath. "Goodbye, Keira."

And so, she walked the final leg alone.

---

Destiny Tower was not a dungeon.

The door opened with a touch, and she was presented with a staircase. With her legs, a staircase was just cruel.

She had come this far. However, she'd come this far for centuries.

And so, Keira climbed.

She waited for the attackers to drop. She waited for the traps to be sprung. She waited for the staircase to turn into a damn slip-n-slide.

Nothing of the sort happened.

It was just a massive staircase. One that took her hours to climb.

When Keira finally, at long last, reached the pinnacle of the tower, she stepped out into the sky.

The sky was above her and below her.

Runes painted the paved ground with esoteric symbols that glowed with a strange energy. Strange but distantly familiar.

She looked around; it was like a castle's ramparts, with gaps like teeth lining the circular field. There was no mystical portal, no lame llama statue, just one heck of a view that went as far as the eye could see.

The sea was all around her. The Grass Continent was not the only thing that could be seen. A ring of smaller islands and a channel of landmarks that reminded her of something in a map.

"Where the fuck am I?" Keira asked. She had a Bone Rush cane and poked at a rune. "Well…? I'm here. Hello? ARCEUS?"

Yes, Child?

Keira nearly jumped out of her fur at the voice. It didn't touch her ears so much as touch everything. She could see the words, taste them, feel them, even smell them.

It was disorientating for a moment, but only a moment. She'd felt this once before.

She blinked the lights out of her eyes and got up from the ground. She didn't remember falling down, but she was at that age, she supposed.

Her legs bent with no problem, and she rose up like a spry riolu of 5 years. "My legs?" Keira asked, looking down in wonder before looking up. "They don't hurt?"

I Am Sorry For That Pain.

Arceus had said, and Keira crossed her arms. She didn't give a snappy remark though, taking away that pain was a nice first step.

Arceus floated down from the sky. In the distance, she could see a portal with streamers of rainbow light curling out and cascading across the world. The portal slowly closed as the four hooves of Arceus tapped the ground as It landed, letting out a pleasing click.

Arceus was just like she remembered It as. The eyes of the creature were impossible to meet for long, so she focused on Arceus' lack of a mouth. Why would It need one when it spoke so strangely?

Her eyes trailed along the golden crest and the ear-like protrusions alongside Its head. They stood in silence, waiting for the other to speak first.

Despite everything that Arceus was, something so very Different, It was also not. Arceus belonged. She felt like she could speak to It, despite who It was.

As Arceus was almost an embodiment of patience and Keira was not, she broke first.

"Have I… done enough?" she asked, voice choking off in a mixture of hope and fear. "Have I completed your task…? Can I… can I go home?"

Arceus observed her for a moment before turning Its head sharply to look over the skyline as if It were judging the world with a glance. She wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

You Have Fulfilled The Terms Of Our Agreement.

Arceus said, turning back to her. It was like all the tension left her body at once, and Keira's legs slowly buckled. Not out of pain, the very opposite.

Our Terms Were Of The Formulation Of A Cohesive Civilisation. That You Have Fulfilled. In Addition, You Were To Purge Shadow Pokémon. That You Have Fulfilled, I Can See The Weight Of It On You. I Shall Ask You This, Broken World Yet Hopeful Eyes. Do You Believe You Have Completed Your Task?

Keira hesitated and thought over everything.

"That's not my name," she said, first. "Not anymore."

Of Course. My Apologies. Do You Prefer Determined Spike With Strongest Heart, Lucario, Or Keira?

"Keira."

Keira.

"I've done what you asked of me," Keira said, feeling the weight once more. Her legs were fine, but no amount of Arceus presence would remove all the weight she carried all at once. "I put the world together as best as I could. I killed as many Shadow Pokémon as I could."

There Would Be More You Can Do

Arceus pointed out.

Keira flinched. "…Then what? Is this some sort of Faustian Bargain? We make a deal that I can never, EVER, fulfil, and I'm trapped doing this forever?"

I Did Not Mean That.

Arceus shook Its head.

I Am Sorry For That Which You Have Suffered. You, I Can See, Carry Much Upon You—More Than I Know. I Merely Wanted To Be Sure You Were Ready.

"You don't know?" Keira asked, a flicker of disbelief.

I Am Not Omniscient, Keira.

Arceus said. For a moment, she heard many voices. Its voice was impossible to discern. It was not masculine or feminine, It was both and neither. It was racing winds and thundering waves. Rockfalls and echoes. A day at the beach and a battle for the world.

I Know A Great Many Things And Can Guess A Great Many More. But I Do Not Know You More Than Yourself.

Keira slowly nodded. "…I've done enough," she said tiredly. Her eyes slipped closed, and for a moment, she wondered if they'd open again. They did, and she looked at Arceus, so patient, kindly to wait for her to find her words. "The world has to survive without me. If it can't, then I failed in the first place."

Slowly, Arceus nodded.

You Are Wise, Keira.

It said, almost… sadly.

It Is A Great Curiosity. Despite The Great Differences Between Us, I Feel We Are Alike. And, Most Upsettingly, You Seem Like The Older One.

Keira almost smiled at that, it sounded close to a joke, but she wasn't sure.

She gazed at Arceus, meeting Its eyes for a moment longer.

She swallowed. She hadn't expected this, but she could feel a spark of something roar up within her and consume her, and before she knew it, she was speaking again.

"You owe me answers," she said, shocking herself. "About this world…about why you took so long. What the fucking Shadow is. Why I had to fix this world. You owe me that much."

She shivered; she had raised her voice against Arceus.

It dipped Its head.

Very Well. I Will Answer That Which You Want To Know As Much As I Should.

She clenched her jaw for a moment, swallowing a snarky comment.

"…This world. Tell me… just… I don't even know, just tell me."

I Will Hazard A Guess To Your Question.

Arceus raised its head, and their surroundings faded into light. A great and terrible machine. A crystal. A scream of thousands of souls. Headstones. The cry of a fairy and the cry of a man.

The sky split into colours Keira couldn't understand, and the tearing of paper hit her soul.

When she came to, the world was back to normal, and Arceus was waiting.

"The war," Keira grumbled, picking herself off the ground. "I knew that."

I See. I Believed Perhaps Not, But It Serves As The Beginning At Least. When Arceus-Zygarde Tried To Activate His Creation, Men and Magical Creature Stepped Forth To Stop Him. The Weapon Was Activated And The World Felt Something Coming.

To Break The Dimensions, It Takes More Than Just Power. It Takes More Than Just Effort. It Requires A Choice So Immense That The World Itself Will Be Truly Different Either Outcome. When These Occur, However Rarely, It Is Up To Me To Decide Whether They Remain.

Most Worlds Do Not. They Cannot Be Obliterated Entirely, But Realms Such As The Crystal Cave May Hold These Aberrations In Check.

In One World, AZ Was Stopped. How And Who, I Do Not Know. I Was Not There. However, I Saw The Aftermath—This World Remained Out Of A Curiosity Of Sorts. Humans Had Become So Integral To The World After The Shadow Entered Reality, Some Ten Thousand Cycles Around The Star. But How May Things Have Gone Otherwise? With No Humanity To Keep It In Check

This Is Why This World Remained. Perhaps It Was A Mistake. When You Perished And Accepted The Task, The World Had Been Overrun By The Shadow's Corrupted Sort. I Sent You Some Five Hundred Years Back. That Was The First Time Reality Was Changed Here, A Small Enough Change That It Merely Altered What Was To Come Rather Than Tear It Entirely.

"That's how long I've been here?" Keira asked. "Five hundred years?"

No. That Was How Far You Were Sent. However, My Interference Brought New Disaster. An Asteroid Was Pulled Left Instead Of Right And Would Have Inflicted Utter Catastrophe. But In That Time, I Was Asleep, Believing Myself To Be Betrayed By Damos Yet Saved By Another, Ash.

"Then… how?"

My Interference Brought About The Dark Future. When You Were Sent Here, The Timeline Had Reached A Shadow Apex Of Horrors. That Was Terrible, But The World Could Be Saved. Thus, By Changing Time, A Sequence Of Events Led To A Worse Future. The Dark Future. When Time Was Altered So Greatly As To Prevent Time From Collapsing, That Was Enough To Destroy The Timeline. Thus, The World's Current Time Was Pulled Into Line With The Time Of The Others.

"My head's spinning," Keira groaned.

My Apologies.

"It's an answer at least," Keira grumbled. "Thanks for letting me know the Dark Future was my fault, though."

That Was Not What I Meant.

Arceus denied, shaking Its head.

Your Actions Served To Create A Civilisation That Led To The Capacity To Save It. My Actions Led To Time Collapsing. However Indirectly, However Distantly, It Can Be Appointed As My Blame, Not Yours.

"You can't just take everything as your fault," Keira protested.

Is That Not What You Have Done?

Keira didn't reply to that.

It Is Strange, Keira. You And I Are Very Similar. We Both Carry The Weight Of The World On Our Backs. We Both Find That We Cannot Engage With The World We Fight So Hard To Preserve. Am I Correct?

"…Yes. You say you're not omniscient."

I Am Not. Yet, I Am Very Intelligent. Forgive A Creature For Its Arrogance, But I Can Infer Many Things Through Experience, Memory, And Logic.

"If you knew that The Shadow was so dangerous, why did you let things get this bad?" Keira asked next.

After Two Thousand Cycles Around The Star, Marcus' Attack Left Me Wounded, And I Had To Retreat For One Thousand Cycles Around The Star. The Legendary Creatures Of This World Had Already Made A Great Sacrifice Of Power To Empower The World To Hold The Shadow At Bay.

"So, that was true?"

Yes.

"Does that include you?"

No. When The World Splits, New Legendary Creatures Are Split To Manage It. However, I Am The Same Across All Realities.

"Even Giratina splits?"

Yes.

"If you're still so powerful, why haven't you done anything?"

The Same Question You Receive Yourself, Correct?

Keira frowned.

We Are Similar. However, Where Your Pain Comes From Fame And Worship, I Feel To Be Actually Cursed With Distance.

Let Me Tell You A Story, Keira. It Is A Story Of A Kingdom Of Man. Not A Prosperous Kingdom, No. This Was A Blighted Land of Famine And Illness. The Men And Magical Creature Cried Out For Help, But None Would Cast A Gentle Eye.

No Calyrex Or Landorus Heard. Or, If They Did, They Did Not Care.

I Knew It Was A Mistake To Intervene, I Knew It. But I Spend So Long Looking And Never Touching. Guiding Yet Never Following. Creating Yet Never Experiencing. I Wanted To Help, And I Did So Against My Better Judgement.

I Felt That I Could Mitigate Consequences. I Was Wrong.

The Kingdom Grew Prosperous, Hymns Were Sung And Festivals Held, Of Which I Was Invited. I Grew Close With The People I Showed Them My Favour.

But I Could Not Do So Forever. Eventually, I Knew I Had To Leave. But The People Did Not Want Me To Leave. Not When I Could Continue Guiding Them. Not When I Could Continue Blessing Them. Not When They Had Grown To Depend On Me.

Keira's eyes widened as she felt something she never expected to, not with Arceus. Empathy. The realisation that It really was telling the truth when It said they were similar, if even in a small way.

"They couldn't handle you leaving them, so they turned on you?"

Arceus nodded.

Yes. I Do Not Blame Them For This Action, For Did I Not Teach Them To Do So? What Kind Creature, What Merciful 'God' Turns Its Back On Its Favoured Children? They Could Not Accept That I Had Realised I Had Allowed Them To Grow Spoiled, I Ignored The Decadence And Depravity Building. They Turned To Art When Their Needs Were Met.

And Then To Thrill.

Arceus appeared very sad for a moment that lasted an eternity. An ancient, aching sadness that permeated all that It was.

I Loved Them And They Me, But They Did Not Accept That I Turned Away Out Of Love. Things Had To Change, They Had To Stand And Work On Their Own. Other Lands Had Grown Jealous But Would Never Dare Attack With My Protection.

"And as soon as you turned away…"

Ruin Came To Them.

Water fell from the sky. Arceus did not cry, but It did not need to.

Desperate To Save Them Again, I Returned And Stopped The Violence. Yet, This Merely Worsened The Problem. Now It Was Proven That I Had A Favoured Creation. More Jealousy, Vying For My Attention. I Wish I Could Liken It To Squabbling Children For A Parents Attention, But The Atrocities Committed Haunt Me Greater Than Any Fight Of Dialga And Palkia.

I Was Trapped. I Felt That I Could Not Leave Until I Did. I Drew Myself Together, Then I Banished My Compassion, And I Left Them To Die.

Keira bowed her head, hating how well she could understand Arceus at that moment.

I Knew The Names Of All Men, Woman, Other, And Child There. I Still Know Them. The Knowledge Can Never Leave Me.

"I'm sorry," Keira said. Arceus smiled at her; even without much of a face, she could see it was.

You Call Yourself Heartless, You Call Yourself A Bad Person. You Are Not, Keira.

Keira snorted. God, Itself apparently could say that, and she'd still repel it.

This Kingdom Was Named Arcaru. It Was Obliterated From History. The Two Of Us Are The Only Ones To Know Its Name.

"Did they name it after you?" Keira asked softly.

That They Did. Beforehand It Was Called Aca. I Protested The Change, Knowing What They Were Doing. Yet Alik And Saa And Charla Played Light Of The Name, Made It Less Reverence And More An Inside Joke. I Had Never Experienced Such A Thing, No Arceus Had.

It smiled again.

Even Now, There Are New Things For Even One Such As I To Experience.

The smile faded.

For That Is Part Of My Curse. Any Time I, Or A Previous Arceus, Has Intervened. Any Time We Have Shown Favour. Any Time We Have Simply Tried To Experience The World That Was Created By Us. It Turns To Ruin. An Artist Who Can Never See Their Art. A Musician Who May Never Hear Their Music. For If They Do? The Weight Of Lives And Pain Follows. That Pain, That Loneliness, The Distance Arceus Must Take From Its Own Creation, Ultimately Destroy It.

Keira understood. "And that's your answer for why you don't do anything. Not that you can't… and not that you don't want to."

Tell Me. Have There Been Times You Have Intervened To An Event That Ultimately Grew Dependent On You?

Keira snorted and then full-on laughed. "Still not omniscient?" she teased. "But damn smart, I guess. We are similar, truly insane that I can say that."

Do You Understand?

Her smile became crooked. "Yeah. The fact that I think it's so strange is the problem. It's exactly what others feel about me, a figure of awe. A leader. A prophet. Never a friend. Never a companion. Just a figure to be idolised."

Few Ever Have Truly Understood This Burden, And Once More I Am Truly Sorry For Having You Carry It As Well.

She shook her head. "I did this to myself, made everyone rely on me. You could have warned me. But you can't take THAT blame on yourself either."

I Will Try.

"Do or do not. There is no try."

It Pleases Me That You Spoke A Meme To Me. It Took Gabriel Three Duels To Be So Comfortable.

"I'm surprised you know what a meme is." She blinked. "Gabriel… Felix's Gabriel?"

Yes. He Makes An Excellent Challenge In The Card Game He And Felix And Angie And Dawn Have Created.

Keira blinked again. "You're not speaking much sense."

It May Please You To Know That Your Card In The Game Is Exceptionally Powerful. I Was Defeated By A Force Gattling.

"Again… what?"

Nothing Important For Now. Are There Other Questions You Wish To Be Answered?

"There's the topic of me, and what The Shadow is…?"

The Reason You Were Asked Remains The Same. You Were The Perfect Choice. Purified And Thus Immune To The Shadow, With A Sense Of Humanity From Your Bond With Felix. You Could Shape The World, Give It The Humans Progressively Aggressive Touch While Being Safe.

And, Perhaps, I Believed Felix Deserved Not To Suffer The Pain Of Losing You Forever. He May Not Have Travelled Back In Time With Ash And Dawn To Save Me, But He Still Performed Admirably To Slow My Rampage.

Keira smiled. "Thank you."

As For The Shadow. There Isn't Much That Is Worth Telling. It Is One Of The Monsters From Before. Possibly The Most Intelligent If You Can Consider It As Possessing Such Capacity In Any Regard. In A Sense You Could Consider It My Sibling. But It Cannot Create, Only I Can. It Can Only Corrupt And Destroy And Seeks To Do So To All. It Will Never Succeed. Not While Humans And Magical Creatures Such As Yourself Stand Against It.

"What about that? Humans… how does that work?"

The First Humans Who Stopped It When It Succeeded In Slipping Through My Defences Attained A Capacity To Dispel Its Malign Influence. Such A Useful Tool Spread Quickly With Some Guidance From Us. Humanity Is Not Immune To Its Power, But When Split Across Billions Of Bodies Its Power Is Reduced Only To The Few That Have Already Been Taken. Or Those Few Madmen Who Use Technology To Draw It In. Such As What Happened To You.

"Okay. I have just one last question."

Speak Freely.

"Michina Town. How did an asteroid nearly kill you?"

For the first time, she saw Arceus hesitate. Then It spoke.

You Recall What I Said Of Loneliness? Ultimately, The Death Of Most Arceus Are Self-Inflicted

Keira didn't outwardly react to that at first, staring down at Arceus' golden shoes before slowly raising her eyes to meet Its eyes. "…I had wondered," she admitted, mouth dry. "How a meteor of all things nearly killed you. It seemed… unbelievable, especially since Rayquaza's job is to blow them up."

A Role Rayquaza Are Built To Do.

Arceus reminded gently.

I Cannot Control Time Or Space, Those Are Dialga And Palkia's Domains.

"But a meteor?" Keira asked. She pursed her lips and glanced away. "I guess it makes sense, if you are all types at once you WOULD be weak to Rock." She glanced away. "You just told me the truth anyway." A pregnant pause held between them before she just said it. "You were trying to die."

Arceus nodded.

Pathetic, Is It Not? I Lasted A Mere Several Hundred Thousand Years. My Predecessors Lasted Far Longer Than That, The Previous Was Even One Of The Two Who Did Not Die Intentionally, But I Could Not Handle It Anymore. I Saw Fit To Die Saving A Place I Had Never Known

Another pause held between them.

It Was Not The Returning Of My Plate That Saved Me. It Was Damos.

The Name was spoken with something truly heavy in it. Yet… not overwhelming in misery. It was a deep and lasting nostalgia that sunk around one's shoulders but hugging like a long-missed friend rather than crushing like an enemy.

Damos Saved My Life By Pulling Me Away From My True Killer. Loneliness.

It cocked its head slightly, observing Keira as her lips thinned and trembled slightly.

Yet Another Similarity Between You And I. That Enemy. I Admit That It Is Cowardly Of Me To Want To Kill Myself, As I Merely Place The Burden Onto The Next Arceus. Truly, I Admire Giratina. In Each Reality, Giratina Has Never Died. It Is The Only Being To Have Lasted For All Of Creation.

Keira was quiet. She swallowed. She had no idea what to say.

Do Not Concern Yourself With Me, Keira. Despite These Words, Damos, My Chosen - Azai And Zaia - And Ash, And Gabriel, They Have Taught Me That Life Can Be Experienced. Perhaps Not In The Way I Truly Want, But I Have Recently Learned That Simple Games Do Not Constitute Interference. If I Ensure Privacy, And Trust, I Can Know What Companionship Is Like.

At Least Briefly. The Shadow Is Not The Only Monster That Tries To Break Into All That Is. Perhaps It Is The Most Cunning, But Others Pound On The Door And I Cannot Step Away From My Duties For Long.

"I'm taking up your time then?" Keira said. It shook Its head, but she pushed on. "I've asked what I wanted to ask… just two other things. Scout, are you responsible for him?"

I Do Not Know That Being.

"He's a meowth. He's got a perception of the world, all our worlds, as a form of media from his own, where this is all fictional. A video game, anime, made up."

I Do Not Know, I Am Sorry. Even I Can Hardly Fathom The Full Extent Of Reality. And I Am Merely One. I Exist The Same Across All, But I Do Not Exist In All At Once. This Form Is Me, The Same That You Are You.

"Fair enough. Okay. I'm ready… I want to see Felix again. How?"

Then We Are Reaching The Conclusion Of This Time Together. What I Have To Tell You May Not Be To Your Liking, However.

She tensed.

Dimensional Travel Suffers Strict, Unbreakable, Rules. To Go To A New World, The Only Way To Go Back Is The Same.

Keira was silent.

Then she realised. "I have to die?"

Arceus nodded.

Slain By Kyurem And Ashi And Your Soul Acquired By Me Before The Choice. I Offered You A Different One, I Reconstructed You Then, Here.

"That's not so bad then; I'm sure you could take me out in two or three hits," she joked. "Might have to take you on in a battle to be sure!"

I Hear Your Jest, Keira.

"I'm not joking."

A Battle Is Not Necessary. But If You Desire One As A Reward…?

She smiled softly and then shook her head. "No, I think I'm all battled out today." She perked up. "Does this mean I won't be all worn down and such?"

I'm Afraid Here Is Where We Discuss What I Meant. You May Not Like This. But, When I Brought You Before, You Were Young. You Were Eleven Cycles Around The Star. In Order To Pull You From One Reality To Another, Send You Back In Time, And Reconstruct You As You Were. Things Were Simpler.

She grew still.

In Order To Retain Yourself, You Had To Be Able To Hold Onto It. At Your Age, This Was Simpler. Your Will Is Truly Great. However, You Are Closer To Three Hundred Cycles Around The Star. I Can Reduce You To Your Essence, I Can Take You Back To The World That Is Your Home. But If You Remember Yourself Or Not, That Is Up To You. I Am Sorry It Was Under Such Violence That You Transferred, Others Have Far Kinder Paths, Yours Was Never An Easy Path.

Keira's mouth had fallen open slightly, and her vision blurred. "You mean I might forget Felix? Forget Cara?"

Arceus knelt to Its knees and met her gaze.

That Is Up To You. I Believe Your Will Is Great, What You Truly, Truly, Want To Hold Close To Your Heart, You Must Hold Close Indeed. I Will Give You Time To Think, To Dwell, And Gather What You Most Want To Keep. I Cannot Aid You, It Is No One's Ability To Do So Besides Yours. Gather Your Cherished Thoughts, Gather Your Love. Once You Have It, Never Let It Go And It Will Go To You To Your Next Life.

Keira held still for a moment. Or maybe a lifetime. It was strange to be in Arceus' presence.

What would she forget? The horrors she'd delivered? The laughter with Felix? The deaths of innocents? Cara's laugh? The hardships? The bonds?

She almost abandoned all the pain and held onto what was good but thought against that. Not everything she had to remember, even here and now in Arceus' presence opening her mind, she couldn't remember everything.

"I know what I want to keep," she said, closing her eyes. "My life with Felix. It was only ten years, but I've held onto that for centuries; it's what kept me going here. It's why I'm here, to go back to him. I want to remember Cara; I want to remember these last few weeks in Treasure Town with those wackjobs. I want to remember making mistakes; I want to remember doing good. I don't want to be The Legendary Lucario, but she's still me."

She paused. "I do want to forget seeing an alternate reality Sirius fucking that blaziken, though. That still haunts me. Why would that even exist in any reality ever? Ugh."

Once You Are Ready.

She took a breath in. Felix. Everything, everything she could. She knew she'd forgotten much over the centuries, but she held onto what was most important.

She remembered him saving her.

She remembered battling Brock. Ash. She remembered battling Lewis, Tobias. She was the lucario who defeated three legendary pokémon. She remembered learning Bone Rush from Brian, defeating Adrien, losing to Sahara. Chatting with Lilith. She remembered just laughing.

Just a day. Somewhere on the road. Where? What region even, she had no idea. It was her and Felix; she couldn't remember who else might have been there. There was nothing special, but they were laughing. Just laughing.

That tiny moment. She would never give up.

She remembered Treasure Town, Team Ion and Sunrise. She remembered Cara. Everything about Cara. Her student. Her friend. Searching dungeons with him. Teaching him how to fight, to tell her to shove off when she was being stupid. About searching Blizzard Island every single year, from top to bottom.

She wished she could hang onto everything; she also was relieved she wouldn't. There was so much, and she wanted to be able to sleep without nightmares of failures, of holding the world on her shoulders.

Really, she knew Arceus had no choice, but It was being kind anyway. To forget being The Legendary Lucario was the second greatest gift It could provide.

"Okay," she said, breathing out. She took another in. "I'm ready."

Close Your Eyes.

She did so, her last sight being Arceus rising up and taking a step forward. She heard, felt, knew the sound of it walking towards her.

Against all wishes, she did feel scared.

"It won't hurt?" she asked softly.

No, It'll Be Just Like Slipping Off To Sleep.

She smiled. "Will you make sure Felix finds me?"

I Will Let Him Know How To Find You.

Her heart was beating, but not pounding. Arceus was gentle, even if she still felt a little afraid. She had died so painfully the first time.

Arceus took another step, and she felt It move in closer. She took one last breath.

She raised her paws, feeling Arceus before her. Her paws sunk into fur as soft as a dream and felt like she pulled Its head before her. She felt the golden crest touch her faded fur, the softness of Its head, and then-

Arceus laid Keira down gently. Her eyes closed peacefully, her limbs slowly relaxing until she was lying on her back. She did not take another breath.

Arceus gazed at Keira as a bright mote of light drew out from her. The light floated up to Its crest and bounced off it before floating around It happily.

You May Enter.

Arceus said, and from the faded entryway, Carapace entered.

He looked up at the creator and then to where Keira lay. He raised a pincer to his face as a sob choked out of his chest. Uncaring of Arceus, he ran over and knelt by her body, feeling her before curling over her in grief.

The mote floated away from Arceus and bounced off Carapace. Then again, when he didn't react. Then again until he looked up. It floated around him happily, brushing up against the line on his face softly and perching itself on his head before Arceus made a sound.

Almost abashed, the mote floated back to It.

"Can I… take her body?" Cara asked, voice wet and tears falling.

Of Course, Child. I Know You Will Ensure A Burial.

Cara swallowed and another sob wracked through him. He couldn't wipe his face, and the tears kept falling. "I know this is right, but it still hurts so much, she's gone, she's gone, she's-" he babbled. He looked up as the mote bounced off him again, almost aggressively. A smile ghosted onto his face, and he raised a pincer. It lit up the eye on his pincer before doing another spin around his head.

"She's… happy."

Arceus nodded.

This Is Not Her End.

"Will I… will I ever see her again?"

I Cannot Say For I Do Not Know. But There Always Exists The Chance.

Arceus smiled kindly at Cara as he picked up Keira's body. She looked like she was sleeping. He knew she wasn't. She'd be frowning if she were because of nightmares and pain in her legs. She looked… peacefully happy, a lasting smile on her face.

"Then just let her know that I'll take care of things," Cara said. "And I will try and find her."

She Knows. She Looks Forward To Battling You Again. A Rather Aggressive Lucario, She Is.

Cara laughed until he cried and then cried until he laughed.

Farewell.

By the time Cara looked up again, Arceus and the mote were gone. The remains of a portal the same that he'd seen earlier, curling out with ribbons of energy, was fading away in the sky.

He bowed his head and carried her body down and buried her near the foot of Destiny Tower. Away from where they'd fought.

He scratched an encryption into a common stone.

Keira

You Will Be Remembered

If the world had been a little fairer, I'd have loved you too.

---

...Dammit. I feel like crying.

Cara wasn't in love with Keira, by the way. They were more like brother and sister.

A lot of people didn't like Keira. For a good reason, she's not really meant to be liked. But she's my oldest pokémon OC character. I really should stop killing her. That's twice now.

Ahaa… I'm like Keira; jokes ease the pain.

Okay. First things first. I had this planned ever since around chapter 40. Which is funny since every time I kill Keira, I intend on making it stick.

First, she was dead. Then I had the idea of making her The Legendary Lucario. I did that with the intention to not bring her back in the OTHER story since I felt like undoing THAT death would cheapen it. But then things developed over here, and I remembered how much I love her.

Always hurt the ones you love… I mean, look at Mane.

So, I worked out how to bring her back for the other story without (hopefully) cheapening her TWO deaths. Of course, most readers (All of them at the point of this chapter being posted) have only seen the one death. This one.

To a few people who did really like her, I'm sorry. Specifically, you, Espy. Keira won't be in Arc 3. This is the last we'll see of her in Warped Skies. I can't do all of what you'd hoped.

I did not kill her off because she was a divisive character. I personally love her and would love to keep writing her (heck, I will be, just in another story and with a reset of sorts to her). She died because it made sense.

Once she had confirmation that Arceus was awake, thanks to knowing Sean and various ages, this was it. She'd stick around to help against Darkrai, but then she was out.

I hope people don't blame her for that. It's selfish for SURE, and considering what's coming… ahaa… she'd be a lot of help for the horrors that are coming. So, to an extent, that's why on a meta-level, she's dying now. The characters have lost that safety net that Keira provides.

But in her position. She doesn't think she's needed. Heck, she wasn't 'needed' against Darkrai either. Her being there shifted the original plans for Palkia a tiny bit (on my level, at least). Ultimately, she thinks the world has proven it's more than able to stand on its own without her.

And dammit, she should be allowed to put up the chairs, turn the lights off, and lock the doors of her time here.

Ultimately, I hope this worked for people. Whether you liked her and are sad or didn't and are happy she's gone, she's gone. Maybe it got some emotion out of you; maybe the chapter was too long (damn, this would have been a 28,000-word chapter had I not split it).

Farewell Keira. I'm glad I got to write you again. To the emotional feels when Felix is able to reunite with you! Damn, are those some feels.

I'll guess I'll leave it on two notes. I have a post author note scene and a happy thing to mention! As of this chapter being posted, I am now no longer on hiatus!

I am working, so we'll see how updates come, but I'm ready to start writing Arc 3! Let's get this show on the road!

And remember, I have a discord if you're interested: discord gg/2fYR8mdBmP

And, as threatened, a little post scene.

---

Things were cramped but warm and comfortable. Movement. Strange. Warmth, more of it.

"I noticed you have a team of five. I thought you might appreciate the gift. She, I've been able to have that confirmed, should still fit your theme and even be a little of me. She's a riolu, reach lucario, and you'll have a Steel-type yourself!"

"O-oh, Ch-Chairman, I cannot possibly-"

"It's already done, Oleana. Now, raise her well."

"Thank you. Thank you so much."

)()()()()()(

Arceus stood Above.

It felt concerned.

Keira had done well, and yet….

Something yet felt wrong. The Shadows were at an all-time low. But they continued to crop up, no matter how severely cut down they had been in that world.

It felt concern. And perhaps… fear.

Perhaps something yet was still driving things.

)()()()()()(

Cara bowed his head as he explained to the local branch leaders, Xatu, Archeops, and Gengar, what had become of Lucario.

They did not want to believe him, but why would he lie?

It was agreed not to let this information spread. Simple let Lucario be lost to myth and memory, no one knowing for sure that she had passed.

Sean and Scout toasted to her name, privately.

)()()()()()(

The connection faded and a confused frown, or perhaps smile, wormed over Her face.

If Lucario really was dead….

It seemed things really could start in earnest now. No more sneaking. The finale had begun.

The sky would fall.

But first, She had a gravesite to visit.