Author's note: Alright, I'm just gonna go ahead and put a content warning up here. If you're sensitive to violence, gore, and/or overt talk of suicide, once the scene shifts to Remi and Arashi, you'll either want to tread carefully or just stop entirely. My line of work and study has me looking at pictures of corpses and repugnant stuff all the time so I'm a really crappy judge of what's warning-worthy and what isn't, but I just wanted to be safe and give a heads-up if it's needed.

"Hey! You guys! Are you here?!" Cinder called, running into Luminous Grotto as fast as he could. "Are you alright?!"

Riven and Dren weren't far behind, and the Salamence was preemptively growling at whoever else might've been present. Riven's eyes scanned every nook and cranny, and he looked ready to flog anything that moved.

"Astrid?! Arashi?! Raijin?!" Cinder called again.

No one was answering.

Dren, though, took notice of something else and glanced about intently. "Cinder, could you light this place up for a second?" he inquired, studying something on the walls and ceiling.

The Fletchinder quickly did so, breathing off a Flamethrower that momentarily bathed everything in a warm glow while Dren focused on their surroundings. The avians both caught on fairly quickly to what the Salamence had noticed- singe marks along the back wall, lots of them, in jagged line patterns that made it clear they hadn't been left by a Fire-type. A single leaf, one they would've expected to see on Astrid's wings, sat on the ground next to a rock, but the Dartrix herself was nowhere to be found. A fight had definitely taken place, but the ones involved in it seemed to have disappeared.

"… Well, that's troubling," Riven remarked.

"It sure is," Dren agreed. "Arceus above, if they're on Ultra Space right now…"

The dragon let out a snarl as if he might add a bunch more singe marks from a rage-filled Flamethrower of his own, which slightly surprised the other two (though Riven's shifty expression indicated that he might like to see such). With another shake of his head, he turned and strode back out of the cave, movements slightly jumpy as if he were trying not to go on a rampage. Riven and Cinder were quick to follow along.

"Dren! Dren, are you okay?!" the Fletchinder asked, looking slightly uncertain.

"You're lookin' pretty pissed off there," Riven added.

The Salamence shook his head. "You both know how I normally am, but this Mega-fueled rage coupled with our situation right now is pushing me over the edge. As much as I'd like to tell myself that all these Beasts are lovely creatures like Raijin when they're not under Void's control, if I see any, may the gods have mercy on their souls."

"I bet it'd be gnarly," the Honchkrow mused.

Dren snarled at no one in particular. "Riven, you have no idea."

"Just don't fly off the handle and bite our heads off," Cinder piped up.

"Oh, it's not either of you that has to worry about that," the Salamence replied, sounding more like a growl than anything, even if he didn't mean to. He crawled up the edge of the rocky mound and to the top, the other two close behind, and called out in the hugest voice he could muster, "ASTRID! ARASHI! RAIJIN! ARE YOU HERE?!"

Nothing.

"Can you give a signal or something?!" Cinder cried off into the air, eyeing their surroundings.

"Hey, you gnarly little triad! Where the hell did you go?!" Riven called.

Silence. Nothing stirred.

… At least, until the three of them were jumping out of the way of a Dragon Pulse that shortly came raining down from above them. Dren snarled, expression turning to one of pure fury on seeing the culprit- a Naganadel.

"Oh, here we go!" Riven exclaimed.

Cinder took his turn snarling, too.

"You guys! These must be the human's friends too! Remi told us they'd be in this area!" the Naganadel shouted.

At that, two more figures emerged from the trees- a Kartana and a Nihilego. The expeditioners all got narrow eyes on seeing them, and though two of the three Beasts didn't possess visible eyes with which to look, it was plainly obvious from their mannerisms that they too were sizing up their company.

"Tch! Tell your leader and her cronies to go to hell!" Cinder fussed, a few embers escaping his beak.

"Mmmm! That one talk bad about Void!" the Nihilego cried, seemingly bemoaning Cinder's words.

"Is that so?! Then I'll slice them down!" the Kartana exclaimed.

The expeditioners shot each other a glance.

"I'm gonna turn that damned piece of talking origami into ash!" Cinder declared.

"I'll give that dragon a taste of how gnarly this world can be," Riven concurred.

"… Raijin said that a Nihilego breaking after getting hit is an ugly sight," Dren remarked, his forehead taking a psychic glow. "I suppose I'll have to find out, and I suppose I should apologize in advance for what you two are about to see me do."

. . . . .

Once Polly was at least stable and not in danger of losing her grip on the corporeal world anytime soon, Rozen set to healing Adnea, who came to much easier. The Orbeetle's eyes started to glow the literal second they opened, and Rush had to clap his hands over Rozen's eyes to keep the feeler-eared one from getting lost in a hypnotic trance. Nonetheless, she was quick to figure out what had happened and that they were not in a battle anymore, and Rozen set to fixing up Seth next, though the dents in his carapace didn't seem to be fixing themselves straight away.

"Yo, Adnea," Rush said, studying the researcher a bit while Rozen dealt with the Scizor. "I know ya just came to and you're probably feelin' like hell, but can ya give us an update on Astrid's bunch?"

She nodded. "That was the second thought that crossed my mind," she replied, not fazed at all. "Let me see… Oh… OH. Oh, dear."

That definitely wasn't assuaging the other expeditioners.

"Do they got Li'l-Li'l Green?!" Rush asked, getting a bit wide-eyed.

"How bad is it?" Lazuli wanted to know.

Adnea shook her head. "It's not Astrid, it's Arashi. They've got him and I can't get through to him no matter how hard I try. Azure jumped straight into Raijin's sparks and hit them with a First Impression straight into a wormhole, and it was a narrow escape for Astrid and Raijin."

Several more sets of eyes went wide. A few faint squawks came from Polly, who Shar tapped with her claws to get her to quiet down again, though the Garchomp herself looked fairly perturbed too. Azra gasped, Lazuli let out a cry of shock, Rozen's mouth fell open, and Rush buried his face in his hands.

"… Are ya fucking kidding me?" the Scrafty groaned. "They've got Li'l Blue?"

"They do," Adnea confirmed. "At least Astrid and Raijin had the sense to run after the first wormhole, which is for the best since another Beast squad heard the commotion and… Oh, for heaven's sake…"

"What is it?" Rush asked intently, grabbing the Orbeetle and looking her straight in the eyes.

"Dren, Cinder, and Riven just got intercepted," she answered. "Dren is getting a bad case of Mega rage too, which is probably a good thing in their situation… They don't have a glowing cube, but there's a Nihilego along with a Kartana, and a Naganadel appears to be the lead."

More unhappily hapless looks went around the entourage.

Rush let go of her and rolled his eyes, looking as disgruntled as could be. "Where's Li'l-li'l Green at?" he asked, unamused. "Let me guess, her and Raijin are all freaked out, aren't they?"

"That's correct," Adnea affirmed. "Astrid and Raijin have both ducked into an old Raticate burrow for the time being so they've got less chance of getting intercepted."

The Scrafty nodded, mulling things over for a moment. "… A'ight, our best bet is probably splitting up right now," he noted. "We can't save Li'l Blue. I know Li'l-li'l Green is crafty and Raijin can blast the hell out of just about anyone, but I'm guessin' they wouldn't fare very well if they ain't thinkin' straight and they got intercepted. We can't take any chances on Dren, Cinder, and Riven either. If Dren can get off a Zen Headbutt, then that Nihilego is completely fucked, and of course we know Cinder and Riven can hold their own too, but still, we shouldn't take chances."

"I'll go throw down with some more Beasts, no problem," Shar piped up. "After that pretty asshat and that blockhead, I'm just pissed off without even Outragin'."

Rush and Rozen shared a look and nodded at each other.

Lazuli chuckled haplessly a bit. "Normally I'd be down too, but something tells me two Poison-types and a Steel-type against a watery fairy isn't a good idea."

Rush gave her a pointedly funny look. "How hard did that Pheromosa hit ya, Big Blue? Hell no, that matchup ain't in your favor."

Shar looked to her Aggron and Scizor comrades. "Azra, you can make a damn good shield too, you go along with the others and keep Polly with ya. Seth, you too- if ya get any gnarly otherworldly company, Bullet Punch the livin' hell out of 'em."

Her comrades nodded, Azra (very gently) swooping Polly up in his arms. The Chatot made a few groaning sounds, but she obviously didn't protest having a pair of sturdy, steely arms blocking her off from the rest of the world.

"I'll stick with the others too," Adnea noted. "I can most likely get a Hypnosis off just fine from inside Azra's Protect if we get some unwanted company."

"You do that," Rush affirmed. "We all in agreement here?"

They all nodded, and shortly, they were parting ways. Rush, Rozen, and Shar darted off as fast they could towards Luminous Grotto, Shar letting Rozen crawl onto her shoulders so he wouldn't struggle to keep up, while the rest followed Adnea.

. . . . .

Arashi had no idea what to think when Remi dropped him down against the wall and slammed the thick doors shut again with another kick. The room wasn't huge, but it definitely wasn't small either, and it wasn't hard to guess why- the walls beside and behind them were broken up into at least several hundred smallish cuboidal lockboxes, each one closed with only a small slit in the front. A faint purple glow shone through maybe half of them, while the rest were dark inside… It was the same sort of glow seen from Cosmog and Cosmoem vessels. A few soft clicking sounds filled the air, the same sound that one of those vessels might make when the little ones stuck inside of them twitched while on a hard, glassy surface. Apparently, them being locked up the majority of the time didn't apply only to being stuck in a cube that apparently wasn't very comfortable in the first place.

The back wall was empty save for another set of thick metal doors, and Arashi didn't particularly want to know what was behind those either. He knew he should've been far more perturbed at what he saw than he was feeling, but he could only blink a few times.

"I'm really particular about my arrangements," Remi remarked, strutting over to one of the cuboidal sections that didn't have a glow. "I keep tabs on all these little cosmic particles.~ Just like everything, I've got an order I keep 'em in- Cosmoems in the center, Cosmogs on the outside, and try to keep the empty ones evenly balanced.~"

Arashi wasn't quite sure what Remi was getting at, but he took note- the Pheromosa kept tabs on the 'little nebulas.' Remi went about stowing the faint vessels away in the boxes, and indeed, they did seem to be following a particular order. On either side of the door, they placed two smaller vessels- Cosmoems- and towards the edges, they placed two larger Cosmog cubes. All of them were an even space from the door or the wall, apparently making a symmetrical pattern, and a few other darker slits followed the same arrangement. Arashi also took note that some of the glows were fainter in comparison, and those seemed to all be aligned towards the doors in the center of the room at the front and back where Remi had noted Cosmoems being. Perhaps that species simply had a fainter glow, but without seeing one, he couldn't tell for sure.

"So, smiley little brat…~" the Pheromosa snickered, turning to look at Arashi again as they shoved one of the doors closed on a Cosmog. "… You can say I'm the one that keeps order around here.~ And you know what I do when I see something or someone that's all disarrayed…~?"

He blinked, thinking for a second. "… You fix them?"

Another snicker, Remi taking a few steps closer and kneeling down to look at him more closely. "Oh, you might call it that, but what I like to call it…"

They reached out and gave Arashi another flick of their claws- right at the point on his arm that they'd broken it, too. The Frogadier stifled a yelp and his eyes shut tightly, a grimace of pain gracing his face. He tried not to cry, tried not to give Remi any other reason to be such a brute, but even without looking at the Pheromosa, he could hear their laughter.

"… Is putting them in their place.~"

If Remi had been trying to put him in his place, it was working. 'Scary' was an understatement- this Pheromosa was terrifying. He knew he should've been attacking and not simply sitting there, taking their twisted antics with no protest, but try as he might to overcome his complacency, it just wasn't working. He didn't feel quite threatened enough to fight back, even if the mere sight of 'UB02B-0001' on their arm should've been cue enough to attack.

"Alright, let's get to it," Remi snickered, standing up again and strutting over to another closed box. "These wormholes aren't gonna open themselves~!"

… Indeed they wouldn't, Arashi figured. Remi yanked open six of the boxes- three on either side of the front set of metal doors- and withdrew the glowing vessels inside, half of which twitched in surprise at being grabbed at all.

"R-Remi, is that you?!" a small voice inside of one exclaimed.

"You know damn well who this is, runt," Remi laughed in response, giving it a shake. "Who else would be touching you? Void is busy."

"A-ah, s-sorry…!"

"Damn right you are.~ Now, you all know why I'm getting you out- I need some wormholes! I don't care where you open them to just as long as it's a safe place and it's not Ultra Plant, or I might accidentally kill this one.~ I'll tell you when to close them.~"

Six simultaneous cries of some variation of "Right away, Remi!" answered back.

Arashi couldn't help but to instinctively jump a bit when the air cracked in six separate places and six white portals opened up. He wasn't particularly happy about seeing them again, but before he could even think of backing away, Remi turned around and dropped the vessels they held before swooping him up by his neck.

"Ngh-!" the Frogadier cried.

In one swift move, Remi snickered and gave him a playful wink before tossing him into one without a care, giving a playful little wave with their other hand. The room full of vessels quickly became just a little blip on the other side of the wormhole, seemingly situated at the end of a long and glowing tunnel. It must've been far away, but in a second or less, Arashi felt something else on the other end when he crashed down onto the hard ground of some other area.

"Yiah…!" he yelped in surprise. His broken arm banging against the ground too made him tense up again, his eyes shutting tightly in some fruitless attempt to block out all of his discomfort.

Remi wasn't far behind and he could hear the claws on their feet clacking against the ground too, along with another snicker. If the Pheromosa was capable of going even ten seconds without laughing sadistically or talking down to someone, they definitely weren't showing it.

"Nice landing," Remi scoffed in amusement.

Arashi didn't say anything and hesitantly opened one eye when he felt a claw prodding at him again, the source of which was Remi giving him a few nudges with one foot. He picked himself up, albeit with a struggle, and at least looked around to see where he was.

… There wasn't much to see, though, or at least, not in the present state, for everything was in ruins. Their surroundings looked like a place where perhaps a city- a very strange sort of city that he'd never seen- would've stood before, but all the buildings had either what looked like gigantic chunks bitten out of them or had already collapsed entirely. Metallic beams were splintered in two, debris was everywhere, and from some battered device next to them came a faint static sound. Everything was either some dark metallic shade or vibrantly shiny chrome, and every piece of it was broken. In scattered places, dark brown earth peeked through the glassy black tiles making up most of the ground, looking very out of place against the sleekness, and even more alarmingly, a few brownish-red splotches added to the mix that Arashi did not want to think about for too long. It was… eerie.

"Well, I guess Ultra Ruin qualifies as a safe place, but barely," Remi remarked, kicking the static-making device.

Apparently, Remi's kick messed with it just enough to make the signal clearer. "If anyone can hear this, help us! Something's gotten into the Beasts and-!"

Another kick shut it up for good. Arashi could only guess from the brief message it played that whoever recorded it had been a frantic human… and judging from the surroundings, help hadn't come. His eyes went slightly wide.

"Remi…?" the Frogadier asked. "Where is this…?"

"Used to be a human settlement, then we sic'd a Guzzlord on it, among others," Remi answered, unfazed. "Absolutely useless species, humans are.~ Stick 'em in Ultra Desert where I'm from, they die of exposure. Stick 'em in Ultra Plant without any protective gear, they get electrocuted and die. Stick 'em in Ultra Crater without a tank of clean air to breathe, the air burns their lungs and they die. The only ones we have a use for are Salem and Astrid, and they barely qualify as 'human,' ehehe.~"

He blinked a bit more, knowing he should've been perturbed, but he simply wasn't. He was grunting in surprise again when Remi swooped him up and flung him back through the wormhole, but luckily, he could catch himself in time before he went sprawling on the cold, glassy floor again.

"Alright, whoever opened it to the ruins, you can relax," Remi instructed, hitting the floor not too far behind him.

One of them closed.

He wouldn't have paid it much mind had Remi not mentioned it beforehand, but Arashi did feel something. It made his skin tingle just a bit. Perhaps Remi noticed his uncertainty, or perhaps they were just impatient, for they didn't go carelessly shoving him through the rest of the wormholes. Rather, they swooped him up under one arm and made the jump themself, each time seeming to move a little swifter than the last time. Still, their movements jostling his broken arm even slightly was more than enough to keep his face in a permanent wince, and he couldn't wait to get the entire process over with.

Remi hadn't been lying, he quickly came to find out. The second (third total, counting Azure's) wormhole made him feel like his skin was crawling and Remi's form too had a slight glow to it, but the Pheromosa didn't seem to mind it at all. By the next one that followed shortly after, that feeling was only stronger, and he was surprised that his body wasn't literally breaking into smaller pieces and slithering in different directions from how it all felt.

"Remi…!" he gasped in discomfort.

"What~?" the Pheromosa laughed, the claws on their feet clicking against the base's glassy floor again. "Are you protesting already~? It usually takes a Poipole around six before they start gasping and crying, but I guess that's par for a lesser species to be pitching a fit earlier.~"

Without a care, and much to Arashi's discomfort, they leaped through the fourth one to open and landed in yet another odd landscape- a large sandstone shelf overlooking what appeared to be a desert made from a sand of crushed gemstones. Everything glittered beautifully, from the sand itself to some bluish-green gems embedded in bigger stone structures, but even if he wanted to enjoy it, the sensation he felt kept him from doing so. The 'crawling' was replaced by outright stinging, as if he'd been shoved into a boiling pool. If jumping through multiple wormholes in a quick timespan was supposed to flood someone with energy… he was definitely feeling it. And he didn't like it, either.

"Kyah…! Remi…!" he gasped.

The Pheromosa snickered under their breath and dropped him. Yet again his broken arm thudded against the ground, and he weakly squeaked in pain, eyes turning into little pinpricks for a second. He couldn't do much else- moving stung too.

"What~?" Remi playfully but pointedly asked, eyes narrowing.

He could finally get a good look at their apparent glow- and they were glowing, alright. It was a reddish aura that surrounded them, something he might've thought looked cool in any other context, but the fact that they seemed to be enjoying both the actions that were causing him pain and seeing his pain in and of itself… he wasn't too thrilled by any of it. Their gold claws and joints sparkled beautifully with the energy and the wings cascading down their back were shimmering with lovely iridescence, much more striking than Sixty-O-Three he'd seen before… but this Beast didn't captivate him at all. It was like a trap, something shiny and pretty to mask the poison-fueled flippant wrath below the surface…

"L-look, Void wants a Greninja, but…" Arashi stammered out, trying to ignore the burning, stinging sensation.

"But what?" Remi inquired, crouching down. "Are you questioning me~? Let me give you some advice, brat- you shouldn't do that.~"

"N-no, I'm just…! W-wouldn't it be easier to just use an evolution spot…?!"

"And what did you tell me before, huh~? You weren't sure if you were ready.~"

… That was true. More than anything, he just wanted to be rid of the Pheromosa's attention.

Remi seemed to know that too, for they laughed some more when he didn't answer and stuck a claw against his chest, putting more pressure behind it than Arashi would've liked. "Let me ask you something, brat," they said flippantly, smirking. "Do you think I care how you feel~? Do you think I'm someone you can negotiate with, someone you can act all friendly towards and have me give a damn about you~?"

He was silent.

"Because you can't," Remi hissed, still grinning. "Void is the only one I take orders from.~ Of course, I can be nice and listen to you if I feel like you might have something worthy of my attention to say, but right now, you don't. Right now, you're just acting like a dumbass and I'm laughing at you. Remember what I said I'd do to you if you push your luck…~?"

He froze. He remembered, alright- they said they'd have their fun beating the daylights out of him, seeing as an evolution would just cause his body to reform itself anyway.

Their smirk widened. "… And I think you're trying to push your luck."

"I'm not," Arashi said as fast as he could, faint as his voice may have been.

The Pheromosa snickered, their eyes drooping at the sides in a pitying look. "Awww, and you're lying about it, too~" they flippantly cooed, claw pressing harder. "You wanna know what I do to liars~?"

He didn't, he really didn't, but he was finding out pretty soon.

Fast as lightning, the Pheromosa was standing up again, and the set of claws on one of their feet went straight through his belly. It wasn't a First Impression from Azure, but it felt about the same- two claws were staked through his body where they definitely were not supposed to be. He gasped and twitched in pain, the stinging sensation of the wormhole energy making it hard to do much.

Remi's other foot drew back for a second, then delivered a lightning-fast kick to his head.

Crack!

A stunned shriek escaped the Frogadier's mouth, his expression contorting. He wasn't sure what, precisely, had cracked, but his skull was definitely feeling less unified than it had moments before and he could practically feel the force rebounding around inside. He felt something warm and runny, too- blood. It was trickling out around Remi's claws and from the side of his head, staining the pristine sparkling sandstone below with crimson puddles. The bubbles around his neck started looking reddish, and his scarf bearing the 'Team Starstorm' badge was feeling much stickier. His vision blurred over, but he could still see Remi smirking down at him.

No… He couldn't be complacent anymore. He fought against the poison telling him not to do it and an Ice Beam formed in his mouth that he spit up at Remi, but it was an easy dodge for the Pheromosa. They simply leaned back and let it sail harmlessly into the sky, snickering away.

"That's cute," they taunted. "Wanna see a better one?"

He didn't, but Remi showed him regardless. The icy beam took form at one of the claws on their hands, and he couldn't avoid it even if he wanted to. He should've resisted it, but it hit even harder than the one he'd taken on Bramble Peak. The icy crystals felt like a nest of tiny needles jabbing at his skin, and everything he saw turned into blurry little shapes that flickered in and out of visibility.

Still, the ice covering him was dispersed fairly quickly by another kick that slammed into his side, where his broken arm was… and it was definitely looking a lot more broken given how it was bent at an unnatural curve with a white shard of bone breaking through the skin. A screech of pain escaped his throat that practically burned on its way out, which Remi laughed at before delivering another further up. His bones shattered like glass and his appendage resembled a curved S-shape, but all he could do was gasp while his eyes fluttered shut.

"You think that's bad~?" Remi taunted. "Go on, pray to your gods if you want to.~ You're in Ultra Space now, brat- they can't hear you.~"

He tried it, alright- a purely desperate measure. The claws on Remi's feet quickly left his belly, but he felt another set breaking the surface of the skin on his chest as Remi knelt down again.

"Remi…!" he gasped, pleading in agony. "I'm sorry…! I didn't mean it…!"

"Bullshit," Remi amusedly brushed him off. "I've gotta teach you a lesson you'll never forget.~"

Oh, he wasn't going to forget it, that was for sure.

"Tell me…~" the Pheromosa's voice playfully trailed off as their claws scratched two deep gashes. "Is this what Azure did to you~?"

Their claws weren't as hulking, but that didn't matter- they rammed straight through his chest even more easily than the Golisopod's had. Yet again his eyes were shooting wide, and a few shallow breaths escaped him. The red trickles weren't entirely on the outside- he could feel blood working its way into his throat too moments after Remi's claws pierced through. His breaths turned into big, frantic gulps of air.

He could already feel his senses detaching and going blank. If Remi didn't stop… he was going to die.

"Scratch that; you're too pathetic to answer," Remi brushed it off. "The hell did the human ever see in you, huh~? 'Cause frankly, I'm not even sure what Void sees in you right now.~ It's not your strength, that's for sure.~"

"S-… S-stop…"

"Oh, I'm sure you'd love it if I did.~"

The way his heart was pounding in panic made the punctures in his belly drip blood even faster without Remi's claws there to staunch the flow. It spurted out in little red bursts, trickling like a river about to burst a dam. Red definitely spurted from the punctures in his chest too, but Remi's claws embedded inside made it harder for it to escape.

Still, his heart beat even faster in panic when he felt Remi twisting their claws around in his chest, getting a few more horrified squeaks from Arashi's mouth. He could feel his skin tearing on the surface, and underneath, he could definitely feel more things tearing and moving that he knew weren't supposed to be feeling that way… It was absolutely horrible. He clamped his eyes shut, as if somehow blocking out his blurry vision would block out the pain.

Remi apparently didn't like that, for a claw on their other hand forced one eyelid open all while dragging the claw along his eye and scratching a gash in it too. What blurry forms he could see became even more distorted for what looked like a crack etched into it, then went red as blood filled the edges of the scratch.

"Look at me, brat," Remi hissed. "You get it now? You don't tell me what to do, you don't lie to me, and you don't question me.~"

He opened his mouth, but he just couldn't make any sound come out. He only coughed a bit, accompanied by red dribbles.

"Where're your gods now, you bumbling moron~?!" the Pheromosa cackled. "Where're your gods now?!"

Clearly, not on Ultra Space. If only Necrozma could've heard the Frogadier's prayers.

The pounding of his heart shortly became even more apparent, for he felt Remi's claws worming their way over to it for the way he felt an abrupt poke of a claw tip every time it beat. Some more flippant chuckles left his assailant and they twitched their claws a bit, scratching at it and giving it a little squeeze. Crushing it would be easy for the Pheromosa, he knew that for sure, but he hoped with all his willpower that they wouldn't. He would've gasped again in pure horrified panic, but the blood filling his mouth and throat made it much too hard. He couldn't breathe, and his grip on the corporeal world was fading.

"So you just remember this next time you wanna try playing around with me, smiley little brat," the Pheromosa laughed. "Or else I'll do it again.~"

He didn't want that. He didn't want that at all.

… He also didn't want to feel one of Remi's claws on his neck, but he did. The ones embedded in his chest left, and one of them pressed against his throat.

Remi apparently pressed just a little too hard in their flippant excitement, for it too pierced straight through. Arashi's eyes rolled back in his head as blood flowed out around Remi's claw even faster than it had elsewhere. Judging from the Pheromosa's words that followed, they hadn't quite been expecting that, either.

"… FUCK," Remi screeched.

Arashi didn't know what happened next. All he could tell was that the two of them were moving again, and that stinging sensation from the excess wormhole energy increased in a matter of moments before he just couldn't take it anymore. That agonizing sting coupled with the pain of his wounds and the fatigue from blood loss quickly setting in made everything go black.

His consciousness faded, and with it, something else did too- any hope of him resisting the poison gnawing at his mind.

Astrid and Raijin didn't know exactly how long they stayed inside the burrow, huddled up in a mess of cables and feathers, but it was definitely no short amount of time. Even the slightest sound of something moving around outside made Astrid's feathers fluff out and Raijin tense up from inside their hiding place, both in a mix of apprehension and frantic standoffishness. It could've been a wild one scurrying around for all they knew, but they definitely weren't going to peek around and find out. Occasionally they'd hear a crash from far off in the distance or feel a slight rumble, but from what, they had no way of knowing, and they only hoped it didn't spell a terrible occurrence for their comrades when it eventually came to a halt.

Eventually, though, as much as they both may have given a frightened jolt the first moment they heard it, a voice that they welcomed broke the silence through telepathy.

*You two,* came Adnea's detached voice. *Stay put for the time being. Myself and several of our entourage are coming to get you.*

A wave of relief washed over Astrid, and Raijin's tense state eased up.

"Adnea…" the Dartrix piped up, faint as could be, "… what happened…?"

*We got intercepted by some very troublesome company.*

An image filled their heads of a smirking Pheromosa next to a hulking Stakataka, and from the identifying marks, it was easy to see that Azure hadn't been lying about who else was in the area. Astrid's beak fell open just a bit and Raijin tensed up again, a little spark shooting down his limbs that made the Dartrix flinch for a second.

*I tried to go for Hypnosis, but that Pheromosa- Remi or 'One' as they apparently prefer a 'lesser species' to call them- was just too fast. I intended to warn you of Azure's plan, but I just couldn't get it out in time before they knocked me out.*

"I-is everyone okay…?" Raijin asked softly, voice a bit distorted from hesitance.

*Everyone is alive, but we've got a few serious injuries. The power that those two have is no joke.*

"H-how serious…?" Astrid wanted to know.

In response, both she and her Xurkitree comrade saw another mental picture- Lazuli with the claw gashes in her head, Polly looking utterly messed up, and an unconscious Seth with his armor dented. Astrid gasped a bit and stuck her wings over her mouth to keep quiet, and her feathers stood out on end with another jolt of current from Raijin.

*Polly was the worst, but she's at least stable for now and curling up in Azra's arms. I'm fine myself, and Lazuli and Seth are dealing fine enough. Shar took some hits too, but a raging Garchomp like her isn't particularly concerned with damage.*

Hearing that everyone was hanging on fine enough at least put them somewhat at ease.

*We'll talk all of this over once we get back to base and we've all had a chance to gather our thoughts. I can tell the tension is pretty high with everyone right now.*

That was definitely agreeable.

Astrid let out a heavy sigh and nestled further into her comrade's cables, and he in turn clutched her tighter. It was maybe fifteen more minutes that they stayed like that before they heard footsteps and voices outside, which at first made Astrid fluff out and Raijin tense up again, but another familiar voice showed that there was no cause for concern.

"Hey! Astrid! Raijin! It's us!" came a call from Lazuli. "You in there?"

Astrid didn't waste any time in skittering out, and Raijin was quick to crawl after her. The Azumarill's grin met them on the other end, upbeat but tired, and Adnea was close by too with her usual stoic look. They quickly noticed that the entire entourage wasn't present, for of their own team it was only the Azumarill and Orbeetle, and of the Gnarly Brigade, it was only Azra and Seth… though the former did have a bundle of colorful feathers in his arms which, on closer inspection, was Polly. It was pretty easy to see that it had been a rough fight, for Azra's armor was busted in a few places, Seth was still dented, and Lazuli had two painful-looking gashes in the side of her head tinged with dried blood. The Dartrix fluffed up just a bit.

It was also easy to see that the daylight was wearing out and would shortly be replaced by nightfall, for what tiny patches of the sky they could see through the tree canopies overhead were shades of purple and pink with hardly a ray of light coming through, and Raijin's glow was showing up a bit brighter than it had been earlier. An end to an utterly awful day- Astrid was both hesitant of it and welcomed it at the same time.

"Hey," Lazuli repeated. "We heard about what happened from Adnea! Are you guys okay?!"

Both Astrid and Raijin froze up for a second, before the Dartrix couldn't help bursting into tears and Raijin shrunk up as much as he could while avoiding anyone's gaze. Lazuli was quick to put her arms around the leafy little bird, and Astrid's tears streamed down her chest.

"… Dammit…" Raijin piped up weakly, voice crackling for a second.

"Well, that answers that," the Azumarill remarked, looking at them both.

"You both sound like hell," Azra piped up.

"W-where is everyone else…?" Raijin hesitantly inquired, gingerly tapping his fingers together. "There were more of you that set out… right…? What happened with Remi and Knox…?"

"Intercepted," Adnea answered. "Void apparently called Knox and Remi back in the middle of our battle, which Remi took to mean that Void must've had Astrid. Rush and Shar sent the fliers that were able- Dren, Cinder, and Riven- to go check on you three, and they've been intercepted by another Beast squad that showed up shortly after you two ran for it. Rush, Rozen, and Shar went to help them out in case things got a little too heated… but from what I can see, Dren is going on a rampage and doing quite a lot of things that you would deem 'ugly.'"

Mega-fueled rage wasn't something to be trifled with, apparently. It was hard to imagine the Salamence actively trying to harm someone, but if he was… Astrid almost felt sorry for the Beasts that had stumbled across that part of the entourage.

"Let's get going," the Orbeetle advised, turning around and motioning them all along. "We're in the clear for now as far as getting intercepted goes, but I don't particularly want to lose the daylight before we're back in civilization. Getting pranked by a wild Misdreavus or swarmed by wild Murkrows isn't what we need right now."

No one was inclined to disagree. The trek back to the crossroads was made with hardly a sound save for Astrid's faint sniffling (try as she might to keep it together) and the occasional heavy breath from Polly, Lazuli giving the Dartrix a pat whenever she would make such a sound and the two Gnarly Brigade members keeping a close watch over their own avian comrade. It was blatantly obvious to anyone else that the two remaining Starstorm members were miserable- Raijin stayed shrunken up with his gaze locked on the ground, not making a peep, and Astrid wore a blank expression that wouldn't change for anything. Ordinarily, the Dartrix's gaze would be shifting around, but she didn't much care about eyeing their surroundings like she normally would.

It appeared that it didn't matter what she did; it was simply out of her control. If Azure hadn't been lying about Remi and Knox, then he likely hadn't been lying about Salem tearing through Necrozma's defenses… and that was something she didn't want to think about. She didn't want to think about what they were doing to Arashi, either- surely, that couldn't possibly be good or pleasant in any capacity.

She knew her partner probably would've told her to have a little faith, that surely everything would turn out fine… but she wasn't so sure. Maybe she should've given up and accepted her fate alongside Salem. Or maybe the safest bet to ensure Void wouldn't get another of her ultimate pawns… was just to die. Falling a great distance wouldn't be any trouble with her wings to help, or perhaps she could fill a bag with rocks by the river and leap into it, or perhaps make a solo trip down to Sunken Cavern and have a Cradily's acid reduce her to nothing or an Aerodactyl devour her… Of course, scary and painful as the latter seemed, it would definitely leave less of a mess for anyone else. A Dartrix splattered across the ground wouldn't be pleasant for anyone, and the thought of anyone having to scrape her busted, broken form off of a rock wasn't pleasant either. It would likely be awhile before anyone found her in the river, but she was bound to be discovered at some point, probably with her eyes sunken in, feathers reduced to little spines that would easily rip out of her rotting grey flesh that only had a faint grasp on her bones…

*Stop it,* Adnea's voice interrupted her thoughts.

She perked up, and the Orbeetle gave her a very pointed glance.

*You will do no such thing. If you plan to throw yourself out of the sky, I'll send Dren and Cinder after you. If you plan to drown yourself, I'll send Lazuli to stop you. If you plan to make a final trip in a dungeon, I'll get Rush and Rozen and we'll pull you out before you can do anything foolish.*

She blinked.

*I thought you were smarter than that,* Adnea's telepathic voice continued. *You think you're thinking logically, but you are not. Yes, if you were not living, Void would not have the chance of getting another ultimate weapon, but that doesn't erase the fact that she has Salem and a horde of Beasts at her beck and call that are already giving us trouble. And do you know who we have at the moment with the most knowledge about how to deal with them all?*

That was obvious- it was the Xurkitree next to her. The Dartrix eyed him a bit in her peripheral vision, fluffing out again at seeing him so subdued.

*Yes, exactly,* Adnea affirmed. *He's gotten quite attached to you and Arashi, and you see how he's acting now. If something happened to you, he wouldn't be able to function at all. There's only so much I can do with reading someone's memories and jotting the details down, and even then, I'm only a single Orbeetle that can't be out in the field all the time. You yourself were saying how glad you were to have his expertise when your team was accosted by Squad Fourteen-Five. We can't have him lose his focus, not until this is over.*

The Dartrix fluffed out some more at the researcher's chiding- she was right.

*And your partner,* the Orbeetle continued. *He depends on you to be the voice of reason, since it's fairly obvious he thinks more with his heart than his brain. How do you think a creature with as intense feelings as his would react to losing someone so dear? How do you think he would react if his best friend went and offed herself? I'll give you a hint- it wouldn't be pretty. He'd probably think Void's poison was the easier way to deal with things and give up trying to oppose her if he isn't poisoned already. He'd call it quits on Team Starstorm and never touch an expeditioner badge again, and you'd be nothing but a traumatic memory. Trust me on that one- you care too much about him to inflict that sort of pain on him, and I've read plenty of minds to know exactly how it plays out. You don't want to be at the center of a situation like that.*

Astrid shuddered and let out a little whimper. Lazuli of course had no idea of the unspoken exchange that was happening, but at the sound, the Azumarill gave her a pat on the back nonetheless in an attempt to comfort her.

*What about your friends in Tranquil Town? What do you think Charlie and Trixie and Lila would say? How do you think Lila would explain to her little brother and his Pikipek friend why none of them will ever see Arashi's shy friend again? Kaminari and Niles took you in as one of their own- you think they'd be happy knowing that the little leafy avian they looked after went and killed herself? What about Nez, the one willing to throw down with a scary unknown creature for you before anyone knew that Raijin wasn't a threat? That Nidoking cares about you too, and I guarantee you it'd break his heart.*

She wanted to sink into her feathers and tried her best to do so. The Orbeetle's words were striking deep and hitting hard.

*Hell, what about our own team? We're already in a precarious position as it is with Arashi in Ultra Space. You'd wipe the smile right off Lazuli's face, Dren would mope for days, Cinder would never stop screeching knowing that he acted so coldly towards you, Rozen would cry, and Rush would smash the walls with his fists at permanently losing a comrade like that. Now isn't the time for anyone to be dealing with that. If we absolutely must kill you if things get worse, then we'll deal with that when the time comes, but fact of the matter is that you're far more valuable alive than you are dead. And I say that purely in respect to our own side, Void and Salem notwithstanding.*

Her eyes started watering again.

*Don't even think about it, Astrid. We don't know what the answer is, but that isn't it.*

She nodded. *I won't,* she thought without making a sound.

*Good.*

She had to be strong. She didn't know what was coming their way, and it surely wasn't anything pretty… but she'd be there to meet it. She'd be there to meet her smiling partner too, if he ever arrived.

The only word on her mind was 'terrible,' for indeed, it felt that way.

Author's note… again: Y'know what, I'm gonna note this too simply because it makes me laugh, and I wouldn't want to note it at the beginning before the scene in question. Because of… reasons (a mix of randomly revisiting old Minecraft parody songs from when I was like 14 years old, the one relevant here being "Creepers are Terrible," and watching far too much Koishi Komeiji's Heart-Throbbing Adventure), I ended up proofreading this chapter and getting to the scene of Remi and Arashi while "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction was playing in the background. Let's just say, the mental image of that song playing while Remi is mangling and kicking the daylights out of someone had me laughing hysterically and nearly falling out of my chair. 10/10 would do again.

Anyways, I know I said previously that I'd take a little break for editing after this one, but yet again I found myself winding up with like 30 pages if I didn't stop somewhere, so in essence, the scene I wanted to end on here ended up at the end of chapter 48. (What can I say, the tendencies from all these years of writing lab reports that require me to expound on every piece of info have trickled over into this hobby.) I'll do my editing after I post that one.

Have a lovely day, folks.