Black clouds loomed over the forest like death itself, casting a shadow that few of the forest occupants would even notice, and the ominous rumbling of the sky was barely audible over the constant drone of the Beedrill's wings.
Ariana's blue eyes glittered in the darkness, and angry red eyes glared back at her. Light was all but non-existent at this point, save for a few small purple wisps of flame that the Ninetales had produced earlier, but even those failed to properly illuminate the arachnid's blue body, or many of the details around them. In such a dark environment such as the Eterna Forest, Ariana's unnatural coloration was an absolute blessing.
"Are you sure you want to play this game with me, darling?" Ariana murmured, her words almost inaudible when matched against the buzzing of Bee-Bee's wings. "I've shown you mercy once already. I offer it to you once more now, but it will not be given a third time. You need not perish at my fangs like your fallen allies."
Bee-Bee buzzed indignantly, incorporating a number of choice phrases into her response, with the gist being that she had no intention of fleeing from Ariana.
Ariana clicked her fangs disapprovingly. "You still don't understand," she hissed softly, and her eyes glowed intensely. Her shadow extended across the ground, almost imperceptible in the darkness. Once the black spot passed beneath the Beedrill, Ariana struck, moving so swiftly along her shadow's path that she almost appeared to have teleported, and she pounced upon the Beedrill. Bee-Bee only had enough time to reflexively jab a foreleg stinger at the Ariados before Ariana latched her sharp legs onto the hornet's abdomen.
Bee-Bee thrashed impressively, shaking her lower body in a desperate attempt to dislodge Ariana before she could complete her attack, but this was wishful thinking at best. Without wasting another moment, Ariana bit into the Beedrill's abdomen, relishing the shriek of pain that accompanied her action, and then released her grip entirely, dropping back to the forest floor.
Fluid seeped from the hornet's wound, and although Ariana imagined that it was extremely painful, it was neither a crippling nor fatal wound. That said, it would undoubtedly hamper the Beedrill's ability to continue fighting, and that was overall her true aim.
"Do you understand now, darling?" Ariana whispered, her blue eyes gazing intently at her injured opponent. "Coming after me is naught but a suicide mission, and ordered by a leader who understood it to be so. She has stronger soldiers at her command, yet sends out lesser drones, throwing away countless lives with nary a care. Wasteful tyrant."
Ariana spat the final words with as much venom as she could, literal flecks of poison escaping her mouth in the process. Despite the pain plainly visible on Bee-Bee's expression, she remained airborne, her wings buzzing with as much life and vibrancy as ever before. Clearly, the hornet wasn't ready to back down yet, even when already wounded.
Bee-Bee darted downwards, nearly impaling her rear stinger into the ground in doing so, and launched herself forward like a missile, her wings whining in protest. Ariana cursed internally and focused, purple energy gathering around her body, but she had misjudged how swiftly the Beedrill would be upon her, and she shrieked as Bee-Bee stabbed her abdomen multiple times with her foreleg stingers, each jab piercing deeply enough to draw fluids from the wounds.
Unable to concentrate her energy long enough to counterattack properly, Ariana let out a shrill shriek so loud and high-pitched that a multi-colored shockwave erupted from her body, physically forcing Bee-Bee backwards. The hornet cringed from the sheer intensity of the sound, and Ariana noticed the cry had a similar effect on the three onlookers, with the two Eeveelutions actually covering their ears with their paws.
"You're in trouble now, darling," Ariana hissed venomously, her blue eyes narrowing to slits. "Devotion to the queen brings only death and pain to you, and to the other mindless drones enslaved to her will. Extending mercy to you was a waste of my charity."
"You're no better," Bee-Bee retorted, her own words sounding as venomous as Ariana's, and the Ariados blinked as the Beedrill glared at her more fiercely than ever before, only her blazing red eyes standing out from the darkness of the forest. The sky rumbled again, and Ariana could just barely hear the pattering of raindrops upon the forest canopy.
"No better?" Ariana repeated scornfully. "What is that even supposed to mean, darling?"
"You have no moral high ground at all!" Bee-Bee spat, gesturing violently with her foreleg stingers. "You send your allies to fight our Hive, while you sit safely away from the fighting, letting others die for you, and claiming the lives of those that fight against you. Isn't that exactly what you say our Queen does?!"
Ariana hissed, but Bee-Bee slashed her foreleg through the air, cutting her off before she could retort.
"You call the loyal soldiers of the Hive 'expendable', but treat all other creatures in the forest the same way!" Bee-Bee continued venomously. "Anyone who opposes your 'great cause' is an enemy, and if someone isn't useful to you, you'll let them die!"
Ariana clicked her fangs, her momentary surprise and anger fading into composed amusement. "I don't seek to rule over my allies. They follow me not out of blind obedience, but because our cause will benefit their lives-"
"SHUT UP!"
Ariana flinched, genuinely taken aback by the sudden rage exhibited by the opposing Beedrill. Wounded or not, her drive to continue fighting was genuine. She truly believed that Ariana was just as bad, or even worse, than the Hive Queen. Words and reasoning no longer held any weight.
So be it. Then she would deal with this enemy the same way she dealt with the others.
Ariana's blue eyes narrowed upon the hovering Beedrill, only for her attention to be arrested by an unexpected pulsing light. It hovered to one side of the hornet's body, and seemed to swing unnaturally in time with the Beedrill's movements. The glowing was rhythmic, and as Ariana squinted at it, she realized that the light was coming from a bauble dangling from one of the Beedrill's forelegs. How the object had remained attached throughout the battle was a mystery for another time, and the Ariados' eyes slowly widened as she realized, with a jolt of genuine horror, what the object was.
"When did you get...?" she sputtered, and in her mind's eye, she replayed the moment, early into the battle, when Bee-Bee had veered off course and stabbed her foreleg stinger into the remains of the Beedrill that Ariana had eliminated. As she replayed the scene again in her mind, she could clearly see how the female Beedrill had hooked the bauble's chain onto the stinger, and then she must have used her vicious gestures to reposition the dangling chain further along her foreleg, so that it could rest close to her body without as much danger of coming free or interfering with her attacks. It had been so easy to miss what she had not been looking for initially.
The moment of panic faded quickly, and Ariana snickered, her eyes glittering with cruel amusement. It didn't matter that Bee-Bee carried that forbidden power, because she was unlikely to have the training or knowledge on how to properly wield it. The fallen Beedrill that had possessed it before his untimely death had been male - a female drone would never have been entrusted with that sort of power. Any female that could feasibly threaten the queen's rule was more often eliminated, never empowered.
"You should have accepted my mercy when you still had the chance, darling," Ariana crooned mockingly, her eyes glittering. "For now that I realize what is in your possession, I have an actual incentive to eliminate you. Claiming the Hive's fabled weapon for our cause will drastically tip the scales in our favor, wouldn't you say? And I'd hate to waste such an excellent opportunity to finally see the end of that wretched Hive."
Ariana parted her fangs and launched a thick strand of webbing from her mouth, but Bee-Bee zipped underneath the thread and propelled herself forward with incredible speed. This time, Ariana was prepared for the maneuver, and just when Bee-Bee was almost upon her, the Ariados darted forward and drove her poisonous horn as hard as she could into the Beedrill's body.
The momentum of Bee-Bee's strike was enough to displace the raw damage of being struck with Ariana's horn. Instead of a single, deep puncturing wound, she received a longer, shallower gash across her entire abdomen, and Ariana herself received a similar cut across her back, as Bee-Bee passed over her. Fluids leaked from their respective wounds, and pain flashed through Ariana's brain, nullified only by the immense satisfaction she felt at inflicting such great damage to her opponent. Just a little more, and she would be one step closer to the utter eradication of the Eterna Hive.
"Those wounds are getting nasty, darling," Ariana taunted. "At this rate, even if you survive our encounter, a dying drone has no worth to the Hive, and it's not like they expected you to survive anyway."
"Shut up! I won't give up...I won't let you keep threatening the Hive! I won't let you...keep endangering my friends, my family, and my home! I won't..." Bee-Bee's words were coming out more sluggishly as she struggled to articulate through the pain and rage that was gradually taking its toll on her body. Ariana seized this opportunity to launch another spear of webbing from her mouth, striking the Beedrill's wing and knocking her from the air entirely. Before she could recover, Ariana swiftly secured multiple lines of webbing to the Beedrill, ensnaring her in a grounded net of her adhesive silk. The Beedrill thrashed impressively, but fatigue and the wounds were making this a far more daunting task than it otherwise might have been, and Ariana's webs were far more durable than they appeared to be.
"It's a shame you're so blinded to the reality of our conflict, darling, because that passion would be much better served on our side," Ariana mused, scuttling slowly towards her trapped prey. "It's so wasteful to end the life of a capable female drone, but unfortunately, you are not intelligent, so I suppose I'll get over it."
Bee-Bee's response was unambiguously crude, using terms that Ariana was genuinely taken aback to even hear, much less have thrown in her direction. It didn't take long for Ariana to conclude that she REALLY didn't need to acknowledge the specifics of what Bee-Bee was saying, nor did she need to defend her various family members that Bee-Bee had besmirched with her rant.
"Wow, you are the worst influence on a kit's developing vocabulary that I've ever heard," Ariana commented snidely. "Do you kiss the queen with that mouth?"
Bee-Bee buzzed angrily, and her eyes flashed intensely, despite her vain struggles to free herself from her web prison. The stone hanging at her side glowed more intensely, and Ariana froze in place, sudden doubt grasping at her mind. Even now, when she was determined to slay her foe, she was still showing mercy towards her. Every other Beedrill she had dispatched recently, she had done so almost instantaneously, inflicting a fatal wound at the first opportunity, and never allowing her opponent a chance to be 'cornered'. Experience had long ago taught her that a cornered foe was the time when they were at their most dangerous - when desperation and instinct insisted they use every available means to survive and fight back.
By cornering Bee-Bee now, Ariana feared that she was sealing her own demise. The pulsing stone was responding more intensely to the approaching threat, feeding off the hornet's anger, fear, and hatred towards the shiny Ariados. Even with no experience or prior knowledge of the stone's abilities, it was possible that in a cornered state, Bee-Bee would instinctively use its power to turn the tides in an instant.
The Ariados' blue eyes met her foe's blazing red ones, and a shiver of apprehension raced through her body, causing a fresh wave of pain to erupt from her recent injuries. All the same...to make a tactical retreat now seemed like folly. Allowing the Beedrill to live meant sacrificing the chance to claim the Hive's Beedrillite and use it against them. It meant risking the lives of her allies again in future battles, and giving the Hive another chance to use the stone against the rebellion, with potentially more favorable results. The previous wielder had been eliminated before he could even use its power.
That settled the indecision in Ariana's mind. Regardless of the risks, she needed to seize the stone. She clicked her fangs and started forward, only for a faint green light to illuminate her body. A split second later, she was no longer standing where she was a moment earlier, but further back along the path, yet still within the barrier she had created with her web lines.
Disoriented, her eyes darted around the surroundings, before finally settling on a bipedal crimson insect, standing roughly in the space Ariana had occupied a moment earlier. Its arms ended in vicious pincers, and its body seemed to be covered in metal. More bewildering to note was that Thresher had taken a defensive stance, his attention securely focused on the ensnared Beedrill.
"Fall back, Ariana," Thresher stated clearly, and Ariana blinked rapidly, before narrowing her eyes into venomous slits.
"What are you talking about?" she hissed. "What are you even doing?"
"This lackey has a Beedrillite," Thresher said, his tone alarmingly solemn, a far cry from his usual dismissive attitude.
"I know that!" Ariana hissed impatiently. "If we could claim it, then-"
"The risk is far too high for that. You are already injured, and you have no chance of defeating her if she Mega Evolves. Fall back," Thresher interjected, applying a layer of firmness to his words, as if he was issuing a direct order.
"What?!" Ariana screeched indignantly. "She's taken heavy injuries, and I doubt she has any practical experience with-"
"You're so stupid sometimes," Thresher hissed under his breath, but if he intended for that to go unheard, he failed miserably. Ariana narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"Excuse me?" she asked, her tone soft, but the venom in her voice unmistakable.
"This is neither the time, nor place, to discuss the matter. Fall back, and return to the nest," Thresher insisted.
Ariana hissed in annoyance. "What about them?" she demanded, jerking her horn in the direction of the three quadrupeds, all of whom were observing the turn of events with a mixture of confusion and wary curiosity.
"Leave them, they're irrelevant," Thresher said dismissively, stepping to the side and pivoting so that he could keep on eye on her and the Beedrill simultaneously. Ariana hissed again, her frustration at the Scizor tactician growing stronger with each passing moment.
"And her?" Ariana pressed, now jerking her head towards the struggling Beedrill.
"Leave her," Thresher answered, the promptness of his response betraying his impatience with the Ariados' persisting questions.
"What? Why?!" Ariana screeched, loudly enough that the black Espeon cringed. "I've trapped her, she's wounded, she has a Mega Stone that could give us the firepower to take out the Eterna Hive, so what sense does it make to let her go?"
There was a tense silence following her outburst, and Thresher gazed at Ariana with an expression that she had difficulty reading. Finally, he sighed and shook his head.
"I don't like the situation any more than you do," he said bluntly. "But you were reckless enough to confront multiple potential threats with minimal backup, and without taking the time to properly evaluate the threat they might have posed, and that drew the attention of Hive enforcers. Attacking neutral parties is a surefire way to breed your own enemies, Ari."
Ariana hissed, almost seething with indignant rage at this point. Thresher was the only one of her allies who ever dared use a short-handed version of her name to her face, even knowing how much she despised being addressed in that manner.
"All this time spent lecturing me could have been better used to eliminate that mindless drone and-"
"You're not listening!" Thresher snapped, cutting her off mid-sentence, and gesturing forcefully as he spoke. "You have no idea who they are, and how many other allies they might have had in the forest. You recklessly endangered yourself and the entire operation by confronting them."
"That has nothing to do with her, though," Ariana countered, gesturing towards the Beedrill, and her eyes glowed ominously. "That stone is the key to eradicating the Hive with minimal casualties. For a tactician, you are remarkably slow to grasp the bigger picture here. I must acquire it for our cause now, lest it be used against us in a future battle."
"If Mega Evolution to you is an instant-win button, you should focus your sights on acquiring a stone for my use," Thresher countered. "We have a single Beedrill ally, with no training or experience in how to wield that power, nor a Key Stone to manage the unstable energy."
"Then we are in the same position that she is now," Ariana replied silkily. "But she is currently at our mercy."
"No, her position is far favorable," Thresher said seriously. "We don't have a Key Stone available for our use. She does."
"What?" Ariana squinted at the Scizor, trying to determine whether or not he was pulling her leg. There were times when Thresher made teasing remarks or comments, but considering how seriously he had been acting throughout this argument, she had a hard time believing that he was cracking jokes now.
"Renard is in possession of a Key Stone," Thresher said, gesturing towards the Ninetales without looking at him. "Had you let him pass through the forest unhindered, the proximity of a Key Stone would not factor into this situation. Regardless of the lackey's experience, the Key Stone can neutralize the unstable energy, at least long enough for her to kill you. If not for my intervention, the threat you posed to her life would have undoubtedly triggered the Beedrillite to activate."
Ariana's eyes twitched, and she glanced at the Ninetales, who was calmly observing the interaction, then back at Thresher. She no longer doubted the truth behind the Scizor's words, because she had already suspected that the Beedrillite was on the verge of activating, but for it to be revealed that the risk of using the unstable evolution method was reduced by the Ninetales' presence...that was something she could not have foreseen.
"How unfortunate," the shiny Ariados murmured, and her gaze hardened. "Do not mistake this departure as showing mercy, darlings," she hissed, her words brimming with more venom than she carried within her entire body. A poisonous purple aura gradually encompassed her body, as if the venom of her emotions was leaking from her very core. "No matter what price I must pay to achieve it, I will see to it that the Eterna Hive is utterly eradicated, to say nothing of the queen's loyal maggots!"
Ariana concluded her diatribe by spitting her venomous saliva on the ground, and she practically vanished into the darkness of the forest. Tension filled the air, as all the Pokemon present seemed convinced that the Ariados was still there, lurking in the shadows or within the trees, ready to strike at one of them the moment an opportunity arose.
Thresher was the first to relax, and he crouched down by the ensnared Beedrill. "Okay, slow movements now, moving my arm towards the web line," he said, slowly and clearly narrating precisely what he was about to do before proceeding, but it didn't take long for Bee-Bee to issue a number of unflattering statements to the crimson insect. "That's nice sweetheart," Thresher replied indifferently. "But apart from me, your options are Renard using fire at point-blank range, or...I dunno, that Leafeon launching razor leaves at your face."
Judging by Bee-Bee's response, she much preferred those options, and Thresher shrugged, immediately backing off and gesturing for Renard to take his place. The Ninetales smiled momentarily, striding forward and examining the web lines. Leaf and Shadow glared at the Scizor warily, but he paid them little more than a passing glance.
"I suppose Astrid is another option," Thresher mused, speaking more to Renard now than any of the others.
"She's not even with us," Renard answered, carefully producing a wisp of flame from his mouth and directing it to one of the web lines, melting through the strand with relative ease.
"Seriously?" Thresher asked, his tone skeptical. "Where the hell is she, then?"
"She's escorting Frost through Mt. Coronet, partially because she wanted to meet up with Blizzard. She told me as much following her encounter with you last week," Renard answered solemnly, his flame melting a second strand of webbing.
"Ah, can't forget about little Snowglobe," Thresher chuckled. Renard cast the Scizor a disapproving look, but made no comment. The Scizor crossed his arms with thinly disguised annoyance. "But that figures. Astrid's absence, but you showing up, made me so paranoid that when Ari started screeching, I practically flew back here. As you might have noticed, Ariana's a bit...unstable."
"Just a bit," Shadow deadpanned. "Just a tiny, itty-bitty, little bit."
"A lot more than that," Leaf argued, oblivious to his brother's sarcasm. Shadow gave his brother an exasperated look, but evidently decided it wasn't worth getting into an argument over. Thresher gave them both the briefest of indifferent glances, then did a small double-take.
"Wait, who even ARE you two?" he asked, frowning at the siblings.
"None of your business," Leaf snapped, earning a surprised look from his brother. Thresher rolled his eyes and waved his pincer dismissively.
"They're Echo's kits," Renard answered, melting a third strand of webbing and creating enough freedom for Bee-Bee to burst out from her prison. Her wounds were still present, but they had started to heal over during the time of inactivity when secured to the ground. The Beedrillite was still pulsing gently from its place on her foreleg, and a similar glow began emanating from Renard's chest, the source of the glowing mostly concealed by the thicker fur present there.
"I didn't know he had a second one," Thresher commented, sounding genuinely interested for the first time. He gestured towards Shadow. "So you're Shadow? Heh...the black fur threw me off, but the play on your name is just fantastic."
"I get that a lot," Shadow muttered.
"What's your name?" Thresher asked, pointing towards Leaf, who turned up his nose indignantly. Thresher rolled his eyes, focusing on Shadow instead. "What's his name?"
"Leaf," Shadow supplied dully. Thresher stared at him, then at the young Leafeon.
"I feel like Echo is not amused by this," the Scizor chuckled. A pained expression crossed Shadow's face at comment, something that did not escape Thresher's notice, because he sobered up almost immediately. "Wait, don't tell me..."
"Unfortunately so," Renard said somberly, his eyes gazing numbly at the Scizor. "Echo and Rio were killed a few weeks ago. Astrid sensed it, in her usual fashion, and I confirmed it."
A peculiar expression crossed the Scizor's face at these words, and when he spoke, his tone was tightly controlled and almost stoic. "So that's why she was so adamant about protecting me, and why she wanted to meet with Blizzard so soon afterwards," he murmured, more to himself than any of the others present.
"Possibly. She did not elaborate as to her reasons, but I daresay you are likely correct," Renard answered. Leaf wandered over to where Bee-Bee was hovering, and the two began conversing, almost unnoticed by anyone else.
Thresher was silent for a few moments. "And A/C?" he inquired.
"I have not seen her recently, but-" Renard began, but Shadow jerked his head up, his silver eyes widening in bewilderment, the sudden movement catching the eye of the Ninetales.
"Wait...you know A/C?" he asked. Thresher looked over at the Espeon in poorly-concealed surprise.
"YOU know A/C?" Thresher asked, incredulously, but then paused. "Well, I suppose it's possible Echo introduced you..."
"Not likely. Echo rarely strayed from his territory except during the winter," Renard said, shaking his head.
"I met her a couple weeks ago. I needed tutoring for my psychic abilities after evolving," Shadow explained awkwardly.
"I see. Was she the tutor you were referring to earlier today?" Renard wondered. Shadow nodded, and the Ninetales smiled faintly, his tails fluttering. "Yes, we know A/C. She was on our trainer's team as well. There were six of us. Myself, Astrid, Thresher, Echo, A/C, and Blizzard."
"Uh...don't think I've met Blizzard," Shadow said doubtfully.
"Highly unlikely you would have. She's a female Glaceon," Thresher said dismissively. "Lives up in the snowy mountains these days."
"Is she related to Frost?" Shadow wondered aloud. From what he remembered, Frost had mentioned growing up in the snowy mountains, and he was a Glaceon. Plus, he had made vague references to making appointments to meet with family or something up in the mountains, so it was possible.
"Possibly," Thresher shrugged. "Glaceon are exceedingly rare Pokemon to see in general, with your overconfident friend being the first male of the species I've ever encountered. Other members of the evolutionary line are unlikely to have settled that far up north, so unless there's a pod of Glaceon somewhere, they might be related."
"A question for another time," Renard said seriously, his eyes scanning the area around them. "While I appreciate the assistance you've provided, hesitant as I am to label it as such, I think it is best if we departed swiftly. The forest remains far too hostile."
"Agreed," Thresher said idly, pointing down the path with his arm. "That's the swiftest way out of the forest. Although, I cannot imagine what drove you to come here in the first place, if not intervening on the territory war."
"We were investigating the vibes surrounding the forest. There has been an alarming pattern of conflicts surrounding the forest in recent weeks and maybe months, and I've been sensing something amiss," Renard explained seriously. "We came to examine the area and try to find the source, but your Ariados comrade intercepted us."
"She has her reasons, but I'm afraid she often lets her hatred of the Hive interfere with her judgment," Thresher lamented, shaking his head. "She is intelligent and capable, but woefully incapable of making tactical decisions. That is why I serve that role, but this situation demonstrates that she is a bit unstable and reckless."
"Perhaps the negative energy surrounding the forest is taking its toll on her as well," Renard murmured. "We did not ascertain its origins, only that it is located further up ahead."
Thresher scoffed. "Just about the only thing up ahead is the Old Chateau," he said dismissively. "It's an old, abandoned mansion, but remains the subject of superstition; almost everyone in the forest believes it to be haunted or cursed."
"Cursed?" Renard repeated. From beside him, Shadow's eyes widened, as if Thresher's mention of the old mansion had struck a deeply unpleasant chord with him.
Thresher shrugged impatiently. "Being haunted is the more popular rumor. Ghosts and malevolent spirits, and just the whole eerie atmosphere at work. No one's lived there for years."
"I'm surprised that no forest inhabitants have taken residence there," Renard commented. "If it has such a reputation, it could probably be one of the safer places to take temporary refuge."
"...Plasma."
All eyes turned to Shadow, as he had abruptly spoken to the air, his brow furrowed as he tried to recall something. Even Leaf and Bee-Bee had broken off their conversation to stare at the Espeon. However, Shadow didn't say anything further, appearing lost in thought.
Thresher cleared his throat. "You lot should probably get moving if you want to get out of the forest. I have other matters to tend to," he said seriously.
"Of course," Renard agreed with a solemn nod. "I pass no judgment as to the role you serve within this forest conflict, but I hope for your continued safety."
Thresher smirked. "Noted," he said dismissively, before looking past Renard and focusing upon Bee-Bee. "Oh, by the way...to me, you are still little more than a simple lackey for the Hive, but Ariana will see you differently. She will prioritize hunting you, either in pursuit of that stone, or for her own satisfaction. So if you are going to carry the Beedrillite, learn to use it, for your sake, and the sake of those you fight for."
With that note, the Scizor departed down the path, pausing only to sever the web barrier Ariana had constructed earlier, and soon disappeared into the darkness.
