Author's note: I think I'll just go ahead and put a content warning on this one for some stuff that happens toward the middle of this chapter. It's not up there with the crap I pulled back when Remi was beating the daylights out of Arashi, but I can see it making some folks uncomfortable.
... Also, y'all have no idea how hard it was to resist calling this chapter 'Unhanded,' ehehehe.~
"Please act fast!" Astrid cried, yanking an arrow from each wing.
Necrozma was already forming another Dragon Pulse, but Astrid didn't pay it too much mind as she hurriedly yanked an arrow from each wing and took off as fast as she could, a short burst of wind gracing her comrades from her hard flaps. The Blinding One's attacks didn't worry her too much, but she certainly hesitated when she looked at their blazing body that shined like the sun. She tried not to dwell on what she was thinking of doing for too long, since if she thought about the real logistics, she probably would give up and not put herself in such a horribly precarious position… but that was a moot point.
"W-what?!" Arashi cried, looking hesitant but still forming a Dark Pulse at his fingertips.
"What do you mean, act- what the fu-!" Raijin started to exclaim.
Perhaps they thought she was doing something completely stupid and was about to get incinerated by Necrozma's blinding plasma body, perhaps Necrozma thought whatever efforts she could possibly go to were all for naught, and perhaps they all were right, but Astrid nonetheless didn't pay it much mind. If Necrozma was giving them a rough time, then the easiest way to make sure they wouldn't be so troublesome was to make it so that her own comrades' attacks would hit easier, which a Spirit Shackle would handle in most cases had the Blinding One possessed a shadow with which to trap them. They didn't have a shadow, but if somehow, Astrid could give them one, even just a tiny one…
She didn't think about her movements, she just moved, darting straight up to one of the Blinding One's feet and sticking one wing against it somewhat haphazardly but still carefully enough so as not to burn the arrow she tightly clutched. With her other hand, she jabbed the second arrow she clutched through the muscles towards the end of her wing and into Necrozma's crystalline pieces, staking herself to them, then grabbed the first arrow she'd plucked and flung it down at her own shadow like a dart.
"What?!" Necrozma cried in surprise, shooting off a Dragon Pulse at her teammates.
"Arceus above!" Arashi hollered.
Lunala looked surprised too, but she didn't say much as she shoved Arashi and Raijin into another wormhole and flew upwards to avoid Necrozma's attack. The Greninja and Xurkitree fell right back out several meters from their original position moments later, the former with his eyes practically bulging out of his head and the other still as a statue. It became clear all too quickly what she'd meant by 'act fast.'
All at once, Astrid was feeling some horrendous sensations as the feathers between her skin and Necrozma's pieces burned, the pain from skewering her wing fully registered, and she figured out exactly what a Spirit Shackle felt like to all the creatures she'd used it against (or rather, even worse- ghosts were weak to their own type, after all). She could feel her skin burning and bubbling from being in contact with the gleaming dragon's form, and she dreaded what it would look like once she removed it… if there would be anything left to remove, anyway. It almost drowned out the feeling of a sharp object jabbing through part of her form, but that sensation wasn't unique to the edge of her wing. True to what Raijin had said when she'd first started testing her spectral arrows, she felt like a pincushion getting poked full of needles when her own shadow was stitched to the ground. It was awful, and her eyes turned to little pinpricks while she struggled to hang onto consciousness.
She wanted to yell at the top of her lungs, and yell she did. "FUCK YOU, NECROZMAAAAAAAAA…!"
She wasn't touching the ground, but the spectral stitches nonetheless reached up and tangled around her, then around Necrozma's foot where she'd staked herself. The Blinding One took notice and tried to fly off again, but that was no use- the spectral stitches holding Astrid in place held them in place too, even if it made the Decidueye feel like her lower limbs and her wing were getting ripped off from being pulled in opposite directions. She gritted her beak together and hissed in pain.
Her comrades, though, noticed the opportunity she'd presented them with very shortly thereafter, Lunala faster than anyone.
"Okay, you two!" the goddess cried, going back to looking focused. "Give it everything!"
Her words were apparently enough to snap Arashi and Raijin out of their shock, for the beginning of a Moongeist Beam started coalescing from the goddess' remaining light, which was joined by the beginnings of a Signal Beam and Dark Pulse.
"You're a genius, but you are crazy!" Arashi exclaimed, still wide-eyed at his partner's antics.
"W-we love you, Astrid…!" Raijin cried hesitantly, someplace between a hearty thank-you and a sarcastic farewell.
Lunala's stars flickered even more as she fired off her attack, which was joined by a blinding Signal Beam and a Dark Pulse blacker than a moonless midnight. Astrid knew her comrades weren't aiming at her, but nonetheless, seeing their attacks from the receiving point of view rather than the giving one put her on edge, as if somehow Spirit Shackling herself to Necrozma would cause her to feel the damage too.
Necrozma, however, let out a metallic growl but didn't attack yet, instead opening a wormhole in front of themselves that opened again behind Lunala and the two others of Team Starstorm, but apparently, Lunala had anticipated such too and opened one of her own that redirected it yet again to come crashing down onto Necrozma from above. Still, the gleaming dragon wasn't going to give up and take the hit, for as soon as the portal opened overhead, they pointed one claw up and shot a Photon Geyser back. It was an utterly ridiculous sight- three attacks all coalescing together, fragmented through the air in two sets of wormholes while another attack tried to stave them all off.
"Do! Not! Stop!" Lunala hissed in concentration, flickering even more and looking like she might fizzle out herself right there.
"Dammit, I am trying…!" Raijin cried, sounding pained himself too and twitching a bit.
"I'm not letting Astrid's efforts go to waste…!" Arashi breathed, clearly exerting himself too.
Astrid could still feel the spectral strings trying to pull them down, and she could still feel the arrow jabbed through her wing, but the searing pain of the area staked to Necrozma's foot had started to go numb. She couldn't see the area directly in contact with the blazing crystalline piece, but she knew good and well what it meant nonetheless- her skin and feathers were gone, and once she pulled back, she'd be looking at their charred remains. Her nerve endings weren't firing off as much as they had been at first simply because they were turned to ash and no longer existed. The feathers forming her hand were already looking bad enough, melting down to the shafts and turning black.
The Photon Geyser started to swallow up the opposing attacks, but the goddess and the expeditioners didn't stop trying.
"GyaaaAAAAAAAaaaaah…!" Lunala screeched, putting even more into the Moongeist Beam.
"You'll forgive me later…!" Raijin hollered, form shaking.
"I might go dark too!" Arashi exclaimed despite the impossibility of such.
The goddess' wings lost their stars, and the lovely purple and blue hues of her body started to turn black. Raijin's glow flickered just a bit and he started to go limp, to which he plugged his tail and one hand into the ground in an effort to absorb some of the energy he was quickly expending. If Astrid had been close enough to notice, she'd have seen Arashi with a focused look she formerly would've thought to be completely impossible for him to make.
The Photon Geyser started to get swallowed up, and Necrozma growled again as the attacks wavered back and forth. Astrid couldn't see it all happening very well, but she nonetheless didn't want to stay completely passive, and shakily reached to grab another arrow from her staked wing. She jabbed it into the gleaming dragon's form as best she could, which admittedly, wasn't nearly as well as usual, but nonetheless cracked it a bit…
… Which appeared to be just enough to accomplish what she wanted. Lunala gave one last cry of exertion, and the Blinding One's Photon Geyser was overwhelmed, eliciting a metallic shriek as all three attacks came crashing down on them. Fairly quickly, Necrozma themselves was going dim too, and the glowing golden pieces were fading to a less impressive black hue while the energy radiating off of them lessened significantly.
"YES!" Arashi exclaimed.
"You'll thank us later…!" Raijin's voice trailed off.
A large feline shape appeared to get ripped out of all the plasma, and the blinding lights themselves faded to nothingness as that same feline was given proper form. Astrid clamped her eyes shut, not sure if she herself was about to get hit too, but when she went crashing onto the ground along with the prismatic piece she was staked to and the rest of Necrozma's parts, she eased up just a bit after a few more moments of tenseness. It was nice to feel like her legs and her wing weren't getting ripped off, but she couldn't help holding her breath in anticipation of an attack that never came, and thus eased up after several seconds of not feeling it. Her eyelids fluttered open and she breathed again, where the first thing she saw was Arashi darting over to her.
"Hey! Astrid!" he cried, skidding to a halt and kneeling down beside her. "Are you okay?! Er-! That's stupid, of course you're not!"
She blinked once. "A-ah, did we…?"
Thud!
Both she and her partner were startled yet again at the feeling of a much larger creature hitting the ground behind them. Solgaleo's body touched down, free of the prismatic armor pieces controlling him beforehand, his own eyes looking like a glitching screen as they fluttered. He didn't stay on his feet for long, for he tried to take a single step and collapsed in a dim grey heap. Necrozma's pieces weren't moving at all.
Lunala wasn't too far behind, either. She was as dark as dark could be, just as they'd found her in Vanishing Swamp, and she shivered in the air for just a moment before sprawling on the ground too. Where what once looked like moonlight gathered up in her chest, there appeared to be a black hole within her broken ribcage. Raijin reached out and shakily caught her shoulders, kneeling down with her as she fell.
"Urgh…" the goddess groaned.
"Lunala…" Raijin's voice trailed off, cracking a bit. "Lunala, you're dark… You're not supposed to be dark like this…"
Astrid took note of it too, and Arashi wore a hesitant look at seeing her in such bad shape. The Xurkitree nudged Lunala a bit as if to rouse her back up, but she still wasn't moving, so instead he gently touched the side of her face and made sparks in the other hand as if the resulting flickers of light would restore her somehow. When she still didn't move, a clear cry of distress came from him, and Arashi froze up with a frightened look while Astrid simply blinked some more. For the way it perturbed her comrades, she almost felt bad for wishing harm on the Light Trio, but she still found no pity in her heart for the gods of Ultra Space.
"… Potion!" the Greninja said quickly, one hand going to the bag on Astrid's back. "Arceus above, get a potion-"
*Don't,* came a familiar but detached voice in their heads, belonging to none other than the motionless goddess herself.
Raijin twitched, ceasing to make sparks, and Arashi stopped undoing the flap abruptly.
"Oh, don't tell me…" the Xurkitree said, voice heavy and uncertain. "Y-you're too tired to open your mouth and speak normally…?"
*That's right,* came Lunala's voice, body still limp. *I'm still here, but… I need healing that none of you can give me. I'm back to square zero and no amount of potions, berries, or seeds is going to fix me. I need light, and our usual source is down.*
They weren't sure whether that was comforting or even worse.
Arashi was the first to verbalize such. "W-what does that mean?!" he cried in dismay. "D-does that mean you're going to…?!"
He couldn't finish the sentence, but Astrid knew good and well what he meant- he wanted to know if she was going to die. It wasn't entirely unreasonable to ask from the sound of her state, and Raijin apparently was thinking the same thing, for he clutched up one of her hands and wrapped an arm around her head as if to keep her out of death's clutches.
Nonetheless, she replied, *No. I'm just… useless for the time being. As much as I'd like to give you a wormhole to the top of Megalo Tower, I can't muster the energy. My body is completely shut down and my mind isn't too far off.*
That was… reassuring, at least in some regard, but also concerning in many others. Astrid couldn't be bothered to care, but her comrades seemed at least a bit assuaged even if they were still greatly concerned for the goddess' wellbeing.
"Lunala…" Raijin said softly.
*Carry on without me. I'm just going to weigh you all down in my state, and the last thing I want is to get in the way of stopping Void.*
The Xurkitree twitched a bit, still clutching her as if he didn't want to let her go.
*You'll be fine,* she kept on. *Raijin, you're still our emissary, yeah? I know you'll make me proud.*
"I… I just don't wanna leave you here," he replied, voice distorting a bit. "I don't wanna leave you alone like this… W-what if something happens to you…?"
*That's not anything that any of you can help,* the goddess gently replied. *But you can put me at ease by keeping on without me. I know I'm telling you to do another hard thing, but I'm telling you- leave me. You, Raijin, have been functioning without me by your side for a long time, and I know just how well you three of Team Starstorm work together. Astrid has the analyzing skills, you have the expertise, and if anyone has your backs, it's Arashi. I'm only going to drag you all down.*
Still, the Xurkitree looked like he didn't want to accept such, but he didn't protest.
"Hey, she's right," Arashi quickly chimed in, soft but determined. "And besides, she's a goddess. We should listen to her."
Astrid couldn't help thinking that blindly listening to the Light Trio members simply on account of their godhood was a stupid, stupid idea after the deception about her true fate, but she kept that to herself. Still, it was obvious enough that the goddess was right- there was no sun for her to absorb, and the three of them couldn't possibly hope to get her an adequate light source in any reasonable amount of time.
"She is right," the Decidueye affirmed.
At that, the Xurkitree appeared to relent, even if hesitantly, for he gave her one last squeeze before turning loose of her.
*Make us proud, you three. I know you've got it… in you…*
Her words faded away into faint static. She was out, completely unresponsive.
Raijin straightened up and darted over to the still-sprawled Astrid too, albeit with a rather haphazard stride, and Arashi set back to undoing the bag's flap to grab an Oran berry.
"You must feel awful too," Arashi said, yanking the berry out. "I mean, you hit yourself with your own super effective attack after Necrozma sliced you! That… That takes some serious guts!"
"… I felt awful several minutes ago, and now it's just dull," the feathered ghost replied before her partner shoved the blue fruit into her beak. She didn't waste any time in ripping a chunk of its flesh out and scarfing it down. "And frankly, of all the painful sensations I've felt, an arrow through my wing isn't even close to the worst."
"Sheesh, I would've offered to get nailed down myself if you'd said that was your plan," her partner kept on. "Their body is hot and you burn easier than the rest of us, and those arrows wouldn't hurt me as bad!"
"But if she'd said it, it wouldn't have worked," Raijin said to the contrary, kneeling down beside them. "I'd have offered too, but… something tells me they would've been a lot more willing to vaporize either you or me if we'd touched them, Arashi."
"Exactly," Astrid affirmed, swallowing another berry chunk. "I had to act fast before they could do anything to stop me. I guess it worked."
"Are you sure your wing doesn't bother you…?" the Xurkitree inquired, studying her. "That… seems strange…"
"Well, I can feel that one arrow stuck in it and that's not comfortable, but the actual burn, no," the Decidueye replied. "And… that doesn't really bode well. U-um… Can someone help me out and break the arrow's end off…?"
Arashi was on it rather quickly, grabbing the end and snapping it while being careful not to jostle it around too much while still stuck through Astrid's appendage. She hesitated a bit, but when she gave her hand a good look, she quickly discovered that most of it was outright missing- the barbs were entirely melted, and the shafts weren't much better off for how blackened they were.
Her face fell. "Shit," she cursed under her breath.
"That looks… pretty bad," Arashi mused hesitantly, nonetheless grabbing the end of the arrow jabbing through her wing's bend. "Like really, really bad…"
"It is," Astrid flatly acknowledged.
"I'm glad it doesn't feel as ugly as it looks," Raijin said reluctantly.
Nonetheless, with a swift motion, Arashi broke the end of the arrow off, and Astrid tried to un-impale her wing… but it didn't slide straight off the broken arrow quill like she'd been hoping it would. She couldn't feel any pain to the burnt flesh itself, but the skin and feathers immediately surrounding it were stuck to the glassy surface and wouldn't come loose so easily, which she did feel.
"Shit!" she hissed, looking more flustered.
"What's wrong?" Arashi asked quickly, looking concerned. "Does it hurt now…?"
"It's about to hurt a lot more," Astrid replied, gritting her beak. "Arashi, just… have a shuriken ready, and Raijin, you've got metal hands, so can I bite one of your fingers for a second…?"
Arashi looked completely unsure as to what she was insinuating but did as she said anyway, and Raijin wordlessly stuck one finger in her beak while grabbing her other, much less injured hand. She hesitated for a second, then ripped her wing off of Necrozma's piece with as much force as she could manage, which was accompanied by a sound similar to an object stuck in mud being yanked out.
Fairly quickly, she was feeling a much more pronounced stinging sensation. "Shit!" she cursed again, sounding muffled as her beak clamped down on the copper strip inside.
Her teammates didn't have any issue deducing why she was so flustered, for when she ripped her wing away, the area that had been staked down was burnt all the way through to her muscles (which even then had a dehydrated look) and the vicinity surrounding it, feathers and skin alike, had started to melt and bubble. The charred area was easy enough to remove, but the melted flesh and feathers had stuck to Necrozma's piece. When Astrid had ripped her wing away, some of it stuck altogether or partially peeled off, exposing more deep skin layers and muscle surfaces. Sinewy flesh strands strayed from Astrid's form to the prism piece they still clung to, or draped over the ground like spreading ivy. Her entire body tensed up, and she squeezed Raijin's hand as hard as she could.
"Cut it off! Cut it off!" she fussed in a hurried, muffled voice, biting even harder into Raijin's finger.
"C-cut what off?!" Arashi asked with a wavering voice, looking thoroughly perturbed. "I-I know this is a bad time to ask, but…!"
"The bits that are still hanging on!" Astrid replied, practically putting marks from her beak into Raijin's finger. "Just cut it all off…!"
Her partner got the picture, and albeit with a shaking hand, did as she said. He sliced through the melted feathers and skin that had tried to stay attached, leaving the Decidueye still with a nasty wound but one that didn't have useless scraps of flesh clinging to her form in vain. The upper end of her wing was practically just pink and red muscle surfaces with no skin or feathers to cover them, and every time she winced a bit as Arashi sliced another melted strand off, her comrades could see the fibers tense up slightly.
"Gods above, Astrid," Arashi breathed, giving her a reluctant but amiable look. "You really took one for the team here."
"Really," Raijin affirmed as well.
She didn't say anything, still biting down as hard as she could. If her Beast comrade's hand hadn't been made of metal, she would've worried about accidentally ripping part of it off, but the Xurkitree was masking his discomfort fairly well and didn't pull back from her at all. Arashi cut through the remnants as quick as he could, almost wincing himself as he did so.
Nonetheless, in a minute or two Astrid stopped feeling the slicing movements, and she eased up a bit.
"Hey, I think it's alright now," her partner said softly, the shuriken dissipating.
Gingerly, she looked back at the remains of her wing. It was a mess, alright, with some feathers partially burnt and others not, but it was at least a clean mess, if such a thing could exist. There weren't any fleshy sheets dangling by sinewy threads, and though she had layers showing that undoubtedly should not have been, they were more uniform with all of the burnt and ripped pieces removed. The surface stung in ways she likely wouldn't be shaking off any time soon, but she knew that eventually, her nerves would stop firing off so harshly and it would become tolerable.
She turned loose of Raijin and she got back to her feet with haphazard movements (on account of not using one wing to steady herself). Arashi followed suit and gently stuck one hand on her back, giving her an amiable but concerned look, and Raijin straightened out too with an arm wrapped around her shoulders.
"I know you're not actually alright, but are you feeling like it'll be alright…?" the Greninja inquired, his eyelids drooping a bit.
Astrid nodded. "I've felt worse pain," she replied. "And hopefully once we get into Megalo Tower, the way that healing happens faster in a dungeon will help me out…" Gingerly, she held her wing out and tried to move what was left of her hand, but there was absolutely no use to it- she couldn't hope to grab anything, much less nock an arrow. Her face fell even more and she groaned heavily. "And this bothers me more than anything. I can't fire arrows with one hand… Arceus above, that may have been a stupid idea after all…"
"It wasn't," Raijin said to the contrary. "We owe that win to you and Lunala, and we might've lost Lunala in vain if you didn't make that move."
Arashi, however, didn't disagree with the Xurkitree but clearly had different ideas. "No, you can totally fire arrows with one hand!" he exclaimed, starting to grin. "Not alone, but you can!"
Both the other two of the Starstorm trio looked to him, and with a giggle, he darted around behind the Decidueye, sticking close enough to brush against her feathers. He wordlessly grabbed one of the vines to her hood and held it up, grinning all the while.
Astrid blinked. "You mean…"
"Synergy!" Arashi happily said. "I don't need both of my hands to attack, so you can totally borrow one!"
Raijin perked up too. "That's true for me as well," he noted. "You and I already practiced that maneuver where you shoot from behind me, and we could fit this into it."
She eased up again. "… You guys are right," she said, glancing between her teammates. She started to grin a bit. "I'll just have to keep one of you close by, but that shouldn't be a problem, right…?"
"Not at all," Raijin affirmed.
"Nope!" Arashi likewise concurred, letting the vine go. "Just say 'Gimme a hand!' or something and we'll know!"
The Decidueye giggled a bit, looking more at peace.
"Are you gonna be able to fly, though…?" Raijin inquired, tapping his fingers together. "That's something we can't help you with…"
"Yes," Astrid affirmed, nodding. "That's part of the reason I stabbed towards the end and not in the middle, so I'd still be able to flap it and the damage would be on the smallest joint."
Arashi chuckled. "Only you would think of the most strategic way to stab yourself!"
"And if you were gonna stab yourself, I guarantee you'd pick your hand instead of your shoulder," Astrid playfully shot back.
He didn't protest such.
Their Beast comrade, however, turned his attention to the limp body of Solgaleo, gingerly approaching the hulking feline as if he might jump up and strike despite his own dimness. Astrid and Arashi both perked up, and the feathered ghost went back to gripping her arrow tightly while Arashi drew up her vine with which to fire it. Her eyes narrowed, and Arashi looked cautious.
"He better be down too," the Decidueye said harshly. "They all better be down."
Her partner gave her somewhat of a funny look at the mention of 'all' being down, inclusive of the entire Light Trio, as opposed to 'both,' referring to only their assailants. He didn't question her, and she didn't seem to care too much either way if someone thought her antics strange.
Nonetheless, Raijin knelt down next to Solgaleo, softly saying, "Solgaleo…? Is the real you in there…? I-it's me, Raijin, your emissary…"
At the mere mention of the Xurkitree's name, the hulking god started to stir ever-so-slightly, his eyes staying closed but his mouth opening to bare fangs and snarl. Just as fast, Raijin put both hands on Solgaleo's flank and started sparking like a tempestuous sky, which Astrid easily deduced was a direct-hit Discharge of an absurd amount of volts into the god's body. The feline's eyes stayed closed, but his mouth opened again to roar in pain, paws twitching in very weak but still threatening gestures.
"Forgive me, Solgaleo…!" Raijin cried.
And again, the god's body went limp. Raijin took his hands off, albeit still holding them out as if maybe Solgaleo still had energy left that needed to be zapped out of him.
However, a telepathic voice graced their minds, not belonging to Necrozma and certainly not to Lunala. It dredged along as if the words were a laborious process to form, gradually turning to static, then nothingness. *… This world would be so much prettier without you in it, Six-Seven.*
The Xurkitree twitched, then slowly backed away, albeit rather cautiously. "Y-you can say that all you want, I know it's just the poison…" his voice pitifully trailed off. He appeared to go limp too for a second, then caught himself for just a moment before collapsing too. "Ah… I need a potion…"
Arashi was quick in retrieving one from the bag and darted over to their comrade. Astrid, though, perked up quite a lot at the fact Solgaleo had still been stirring, and turned her attention to Necrozma with a blank expression but utterly wild eyes.
"You are not allowed to go dim," the Greninja said in jest but pointedly at the same time, spraying Raijin with the potion.
The Xurkitree wasn't. "Hey, don't worry," he said, staying limp for a second before picking himself up. "You don't think I'd abandon you and Astrid in hostile territory that you're unfamiliar with, do you?"
Arashi giggled. "Not in a million years, Raijin!"
Astrid, though, stalked over to one of Necrozma's pieces- a long prism that she recognized as forming part of their face. She clutched it up in the talons of one foot, still clutching her arrow in her intact hand, and stared straight into their eyes.
"So you and Solgaleo are still kicking, huh…?" she said in a tone icy enough to put chills down anyone's spine. "Maybe you can't see me, but if your mind is still intact, you'll hear me. And I want you to hear me, you devil."
Arashi and Raijin noticed her holding their piece soon enough, and the Xurkitree gave a little twitch while Arashi merely studied her.
"H-hey, be careful…!" Raijin cautioned.
"Astrid?" her partner inquired.
The Decidueye, though, erupted into a fit of rage, her voice thundering as she stabbed at the prism again and again. "FUCK! YOU!" she yelled, jabbing with the arrow with each word. "Don't you think I'm ever gonna forget what you said, and don't you think I'm doing any of this out of any obligation to you! I'm not your pawn, neither is Raijin, neither is Arashi, and neither is ANYONE ELSE!"
The prism wasn't breaking, but it was certainly getting far more scratched up and cracked on the surface than the one inhabiting the body it belonged to would've liked. The arrow, on the other hand, couldn't stand up to Astrid's force repeatedly slamming it into a hard object, and the shaft snapped when she went for another hit. It was no matter to her, and she ripped out another one with which to keep going.
Her comrades, on the other hand, were startled at her sudden wrathful display, darting over as quick as they could while she stabbed away at Necrozma's piece.
"Hey! Astrid!" Arashi cried.
"Astrid! Hey!" Raijin called, much more frantic.
The Xurkitree's hand tried to grab Astrid's, and Arashi wrapped his arms around her in what resembled a hug but acted more as a restraint. The Decidueye barely paid it any mind, going for yet another hit.
"Hey! You can calm down now…!" Raijin tried to ease her.
"The fighting's over, Astrid!" Arashi likewise sought to calm her nerves. "It's alright! They're not gonna hurt us anymore!"
The feathered ghost's eyes twitched as the voices of her comrades registered in her head, but she still went for one last hit while screeching in wrath. "You don't deserve salvation, you filthy liar!"
Again, the arrow snapped. She hissed in wrath, nonetheless not fighting back as Arashi practically pinned her arms to her side and both of Raijin's hands enveloped her uninjured one. Her talons unfurled and the prism piece dropped back into its former position, but Astrid still stared daggers into the eyes, hoping Necrozma was watching through them.
"Hey, you can relax, it's all gonna be fine," Arashi breathed softly but heavily. "Breathe, Astrid… We're okay now; you don't have to keep this up…"
"It's just the poison, Astrid, just the poison," Raijin said gently. "They didn't mean any of it. It's upsetting to me too to hear them talk like that, but it's not really them. Once it wears off, and it will wear off, they'll be back to their old self and we can all be friends like normal."
Her eyes stayed narrowed down at the prism piece, but she didn't make any moves. What her teammates said was true, but her rage went far deeper than that. Sure, it was the poison talking and making Necrozma and Solgaleo say things that they ordinarily never would, but that wasn't the Decidueye's real grievance. Telling her to take charge of her fate, then saying they'd rip her away from her newly created- and content- life once she'd solved their problems was something she just couldn't let go. Giving them hell in battle was cathartic, and had her teammates not been there to stop her, she probably would've kept going until she either snapped all of her arrows or shattered all of Necrozma's pieces.
But no, she couldn't do that. It was already hard enough to kill a god or a goddess as it was, and with her two best friends watching, she couldn't stoop that low. It'd upset and unsettle them to no end, and she wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing she'd made her friends see it. They'd learn soon enough… and they could get enraged at Necrozma if they wanted to too. She definitely wouldn't have minded them giving Ultra Space's highest power a good thrashing in her stead if they were so inclined. They had a mission to accomplish- she couldn't throw them off of their path.
She took a deep breath, then slowly let it go. "You guys are right," she acknowledged, which technically wasn't a lie. "Sorry. I… I got really worked up."
"I don't blame you," Arashi said, still clutching her, albeit with his grip relaxing into an embrace instead of a restraint. "They were saying some really horrible things."
"… I'm not very happy with them either, but I can forgive them," Raijin calmly noted. "It just doesn't make hearing it any less painful for now."
She let out another deep breath, closing her eyes and refocusing. Her comrades let go of her, and when she opened her eyes again, she stared at the ground for a few moments to regain her composure. The eyes of the prism piece still stared up at her, and she gave it one last furious glance before looking up, free of anger, to her teammates.
"… Well, I guess it's just us," she mused simply. "And I'm okay with that. You guys ready to ditch this place and go give Void hell…?"
"I'm always ready to give Void hell," Raijin affirmed with no trouble.
"Let's do it!" Arashi likewise concurred, grinning as though nothing were amiss.
She nodded, and soon the Starstorm trio was off again, leaving the Light Trio as limp, battered figures on the ground.
