Author's note: When I was a wee little girl, there used to be a restaurant close to my house with a sign in each of their designated pickup spots saying that those parking spaces were for customers picking up their orders ONLY and all others would be 'crushed and melted.' It closed down eventually, but I always remembered that sign fondly and wondered if anyone actually followed through with that threat (very likely not, because legality and all)… Well, that might sound completely unrelated to anything, but… YOU'LL SEE, BWAHAHAHA~!

Also, here's your heads-up that this one's gonna get intense. I mostly say that for one specific scene involving a certain Decidueye going ballistic with an arrow, and I think it's pretty obvious whenever it's about to happen if you'd rather skip down a little when it does.


Zariel took a single plodding step towards the Starstorm trio, and when she did, it was Arashi's turn to hold Astrid's vine while the Decidueye fired her arrow, but with a single blue-hot breath, the Charizard incinerated it while chuckling maliciously. The way the burning fireball overhead flickered a bit with its wavering flames illuminated Zariel's face with an almost unsettling glow, her wild eyes glinting with a lust for blood and her bared fangs reflecting an eerie redness. The crimson trickles certainly didn't make her look any less threatening, for she moved with an almost unnatural fluidity despite her fairly grievous wounds, and with the antics she was prone to pulling, it almost begged the question of if it was all her own blood in the first place. The other expeditioners certainly had plenty of power to go around, but if someone like Zariel was already an utter lunatic without her Mega form fueling some aggressive desires… the gods only knew what she was up to.

"W-what're you here for, Zariel?!" Arashi demanded, sounding determined but his voice tinged by nervousness nonetheless. "We already beat you once, and you're clearly already hurt! Even a brute like you should know when to pick your battles!"

The Charizard chuckled again, more blue embers escaping her maw. "And you're as funny as ever, Smiley! I do know when to pick my battles, and right now, I'm picking you three.~ Remi got a little worried that you might feel alone, all by yourself without Necrozma's light to brighten your day, so I thought I'd just bring you the light of my fire. I'm sure you missed it."

At the mention of Remi's name, Arashi flinched a bit, and of all the things to miss, Zariel's flames weren't anywhere in that category for any of the Starstorm trio (especially not the ones who had actually had to face her in battle). Her words were like someone meeting an old group of friends, but her tone was sarcastic and mocking, borderline daring them to raise their voices in protest only so she could laugh at them some more. She took another step forward, chuckling some more, mostly to herself.

Raijin, however, pointed a nest of lightning bolts in one hand at her, a spark travelling along his form. "You take one more step, and I'll fry you."

Zariel's face lit up some more with sadistic glee. "Six-Seven is threatening me?! Let me tell you something, sparky motherfucker- I have been dying to meet you after those little runts said you kicked Astrid's ass, but I did not expect it to be like this!" Some more cackling laughter left her accompanied by smoke and embers, her expression contorting wildly. However, she wasn't taking another step, and whether it was because she simply didn't feel the need or because she was actually considering the Xurkitree's threat was impossible to tell.

A small snarl left Astrid's beak, her own expression contorting, albeit with wrath and disgust. "This isn't someone we can talk to," she said in a low voice. "Look at her. I'm willing to bet Dren already worked her over and she's still going like nothing's wrong."

"We're really gonna have to give it to her then, aren't we?" Arashi inquired, studying the draconic figure. "We're either gonna have to damage her so much that she can't keep going or… y'know…"

He didn't have to finish the thought- they'd have to damage her body so badly that she couldn't possibly run after them even if the pain and fatigue wasn't registering, or they'd have to kill her outright. Of course, all things considered, those two things seemed equivalent, as even if they left her in such a damaged state, they'd still be killing her even if not straight away. The only question was how much she could take while still oblivious to the effects on her body, for she stood before them smirking while gashes in her chest and neck still dripped blood and one of her wings had chunks of flesh torn out around the joint…

An electric groan of dismay came from Raijin. "This is gonna get ugly."

"Well, it's not gonna be pretty," Astrid said flatly.

Nonetheless, Zariel laughed some more, fluttering her wings a bit like a playful bug flitting around a meadow. "Y'know what, traitor, I'll play by your rules. I won't take another step, since I don't need to! You're all fucking FINISHED!"

True to her words, it wasn't a step she took, but rather a flap, lifting off into the air and spewing a wickedly hot Flamethrower from her maw. Astrid phased into the ground while her comrades darted aside, though she could still feel some rather worrying effects above- scorching heat that deformed the surface and made her shudder even as it missed her. She thought about re-emerging and trying to stab Zariel's shadow directly to lock her down, but without the weight of the Charizard's body on the ground, she had no idea where to target. Still, she could feel where her comrades were and instead re-emerged next to Raijin, whom Arashi also darted over to with the flames fizzling out.

"You are not getting in anyone's way again!" Raijin declared, sparks filling his hands.

"Hold my vine!" Astrid cried.

Arashi did as the Decidueye asked while Raijin fired off a Discharge that the Charizard absolutely could not avoid, and Astrid quickly picked out a path amid all the bolts that her arrow could hit Zariel through… but even as the lightning struck Zariel, she breathed another Flamethrower that yet again threatened to scorch them all. Again Astrid's arrow was incinerated, and though Raijin's attacks undeniably hit extremely hard, Zariel was still smirking wildly. Sparks danced along her form for a moment, indicating she indeed had taken the hit, but she only looked mildly annoyed whenever her wings stalled for a second at the voltage coursing through her body.

Arashi darted aside while throwing a flurry of Water Shurikens, and Astrid flapped both of her wings to follow along while yanking Raijin along with her. It was a narrow avoidance, the glassy ground deforming with the heat again, and though Arashi had the type advantage, with Zariel's Drought in place, quite a bit of the water evaporated into steam. His attack didn't even hit her, for with considerable swiftness, she darted further up into the air to hover around the miniature sun that had taken form overhead, all the while flapping her wings to create a number of blades made of air. Astrid's injured wing took a steely glow and she held it up like a shield, Arashi ducking inside of its curve while Raijin crouched down behind her.

Clang!

"Ngh-!" the Decidueye grunted in pain, the hardened state still not saving her from the pain that resulted when one Air Slash blade struck her injury. It felt like having the flesh sliced off all over again, but she kept it together.

"Don't go losing your entire wing…!" Arashi exclaimed.

Raijin, though, had other thoughts. "Watch out, you two," he said, sparking again.

Astrid and Arashi took the warning, Arashi darting behind the Xurkitree and Astrid following suit by phasing in and out of the ground while plucking another arrow. Blue flames spilled out of Zariel's maw again as if she just couldn't contain the fires burning within her, only made hotter by the miniature sun blazing in near proximity. Raijin, though, sent a Discharge right back at her, her fire stalling against his lightning.

"Gimme a hand," Astrid said quickly.

"You got it!" Arashi replied, pulling her vine up.

From their vantage point, it was hard to see the Charizard through the embers and bolts, but Astrid noticed something rather quickly when she locked onto her shadow- she was moving again. If she'd let the arrow go right that moment, it would've missed, since Zariel's shadow darted towards them… and she didn't particularly like the most apparent reason for why a creature with Zariel's arsenal of moves would try to get close to anyone. Flamethrower, Dragon Breath, and Air Slash could all be utilized from afar, but Mega Punch needed close proximity.

"No, no!" the Decidueye exclaimed, quickly redirecting her arrow upwards into the fray.

She aimed for the trajectory Zariel had to be following, and sure enough, when the Charizard let up on the blue fire quicker than Raijin let up on his bolts, there was a Charizard with an arrow jabbed into her chest. The spectral stitches latched onto her shadow… but aside from chipping away at Zariel's borderline unstoppable determination, it still put her close enough to do what she wanted to do. She dropped down through the bolts, still smirking, a clawed fist drawn back…

Crack!

A sound akin to a glass vase breaking graced everyone's senses, which was definitely out of place, quickly followed by a distorted metallic screeching sound that made Astrid and Arashi tense up out of sheer unpleasantness. For just a second, she wondered if Necrozma had clung to a shred of consciousness and that was the most they could telepathically muster out at herself and her teammates for having downed them- just some angry, shrieking words that became unintelligible for the static that clouded their messages whenever they were weak… However, it wasn't Necrozma. It was Raijin, who twitched and stumbled backwards with one hand clutching the side of his head.

They didn't have much time to figure out exactly what kind of an injury Zariel had caused before the Charizard had more flames welling up in her maw. With a Quick Attack, Arashi swiftly got both himself and their Beast comrade out of the way, and Astrid phased into the ground while ripping another arrow free. The Charizard would be inflicting a lot more unpleasantness on them all if she wasn't dealt with, and knowing she was locked down, Astrid phased back out behind her and jabbed her arrow into Zariel's back between her wings as hard as she could. The draconic wings flapped a bit, but just as fast, Astrid was phasing back into the ground to avoid the flame on Zariel's tail catching her when the Charizard whipped it around in an effort to throw her off.

Arashi, though, was already getting a good look at Raijin's state, and Astrid quickly got the picture too whenever she popped back out next to her teammates tangled on the ground.

"… Raijin!" Arashi gasped, expression horrified as he quickly turned loose and straightened himself out.

Astrid's face fell and her heart sunk whenever she saw the damage. The Xurkitree still had his glow, which was a good sign at least, but sparks leaked from a huge crack in his head that had broken through the outward spiky shell. They couldn't see much inside, but nonetheless, it was almost like looking at a berry that had been sliced open with a large seed still intact within it, albeit all metallic instead of organic. He was alive, but the pain had to be tremendous.

Nonetheless, Raijin too picked himself, albeit with very haphazard movements, saying in a distorted voice, "I'm fine, I'm fine…!"

Astrid and Arashi both knew he was anything but fine, but he nonetheless formed another mass of sparks between his hands that he aimed at Zariel.

The Charizard grinned wildly, evidently thoroughly enamored with having felt something crack under her fist, and her wings started to flutter in the beginnings of an Air Slash. "There we go!" she cried in crazed excitement.

The Starstorm trio definitely wasn't going to back down, for Astrid plucked another arrow while Arashi held her vine and formed a Dark Pulse at his fingertip. Zariel's wings beat once, but before they could do much, she was on the receiving end of a Discharge, Spirit Shackle, and Dark Pulse that she had absolutely no hope of avoiding. It was already ridiculous enough that she was barely registering the wounds she had already, but even if it wasn't fazing her that much, her eyes still went a bit wide when she fully realized she couldn't move from her position. The rush of battle had clearly dulled her senses to anything that wasn't her targets, and at that moment, she realized she couldn't take another step or another flap. She still didn't seem to care much, but nonetheless…

"GWAAAARGH!"

Whatever attack she'd been planning to use came to a screeching halt. A burst of energy radiated out from her and the miniature sun from her Drought subsided, leaving an ordinary Charizard. It appeared the pain and fatigue of the heavy damage she'd sustained finally seemed to set in when her Mega evolution had been broken, for her eyes went wide and her maw hung open, the rest of her going limp. She wasn't covered in the usual jagged burn marks that Raijin's lightning usually entailed (simply because burning a Fire-type likely took an act of a god), but she was certainly feeling its effects along with Arashi's Dark Pulse, and when she collapsed in a pathetic sparking heap, Astrid's arrows in her chest jabbed further into her hide and snapped off inside. Her wings weren't moving, her claws weren't twitching… Zariel was just a motionless heap with a dim flame on her tail and a concerning amount of blood trickling out of her wounds.

The Starstorm trio paused. Astrid reached for another arrow and Arashi stayed slightly tense.

"Is she…?" Arashi breathed, voice trailing off uncertainly.

"I hope so," Astrid said icily.

Raijin, on the other hand, evidently took the sight for what it was and drooped down into a kneeling position with one hand clutching his head again. The other two immediately turned their attention back to their comrade, Astrid edging closer and gently sticking a wing around him while Arashi looked like he wanted to hug the Xurkitree but didn't want to touch the sparks.

"H-hey…" Astrid said hesitantly.

Arashi winced the moment his eyes fell on their comrade again. "Arceus above, Raijin…"

"Damn, this hurts…!" the Xurkitree cried, voice distorting and almost turning to static. "I-I'll be fine, you two, I just… n-need a minute to… g-get ahold of myself…"

Astrid pulled him in closer, wrapping her other wing around him too. She could feel the Xurkitree's currents racing, but when her grasp tightened, he seemed to relax a bit. Her feathers fluffed out on end and she definitely felt the sparks leaking from the break, but she didn't mind them too much.

Arashi darted around behind her, reaching for the bag's flap. "Do you need a potion? Would that help?"

"No, no, no," Raijin said quickly, a bit less distorted but still definitely sounding off. "Don't heal me. I'm not going to waste a potion just to feel better, and if one of you knocked me out, a Reviver Seed's not gonna fix this. I can take the pain, okay…? I-I'll be fine…"

Arashi looked like he didn't fully believe it, and Astrid had some serious doubts that their comrade was as 'fine' as he was saying he was, but she didn't verbalize them. Getting one's head cracked open was definitely not a minor injury, and she was amazed he hadn't lost consciousness already as it was, but perhaps it was sheer willpower to see their mission through…

However, something else caught their attention when a small wheezing sound graced their senses. Astrid and Arashi looked at each other with wide eyes, then looked to Zariel, the only other creature in the vicinity.

"I-is she still alive?!" the Greninja cried, a mix of surprise, horror, and amazement.

Another sound followed, one like someone gasping for air, then a heavier wheeze like someone whose body wasn't quite listening when their brain told it to breathe. Zariel's claws twitched ever-so-slightly, and Astrid's beak fell open in stupor.

"Dear gods, what does it take?!" Astrid snarled in disgust. "Do we need to dismember her or something?! I'd go shoot her eyes out and run, but she might just take that as incentive to target literally everything!"

Raijin, though, broke free of Astrid's grasp (albeit shakily) and noted, "H-hey, I think I can take care of it pretty fast… If I grab her and use Discharge, well… l-let's just say, it wouldn't be the first time I've killed someone that way…"

Astrid eyed him, and Arashi perked up. The Decidueye remembered taking that exact attack while testing her form's capabilities, which definitely hadn't felt good in the slightest… and Zariel was weak to electricity. Arashi winced, getting a very uncomfortable look.

"Do it," Astrid said, eyes still locked on the Charizard. "Zap her extra hard for me too."

"Don't worry," the Xurkitree replied, striding towards the draconic figure with a slightly unsteady step.

Arashi, though, huddled closer to Astrid, borderline hiding behind her. "I can't watch this," he said softly, barely eyeing the Charizard and tensing up. "She deserves it, but gods above, I do not need to see someone actually die."

"I do," Astrid replied, wrapping her non-injured wing around her partner. "I need to know for sure that she won't bother us again."

"Tell me when it's over," the Greninja said, ducking inside her wing and pulling some of the leaves in her hood to cover his eyes.

"I will," she answered, curling her wing tighter.

More gasping sounds came from Zariel, but she seemed to perk up some more whenever she felt a metallic hand touch her. Her eyes shot wide, and her claws unfurled as if in some disarming gesture. Raijin's fingers curled around her, and her wings fluttered weakly as if she were trying to fly off.

"H-hey…" the Charizard choked out. "H-hold on, sparky motherfucker…"

Raijin paused, then wrenched her up, her arms weakly twitching as if trying and failing to grab the one touching her. She gasped some more as if the Beast was strangling her, but they all knew that wasn't the case and it was just her weak state making her behave with such frailty.

"What?" Raijin sharply asked, voice distorting.

She gasped again, evidently finding her breath enough to speak with a somewhat normal, albeit pained voice. "Y-you know I'm not… poisoned, right…? You know Void never touched me, and S-Salem- urgh…! Salem never controlled my mind, right…?"

Astrid's eyes went even narrower, and Arashi's widened slightly from behind their cover.

Raijin wasn't too amused. "… And is that supposed to make me pity you? Frankly, that makes everything you did even worse."

Zariel chuckled as best she could, starting to get something of a weak smile on her face. "N-no.~ I know what I a-am and I'm never gonna pretend o-otherwise.~ I just thought you should know."

"You're sick."

She felt a spark from his grip, and just as quick she cried out again, "H-hold on…!"

"You've got three seconds."

"I-I know something you don't…!"

At that, all three members of the Starstorm trio perked up, Arashi ceasing to hide his gaze. Astrid's eyes were still narrowed, but she softened up just a bit, and her partner started to look interested in whatever info Zariel had. Salem's right-hand Pokémon surely had to be privy to a lot, and if anything, if she'd never been poisoned or mind-controlled, maybe she was trying to spit out everything she knew in a desperate bid to keep Raijin from killing her. Someone so twisted surely had to be looking out only for her own skin.

Raijin paused again. "… What?" he repeated.

The Charizard's grin spread. "What the ability Blaze does…!"

… All at once, Astrid's eyes went huge and her beak fell open in panic, Arashi's expression turned horrified, and a myriad of bolts travelled from Raijin's form to Zariel's as the Charizard opened her maw and spewed yet another blue-hot Flamethrower from it.

"NO!" Astrid screamed, turning loose of Arashi and ripping another arrow free as she ran towards her comrade.

"RAIJIN!" Arashi likewise hollered, breaking into a sprint.

Zariel's attack stopped before Raijin's did, albeit not by much time, and in seconds, the Charizard was limp again with her eyes rolled back into her skull and her hide where Raijin had grabbed her looking deformed. By some miracle, the Xurkitree was still standing, but before long, he too was going limp, trying to catch himself, then stumbling and falling backwards in a mess of cables.

Astrid and Arashi both looked like they'd just seen the underside of a Mimikyu for how horrified their expressions were, and truly, the sight in front of them was grim enough to warrant it. Their comrade was still in one piece, but… it was a mangled, utterly disfigured piece. Huge chunks of the cables on his front were melted, leaving the copper cores inside fully exposed and red-hot, and black puddles dotted the ground and formed underneath parts of his limbs like blood from the outer portions of his cables that had turned to fluid and dripped off. The lower half of the arm he'd grabbed Zariel with was held together by tiny bits of the black outer layer where his glowing leaf-like ties had been, though the ties themselves were burnt off, clearly having taken the heat first. The hand he'd placed on her neck was partly melted too, the copper strips looking like a mishmash of different lengths with some still dripping and some deformed out of their formerly crimped shape. Only his tail was left largely untouched, but even so, there were still a few partially melted bits. Sparks danced all along the exposed copper cores (along with the crack in his head), and on his less-damaged arm, the golden scarf Lazuli had gifted him after Arashi's vanishing into a wormhole was singed and burnt. His glow was still there, albeit only in his head, but even then, it flickered considerably.

"Raijin! Raijin!" Arashi cried frantically, skidding to a halt and dropping into a kneeling position next to the Beast. He reached out rather gingerly and touched the intact cables in his shoulder region with a pitiful whimper, then quickly recoiled at feeling an inadvertent shock from a nearby spark.

"Gods above…!" Astrid exclaimed, crouching down as though roosting on the ground by her comrade's side. She too reached her intact hand out and brushed the side of his head, being careful not to nudge the gaping crack and holding her breath in shock. "R-Raijin, a-ah…! Dear gods, this is…!"

'Bad' was an understatement; even 'horrible' seemed like an understatement. The longer she looked at his injuries, the more it seemed to register just how grievous they were, and without Zariel's threats looming over them all to steal their attention, it was impossible to ignore them.

… Zariel.

Astrid's eyes drifted along her comrade's mangled body to Zariel's slumped down less than a meter away from his feet, her eyes narrowing and going wide all at the same time in a borderline unhinged look that probably would've befitted the Charizard more so than herself. Blood trickled from the arrow jabbed into the Charizard's back, and more pooled under her chest from both Astrid's attacks as well as whichever ones she'd received prior. Her wing with a chunk taken out around the joint was stuck out at an odd angle, as if she'd twitched it when she'd been overloaded with bolts and managed to dislocate it. Her maw was still open, frozen in a deranged smile, and her rolled-back eyes still managed to look utterly crazy even if they were glassed over and only the whites were showing.

Still, Astrid's grip on her arrow tightened as she straightened up and she stalked over to the Charizard with tense but light steps. "Let's make sure this bitch really is dead," she said in a soft, low voice as she grabbed up Zariel's head with one foot.

Arashi eyed her uncertainly, getting an awkward, disturbed smile as he whimpered out, "H-huh…?"

Quickly, his face was turning even more disturbed as the Decidueye was screeching in rage and jabbing her arrow into the Charizard's skull. She went for one eye first, but hit a bit too low and instead made a hefty slice into the side of Zariel's face before the arrow snapped against her bone. As if it were nothing, she plucked another sharp feather and went for it again… and again, and again.

Astrid's voice roared like thunder. "It's obvious why Salem picked you!" she screeched. "YOU don't have a right to exist in our world either for how crazy you are! And then you go and hurt my comrade like that, someone INFINITELY better than you?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!"

She jabbed through Zariel's eye and backwards into the socket, ripped it out, and stabbed through all over again, screeching and growling in rage all the while. Blood spurted and dripped as she stabbed around, coating her hand and both of her feet in a sticky red liquid, until eventually she felt something hard that her arrow cracked against. She left the bent shaft hanging out of her mutilated eye socket with blood dripping down it too, and without missing a beat, grabbed yet another arrow and went for her neck.

"… Astrid!" Arashi faintly exclaimed, face contorting in discomfort and fright.

Her partner's words didn't even register. Her arrow pierced Zariel's neck, and when she ripped it back out, a spurt of blood followed that covered her otherwise cream-colored belly in crimson splotches. She went again, and again, and again… all in grotesque rapid succession.

Arashi tensed up as if feeling the desert's chill again, then jumped up and darted several steps over to the feathered ghost. "Astrid…! Astrid, stop…!" he bleated out, throwing his arms around her. "Please, Astrid…!"

She was still stabbing at the limp draconic form, but the Greninja's arms around her stopped her movements from having so much force. Zariel's hide received scratches from the arrow tip, but no more holes were punched through her throat. It was as if Astrid had been spurred on by the same Mega-fueled rage that had made the Charizard so treacherous, and she just couldn't be swayed.

"The fight's over, Astrid…!" Arashi pitifully squeaked. "Just stop, she's dead…!"

The Decidueye paused for a second, eyes still full of rage but twitching for a moment. Her grip on her arrow faltered, but as if in pure reflex, she went to stab Zariel again.

Her partner's voice cracked and wavered. "Astrid…! Astrid, please…! Just stop…!"

Her movements slowed to a halt, albeit with her gaze still locked on Zariel's mangled head. She picked up on Arashi's words, and something about them caught her off-guard enough to steal her attention back… He was crying. His voice was heavy and breathy all at the same time, and she could feel his shoulders tremble while he grabbed her. She dropped her arrow and turned loose of Zariel's head as she spun around in her partner's grasp.

The Greninja eased up a bit but still grabbed her shoulders, and Astrid gently nudged the side of his head with her hand so as to make him look her straight in the eyes. It was a pleading, scared look she saw… one that was amiable but still marked with fear and dread. It snapped her out of her rage.

"There's already been enough unnecessary bloodshed…" her partner's voice pitifully trailed off. "We don't need to keep this up- things are bad enough already…"

Wordlessly, she nodded, and gently brushed his hands off of her shoulders to scurry back over to Raijin's side. Her partner followed along and knelt down again with her.

Ever-so-slightly, the Xurkitree twitched. "Urgh… Y-you two…"

"Potion," Astrid said quickly.

Her partner was already shakily but quickly undoing the bag's flap.

Their comrade, though, piped up with something else. "N-no…" his voice trailed off, sounding more like static than anything. "It's not going to… f-fix me…"

The Decidueye's heart sank even further in her chest, but her partner, on the other hand, didn't quite seem to believe it.

"D-don't talk like that!" Arashi cried, flustered and panicked as he ripped a potion out. "You're still alive, aren't you?!"

"H-how do we fix you…?" Astrid inquired, voice cracking and trembling in uncertainty. "I-if we could make you s-stop losing sparks…"

"You can't," Raijin replied. "N-not out here, and n-not like this…"

Her heart sank even more, and her partner's eyes turned to little pinpricks. Astrid's mind raced, trying to think of something, anything that would keep the Xurkitree alive, but she was drawing blanks every single time. If they could plug what remained of his limbs into the ground, he could recoup at least some of the energy he was losing… but no, the ground was either sand or glassy. If they could wrap the exposed copper cores in some kind of insulating material, that would keep him from losing energy as he was… but no, they didn't have any material that would work, and obtaining it was a moot point too. They had potions and Reviver Seeds, but clearly, a potion would only prolong the inevitable and a Reviver Seed wouldn't heal wounds like that. If Rozen or Ama or both had been there, maybe they could've stabilized him, but they weren't there, and Astrid had her doubts that the clerics would be able to reach them. As much as she didn't want to call it a lost cause… it was adding up to one.

Her beak moved, but no words were coming out, and Arashi went limp on his knees next to her with an absolutely dismal, disbelieving expression.

"No…" the Greninja choked out.

"A-ah, y-you've gotta be kidding…" Astrid breathed.

"Look," the Xurkitree said softly. "I hoped it wouldn't happen, but I knew this was a possibility, and I accepted it. It's okay."

"No!" Astrid cried, jumping up and looking flustered. "I didn't accept it! We didn't accept it! What happened to everything we said after Azure screwed us over, huh?! About how you weren't going to leave me and how me, you, and Arashi were gonna take charge of our fates! About how we'd watch the storms together on your home turf, about how Arashi would probably go throwing poses down at the wrong Buzzwole and we'd have to pull him out, about how we could find me a nice quiet place that only the three of us know about!"

As the words left her beak, her heart just kept sinking. She wouldn't be taking charge of her fate, either- Necrozma had made sure of that long before she even knew. She'd asked her comrade to promise he'd never leave her, but if he'd asked the same of her, she too couldn't have held it up. There would be no storm-watching, no pulling their overly social teammate out of sticky situations, no hoarding off in a place that only her friends would find her… It was all a sham, everything was a lie whether they intended it to be or not. Giant water droplets started forming at the edges of her eyes.

"We can't just go saving Ultra Space and not have you in it!" Arashi piped up, likewise crying out rather frantically and passionately. "If we go storm-watching and you're not there, if we save your homeworld but we lose you, that's just…! That's just not right!"

"F-forgive me," Raijin replied, voice crackling. "I lied to you and I'm leaving you… Believe me, I d-don't want to do e-either of those th-things, but… I r-really have lost my use this time…"

His less injured arm twitched, and Astrid wordlessly grabbed his hand with one foot. Very faintly, he grasped her back.

"You don't need forgiveness- you haven't done anything wrong…" Arashi voice trailed off as his body shivered from crying.

"B-be c-careful in Megalo Tower," the Xurkitree faintly kept on. "I-it's hard to tell the n-normal bricks from the S-Stakataka ones. Th-they don't r-run very f-fast, but they can g-get u-ugly if you s-step on one. Y-you can rest a-around 25 floors up, a-and after that, there's f-five more."

The two of them nodded.

"P-promise me s-something."

Both Astrid and Arashi intently inquired at the same time, "What?"

"Th-that you'll h-hit Void h-hard for me and m-make her regret e-everything. I-I kn-know you can do it. A-and after you do, p-promise me… that you'll… g-go watch the storms f-for me. A-as long as y-you two can see my homeworld in its n-normal, peaceful s-state… th-that's good enough f-for me."

They nodded even more fervently.

"I promise, Raijin…!" Astrid squeaked out, vision blurring over from the tears.

"We won't let you down!" Arashi declared with a shaking voice.

What sounded like a faint electrical chuckle left the Xurkitree. "… Th-then I'm h-happy.~"

Astrid felt his faint grip relax, and his glow flickered one last time before going dim. Her eyes went wide, and Arashi's followed suit. He was still sparking, but that wasn't the best indication of anything, since Zariel was still clearly losing blood even after death…

The Decidueye looked up into the cosmos with a face of horrified dismay, opened her beak, and screamed at the top of her lungs. Her throat burned, but she didn't care- she simply couldn't keep it in. Rage, despair, sorrow, longing… it all violently poured out like the earth's crust giving way to a volcanic eruption. Maybe she harbored some faint hope that somewhere, some god or goddess off in the distant cosmos would hear her and take pity on her, or maybe she was crying out in protestation against the entire universe, fate itself, and literally every catalyst that had brought her to that point… Astrid herself certainly wasn't sure.

Arashi, on the other hand, didn't make a sound, staring blankly down at the ground from his slumped position while Astrid's agonized voice filled the air. He blinked a few times, tears still pouring from his eyes, but whenever his partner's voice went silent a few seconds later, he wordlessly reached up with one hand and placed it on her back. She looked down at him, and he looked up at her, both of them wide-eyed and distraught.

They merely stared at each other for a few seconds, not saying a word, but the Greninja eventually broke the silence. "… We've gotta keep going."

Almost mechanically, Astrid nodded. "… Get on my back."

He too nodded. Quickly, her partner had slipped the bag off of her and clung on where it had been formerly, to which she took to the air, swooped it up, and started putting distance between them and their comrade's limp form with each flap. Her burnt wing still pained her and the wind whistling where feathers used to be was certainly noticeable, but with the horrific visage of Raijin's mangled form burned into their memories and the shock instilled by Team Starstorm being back down to a duo, she didn't have room to pay it much mind. She could feel Arashi's form shivering as he cried, and tears fell from her own eyes like scattered raindrops as she flew.

Neither of them said a word, for there was simply nothing left to be said. Astrid had never seen her partner so quiet or blank, and that gnawed away at her mind almost as much as the image of Raijin's mutilated body did. They'd both just suffered the same crushing loss, and if that was how he was reacting… it made her sick to think of how he'd react when she too left him. They still had Megalo Tower ahead of them, so that would take their mind off of the horrible event they'd just been through, but once it was all said and done… they'd have plenty of time to mull things over. The trauma couldn't be ignored forever, and surely, even with the best of efforts, it would work its way back to the forefront of their minds somehow. She wondered if he'd go right back to staring at the ground, eyes huge and silent, and if he did, how the two of them wouldn't be together to hug each other and give each other wordless nods of understanding. She wondered how she'd fare, and what waited for her back in her uneventful human life to help ease the pain… if there was anything. The only creature that could possibly ever understand her was someone she'd never be allowed to stay with.

One thing did catch her attention, though- the absence of any flaming cannons or smoke trails in the air around Megalo Tower. The giant stronghold itself, despite the darkness of the cosmos without Necrozma's light, was still easy to pick out for the way it obscured the celestial bodies behind it like a black paper cut-out held up against a starry night sky. Perhaps Delphi's group had effectively taken them out of the picture, or perhaps they all waited for them on the ground, but either way, Astrid and Arashi would be finding out soon.

The sparse sandy fields blurred into glassy purple rock, the surface of which greatly resembled the surface of a lake or pool with gentle waves forming in the breeze, and the air became thick like the contents of an actual sea. The smallish rocky sprouts looked like something found on the bottom of a pond, and the larger ones looked like something belonging in the ocean. Some appeared to have vascular systems that glowed in purple or blue, but most of them simply had glowing crystals embedded that their cool-toned glow came from that were still patterned about the 'leaves' and 'stems' but not quite as organized. If it hadn't been hostile enemy territory belonging to their nemesis herself, Astrid would've thought it was quite pretty, and some of the larger structures would've made a lovely place to roost.

"Down there," Arashi finally piped up, still sounding rather subdued. "I recognize this place."

"Tell me where," Astrid replied.

"A little east. The entrance looks kinda like a cave, just smaller."

She did as he directed, and she couldn't help but to feel that it was akin to their earlier missions- him directing her where to fly when they went to Chasm Edge, to Lake Lucent… She tried not to dwell on those memories either, for they'd only serve to make her emotions run even higher.

Still, it wasn't too much longer before the two of them were on the ground outside a massive tower stretching towards the heavens. A thick cloud of smog kept them from seeing the top of it from the ground, but from what they'd seen from afar, it was definitely high up in the cosmos like a lofty watchtower. Just the mere sight of it made Astrid feel like she was an unwelcome intruder… which wasn't entirely wrong. Arashi looked hesitant too, and she couldn't blame him for it- the last time he'd been there wasn't under the best of circumstances, and what they'd returned to it for was far from an improvement.

"… Those guards aren't here," Astrid mused, eyes darting around as if hulking Stakatakas and Celesteelas could possibly hide behind the stone pillars.

"Sheesh," Arashi mused. "Delphi must've really played them."

She wanted to be surprised, but at the same time, she wasn't. "Our comrades aren't here either," she noted, glancing around some more. "They were on the outskirts of this territory whenever Void's emissaries dropped in on them… If they'd won, they would've been here by now, but Adnea- or someone else- hasn't given us an update yet to tell us if that was the case…"

"Maybe they're already in there and waiting for us to catch up," Arashi proposed. "Or maybe they're still busy but they'll be joining us soon, and that's why we haven't heard anything. Those other three are tough, but so are our friends."

Astrid considered it, not protesting the idea. "The other possibility is that everyone else lost, which means we can't do anything about it anyway… If we're ahead of them, they should be able to catch up with us, and if we're behind them, it won't hurt us and they'll probably let us catch up after the 25th floor. If they lost, then our best bet is to run ahead anyway, since that would give Knox, Remi, and Azure less time to get back here and recover, and give us more time to deal with Void and Salem without any outside intervention."

Her partner nodded. "Sheesh, then we're really about to do this…"

They looked at each other, a small grin creeping back into Arashi's countenance while Astrid was straight-faced.

"… This is it," the Greninja mused. "Void's stronghold… You ready…?"

She thought about it. The faster they fought through Megalo Tower, the faster Void's threats would cease to loom over their heads, but the faster she'd approach saying goodbye to her friend… and she didn't want the latter.

Still, she slowly nodded. "… As ready as I'll ever be."

He chuckled. "Are you scared…?"

Blinking once in silence, she replied, "… Yeah."

Her partner stuck one arm around her, gazing up towards the tower's top obscured in all the smog. "Don't worry, I am too.~"

She paused, taken aback by what she'd just heard, then shifted her gaze aside at her comrade. If she'd expected anything out of her partner, it would've been him being excited or determined, not afraid. He'd always talked about embarking on treacherous missions and taking on dangerous foes with almost ridiculous idealism, yet there he was, sounding hesitant at the very mission that was the epitome of everything he'd ever wanted. She couldn't blame him in the slightest, but it still took her by surprise.

"L-look, I know this is the real deal now," her partner explained, voice shaking a bit. "It's… been obvious to me ever since I said the wrong words to Remi and they took it upon themself to teach me a lesson. I can try to be as friendly as I want, I can have all the ideals and excitement I want, I can put on a brave face all I want, I can pray to whoever I want… but it's not gonna work with these ones. I tried all that and we both know how horribly it went. It's our strength against theirs, our synergy against theirs, and we can't afford to screw up."

Her gaze drifted up to the obscured top of Megalo Tower too. "… That's how I feel too. Honestly, I'm n-not even sure if we can pull it off, but… we don't have a choice."

He curled his arm around her tighter, grin spreading some more. "Don't say that," he said amiably but pointedly. "We have something they don't have- Team Starstorm synergy! We fit so well together because we're friends, not because one of us is forcing the other one to be their tool! Our kind of synergy doesn't break, ever!"

A somewhat amused look crossed the Decidueye's face, and she looked back to her partner, who returned her gaze. "You do realize you just said that ideals and friendliness aren't gonna save us, right?"

He smirked a bit. "Doesn't mean I can't have them!"

A tiny chuckle escaped her, and she shook her head haplessly while looking down at the ground. "I don't know what I'd do without you. Seriously, Arashi. I probably would've given up a long time ago, and back there I probably would've k-killed-…"

She cut herself off, not quite wanting to say what was really on her mind.

Arashi, however, seemed to pick up on it and gave her an odd look, amiable and understanding but somehow pointed all the same. "No," he said quite strongly. "I'll spend a billion sleepless nights talking and crying with you before I let anything like that happen. You're my friend and I care too much about you."

Wordlessly, she nodded. "… I can't tell you just how much it means, Arashi."

He smiled, giving her a little wink.

"But you remember the talk we had back at the base, right…? About what would happen if Void started to poison me…?"

Just as quick, his face fell, and his grin turned almost perturbed. "Astrid, c'mon, don't-"

"Promise me," she said gently but forcefully, grabbing him with her uninjured hand. "Take my word for it now- I don't want to be her pawn. I'd thank you for it in the afterlife, trust me."

Her partner was quiet for a few seconds, eyes going wide and body tensing up. He started to get a blank, despairing look again, but Astrid looked him in the eyes with such fierce determination that he couldn't possibly sidestep her request. Wordlessly, he nodded, then threw his arms around her in a tight embrace.

"… I promise," Arashi said softly. "I won't let it happen."

She hugged her partner too, whispering, "Thank you."

They turned loose of each other, and though Astrid could still see fear and reluctance in her partner's eyes, he went right back to grinning in his usual chipper fashion. She took a deep breath and let it out, trying to clear her head of all the horrible possibilities that could befall them.

"Let's do this," the Decidueye said, giving one last glance up the tower. "For Raijin. For him and everyone else."

"I'm right beside you," Arashi affirmed.

They looked at each other, shared a nod, and kept on.


Author's note… again: Related to the note I wrote at the start, I will shamelessly admit that this is the chapter I was looking forward to writing the most, hehehe. Not the giant Void reveal, not any other fight scene, not any feels-y moment, but this. Why, you might ask…? Well, I don't really know myself either, but it probably has to do with the fact that I'm a sadistic jackass that likes to screw over her favorite characters in horrific ways. Make of that what you will.