Ch 8
Gonzap waited patiently in the shadows by the last elevator to the main floor. Ein had gone ahead and cut the power to the whole lab with only the dim emergency lights on, leaving him free to hide anywhere and the shadow beast complete freedom to hunt in the lab. Sera had failed in cornering the kids, but he figured she was just dumb enough to let them slip by. Probably only good in bed anyway.
He cracked his knuckles and grinned. This was going to be fun. He waited and worked and planned for this moment, this act of sweet revenge. He'd been beaten three times; once when Seth blew apart the hideout and ran off on him, throwing him the finger as he blazed away, twice when he defeated him in the Realgam Tower and snagged his Shadow Skarmory, the third time when he defeated him in the ruined Snagem Hideout. Not this time, he wasn't going to be defeated this time.
Seth and Rui ran closer to the elevator, the Snagger ahead by a few seconds. Gonzap listened to them laughing, then lunged forward as they reached his hiding spot, gripping the boy in a crushing hug.
"Gotcha now, brat!" he laughed as Rui came to a halt and screamed. Seth struggled and yelled, trying to escape as he wriggled squirmed. "Don't think you're getting off free now!"
"Let him go!" Rui yelled, running up and pounding on his arm with her fists, "You let him go right now!" Gonzap slapped her aside, then grabbed Seth's arm as he tried to get away and reach her.
"Rui! Gonzap, dammit, you don't have to drag her into this!" the Snagger yelled angrily, fighting to get freed again, "Your grudge is with me, not some redhead in pink boots!"
"She got involved in our little get-togethers when she hooked up with you." the boss sneered and threw him to the floor, "We have a lot of catching up to do, Seth! Let's get started!"
Rui shook her head and looked around in a daze, finally letting her gaze rest on Gonzap's back in confusion. He was facing away from her, laughing as he kicked at a figure on the floor. Her focus returned and she recognized the figure as Seth, curled in a fetal position and grinding his teeth together to avoid screaming with each blow. The Eons jumped and nipped at Gonzap, trying to chase him away, but even with his multiple bites bleeding, the boss didn't give up.
"C'mon, Seth! You got more guts than that! Get up and fight!" he taunted. When the Snagger didn't obey, he grabbed him by the neck and hauled him to his feet. "That's better! Let's see if you bounce back like a Wobbuffet!"
"I told you to stop it!" Rui yelled and pulled off a boot. She hurled it with all her strength at the man's head and he glared back at her, Seth pinned to the wall by the neck several inches above the ground. "Put him down!"
"Rui! Get... out... of... here!" the Snagger gasped out, kicking feebly as he tried to pry himself loose. "You don't... want to be... here for... anything more!"
"The hell I'm leaving you behind with this oaf!" Rui shouted, darting forward and slamming the Snag Machine into the back of Gonzap's knee, "Put him down!" The Snagem Boss bellowed and spun around, releasing the boy as he grabbed for his knee. "How dare you beat up on him like that?! Especially after all he's been through already!" She grabbed her boot, pulled it on, then kicked him squarely in the crotch, which had been poking quite a bit beyond the border of the snug jeans he so enjoyed wearing. Gonzap's face turned a bright shade of red, then a deep blue, as he hunched over and fell to the floor. "Are you okay, Seth?" Rui then turned a concerned expression to her friend as he picked himself up with the aide of his Eon partners. He smiled at her bashfully.
"Seems like we just keep saving each other today, doesn't it?" he remarked and tested his limbs, "I know I'll come out of this bruised, but I heal fast. I'm just glad you took him out before anything big happened."
"Why didn't you fight back?! You have some slick moves of your own!" Rui demanded. Seth shrugged helplessly.
"I couldn't. The best arm I have for fighting is my Snagger arm and I told you it was numb. He seemed happy enough beating on me to ignore you, maybe long enough for you to escape. I didn't want you getting hurt." he replied and suddenly coughed into his hand. Rui looked worried again as he frowned at the glove after wiping his mouth clean. "Figures." he mumbled, "Let's get while we still have our bodies in one piece." Seth suddenly smiled and knelt to sift through Gonzap's pockets, coming back with a small wallet stuffed with money and a pair of gold nuggets. "Ha! I knew it! Ass!" he declared and kicked him once, making sure the spiked band wrapped around his boot hit him hard, "Don't mess with the best thief in Team Snagem! You take my wallet, and I'll take your whole damn bank account!"
Gonzap's eyes crossed and his face turned purple as the heroes took the elevator to the top level, with only a few hallways standing between them and freedom.
"Seth, do you know anything about the shadow beast?" Rui asked as they ran down the hall to the next junction of the lab. The Snagger closed his eyes and focused, trying to call up some bits of data from the information stored in his mind.
"It was made at the same time I was, but it wasn't what they wanted. They fixed it to be able to hunt me down if I wandered somewhere I wasn't supposed to go. Light hurts it because it... accelerates instability?" he struggled to say and finally finished in confusion.
"That's why it only hunted at night, and in the cave, and here with the lights out." Rui murmured and gripped the flashlight she held in her hand. "Seth, we haven't run into the shadow beast yet. We have to find it and destroy it before we can leave, or it will never leave you alone!"
"All right, but how are we supposed to find it if this whole place is dark? I feel surrounded." Seth grumbled as they stopped and looked around the area warily. Rui shifted the Snag Machine and slid it off, holding it out to him. "Thanks, I was really going nuts inside without it." he told her gratefully, sliding it back onto his arm.
"I can sort of sense where it is." Rui murmured, placing her thumb over the switch on the light, "It kinda feels like you, but weirder. Like it's not quite the same feeling, but close enough that, if I didn't know you better, I'd confuse it with you."
"Well then, here's where you have the advantage." Seth whispered, stepping carefully down the hall. They entered a room, spying the exit on the other side. "There's the entrance. It's gotta be here, so get ready to hit it with whatever that thing is in your hand. You check that half of the room, and I'll keep an eye on this half."
"Right." Rui murmured, circling slowly as she crossed the room. She scanned the walls and ceiling, keeping her eyes opened for the wraith. Behind her, Seth coughed again, harder this time. She wondered about that for a moment, then felt a chill run down her back. Seth coughed a second time, then made a choked sound. She sensed the shadow close by and turned to whisper the fact to Seth, only to find the creature's back to her, the eerie purple set in the shape of the Snagger himself. Wasting no time, she flicked on the beam and stabbed forward, burying it into the shadow beast and shutting her eyes as it howled in pain. The specter slowly tore itself to shreds, vanishing like mist into the air, never to take form again.
"Seth! I did it! I got the beast!" Rui declared, leaping back from where it stood with a happy expression. The joy she felt drained away, replaced with a horrified one. Seth stood before her, a slightly surprised and confused look on his face. The wraith had reached him while she had been searching her half of the room.
He coughed again, this time not hiding the small spray of dark liquid that flew from his mouth. A large dark stain grew steadily larger over his stomach. His face seemed so pale in the dim light.
"Seth?" Rui whispered and watched dumbly as he sighed, closing his eyes and dropping down to his knees. It seemed to take hours for him to fall to his side and remain motionless. The shadow monster had finished its prey as it wished to for years, forming a blade from the doppelganger arm and thrusting it cleanly through his abdomen.
The Eons looked back from their investigations of the corners of the room and yelped, running to him. All the nuzzling didn't register any response. Rui sobbed and dropped before him, pulling him into her arms.
"No, no, no! Please, don't be dead!" she begged. He shifted slightly and she stared in hope at him.
"Rui..." he murmured, "Agate... Agate Village... Hurry..."
"Yes, yes! Hang on! I'll take you there and we can get Grandpa and Grandma to help!" she agreed and looked at Jupiter, "Can you help me carry him?" The psychic blinked, then turned to look at Seth, surrounding him with a blue aura of power. Rui carefully positioned her arms underneath him and lifted, expecting to struggle with his weight. Thanks to the Espeon, Seth weighed almost nothing to her. "Okay! Here we go!" she declared and ran for the exit with the two Eons chasing after.
--
A few minutes later, Rui was speeding across the Orre desert, the twins once again within their Poké Balls and Seth sitting, slumped, in the side car. Behind her, a small jet took off from the Shadow Pokémon Lab, bearing a disgruntled scientist, an unconscious corporate princess, and a squeaking behemoth of a man to the lands beyond the eastern border of Orre. Though their attempt to rebuild Cipher in Orre had been thwarted again, the fact remained sealed within Seth's mind; he had not captured all the Shadow Pokémon that Cipher had created. The ones captured and converted by the other Snaggers had been sent over to other lands, and were poised to strike at the proper time. That time was coming near.
The villagers could hear Rui's screams for help even over the roaring of the heat-pipes and engine from the speeder. She had gone all out in getting across the desert to the quiet village. Eagun dashed out of his house and ran towards her as she slammed the brakes and spun the bike aside to stop. She was covered in dust and her face was streaked with tears as she swung off the machine and went straight to the side car, struggling to pull Seth from it.
"Hang on, Seth! Don't die, don't you dare die!" she told him, still crying, "Somebody! Help me!"
"The forest..." Seth murmured as one of the more able elders helped her pull him from the car, startled by the condition both the Snagger and the girl were in.
"What happened?!" Eagun cried, watching them in horror as they began to make their way to the forest, "Rui! What's happened to Seth?! He needs medical attention!"
"Get him to the forest! Hurry!" Rui continued pleading, hands pressed over the bloody wound, "Hang on, please!"
"Relic..." the Snagger managed to whisper, sounding fainter and fainter with each passing moment.
With the group of elders helping Rui, they were able to get Seth into Relic Forest and placed before the stone structure. He looked up at the group and smiled faintly.
"Thank you... everyone..." he whispered and sighed again, holding a hand out to stroke the stone. "I wanted to be here... when my time came..." Rui choked back a sob and took his other hand in hers, holding it tightly.
"You're not going to die! I said if you died, I'd never forgive you!" she declared, "So you hang on! Grandpa! Call for nurses or doctors!"
"Forget it, Rui... I know the damage..." Seth griped and then softened his expression, reaching up to stroke her cheek with his thumb. "You have got to learn to quit crying over everything. You don't want to be weak in the desert." he added, "The desert will have me, but this forest will have my last breath."
"Seth... Please...!" Rui pleaded softly. The Snagger coughed and closed his eyes, dropping his hand from her face. When she received no other signs of life from him, she bent over the body, wailing into his jacket in anguish. Eagun shook his head and directed the sorrowful group out of the forest. He understood that a broken heart needed time alone.
--
Rui couldn't care less about the time that passed, pouring her whole body into the sobs that shook her to the core. The first time that Seth counted on her, really counted on her to help save him, and she failed. She failed and now he lay dead in the forest. Her desert prince, gone as swiftly as a desert twister.
The forest, usually filled with the sounds of birds and insects, now was silent and absolutely still. Rui lifted her head and looked around, wary of the new wind that was blowing. It swirled around her, then spun around the Relic Stone, carrying petals and leaves aloft. Rubbing at her eyes, she took another look at the stone.
A bright, shining green light formed above it, growing steadily brighter and larger. Rui blinked and her mouth opened in realization. Celebi! That was how Celebi had come when Seth played the flute before the stone. A bright green light flashed above them and the tiny Grass-Psychic Pokémon came flitting down to purify the Entei that raged nearby. Now it erupted to reveal the time-traveling Pokémon. It flitted down to her and cocked its head in confusion, large eyes looking deep into her own.
"What are you doing here, Celebi? You weren't called, you have no master here." Rui whispered and closed her eyes, bowing her head, "Go away. Leave me alone with my broken heart. I want to die and be with him, so go away!"
Celebi floated lower and looked into Seth's face, then at the wound that killed him. It touched it carefully and looked at its hand, dripping red. It shook it off and wiped it carefully clean, then put its hands on Seth's cheeks, staring at his face for a full minute before shooting up to look into Rui's again. It held her face the same way and then flew back from her.
"Bi! Bi bi bi!" it declared and flew around her.
"Go away!" Rui yelled, "Leave me alone!"
"Bi bi bi!" the Celebi went on and hovered over Seth again, holding its hands over the wound. The body lit up in a soft green glow. "Biiiii!" The glow faded after a few minutes, leaving Seth pristine. Rui blinked and looked confused. The Celebi pulled back and then looked into his face with an expression of love, caressing his cheek with one hand. It suddenly flitted up and tapped Rui on the mouth, smiling. "Bi bi!"
"Hmm?" she was still confused. It tapped her mouth again, then flitted down and did the same to Seth's mouth.
"Bi bi!" it insisted, then flew up and pushed on her head, trying to force her to bend over again, "Bi! Bi!"
"Okay?" Rui murmured, bending over Seth. The grass-type looked exasperated, floating down to adjust her face one way, then another, tiny hands pressing against her cheeks as it worked. It then stood back proudly. She turned red as she looked down at Seth's face, mere inches from her own. This Pokémon couldn't possibly expect her to... to...
"Bi!" Celebi shouted, giving the back of her head a shove with both feet. Rui's eyes went wide as she found herself kissing Seth. The Snagger suddenly gasped, opening his mouth for a breath of air that he ended up stealing from her own. She jerked back and cried in shock as he coughed and groaned, raising a hand to his head.
"Owww. My head hurts. Rui, what did you do, drop me on the Relic Stone for my last moments of life?" he griped and blinked as he looked down at himself. "Wait... where's the gaping hole in my stomach? I should be dead by now..." Rui smiled and cried in joy, hugging him tightly as the Celebi floated behind them, smiling proudly at its achievement. Seth looked surprised, blushing slightly as he sat up against the Relic Stone. After a moment, he smiled and closed his eyes, hugging her back, not bothering to question why he was given another chance to live, just enjoying it and the embrace of a girl he was growing to care for in a new way.
