shorter chapter than usual but you know how it goes
Arc II, The Plate of Time
Chapter Twenty-Seven:
The Accidental Passengers
"A-ha," echoed an all-too familiar voice. "Found you, Arceus."
The falling snow sank straight through my skin and into my bones.
Above the Plate of Space, my hand was shaking. "You bastard," I said with frightened amusement. "So you cannot be killed by a mountain. Tell me, if you're not immortal, what can kill you?"
His voice, delicate like a child but acute like a murderer, resonated in my head. "Not anything as puny as your attempt," Luce chuckled. "Where have you been, dearest sibling? I have been searching for you for months."
"Oh, I've been hanging around the mortal dimension," I said aloud, although quietly and as casually as I could manage. "What have you been doing? Instrumenting the end of the world? Sending your double goons high and low looking for me?"
"Waiting for you to use the Plate of Space," he said. I could practically see his phantom-esque smile. "You truly are not what you used to be. Millennia ago, you most likely would have detected the trace of magic, a personal touch of mine, that I left behind—"
"I see that now."
The Plate of Space, where his fingers had cracked the surface, had become a veiny black streak. The sickly color was slowly spreading up the fractures that he had left, like ink in water.
Had Luce let me escape with the Plate on purpose?
"—but I appreciate that you've left me a little clue on how to find the Plate of Time," continued Luce. Sometimes, his voice would resonate behind the garbage cans, above in the apartment balconies, and other times directly next to my ears. "I would have never been able to get to it if you hadn't shown me the way. Do you still plan on going there? And would you happen to have room for a plus one?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, slowly filling with dread.
I felt a pair of arms slide around my waist, the hands locking together dangerously close to my thighs. The caustic stench of overapplied perfume wafted into my eyes. Soft lips pressed a biting kiss on the side of my neck.
"I'll give you a three-minute head start, handsome," said Philippa sweetly, her pink hair falling over my shoulders and into my view. "Now go."
I sprinted through the door into Aurelio's apartment.
Aurelio gave me a peculiar look. "What the hell is that on your neck?"
"Drop everything, we have to leave now!" I snarled, immediately grabbing for the belongings that Aurelio would hate to leave behind but would be too startled to remember to pick up. "That pink-haired freak is waiting in the alley down below."
Aurelio surprised me when he got up from the dining table and, with ease, began packing along with me. "Funny how my life was so mundane until you showed up again," he muttered to me. He offered me a smile, an inclination that he would rather be burdened with excitement rather than lavishing in boredom. "Don't tell me that Grimmwolfe's out there too."
"That blubbering Walrein wouldn't be able to keep up with her…"
"In all seriousness, that mark wasn't from me, right?"
"NO!"
I nearly jumped out of my skin when I turned around and Josie was standing behind me, looking misplaced amidst the discord. I had forgotten that she was there. Her large blue eyes were inquisitive — but not scared.
"Trouble?" she asked shrewdly.
"More than you know," I responded. The clock was ticking.
"I'm all ears."
"No time—"
Philippa was knocking at Aurelio's front door. "O-oo-h, Arceus!" she sang from the hallway. At one point, she started hitting the door to the tune of her music. "I have the distinct feeling that the Solomon boy is in there too and ohhowmuchfunwe'regoingtohaaa-aaaa-aaave!" The knocking briefly stopped. "If you don't let me in, I'll have to break down the door!"
"No explanation needed," said Josie. "How can I help, Arceus?"
I stared dumbly at her.
"Not saying that I don't have questions for later," she said, smiling crookedly, "but you've got to take everything at stride, you know? Back to helping. Something that I can do."
"Stand back and away from me," I ordered. I dragged my hand down the air, releasing the Plate of Space from its captivity. Then I tapped the surface, asking it to release its power. The set of lights throughout the entire apartment began flashing. The digital clock on the desk blinked: 12:35 AM over and over. "Let's go, Aurelio! Josie, just...don't say anything about this. To anyone."
"Roger that."
Philippa was now fumbling with the doorknob. It rattled faster and faster.
"Ready!" Aurelio breathlessly exclaimed, running out from his bedroom. His collection of belongings was smaller, but as usual he held his notebook close his chest. Sudden realization struck him. "Wait, Arceus, what's Josie going to do? She can't stay here when Philippa gets in—"
Something was punching straight through the door. A tunnel of splinters and broken wood opened up in the center, right where the peephole would have been. Through it, I could see a Hitmonchan — her Ditto? — and behind it Philippa was standing patiently, her arms crossed under her breasts.
"I've destroyed a boat to get to you, handsome," she said, her smile beguiling. She chewed gum, her eyes anchored on me. "I wouldn't mind blowin' up an entire apartment complex. All you need to do is let me hitch a ride with you!"
"Ah, the pink-haired freak," commented Josie, enlightened.
The portal into the alternate dimension opened with a violent gust of wind. Photos knocked over. The ceiling light began swaying. I focused on the place from where the Plate of Time was calling me. Its blue light, far in the reaches of another time and place, pined for my presence again. By the time I had finally settled on a dimension, Philippa's Hitmonchan had finished punching its way through the door. People in the hallway of the apartment complex were yelling at her to stop, and I could see police lights flashing in the streets below.
Latios was standing on the edge of the balcony railing. The door had slid open long ago, leaving the curtains to flap inside the apartment. Loose papers and mail flew like debris into the air, torn between the wind outside and the portal's gravity.
"I saw the police lights," he said cheerily.
"Opportune time, Latios!" I said with biting sarcasm. "There's no way we can do anything interesting without you around!"
"Really feeling the love right now. I'm only here to assist."
Philippa reached her hand through the broken door and unlocked it from the inside. Then she daintily stepped in, avoiding the mess that she had left on the welcome mat.
"If we're going to leave this dimension, we must do it at the same time," I quickly explained. The portal had grown big enough for several grown people to enter it all at once. "Otherwise, we will be thrown into different timelines. It may only be a split second of a difference, but you will likely land somewhere away from the rest of us. Hold my hands. On my count to three…"
"The things I do for you, boss!"
In a moment — Latios threw himself past us. With one arm, he shoved me, Aurelio, and Josie into the portal. He collapsed into Philippa and she responded as excitedly as if they were lovers, although there were a brief hint of panic in her eyes as she realized that she would be arriving late.
As I fell through a roaring vortex of space, I had vague memories of falling from the crystal mountain, Luce reaching out for me, just barely brushing the tips of my hair. That subtle smirk he had given me just as the portal closed up. A miniscule expression of victory that I had not noticed beforehand. It made so much sense in hindsight.
Philippa shoved through Latios and they fell into the portal together, but they were far above us. Blackness started to cover us, a thick sheet of empty space. I felt Aurelio and Josie's hands chained with mine. Their skin grew cold. My head swelled. The sounds of Aurelio's now empty apartment were fading fast, lost in the void.
Before falling unconscious, I squeezed Aurelio's palm. With just my touch, I attempted to convey to him that I was glad he was with me. On the other hand, quite literally, I said a silent apology for having unintentionally drug Josie into this mess with us. I hadn't had the time to get her to safety. I assured myself that she was safer with us, in another dimension, than potentially alone in that apartment with Philippa.
I followed the Plate of Time's blue aura into the nothingness, praying that its light gave us guidance and me the strength to protect my mortal friends.
End of Chapter Twenty-Seven