PokeStones of the Dead - Chapter Twenty-Three

The numbness of shock was still coursing through Temperance, the adrenaline of battle replaced with a hollow emptiness. The sound of Zapdos' cry, so encouraging at the Battle of Lavender, now continued reverberating in his ears, even after the dark projectile faded away, leaving behind… nothing. Not a single physical trace of the legendary bird was left behind. All that remained was a spiral of black smoke, curling upwards. The last time Temperance had felt a sense of physical loss was at Vermillion Harbour, where Lillette had informed him of his parents' death to the marching undead. At that time, his emotions had been still frozen, a few words of horror all that could be conveyed to show his loss. Now… as the memories of Zapdos striking the Dead attacking Lavender with lightning flashed through his head, Temperance felt himself sinking to his knees once again. Eyes filled with tears, not noticing Lance recovering from that brutal dark assault, and charging up another projectile, smaller this time, but still enough to rend Temperance's wounds to a bloody death.

Only the sudden intrusion of a dazzling array of beams jolted Temperance back into life. It needed at least 5 or 6 beams from Temperance's and Lillette's Pokemon to deflect the dark projectile away, crashing into the mountain and causing blocks of snow and ice to fall upon the two combatants. Seeing Lillette speed past on Xatu, dodging Lance's angry retaliation water jet, Temperance's feelings of sadness and loss were replaced with one of blind rage. He would not let Lillette die at this madman's hands. He realised that his sword stolen from Lance was still there – it must have been fortified very strongly to withstand that dark attack. Swinging it back into action, Temperance yelled a battle cry, leaping towards Lance with all the speed and strength he could muster. An electric barrier formed around Temperance, protecting his entire body span from projectile attacks. Flames formed on the blade, fuelled by Temperance's red-hot anger. The clash of swords was heard once more – before Temperance simply called upon a lightning bolt from the sky to strike Lance's blade, splintering it into many pieces.

Lance quickly disengaged, sending a barrage of projectiles towards Temperance to an attempt to slow down the assault, but the lightning barrier would not be broken – the level of energy being channelled into it was incredible. Temperance was not even trying to restrain or control his power now – he was just letting loose, letting his hatred and pain direct their movement. Even as a final rock shower from Lance broke his barrier, Temperance was once again close enough for a flame slash, forcing Lance's newly conjured blade back again and again, before enclosing Lance's hand in ice. His left hand limp, right hand frozen, Lance was defenceless against Temperance's slash at his throat – but Lance still had his powers of agility, and a quick turn of his body allowed his cloak to catch the strength of the sword blow. Without even a pause, the cloak fell, and Temperance hurriedly did a follow-up attack in his backswing, but the slight delay had given Lance the time he needed to banish the ice away from his right hand, and the sword was once again there to meet Temperance's blade. It was but a minor respite, however, as Temperance drew off the flames on his blade, before causing a massive explosion between the two combatants. The explosion spewed several fireballs over the battlefield, incinerating Dead and Pokemon alike. Yet Lance was unhurt, holding the remnants of a rock shield in his hand.

Lillette was watching Temperance force Lance into concessions again and again – but she was worried. Temperance was – as unlikely as it sounded – losing himself to emotion. Just 3 days ago, he had been completely devoid of any such thing, and would have scoffed at his own behaviour. Yet there he was, allowing hatred and anger to overtake reason and rational judgment. And if that continued, he would be unable to control his great power, and would fall, like Lance before him, like Mew even further before. Lillette had to stop Temperance from carrying on this mad assault. The fireballs created from that explosion had killed many Pokemon, something that Temperance would never have done in his proper state of mind. It was incredibly dangerous to intervene in such a battle, between two absurdly powerful people, but Lillette decided to risk it. Calling on Xatu, Lillette flew towards Temperance, still slashing at Lance with demonic power, adrenaline and anger providing him with the energy needed to maintain such an assault.

Lance's second sword ended up the same way as the first – shattered into pieces, it fell useless from his hand. Not even bothering to stop Temperance's next move, Lance simply ran away from his adversary, back above the forest that had resulted in the death of Zapdos. Temperance would normally have felt some fear or indecision at going back in range of the hated wood, but once again anger won over reason, and he just flew at full speed in pursuit of the fleeing Lance. Fire shot after fire shot stopped any vines trying to catch his flight, and eventually Temperance grew so annoyed with the damn plants that he just set the entire thing on fire, then resumed his chase. Lance could not sustain flight for long, Temperance knew, and eventually he would have to land, where Temperance would be on him and end his life.

And indeed, Lance's dark power faded, as Lance was forced to land for his customary recharge – but this custom would in this instance be fatal. At last, victory – and revenge – is mine. Temperance created three projectiles – resembling a Tri Attack – and added all his power to the beams. The overload of power resulted in many stray bolts and beams spiralling off at random directions, again causing chaos in the battlefield, although the majority of Temperance's power still managed to add to the three projectiles. Lance was desperately trying to escape, but his power failed, and he landed, helpless against the coming attack. Temperance felt the sweet waves of victory wash over his body, and allowed a smirk to form on his face, as he prepared to unleash the beams at his opponent.

"Stop it, Temperance!"

The sound of the voice, so familiar to Temperance, instantly recognisable, sent an electric shock through his brain, disrupting the original signals to its body. Trying both to send destruction down at Lance as well as to stop the attack to hear Lillette, the three projectiles, laden with power, could not be controlled by their creator, and exploded not ten centimetres away from Temperance. Struck by some fraction of the force of his own blow, Temperance fell in an arc away from Lance, blood visible through his shirt. Only in the nick of time did Temperance recover from the force of the attack, stopping himself from landing on his spine, which would surely have ended the battle once and for all. Going into an emergency landing, Temperance managed to land on two feet, with only a wobble or two to show for any lasting non-physical side-effects. He tried to take off again, trying to inflict some injury on Lance while he was still recuperating, but Lillette was on him too fast.

"No, Temperance! You cannot have your attacks directed by anger and unhealthy emotion! Or you'll become like him! You could shut out your emotions effectively a mere 48 hours ago. Continue with it just a little more, it doesn't matter if you can kill him with anger when you'll just become another replica of him. Remember what I told you? Remember? Please!"

"So, Lillette, why exactly did Lance's good prior intentions become like this? I read the diary entry you showed me, as well as various other ones. He was pure of heart at first, the perfect definition of a tragic hero… but as the diary entries continued, he became more twisted…"

Lillette looked at him, and her face was sad. It was a long time, or it seemed to Temperance, before she replied. "Temperance, do you know why Mew was corrupted? The "dark spirit" thing seemed to come out of nowhere, really, but it actually had a source. Mew pushed too hard to create Kanto – far too hard. In fact, its power was not enough to create such a complex entity. But Mew thought that it had to succeed on such a scale. His pride conquered him – and the result was his dark power adding to his strength, allowing him to "succeed". However, it meant that all the living things in the world got a shred of the dark power also – in other words, they would be capable of being exposed to evil. This was the original sin. The sin that Mew was responsible to, and the sin that partially corrupted every human and Pokemon alike – except the three legendary birds, those that Mew had created before Kanto, the guardians that he had already instructed to keep Kanto safe.

"So, the more power Lance got, the more dark power he also received. For no one in this universe should have the responsibility to handle such immense power. In order to control it for your own ends, your natural "good" power is insufficient, and you have to constantly borrow from your dark side. If you are driven by anger, hatred, pride, envy… etcetera, it gets even worse, as your dark side then comes to the forefront, much like how Mew became Dark Mew all those years ago. So please, Temperance, do not be like that."

Temperance did recall such a conversation taking place – after his visions, before they had left for Death Peak. But right now, he was feeling only irritation towards the interruption. Even if he would be initially corrupted, wouldn't the destruction of Lance end the need for anger and hatred, allowing him to restore his power to the pure version that he had gained earlier? Why was there a need to stop the attack? Right now his anger was still throbbing in him like some malignant virus, clinging on to his actions and directing his motions, preventing reason and sanity from taking over. So even Lillette asking, no, pleading for him to stop could not banish the devils from his brain. But Temperance might have calmed down sufficiently to refocus his attacks – if not for Lance's action while Temperance was still in thought.

The howl of dragons ripped through the air, catching Temperance by surprise. Wheeling around, Temperance found himself surrounded by dragons, one for each element Lance controlled. With a shake, the rock dragon barraged Temperance with rocks, while razor leafs were shot at Temperance from the grass-typed dragon. Faced with so many different attacks, Temperance saw no alternative other than to run. But Lillette was also in the centre of the maelstrom, and she did not have the power to withstand such an assault, or fight back against it. Temperance carried Lillette and flew out of the circle of dragons, summoning a humongous ice shield on the fly for some temporary respite. Dropping her back in safety, Temperance whispered in Lillette's ear before flying back.

"He dared to attack you… I'll kill him, once and for all!"

"Temperance! No, no –"

Temperance flew off, leaving Lillette on the slopes of Death Peak, uncertain and alone. Should she go back, back into the horrible danger from Lance… and Temperance himself? Or allow them to fight it out, and take the consequences later?

The answer was painfully obvious. Lillette thought of Temperance diving in front of Crobat's attack with a knife, saving her from impalement, realising his feelings for her after the argument at the Elite Four, and hugging her at the Viridian Pokemon Centre. And… she was prepared to die, wasn't she? After Temperance had revealed his visions, she had always thought that she would fall in the battle. So, what was the cause of her indecision? She could not just allow him to self-destruct in his own anger. Calling back Xatu, Lillette prepared to go back to the battle.

Temperance was now having trouble against the dragons. Lillette's intervention had allowed Lance to recharge his power and regroup his tactics. Now, the various dragons were darting around at extremely high speeds, attacking with great precision. Temperance's anger, while powerful, was not carefully controlled or directed – it was wild, boundless, and generally unskilled. The only thing that had allowed him to keep the advantage over Lance previously was his aggression, which had allowed him to direct the pace and tempo of the battle – which in turn favoured his powerful but random attacks. Now Lance was the one controlling the play, cleverly summoning several swift targets so that Temperance couldn't fix his attacks on any one of them, forcing him to use accuracy, precision, strategy – and Temperance simply didn't have any one of those left.

Wildly cutting at the swarm of locusts that made up a dragon shape, only for them to break away and reform, rendering his attack useless, shuddering at the cold that hit his bones as the shadow dragon went through him, numbing his limbs and slowing his attacks, randomly firing beams of ice that the rock dragon blocked with ease – Temperance simply could not get a hit in. And as the dragon made up of poison bubbles charged at him, Temperance was forced to swerve suddenly to avoid it, falling to the ground. And the solid surface beneath his feet suddenly started to buckle and shake – before the ground dragon rose up in front of him and aimed a vicious bite towards his leg.

The pain was excruciating. It felt as if the earth was trying to swallow him up piece by piece, which was indeed something like what was really happening. The dragon's teeth remained clamped on Temperance's leg, and would not let go. A fissure appeared in the earth, and the dragon was moving towards it – soon, Temperance would be between the fissure walls, and they would close, and everything would be over. Temperance tried to break the dragon's hold, sending projectiles into the dragon's body, but they were weak due to his inability to concentrate and the pain he was in, and the dragon shrugged them off like flies, all the while going ever closer to the fissure.

Then a fire blast and ice beam struck the dragon, throwing it off. Temperance glanced above, seeing Moltres and Articuno sending their ranged attacks towards the dragon, halting its advance, but the dragon still would not let go – and even if the dragon could not make any headway, it could still trap Temperance in place for the other dragons or even Lance himself to finish him off. And the pain was still unbearable – if it kept up, Temperance would go into shock –

Then a dazzling array of Hyper Beams lit up the sky, striking the dragon in the head, blowing it clean off. Temperance found that the unworldly force clamping on his leg was gone, and he could extract his leg from the dragon's mouth. Lance's Pokemon, coupled with Gyarados and Flygon, stood together, together recharging after that combined Hyper Beam blast that had saved Temperance for the time being. Lance's eyes widened in shock at the intervention, and Lillette, on Flygon, noticed – could it be? – A tinge of guilt in the eyes. Then it was gone again, replaced by the darkness of Dark Mew. Lillette desperately turned to Temperance – but the rage in his own eyes had not abated, and he was looking eerily similar to Lance. Lillette had to stop this madness before Temperance ended up destroying himself.

Xatu dived down, rushing right past the dragons to Temperance and grabbed him by the sleeves of his shirt. Before Temperance could even shout a word of protest or attack Xatu, Xatu was already flying back to Lillette with Temperance in his claws. Depositing Temperance unceremoniously on Moltres, while Lillette sat on Articuno, Xatu then flew back to the battle with a signal from Lillette. Then, facing Temperance, Lillette began to tell him that his course would lead him to destruction. The last time she had tried it – at Seafoam – it had worked, but now things were a little more… extreme. Temperance was just not listening to whatever she said, as his own inner thoughts drowned out her voice. He killed Zapdos. He tried to kill Lillette. His army has killed god knows how many free Pokemon – and my parents. I've spent my entire time at Hoenn avoiding and killing his stupid forces. HE BETRAYED ME. AND KANTO.

And the thoughts just repeated and repeated and repeated. The longer it went on, the further Temperance submerged into quagmire. Until he just pushed Lillette away, and flew back to Lance, sword still in hand, and engaged the dragons again. Temperance's Pokemon and Lance's former dragons had kept the dragons at bay, but now Temperance was back to take the brunt of the attack – and once again, he was doing badly against them. Howling with frustration and rage, Temperance repeatedly swung and stabbed, but he was just attacking thin air, and taking hits from the dragons. Then he saw Lance, concentrating on issuing orders to the many dragons, and went straight for him.

Finally, Temperance had a target he could focus on, and in this aspect he enjoyed the advantage. Lance, seeing the assault, quickly recalled his dragons. But the fire barrier surrounded Temperance once again, and Lance's dragons were repelled. Then the shadow dragon went through him again, and this time Temperance's eyes were full of a dark mist – he could only see vague shapes, but Lance was still visible, and his fire barrier was preventing the dragons from approaching. Then two figures rose up in front of Temperance – and a human was sitting on one of them. Lance and another of his dragons, surely! Temperance's sword was quickly imbued with the three elements – with the speed of lightning, and the chill of ice, and the brute force of power, his sword swung back and forth – someone was shouting at him, someone was screaming, but that didn't make any difference – the dragons fell, and then the figure was helpless, alone – and Temperance readied his sword for his final move of the battle – a quick stab to the torso. The fountain of blood that erupted from Lance tasted as sweet as the nectar of the goddesses to Temperance, and the red mist and shadow faded from his eyes, allowing him to see clearly once more.

And he saw the deep slash wounds of his sword on Moltres, Articuno… and Lillette.