Chapter 5
'To kill, to save and sacrifice'

The little glaceon thanked his friends for the brief tour of Symphonia, but seeing as he was not going to be helped, he had to bid them farewell. When Glim left Symphonia Gourmet, he had two objectives in mind, to locate the prison or where his friends were being held and if confronting Prince Snowdrop himself would be possible. Both of his intentions made him nervous, but knowing what would happen to his friends was enough to propel his determination. Aimlessly looking left to right was only proving the little boy to be lost, all he could see were poorly built stores and houses, with no directions at all. Symphonia looked a lot like a slum, only very busy and successful judging by the positive expressions of the local pokémon, excluding the ones who would only snicker at Glim for his adorable performance in court earlier. Some of the residents seemed to like the little glaceon due to the level of humiliation he went to, however those pokémon would cat call Glim as if he was some sort of sex object.

'Glim, wait!' called Yvonne. Turning round, the glaceon spotted her running up to him. 'Let me show you where you can find your friends.'

'What? I thought you couldn't help me.'

Yvonne paused. 'You're not the only one who's wanted to rescue their friends.' she whispered.

Glim did not answer and just nodded.

Only minutes later, Yvonne was taking Glim up several storeys of stairs that seemed to be within a vertically dug cave. After climbing what seemed like two floors, the umbreon signalled for Glim to stop climbing as she approached a big metal door with all kinds of signs on it. There was the usual 'employees only' or 'stay out' but then the more ominous 'catering management' and 'to save, some must die.' Yvonne made one last look past Glim and above her in case anyone was coming.

'Glim, this is it.' said the umbreon. 'Beyond this door is where we keep the prisoners. It is strictly forbidden. I only have access to this level because my dad worked here before he was killed.' she said drawing out some kind of card and swiping it down a scanner, causing the door to sound a loud clanking noise. 'If Prince finds us here, one of us is likely to be killed.'

The little glaceon paused, seeming concerned for her. He did consider telling her to leave him as it was his mission to find his friends, but before he could ask, Yvonne walked ahead when the big door slowly opened.

Through the door and on the first right revealed a long corridor with very tall reinforced windows all along the left side of it. The windows is also where the light was coming from, strong neon teal cave lanterns were hung all along what seemed to be another tunnel, neighbouring the corridor that Glim was taken into. The corridor had a very ominous appearance, the very air had its own haunting groan echoing. It was clearly very cold looking at the steam coming from the windows, which may be comfortable for ice pokémon like Glim, but he knew every other type often find the cold hateful. There was also a horrid scent as well, that could only be described as several sweaty muk eating year's old rotted cheese and then crapping it out. As if the very presence of the corridor was not awful enough, Glim took a closer look through the barred window next to him. What he saw sent a ghostly chill down his spine and prodded his legs back slightly. Beneath the blue lights was a long row of weakly struggling pokémon, who were the prisoners. Glim gasped in fright, while Yvonne looked back, only noticing that she had moved ahead without him. She ran back to the little glaceon who just paused on the spot.

'Sh, keep your voice down.' whispered the umbreon.

'Are these the prisoners?'

'Yes, they are. Most of which captured from that pier you came from. Your friends were a garbodor, an infernape and houndoom, right?'

Glim nodded hurriedly.

'They're much further down the line.'

The umbreon escorted Glim near to the other side of the corridor, where there was another big door, only with no signs on it all. Over ten metres away from the opposite end, Yvonne pointed to her left. The little glaceon looked into the glass, afraid of what he was going to see. He could hear muttering from the other side of the glass, indicating that most of the prisoners were alive, unless they were asleep or dying. Through the glass, after wiping the vapour from it, Glim saw two individuals, an open space and then a four legged pokémon dangling over a chasm too dark to see. The glaceon barely recognised them, but he knew they were the friends who spared him. Glim placed his little paw over the window.

'Jane, Ben, Shadow?'

They did not hear Glim, as the panel vents for communication were closed. Yvonne pulled an old lever just in front of Glim to open the vents. Immediately, the dark infernape, with her scalp fire only burning dark orange glanced up. The freezing condition of that prison had severely weaken the lined pokémon hanging there, but Jane's little flame was enough for her to stay focused and insane, judging by her appearance.

'Jane?'

'Glim!' wheezed the infernape, angrily.

Just saying his name seemed to spark up the neighbouring garbodor and nearby houndoom, making them eagerly look at the windows. Ben had the least change to his appearance, only becoming stiffer, while the muscular houndoom was constantly steaming heat and violently vibrating. At the same time, Ben and Shadow called out for Glim, as if he had come to rescue them. Looking at their condition, the intense chains holding them up and not knowing what was far below them, Glim had no plan at all to rescuing them.

'Get us out of here!' growled Jane, facing down again.

'I-I'm going to- I'm going to get you guys out of here, I promise!'

Glim frantically looking across the panel before him and turned to Yvonne with a desperate face, almost begging.

'How do we get them down?'

'Down! Are you crazy!' replied the umbreon. 'Do you know what's below them?'

The glaceon stood on his hind legs, trying to look down, pressing his face against the window, but the darkness was too thick.

'I don't see anything. What's down there?'

'Do you really want to know?'

Glim continued to stare at the pitch blackness, before answering 'no'.

'If you want to get them out of there, it will take authority.' continued Yvonne. 'Just to get you off that, they needed the shut down the paralysis mechanism that each and every cuff has. And then they had to get your unconscious body over here and as you can see… what would you call this window, to over there, four metres?' she said poking at the glass. 'Had they dropped you…'

The umbreon then pointed downwards into the chasm. Glim turned his head, lowering his ear to the vent. Hearing an eerie never ending droning noise that sounded like heavy metal getting pushed by hundreds of motors.

'That's where that noise is coming from.' said Glim, looking at Yvonne, who was just staring at him, with a worried expression. 'Jane, is there anything you can do?'

'Glim, do you not think we have tried everything already? We can barely move for a start! Let alone escape. These things they've hooked us to are torture devices. We move, we're shocked, we don't move, the ice hurts and it fucking hurts! You have to get us out!'

At that point, the little glaceon took steps back, frightened of Jane's anger and sudden pressure piling on him. Just next to the infernape, Ben and Shadow were objecting to Jane's attitude, telling her to go easy on him. Even the umbreon turned round to comfort him, but Glim refused the hug she offered.

'Go easy on him, ape!' argued the houndoom. 'We came all the way out here-'

'You, are not helping! Glim needs to learn to take missions into his own hands!'

'He… doesn't have hands.' whispered Ben.

'Shut up!' shouted both Jane and Shadow.

'Now hold on,' Yvonne interrupted. 'There is an easier way you can get out, I think.'

'You think?' questioned Jane, angrily.

'Yes! Your friend has already earned the trust of the Symphonia democrats and had the hell embarrassed out of him to get it.'

'Yeah, thanks for keeping my maid dress Ben!' said Glim.

'You looked so cute in it.' chuckled the garbodor with a remorseful tone.

'Well, it doesn't matter!' said Yvonne. 'Look, here's what we're going to do.'

As soon as the umbreon finished her sentence, a huge blinding stream of pink diamonds stormed through the tunnel like a blizzard, striking Yvonne and sending her flying to the wall to her right. Glim only got a brief second noticing the attack, but was too late to dodge it, even though it was not focused on him. The Dazzling Gleam did not hurt Glim so much, but getting caught in the crossfire, he was blown onto his back, confused as to what just happened. The glaceon glanced from where Yvonne had crashed and looked down the corridor where he saw Prince Snowdrop approaching, holding up his red bouquet like a cannon and with a motionless expression.

'Actually, you are not going to do anything.' he said.

The glaceon quickly stood, expressing fear and guilt at the very beauty of the roserade, who appeared to be oblivious to the little boy. Snowdrop seemed more interested in Yvonne who was struggling to stand up.

'No! Leave them alone!' cried Jane.

The pretty roserade ignored Jane and Glim and glowed a pulsating black, making his eyes appear leaking. He fired an unusual wave attack from the floor, which hit the downed umbreon and somehow sent her bouncing off the wall and caught perfectly by her neck in Snowdrop's bouquet hand. Yvonne was clearly getting strangled, making the glaceon gasp.

'How many times-'

'Stop!' cried Glim.

Prince Snowdrop turned his gaze over to the little glaceon. The roserade's eyes were bloodshot, the white bouquet that was his head was showing tremendously long thorns, but looking into the eyes of Glim seemed to quell his rage. The stare was not enough for the roserade, he then threw Yvonne at the window, with vines quickly wrapped around her as he repeatedly slammed the umbreon against the wired glass.

'No! Stop, stop!' squeaked the glaceon.

Without thinking, Glim swiftly tackles Prince Snowdrop, forcing him to release his stranglehold on Yvonne and letting her fall to the hard metal floor. The mad roserade meanwhile did not even tip backwards. He merely caught the little glaceon in his arms and was pushed back a metre from Glim's attack. For a moment, the glaceon froze, afraid of what Snowdrop was going to do, he was clearly very powerful and much tougher than he was. Resorting to hope, Glim remained holding onto Snowdrop tightly, like he was trying to show the roserade he was not afraid of him in such an awkward way. Surprisingly, Glim's unnerved ears was met by a soft stroke that travelled between his head and down to his back. He was too scared to look up at the roserade and just waited for him to say something.

'You really are so pathetic, are you not?'

Yvonne lied helplessly on the floor, badly hurt, while Jane and Ben were glued to what was happening behind the windows. Shadow was not able to see for being hung upside down and facing right. The prince knelt down to meet the fragile glaceon on eye level. Snowdrop's eyes had returned back to his vibrant mauve. Still, Glim remained tense and unable to open his eyes.

'Look at me… look at me, pretty.' said the roserade, lightly brushing his blue bouquet on the side of Glim's face.

The little glaceon calmed down and let his front paws touch ground again. As requested, he gingerly opened his eyes, to see a completely different face to what he saw attacking his umbreon friend. Prince Snowdrop looked so much healthier and beautiful. The roserade seemed to be enjoying the sight of Glim's beautiful eyes.

'Do you remember what I said earlier? "You are a lost revolution survivor, who got close to some troublesome friends". Have I not already proved my point? They have already got you attacked and put onto those chains over there. You got lucky in becoming part of our society, but now, you're risking the lives of yourself and other members.'

The glaceon paused, hoping for Jane to interject, but she did not.

'Th-they mean a lot to me.' stuttered Glim, resisting to cry.

Nearby, democrat Alexus the toxicroak approached. He was with Snowdrop when they entered, but chose to stay out of the way.

'Can I help Snow?' asked Alexus.

'Take our umbreon to her mother. She will not be very happy about this.'

'Yes sir.'

The frog pokémon passed Snowdrop to help up Yvonne who was still conscious.

'Come with me, Glim.'

The roserade stood, still with his flowers at the side of the glaceon who remained silent. Glim took one look back at his friends, who stayed staring at him. He could not see it, but his friends believed in him, even though the glaceon felt that he was abandoning them. His look back had a face that said 'I will save you.'

Prince Snowdrop took little Glim passed Symphonia hospital, where they entered a more linear tunnel. The sign near the entrance stated that goes to Lilac Town. Despite their stroll making them look like good friends, neither Glim nor Snowdrop spoke a single word. The roserade kept his smile, admiring the little glaceon for his sweet, but fearful way of walking, while Glim was hoping for Snowdrop to say the first word. The walk only took about twenty minutes, the tunnel of which was dead empty. No one would use it much due to the town that Lilac Island was known for being dead empty. Glim saw that for himself when he and the prince left the tunnel and into the peaceful harbour of Lilac Town. All they could hear were the waves lightly splashing against the walls. So calm despite the moon being behind the gloomy clouds. The source of light were olden street lanterns, common in small towns, keen to keep their era.

Glim stood eyeing the black sea and sky past the lights and Iris Town that was only five miles away, beaming its lights. Prince Snowdrop stood by him, also admiring the view.

'I think I can see Lopunny Cove.' said Glim, pointing at a random speck of brighter lights on the left side of Iris. 'Those like, big pink and cream lights.'

'Iris Town do look really odd, in all that darkened landscape around it.'

'Yeah.'

'But you know, I tried to get a job at that nightclub once. I heard they accepted both male and female dancers, especially those who were extremes of femininity or masculinity.'

'You wanted to be a dancer?'

The roserade paused.

'I did.'

Snowdrop turned and carried on, following the large path leading to a hill. Glim glanced back at Iris Town, before running to catch up with the prince. The hill surrounding the harbour was very high and steep, making the hill path much longer than the steep angled tunnel at Symphonia. At the bottom of the hill path, Snowdrop stopped by the abandoned boathouse. It was not very big, only sheltering one ferry and also having an office for communications.

'This thing was made before I was even born.' said Snowdrop. 'Bringing safety and freedom to land pokémon who wanted to cross the channel. Now, it's money, money, money. War, war, war.'

'I never really saw the use of boats to be honest. Since so many pokémon could already carry us overseas, like wailord.'

'That was the case centuries ago, and many water types now do take that occupation traditionally. Though back then, pokémon liked to say "the future is now, thanks to science".' Snowdrop chuckled. 'Future… yeah. Just take one look at Haine and see what future is left.'

With nothing more to say, the roserade moved ahead, starting the path that climbs the hill. Glim stared at the pretty prince, a little confused. He did not know what Snowdrop was doing, taking him for a stroll. At first, Glim thought he was heading for some office where he was going to get an earful from the democrats or to have his ass kicked by locals of the society. Instead it seemed that the roserade wanted to bond with the little glaceon. The reasoning, Glim was not so sure of, but he realised he could perhaps persuade Snowdrop to let his friends go.

Glim ran up the path, catching up to the roserade again. Snowdrop continued, as if the glaceon was not there.

'So um… where're we going?' asked Glim.

'I prefer to take this route to the shrine.'

'The shrine?'

'Yes. Lilac Town reminds me of why I'm doing all this. Why I desired to help Rancour in his revolution. Why I must protect my people. Why I never trust family! Why I hate…'

The roserade was unable to finish his sentence and just kept walking. Glim felt awkward, afraid to ask what he was going to say.

'You and I have a lot in common, dear Glim.'

Just when Prince Snowdrop finished his sentence, he pointed at the house they were passing. The house had a frightening atmosphere to it, all the windows were blown out, looking like big melting black eyes. The front door was gone, nothing left but a big hole, indicating an explosion had happened. Just looking at the building made the glaceon feel like he could hear screams. The two stopped, facing the house.

'I want you to go in there.'

'W-what?'

'Go in there and tell me what you think.'

'I think it looks terrifying, can we go?'

'This used to be where I lived. My room was down in the basement. Go in there and take one look. That is all I ask.'

Glim looked back at the house, as if it was an unhappy hungry haunter, waiting to devour who walked into its mouth. The glaceon turned pale as his ears dropped, but remembering his friends lives were at stake, he had to please the roserade. He then nodded with regret and proceeded.

Peeking through the giant hole in the wall, all Glim could see was blackness and broken walls. The stairway on the left was completely smashed and covered with dead weeds, while the room just before the stairs had its door bolted with white paint saying 'keep out'. It was obvious that pokémon had investigated the house before, so Glim felt a little safer. Only taking a few steps in, he felt lost already and did not want to proceed, but neither could he see any stairs going down to some basement. The glaceon turned round, peeking out of the house.

'Uh… wh-where- where's the basement?'

'Behind the kitchen, just ahead of you.'

The glaceon did not answer and just smiled terrifyingly, budging backward into the house. After a good five minutes, Glim finally entered the kitchen, which was down the corridor from the entrance. Like the hallway, so much of it was smashed, junk was all over the place and there were multiple weeds infesting the room. Glim could not see anything moving, but he could hear something strange, like wind rolling down the cliff, somehow singing. The kitchen had another door, also with 'keep out' painted on it, except that door was slightly opened. The little glaceon was terrified. The kitchen was already very dark and whatever was beyond the door he could not see at all, but he knew that Prince Snowdrop could not see him either, so he was going to pretend he went down to the basement and come out speechless and as frightened as he already was. There was no way he would go down there, he was too scared.

'Go forward, Glim.'

Immediately Glim yelped loudly, unaware that Snowdrop was right behind him at that point. He was frozen still, staring at what he could see of Snowdrop's head. The glaceon then took a deep sigh, still shivering.

'You scared me. A-are you coming with me?'

'Of course not. I'm just here to give you that little encouragement as most pokémon would have done it by now.'

Glim looked at the door again and silently groaned. Terrified of something jumping out, he slowly opened the door and peeked around the corner, only just making out a chasm of stairs. The glaceon looked back to see Snowdrop who was still there and then forced himself to enter the creepy narrow stairs. Glim kept asking himself about what Snowdrop could possibly want to hear about his opinion of that room, he could not see anything. The ominous sounds had stopped and there was an indescribable smell. Unaware of how deep the stairs were, the glaceon continued descending blindly, until he heard the door close above him. Glim instantly glanced back up and quietly rushed to the door, hyperventilating as he did, too scared to scream or hit the door violently. He could not even see the door, what was left of the light coming from the outside was fully blocked.

'Y-your majesty, please don't do this!' Glim squeaked, scratching at the door.

Right after saying that, the terrified glaceon started hearing something. At the bottom of the stairs, something was climbing, knocking on each step as it did. Glim's eyes went tiny as terror sunk into his blood, making his icy coat erect with needles. The footsteps got closer and closer, then suddenly Glim burst out his beam of rainbows, lighting up the whole staircase, revealing nothing to be climbing the stairs. His sudden burst of light had blinded him for a moment, which would not have mattered in complete darkness, but rather quickly his sight came back to see that the basement had its light on. It was a blood chilling red, which did not tempt the glaceon to coming down. He could also hear something new, something like creaking metal. Glim took a deep breath and descended, feeling more confident being able to see.

As the glaceon passed enough stairs to see the rest of the basement, he saw that no one was there and easily made it to the bottom. The source of the creaking metal was the lantern slowly swinging in place. The creepy light seemed to match Prince Snowdrop's room regardless, as tidy as it seemed, the walls had a lot of blood stains on them, there were pictures of nothing but more blood stains on them and then a torn up bed. Glim recognised the gory artwork, to being a gothic method of making art with one's blood. Since most of the pictures resemble being brushed with leaves or petals, the glaceon could easily see that Snowdrop was the artist, but whether or not it was his own blood intrigued him. Turning round, Glim did not see it at first, but there was also a desk under the stairs, near the bed of decomposed hay. On it were several stuffed toys with sad faces and a small picture of a little roselia, a croagunk and a buneary, standing below what appeared to be a cacturne and a roserade. Eerily, the roserade and cacturne had their faces torn from the picture.

Having enough of the basement, Glim was eager to get out of there, but when he looked up the stairs, he froze. A black silhouette of something quite large was sitting right on top of the stairs. The little glaceon was trapped and was stuck staring up at the creature that did not look like Snowdrop. Glim wanted to say hello or persuade it to move, but before he could have, the spirit had an evil face glowing on its bottom half, which suddenly blew fire down at the glaceon. His fear prevented Glim from dodging the Flamethrower quick enough, causing hind legs to ache massively as he rolled further into the bedroom. Further away from the stairs, the ghost leaped off the stairs and landed with a thud on the basement floor, glaring at the cornered glaceon. The creature was known as a gourgeist and it was unusually large. Its eyes on the slender plant seemed dead and the fire within the pumpkin was screaming with multiple voices.

Glim had never fought or seen a gourgeist before and was unaware that it was vulnerable to his own element. The glaceon blasted his ray of light just before the giant pumpkin could fire its flames again, out of luck the gourgeist became dizzy from the Signal Beam. It proceeded to frantically wave its enormously thick hair like arms, smashing the walls and staircase near it. With the advantage, Glim fired another shot of rainbows, holding the monster back, which then knew where the glaceon was. The gourgeist swung its hair again, smashing the red light, bringing back total darkness. The only source of light became the creepy face on its pumpkin of souls. Glim could not see where the pumpkin pokémon was attacking, which suddenly grabbed hold of the glaceon and threw him up at the ceiling. He started to panic, frantically shooting Signal Beam in adjacent directions, unable to hit the gourgeist only metres away. The light of the pumpkin then faded, the voices laughed as Glim steadily stood up again, looking out for it. He was then hit on the head, knocking him to the floor. Glim then realised he could not move, the gourgeist was holding him down with its thick hair. Terrifyingly, the pumpkin face glowed into existence again, quite far Glim, but it started cackling loudly as it slowly drew closer to the glaceon who started screaming. The face became only a foot away, but then something flashed, bursting passed the giant pokémon, making it stop. The voices were screaming in pain as the hair lifted from Glim and the gourgeist shifted round, facing the roserade that was emanating black voltage around his body. The monster suddenly screamed out in fury as it tried to zoom into Prince Snowdrop, who then used his Hidden Power once more, making the giant gourgeist disintegrate before it even got to him.

Without the light or the gourgiest's pumpkin light, the basement became pitch black again. Glim sitting in the darkness was traumatised and desperate to get out.

'Glim, are you o-'

'Let's get out of here!' he screamed.

Outside the broken house, the little glaceon was shivering and breathing deeply. He had ran out of the house far ahead of Snowdrop, who approached little Glim to comfort him.

'Sweetheart,' said the roserade. 'I am so sorry, that happened. I was told it would happen eventually, but I did not think it would.'

Glim remained silent, staring out to the sea, recollecting his thoughts. Prince Snowdrop sat next to him and wrapped his arm over the little glaceon, allowing him to lean on him.

'What was that?' whispered Glim.

'It was known as a gourgeist, Glim. At least, that is the shape of how it ended up.'

'Ended up?'

Snowdrop paused and seemed sad.

'That thing was actually my family… when I lost it. I took joy in killing my parents, but then I got a little… carried away.'

'I remember seeing a picture down there. Were they your family?'

'Yes. But that gourgeist wasn't just my parents. That buneary… my little sister… o-oh god.'

Snowdrop suddenly stood, incapable of fighting the tears that leaked from his eyes. His teeth clenched as he took deep breaths which stopped him from crying. Glim could only watch, too shaken out to move. The roserade paused, regaining his stability. He then looked over at Glim with a smile.

'Did that room seem familiar to you?'

The glaceon paused, tempted to shout angrily at Snowdrop about how he felt. However, he realised why he was so afraid of the house behind him and nodded calmly.

'I came from a violent family too.'

'Did you ever stand up for yourself?'

'I wasn't allowed to…' said Glim with a tear sliding down his face. 'My brothers and parents would hurt me more if I did.'

Prince Snowdrop gave a sympathetic expression and shook his head.

'I know what that's like.'

Half an hour later, the roserade and glaceon continued the walk and climbed most of the hill path, leading to what appeared to be a sudden bite in the path, indicating that the cliff had crumbled, falling into the sea it overlooked. Looking at the trail of cracking, Glim could see that it trailed much further ahead, becoming the edge of the cliffs in the distance.

'Was there a landslide here?' asked the glaceon.

'There was.' replied the prince, pointing at the valley of disfigured rocks, sticking out of the shallow water. 'The cause of it was unknown, but it took thirty nine lives. Pokémon on land and under the water that was there.'

'Oh god.'

'Lilac folk named it "Groudon's Torment". And it sure seemed that way, because once it happened, the relatives of the victims lost their ways and either became criminals or tormented others into the same fate.'

'That's awful.'

Snowdrop moved onward with Glim following shortly. The two finally reached the top of the hill that travelled downward on the other side, to the rest of Lilac Town. Because of the hill's arc, the part of the town Glim was looking at was not visible from Iris Town. It looked just as desolate as the harbour side they had just left. As if it could not seem anymore depressing, the weather lightly started to rain. Not much of an issue for either the roserade or glaceon, since plant like pokémon need the most hydration of any pokémon while ice types need to keep cold. So they walked down the dark road with the rain lightly battering them. Of course, they kept close so the two could hear each other if one spoke, except neither of them spoke for over half an hour as they traversed through the abandoned country town. Glim had wondered if the town was abandoned due to the revolution or if it was long ago. Whatever did happen, the underground society Symphonia was the result.

Near the opposite end of the small town, the glaceon had spotted the glass shrine on top of the next hill they started to climb. On a lower ground in behind the shrine was the town hall. A massive building, resembling olden architecture, much like the Coronet back in Iris. When Glim had noticed the shrine he looked back and saw that Snowdrop was standing in front of the hall and casually walked in, having to force the huge doors open. The glaceon ran upon noticing the roserade's detour.

From the outside, the hall did not appear to rival city buildings, but when Glim left the rain and into another dark structure, he saw that there were three accessible floors, to what seemed more like a performance theatre. The roserade avoided the stairwells to the seats and just proceeded to the stage. The glaceon slowly walked through the door, noticing that most of the roof was gone, allowing the rain to soak the stage where the prince was idly stood with his back to Glim.

'Some light would be nice.' said Snowdrop.

The roserade turned, looking up at the enormous hole in the ceiling, raised his bouquet and boomed a huge purple ball that zoomed into the clouds above. The fired sludge appeared to then explode, causing the sky to flash and dispersing clouds outward to form a gap for the half moon to shine directly into the stage. The move that Snowdrop had used also influenced the weather to rain less. Glim was fascinated by the roserade even knowing where the moon was, but his amazement quickly died when he looked back at the prince who remained looking up, lit up by the beautiful moonlight, reflecting off his soaked petals.

'A half moon…' said Snowdrop, so depressively. 'To me, that says… don't worry, you're getting there, you'll succeed eventually.' he said sarcastically. 'That has always been the case for me. Never complete, never successful, never… loved.'

Snowdrop paused, looking down and Glim approached a little, tempted to ask if he was okay.

'It was here.' the roserade continued. 'It was here I would run away to, when my parents kicked me out. Here, when I needed encouragement, inspiration, determination. Here, where I dreamed to one day perform. But again, the moon repeats to me, "you shalt never succeed". And it is true, I never got to be dancer I craved for, I suffered for, I died for.'

The roserade turned away again and knelt down, holding his head in his bouquets. Glim entered the stage, which appeared to be far bigger than it seemed being off it. The glaceon kept his distance, but wanting help.

'Your majesty. That doesn't mean you have failed. Your people-'

'It does!' Snowdrop interrupted, quickly standing up. 'No performance is ever finished, completed only half way.' he said, then eerily turning to the little glaceon. 'Unless, there were catastrophic accidents, which is all that ever happens to me!'

The roserade held up his bouquet, as if it were a cannon at Glim's direction. The glaceon took a step back, cowering slightly.

'Any act,' continued Snowdrop. 'That ends with the dancer getting rushed out, drenched in blood, or attacked does not scream a finale… does it Glim?'

Afraid to disagree, the little glaceon shook his head. Snowdrop then lowered his fearsome hand of flowers and looked down again.

'But… m-maybe your act was part of one big one?' said Glim. 'Um, with lots of pokémon like you. Like us. A lot of pokémon have had their dreams taken from them.'

'Glim stop. I know why you're still with me right now, why you are sweet talking to me, trying to make me feel better. You're trying to befriend me to release your friends.'

The two paused in silence, giving each other a saddening stare. The glaceon did not budge at all, unwilling to deny or confirm his motive, because deep down, he cared for the roserade. Glim sat and decided to relate on a personal level.

'Your majesty. The reason my friends mean so much to me, is because they all have saved me at some point, even though I never mattered to them. An infernape named Oswald risked his life to save me when Gebera was raided weeks ago. I was still just an eevee. His wife was pissed at him for that, but I was so grateful. He didn't just save me from the Dragon Raid…'

Glim was unable to finish what he was going to say and looked away, appearing angry all of a sudden and breathing deeply. The roserade gave a look as if he knew what Glim was going to say.

'Did you cry a lot, as an eevee?' asked Snowdrop.

'Yeah.'

'Were you bullied for that?'

The little glaceon only nodded slowly, as his eyes shut tightly and mouth began to tremble. Prince Snowdrop carefully approached the broken ice pokémon, knelt down again and hugged him.

'Glim…' said the roserade. 'You and I have so much in common, it hurts.'

'Why does it hurt?'

'Because you remind me of myself when I survived. Glim, if you try to outlive the revolution, you are only going to end up like me.'

The glaceon sat still, keeping hold of his embrace, while the roserade he was holding onto began to twitch and then bewail, holding Glim tighter and tighter. The stage echoed in his sobs as the clouds began covering the moon again, thus resuming the rain. Snowdrop tried to speak, stuttering about his dreams getting crushed by the cruel society and no one ever sympathising for him.

'I hate pokémon. I hate my family. I hate everything. I hate… myself.'

Five minutes later, the despairing plant pokémon finally released his embrace, not that Glim asked him to. They then just sat in front of each other, having nothing to say for a moment. Prince Snowdrop then got up, walked to the centre of the lost stage he never performed on and turned back to the little glaceon.

'Glim, if you want to save your friends, you will have to do us both a favour.'

'W-what?'

'I want you to kill me.'

Suddenly, Glim was overwhelmed with shock and did not process what was just said. Even though he felt he understood the roserade who was giving the most shameful expression.

'What?' repeated Glim.

'Exactly what I said. I don't want to be here anymore.'

'N-no!' said the little glaceon standing on all fours. 'I don't want to kill you.'

Prince Snowdrop closed his eyes, making two loud gun-cocking sounds coming from his bouquet hands. He pointed his flowers directly at Glim again.

'Kill me, or I will kill you with me. We were not made for this world, sweet little glaceon. We're just mental punching bags, for the sick society who wants someone to bully.'

'We- no one has to die your majesty!'

The roserade paused, seemingly remaining still, but all around Glim, darkened pink petals were hovering all around the stage in an odd breeze. It was not long before the blizzard of petals endlessly swirled around the stage, creating a cyclone that trapped the both of them.

'But I want to.' whispered Prince Snowdrop.

The red bouquet he was holding up appeared to open up and glow. Glim gasped and leaped to his side as the roserade shot a Sludge Bomb, igniting on collision with the petal tornado. The explosion barely nudged Snowdrop, but the glaceon was blasted upward and bounced off the razor petals behind the roserade and spiralled helplessly until he crashed back onto the floor. That one attack alone, not even lasting five seconds had damaged Glim severely. His back was burned from the explosion, his head, ear and crown was scratched from the flurry of petals and the crash landing had stressed his left leg muscles and his head, leaving him dizzy. The glaceon was not injured though and was able to stand with the pain he had endured. Snowdrop turned to face him, still with his eyes closed and raising his bouquet.

'Why fight it Glim? There is no future for us. Some human woman kept pestering me about the future once. Apparently I am "level one hundred" whatever that meant.'

Not even getting the chance to reply, Glim saw the dangerously powered bouquet opening again. His great pain prevented him from leaping, so instead the glaceon tried to hurl an Ice Shard as Snowdrop was about to fire another devastating Sludge Bomb. The large shard of ice was thrown perfectly as the roserade fired his attack, making the bomb explode in his face. His red bouquet had hundreds of tiny petals blown from it as the roserade was launched into the whirlwind of petals and rapidly catapulted into the petals on the otherside before he too crashed onto the floor. Glim meanwhile was also blown into the razor pink wall, but for not being so close to the explosion, he was only pushed back. Despite the enormous backfire, Prince Snowdrop stood tough, like he could still take gunfire to his head. He kept a depressive stare, while the glaceon was scared for his life, but also confused.

'Are you not going to kill me, my sweet?' Snowdrop asked.

'No! You don't understand! I don't want-'

Without any warning, the roserade aggressively swung his arm, suddenly casting a bright pink flash that looked like a blizzard of diamonds, striking Glim back into the petals, which only bounced him back onto the stage. Before the glaceon fell to the ground, Snowdrop zoomed toward him and caught him by his neck.

'Glim! I can't do this anymore! I've had enough of this hell! It was too late for me when I killed my family, for trying to kill me!' screamed the roserade, who violently threw Glim across the stage. 'Why won't you fight back!'

The little glaceon was in too much pain, all around his body from that last attack and was just left in a ball, twitching. He could only look up, watching the broken prince approach him.

'Because…' Glim stuttered. 'Because I'm not giving up. I just want to save my friends. Even if that costs my life.'

The distraught roserade kept eye contact with the hurt glaceon as he rose his trembling bouquet once more. His eyes were bloodshot, enraged and saddened at once. The stare of anger quickly turned into a stare of despair as tears rapidly leaked from the beautiful prince. Suddenly Snowdrop raised his bouquet cannon further, pointing at his own head. Glim gasped seeing that movement.

'You will give up eventually, Glim.'

'No! Stop!'

Another explosion sent the deeply hurt glaceon sliding across the floor and getting stopped by the petals that began to disperse, drifting downward like snow and turning grey. Glim sat up, gathering what energy he had and could see the body of a headless roserade, lying silently on the stage. Hundreds of multi coloured petals drifted to the floor, surrounding what used to be Prince Snowdrop. Struggling to cope with what just happened, the glaceon passed out from exhaustion.

'Thank you for trying to save me Glim, but… I had enough a long time ago. What you said to me was something I used to say. One day, if you survive the revolution, you will understand how I felt.'

The little glaceon had passed out for only ten minutes, woken up by the sound of buzzing. Glim looked up at the strange noise, to see two yanmega and a gigantic beedrill with enormous stingers and much angrier eyes. The three bugs were glaring down at the remains of Prince Snowdrop who remained immobile. The three flying bugs then glanced over to the lonely glaceon, who looked frightened and dangerous to approach. Unexpectedly the beedrill's red eyes began glowing, making odd radio noises, while the two yanmega were nodding to what their leader was saying. They abruptly left, darting up through the hole in the roof at an incredible speed.

'Oh my god no!' yelled Alexus, leaping into the hall.

The glaceon took one look at the toxicroak behind him. Alexus was astonished and had a face of great despair when he noticed the body of their leader on the floor.

'What happened!' he demanded, glaring at the vulnerable glaceon.

'Snowdrop… I-I tried to save him, but…'

'Sir! What's going on?' called Cyrus, also storming in with a crobat with him.

The nidoking and crobat shared the same look of shock as their toxicroak executive. Alexus quickly helped Glim up.

'It's worse.' said the toxicroak. 'The Interceptors were just here, probably the ones who killed my brother.'

'You're shitting me!'

'No, I'm not! Kelly, red alert, Symphonia is about to get hit hard. We will need everybody.'

'Yes sir!' replied the crobat, bolting through the same gap in the roof.

Without a moment to lose, Alexus dragged the confused glaceon out of the building. Cyrus ran out in a hurry, relaying to information to the poison type pokémon who stood nearby.

'Wait, wait! What's going on?' squeaked Glim.

'Snowdrop is dead! His Dazzling Gleam technique was our only defence to stop the Republic using the Dragon Raid on us!' replied the stressed frog pokémon.

Glim gasped.

'That's right,' he continued. 'Now that the Republic know, they're coming for us, right now!'

'I have to save my friends!'

'Yeah, good luck.' said Alexus sarcastically, lightly patting the glaceon and running with the nidoking.

Little Glim was still hurt from his fight with the roserade, causing him to resort to limping after the group of poison types, who were desperately returning to Symphonia to gather their troops. Only so few were positioned on top. While Glim was making the last climb toward the shrine, where the steep tunnel into Symphonia was located, he could hear a wail of sirens. Its ominous droning noise was bellowing not from Lilac, but surprisingly from Iris, several miles away. The Dragon Raid was not just for Symphonia it seemed, as the innocent coastal town was going to be bombed also.

Desperate to return to the cave town, the little glaceon could only ignore the horrifying sirens, but then out of the blue, the sky began to light up, at least from what Glim could see. First he looked up and then turned round, behind the glass shrine, the town of Iris appeared to be exploding in the distance. So many explosions erupting in different sizes and coordination at once. The sound was not audible immediately, but Glim could only brace himself for the tremendously loud bangs that were inevitable. Still desperate to save his closest friends from their prison, the glaceon tried to ignore his shock and ran for the tunnel, only to be bombarded by multiple bigger pokémon rushing up the path he was trying to run down. Most of the Pokémon who had ran into him were angry, bloodthirsty poison type soldiers, eager for a fight. Some were even cheering at the devastation of Iris Town. Glim only cowered down, hoping for nobody to trample on him.

'Glim!' shouted Garrus, stopping in front of the timid glaceon.

The drapion was not alone, Kelly the crobat flew past him, while Mayleen and Yvonne caught up with the ogre scorpion.

'You alright Glim?' shouted Yvonne, who looked beaten after what happened in the prison chamber.

The glaceon got up, eager to get past them.

'I have to save them!'

'No, Glim!' argued the umbreon, blocking the way. 'The underground is too dangerous, it'll cave in!'

'I have to try!' screamed Glim.

The glaceon barged between Yvonne and the nidorina who looked back, concerned. The drapion meanwhile was uninterested and more focused on the situation.

'Nevermind him!' said Garrus. 'You two need to go! Follow that path down-'

Suddenly the Draco Meteors started impacting, one of which smashed right through the drapion, blowing his body apart. One of his arms flew past Glim as he was thrown into the air by rapid explosions that started lighting up the island, turning it into a savage warzone. The glaceon was deafened, crashing onto a hill, witnessing multiple pokémon also tumbling down the hill and the sky lighting up in an array of magic attacks. It was havoc, any pokémon who arrived early probably did not get orders and was left for themselves. Behind the swarm of bright blue lights being the Draco Meteors were the flock of flying type pokémon summoned by the Republic. Just by seeing the silhouettes, Glim could see that so many of them were salamence, noivern and hydreigon.

The glaceon attempted to stand up again, but as soon as he stood, another meteor crashed near where he facing, sending him flying into the crashing sea behind him. At that point, he had no more power to fight with, he could not even swim to safety. The last thing he saw started with a few red flashes of light above the water and then something white with long elegant wings dove into the water, diving for Glim. The exhaustion got the better of the little glaceon once again as he passed out. Unknowing of where he was next to wake up. All he could think about was trying to save Jane, Shadow and Ben, whom he had promised to save.