The Sombre Snow

by SapphicWish

Sweet little Glim, a glaceon who survives ordeal after ordeal, while losing so many of his friends in Crio's revolution. Facing a racist republic, a vengeful rebellion and a mysterious crowd of zombie-like pokémon who call themselves 'Martyr'. Perhaps though, Glim's worst enemy is himself, while finding himself, he is already deeply lost in his own tears. Containing yaoi/yuri.

19. Crimson Ruination

Chapter 19:
'Crimson ruination' (phase 1 finale)

---

It was a while before Glim had returned to the underground of Haine's Central Station, forgetting how big the capital of Crio was. He still felt numb after losing a friend of his and just could not accept it. The little glaceon was not alone in his numbness however, Karli seemed mad as usual, but only mad at herself, she was not always the nicest to the friend they lost. Glim's boyfriend Shadow, was also experiencing a mild sense of sorrow, but was more relieved to have his little glaceon alive to comfort. Their tails wrapped where they sat.

Karli, Glim and Shadow were at some refugee restaurant, one that was quieter than the bigger ones upstairs. Like every refuge worker, the quiet restaurant was there out of charity, helping the refugees and revolutionaries more. It was in a train car near the southern exit to the Tundra Sector, where the crew had finished their first mission.

Glim and his friends, or at least the crew he set off with had rightfully become members of the Crimson Revolution and kept their short scarves on. The oddball in their circumstance was Tyson, the delibird who was rescued along with Sergeant, the magnezone who they set out for in the first place.

Karli's father, McGregor had left the table to place their orders, while Tyson was sitting very unnerved. He knew none of the pokémon at the table with him and Sergeant was not with them. For him it was like sitting at a school table in a cafeteria with older students he did not know, and after being chased out of his house by parents. That was as close as he could relate the attack of Vice Vora.

'You okay?' asked Shadow, with his head over Glim's, though he was talking to Tyson.

The delibird stuttered, 'Uh, yeah, yeah.'

He honestly did not know what to say, Tyson was still shaken after his rescue from the metagross from Hell. Karli with an emotionless expression looked at the delibird, sitting next to her. She wanted to ask Tyson how he knew Sergeant, but felt wrong to.

'What about you two?' Shadow asked, looking at Glim first and Karli second.

Glim stayed silent, closing his big beautiful eyes.

Karli replied calmly, 'Angel's dead, Shadow.'

The houndoom nodded.

'I-I know… just wanted to know if either of you wanted to talk.'

The blue-haired kirlia looked away, not angry, just disappointed about losing their weavile friend. Glim was the same, they could not help but see images flashing in their heads of when their confident, hasty weavile friend either saved them or did something outrageous. The little glaceon began tearing up when he remembered when Angel was just a sneasel, outsmarting Alexander the electivire and getting Glim into the nightclub. It made his lips tremble. It was very hard to believe it was only hours ago that their weavile was killed by Vice Vora.

Tyson had a sympathetic look on his face, for he too witnessed the death of the weavile who fought relentlessly to save him and Sergeant.

McGregor came back with a tray with two teas, a glass of boiling water and a large chesto juice. The large dusknoir surprisingly did not order anything for himself, he had forgotten to. It seemed creepily quiet when the four pokémon silently took their drinks without saying anything at all. Not that McGregor expected anyone to talk, though he known Angel only for a little while, he could tell he was close to his daughter and Glim.

The glaceon as usual blew his tea until it froze before taking a sip. Karli meanwhile looked blankly down into her tea, pondering random thoughts, like how do people see their reflections in drinks? She sure could not see herself. Shadow awkwardly had to drink his piping kettle water with his whole maw holding the glass and looking upward, though he had been doing that like most hound pokémon for years, it was super embarrassing when their friends would drink could use their hands, claws or paws. The delibird meanwhile was too anxious to drink, frequently darting his eyes over the crew. He had to break the silence.

'So um… you said that Ben and Meg made it here?' he asked, not really directed at anyone in particular.

Shadow and Karli nodded, but in doing so while he was drinking water the houndoom quickly slammed the glass down and choked into a violent coughing fit.

'They're…' answered Karli, distracted by Shadow choking to death. 'They're like, several rows down from this one.' Glim began patting the houndoom's back sternly. 'You would have to go upstairs to get to the platform though.'

'Wrong pipe!' coughed Shadow, before taking a huge wheezing gasp.

'If it's okay with you,' said Tyson. 'Could you guys take me over?'

'Yeah of course,' replied Karli. 'We're done for today, I think.'

'Charlotte never confirmed that though.' interjected McGregor.

'No, but she seemed excited about Sergeant's information. I mean… after, they found his tracker to be destroyed.'

'So what does that mean?' asked Shadow. 'Are we finished for today?'

'The last thing she told us- well Gem at least, was for us to standby.'

'And what did she say?'

'She said that their interview with Sergeant would take a while, so we could go. But she wanted us to stay on this platform until we were dismissed.'

'Oh right.' said Shadow, glancing at the carriage windows. 'That's why we came here?'

'Yes.' answered both Karli and McGregor.

It was quiet, no one said anything for five minutes straight as their drinks were drank. Glim was the first to drink his tea, but afterward he remained sitting with his dismal look.

'I…' Glim stuttered. 'I want to take a walk.'

'You can't leave this platform, Glim.' said Karli. 'Gem's orders.'

'I-I know, I just want to move.'

Without a word, the little glaceon left his seat and McGregor swiftly strode aside for him to pass to the door. Nobody stopped him or said anything, which put a little surprise on Karli's face as she glanced at Shadow.

'Hey Shadow.' Karli whispered. The houndoom met the kirlia's worried eyes with a similar expression. 'You want to talk to him?'

'He… sounded like he just wanted space.'

'No excuse to just ask if he's okay.'

Shadow paused, looked toward the closed door and then nodded.

'Alright.'

With that, the houndoom quickly shuffled from his seats and left for the door. The giant dusknoir tried to fit himself onto the seats in place of Shadow.

Outside, Glim had forgotten how noisy it would get, especially late into the afternoon. The pokémon refugees appeared as shadows to the little glaceon, like he could not see them. Being on the very south platform, Glim had more to look at other than the usual sandwich of trains. However, the long bronze wall that stretch all along the station's underground had nothing different compared to the last refugee zone he went to. He was almost reminded of Beryl saying goodbye to his mother.

For no reason, Glim sat down, in the middle of the platform, just zoning out as every pokémon passed him without notice. His ears dropped, all noise turned into muffles, as he remembered something else, said by some calm, yet serious female.

'You are going to lose friends Glim, and you must move on when it happens.'

'Glim, honey?' asked Shadow, breaking the glaceon's deep contemplation and snapping him back to reality. The glaceon gasped lightly and glanced back at the houndoom, who responded with a sort of jumped expression. 'You alright?'

Glim's eyes sunk down. He thought it was Martyr behind him.

'Shadow.' Glim uttered.

'Yes?' asked Shadow, worriedly.

The little glaceon paused.

'Can I… tell you something?'

The houndoom sat down, only centimetres between each other. His hind legs stretched passed the glaceon's bottom. Shadow did feel a little awkward to be that close to Glim in a crowded space, but every time his eyes darted from those beautiful eyes of Glim, no one was noticing them.

'Don't need to ask sweetheart. You can tell me anything.' he whispered. 'What's wrong darling?'

'You remember when I got desperate about us not entering Larkspur?'

'Yeah?'

'Well… that was because I received a warning on the boat. I've been getting them a few times now, a voice, inside my head.'

'A voice?'

Glim nodded.

'I don't know who or what, but she's been giving me advice since we went to Symphonia. A-and yesterday…' Glim took a deep breath as his voice began to crack. 'She said that Martyr will soon come and kill my friends. But I don't know if that includes you, Karli or Ben.'

'But… why haven't you told any of us this?'

'Oh, hey everybody, Martyr's coming to kill us. I know because a voice in my head told me. Who's going to believe that?'

'Well, we might. I've encountered that thing- in fact Karli said she had twice. Why wouldn't she or her father believe you?'

Glim paused again, looking down.

'I-I only got it yesterday, I think. It was when we woke in the medical bay, with Ben.'

Shadow raised his head and glanced around.

'Did she say when and where?' Glim shook his head. 'Then let's stay close, let's stay together. Okay, sweetheart?'

The vulnerable glaceon paused, before giving a slow nod. The houndoom lowered his head also, but also tilted to let his lips make brief contact of Glim's. Immediately, the glaceon felt the warm surge pulsing down his back, making his tail erect. Shadow meanwhile received an oddly satisfying chill down to his tail, but the softness of those lips and crystallised eyes were hypnotic to him.

The two quadrupedal males were not quite aware that they were being watched by a certain frog-like pokémon who stood metres behind Shadow.

'Didn't know you two were a couple.' said Gem, with her arms crossed, but also smirking. Both Glim and Shadow heard the toxicroak and broke off their kiss to look back at her. 'Sorry to… but you guys and friends are wanted to be seen by vice leader Charlotte.'

'All of us?' asked Shadow.

'All of you who have known the magnezone, Sergeant. But since your kirlia friend and her father were part of its rescue, they will come too. And, you must see her now.'

Glim glanced up and Shadow, before nimbly falling out of his hold.

'I-I'll get the others.'

---

In the eerily dark computer room, where the team had their first mission briefing, Maladan stood waiting. The blastoise was not alone, apart from the usual bug and dark types on the computers, Charlotte, the mismagius vice leader emerged into the lonely light and the middle of the room.

From the door, hidden in the dark corridor, Gem entered carefully, trailing behind her was Shadow, Glim, Karli, McGregor and Tyson, in that order. As they entered Glim recognised Charlotte's face to be excited, yet exhausted, like a child who had achieved something and was in a celebratory mood. Her joyful expression seemed to be shared by the giant tortoise next to her, who had his arms folded with a satisfied smile. In the lone light however, they looked rather menacing to the little glaceon.

'Come in, come in!' said Charlotte, almost demanding. She was clearly in a rush and a little out of breath.

Karli, nor Shadow did not know what to make of Charlotte's unusually positive mood.

'You're "friend",' said Maladan, leaning forward. 'Has been quite the bombshell for our fight.'

'You mean Sergeant?' asked Glim.

Maladan nodded, while Charlotte descended and drew close to the beautiful glaceon, whose icy crown and big eyes twinkled from the lone light, making Glim appear so pure and innocent. The houndoom took a step forward, placing a paw in front of his glaceon as he stared down at the mismagius, who appeared to not notice Shadow's confrontation.

'You have no idea, do you?' said Charlotte, so pleasantly, eyeing Glim and his friends. 'After we found that Sergeant's tracker was off, destroyed in fact, it began to reveal, all, of the Republic's biggest flaws, weaknesses, mistrusts and even full scale maps! So, you may understand why a certain member of us had to see it for himself.'

The ghost drifted back upward.

'Uh… who?' asked Karli.

Charlotte darted down to face the little kirlia, inches away.

'Who do you think? Commander Rancour!' she drifted back once more, looking back over Glim and Shadow. 'I feel bad for even hunting you down! But there's more, on you two especially.' Glim looked up at Shadow, who remained focused on Charlotte, a little concerned. 'You two… would you call yourselves a couple?'

Both the glaceon and houndoom stuttered for a moment and Shadow quickly nodded.

'Yes, definitely!' he agreed.

Glim meanwhile looked to his right, catching eye contact with Karli, who looked curious, but her strong orange eyes somehow appeared worried.

'W-we haven't known each other long.' Glim said, getting quieter.

The houndoom tilted his head and gave an embarrassed grin.

'Y-yeah, but we've saved each other plenty of times.' said Shadow, winking at Glim, who could not see him.

The mismagius gave a sceptical look over Shadow and Glim.

'Hmm, regardless, I have somewhere to take you five. Come now.'

After giving Maladan one look, Charlotte drifted backward before turning round and heading for the back left corner of the big dark room. Shadow and McGregor could see that she was heading for a rather barricaded door hidden in the darkness.

Beyond the door was a long, narrow corridor, dimly lit in grey. It was surprising for Glim to hear that Maladan was even able to fit in there, as well as McGregor, despite their size. It felt so thin, it looked like the walls would close in. It was ghostly silent too, the only audible noises were the little paw steps of the glaceon, followed by his friends on their own feet, other than the two ghost types who had no legs.

Nobody spoke during the short trip down the eerie corridor. On the other end, Charlotte revealed it to be a gigantic shaft, like a vertical tunnel, held up by six silver pillars, stretching all the way through the floor from what little glaceon could see.

'I hope you like elevator rides,' said Charlotte, floating to a control podium. 'Because we're going pretty far down.' the mismagius held down one button, activating a communication speaker on the podium itself. 'Lonely brionne to lapras death, come in lower crew. Vice Commander Charlotte.'

The single, outdated speaker fuzzed with static noise before a low voice mumbled, 'Lapras death to lonely brionne, we read you Charlotte.'

'I have brought the crew of five as requested, send up the lift.'

'Face the cameras please.'

The mismagius jumped, quickly floating the centre of the room.

'Quick, quick!' she called, tugging Shadow and Karli closer to her as she looked up at an ominous, dusty security camera, eyeing the room. The camera looked out of use to Glim, he was not sure if it was even on, let alone working. 'Everyone look up at the camera, please.'

By that time, everyone already was and after a second or two, the muffled male voice uttered something that was barely audible. The message however, was short, finishing up with the podium cutting out, before Charlotte could return to it and answer.

The giant shaft began vibrating and clanking loudly, as the dark silhouetted chains started to ascend, pulling something huge up. After a five minute wait, something was emerging from the darkness. A platform, seemingly connected to the six pillars was pulled up by the chains. It was hard to tell how sturdy the platform was, as it was completely made of metal, but uneven and rusted. However, its condition was not the result of time, but many battles that took place on it.

'How stable is this, may I ask?' said McGregor.

'Stable enough to use Earthquake on,' replied Charlotte. 'There have been fights on this.'

Against the chain-link fence that separated the shaft and area where they stood was a small rectangular gap, like a door was once there, which had evidently been blown out. Even so, the gap was pretty small, so the crew had to step into the giant platform elevator one by one.

Once inside, the mismagius signalled her crew below by pressing a button on the podium, which she had to stretch through the fence to do. The lift than started with a slow and steady descend before picking up speed. The noise of chains were consistently clanking below the platform in the six pillars. It was surprisingly dark, Glim looked up, watching the faint grey light of the room they had left as it rapidly shrunk. Shadow stood by him, evidently concerned about the darkness too, even though they were with their friends.

Eventually, the darkness of the shaft suddenly ended when the elevator left the shaft itself and continued descended in the midst of a tremendous room, brightly lit in red. It made Glim, Shadow, Karli and Tyson glance about for sure. It appeared to be a rundown factory of sorts, what it was for was unclear, all there was not much machinery, most of which were merely conveyor belts. The room was very tall in fact, when the elevator left the shaft, still using the pillars, they were very high up. The only thing stopping the crew from falling off the elevator was the similarly thin chain-linked fence as the one far above. The room appeared to have many observations points and bridges, much like traditional factories, but one installation stood out on the other side of the room, which looked like an office that over watched its factory. That office also had a bridge leading up to it, one that that led from the floor the elevator was slowing down for.

The elevator stopped on level with the bridge, directly from the office to the suspended platform. Outside the elevator waited an ursaring, a sceptile, an aggron and another houndoom, much rougher-looking than Shadow. Seeing the bigger houndoom put Shadow on edge a little, not looking at him in the eye. The door remained closed until Charlotte went through it and told the elevator guards to open it.

As soon as the door opened, out of nowhere, a little espeon lunged in, frantically sniffing the crew. Seeing him had surprised Glim, Shadow and Tyson, while Karli just puzzled. The espeon appeared restless, glancing at every member within the elevator, Glim and Shadow especially, in fact the little glaceon got two more glances when the espeon even approached Karli. It seemed that he was being oddly curious, though the kirlia assumed the espeon was just doing checks, watching those deep purple eyes twitch so quickly, which were just as pretty as those of Glim. McGregor only got one glance and as the espeon dashed to Tyson, the sceptile guard beckoned for Glim to follow. So the little glaceon obliged, with a look at Shadow, wanting him to follow, of course he did and the other three guards seemed to not mind as the sceptile made his way across the bridge. For some reason the little espeon was taking a while, staring into the delibird's eyes, who stared back awkwardly. Tyson was a little unnerved, thinking the pretty lilac quadrupedal had a crush on him or something. Before leaving to follow after Glim, Karli looked back at Tyson, a little concerned why the espeon seemed suspicious about him.

'Please keep up.' said Charlotte to Karli and McGregor. 'This is an area of intense security. It is much appreciated that we stay together.'

The kirlia quickly caught up with the glaceon and houndoom, who were walking side by side, taking up the width of the bridge as it was pretty narrow.

'Security?' asked Karli, looking around, looking for guards other than the sceptile who was escorting them, while the other houndoom, ursaring and aggron stayed by the elevator.

'It would be difficult to see them in this lighting, but we have guards on the bottom floor and lots of them. This factory is… pretty deep, but that hasn't stopped intruders from finding their way here.'

'You mean… even- even Republics?'

'No, never. But even if they did find us, the guards are outfitted to appear as violent refugees.'

At that moment, nearing the middle of the bridge, Karli saw someone in a cloak, sat looking depressed against a wall and then noticed one after another. She could never see the ones directly below her with the strange red lighting, however the ones around the walls, over watching the crawlspaces and caverns were just visible. Something looked off though to Karli.

'How do you…' she whispered. 'How do you know if there's an imposter? They all look the same.'

Charlotte paused, looking down at the guards herself.

'They all share the scarf and we make sure to keep the number of guards the same, but…' Karli glanced at the mismagius. 'We've been on edge all morning about that.'

Up ahead, Glim could hear the chatter in the office, it was quite noisy despite the small amount of pokémon in there. But, the glaceon could recognise one of them, a low mechanical voice. He tried to see past the sceptile in front of him to see if it was Sergeant and just as they stepped onto the platform where the office stood, he could see the magnezone floating inside it, pointing at blueprints on some desk.

Just as the Sceptile stood in the doorway, preventing Glim and the others behind from entering, the office suddenly became silent.

'Commander. They have arrived.' boldly stated the sceptile.

There was no response, as Glim tried to peek around the tall dragon-gecko. Charlotte was the first to enter, drifting through a window, as the sceptile stood solid.

'Callie!' shouted Charlotte, back down toward the elevator.

Suddenly, the little girlish espeon slid between Shadow and Glim, then easily squeezed round the sceptile, entering the office.

Another moment of silence caused a delay, when finally, a low voice spoke.

'Bring them in.'

The sceptile guard stepped forward, followed by a side-step, letting Glim and Shadow in first. When he entered, the glaceon was a little afraid to look at the commander himself, so he took it slowly, first seeing the huge circular desk, stretching all around one individual. The desk was awash of papers, blueprints, maps and radios. Between it all was the legendary bisharp himself, Commander Rancour. Unlike most of the brutal armour plated pokémon he was, his armour was tattered, chips missing on the helmet blade that shoots upward like an axe. His right shoulder was practically bandaged up in his own medals and stripes. The bisharp wore an unusual blue scarf with two white triangular stripes on either end. Despite all his damages and battle-hardened appearance, his body was without any injury, not an eye lost or any war veteran cliché other than his age of late fifties.

Glim just stared at him with amazement, only noticing the three chess boards, one to his left, to his right and the last one being in front of him, all of which had intelligent psychic type pokémon as his challengers. The glaceon then looked up at Sergeant who winked back.

Tyson was the last to enter, sharing a similar expression with Glim.

'Everybody,' said Charlotte, turning to face the bisharp. 'Commander Rancour.'

Everyone just sort of stuttered awkwardly, unsure if they should salute or bow even. Rancour himself continued his three simultaneous games of chess.

'I was not expecting them to respect me, Vice Commander.'

'Just… introducing you, sir.'

Finally, the bisharp paused his games and leaned back, looking each member in the eye. His eyes were not expressing much emotion, perhaps stress at least. Rancour's glare however remained solid and unchanged. The little espeon, Callie, appeared from behind his desk as he climbed onto it like a stumbling kitten. The senior bisharp had to lean to his right to let the espeon whisper into his helmet. Seeing the espeon whisper to the Crimson leader felt unnerving for Glim and Karli, like something was wrong that they did not know.

'What of the delibird?' Rancour asked softly. Callie replied with more whispering, which only made the bisharp nod. 'Okay,' he paused, briefly looking at Shadow and Glim. Callie also glanced back at the unnerved glaceon and patient houndoom. 'What of those two?' once more, Callie replied in whispers, a little longer that time. 'It's a start nonetheless.' Rancour said out loud, leaning back into his seat.

'What is?' asked Shadow, becoming unnerved being kept in the dark.

Rancour shook his head.

'It does not concern you for now, houndoom.' the knight in bladed amour meshed his hands together. 'Just another idea, which we may not need. Especially after the revelations of your friend here.'

Glim looked up at Sergeant, as did most of his friends.

'That's right.' added the floating magnezone, surprisingly joyous in its tone. 'With my inside knowledge of the upper level and the Republic's failings, the commander, his team and I have devised multiple operations already, on how we will overthrow the Republic. And counting.'

The bisharp resumed his games of chess, on the board in front of him, he moved a rapidash piece in front of an opponent pawniard, preventing it from progressing. To his left, he slid a bisharp across to safely take out an opponent pawniard and on the right board, he used a far off palossand piece to take the opponent's vespiquen, after sacrificing a pawniard of his own. The turn was done in seconds, followed by his metallic hands becoming a rest for his head as he contemplated further.

'They are certainly a step forward, winning cards perhaps. But they are no reason to drop our guard.' Rancour looked over to Sergeant. 'The Republic may try to act on what you already know, if they know of your survival and if your knowledge had reached us. As in they may work on those weaknesses or execute secret operations you may not have known.'

'With respect, sir… I highly doubt that last one.' replied Sergeant. 'I was their "secret operations" instructor for some time, and well, we already know of their biggest weapon. It's not exactly hard to miss.'

'The Storm Walk.' said Charlotte.

'Yeah, but they're not going to blitz Haine completely, as long as we remain under the upper level. Otherwise, they would only be killing themselves.'

'We know them to be rash, hasty and desperate.' said Rancour, pausing. 'It wouldn't surprise me if they tried destroying all the supports to use the upper level as a giant crusher.' hearing that made the small pupils of the magnezone shorten further. Suddenly Glim was also not feeling safe being underground. 'However that is unlikely, almost all of the Republic rankings are on the upper level and they can forget about retreating to their Storm Walk, nowhere near enough space for them.'

'That…' said Sergeant, before whispering, 'Does sound like something they would do.'

'In worst case scenario, perhaps, which is why we should act fast. I asked for the presence of you five to confirm any suspicion of mine.'

'Suspicion?' asked Karli.

The knight in bladed armour nodded.

'The coincidence was just a little uncanny that our operations remained search, sabotage or rescue, until one day… your crews stepped into Haine. Suddenly I'm greeted by newcomers and with war-winning knowledge. Most of whom, know each other.'

'Well…' Sergeant interjected, glancing at McGregor.

'Not all of us knew each other beforehand.' interrupted Karli.

'Indeed.' confirmed Rancour, briefly looking at the little espeon to his left. 'It's why I had Callie take a quick peek into your intentions when you arrived.'

Everyone in the room quickly looked at the espeon, who then appeared flustered as he spun round agitated, before leaping onto Rancour's lap and curling into a ball to hide his face. Callie's cute act almost made the kirlia brood, making her smile.

'I'm sure we're all to help out.' said Sergeant, not to Rancour, but the five friends he looked at suspiciously. 'Right?'

Shadow, Tyson and Karli all blurted out yes, while Glim and McGregor merely nodded.

'From what Callie tells me,' said Rancour. 'Only one of you actually wanted to be here, to help that is.' his gaze fixed on the little kirlia, who kept her similarly determined face. 'The rest of you are either only here to help another,' he looked up at McGregor, followed by Shadow. 'Or… trying to survive.' not even looking at Glim or Tyson, as his uncertain tone said out what he thought of them.

The crew became a little quiet after his analysis of them. Though Karli could feel proud of her determination, she did not, only feeling like she had dragged her father who was only there because of her. The little glaceon and delibird just felt stupid for even coming to Haine.

'Regardless,' continued Rancour. 'You're… unusual reunion has brought about our next steps to winning the revolution. May you keep your heads down, or decide to help, you may live to see the end of all this. If so, you have the right to be proud of yourselves. For today, you are dismissed. For now, any eager Crimson soldiers will be out only to distract the Republic, so we do not seem too quiet.' his last words ended in whispers, muttering to the psychic pokémon within the room of his ideas.

'Am I to abide, sir?' asked Sergeant.

'Negative. We have not spoken yet of the Storm Walk's patrol schedules.'

'No problem.'

With that, Charlotte began wavering her cloak at the five guests, nodding at the exit. Rather quickly, they understood that they had to leave.

Crossing the bridge to the elevator, Karli was at the front, closely followed by her father. As Rancour had said, they would be proud of themselves, the kirlia was already feeling honourable, knowing the revolution could end very soon thanks to their help. She smiled up at McGregor.

'You see that, dad? Here we are, fighting for Crio, and winning.'

'Yes.' replied McGregor, seemingly overwhelmed. 'Even I had not foreseen this. But remember Karli, just because we got lucky, it was still incredibly dangerous. We lost Angel after all.'

The smile on Karli faded as she looked forward once more. Her spirit was vastly weakened remembering that it was because of Angel they had even gotten that far in the first place. The giant dusknoir paladin was regretting having said that.

Glim meanwhile did not know what to think, he was still in shock about Rancour revealing why the glaceon was in the death zone. Even though he wanted the revolution to end after what the Republic had done to him, rather like Beryl, he just did not want to be there. Worse, as he looked up at Shadow who smiled back, he was bringing him down with him.

Maybe a day's rest would clear their minds or emotional state, as they had earned the rest of the day off.

Up ahead, the elevator came into view. However, Karli and McGregor at the front noticed something. The guards were gone, yet the kirlia continued to walk, glancing round for them. It seemed she was not the only one.

'Whoa, wait a minute.' said Charlotte at the back. The sceptile guard spun to face the mismagius, as did Glim and Shadow who were just in front of him. Charlotte meanwhile was not even facing the elevator, but to the floor below. 'Where the hell is everyone?'

All the hooded guards of loyalty had disappeared from the dark red floor below, yet it was silent.

Suddenly the sound of glass shattering echoed all across the room, making everyone on the bridge glance back at the office. It was the fogged window metres away from Rancour's right that had been blown in with a hooded kabutops, who was thrown into the kadabra sitting in front of Rancour. The noise escalated hugely, as crashing kabutops signalled Rancour, Sergeant, Callie and the nearby beeheeyem and bronzor to retaliate. Their attention seemed focused on another hooded intruder flying in from the same window, apparently hitting the beeheeyem into the doorframe of the office. The magnezone inside levitated, calling out in surprise. Rancour meanwhile appeared to reveal the blades within his gauntlet arms and shoot a wave of energy to the intruder.

Before the struggle even began, Charlotte and the sceptile guard bolted toward the office without Glim and his friends. It was about a second later did they also follow suit, of course Karli was the first, sinking into the bridge floor and shooting passed Glim and just behind the sceptile. McGregor at the back was about to do the same when something flashed in his head.

'No wait!' he called out to Glim and Karli.

Nearing the end of the bridge, the hooded intruder, having dodged Rancour's Psycho Cut, cartwheeled out of the door, where she then pounded the edge of the bridge, breaking it off instantly and causing it to swing downward. The sceptile was quick enough to leap when it happened, but was kicked away when he approached the intruder. Karli also tried to jump, but was too late to reach the floor outside the office and fell with the sceptile.

'Shit!' yelled Karli.

The mismagius meanwhile quickly fired a ball of shadows at the intruder, who easily dived over it, still on the metal flooring. Using the momentum to her advantage, the hood rolled up onto the handrail, lit up in flames and shot perfectly into the levitating ghost, causing her to bounce up.

On the broken bridge swinging down, Glim, Shadow, Tyson and Karli were falling to the great drop below. Using the bridge to his advantage, McGregor sunk into it using Shadow Sneak and swooped down it as it swung, making him beneath his friends. He then leaped from the bridge, proceeding to catch Glim and Shadow. He knew Tyson was partly a bird and with ability to stay airborne, so he had to leave him as he then focused on falling to the floor before his daughter did. Karli was not going to be able to use Shadow Sneak into the wall she was falling close to and struggled to keep her balance.

'Whoa, whoa! Gregor!' yelled Shadow, holding him tightly as did Glim.

Despite the danger, the little glaceon could only look up, he recognised the mighty intruder as her cloak caught fire. When she landed back on the handrail, she threw it off, revealing herself to be the infernape Glim had missed.

Suddenly, Glim's daze had shook to an end when McGregor had landed hard on his back, followed immediately by the impact of Karli, landing on his torso. The kirlia bounced off her father and crashed on to the floor nearby, almost landing on Shadow who was released from McGregor's hold, along with Glim. The dusknoir gave a long grunt in pain.

Much further above, Jane landed back onto the metal flooring outside the office entrance. Her one-eyed gaze at the commander showed she was there for blood. She waited for the bisharp to swiftly climb over his desk, while Callie and the lone bronzor drew by his side. Being psychic types, they would have advantage over Jane's immense fighting skill. However, a metal hand rose before the espeon's face.

'Stay back.' he said to them.

Callie worriedly only took a few steps back, near the end of the ruptured desk, while the bronzor floated over to help up the kadabra, trapped under the unconscious kabutops.

Rancour paused, staring emotionlessly at the furious infernape. All he knew was that Jane was pissed and after it him it seemed. He wanted to say something, wanted to ask why she was attacking his soldiers, but imagined he already knew. Most assassins hunted for him either for the Republic, or because of the revolution itself, and Rancour was unconvinced that the infernape was part of the Republic.

Jane grabbed hold of the doorframes tightly and burst herself into flames, as she did to Charlotte. Rancour knew what was coming and held out his left gauntlet, while the other hid behind him. Suddenly Jane catapulted forward, using the door to push herself lunging toward Rancour, who just as quickly leaped up, rolling right to meet his right metal fist over Jane's head as she ended up zooming under him and obliterating the desk. The bisharp landed easily, facing the wall Jane had crashed into.

The desk was severed in two and the impact sent Callie, the chessboards with all its pieces flying around the office. A blizzard of paperwork followed soon covered the floor as the infernape grunted, knocking off the wood she brought with her after crashing into the wall. Callie nearby managed to catch himself before slamming onto the floor also.

Jane quickly stood, grabbing a part of the desk and flung it, only to be met with a sudden cut from Rancour, using the blade on his gauntlets. The infernape then jumped over the debris of the desk, closing in on the knight in bladed armour, who only took steps back to avoid her next attack. That time he had underestimated Jane, as her veins visibly pulsed white like lightning as she pounded the floor of the office, causing the entirely steel floor to tremor so violently, it propelled Rancour and the other two psychic types into the ceiling. Their landing was not any easier, as the little espeon was helplessly being thrown around, while the bisharp had to cut into the floor to keep himself staying on it. Jane had also been steadying herself, since Earthquake can be a surprisingly tricky technique to use.

The tremors ended quickly, just before the floor stopped jittering up and down Jane erupted in flames once more and charged to the door, where Rancour stood. That time, the bisharp had nowhere to jump, so instead he spun back slamming his back on the outside of the office, letting the infernape zoom out and flying off the broken bridge.

The giant fireball that was Jane had died down as she realised how far she was falling and focused all her momentum in breaking her fall. She was hurtling at a great speed from her reckless attack, which enabled her to roll forward upon impact and sustain much less damage than McGregor did. Rolling across the long lonesome light red ground, Jane landed back on her feet and glared back up at the bisharp, still just outside his office.

Rancour gently walked over to the door, still keeping his eyes on Jane. Just behind Rancour, Callie ran up to him. The bisharp however, raised his metal hand once more to the little espeon, telling him to stay back.

On the floor below, on the darker left side, Glim stood, eyes fixed on the glint of blazing fire at the centre of the room. All he could see was the bright flame amber flame that streamed out of the infernape's head, as the rest of her was somehow clouded in red mist, combined with the dust and dirt thrown up by her landing. Two rows of conveyor belts to his right and heading to the other side were also obstructing his view, since Glim was so small. The little glaceon ran, struggling to stay balanced after his cushioned impact.

'Glim wait!' called Shadow.

From the freezing metal floor well above, Rancour lightly stepped off, hitting the floor hard with his metal fist. He had spread out his knees and feet, to endure the impact without getting too close to the infernape ahead of him.

Jane slowly approached, leaving the carcass that was the fallen bridge, while Rancour was also approaching, walking a little quicker than the infernape, like he was walking normally.

When the bisharp and infernape were only metres apart, Jane allowed her right arm to pulse white as she quickly leaped back and tried to fight smart by using Earthquake at a distance. After Jane had sunk her fist into the solid ground, Rancour also jumped back, using the rupturing ground to his advantage, which had hit him upward and inflicted less damage than it would have done. In the air, Rancour had enough momentum to spin round, letting his gauntlet blade dart out as it lit up. During his spin, the energy built up in his gauntlet was released into a Psycho Cut when the bisharp swung his arm out. The wave of energy cleanly hit Jane across her right arm and torso, while she was stabilising from the fierce tremor. The attack forced her back into a tumble. She did not even grunt however, despite the pain she was in.

Jane growled, instantly generating huge, white and careless flames around her. Rancour meanwhile had only landed, several metres south-east from where the Earthquake had lifted him. He could smell the reckless fury, raging off his assassin.

The infernape leaped left, and then right, instead of darting straight into the bisharp, who would have only used the momentum to his advantage. Jane appeared to be skating quickly toward Rancour, encased in a huge ball of fire. Rancour readied himself to use Sucker Punch, unsure if he could dodge what was coming for him. Just as Jane was only metres in front of Rancour, she leapt up, landing almost on her side and tried to kick the bisharp at his feet. Having seen the attack before, Rancour bent his knee and swiftly blocked the oncoming kick, which was surprisingly weak. Suddenly, he regretted making that block as the blazing infernape before him appeared to stop completely and use her other leg to launch her Flare Blitz into the bisharp. The attack sent the two flying from where Jane had used it, coating them like a fiery comet. For once Rancour grunted loudly in pain, as did Jane who was getting herself cut from the bisharp's armour. They crashed against a huge inactive machine, leaving a gigantic, black crater within it.

The impact had Jane bounce off, while Rancour was stuck for a moment, as his bladed armour cut into the broken down machine. He simply slipped off, his armour badly ruptured from the flames. The infernape meanwhile appeared in a worse state, she was unable to land easily and was on her knees, several metres from the bisharp. Her attack had resulted with recoil damage, made worse since Rancour had bladed armour, having left two horizontal cuts just beneath Jane's breasts. Still she stood and Rancour appeared angry, raising his gauntlets like shields, as the blades came out.

'Okay, infernape.' said Rancour, through clenched teeth. 'Now you've pissed me off.'

Jane stood as straight as she could. Her shoulders were resisting to cringe, her stomach cramped furiously after her impact and she tried desperately hard to not cry out in pain. Instead she screamed out, hitting the floor once more with all her might and pain, sending cracks within the floor, shooting off in a plus formation. The ones left and right would only reach a wall and spit up the hardened ground, but the one heading straight for Rancour was suddenly diverted, when the bisharp fired a Psycho Cut into the ground, sending the Earthquake to tremor away from him. Rancour then immediately jumped up and shot another wave of energy from his blades, while Jane appeared too focused on her ground attack. Before the infernape even saw the attack, she was suddenly propelled back, pushing her into a tumble. The Psycho Cut had left a very deep gash in her right arm, causing blood to flood out in streams.

As Jane struggled to get back up, clasping her arm as she did, Rancour remained keeping his distance.

'Determined, aren't you?' said Rancour, raising his right gauntlet once more, letting its blade glow. 'But you cannot end a war alone.'

Jane and Rancour paused, staring into each other. The infernape had bitter fury, shaping her eye, though the slight posture of her lower eyelid showed despair, in a way she had nothing to lose. The bisharp meanwhile showed nothing, only a hint of pain he had just endured.

Suddenly a huge ball of shadows whipped between them, while Jane and Rancour were staring each other down. Neither of them even twitched or when the Shadow Ball exploded after meeting the wall behind the conveyor belt nearest to them.

'Stop!' screamed the girlish voice of Glim.

The little glaceon was running so quickly between them, he tumbled and fell on his face. Rancour meanwhile stayed as he was, still with his gauntlet blade ready to fire. Glim stood, turning to face the bisharp as he backed closer to Jane.

'Stop commander! This is a friend of mine!' he said, glancing round to look up at Jane, who still glared at the bisharp much further away. 'Jane, stop!' Glim stood on his hind legs, paws on the infernape's waist as he tried to look into her eye. 'It's me-'

Suddenly the little glaceon was met by a swift hit across his head from the infernape, forcing him to fall onto his right.

For a moment, Jane's gaze remained fixed on Rancour, hungry for blood, but then her head turned to face the little glaceon, on the floor next her. Her face then grew shocked while still furious. Glim looked back up at her, shaking off the hit. His enormous pretty eyes appeared brave, serious, yet somehow scared too.

'Glim?' whispered Jane, her voice strangled by fury.

The glaceon stood up, keeping his eyes on hers.

'It's me Jane. Please stop.'

Glim and Jane paused still, as did Rancour.

'Glim!' called Shadow, running from the red mist of dust, shortly followed by Sergeant who descended from above.

The infernape glared back at Rancour.

'Jane, Jane!' cried Glim, placing his paws on her again. 'Don't do this! You'll get yourself killed!'

'It… has to end Glim.' Jane quietly hissed, looking down at him. 'One side has to fall remember?'

'That's not why you're doing this!' said Glim, followed by a pause. 'You're doing this for Oswald.' again, Glim and Jane remained staring at each other, motionlessly. 'You're doing this because you think you're avenging him. Jane, that drapion who killed him was not part of the Crimson. He was just some murderer using the revolution to his advantage.'

'And how do you know that?'

'I met one of his "friends" when we were in Symphonia, and they weren't even part of the Crimson either.'

'Symphonia?' said Rancour.

'It-it doesn't matter, Glim, he's dead!'

'I know he's dead Jane!' cried Glim, tears slowly forming over his eyes as he resisted his mouth trembling. 'He was stuck in my head when he died remember? You didn't think I made all that up, did you?' Glim and Jane paused, meanwhile Rancour finally withdrew his blade and stood normally. 'He asked me… to stop you whenever you got too careless.'

'Shut up, Glim.' replied Jane quietly, closing her eye.

'I'm not making this up!'

'I said shut up!'

The infernape pushed the little glaceon from her, who that time landed on all fours. Jane meanwhile used too much energy in just shoving Glim away, as she fell on her knees again. She seemed to finally give in to her exhaustion as she used her hands to support her.

By that time, Karli, Tyson and McGregor had caught up, neither of them were using Shadow Sneak as they stopped by Shadow. They were not alone, Charlotte was rising from the ground with a face of fury after getting badly hurt. The sceptile guard also limped into the scene, just passing the floating mismagius. But as they approached further, Rancour himself raised his hand, telling them to stay back, which they did, seeming surprised about that.

'I lost a baby that day too, Glim.' Jane whispered.

Glim approached again, his icy crown right up against the fire that continued to blaze from Jane's head.

'I know…' uttered Glim, almost crying. 'I was so sorry about that, you know I was. But Jane.' the glaceon had to crouch down to meet his big eyes with her lone, depressed eye. 'Killing Rancour would solve nothing… actually, it would make things worse. You know what the Republic would do if they win, and Oswald… would Oswald be happy to know you killed for him?'

Suddenly, Jane's hands clenched, her teeth clenched as she looked away from Glim, trying to prevent anyone seeing the tear that had formed against her will. She broke.

The glaceon felt confident enough to approach the infernape more, tucking his head against the shoulder Jane had left open. Glim then raised his paws as far as he could around the infernape, who just as slowly did the same.

'Now listen to your friend.' said Rancour, boldly. 'Killing me would have only meant Crio's fall. The Republic would have let loose the carnage and mass murdering that started this revolution in the first place.'

'Sir,' called Charlotte, angrily. 'This infernape is trying to kill you!'

'Stand down, Vice Commander.'

The mismagius sighed, glaring still at the infernape.

Shadow stepped forward, walking to the space between Glim and Rancour.

'Jane is a good friend of ours, sir,' he said to Rancour. 'If you let her stay with us, we'll talk her out of this.'

Rancour nodded.

'Then you do that.'

'What!' interjected Charlotte. 'You can't be serious, sir! This is a very dangerous assassin!'

'And, she could be an ally. We don't have the recruiting powers we had before vice commander. However,' Rancour looked over at Shadow. 'She is right to be worried for my security, as spared assassins have had a change of heart before. Make sure your friend stays within your perimeters during her time with us. Do you understand?'

'Yes sir.' replied Shadow.

'Also, where are my other guards?' asked Rancour, looking at Jane. 'I'm smelling no blood, so-'

'Sir!' interrupted the sceptile bodyguard. 'Most of the west wing are laying in a corner back there.' he said, pointing behind him, at the thick red mist. 'All unconscious. Taken hits to their heads. Might I suggest calling the medics? The ones down here are knocked out too.'

'Yes, yes!' ordered Charlotte. 'Get all of them down here! Squad A, they're closest.'

Glim looked back at Rancour, as far as he could.

'Jane's hurt too… um.'

'She,' said Rancour, glancing at the rest of Glim's companions. 'Will be going back upstairs. Any dire injuries Squad A will patch when they get down here.'

'I'm fine.' said Jane, finally letting go of Glim.

The little glaceon looked back up at the calmed infernape, who looked only miserable.

'Even if you are,' replied Rancour. 'You're in no state for any assistance today.'

With that, the bisharp turned toward to the old metal stairs, which would lead to the floor of his office.

As Glim helped the infernape to stand, Charlotte still stared at Jane with a disgruntled look.

'How did you even get down here in the first place?' demanded Charlotte.

Jane however seemed too agitated with pain to reply, she could not stop twitching and limping. Glim and Shadow proceeded to act as supports for the infernape. She did not appear surprised at all when noticed the houndoom to be Shadow.

'H-how do we get back up to the elevator?' Glim asked Charlotte.

Before the mismagius answered, the sceptile also appeared eager to leave the deepest basement floor as he passed them.

'Down here.' he said, pointing at similar stairs that Rancour was climbing, only on the other side.

Behind Charlotte, Sergeant was quickly speaking with Karli, Tyson and McGregor, assuming it was to stay with Rancour for the time being. Karli nodded, gradually following after Glim, Shadow and Jane, who already turned to leave.

It had become rather noisy in the basement, as the guards hidden in corners around the basement floor were struggling in their wake.

Glim and his crew stood by the elevator entrance. Only the sceptile guard was present after Jane's assault. It felt awkward and somehow lonely just waiting for the lift. No one was talking to each other as they waited. Glim was confused, he thought Jane would a lot to say after what happened, given that she had not seen him for so long. Not even Karli or her father were talking, the dusknoir remained as patient as ever, while the little kirlia kept her head down. Once again, Tyson appeared to be a total oddball, though he was happy to see that Sergeant was okay, except the magnezone was to stay down there for a while longer.

After several minutes of uncomfortable silence, the distant droning sound of something very heavy and connected to such metal was descending out of the shaft. The elevator neared its destination, immediately making the room a lot noisier. On board was the medical crew Charlotte had called for. There were a lot of them despite it just being a group. Mostly the common medically gifted pokémon, three azumarill, a chansey, a gardevoir, two audino and a volcarona, just in case. The medics swarmed off the elevator when the door opened, almost bottlenecking it in their eagerness to help. Some of them gave a quick gaze at Glim and his friends when they left, seemingly ignoring them, though Glim could see on some of their faces that they looked worried for Jane.

It was not long before Glim and his crew, along with Charlotte and the sectile guard were ascending up the elevator, having been ignored by the medical crew who were ordered to do so by Charlotte beforehand. On board, Jane stood in the very middle, seeming unaware of the gap around her, like the others were avoiding her, other than Glim and Shadow, while the sceptile and Charlotte stayed behind her. As before, no one said a word, perhaps they just had enough for one day. However, for Glim, something was telling him that a break was the last thing he was achieving.

Something felt horrible for the glaceon. Pressure was suddenly taking a grip over his breathing. He looked around, still with everyone stone still and silent as the elevator continued, with the occasional shaft lights blaring across everyone's faces. It was something else Glim thought. He glanced to Shadow next to him, who seemed to take notice of his rising dread. At that moment, Glim heard them.

'We pleaded.' echoed the voices of many.

There was a pause, as chills ran up Glim's spine.

'Did someone say something?' asked McGregor.

It appeared that everybody had heard the voice. Charlotte who remained glaring Jane was looking around the elevator, secretly curious to know who said that. Glim meanwhile looked to his left, looking past Jane and at Karli, who was looking back with a similarly tensed expression. Staring into each other's eyes, they noticed a wave of blackness, ascending with the elevator, just between it and the shaft itself. It was the unown, hundreds of them, swarming all around the elevator, replacing the bright shaft lights with their ominous soulless light green eyes. Everyone who were not facing the fencing around the elevator had spun round to see the unown slowly rising ahead of them.

'What the!' shouted Charlotte. 'The hell is this! Where did all of you come from?'

No one answered.

Other than Karli and Glim, everyone just looked around a little confused, even Shadow despite having encountered the unown before.

'We wailed.' the voices wheezed, a little louder that time. 'We died.'

Suddenly, the unown on the side with door, sunk down below the elevator as it was nearing the top.

Waiting at the top, were Gem and Maladan. First there to send down the medical team, then waited to direct Rancour's visitors out.

'We are Martyr.' the voices continued.

'Hey,' called Gem. 'What's going on down there?'

The elevator stopped on level with the shaft entrance, where the blastoise and toxicroak waited. Both Maladan and Gem were pretty focused on the wall of unown that had floated up behind the elevator.

'Get us out of here now!' cried Karli.

Charlotte dashed through the fencing and triggered the door to open.

'Where did they come from?' Gem asked Charlotte.

'I don't know!'

Inside the elevator, Glim was the first to run to the door, which was still unlocking. Karli was close behind, dragging her father with her, who was warily looking back at the creepy floating letters. As the door unlocked and began to open, Glim saw it all in slow motion as he witnessed a dark purple shadow materialising further down the room, well behind Maladan, Gem and Charlotte. His eyes were no longer pretty, as they transformed into terrified dots.

'Revenge be ours.' spoke the unown, just as the human remnant had fully materialised.

'Behind you!' cried Glim, pointing desperately at Martyr.

Maladan, Charlotte and Gem spun round, facing the eyeless human who stood steadily. The mismagius drifted back, a little surprised.

'You're supposed to lock the door!' said Charlotte, glancing at Gem and Maladan.

'We did!' replied Gem.

The blastoise placed his claw on the floor, allowing the cannons within his shell to take aim at Martyr.

'Identify yourself!' ordered Maladan.

Martyr did not reply, only staring at Glim. It then raised its arm as three unown appeared, circling around its hand. Martyr then waved out its arm and on the end, the unown flashed, seemingly combining into something long, held within Martyr's hand. It was a sword, a scimitar, to be exact. The thick hand guard and handle resembled the clean black material the surrounded the unown eye, and the long blade was an immaculate, bloodless silver. Despite it was made out of unown, there were no eyeballs or unique lettering anywhere on it.

Without warning, the blastoise blasted his water cannons, causing water to rebound all over the drop off point. It was hard to see if Martyr was affected in any way by Maladan's attack. Gem stood guard, while Charlotte became airborne. It looked as though the incredibly powerful beam of water was blocked by something immovable. The mismagius had assumed the human to use Light Screen or something.

Glim knew what was coming next, as he stepped back and Shadow worriedly placed a paw just in front of him.

'That was a human!' said McGregor.

As the blast of water continued, wearing the blastoise down, the same sword emerged out of the blasting, still in Martyr's grasp as it glowed bright white.

'Oh my god.' whispered Glim, before screaming 'Everybody down!'

Martyr swished the sword horizontally, creating a massive wave of energy, so wide it easily cut into either side of the walls of the room where it stood. In the way, Maladan was struck back, flying into the fencing, while Gem was simply cut in half, like butter. Charlotte avoided the Psycho Cut, but wind created by its force had blown her into the elevator. Inside, everyone had taken Glim's command and dived for the floor as the attack cut through, bringing an almost severed blastoise into the elevator, but also cutting every support. Just as suddenly, the elevator snapped, falling like a brick in the sky.

Rather quickly, Shadow, Karli, Tyson and the sceptile screamed out. Far below them the platform fell a lot faster than them, leaving the falling pokémon behind.

McGregor was falling faster than his friends for being a heavy dusknoir in armour, however, it was not long ago that he saved the others from the same situation. To fall slower, the dusknoir drifted as close as he could to the shaft wall before he left it, descending into the room. With seconds to spare, he had to reach out for the wall, which pull him into it and halted his fall just enough so he was level with most of his friends. It appeared Jane had also resorted to the methods of slowing her fall by grinding her fist guard against the wall. The dusknoir propelled himself from the wall, as his daughter managed to grab hold of him that time. Shadow and Glim reached out for McGregor, but while the giant ghost managed to take the houndoom's paw, the glaceon had drifted too far from either of their reach. However, Glim was just in reach of Jane, who forcefully grabbed him close to her, as they left the shaft, falling into the room below.

Ahead of the crew, the platform smashed to pieces, echoing like thunder and creating a hurricane of dust in its aftermath. From that height, it was hard to see the ground crew, but it was obvious they were attempting something below for the falling pokémon.

Jane continued to hold Glim tightly and as soon as they left the shaft with the ground, she lightly held onto the pillars that surrounded the elevator, slowing their fall. McGregor meanwhile held tightly onto Shadow, as did Karli.

'Hold on!' said McGregor.

Above them, Charlotte swooped down to catch the sceptile, while Tyson drifted down much slower than everybody else.

It was only seconds later when McGregor was feeling the force of psychic energy, coming from two of the underground guards, both who were still concuss from Jane's infiltration. It was not enough power to stop the dusknoir from crashing into the pile of scrap, however McGregor was prepared for it. Rather than crashing horrifically, he sort of just sunk into the dangerous debris like water, taking Karli and Shadow with him. Immediately afterward, Jane's arm was hurting from her slide down the damaged pillar so when the opened door way came into her aim, she leapt for it, still falling at some speed. The medical crew who were present around the elevator hurriedly moved out of the infernape's way, who crashed-rolled across the floor and covering little Glim in her other arm as well as she could. Jane rolled so far, she almost fell off the edge of the second level. The same medical crew however, were quick to help them up.

Back in the elevator, McGregor holding both Karli and Shadow rose up from the junk, silhouetted black at first before leaving the effect of Shadow Sneak. Shadow however, had a shocked look in his eyes.

'That was terrifying.' he said, before the dusknoir let him down. Shadow then ran out the elevator. 'Glim!'

Moments later, Tyson descended, flapping his little wings as much as he could. Also descending above the delibird, were Charlotte and the sceptile, both of who were looking back up at the shaft.

'What, the fuck, was that thing?' said Charlotte.

Glim and Jane stood, shaking themselves off. The infernape had her serious expression again as she looked up at the shaft. The glaceon meanwhile, accompanied by his houndoom was unable to keep still. Glim glanced around madly, only seeing the medical crew asking if they were okay, or the two guards yelling out in confusion, or trying to speak to the mismagius still in the elevator.

On the other side of the room, on the same level, Rancour stepped out, having witnessed the commotion. Sergeant, just behind the bisharp, was apparently helping with restoring the room back to the way it was when it fixed its eyes on the elevator. Callie meanwhile was already standing outside, almost on the edge of the overhead level, where the bridge once was.

Catching glimpse of the bisharp, Glim stood on his end of the collapsed bridge.

'Commander, sir!' he called. 'We have to evacuate! Martyr is coming!'

Rancour stared back at the glaceon with a motionless expression. Neither confused nor worried, but rather alert.

'Charlotte?' Rancour called.

The sectile guard was let go, landing easily on the remains on the elevator platform, as the mismagius flew through the fencing.

'Sir!' she responded. 'Lieutenants Maladan and Gem were just killed, by some intruder. And with it appeared to be army of unown!'

'What specie is the intruder?'

'Human, sir! I think.'

'Human?' Rancour muttered. 'Guards, assemble!' immediately, every pokémon on the bottom floor stood and threw off their cloaks, most of who were still being treated by the present medical team. The medical team backed away, some of which were also attending the command Rancour gave. 'Is it coming down?'

The mismagius, as well as some of the guards below her, briefly looked up the elevator shaft. They could see nothing but pitch blackness.

'It does not appear to be, sir! It's a long drop.'

Rancour glanced back to his office.

'Then they may not be after me.'

The bisharp only took two steps before leaning into his office. Near the doorway was a massive device, fixed underneath the wide window to his left. He gave one look at the magnezone and nodded at the device. Sergeant responded by moving over and opening it. Protected inside was a big red button. The magnezone gave Rancour one last glance, before hitting it hard with one of its magnets. Immediately, red lights on the ceiling blared, raising the alarm.

'Sir!' called Charlotte. 'Orders!'

Rancour stepped out, all eyes on him.

'The base is under attack, and the enemy has targeted our intelligence and communication! We will divide and take the stairs to join the fight. If it's just one, we will fight! Unown can barely fight, so refrain from wasting energy on them! Attack in wave formation, should they appear, don't take all of them on alone! Is that clear!'

The uncloaked pokémon replied 'Sir, yes sir!' in unison, though Glim and Shadow had a bit of delay to their response, while Karli and Tyson said nothing at all. Rancour then looked directly into the eyes of Glim, who still had his look of terror and breathlessness.

'Go with them!' Rancour shouted.

Suddenly, Glim felt a tug on his ear, which was Karli pulling him back to join the rush of CR soldiers sprinting for the exit.

'What about us, sir?' asked Sergeant.

The bisharp glanced back at the magnezone, then looked down at little Callie just next to him, holding his ears down as he shivered. The espeon was scared of alarms.

'You can levitate, can you not?' asked Rancour.

'Yes sir.'

'I want you to take us up there. I want to see this… human, for myself. Callie will shield us.'

The ladylike espeon glanced up at the knight in bladed armour.

It was only a minute later, was the magnezone ascending up the elevator, with the bisharp standing so steadily on it, and with the little espeon held in his arms. Both Rancour and Callie were looking straight up, as if preparing to face Martyr head on. But when they reached the shaft entrance, there were no unown present. All that remained was the purple bloody remains of Gem's lower half and water left from Maladan's attack, whose corpse was not present.

'Anybody, Callie?' asked Rancour.

The espeon was glancing round, both shocked and scared.

Callie's silence meant that Martyr was nowhere to be seen, so the bisharp looked up at the state of the elevator. He noticed two huge very straight gashes on either side of the wall from the room and wondered if the attack had continued. Looking back, he saw that the wall just behind him was on the verge of collapsing, as there was a perfect horizontal line cutting all along where the elevator supports once were. The sign of Martyr's power was present all around Rancour, just looking at the gashes in the walls made the bisharp think of Glim.

---

On top of an almost pitch black well of stairs, Glim, followed closely behind by Shadow and Tyson were losing breath after running up all the stairs, trying to keep up with the squadron of Rancour's soldiers. Already on the top were Karli and McGregor who simply used the walls to Shadow Sneak their way to the top, while Jane, even in her condition was able to keep up with them.

The three friends at the top only waited for the glaceon, houndoom and delibird to reach their level, when they did, they ran out of the stairwell together.

Outside the dark stairwell, Jane who ran ahead first found herself in a private room, sealed off from the underground station that was just behind the opened door ahead of her. The guards had evidently smashed through it in their eagerness to run for the monitor room on the same side.

The infernape was about to pass the broken doors that had caught the attention of many children on the other side, when she stopped and looked back at her allies.

'Hold on.' said Jane. 'Where're we going?'

The five friends slowed, appearing just as eager as the CR soldiers who left them behind. Karli stepped forward.

'To fight-' she stuttered and then looked down, looking terribly perplexed.

'We can't fight Martyr!' squeaked Glim. 'Not when he's like that.'

'I must agree.' interjected McGregor. 'That creature was supernatural for sure. I will not let Karli fight it.'

For once, Karli had no objections, after having to put up with Martyr twice before and lost friends on both occasions.

'It'd be hard to run from something like that,' said Jane. 'Can't we just kill it?'

'We've tried,' cried Glim. 'It just keeps coming back.'

'Then what are we doing?'

Glim paused, his ears twitched, suddenly remembering the words of the mysterious female.

'We get the hell out of here.' he replied quietly. 'But! We must take Ben and Meg on our way out.'

'They're here?'

Glim nodded, when McGregor interrupted.

'No, should we delay, that creature could have us at any moment!'

'Dad.' Karli whispered.

'It appeared out of nowhere!'

'Terri's with them, and those children.'

The dusknoir paused, only for two seconds before he sighed.

'Alright, but let's get moving, now.'

Immediately, Jane back-stepped out of the doorway, her eyes on Glim, hoping he would know where they were and where to find the platform. Karli and McGregor remember the platform being number 31, so the little kirlia took one look at the nearest overhead sign just ahead of her and pointed north from where she stood. They had come out onto platform 40.

'Over that way!' she cried.

Rather than running down the platform to take the stairs, McGregor swiftly grabbed Shadow and Glim, told Tyson to fly and Shadow Sneaked through the wall of trains that separated the platforms. Jane meanwhile simply jumped onto the train and ran, using the trains as stepping stones. Karli followed immediately after her father looked to her before sinking into the ground.

As usual, the underground was crowded, pokémon of many species everywhere. Most of which were either heading up or down the platforms, making the struggle for Jane and the friends much more aggressive.

On platform 35, McGregor was forced out of the floor to rest himself a bit, as shadow sneaking was aching him, especially, with two others in his arms. Karli appeared just behind him, while Tyson and Jane landed afterward. The dusknoir looked back, making sure they were still with him, as did Glim. More worryingly, the glaceon spotted something ascending from the train his infernape friend had leaped from. A U letter unown, along with a G was following them. The unown were undoubtedly one of those of Martyr, with their horrifying green, soulless eye and by the way they would twitch.

McGregor did not see the two unown, nor did the others, as they only carried on until they got to platform 31. Where the giant ghost seemed to bounce out, almost out of energy for his Shadow Sneak technique. Glim and Shadow were dropped, almost falling over when they landed. Karli however, landing smoothly next to her father seemed just fine. The crew seemed unconcerned for McGregor, as they darted around for Ben's train carriage, B244. Only Karli at present had been there.

The carriage they were looking for was at the end of the platform, except they were on the opposite end. Karli quickly checked the trains that they stood between, just to make sure.

'Crap!' said Karli, glancing down the platform. 'They're on the other end!'

As Karli was speaking, Glim was facing the nearest end of the platform, when his pupils went small. At the end, were the usual stairs that lead to the upper basement level and from it, unown were slowly swarming out of the floor above, like durant from their anthill. It was catching the attention of pokémon climbing the stairs or nearby it, but Glim had his eyes frozen on the dark figure fading into existence, while it was descending the stairs. It was Martyr, stopping when it set foot on the platform and hissed like a sick dinosaur. As the human remnant roared, the rest of Glim's friends gave it one glance, before they bolted, running for the other side.

Martyr summoned its sword again, stretched its arm to its far left before swinging right and blasting out what looked like a tidal wave of light. It was a Psycho Cut attack, so massive and powerful, it grew bigger as it sped down the platform, easily cutting into the trains, platform after platform, eventually spreading wide enough to reach either side of the underground. Nothing was stopping its unstoppable cutting, including the pokémon, as it was severing whoever became in the way of it. Not even steel or dark types were able to endure the Psycho Cut as it cut through them like water. Just as it was rapidly killing pokémon, the train tracks began to flood with blood.

Only just ahead of the attack, Glim and Shadow were sprinting for their lives, while Karli had leapt on to her father, forcing him into the ground, allowing her to Shadow Sneak further down the platform. Jane was the only one looking back as she was capable of running much faster. From Glim's point of view, the face of the infernape running ahead of him began to light up.

'Duck, duck!' Jane shouted.

Glim and Shadow practically dived into the floor, sliding on their fronts as the gigantic cut had shot over the three of them. It appeared that Martyr had used Psycho Cut at a slight angle as the right side was much higher than the left side, where Tyson crashed as the attack blew by. Seconds later, Martyr's attack quickly dispersed in particles of light while it cut into the centre support pillar, which received a hugely deep gash, cutting half way across it.

For a brief moment, when the attack disappeared, the panic was audible and it was unbearable. Even when the Psycho Cut had vanished, a surge of wind came right afterward, which had caused Tyson to crash after escaping the attack in the air.

Glim was not looking back as Jane bravely was. She could see Martyr in the distance, running from where it fired its first attack. All around it, there was corpse after corpse spread all over the place. Most of which were merely halves, ripped and thrown far apart from the devastating force of the Psycho Cut. Even the trains were in half, all cut perfectly from the middle. Any pokémon that was still whole was either running or blown to the floor in the aftermath.

'Go, go!' shouted Jane, picking Glim up and forcing him to keep running.

The infernape, took only one step forward as she had an idea to block Martyr. Her veins glowed as she swung her right arm into the air, before fisting the floor, emitting a shock wave that caused the platform ahead of her to break furiously and rapidly point upward, creating walls between herself and the human monster. Jane pulled her fist out of the platform, before chasing after her friends, hearing the same roar of Martyr just behind the walls.

'Run!' screamed Martyr, savagely. 'You cannot stop us!'

Seconds later, a bright flash was reflected all around the underground, originating far behind Jane. Martyr summoned another Psycho Cut, that time diagonally, already cutting into the platform and ceiling. The angle Martyr put into the attack caused it to rotate clockwise, and much quicker than the previous attempt. It missed Jane easily, but at its speed and rotation, it was coming down on the fleeing glaceon and houndoom like a guillotine, who were unaware of its approach. The infernape picked up her speed, but in that panic and with Glim and Shadow being quadrupedal creatures, she was not catching up to save them that time. Luckily, out of nowhere, Karli came running from the other side and dived into the glaceon and houndoom as they were trying to slow down. The collision got Glim, Shadow and Karli to stop instantly, crashing onto the floor as they did, immediately followed by the Psycho Cut sweeping just over the downed houndoom's horns. The forceful gust then forced them to slide at least two metres from where they laid together.

The Psycho Cut continued, slowing in its rotation as it was not held back by the platform. It ended up colliding into the wall at the other end, where it disappeared completely from what Jane could see.

The infernape ran up to Glim, Shadow and Karli, trying to get up as quickly as they could.

'C'mon, get up!' shouted Jane, glancing back to see that Martyr was likely still behind the wall she had created.

Without a word, as soon as the glaceon, houndoom and kirlia got onto their feet, they ran. Along the way to the other side, they ran past Tyson who was waddling as quickly as he could.

'Faster Tyson!' called Shadow, as he passed.

'I'm trying!' replied Tyson, exhausted.

Suddenly, the chubby delibird was grabbed on his back by Jane, who picked him up and started carrying him in her arms.

The noise was unbearable, having gone from chaotic and deafening, to being much quieter all of a sudden, only groans, shrieks of pain and terror echoed all around the underground station. Glim did not want to look at any of the half carcasses that continued one after another, just thrown all across the platform. Amongst the sounds of dying, screams and ground above breaking, the sound of water was what disturbed him most. As he ran, it sounded like a calm river he would hear in a peaceful wood, except he knew it was blood.

It was only seconds later did the crew reach train car B244, catching up with McGregor, who had hands on the floor, looking down at what appeared to be a trash pile. He was frequently glancing down the platform at his friends who approached. McGregor looked sorrowful, as Glim knew who he was talking to.

'Ben!' cried Glim.

McGregor stood out of the way to let the little glaceon see Ben face to face. Like so many of the victims of the attacks. The garbodor was cut in half, but at an awkward angle, where he only lost his left arm and the majority of his bulky lower half. Amazingly, as his toxic blood leaked slowly, he was still alive. His eyes however were struggling to not squint as he twitched and fidgeted uncontrollably. Upon seeing Glim, he paused, like he did not recognise the pretty glaceon, but then he smiled.

'Ouch.' said Ben, weakly.

'Don't worry Ben,' said Glim, both desperate and serious. 'We'll… we'll get you out of here!'

Suddenly Karli bolted passed the glaceon and Jane caught up with Glim, looking down at the garbodor, still with Tyson in her arms. The delibird also looked down on Ben, finally reuniting with him.

Ben shook his head as best as he could.

'No, Glim-'

'Ben.' said Jane, genuinely worried.

As happy as Ben was to see Jane and Tyson since they got separated, he shook his head again, almost crying, yet still smiling.

'I can't… feel my body, sweet.' he said, only just moving his right arm, but unable to lift it. 'The kids! Are they alright?'

The garbodor tried his best to look around. Glim and Jane looked around, and the train car B244 was also cut in half and with its door wide open. However, it was eerily silent and there was no sign of Meg, but the bloody remains of children were present, on the floor near Ben and one dangling out of the train door. It made Glim's ears drop as he looked down at Ben again, unable to tell him. But that one look into the glaceon's frightened yet radiant eyes already told Ben of the bad news. The garbodor's casual smile faded.

'Glim…' muttered Ben, finally keeping still. 'Go on without me.'

The glaceon was tempted to run, considering that Martyr was very close by and after them. But staring down at the helpless garbodor, he just did not want to, his legs locked, as he stared into Ben's depressed dying eyes. Glim thought he would be crying by that point, but his lips were not trembling, nor were the tears overflowing. Perhaps he was just too scared to be crying there and then.

Jane adjusted Tyson to rest on her left arm and shoulder, so then she could place her other hand on Glim.

'Glim, c'mon. There's nothing we can do. Sorry Ben.'

Ben only shook his head and tried to smile one last time. The look in their eyes was all he wanted. To know that Jane was more sorrowful than sorry, and Glim was just upset.

Surprisingly for Glim, it only took for Jane to pull the glaceon slightly away from the dying garbodor before he could take his eyes off him.

Only metres away, Karli was on her knees next to corpse of a little dinosaur. It was Terri. Unlike most of the carcasses, the cranidos, who was still severed in half had her halves almost next to each other. When Glim ran by and stopped to look at Terri, she was already dead. Karli looked up at the glaceon, her eyes already leaking tears as she silently lowered Terri's head back on the platform.

The kirlia stood and ran after Jane and Tyson, while Shadow tailed Glim and McGregor tailed Karli. The stairs ahead of them were totally demolished, but survivors were heading through a door on the same level, metres behind the stairs.

Suddenly, far behind the fleeing friends, another horrific roar echoed, forcing Glim and Karli to glance back. Martyr fired another Psycho Cut, perfectly horizontal and close to the ground. Slicing up the trains yet again, along with the already mutilated corpses as it headed straight for the survivors.

'Get ready to jump on my mark!' yelled Jane. The infernape remained looking back as she ran in line with her friends, watching the fast approaching Psycho Cut. The delibird on her shoulder had to cover his eyes. 'Now!'

Amazingly, Jane, Glim, Karli and Shadow all jumped at the exact same time, leaping up as high as they damn well could and narrowly dodging the attack as it swept under them. The dusknoir meanwhile sunk into the ground again as the Psycho Cut shot over him. As expected, the force of Martyr's attack brought with a gust of wind, shooting them after the attack as it disappeared when it chopped into the wall. They all crashed across the floor until they hit against the same metal wall.

Once Glim and his friends got up, they swiftly rushed into the same door that other survivors were running into. It did not look like a tunnel to lead into another sector, Glim thought. When the little glaceon ran into the dark room, just behind Jane who finally let go of Tyson by throwing him off, he could hear a crowd of noise followed by someone yelling 'come on, hurry up!'

In the darkness, emergency lights revealed the room to be an emergency lift. Different to the one leading down to Rancour's basement. The room was one of those that was big, but was only a bridge in the middle, over a chasm. On the other end, the elevator appeared a little more modern, but much smaller and despite the sounds of panic, there were only nine survivors in it. All of them, especially the children looked so traumatised and confused.

'Get in there now!' said Jane, looking angrily at Glim.

While the glaceon, houndoom, kirlia and delibird obediently approached the elevator, the infernape and dusknoir both looked back at the doorway, expecting Martyr to suddenly walk through. They wanted to be the last ones on the elevator, so they took their stances.

'Are you not going to join them?' asked McGregor.

'Not until they're ready to go.' Jane replied.

Glim set his front paws into the fully metal elevator floor before he glanced back, while his boyfriend and Karli stepped in.

'Jane!' cried Glim. 'What're you doing?'

'Just get in, now!'

Suddenly, gasps were heard as a flash lit the room for a second, which was followed by terrified screams. Jane and McGregor immediately glanced back at the elevator to see that Martyr had just manifested between them and the trapped survivors in the small elevator. Just in front of the elevator floor, Tyson's body laid flat without his head, completely gone.

The human remnant still had the sword in its right hand as it swung it up, lighting its horrific soulless eyes. It was about to use Psycho Cut once more, when Jane grappled the arm of Martyr, trying to wrestle the unown scimitar off it, but somehow the human had the tremendous strength to resist the infernape. At the same time, McGregor leaped up and gave the strongest Fire Punch he had, only forcing Martyr forward slightly, while the dusknoir's fist met the bridge floor. Still arm in arm, Jane tried kicking Martyr, but after being forced to spin round by the dusknor, it was able to use its other hand to simply hit Jane away, sending her flying and crashing near the doorway they entered. Immediately, Martyr's sword glowed black as it swung at McGregor who moved back slightly, knowing the attack to be Night Slash.

From the elevator, Glim was the first to fire Signal Beam at Martyr, followed by Shadow using flamethrower, both streams of light appeared to combine into one, but were then blocked by Martyr just by holding up the sword. The beam of light appeared to be bouncing off, dividing into at least four different smaller beams.

Jane meanwhile got back on her feet and ran toward Martyr, covering herself in flames like she had nothing to lose.

While Martyr was distracted blocking Glim and Shadow's attacks, McGregor also tried to approach the human, who stood motionlessly, as the sword seemingly acted as an umbrella. The giant dusknoir paladin threw off the cloak that was clipped to his shoulder armour and then sunk into the ground, shooting right behind Martyr, on the other side of the bridge. But as soon as McGregor rose up, Martyr turned left, still with the sword blocking the other attack, and hit the dusknoir with a Shadow Ball to his face. McGregor was forced back into the wall over the chasm, while Martyr immediately intercepted Jane's Flare Blitz right afterward, using Sucker Punch like Rancour did, grabbing her by the neck and throwing her with all the momentum she built directly into the elevator. The elevator shook violently upon the infernape's impact, as her flames ceased, leaving her to slump unconsciously to the floor. Luckily no one was in the way when Jane crashed into to it, but her dangerous entrance caused Glim and Shadow to stop, allowing Martyr to reclaim its sword.

The human twirled the scimitar, making it glowed white again as it gave a death stare at the survivors.

'No!' screamed both Karli and McGregor.

The little kirlia threw out her arm, summoning a Reflect just outside the elevator, while McGregor dashed across the air, hitting Martyr like a furious boxer. Every hit prompted the dusknoir to Shadow Sneak around the human, who was barely budging and only grunting lightly, until it too used Shadow Sneak. First to get away from McGregor before attempting to swing the sword, using Psycho Cut, but as the huge wave of energy blasted forward, the dusknoir had already dodged it by simply leaning left as it only cut into the wall and causing a tremor. McGregor got a free Thunder Punch to Martyr's face, again only forcing it back slightly. Martyr hissed monstrously in frustration, turning black and sinking into the floor like the dusknoir before it. Suddenly the human swiftly bolted into McGregor who had no time to block the attack, which was followed by a Night Slash as it leaped out of the floor, cutting the dusknoir at the side of his face.

'No, dad!' screamed Karli, sinking into the ground to pass under her Reflect spell.

'Karli!' cried Glim, hitting the barrier.

The dusknoir, still standing was also getting frustrated, shadow sneaking passed Martyr who managed to predict the dusknoir and block the two punches that were coming for him on landing. Martyr then zoomed back and when it noticed McGregor not approaching that time, it fired a massive ball of shadows, but quickly, the dusknoir dodged by using Shadow Sneak once more and lunging up at the human, who had just enough time to raise its sword, block and force McGregor back. Suddenly Martyr was hit on the head by Karli who also lunged out from the ground.

'No!' yelled McGregor, trying so hard to regain his balance, watching his daughter in dread.

As Karli rebounded from her attack, which had her in the air, Martyr easily swished its sword, summoning a weaker Psycho Cut at the kirlia. That time, it got her directly at her torso, as the enormously bright attack, forced Karli to travel with the wave of energy, breaking right through her barrier and landing just between Glim and Shadow. Incredibly, she was completely in one piece, but the eviolite that was tied to her was flashing like a damaged overworking heart. The kirlia herself screamed in agony, grasping her arms tightly, both of which received massive cuts as did her dress and parts of her blue hair. It was the use of Karli's Reflect that had dispersed the power of the Psycho Cut so quickly, saving everyone within the elevator.

Anticipating McGregor to be burning in rage, Martyr easily dodged the next Shadow Sneak, as the dusknoir was getting predictable.

'We have to go!' said the flygon, operating the elevator, already hitting the activation button.

Further down the bridge, McGregor was still furiously trying to pummel the human, when suddenly it raised it sword, pointing directly at the dusknoir, whose whole fist and arm ended up forcing the bright scimitar between his knuckles and stabbing deep into his arm. The grunts of anger and frustration were quickly replaced by a loud manly scream, as Martyr's sword was left inserted into McGregor's hand and arm. Hearing the scream, Karli gasped, sitting up as the elevator's cage doors slammed shut. As it was merely very thick bars, the kirlia and her friends could still see the fight that was happening.

'Dad!' yelled Karli, struggling to get up, trying to resist the sheer pain of the Psycho Cut.

When McGregor's scream ended, he still tried to fight, even with a sword stuck in his stronger arm. He gave two swings of his left arm, when Martyr shadow sneaked into him again, appearing right behind him and recalling the sword to appear in its hand once more, which instantly disappeared from the dusknoir. The human jumped up, spinning round as it swung the blackened sword across McGregor's head. Martyr landed easily, but the dusknoir stuttered, wobbling around, trying to look back at the elevator, to look at Karli, before the head piece of McGregor simply drifted off, as the rest of him rolled forward, falling off the bridge and disappearing into the chasm.

The elevator finally began to lift, rising very quickly. Karli remained speechless, eyes fixed and unmoving. She tightly grabbed onto the bars of the doors, taking a moment to accept what just happened.

Glim and Shadow were in shock too, but more afraid for their lives as they sat in that small elevator, full of silent strangers, all of who were likely more terrified.

Before the fast ascending elevator entered the shaft into darkness, Martyr on the bridge looked up, just catching eye contact with Glim and Karli. It roared angrily, before running down the bridge in pursuit of them. The little glaceon was hoping the elevator would outrun it that time.

The emergency elevator continued to rise faster in the darkness, with very few emergency lights passing by in the vertical tunnel.

'Dad.' stuttered Karli, breaking into tears.

Feeling as though they had finally escaped Martyr, Glim turned to Karli and hugged her.

As if they had not had enough, something was coming as the shaft began to vibrate and light was beaming brighter and louder from below the elevator. Glim and Karli separated for a moment, utterly frozen as was everyone else. Suddenly, the whole elevator was jolted upward, throwing everyone inside up off their feet and forming and enormous dent in the hardened metal floor. It was Martyr using Psycho Cut again, except the elevator had built so much distance and had the whole ground around it to absorb the ferocious attack. The fierce tremor of the elevator terrified Glim, making him and so many of the survivors scream, thinking it was about to drop to their deaths.

The elevator quickly resumed its climb, with almost everyone either crying in terror or loss. The little glaceon and kirlia were holding each other, when suddenly a sword stabbed right through the hardened floor between them, quickly causing them to jump back in fright. Unsurprisingly, it was Martyr's sword, making a last ditch attempt to kill Glim and Karli. Helplessly, Glim cringed and shivered as he urinated where he sat. But while the elevator continued climbing, the unique sword between them slowly faded into light, before disappearing completely. At that moment they knew, they had finally escaped Martyr.

---

Note form author

'That everybody was the end of the first phase of The Sombre Snow, and honestly I am pretty satisfied into getting at least a third of the whole story done. Hard to think that I started this over a year ago now, but I'm afraid I will need a break for a while as I am in a rough stage in my life right as of now. In fact, I have been debating whether of not I should be continuing this project, since I don't seem to be getting a lot of followers, views or reviews for it, and this had taken a lot of my time for the past year. So I want to make the request, whether or not you think this worth continuing.

As a whole, the story was very involved, with multiple tragedies converging in some way to Glim's story and it was to have an epic climax if I was to finish the whole story. There would also be a sort of side story of 7 days, about what happened after Oswald's death and how Glim evolved into a glaceon, as I was saving that for creepy backstories at first, but thought maybe it was worth making into its own seven chapter story.

For now, I need my time off, so thank you to those who followed or took the time to read my fanfic and this note.'

-SapphicWish