Island Wolf: Ha, I'm not dead! Well I might be after midterms but that's another story. Anyway, I'm finally back in the saddle and I managed to write a chapter that I don't completely hate. It's a tad on the short side, I know, but I felt this was a good end point for the chapter, otherwise the flow was in peril of going all fucky again. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, it's a bit more action packed than the last few!
Disclaimer: I own nothing blah, blah, blah
"You can't be serious! May, this is insanity – these caves are the only sanctuary we have, we can't abandon them!"
May sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose to fend off the headache building there. Steven, the League and all of their highest ranking military personnel stood gathered around the long table in the war room. All eyes were on her, holding an intense mixture of horror and disbelief. She slammed her hands down on the table with enough force to make the metal shudder and groan, effectively cutting off the low murmur that had started to sweep over the crowd. "Steven the reality of our situation is that we are not safe down here anymore! We have a very small window of opportunity to get away from here unscathed, the longer we delay the greater the chance that they'll catch us on the run, or worse trap us in these caves."
"But if Kyogre is monitoring the oceans like you said then what's to stop it from detecting us on the way to the mainland?"
"Because there's going to be a diversion, one so big that Ardos won't be able to ignore it."
"...I don't like the sound of this."
"Ardos has better resources than us right now, if we face him directly we'll be outnumbered, outmanouvered and outgunned," Maxie interjected and May scowled at him fiercely. "A diversion is a suicide mission."
"Not necessarily," she countered. "Ardos is powerful, but he has a fatal flaw that we can exploit – his greed. Ardos is the type of man who has to win and take his prize to show for it. We can flash something so valuable at him that he won't be able to resist, he'll divert his attention and more importantly his trump card Kyogre, away from all of you."
"May just what are you getting at?"
With a tense smile that came out as more of a grimace May unclipped Groudon's pokéball from her belt and set it on the table in front of her. She tapped the vibrating orb with a forefinger and then pointed to herself. "Groudon for one, he's the missing jewel in Hoenn's crown, with him Ardos could control land and sea. There would be no one who could realistically oppose him if he managed to capture him...and then there's me. I was the prize that was stolen from him – I was supposed to be one of his greatest assets and now I'm the biggest threat to his empire. If Groudon and I reveal ourselves, Ardos will come running."
Maxie gaped at her like a fish out of water and all of the colour abruptly drained from Steven's face. There was a beat of heavy silence before the room erupted into angry voices of protest. Their words burned hotly, buzzing fiercely in her ears.
"Are you mad!?"
"You'll hand him the victory!"
"We can't run, we'll never make it!"
"You're going to doom us all!"
"SILENCE!"
The strength of her voice surprised even her. It echoed around the cavern, deep and rough taking on an earthy growl that had no business resonating from her human throat. The chatter died, the buzzing stopped and they stared at her again. May bared her teeth and flexed fingers that had spread and curved like claws as she fought to keep the rage broiling in her veins in check. She exhaled deeply and tasted smoke and metal on her tongue. "Listen to me all of you, listen!" she snapped. "I have given you the facts, we are going to be found soon and this is your one and only chance to run with your lives intact. This is the only way to guarantee everyone's safety and to give us enough time to salvage what equipment we can. This is going to happen whether you all like it or not, do I make myself quite clear?"
"Then...where do you propose we go?"
"Inland for starters, the further from the sea the better. Somewhere where Groudon's influence would be strong."
"Mount Chimney," Maxie said quietly, still looking none too pleased about the situation. His dark eyes were hard and unreadable as he looked at her. "We used to have a small outpost there. It hasn't been at full operational capacity in some time, but it should do for now."
"Good," May nodded. "Then I suggest you all start preparing to move, and quickly."
"What about you?" Pheobe asked. The ghost-trainer looked genuinely concerned and May felt her anger start to ebb away a little. The petite brunette had always been companionable to her and certainly one of the few friends she'd kept in the League after her departure. Seeing her truly concerned about her safety now made the bitterness lessen just a touch.
"I'm going to start getting ready as soon as this meeting is done. I'll take my Altaria and head east for a ways, then I'll release Groudon and drop our line. Once Ardos takes the bait you'll hightail it back to the mainland. Get to the outpost and keep yourselves hidden. We'll just have to go from there," May replied grimly. She allowed her shoulders to drop a fraction and when she spoke again, tried to keep the heat out of her voice. "Look, I know this isn't ideal...it's fucking scary is what it is. But we have no other choice. Yes, if we run there's a chance we'll be caught, we might even die...but I promise you that if we stay here we will die. That much is certain."
"May -"
"Maxie, please speak to me as a solider for a moment. If there's another viable plan, tell me. If you can find a better way, we'll do it."
He remained silent, but his expression was pained and she knew how badly he wanted to protest despite it all. Still, he nodded reluctantly. "You're right."
"May, you are absolutely sure about this?" Steven asked. "Is there no other option?"
"No, this is the only shot we have."
"...Alright, we'll start preparing. Everybody to your posts, on the double!"
Initial movement was hesitant, but soon the caverns were a hub of activity, a dull roar of low, panicked voices as people ran to and fro collecting equipment and preparing to flee. Maxie kept close to her side as they walked towards their quarters. "What do you need?"
"A uniform and spare Kevlar wouldn't hurt," she answered grimly. "Also...I'd like a pistol."
"May -"
"Maxie anything could go wrong, I want to be prepared for any scenario. Can you help me out or not?"
"...Fine. For the record, I hate this plan."
"I know."
Her hands were shaking. Damn, why couldn't she stop her hands from shaking?
May huffed and curled her hands into fists, keeping them close to her sides. She knew why they were shaking – she was scared beyond belief. The heavy material of her uniform made the nervous air in the caves all the more oppressing as she headed towards the entrance tunnel. Maxie stood there waiting for her with such a sorrowful expression that her heart broke a little at the sight. Reaching down to his belt he unholstered his handgun and pressed it into her hands. When she went to pull away her curled one hand around her wrist to stop her. "Before I give you this I need you to promise me something."
"What?"
"Swear to me, swear to me, that you will not use this on yourself. Even if Ardos takes you again, please don't. I'll come find you, I don't care just don't -"
"Maxie, I promise," she said softly, cutting him off. She felt warmth pool deep in her belly and for a moment considered telling him about the little life she was carrying within her, but stopped herself. It would only make things more painful for him. "Now, remember don't tell me where you're going. If this plan works Groudon and I will be able to find you just fine on our own."
He nodded and leaned in to kiss her, but she smiled sadly and pushed him away as she holstered the pistol. "No, no goodbyes. I'll get my kiss from you when we meet up again."
For a moment he looked hurt, but then smiled albeit sadly at her as he placed his hands on her shoulders. "You are forbidden from dying Miss Maple. You will come back to me; that's an order, do you understand? That is an order."
"Understood Sir. Good luck."
He stepped back and saluted her, a gesture she playfully returned even if there was little humour in it. Holstering the pistol she moved passed him and out into the entrance tunnel. The door closed behind her with a soft click and abruptly all the noise and bustle of the caverns was silenced, leaving her alone in the dimly illuminated tunnel. Looking ahead into that long darkness her heart quivered and for a moment she thought about turning tail, back to the caverns, but the heat emanating from the pokéball stoked the embers of her courage and she trudged forward into the gloom. When she finally came topside she had to take a moment to just sit on that little outcropping of basalt. It had been so long since a sea breeze had caressed her face, so long since she'd watched a sunrise creep over the eastern horizon...
Her Altaria flashed into existence at her side, gently nuzzling her trainer's face. May smiled and stroked the dragon's downy feathers. "I know, I just wanted to watch for a bit. Just in case."
The dragon cooed her understanding and lowered herself so that May could climb up onto her back. Catching an onshore wind beneath her wings Altaria lifted into the sky and turned into the rising sun, heading farther out to sea and away from the land. It was a red dawn, as it turned out, staining the sky a ruddy crimson and making the waves below flash like liquid fire as they caught the light. Once Mossdeep was long behind them she instructed the dragon to land on a small strand of sand that backed against a hidden reef. These shoals would shelter them from Kyogre, preventing the leviathan from getting too close to its primordial nemesis and hopefully giving them a much needed edge against the titan of Hoenn's seas.
May withdrew Altaria and unclipped Groudon's pokéball from her belt. The red and white orb burned hotly beneath her fingers before it burst open in a blinding flash of white light that grew and slowly solidified into the hulking shape of her ancient companion. The earth titan settled himself in the sand bar before extended a massive forelimb towards her. May climbed onto the giant's open palm and allowed him to lift her so that she could perch herself on top of his head. No doubt David would be holding a similar position atop Kyogre. Worry for her cousin quickly turned into a slow burning fury as the red thread between her and Groudon became taut. He was her copy, her antithesis controlling the great rival of her earth-brother. That was how she had to think.
Sentimentality would not win this fight.
Groudon tensed beneath her and between the scaly, armour like plates of his skin, his fiery body burned and roiled like magma. His jaws parted and he let out a long roar, a sound that was like desert winds eroding, earth splitting and mountains falling, echoing across the vast expanse of blue around them. The bellowing call gradually faded into silence, and then came the wait. An hour, perhaps two crawled by with deceptive calm, but every second was agony. May was starting to worry that her plan had backfired, and that Ardos had stormed their base while their greatest defence was elsewhere, but her fears were quickly put aside as a pulse thrummed through the water around them before an answering cry followed. It was shrill and harsh, a whale's song distorted until it was a scream ringed with hoarfrost and glacial hate. The sea in front of them began to bow upwards, splitting in a wave of silvery foam and brine as Kyogre surfaced, a dark figure in black neoprene and visored helm perched on its broad head. It reached up and removed the rebreather from its mouth. May widened her stance and her lips skinned back over her teeth in a savage snarl. Groudon did much the same, roaring at his rival who sat just beyond the ring of reefs. There were no words between them – there was no need for such trivial, human means of communication. When May looked at him, the visor did little to hide what lay beneath and David appeared to realize that. He reached up again and tapped the side of his helmet, the visor and lower faceplate retracting to expose his face.
It was a hollow parody of a human face, with features slack and eyes devoid of any life or light. The sight made a breath hiss between May's clenched teeth and she knew this was the look she had worn herself not terribly long ago. They stared at each other across the open water as their gargantuan counterparts did much the same. The air was practically electrified with the power building up around them, causing it to distort and shimmer. May drew a deep breath and then exhaled, tasting the smoke and metal on her breath again and she raised her hand.
That was the cue, the shot from the starting gun as Kyogre twisted, slamming down its fluke to send a massive wall of water racing towards them, but almost at the same instant that the leviathan of the sea had moved Groudon slammed his forelimbs down onto the sandbar, sending a pulse of energy through the earth that raised another wall of water in front of him. The two tidal waves met with brutal force, sending both sides staggering back a pace against the shockwave and the blinding spray that followed. Kyogre was first to recover and dove deep beneath the waves, circling them like a shark. Groudon did not seemed fazed, but rather tossed his head back with an almighty roar and slammed his upper half down against the sand bar again. The energy released this time was much more intense, bright light flaring up around them as the seabed cracked and split within the ring of reefs surrounding them. Slowly, but surely, magma started to surge up from the ocean floor, drawn upward by the preternatural force of Groudon's will. Steam and sulphur erupted into the air as the magma continued to flow, building up as it cooled until a rocky island of blackened basalt and obsidian had risen up beneath them, lifting them clear from the water with land around them to spare.
Kyogre surfaced with a low, hissing growl, displeased by the sudden raise in water temperature though it only seemed to further enrage the ancient creature than hinder it. It dove again, only to resurface shortly thereafter in a magnificent leap that threw most of its body clear of the water and May could see why. A glowing orb of energy had already formed between Kyogre's gaping jaws, ready to send a Hyper Beam to rend and tear the newly formed land Groudon had created and reclaim it for the sea. Groudon opened his mouth, a similar sphere of raw power flickering into life. May cursed and went to her knees, laying her hands flat against Groudon's horned head as she frantically tugged at the red thread between their minds.
No, not that! You know what to do! Break their shield with the sword of our good earth!
Groudon snapped his jaw shut with a sound like steel striking steel and abruptly raised his forelimbs. Sharpened pillars of earth rose up from the newly formed earth and magma still roiling beneath the water, slamming into Kyogre's underbelly. They did not cut through the leviathan's steely hide, but it struck with brutal force and did fling Kyogre back, the not yet formed Hyper Beam shooting off prematurely into the sky. It thrashed and shrieked, sending up white foam as it struggled to right itself again. It did not rest long, but dove beneath the water to circle them again, albeit at a wider distance. May bared her teeth, watching the shadow beneath the waves.
Her eyes were suddenly drawn skyward by the low, tell-tale thrum of helicopter blades and upon looking up she could see the darkly painted aircraft come screaming out of the north west. It hovered above the battlefield, coming in dangerously low until the side door slid open.
"May, it's been so long! My, don't you look wonderful."
Even through the megaphone Ardos' voice was muffled by the chopper blades and Groudon's furious roars, but every word cut her to the bone and sent icy worms crawling up her spine. He seemed terribly at ease, as though the spectacle before him was nothing more than an act from a play staged for his amusement. His wintry eyes crinkled in a smile as he gazed at her. No, he was no spectator – this was a chess-master about to call zugzwang as he moved her into check.
"Look at you, so proud and fierce atop your titan as you were meant to be. Alas you chose to stand on the wrong side of the line we drew into the sand," he said, looking almost sad as he shook his head. "No matter, you'll soon be back where you belong and I can promise that no one will ever part us again."
His voice was so sickly sweet, so sincere that it made her want to retch. This was a man far more deranged than she could ever hope to understand, nor did she wish to get another glimpse into the howling abyss that was his mindscape. Already the shadows were rearing in her own mind, hissing and spitting as they threatened to choke her senses with their barbarous tongues and poisonous tendrils. Without hesitating May unholstered her pistol and levelled it at him. She'd never had any formal training with guns – not that her waking memory could recall. Farren had given her all the programming she needed, and with morbidly good fortune some of it had stuck. She squeezed the trigger just as the pilot tried to move them out of harm's way, but the bullet still managed to clip Ardos' shoulder. May bared her teeth in a savage grin, relishing the look of shock and pain on his face, though it was short lived as he clamped a hand over the wound and laughed wildly.
"Oh May! You turned out far better than I ever could have hoped!" he laughed as Kyogre seemed to surface beneath them on cue with David standing coolly upon its head. "Your cousin is an admirable addition to my army, but you May, you are so special! Far more than even I realized! The way you just looked at me now, you shot to kill May, my beautiful little murderess. You're still the killer I made you, and I will bring you back better than ever!"
May felt her knees start to shake and they very nearly gave out as he laughed and she realized that everything he said was true. He had turned her into a killer...and a killer she had remained. She thought back to those torturous days in his lab, crushing Gabriel's spine with her bare hands, ripping the throat out of his soldiers with her teeth and when she fired at him just now she had been aiming with one goal in mind – to see the brains of a madman splatter against the aircraft door while his body tumbled down into a cold, unforgiving sea. The red filament in her mind's eye went taut as a bow string, plucked by shadow fingers until it sang with a low, thrumming note. May looked Ardos straight in the eye and roared.
It was a sound no human should have been able to make, one that was echoed by the behemoth beneath her and as she bellowed with the voice of a volcano, belching forth ash and embers, they raised their arms and more pillars of earth exploded from the island and seabed, very nearly striking the chopper which had to do a sharp bank to avoid being speared by the precipice blades. Ardos' ever present grin faltered then and his thin lips curled into a vicious sneer.
"David, finish up here. I want both Alpha-XD1 and Groudon captured alive. Bring them to me!"
With that the helicopter gained altitude before turning back in the direction from whence it had come, leaving the combatants to their skirmish to watch from a safer distance. May hissed at the retreating aircraft before facing the water again, widening her stance with arms and fingers spread, ready to grapple. Groudon moved forward until he stood at the very edge of the island he'd created, the waves curling white over the rocky reef and shore to break at his feet. Kyogre surfaced again with a low crocodilian hiss. Overhead the sunlight blazed down on them, now fully in the sky behind them while the western horizon grew dark with roiling black clouds that bore down on them with terrifying speed as they flickered with light from the lightening arching between the thunderheads, though the spears of electricity seemed almost green in colour. The wind rose with vicious speed, whipping the waves into high white caps that steadily gained more height and power as they broke around the two tempestuous giants and their human partners. The pokémon of the sea and sky screeched with the sudden change in barometric pressure, recoiling at the power pulsing through land and sea as they fled. Then, as Kyogre suddenly surged forward, Groudon charged with surprising speed, stepping down into the water to meet his foe. Steam erupted all around them, lashing them with heat and stinging spray as Kyogre slammed head on into Groudon's chest, trying to topple the titan while Groudon slammed his clawed forelimbs down on the leviathan's broad back, trying to grapple it. Acting on pure instinct alone May leapt off of Groudon's head, down into the steaming abyss below and connected with a solid figure covered in neoprene and fibreglass. Immediately they locked limbs, May hissing and roaring like a wild thing while David remained silent, his only sound a low grunt when she slammed the heel of her hand beneath his jaw. They tumbled off of Kyogre's back and into the frigid water, though May could hardly feel the cold. Every inch of her felt like it was on fire as she tried to wrestle her cousin, but he wriggled like an eel, constantly slipping out of her holds. With the grace of Floatzel he twisted around her, wrapping his legs around her waist and curling an arm around her neck, trying to choke out what little air remained in her burning lungs.
Fortune seemed to favour the foolish however, as Kyogre's fin came slicing through the water, knocking them apart with the current it created. May wasted no time and swam to the surface, sucking down a much needed breath of air as she readied herself. Strong arms wrapped around her ankles and pulled her down sharply beneath the waves, but this time she was ready. As soon as her head slipped beneath the water she doubled over and dove behind David's head, forcing him to relinquish his hold. Wasting no time she pulled out the combat knife Tabitha had insisted on giving her and slashed at the back of David's feet, neatly severing his Achilles' tendons with two snakebite strikes. Blood flowed into the water and May grinned savagely. She knew he couldn't feel pain, but there was little even a machine could do if one of its vital moving parts was broken. Clenching the knife between her teeth she started for the surface, coming up on Groudon's left. He and Kyogre were still locked tightly together, the two giant's clawing and biting at each other with brutal force. Blood flowed freely into the sea now, staining the water a rusty red. David surfaced not far away, but his movements were severely hampered and now even she could outswim him with ease. Fueled by adrenaline and desperation she swam with all her strength to Groudon's tail and climbed on, slowly hauling herself up his back until she was clinging to the base of his neck. Now, do it now!
Groudon abruptly released Kyogre from both his jaws and claws, landing a staggering blow with his right forelimb as he did so which turned the whale-like creature sideways. Groudon raised his head ever so slightly before his jaws parted and a raging torrent of magma and flame belched forth out of his gaping maw. Kyogre screamed; even its armoured hide could not bear the grunt of Groudon's flames, and it retreated back to dive, trying to cool its burns with the sea water while steam enveloped them in a thick scalding cloud. May opened Groudon's pokéball, withdrawing the beast in a flash of crimson light and as she started to fall, opened Altaria's ball instead. The blue phoenix caught her with ease, broad wings easily catching a thermal from Groudon's fire to rise above the cloud of steam and race unseen back towards the west.
Once she was sure there was no black helicopter in pursuit May finally allowed herself to slump forward. She felt boneless, the knife slipping out of her mouth to tumble down to the sea below. Breathing itself was a difficult task. The red thread had gone slack and Groudon's pokéball no longer vibrated nor felt hot to the touch. Her titan was as exhausted as she was, but with a weary sigh she picked up the carmine filament again, tugging on it gently. Almost there, I need your eyes...tell me where they are...
She could almost hear him huff and that brought a tired smile to her face as he projected an image into her head, a cave cleverly concealed on Mount Chimney's western slope – impossible to find unless you knew what to look for in the first place. May mumbled a thank you and curled an arm around her abdomen, trying not to cry. What would have Ardos done if he'd found out about it? Would he have ripped it from her womb with his blizzard-like wrath or would he have let it grow if only to make her watch while he manipulated it into something less than human?
That thought made her grow cold and she shivered, though what started as a shudder of fear soon turned into real shivering as the wind came blowing down from the north no longer under Kyogre's control and froze her in her soaking clothes. Biting her teeth to keep from chattering she nestled herself further onto her dragon's downy back, trying to shelter herself from the biting wind, but it did little to help. May nearly huffed, how ironic to survive a tussle between titans only to slowly freeze to death on the way home.
Fate was a fickle fucking thing.
"Persephone if you could put some more speed into this I'd greatly appreciate it."
The dragon let out a quavering, bell-like note in reply and did as she was bid. Soon the ocean turned into rocky shoreline and then on to dense pine forests. Those too, melted away to expose rolling plains that gave way to the rocky slopes of Mount Chimney, that thrust hard and angular up from the earth. They soared over its top, catching more thermals from the heat of the open magma pool and circled around to the western side of the volcano at May's direction before swooping in low. Ash and snow crunched under her boots as she clumsily slid off of the Altaria's back, using the dragon as a crutch to help her walk. They drew up to what looked like a bark rock face, but the movement of a cleverly placed rock exposed a keypad. May dropped to her knees beside it. She didn't know the access code, but she punched in a series of random digits and then collapsed onto her back, unable to muster the strength to sit up any longer – surely a wrong code would trigger some sort of alarm within the base.
Sure enough, half a minute later, the rock face split as a hidden door opened and several men in uniform, one with shockingly red hair, cautiously exited. Strong arms immediately wrapped around her lifting her up as he called her name. She opened her eyes and smiled weakly at the earth brown eyes alight with concern and relief all at the same time.
"Told you I'd make it," she said and then laughed tiredly. "Where's Tabitha, he owes me fifty for coming back with all my limbs attached."
"You idiot," Maxie laughed, though his voice was thick and she could tell that he was near tears as he carried her inside. Warmth rushed over her and she closed her eyes with a contented sigh as more people drew near. There were voices, anxious and clamouring, but seemed muffled and she tuned them out, focusing solely on the low humming she could hear coming from Maxie, one of those old tunes from the far distant shores of his family's past. She smiled and drifted into a doze, lulled by those melancholic tones. It seemed fitting. She'd drawn blood against her own kith and kin – even if it was for the greater good, guilt over hurting David still burned sourly in her stomach. She could only hope that he would forgive her one day.
"Remind me later," she yawned, vaguely aware the Dr. Villiard was poking and prodding her, chastising her all the while, "I need to tell you something."
"Alright. Just sleep for now. Sleep."
Maxie tapped his fingers against the table top, his irritation bleeding through the repetitive gesture as the pattern became more staccato as time when on. May reflected his annoyance, rolling her eyes as she answered the same set of questions she'd been posed for the last two hours. Drake and several other officers did not seemed convinced and asked her yet again what she had done to ensure that Ardos would not be able to track them down, and what she'd done to neutralize David as a threat. He clenched his fist, the leather of his gloves creaking ominously as he abruptly rose.
"That's enough," he growled out sharply. "She's answered your questions a dozen times over and submitted a formal report for debriefing, the matter is closed!"
"We're just trying to ensure -"
"We are safe and well here solely thanks to Miss Maple's actions, I think that alone speaks for itself."
"...Fine, Miss Maple you are dismissed."
May nodded curtly and rose, straightening her jacket as she did so. She'd taken to wearing the uniform ever since her return and he really wasn't quite sure how he felt about it. On one hand he was glad to no that her fighting spirit had returned, on the other it worried him because he knew she'd have no qualms anymore about throwing herself head long into the fray. Of course, he thought to himself with a rueful smile, that was just typically May. Once their were clear of their new 'war room' May huffed and raised her arms above her head to stretch. "Fuck, they love to hear themselves talk don't they."
"Most of the brass usually do."
"Hn, a thank you for saving our sorry asses wouldn't have gone amiss."
"Don't count on getting one," he answered dryly. It had taken nearly two days for May to recover from her mission, but she'd sprung back with remarkable resilience. When he'd remarked as such to Dr. Villiard the physician had merely shaken his head with a knowing smile, stating that he was not surprised. He'd grown suspicious at that – reading people was a necessary skill in his line of work, one needed for basic survival and the doctor had struck him as hiding something. That had irked him. "So what did you need to tell me?"
She looked at him and seemed almost startled by his question. "Beg pardon?"
"When we first brought you in you told me to remind you, that there was something you needed to tell me."
"Ah, so I did. Hm, come on let's go somewhere a little more private."
He raised an eyebrow, but made no comment as he followed her. Rather than going to their private quarters, however, she lead him towards the cavern they'd set Groudon up in. Most of Team Magma's outposts had been geothermically powered, and this base being built on a volcano it was only too easy to tap into a magma chamber. So now their generator room also housed the massive earth pokémon, who had admittedly been sleeping mostly the last two days, as his human partner had been. Indeed, the titan slept now even as they entered the cavern, though he was quick to wake as soon as May drew near. She sat down on a flat slab of stone nearby and motioned for him to do the same. Now thoroughly confused he did so without protest, though his quizzical expression remained firmly in place. Groudon loomed above, watching them silently, but his fierce golden eyes betrayed a thinly veiled interest as he gazed at the two humans.
"May, what's going on?"
"I'm getting to that," she said with a wave of her hand. "But first answer me this, you still want to marry me after all of this is done right?"
"Of course!"
"Well...would you mind waiting at least nine months or so? I'd really like to fit into a proper dress."
"What do you me-"
And then it clicked.
The world went out of focus for a few moments and he was vaguely aware that he had opened and closed his mouth several times in the span of those seconds as he tried to process the absolute bombshell of information she'd just unloaded on to him. He tried to speak, but his vocal chords seemed paralysed and the best he could managed was a rather undignified rasp of air. He looked down at the ground and then back to May who seemed to be watching him with increasing amusement, though there was a shadow of doubt in those perceptive azure eyes. Finally he settled for wrapping his arms around her tightly and he could feel himself shaking. Never, never in his life did her ever cater the possibility of becoming a father – it seemed an impossibility, the shadow of a thought, a chapter that simply wasn't meant to be written in his life story, but now amidst this absolute storm of chaos and despair this miraculous thing had come to pass...
He was angry, so angry that she'd gone and risked her life again while knowing that she was pregnant, but that was far outweighed by the maelstrom of other emotions that had erupted inside of him.
"For the record I'm absolutely livid at you for not telling me right away." he said hoarsely and heard her laugh.
"Would you have let me play out my distraction plan if I had?"
"Not a fucking chance."
"Exactly."
He sighed and then laughed and then very nearly sobbed as he held her more tightly. He looked up at Groudon who, if capable of smiling, surely would have been because his eyes were alight with the closest thing to mirth that Maxie had ever seen from the hulking giant. "He knew didn't he."
"He was the one who told me actually."
"He's not going to be a god-parent."
"Oh come on, he's very nurturing when he wants to be!"
"There's only room for one freak who communes with ancient pokémon in this family."
May huffed a laugh, but didn't reply and when he drew back enough to look at her she was gazing a Groudon with a smug smile.
"...You're talking to him right now aren't you."
"Hmm he says if you won't let him be a guardian, which he is fairly miffed at by the way, you can at least name the offspring after him."
"He can have the middle name."
"Deal."
She was grinning, such a whole hearted smile he hadn't seen in ages. He kissed her with enough force to send on her her back, though she hardly seemed bothered and returned the gesture with equal fervor. She curled her arms around his neck and for one blissful moment Maxie felt that despite it all, things were actually going to turn out okay.
They had to.
Island Wolf: Tadaaaa, I'm sorry if the humour at the end seemed a bit out of place, but I figured May would deliver serious news like that if just because she herself is scared witless of Maxie's reaction. Ta for now darlings! Hopefully I'll be able to update again soon!