Chapter 9: World Stolen by a Finger - Part 2
Sana and Feyera deftly moved through the thick jungle plants in the northern part of Chrono Island. The humidity and moist leaves alike pressed against them as they cut though the underbrush, and headed south in search of the cryptic thoroughfare.
It had not been more than a half hour before the two of them were walking together on the pathway amid large Pokemon footprints and tread marks alike. The forest around them was disturbingly noiseless. Not even the occasional insect buzzed. Their respective footwear, Edge's black Alterieno boots and Sana's white leg guards, made the only audible sounds, occasionally snapping twigs and leaves as they walked along side by side through the soft earth recently disrupted by Cipher's cryptic machinery. The automotives Feyera knew about were not able to cut through the thicket in the way these tracks suggested. They were practically on a highway in the middle of nowhere. And that nowhere was a reservation for wild Pokemon. Or at least it was supposed to be by the standards of decent folks; Edge knew that the Evercrest facility was here. That meant one important thing, no contact with the outside world. He anxiously took his eyes off the substantial trail and looked over at his Gardevoir companion.
Sanaria seemed to have calmed down a fair deal since they were reunited. She wasn't antagonizing him and that made Feyera felt good, positively feeding back to him because the last thing he needed was her bickering with him. Unfortunately, his mind wandered back to what he would have done if she were in fact able to manipulate him. Such thoughts disturbed him, for he had already seen their repercussions through her use of his heart. Strangely, like him—and Brucie for that matter—Sana seemed to be very mission-oriented. It was bizarre, but who was he to argue with extra help? He needed all the resources he could get ahold of. And for such resources to be employed successfully, they had to be working in harmony, much like the different components of a piece of machinery or even a body for that matter. Though Edge cringed at the thought of comparing his body to a "piece of machinery" since it gave out on him so often thanks to no other reason besides the deplorable Gardevoir traits. At least Sana seemed capable of using Psychic powers. That was a good thing; he did not want to have to rely on his psyonics for multiple reasons.
Feyera exhaled loudly. So what if she had tried to show him a few things Gardevoir did? It was not the absolute worst thing in the world. Thanks to her, he wasn't starving. He felt like his mind was trying to rationalize everything that had taken place, and marching along near her gave him all the time to do exactly that. He smiled, willing to at least make conversation with the Gardevoir, an action that previously felt impossible amid the emotional turmoil coming along with realizing his growing dependency on her. For now, she would at least be there in case he messed things up, as he was so very prone to doing.
"Say Sana…" Edge said quietly.
"Yes veh Feyera?" she answered with a hum.
What was he even going to say to her? What could he say? He wanted to be comforted; the unusual environment had put him on edge. Granted, the likelihood of them encountering Ariados was slim, but it was still strange to be traveling this far away from any civilization. He thought generically and asked with a tight face, "Is it always this quiet here in the jungle?"
She pushed a few leaves out of the way, as she walked along the uneven earth next to him saying calmly, "Depends on where you are. The meadow is always quiet."
Feyera thought about how he had learned nearly everything about his past in that meadow. The experience as a whole was completely eye opening. From his previous lifestyle to Sana's consoling abilities as a Gardevoir, everything overwhelmed. He felt overrun, hit by a freight train, drowning in the revelation and emotion that accompanied it. And yet it was sublimely bearable. Just thinking about all the positive feelings they shared made him wish that they never fought. A stubborn side of him would not let this feeling become vocalized, so instead he murmured, "Mmmhmm yeah the meadow…that meadow."
"The one where we met," Sana clarified. She was stating the obvious. Perhaps she felt the same way he did. For both of them it was a bittersweet moment. Not one that was easy, but necessary.
Edge's gaze darkened, "Yeah. I know. Though you could have said we met two years ago on the cliffs of this island."
"True. But did we really meet there?" she asked.
Feyera brushed his sweaty bronze hair back, considering what she could have meant by saying that. Did she think that he remembered meeting her as Sephiteos? "Yeah. Yeah we did. Where else would we have met?" he said nervously.
"I guess you're right," she grumbled. It was endearing to hear her adopt such a distinctively personal emotion. "Well I like to associate with positive memories. Don't you?"
Edge nodded, "I guess. Who doesn't?" He never liked to think about bad things which occurred in the past. Getting caught by the snares of inadequacy was all too easy, especially with his dark past. And many of these dark actions were triggered by things that were beyond his control. He had all but forgotten the death of his mother. Mister Feyera compartmentalized aspects of his life to deal with pain. Only recently, did he begin to question whether or not this was really right for him to do. It didn't make the bad things go away, it just hid them. But how else could he cope? It wasn't his fault, he was just a man trying to deal with a card deck stacked against him. It was worse than Celadon's Casino Strip. In life, the house always won.
Sana saw that he was thinking hard. "Well it is especially important for Gardevoir to focus on their good experiences."
"Why is that?" asked Edge, who didn't outright deny for once out of curiosity. Besides, dealing with past experiences was something they shared. It wasn't strictly a Gardevoir trait. As a human, he had memories, even though a lot of them were shattered by none other than Sana.
Sana seemed to be stunned by his lessened animosity. It was unusual for Feyera to carry a conversation this far when dealing with his Gardevoir attributes. She focused her gaze on the road ahead as it narrowed slightly saying, "You gotta look between the lines veh Feyera. It about growing up as someone who's permanently anchored to emotion. People have this aspect too, don't they?"
Edge thought about how true this was. Perhaps some people were really in touch to their emotions, but they were usually artsy and uncoordinated. He on the other hand was a scientist, and a darn good one back in his glory days. That's what made everything so difficult. It was the embrace of emotion, the steady creeping of feelings and perceptions not completely foreign, but amplified to their unnatural extremes.
Edge huffed in some moist air. "Hmmm…You know, I bet you're right. But the only problem is the people that are typically emotional in human society are loony."
"L—loony?" Sana repeated aloud.
Edge still jumped when she did that. She sounded different. He wondered whether all Gardevoir could talk like she had begun to. It was certainly a mystery since he hardly knew anything about the species. Considering their parallels to human beings, it seemed not too far out of the ordinary. Plus, they were Psychic types, able to link to minds and learn new things at fast rates making the entire concept of how he had begun to relate to her seem less farfetched. Of course Feyera was not willing to at least acknowledge the possibility that the horn upon his chest allowed him to become closer to her. He was the center of things.
Edge said frailly, "Yeah 'loony' like as in the moon: crazy. Loony people are the types that think we can go to the moon. They get all these wild ideas and expect it to just magically happen!"
"Ha ha! Go to the moon?!" Sana squeaked. "Why on earth would you want to go to the moon?"
"I don't know," Feyera shrugged. "It would be interesting I guess. Even though it's a stupid dead rock, it still has objective value."
"You think so? I think it's pretty."
"Yeah I know how you feel about the moon. Remember we talked about it at length before?" Edge said feeling fond of that conversation. They didn't have to get along, but he was happy their past wasn't totally drenched in hostility.
"Te he yeah I do. That was a nice talk," she said agreeably.
Edge gave her a faint affirmation with a tilt of his head.
Sana read his body language seamlessly and asked, "Say, veh Feyera, you're a scientist—or at least you used to be; do you think earth looks like the moon when you are on the moon?"
Edge thought about it. Barring the ridiculous concept of being able to make it to the moon, a creative side of him allowed for him to imagine it. "Umm…I have no idea. Earth is probably a lot…bluer. Cause of the oceans 'n all."
"It must be pretty then. I would visit the moon just to see that!"
"Yeah, there's a problem though. Theoretically, it's absolutely impossible to send a rocket ship that far away. The earth's gravitational pull is too much to overcome," Edge said with a frown. "The amount of fuel you would need to carry in order to launch a ship that far out of the atmosphere would weigh the craft down too much, and you would be backpedaling before even leaving the stratosphere. Granted, once you were in actual outer space, you could probably go anywhere you wanted to since there isn't any more of ol' Isaac holding you down."
Sana saw Edge pondering and answered, "I know the feeling."
"Ha! You aren't a rocket though Sana," Edge said imagining her dressed up as a member of Team Rocket. Even though that's not what he had meant, it was still a funny image for the young man. He thought black and red would suit her for some strange reason.
"Hmm," she looked skeptically at him, as his eyes wandered, "maybe not. But as a Gardevoir I can feel the pull of the earth. Sometimes it even lets me go for a little bit when I jump. But it is always caressing me. Can't you feel its embrace?"
Feyera looked off into the distance and said, "Of course. That isn't restricted to just your species though. What you are talking about is called gravity. It's a universal force measured in 'Newtons'. On earth it's nine point eight one meters per—"
Sana abruptly cut him off, though she did so gently. "I know what gravity is. It's how heavy something feels on you," she said with conviction while giving him a small bow of her head.
Feyera huffed out of his nose, aware of the circular logic she would inevitably turn to should he condemn her subjective experience, "Whatever. Listen, I'm not trying to say you're wrong…"
Sana chuckled, "Oh you're not? Well that's new! You never cease to amaze me with your changing ways."
She spoke the truth. Edge was always shifting in his moods, similar to her. Sana's unstable base for her moods was due to a condition she had been subjected to for two long years. She considered how close she had come to filling the void placed into her life by Chris and his associates two years ago. All these rouge shifts in demeanor would diminish in due time if she could keep Feyera close to her. If she could successfully do that, it would only be a matter of time before the 'Equipoise' returned. At least now that she had her other half with her it wasn't so much a race against the clock, though she did hope the progression of Seph's attributes would continue exponentially.
Sanaria did not know exactly what triggered them. In her mind, it could have been practically anything based on the wish she had made. She danced in her mind with the potential possibilities. Maybe it was the armlet Feyera wore which advanced the growth. Or perhaps it was the young man invoking Seph's powers. It could even be something as simple as being around her even since she considered herself to be the cause. Then again, the Gardevoir doubted it was simply just a single one of these things and instead contributed the slow metamorphosis to his embrace of emotions through integration of their constituents. Namely, their inflaming passion guiding his behavior. And that was seen constantly because of both parties lacking an equilibrium. Though they would argue with one another, this was better than him remaining apathetic and consequently pausing the overall process.
Feyera vented his pent up frustration by stomping on a fallen tree as he clambered over it. "Listen, Sana I'm trying to be…civil. There is a way to logically understand everything is all I'm trying to say."
"Are you certain?" Sana lightly shook her head. She was happy that he was at least not trying to deconstruct her perspective. It was probably because he wanted something out of her still. That utility-based-understanding-of-the-world aspect of Chris Feyera was exactly what she had hoped was on his way out. She wondered exactly how it would work. Would he just wake up one day as her mate? Even if he had a human form that wasn't the worst thing in the world. But at this point, that did not look like it would be the case for much longer. Perhaps she could not control exactly how the process went, but if her senses told her one thing, the traits of Sephiteos were apparent enough to give him discomfort. It was amazing that he had actually begun to not incorporate this anxiety into the conversation they were now having. Regardless, she feed off this subtle concord her 'self-proclaimed trainer' had adopted. "Veh Feyera, tell me, when you use your 'psyonics'…do you think about gravitational constants and the Newtons?"
Edge rubbed his brow fighting the urge not to laugh at 'the Newtons' since it sounded like July talking, "N—no. Why would I need to? It's mental power, evoked by my emotional state seeking balance according to Fredrick, not intellectual recollection."
Sana gave him a big smile with her tiny mouth. She knew the best way would be to have him come to terms with his Gardevoir attributes rather than ramming the truth down his throat. She could brusquely inject him with her emotions, forcing their moods to meld together, but she could do very little concerning his psychological acceptance of the facts. Though she did enjoy seeing his eyes light up in evident biological pleasure from feeling her emotions. They needed a home after all.
"Exactly," she said faintly. "That's all I'm trying to say veh Feyera. As trainers, you use Pokemon to battle and protect yourselves. Ordering them in battle and understanding them are different right?"
"Well…" Edge wanted to match wits with her but found himself unable to. There really was nothing he could do to counter her radically subjective worldview. Like him, she would deny things that she disagreed with. More so, he really did not want to fight with her again over something petty like this. He had learned that when they had fought before. They were rooted in different ideologies. Separated by philosophy. Even if their respective species had the most overlaps, it was still a matter of culture. She would never fully understand.
Feyera played with his wrist. That's what separated humans from Gardevoir. Gardevoir did not build rocket ships capable of flying into low earth orbit. Space voyages were an impressive feat unique to humans because of their focus on objective truth. Numbers and figures made the dreams of partial space travel possible. The folks in Mossdeep really knew their stuff. Though the idea of strapping a crew of people to thousands of gallons of highly flammable liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen and taking a proverbial match to the Roman Candle was highly impractical, it could be overcome with meticulous objective understanding of how things worked. One mistake and the whole mission would be jeopardized! Especially with all those explosives that made Electrode seem like little bungers. Times like that—times that changed history—did not allow for feelings, only rationality.
"Okay so what do you have to say about your psyonic powers? Don't you like to use them?" Sana asked her telepathy pitching higher in shameless interest. She prayed he would excitedly say yes.
Feyera slowly exhaled, deep in thought. Edge knew just how much pleasure was generated when the psyonic powers from Seph overtook him completely. They altered his perception. Transformed his world into a new one. No other human pleasure he knew of could match it. To be fair though, he had not had much experience with any sort of deeply emotional activity.
However, with his recent stunt of attempting to grab the coconuts backfiring completely, and causing his wrist to change in color and texture, he knew the consequences were now taking over his humanity. He wondered if when his eyes had adopted the Progenitor serum on the Golden Bridge, it was a taste of things to come. It certainly seemed that way. He looked down and fondled the tight bracelet, subtly touching the skin alongside the relic's contour as he did so. The epidermis was so charged with sensitivity, relaying the seemingly insignificant sense of touch back to his brain over and over, that he could barely stand to stroke it for long without feeling like he was going into a light ecstasy.
Sana saw him pause to do this and figured he was up to something. And who was she to stop him? He had every right to now that a narrow portion of his wrist had altered irreversibly. It was a part of his body that had changed in response to something that remained to be seen. The Gardevoir gave him a small gesture to signal that she knew something was definitely different about what he was feeling. It didn't take looking over at Feyera's crooked facial expression, Sana could simply feel it radiating in peachy waves originating from his chest.
"Guh…I think they are useful, but their use has begun to run out," Feyera said as he snapped his attention back to reality and away from the Reilken Mercurius' neighboring flesh. Of course, this was anything but the truth, he had begun to control them enough to not evoke them every time he felt stressed and that was a big step in the right direction if he wanted to use them properly. However, the trainer now wanted to cut off all ties with the Gardevoir derived psyonics. There were always consequences, and using his powers was no exception.
"Run out?" Sana asked in a pique of interest.
"Yeah. I'm not going to use them any longer," Feyera adamantly said. Even if they hadn't affected his body physically, he would question using them again. They were untamed and wound up controlling him more than he controlled them. Plus his meltdowns coincided with overextending them so there was always that resting in the back of his mind. Limits existed even in psyonics.
Sana froze up in anxiety, holding her breath. "What?!" she exclaimed louder than she had hoped.
Edge jumped in surprise and looked over at her warily.
"What?" she repeated, softer this time to conceal her worry. If Feyera inhibited them then he might never get to the place where she wanted him to be. She coughed softly and went on to lie, "If you don't use them though you might get hurt!"
"Not anymore!" Feyera winked at her, "That's why I have you. You're the Gardevoir here to protect me."
"But, but…" Sana said childishly, fully aware that her master plan had begun to weaken. She should have known better to build upon something as amorphous as Feyera. He was like sand, completely unstable. But then again so was she. It was the pain of being unable to continue to support equilibrium. She felt it more than he did, but was he feeling it too? His mood swings certainly confirmed this. She considered explaining the importance of equilibrium, but decided against it. She wanted him to be too far along when she revealed that crucial component to him. She wanted him to be unable to turn back. But had he already reached that point? Was there a point of no return? Who could be sure?
"Don't you want to help me along?" he asked curiously spewing her own words back in her face.
Sana said honestly, "More than you know."
"Humph! No need to be sarcastic with me. I'm doing all this for Brucie. He needs his medication and if we don't get to civilization soon he'll be in deep trouble." Edge said. It was half true. Though he cared a great deal for Brucie, he also wanted to fix his current problem. And why couldn't he have both?
"Veh Feyera, I wasn't being sarcastic. I really do want to help you. Why else would I go along with you?"
"Hmm…I suppose you're right. I mean there is this thing," he looked at his chest. He remembered when they had impulsively kissed. This piece of anatomy was the reason why. It was the reason for a lot of things he did not understand. "But if I don't give you a reason to become attached to it then everything should work out."
"We're friends now," Sana said, knowing that it wasn't completely true. They were associates working together at best. Or as she had put it rather eloquently, "protectors protecting each other". And even that seemingly selfless way of describing it had a built-in terminal point.
"Yeah…friends…gulp," Feyera said still feeling rather mentally animated based on reflecting upon their lust ridden kiss. He no longer questioned if a part of Sephiteos had caused him to commit such a deplorable crime against nature, but instead questioned how much he associated with such an aspect of the presumably dead spouse of Sana's. This piece of anatomically correct Gardevoir inside of him made those decisions happen. That's what it was wasn't it? He didn't know anymore and it was driving him mad.
"So friend, what do you say?" Sana said as she outstretched an arm into the air between them.
Feyera looked at it in confusion. "What do you want me to do, shake hands with you?"
"Shake…? Hands…?" Sana asked perplexed.
"Yes. It is a human gesture. Like this," Feyera gripped her hand and delicately shook it up and down, "Ha, 'pleased to meet you'."
"But we've already met, twice," the Gardevoir insisted reasonably.
"I know, Sana; it's just something you say when you shake hands."
"So this is a handshake…?" Sana asked, refusing to let go of Edge's hand.
"Yeah. What did you want to do?" asked Edge.
"Oh…that. Chris, Gardevoir have a way of frolicking our hands together when we meet. It is like out body's way of saying hello."
"Frolicking…?" Feyera asked. He remembered doing something similar when he first met Sana subconsciously. They played with their hands together; it was essentially a unified set of motions. Whatever had possessed him to do that must have once again been either Sana's Psychic control or something primal buried inside of him.
"Yeah like this," she said dancing her fingers through his with a carefree smile. Their hands moved up and down intertwining fingers through a set of seemingly automatic motions. Feyera would hardly call the feeling abrasive, but it was strange to feel like his body was doing something with hers. Almost as if they were working together as one. "See…? Good right?"
Feyera recoiled and broke contact. "Okay, that was strange," he said grimacing.
Sana winked and politely said, "Well…he he…it might have been 'strange' but now according to society we aren't 'strangers' anymore, and that's because we remember doing this."
"Funny," Edge said. He knew they already did this "frolicking" when they had met in the meadow. The feeling was all too familiar. By doing it again, his mind had taken him back to those exact moments when the meadow had exploded with color, right before they grappled instinctively with their hands. He could even recall the exact color pallet of the scene embedded in his mind. It was uncanny how he could remember everything that happened based on the first interaction they'd had together.
"You find it funny?" she asked. "I always did too."
"Yeah, it really takes you back." Edge tried to make it sound more scientific saying quickly, "Seems like you use your body language to display how you feel."
"Humans do that to! Shaking hands. It isn't all that foreign to you right?"
Edge felt his chest grow tight. He told himself that he could not be comparing humans with Gardevoir. Every time that he did, he felt himself slip closer and closer to losing the ability to differentiate between the two. And possessing physical attributes of both, allowed for countless shades of gray only his introspective Gardevoir emotion-reading sight could see when considering his identity.
"No…but foreign enough…" he gasped as the pressure on his chest worsened. He held his head down in sorrow.
"Are you okay?" Sana asked, looking worriedly at his heart shard.
Feyera arched his neck back taking his eyes off Sana and peering up at the broken canopy's moist green foliage above them.
"Fine…" he whispered. The absent thick leaves did little to block most of the sun, making the high temperature and humidity worse. Edge could feel his body's perspiration coating him from the midday heat, but he wondered if all this sweat was triggered by his creeping anxiety as well. His coat had grown slightly saggy from a combination of abuse and humidity. "Let's keep moving."
"Okay, just be careful. You're delicate, remember."
Feyera spun around, tired of being called such demeaning terms by Sana. "I'm not delicate Sana. Look I'm tough as nails," Feyera boisterously claimed as he thumped his Alterieno boot on the ground causing some dirt to plume in the air. Something in him had snap, and his mood turned sour. Delicate was something you called a flower, not a person.
"I didn't mean it like that," she lied, knowing how insecure Feyera felt. Sana did in fact mean it the way she had said it to a certain extent. Gardevoir may have had exceptionally high mental fortitude, but their physical bodies could handle little abuse. Feyera was slowly realizing this as his body underwent a steady atrophy. It was nothing that happened instantly, nor was it causing him to look inhuman. If anything, it was just a gradual movement away from dependency on muscular strength. In many ways, it may have mirrored how Gardevoir as a species had evolved over hundreds of thousands of years as they differentiated themselves from humans.
Sana looked Edge over carefully as he resumed walking. He was lanky for an adult human male. Few would argue with the fact that he was physically weak. And that was to be expected. Even before Semblance, he was never bulky and muscular. But afterwards, his thinness became more pronounced especially along his recent journey across Kanto. It was inescapable. His current bulky attire helped to conceal the man's willowy contour, but in the end, it was only a shell he wore much like a Cloyster. The way the black bomber jacked opened like a thick shell in the front revealing his heart shard made this allegory even more relevant.
"Veh Feyera…" she said as he pouted and crossed his arms above the red biological horn. It was impossible for the trainer to deny. Gardevoir were weak. He was becoming weaker. There was a correlation going beyond the shard on his chest, the virus in his eyes, the tinge of green on his forearm. It depressed him. He despised it all.
"What?!" he barked in aggravation. He played with the coat's frills nervously. "I'm pissed off! Think you can read that emotion!?"
Sana pawed at her chest shard. "Of course I can. Listen to me, Chris, this world is dark and demented and will try to push us down. More so, as beings embodying emotion, we can feed this cycle by reflecting on the dark and negative. It's like a feedback fall, but so much worse since you do it to yourself and no one can rescue you. No matter what, keep fighting those things off. Don't let the dark forces: depression, hate, and greed encumber your indomitable spirit. There's strength in that."
"Deep," Feyera tried to play it off as sarcasm, but the way he said it made him actually feel interested. He slowed down to a soft march and Sana followed suit.
The Gardevoir picked up on this subtle hint of mawkish acceptance and continued, "Life's quick. We have a limited amount of time on this earth so make the best of it. That makes sense no?"
"Ha! You're telling me," said Feyera sarcastically, knowing that he should have been dead at least twice. Psyonics had saved him. Seph's attributes had saved him. "I should be twelve feet under. But instead I'm stuck trying to solve the mystery of my life."
She looked at the piece on his left wrist, trying not to become mesmerized by the subtle green hues visible through his skin. "Time's an odd contraption like that."
"Time?" Feyera asked her. "I wouldn't call this thing on my wrist time. Though it sure fits like a watch."
Sana shook her head, "No. I'm afraid that thing wasn't what I was referring to."
Edge tightened his gaze on the Gardevoir's eyes saying, "Well it sure wasn't a wish you made Sana."
"I told you what I think, but if you don't want to believe how I feel, why don't you come up with a better way to understand why you have Sephiteos—my Seph—bursting out of your body?" Sana impishly pointed at him.
"I am. That's why we're heading towards…*huff*…I mean, it could be any number of reasons," Edge said dryly. For none of them could make any sense to him. "I hope to find out why in time."
Sana ignored his initial rescinded thought, saying, "That's exactly it though, veh Feyera. Time is a medium."
"A medium? What does that mean? Someone who communes with the dead?" Edge smiled, knowing that Progenitor could allow him to see the traces of Ghost Pokemon through acute changes in temperature. This infrared detection was almost like an expanded visual perception on top of his emotional senses. Come to think of it, it was one of the few attributes he could employ without additional repercussions. For his eyes had already changed. They were like his Gardevoir heart in that regard. Exposed, and vulnerable to the world. There wasn't anything worse that could happen to them, since they had shifted nearly entirely. His eyes remained green, but presented the gold rims of Progenitor. And when he used psyonics a shield of red covered them. He wondered if Gardevoir had different colored eyes.
Mister Feyera was always unique as a human possessing green eyes. For that was a mutation. Probably one inherited from his father's side, nothing good came from that man. Did it even work that way? Was eye color a particular chromosome? Was it like gender and passed down by a certain parent? Come to think of it, he could not even remembered how such a characteristic took place. All those years of studying the science of Genetics, and he couldn't even explain why his eyes were not brown or blue. Though rare naturally, contact lens—popular with the girls—could alter eye color. So Chris usually didn't feel out of place back in boarding school since there were plenty of posers to blend in with. Lots of people wanted his natural eye color since it really stood out, especially with light hair. Sadly, the unsightly thin bioluminescent circle ominously surrounding his limbic rings from Progenitor sapped even that rare human component away from him. He rubbed his eyes vigorously, wishing he could just make it go away. As kaleidoscope colors appeared on his closed lids, his hands fell straight down, only to be stopped midway down by connecting with the shard on his chest. He wished all of it would go away.
"No, by a 'medium', I mean it is all around you." Sana quickly looked to her left and right waving her smooth hands, "Time's a construct that allows us to appreciate what we have. Do you ever wonder about how we can see time?"
"See time?" asked Feyera. He thought he could only see space.
"It's the temporalizing of temporality; it gives way to how our life is meant to be interpreted."
"Temporalizing of temporality? Huh?" Edge asked whilst scratching his head.
"You're a being in time, right silly?" asked the Gardevoir with a shadowy grin.
"I—I guess I am…" Feyera admitted slowly. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Sana rocked her head back and forth and her hair followed her childish motions, "All you gotta do is look at the time going by around you, and use that as fuel to decide what to do with the time you have! Simple."
"Well, not especially. Time is a pretty constant variable in my book," Edge lied. He knew that when he was put back up against the wall, he could practically feel time slow down as heightened neurological functioning took command of his perception.
"Doesn't time itself reveal to us what we are?" she said stretching out both her arms. "Doesn't it embrace you?"
Feyera exhaled extending both his arms out in front of him in an awkward stretch, "Now I know why they call your species the 'Embrace Pokemon'; you sure like to throw that word around, don't you Sana?"
"Hehe," Sana laughed, "well nothing else can really transfer feelings like an embrace. It is a common metaphor in our culture but a powerful one at that since it corresponds to nearly all of our higher emotions."
Edge rubbed his temple and realized a discrepancy. He asked her, "Your culture? I thought you and Seph were on your own?"
"You remember? I guess we were." Sana giggled effeminately, "Tee he come to think of it, it all started with those washtubs…"
Feyera asked with a smirk, "Huh? Washtubs…?"
"Oh yes, he he…the washtubs, it was one of our first adventures together! We had a great time running away as children. Though Seph was always the one who got into a lot of trouble for running off with me. He was a very bad Ralts," Sana shrugged nonchalantly, "but then again so was I. He just had to put up with a lot more of the officialdom. Or as he liked to call it: official-dumb! Tee he. That always made me laugh."
Feyera sighed. It made him feel queasy to have part of Sephiteos' memories in his mind. In fact, the Gardevoir's remembrance of the Progenitor Procedure frightened him as much as the emerging physical traits upon his body. He hoped that he wouldn't suddenly remember whatever Sana was talking about the next time he was under Hypnotic influence. He tried to play his worry off cool, but his voice cracked, "K—kids r—right?"
"Ralts," Sana corrected in a similar fashion to how Feyera would usually when discussing a scientific component. It was rather strange how she did the same exact flick of the head upon making the initial correction followed by a quick blink and then the inevitable expansion, "But it is the same."
Edge forced a smile at her actions. Whether they were intentional or unintentional didn't matter. True he was frightened, but the idea of actually learning about a Pokemon species so similar to human beings intrigued him. If he could do it from a completely ascendant, autonomous, and external perspective then that would be ideal. "You know, if I weren't busy trying to rectify my past actions, I would like to at least study you."
"…Study me?" the Gardevoir asked in confusion. Did he now see her as some green beaker to be analyzed for chemical composition?
"Err…sorry that came out wrong. I meant to say: scientific inquiry of your culture would be interesting. You know, for the Pokédex and all…" Edge said. He hadn't used that word in so long. Imagine if Oak could see him right now. Goodness, how shocked The Professor would be. At least Feyera was still trying to learn about the world, though this whole slew of events was certainly unconventional. Then again, unconventional was the perfect term to describe Edge Feyera.
"Y—you'd do that…?" Sana asked in disbelief. This was impossible. There had to be a catch. That or Feyera did not understand the implications of what he had just said. She hoped it was true. Maybe that was Seph speaking through him.
"Yeah," he said halfheartedly. To Feyera, it was one of those things you say to people and wonder how far they will take it. Like future plans you make with a distant friend to hang out, but never actually make an effort to see to fruition. It was really just small talk. Something said to bridge the gap. Apparently, Sana had bought into it quite a lot. Regardless of whether or not he upheld his end of the bargain, it at least seemed to make her more comfortable. He could feel the positive vibes exiting her core in warm yellow hues. Besides, that would only come to fruition if he was somehow saved from the advancing possession of Pokemon attributes on his body.
"You would do that with your time?" she asked absentmindedly.
"Well I mean I used to study Psychic Pokemon, and even helped write a dissertation titled 'Concerning the Paranormal' before you took away my memories. So it would be like old times, except I'd be more compassionate. I feel like I've learned my lesson," Edge said with a twisted expression. He fantasized saying the magic words 'I learned my lesson!' and everything being fixed and put back to normal. Unfortunately, in Feyera's schematic, a 'God' capable of such omnipotence did not exist.
"Veh Feyera, you would really do that?" she repeated in a feeble echo.
"Yeah when I'm better. Once everything's fixed. How's that sound? What else is there to do besides spend the time you're given the way you want to?" How the irony of this statement burned. He wasn't doing what he wanted to. He was doing what he needed to do. Edge was fighting an uphill battle to rid himself of Seph's parasitic clutches. But was it really Sephiteos the Gardevoir? Or was it him now?
Sana prodded at him saying, "Of course, you're going to make mistakes, veh Feyera. But you gotta live and learn the most important thing...unconditional love."
Feyera rolled his eyes spitting, "Yeah, the sloppy sorta thing you find in soap operas right?"
"Soap operas?" she asked aloud, causing Feyera to flinch impulsively.
"Nevermind. It's a human thing," he said scratching his bronze hair anxiously. "What were you trying to say?"
"Ummm…unconditional love means loving someone no matter what, no matter how bad things get. It gives you a firm grasp on life. It helps you to know so much about life: where it's from, where it is, where it's headed…"
Edge stopped mid stride and asked her, "So what?"
Sana stopped with him. It was almost like she knew that he had paused in his once quick pace without looking. "Listen, veh Feyera, it isn't a requirement, it just…enriches your perspective. That's all I'm saying. Remember your friends. Remember who you are. Don't let anything in life influence you otherwise. You love your Pokemon partners don't you?" she said peering down at his belt holster.
Feyera instinctually clutched Brucie's Poké Ball located over his right hip with his hand; the ball was sealed closed and he knew that in stasis Brucie was sound asleep. "Yeah, why wouldn't I? They always help me out! I care about them because they take care of me."
"But why?"
Feyera repeated her question in confusion, "Why?"
"Why do you love them if all they do is fulfill a function for you? How can you love tools?"
"Huh? You're acting weird now Sana."
"Well just try and remember…"
"Easy for you to say Sanaria, I don't remember who I am because of you!"
She wagged a finger in the air. "Who you are is not nearly as important as whom you see yourself as. That's called your identity."
"No." His left leg felt like it was falling asleep and began to tingle. "Sana, my identity has been all about me, Chris Feyera. Who I am always has been and always will be."
"That sounds awfully unscientific, Doctor Feyera. How can you categorize something if you only know who someone is?" she giggled.
"I—I'm not sure. I had to make sure of who I was before I can do the more important thing of defining what I am."
"I can help you though…with your identity. I took it away, but now I can give it back. I can give it all back. I promise you in time."
"Maybe…" Edge circumspectly muttered. Would she be able to ever let him relearn everything? He'd have to undergo a whole lot of Hypnosis.
However, what Feyera thought Sana meant and what she actually meant were very different.
The two of them continued in total silence, reflecting upon what lay behind them, imagining what lay ahead of them, and grappling with where they found themselves—in between past and future.
The wind began to blow softly from behind them. Edge continued walking, but the Gardevoir next to him came to a stop and turned around.
"Get down!" Sana ordered shoving Feyera to the earth under her slender green arm. He hit the soft moss along the machine treaded pathway with a light thud, and the Gardevoir immediately fell on top of him. Deftly, she rolled off him and pressed close against his side.
"OOOF! The hell was that for!?" demanded Edge with moist leaves in his face. Their organic sogginess brushed against his forehead's curtain-like bangs.
Sana brought her finger to his lips and sternly ordered, "Shh!"
Feyera complied, greeting her finger with a tight frown. He lay completely motionless, aware of how close Sana was to him, feeling part of her short off-white skirt against his leg; covering his flat hip in its satin fineness. His eyes went down. There was about a foot's length distance between where her white garment ended and where the leg guard rode up to on her thin leg. In between the area right above her knee and the skirt's raised rim, he could see her exposed pale legs.
Seeing his gaze travel there, she quickly pulled down on the skirt, blushing as she did so. This caused the skirt to billow slightly and press against Feyera's waist. Simply looking at it allowed him to feel its fabric through his jeans. His focus was soon distracted however as the distinct sound of whirling rotors was heard from behind them. Feyera looked up to see a sleek black helicopter pass them overhead. It was traveling in the same direction as them with the path, but much faster in the air obviously. Its broad blades spun, whirling quickly and quietly wits a steady "Thith thith thith thith thith…"
When the stealthy helicopter passed them from over the jungle canopy Feyera said to Sana's frightened expression, "Talk about calling in the cavalry! Ha ha! Looks like it's going to be a real party at Evercrest!"
Sana padded his shoulder endearingly. "What do you mean by that? I didn't see any Drifloon."
Feyera giggled, "Heh heh."
"Tell me!" Sana squeaked.
"My, that thing's gotta be the stealthiest piece of equipment on this side of the Flower Paradise!" Edge said referring with delight to the helicopter Fredrick used. It had snuck up on him twice now.
"Veh Feyera, c'mon tell me," Sana whined. "I've never even seen something like that before."
"There's only one man I know with a copter like that one. And he's in cahoots with the International Police Force, Sana!" Edge said proudly.
"It was your friend Fredrick?" she asked nudging him with her ear's soft tip. "That was his…his…?"
"Helicopter," Feyera said flicking his hair back and batting an eye, "they are a type of aeroship."
"Helicopter…" she said aloud.
Feyera didn't want to get up even though the danger had passed. He was far too comfortable next to Sana's warm body. "Exactly! He's the best. In fact he's the best of the best!"
"What is he doing here?" Sana asked as her curiosity grew to palatable levels.
"Good question. I'm sure it's important business as usual for him," Feyera said feeling like his friend from the International Police Force was a secret agent spy or even a superhero like the amazing Gligerman.
"Hmm…" Sana purred. She wondered what it would be like to fly in a helicopter.
"Maybe he's come here to finish off Cipher! It would be like old times." Edge smiled, putting the pieces together. Lorelei probably found the black communicator in his backpack and contacted Fredrick after the storm's passing. Fredrick might even be looking for Feyera right now. "Taking out Team Rocket and now Cipher!"
Sana stroked the soft terrain below her heart and asked, "What did he do exactly when you last met him?"
"First of all, he gave me this, here." Feyera looked down at the bracelet clutching his hand. "Told me that it belonged to me. From two years back, this is the Mercury Relic. I mean I'm lucky to have it back I guess since this is what originally did everything. He seemed to be pretty confident that I can fix things with it since this is what was caused all the—" he looked down at his personal emotional beacon, "—weird stuff to happen to me."
"But you were the one that caused the incident," she said speaking about Evercrest as a whole. She leaned against her elbow and continued to rest on the soft earth near Edge.
"No. This device did Sana," said Edge referring to his forced merger with her mate. Was it even a merger? He could not be sure. He still felt distinctively human, and unless Gardevoir always felt this way, he would never know. A few unusual sides tended to command him, and those were blatantly attributed to Seph's Gardevoir nature, but where was the line in the sand? Being pragmatic, when Feyera could not ascertain a definitive split between his personalities, he begun to worry obsessively. It was as if a blending had taken place and he had no idea how far it would go mentally or physically. It made him wish for two personalities, and yet the closest he came to that was his mood swings, a characteristic he shared with Sanaria—who as far as he knew wasn't bipolar, just wildly emotional.
"Attacks don't kill, Pokemon do," Sana insisted. The Reilken Mercurius was only a means to an end instead of an end in and of itself. Her knowledge of her own species evolution made her fairly certain that Feyera's mental states influenced his physical ones. How else would the pale mint green skin tone appear on his arm? Then again, it did not seem to be something she could impose. He fought her off. His mind fought hers off. Even when she flooded him with emotion, he defensively forced it into a feedback, putting her at risk. The best she could do was hope that he would see the light on his own terms.
"It's neither of those things. And besides, you got it all wrong, the expression is: 'Guns don't kill, people do'! In either case, it's wrong. Blunt trauma kills," Feyera snorted. "That's the body's weakness."
"Whatever you want to call it," Sana said blowing her hair out of her eyes with a quick upwards exhale.
Edge went on, for he wanted her to know that he cared about the details of his circumstance, this was his life after all; besides, she believed in crazy nonsense such as wishes, "It's important to be clear; for instance, you don't die from falling, you die from hitting the ground really hard."
"And aren't you the EXPERT on that?" she said mockingly. "Ta ha! You should get a doctorate in falling from high places; you would be a natural professional, veh Feyera."
"I—" Edge couldn't really respond to that. He had fallen far too many times to call it dumb luck. First after impaling Sephiteos here on Chrono Island's cliffs. Then once again in the Pokemon Tower after vanquishing Haunter. His acute manipulation over gravity—a skill Sana repeatedly insisted was unique to her species as a Gardevoir—was his saving grace. It slowed his acceleration down enough to make the impact not deadly, though it cost him a great deal in ways he still had not figured out yet. The ex-researcher dumbfoundedly answered the latter half of her taunt, "They're called skydivers."
"Skydivers huh? I'm glad you're my little skydiver then."
"What does that mean?" Feyera asked the statement that was dangerously bordering affection. "I'm not your little anything, Sana."
Sana realized that she was being a little bit beyond just friendly and quickly rescinded, "I'm trying to say that I'm happy you survived falling." But her eyes did not move from peering down at his chest.
"I told you already! Argh! You don't survive falling, you survive the impact! Falls don't kill you! Hitting the ground does!" Edge shouted.
"Tsk tsk, keep those emotions under control veh Feyera." She playfully stroked her hair and a few of its strands mingled with Feyera's own, blending mint green with light auburn. As much as he wanted to argue, the faint tingling sensation made him calm down. Sensing this, Sana changed the subject, "Why don't you tell me what other wonderful things Fredrick has done for you?"
"Oh okay, fine. Finally, something I actually like to talk about! Okay, well when I broke into Team Rocket's Headquarters he followed me close behind and made sure that I lived to tell the tale. Saved me by killing Rocket General Archer in the nick of time!" Edge said now seeing Fredrick as a strong muscle bound guardian angel. "He's awesome with a legendary RAIL-grade gun and powerful Pokemon too!"
Sana smiled brightly, "You really do admire him."
Admire was not a strong enough word to describe what Feyera felt. He saw Fredrick Irving as a foster father. He was the father he never had. A real person. A man who put others first. A man who knew so much about Mister Feyera and yet did not use him, nor report him to the authorities because, well obviously: he was the authority. And Fredrick was a man bent on doing what was right, no matter what, even if it was dangerous. So what if he was eccentric at times? Fredrick was a bright light Kanto needed desperately with the dark criminals like Team Rocket on the loose. All things considered, it was no wonder he always studied in direct sunlight.
"I do, like a father; and he respects me for who I am," Feyera said unable to escape the creeping anxiety that Fredrick might figure out Edge's prior affiliations with Team Rocket.
"Who you are…?" Sana looked down at the narrow cavity between their bodies, "You told him about Seph's shard?"
Feyera froze up. He did not. He intended to avoid mentioning it when he got back the communicator in his knapsack still with Lorelei's yacht. "Relax. He believes that my psyonics stem from emotions, and that's the truth. He even gave me a nice academic response detailing why they do what they do, and manifest in the way that they have."
"So," Sana paused, "he knows about Gardevoir?"
"I'm sure he knows a thing or two about your species," Feyera said. "The man's a genius; must study a ton based on the size of his library."
"Study…?" Sana frowned and snidely said, "Well if he met you then I'd expect him to know about Gardevoir firsthand…"
"—I have nothing, NOTHING to do with his perception of Gardevoir. I'm just a man with psyonics to him. They might derive from my emotional state, but who's to say someone like…say Sabrina of Saffron City doesn't have a similar type of human psyonics activated by her various moods?" Feyera said, fishing for potential excuses. The last thing he wanted to do was have to introduce himself as some kind of freak to his friend.
He imagined saying, "Hey Fredrick, remember me from before? You know the guy you saved from Team Rocket Headquarters? You brought me back to your flat, you helped me remember some of my past, and you even gave me a wad of cash because I was strapped. I tried to read your mind and really hurt you, sorry that was unintentional. So yeah, 'hi, it's great to see you again!'. Oh by the way, forgot to tell you: truth is I'm an ex scientist from Cipher's Evercrest Programme and member of Team Rocket on the side; yeah…come to think of it, I'm partially responsible for the Pokemon Sanctum Robbery. What's that? Against the law? Oh, I think I've been punished enough, ya see…I'm also bound indefinitely to a Pokemon. …Gardevoir? You know, girly lookin' hominoids, green hair, white garments…prance around, and talk about emotions. You've heard of them? Good. Oh, you studied everything about them and read twenty-five books on them in your spare time? Even better! So right, let's see now, because of that little detail that may be where my psyonics derive from. Just thought you should know, pal. Anyway, buddy, thanks to that device you retrieved for me I'm entangled, my body now playing host to attributes of a Gardevoir's spouse that I tried to kill two years ago. Yeah sorry I didn't fill you in sooner; my body was too busy destroying itself!"
She forced a weak smile. Then she crooned, "Well fine, why don't you deny it some more and maybe that will fix everything?"
"What's that supposed to mean, Sana?" asked Feyera as he gnashed his teeth together hopelessly. He was telling her not only what Fredrick believed but also what he wanted to believe. It was a battle he was losing.
The Gardevoir against him grinned, "It means if you want to change something you have to accept things first. Otherwise how is your big smart brain supposed to solve problems when it cannot even accept that there are problems to begin with?"
"Uhh…umm…I…" Sana had him in this one. She was becoming seemingly more rational the longer he spent with her. That or he was becoming more emotional, making her appear to display more sensible arguments than his own. He prayed it was the former not the latter. Rationality was the last thing he wanted to lose in this internal battle he fought day in and out. Maybe she took upon herself some of his precious logic just as she had begun to speak human language in tandem with her telepathy. It was certainly possible that he influenced her. And that was okay. What he was not willing to accept was the possibility of the opposite taking place—Sana rubbing off on him. She was the Pokemon and he was the trainer.
"What's the matter veh Feyera? Meowth got your tongue?" she said as her short skirt billowed up in the tropical breeze.
Feyera looked down at his left wrist swollen with sensitivity and off color. "This parasitic take over…it may have progressed quicker than precedented. I will admit…there is a problem here I personally have to contend with."
Sana desperately fought the urge to impulsively clutch the man's wrist. She wondered if it would feel like Seph's did while he was conscious. For she had only touched that part of his anatomy while he slept, passed out from an anxiety attack. Instead, she asked politely, "May I?"
"NO!" Edge shouted whilst stumbling backwards in recoil. After she had tricked him into eating coconuts her way, nothing was out of the question. She could already manipulate him through the crimson shard on his chest, so why give her yet another avenue of control over his repulsive Gardevoir traits?
"I'm not going to hurt you, veh Feyera!" Sana said with a rather sad tone. Her two hands reached out to the air as he rolled back and got to sitting on his knees. "I want to be able to help you help yourself."
"This…this isn't about you. This is about me," Feyera ironically pointed a thumb towards his Gardevoir heart. "Accept that."
She knew that she could not. Everything was taken from her. She had nothing left save this man who now openly detested the only valuable thing in his life. All she wanted him to do was embrace it.
There was a loud noise up ahead and Feyera instinctually looked up to see two members of Team Rocket rushing at them on the pathway. They were garbed in the usual black attire, were tall and mildly built. Both were men one with brown hair and a crooked expression on his pale face, and the other blond haired man trailed behind him with a slight limp.
"Oh boy…" he mutely said to Sana as she stepped forward, raising a hand in front of Feyera's crimson shard. "Dealing with these clowns should be a piece of cake."
"Stay close to me," Sana demanded. She knew they would run into trouble if they took the pathway.
They didn't look too tough, neither of them had Poké Balls either. But the appearance of the Rockets soon did not matter when Feyera honed in on what each of them were carrying. It was a jet black cross, with two taut wires conjoining three separate tips, forming a hollow wide triangle above and below the main stock. The black curved wings of the device were split into an X. The main flat stock intersected this fattened X straight through the center. As the man with brown hair and a gaunt face ran towards Edge and Sana, he raised the device in his hand threateningly. There was a narrow rectangular box mounted on top of the cross, and the sunlight reflected off something shiny buried inside, ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice by the incredible potential energy.
"You!" yelled the first man as he pointed the odd device in his hand at Feyera's torso. He was only slightly guarded by Sana's delicate hand covering his Gardevoir heart.
"Pant pant pant…" the other limping rocket struggled to keep up with his companion and was also closing in on Feyera. He wheezed and took his device, aiming it at Sana.
Edge put his hands up in surrender. "Hey easy does it now fellas. You don't want to make a mess. You might soil the DBC's governmentally protected ecological reservation," he sneered.
"Only one thing that's gonna be making a mess around here. And that's you, jackass," he said as he clicked the small trigger underneath the cross in his hand.
"Thwip!" out of the main stock came a metal bolt, targeted right at Feyera.
He closed his eyes and felt Sana, graze her body against his. She pushed him back and he felt something take the hit, with a distinct "whomp!". Following the noise, the absorbed impact traveled through her and then him, their bodies resonating like a tuning fork.
"What the hell!?" he heard the brown haired rocket scream in frustration.
The other rocket gasped, "*Huff* You idiot, *huff* shoot the freaking Pokemon, she's shielding him."
Peeking his eyes open, he saw Sana was confronting both Rockets as they continued to discharge their weapon's capacity.
"Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!" went the two Nihils in synchronized succession as their owners targeted the Gardevoir.
He saw Sana leap away and spin in the air as she dodged the uninterrupted assault. "Lil' help here, veh Feyera?" Sana asked as bolts came at her gracefully dancing figure from multiple directions. "Viip, viip, viip!"
Edge knew what he had to do. He put out a hand and felt a familiar tug of power as a tiny group of the bolts curved mid-flight and bent down to the earth.
"Tick! Tick!" they clattered hitting the ground in disarray.
The first rocket paused in rapture, "Uhhh…uhhh…What the hell did he just do?!"
"Don't ask questions, idiot! Unload! Hit 'em with the Nihil's barrage!" ordered the second rocket in a panic upon seeing Edge manipulate the trajectory of their last few metal arrows.
"You got it!" hollered the other rocket as sweat covered his face. He closed one of his eyes as he peered down the sights. Aiming would do very little, but it was a force of habit.
"Don't give them anywhere to run! FIRE!" Both of them did exactly that, priming their repeater bows with an ominous "TICK!" and lock. The devices clacked and made a distinct cranking noise as the crude machinery took over. Edge readied himself for whatever was to come. But it was something he could not have possibly been ready for.
Suddenly the crossbows were firing out bolts at a rate faster than Edge ever thought imaginable. It was literally blinding to see so many sharp projections whistling through the air, reflecting the sunlight and shining like a meteor shower.
Feyera had never encountered an automatic weapon before in his life. All firearms that used gunpowder had to be reloaded by a small firing lever. They could be made partially automatic through three-round burst shots similar to the première cam mechanism in the Vox-9. Even then however, their clip size remained inherently limited, ranging from three to twelve bullets at best, forcing a reload every once and a while, and consequently more accurate shots to be taken. Fully automatic weapons did not exist, save for bolt bows such as these.
They operated by using a deviously simple mechanism. Each bow had two strings; one would be drawn as the other fired. Then as the first one fired, a rotating arm would prime the other before swinging back around. This alternating drawing and firing meant that all one had to do was place a large hopper of downward feeding split-barreled ammunition on top of the device and the "Nihil RXB" would do the rest with the click of a switch. Accuracy was a given sacrifice with all the mechanically induced recoil, but its rapid rate of fire was unmatched by any other human weapon. The crossbow was appropriately named, as it delivered nothing short of absolute chaos and nothing could be compared to it save a Pin Missile attack.
The metal spikes soared through the air, some aimed at Sana, and others aimed at Edge. But all of them were heading in their direction in an attempt to simply overwhelm with quantity. At this point, the two weapons were firing too quickly for Edge's mind to keep up with. While his vortex managed to deflect a few of the bolts, his mind just could not focus on all the incoming shrapnel.
He saw Sana try and employ a Psychic attack, noting her various twirling as she fired back a sharp energy projectile of her own that shattered a few of the bolts it encountered. But it was a battle her psychical-preying Psyshock could not win. There were too many random bolts flying about and soon she backed off in defense, spinning and deftly dodging the rain of death.
Feyera palmed the sphere of energy in his right hand and tried to retain enough concentration to at least keep the well open. This proved nearly impossible with countless shimmering stars sailing past him with a frightening "viip viip viip", and the perpetual "Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!" promising more of the metallic rain. Distraction mingled with fear, made Edge's aim was way off, he could only deflect a few of the bolts back to earth and towards the center of his miniature well of energy. He felt his body aching from not using this power for such a long time. After such dormancy, it craved to be employed, and here he was allowing it to save his life.
A stray bolt caught him in the shoulder of his bomber jacket, narrowly missing his thin frame. The way it impacted the clothing caused him to be knocked back and fall down with a wallop.
"CHRIS!" he heard Sana yell.
He was fine, the steady "Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!" of the repeating bows could still be heard above him, so he struggled to get back to his feet. As he rose up, another rouge bolt narrowly missed his center, sent off course by a mysterious purple energy that grasped the metal spike and curved it away. Edge saw Sana looking at him, over expended, her face worn and stressed.
In one hand she held a Reflect shield, resembling a teal crystal lattice kite. Its sharp imposing edges were brimming with indigo and it seemed to be enflamed with the Psychic energy originating from her heart. Multiple silver Nihil bolts had punctured the shield, but none had made it through completely. At this point, it looked like a translucent spiked shield. Edge saw another bolt impact Sana's Psychic shield and the buffer glowed a bright lavender as it absorbed more of the missile abuse. Her other arm was outstretched towards Feyera, and slightly manipulating the bolts to miss his body through acute gravitational control.
"Veh…Feyera…" she gasped as her energy began to dwindle. And still the repeating fire of the two Nihil bows persisted.
He had to do something, anything. He thought about using his Pokemon, but in a spurt of courage, he decided against it; Edge sprung to his feet and ran towards the assailants, raising his arm with his other as he did so. He felt energy in his heart pumping vigorous adrenaline that amplified with each thump of his treasured heartbeat. Feyera heard the bolts whizz past him. He didn't even try to dodge them. He saw them as dodging him.
Yet another struck him in the jacket's bulk, this time slowing him but not knocking him all the way back. His eyesight filled with the color of blood, though the trainer knew it was not his own blood. Rather it was the aura Gardevoir would obtain shielding their eyes whilst employing paranormal powers. In other words, it was Sephiteos' blood coursing through his body. Feyera knew he was close enough when he could see what he needed to see as a Gardevoir would.
And there is was. That thick black shadow. It was as clear as the sky above. Fear.
"N—No!" The brown haired rocked screeched as his Nihil Repeater Crossbow bent upwards against his volition. Edge's mind pointed the weapon's black fanged barrel up as it continued to relentlessly fire.
"Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!"
The rocket tried desperately hard to push the crossbow back down at Feyera, but to little avail. Edge's mind was too strong. The second the rocket had shown even an ounce of fear at Edge's passionate charge, it was over for him. For the criminal's fear gave Edge more power. He could see it radiating in an inky blackness from the rocket's body, and the frightened expression of the Nihil wielder was icing on the cake. Edge's shard became doused in warmth as he vigorously bent his arm up; the rocket's body complied in unison, directing the viscous steel spitting weapon upwards at his own face.
And with a swift predictable "Thwip!", it shot a glistening bolt straight through the rocket's head, killing him instantly. The masterless bow continued to discharge ammunition in all directions as the man's body fell to earth with a lifeless "Thud!"
"GO BACK TO HELL YOU DEMON!" the blond haired rocket screamed at the top of his lungs, and continued to fire round after round in Edge's direction from his Nihil repeater crossbow. Each shot sailed through the air, splitting the daylight. Another bolt struck him near the waist, catching onto his jacket's open flap. The impact's force, tugging on his coat, spun him around and he fell to the ground. Spinning off balance, he slammed down, using his arm to somewhat break the fall. He felt his wrist buckle as he landed.
Feyera further collapsed as the psyonic energy from his heart began to wane. He considered using his Pokemon, but it was only a passing thought. Sending them out into this dogfight would be a death sentence.
Using mental strength, he tilted his head up to see Sana leaping over him, shield raised in one arm, and a long ivy-like mental tendril in the other as her rail figure briefly cut between him out the sky overhead. His eyes, following her, began to lose their red aura as her lithe body dashed ahead of where he lay. She spun her body and glided slightly off the ground in a final rush towards the rocket.
From where he lay, he heard the deafening crack of a whip followed by a the sound of a body falling.
Then there was silence, save for the steady sound of the Nihil bows, which had expended their entire ammunition cases and were now only firing phantom shots.
It was too unreal. Somehow, they survived it. Edge could hardly care how, the adrenaline in his body took over, and the fact that he was still breathing sent him into ecstatic pleasure. It was a reward of sorts for the body. A way for the body to tell the mind that it did a good job, though not unique to Gardevoir, they certainly felt this relationship much snugger than humans did. Some people believed that human beings were evolving away from such animalistic tendencies, but on the other hand, these were some of the closest species of Pokemon to human beings. Edge continued to allow his body to vigorously push the eudemonia upon him uncontested. It was short lived for a very good reason though.
"OUCH!" Feyera yelped in soreness. "What happened to my hand?"
The young man looked down to find that oddly enough it was his right hand that was giving him a sharp pain. He was expecting the discomfort to come from the glowing Reilken Mercurius on his left wrist since that is where the changes in flesh had originally taken place. He prayed it hadn't begun to overtake him somewhere else.
"Odd…" he said at his hand. It was a little dirty from soil sticking to the perspiration there, but other than that, it was completely normal. As he played with it using his bracelet-bound hand, he noticed that once again the artifact had been giving forth a bright neon green light from various sections of its smooth ebony surface. None of that mattered. What mattered was the skin surrounding the relic's grip. The pale green had not advanced as far as he could tell. Maybe a hair or two, but nothing major. His fears, somewhat quelled, became focused on where he felt the tingle in his right palm. It was strident, and all his attention focused on the part of his hand where his wrist met his palm. The longer he looked at it, the more it shook in increasing pain.
"…uggh…, no…" he heard Sana crying from afar. Feyera snapped his head to face her direction. What he saw was too much to bear, as her whimpering grew closer to him with every gasp of air she took splitting apart her sobs.
Her once splendid figure, so often filled with vibrant life, now lay hunched over knelling on the ground next to the collapsed body of the blond haired rocket, which still held the infernal black cross.
As quickened inhalations took over, she clutched at her Gardevoir heart frantically with both her hands. Boundlessly, clear tears rolled from her sparkling ruby eyes, falling ever quicker down her face's gently sloped checks. They gracefully met the earth's captivating hold as fallen diamonds would, disappearing into the shadows of the bright day.
Alongside her crystal tears, spilled thick and dark cerise from those tender hands now stained with blood.
"…p—please…n—no…"