The water is freezing.
It is the work of a dungeon, Halcion has conquered them time and time again, but its coldness bites harder than ever before. She can feel it eating away at her, stealing her strength.
Still, Halcion can hold her breath long enough to see her partner's plan through. Speeding ahead, the Zoroark has the three claw marks of Louisa's Soak having been used on her. It was used as a precaution, but it's given them a chance to circumvent large swathes of the dungeon. Through dark flooded tunnels the spectre turned sea monster guides her till she suddenly stops.
The Zoroark says something to her underwater. There are lights on the surface above. Halcion is too occupied holding her breath to understand what is happening. Dexys grabs her hand and pulls her up with her.
They breach the surface and land…on more water. It feels like hitting a swamp, and the second Halcion gasps loudly for air her partner is upon her surrounding them both in the veil of her long flowing mane - secluding their sound and sight under an illusion.
"Don't try to make too much noise."
Halcion looks at her partner. Her eyes shimmer with an unnatural film. Webbing stretches between her claws, and the three watery gills on her neck run deep into her skin. What a strange ability, Louisa's.
Halcion looks around. They are in the shadow underneath this massive ship, and with every step across the distorted water, Dexys drags Halcion with her. The Zoroark looks up, having found something.
A chain.
Dexys ascends, vanishing into the dark of the hull without a sound. During the second she has to herself, Halcion's ears catch a nondescript shout. A battle is taking place. The acoustics of the dungeon garble it into frantic nonsense. It could be anyone.
It is a risk she can't take. Halcion's claws wrap around the chain and she pulls herself up with a mighty heft, barely managing to squeeze into the opening above.
She lands inside with a thud. Her vision takes a moment to adjust to the darkness, and when she does…
Dexys isn't here.
Lanterns spark to life. Weaponry lies all around her, strewn on racks or on the hull's floor, put here without care. The Cargo is strewn about. Foodstuff, it seems, except for the four strange barrels near the center of the hull - of which smell of sulfur.
Her whole world shakes. She crumbles as water splashes from the hole she climbed in through, and a heavy metal latch above it closes on its own, sealing her inside. The ship is moving? How?
Halcion barely gets her bearings together when light floods from above. A door to the deck above swings open. Halcion grabs a spear from the floor, holds it out, and waits…
More voices. Bootsteps beat against the ship's decks, the ship groaning in pain as the sounds of a battle reverberate all around her. What is going on? Where is she? The answers do not lie sitting at the bottom of this place.
Spear forwards, Halcion approaches the hatch. Shouts, battlecries, screams of pain. It sounds like there's hundreds of people right outside the door. She reaches the stair as lightning cracks, blinding her as she steps above.
The bottle hits the floor, sounding the battle with a loud shatter.
Lucario forms a bone club, racing forwards. The Typhlosion spits a globe into his hand then throws it ahead, the Infernal Parade splitting into a line of three dancing wisps.
As Lucario races into range, she swipes. His bone club vanishes. A familiar trade happens as Lucario goes for the same flurry of bullet punches.
Two hits. Darkrai ignores them. She grabs Lucario's fist, and brings Dark Void down.
The three flames chase forwards. By sheer coincidence, they reach her hand - Dark Void colliding with the useless flames. Lucario's fist electrifies, she lets go.
His fist slides past her, through her flowing hair, and into a stone wall behind them. Lucario bares his fangs, ripping his hand off the cracked wall to strike again. She avoids it, floating backwards as if adrift on invisible strings.
"Afraid?" He snarls.
No response. Two spheres reappear in her hands as she slowly lands. The confidence which has frozen them in their tracks fades from her eyes, replaced by a silent, desperate gaze.
Nobody has ever stricken her like this, it seems.
And Lucario, what was his plan? He keeps fighting with one arm, holding the stone of his in the other. He is handicapping himself. And if Lucario gets hit due to his arrogance they only have a single seed to share between them. That is if Masters can get to Lucario in time to apply the medicine, Darkrai's been playing keepaway with Masters.
The little things he is throwing at her are effectively meaningless. Makes him wish he could have a bundle of those Iron Thorns Bisharp had.
And the gears. The moment she realises Lucario does not have it she will be on him. A single Dark Pulse from a being of her prowess will tear Masters apart.
Lucario spins up another Aura Sphere, and it's her who goes on the offensive. Two Dark Voids again, she needs only one.
Masters tries to reach them as the battle unfolds. Lucario looks down. As she swipes, he boots a chunk of masonry her way. He throws his Aura Sphere and her other hand banishes it.
A realization stops Masters dead in his tracks. The second he is in range she will just float or teleport away. Masters is not as swift as Lucario, he has no chance in close quarters against her
He bites his lip in frustration, turning his eyes away from the battle. He looks to where she was before Lucario threw her to the wall. He gets an idea, taking in a breath and flooding the area in smokescreen. He vanishes into the mist, throwing out another distracting Infernal Parade for good measure.
And then, he waits.
A battle rages through the fog, a battle he cannot see. The stone port is being torn apart by Lucario's blows. The growl of a Lucario turned east penetrates the fog.
"Work! Work already!"
The Mega Stone. He's trying to Mega Evolve, and it's not working. He calls out.
"She's jumped!"
Masters barges through the smoke with a volley of fists. He strikes true, then his hand goes cold. Darkrai appears from the fog holding his fist as the coldness spreads through his body. She had saved one for him, Masters is simply too predictable. She lets go, and he falls to his knees.
Her cold hand reaches for him, guided by the glow of another gear. She relinquishes him of it with a swift swipe. He wants to scream, he can't.
So what can he do?
Masters draws on his strength as the curse takes its venomous hold. His mane flares out. Not with eruption, just pure fire from his mane: bright and piercing through the smokey veil.
Lighting breaks the fog and Lucario barrels through the mist.. Distracted for a split second, Masters reaches for his bandolier, wrapping his weak fingers around their one Reviver Seed.
She goes for a swipe, it hits something but Lucario's barrage continues: both hands now ripping into her, tearing into the Smokescreen and into Darkrai. He lands a decisive blow, separating them with a final strike as she is thrown on to the docks.
The smoke fades. Lucario is over him, hiding an all too familiar wound on his arm, waiting for the distant lump to move again.
Lucario nudges Masters' hand. Masters still has the seed, and more or less without getting on his hands and knees and doing it for him, Lucario makes him down it. Masters bites in, the strong, mint-like taste gushes down his throat. The coldness, more or less, vanishes altogether.
"Good." Lucario says.
Masters takes a look, both his hands are empty. Lucario's breath is getting louder, slower. Could be his typing preventing the near-instant fall, whatever the case, Lucario will still be victim to it.
"And you?" Masters gets onto his knees, using Lucario's heft as an anchor to pull himself upright. "Your Mega Stone."
"She was going for your Reviver Seed. I made a decision, and she got me right after it." He speaks through grit teeth. "Feels like one of Bisharp's stakes. Real lovely."
His speech turns into a wretched cough. Lucario's legs fold in, and his body crumples into the shore. Still breathing, still holding on as the nightmare begins so set, he looks to Masters with eyes that burn with rage.
"Destroy the ship! You can do that, blow it to smithereens with Eruption. If she wants to go to the Sea so badly then drown her in it!"
They hear a loud bang, as a plank extends down from the galleon. This three story boat, adorned with dark sails and black iron fittings, is still a construction of wood.
At the foot of this plank, Darkrai floats back onto her "feet." Nothing about her resembles the admiral from before. Lightning has burned over the haunting glow and gleam of her body, Aura Sphere has torn her down to nothing but a bipedal shadow - a crown of red cartilage protrudes from her chest like rotted teeth. She is the spitting image of an old pathetic prince.
She throws Masters' stolen gear aboard, then turns to them. The boat begins to whir to life as it pantomimes the sounds of thousands of unseen workers beginning to undock. Masters hears a sound to his left. He looks away.
It's the Mega Stone rolling towards them like a spherical magnet…
Lucario's hands grab his feet. He is tackled onto the ground by Lucario, the question as to why immediately answered by a Dark Pulse ripping over him. It takes into his body as he attempts to cover Masters the best he can, but still, the energy seeps through his defenses - stabbing into the Ghost type underneath.
The air escapes Masters in one, sharp gasp. The attack ends as quickly as it began, with the plank slowly ascending, Darkrai's body being dragged by the mechanism to safely aboard her ship. Out of sight, out of reach, the boat begins to depart.
This is what defeat looks like.
Masters can feel his Partner's body rise and fall. He is still breathing, just unconscious. Louisa or someone else can find him, if he stays here, he'll be betraying Lucario's wishes.
If he can get to the dock, he may have time to set it ablaze. He pushes Lucario aside as he stands up. The others can…
"It hurts!"
Lucario is now on the floor screaming, fully conscious. Right where the spike is on the back of his palm the Mega Stone is glued to him. It burns a channel up his arm, and no matter how hard he raps the floor, he cannot scrape this thing off of him.
Streaks of crimson aura pour out his wounds. Before it reaches even further, Lucario clasps his hand around it, forcing the Mega Stone still.
For a moment, it stops, till the shine of the stone shines through his fingertips, burning them straight till nothing's left until their bone. The stone rolls onto his scorched hand as he recoils, then falls onto his neck.
His screaming turns into gurgling as it sinks into his jaw, races up, and meets his eye. His aura starts to rage throughout his body, bursting at every wound, every seam, growing outwards as he clenches his grasps where once was his eye
A shrill scream bursts from his throat. Then, there's a flash.
Standing in a pile of wet fur and sinew is a terrible beast. With claws, spikes overgrown and teeth as sharp as daggers. Long bands flow behind him like a cape. Black scars race across Lucario's fur and the red, sickly aura Masters once saw in him is pouring out at his body's seams.
Celebi told them there were two requirements for Mega Evolution. The first was to find a partner they would entrust their lives to, the second remained unknown till now. Lucario had to find it in himself to give everything to Masters, his partner - only after an act of selfless desperation has the stone given Lucario the strength to do what needs to be done.
Halcion reaches the middle decks. Her surroundings still shake and creak as a battle rages above. Windows all along this deck have their ports sealed with metal lids, and what she thought were piping were gigantic oars all along the deck, somehow able to be bent into foldable shapes.
"H-Hal…"
A voice, Dexy's voice, beckons from the back of the deck. On a cot, strewn alongside other wounded soldiers, a Zoroark wearing the mask of a darkly-armored Rhydon reaches out towards her.
The floor is drenched with the ichor of many warriors before them. Half-conscious, wriggling bodies of fallen soldiers writhe in their beds. A small, bipedal pokemon, doffed in red garments possibly denoting them as a healer, looks towards the approaching dragon.
"You don't appear to be wounded, neither do you look like a healer." The creature says, brushing aside a lock of long black hair. "Come to lend your aid? They need able bodies up above."
This person, who looks, acts and sounds like they belong here, pays no mind to the fangirl. Dexys on the other hand, the illusionist, has her hands over a deep wound cutting through her arm. A wound which is being taken care of by an ancient Morgrem who is none the wiser.
"No, no…" Halcion keeps herself together. "Checking in with this person, can we be given a moment?"
The healer nods, then moves to an adjacent bunk, the Manectric there having an arrow sunken into a hind leg. She winces when she sees the Morgrem pull it out. Not exactly the privacy Halcion would have wanted, but as she approaches the bed, Dexys surrounds them in her mane's flowing veil.
"They knew." She coughs, a red bandage obscures her wound. "They were all talking. All the deckhands below swarmed me, shouting."
"These people aren't normal, and they aren't from our here and now. I barely made it out and crawled my way here. Never have I heard so much anger. I don't have any fight left in me, I can still move everything else but…"
She gives her right arm a shake and winces, her guise flickering back to a pained Zoroark for a split second. The Morgrem is too busy to take note.
"I'll carry you out of here if I have to."
"How brave of you." She drops her legs off the side of the bunk. The Healer turns, and upon speaking, Dexys' voice deepens into someone else's "Worry not, I have the strength to return above. So long as I can stand and work a sword, I will continue my fight."
The Morgrem, as if having been through this thousands of times before, bids them a respectful nod. As soon as Dexys gets off the bed, he immediately pulls out the stained sheets then grabs another blanket from a nearby crate. He dumps the ruined thing into a bubbly barrel, and red foam rises with a foul hiss.
"How did they know?"
Halcion follows the Zoroark as she limps back to the hatch. A stair next to it leads to the top deck. Her focus is on what is blow.
"Nobody's ever seen a ghost Zoroark before, not even Masters. Maybe they smelled it off of me? Everyone says I smell of the Sea." The Zoroark coughs. "There is something deeply wrong with this ship. You were seconds behind me. I shouted your name, and that's when they ambushed me."
The ship wobbles and creaks as a thunderous boom echoes on the top floor, causing the wood of the ship to squeal in pain. Dexys ignores this, draws Halcion's attention to the hull below - then the barrels on the palette in the middle of it.
"You know what that is in there?"
"It smelled bad."
"You're about to learn what happens when fire touches an explosive. Go find a dry rope."
Halcion walks past her, and Dexys reaches overhead plucking a lantern from the ceiling. She extinguishes the fire then smashes it against the railing. Oil begins to drip out.
"We're gonna make a fuse, I will light it, then we will run."
"And how are we gonna get out of here in time?" Halcion asks. She fetches a rope dangling from the ceiling. Something falls when she tears it out. "You don't plan on jumping into The Sea, do you?"
"Yes, actually."
Okay, maybe she has bonked her head atop of getting impaled because her partner seems like she has officially lost it. As Halcion hands her the rope, she drenches it all in lantern oil, and hands Halcion one end. She takes it all the way to the center of the ship, lifting the lid of one of the barrels and catching a nice waft from the stuff on the inside of it. Looks like black or golden dust.
"Come on, we're going to the top." Dexys commands.
Halcion reaches the stairs as Dexys drops the bundle at the top step. A line leads from there, snaking across the bottom of the deck, then to the barrels of explosive death lying in the belly of the vessel. Her only question to Dexys remains the same, to which she answers for her.
"This boat is where all the distortions happen. If we get to the top deck or throw ourselves overboard, we may escape it." A lick of flame leaves her mouth. "We light this, then we run. I've travelled the Sea once already when I ran here - I could lead you through it."
"We could become lost forever, return to our 'present', or we might even end up in my home. All of which, as long as she's gone, I can live with."
It's one thing to say she has crossed The Sea to get here, it is another to say she has the confidence she can make it through it again. Dexys spoke nothing about her home other than her reason for coming here. If blowing this ship means destroying Darkrai, then…
Coming to this dungeon meant accepting this may be their last moments. Halcion has been given all the time to prepare for this, and so trusting her partner she accepts her plan.
Dexys takes the rope into her maw, spits out a flamethrower point blank, and the cord ignites. The flame creeps down the impromptu fuse as Dexys grabs her partner by her good hand and together they race to the surface, completely ignoring the ornate quarters possibly belonging to his truly, heading right through the door to their freedom.