Prompt: The hero fails.
"SEAR!" Time slowed to a crawl as the scene unfolded itself in front of Vei.
The attack meant for her, had been intercepted by her partner, taking the hit instead.
Blood slowly gushed from the wounds inflicted by the Specter's claw as the quilava slowly fell to the ground, unconscious.
Vei could feel the fear and panic building up inside of her as blood hit her face and time returned to normal.
The Specter was pummeled by stars, forcing it to retreat as Vei then turned her attention to her bleeding partner. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." She flung off her pack and started scavenging for a reviver seed and oran berries. Sear's breathing was speeding up as a pool of blood spread underneath them. "Nonononono, stay with me."
She handed the bleeding pokemon a reviver seed and it started on its magic, but whatever changes it did wasn't noticeable. Vei next forced an oran berry into her partner's mouth and forced him to swallow, taking a second one and smeared the berry juices over the gushing wounds. Nothing.
"Dammit!" She looked around. Their two allies had managed to keep the clawed monstrosities at bay while she had been trying to save her partner, but she had no more options. "ROBIN!" she yelled at the decidueye. "Grab Sear, get him out of here and bandage those wounds!"
The owl turned around to see the bleeding mess with the Glaceon in tears and a fury in her eyes.
"Take Ari as well! And don't you DARE let him fucking die!" Robin didn't even want to question what she was trying to do. He just nodded, called out for his partner, picked up the bleeding fire type and hoofed it out of there, the dragonair right behind him.
The Specters noticed that the group was retreating and started heading towards the hiding spot of the weird monkey looking creatures and their literal magic crystal, though they didn't even make it to the forest entrance before a wall of stars blocked their path. They turned to see a pissed off Vei approaching them.
"I don't know why the thing wants to have you escape. Tracking you to your lair is my best guess." she said as a cold wind was building up around her. "But you know what? Fuck that! Let me change the mission objective." The winds picked up as hail and snow started to pelt the cloaked creatures. "Let me see how durable you assholes really are!"
The blizzard was unleashed, the winds dragging the Specters into the center.
But instead of the blizzard fading after a few seconds, like the move normally does, it builds in power, the temperature dropping rapidly as the creatures froze and turned stiff.
Helplessly caught in the storm the Specters were tossed by the wind as pieces of hail started penetrating their cloak-like bodies the storm stopped abruptly and the winds that held the ghost-looking monsters in the air disappeared causing them to plummet to the ground, shattering into countless pieces.
Vei stood in the middle as the Specter rain stopped, not flinching even when a stray piece of frozen monster hit her on the head, crying still. Exhausted but otherwise fine she looked back to see the small dots that were Robin and Ari taking care of Sear. Without a sound she started running towards them.
Vei had not left her eyes from Sear ever since he was hooked up to life support, looking for any twitch, listening to his every breath. In the quiet room she watched over him, silently begging him to stay with her.
Outside the medical building the mood was the same. The usually mischievous foxes were quietly eating dinner with their partners, not a single smile shared between them.
No one was being trained by Flora as she together with her pokemon sat in the Spinda Cafe replica in silence, as Grace hummed along the somber tunes of the piano played by her fiance, August.
From Hub Town, the denizens could hear the sounds of pokemon migrating from one end of the Beast's Forest to the other in hopes of survival, as painful cries from the Lurker echoed from the mountains looming over them. Even nature itself seemed to join in as rain clouds slowly drifted over the town.
Ari and Robin were by themselves, Robin still feeling like he was holding the bleeding fire rodent in his arms, Ari nuzzling up against him, trying to calm him down. Robin looked at his hands and got up. "I'm going to wash the blood off." he said as he headed for the river running at the edge of town.
"Robin." Ari called out as she slithered in front of him. "You have already washed it off."
"I know… But I can still feel it." he replied and continued onwards, the dragonair following him, not wanting to be left alone.
Blaze was heading back to the guild building as she noticed Axelia exit the medical building and approached her. "So… How is she?" she asked the haxorus.
"Aside from probably not having slept in the last two days, she is holding up fine." the dragon type replied. "Thankfully she isn't shying away from eating or drinking, though I guess the blood will stay on her for a while."
"That… That is good to hear." the vulpix said, dark thoughts running through her mind. "And Sear?"
Axelia looked down at the ground. "Well… Good news is that he isn't getting worse."
"To be fair, getting worse would be him having died." Blaze said, a little chuckle leaving her, though she only felt worse from it. "The problem is that you didn't say that he has gotten better."
"None of us are medical professionals, so I gotta admit that the fact that he seems relatively stable is a crowning achievement for all of us."
"Some achievement." Blaze mumbled as horrible scenario after horrible scenario ran through her head.
"What's going through that head of yours?" the dragon asked.
Blaze chuckled at the question, trying to think of something else to rid herself of the images flashing through her mind. "You really don't want to know, but you can probably guess what it is."
"You're not the only one, then. I think all of us are placing ourselves in Vei's shoes." Axelia replied.
"I just hope none of us are ever going to wear them." Blaze said as she started to head towards the guild hall. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have an important matter to attend to."
Summers was lying in his bed reading a book to pass the time as something small landed on his back and clung to it. "Gah, Blaze, what are you doing?"
"I feel like I haven't shown enough affection or appreciation of you always being there for me." Blaze said, hugging the grovyle the best she could.
Summers rolled to the side, tossing Blaze off, before adjusting himself so he faced her, and pulled her in for a hug. "I know how you feel."
Blaze thanked him by rubbing her head up his chest.
"Just tell me when you want me to let go, partner." Summers said.
"You let go when you feel like it, partner." Blaze replied. "And thanks."
Two weeks later and Vei was a mess.
Despite her best effort to avoid sleeping, her body had sometimes just given up.
But even with the sleep she did get, it wasn't enough to rejuvenate her.
She didn't care though. She would watch her partner until he woke up, no matter the cost.
"Come on, partner." she said, not sure when she had started crying again. "Remember how you always woke up so early? How you were practically at my door every morning as I got up before we moved in together? Are you just catching up on all that lost sleep?"
She looked at his still pained expression. Even as he was sleeping he had been in pain for these last two weeks.
Despite knowing that one shouldn't do it, Vei jumped into the medical bed and nuzzled herself up against her partner.
"Come on Sear, I know you are stronger than this. Being turned into an eevee has been the best thing that ever happened to me, and most of that is because of you. For five years the two of us had always been together, so don't just leave me. You are my family now, so don't do this to me." She could feel the fatigue of her sleepless days quickly catching up. "Please Sear, I beg of you…" she said as she yawned, slowly closing her eyes. "I need you…
I love you."
She drifted off into sleep, and for just a short moment, a smile could be seen on Sear.
AN: I have been foreshadowing this one for a while, and it took months in real time before the idea took root in my head and me adding the first piece of foreshadowing until the right prompt landed.
Suffice to say: Do not. Piss of. Vei!