Inabayama stomped behind Hiei and their Combee escorts, keeping an eye on everything around her. Easy to do with omnidirectional vision, only slightly more difficult while dealing with one eye being a giant blind spot. But that's why she walked behind and a bit to the side of her girlfriend - Gardevoir could keep an eye on that direction, while also keeping her tactile gravity field thingie active, for extra protection. Maybe they did not need to be THIS vigilant, but neither of them survived for so long by being careless.
A day and a half ago, three Combees approached Hiei while the dragon was out. Talked to her about the fate of the world, and how their group wanted to help with the Arceus business, except they managed to hit a particular snag on the way, just a day or so away from the cave.
This felt like a trap. It was a bit too convenient, a bit too timely. Not only did the Combees approached them on the final day of their stay, but they also had all the right answers. Which is, partly, why they went along with it. If it WAS a trap, it was easier to spring now, and beat whoever was dumb enough to set it straight into the ground - rather than escape, and then constantly look behind their shoulders in case this particular trouble came up again.
The bugs acted like Tiger's two-way radio, allowing them to speak to the other group. One of the group was definitely controlling Combees somehow, and depending on how it worked, could be the biggest threat among them. The other one was, supposedly, an Absol, who received a vision of the end of the world, and was the reason the other group gathered.
If that claim was true…
Okay, look, Inabayama might've been not very knowledgable about sciency stuff - she was currently halfway through her very first book, which was written specifically for human brats - but it did not take Hiei's levels of knowledge to guess how 'end of the world' correlated with Hiei's quest to tear a measly God apart and usurp his divine throne. Hiei was perfectly capable of destroying all life on Earth in a span of an afternoon, a sufficient reason being the only thing standing in her way.
And there was one thing which could possibly cause her to do so.
Gardevoir did not go omnicidal when she encountered the mechanical abomination on the mountain. Neither did she judge this world to be too far gone when that shitty human suggested to put her through the same hell as her sisters. She did lose it, but that shadowy hibernation form thingie was not mass scale enough AND was a byproduct of Gardevoir misjudging her energy limits. Hiei was always measured and almost hesitant in her responses, unwilling to go beyond what was necessary to violently crush the very specific thing opposing her. And there was only one thing coming to mind which could cause her to go as far as to end of the world.
Inabayama had to die.
As self-centred as this conclusion could've looked from an outside perspective, this was the only possible reason for Hiei to decide that the Earth had to go. If the Armageddon-predicting Absol was real, then something had to happen to the dragon. She had to perish, either by a foe's hand, or through some unfortunate event.
And she knew, there was no way for Hiei to handle it well.
The dragon came to realise recently, that as much as she clung to the Gardevoir, who was the first living being to acknowledge her in decades, so did Hiei cling to her. It was not entirely healthy either - she saw how the guilt gnawed at her girlfriend, caused her to flinch whenever she saw Inabayama's scars, to constantly retreat back into her own head whenever she thought the dragon did not see. Like she had rebuilt too much of herself on Goodra's mere existence, and was barely able to hold herself together after causing her harm by a complete accident.
Inabayama did not care for the world. Not really. The subject of her own mortality was also something she did not pay too much attention to - being on the run and barely scraping for decades meant she long since came to terms with the idea of not pulling through yet another crisis. But she cared for Hiei's wellbeing, and could not possibly leave her broken like so. Which meant, she had to stay alive, either until her girlfriend's own passing, or until she was in a much healthier headspace. And if this second group was not a poorly devised trap, maybe meeting with them could lead to the latter.
If aside from her, Hiei at least had a friend or two, it could go a long way for her mental wellbeing.
Speaking of…
"WE'RE HERE," the Combees spoke in unison, as their destination appeared from beyond the mountains.
The first thing grabbing one's attention was a giant stone building. Unlike many big buildings in human cities, it was way wider than it was tall, and it did not appear to have a single speck of glass across its sides - just this dirty grey stone, worn down by the elements, like someone just forgot to make any windows in the thing. The building towered over its surroundings, all looking more common for small human settlements, and all in different states of disrepair, like the place was half-abandoned.
As they made their way through the streets, this 'half-abandonment' became more evident. Despite it being late evening, neither light poles nor rooms behind dirty windows emitted any light, the entire settlement shrouded in eerie dusk, making one feel as if some creepy predator was about to pounce from the shadows.
Well, there was one stretch of illumination ahead, on a square near the massive windowless building. There, she could already see four figures waiting for them to approach, one of the silhouettes clearly belonging to a human. Well, if this was a trap, she knew who to target first.
The other three were a Vespiquen - which possibly answered the question of who controlled Combees - a very haughty-looking Glaceon, and yes, an Absol, who was of half-mind to hide behind the human, which in turn was trying to pass for a very ugly and skinny Goodra for some reason.
"Ight, we're here," Inabayama spoke, taking her place by Hiei's side, and lazily cracking her knuckles, "Now-"
"What. Are. They?" Hiei pointed to the 'skinny Goodra', looking between the three Pokemon. To dragon's surprise, it was Absol who answered.
"Sh-she is a part of our pla-plan. I ca-called for help from beyo-beyond our world, and she a-answered"
"Something different about her?" the dragon looked to her girlfriend
"Warped space-time. As if she's not entirely here" the Gardevoir answered, narrowing her eyes at the subject in question, "Tell her to show her face"
The Glaceon made a show of rolling his eyes. Then, he made another show by turning gracefully to the 'alien', after which a sequence of ice symbols appeared next to him in the air.
"Hm? Ah they want me to remove my mask?" the 'skinny Goodra' asked. After receiving a nod from the Absol, she pulled down her facial mask, the hood, and took off some weird beak-like head thingie.
And… Yeah, this was not a human. Skin too pink, ears too sharp, and Inabayama was pretty sure humans did not have horns. Seemed like Hiei was on point when she worried about aliens being the next possible threat if she just went to exterminate all humans.
"How did you call her?" Hiei continued.
"Te-telepathy. It took-took me a while to get en-enough energy, but it wa-was my only chance"
"You did not use it just now"
"S-she has to abide by- abide by the rules of our w-world. If she d-dies, or brea-breaks them, she will be ret-returned to her world. And won't b-be able to return to this- to this timeline"
"Meaning she's about as useful as a human," the Glaceon smirked for some reason.
"Wouldn't that be pretty damn useful by itself?" Inabayama noted, "Humans have resources we can't find in the wild. Also, they have those flying metal thingies that could make travel trivial"
"Only if we are willing to use human capture devices," Hiei stated, then looking at her, "Are you?"
Unless they REALLY had to? Probably not.
Either way, the dragon decided to switch topics.
"Aaaanyway, I think introductions are in order. I am Inabayama. This is Hiei. As long as this is not some kind of a lame trap, we won't have a problem," she gave the others a big, friendly smile. The kind that just said 'try me'.
"Honnoji," the Absol almost squeaked, then nodded towards Glaceon, and then Vespiquen, "Okehazama, a-and Nagashino"
"And does the alien have a name, or?.."
"Ah… Uh… I did not- did not ask?.." Honnoji blinked, then turning to the Glaceon.
He made a particular show of sighing exasperatingly (did the prick make a show of EVERYTHING he had done?), and showed another sequence of ice figures.
"Me… Say… Uhh…" the 'alien' took a few seconds to decipher what was said to her, "My name? Ah, I'm not sure if saying my real name would count as bending reality or not, and I've gone through, like, five aliases here already. Just call me 'Trainer'?"
She had the lamest naming sense ever. Whatever.
"So, that thing you had troubles with?"
"B-butcher of Anegawa. H-he's supposed to be- to be our final member," Absol replied, failing to suppress a shiver, "We tried to- tried to reason with h-him, b-but he did not listen. T-then we pro-provoked him by accident, and th- and then he almost k-killed us all"
"And what is he?"
"A M-mimikyu"
At this, her girlfriend's eyes widened a bit, the gaze then steeling. Inabayama knew this look. Hiei looked this way before she went after the human butcher. Before they destroyed the signal device on the lake. Before they departed on this journey.
"Is he there?" the Gardevoir pointed to the giant windowless building. At a nod, she flew towards it, "Follow me. Or don't. I don't care"
Inabayama followed. So did Absol and Trainer.
Glaceon and Vespiquen did not.