So. Chapter 80 was fun.
I had the Soothe moment planned for exactly two years and one week. And I finished the chapter about a week before I published it, which…is an impressive coincidence!
Some Time Ago
Circhester was a relatively large, peaceful, old town nestled high up in mountainous Galar.
It was an unremarkable place by many standards. The people were hardworking and lived alongside pokémon in harmony. Much of the same all over that you've all seen the openings to pokémon directs.
Somewhat remarkably, however, was that the place was the home of a young girl who would change many things across the world.
It was not her birthplace, no. She had been born in Kalos, a distant cousin of the dread king himself. Her parents had fled when his warmongering had grown beyond the scope of reason to their very enemies. What a choice to make? But they were already in Galar at the time, father having been sent as soldiers and the mother needing to follow, daughter in hand.
Their daughter, a toddler at the time, barely remembered the place she had been born.
In a new place, her parents could not reveal their former minor nobility, and such became labourers, disappearing.
To help rear their child as they both had to work so hard, they were approached by a kindly pokémon. Indeedee, as the locals called them, were perfectly suited to children. For they only needed one thing to live, gratitude.
Hand in dainty paw, the young daughter, Violet, her name was, knew her mother and father as loving, but distant, figures in her life. She only knew her guardian so well.
"Nelia…what would I do without you?" she said, sitting on a swing.
"You'd be strong," Nelia replied kindly, for Violet knew the words that pokémon said.
"What of the dangerous king?"
"You are strong," Nelia corrected. "Together, we can make a difference."
There is a long and great story to be told. About the children, for that's what they were, who stood up against AZ's grief-maddened rule.
The Royal Children they were known. From Violet to Esther, Pelleas to Genevieve, they stood against AZ and sought to end his reign of terror.
One way or the other, the weapon was destroyed.
In one world, AZ was talked out of it at the final monstrous moment. The weapon hit no one but the weapon itself and the creator who sought to finish his evil.
In another world, something went wrong….
"Nelia?"
Violet looked up from the ruined table in the ruined town of the ruined region melded into a ruined world.
She spoke this word often. She cried it to the winds, she begged Sean and Dimitri, Saniya and Guardian, anyone who would listen to help her find her beloved indeedee.
She whispered on the winds and mouthed silent words beyond glassy eyes of warnings and forgiveness.
It was not a coincidence that Violet had been in the Circh dungeon that one day. And it was not a coincidence that she hadn't been the second day.
The ghost of the Keeper of Rights raised her head in desperate hope as eyes that seemed to see things that were not there fell squarely on the indeedee that was. "You've come back to me."
"Oh Violet," Mayor Indeedee, Nelia, said sweetly. "I never left."
"No," she whispered. "It's me who never left."
"Touché."
Violet's eyes fell past Nelia to the shrouded object floating serenely behind her. "You've never brought anything before," she said, lips continuing to whisper even as her words stopped.
Please.
Please.
Please.
Release me.
Nelia saw the words and smiled. "You say that like my company isn't enough," she said, acting hurt. Violet's cloudy eyes sharpened. The longer Nelia was here, the more realised she became.
The Ghost of the Circh Dungeon was a well-known myth across the continent. Yet so few had ever seen it, leaving it to be just the words of playful pokémon.
Yet, it was true. It was true. Yet it was only true when She willed it so.
"You've left me here…for how long?" Violet asked softly.
"Oh, you ask me that every time, dear," Nelia replied, setting the object she was floating down and brushing at the covering it had.
"How many times?"
"Thousands," Nelia replied. She finished neatening up whatever she was doing and faced Violet again with a sweet familiar smile on her face. "And not only thousands of times you've asked me."
"Thousands of years?"
"Roughly three thousand years."
A weaker spirit, literal or metaphorical, might have collapsed from the crushing blow that would inflict. Violet merely squeezed her eyes shut, her fists clenching. She opened them and looked around at the ruins that were once her home.
"Why?" she asked, tears falling.
"You ask me that every time as well," Nelia replied. "But at long last…I have an answer for you." Her fingers traced the rectangular object covered, and Violet's eyes trained on it.
Even covered, there was something…frightening about it. Yet it was hardly anymore foreboding that Nelia herself, a kindly smile twisting her features just the right way to look perverted.
"What is that?" Violet asked softly.
Nelia smiled and began to pull the sheet down. "My gift to you, my songbird." The words Nelia used to speak with such care and love, her little songbird was her name for Violet, felt nothing but spiteful mocking, and Violet took a step back as the edges of a painting were revealed.
"W-What is that?" Violet asked as the last of the sheet fell to reveal a simple serpentine painting made in red paint. The eye was…infinitely blank, and Violet felt her body freeze in place, staring at the yawning void, unable to even blink to pull her eyes away.
"Freedom," Nelia crooned, tracing a finger down the spotless painting. "And a song for you."
"Nelia," Violet whimpered. The eye was growing larger, deeper. "Nelia, no."
"Why don't you cast yourself on me?" Nelia sang as Violet began to struggle, trying to physically pull herself away from the void she was staring into.
"Nelia, please!"
"I promise you won't feel a thing," Nelia sung, ignoring Violet's pleas for mercy yet not lifting her eyes from the human spirit for a moment.
"Oh my…Nelia, Nelia! It's going to hurt me! Nelia! Oh my, father! MOTHER! HELP ME!"
"There's golden treasures underneath… you'll see," Nelia continued as Violet fell onto her bottom, hands tearing at the soil and grass as she began to be dragged forth, closer to the painting.
She began to cry. "Please don't do this! Nelia! PLEASE!"
"Now please~"
"NELIA!"
"Give yourself~"
"NELIA!"
"To me."
"NELLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Nelia did not stop humming and singing, watching as the runerigus painting tore Violet's soul asunder, dragging the kindest human she'd ever known kicking and screaming into monstrous oblivion.
Days later, Sean would experience a Dimensional Scream, hearing only part of Violet's final begging scream as the light swallowed her up and she was dragged into the deepest darkness.
Nelia waited as the painting shivered, cracked, and gurgled, possibly digesting the soul of the child she had raised.
"You're not yourself when you're hungry," she said, stepping back as a deep growl shook the dungeon before the painting effectively exploded.
Arms and legs were fashioned out of cracked stone as the dark eye of the runerigus lit up with craven light, flicking back and forth maniacally before settling on the demon in front of it.
Immediately it flinched back, making a pathetic sound, and Nelia hummed. "Shh, shh, shhhh." She stepped forth to the trembling monster and stroked the stony and ghostly parts until her lightly blazing fingers sapped it of its will to consume. "There-there, that feels better, doesn't it?"
"Ywh you do hist?" it gargled at her. "% *^, he877733 I j8s8-404."
Nelia smiled as the runerigus began to lose consciousness and collapse before her.
Rumble was an aggressive non-thinker, and Kogeki was a beast on a leash. Trill was her bargaining chip, and Soothe, well, she'd be important later.
The last ones were a secret, no spoilers~
But here. Now. Three thousand years of leaving Violet to rot finally reached its natural conclusion.
"Oh, Violet," Nelia whispered, stroking the head of the runerigus. "It was fun, admittedly. I could have left you forever up until now. But everything has a reason to it. You'll be useful to me now."
A weapon that no one would see coming. For there wasn't any runerigus left anymore, and very few yamask.
"Go to Treasure Town. Act as a mere statue; they will not detect you. And when the opportunity arises…kill."
The runerigus that once was Violet opened its burning eye once more and melted into the darkness, swimming through shadows to swiftly reach the town in question.
Nelia sighed in satisfaction, licking her lips, tasting the last of the agony Violet had experienced before blessed nothing.
With no other reason to remain, she left Circh. Nothing but dust and echoes now….
Rai and Mane bolted out of the Crest in manic desperation. "WHERE'D THEY GO?" Rai shouted.
"Here!" Mane shouted, finding a trail left by a struggling pair. He smacked his nose on the ground sniffing for the dusty scent that he knew really well. "He was here!"
"After them!" Rai directed, and the three of them bolted.
"A-Are you sure this is the right way?" Rhythm called, having difficulty keeping up with two manic pokémon using Quick Attack.
"It's GOT to be!" Rai cried. "We can't let her take him!"
"We WON'T!" Mane roared, blasting a tree that was blocking their path.
"You two, STOP!" Rhythm yelled. They didn't. "STOP!"
He put some force into that word and actually succeeded. "You're running without any idea, and we're lost now!" Rhythm said, pointing out they were in the wilds with absolutely no trail around them. "We cannot just act so rashly; who knows what happened or why."
"Who knows?" Rai began. "Who KNOWS? We got Slumber Orb'd and Scout's GONE! I think it's OBVIOUS what happened!"
"You don't know that," Rhythm protested.
"What do you think happened to them?" Mane croaked, voice breaking. "We. SAW! Her!"
Seconds before their eyes had shut on them, the tell-tale flash of purple fur had burned into Rai and Mane's minds.
"It'll be okay," Rhythm insisted, trying to soothe them with a hum. "She won't-"
"You knew," Rai said sharply, not facing him. "You knew that was Soothe all along, didn't you?"
Mane's eyes darkened. "He's right. You're too calm. You're too unsurprised."
Rhythm's hum had fallen silent.
Rai turned to Guildmaster Wigglytuff, who he had looked up to for most of his life. Guildmaster Wigglytuff, a beacon of safety, of positivity, of hope. Whose smiles go for miles. Who gave everyone a chance and never, ever, EVER lied.
"You knew we were walking into a trap, didn't you?"
"I…I trust Soothe."
And those three words caused Rai to snap.
"HOW DARE YOU!" he roared. Electricity arced onto the ground as Rai exploded. "YOU LIED TO US!"
Rhythm flinched backwards as electricity stunned his feet, and he brought his paws placatingly. "Please let me explain."
"NO!" Rai roared. "THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR LYING! SHE HAS SCOUT! SHE HAS SCOUT, AND SHE COULD DO ANYTHING TO HIM! SHE IS A SHADOW POKÉMON! SHADOW POKÉMON KILLED MY FAMILY! SHADOW POKÉMON RUINED MANE'S LIFE! IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK OR WHO YOU THOUGHT SHE WAS BEFORE; YOU CANNOT TRUST HER!"
Rhythm's face broke into layers upon layers of pain and regret, casting an epoch of years of painful hope all at once. "I…trust."
"WELL, I DON'T!"
Rai's entire body with supercharged and crackling with thunderous electricity. He looked almost more akin to a raikou than a shinx as waves of voltage rolled off his muscles and fur, scorching the grass around him.
And Mane was just…silent.
"Can I…please…just explain myself," Rhythm requested humbly.
Rai was silent for a moment.
Then. "No," he answered, the furious shouting abandoning him to glowering softness. A thundercloud that rumbled in the distance, innocent from a vast, vast distance, devastating when it unleashed its wrath.
"Rai."
"You don't get to call me that," Rai said. "I am Shinx to you, Wigglytuff."
Rhythm's lip quivered, and he took a steady breath. "Please~" he Sang out, not strongly, just enough to calm down.
Rai slammed his paws on the ground, and a blast of electricity charged the very ground they were standing on, sundering Rhythm's Sing with a gasp as prickly but unharmful voltage crackled across the ground.
"E-Electric Terrain?" Rhythm stuttered, a counter to Sing.
Rai's eyes were firm and unyielding, a storm waiting for an excuse to unleash itself. But he was still Rai.
"We're going to split up," he said calmly. Mane still hadn't said anything, barely twitching at Rai's sudden upgrade of a move. "And we are going to find Scout. You are going to go to the nearest town and tell them to send this across the entire continent that a Shadow Pokémon had kidnapped Scout. And you had best to cling onto that faith of yours, because if She has hurt Scout…."
He didn't continue that sentence.
Rai gestured to Mane to join him, and they began running back the way they had come to properly decide on where to look rather than run blindly into the woods, leaving Rhythm to ponder his actions alone.
"Shinx… I'm sorry," Rhythm said to no one. "But you said to hold onto faith? I do. I trust Soothe. Even if no one else does. She warned me. She warned me. She warned me with that letter; I know she wrote it, not whoever she's working against. I don't know what or why, but I can make a guess or two. I…trust…her. I'll make it up to you for my actions. I don't break my promises. And I promise you that."
Rhythm wiped a lot of tears away as he began to find his way out of the wilderness. He was a master explorer and had gone all over the Grass Continent. It wouldn't take him too long to get out of this and find his way back to Hillcrest Town.
And it didn't.
"I must speak to anyone who can access the Psychic Network," Rhythm asked firmly as he returned to the town with aching legs and gnawing hunger. He'd faint later from it all, but he had to put out the word."
"I-now?"
"Yes," Rhythm said.
He was brought along to where Espurr and Duosion were working together.
"Mr Wigglytuff!" Espurr said brightly. Marowak, detecting something, came rattling in out of breath.
"Hey, haa, you're back!" Marowak panted. "Hoo! Boy, I really need to work on my cardio."
"You do," Espurr giggled. "Can't go all night like someone. That someone is me!"
"It is nice to see you two," Rhythm said kindly. "But…a situation has developed. Are you aiding Duosion in accessing the network?"
"Yep!" Espurr said brightly.
"Kind of you." Duosion had not reacted to his entry or Marowak's, eyes closed in deep meditation.
"What's going on?" Marowak asked, a little concerned. Were the happy family times…over?
"Espurr, may you request Duosion to say the following," Rhythm began seriously. Espurr nodded. Rhythm hesitated and took a weary breath as Espurr's eyes closed, and he met Duosion's mind. "This must be sent to everyone it can be," he added, to which Espurr nodded.
"A Shadow Pokémon Audino with purple fur has kidnapped Meowth of Team Ion, the team that has two-times saved the world from certain destruction. We need help finding them in the area from Hillcrest Town to the area around the Crest dungeon."
Espurr silently said it along with Rhythm, mouthing the words as he cast it to Duosion, who cast it further out.
"Is that it?" Espurr asked, cracking an eye open.
Rhythm hesitated. He…he had to. "…well. Add on that she's not to be ha-"
Espurr screamed.
It was so sudden, so random, so violently agonising that his cry had a physical presence, a blast of psychic power slamming Rhythm and Marowak against the wall as Duosion also screamed, a psychic cacophony rising into a shuddering scream that began shattering windows and cracking wood.
"What's GOING ON!?" Marowak cried. He gasped in horror as Espurr's ears began to rise. "RHYTHM!" He pointed.
Bleeding from the shockwaves making his eyes feel like they were going to burst and teeth pop, Rhythm pushed forwards. The closer he got, the more the storm tore at his fur; he pressed forwards without hesitation until he reached the screaming Espurr, about to unleash all of its power at once.
He grabbed Espurr in a hug, pulling him against his belly as he cried and screamed. "Shhh," he Sung, holding firmly as the shockwaves hit a crescendo and then…began to weaken. He continued to Sing to both of the Psychics until they lost consciousness, the psychic cry cutting out and a wisp of something…twisted seeping from Espurr to Duosion.
Duosion seized on the ground for a few horrible moments before his unconscious mind desperately reconnected to the Psychic Network to expel whatever had attacked him back into it.
Things went silent. The kind of silence after a disaster. Hillcrest had already experienced this silence not a few days ago.
Rhythm held onto Espurr until he was sure it was over and then dropped unconscious himself.
Their message had been called out moments before something had attacked the Psychic Network. Not that Rhythm knew this…not that anyone really knew this.
Besides one.
Nelia smiled as she exited the Psychic Network and gazed over her town in an ancient, evil hunger.
Saniya flew wild and free.
The wind whistled along her ears, pulling at her antennas and ruffling her hair.
Goodbyes were hard, so she refused to do it. "See you later," Saniya had said, giving Striker a lingering hard and then Guardian the same. "Love you guys."
"Promise you'll be safe?" Guardian asked.
"I promise."
"Make sure to come back soon," Striker added.
"I'll bring orbs," she assured, and he smiled.
Mystifying Forest would take a few long days to get there. She was just one now, so she could teleport a little farther without the extra weight or risk of blasting her friends into peril, but only so far, and without them, she needed to be a little more vigilant.
It was only her now, and she only had so many eyes.
Not that there were so many dangers anymore, but old habits died hard even if they were obliterated by a paradox. She still remembered the need to be careful in the Dark Future, even if she didn't remember exactly how she'd been forced to learn it.
Even now, Saniya did not sleep as much or as long as the rest, holding a serene but stalwart vigil over her friends as they slept.
They'd be fine without her for a week or two. It couldn't take THAT long for Celebi to teach her. She was a genius of extraordinary proportions; she'd be surprised if she wasn't dive bombing Team Sunrise – Saniya within two days.
Or however long it took.
There was a reason she was doing this.
"Soothe," Saniya murmured, the name never far from her lips. She wanted to hear her name from Soothe again. The first name she was given before Sean came into the picture.
She wanted to hear it again.
She would hear it again.
So, she looked for Celebi.
Mystifying Forest was true to its name, holding many secrets. The Luminous Spring and the strange voice that whispered to pokémon of the light of evolution.
The pit at the end, descending into a cavernous area.
And Celebi. Apparently.
Saniya knew how these things worked. He wouldn't just be found wandering the dungeon-like some sort of secret slab or mystery part of the dungeon. No. He'd have done something at the end of this messy place, and she had a voice to talk the ear off in order to learn it.
"Those that seek awakening…this is Luminous Spring."
"Yeah, I got that," Saniya said, squinting up at the shining light as if she should stare directly at it. "I'm here for some information. Are you Celebi?"
"…"
"Hey! I know you talked to Team Ion. Talk to me, baby."
"Saniya," the voice said, startling her. "I know what it is that you seek."
"Do you now?" she asked challengingly. "What am I wanting this exact moment then?"
"You are here for Celebi."
"Wrong; I want a muffin at the moment."
"…"
"Do you have a muffin?"
"Aware of your proclivities, I will guide you to Celebi." The sooner you're gone, the happier I'll be went unsaid.
"Well, that was easy," she said, almost disappointed that she didn't get to annoy the voice of light into doing as she commanded like an evil duchess.
"Perhaps." A beam of light passed the pond and shone to an area on the left, against a thick grove of ferns.
Saniya zoomed over to it, poked the ferns, then summoned a rock to smash it.
"Barbaric," the voice muttered as a hole was revealed.
"Is he a greedent?" Saniya asked, peering into the hole through various plants and trees. An unnatural tunnel carved out of natural things. "Is he?"
"Ask Celebi yourself. Maybe this time he won't try and skimp out next time I win," the voice muttered, too quietly for Saniya to hear. She, of course, heard anyway.
She began to fantasise about what things a mysterious-totally-not-xerneas voice and a celebi played when she arrived at the end of the tunnel.
"This is good for one fantasy," she said, giving it a B-. "Not bad, could be better."
A voice suddenly called out sharply. "Who in the nine days of the week are you?"
She spun around. "There are seven days, you onion-headed ogre!"
"Not by my clock."
"Well, my clock is better than yours is."
Celebi was there, all green and ripe for the plucking. Saniya had flown into a not-so-modest cove, filled with junk and knickknacks, scarves and broken orbs that'd make Striker cry if he saw them.
He had a hand on a hip in a sassy way that Saniya felt like was specifically geared to mock her specifically and had blue eyes she swore was exactly the worst kind, also geared to make her feel anger.
"So," Celebi said.
"Quite," Saniya replied.
"You," he continued.
"Me," she agreed.
"Finally," he breathed.
"Ultimately," she challenged.
"Stop that," he grouched.
"Ha! You said more than one word first; I win you LOSER!"
He gave her a look that was best summed up with the words: What the fuck is this shit? Why is it here? Is that a bee? An onion? An onion fairy? Why is there an onion fairy in my house? I'm going to get the flyswatter and a can of bug spray if this not-so-ogre doesn't unpeel itself out of my space right now, or I swear I am going to unleash ham upon its unseeing maroon behind!
Saniya missed all but bee as she was as busy as one looking at Celebi's place and going through his stuff.
"Would you…cease and desist?" he spluttered when it became apparent she was immune to his glares of murderous intent.
"Alright place you got here," Saniya said casually. "Would be a mighty big shame if someone BURNED IT ALL down to nothing but ash and glass and made a statue of herself out of the glass."
"Listen, we don't cotton to pink freaks like you around these parts, scram you weirdo!" He shooed at her like she was an annoying fly.
"Oh yeah? I don't polycotton to your coping mechanisms, even my own. So, why don't you split and give me what I want?"
"Looks like I already did," he scoffed. "You're just the sad figment of my paradox'd tragic death." He turned his head. "You're the unme, I'm the real me, you wannabe, me."
"Kiddo," she laughed. "I was the real me when you were still in my short scarf of celebi dust."
They began to float closer.
"Hate to break it to you, but I wore it first."
"Me bequeathed thee the psychological hand-me-downs."
"So! YOU'RE the one who stained it!"
"Whoever found it browned it."
"You'd like me to be you, wouldn't me? But it's too late. You snoozed, and then you LOOSED!"
"You slept and wept."
"You nap, and I give the slap!"
"You're slumber a cucumber!"
"You catch up on some zed and give me all in your head!"
"I don't want to talk about this!" Celebi flew back, separating breathing in each other's air.
"Listen," Saniya said. "This Power source is not big enough for two metaphysical greats!"
"You couldn't write the word grate if it was cheesed right in front of you!"
"Yeah, I know because it would be an orb."
Celebi flinched back again. "This girl might be better than me," he thought, worried.
"You're right," Saniya replied. "I am better than me."
"Look at you. You look so superficial you probably judge things by their physical appearance!"
"Oh yeah? Your face is so shallow you probably think your jokes are winners."
"You're about as deep as a bowl of soup, and your tongue is about as sharp as a soup spoon!"
"Hey! Say what you want about me, but lay off the soup."
"If you love soup so much, why don't you marry it?"
"Because I'm already married to my boyfriend in pretend. His boyfriend as well."
"Only a blind mon would marry you."
"I know everything you're gonna-"
"Say. And I know everything you're gonna-"
"Don't. Are you so dumb you even answer rhetorical questions?"
"I don't know, do you?"
"We can play this game all night!"
This all made perfect sense to them.
"Alright," Celebi said, impressed. "I suppose you do know how to lingo."
"Tango."
"I know what I said."
"Do I?"
"Shut it."
She smirked in victory as he floated back and sat on a leaf. "What do you want, thief?"
"I'm the thief?" she said, furious again. "You stole my power from me!"
"Actually, I was first."
"In terms of our temporal progression, you died, I became, and so there was no you to steal from!"
"I was here first."
"Shut it."
He smirked in victory.
"If you know so much about me, why don't you know what I'm here for?"
"I died, and you became, so how would I know?"
"I will kill you again!"
"Bitch please, I'd destroy you."
Saniya laughed long and hard. "You are so funny. I forgot to LAUGH!"
"Seems you lost more than just your future memories if you're losing short term memories so fast."
"I was mocking you."
"Futilely."
"I will kill you dead!"
"Futilely."
It'd be so easy to break a bunch of orbs on his head and dance on the remains, but that wasn't what she was here for, and she took a nice calming breath.
"Scrub."
She hit him with Ancient Power.
"What ARE you here for?" Celebi asked after they'd finished blasting each other.
"I need to learn."
"Some manners? Clearly."
"I want to know nothing from you!"
"Then why are you here?"
"I need to learn."
"Some manners? Clearly."
"PURIFICATION!" Saniya yelled. "I need. To learn. How to. Do. THAT."
"Really?" Celebi asked. "That's easy."
Her face twitched violently.
"Heh, you don't know how to do it? I know nothing but!"
"Shhhsashsshshsh."
"You know, when you appeared and robbed me of half my power… didn't really do much to me since it mostly just affected our time manipulation, and the purification powers are slightly different. So, I was unaffected."
Rocks crumbled to dust as Saniya withheld the urge to peel him like an ogre.
Celebi laid his hands in his lap daintily and asked. "Why do you want to learn this power?"
Saniya glared at him with the heat of a collapsing sun, and his antenna almost looked ready to wilt from the glare before she blinked. "I've got a friend who I need to save."
"Bad news then, we can't actually do it ourselves." He said this almost too happily.
She smirked. "Well, I've got a human."
His smugness paused.
"Bitch."
He frowned at her for the jab. "Alright, alright, alright…you know all about that stuff then?"
"Probably more than you," she bragged. He opened his mouth to deny that. "I spoke to Giratina, and it told me." And closed his mouth. Victory for Saniya.
This time he stared at her for a while, curious.
"I am beautiful, but you can only look. I'm to be taken already."
He rolled his eyes. "Delusional."
"At least I'm not living in a hole in a dungeon!"
"This hole has many positive attributes!"
"Hole. Dungeon. You."
"If you want my help, you will call me sempai!"
"I will not call you that."
"Fair enough, it was weird of me to ask."
"Tell me how to learn!"
Celebi stared at her again.
"Eyes up here."
"They already were."
"Higher!"
"Fuck you."
"I'll kill and absorb your knowledge."
"Possibly that'd work, but how dare you?"
"I dare to dream!"
"Very well," Celebi said imperiously. "I will impart the gift upon you. I shall guide you to use your powers for good. However, let it be warned, to wrangle an entity as foul as The Shadow is to touch madness and Hunger. It is a force unlike anything you have ever wrought with before. To waver for a moment is to be swept into its fire. To hold it is to hold hateful smoke. You will experience death without dying. You have no idea."
"I held time together while two dialga's were murdering each other."
"Good for you."
A tiny flicker of concern welled up in Saniya at that; his words were clear. This would be a trial, unlike anything she'd done before.
"It's not merely a test of your strength of arms, but willpower and dedication. A battle of your heart, mind, and soul all at once against a force that would consume everything you are until there is nothing left but a hateful shell animated by Hunger and eventually that too. I have become aware of what happened to Darkrai. I am afraid, then, Saniya. For The Shadow has adapted to Arceus' defences. And so, now we have to as well."
Saniya shouldered the fear and nodded. "Then I'm ready to adapt."
Celebi nodded back grimly, and they got to work.
It was sad to see Saniya go, but this was something she wanted to do alone.
Maybe even needed.
They'd be waiting for her when she got back.
Dinner had not been palatable to anyone. Chimecho was drifting along with a dazed look in her eyes and had barely even put much together anyway.
Sean, Striker, and Guardian returned to their room in the guild in a quiet kind of silence. It was quiet not because no one was talking but because Saniya was gone.
Even when she was quiet, she had a lively energy that kept things energised. Without her, things simply seemed a little more grey.
"I wonder when Saniya will reach Mystifying Forest?" Sean said as they settled in.
"Probably a couple days at least," Guardian answered.
There really wasn't anything else to say. Soothe had been found, only she was out here. Saniya was gone. Bidoof was in the guild's own jail area, and several pokémon were missing from what was quite possibly a murderous creature.
There was something else on Sean's mind, but he strangely couldn't quite grasp it. It was something like on the tip of his tongue, unable to quite be drawn out and pulling only slipped it further.
Eventually, exhaustion sat in, his mind settled, and he fell asleep, a paw wrapped in Striker's hand.
Ash. Smoke. Cinders left by rotting flames. The only place to run was blocked off. Only a few could make it, and they were trapped, with no place to go. She had come regardless. Victory hadn't been prepared for Her either; things are already changing. All that they had done to this point. Everything that had been fought for. Even with the changes so far, is this still the only outcome? Can it be changed? Sean. Please. Please. Don't let this be the end. Timber returned with wounds to his body and heart to tell a story no one listens to; you have to trust him. Listen to him. Please…he wasn't the only one.
Sean woke up with the moon hiding behind clouds, the night a dark and dreary one. Being warm and furry, he was pressed into Striker's chest while Guardian had a hand on his shoulder. This always happened. He was the warmest and wound up in the middle eventually.
The scraps of a dream-not-dream clung onto his mind stubbornly, and he tried to remember what he'd seen.
Burning houses.
Screaming pokémon.
Running and stampeding.
Flashes of pink and purple clashing in shockwaves.
The laughter of a maniac.
And words spread across it. Whispered into the ears, spoken through crying mouths, patterned into the dirt, bobbing along in the river. A patchwork that became something whole when put together.
Timber….
Sean sat up and gently, quietly, untangled from Striker and placed Guardian's hand on his shoulder instead and crept out of the room.
With the remake of the guild came new rooms and attachments to it. It had been Armaldo's idea to have their own little jail, which Team Magnezone weren't overly impressed by if the mutterings about a 'former outlaw' meant anything.
It was justified as a place to be used only in a last resort if Team Magnezone couldn't take the prisoner swiftly enough or something.
It was clear that it had a nice secondary use of being a punishment.
The bottom floor was the bottom floor. The holding area was set across the room from the Guildmaster's quarters, and that was where Sean's feet took him.
Opening the door immediately hit in square in the stomach with a double strike to his senses. He kept his aura in check all the time but disorientated from sleep loosed his hold, as well as sharply intense emotions could snap through.
There was misery here.
The other sense was his ears, detecting soft cries as easily as he could breathe, and he stepped quicker.
"Riolu."
Sean froze as the gruff voice squared him in his tracks. He swallowed and took another step, rounding the corner to where Armaldo sat doing paperwork.
"Sir?" Sean said.
"Go to bed," Armaldo said, not looking up at him. Past him was the cage where Bidoof lay, huddled and crying.
"…" Sean did not move, and Armaldo sighed and looked up at him. Bidoof seemed to realise something was going on and raised his head as well.
"R-Riolu?" he squeaked.
"Hey, Bidoof," Sean said softly, raising his hand in greeting. He got control of his senses, but he could still almost taste it as Bidoof's face crumpled and he sunk his head into the straw.
"D-Don't look, please."
Sean's expression cracked into a soft, sad look before looking up at Armaldo with firmness taking hold. "This is cruel; let him out."
"No," Armaldo said.
"He's right," Bidoof croaked. "I shouldn't be let out again."
Sean turned back to Bidoof sadly. He could feel the regret in the air, the broken heart. It hadn't been Armaldo's idea to keep him in here, had it?
"He doesn't want anyone to see him," Armaldo said. "And no one should. Go to bed."
"I…" Sean began, wanting to say, "had a dream." But that sounded silly, didn't it?
But…he had the Dimensional Scream.
But not when he was asleep…right?
"What state was he in when he came back?" Sean asked. When did he ever listen to doubts? That wasn't him.
Armaldo frowned at him; the riolu was still here. He could surely feel the mood of the room.
"Wounded," Armaldo replied. "Shadow attacks across his body, splinters and bruises."
Bidoof's emotions pulsed; none of it was as painful as a broken heart.
"What…happened?" Sean asked.
"He was telling the enemy everything," Armaldo answered; Bidoof flinched. "Until he wasn't useful to her any longer."
"Th-That," Bidoof began. "Wasn't…." He lost his nerve and sunk down again.
"Can you tell me?" Sean called. "What really happened?" Armaldo gave him a filthy look for it, but Sean ignored it.
Bidoof whimpered. "Y-You'll hate me if you don't already."
"Please."
Bidoof looked up at him, and Sean waited, as open as he could manage. Eventually, Bidoof's eyes flicked to Armaldo, who had decided to just go back to his paperwork.
"O-Okay, I uh…by g-goll…I don't really know where to start?"
"Can you tell me how you met?"
"How? Oh, uh, just wandering one day. N-Not sure if I was cut out to be an explorer. I was just doing errands for the guild, giving out paper to people's houses, and I walked all the way to the end where no one lives because I reckon I didn't know no one was there at the time…and I knocked on this one door right at the end, and someone answered with a joke."
A shadow of a smile crossed his face. "Bell was real good at jokes…Soothe, I guess." That smile vanished quickly, and he glanced at Sean, afraid.
Sean smiled and nodded. "Well, I reckon that's a pretty nice way to meet someone."
"It was," Bidoof replied, nodding. "And I would go back. First, just because her joke was mighty funny, then she started teaching me how to make them myself. I was never as good as she was, I reckon, but I got her to laugh!"
His smile lasted a little longer this time before it faded. "I didn't know who was on the other side of the door."
"Why not?"
"I thought she was a mimikyu," Bidoof admitted. "I'd asked to see her before, but she turned me down. I thought she was too shy, never hearing her voice around town, so I brought her stuff. Food and cloth to make scarves. She made all the scarves I wore!"
Bidoof won most fashionable pokémon one year, beating out Sunflora in a shocking twist of events.
"She told me it was dangerous to see her."
Sean almost snorted. Wasn't that a twisted kind of truth?
Bidoof seemed to agree. "I guess she was telling the truth about that, although not for the reasons ah thought."
"Was there…anyone else who visited?" Sean asked, a whisper from a dream still tangled in his mind.
"No. Ah asked that one time if you guys could visit, and she said no. I thought…I thought I heard another voice that night, though. I reckon it didn't sound nothin' like she did."
Armaldo glanced up. "You didn't say that before," he said blandly.
Bidoof flinched and shrunk back, having almost forgotten Armaldo was there. "W-Well, I only reckon I might have…I didn't catch any words or nothin'." He shivered under Armaldo's gaze.
"I'm sorry this has happened, Bidoof," Sean said, bringing his attention back to him. An idea occurred to him, and he didn't have the restraint to not go with his first thoughts.
He stepped forth confidently, and Armaldo looked to him.
"I want to try something," Sean said, coming to the bars and offering a paw through. "Can you hold my paw, Bidoof?"
Bidoof stared at him in a few different ways for a moment before shyly coming forth and reaching out, like he expected Sean to snatch his paw away at any moment.
He didn't, and the warmth of Timber met Sean's paw.
They held in silence for a moment, a little awkwardly, to be honest, to be holding paws with a prisoner while Armaldo watched them.
Sean felt a wave of vertigo crash into him suddenly, and he groaned, paw slipping off Timber's as he nearly fell over.
Timber immediately began to make sounds of panic and worry, but Sean raised his paw to calm them as he felt the Dimensional Scream begin to-.
Timber ran, bloodied, bleeding, and his heart broken.
Nothing chased him.
His breaths were ragged and pained, drops of blood leaving a trail for any hungry beast looking for a soft meal to chew on.
Within his fur shone an azure sphere, sickening and foul.
"Oh Timber, oh golly gosh, don't worry. Don't worry."
Sean groaned, coming to before another wave hit him-
"Not without you!"
He gasped; that was quick. Oh wait, the room was still spinning-
/
"Oh honey, oh sweetie, oh baby girl… it's alright."
Sean snapped back to awareness; the vertigo was gone. He'd seen the past for sure; he had no idea about the other two.
"I-I saw," he said, choking on his tongue for a moment. "Bidoof, did you take something from Soothe's house?"
"Uh, y-yeah?"
"A blue orb?"
"It's not a wonder orb."
"You took something?" Armaldo said, sharply and surprised.
"Uh, y-yeah?"
"Where is it!?"
"I don't know!" Timber whimpered. "I must have dropped it when I was running; I only stashed it in my fur."
Armaldo growled and stood before thinking again and shaking his head. "Why is this important?" he asked Sean.
"I saw a vision of him running, and there was…like a voice coming from it, telling him not to worry."
Timber shivered. "I've heard that in my nightmares since."
Armaldo nodded. "Alright. Tomorrow morning we're going to search the guild from top to bottom as well as that road for this 'blue orb' that isn't a wonder orb."
"Not now?" Sean asked.
"Pokémon are asleep," Armaldo snapped. "And you're not going out on your own, not when pokémon have been going missing."
"He…the attacker was driven off?"
"And could come back at any time. We don't know, so we have to assume we're still in danger."
That was fair enough.
Armaldo considered what he needed to do and decided to start pacing up and down the hallway to think about it.
As he did so, Sean whispered to Timber. "You… don't still have it do you?"
Timber patted himself down before shaking his head.
Sean nodded and reached through to touch Timber's arm. "I trust you, Bidoof," he said and smiled. "My Dimensional Scream proves that I do; I can only have it when I'm with someone I trust."
A small, fragile smile broke over Timber's face. "T-Timber," he said. "My name's Timber."
"Sean."
Their smiles faded as Armaldo came stomping back before swinging around to continue doing so. "Go to bed!" Armaldo barked. "Both of you. I don't need your yapping, and you need sleep if you're going to be searching without the manic energy of Celebi to help you."
Sean wanted to argue, but one didn't argue with Armaldo unless they were absolutely committed to it, and he was feeling tired again. Dimensional Screams always took a bit out of him.
"Stay safe," he asked Timber and left and crept back between Striker and Guardian, now cuddled up and effectively fainted.
Tomorrow was another day.
Scout had experienced many things in his life that could be considered uncomfortable.
Telling the town gossip he was a prostitute.
Getting called out by Mane in the ruins of Treasure Town.
Dying.
Trusting Darkrai.
Being approached by pokémon who called him by name a little too knowingly.
And much, much, more.
Still, this was a new record of discomfort. Not only because of the tension in the air, not only because of what staggering revelations had just been dumped on his head, and not just because he was pretty sure she was looking for a reason to kill him.
But all of that combined with the awkwardness of having to stick around with the source of it all.
He doubted Soothe was much better, but she definitely expressed serenity much better than he did. Which felt unfair if he was her but only kinda?
Good lord, his head was going to be swimming once he began to digest everything that he had been told.
Leaving Soothe cheat of a dungeon behind, they were aimed to disappear into the wilds. Something he bet Soothe was very good at.
"We won't be going to any towns," Soothe said stiffly. "The two of us are far too easily spotted, and once your partners get the word out, the entire continent is going to be looking for us."
Where did a shiny audino and alolan meowth go if they wanted to not be found?
Well, the audino didn't want to be found. Scout would have no issue with Rai, Mane, and Rhythm showing up right now to intervene and build a rational plan that didn't involve mystery and confusion.
She'd disagreed with the brief mention of that he'd tried. "Indeedee will be looking for us," she argued. "We need to be hidden from everyone."
"You know Wigglytuff will help you."
"I do."
It was a topic that made her visibly uncomfortable rather than just verbally. "I won't ask him."
"Why?" Scout knew it was dangerous to push, but he wasn't a meek little kitten anymore.
Her glare still tried to cut a line in his fur, though. "Because," she said between clenched teeth.
"…if you're expecting us to actually work together, you're going to need to explain yourself."
The look she gave him clearly said that she would be happier having him as a hostage than a partner, but despite it, she did find some appropriate words to respond with. "You know, he absolutely knew that I was the one writing to you."
Scout frowned but didn't rise to the bait.
"I met with him before he stepped down as the Guildmaster," she added, which did leave too tempting a hook to not bite on.
"What? And he…agh." He realised he had taken the bait too late.
"I gave him a letter I pretended was from Indeedee, or just from some evil twisted monster because I can't tell him who she is yet."
"Why not?" Scout asked. "Why this secrecy? I don't get it. Rhythm is so absurdly strong, and he would do everything to vouch for you! We could prepare the guild, get everyone in the know. Who knows what Indeedee might be doing." If you're telling the truth about her, went unsaid. Scout still wasn't entirely convinced.
"Rhythm is too strong," Soothe replied, tone clipped. "And she'll use that against him."
"How?"
She looked at him through the sides of her eyes and took a soft breath. "She's got Trill. Chatot."
Scout's eyes snapped wide as he felt like a graveler collided with his chest. His breath knocked out of him as his heart gave one huge, painful thump.
"What?" he hissed, almost seeing red.
She observed him for a moment curiously before shrugging his nonverbal threat off. "Turns out that Kabutops was a Shadow Pokémon. When they killed each other, Trill came back to life. I knew it was possible, so after Timber told me, I went to Brine Cave myself to see if he'd revive. He did."
His head was absolutely swimming now. "I-W-I-He has-We have to save him!"
"And that's exactly the problem," Soothe snapped. "Rhythm would do anything to get Trill back. Anything."
"He…he…."
"I lived and breathed the same space as those two for two years," Soothe said. Two wonderful years. "I know he would because he did the same for me. Imagine having someone that strong, who ultimately would buckle to Indeedee's wishes."
"She has Chatot?" Scout asked before gasping. He had MET a chatot in Blackstone Village. "Wait. Her aid is CHATOT!?"
Soothe nodded grimly.
Tears struck Scout's eyes all at once, and a sob ripped out of his throat before he pulled it back. Soothe stared quietly at him as he wiped his face, happy and angry and ashamed and relieved all at once.
"I've always blamed myself," he said softly.
Soothe snorted at him. "This all stopped being a game long before you were ever aware of it."
"How did things even go slightly as they were supposed to?" Scout asked. "If you've been changing things for twenty years?"
"I have no fucking clue," Soothe replied.
"I told Keira, and she made a few guesses." About the way the word snaps back when time is changed. Small events not changing the wider whole even if they should logically do so. Something about paradox avoidance getting smoothed over. It was too much for him to ponder too deeply.
"It doesn't matter anyway," Soothe sniffed. "There was absolutely no 'First Fallen' in the games nor where Shadow Pokémon this horrific."
Still, something was dawning on Scout so hard. He never had a chance, did he? "On my first day, Skuntank took the Relic Fragment in Beach Cave."
"Sounds like a bitch of a twist."
"It was." Scout actually laughed. "It really was. I had no idea how things had changed like that so early. For months I thought I had 'control' of things, keeping stuff 'on track' so that'd play out as it was supposed to. I never had a chance of that, did I?"
It was liberating to speak of this. Speak of it to someone who really, truly, probably got it.
"You're also pretty dumb," Soothe confirmed.
"Hey!"
"Come on." She rolled her eyes. "My identity was so obvious. I even called myself Victory."
Scout did not compute.
"I'm an audino."
Still nothing.
She rolled her eyes. "Victory. Audino. The protagonist of a really popular PMD comic was a human-turned-audino, and the comic was called Victory Fire."
Oh.
"You're name is a REFERENCE?" Scout felt offended and didn't know why.
"No. My disguise name is a reference, clever one too."
"I thought Victory was Victini!"
"Because you're dumb."
Scout couldn't help but release a near-hysterical laugh. He was kidnapped and getting told references by his kidnapper. Who he had the memories of.
"How many people am I?" Scout asked. "I'm Scout, Sean, myself, and now YOU."
"You're hardly me. I'm considerably less dumb."
"And who knows if this alolan meowth body was someone as well!?"
"Mm. Yeah, that is weird."
"I hate everything ever."
"Welcome to my life," Soothe said. "It sucks.
Scout sighed and just wished for rest. After all, the universe could not be so vexed with him as to make things even more complicated.
"So, you should probably know that Indeedee has the shadowfied version of your friends father, Kogeki, because the weirdo talks in third person."
Scout's head thumped the ground.
"Yeah, I was expecting that response."
Scout got up. "We…we have to save Chatot," he said softly.
Soothe didn't address that.
"Soothe. If we save Chatot, Indeedee loses her hold over Rhythm. Imagine Rhythm unleashed entirely on her evil!"
That did make a flicker.
"That's what she wants," she brushed him off. "We're trying to avoid the bitch, not literally walk up to her and offer ourselves to her."
"We're not going to do that!"
"Sounds like it."
"If we can rescue him," he began.
"What if he doesn't want to be?" Soothe asked sharply. "What if he's too afraid? Indeedee traps everyone to her by giving them safety from the Hunger. That whole niggling gnawing feeling that builds and builds and builds until you snap and kill someone. She keeps it down. It's how she gets away with literal murder."
"It's why you took him to her," Scout said. Soothe fell silent. "You did. Didn't you? How else would he have gotten to her?"
"…"
Scout's eyes narrowed. "You put him in her pocket-"
"If I didn't," she cut across, "he would have ended up killing someone and then himself. Probably Rhythm. If not from attacking him, from the grief and pain of seeing Trill do that and probably having to put him down. It wasn't a GOOD solution, but it was the only one I had that had a chance of keeping him s-"
She snapped her mouth shut there, not finishing that.
"…For the longest time, Indeedee has been lazy," she said, bitterly spitting the words out. "Nothing like she was in the Dark Future. Where she was driven and active. Here in this time, she's been lax, lazy, just going along with the motions. Doing nothing but mayor duties and a bit of freakish sadism here and there. Even forcing me to give her 'spoilers', she's been doing nothing. It wasn't until some time after time was saved that I noticed something had changed with her."
"By that point, I'd already given Trill over to her. Maybe she was simply waiting for the chance; maybe your interaction with her has given her something. I'm sure of that, at least. She stopped asking for me 'advice' after that, just teasing and making suspicious comments that were proving correct. Stuff I knew that she shouldn't have."
"So, she's doing something now," Scout said. "You've made that clear already. That's why we need to save Chatot. Take that away from her."
"You've got no idea how dangerous she is," Soothe warned, but she was…acclimating to the idea.
"But you do," Scout pointed out, going along with her as if he fully believed her. "And you've known her for years. If there's any way we can get in and save him…."
"Pfft. Don't try and cosy up to me, Scout. You're right. But don't be a sycophant. I really hate those."
Noted in Scout's mind.
"So…?"
Soothe delivered a sharp, scary smile to him. "I'll think about it," she said sweetly, terrifying him down to his bones.
There was something about the way Soothe smiled that just didn't seem…right.
But then her smile changed to something more amused, and he felt some of the fear lift.
"I think this'll be the start of a lovely partnership~," she said musically, their feet padding on the twigs and leaves before them. "I trust you won't try and run away."
He trusted she'd make sure that he wouldn't.
It was time to scope each other out. Learn. And plan. Scout didn't truly know who the enemy was here. Soothe had saved him but now kidnapped him yet spoke of things that he felt was true.
But how much of it? All of it. If so, they had to save the world again, and the thought of it being in danger again so soon was horrible.
But if not, then what was her goal here?
He had to figure this out first.
He only hoped Rai and Mane would be okay in the meanwhile.
Poor Scout, worried about his boys. They are also rather worried about him.
So, things are going on again.
WE know Indeedee/Nelia is the enemy, but Scout can only hope to trust.
Timber is a very hurt pokémon at the moment, but Sean is a good guy.
I absolutely used a scene from Xavier: Renegade Angel for the Celebi Scene :P it was almost upsetting how well it fit. Male!Celebi is also crazy, but of a slightly different flavour. If Saniya is Rocky Road, he's Cookies and Cream.
And…yeah. Indeedee is Nelia, Runerugus was a very-unwilling Violet. Haa… I'm sure a few people wondered what significance Chapter 41 would have, and then we had Sean revisit Circh out of concerned curiosity. So, what he heard during his Dimensional Scream was part of Violet's final scream and that 'light' he saw that he thought was literally the Ultimate Weapon firing was the violation of Violet's soul.
Intense stuff if it even shadows the magnitude of the weapon-that-split-the-world.
Fun stuff. Nelia is very fun to write, maybe too much fun.
Ah well! See you next time!
Discord people got to see this and will be able to see all future chapters a little early! So, here's a link if you're interested: discord gg/MUtgHqKhwg