How many chapters of this story do you think there will be?
Not telling, of course.
Soothe was a terrifying person to be around.
Scout couldn't put the paw pad on it exactly. On the surface, she was fine; she was visibly tense and short with him at best. It was uncomfortable but, in itself, not terrifying.
There was just something about her….
Scout assumed this was the whole 'being a Shadow Pokémon' thing. But at the same time, he reasoned, people like Mane's mother never would have gotten away with hiding it if it brought such a visceral sense of discomfort.
"Maybe because I know she's one?" He considered. Keira had made it pretty clear they couldn't really be detected by the means pokémon had available, if at all, until they lost it.
Might be the indisputable fact that he knew she'd kill him and very much could/was planning to do so.
Or related to that, and similar to his fear of Chimecho, he knew he may have to rely on her to save him at some point and knowing she had that sort of power over him was just uncomfortable?
Perhaps because Darkrai had been so utterly terrified of Soothe and his reviving of Scout transposed some of that fear?
Or maybe she was just a scary person in general.
He didn't know and really did not ever plan to actually voice these comments. She was scary. That was the point.
The point of the iron thorn strapped to her waist.
If Soothe noticed his intense discomfort, she didn't mention it, and they just kept on walking together.
Or walking in the same direction under duress might be a more accurate way to describe this situation, Scout thought with grim amusement.
These thoughts were not entirely unique to Scout at this moment. Soothe herself was dwelling on disturbing matters that left her bones feeling itchy.
Putting aside the awkwardness of effectively kidnapping her companion. Ignoring the bizarreness of knowing that he had some sort of copy of her own mind and might have embarrassing memories that don't even belong to him.
Ignoring those thoughts, there was the persistent question of Scout. He was a part of the demons plan; she was certain of that. But in what way?
He didn't seem like a Shadow Pokémon. While they were effectively impossible to detect, even for another Shadow, she still had a good sense about her for danger.
Was he just a piece of Indeedee's plan, or was he the meat and potatoes of the whole shebang? He'd already interacted with her, which had sent every alarm bell ringing in her head at once.
Did she do something to him?
If she didn't, why wouldn't she?
Why did she start acting a little differently around that period? SOMETHING must have happened. Had he told her the Big Secret?
But she already effectively knew, grilling Soothe for information at points over the last eighteen or so years. She'd only ever given the barest bones, as few details claiming a poor memory. She couldn't lie to the Fallen; she knew when she tried and that only invited pain.
But she'd never fully explained WHAT she knew, only certain aspects of times to come, playing it off as knowledge from the future rather than knowledge from an outside source.
She always worried that Indeedee knew anyway and was just playing with her, but she liked to think she wasn't helpless. It was HER mind, hers. She could master her own mind.
Only now, Indeedee's questions had changed. Almost patronising, like she already knew and was just messing with her. Well, the messing had succeeded; Soothe had been losing sleep for months now.
Scout had to be part of it. He had to. They were both victims here…unless he wasn't. If he was in on it….
She had a knife for these occasions.
But if he wasn't….
Surely someone would have noticed if Scout went about picking off the occasional feral or if townsfolk went missing. Surely he couldn't hold onto himself long enough….
But if he was connected to Indeedee in some way, she'd keep the murder suppressed, and he could act normally most of the time.
But how? She needed the Connection Orb, it disgusted her that Indeedee was apparently the creator of that, and she wished she could throw it at Ampharos one day. She needed the orb to commune with Indeedee over the long distance.
But Grovyle the Thief was well-known as being obsessed with orbs. That was a surprise to hear about the cool thief that everybody loved. Orbsessed, Timber had giggled a few times.
Soothe immediately pushed that thought away.
Could Scout have found a way to conceal it? But…no. The question was still too complicated, and she knew she'd be running in circles for even more days if she kept this up.
They'd stick together. She'd watch him. She'd know if he was having trouble suppressing the Hunger. She would know, and then the question would be answered, and the solution would be simple.
Elegant even.
But if he didn't…well, then things remained complicated as she would need to look deeper. She couldn't trust anything relating to the Fallen's actions, and she doubted it'd be so simple that he'd begin to show obvious signs of being corrupted.
No, this would be a careful game. He might be working with her without even realising it. She was able to manipulate minds, copy memories, and suppress the psychotic gifts of the monstrous Shadow.
Soothe could barely even begin to imagine what Indeedee was capable of underneath that gentle smile and polite giggle. She sometimes wondered if she was even an indeedee or just looked like one to manipulate more easily. Or if she was one but was so utterly corrupted, she might as well not even qualify as a pokémon anymore.
An ironic thought popped into Soothe's mind, which caused a bitter chuckle to escape her mouth. If Scout did not inspire her own Hunger, the only way he wouldn't be at risk of her own ticking clock running short and ripping him apart is if he was, in fact, her enemy. But if he's someone safe, not corrupted, and just another pawn in this twisted game, a potential and likely ally, she'd be driven to kill him eventually.
She'd seen him fight Darkrai. He definitely wasn't bad, but he wouldn't stand a chance against her. That was a relief in a small sense.
She had her window. That was what Soothe focused on, pushing bitter, ironic thoughts away. She had a window. She hadn't suffered under the Fallen's thrall for nearly twenty years and not determined every inch she could stretch into a mile. There would be a sweet spot that she could figure things out and still plan appropriately.
There had to be.
There had to be.
There had to be.
There just had to be.
There was no acceptable option otherwise.
DoYouRememberWhatItWasLikeToLiveSoothe?
Guardian fidgeted with the rollcall orb.
Were Striker around to see it, he'd probably be threatened with bodily harm.
But Striker was not here. He'd chosen to do the smart thing and go out to Crystal Lake to ask for Azelf to help them.
It was the right thing to do bar none, no questions asked, but Guardian couldn't help the little bead of resentment about it. The thought, no matter how untrue it was, that Striker didn't care as much about Scout.
It wasn't true, and Guardian knew it. He knew it. He knew it.
But he hated that he had to keep reminding himself, and having the orb in hand just made him think of Striker.
"You keep looking like you're about to squeeze that until it breaks," Mane said lowly, having stared at Guardian for longer than was appropriate.
"I won't," Guardian replied. He shook his head, and with a clipped tone, he said. "If Sean is onto something, I can't bear the thought of calling him back and losing it."
"It'll last for another two days, won't it?" Rai asked, finishing last with their gearing up. They'd rested; nothing had happened. It was time to go.
"Right."
"Call him back when the time is nearly up," Rai suggested, tightening the Treasure Bag. It was the only thing left behind when Scout had been taken, so Rai had taken to carrying it instead.
Guardian had considered offering to shoulder it once but thought better of that.
"Let's go," Mane suggested as they were all ready to move.
It was a silent walk between the three of them. Guardian didn't even have legs, but a careful ear could pick up a gliding sound of sorts when it was quiet.
Rai and Mane stepped fairly carefully. Audino were notable for their powerful ears, and they didn't need her to know they were coming. But not too carefully since Scout was also sharp-eared and might be able to alert them if they were hiding.
And no one was in the mood for chatting.
Thankfully it wasn't awkward; they'd all worked together too many times for any lingering discomfort to rear its ugly head. No, they were silent because they had something in common. The three people who loved Scout the most were searching for him.
It rose Mane's spirits slightly, the idea of it all. They couldn't fail with this much-concentrated determination, and Soothe had better fucking pray she was deserving of Wigglytuff's misplaced trust.
Mane began to fantasise about what it'd be like to find them. Scout being held hostage and Soothe calling threats before the three of them, Mane in front, of course, prowling around until Scout opened a weak point for the three of them to pounce at once and take her down.
She was Shadow. No matter what Wigglytuff had to say, she was dangerous no matter what. They had to find her quick for that exact reason.
Mane knew what it was like to be stuck with a Shadow Pokémon.
The thought of Scout with one would have driven him to tears if he wasn't so focused on the matter at paw.
"Hey, Guards?" Mane asked, the first voice to break the din in a couple hours of walking.
"Yes?" Guardian asked, distracted by the sudden speaking up.
"What are we going to do if Soothe fights us?"
"Defeat her," Guardian replied firmly and without hesitation. "I will not allow anything less."
Rai shivered. Briefly, he remembered blacking out in Amp Plains, The Great Dusknoir grappling with Manectric and learning what he'd done afterwards.
They'd fought with all their might, but they hadn't been able to defeat the Shadow Pokémon that time. He glanced at Mane and knew they were thinking similar thoughts.
"In Amp Plains, you saved us," Rai said quietly. "We all were fighting Manectric, and we lost."
"That was a long time ago," Guardian waved that concern off, although it really wasn't. Two years at most? "You've done so much since then."
"Yeah, but we still lost," Rai said. "What if we're not strong enough against Soothe?"
Guardian considered the words for a moment. "I trust you two."
"I want to be trained," Mane blurted out, Rai's ears flicked. "We can't just…run into it. And look at you! Those arms, I gotta know how much you can lift. Can you lift this tree?"
Guardian stared at him dubiously as Rai grew a little more downcast. Mane's grin wavered, and he reigned it in. "If it does come to a fight, and it probably will, we've got to be able to handle ourselves. You know, I can handle Rai and Scout, but…wink."
"I will protect you," Guardian said firmly, ignoring the end of that.
"You shouldn't have to," Rai said, scuffing at the ground. "We are capable, but what we've heard about Soothe…."
"She was Wigglytuff's teammate," Mane said bitterly.
"And she terrified Darkrai," Rai said darkly.
Guardian slowly digested this in consideration. "You have…a point, I suppose. Scout has mentioned in very damning ways how formidable she seemed. It took us all to face Darkrai at the end, although he was backed up and duplicated himself."
"Yeah, but we know she's strong."
"What did he say…? Protect as a blade?" Rai wondered out loud. The idea of using a defensive move as a weapon was concerning as much as it was fascinating.
"It's not unheard of to master a move to the point of utilising it in ingenious ways," Guardian said thoughtfully. "For example, Shadow Sneak." A dark tendril sneaked out of his own shadow to curl around. "Normally, a whole shadow is used as a bludgeoning strike, but they are only animated with my Power and thus have nebulous physicality. But concentrating it like squeezing a tube, these tendrils are able to be formed and are grimly similar to a Shadow Pokémon's Shadow Hold."
He dropped the tendril. "Scout and Shadow Ball is also quite clever, utilising seed effects blended into the maelstrom. Their effects are weaker but easier to inflict."
"Is this something you are interested in learning?" Guardian asked. "Now may not be the best of times. We need to make ground, not stop and train."
"We can train on the go," Mane suggested. "Walk the talk. Tie us up in the tendrils. Let us break out. Or not."
"I don't wish to exhaust you…."
"I can go all night!" Rai bumped him. "…Sorry. We'll keep it light bonda-" Rai almost knocked him over. "I just…I just…." Mane didn't have the words to spit out, but Guardian understood them all the same.
"I am confident I can take an audino holding my son hostage," Guardian said forcefully. "But I agree with your suggestion, amidst the crass at least."
"Thanks, daddy," Mane said pleasantly.
"Let's just keep moving," Rai muttered.
"Come on, baby, you know I love you."
"Mane."
Mane's smile dipped. "Sorry," he managed again. Rai rubbed his head against his for a second, then a second longer, then a bit more. The comfort was needed for both of them, and the tension holding Mane's body like wire began to lessen. "Sorry," he said more normally.
"It's okay," Rai said. "Save it for Scout."
"And you?"
"And me."
"Cool."
Guardian gestured, and they began to trundle along. "Start with simple Power stretches, use your moves with as little Power in them as possible and try and not burn the forest down."
Mane set a tree on fire pretty quickly, and Guardian had to smother it in cold shadows.
"Okay, let's try that again with less fire."
Scout woke up on day three with gross eyes that took far too much rubbing to clear up.
His eyes were leaking; even as he rubbed the rocks away, it kept going.
"Are you crying?" Soothe asked, a tone of…what was that? Disgust? Incredible discomfort? Hard to say with her.
"No," Scout snapped, voice breaking. He swallowed thickly.
He'd dreamed of Rai and Mane, and it was everything. They were exploring a new place, excitement in the air. There were no monsters lurking in the shadows or pressures mounting on their backs. It was just safe, the world they'd made safe.
But apparently, the world was not safe, and they hadn't done jack shit.
He kept his face turned away from Soothe. He was crying. He hated having to wake up into the nightmare again, knowing they were not here and not knowing if he'd even see them again. It was tough to sleep with Soothe keeping watch in the first place. He wondered if she even slept but was not bold enough to test that hypothesis.
"… You're starting to smell; we're going by the river."
"I'm not licking my fur!" Scout snapped on reflex.
Soothe gave him a strange look. "…I didn't say you would be."
There was a brief moment of understanding. Optimistically one could even say comradery as Scout understood the reason he just couldn't mentally do the fur-licking thing is because he had a copy of her memories.
But the moment, if it ever existed, passed, and he nodded. "Where?"
"Just keep up."
Soothe always had everything ready to go at a moments notice, Scout had noted. Anything that wasn't required to be used in the current moment was kept tightly stored in her own travel bag. She didn't let him carry it, he hadn't asked, and he'd lost his own, leaving him feeling exposed and vulnerable.
Not a nice feeling to have when rooming with a self-expressed murderous psychopath.
As they walked, Scout continued to sniffle. He didn't want to make a racket around Soothe, but his nose was running, and he didn't want to wipe it on his fur in case the river plan fell through.
However, the sniffling was definitely being heard by her gigantic elephant ears, and she was firmly not looking at him.
She did not have sympathy to give and pretended to do it would be insulting.
He was getting on her nerves, however.
"So?" Soothe asked, Scout tensing up at the acknowledgement. "What do you…do for fun?"
Scout stared at her in horror.
Was she…trying to make small talk?
"I dunno," he said on reflex because he was noping out of this.
She frowned at him. "You don't know what you do for fun? Do you have any personality at all, or do you just go along with every psycho around you?"
"I only have the three psycho's around me!" Scout snapped back without heat.
She raised an eyebrow.
"…You are one of them."
"I gathered that."
"…Chimecho and Saniya."
She rolled her eyes. "At least you have a sense of humour. Is that what you like to do for fun, make confusing jokes?"
"Why are you asking me this?" Scout protested. "What do YOU do for fun then?"
"Plan knock-knock jokes," Soothe said as dryly as the Northern Desert's winds.
"Be serious."
"I am serious."
"Hi Sirius," Scout spat with pure vitriol; Soothe's eyes went wide. "I'm Scout."
They had stopped walking and stared at each other. Scout had a strange aural feeling of impending death, and he never thought he'd go out making a dad joke.
"Pfffft." Soothe snorted. "How dare you?"
Scout slowly came back to his body, feeling pins and needles and not stabs and knives. "You made it too easy."
"I'd be ashamed to ever have known you if it weren't for the fact that I would have made that exact joke."
"Because I'm you, and nothing I do is original."
"Okay, did you wake up on the wrong side of the cold hard ground today?"
"Do you even sleep?"
"Stop changing the subject."
"How could I change the subject if I'm just you. You're insulting yourself."
"I didn't say an insult you escaped circus accident!"
"You just did then!"
"Oh, good job at pointing out the joke. That makes it SO MUCH FUNNIER!"
Scout was breathing fast, feeling all for the moment like he was alive and about to die. Again. For both.
Soothe eventually cracked a smirk. "Well, ice is broken at least."
Scout gave her a Look. "Is that what you were trying to do?"
"I couldn't stand listening to you sniffle and pout."
"You can hear pouting?"
"When it's that pathetic, yes."
Scout pouted, and Soothe rubbed her ear and winced. He pouted harder until his face screwed up.
"Get in the drink, you dusty cat." Soothe suddenly grabbed him by the scruff and held him up as he hissed.
"I'll scratch the shit out of you," he threatened.
"I imagine that's what my cats used to say."
"You bathed your cats?" Scout asked in horror.
"One time."
"You're a monster."
"We've already covered that. Come on, I know you're slow, but keep up."
"I'm you, so you're slow."
"Ugh, is that what your only argument is going to be?"
"I know you are, but what am I?"
They had reached the river, and she threw him in.
Scout had gotten reasonably good at swimming in unmoving water, but the cold shock and early morning stunned him, and he sank for a moment, wondering if Soothe would come in after him if he didn't resurface.
The need to breathe won out over tempting the demon, and he swam to the top and gasped for breath.
"Watch out," Soothe called lazily as Scout wiped the water from his eyes. He noticed the river was carrying him away, and he quickly swam for the shore and pulled himself out, fur sticking closely to his body.
She looked at him and laughed an amused but hollow sound. "You look like a drowned rat."
Scout began to approach.
"If you shake off like a dog next to me, I will have no choice."
To do what?
She didn't elaborate, and Scout pictured the kinds of things she could do to him and shook off away from her.
"So." Soothe finished filling canteens and cleaning her face and fur. "I'm going to need to know your move set."
"What?" Scout asked.
"Don't argue, please." The word was spoken with a certain edge to let everyone know she wasn't asking. "I've got to know."
He didn't like the idea of showing her his proverbial neck. "I'll tell you if you tell me yours."
"No. You're going to just tell me."
Scout frowned. "You want us to work together, right?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Together."
She rolled her eyes. "Fine. But you first."
"One at a time."
"Stop arguing." Her voice wasn't raised, but Scout felt a shiver go up his spine that had nothing to do with the water dripping.
"Scratch, Night Slash, Shadow Ball, Hypnosis, Fury Swipes…although I'm not really sure there's that much difference between it and Scratch. Or Scratch and Slash, to be honest."
"Yeah, some moves do just feel like a natural evolution," Soothe drawled. "Breaking the four-move limit, are you? That's absolutely not something a good PMD protagonist would do."
"This isn't a game!"
"Well, you're right about that. Games are fun." She stored the canteens, ignoring how Scout looked at her expectantly. "That's a start, at least."
"Pardon yourself?"
"No."
She brushed off and stood up. "Some pokémon will emphasise learning as wide of a variety of moves possible to have as something for every situation. But that's impossible; you'll never be able to actually do that because situations always seem to hit you in ways you aren't fully prepared for. It's also a bit useless since seeds, orbs, wands and etc., exist to back you up anyway."
"You can lose those," he pointed out, gesturing to her bag.
"Indeed. But you still usually will have them."
"I don't," Scout muttered, annoyed at missing the familiar weight.
She glanced between him and the bag for a moment before shrugging. "Anyway, I'm not done with my rant."
"You're ranting?"
"If you don't shut up, I'll rant about something else. Sit down, pour a cup of dead parents and prepare for your Shounen anime mastery rant."
"What?"
"Shut up; I've wanted to do this forever."
Scout rolled his eyes as Soothe worked herself up. She seemed…actually excited? It was weird. Everything about this was weird, but somehow this was the weirdest thing yet.
He'd first met her when she sang a parody of Darkrai singing a parody. He had strange dreams of the two going into a duet of Man Me a Sand, and that was no good.
"When I first arrived in the Dark Future, I was a helpless child thrown into the wolf den. Might as well have been literal since Indeedee found me right away." Her expression was sour. "But I survived and made it to the past, to Wigglytuff and Chatot."
She shook her head. "For some time, I just lived coasting off others. Indeedee for a week, Celebi for around a year or so? Wigglytuff and Chatot for two. It wasn't until I left them that I knew I had to stand on my own."
"Is she going to get to the point?" Scout wondered.
Perhaps she could read his mind as she suddenly said. "Watch what I can do with Protect!"
A shimmering blade curved from her outer wrist and extended past her elbow; an emerald light glittered pleasantly.
"It's such a powerful move if you can master it entirely," Soothe said fondly. She tapped the flat part of the barrier before tilting it to show the edge. "It's a Protect, so the barrier itself is hard enough to brain someone, but it's made out of energy. Of that Power, everyone says with a verbal capital letter. And you can manage how much and what kind of shape it goes into."
She dropped it before raising both hands, a full barrier appearing around her. "It's easy to just do this. It's a pulse of that energy pokémon have that just…expands in every direction. That's easy. Modifying that took years of practice."
She began to shrink parts of it, holes appearing while other parts of the barrier remained intact. "There's all sorts of control that almost feel like they're being guided by the tenseness of your belly. That's where the Power feels like it comes from. The centre of your body, which is anywhere from your intestines to liver and lungs rather than stomach but whatever."
She brought her hands in, and the Protect faded until she clasped it between her fingers. Then it winked out entirely.
"So, you want me to learn Protect?" Scout asked hopefully. "Or are you just showing off?"
She snorted. "I'm making a point." She considered. "And showing off. Even Indeedee can't use Protect like I can. Although that might partially be because she thinks she doesn't need it," she added darkly.
"You get distracted with tangents easily, don't you?" Scout asked curiously.
She blinked owlishly at him.
"So do I."
"Oh, good." Soothe rolled her eyes so hard she could knock down bowling pins with them. "This joke again."
"I wasn't trying to be funny!"
"Well, that explains a great deal."
Scout ignored that. "What was the point of showing me this?"
"It leads into my next point," she said, pacing back and forth. "Your move set. Could be better."
"Okay…?"
"You piss me off," she said. "Just…be quiet."
"Okay." He was pushing it now.
"I'm not teaching you Protect. It won't work for you." Scout cocked his head at her, curious as to her reasoning there. "I saw you against Darkrai. You're all speed and reflex and swish-swish slash. For you, Protect would involve expanding a bunch of Power to stay in place and whether something."
"And I'm pretty durable anyway."
"Are you?" She looked at his ribs with dubiousness.
"Under this fur, I have a lot of scars."
"I can see one on your nose."
He rubbed it. "Well, yeah."
"So, you get hit a lot?"
"It tends to happen. I've always been tough. Only died the one time."
"I don't think disappearing counts as dying."
"Not exactly what I meant." He paused. "Hang on, why didn't YOU disappear? It even got Sean, and he wasn't from the Dark Future originally. Either," he added after a moment.
She gave him a curious look. "I don't know," she admitted. "I was in the middle of talking to Timber, expecting it to all be over soon. Then the big storms ended, and I didn't start to disappear."
She chuckled. "I even wrote Timber a big long letter just to give him some closure, didn't need that in the end, it seems. I just… didn't disappear."
"And you don't know why?"
She shrugged. "Nope. I can make some blind guesses. Being Shadow might have something to do with it. If it does, I guess that looks good on you since you disappeared. Or maybe I lived in the past for long enough, almost twenty years compared to one or two in the Dark Future. I mean, Litleo didn't disappear like Sean even though he went to the Dark Future after all."
Scout nodded; that was the best guess they probably had.
"Sorry." He almost smiled. "Tangent."
She smirked at him. "Whatever. We'll get to the point eventually. I think I can teach you something better than Protect. You know the move Substitute?"
"Uh?" He thought firmly; he was pretty sure he could remember. "Yeah?"
"Basically Shadow Clone Jutsu."
"What's the difference between it and Double Team?" Scout asked.
"Double Team is just an illusion," she answered, a filthy look crossing her face that had nothing to do with Scout. "Fucking illusions. Substitute creates something more akin to a second body; it's halfway solid and can act on its own."
"Sounds creepy, honestly."
"A bit. They can attack as well as speak. Which makes it a useful move. Takes a solid portion of energy to make, though, and when they eventually break, that's just stuff you've lost. HP, or power points, or just pure stamina, or literally whatever you need to think to reason it in your head."
"Can you use it?"
"Yeah." Soothe nodded. "Although it's from my 'learn everything' period before I determined that mastering a few works better. I'll need to warm up to remind myself how to use it."
"If it takes 'HP', why should I learn it? Aren't I meant to be avoiding damage, not giving it up myself?"
"First off, you use your own blood in battle, so your earlier comment about creepiness is null and void." Ah, Soothe was the kind of person who thought of comebacks after the topic had passed and couldn't help but say them anyway. "Secondly, being able to split into two, or theoretically more if you were a bit bold, would be a nightmare to fight considering how fast you are."
"You want to make me stronger?"
She didn't trust he was safe, but at the same time, she didn't want him to be helpless against the Fallen. An ally who would fight, even if he was another pawn in her scheme, would be better than nothing.
"You're going to need everything you can get to survive what's coming," she replied pleasantly.
That was a nice thought as Soothe began to talk again. He wondered if having no one besides Bidoof and, apparently, Indeedee to talk to had driven her somewhat bonkers.
That was a nice thought.
"It seems like I do nothing but put out fires all day every day," Nelia protested as she hurried back out of town as she received a panicked sensation from Violet.
"Violet, dear, is Arcanine really that much of a challenge?"
Aid.
Save.
No.
Save.
No.
Not.
…save.
She swooped towards the sound of combat, stones clinking and crashing and the loud, aggressive cursing that adorable little Arcanine would never do even with his life on the line.
She entered one of her favourite places, a clearing between trees where dramatic battles could easily take place to view one such dramatic contest of wills.
"Oh my gosh!" Nelia cried as she came across a panting Clefable and writhing Runerigus. "Clefable, you're hurt! What IS that thing!?"
She'd immediately sent a pulsatile of psychic might to pull Violet away from Clefable's blinding ray of energy that risked causing Violet to snap.
She soothed the scrabbling monster as it screamed broken words she wasn't paying attention to until it stopped writhing in a manner akin to trying to walk out of its own skin.
Nelia spent a tic too long restraining Violet because then Clefable was staring right through her.
"Are you okay, Clefable?" she asked, affixing a show of strain of holding the runerigus, alerting Violet to continue acting as if she was struggling to free herself.
Slowly, Clefable began to smile. "Kah… it's always the one you least suspect, isn't it?"
Nelia considered her for a moment, debating on what to say. But it wasn't much fun if Clefable had already figured it out. She wouldn't get to see her face and the look in her eyes as the realisation clicked. So, she shrugged slightly, tilting her head. "Rumble talk?"
"Yeah," Clefable growled. "He did."
"He has a bad habit of that," Nelia said pleasantly, like any other day they'd chatted. "Someone should talk about him about that."
The two Shadow Pokémon measured each other up in silence for a few moments, Nelia smiling vaguely and Clefable's frown narrowing into a truly nasty glare.
"How long?" she whispered.
Nelia ignored that. "Up for a chat yourself?"
Clefable, Guildmaster of a guild of ashes now, had seen many, many outlaws in her years. From a bright-eyed youth to a grizzled warden, she thought she'd seen it all.
She'd witnessed Shadow Pokémon, slain plenty herself.
She'd seen psycho's and maniacs, and something about the cutesy manner Indeedee was presenting was making her veins itch.
"I always hated you," Clefable spat, literally, on the ground a globule of bloody spittle.
"Why?" Indeedee replied, sounding hurt.
Clefable scowled at her. "I didn't know. You were always…too trustworthy. Over the years, you never did anything to imply that was not the case, that it was an act. It was always perfect; you were always…perfect. Always had an answer, always had a joke, always did the right thing even if it was the wrong thing."
Nelia made a thoughtful expression and a brief exaggerated impressed frown. "Well, you're smarter than most if you ever noticed in the first place."
"What are you really like?" Clefable growled.
Nelia smiled, and Clefable's fury seemed to shudder to a stop, and she found herself taking a step back without thinking.
Nelia raised an amused eyebrow, and Clefable took that step back stubbornly. "I think part of you already knows."
"I'm not afraid of you," Clefable said.
"Of course not," Nelia giggled because that's what people who weren't afraid said. She winked. "You can't really feel fear anymore, not the same at least."
That wasn't what she meant, and both of them knew it. Clefable refused to embarrass herself by pointing that out, however.
"You just going to stand there and stare at me?" Nelia asked.
"I'm just working something out," Clefable said carefully, eying something.
"Oh?" Nelia leaned forwards. "Wha-"
Clefable activated an orb effect, a pounce orb, and launched like a spring at Nelia, biting down on something hidden under her tongue. An explosion erupted from her mouth from the blast seed aimed right at Nelia while her right paw glowed white and her left sunk into rotten blackness.
And then she just…stopped.
Clefable gagged in the air as her entire body felt like it had struck a brick wall before that wall then collapsed on her, pinning every single strand of fur.
She was a Guildmaster, however, and she knew what this was and how to break it. Her right paw jerked a thumb towards her and unleashed the built attack there at herself.
Nelia released her right as the light began to unleash, coolly evading any damage to her control as Clefable succeeded only in attacking herself.
In which she snared her again with Psychic and spun her back around to face her, catching her by the throat.
"Shh," Nelia soothed, and all at once, Clefable's struggles and plans dripped into the grass as a staggering weight was lifted off her shoulders. Nelia gently propped her on her feet before releasing the hold. Clefable immediately dropped like a marionette whose strings were cut.
An amusing thought in Nelia's head, as in a way it was the opposite.
"What did you do?" Clefable whispered, tears filling her eyes as all at once the…pain was gone. The gnawing Hunger that sunk into her very bones were suddenly gone, the coldness had retreated, and a crackling fire replaced.
All at once, she felt normal again.
Then the regret came.
She had prisoners, of course, but none of them deserved.
Warden Guildmaster Clefable was an old mon by many standards. She was beyond the easy grip of emotion, for she had to lock it up as often as she locked deviants to society up.
But pure regret was impossible to chain when it collided with you all at once.
"There-there," Nelia hummed, patting Clefable's shoulder pleasantly as the powerful pokémon tried, and failed, to control her tears.
"Fuck you," Clefable managed to spit without stuttering; she didn't try and attack her again, however.
"I hope you understand now," Nelia said, straightening back up to let Clefable continue squirming in the dirt. "Or at least a little more."
"What. Did. You. DO?"
"I released you," Nelia said with a smile. "Temporarily, at least."
"That…is impossible," Clefable said, squinting in fury at the word 'temporarily'.
"Is it?"
"…it should be."
Nelia giggled. "Not impossible, simply unlikely. I come with unique gifts befitting my status, however."
"You…are not a normal Shadow Pokémon, are you?"
"By this point, I'm hardly a common Shadow like you are," Nelia drawled. "I am far more now. I am what is known in some old legends as 'The First Fallen'."
The name held weight to people like Clefable, and she recoiled. "L-Lucario killed them," she protested, curing that she stuttered that time.
"Yes," Nelia hummed. "She certainly did kill a group of pokémon calling themselves that. Calling the 'shots', they say. Hm. Interesting."
"…Let me guess, some fall guys for you?"
Nelia chuckled. "Pretty apt description, yes. Suppose 'Fall Guys' and 'Fallen' got mixed up in translation somewhere? Yes, Keira was definitely quite the threat for some time and stopped my plans that last time. Pity that won't happen this time, right?"
Clefable didn't respond. How did she know?
The smirk never left Nelia's lips. "It's only a pity I didn't get to kill her myself. I'll tell others that I did, of course, I come with…proof." She raised her eyes once at that. "After all. But for someone like you who is in the know, there's little point in postulating like that."
"…how long?" Clefable whispered.
"Pardon? You must speak up, dear."
"How long have you been doing this?" Clefable said, voice rising. "How many people have you hurt?"
"Now, that's two different questions, dear."
Clefable snarled. "How. Long?"
Nelia smiled. "In one way, you could say I've been doing this for all time." She trailed a finger along her face and down her horn. "Hm. Hop up, Tempo; I have something I want you to do."
Clefable frowned at the use of her name, something that was a very closely guarded secret. "Why do you think I will ever do anything you demand?"
Nelia gave a half-smile, and nothing moved or flashed, but suddenly Tempo fell to her knees as saliva filled her mouth like blood, and she coughed as an agonising surge of all-consuming Hunger pulled at her bones and the tendons in your fingers.
Then it faded again, letting Clefable cough and splutter for memory of how to breathe. It felt like her very mind had just begun to eat itself in desperation.
"That," Nelia said pleasantly. "Do as I say, and you get to be yourself. Don't…well, I think you've run out of prisoners. Shall I fetch Team Isotope to slate your thirst on?"
Tempo raised her eyes to Nelia in full-blown horror. There wasn't even any disgust or fear, simply horror at the thing standing before her.
"Do we have a deal?" Nelia asked sweetly.
Lowly, Tempo nodded.
"Splendid. Let's meet with the girls. Which I'm almost ready to claim absolution towards, you make the third girl, so at least we're even with the sausage fest boys now."
Nelia began to ramble on about how much of a pig Rumble was and that Kogeki really didn't have much of a spine in his whole body, but Trill was fun, and Violet was always a good time.
She sent Violet to retrieve the boys, barring Trill and stared imperiously at her council of the lost and the damned.
Tempo showed nothing but restrained disgust towards Violet and Rumble, leading her to take company with the only unknown to her. Rumble smirked and cosied up with Violet until she began to mutter soft, piercing sounds that made the ears ring, and he didn't like that so much.
"Alright deadbeat dads, low lives, and respectable members of society, I've brought you here to discuss the next step."
Kogeki nearly snarled at her for the jab, but it was Rumble who spoke first. "Discuss? Or tell?"
"Why the question makes it seem like I don't value your input, Rustle."
"It's Rumble."
"Okay, Riley."
Rumble joined Kogeki in snarling under his breath.
"Kogeki wants to know who that is?" Kogeki asked, jutting his head at Tempo.
"That's the Guildmaster, I murked," Rumble chortled. "Turns out everyone screams when getting murdered."
"That includes you, Ruggle," Nelia pointed out.
"Didn't say it didn't."
Tempo studiously ignored them while mouthing ways she could switch Rumble's insides with his outsides.
"So, we've got a rather irksome issue crawling down our spines that will be a bigger problem soon."
"Did I cause it?" Rumble asked.
"Eh." She shrugged. "No, but the burning of the guild is something that will need to be addressed sooner rather than later."
Violet made another sound. "Dead. Dead. Dead. Neck. Dead."
Somewhere an arcanine lay still. "Thank you, Violet."
The runerigus whimpered. To others, it might have sounded like a disturbing cry of exultation; to them, they could hear what was underneath.
Rumble edged away from Violet a little more.
"As I brought the Psychic Network down, I received a transmission of concern. The lovely Soothe has done a goof and stolen Scout out from under Team Ion's noses. This has made a lot of people very angry and will be regarded as a bad move."
"That meowth?" Rumble spat. "Tough little bastard, he was."
"Very," Nelia drawled. "It's a problem because now everybody and their mother are going to be descending on the region, which is a hop skip and a jump from Blackstone. Not only would Soothe inevitably be very much dead if enough pokémon find her, but they'd have a big blockade around this area, making the movement of Trill's little murder trap all the harder."
"The bird has a trap?"
Nelia laughed. "Well, he might have meant it for another use mayhap, but it only got a pair of pokémon killed."
The disgust never faded from Tempo's face.
"Regardless, they've got to be let out of their cages about now and begin the trek to Treasure Town."
There was silence for a moment.
"Rai is there?" Kogeki whispered. He'd heard it from Nelia before.
"Sure," Nelia agreed, knowing Rai was more than likely closer than that. Kogeki growled energetically.
"Kogeki will see him!"
Well, that was easy. "You won't be leading them alone," she assured him, glancing to Rumble. "Rumble, old buddy, old friend of mine."
"I'm not any of those things."
"Sorry Rankle, young enemy young foe of yours."
He made a strange sound between another snarl and a groan. "I'll go as long as you aren't."
She smiled serenely. "Fair enough."
He blinked. "You're not coming?"
"I trust you," she said in a way that made him feel dirty. I trust that you won't do anything silly, he heard.
"I must attend to Soothe before anything amiss happens to her, oh what a tragedy that would be if she died and/or murked that hostage of hers. How sad." Her oozing voice truly spoke of how sad she found that idea.
Something only Violet saw through, but she was still torn up to digest the sight.
"…and me?" Tempo said as things went silent and uncomfortable.
"You'll stay here," Nelia said.
The clefable did not show surprise, although an indeedee could absolutely sense the emotion, so concealing expressions was rather futile.
"I see." She did not see; she was blind and deaf and dumb as a doornail.
Nelia giggled. "I won't leave you in suspense, Tempo." No one was comfortable with the ease that Nelia spoke, and knew in the first place, their names. "I'm going to unleash a horde of rampant starving Shadow Pokémon on the town, but I have places to be and things to do, and I'm not leaving Trill in charge."
Tempo waited.
"Hm. He'll accompany me." With Soothe on the loose, it was best to play that one a little more careful. Enough so that Nelia wasn't entirely comfortable leaving him on his own even for this long. She doubted he'd be so bold as to try and flee. He'd be emotionally bound to wait for Jet and Boom to revive out of a wish to feel care for something again.
But even so, she didn't like leaving so many things in the air. She could only juggle so much.
"Once the town begins to revive, I want you to follow Rumble and Kogeki to Treasure Town. I have reckoned that they'll need some backup as not all of my aggressive boys and girls will survive this attack. Nothing is quite as fun as seeing a first wave be repelled and the relief on pokémon's faces before the second arrives."
She beamed at their expressions. "It'll be fun; we'll make a day of it. You two." She clonked Rumble and Kogeki's heads together for emphasis. "After the attack, take the more able ones along the road. They'll follow you once the Hunger is sated, and I can manage any that are still a bit aggressive. And they won't attack you two on the road, do try and keep them together; however, it'll be like herding feral Mareep. You two should be able to at least do that."
Kogeki nodded; he'd done it before when hunting with Raiton. An old ache blossomed in his chest. Numb and old as it was, he didn't even recognise the emotion.
Rumble looked disgusted at the idea of work.
"Once the lucky ones revive," Nelia continued, turning to Tempo. "I'd like it for you to follow them. I'll know if you don't," she said lightly, the threat plain and clear. She knew Tempo couldn't be trusted in the least, but she had a feeling she'd play along for just this after having a taste of punishment.
It was usually the case with the prideful ones. Nelia could almost see the thoughts of vengeance dancing in Tempo's head as they spoke.
"Violet, you know what to do." The three frowned slightly as they did not get to learn of Violet's orders. Still, the runerigus nodded a shaking head and immediately melted into the shadows, away from eyes.
"A single Shadow Pokémon is known far and wide as a monstrous threat," Nelia hummed to herself as she walked with them in tow. "Ever wonder what would happen if you unleashed dozens of them all at once?"
She did not get an answer.
Nelia drifted to her holding cells and sunk into the inky depths to find Trill standing vigil in the final room, where Kogeki had been imprisoned.
Where all that was left of his students was ash and echoes.
"Lovely to see you here, Trill. Come here often?"
"Only to set up traps," Trill said stiffly.
"That'd be a fine moment for a cage to comedically fall upon me from the roof," Nelia joked back. No cage fell upon her. "Or for tripwire to be lain in the darkness."
"Unfortunately, my traps tend to be more ingenious than that."
"Ah yes, mysterious note leaving. That is a good one, got them good." She stepped over the ash, as walking through it would be disrespectful, and Trill was right there.
"Might sweep up later," she added, and he huffed.
"Why have you come here?"
"To this dank dungeon of smelly smelliness that smells smelly?"
"…"
"I'm here to murder a great number of people and don't feel like doing it myself."
Trill blinked. "I see."
"Is that satisfying enough of an answer, your honour?"
Trill ruffled his feathers in an attempt to look composed, but no one had ever actually told him it did the opposite. Nelia would not break the news to him today.
"You've done a count of the engaged here, right?"
"Thirty-four."
Nelia whistled. "I thought I had thirty-three. Did someone breed and then eat their child?"
"…"
"Probably. Might have happened to Scout if his parents weren't just feral."
Trill, who was a master at keeping a stiff upper beak, still couldn't help but be intrigued whenever the rare mention of one of his apprentices came up. By Nelia's simple smile, she knew it, and she enjoyed knowing that.
"…I see."
"You really don't. It's dark in here." Nelia waved a hand, and locks began to disengage, Trill hopped back in alarm, and she laughed at him, cruelly echoing as squeals and broken shouts began to raise a din. "They won't attack you; nothing about you would quench the Hunger. Only if they're mad at you, and I doubt you come in here to throw sticks at them."
"Do you?"
"That would be juvenile."
He noted she didn't actually deny it, however.
Cages began to rattle as entrapped monsters began to realise something was happening, and some tested the bars, falling a few feet onto the hard cement ground and getting stunned for a moment.
Cries began to crackle through the air.
"Din. Din. Fire. Burning in the din!"
"Run! Oh, by Mew, Cinder run, I'll protect you. Run! Oh, by Mew, Cinder run, I'll protect you. Run! Oh, by Mew, Cinder run, I'll protect you."
"Ma-ma…maaa…my…hellll."
"I'M SO HUNGRY!"
"Hunger! EAT! Food! NEED! Eat."
The ranting of hunger and gnawing pain caused a few to try and chew on each other. Someone even succeeded in ripping a leg off an ariados. It screeched and spat webs and poison, scuttling up on its remaining legs, losing another to a politoad. Dark blood poured from the wounds before being stoppered by something even darker, oozing blackness that sunk out like questing probes, melting into firmness tipped with claws.
In a few minutes, its two legs had regenerated, and it was itching to eat.
"There's a buffet close by," Nelia called, opening more cages and directing Trill to fly, which also forced him to duck and weave around other Flying-types.
As she released them, she lit up the direction with shimmering flames. More than a few Shadow Pokémon flinched away from the fire, but the draw of freedom was too great, and they began to stampede. Soon enough, even The First Fallen would have no hope of controlling the madness as they thundered out of the jail, smashing the entranceway in their fervour.
"You're with me," Nelia informed Trill as she began to walk languidly towards the town.
"Why?" Trill asked.
"Because we're about to go on a journey together," she replied. "We're going to find Soothe and Scout."
"You plan to use me to enforce compliance?"
"Mmmmaybe," she allowed, nodding. "I might just enjoy your gentle good humour. Soothe's knock-knock jokes really aren't very good.
"They," he began, voicing the opposite with examples. Her smile paused him, and he clicked his beak shut.
"This is why I like you," she said happily. "You have enough backbone to talk smack, without the fucking stupidity of Rumble. Stick close, Trill. The Shadows have eyes."
Violet followed them, silent and unseen.
The plan would chug along swimmingly, Nelia thought as they approached the sounds of panic and screaming. An attack on Treasure Town would draw Soothe and Scout out of wherever they were hiding. It would be impossible not to hear about the moving horde of Shadow Pokémon unless they had literally jumped into another world entirely.
There is little doubt Soothe was smart enough to put two and two together to make four.
And if it didn't actually succeed in doing that? Well, maybe she'd get lucky, and she, Trill, and Violet would find the pair before anything terrible had to happen.
Soothe was always too soft. She liked to think of it as a strength, Nelia knew. Her determination to maintain some moral code even when it was pointless and frustrating, even to herself. At least it made her predictable and fun to rile up.
Yes, Nelia determined as they came into eyesight of the town, pokémon bravely fighting back and even felling a few Shadows, without being able to finish them off before being distracted. Those fallen beasts would regenerate if they weren't put down entirely, and then their backs were turned.
Nelia smiled as cries for help reached her ears and smiled more as Shadow Pokémon ignored her. Understanding dawned in a few eyes, while nothing but fear and confusion was in others at the sight of her.
She liked this town. She'd raised most of them herself from the egg to where they are now. She knew Piplup's secret crushes, the problematic history between Gardevoir and Gallade, and why things always seemed to go wrong for poor Houndoom.
It was only fitting, really, for someone to have watched them live their whole lives to witness the end of them, to watch them die.
A lovely tune crossed her mind, and she began to hum and sing. "Deep in the woods, there was a fire~."
Writing Nelia makes me feel a genuine bit of dirty disgust.
Once or twice, I've mentioned that the pokémon in Blackstone Village are all based on (well, besides Nelia herself and the Clefable Guild) pokémon from my trainer fic. So… it's a bit like doing this to THEM, and that makes me really quite upset.
I hope that Nelia, for her absolute atrociousness, is an entertaining character to see. In the previous arc, we didn't get much of a Darkrai POV, so I knew I wanted to do differently for Nelia. I'm not sure if every chapter will get a POV from her, but there will definitely be more to come as she gets closer and closer to finding some of the other characters.
Also, I don't think I mentioned that I meant to when Trill was revealed to be alive and…' well'.
Originally I did intend on him to die-die in Brine Cave. But SO MANY people were begging and hoping for that not to be the case that I decided maybe…I could give you what you all asked for exactly as you meant it to be.
Very good decision, I think. It's given me a great opportunity, and honestly, I probably would have still done it because I love bird dad.
Who hates The First Fallen yet?
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