I'm having so much fun with this bunch of writing; ah, so much fun.
A long, long time ago.
He had to see.
"Here we are!" Rhythm said slightly oddly, in his quirky little way. He gestured magnificently towards the dungeon entrance, a ripple of space that led into a cavern of trees that became corridors and pokémon that were a warning.
All dungeons were warnings, ones that pokémon simply didn't listen to.
There was treasure in there! Yet so few wondered…why?
Soothe was staring at the dungeon mouth like it had teeth that would clamp down on them all. "Do we…have to go in?" Her expression held some strain to it. It must have been a bad day for her to even show the turmoil that was normally hidden behind sad eyes.
Her concern met Rhythm's excitement; in his thrill, he failed to see the weight bending her back. Instead, he just saw a tired pokémon from the long journey they had taken to get there. Their eyes met for a moment before she folded. "Alright."
Rhythm didn't see.
Trill did.
As Rhythm bounced eagerly in, Soothe's steps were measured and calm. Avoiding sticks and making a curious lack of noise, as light as a shadow.
"Are you alright?" he asked, concerned but not too concerned. They were used to Soothe's changing moods; she had low moments that they were there to pull her out of. No one could remain too maudlin around Rhythm forever; his cheerful exuberance pulled anyone and everyone out of reveries.
What was concerning was the way she jumped, her body tensed for anything and everything to take a swipe at her. "Fine," she said quickly, acting as if she hadn't jumped.
Trill stared at her with a patented expression that would go on to crack many-a-rulebreaker.
She wasn't immune to it either. "I… don't want to talk about it," she said, pushing his concern aside and soldiering on.
"It's no help to bottle things up," Trill pointed out, forever the clever realistic one, never the dreamer that Rhythm was, nor understanding that not everything always had to be shared.
"Yeah…yeah, okay." Soothe shifted, glancing partly away from Trill. A lie. "I'll talk, but not right now. Just…once we're done with this, I think we're going to need to focus." They would need to focus, they should have focused, but it wasn't the dungeon that was the danger.
It wasn't the dungeon that was in danger.
In years and years to come, Trill would hold onto small private regrets. Rhythm had spoken loudly to him when intoxicated about regretting entering the dungeon, not listening to Soothe, not turning back.
But Trill regretted something quieter, something that gnawed at him even more so. He regretted leaving it at that, about letting her turn away and convince himself that it could wait.
Perhaps it could have, so many times they'd simply promised to talk about things later and had. Why should this time be any different?
But she had been odd leading up to the dungeon. Odder than normal. Odder than the curious half-smile she had when saying a cliff in a little town could hold a guild quite well, odder than suggesting reading footprints to judge people's safety to enter such a facility.
More strange than when they spoke of Team Go-Getters and the meteor that could have struck the world.
More strange than any of that.
She had her low moments. Everyone did.
But this had been different; they simply hadn't seen it. She was too brief, too quiet, too good at turning away.
Soothe herself toasted to a pair of explorers, regretting turning away. Regretted not saying so many things. Instead, she told Timber knock-knock jokes.
Rhythm charged forth, unaware of what was missing behind him. His voice was enough to send most pokémon fleeing; anything more was quickly dispatched by a swift wing or bolt of glittering light.
As this was not a dungeon for just anyone to enter, the Team With no Name were pulled from small curiosities about quiet audino and into a rolling fight of relentless pokémon.
With every step, it seemed to draw more and more out, and even Rhythm was finding himself getting a little worn. "There must be an amazing treasure if they're fighting like THIS!" he said excitedly and surged with new strength.
"Hoo!" he sighed as the world around began to change, and they realised they had fought their way through. "That was a workout!"
Trill preened a feather as if he wasn't also very proud of himself. All those Bug and Grass-types fed his ego quite nicely, and he was the least winded of the three of them. "Quite," he said, satisfied.
Soothe smiled blandly at them, and she said.
He finally noticed something was wrong. "Well," Rhythm said, trying to be cheerful nonetheless, "we're nearly at the end! That means we're going to have quite the story to tell. I'm thinking Kangaskhan back in Treasure Town might like to hear about all those diglett that tried to meld into a super diglett!"
That was a story he'd never been able to finish. As it always reminded him of what happened next.
Trill cast a glance over Rhythm, "And Marowak will definitely wish to hear of what improvements we've made as battlers," he added, as the conversation was meant to flow naturally between them. It was here that Soothe would make her own comment, either cutting or comedic, to round it out.
She smiled; it was a small crack. "Heh, you two are idiots," she said with fondness that could not have been a lie; it couldn't have been. The times they shared could not have been a lie.
The crack in her façade reassured them, as it was meant to, and they carried on knowing that they'd have a good talk that ended in tears and hugging later.
As the last of the path began to fade behind them, Soothe's voice caressed Rhythm's ears. The last thing she had spoken to him for a very, very, long time. "Hey, uh-"
He wondered…wondered what she would have said had things gone another way.
They saw the time gear, they spoke in wonder and awe, and their amazement was dampened as a dark shadow lingered.
Dark, but not evil.
"Stop!"
"Who's there?" Trill barked, surprised someone had snuck up on them. Was it bandits again?
Shadows twisted and turned, natural shadows caused by the light of the time gear, nothing like the rottenness lurking behind Soothe.
"You will leave!" Darkrai, not that two of them had known it at the time, demanded. "By the will of Treeshroud Forest's guardian. You will leave and never speak of what you found here. It must remain hidden, for that is the will of Dialga!"
Rhythm stared at the Time Gear for another moment before nodding in understanding. "Of course," he said, falling into a respectful bow. "This is not the first Time Gear I had witnessed, and I swore to keep the first hidden, and I will swear this one too shall remain unknown."
His words shook Trill out of his own wonder, and he also nodded. "We shall not speak of this."
Darkrai turned to the one who would create the cycle anew. He turned to his killer. "And what of-"
Protect a Time Gear. That was the best he could do. Far away enough from others that his aura did not hurt them. Doing something great for the world. That was all Darkrai could do, and he couldn't even do that.
"SOOTHE!" Trill had cried, flying in after his friend, heartbroken that she had done this. "STOP! STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
Rhythm didn't know how he had reacted in time. Nor how he had realised what she was about to do. He simply moved as bloody metal flashed in the twinkling light of the time gear. The blood of a god mixed with his own as Soothe stabbed him in the belly, Rhythm pushing Trill out of the way.
That wound would end up scarring, but it was nothing to the scar left on his heart.
"I." Soothe had whispered one last word, a shaking cry for help to be pulled out of a dragging pool, a miasma pulling her down. Down. Down.
There was blood on their fur, splattered over Soothe's own, and she stared at what she had become in horror.
But only for a moment.
Her expression melted into something unfathomably ugly, and she turned back on Darkrai, bleeding out and trying to crawl away to safety.
Rhythm could not watch. At least Darkrai didn't scream for very long.
Trill staunched the bleeding with a scrap of cloth, and Rhythm took it in his paw and leapt into the fray, hoping to do something to stop this.
His paw met a shining shield, bouncing off it with ease. She was always pretty quick with that Protect. She stood on the butchered prey; there was no light in her eyes anymore.
He raised his fist again and slammed it forth with all his strength. Protect's were strong but fragile to someone stronger. It shattered, and he grabbed her ruff, but her blade struck up in reprisal and slashed his arm.
Her other paw went flat, and a blast of light caused more of his blood to spray from a small concentrated wound on his shoulder.
Tears blurred his vision, but he felt no pain in his body. His paw met his friend's chest with force, and she was sent on her back. He hoped that would be enough. It wasn't.
Unlike those lit by the Time Gear, Shadows curled and lashed out sharply, digging corrosive claws down his belly that burned less like fire and more like acid.
He knew what it was.
Trill squawked something and tried to intervene, but Rhythm could not allow him to get hurt. "Forgive me," he pleaded, clocking Trill in a specific way to knock him unconscious and laid him down gently after leaping back out of her range.
He groaned against the ground, Rhythm's blow not sending his lights out immediately.
Fist met paw as Rhythm punched, being caught by Soothe but bending her arm back with his superior strength. She flowed with the strike, pulling him with his own momentum to dig a blade into his belly again, but he caught that one too and brought his knee up.
He winced as he cracked her chin over his knee, head being flung back with a near-snap. Taking advantage of her attempt to steal his momentum, he pulled and swung her below him, flipped in the air, and slammed her down with enough force to shake the dungeon.
Even as tears flooded his voice, his words could not be denied. "Yoom," Rhythm whispered, louder than any cry. The Power built in his gut, a clamorous bellow that shook mountains and erased boulders falling on parents heads. It was the kind of strength that struck gods out of the sky. It was an attack that would kill her, even a Shadow Pokémon.
There was nothing in Soothe's eyes. Nothing. But Rhythm heard her words on repeat in his head. How she smiled. The knock-knock jokes she told. The laughter she made as they clinked mugs together and shared silly stories that were obviously made up.
There was nothing.
"TAH!"
Those eyes closed in a weary flinch as his head turned, angled well over her head to shatter trees and shake the Time Gear itself. Those eyes snapped open in shock and met his briefly.
"Go," Rhythm whispered. "Run. I'll save you."
She stared at him for a long moment, deflated and puffed out. She gripped the iron thorn tightly. Shadows danced along her body, preying on everything.
She turned her head and bolted for the exit, leaving Rhythm to bury the guardian and gather up Trill in his arms.
Later on, he wouldn't lie, but he wouldn't tell the truth either. He'd let Trill believe an untruth over the complications of revealing what had truly happened. Of what cost mercy may have.
Was it worth it?
"I hope so."
Rhythm was pulled out of his deep thoughts as a knock sounded on his door. He wasn't the Guildmaster, but Armaldo insisted he at least sleeps in his old room.
"Come in?"
Saniya popped her head in. "Hi," she said with a smile. "Can I come in?"
"I just said so," Rhythm giggled; she blinked and repeated what he'd said mentally and giggled too.
She flitted into the room, barely moving the door, and glanced around. "It's not as bright as I would have thought," she said curiously.
Rhythm shrugged. "Too much stuff going on makes it harder for me to sleep." His quarters were spartan as they always were. Nothing like the Guildmaster's Room just outside that door.
"What can I do for you?" Rhythm asked.
Saniya flopped onto his bed. "Soft," she said approvingly. She stretched out, enjoying it for a moment before groaning. "It's really full-on out there," she said.
He nodded. "It is." They'd both been out all day yesterday keeping spirits up. Playing with kids, chatting with locals, doing spontaneous routines.
Shockingly enough, even they could be worn down a little from it.
Saniya had her eyes closed for long enough that Rhythm wondered if she'd fallen asleep and considered leaving her to nap, but as soon as he shifted, she roused.
"Whoops."
"It's okay."
She yawned and stretched before resting her head on her hand, elbow crooked. "I'm feeling nostalgic."
"Oh?"
"I want to talk about Soothe," she said.
"Oh."
"Is that okay?" she asked, remembering Azumarill's lessons about minding others' feelings even when you wanted something.
He smiled a real smile and nodded. "Of course. Now that there's an actual plan to save her and everyone else, I can't stop smiling."
That was true, and she brightened. "I can't wait," she said. "I wonder what she wants Scout for?"
"I don't know," he said truthfully, before realising that perhaps she didn't know what he'd done. Saniya hadn't gone to help look for Scout after all. "I should…admit something first."
"Yeah?"
"I knew that the letter-writer was Soothe," he said, it all tumbling out suddenly. "I recognised her writing because she loops letters in ways even when she's trying not to."
"I see," Saniya said, frowning as if there was a tricky equation before her eyes that she had to work out in her head to get chocolate. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I…" That was a good question. "…I don't know," he said softly.
"Were you afraid?" Saniya asked.
He nodded.
"Of what?"
"That's the thing," he said. "I don't know."
"Lies aren't very nice," she said, frowning at him. "Even lies by omission. You might have been able to talk to her rather than walk into a trap."
He cringed a little, but she wasn't done.
"Hmm…well, oh well." She shrugged. "Live and learn."
Rhythm blinked. "That's it? You're not mad at me?"
"I bet Rai and Mane were." She nodded wisely, imaging their reactions. "I think you weren't thinking and did something pretty dumb. Just don't do it again. To save her, we gotta actually get to her, and she's really good at avoiding things."
He chuckled suddenly. "She is," he said emphatically. Her smile remained but dimmed a little. "…does it count if that's the second time?"
Saniya took a breath. "Oh boy."
"She came to visit me the night before I announced I was stepping down."
"Ooooh, THAT'S why you did that so suddenly, wasn't it?"
"Yeah…."
"Rhythm!" She smacked him on the head. "Perfect opportunity to tackle-hug her and bring her in! Could have told Rai, he'd have done it."
"I don't know about that," he said, unsure.
"Well, you could have asked."
"I didn't know she was going to show up that night," he protested weakly. She crossed her arms. "I… I'm trusting Soothe."
"Good," she said. "Because she needs someone stupid like that." It was strange; she said that firmly but as if it was a good thing.
At Rhythm's befuddled look, a small smile cast across her face, and she closed her eyes, thinking to the past future that wasn't.
"I met her in a place where the clouds hung like stones, all grey and rumbly and not moving at all. There was a frozen strike of lightning that… 'glowed'. It was weird. Electricity could cause things to move again, temporarily, so we're not entirely sure how it froze in the first place. Or if it was frozen at all. Either way, it lit up the sky, so that was nice."
Rhythm listened, fascinated at a look into Soothe from before he even knew her.
"It wasn't a place I went to often, but it was safe. It was a place to go to be alone, to hide from Dialga and its minions. I had my Giratina mirror with me always to hold off the crazy. I don't know if even a millionth of what we talked about was actually sense or if it was just words so that I didn't lose it. Some could say I did." She laughed in a scary way.
She smiled. "And one of those days is when I met her. I think we were both running that day. I was running from Dialga, it had been a close call, and I'm pretty sure Giratina was cursing horrible things if anything were to befall me. She was out of breath too. She popped out of a dungeon, and it was just…an instant connection."
She leaned back against the bed again, playing with motes of energy in her hands. "She was always good at that. Running. She told me that she'd done something clever, exited and then re-entered a dungeon several times. See, in the Dark Future, space was also wonktified because of Palkia getting frozen." She nodded to herself.
"Dungeons were, on a metaphysical level, 'stable points in space and time', but everything else wasn't. You could enter a dungeon and wind up halfway across the planet, enter it again and wind up in another completely different place. Kinda funny because of how screwy they are themselves. But I know why they are like that now; they're cages in a way."
She whistled. "Wow, I know so much 'forbidden knowledge' now that Giratina's spilled the beans to us. I won't share it; I'm reminiscing about Soothe. She knows cursed stuff as well. Like that apple seeds can kill you. How mean is that?"
Rhythm shivered at the thought. "She told me that too; I didn't want to believe her."
She giggled. "She was like that. Thinking up weird knock-knock jokes and sharing all sorts of morbid stuff. It wasn't too out of the ordinary, I…think, for the Dark Future. Grim humour was the norm because what else was there to make jokes about?"
"Trill would know," Rhythm thought.
"So, that's how you met?" he asked.
"Yep." She nodded. "I was all beat up, and she didn't offer to heal me. I had to ask because Giratina was going on about it, and even then, she seemed pretty…out of it. I don't know. There were no marks on her head I could see, but she seemed pretty dazed. I reckoned she'd been alone for a while and that was 'getting' to her."
Rhythm remembered Trill describing the madness of the Dark Future's silence.
"But I don't know about that anymore," she admitted. "Soothe… she's such a mysterious person. She seemed to have some kind of amnesia or at least acted like it. I'd like to completely believe it all, but…Giratina was right that she was hiding something from me. But even now, I don't know what it was."
"I don't think she was a Shadow Pokémon at first," Rhythm said quietly, with firm assurance. "Something happened."
"Yeah," Saniya sighed; she had an idea. "Did you know that Wartortle and Dewott and Sean all had memory loss?"
Rhythm blinked.
"You know how we rough Sean up in a dungeon once a month? Keira told us that it helped. And it does."
"…"
"Giratina also explained it. How humans absorb the shadow slowly and constantly. It doesn't know what would happen if they absorbed so much that their pokémon body couldn't handle it anymore."
"…"
"I might have an idea, though," she said quietly.
Rhythm slowly blinked and breathed out a breath. "…the guild was Soothe's idea," he said. "We were sitting on the cliff discussing that it would be a good place for something. I suggested a bar. She said a guild would be better. With a grate to read footprints to serve as sentries. With a bar further down, but not too close to the beach."
"Did you ever come to Treasure Town in the Dark Future with her?"
Saniya shook her head. "No. I don't know if she did or not. I can't discount that possibility. But… I'm getting convinced that she's a human too."
Those words hung between them for a moment. Rhythm went to speak, but a knock sounded, and they glanced to the door. "Come in," he said, and Armaldo stuck his head in.
"Scizor is here," he said. "You two, come out and let's chat with him. It'll be repeating a lot of stuff, but everyone's gotta be on the same page. Come on."
They shared a glance and nodded together, Saniya floating up. Rhythm got the door for her, and she giggled, bowing as she passed through.
The four of them, Azelf was included, waited for Scizor to make his way through the guild and get to them.
Cara, the scizor, nodded to the four pokémon as he stepped into the room, closing them behind him with his manifested swords, letting them flicker out moments later.
"It is good to see the four of you," he said, seriously. "Shall we get to business?"
There were people to see, water to drink, things to do.
And Striker chose to visit Timber.
As he approached the door, a soft noise caught his attention, and Marill approached him shyly. "Are you visiting Bidoof?" he asked hopefully. Striker nodded. "Can I join you?"
Striker saw no reason why he couldn't and nodded again.
Timber was laying about, appearing either extremely bored, asleep, or depressed. Potentially all three at once.
"Hi Bidoof," Marill said softly, carrying in a jar filled with marbles. "Paras let me borrow her marble collection if you want to play a game?"
Timber sighed. "That's mighty kind of ya, Marill. But I'm alright."
"I wouldn't mind learning to play," Striker's dulcet tones caused Timber to twitch before it registered, and he rolled over in surprise.
"G-Grovyle!" he yapped, flustered by the sudden visit. "What, err, can I do for ya?"
"A game of marbles," Striker said, sitting down with legs crossed. Timber looked at him like he'd suggested he repeat Sean's old legend and break him out of prison.
"O-okay?"
Marill smiled at Striker when Timber turned away to sweep away some of the straw. With the bars, a game of marbles was not as easy as it used to be, but besides the context as to why, the rest of his team kinda liked the added challenge of having obstacles in the row.
Paras still swept them every time, though.
Marill had Timber explain the game with three bars set in the middle of the circle lined with a claw mark.
"Ah, well, it's a pretty simple thing, I reckon. Lot's of fun, though! Ya get a couple marbles of your own, three to five depending on how fast Paras wants to win." Marill laughed at that. "And the rest in the circle somewhere. You collect a marble if ya knock it out with one of your own. The game's over when all the marbles are out, or everyone else runs out of them to toss."
"Then you count how many you have," Marill finished for him. "Whoever has the most, wins!"
Striker nodded. "Seems simple enough," he said, admiring the little blue orbs with maybe a little too much interest.
They set a handful or two of marbles in the circle and started playing.
Striker took first turn, and after clarifying the distance he had to roll the marble from, succeeded in knocking two out to the edge of the circle but failed to get them out, losing the one he rolled to do it.
Marill, vicious as he was competitive, immediately stole both marbles with a clever shot and a cheeky smile. Timber just tossed his hard to break up the mass of them in the middle.
Seeing that they wouldn't play easy because he was a newcomer, Striker didn't either, and he had more fun than he expected he would rolling the little multicoloured spheres.
Most of the marbles were even made from broken orbs sanded and shaped down into perfect little circles.
"Paras likes to collect them," Marill explained. "She makes the marbles herself. She's very precise about it all and can literally tell you a story about every individual one." He held up two that looked basically identical, although Striker could see a few minute differences. "Like…I don't know what the difference in these two are, but she can see it."
"That one has a small glint of teal in it," Striker said, pointing out with a claw. Marill didn't believe him, and so he plucked it out of his hand to show him closer, then placed the marble in his pile.
Marill didn't notice, but Timber started giggling every time he looked at one of them.
He began to giggle so hard that he completely missed a roll, and Marill glanced at him with a rather perturbed look. "What is it?"
"He," Timber giggled, gasping for breath. "He," he wheezed and started shaking with laughter.
"It is rather teal, isn't it?" Striker said, admiring the marble. Marill glanced at him blankly before it finally clicked. "Hey! That's mine!"
Timber lost it then, cackling into the floor. Striker smirked and rolled it back to Marill, but the other pokémon wasn't upset; he smiled too as Timber laughed for a good minute before calming down.
"Golly," he managed, which apparently was the word needed to make Marill crack and snort as well. They began to giggle at each other, the game forgotten.
Wiping tears out of his eyes from the giggle fit, Timber beamed at them both. "Th-thanks, guys," he sniffled, taking a few good deep breaths.
"I think I win," Striker said, as he now had three piles of marbles in front of him that they lacked. Their expressions of shock drew a smirk from him before Marill sighed.
"At least Paras doesn't cheat."
"She might as well," Timber said.
Striker smirked and rolled them all into the middle again. "Another game?"
Another game.
Marill couldn't play forever, and an apologetic smile was pulled from him as he felt the time tick down. "I got the day off today," he said. "And Azurill wants to hang out."
Timber nodded immediately, understanding completely. "I reckon you've spent enough time here then!" he said firmly.
"I'll visit later?"
Timber smiled. "Thanks, Marill."
"See you later."
Striker nodded on his way out.
"Do you want to keep the marbles for another game?" Marill offered, but Timber shrugged.
"It's not quite as fun with just two."
"I think we've had our fill of that for the day," Striker added. Marill nodded and went to return the jar first.
"He's a very good player," Striker said as Marill left. Marill had won most of the games with impressive precision and a relentless lack of hesitation in taking advantage of others' mistakes. He approved.
"I reckon so," Timber said. "Paras is right unstoppable she is, and Flaaffy is either incredible or…well, shucks, heh. Sometimes he's not into the game, yup. Marill's always that good, though."
He brightened at Striker. "You're the best novice I've ever seen in these here games! You really know you're way around them."
"Just little orbs," Striker pointed out. "And I know orbs."
Timber chuckled a little; they all knew the rumours that were said about Striker and his orbsession.
"So…." Timber shifted in place awkwardly. "What brought ya to here today? I reckon you got better things to do."
"Sean mentioned you," Striker said honestly. "Being a little worried. Even though we haven't really talked much, I know you're a good pokémon, Bidoof."
He appeared a little downcast at the words rather than pleased. "I don't know if that's true."
Striker sighed. "It absolutely wasn't the right thing to do to trust someone you've never even seen what they look like and tell them everything you knew. As a guild member, you are trusted with information you're not supposed to share with any outsiders, friends or not."
Timber nodded miserably.
"That doesn't make you a bad person, though."
"I'm still in this here cage," Timber sighed. "Because I can't be trusted no more."
Striker hummed, not really replying to that.
Timber shifted a little, opened his mouth, hesitated, then closed it.
Striker didn't call him out on it, just waited patiently.
"…I don't think Soothe is a bad person," Timber said quietly. That caught Striker's interest.
"Despite lying to you for years? Attacking you when you found out? Being a Shadow Pokémon?"
"Not even despite that," Timber said, still quietly. "She…she did bad things. But I don't think she's a bad person."
"Isn't someone who does bad things the definition of a bad person?" Striker asked.
"M-Maybe," Timber said, not prepared for a philosophical discussion about his worldviews. "I just…I might not have seen her face to face, but we connected through that door. She made me scarves and always cheered me up when I was feeling down. Maybe she did it just because it meant I would come back, but I don't think so. I think she does care, a little bit at least."
He was silent for a moment. "She let me go," he said. "She could have done much worse ta me on that night. She started talking odd before she attacked me and then just let me go when I ran. She didn't need to blow her cover to help us with the spooky fella, but she did anyway. She's in a bad way, but I don't think she's bad herself. That's what I think, and none of ya can change my mind on that."
Striker took that in in a silent moment of respect. But he had to challenge it. "Wouldn't someone who knows better but still does bad things be worse in a way than someone who was just bad and does those things?"
Timber seemed puzzled at this suggestion. "No?" he said.
Striker considered that maybe this wasn't the time to ask these kinds of things, yet he was still curious as to what and why Timber thought like this.
"I guess," Timber said, as the word seemed unfinished between them. "I think that as long as you are able to say sorry and try to be better, you're better than someone who wouldn't. Ah, don't know if I believe that there are any truly bad pokémon."
"There are plenty of criminals out there... I'm a member of the guild; I know that. But, they are caught and punished, but…truly bad pokemon... one's who could never change for the better. I've never heard of no one that evil."
"There are some that don't deserve that chance," Striker pointed out. "Even if they were willing, or wanting, to change. There are some things that are unforgivable."
Timber nodded. "I know. It's all a little over my head, I reckon. I never had to fight the fight you guys have been doing or carrying the world on ma shoulders or nothin'. Still, it's easy to look at someone bad and not like them for it. It's easy to hate. But just because it's easier doesn't make it better than forgiving and moving on from the bad. And that's that for me. I forgive Soothe, and I just hope that she can forgive herself too one day."
Striker smiled at him, closing his eyes. "I've seen people get stronger with hate and not letting go of resentment, using it to push themselves to better heights."
"I guess if that works for them," Timber said. "But I'd rather not be held down. If I couldn't move on, I reckon I'd never grow up."
Striker nodded to Timber, and Timber nodded back.
"Hope you have a good day, Grovyle, yup-yup," Timber said, feeling the shift.
Striker nodded back. "You as well, Bidoof."
"Already has been." He smiled thankfully. Striker smiled back and left to the town, ready for the next part of the day.
Nelia glanced around the boring wild area, holding a glimmering orb close to her mouth. "Alright, I'm tired of wandering about in the dirt." She pushed a log over and glared at the bugs that squirmed out from under it.
"I'll start making my way to Treasure Town immediately. See you in person soon, Melody," she finished with a little sing-song and released the pressure on the orb. It grew blue and cloudy, severing the connection to the realm of haze.
Psychic Network was all well and good, but if one needed to have regular contact with a non-psychic, that made things a mite more tricky. She could only balm the madness to the recipient as well. Thus, Soothe had needed to have something special if she was to be released on the unsuspecting world.
She tossed the ball up and down, catching it in her hand as she looked around. There was nothing left of Violet, and oh goodness gracious, was she mad.
Violet had taken all her diddly darn entercards with her, meaning Nelia was left to footslog from place to place.
Also. "Trill, where the FUCK are you?" she shouted to nothing but echoes swearing back at her. Shouting would probably alert Soothe of her presence, but it felt good to do.
He was meant to return to her position every two hours to inform her of what he'd found. He'd flown off at some point before she moved in to stamp out the furry personally and hadn't come back. It had been nearly a full day.
Either he had found something, something found him, or he'd done what the kids called a stupid and tried to abandon her.
Nelia groaned, dragging a hand down her face before rubbing her temples. She'd taken Sean's headache on herself, and he amplified it by hitting her in the back of the head with his stupid glowing energy bone. Broke her arm too, but that was more easily fixable than a stress headache was.
"I swear," Nelia cursed, muttering angrily to herself, "you try to let loose and have some fun ONE TIME, and everything goes to Brazil."
She didn't even laugh at her own tired, dated meme joke and rubbed her face again. "Memes, not even once."
She sighed hoarsely, glancing around again for a good long moment before determining that Trill had, in fact, abandoned her. As irksome as that was, she made sure to add 'getting tarred and feathered' to the mental list of consequences she was going to inflict upon Sean. It wasn't going to affect her plans.
"I swear if I get smug notes from him, I'll crack his head open and feast upon the goo inside." But no, things were still on track. Rhythm didn't know that she no longer had Trill, and if he made the error of trying to warn him, well, then she'd have him again in the line of fire.
More so if he'd found Soothe and Scout and decided to play betrayer on her. If he blundered his way into convincing them to warn the town, then everything would be fine, dandy, and happiness would be achieved. She'd finally be able to gaze upon her master again, so very soon she could almost taste it.
"I'm not out of allies at least," she said, planting her feet forth and swiftly beginning to move. She saw the dancing icicles of her good friend, and she looked to Frost with a hopeful smile.
"I trust it went well?" she said sweetly. Frost didn't look directly at her, ah, a failure then like all the rest. No sword either; that was even more annoying.
"He knows he's not safe," the weavile said stiffly. "That nowhere is safe."
That would have to do. She waved her hand at Frost and lowered the gnawing emptiness within her.
"My men?" she asked; behind her in the trees lurked two that were a lot harder to control. They weren't…as strong as Frost had been when they finally found what they were looking for, but not as weak as some. Her master was a generous benefactor, and they could at least retain something with Nelia's guiding hand.
Once the transaction was complete, Frost took her leave. Perhaps allies were too strong of a word. She knew Team A.W.D could only be bought with deals, but that was more secure than the flighty nature of Trill, the desperation of Kogeki, or the manic desire for revenge that Rumble stunk of.
At least transactional could be maintained as long as she could offer more. Nelia knew she could send them after Scout for even less; there was a lot of anger there for his role in their fall from grace.
She tittered to herself, feeling better about things.
Her grace would only last them a couple days at best. She needed that sword for the impact and image it brought.
Nelia sighed to herself, so many problems, so many people who just didn't accept how things were. She was feeling oddly maudlin for the moment. Being on her own was a rarity for this indeedee. Mayor of Blackstone Village for a good hundred and eighty-six years now, no peace or quiet for long there.
"Well," she thought, back to amused, "it'd probably be rather peaceful now." It'd take a little while for the Shadow to revive the fallen. Some might even be waking up again; it'd be interesting to see who made it through and who made it through as themselves. The town was strong, quite strong, one of the strongest she'd seen.
Thanks to her, of course. It was always the way this would end.
Her thoughts flickered back to Soothe, wondering about the upcoming attack. Treasure Town wasn't as strong as her own, although, on an individual level, it had some of the strongest fighters on the continent and the world. It had far too many civilians and pokémon not prepared for a real fight.
Not like hers, where everyone had become strong.
She wondered if Soothe would give into nostalgia of her own and try and stop what was coming.
She returned to the feeling of mawkish nostalgia.
"I doubt it," she thought to himself with something resembling a smile on her face. "She hates too strongly. She fears too much. She'd rather live in a self-punishing cycle she convinces herself she can break at any time rather than risk stepping outside of it. She's too predictable."
But that was okay. The town had to burn one way, or the other, and guilt and regret had a way of gnawing at someone a lot like the Hunger did.
She was not one for nostalgia, yet Nelia thought back forth and recalled what wasn't was.
The world was dark bitter, and cold.
It was a true irony that the death of the world preserved it forevermore.
She had waited too long.
Too long.
Too confident in eternity.
Too assured in inevitabilities.
It hadn't mattered if victory took ten years or ten million years.
She'd win eventually.
And she had grown lax. Soft. Lazy. She had done nothing but potter around in her little town, dreaming of the carnage to inflict one day.
Letting it remain a dream.
Because why do it now when victory was assured for later?
Until it wasn't.
The storms grew fierce; lightning fell only that which it struck became still and cold, frozen in their final moments.
The clouds crashed to the ground as a final keening cry split all that lived and lasted across time and space until it shuddered to a stop.
The clock did not merely stop; it fell off the wall and shattered, falling into the sea to be lost forever. Celebi died to preserve what little remained as Dialga crippled reality itself in its final act of madness.
What was she supposed to do now?
Darkrai rose up. He was as afraid as the rest of them. In times of darkness, it was left to the shadows to guide the light, and so he rose to the challenge. He had failed in guarding the gear, for that was part of the death of the world. He rose up to become a hero in true mourning regret, one final hope to the few that remained.
He remained in the shadows, as he always had done. But he protected those that remained from the monsters that truly lurked in the mists.
She laughed a most bitter laugh a long time later when she realised what becoming a hero had done to him. A hero that clung onto that which made them beloved to the point that they'd stop things from improving. Perpetual stagnancy, reliant on him. The adoration had gone to his head; he'd fight to keep it like this now.
But before she could see the irony, Nelia seethed in the darkness. Too many people had died. Too many were locked in time. Too many were split far, far, away. And Dialga, Primal Dialga, had broken what little hope she had left.
It was lost. She'd waited too long. Her master was frozen in time. She could not bring It back.
She…had failed.
Nelia wandered as little more than a wraith, unsure of what there was to do with life. She had not endured thousands of years to simply accept defeat, but everywhere she turned, she found nothing but more roadblocks.
She tried to hunt Darkrai and got close to slaying him. Too close, he had learned things about her in kind, and she had overplayed. With the rampant rise of dungeons across what world remained, her powers were being hampered, and he escaped her clutches.
They both swore to end the other, but they were mere words on the frozen wind.
She didn't know what to do until her master…the true force of her master, reached out to her. Granting a gift, a boon for her relentless determination. She did not know what or how, but she knew it like she knew her own bones.
And thus…she found her.
"H-Hello," the lavender, how quaint, audino said, shivering in the unnatural coldness that gripped the very world itself.
"My goodness are you alright?" she had said in concern, sweeping to the clumsy and terrified pokémon's side. Allies were good, even here. She, too, was not entirely immune to the plague that isolation brought.
She came to this pokémon's aid, curious at the senses that brought her here. Curious as to the flurry of emotions felt from this person. Primarily confusion mixed with some level of awe and wonder, even at the desolate landscape around them.
Not a normal pokémon, not by far.
She had taken her in, learned her name and gave it in kind. "Core is what I am called." She only lied in some considerations.
They both had purple fur and felt strongly. That was enough of a reason for partnership in these lands, but they had found deeper connections. Nelia could see that she was the first this audino had encountered, suffering some sort of memory issue that plucked at distant memories in her head.
She showed her how to survive, how to use a dungeon to one's advantage, and brought her to a remnant town for trading purposes.
It took a week. Just one. The sun did not rise or set, but Nelia still kept track of time. Someone had to with all the clocks lost to the sea. One week, and around eleven hours. That was when she told her the truth.
"Core?" she asked, in the safest part of the dungeon. It was nice staying in a place that remained static, but things still moved and didn't remind one of the desolate world outside.
"Yes?" she replied, curious at the mixture of anticipation and powerful nerves being sensed from her companion, her good friend already.
"Can…can I tell you something that's going to be really…really hard to believe?"
"You can tell me anything." She took her hands and sat down with her. "Whatever it is you have to say, I'll listen."
She smiled; it sometimes looked like an odd thing on her face, like she wasn't used to smiling. Or, as she'd realise shortly, with that mouth.
"I'm… I'm human," she said, it all spilling out at once. "Please don't think I'm crazy! I know there were other humans that became pokémon and, and, well, the world…is like this."
Nelia blinked slowly. "That is true," she said carefully. There was a bloom of relief, but more anticipation remained. "That's not all, is it?"
She was stared at with something akin to fear. "I…."
"You can tell me anything, Victory."
"… I'm not just a human," Victory admitted. "…the world I come from…."
"Yes?"
"Do you promise you won't think I'm crazy?"
"Victory." She took her paw in her own and squeezed them. "It's you and me. I trust you. Do you trust me?"
Slowly, she nodded.
"Then I'm all ears."
And then she told her. Told her everything. Told her The Truth.
Victory told Core everything, including her real name.
And Nelia took it all.
All of it.
Every last piece.
She had told her story, expecting confusion, concern, maybe even solidarity and belief. She hadn't expected Core to reach forth and rub a hand down her cheek, almost uncomfortably tender.
"Thank you," Nelia breathed. The words were…not soft but shivering with excitement.
"You're…welcome?"
"Not yet," Core replied, her hand tightening on her cheek, and their eyes met. At that moment, the person who would come to be known as Soothe felt afraid. That was not a look a friendly friend gives you.
Her hands tightened on her fur, when did her other hand grasp her face as well. "Core, what are you doing?"
"Shhhh," she soothed as something pulsed, and she lost feeling in her lower body, suddenly feeling weary and exhausted. "I just need…I just need to see it for myself."
"C-Core?"
"Shhh."
"Core, please! No stop, what are you-"
She screamed as Nelia's fingers dug in further than her fur, further than her flesh and bone. Proverbial hooks dangled in and snatched up important things. The shadows twisted and spun around them, curling in delight as their mistress wielded their most profanely arcane powers for their good once more.
She dug in and took it all. Scooped it out until it was her own, letting it dribble back into the brain-dead creature in front of her. She sighed in pleasure as she reviewed what was to come. The actions of a group of pokémon to change time and save the world.
It was perfect! Her failure would be annulled.
However…she would not know. Would she?
Nelia's pleasure faded as she realised that her past self, content and dumb with the idea that victory was an inevitability, would simply continue to make the same mistakes she had made.
By the time she thought of a possible idea to use Victory's body for, the fallen creature had somehow come back to its wits. She saw a flash of purple fur before Victory Left the dungeon, cursed, and chased after her.
However, Victory was very clever, and she had re-entered the dungeon immediately, ran through it again, and then repeated her actions. How many times, even Nelia didn't know, she had charged out of the dungeon looking for the escapee before realising what she must have done. By that point, she could be literally anywhere.
Stumbling about in a daze, the Dark Future would take her within a couple hours at best.
That was okay, though. It would have to be okay. She had something to work with now…and a plan began to emerge.
The nights could get rather cold, but Soothe was not risking a campfire for nothing, and he had to make do, sleeping cold and alone and afraid of the people he closed his eyes around.
Well, he wasn't afraid of Trill, and his fear of Soothe seesawed depending on her mood. Still, it wasn't comfortable at all, and he was far too accustomed to sleeping in separate loaves with Rai and Mane and winding up as a tangle of limbs by the morning.
However, he still needed to sleep, and while the rest was fitful at best, he did drift off into an uneasy slumber.
Trill and Soothe did not.
She was considerably tired. Not being able to trust Scout wouldn't run for it if he found her asleep, she rested at best only a couple hours a night and more of a light doze than a good proper sleep. It was making her more irritable, but she just couldn't risk it.
Trill being here helped even less as neither of them were going to close their eyes around the other. For brief moments, the shame and horror of what they had become fell to the wayside as they laughed and joked over old times.
Only brief moments, however. Something had been lost, broken or taken away from them. Soothe eyed Trill, wondering where he was at his weakest in case she had to finish him off, and she knew he looked at her with the same critical eye.
Once upon a time, she was the weakest member of their little team, but in the decades since, she felt her strength and skill had improved more than enough to win a fight with Trill if it came to it. And she knew that he thought the same.
He hadn't attacked her in Brine Cave, after all.
Was that merely a morbid way of thinking about things? Yes, perhaps. But they both thought it, both knew the other thought it, and both knew that the other knew that they knew that they knew that they knew.
And so on.
Neither would be getting sleep tonight. Ironically, for the same reason. They didn't trust the other with Scout.
A thought that eventually drew a bark of laughter from Soothe. "We're so alike," she said, intentionally mocking.
"In the vast majority of ways, we're not," Trill said sternly. "Only in this regard do we think and behave similarly."
"This is all we are now," Soothe said. "Anything else is pretending."
"Is that what you think?" he asked. "Or simply what She forced you into thinking?"
"You're a lot more bold than I remember you being. Impulsive psychopathy leading your tongue?"
"You seem even more depressed than I remember you," Trill returned in kind. "But I see you still cover it up with the sarcasm you're so fond of."
"Ooh, burn."
"Thank you."
"It was sarcasm."
"Noooo, really?"
Soothe snorted. "Seems you took after me."
"Someone had to carry your legacy," Trill sniffed. "It'd always make Rhythm smile a little more if I offered a clever quip."
"Did it now?"
"Yes."
"Well, you two didn't change at all after me."
His eyes flickered for a moment and closed for a moment longer than a blink. "No, we did," he said softly. "Nothing had ever quelled his wanderlust. No sickness or injury slowed him for long. But after that…."
"I thought you two just decided to settle down, adopt some kids without telling them, and do, I dunno. Part one was Rhythm's favourite thing; part two would be books and knowledge, your favourite thing."
"For many years, I believed Rhythm had killed you."
"You've told me that already," Soothe replied. "On the road to Blackstone."
"Doesn't it surprise you that I thought that?"
"No," she said. "Because I don't believe you. It was just an easy answer that had to be satisfying. It was an answer and an ending to that all. I don't think you ever believed him because I don't think you ever actually thought about it."
Trill was speechless.
"Am I wrong?"
"Are you-" Trill spluttered, flapping and causing a ruckus.
"Shh," she hissed. "Don't wake the cat."
They glanced at Scout, he was not facing them, but his tail flicked like an annoyed cat would.
They glanced at each other and went back to not talking.
The lack of a fire crackled between them.
"Did she hurt you?" Soothe asked.
"For a time, I wondered if you had simply exaggerated," Trill muttered. "But your warnings remained clear in my head, and I slowly began to see what was beneath."
"She's good at the act," she said. "Only those she lifts the mask for see anything besides kindly Mayor Indeedee."
"An act indeed," Trill said. "I have never before witnessed evil like that. From the cages to unleashing them upon the town. Pokemon she had known and even raised from infancy to adulthood, stamped out with no mercy, no hesitation, no regret."
"Just sick enjoyment." Soothe twitched. "Did she make jokes while it was happening?"
"...yes."
"It's the worst part, isn't it? The normality."
"In some ways, yes," he agreed. "A discussion with her is like flying amid a cloud of voltorb. A single wrong movement…."
"The psychological torment." Soothe nodded.
"Even as I am now, I do not understand such a person."
"I don't think I want to understand."
He agreed with that.
"Let's change the subject; talking about the devil makes me feel like she's going to appear."
She tensed for a moment; she knew Indeedee's theatrical nature would play into a moment like this. Let them talk about her, and once the subject was changed, she'd pounce.
But nothing happened, and slowly the muscles in her neck unclenched, Trill watching her carefully.
"Excuse my language," he said. "But she truly fucked you up."
Soothe laughed a hollow sound. "Even before I met you." She agreed. "There were so many times that I wanted to tell you two everything, admit it all. But then I'd remember her hands on my head, pressing into my mind and pulling it all out. I trusted her, and she did that to me."
She glanced at Scout. "I'm pretty sure he got a flicker of that trauma. He mentioned he told you first, though. Point in Scout's favour, I guess. I was with you two for two years, and I couldn't manage it."
Trill gazed at Scout for a long time. By the time he blinked, Soothe had stepped away and was counting out her items. He left her to it and started to preen.
The moments passed between them.
Those moments where they almost felt like themselves again.
They weren't, though.
Not as long as this infection wrapped around their hearts and brains.
Trill ended up roosting on a rock nearby for the night, used to all-nighters when guarding the guild. He tended to nap periodically throughout the day rather than long sleep.
Used to, at least.
They used too….
Also known as Flashbacks the Chapter.
Is this filler? I don't think so, but also sort of? Nothing that drives the plot forwards inherently, just a lot of talking. But talking is important! Communication is, like, a theme of this arc I'm realising :P
When it's good, like Scout and Striker having their real talk, learning from Giratina, Soothe revealing all. As well as the consequences of NOT talking, like Rhythm not telling Team Ion about who was writing the letters or talks like this where they just dance on the surface without pushing into something important.
Like, 'You lied to me for years, and I'm upset about that'.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed~