90 Chapters…
Striker hugged Sean the moment he saw him.
Saniya might have felt less special had she witnessed it or would have joined in on the hug.
He almost injured Striker in the process, forgetting about the chest spike, leading to an awkward-looking side-hug from Striker as Sean glared at the weapon poking out of his chest.
Sean wasn't in the mood to talk and just buried his head in Striker's chest until Guardian came out and took them to their room to explain.
"Chimecho has given me a sleep seed," Guardian said, handing it out to Sean. "With any luck, it'll relax you so you can fall asleep properly."
Sean took the seed and slept on his stomach, spike digging into the ground. He was quickly understanding why Keira damaged her own chest spike; this thing was insufferable.
As Sean slept, Guardian and Striker discussed everything yet again.
"So. The world is in danger again?" Striker asked bluntly.
"We don't know what the Fallen's plan is," Guardian replied.
Striker shook his head. "But it is, isn't it?"
"…yes, I think so."
Striker groaned and leaned down next to Sean. "…a third time."
"Looks like it."
Striker's hand curled around Sean's paw, staring sadly at the lucario. "He evolved to survive."
"I wish I'd used the orb earlier," Guardian admitted. "I was too indecisive."
"Don't start putting any blame on yourself," Striker returned, frowning at him this time. "You didn't know."
Guardian nodded quietly. They skipped dinner, preferring to remain with Sean. Guardian did leave to see Saniya, trusting Striker to keep Sean safe. He found Armaldo at Team Magnezone's base telling her himself.
"Saniya." Guardian nodded. She hugged him.
"I heard," she whispered into his neck. A hand came up to pat her on the back. "But I'm glad you two are okay. The kitties?"
"Chose to stay," Guardian sighed. She winced, and he shared it. It was a bad situation all around. "I trust them," he said.
"Yeah," she said. "We all do."
"Dusknoir can tell you the rest," Armaldo said, turning to leave. "Tomorrow, Ri-Lucario wants to try and purify someone."
Saniya's mouth flattened, and she bobbed her head. He nodded and walked off.
"I'd love to see him," Saniya said. "But I can't risk leaving, even for a few minutes."
"He's asleep anyway," Guardian said. "Striker's with him. He hasn't been feeling safe since Weavile attacked him."
"All these things happening," Saniya sighed, looking at the tapestry of stars above their heads. "Do you think it'll ever be over? That things really will be safe, well, and good."
Guardian looked up sharply; her face was so sad. "It is," he said firmly, and she blinked.
"Huh?"
Guardian clenched a fist. "The world is good. It is safe and well. This is the world we fought to save, not the broken remains. It's the plots of these monsters who want us to think differently. To look askew at our acquaintances and wonder when they will betray us too. It's what these creatures want, to make us feel like the world is a falsely saccharine place hiding arsenic under the sweetness."
"But it isn't. If it was, they would have no need to try and change things. The world is good. It is these people who want to change that. They are fighting to change that, not reveal that it's already bad. Bad people exist, but they are not the majority."
She looked to him with a glimmer of a smile. "Thanks, Guards."
"It's easy to see the bad," he said softly. "That doesn't mean that the good isn't there as well. For a long time, all I could see was the bad and the worse."
She nodded. "So, I guess you're better at seeing the positives now?"
"I try to be."
She smiled. "I think we all need a reminder of that." She straightened up. "I can't wait to see Sean tomorrow! Make sure he sleeps well." It was a dismissal, and Guardian gave her a quick hug.
She was surprised before melting into it. "Striker, and now you? I like this new treatment."
Guardian chuckled and released her. He gave her a nod that was returned before floating back to the guild. Tomorrow would be a big day.
The air was thick with tension.
Seven pokémon walked to the Beach Cave. Swanna, her wings tied and between Rhythm and Saniya, walked with a bowed head.
Sean walked behind them alongside Striker and Guardian. Lastly, Cara walked ahead, ensuring no one was there to see it.
Sean had not slept well, but he had slept, and as soon as someone was able to sway him into having something to eat and drink, they'd made their way to where the Shadow Pokémon were kept. Saniya immediately hugged Sean, getting her third, and bopped his nose playfully.
They'd discussed who would be purified first. Wynaut and Wobbuffet were strong considerations as they couldn't easily fight; Octillery was considered only to stop his weird, sinister attempts to get released.
Swanna had a family and young children, so she was chosen unanimously.
She did not believe them.
"You're going to kill me," she said as she was restrained and pulled out under guard.
"We're going to save you."
"From living?"
She did not believe them.
Cara had gone in ahead, Rhythm stopping at the entrance. While Sean didn't count on a dungeon limit, they weren't sure how Swanna was interacting with it. Rhythm and Cara would remain outside, Rhythm at the front entrance and Cara at the end of the dungeon, to ensure Swanna couldn't pull a trick and escape.
Team Sunrise and Swanna entered after a few minutes.
Once they went in, Swanna began to struggle. "L-Let me go! I'm innocent! I didn't do anything!"
"We're not going to kill you," Guardian said.
"You're LYING! That's the only thing you people do to things like me!"
"I'm sorry," Sean said. "We're not going to kill you, but we will have to hurt you. Celebi's made it clear this process isn't an easy or gentle one."
Swanna snarled at him; glints of dark purple crept through her eyes like veins.
Saniya swallowed and nodded. "We're going to have to fight you until you go into Reverse Mode, then we can start ripping it out of you."
"Please!" Swanna cried. "I have children!"
"You'll see them soon," Sean said, grimly steeling himself. Guardian had helped him get used to his new body during their travel; he formed a shining bone.
Guardian, accustomed to being the bad guy in things, took it on himself to bear the guilt of the first attack. Without hesitation, but not without sympathy, he raised his hand and flung a Shadow Ball.
Swanna screamed as the attack blew her off her feet, her tied wings flapping futilely, and she hit the wall. "I once taught a lesson on Shadow Pokémon to the guild," he said levelly. "Don't listen to what she says."
Swanna was whimpering and crying.
"Because it is a lie."
His own tendrils, sinisterly close to a Shadow Hold tendril attack, snuck through and struck her multiple times. Striker gritted his jaw, took a moment to set his compassion aside and flung an Energy Ball.
Sean and Saniya were trembling in place as Striker and Guardian barraged Swanna with attacks. Sean was biting his lip hard enough that blood was dripping off his chin, and Saniya had both fists clenched at her side, head bowed and eyes firmly open.
Swanna's cries were heartbreaking to hear. She begged for her children. She begged for them to stop. She scrambled and shivered, sprawled in place from attacks as feathers were burned off and left to litter the floor.
She wasn't fighting back, and it was everything they had to continue this beatdown.
Finally, something cracked.
A feather regenerated; the attacks had begun to cease for a moment, Guardian raising his hand. A concentrated barrage from them two could be dangerous, even to a Shadow Pokémon.
Swanna was lying still, bloodied, broken on the ground, feathers strewn about her. She did not appear to be breathing.
"A trick," Guardian whispered. She twitched.
Something dark squirmed. Her wounds began to fade as she began to rise up.
"I thought," Swanna said, only it did not sound like her at all. "That heroes were supposed to be merciful."
"We are," Sean said, breathing easier now that she was responding as expected. "Soon, you'll thank us."
Swanna laughed, a high pitched, cold sound.
"That's what you tell yourself late at night. 'I saved the world'. Now you can do what you want."
"Sean, don't respond to her," Guardian said. Sean tensed his jaw but nodded.
Swanna sighed. "Well, are you done flailing uselessly?" She took a step towards the exit.
"Y-"
Then she slashed out sharply, carving a wound in the air from a blade of rotten darkness that was unleashed from her wings; the bindings broke long before by the barrage.
Striker whipped an arm out, a curve of green lifting off his arm in a blade to match blade, the two attacks detonating on each other to draw up some smoke.
Swanna zipped through the smoke, talons raised for Sean's neck. His eyes narrowed, and he caught her deadly grab with his staff and threw it, and her, at Saniya.
Saniya, generating a stone in her hands, pummelled Swanna with it as shadows wrapped around her, tying her legs together and slamming her into the ground with a high-pitched screech.
Her eyes were flashing dangerously, and the aura was beginning to permeate the air around her, choking oxygen out with filthy corruption.
Striker gestured to Saniya, and she flew up, out of the immediate threat range and began to make gestures with her hands as the other three fought Swanna.
Shadow Pokémon were mighty indeed, but this was Team Sunrise.
She struck an air blade at Striker, which was matched by a duplicated one from Sean as Guardian's fist crackled with electricity, scorching her breast with the blow. A shadow recoil blast tried to envelop Guardian, but Striker burst out of the ground and threw Guardian to the side as Sean closed the distance and hit her head with his staff like a golf ball.
She cried out and screeched, sending a wave of shadows to force her attacks off her, which was drawn up like steam as Saniya floated above, twirling her hands and building a bigger and bigger sphere of that corruptive energy.
"Keep it up!" Guardian boomed, opening his belly mouth to unleash a titanic Shadow Ball on Swanna as she dove for him wreathed in Shadow.
Sean and Striker threw Energy Ball's. Soon, all three of them were hammering her purely with repeated Energy and Shadow Balls, Sean tossing them like softballs as the booming shook the dungeon with the crash of the impact.
A low cry stung Sean's ears, and he gasped, clutching his ears and breaking his part of the barrage. Above them, Saniya cried. "Sean! It's almost there!"
He squinted, one eye closed, and stood again to begin to walk forwards, Striker and Guardian adjusting their aim so they didn't hit him.
The pounding of explosions of energy was all his ears should have been able to hear, but below and above it, he heard Swanna.
Crying for her children, telling him to die, begging him to end her, telling him to let her go. It was a cavalcade of sounds hitting his ears as he firmly held his aura in check.
The cloud of energy-created smoke was stinking and melting around her. Saniya threw her arms up, casting a monstrous orb of energy into the roof of the dungeon where it sunk into as the dungeon shivered.
"That's the easy part," Saniya shouted, calling an end to the attacks. "Sean," she added; he nodded, not looking at anyone. "…stay strong."
Swanna was a wretched wreck of melting darkness and glimmers of white-to-grey feathers. She was unconscious to a degree, but her eyes were open and moving, body feebly twitching as hateful Shadows surged over her body to undo the damage, but it had been beaten so much that it was sluggish. If given time, she'd recover and become the same as she was.
He wouldn't give It time.
Sean raised both paws and pressed them on Swanna's chest, paws sinking partly in the melting goopiness. It immediately latched onto him, and he gritted his teeth together and pressed harder. It was horrifying, really, to see and feel his hands sink into Swanna. A rational part of his brain said he was going to kill her with this.
But that was not the rational part; that was the Shadows twisting around his paws and curling into his body. He began to think terrible thoughts.
"I'm going to kill her. I have her actual heart in my paws. If I pull, I'll rip her lungs out, and even she can't come back from that."
His eyes twitched. "My…paws? I think in human terms."
"My hands are going to kill her!"
His paws clasped on something so cold it felt burningly hot. It was beating. iT was herR heArt I am gOing TO K Il L!
He pulled, and Swanna sobbed and screamed as all the tendrils began to tear free of her body, ripping up like pulling a rooted plant out of the soil, tearing feathers and blood with it all in one.
For a brief, terrible, moment she had a gaping chest and lifeless eyes.
Sean held a beating heart.
Then it all went purple.
Saniya's Psychic threw Swanna back out of the way as Sean fell to his knees and howled. The monstrous eye that he had pulled out of her had slammed right into him, and his whole body cracked like shattering glass, bleeding veins of rotting purple spreading over his body like spiderwebs.
"GET HIM!" Saniya yelled desperately.
Striker emerged from the ground with ferocity, slamming into Sean's upper chest with the power of Earth, knocking him flying. Right into Guardian's Fire Punch, cracking into the back of his head and knocking him face-first into the ground where Saniya telekinetically pulled him up and then began to slap him brutally.
"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT IT!" she screamed, pummelling him before Sean's eyes snapped to her, and he made a sound that he couldn't make, sending her into the wall. He shivered, shock crossing his features before he screwed into a pained look and howled again, aura blazing off his paws as he spun around, blasting Striker with pure aura.
Snares caught his arms before he could unleash it all, and Guardian pulled his attack into the ground below his feet, and he launched like a rocket.
Another tendril caught his ankle, and Guardian slammed him into the ground with no holding back. Sean gasped, gagged, and spat out a burst of that horrific energy that Saniya immediately snared and sent into the dungeon as it shook.
"Keep fighting, Sean!" Guardian roared. Sean rolled to his feet, eyes going different colours as energy crackled over him.
Leaves cut the air as Striker sent a barrage that Saniya joined in with. A tornado of cutting magical leaves enveloped him before he burned it all away. Striker dove back underground, and Guardian distracted Sean, coming in with fists of fire and lightning.
He began to box Sean, being matched with a formed half-melting bone and his own crackling fists. Each punch he managed to land knocked Shadows off Sean like dust, things that Saniya had to be focused on removing lest it latches back onto him.
The ground cracked, and Sean threw his staff down into Striker's head as he emerged. He slashed through it with a prepared Leaf Blade and dove his whole weight into Sean's lower abdomen, causing him to vomit up more of it. It was getting into everywhere it could. Tears were bleeding down his face, tinged with purple. The stomach was filling, and blood was falling in darkening droplets.
"FIGHT!" Striker roared, and Sean fought. He fought with everything he had on the inside as everything attacked his mind and body at once.
"They don't need you. They'll kill you as they've always wanted to." His own thoughts raced desperately, sounding so much like himself.
"NO!" Sean thought back, fighting every terrible thought that seemed to bubble up all at once. They hated him. They loved him. They didn't need him. They needed him. He needed them. He needed them. He was not a burden. Striker wouldn't leave him for that krokorok that reminded him so much of his hateful little 'brother'. That krokorok should be set on trial and stoned!
"NO! That isn't me! He's evil, but I'm not!"
Striker went for his neck a killing blow.
Guardian caught his paw raised to defend himself. Striker's blade dug in deep and long, cutting through him as Nelia had cut through him.
He was dead.
They're going to ki-
"HELP ME!" Sean cried, staggering back and pulling at his chest fur, trying to rip it out of him. His heart was gone; it was just an eye now. A clawed hand descended from the burning red sky to pull him into death. The-
"GOT YOU!" Saniya yelled, slamming something into his back and jarring what felt like his entire being two inches forwards. "HOLD ON, SEAN!"
"They cannOT SAVE YOU!"
Guardian flaming fist knocked him through a storm of leaves, every cut burned and bled, and it was going to kill me.
I'm" GionG TO DIE""
I promise I'll call once I get to the first Pokémon Centre!
I know, I know, I'll be safe. It's not far, and I'll take the bus.
I love you, mum, love you, dad. I…bye Killer.
"I've got you, Sean."
Sean stood on trembling legs, knees locked and beginning to tilt. Between his paws flashed the core he'd ripped out of Swanna, the core that had tried to spread its roots into him. They had torched the roots at every single turn, disallowing anything to anchor in until he could pull it out of himself.
It was so small now, a small globe of purple. Saniya contained it within her magic and plucked it out of his hands. She didn't give it a word, simply began to crack and crunch it. She couldn't destroy it; nothing could she had been told. But the dungeon would contain it. She made sure it was far away from Sean as it faded into dark dust, being swept up by the winds of the dungeon.
Beach Cave groaned long and deep, and something so far away seemed to crunch and grow; the dungeon grew deeper, deeper, deeper.
Sean slowly fell to his knees, being caught by Striker as Guardian was currently bleeding pretty badly from Sean's spikes and couldn't move fast. Saniya came zooming back and gathered everyone up, including Swanna, who had remained out cold throughout the battle.
"Now," she said, and Striker triggered the escape orb.
They appeared outside, and Rhythm jumped. "Did it work!?" he asked urgently, racing to them. Sean had slumped in Striker's arms, Saniya held aloft in Saniya's hold.
"Yes," Saniya said. "But we got to get them back to the guild. It took a lot more to stop it from latching onto Sean than we'd hoped."
Rhythm nodded immediately and offered to take Sean. Striker hesitated briefly.
"I'll be gentle," Rhythm assured him, and Sean was exchanged. Saniya and Rhythm raced to the guild with their charges, letting Striker assist Guardian back up to the guild himself.
Cara was forgotten, waiting patiently at the end of the dungeon.
After depositing Swanna to an ashen Chimecho, Saniya went into town and also grabbed Chansey without asking and flew her up to the guild as she cursed her out.
"People. Need. HELP!" Saniya said, shoving her into the medical wing before following. "I have Life Dew." Her hands began to glow gently and formed crystal-blue water. "I'll help keep."
Chansey's filthy words died on her lips as she got a look at the two and went into healers mode, taking over as Chimecho was just staring blankly.
"Move it, girl. It's like you've never seen injuries before."
"This. S-Swanna," Chimecho said weakly.
"It worked!" Saniya said, focused on Sean and failing to see how Chimecho recoiled. "Swanna's fine, now get moving!"
Swanna was actually…pretty alright. Exhausted and unconscious, but few injuries for her ordeal. Sean, however, took all three of their focus.
He wasn't dying, but he was not in a good state. Burns, countless cuts and scrapes and bruises.
"What happened to him?" Chansey asked, well over two hours later.
Saniya was injured as well, Striker and Guardian waiting quietly out of the wing, and winced as Chansey dabbed something stinging on her.
"Purified," Saniya said. "Looks like Sean and I are literally the best people ever."
Chansey had iron nerves, and her dabbing didn't cease, but her voice wavered just briefly. "Swanna…?"
"You'll have three less chicks to take care of," Saniya said proudly. Chansey had been taking care of the children since Swanna had been arrested.
"Oh good," Chansey said faintly. "That's…good."
Chimecho was staring at Swanna with unblinking eyes. Swanna slowly began to stir.
"Where?" she whispered, causing the other two to jump.
"How do you feel?" Saniya said, abandoning her own injuries to start doing complex motions over Swanna.
"I…." Swanna's eyes began to tear up. "I feel…." And that was the word. She felt. "O-Oh my gosh. I thought…I would never…am I really?"
Saniya finished checking and smiled magnificently. "You are. Looks like ol' Gira was right about yet another thing! We did it! WE DID IT!"
Her voice carried to the guild whose mutual tenseness brightened.
Swanna burst into tears. "Thank you," she choked, repeating it over and over as she bawled. Sounds at the door began to scrabble before Striker was able to open it, and three ducklet burst in, having been fetched as well earlier.
"Momma!" They cried and flapped to her, Swanna accepting them with open wings and crying even harder.
"My darlings, my life, my joy," Swanna wept, smothering them in her wings and feeling their warmth again. Something she hadn't been able to feel earlier. No matter how closely she held them, she had felt little more than coldness, little more than a distant annoyance that it wasn't working, little more than three small bodies pressed against her own.
Now, now she felt her children huddle up to her, and she fell to pieces over them.
Saniya gave a tearful smile and turned to the door. "Okay, boys, you need to get treated as well."
"Sean, alright?" Striker asked softly.
"He's alright," she confirmed. They each shared a look before looking down to Sean.
If it had been hard to fight Swanna begging for them to stop, it had been harder to go all out on Sean, to pull that evil off him before it could root so hard that nothing he did could resist it. On the plus side, it had been a while since they had worn him out in a dungeon, so this was a two-for-one.
But the intense workouts to bleed it out of him had been nothing to that desperate grapple. The things that had been spoken in Sean's voice…they were going to need Azumarill again sooner rather than later to deal with this.
Yet, as Swanna held her children, they knew it was worth it. And a weakly satisfied smile touched at Sean's lips as well as he held onto a faint consciousness, knowing that they'd done it. He gave them a thumbs-up before slipping back into the realm of dreams.
As people gave Swanna and Team Sunrise privacy, no one saw Chimecho's staggered expression. Chansey continued healing with Saniya's help, and some automatic movements from Chimecho, who they began to notice was pretty stiff at the moment, but there were more important things to deal with than asking what was up with her.
Wrong.
As Guardian's stab wounds were patched and Striker's aches and bruises were eased, things finally relaxed.
Armaldo came in with questions, as did Cara, who had finally been remembered and fetched.
"It seems it worked," Armaldo said, looking over Swanna and Sean appraisingly. Cara was watching very carefully, a pleasant smile on his face that belied obvious danger if things had not, in fact, worked.
"Thankfully," Saniya sighed. Chimecho made a sound.
"You've made absolutely certain?" Armaldo asked.
"As much as I can be," Saniya agreed. "Sean ripped the heart of the thing out, looked like a big gross eye. It jumped into him, and we fought him to slow its grabby hands and give the dungeon a chance to pull it off as well. Until Sean was able to pull it out of himself, after which I disposed of it."
"Beach Cave is longer," Armaldo mused. Rhythm had let him know after he returned with Cara. "More fierce."
That was…a good sign, weirdly enough.
Saniya nodded; that made sense and eased what little concerns remained in her.
Chimecho made another sound. More insistent this time. And eyes turned to her at last.
"Are you alright?" Saniya asked, concerned. "Oh dear, we didn't exhaust you did we?"
Chimecho was as pale as a ghost who had met its killer.
She mouthed wordlessly before making another sound. She wasn't looking at anyone, eyes fixated on Swanna, who had fallen asleep.
"Chimecho?" Armaldo asked, concerned as well at this behaviour.
Melody looked up. "I…I must…tell you something."
She spoke with such graveness that it put everyone on edge immediately, was the room darker? Cara's smile began to lose its lustre.
"I…." Melody's eyes suddenly flicked to the side; it was getting darker. How… "Is that…a swellow?" she asked, blinking moments before the window shattered.
Swellow swooped in, crashing into the wall and bouncing off, falling onto a bed as glass went everywhere; thankfully, no one was injured.
"What is the meaning of this?" Armaldo roared, a web snatching Swellow before he could even think to recover, and he was snared and raised with blades pointed all at him.
Swellow panted for breath, not caring for his restricting wings. "I come," he gasped hoarsely, "with a warning. A warning I've seen on my travels here."
His eyes raised to Armaldo's, manic and desperate. Part of Armaldo realised this was the swellow with a bad habit of talking about food around his partner.
Not that Wurmple was afraid of him anymore, they'd had their talk.
"There is a veritable army of Shadow Pokémon on route to Treasure Town. I expect they will be here before the day is out. They are being sent by M-Mayor Indeedee, who calls herself the 'Fallen' from Blackstone Village."
Everyone just…stared in blunted shock.
"How…?" Armaldo began, stunned as Rhythm watched from behind them all.
"Team Tasty joined the hunt to find Meowth. He found us first, sending out a Substitute Clone with a warning as well as something to tell Guildmaster Wigglytuff."
Swellow's eyes met Rhythm's from across the room. "He wants to say that he and Soothe have rescued Trill and have him with them." Rhythm took a step back and slowly fell to his rump, sitting in stunned silence.
"As the fastest and able to fly, I was chosen to get to Treasure Town to warn you all. On my way, I saw for myself that his words were true. I had to go around them, so they didn't spot me, for they have fliers too. Shadow's are coming for Treasure Town. We have to evacuate it NOW!"
It's too late to change your mind, Melody.
Upon Swellow's word, Azelf immediately told Mesprit to turn back and fuck any arguments to the matter. Uxie informed the Federation, who immediately descended into carnage without Cara there. A kirlia appeared a few minutes later, demanding he come back with her.
"I am needed here!" Cara snapped.
"There are so many fighters here," Kirlia insisted. "Please, Scizor, we need a leader everyone trusts."
"You want Lucario's name," Cara snarled, but as he looked to the others, he didn't see solidarity but understanding. "Fine." He snatched up the sword made of Keira's bones. "But I know the first order of business will be evacuation."
"At the other side of the escape tunnel," Rhythm said. Cara nodded, took Kirlia's hand, and they disappeared.
Rhythm retook charge of the guild unofficially and began sending pokémon everywhere. Bidoof was let out, Swellow was given water and told to go to inform Team Magnezone while the rest of the Guild began to round up the villagers in town as well as sending people out to the residential district.
As expected, things went smoothly.
"What do you MEAN we have to leave?"
Not everyone was budging. Armaldo graced the town with his presence and charisma.
"A horde of Shadow Pokémon are coming!" he roared, causing children to cry and people to shrink back. "You will MOVE to the guild and begin to leave IMMEDIATELY because once they are here, you are all at risk of a fate worse than death."
"This is our HOME!" someone yelled back even as others began to acquiesce. "And you expect us to just abandon it like THIS? No warning, just the poké in your pockets?"
Armaldo's anger was going to reach a breaking point very quickly.
"You will leave," he said. "Or you will die."
"I'd rather stay and FIGHT!"
Armaldo raised a claw to show what he thought about that when another voice cut across the angry murmuring.
"Citizens of Treasure Town!" Came Rhythm's impassioned plea as he ran up to the town square. "You must listen to us. Brave Swellow of Team Tasty has flown for weeks to deliver this warning to us! Without his actions, we would be caught flat-footed and at the mercy of monsters!"
People looked to Rhythm.
"I am sorry that it has come to this, but we have been given a chance at least. A chance to escape the bloodshed, a window to leap from. Do not toss aside your lives for money and possessions! You are worth so much more. Things can be replaced, places can be rebuilt, but lives are invaluable!"
"Hear him!" A second voice, older, wearier, just as strong. Torkoal came walking stiffly. "Listen to Wigglytuff. Treasure Town is not its buildings. Treasure Town is not its roads. Treasure Town is not even its memories. Treasure Town is its people! As long as you survive, the town endures! It is time! We have to go. Make your way to the guild! Orderly lines, children first! Save yourselves while there is still time!"
"No, there isn't."
The crowd, fearful and angry and beginning to listen to Torkoal and Rhythm, all trained on yet another newcomer. Two legs like Rhythm, ancient even more so than Torkoal.
Nelia walked a relaxed stroll right into the middle of town, and Rhythm's eyes widened as he met his enemy. Flying up towards the town, Melody froze, took one look at the indeedee, and turned around and made way for somewhere else.
"It's too late to leave."
Rhythm immediately stepped between her and the town, paw raised and eyes trained on her. "It isn't too late," he replied. "Swellow got word to us in time. Soothe did."
Nelia smirked. "No, not quite in time." She carried a bag with her, and it began to uncurl from her arm. "Let me show you brave pokemon what has become of your heroes." And from it, she pulled….
People screamed and shouted, getting sick as she unveiled a lucario's rotting head.
"The Legendary Lucario did her best," Nelia simpered, tossing it up and down like a ball. "But in the end, she wasn't to do much of anything besides stall."
Rhythm's gaze was horrified and disgusted. "You…you didn't kill her. She was already dead."
Nelia laughed. "Oh, you know that this really is her head?" Rhythm stiffened as he realised he'd just confirmed Keira was dead in front of a terrified crowd. A hush went over them as he found his words stumbling over each other.
Nelia tossed the head to the crowd, who screamed again and backed away, climbing over each other as cries broke out.
"Lucario is DEAD!?"
"Who's going to save us now?"
"She was the pillar!"
"She stopped Shadow's!"
Rhythm grit his teeth. "People! Do not listen!" Pokémon were beginning to flee in every direction, running into shops, the dojo, towards Sharpedo Bluff and some even tried to get around Indeedee.
Nelia shook her head. "You've lost them already, dear Rhythm."
He stared at her sadly. "You should not have come here," he said softly.
Nelia's smile deepened. "Neither should you have. Now you have a choice to make." What do you do, place Trill on the chopping block or defend the town, she asked without asking.
Rhythm's gaze hardened. "You're wrong," he said to her quiet surprise. "Even if there was a choice to make, I promised him. And I will keep that promise."
Her smile didn't quite fall, but it lessened. "Hm, clearly. Well, I suppose it doesn't matter now. Your town will be my example to the world. And it'll either pull those little escapees of mine out of hiding, or the guilt will consume them. Either works for me," she sang and turned around, head twisted to keep her eye on Rhythm. "I just came to say hi. The party isn't far away."
The indeedee, and the head, faded as if it was never there and the remains of the crowd grouped around the powerful pokémon.
"People!" Torkoal boomed. "Orderly positions, move towards the guild!"
"My shop."
"My house!"
"My-"
"Your LIVES!" Armaldo bellowed. "NOW MOVE IT!"
Rhythm raced to the residential district to aid the guild members trying to convince people to leave their homes.
All the while, Melody swam through the air with terrified tears in her eyes.
She released the lock and unveiled her hidden zone, and dashed in. She removed the gag in Blossom's mouth and pulled the delphox chain off her, and tossed it to the side.
"Blossom, you have to run!" Melody said, pulling her up and beaming her with rejuvenating rays. She'd been locked inside, out of the sun, for weeks, and she had slightly wilted from the imprisonment.
"Why?" Blossom managed. "What's going on now?"
"I'm so, so, sorry," Melody cried, patching up anything she could in this rapid emblazonment or rays. "You don't need to forgive me. Just get to the guild, get out of here right now."
"What…are you going to do?" Blossom whispered. She'd been chained up with nothing but her memories, but she still remembered Melody and everything they had shared.
"Buy time," Melody said, the mummified arm being pulled out of its hiding place. Distracted, she didn't see Blossom conceal the blue orb in her leaf. "Come on!"
She pulled her out and floated Blossom through the brush until they reached the crossroads of the town and sent her running into the group. She met Blossom's eyes one last time. There was too much in there for her to even begin to unpack before she turned to the path out of town.
Charging across the dirt road was an arcanine, fast, strong, and very deadly. Dark fire crackled in his mouth, and he pounced with a terrible roar upon Cherrim, fleeing with her daughter.
Melody's eyes flashed, and she caught him just in time, nearly being thrown back as the force of his weight pushed on her, but she diverted him and knocked a yelp out of him as she slammed him into the ground.
Cherrim and Cherubi continued to run, Cherrim crying a brief thankyou to Melody as she floated in the road. It was too late to change her mind, she knew.
Arcanine got back up, and his maddened eyes might as well have just slipped off her, almost unaware of her existence. She was not a target; she could not slate the Hunger burning within his broken thoughts.
Her own eyes squinted, the flood would be here soon, and they were far, far, too slow to evacuate everyone.
A piercing cry cut the sky as an aerodactyl flew down for the crowd. Attacks were sent in reprisal, but it beat through them to bite someone.
Melody looked away and tripped Arcanine again, causing him to fall down the stairs into Spinda's Café. Someone attacked the entrance with a blast of rock, crashing into it and sealing the door.
It lasted about thirty seconds before Arcanine tore through it.
Melody remained where she was, the first line of defence. If anyone noticed that the rampaging shadow beasts simply ignored her, they didn't have time to speak up. She diverted and broke the clamouring hordes as best as she could, lacking the strength to strike any of them down herself.
Shadow resisted Shadow, after all.
Her steely gaze only wavered twice. Once when Indeedee returned, passing by her with a fixated grin on the town, and a second time as two pokémon were broken from a rolling group.
Corphish, and a loudred.
She glanced at their eyes. Jet was frothing at the mouth, drooling in hunger. Boom's eyes flickered briefly as they passed hers, Melody floating frozen, but nothing more.
It was such a nice plan. Get people to leave, no one to be attacked.
But the Shadows were quick, so much faster than they had realised. Arcanine, Aerodactyl, merely the first. Samurott and Piplup burst out of the river in town as Houndoom and Manectric arrived as well.
A vanguard. Only Samurott seemed to have some level of self-awareness in himself, although Piplup still postulated amid broken words.
A cacophony of half-spoken misremembered words began to break across the town in a perverse chorus sung by the people of Blackstone.
The attack on the stairs broke the crowd's formation, and pokémon began to flee in every direction or make panicked attacks at the attackers. Guild pokémon surged, escorting people from the residential district or hearing cries and rushing from directing the main town and began to engage in combat with the deadly fallen beasts.
Shops were abandoned, and items and blood strewn across the ground as the vanguard trickle became a violent flood.
Kangaskhan, nobly refusing to go ahead of anyone, was set upon by Houndoom and Manectric, sticking together in a pack forged of a bond that neither had the ability to remember anymore. She swung out at one, but the other bit. A stomp received a dark fire or electricity that pounded on the nerves like a hammer.
She took multiple oozing bites all over her body, roaring out as she tried, and failed, to fight them off.
Right as Houndoom went for her neck, a Thunderbolt split the air and struck him off her. "RUN!" Flaaffy yelled, racing towards her from the district. He had seven Shadow Pokémon racing after him; another burst of electricity stalled them for half a second before they were charging again. He sent another bolt at Houndoom as Kangaskhan punched Manectric flying.
A concussive series of attacks from a forming line of defenders split the seven chasing Flaaffy into singles as they all darted and went different directions. He ran for the wall of fighters protecting the crowd.
"Dammit Kangaskhan," Flaaffy swore as she ignored his demand to run. "GO!"
"Never!" Kangaskhan boomed back. "I will FIGHT for Treasure Town."
"Treasure Town won't-" Manectric slammed into Flaaffy's chest and knocked him onto his back, and immediately went for his throat.
Kangaskhan just barely managed to grab him by the scuff before he could and lifted him off Flaaffy right as Paras swooped in with a dust of spores that Manectric inhales dumbly.
"How…?" he slurred a word as he fell asleep.
An inferno was sent at Paras as she stepped out of the safety zone, and she screamed and braced. When no burning pain lit her nerves, she recoiled, realising Flaaffy had stepped between them, and almost all of his wool was burned.
He held a grim expression before falling to a knee in pain as the pain of a shadow houndoom's flames bit at him more and more.
Marill burst forth in a surge of water and slammed into Houndoom's neck, causing something to audibly snap and knocked him into the ground next to Manectric.
Kangaskhan threw Flaaffy behind the lines as she took his place, picking up Paras to hold her safely and blow her life-saving Spores at everything she could.
Armaldo stood amongst this castle, having formed a line of durable pokémon alongside him. Machoke, Marowak, Guardian, and now Kangaskhan stood as a powerful core of defenders to weather the assault and return fire.
Armaldo summoned a storm of stones from below the ground to break the lines of Shadow Pokémon and launch many back, forth, or simply block them for a moment.
There were more Shadow Pokémon than had been seen in living memory. Because of a horde of this size, no one survived to see.
Strings of webs swung out, forming tripwires alongside deadly rocks placed stealthily and being tripped by mindless Shadows, zooming up to slam into them or entrap them as he summoned tombs worth of stones.
Heat poured from every gap in Armaldo's body as he pushed everything he had into defending the path to the guild. They could not break the line; they could not.
Yet, they could also not break their own line to protect the town and the pokémon running there. To deviate a moment would be to lose the whole thing, and he simply had to hope that the pokémon there were swift, smart, strong, or just lucky enough to get through.
The worst of it was the pokémon running who could not get close enough to safety before they were overcome. Armaldo could not deviate from the barrier line, not even to save them.
A barb lanced through Machoke and knocked him onto his back, a bleeding hole in his chest, a chink opened up.
He replaced it with a stone and barked at someone to drag Machoke away. He wasn't sure if he'd survived the strike or if he would.
Their lines could not hold forever.
Armaldo felt Shadows pass over his body, spearing through everything and shaking his organs up from the mere glance. He wondered if this was what Sean had experienced earlier. He'd saved one person. Just one person. They had to leave the other three in the base of Team Magnezone.
"Go! Go! GO!" Rhythm called, herding the last group of pokémon away from the residential district. There were too many Shadow Pokémon on the path now, so he gave a rough idea of where they needed to go and sent them into the forest before charging back into the town, attacking the dregs of this assault.
He met his mentor's eyes in the crossroads with a single nod between them both before Rhythm raced for the town for those there. He took injuries from potshots and blind strikes and smashing through them, knocking Shadow Pokémon out with bent limbs or broken necks.
He ran into town as fresh screams touched their ears. There weren't many people left in town, having either escaped or perished, but there were some. There were-
"FUCKING GO, YOU LITTLE CUNTS!" Banette screamed, swooping in the way of a fireball that came for a trio of running children. She spotted Rhythm; he spotted them and her and the monster behind them.
"Wigglytuff," Banette said calmly. Far too calmly. "Save them."
He snatched the three crying children and raced for the guild. He gagged as something snared his neck and pulled him onto his back before it was released as Banette attacked the source of it.
"I SAID SAVE THEM!" Banette screamed, charging Indeedee herself with a brutal tackle.
He stood and continued running with the children as Banette ran to meet death.
A burning hand closed around the cloth-ghosts neck, and Nelia pulled her up as she kicked and struggled, fire licking at her seams and burning her fuzz to ash.
"I'd ask if you have any last words," she drawled, cocking her head curiously as fabric burned. "But you don't have words to say anymore."
Banette's eyes managed to narrow once before Nelia's hand flared, and she burned to ash. With a satisfied smirk, Nelia raised a hand to strike Rhythm again before crippling agony overtook her whole body, and a surprised shriek was torn as she wound up on the ground, spitting out blood.
"Fuuu-Destiny Bond," she cursed, wounded on the ground as she took the same force of damage she'd just used to kill someone. However, she recovered swiftly, standing up on stable feet and glancing about at the ruin around her.
Chansey's Daycare burned in the dark fires of Shadows. Banette, having realised some kids were missing, had come running back into town to retrieve them. At the cost of her life.
Some Shadow Pokémon had been defeated or sated and were simply about. Nelia didn't mind, carnage lived on this day, and unlike what the town realised, she knew where their little escape tunnel ended.
So, those pokémon would find themselves trapped in a dark tube, Shadow Pokémon closing in on each side.
However, she was not sated, and she began to walk towards the guild, ignoring the few other pokémon still running.
Rhythm came storming back down, having deposited the children into fleeing arms.
"There are innocents who shouldn't have to accept this!" he cried, voice crossing the whole town in an instant. "I won't let them suffer for naught."
"How poetic," she said, unimpressed.
"Stop this," Rhythm said to her genuine astonishment. "Now. It is not too late to turn back. We have a way to purify. It has already been done! We can save everyone; we can save you."
"You could save me?" Nelia said in a small voice before scoffing. "What a lark."
Rhythm's eyes twitched once. "I have offered you mercy," he said regretfully. "This atrocity is on your shoulders."
Then, he moved.
Unlike most opponents when someone stepped with such sudden speed, Nelia was able to intercept it. She caught his punch in her hand, blazing with fire, containing the sheer blast of his punch in gluttonous darkness.
A pulse cut the ground between them, and she swept up another fist to strike him back. His mouth had begun to open as he moved, and she then found herself taking the hit she was supposed to as he point-blanked her.
She bounced and rolled on the ground, slamming through the wall of the dojo and then out through the other side, one door getting torn off its hinges from the force.
He raced after her, upon the fallen indeedee before she had time to even realise he'd hit her.
Another punch. A second punch. A third punch.
Each blow caused shockwaves in the air that sounded like thunderclaps, launching Nelia out of town and into the sky across the ocean.
With careful breath control, Rhythm flew after her, sending vocal cries from his mouth at the sea with such force that he flew.
His fourth punch broke her neck and snapped her right horn, causing Nelia to spin rather than fly back. That…that was a mistake.
The strength of a psychic caught them both as she finally had range on him, stopping herself immediately and crushing the Yoom-TAH out of Rhythm's lungs.
A hateful glare crossed her face as fire fell from the sky like rain. One fireball enveloping Rhythm and sent him blazing towards the sea while the rest fell towards the town.
She laughed as tiny little dots screamed and scrabbled for safety as hell fell upon them.
Blackish fire curled around her, possibly suspending the Fallen in the air as Rhythm pounded the air into submission to reach her. His paw curled, readying for a punch.
He struck, striking Nelia's head right on the chin in a brutal uppercut and shattered her.
Rhythm's eyes widened and he forced himself to the left to avoid a striking blade of energy. His expression was tensed into a grim look of flickered resolve, Nelia's eyes meeting him with a depraved grin. She pointed a palm and he bellowed out, fire meeting a shockwave of a cry and sending a thunderclap of fire in every direction.
Including the town.
"NO, PEOPLE-" Rhythm began as the plume of fire crashed towards the town but he couldn't act before Nelia's arm was around his neck.
"Shhh," she crooned, behind him despite having appeared to be before him. The Nelia he could see gave a wave and then faded. Her arm cut into his neck and he bucked, catching the limb and beginning to swing.
Nelia laughed. "Too late."
That laughter was cut short when Rhythm elbowed her in the chest, broke her hold, grabbed her foot and spun them both, flinging her at her own fiery shockwave. She blasted through it and struck the guild.
She went through several floors until she hit the Guildmaster's throne and staggered, the throne falling over with her in it.
Nelia groaned and rolled to her feet, seeing dots in front of her eyes. She dug her paw into the bag she still wore. Pokémon were shouting and screaming just outside those big doors, running for their not-so-secret escape tunnel.
By the time she raised a paw to send the doors flying in and hopefully splatter someone, Rhythm was upon her again.
Something flashed as he smashed her through the rest of the guild, through Diglett's single room, and into the sea.
But as she fell, Nelia laughed. "Not all that glitters is GOLD!" she yelled, something metallic cobalt flashing after her.
He saw the glint in her eyes and spun in the air, shouting suddenly and launching himself out of the way of the iron thorn.
She caught it in her hand and stopped on the water. Blood painted the water pink as it dropped from her body.
Rhythm crashed into the water before racing forth, running with such speed and force that he was walking on water, sending up a great burst of steam as the water crashed.
She smiled and held the thorn one way, then another, wondering which looked best.
His jaw tightened at the sight of it. It was…hers, wasn't it?
"Wondering how I got this?" she asked. He didn't bother replying.
His paw raised for a punch.
She rolled her eyes.
A barrier appeared around them as his punch caused the tide below her to recede, a hole straight to the ocean floor being pulled up from the sheer force of the blocked blow.
Her Protect cracked like a biscuit, but she was already flying back as he struck. A shout from him caused the hole to widen even greater as Rhythm flew after her. She pulled a wand from her bag and waved it at Rhythm.
Another movement pulse evaded it.
The water all rushed to fill the hole and spouted up. Her eyes burned as she pulled it even further, sending a deluge at Rhythm, which was blasted into mist by another shout, one that forced him to fly back.
She grinned and triggered a different wand, boosting herself sharply forwards with the pounce. The iron thorn flashed as Rhythm went flat.
Her slash only grazed his belly, but it was a nasty cut right alongside the scar that it, or its twin, had inflicted on him years back. Her strike cost her greatly; he grabbed her left shoulder with such pressure she felt her bones crunching like someone had squeezed a crisp.
And another brutal haymaker broke her face as he tore her arm off. He threw the arm into the sea and shouted once, blowing himself after her as she fell.
Nelia smashed back into the middle of town with a frustrated growl of furious pain. The iron thorn had exchanged hands just in time, but she grabbed at her torn-stump with a glare of frustration.
Her body leaked foul blackness like blood, melting down smoothly and eagerly taking shape as Rhythm landed and paused in horror.
"What?" Nelia uttered in twisted amusement as her arm regenerated. "You think the First Fallen is as soft as the rest? You'll find no one more empowered by the Shadows than I am."
Rhythm's gaze turned to one of disgusted pity, an expression that caused her to snarl.
"You're getting weaker," she spat teeth as they too reformed as her face stopped resembling a crater. "And I am not."
Rhythm was panting hard, but his eyes were as sharp as ever.
"You must…stop this," Rhythm said, and Nelia realised he was trying to appeal to her better nature again. "This isn't right. You know it isn't right! This has to END, Indeedee!" People that were running and defending could hear them, dozens of eyes set firmly on the battles at hand.
Her face was flat. "Good gravy, you really don't know how to quit, do you?" A smile crossed her face. "Since you insist on giving me another chance, let me show you what the price of your mercy is."
Before he could react, she had raised her hand, and a telekinetic pull dragged someone away from the defenders. Marill was pulled scrambling in the air.
"No!" Rhythm cried, launching himself in the way as she formed more dark fire. He took a direct fireball to the belly that knocked him onto his back.
And Marill was still flying.
"STOP!"
She did not.
"MARILL!" A mothers cry silenced the battlefield.
Rhythm's eyes widened and then went blank. People were roaring, screaming, rushing into the town. A pulse knocked them all back, delivered not from her but from him.
Rhythm held his breath in check, still taking deep breaths but not showing weakness before her. "I have offered you a second chance," he said, only to her. His words were not for others' ears but heard anyway. She laughed at him. "It is not wrong to offer a second chance."
A deep yawning sound began to echo over the battlefield, akin to the titanic groan of a forgotten titan. Ears began to pop and natural senses lit up with a need to run, even the monstrous Shadow Pokémon were beginning to pause or run. "But you? You have had dozens, hundreds, thousands of second chances. Every day you have had a second chance, and every time you have chosen not to take it."
His eyes darkened in mourning, remaining firmly on her. "You are still here. Doing what you have always done. No guilt or remorse can be seen in your eyes."
His eyes squinted. "Was it worth it?" The words were quiet. "Everything you have done to come to this point?"
The wind itself seemed to be holding its breath as he frowned sadly and shook his head. "No, do not answer that. I know it was not worth it. I am sorry, Indeedee." He gave one soft sigh of sadness. Of pity. Of mourning for who she could have been. "You have wasted your life."
Rhythm's Power caused the land to shake once more.
And as he released all restraint, the world trembled. He only focused it just enough to not crash the tunnel and instead pointed it all at Her.
Rhythm's first punch struck with so much force that the blow of it split her in half.
Tears did not blind Rhythm as he spun to her upper body half, the demon snarling and floating as fireballs formed to rain upon him. A single cry denied the fire and turned it to ashes before a second one aimed to blow her away.
Suddenly something flickered and it was not Nelia he was pointing his rage at, but Trill. The shock of seeing him staggered the cry in his throat before his mind caught up to the obvious trick.
It gave her enough time, however.
She bit down on something and her body, both halves, disappeared. She reformed elsewhere, spitting out a warp seed husk as her body reattached on the other side of the crossroads. Dozens of pokémon turned to her as she appeared. Nelia withstood a combined barrage of attacks under the safety of a Protect as Melody darted out of the way, their voices leading Rhythm to the fight.
His second punch missed but caused the path leading to Treasure Town to crack like an actual earthquake occurred. The miss cost him as a glint of iron cut a second line into his chest, a deeper cross, but he pulled a breath in to Sing.
She burned the air in his lungs as he sucked in a breath, breathing in corrosive fire instead. He immediately gasped as his lungs burned and changed tactics, closing what little distance remained and striking her across the face rapidly.
Her horns, one having regenerated, snapped and were sent flying as the force of his Double Slap broke her neck in several places. Iron flashed a third time, but he caught it by the hand this time.
Her wrist broke as he tried to rip the blade out of her grip, but her bag revealed yet another trick. The wand flashed and struck him in the middle, paralysing his body. This time, she did not retreat and pushed the advantage.
Right as Nelia aimed a skewering strike, she was forced to recoil back as another wave of attacks washed over the fighters, breaking the paralysis and forcing her off him.
"Fuck," she swore, this was not an ideal position. She raised a paw towards the fighters, but any relenting of the focus against Rhythm was costly and a blow snapped her arm and wrist.
Despite her smug words and ever-present grin, her body was…slower. The wounds were lasting longer, the tips of her horns were hazy pieces of smoke, her neck hung at a defiant angle, bones did not heal as easily as other wounds. Even The First Fallen could be taxed.
However, so could a wigglytuff. Even one as powerful as Rhythm, he was still out of shape compared to his prime, a few months of action not making up for decades of sloth.
The wand flashed again as Rhythm forced a breath down into his aching lungs, stunning his body.
"Yoom," he managed before he froze. The surge of attacks came again but she rushed forth anyway, the iron thorn pointed forth. She dove in. "TAH!"
The half-built, internal, Yoom-TAH imploded between them as the iron thorn drove into Rhythm's chest.
The force sent Nelia flying back, carving more of a wound in Rhythm as the blade was yanked out and flew in the air, an arc of blue and red. She landed in the trees somewhere as Rhythm skidded down to where the last fighters were battling the risen bastion of Shadow Pokémon.
He managed to stand as a gentle telekinetic pulse pulled him up and took another breath.
"TAH!"
As an igglybuff, he had once destroyed boulders raining on the head of his father. As a wigglytuff, Rhythm's cry shook the land.
His sheer Power broke the ranks of the Shadow Pokémon at last as Rhythm began to deflate like a balloon, bleeding profusely and gasping for breath.
The horde broken and already depleted began to break apart. Many Shadow collapsing down, survived only by their lack of immediately mortal wounds, others scrambling away from the beacons of light and surviving over feeding.
Rhythm was happy he could do that much.
Chitin the Explorer saw his little protege begin to keel over and finally broke rank as he ran to his students' side.
"Rhythm," he said urgently, blinking rapidly. "Rhythm, Rhythm, Rhth-" He managed to turn him open and completely stopped, freezing in place as the chaos around them began to sound distant and unimportant. That wound was…mortal.
Rhythm held a comforting smile on his face as Chitin stared at him uncomprehendingly, eyes twitching from his face to his wound. His claws touched Rhythm's chest, and the wigglytuff winced. Chitin's mouth was open and making movements, but no words came out.
"Look at him." That cold, evil voice pulled the horrified eyes of the defenders off Rhythm to where Nelia walked again, staggering like a risen corpse out of the ground. "Look at your hero." The last word was spat like a filthy curse.
Chitin went to move between them, but Rhythm's paw stopped him, pulling himself up instead.
"Yes," he agreed, voice as strong as always, wetted by the blood in his mouth. "Look at me." He stepped forwards on unsteady legs, bracing on Chitin. Nelia blinked. How was he even moving? There was so much blood, and his lungs were half ash. "I am not unique. I am not special. I simply am. I simply fight."
She raised an eyebrow but let him continue, one hand holding the sword, the other readying a fireball.
"This is the spirit of pokémon. Not only Treasure Town but us all. Everyone has stood to fight you."
"Most of you have run away," Nelia drawled. "And you are hardly just any pokémon."
"That is their fight," Rhythm wheezed; he was still deflating. "The choice to live in defiance of you."
"Or choose to die pointlessly." She raised her hand, gripping the blade and Rhythm raised as well, pulled out of Chitin's reach, chest squeezing with a painful wheeze. "Look, Treasure Town. Look at your hero. With but a gesture I choke the last few breaths out of your final hero. This is your fight. And this is how it ends. Not with a bang, but with a feeble little whimper."
Rhythm shook his head. "No," he croaked, voice carrying over the rest of Treasure Town. "You will lose." It was said not as a threat but as a fact. "Creatures like you have always lost. As long as people stand against you, you can never-"
She threw the fireball in wrathful disgust, ending his final word before it could come.
"LOOK!" Nelia bellowed as Rhythm fell, brandishing the iron thorn that once belonged to Rhythm's other partner. "You. Will-"
And took a combined attack from everyone at once.
The eruption of force and energy obliterated the air. It forced Nelia to block with a Protect that shattered under the onslaught, launching her down the path to the beach.
"People!" Chitin's voice was raw and pained and passionate. "Keep RUNNING! Do NOT allow his sacrifice to be in vain, go, go, GO!"
Nelia groaned in pain and then in anger, head lolling on the ground. Why aren't they breaking? She killed their figurehead! He died for nothing, you insipid-
Go Treasure Town show them that they can never-
They are trapped and will DIE!
She rose up and began to stagger back; her legs were damaged, there was more blood than there was oozing shadow, and the healing was as sluggish as a magcargo.
A snarl of melting hate upon her face as she ascended the stairs, the pokémon all retreating to the guild. "You think I don't know where you're running to!?" she screamed, body swimming in hateful darkness to create a monstrous caricature of an indeedee. "You were betrayed by Chimecho! YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE THIS NIGHT!"
She began climbing the rest as the pokémon vanished into the guild, two blazing figures standing guard at the gate and arguing.
Torkoal huffed a pained breath, not an argument, not now. "Fortune, go."
Fortune's eyes were filled with angry tears as the ponyta pleaded. "Father, please!"
"Now!"
Fortune's eyes squinted. "Please," he whispered as the last of the defenders entered; it was just them, and people were calling for them.
"You have to go," Torkoal pleaded. "She's almost here. Someone must collapse the entrance, and I have lived a long, wonderful life. Nothing made my life brighter than this town, than you. Now please, go. Survive. RUN!"
Tears fell from the ponyta's eyes as he leaned down to press his head to Torkoal's forehead just once. "I love you," he whispered before galloping into the guild.
"I love you too," Torkoal whispered back. He regarded the fallen one with a tired old glare as she approached.
"Your town is destroyed, old mon," Nelia spat towards Torkoal's steely face, lifting him up with a sneer and a gesture. Smoke was building.
He bared through it with a glare of steely determination. "The town was never the buildings," he replied, his shell beginning to blaze with hellfire light. Nelia stiffened, realising what he was about to do a moment too late.
She raised her hands, but it was too late to do anything.
Torkoal combined Eruption and Explosion. A thunderous explosion rocked the escape tunnel and broke the cliff-face of the guild, once annihilated by Palkia itself. The positioning caused the entrance to the tunnel to be buried under tonnes upon tonnes of rock.
And Nelia felt the world burn.
Going by FFN (and so, including the author notes), I hit a million words with this chapter.
…do we hate Nelia yet? I think we do.