"I never really knew you well," Saniya said as they flew across the setting sky. "You seemed cool in the Dark Future. What I can remember at least."
"Hm," Trill replied. "Thank you, I too don't recall that time all so clearly; it was there that I learned Soothe still lived, however. I cannot forget that."
"How did you feel when I told you that?" Saniya asked curiously. "I missed her in the years since sending her, but never did it feel like a betrayal. I thought maybe she just couldn't find the gears or something like that. They weren't easy to find, even using the Dimensional Scream."
Trill weighed the words up in her head, trying to focus on the moment that never was. It was a strange thing to dwell on a timeline obliterated to the point it never happened in the first place. Yet, enough people had persisted through that. He wondered how Soothe had.
"With difficulty," he answered at length. "Until recently, the idea of losing someone to the corruption was a heart-wrenching prospect. Knowing that they are denied even peace after tragedy and will linger to haunt. There is no saving them. There is only one thing that can be done."
He soared and so couldn't ruffle his feathers. He cleared his throat curtly instead. "Now, that is not true. Not only was I myself rescued from the abomination, but it was by the one I thought had betrayed us."
"She's human," Saniya said as if she had always known. "Not long before…Indeedee attacked the town, Wigglytuff and I actually had worked that out."
"How did you do that?"
Saniya smiled. "There were just too many 'things' about her. Of course, we didn't know for sure, but it made sense. I hadn't known her for long, Wigglytuff a little longer. Did you see it too?"
"When I was told I had already been prepared," Trill said, stiffening slightly. He hadn't revealed all of the secrets of Soothe after all when informing the others. "By Scout. As it turns out, she is the source of his knowledge."
Saniya blinked, dipped in air in surprise. "Really? You're telling me that she's the one who played the vidya gaem?"
Trill nodded. "Quite. Had I not had at least some time to digest that information from Scout, I'm not sure what I would have thought."
Saniya pouted slightly, thinking deeply about things. However, she didn't voice those thoughts, as the only one who could answer would be Soothe.
Soon.
"Is it weird to hold an attachment to someone you knew twenty years ago?" she asked, further into their trip. "Like, that's a lot of time to be apart, times and people change, you need to move on, not be stuck on the past kind of stuff."
Trill made an amused noise. "Curious to hear that from a celebi."
"Yeah, well, shush."
Trill looked down at the dark woods below them, scanning it. "I don't know. You voice my own thoughts in a sense. The Guildmaster and I never truly got over what had occurred with her. He, I feel some guilt to say this, was never quite the same. I do wonder if the guilt of allowing me to believe that she was dead might have been the cause for that."
He bobbed in the air, a mimic of a shrug. "And maybe I never entirely could believe he was able to kill her. It was something we never spoke about, the one taboo topic. I didn't want to think about it, and I believe he was content to do the same. Never facing it, however, and discussing all that we had felt was something chaining us back from moving on."
"You're very wise," she said.
Trill laughed. "I was the head of intelligence for the guild. One does not build such a repertoire without picking up some knowledge. One such is reflective practice, something I did a great deal while in Indeedee's company. Truly, though, is wisdom not simply learning from your mistakes? It took a long time for me to even begin."
"I'm sorry," Saniya said softly.
"Why?"
"I'm not sure," she replied honestly. "I feel like I've upset you somehow."
He shook his head. "You do not need to concern yourself with upsetting me, Celebi. Ignoring my emotions has not helped me, nor anyone. I'm just thinking about R…Wigglytuff. I want to ask questions I don't want the answers to."
"He went down fighting," she said.
"I understand that."
"…afraid of when he revives?"
"Yes." He nodded, that one word saying much. "I am. I know what it was like. I know what promises we made to each other. Worst of all, I know that Soothe and Scout can save him with ease, and part of me wants to avoid him until that is done. To see him in that state, however temporarily…."
Saniya understood, or at least she tried to. She wondered how she'd feel when she saw Soothe, that was the only marker of comparison she had. She felt a new wave of compassion for Trill, both of his partners had been twisted cruelly.
"I can say one thing relating to Soothe," she said, a thought occurring to her sharply out of nowhere.
"Yes?"
"I know you feared that she was using you for all the time you knew each other until she couldn't hide it anymore. Giratina taught us what humans do with the Shadow, and Keira taught us how to deal with it. Humans just absorb it from around them, and in dungeons, eventually, it could build up to a point where they can't take it anymore and descend. It was mostly just a theory, but…."
She sighed. "What Wiggly and I talked about matched Keira's warnings. Mood swing, snappiness, progressively getting more miserable with no idea why helped by fighting to exhaustion in dungeons. Sound familiar?"
"It does," he said sharply, eyes widening.
"That must have been what happened. She didn't know, neither did any of you, what you had to do to bleed out the corruption. She wasn't much of a fighter, not with me, not with you guys either?"
"She was a brilliant ally in battle, but yes, Wigglytuff and I were usually more than enough to deal with threats." He felt a pleasant blooming in his chest.
"And since she knew about Darkrai, seeing him there and then…I dunno; it's mostly just an educated guess. Which I can ask her myself soon."
"Once we find them."
"I can't wait to see Scout."
Trill smiled. "Let us make haste then!"
And on they flew.
The day had come and gone and come again by the time Trill called out to those below. "Tally ho!" It had taken some time to find them, but Trill had correctly assumed that they wouldn't be hiding as firmly with the knowledge that he might be coming back.
"Guess you're better than Indeedee," Scout said, pleased as he circled down, squinting up at the sunlight. Something was whizzing in the air, sending a piercing keen through the air, was that-
"SCOUT!"
Scout nearly detonated in a pink explosion as Saniya fell upon him with all her love and affection at once. Were it not a most enjoyable moment, he might have feared for his life.
"I'VEMISSEDYOUSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOOOOOMUCH!" He began to fear for his life anyway as her hug began to choke the air out of his lungs. "AHHHHH!"
"Mind you don't kill him," a dry voice snapped her out of her joyful reverie like nothing else in this world ever had. Saniya's hugs were absolute, her affection unstoppable, her joy unassailable. You will join her happiness. That was the way things were. And yet...
Her arms, so small but so strong, loosened around Scout as she turned; green met green, pink and purple.
Saniya's mouth parted slightly, jaw-dropping just a few centimetres, her eyes flicked minutely, taking in everything she could see.
Slowly, she let Scout go and began to float up. Trill landed as well and helped Scout up, watching quietly as Saniya approached Soothe.
Her wings shivered in the air as she propelled herself forwards, shortening the space between them until she was just a few steps away.
Soothe's face held a carved half-smile, left eyebrow raised just slightly as if asking what she was thinking. A visible paw hung loosely; the other had tightened out of sight.
Saniya smiled. "You look like I remember you looking," she said softly. "Hi, Soothe."
"You too," Soothe replied easily. "Hello, Cel. Or, I guess Saniya?"
"You can call me Cel," she replied quickly. "It was my first given name."
"Cel Saniya sounds a little strange, but I've heard worse."
Saniya giggled, eyes still wide and scanning Soothe over and over again. Like she was staring at an image that could fade away at any moment, her own hands were squeezed tightly, restraining herself from bombing her like she'd bombed Scout.
"Why are you two here?" Soothe asked when it became clear that Saniya was content to just stare. She jerked, as if snapped out of a daze, and glanced at Trill, who was already speaking quietly to Scout.
She turned back to Soothe. "Right. Business. Business first. Trill let us know. We've got a plan."
"What's the situation," Soothe asked firmly. She glanced at Trill and then back to Saniya. "We've been working on just predictions. What happened to Treasure Town? Indeedee? Everything."
"Everything is a lot," Saniya said slowly. A flicker of wariness crossed her face, sensing something. "I…we're here to bring you back; we can go over everything once we're all together again."
"No," Soothe answered immediately. "Tell me now."
"Why?" Saniya said. It was meant as a question to just that, but then she repeated it. "Why?" And suddenly, the question was a lot deeper.
Soothe appeared taken aback for a moment, hearing a lot more to that word than the circumstances would warrant.
She turned her head slightly, not wanting to look at anyone as she thought. "Dangerous," she answered. "Too dangerous. Me."
Saniya's face softened. "No, you're not," she said softly, with ironclad certainty. "You are not dangerous."
"I am, Cel."
"Not to me," she said. "I… we should have brought… no he's too exhausted. Look, Soothe, we can purify you! We've Sean; he's human…too." Soothe's eyes flicked to Trill again. "Rhythm and I actually worked it out already; he did confirm it, though."
"Did you now?"
She nodded. "Before it, all went to hell. It made sense. It didn't make sense why you never told anyone, but…." The question was placed more overtly this time.
Soothe tasted words decrying anyone's right to her secrets, but she said something else. "I didn't know how," she admitted. "And after the first person I told mind raped me, I wasn't eager to risk that betrayal again."
Saniya's expression turned to one of horror, and both Scout and Trill flinched. She hadn't ever said it like that before.
Soothe's face was a cool mask, detached from her words and past. "I recognise that it was stupid. I did want to tell, I did. But every time I thought to do it, that trauma just came back. Easier to ignore, forget it all completely. Who I once was, no one needed to know. I could be anyone now. Better."
She glanced at the shadow beneath Saniya. "We're here now. Can you tell me the situation, please?"
Saniya didn't plan to let this go forever; she still nodded. "Your message reached Team Ion, and they sent Swellow to warn the town. He got there just in time to get some movement going before Nelia, and the Shadow Horde arrived."
"Nelia?" Soothe asked before realising. "That's Indeedee's name?"
"You didn't… know?"
"She never told me," Soothe answered. "Loves to know others' names though."
"A form of power she likes to swing around," Trill added coldly.
"Nelia." Scout tasted the word, and it wasn't as bitter as he would have expected. "That's such a…normal name."
"Is it?" Saniya and Trill chorused.
"It's a human name," Soothe answered. "Not like how pokémon names usually work. Normally short for Cornelia. It's old fashioned, but I wouldn't expect a monster like her to have any name that wasn't Supreme God-Awful Queen of Shadows or something as childishly edgy as that."
"Sorry for interrupting; that was just weird," Scout said.
Soothe nodded. "Yes. As much as we don't want to hear, what happened? Don't spare any details."
Saniya began to look ill as she explained the attack on the town to the best of her ability. She hadn't participated in much of the attack, protecting Sean and Swanna and the first escapees.
Soothe's expression didn't change as Saniya told her about Rhythm's death. Scout made a weak little sound at hearing it, however.
"…Soothe?" She waited after saying that Rhythm died, Trill had covered his face, and Scout was hugging him. Soothe was just standing, with a flat expression and motionless.
"…continue," she said airily.
Saniya teared up at that but did as asked and narrated the rest of what she knew.
"So, that's where we're at. On the run, not as many people left to protect but with that horde, they'd wipe us out if they reached. Chimecho says they're going to stay put, but we can't exactly believe that for sure. And Nelia is going after Cara, but they're going to lay a trap for her. It'll take her ages to get to them.
"No, it won't," Soothe replied. "Runerigus or not, she has access to entercards and has them set up in a lot of places across the continent."
Saniya froze. "I…but if she could do that, why wouldn't the horde just have been teleported?"
"They'd lose themselves in the mists immediately. Have you ever been in one?" Saniya nodded. "No capacity to resist. She'd lose them all in a moment… could have been a way to deal with them," she mused, to everyone's horror. "But I've got a better idea."
A smile was taking Soothe's face. It was scary and dangerous and almost wonderfully beautiful. Like a splash of oil in water, mesmerizing yet toxic. "You know where this horde is? Just roughly?"
"I do. Assuming Chimecho was telling the truth, but we knew the horde was getting close."
"Good. We're gonna purify them, Scout." He looked up at her sharp word. "All of them."
"All of them?" he repeated, a slight smile tweaking at his face.
"Nelia thinks she can turn Pokémon Explorers into doom and gloom? Fuck her. Here's what we're going to do. You're going to tell them to sit, and I'm going to rip it out of everyone. Then we're going to punch Chimecho in the face. Fourth-wall breaking creep."
Scout's smile beamed as well as wavered. Everything Saniya had said was…beyond difficult to hear.
She hadn't quite reached Trill's return, and those who had come with him, and she saw the confliction on his face.
"Rai and Mane are safe," she said, causing him to perk up. "Bird dad over there already ran into them; you didn't tell him as I was talking?"
"I don't talk over someone," Trill sniffed, offended at the notion.
Scout gave him a light nudge, a smile unstoppably climbing on his face. "How are they?"
"Really, really, really, miss you," Saniya said. "Hearing you were okay from him brightened up everyone. Getting your Substitute to them saved a lot of lives, thank you."
He blushed. "It was hardly just me. Soothe taught me, and Swellow delivered the message."
Trill ruffled his wings. "Desperate to see you again, recently having saved Young Shinx and Lux…ray's father. Luxio has evolved, and they defeated their Shadow-Corrupted father and saved him using a gift from the Legendary Lucario."
At that word, he looked to Saniya.
"They want to give you this," she said, procuring a shrunken white and red object. "Since Rai used the pokéball to save his father, Sean wants you to have this. Just in case." She handed the pokéball to Scout, and he marvelled at it.
Saniya beamed. "Also, just because others did their part doesn't mean you get to avoid any praise, though." She continued to beam at him. "We all miss you so much. When we heard you got nabbed, everyone freaked out except yours truly. I knew you'd be okay with Soothe."
"How could you have known that?" Soothe demanded.
"Because Rhythm trusts you," she answered, and Soothe flattened, going pale. "And so do I. Guardian even accepted that you're trustworthy, and he literally tried to end the world for Scout. I didn't just bring presents for Scout either."
"… where's the horde?"
"We can triangulate that when we're back," Saniya suggested, pulling at her bag again. "I've brougt you-"
"I said no," Soothe said, and Saniya stopped fluttering, hand buried. "I…even seeing you right now, I'm fighting a mental battle to just rip you apart. I don't think I'll be able to control myself around even more people, and I'm not just going to become a slave to Scout's power."
"Scout's what?"
"I can control Shadow Pokémon in Reverse Mode, apparently," Scout said. Saniya stared at him. "Yeah. Weird, right?"
"Then let us purify you when Sean's up!" Saniya said cheerfully. "Between the two of us and…Scout, I guess it'll be easy!"
"No."
Her grin faded; Scout, too, was looking at her like she'd grown two extra heads.
Trill was the one to speak, however. "I've felt your position," he said. "And I can assure you it's better to be free."
"Not in this case," Soothe replied firmly. "Look. Cel. Not that the offer isn't nice, but I have a plan, and I have to remain like this to do it."
"…I don't understand?"
"I can't be corrupted if I'm already corrupted," she explained. "How many pokémon are going to be in this horde? Dozens? Hundreds?"
"Purified pokémon can't be recorrupted!" Saniya cried.
"I'm not a regular pokémon, though," Soothe shot back, and Saniya stilled again. "I didn't have to be killed to be turned."
"…it was a gradual thing," Saniya said. "Humans absorb Shadow over time. It builds and builds and builds until it becomes too much all at once. It was just a theory from Giratina until I thought of you."
"So, that's what happened?" Soothe murmured. "I thought Indeedee had put something in me; maybe she did. I think you're right. And since you're right…."
"You don't know that you could be corrupted again!" Saniya cried again. "And even if you can be, we can save you again!"
"I said no," Soothe answered, with a heaviness of finality. "For the rest of my plan. She's the most corrupted person in the world. Even Rhythm wasn't enough to beat her, not because he wasn't strong enough but because nothing he did could put her down before she'd regenerate."
"Where are you going with this?"
"I'm going to purify everyone. And then I'm going to kill her."
Saniya stared at her for a very long moment, studying everything she had said and implied. "These aren't forces you should mess with."
"I'm going to save everyone," Soothe said confidently. "Then, once she's dust…then."
Saniya wavered. "I don't think it's a good idea," she said eventually.
"Well, it's mine to make." And Saniya cringed, as she knew choice was something Soothe had rarely had.
She turned to Scout for aid but didn't find it. He was slowly giving a nod. "We'll save everyone," he repeated her words. "And maybe I can do something to Nelia too if she goes berserk like the rest!"
"Well it...it's not wrong to get help."
"The more people there are, the more difficult it'll be to protect them," Soothe said. "We can do it on our own, but it's good to know the wider plan. After we save everyone, we'll need a way to find Indeedee, lure her out maybe."
"People can help!"
"I'm not sacrificing anyone else," Soothe shot back. "I'm tired of all the death. If she kills a purified pokémon, then they're almost definitely gone for good. She uses numbers against her opponents."
"A united front…."
"Isn't what I will bring," Soothe replied. "And you know I won't."
"If you were purified."
"Cel, I said no!"
Saniya flinched. Soothe's expression did not change.
"I don't like seeing you like this," she whispered. "And it's been so long since I've seen you."
"It has been." Soothe nodded. "Why have you hung onto the memory of me for so long?"
"You were my first friend."
"Mine was named Andy," she said. "We drifted apart after I moved to a neighbouring town. Only took a year or two, maybe before he basically became a stranger. We were going to have matching houses right next to each other. That didn't pan out."
Saniya's eyes flicked as she looked all over Soothe.
She seemed to find whatever she was looking for, and she relented, wilting slightly. "Okay. As long as you promise me that when this is done, we can help you too."
Trill looked up as Soothe nodded vacantly, little to be seen in her eyes.
Saniya floated in closer, closing what distance remained until she was firmly in Soothe's space. Soothe had gone very tense as Saniya approached, staring at her unblinkingly.
The crackles and popped had suddenly stopped the other night, but Scout felt his ears ringing suddenly.
"It might have been twenty years since, but I still see you as my friend. I always have. I always will. Because I'm a pokémon. Not even because I'm Celebi and time is a 'anyway' to me. You're my friend, and I've never forgotten that." She withdrew her hand, exposing a gleaming golden gem. "It's not much, but I found this in your house. Audino can mega evolve, you might find it useful." She offered the awakening out.
She didn't touch Soothe. She knew Soothe wasn't a fan of touching, only if she initiated it. Slowly, Soothe raised her paw and opened her bag. Saniya placed it in carefully then withdrew with a dazzling smile. "You gotta promise me you'll stay safe, alright?"
"Can't promise that," Soothe said in the breath of a sigh.
"I guess not." She turned to Trill, who glanced to Scout.
Scout nodded. "Tell Rai and Mane I won't be too far away. Not much longer now. It's almost over."
"We'll also be talking about that letter you left us," Soothe said playfully, her most dangerous tone. Trill swallowed nervously.
"I know it was cowardly," he began.
"Never thought you were a chicken."
"And that a mature thing to do would not leave the moment the two of you separated from me."
"We were really worried when you weren't anywhere," Scout said. "Nearly missed the note."
"Can't believe you broke up with us over text," Soothe said, shaking her head. "So disappointed."
"I didn't…." Trill blinked. "You aren't angry?"
Scout shook his head. "It wasn't a very nice surprise, but…." He glanced at Soothe.
"If nothing else, it did dislodge some of the awkwardness and Scout and I have bonded once again over this."
Trill's confused confusion turned to confused wariness at their pleasantly innocent expressions.
He let it sit for a moment before sighing. "What did you douse Scout in?" Upon his return, the meowth had immediately hugged him; he glanced at his feathers in suspicion.
Scout and Soothe were the picture of innocence. "That'll be for us to know and you to work out," Soothe said pleasantly.
"Oh, better tell Rai and Mane they can't bathe me until I've bathed myself." Scout winked. "For different reasons, of course."
"Of course," Trill said ruefully. He ruffled his feathers and was very self-conscious all of a sudden. "Ah, very well. We had best return to warn Armaldo to alert Scizor that they may not have much time to prepare."
"A good reason to go sooner rather than continue trying to convince me to change my mind," Soothe said pleasantly.
"And to think I had thought of so many knock-knock jokes to share," Saniya sighed. "A pity."
"Tell me them. While we still have time."
She shook her head in alarm. "Oh no, we can't waste any more time! Nelia might not actually know where Cara is at all and could take weeks to find him. He needs to be warned as soon as possible!"
"Traitor."
"Could always come back and hear them later," Saniya sang.
Finally, Soothe cracked a smile at her. "Tch. Well played, don't you have somewhere to be?"
Saniya gave Scout another quick hug and grimaced. "It's probably more on me than it is on you, Trill."
"Be that as it may, I need to cleanse myself before Soothe's revenge becomes apparent. The last time she did this, it was a slow-acting residue that ended up tying Rhythm and I together for several hours. She couldn't stop laughing long enough to tell us how to undo it. It was not funny."
Soothe was already laughing. "It was hilarious. Rhythm didn't mind all that much, said he liked having a permanent hug, but Trill was getting so mad."
"It was not funny," he repeated, flatter than before. Though there was a twinkle of something in his eyes, and he nodded to Saniya.
"It was nice to see you both again," Saniya said. "And I look forward to seeing you next. If you need any help, uh…don't hesitate to run away and find us, alright?"
"You're headed south further, right?"
"Yep, towards the coastline."
"I was right." She gave the fingers guns at Trill but didn't fire.
He rolled his eyes. "You were. I already complimented your deductive skills sometime earlier."
"Nice."
"Bye, Saniya." Scout smiled and began to wave. "Give everyone my best. Maybe hug everyone, but shower first…or, hug Striker and then bathe."
"And wash the Striker-smell off? Never."
He briefly took on a very concerned look at that before smiling. She smiled back.
"Here's where Chimecho claims they are." Saniya marked a spot on Soothe's map. "It's a big old ruined building, impossible to miss. Cathedral, or something."
Soothe nodded. "Thanks. We'll start heading that way right away."
"We'll give it a few days, ask Armaldo, but I'll try to come back and check on the place. So, maybe tell them to stay there after you do the whole saving everyone thing. I might have to punch Chimecho too."
"I suppose we shouldn't be too harsh on her," Soothe sighed, rolling the map up. She looked to Trill. "We both know what it's like to be reliant on her. And I thought she was a friend at first, too."
Saniya nodded in understanding. "Still got to punch her, though."
"Oh, definitely."
She giggled before sobering with a half-smile on her face that melted into a curious one. "…did you really forget what your name was back then? I think that was what it was? I know I gave you the name Soothe; I don't really remember why…."
Soothe's smile didn't fade this time, but it did change into a rueful thing. "I think what I said was something along the lines of 'I hate my name, can you give me a better one?' And you started calling me Soothe."
She flicked her eyes again before going back to Saniya. "I told Nelia my name was Victory, but that wasn't really true either. Victoria."
Scout and Trill gasped as Saniya achieved in twenty minutes what they had failed at for days.
Saniya smiled.
"Hey! Wait a moment, you tell her and not US?"
Saniya swelled with self-important pride. "I'm amazing, after all."
"Your name is Victoria?" Trill asked softly.
"You're telling me your name is Victoria, you're from Australia, you called yourself Victoria and…you were from Victoria, weren't you?"
"My parents might not have been psychos naming their child Soothe, but they still had terrible senses of humour."
"Clearly," Scout said, blinking a few times before chuckling. "Thanks for coming around, guys. It really… hasn't hit what happened to Treasure Town yet, but we'll head that way after the Cathedral. Right?"
Soothe nodded firmly.
"We'll save everyone."
We have to.
Saniya gave Scout one last hug before she and Trill rose into the sky. "I'm going to teleport us. Now, fair warning, you're going to want to wear a seatbelt."
Trill looked down at Scout, expecting a joke.
Scout was wincing. "Good luck."
That was not a hopeful statement. Trill opened his mouth to maybe suggest she go on ahead, but then Saniya yanked him through space. "Rock and roll!" And all he knew was disorientation.
Soothe and Scout watched them disappear. Scout looked away from the blinding flash of pink and Soothe, staring directly at it and seeing spots afterwards.
"Are you okay?" Scout asked.
"My vision is returning."
Scout considered that for a moment; he knew she'd probably reply with that and debated letting that one go. "You know what I meant."
"I'll be fine."
That was more of an admittance than he'd gotten before, and he nodded. "Alright. Ready to put your mouth is and save the world?"
"You did it twice. Can't be too hard."
He narrowed his eyes at her, and she smirked back. He smirked in kind, and they were off.
Wigglytuff awoke from a nightmare with a violent scream.
His bellow crested across the smoking ruins of Treasure Town, causing smoke to billow away and other bodies to stir.
He screamed until he ran out of breath and did not draw in another one, falling unconscious in a few moments.
There is no peace.
His eyes snapped open once again, and Wigglytuff sat up and looked down at himself. No bloodied puncture wound. No deflation of his body. Not even any scars left. His paws brushed through his fluffy pink belly fur, searching for the scar that had lasted for decades.
Gone.
There was no pain in his body, despite the lingering shivers wracking his body violently every few seconds. He began to cough, mind trying to hold back from thinking of what he'd just endured.
Against his wishes, cracks split through.
Flowers dissolving in the strumming of a harp.
Crawling through thickening muck, deeper, further, wider.
Screams piercing his eyes and crawling up his nose, screaming louder and louder as they dragged their pincers through his brain.
Gentle laughter, sitting with Trill and Soothe and _ as he told a joke. _ laughed a great deal, so much that all he could hear was _.
"I love you," Trill said, eyes melting out of his sockets and wings smouldering in black fire. He opened his span for a hug, and Rhythm took it, burning and melting together into one.
Singing, dancing, along the Fire.
Wigglytuff opened his mouth to vomit, but there was nothing in his stomach, but there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was there was.
It had sunken so far, but he began to gag anyway, desperately convulsing to force the wrongness out of him. He coughed up bile, gagging more and more, heaving until he coughed up blackish blood as well. He reached into his own mouth with a paw and tried to ram it down his throat, but he couldn't. His paw was too big.
He bit down instead, drawing more blood, blessedly red this time. He withdrew his paw and continued coughing, but whatever was there was too far in. It was his stomach, he realised belatedly. He couldn't cough up his own stomach.
Or could he?
He looked down at his peach fuzz belly and wondered if he could bring a blade to himself and cut it out of him. There were broken buildings around; it wouldn't be hard to find something sharp enough to slice flesh and dig in nice and deep until it was all gone.
Coming to his feet, he began to look for a weapon. He stepped over broken remains and burnt-out bodies without a care, eyes locked on the dojo.
He got halfway before his brain caught up to his mind, and he blinked, gasping and spinning back on the bodies. "People," he whispered, squinting slightly as he tried to recognise who the bodies were. Most were destroyed beyond recognition.
He couldn't see, hear, smell, or taste it, but he could feel something else lurking about. In this town square graveyard, something yet remained. Perhaps he was just imagining things?
You weren't, though, were you Rhythm?
He blinked and shook his head, trying to piece together all the tragedy that had occurred.
He looked about again and finally noticed the existence of another.
"Banette?" Wigglytuff's voice startled himself, high and musical as always but empty of personal inflection. Trill would have shuddered to hear it, remembering a twisted monster in a time that now never happened.
For the best. That was a bad time.
Banette's button eyes did not see Rhythm or Wigglytuff, merely a wigglytuff. There was no care or words yet to say. She had spoken her last already.
Wigglytuff turned and drifted around, looking for the fallen and the Fallen. He found Marill staring blankly at an apple, repeating the words. "For mother, for mother. For mother." It did not say other words. The apple was rotten and collapsing under its own weight.
He looked up to where the Wigglytuff Guild stood, high and proud. It was a skeleton of what it once was, very apt to Wigglytuff himself at the moment. The fire had eaten away at cloth and wood, feasting upon everything it could before consuming itself at last.
How apt.
What was left was a keening frame, tilting over with the weight of the wind against it. The cliff face had been rebuilt most securely by Diglett's family, the final act of the town elder had not destroyed it, but portions of the path had collapsed violently as the entrance was buried under tonnes upon tonnes of rock.
Wigglytuff the Rhythm wondered at annihilation and all that had occurred. He bounced back to town, taking a vague stock of who was standing once again after death.
They were all dazed and lolling about. He remembered again, unwittingly and unwillingly, of the torment as his mind and brain were assaulted at every single turn by force undoable.
He'd felt every moment of his body's regeneration under a cursed form, brain hijacked and pushed to rebuild every inch of his form. He felt his heart; he understood.
The longer he existed again, the more his body became once again. At the loss of vitality, he could still die.
However.
Shadows curled along his paws as he flexed his arms, parting his paw pads as sharp foggy wisps danced along. He flicked his arm, and a blade of sharding purple split the earth and air, shearing limbs off two unfortunate creatures dozing about in the way.
That was also curious. They did not seem to feel much pain, although they squealed anyway, their stumps bleeding before sinking into smoky shadows and beginning to regenerate. He walked over and took a tail tip and placed it along the fallen mankey that had been struck so callously.
The darkness gleefully latched on and repaired the damage swifter. The other creature took much longer to begin regenerating the damage.
Part of him knew this was horrific, but he couldn't muster the will to care. He could practice, he thought, on them in preparation.
Yes, that would be smart.
A smile curved Wigglytuff's face in an unsettling way; he was never the kind to smile in such a way as that.
"Nelia, you outlasted me before. You realise, now, however, that your only advantage has been lost. I am stronger than you." He broke his left paw off with a strike, feeling the curious mixture of pain and numbness before taking his paw up again and reattaching it. It worked like a dream. "And now I have your strength too."
Once he was done practising, he left Treasure Town, seeking the path Nelia must have taken. Revenge would be his.
The First Fallen would regret she had not taken Rhythm's offer of mercy.
Because Wigglytuff would not offer it now.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation stands firm and strong.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation can never be wrong.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation is very HAPPI.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation is absolutely not crappy.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation is a noble institution.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation is looked down by the prostitution.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation cares not for the opinions of wenches.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation is a hallmark for benches!
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation prepared well they did.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation was well off the grid.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation knew what was coming.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation was ready for anything.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation is a safe place to be.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation is surrounded by trees.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation is a big happi target.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation thought they'd set the demarcate.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation was confident they'd win.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation would not fall to Her sin.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation has a big hole in their wall.
The Pokémon Exploration Team Federation is going to fall.
Alarms blared from magnemite as pokémon yelled, screamed, and ran about in sheer chaos.
Cara had barely had enough time to secure the survivors of the town into a bunker before fire began to rain from the sky and bombard the federation headquarters.
He supposed in a grim sense that Chimecho must have been honest about her warning, but he couldn't think about that just now. He had a problem to fix.
It was a briefly difficult choice. The warning stated that Indeedee was coming for the sword she had forged out of Keira's bones. Sending someone to Destiny Tower had confirmed the desecration of her grave, Cara's final message blasted spitefully into pieces as the grave was dug up.
He had attempted to destroy the sword several times. First out of disgust, then out of duty to her memory, and then out of a desire to stop the fallen one from claiming it.
Nothing even scratched the blade, and the blood that was spilled on it was absorbed into the metal. He knew Keira was a deadly pokémon, her aura parasitic, but whatever Indeedee had done to it had endangered them even more.
It absorbed everything. From fluids to aura to Power.
However, as Sean had said, maybe even more than that. Indeedee herself had been wary of it when he'd taken it from her, and so his choice was only briefly difficult.
Clasped in his pincer, he forced his way out of the federation to stop the foe before it could enter and wage havoc. Indeedee had slain even Guildmaster Wigglytuff, a mon who had been capable of fighting alongside Keira in her mega-state.
He knew she'd cause a massacre, maybe even kill him. He needed all the help he could get but wasn't going to risk others' lives.
"Is she out there?" someone, a marowak with ghostly flames, cried.
"Yes," his friend, an espurr, said with a shudder. "I can feel the badness approaching."
Cara swung a pincer out. "What are you doing here? Get to the safe house!"
"There are no safe places." Charmeleon came running as well. The federation pokémon were shepherding those who were willing to be moved; the rest couldn't be focused on until the others were safe.
"Do not follow me!" Cara cried. "You will die. Do not waste the sacrifices pokémon have made to get you to safety!" And with that, he took off.
He burst out of the building, swords flashing into existence to disguise his wielding of her prize. If he could lead her away, there had been no reports of more Shadow Pokémon.
Just her.
He doubted that, but she was the biggest threat.
"You want this?" Cara shouted, flying in the sky aloft on his wings. Indeedee looked up at him hungrily. He flashed the sword and then fell into a dive, flying away from the building.
He got a few metres before an invisible force gripped him with sheer force and threw him down at the ground. Normally he'd be able to resist its pull, but there was something more to that attack that took him immediately.
The ground crunched, and he fell into a roll, not releasing the sword from his clenched pincer. He clambered to his feet and spun around, not far enough. He began to back away, keeping his eyes on her.
Indeedee raised an eye at his retreat and gestured at the building. "I could just go in, you know?"
"I'll escape!"
She smiled at him; even from this far away, he could see the sinister nature of it.
"Alright, I'll play along."
She moved.
Thankfully, he was used to Keira doing that to him and was able to spin on the point of his leg, lashing out with seven swords at once to catch a burning hand between them. The illusion shattered, and he spun again.
Rapidly turning multiple times to deflect numerous semi-physical forms of the fallen indeedee, moving gracefully as light and blades sung in the air, deflecting every attack.
"Ah, good," Indeedee purred, the images fading to reveal herself as she was. "I never did get to fight Keira, which is a pity."
Cara's face broke into a loathing scowl, holding Keira's remains tight enough to chip his pincers. "She was better than you could ever be," he spat.
Indeedee smiled vacantly at him, tilting her head slightly. "Yeah, probably. You're not, though."
She suddenly pushed her hand forth in a palm-raised jab into the air. Not anywhere close to him, but a handprint beat into his metallic chest and sent him flying back.
"Aren't we bored of so many fights just launching the other person around?" Nelia asked, lifting the same hand further, Cara drifting higher into the air before she clenched her hand and pulled it towards her.
The sound of metal crumpling beat through the air as Cara's limbs began to bend, and he was rapidly swung towards her. Her hand lit up with fire as he flew in, and she clotheslined him with a brutal neck punch.
That was the idea, at least, to strike his head clean from his shoulders. He managed to pull his arm free of her telekinetic control and swing it in the way, leading her to striking the flat edge of the silver sword.
It was swung in and clanged off Cara's head, both of them only meeting the flat edge of the sword. The strike, however, swallowed up all her control over his body, and he snapped free.
"Clever," she complimented as he spun and swung, swords manifesting. "But is that all you can do, gimmick fighter much?" She ducked and weaved, dancing around the shining blades forming all around them both. A shadowy lash struck several out of existence, but more replaced it until they were a swimming cloud of light and darkness.
A blade went through her shoulder and pushed her back for just a moment, long enough for Cara to sink his left pincer into natural darkness and punch her with full force.
Nelia flew back, with an annoyed frown on her face for doing more of the flying.
She brushed some fur out of her face and gave a snort. "Alright, I'm not actually in the mood to have a good time. I'm here to get something done. I needed Rhythm to put on a show, but I'm not here to dance, Carapace."
The ground between them crackled in darkness before all the vegetation died, an invisible fire burning its way hungrily towards Cara. He took flight to evade that which he couldn't see, and Nelia joined him, rocketing up into the sky with fire blasting from her feet.
She came in for a swift punch, which he pulled back from as more blades formed around him. Attaching to his body, he manipulated his position in space impressively well for someone with no psychic capability.
"I would have enjoyed fighting you properly," Nelia said as she gave a violent strike. He evaded by lifting up, only for her paw to snatch his leg and swing him around and fling him to the ground. He caught himself in a net of crisscrossed blades and then met a fireball to the face, shattering them in unholy fire and sending him to the ground.
She landed and closed the distance. He fought himself to his feet, blades lancing at her legs to trip her before swinging out with green and black, X-Scissors and Night Slashes. She blocked a slash with her forearm on his, caught his pincer by the knob and twisted, pulling and swinging to throw him over her shoulder.
Silver flashed and went straight for her neck.
She caught it without looking in a steely grip of telekinetic mastery and then kicked out savagely, cracking a hole in his chest as her foot blazed with fire. The sword swam as it ate her power, almost squirming out of her hold as she pressed more Power into it to retain her hold.
She still held his pincer, and rather than launching him flying, she pulled as she kicked, and a brutal crack rang out, and Cara bellowed in pain.
His wings shot out, silvery sheened and slashed her face, pulling free of her in the recoil. He staggered forth, arm hanging limply before facing her once again.
Nelia rubbed the wound away; she held the silver sword. "Now," she murmured, raising a hand and tilting it palm up, a fire sparked into life over her palm, licking at her digits lovingly. Cara observed it with a scowl of disgust, one arm hanging limp he still brought the other to bear, wings flaring out.
"I could kill you now, but…." The flame began to shift, crawling up her arms but failing to even single a strand of fur, slinking around her shoulders before seeping with foul blackness, hanging over her like a shawl. "Is it even worth it?"
Cara's eyes narrowed, and then he moved.
For a scizor, he was pretty fast, and he sprinted for her. Nelia took a moment to ponder what should be done, a psychic trip, lashing of shadows, fireballs, something even more esoteric? That was the struggle of having so many skills; it could be difficult to decide on what was the best to use.
Ultimately, she let him reach her. His whole body began cycling through flashes, strobing her as he kicked, punched, slashed, and crunched.
She blocked a bullet-fast punch with her shield, taking vindictive pleasure in it withstanding his opening volley.
"Fuck you, Blossom," she cursed in her head as a subsequent strike shattered it, swords swinging like an eviscerating meat mulcher.
A snap of her fingers and a plume of fire-roasted them into nothing, right as he went for her belly with a storm of slashing strikes. Green, black, and white energy began to give her a headache as Cara rapidly switched between types, creating a cavalcading barrage of light and violence.
"Enough!" Nelia shouted, a telekinetic shockwave blowing branches off trees and a sheen of metal off Cara's body. He found the weight of the world pressing down on his shoulders, and his knees clanged as he fell to them.
She was panting more than she wanted to reveal. Aches in his chest from where Rhythm had split her apart, his skin tingled with pins and needles from memory's remnant of an inferno scorching her. Worst of all was a deep, inner emptiness left like a hole from Blossom's overclocked Solar Beam.
She couldn't feel the master's grace. It still lurked. Nothing, not even some hyped-up sunflora, could part her from It. Her body flowed sluggishly, overburdened by its own corruption rather than invigorated by it.
The grace returned slowly, but the force beyond felt stilted, blinded even. She had to genuinely ponder if Blossom's brightness had literally blinded It, but such an idea was laughable.
All things sunk into Shadow eventually. It was her own failing, rather than anything else's. She'd played around too much, the word was spreading, pokémon were marshalling. Truly, she had to give her late rival some credit.
The last time she had attacked like this, the people folded easily through fear and sabotage. It wasn't until Keira's interference that things had turned.
This time, she started on the back foot, and nothing seemed to break them. Not the death of Guildmaster Wigglytuff. Not the wanton slaughter of entire towns and the breaking of families.
That didn't matter anymore. She was no stranger to difficulties.
"I've spent enough time coming to this point," Nelia intoned gravely, smirk fading into a grimace as she glared at the student of her foe. "No longer."
She swung the sword, aimed to strike his head off and take another leader down.
And then a bone slammed into the side of her head.
Nelia felt its impact, every moment, as the heavy club crunched in, dislocating her jaw and causing her mouth to part unnaturally widely, her neck breaking in two small places as her head was wrenched to the side, bleeding splitting through her brain as capillaries burst from the impact.
She dropped to the side, catching herself on a hand, the sword clattering to the ground as the bone bounced off and magically flew back to its owner.
Her curse echoed through the tensed air, hands grasping blindly for her blade as her vision went blurry. She felt it, felt it move, and then had to recoil as it lashed up on what seemed like its own volition.
She caught the blade in her hand, and it cut deeply. She reached further and grabbed the hilt with her other hand, grappling the wriggling blade as it drank at her essence. She ripped her bloodied hand free, teeth bared in fury.
The sword continued to jerk in her grip, moved by the mind of a Psychic. Something that Nelia knew was impossible for long; the blade itself consumed any essence laid upon it, be it Psychic powers, aura, energy attacks. Even the Shadow was absorbed into its shimmering surface, as her hand continued to bleed.
Her empathy senses flared with a conjoined chorus, and her vision cleared enough to see who had stepped in. Marowak, Espurr, and well over a dozen pokémon from Treasure Town and the local federation.
She could count them in moments, see what needed to be done to inflict anarchy and turn them all into bloodied strips of flesh on the ground.
Her blood dripped to the ground as Marowak spoke. "Back off!" he barked as she pointed the sword at Cara with a sneer. "If you attack him, everyone is going to unleash on you. All at once."
Her eyes met the little pink Espurr whose eyes and ears glowed, and he cringed but didn't let up his assault, still trying to manipulate the blade.
Despite being an inanimate object, the blade itself felt like it shared the furious contempt they all did. It continued to flex in Espurr's grip, failing to absorb his attack and instead allowing itself to be manipulated, smothering Nelia's own attempts to wrench control back.
She thought very fast for several tense moments before a smile worked itself over her face. "Think you're heroes? You're the chaff of this endeavour. Safety in numbers? Ask Espeon how I knew where you all were."
She lashed out sharply with her uninjured arm. She threw Cara through the air, his heavy body crossing the distance immediately, slamming into Espurr and knocking him down. Nelia clenched a fist and then released, and he yelped, his ears being forced up.
"GET DOWN!" Marowak shouted, leaping on Espurr to wrestle his ears back into place as the tightly woven group nearly fell to panic. Nelia launched a subsequent wave of fire as pokémon flinched and defaulted into attacking, a mixed wave of electricity, water, fire, ice, and more crashing into her dark inferno and battling it out.
In the ensuing misty blast, Nelia spun around and ran for it.
"I lost this thing last time by indulging my sadism," she hissed at herself as she ran, every inch of her body wanting to turn around and massacre the few who thought themselves heroes, now after running before.
However, she knew that messing around got you knocked on the chin for your efforts.
And she needed the blade as it was.
By the time anyone was brave enough to step forwards as the mist lifted, Nelia was long gone, the magnagate she had travelled with swallowing her up.
Time was running out.
Originally this and the next chapter were going to be one, but then this chapter got to this length, and I was like. "Ah, okay, maybe two?" So, two.
Nelia's not as unstoppable as she likes to present herself as. As we know, you can exhaust a Shadow Pokémon's regeneration, and while her cap is far higher than anyone else, it's not infinite.
However, now she's not playing around at all and going straight into business mode. If anything, she's more of a threat as she can't afford to play with her foes.
Also, she's still an indeedee. Can't imagine she's been getting much gratitude lately~
The place to talk to me and others about stories or whatever: discord gg/qm4N4JB6