PMD: Warped Skies

by Team Ion

Playing the part of the hero sounded fun at first, until he took a meaty punch to the face. Stranded in a world reminiscent of a game he once knew, a human-turned-Meowth struggles to retain his humanity while filling the shoes of the game's protagonists. However, this is not a game. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, SI-OC/Isekai. Cover by Bograbbit!

98. The Repeated Tragedy

"Bidoof has gone missing now as well?" Chitin asked wearily. His eyes were half-closed and dull as he stared blankly at the bringer of more bad news.

Guardian nodded solemnly. "Shall we send a search party?" he asked, knowing what the answer would be,

Chitin gave a brief shake of his head and Guardian bowed out sadly.

With Blossom dead, their resident bookkeeper was gone, and it was harder to keep track of everyone. Even in a shrinking group, by the time Bidoof's disappearance had been noted, it had been hours since he'd vanished and he could be anywhere.

"And he took the damn orb," Chitin groaned. He was beyond anger at this point, just deep exhaustion sinking into his soft tissues.

Chitin swallowed another reviver seed and sitrus berry combo to banish the need for sleep for a few more hours and plodded along, keeping an eye and ear on the sky for any pink explosions.

Sean was able to walk again, Kogeki was not, and he had been returned to the capture device for transportation. Handy things those balls were, Chitin wished they had a bunch more. It'd be simpler to travel then.

Saniya could just load them all up into a box and fly high into the sky and wait this waking nightmare out.

Where they were walking, Chitin barely even cared. Forwards was about all he could muster the necessary focus on, one foot after the other, step-step-step.

"They're down there!"

He glanced upwards as Saniya's sharply clear musical voice cascaded out, the pink she-demon descending like an angel with Chatot and-

No one else?

"Explain," Chitin barked immediately, Team Ion had come running forwards as had Team Sunrise. Saniya wrung her hands and Trill appeared reserved.

"We found them, but they're not joining us."

Mane whimpered and Rai pushed his face into Mane's side.

Saniya's expression was wonderfully controlled and composed, something Chitin knew was a blatant sign that she was stopping herself from expressing something she didn't want to share. "Something about not being able to control herself around so many others and having a plan that relies on her remaining corrupted," Saniya explained serenely, stiffly.

"Either way, Scout and Soothe are headed back to the Cathedral. They plan to purify everyone, and I think they can do it. After that, they'll do Treasure Town and then link up with us."

Chitin's expression was flat as pokémon whispered to each other, taking in this information.

He eventually nodded. "Very well, at least we know."

"How close are they?" Rai asked firmly.

"You won't be able to find them."

"How close?"

"Over a day's worth of flying."

He shared a look with Mane. Helpless anger and desperation as they came so close yet were still so far.

Trill hopped off to begin cataloguing an idea of everyone who remained, wanting to put it to paper to make it easier to refer to. A few teams had left with the last, to aid in protecting the Federation as they took on more and more numbers.

Team Sunrise had remained, and Sean was up and walking again although limped with each step. Team Sunrise, Team Flame, Team Poochy, and Team Ebony were still here, the rest have gone by now.

The fittest and able townsfolk remained. The Kecleon Brothers, Electivire, Marowak, Chansey, and other survivors who did not operate businesses. Along with what remained of the guild, one more pokémon down.

"Why would Bidoof have left?" Trill asked softly, hopping over to where Paras and Flaaffy were being very silent.

"I don't know," Flaaffy answered.

"He didn't say anything about it to us," Paras added with a whisper. "We don't understand why he left, we don't know what he thinks he's doing."

"I believe that perhaps I shall look for him," Trill said, stretching his wings and taking flight. He circled Armaldo, content to let him know.

"No," Chitin said. "He's small and brown, you won't find him."

"It is something that-"

"Pointless, when you can be more helpful here. Keeping them in control."

Trill's eyes went a little firmer, and he raised his beak. "Treasure Town follows leaders that exercise compassion, Armaldo. I acknowledge that it is unlikely I will be able to find him, but messages of hope and action mean something."

Chitin glared at him, and Trill stared back unflinchingly.

Eventually, he snorted. "Fine."

Trill made sure to whisper the words of his action amid the pokémon, letting the idea that Armaldo was sending someone out to find Bidoof spread.

As he flew, Trill pondered that. Armaldo was a very capable leader and absolutely what was needed, but he lacked any care to build anything more than grudging respect from the town. And that, he felt, was where the tension originated from. They would listen, but only because they had to.

One small gesture wouldn't… what was that?

Trill's keen eyes focused as his ears strained, the sight and sound of destruction reaching him. He started gliding, focused on a building cascade of destruction, spotting a trail of dust and the occasional tree getting obliterated as something moved relentlessly forwards.

He moved to spin around and fly back to give a warning, but then.

"TRILL!?"

He froze in the air as a loud voice, one he'd heard at that volume many times, boomed through the air. He sailed down as amid the chaos came a wigglytuff.

His heart thumped erratically as he flew down to the ground unthinking, perching on a log as the chaos just increased, trees being annihilated for the crime of being in his way.

Then, from the brush, emerged Wigglytuff.

"Trill," he said, once again. He froze as well like he was unable to believe who perched in front of him. Wigglytuff's eyes began to fill with tears, and he repeated. "I-It's you, isn't it?"

Trill's eyes drank in every inch of the sight of his beloved partner. From the plush to his fur, to the sheen of its pink, to the strength of his spine and limbs, to the kindness lacking in his eyes.

He blinked, it was there it was not there it was there it was not there.

"R-W… Guildmaster," Trill said, trying to find the right term of address. Wigglytuff gave a weak cry and stumbled forth, opening his arms to embrace him.

Trill had felt a blade through his chest for a few moments before darkness, but even that didn't compare to the pain of lifting his wings in a hush gesture. "No," he said, and Wigglytuff froze.

They stared at each other for a moment, hearing the meaning of Trill's refusal. Slowly, a sad smile wormed across Wigglytuff's face, and he lowered his arms. "It has been a while hasn't it?" he said.

Trill gave a stiff nod. "Yes," he croaked. "Amid terror and heartache of the distance, I've come back."

There was a shine to his eyes that Wigglytuff lacked, and he gasped. "You're not… anymore, are you?"

He shook his head. "And that is why I say no."

Wigglytuff swallowed, understanding logically but also having difficulty understanding emotionally. "I want to touch you again," he said softly.

"No."

"If I decided, you would not be able to stop me."

"And you never would."

That seemed to click, and he flinched. "Goodness, I-I don't know what I'm…."

Trill raised his wing again. "I understand," he said gently. "Truly I do. There was nothing that pushed me to survive more than the thought of you."

"How did you…?"

"It was Soothe," he said, answering multiple questions all at once.

"Soothe?"

"Your genius was correct. There are ways to purify, and Soothe is in fact a former human."

"Ah, you've seen Saniya?"

"Yes."

Wigglytuff held in silence for a moment. "The promise we made, the night before you died…?"

"I believe there are circumstances at play to void the promises of that night." He lapsed into a thoughtful silence before a strange smile crossed his face and he bowed his head. "Not that I believe either of us would have been able to keep that promise regardless."

Wigglytuff nodded, closing his eyes in relief. "Good. Because we have to save Soothe as well."

A flicker of pain entered Trill's eye.

"What?"

"She is endeavouring first to save everyone else," he explained. "All Shadow Pokémon. I may be able to find her and bring you to-"

"No." Wigglytuff held up his paw. "Let's not disturb her with a maybe. Where are the others? The survivors?"

Trill shivered, uncomfortable.

Wigglytuff saw it and whispered more like himself. "I'm sorry. Our reunion after so long, after losing each other, and it comes to this clinical discussion."

"No, I understand," Trill said. "I do wish to embrace you, but…."

"You are right to be wary," he said.

"It's not wariness, it's…."

"Disgust?"

"Honestly, R… Guildmaster, what do you take me for?"

"That you're calling me Guildmaster Wigglytuff," he answered, sadly. "In private it's always Rhythm. I'm not Rhythm to you at the moment, am I?"

Trill's silence was the answer, but he was respectful enough to nod. "Yes, I suppose that's it. Only, I do know you're Rhythm… but you're missing what made you him. I would have wanted nothing more than to feel your warmth again, but I know now that had I received it when I was in your situation, I would have felt little to nothing. I do not wish to burden you with the pain of that."

Wigglytuff's mouth quivered for a moment, a shininess to his eye betraying a slight tear. He nodded in the end, however. "I accept that and thank you. Until this can be reversed, I'll stay apart from you."

"Very well. Shall we go?"

"Go?"

"Meet the others."

"I am… I am a danger, Trill."

"Young Lucario is there, as is Armaldo. As are many others you fought for and… died to save. I believe you can control the madness within, you must have been able to in order to come back as anything close to yourself. I know this for sure. Until we can save you too."

Wigglytuff's expression betrayed something else, but Trill did not see it as he turned to lead him back to camp.

His return was… kept away from the public eye. Words were shared and decisions were made.

Armaldo stood, akin to a rigid statue.

Wigglytuff, a deflated balloon.

Sean sat, injured but strong.

"…I see," Armaldo managed through a clenched jaw.

"This is not the right decision, I can guarantee it," Sean protested.

Trill was just silent, having not seen this one coming yet unable to find himself surprised either. The Shadow stripped you away, from your flesh to your bones to your metaphorical heart. It's why he knew he couldn't touch Wigglytuff, it wasn't really him anymore.

"You have to acknowledge that there isn't really another available option," Wigglytuff argued serenely, unperturbed by the weariness and the pain around him. "Purifying Swanna alone was extraordinarily difficult on you and, I mean no offence, but you and more people will die if I fall into the reverse mode state."

Chitin was silent, as was Sean.

"Releasing my restraints left the town shaking and the aftermath of the battle saw parts of the town break into the sea. In that state, I will have no thought to hold back. Each strike would have killed Indeedee had she not been capable of regenerating."

He smiled. It was frightful on his face, to be heard with his voice. Musical but lacking the rhythm he used to have. "An advantage she no longer holds a monopoly on. I am strong enough to kill her. That battle was my advantage throughout, I lost because I could not break her because I was too wounded. However, if I battle her whilst a Shadow myself, she will not have even that advantage. I will win."

"This never works out," Sean protested weakly. "In every story I've ever seen, thinking you can use the enemy's power against them never works if you use it yourself!"

"What idea do you have, then?" Wigglytuff asked firmly. "Besides running away?"

The bluntness of the question was like a punch to the throat coming from Guildmaster Wigglytuff.

"Soothe," Trill finally said.

"On her own, she will die," he responded blandly. "I felt the Fallen's strength upon my fragile body. She saw fit to play keep away in our battle, she did not overcommit knowing that I would be worn down first. She is stronger than she appeared, and she appears to be a kind of strength remembered only in legends."

Sean remembered.

"People will die if she cannot be faced securely. Perhaps myself again. Soothe and I together, however. Purification and my regeneration and power. That will be enough. It would be fitting as well for two Shadows to bring about her death."

He placed his paws together securely. "How's that for a plan?"

"I don't like it," Chitin responded immediately.

"Then, again, tell me your plan?"

He opened his mouth, but nothing came. He was silent.

"I thought as much." He looked to Sean with a smile, but it was frigid in its emptiness compared to Rhythm's beaming grins. "Thank you for the offer, but I must refuse. I will not be purified this day, the cost would be too much, and we would lose this crucial advantage. Let me kill her first, then can be subject to salvation."

"Until that day," Trill said, feeling chilled at the discussion of killing from Rhythm, "I cannot touch you."

Wigglytuff nodded sadly. "I understand." He replied, mirroring Trill's earlier words.

Sean looked between everyone else, feeling helpless all over again. Trill nodded and Chitin stood with a jerky motion. "Fine then. If you excuse me."

He began walking back.

"He cannot bear to see me," Wigglytuff said, gazing at Chitin's retreating form.

"He held you as you were dying," Sean whispered, having only heard it but stricken with empathy for Chitin all the same.

"I remember. It was one of the things I held onto as I was corrupted, to keep my sanity." The brazenness at how he stated these things was chilling, so similar to Rhythm's seemingly dopy but truthfully-shrewd observations, being filtered through a mouth that did not care.

His voice was similar, high pitched, and musical, but lacking substance. A flatness to every note that could only be played to sing a song of feeling emptiness.

Eventually, Sean too stood up to follow after Chitin without any more words.

Trill remained, not wanting to touch but not wanting to leave him alone either.

"I will stay with you as we follow," he said. It was easily agreed not to let Wigglytuff come too close to the encampment. He was right after all. If he lost himself to the Hunger who could actually stop him?

Team Sunrise would be ready if it came to that, Sean brought words to them.

"Thank you," Wigglytuff's voice held a brief flicker of genuineness to it before it was swallowed up. "While we continue, would you fill me in on everything that has transpired on your side? Ever since Soothe told me you still lived I have wondered about how you have been."

It was not an easy thing to ask, to revisit those times of uncertainty and fear. Yet, Wigglytuff didn't seem to detect the difficulty of that topic for Trill, and the fussy old bird endeavoured not to show it as he began his story.

"I had awoken in Brine Cave in the most sorry of states," he explained. "Uncertain of what step to take first when I detected movement. I would have hidden, but she knew I was there. Soothe had come to see me, having learned of my death and understanding its implications."

---

Scout had walked a lot of places.

There wasn't as much convenient transportation that didn't involve walking in this world.

He'd strolled alongside pathways, ran up cliffs, fell down cliffs, slogged through bogs, and generally had a good time.

This was a draining trudge.

He and Soothe had made up as best as they could after Trill vanished on them. Mutual worry had succeeded in weakening the border more than any argument had been able to and they had properly spoken with each other.

In Scout's mind, it was the first time she'd ever been entirely frank with him. A few things still stuck out to him, even now.

"I'm scared, alright?"

"I don't actually want you to suffer."

"I'm trying. Not well, not right, not a lot of things. But I am. I'll try harder."

He wondered if anything he said stuck with her as well. The awkwardness hadn't simply dissipated into mist between them and without Trill to serve as a positive voice and pleasant buffer, conversation slagged.

Scout practised with his Substitute as they walked, Soothe silently giving him a boost in energy every so often.

"I'm like… Naruto," Scout said as his Substitute climbed a tree before T-posing.

"I can count a dozen things wrong with that statement," Soothe said, pointing a finger at the Substitute.

"Don't zap it."

"Zap." She zapped it and it puffed into smoke.

"You're incredibly mean," Scout complained. "He just wanted to Naruto a little."

"Make a new one." Soothe rolled her eyes, zapping him in reverse to restore some energy.

Scout did so and as it joined him once again, he spoke up. "Question? How do your healing magic zap bolts work anyway? It's always been a little thought in the back of my mind, the whole 'HP/PP' thing in the games vs real life."

Soothe shrugged. "I know we both think the same. That it's more a case of endurance mixed with stamina mixed with actual injury. It's a foggy bend of things. Did Chimecho never explain it to you?"

Chimecho. That was a strange word to ponder now. "Yeah… she said something along the lines of pokémon's natural Infinity Energy playing a part in why healing is so effective and why pokémon rarely get seriously injured, and not for very long."

"Wack, isn't it? Can all be explained by what might as well be literal magic."

"Yeah."

"Why'd you ask if you already knew the answer?"

Scout shrugged. "I'm just curious about what your take on it is. Just because Chimecho explained it doesn't mean she was entirely right or there wasn't more to it."

I just wanted to talk, went unsaid.

"Heal Pulse is actually slightly more varied than most pokémon think," Soothe eventually answered. "Really, I think a lot of moves have extra 'tactics' to them if you really delve into them. Putting aside what a multi-tool of destruction Protect can be, and I haven't even shown you everything I can do with it yet, Heal Pulse has its uses."

"Okay?" Scout asked. "Like what exactly?"

"Going back to what I said about HP/PP. Stamina, endurance, and injuries."

"What makes stamina and endurance different to you?"

"Stamina is your upper physical energy – the regular kind and the magical Power – limit, endurance is more akin to how much abuse you can take, and injuries should be pretty clear. Your bitch-basic Heal Pulse just smacks into someone to do a little of anything/everything, defaulting to minor injuries."

She demonstrated with a pink beam.

"If a reviver seed is a massive adrenaline boost and painkiller, a Heal Pulse can be one of a few things. Can focus on the injury, undoing bigger wounds although it's pretty damn painful. As stamina is related somewhat to the magic pokémon have, the Heal Pulse being of that same Power can be a sort of boost to that. Haven't seen one that can act as an actual adrenaline boost though, pokémon magic is plenty limited."

"I guess fixing either of those helps with your version of endurance?"

"Exactly."

Scout nodded. Made enough sense he supposed and was satisfied, small talk complete, they could drift into awkward silence again.

He pushed a bit more into the next Substitute, curious about having it speak again.

"Curiosity killed the cat, eh?" Substiscout said, which was a deeply upsetting thing to say to his face. "Hahaha, your face."

Scout frowned at the copy of himself, considering willing it away.

Substiscout seemed to know what he was thinking, as it was himself that made a sort of sense. "Eh, you pushed so much into me you might as well listen to what I have to say."

"Are you talking to yourself?" Soothe asked, frowning over her shoulder at him.

Scout shrugged. "I was curious," he said.

"Do you realise what Substitute's embody?"

"Uh…?"

"Your subconscious," Substiscout said cheerfully. "Or preconscious. A blurry mixture of the two. I am you, but the kind of you that you don't think about."

"Also have no filter whatsoever," Soothe snorted. "So, you know, banish that thing before I start learning too much about you."

"Great idea!" Substiscout chirped. "Remember when you first went to Mane's house alone?" Scout blinked, not following. "Of course you do. You could never forget that. You met him the previous day. He came onto you. You knew what he was going to ask. You were hoping he would. You were hoping he'd push the matter, make you drop to your knees. And you thought about that for weeks afterwards, p-"

The Substitute disappeared, Scout's face was ablaze.

"Ugh, I just said." Soothe shook her head in discomfort. "Damn my big ears."

"I-that's not," Scout stuttered.

"Save it, I'll just repress it with the rest."

He nodded quickly.

They walked in silence that was awkward once again.

"So, Scout?" Soothe asked as the silence became unbearable, only the sounds of their feet on the grass.

"Yeah?"

"How badly do you need to sleep?"

He frowned at her curiously. "I'm only hallucinating a little bit."

She pointed a finger at him. "I like to avoid my problems." The fingertip was glowing.

"What does that-"

Then things went dark.

Soothe sighed in relief as Scout slumped over with a sparkling splash on his forehead. She'd barely tapped him, but his stamina must be truly low at the moment. She gave an internal gag at where that thought led her and shook it away. "You should never be allowed to talk, Scout."

The attack would barely have grazed him, but he'd fallen unconscious anyway. She justified it easily, for the best rather than have him faint on her at an important moment like facing a horde of hungry-hungry unhappy pokémon.

She picked him up and began to carry him, laying him over her shoulders like a cat-shaped scarf. He purred against her, which was also weird.

To her approval and relief, he slept for two straight days. By the time he woke up, he needed a lot of water.

"Sip at it," she directed. "Don't guzzle."

"I trained," Scout wheezed, taking a drink. "With the guild." Another sip. "They actually do train you, you know?" Another gulp.

"Timber told me, yes," she replied, doing a few stretches. Scout wasn't heavy, he was the kind of skinny that made a small aspect of her vaguely concerned even. Even a lightweight, however, grew to something more intense the longer it was carried, and her neck cracked a few times. "What was it like?"

"What?"

"Being a part of the Wigglytuff Guild?" she asked genuinely. "Knowing me, it must have been very exciting to start with."

He paused, wondering how exactly to answer. "It was," he said carefully. "When I wasn't worried about the end of the world, which was most of the time, to be honest, I found being a pokémon in Explorers to be the most exciting thing in the world. Had no idea how it could have happened, but I didn't care. Felt like the kind of things in dubious-quality wishfic stories, although the difficulties that soon came erased any thoughts about that."

"Hah." She snorted. "It was a weird thing to wake up, in this body, in the Dark Future. Thought it was a dream."

"Me too."

"Decided to just roll with it."

"So did I."

She sighed. "And you know what happened after that. I am glad your path was… I won't say 'easier', but less painful at least."

"I mean, I'd say it was easier than what you've been through."

"Maybe so, I don't agree with the idea that just because someone has it worse means you can't acknowledge others' difficulties."

"I know," he replied, dry as the desert, and took another sip of water. "But… like, I don't really know how much of me is even me. I'm Scout, but I'm also you. I have some sort of blended self-perception as Sean, and who knows what both Darkrai AND Indeedee have done to me."

"Weirdly enough, I think you've done pretty well considering the hand dealt to you," she said, eyes meeting his for a moment. "No offence, but in the games, it's always a human who saves the world. Sean was there, sure, but…."

"Things aren't a game," Scout said, although he didn't mean it as a challenge. "I don't think tropes like that really apply anymore."

Soothe laughed. "Tch, heh. Yeah, PMD got dark but never mass-murdering dark. Not in the active story at least. I don't get where Indeedee came from, or all this Shadow stuff. That's something I never really understood. Why the world is so different yet so similar?"

"Keira explained it to me once," Scout said. "Sort of. Apparently, she knew Ash Ketchum and was a rival to Pikachu." Soothe looked deeply amused by that idea.

"But she's not Cameron's Lucario or something but was with someone called Felix. She said something along the lines of the stories we knew, maybe being more akin to… summaries. Blanketed versions where details were missed and, well, pokémon is a kids franchise, so…."

"Still turns my head a little," Soothe admitted. "I guess there's no point in questioning things that can't be answered."

"Yeah… speaking of questions like that, I've wondered… why didn't you disappear when time changed? And, if you did, how did you come back?"

Soothe shrugged. "I have no idea, actually. I was almost di- uh." She cleared her throat. "Well, I was surprised. All I could guess is maybe I'd been in the present for long enough, I remember in the games you eventually stop causing distortion and it just seems to be a time thing. That or my status as a Shadow Pokémon made me immune, another reason why I don't think you're exactly a Shadow Pokémon, but I could be wrong about that."

Scout nodded, he understood it was not an answer she knew. They continued on.

She had carried him quite far, the map told them it wasn't much longer now.

"Are you nervous?" Scout asked.

"Are you?" she snorted, the picture of confidence.

"Yes," he admitted.

She fell quiet.

"I'll keep them under control."

"Just watch Chimecho."

He gave an empty laugh. "You know, I used to joke that she was evil. Guess I was more on the money than I thought."

"Don't… think of it like that," Soothe said, shifting suddenly and rubbing her arm. "What she's done is without question completely scummy, but she didn't have a choice. She's just another victim when we save her… I won't ask you to just forgive what she's done, because it was still her actions, but keep that in mind."

Scout slowly nodded, he hadn't fully decided on how he felt about Chimecho anyway. Without being confronted with her in person, he preferred to just ignore it for the moment.

Not much longer now.

The ancient building, created by a long-gone species, and littered with natural growth slowly came into sight. The Cathedral was a massive thing, darkened with so many years of standing that it seemed more akin to something natural sprouting from the forest's ground than a creation of man or mon.

From the outside, it seemed fine. But with a closer look, Soothe and Scout began to notice something awry. Certain parts of the building seemed to be perfectly copied, holes and former windows drifted into each other in curious ways, and there was a blurriness to the entire building.

"It's… not a dungeon is it?" Scout asked, confused.

"It shouldn't be," Soothe replied grimly. "And no dungeon looks quite like that. I reckon we need to do this quickly, if there are so many Shadow Pokémon in there then something off must be occurring after so long."

They hastened their step. It was not a dungeon, not quite. Dungeons were ripples in the world that led into labyrinths. The blurriness of the building was off-putting, but not so intense as to be blinding. And stepping through an open passageway did not draw them into a true dungeon.

The pathway was awfully long, however. Repeating three times before suddenly ending, dumping them out a few feet mid-air.

Scout landed on his feet, but Soothe nearly landed on her face, not having the feline agility he had.

Scout looked up and froze.

Dozens, if close to a hundred, creatures lurked in the place. Above them, all floated a familiar face, impassive and staring at them.

"I was told you were coming," Melody called neutrally. "They are gathered."

Soothe got to her feet slower, taking a long look around at the pokémon. She had lived in Blackstone for a while, although hadn't exactly had the chance to get to know anyone. Her eyes slowly scanned the crowd, she seemed to be looking for something.

And she seemed to find it.

Eyes locked on a zangoose, Soothe began to walk undaunted towards the horde.

"S-. STOP!" Scout called, not to Soothe, however. It was different being faced with one or two Shadows and an entire horde of them, he'd never imagined seeing this many corrupted souls.

The air around them seemed to flicker and warp.

The horde, who were shifting a little, all began to freeze, and Melody looked down curiously.

Soothe reached the zangoose and reached forwards, her paw twitched slightly as the creature stared blankly at her. She paused, studying it for a moment before taking a deep breath and snapping forwards.

Her hand sunk into its chest as it went rigid, shuddering like a seizure, mouth falling agape in a silent scream.

And then it began to cough up blackish gunk, splattering Soothe and the ground, staining their fur as she pulled, stepping back, she pulled again, another step, another pull, and then yanked something awful out of him.

Spire staggered back, falling onto his back as he took in a shuddering gasp before rolling over and coughing violently, coughing up more blackness before it was just sputum and then nothing.

His eyes were wide and confused as he glanced up, squinting through tears. "V-Victor-?" He continued coughing.

Soothe closed her eyes for a moment, taking that in as a lightness in her chest fought against the darkness as she took It from him and into herself.

She didn't speak, turning to the next and slamming her paw through them as well, beginning to clear a path of purification amid the dark and the lost, creating a ring of confused pokémon around Spire before continuing further and further.

Scout periodically told them to stop just for safekeeping, otherwise, he did nothing but watched as Soothe began to rip the corruption out of everyone in the past few decades that Nelia had inflicted so much horror upon.

And despite the clear exhaustion and pain of taking so much upon herself, a smile never faded from Soothe's face as she worked. Years upon years of trauma, abuse, and fear were all being thrown aside for the joy of undoing what had been done.

"Soothe, do you need a break?" Scout called after she had gone through half of them.

"No/I don't," Soothe said, her voice reverberating strangely, he felt like he'd heard her twice.

The first few purified pokémon were coming too properly, the zangoose she had started with moving to help a few up, staring with clear tension after Soothe and the rest of the Shadows surrounding them.

Scout had opened his bag and began offering berries. It wasn't clear how long it had been since anyone here had eaten, he wasn't even sure if they needed to considering that Soothe only ate occasionally. It seemed like the right thing to offer and so he did, handing out everything they had besides the pokéball and awakening they had been given.

As more and more pokémon blinked the madness away, citizens of Blackstone Village who had been raised at the hip of Mayor Indeedee, whispers began to spread, tears and crying echoed out as horror was remembered, bodies touched bodies as people hugged in relief of their salvation.

Eyes never left the audino who stepped forth undaunted, ripping the unliving nightmare out of everyone. A loudred took a step towards her unprompted and Soothe stole the demon out of his lungs and he breathed again naturally.

"W-Where?" Boom murmured, dazed before a clack was felt rather than heard.

"Boom?" Jet whispered.

"I'm here."

Melody floated near them, no tears in her eyes but nothing besides a faint relief as they came back to themselves, immediately sharing a desperate hug as they realised they were okay.

Scout came running over to them next and gave Boom a big hug, to the confused loudred's consternation.

"Where are…? BLOSSOM!" Boom shot up in alarm. "We were-We gotta, I. Okay. Scout listen we-"

"I know," Scout whispered, still hugging him. He and Loudred had never been close, but no matter what, it was good to see him again. "We know everything, we're saving everyone now."

"B-Blossom?"

"Will be saved too," Melody called. The three looked up at her, hovering above them as a stoic sentinel. "Once she is back."

"She…?" Boom's expression seemed to collapse in on itself as he realised what she meant.

"But we…," Jet murmured, still more dazed.

Melody didn't speak, it was her fault. Scout also didn't say anything.

She watched and waited as Soothe tore through the ranks of the damned, pulling them back to the light kicking and screaming if she had to. Arcanine whined as he slumped over, blinking dumbly, Gardevoir ran and stumbled and ran some more to embrace Swampert.

Piplup was mostly unconscious. Bisharp scooped Gallade up in his metallic arms and kissed him. Manectric barked joyously and jumped on Houndoom, wrestling him to the ground in joy and they yipped together in relief.

Surely and swiftly, the pokémon were saved.

"Chimecho/Melody/Creature who lied," Soothe spoke once they were all purified. She was difficult to focus on, her very being seemed to be halfway out of sync with the rest of the area around them.

When she walked she seemed static until people blinked and she had properly moved elsewhere, eyes slipped off her barely able to focus and whispers continued about 'where was the saviour?'

"I have only ever gazed upon one who may have been as corrupted as you," Melody said stiffly, one of two able to focus on her without much difficulty, even though her eyes stung to stare at the shifting mass of audino.

"Holy fuck, Soothe," Scout whispered, eyes ringing and buzzing, and the more he looked at her the more the rest of the world began to melt away into static, he had to shake his head and keep her just in his peripheral vision.

"What/Do I have something on my face/Scared of the demons crawling in my skin?"

"I am when you say stuff like that!"

Soothe turned to Melody. It was a bizarre sight. Her muscles did not shift, her body naturally bending and twisting to perform a natural motion. Rather she was facing him at one point and then facing Melody. Like the world itself blinked and he'd missed her moving.

"You too/Your life as well/I will save you too," Soothe said, reaching out towards Melody.

She shook her head. "No."

"I am not asking/The choice is not being offered/Punishing yourself doesn't make up for anything." Soothe continued reaching, the air was almost stretching around her.

"Not until Blossom," Melody replied, her words stiff and tense as she floated back. "I won't allow myself until she's back as well."

Soothe studied her for a moment. "How long/When did she die/Is this guilt worth it?"

"Three days ago."

The world seemed to shift rather than Soothe nodding. "We will leave/We carry on/We shall save the rest. And then return."

Melody nodded, trembling.

"Are you sure?" Scout asked sadly.

Melody nodded. "I understand that it is not logical, but I feel the need to do this. It doesn't make up for what I have done, even slightly."

"I punished myself a lot," Scout said carefully. "All it did was hurt everyone around me."

Melody wavered for a moment. "I… I will need to control Blossom when she returns, this is the safest way."

"I will not argue/There is no time to push this matter/It is best that we leave now, Scout."

Scout turned to her.

"I am not blind to my current condition/The world is difficult to focus on at the moment/I wish to say more than one thing, but I only hear echoes of what could have been said."

Scout nodded. "Alright. Follow me."

And she did, jerking and twitching, the world pushing around her as she moved. Pokémon stared, those that could handle doing so at least.

A zangoose took a hesitant step forward. "Vic?"

Despite Scout's words, she jerked to a stop.

"You saved us."

"Are we okay?"

"People, do a headcount."

"Where are we?"

"Was that a nightmare, or?"

"How are we okay?"

"What happened? Who got hurt?"

"Pokémon!" Scout called, turning to face the crowd. He was so tall for such a small pokémon. "I am Scout of Team Ion. By Soothe's hand, you have been purified!"

"Yes, you were Shadow Pokémon but no longer. Begin moving towards the southern coast, there are more survivors of the chaos who you can link up with and understand the situation better. I'm sorry that we do not have time to explain everything, but there are more people to save. Carry on, pokémon! You have to."

Melody spoke up. "I will contact them now, through the connection orb. Good luck you two, I will remain here."

Scout nodded and ushered Soothe out before whatever was happening began to cause anything undesirable to occur. They didn't have time to stand around and explain, Melody could do it just as well.

Melody smiled as they disappeared, a most literal weight fading as Soothe went out of sight. She turned to the confused crowd of former animals, words were being shared, memories of what had happened being whispered.

She had not been there for the massacre of Blackstone Village and was glad of that. Hearing the account from Nelia was more than enough of a story.

She drew the orb and squeezed it and raised her voice to the crowd. "People, quiet! I'm getting in touch now!"

"Uh, yeah?" a voice she did not expect answered.

"I-Bidoof?"

"Yup-yup."

She hummed, she supposed he was still hanging onto it. "Excellent news, Soothe, and Scout have been around and have purified everyone! Can you let Armaldo know, I imagine he's still not keen on speaking to me?"

"That-r-really?"

"Really." She smiled, it was amazing to see the work of the Fallen be undone by her greatest victim.

"Soothe is right near you?"

"They're heading towards Treasure Town for the rest."

"A-Are Loudred and Corphish?"

"Hey-hey!" Jet called, scuttling up. "Is that Bidoof?"

"Corphish!"

"YEAH! I'm here TOO!" Boom boomed and Melody nearly fell out of the air from the volume.

"G-Guys," Timber began to blubber. "Guys! You're okay!"

"Soon, Sunflora will be too," Melody whispered. "Let them know, okay Bidoof?"

"…y-yeah." The connection faded and Chimecho quietly turned to Boom.

"I am glad to see you both okay," she said very politely.

Jet and Boom both looked at her.

"Why would you think you needed to make up for stuff?" Jet eventually asked. "Sticking around for Blossom is one thing, but…?"

Melody smiled, it was a very sad, very guilty, smile. "Because I've been a Shadow Pokémon for close to six years now, feeding information back to Indeedee all this time."

Their jaws dropped.

"I-I don't understand?" Boom uttered, the softest anyone had heard him speak.

"You don't need to," Melody replied. "I know what I've done and what can never be undone. Once Blossom is safe I'll surrender to the authorities, until then, you and this crowd should not stay here. There are people to link up with, a resistance against the evil you sacrificed yourselves to and so much to learn. Go, please."

Slowly, Boom pulled the speechless Jet away and turned to the purified.

"LISTEN UP!" Boom bellowed, quieting the squabbling crowd. "I don't know any of you guys, except that Piplup over there. You come up too, people know you." Piplup waddled forth after being pushed by Samurott. "The three of us have got a place to lead you. It's probably not entirely safe, but it's where the fighters are. The ones fighting against the monster that hurt us all! Chimecho is going to stay here to save the last one, we've got to go NOW though. Understand?"

Piplup coughed and puffed up importantly. "This resistance better be able to explain what's going on in full, you hear?"

"They can," Melody answered. "I can assure it."

Piplup clapped. "Good enough. Alright pokémon, we've got to move and move YESTERDAY! Keep an eye out for monsters, stay close, we're not victims, we're fighters too! Come on, LET'S GO!"

Not far away, two corrupted cuties sneezed at once, attracting Soothe's attention, and a few moments later, a purified eevee and pikachu were racing towards the Cathedral too.

After a day and a half of difficult travel, the labouring pair encountered some more Shadows, less placid than the first.

"STOP!" Scout cried, freezing multiple in place. "Erk, quick." Scout winced, he found he had to keep his attention on each one to keep them down, and with so many it was hard, his eyes flicked from pokémon to pokémon, each one he began to lose focus on began to shift until his gaze returned.

His neck tensed, a headache pounding as he found it coming to a battle of focused will.

Thankfully, he'd walked back from death, or was it oblivion, once and had plenty of will to throw around.

Banette blinked as she remembered who she was.

Beedrill groaned, wondering who needed to be poked for this headache.

Marill gasped, hearing his mother's cry finally stop ringing in his head.

"Are you okay?" Scout asked, helping him up.

"I… w-what?" He was a bit scruffy, but not too bad.

Scout grinned, happy to see him. "I know you're pretty confused. I won't lie, you got killed, but you're okay now. Doubt you had the chance to hurt anyone either. We're saving everyone."

"…what?"

Scout patted him on the back, handed him a note that he'd written while walking with Soothe. "We can't stay long, it's probably dangerous with her in this state, so I've written down what's going on and where to go."

"My-my mother, and Azurill."

"Follow the directions. They got the kids out first, and if your mother is out there we'll save her too."

They continued even further, every step becoming harder, every person confused and desperate for answers. None were like Melody, but they supposed that was better. Harder to purify, harder to control those were.

Yet, they knew they wouldn't be finding everyone. The maddened corrupted might pack together, or split into any pathway they saw. Dungeons could be containing them, and after combing through the ruins of Treasure Town they turned around and began walking right back the way they'd come, skipping through dungeons forwards and back to make the trip faster.

The dungeons themselves almost were melting around Soothe and Scout, her presence near him was almost intolerable and those they saved could not handle her presence for long and quickly agreed to move on without much explanation.

She moved in a way that was beyond simply unnatural. There weren't horrifying motions of bones twisting in ways they shouldn't, that in itself was still possible although grossly unsettling.

Soothe seemed to be stuck in a set of moving pictures, when Scout could stand to look at her for more than a second she was one thing and only one. A step, a turn of her head, a raised hand. Unmoving, unnaturally still, her words reverberated in several ways.

Then he'd blink or look away and she'd have shifted, sometimes out of his sight which led to a feeling of panic of being watched by something he couldn't see, until he could spot her again.

As they stepped into a new dungeon, they were swallowed up by its miasma as always. Immediately, however, Scout felt something was different.

The walls were blurrier, there was a mist around them, and an ear-popping silence permeated all.

"Keep close to me/Close to us/Keep close by, Scout," Soothe said as they stepped into the shaking realm. He did draw close, despite his eyes and ears reverting to VHS quality by the proximity to her.

He wouldn't be lost in this place. Not then, not now, not ever. It was more than worth feeling a prickling sensation on his fur. Not his skin, but the fur itself. His senses were being muddled by being so close, every drift plucked thousands of strands of fur and he felt each one.

Impossible to ignore, plus it left his fur feeling itchy and that was an unpleasant experience as well, he persevered, knowing Soothe was fighting something much worse.

As the mists of the dungeon began to swallow up the sounds of the steps, Scout began to hear other things.

First, it was an off-sounding sigh along his left ear. Then fingers trailed up the bumps of his spine. He didn't look back, he knew that it was just in his head.

Soothe wasn't reacting, staring firmly forwards as she could step after step forwards, keeping stable and steady, almost drawing Scout along with the magnitude of her presence by him.

The further they went, the more it happened.

It wasn't until he saw something that he realised that maybe it wasn't him who was being preyed upon.

Soothe was walking, only her expression was so vastly different that there was no question of it not being the one he was with, no temptation to step towards it, just out of place.

She was walking with a smile. A genuine one, not a painted-on face that told whatever she wanted to be told at the time. Her eyes were calm, her shoulders relaxed, she looked like she was talking with someone and grinning as she did so.

He couldn't hear anything, he wondered if Soothe could.

The happy phantasm faded after a few more steps, yet something seemed to have unlocked with that and Scout pressed in closer, shuddering at the wrongness that it was to brush against Soothe. It was safer than these were.

A bubble of surprised laughter crackled up behind him. His tail sharply flicked in alarm.

"Trill, I'm not going to jump off a bridge to win thirty apples," Soothe said, crossing her arms. It sounded so normal he almost paused, but that was the problem that unstuck him. Too normal.

"Thirty-five? Throw in a lemon or seven. Yeah? Ha! Too easy." The apparition turned around and appeared to jump, fading into the mist. She sounded happy. Naturally happy. Nothing like the stories she had shared with Trill, where even reminiscing was lacking something to it all.

"Soothe?" Scout whispered.

"Ignore/Disregard it/Do not take them into account," she said, voice clipped, stilted, empty. The Soothe he knew.

He couldn't though.

Another peel of laughter, this time it was more hysterical, more sobbing than laughing. It was just laughter, nothing he could see. He didn't dare try and look.

More footsteps, stepping right beside him. He risked a glance, he saw her to his right as well as his left now. His heart flipped, a natural fear of 'who was the real one' nearly took him.

It was harder to tell, as the one on the right held the same grim expression he was used to, the same dullness in her eyes.

She was walking with a limp, however, and his Soothe did not.

As he took his eyes off the real one he quickly turned back to her. He was holding air, and she was ahead of him, the crackles of something sparkly in the air. He hastened his step.

"Did you just let go/Did you release my paw/Did you drop your paw from my paw?" she demanded.

"S-sorry."

She snatched his paw with her own. He winced at the feeling of icy coldness poking into his skin, like gripping a spiky block of ice with scorching tips.

"I HATE HER!" Soothe screamed into the darkness, on her knees and beating at a wooden door. "HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE!"

"Why do we bother living if we just suffer?" another murmured, head resting on a table with an empty bottle of spirits next to her.

Yet another grimaced hatefully at an unseen foe, deciding she hated more than anything else, before spinning around sharply with horror on her face. "Spire!? What are you doi-no. Spire RUN!"

"I should/I shall/I will tell a happy little story," Soothe said abruptly, banishing the spectres with the sound of her voice. Scout keenly listened, hoping to block out the screams.

"It's an old/ancient/such a long-ago story," she began slowly. "I'm not sure if I remember/recall/hear my own words again/hear it completely, but it's… it's pretty straightforward, I can fill in the blanks."

"There was a little/tiny/naïve… buneary who never felt right with the world. The birds sang, and the river bubbled merrily every day. The sun rose and the moon drifted across the sky, following where the stars pointed." Her voice only glitched out the one time there as she delved into her story.

"S-he-we-she had three older buneary sisters who she loved and adored and was adored by in kind. They took care of her when their parents were busy and taught her the ways of the world. They were so beautiful, so much more than the little buneary. So much so that little buneary knew she wanted to be like them. Life was a simple thing, but the buneary still always felt like things weren't quite right/correct/things were never the way they should be."

"Knowing/feeling/being this wrongness, she decided to set out on a journey by foot, packing her bag and hugging her family. She told them she wouldn't be long. She wanted to see what was past the big hill, where the sun-kissed the earth like a shy lover, only once every day. A goodnight/farewell kiss."

"She walked, and she hopped, and she walked/crawled/ran some more. No matter how far she walked, the hill never got any closer. She couldn't meet the sun on the hill because it was too shy, and it always slipped below the hill before she could get close enough."

It sounded like an old fable she was speaking, but Scout already wondered what she was actually saying.

"But she never gave up. No matter how far the sun was, she didn't stop. Only to sleep at night because her sisters had told her never to walk the night alone. One day, she met a friend/my chosen ally/all the friends to ever need. The friend was similar/she was a lot like her, she thought, but more beautiful, more clever, more… a lot more." Her voice had a genuine crack for a moment there.

"The friend was encouraging and beautiful and offered to help her. So she took her hand and they walked during the night/the darkness/slipping into what could not be seen."

"Her sisters had told her not to walk at night alone, but she knew she wasn't alone/solitary/torn apart by hungry mouths. They walked and walked, hand in paw… but the sun didn't rise again. The wind was no longer blowing. It was dark. It was cold. And her friend wasn't there. She never was/She was never/She was never my friend."

"She was scared, but her sisters were brave. She wanted so badly to be like them. Taking care of her when her parents couldn't. Being strong always. Beautiful and strong and brave. So, she walked further and further and further into the dark/the cold/the loneliness/the pain/the despair. But it was so dark, she didn't know where she was going. Long before she knew it, she'd walked too far down and it was too dark to find her way out."

"It was day, and it was night, but she wasn't outside. She'd walked somewhere else and didn't know how to get out. But her sisters told her to be brave… and she wanted to be like them so badly. I can find my way out, she said. Then I'll be like them."

Soothe was silent for a moment. "That's not the end of the story, but I can't remember how it ends anymore."

"I can hear them," Soothe whimpered next to him but not the same one who had spoken. "My sisters."

Soothe's eyes flickered like stained glass, equally easy to crack.

"I haven't heard their voices in twenty fucking years and it's just a lie!"

"I want to walk into the mist and never come back."

Soothe chuckled mirthlessly, holding a razor-sharp blade to her throat. She was chuckling even as tears leaked from her widened eyes. Her paw trembled as it pressed the edge into her flesh, a line of blood beginning to fall. "Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate."

Scout nearly reached out, Soothe's paw pushed his down.

The Soothe holding the blade to her throat was still laughing softly. "No…Her f i r s t." She dropped the blade, her throat swimming in darkness before being swallowed up in the mists.

"What… is this?" Scout whispered, horrified.

"Me," Soothe said. Her voice was soft, sad, and clear. It was not being spoken of by the glitching creature he held close to.

He shivered as another set of footsteps joined them. Heavier than the echoing shadows around them, and it had… responded to him?

He dared a look and there she was. She looked… so tired and faded out, fur itself a more pale lavender, her eyes heavy and ringed with exhaustion. She looked how he imagined her to look in some ways.

"Hey Scout," she said, and his heart flipped. Soothe tightened her grip on him, they continued to walk. "I just want to say sorry about all this." She glanced at herself with an almost dry smile. "She's holding on to her sanity so hard that all the rest of the chaos is bleeding into the corruption around you. Those were all memories."

He shouldn't respond, he knew he shouldn't. "What are you, then?" Soothe's needle-sharp paw dug into his flesh to the point he could feel the spikes going through his bones.

"Just a reflection of the person beneath it all. You could call me one who continues to fight." Her fur was dull and her eyes heavy, but also bright. Brighter than he'd seen before. He wondered if this is who Trill remembered. "Just here to walk with you the last few steps. I know it's not easy to be that close to me."

The pain had spread beyond his paws, a burning chill creeping in through the muscles and tendons of his whole arm, slowly spreading. Slowly, but surely.

"And, while there exists the chance to say it, even as a crude reflection in a nightmare realm, I just want to say I promise I'll do everything I can to get you through this and back to them."

He stared at her, questioning and wondering in a single expression.

She smiled and patted him on the head, he almost could feel it. "Not far to go now. Good luck, I'm grateful you're by my side in this. She can never defeat a united front."

Another step, and then they breathed fresh air and Scout gasped, splitting apart from Soothe to scratch at his arm and then his whole body.

He had never quite experienced total-body pins and needles, but he definitely did not enjoy it. He wobbled, nearly sinking to his knees as his legs felt too sensitive to hold him up.

He looked up at Soothe, mouth opening to say something. He met her pitiless gaze and didn't say anything.

What could he even say?

They stared at each other for a very long time. Eventually, slowly, Scout's eyes lowered, and he picked himself up properly, the wobbliness fading, the ringing in his ears coming back with a vengeance. He could taste blood and realised his nose was bleeding.

Soothe raised a paw and a pink light blew right into his face, repairing what had happened in his nose and the blood stopped.

"Let us go/Let's depart/Come on, let's get on out of here we have someone else to save."

Scout jogged ahead, deciding to remove his eyes from Soothe, she would never be too far behind him, breath caressing the back of his neck.

"The Cathedral!" Scout called, pointing as it came into sight again. "Almost there, almost there, almost there."

"Two left," Soothe said, voice sharply clear. "Then one will remain."

They had not seen Rhythm, they didn't speak about it.

They entered the building, back to normal with no waviness to be seen, to find Chimecho and a sunkern locked in a furious battle.

Whatever might have prompted it and any words spoken were passed, there were leaves and holes, craters and roots, ash and shards littering everywhere.

"STOP!" Scout yelled, but it had no effect.

Melody was panting, backed into a corner.

Blossom was not, staring fiercely at the chimecho. A wrathful sunkern would be comedic if the situation wasn't so serious.

Soothe began to move again, Scout staying back. He had a perfect view of what she was doing. Each blink, her movement elsewhere, like a weeping angel or SCP-173.

And probably a similar level of scary.

She caught Sunkern by the stem and Scout blinked, then Blossom was coughing on the ground. Chimecho was flinching back, suddenly screaming before he blinked again, and she was on the ground next to Blossom.

Then he began to move, running up as Soothe stepped away from them. "You two? You're okay!"

Blossom groaned, rolling to an upright position. "I no longer feel like hitting Melody in the nose many times over."

Melody was curling up, beginning to shake.

Blossom looked around and spotted her. "Mels?"

Melody's eyes snapped open, stunningly bright, a proverbial darkness no one had noticed finally gone. "Blossom?"

Blossom wobbled over to her, rolling along her smooth body, bringing her leafy tip forwards. Melody flinched and closed her eyes in acceptance, but was pulled forwards rather than struck back.

Then hugged as best as a sunkern could hug.

"We're okay now," Blossom whispered.

"I… I don't understand?" Melody managed back. "I… I lied and manipulated you for the entire time we knew each other."

"I don't believe that," Blossom said. "The times we shared were genuine."

"I… I was a Shadow Pokémon."

"I know."

"I used your charisma, your strength with people, your love for gossip and told Her everything. I'm the reason so many more people died, people that didn't deserve anything like that. It's my fault."

"It's Her fault," Blossom stated firmly, tears welling up in her eyes. "Just hers."

"…I sold everyone's lives for yours, then did nothing as you died, doesn't that disgust you?"

"I don't blame you."

"Why?"

"Because I don't."

"It isn't like I'm innocent. I did what I thought I had to do, but I didn't. I could have done something else, something brave, like you."

"You are brave. What happened was wrong, but it wasn't your fault."

"I'm… I'm not who you thought I was."

"Then I want to know who you are now. I forgive you."

That was too much, and Melody broke down. "I'm so sorry," she bawled, pressing into Blossom's warm forgiveness, not understanding it after so many years of cold and darkness, but wanting it, nonetheless.

"We're ready/I'm ready to do this/Are you ready for this to end?" Soothe asked, causing Scout to jump when he felt her behind him.

He turned, two more hadn't changed her much and that was strange. She wasn't difficult to look at now, although her entire body looked slightly off.

Like a computer's photo-realistic rendition of someone who did not exist. Something just the slightest bit off in the angles of her face, the directionless aim to her eyes, the movement of her fur. She seemed to be standing in the light, yet was in shadow, different parts of her fur moving in different directions, teased by an eclectic wind targeted on herself.

Scout looked up at her, at the unnaturalness, and nodded. "As long as you're still you."

The wrongness cracked a smirk. "Feels like I'm standing under a waterfall," she commented, bizarrely normal for what she had been expressing before. Her eyes twitched, blood trickled from her nose, and then didn't. She blinked, but her eyes never closed.

"You look like an SCP," he said bluntly.

"Watch your neck/I won't snap you if you blink/Boo kittyfucker."

Scout gave a nod. "I am ready to see Rai and Mane again, yes."

She rolled her eyes seven times. "You're funny/I'm laughing/Hysterical Scout."

"Wait," Melody called from behind them. "Where are you going, I'll send the others to your location to help!"

They shared a look.

"She will find me," Soothe said, as smooth as peanut butter spread on hot toast. "We're too big of a target."

"Maybe a trap?" Blossom whispered with a hoarse voice. "I did a lot of damage to her by laying a trap here."

"How DID you do that much?" Melody asked. "It felt like you blinded the corruption itself."

Blossom blinked uncomprehendingly.

"In the ruins of humanity/Here in this unhallowed place/This place of wonder and death," Soothe said, rubbing a paw up a piece of ancient wood. "This might do."

Melody and Blossom shared a look.

"Let me," Melody said, pulling out the connection orb. "Hello? Urgent!"

"Where are you?" came Timber's voice and Soothe seized violently upon hearing it, appearing in three different places at once.

One form holding her head in a silent scream.

Another raising a spike to an unseen foe, maniacal lies sketched on her face.

The last covered her face in horror.

Each was a blurry mess before reconfiguring with a groan.

Neither Blossom nor Melody seemed to notice and Scout almost wondered if he was hallucinating.

"At the Cathedral, Soothe's finished purifying everyone," Melody said.

"Hi Timber," Blossom said softly.

"B-Blossom! You're okay! You sound squeakier?"

"I, uh, devolved. I was warned not to pull on my sun stone too much, turns out that can happen, heh."

"Marill is okay too," Scout said, speaking up.

"That." Timber's voice coloured with emotion. "That's fantastic! I knew you were a good guy, Soothe. I reckon I absolutely knew it and no one would listen!"

"We're setting a trap," Melody said. "Soothe seems confident Nelia will know she's here."

"We don't know how long that'll take though," Blossom explained. "Can you get people to start coming back this way? I think she's getting weaker, just by myself I was able to do a lot of damage."

"To be fair, you had set the terrain in your favour and were using forbidden power. Blossom, you devolved."

"I'm fine now."

"You do need to get out of here, though," Scout said, Timber had fallen a little silent since Blossom's request. "Whatever you did or not, you can't do it now. And if she kills either of you, you're dead."

"Y-yeah," Timber said quietly. "I uh… I reckon I should… tell ya… I'm not actually… with the group."

All eyes turned to the connection orb.

"What?" Melody asked.

"I might have… tried to follow Chatot and Celebi and gotten lost."

"Why do you have the orb?"

"I got handed it and then plum forgot I had it until it started ringing."

"And you didn't tell us this before…?"

"I didn't want to, uh… golly, sorry."

Scout cursed. "Fuck. Now you really have to go and find them!"

Melody also cursed and straightened up. "Well, I guess I'm going to do something else that I deserve." And then she pushed her mind into the Psychic Network.

Saniya was close by, she knew that, she immediately began to search for the ember of her mind, hoping to light the link before whatever had entered the group-think noticed her.

Her haste brushed against Saniya swiftly and she pressed with all the urgency she could muster, trying to flinch Saniya into joining on reflex.

It worked.

"Woah, hey! Wait, what are you doing?"

"No time," Melody sent back. "Soothe has purified Blossom and I and others, she intends to lay a trap for Indeedee here. Inform the leaders immediately, we're going to ne-"

Then it struck them both and Melody flinched back, screaming as something buried into her mind, attacking at every inch of her until it felt like her body itself was burning without end. No nerve ending able to be damaged and numbed by actual fire, the pain would never let it stop.

Her recoil threw it out of her and into Saniya who similarly pelted out a mighty scream and began to clutch at her head as a sinister voice spoke to her.

"Ah, so that's where you are~"

Melody came to with a groan, hearing people yelling at her and shaking her but not comprehending at first.

"W-We should go," she coughed. "I think I got the warning to Saniya before that 'thing' attacked me but I can't be sure. Dammit." She floated up, bit down on a berry, and then shook it off.

"Blossom, hop on." Blossom immediately swung her leaf sprouts around Melody's sensor and lifted her. Few things looked more silly than that and even Soothe stopped glitching for a moment to snort.

"We'll be as quick as we can."

"Good luck," Soothe murmured as they raced off.

"They won't be fast enough," Scout sighed, staring after where they had gone. "Which is a good thing, isn't it?"

Soothe nodded, also staring after them. "Nelia liked to tell me stories/She boasted a lot/Told me accounts of battles she'd fought."

He looked at her.

"She thrives in chaos. Too many people, and she'll be impossible to pin down. We will be enough. Just… be ready for anything."

And they will have to be.

---

As Blossom and Melody flew, Timber ran, Saniya tried to figure out words again, and Soothe and Scout waited, time was running out.

They would never have had enough time, even if the warning hadn't been sent over the Psychic Network. The moment the psychic virus struck, Nelia knew where they were.

Nelia walked backwards through forgotten time and broken space and gazed upon the reflection of Her first victory. A relic of the people She had ended. A monument to all Her sins.

Before Her blessed eyes, the turning of the ugly into the beautiful graced this foul human relic hummed across the air itself.

There was no Melody to trade off-putting friendliness with. No Trill to tease or anyone at all to offset the step of The First Fallen.

There was no one to disguise Her true face.

She lurched as she walked, stepping and strolling and skipping and staggering and crawling and striding all at once in a dozen different ways. The expression was always the same, a tightly stretched smile across a face that seemed too small to fit its majesty.

Nelia had lived and died so many times her body was almost grotesque beneath the veneer of civility. Yet nothing so blessed could be viewed as grotesque unless the viewer themselves could not accept the beauty before them.

Years immemorial had come to this.

You will not win, you who is called Soothe. The liar of many names, nothing being true.

The game was rigged from the start.

The Blessed to Fall threw Her perfected arm out the moment She crossed the twisting threshold. The false audino, having pushed every ounce of will she had into rejecting completion, was caught entirely off guard and slammed against a wall, head bouncing off it with an audible crack.

Before she could even begin to slide off, the distortion of her resistance crackling wildly around her, Nelia swung a curled root with an emblem gemmed into it, sending a stunning blast at the bearer and freezing her in place.

With that issue solved, She turned to the vessel.

Gazing upon her with fear and disgust, shock and alarm. An expression that should never plaster itself across his face when he looked at Her.

Mother Dearest spoke in soothing tones. "That's quite enough of that!" She stepped closer, he stepped back. "Are you okay, Scout?"

His claws curved into the dying light, a threat against his progenitor. Disgusting, what has the bearer done to him?

"I don't know," Nelia murmured. "Goodness, Scout, you've given me and the whole continent a fright." She extended a hand, an offering of forgiveness to ignore hasty slights. "Everyone is looking for you." Everything is waiting for you.

He stunk of fear and worse yet, anger. Disgust. Contempt. He continued to move, this time-shifted to the side, leading her eyes away from where the bearer was contained.

"She's told me everything," Scout said, claws still raised as a threat. "EVERYTHING!"

That was a lie, and Nelia knew that Scout knew it too. She did not give him a pitying smile, not yet, it was easy to fall into sensationalism. "She's a Shadow Pokémon, Scout," She explained gently, pressing the lightest touch of empathy into his brain as She manipulated a Calm Mind with Her perfected grace. Calm, peace, understanding. "Whatever she has said, it's a lie."

"Like what you're saying now?" Scout growled a bestial sound, his heart rate was slowing, however, his expression already twitching as he began to fall into a soft sense of confusion, a simple thread to pluck and pull back into the correct embrace.

"Look at where we are, the colours are turning, old is blending into new, this location is gathering contempt and fury. One so corrupted cannot stand in place for long, you're at the brink of falling into a dungeon. And at the precipice of it, you'll be driven mad by her corruption and shaped into one of the ferals that crawl through the corridors."

Not that you weren't born as one already.

His eyes flicked to Soothe, horror fighting apprehension as he began to struggle with multiple concerns at once, some foreign to his mind, twisting him into even more confusion.

"H-How do you know that?"

Nelia's face softened, a mother's love that stared down Her wayward son, mixing with the wrong type. "I have seen it happen before. I am very old, having lived through many things. She is using you, Scout. You know that, though, don't you?"

He was confused, feeling warm and cold, prickly and comfortable, aghast and at ease. Scout's eyes began to close, trying to block out the additional pain brought by sight.

A perfect choice, hearing only the truth now.

Nelia's voice dropped to a loving purr, a sound that had comforted him before, being rocked to sleep, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth as She sang him new songs. It had taken a while for the father to appear, and he had to be kept alive and safe until he had.

Nothing spawned love like tragedy.

"You're safe now, I'm here Scout. I won't let her hurt you anymore, Rai and Mane are close by too! We'll have you back to them in a moment's time, just stay there for a tick."

"I… I can't… believe," Scout murmured, Her eyes, slowly turning back to check on Soothe, flicked back to him as his will began to crack. Her empathic manipulation taking root.

Nelia began to smile.

"I… I can't believe how much of an idiot you think I am."

Nelia's eyes flicked wide as she suddenly moved, jerking to the side as Soothe's blade sliced through her side. That wasn't the real attack, however, but a mere distraction, and as her eyes dropped off Scout he readied every bit of anger/every bit of duplicity he had and leapt in a silent strike, Night Slash extending to reflect the demon/angel/false mother/true saviour before him.

His strike split the air and cleaved her head right off.

Soothe followed up with a glimmering cascade of light, aimed to separate her body from her head well and truly.

A whip struck her in the chest, spearing right through and dropping her to her knees before Nelia's head flew back to her body, touching the murkiness dripping from Scout's wound and reattaching.

A foul grin worked its way across her face as she cracked her neck, glancing back and forth from the foes she was suddenly between.

"One, two, three, four, a couple of tools I did saw. Four, three, two, one, I am about to have so much fun."

Scout yowled and stepped with the kind of speed normally regarded for legends/He is a legend at this point.

A sabre of darkness split off his claws and slashed a dark mark through the air before being joined by its brethren, swiftly becoming a lashing array of whipping darkness.

They met fire as Soothe blasted an array of light, darkness, and glitter meeting together with rotten corruption in the middle.

Scout flashed in the dazzling display, razor-sharp blades striking and hacking at everything he could reach.

An eruption of blessed true darkness swallowed their weak attacks into itself before engorging in a/grotesque manner, sending Scout flying back with a scream before/singling out the traitorous bearer and/being blocked by her luminous Protect.

"Five, six, seven, eight," Nelia crooned as Her/wretched words sunk into Soothe's/ridiculously oversized ears and/doing nothing as she grit and bore through/it was useless, she began to scream as it overwhelmed/her Protect and only her Protect. "Is this the end? Maybe it's fate."

The darkness bloomed as it surrounded Soothe as a vortex, clinging in close and pulling her off her feet before it was parted by a wave of fire.

The mystic granted/infected fire fought for purchase on her/willing and submitting body/she screamed and lashed/and wailed and cried and no ONE WILL HELP YOU!

The fire struck like a physical blow and sent Soothe through a wall, smashing through the ancient ruins and causing wood to groan and creak, parts of a doorway beginning to collapse as something vital was ripped out from it.

Scout moved like a wraith, disappearing through the smoke and haze after her as Nelia began to walk languidly, taking Her time and giving them a blessed chance to breathe.

"What do we do?" Scout hissed, trying and failing to hide his terror at the danger before them.

Soothe grit her teeth, lashing them painfully tightly and drawing her iron thorn as Nelia strolled out from the trees. "We'll fight until we're dead!"

"…great."

Nelia tittered girlishly at them. "Oh boys," She sang, drawing the silver sword from the shimmering air around her. "Mummy's home."

"Okay, more disgusted than scared now."

Nelia's face shifted into something beau-grotesque as she cocked her head too far. "Oh my, are you afraid of me Scout?" She could taste his fear in the air, stinking around him. An acrid taste that left a bitter sourness in the back of Her mouth.

A taste She'd grown to love, a thrilled shudder rippling through Her body.

Soothe was difficult to feel out. There was fear, yes, fear and utter hatred fighting each other for dominance in her shaking body. She was better at controlling her expression than Scout was. Yet it was all muted, as most of her effort went towards fighting the corruption/blessing her wretched form.

Nelia's smile began to dip into a deeper frown than ever before as She looked over Soothe, something resembling pity gracing Her oak-brown eyes. "You were to be great, and yet you scorn us at every single breath you take."

She shook her head, fur fluttering in the wind before a curling/smirk began to creep across her face like something clawing her face off to the side and replacing it with something worse.

Nelia raised both arms and gestured at them individually.

Scout sneered and Soothe braced. A telekinetic tug tried to knock Soothe's balance out, but couldn't touch Scout as he raced forth like a bluish blur. Darkrai knew well.

He leaped up, claws extending once again to strike down the evil before him. The two-fold saviour struck cleanly, none of Nelia's usual tricks able to even slow his pounce. He struck her across the chest and blood splashed the ground, staining the soil with the Fallen's toxic sludge.

Nelia twisted, arm extending out to grab at his tail with a palm ablaze. She caught his tail just in time and squeezed, tugging his light form towards her and beating his chest with her other palm, flickering with the same fire.

The fireball blasted a hole through Scout.

Then the Substitute faded, and Scout's follow-up blow nearly severed her head again. This time, however, the vessel had misjudged, She had seen the Substitute coming and purposefully turned Her back to lure him into the open.

He slammed into the inner wall of a Protect as it formed around them both, a tightly-packed bubble of protection, leaving him safe in the shadow of his Mother Dearest.

Scout panicked like a child with his hand in the cookie jaw and attempted to spit his facsimile of shadow at her with an offering of blood. It failed to even graze the Normal-constitution of the indeedee and he found his throat caught in Her loving embrace.

A spike slammed into the Protect and cracked it as Scout struggled vainly/desperately against Her hold, kicking out with extending feet claws and slashing new fury into her flesh.

"GET OFF HIM!" Soothe bellowed, sending a dazzling parade of light at them both. The attack hurt Scout more than it'd harm Nelia, but it had enough force to it to separate them. She was less swift than he was, but still very fast, and closed the distance between herself and Nelia.

Choosing glorious close combat.

The silver sword still hung in the air, drifting absentmindedly in the air.

Nelia caught Soothe's punch in her hand and blocked the second and the kick with telekinetic shoves. Soothe freed enough of a hand to try and pistol strike her, but Nelia tugged her hand right as she did so, aiming the blast right at Scout.

The concentrated Dazzling Gleam was a one-and-done shot, she couldn't negate it once it had already been done and Scout was downed with a brief, but piercing, scream.

"FUCK!" Soothe cursed, trying to wrestle back out of The First/To see the truth and continued to deny/the madness that she fought with everything to hold at bay/a mistake, she's fighting pathetically DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU COULD WIN?

Soothe headbutted Nelia out of a last resort and the impact managed to finally break her concentration and free her arm from a tightly crushing grip, melting into the darkness.

Nelia hissed and breathed fire, right as Soothe pulled both her arms together, twin-bladed Protect's overlaying together to block the putrid flames.

One Protect was strong, an overlay doubled that. However, the area of protection was slight, and her lower body began to singe as she retreated swiftly.

"Yawn," Nelia called, rolling her eyes. "This is what it all led up to? Decades of resistance and fighting, to come to this pathetic showing?"

Soothe was growling/shaking/trembling with fury/need to restrain it all from overtaking her.

"From dear Rhythm to Blossom the sunflora, all their sacrifices to slow me down, weaken and injure me. Hah. And THIS is all you can do?"

A fireball crested through the air. Soothe blocked it. Another, another block. A third, a fourth, a twelfth, twenty dozen, a continuous volley.

Fire began to rain from all directions. Soothe blocked the first individually, forming her powerful shields where they needed to be before the amount became overwhelming and she formed a classic bubble Protect, crouching down to make it smaller and more durable as a literal sea of fire blazed around her.

"Can't block heat transference," Nelia sang/screamed maniacally as she unleashed the rampant firestorm upon Soothe. Within the shield, the grass was wilting, and she was panting hard as the heat began to become unbearable. "SHOW ME ANYTHING!"

Nelia cast the fire up and swept it up in a red carpet, a fiery lash that shattered her shield in a single devastating strike.

Soothe was on her hands and knees. The air was warping around her, and not only from the heat. Any damage to her body that oven-like temperatures caused was already gone.

Nelia sneered and struck again, a sharp whip of fire striking a burning hole through Soothe's left shoulder. A strike like that would cook flesh and sear through bone, causing an injury so awful the arm would be half hanging off, held only by blackened flesh.

In less time than it took for the fire to lift, the injury was already gone.

Something distant was building, a distant roar.

"SHOW ME!" Nelia demanded, lashing her again and again and again.

Each blow was undone before it was so much as felt, the roaring was building.

Soothe began to rise as Nelia cackled. "Come on then, Vicky! GET UP!"

Not for you/Not by you/Never for your order.

Soothe growled, her mouth opening wider than a mouth could open and revealing too many teeth, a nested maw that spiralled into infinity.

Then it snapped shut and was gone. She was an audino, not a monstrosity. She raised her blade and forced a deadly grin.

Nelia's blooming grin suddenly faded into a scowl. "You hope for something cool," she muttered, shaking her head. "And all I get is this."

She began to stomp towards Soothe, the audino barely able to breathe as wrongness was pervading everything. Her lungs were filling with black gunk, her eyes were being blinded by it, her heart was sucking in sludge, her brain was melting under the strain.

She still fought, swinging out a sharp slash before a glittering barrage. Nelia caught her blade on the flat of her own and flicked, striking it out of her hands and swallowing the Dazzling Gleam like it was nothing.

Nelia's arm caught her by the throat and began to squeeze. "Choke," She hissed, pressing pressure around Soothe's whole body, forcing her down to her knees. "Choke on it."

Soothe was gasping and gagging as her throat began to burn as Nelia's fingers set alight, burning and being burned away by clashing corruption.

Nelia gave a sound of furious disgust and threw Soothe, slamming her into a tree and bouncing her off. Soothe began to choke for breath, gasping and heaving, trying to get to her feet. Nelia helped her with that, flinging her up with a gesture and slamming into a rock.

Then she tugged her forwards, flying in the air. Her hand lit up with dark fire and sent her crashing back into the rock.

Then back. And again. Back. And again. Punching a scorching mark into her chest over and over and over again, bouncing her off the rock relentlessly as Her taunts became louder.

"This is all you can do?"

"Years of rage come to this?"

"Did you ever do ANYTHING with your knowledge?"

"So many people have died to get you to this point!"

"Everyone you've ever loved."

"Even the people who thought you were a demon!"

"You've saved NO ONE!"

"When they die again, they're DEAD!"

"And they will know it was because you were too weak."

"Just as always."

"Always."

"Too."

"Weak."

She grabbed her by the back of her head and slammed her head into the rock and then began to bash her repeatedly against it, smashing her skull against it over and over until there was more blood than there was rock.

Even after all this, Soothe's body was healing from everything in moments, however, it was beginning to finally slow down. From instantaneous to seconds, slowly, but surely.

Nelia threw her aside again, tossing her to the ground and onto her belly.

"You know why you can't win?" Nelia asked, taking her time to keep Soothe down while she had the chance to calm down. "You think you could just suck up all the shadow around you and overpower me? Me?"

"Fuck. You," Soothe managed.

"Tch. Really, how crass but fitting that's all you can manage to say." Nelia spread her arms and raised them as if in praise to a god. "I am not the First Fallen because I was the first to ever become a Shadow. No, I am the First to become a True Shadow. For I have gazed into the infinite maw and have understood."

She lifted Soothe up, blood had matted her face and chest, although there were no injuries to be seen. "I am not a welp who pitifully fights against 'the evil corruption making me do things'. I understand it is not a curse, but a blessing and we have become one. You are an affront to everything, Vic."

She slammed her back down onto her face, staring down at her with unveiled disgust. "It chose you to be its bearer, It's Champion, despite all that I had done. And you reject at every turn. Even now, you consume so much of the Power, and you fight every inch against it. This is why you are so weak now. How could you possibly fight a weedle let alone me while all your effort is going into just keeping you and It apart?"

She smiled/She did not smile. It was a horrifying imitation of a look of joy and gratitude.

"That's okay, though. I have come to see the blessing that you were in disguise. You are not 'Chosen', but a mere additional tool. Perhaps you had the opportunity, we would have been The Two Who Fell to Rise, but instead, here you lay, broken in the dirt where you and the rest of humanity lay."

That twisting of Her face deepened as She raised Her hand again. "Now, stay still, this won't hurt for much lo-"

Something fast and greyish brown slammed into her head from the side at terribly violent speeds.

Nelia had been so focused on her scathing monologue, distracted by the sucking void that was Soothe's emotional state, that she had entirely missed a third party entering the clearing.

Nelia's words were cut short with a loud reverberating groan as a Defence Curl-boosted rampaging Rollout hit her with the force of a cannonball, a hard rocky covering guarding what was known to be a rather well-fed bidoof.

Timber nearly splattered her skull on impact as he leaped without thinking and cannonballed The First Fallen.

Nelia rolled and bounced as she crashed far aside with a cut-off screech, Timber landing and breaking out of his Rollout, Treasure Bag whipping around his body as he threw a reviver seed at Soothe. "GET UP!" he cried, throwing another seed at Scout, stirring at a distance away.

"Spire/T-Timber?" Soothe gasped in horror, still lying on the ground. "What are you doing here!?"

"No time," he yelled back. "Get up, we gotta go!"

Soothe remembered, she remembered. "No, LEAVE!"

"Not without you!" Timber yelled back, shifting his eyes off the form of the Fallen to meet hers with fierceness but also comfort in someone willing to protect.

"No!" Soothe screamed as a fallen spike began to move. "Timber. RUN!"

"Wha?" He half-turned a little further. In the rising light of the moon, an iron thorn flashed as it sped through the air. And then impaled Timber through the chest.

"G-gyah?" Timber gasped, wavering on two feet half turned. He looked down in confusion, why had he just felt a sharp flash of pain?

There, sticking through his chest, was the answer. His paws fell towards it naturally, an instinctual need to remove the danger but….

His paws were slippery with blood, and he was too weak to pull it out. His mouth slowly fell open, eyes going wide as his pupils constricted.

Soothe, with one hand raised in a futile gesture, could do nothing as slowly Timber was tugged off his feet. The edge of the thorn cruelly sliced through more of his flesh and pulled a pained grunt out of Timber, slowly pulling him into the air, suspended only on the blade itself.

It was taunting in the slowness that he was turned towards her, both paws on her very own iron thorn, just holding it in there out, soft gasps leaving his mouth as his lifeblood fell onto the grass.

"Ah," Timber whimpered, the reality of what had just happened hit him. "Ah. I… I… I'm sorry Soothe," he gasped out. His paws twitched and, strangely enough, a smile began to form on his face.

A self-defeating, ashamed, smile of admittance. "I guess I really am just a doofus."

Soothe could do nothing but watch as a fireball approached, a whip of flame with a devouring tail. It enveloped Timber in a flash before the thorn was ripped out, one last splash of blood striking the ground as his body fell, burning.

Across the battlefield, Nelia felt something deep and unyielding she had never felt to this depth before. An agonising, descending, traumatic gash of horror, shame, and despair.

Her own words to Timber flashed through her mind, juxtaposed against his final moments.

'Heh. Doofus indeed.'

'Heh. Doofus indeed.'

'Heh. Doofus indeed.'

'You should have run when you had the chance," she intoned, voice losing all emotive amusement. "But I guess you are just a doofus.'

No. Timber. I didn't mean it. You were not a doofus. You were never dumb. You were good. You trusted people. You believed in them. You had hope. You were better than me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

"Uuugh, that better not start becoming a habit," Nelia growled, cracking her neck as she walked back. "I don't know who should be more embarrassed by that. Me or…." Her eyes flicked to Soothe, and her words died with a grumble of annoyance. Soothe was standing again.

Then, she saw her face and a snort ripped itself out of her throat, cascading over Timber's corpse. "O-my-are you crying?"

Soothe's face had gone blank with no expression, but tears had breached through one eye and were trailing down her cheek.

Nelia continued to laugh. "Oh honey, oh sweetie, oh baby girl. It's alright. You won't miss him for long."

"I will end your life," Soothe said blankly. "I will see all you've done, end." Her words speared across the frozen air. The distortion had vanished, the light was dimming, the world was pulling away in fear. "No one else will die."

The Lives You've Stolen

The Pain That You Have Caused Us

No One Else Will Die

A Thousand Echoes

Scream For Your Wretched Defeat

No One Else Will Die

You Will Not Escape

There Is No Place You Can Run

No One Else Will Die

Nelia tsked. "I've heard so many dramatic speeches, yours is lacking a great deal. Nice haiku though, three out of te-"

She barely saw it coming, twisting to the side right as Soothe's blade carved through her neck and arm, slicing her left arm clean off. Nelia's eyes began to widen, twitching as they flicked back in shock.

Her other hand just barely got a grip on her falling arm before Soothe had spun and something flashed and Nelia understood pain and flight, spinning as she was struck through several trees.

She groaned and slammed her arm back into place, setting it on a bad angle that her body yet latched onto anyway. She cursed, realising it would regenerate incorrectly.

Her curse, her foul tongue, betrayed her and Nelia felt her chest cavity collapse as a blur of faded purple slammed into her chest, puncturing both lungs and damaging the cardiac muscle, fluid spilling in and pressuring her heart.

A paw met her throat and squeezed before everything spun, her neck was snapped twice before another lance of blackening light split stones and her body apart.

Nelia bit down on a warp seed, blinded and disorientated from the assault and she disappeared, collapsing into a pile of severed limbs.

The darkness was sluggish, it was… having difficulty obeying. Her body began to patch itself up, but slowly. Too slow. A flash of a rhythmic punch echoed through her body as it tried to reform her chest. A coldness burned over her body as her skin tried to knit itself back together. A final light was remembered as it all squirmed, unable to manage on its own.

She managed to take in a reviver seed and used that boost of energy instead to pull herself back together.

Nelia rose again, a bitter scowl on her face as darkness spilled from her whole body. "Oh so n-" A spike went through her throat and then Soothe was there in front of her again.

A hasty Protect just barely stopped another limb scattering parade and she blasted them apart with a descending psychic impulse.

Nelia formed a set of fiery whips and began to defend herself from the blacklight bombarding her. Flashes of rotting flames deflected reversed light, sending sparks and glittery essence cascading around from where the corruption was beaten off.

Despite literally having asked for this, Nelia was not smiling, a focused grimace on her face as she fought to hold Soothe back. This was not the plan.

"I just need…one moment," Nelia thought, beginning to panic as she was pushed back step by step. She was exhausted, weakened, flattened from all her previous battles. From Rhythm to Torkoal to Blossom, she had pushed too far out of necessity, beyond her limits.

And those limits were finding themselves a new and better host. A scowl of determination crossed Nelia's warping face, she bellowed. "I AM!" And a wave of darkness sunk the entire battlefield into grey.

Like a sketch of the world, the trees became white and black, filled only in by the muse of an artist. The grass became blades of white outlined in black, sprouting from a nothingness, a void.

The only colour was the three who laid in the bounds of Nelia's corrupted realm. Nelia in her full sheen, Scout munching slowly on Timber's thrown reviver seed and glimmering blue, and a rippling black and violently red audino.

"Come closer, Nelia," Soothe(?) whispered. "This is what you wanted."

Nelia took a step back, eyes moving to anything and everything as the void around them attacked Soothe, lashing her legs to restrain her, blades of grass spearing her legs and growing to envelop her body, the trees rising to spread deadly roots to cocoon her further, the sky falling upon to force her down like Atlas.

Nelia was bleeding from the nose as she fought to control It, something was interfering with her all-powerful control. It was digging into her ear and was hissing terrible lies.

Her eyes moved from Soothe to Scout to the bag and-

That was her exit. She pressed empathy, caring not for subtlety.

Scout gasped and leaped for the Treasure Bag, for the treasure Saniya had given, a burning reminder of their best weapon here flashing into his head.

"SOOTHE! CATCH!" Scout yelled, throwing the awakening across the colouring battlefield, Nelia's control slipping as she moved it all into one illusion of choice.

Soothe caught the awakening and cracked it open.

I only need one moment.

The light of destruction flashed across the skyline, the memory of falling stars as the echo of humanity's ultimate weapon, and final weapon enveloped Soothe in a blinding flash.

Yet, transformation was not a free action.

All at once, Nelia called upon aeons of strength, powers that be, her pool of might gifted as The First Fallen, the end of peace, the death of war, The Corruptor Herself.

And she unleashed it all at once against Soothe's transforming belly.

"GYAAGH!" Soothe screamed as space cracked around her, her voice reclaiming its role in her body as a combined burst of fire and lightning, ice and wind, darkness and death all struck her at once. The awakening shattered, her transformation jinked part way through before surrendering to sheer power.

The mega aura faded, and her body's additions crumbled away as Soothe began to fall, blank-eyed, towards the ground.

A follow-up pulse as Nelia's body burned and screamed slammed her up against a boulder, the stone cracking from the shockwave of Nelia's attack.

Twin iron thorns flashed in the air, one stolen to kill Rhythm and Spire, the other stolen to kill Timber, and a scream was ripped from Soothe's chest as her own spikes impaled her arms to the rock, crucifying her in place.

Soothe screamed out in pain, anger, despondent misery. Her cry keened high, higher, she screamed loud enough for the wail to move the ashes that were left of Timber. A bellow of twenty years of suffering and torment, all come up to one moment. Failure.

Nelia raised a finger and then lashed it down, a bolt of lightning struck her from the dark sky. Another. Another. ANOTHER! She bombarded Soothe with a final barrage to break what was left of her choice to DEFY!

Victoria's desperate cry fell silent, head slumping to his chest as she hung on the rock by her arms. She began to weep.

"Tisk, tisk, tisk," Nelia tutted, drawing out the words as she reached up to tilt Soothe's head up and stare into her face with a bloodied manic grin. "Crying again?"

She let go and Soothe's head slumped down lifelessly, tears falling and blood trickling from the bolts impaling her to the rock. Soft gasps broke across the fearful silence before choking into wet sobs.

"I'm glad you understand now," Nelia murmured, drinking in the misery as if it was ambrosia, wavering in place even as she did so. "Ah… that bitter revelation that everything you've done, everything you've fought for, was just another piece of the plan. Oh yes, you've done everything I've wanted you to. And now we're ready."

Scout stared at what had happened in horrified terror, kneeling by the bag he had tossed the awakening to Soothe from. Nelia hummed as she felt a shift in the emotions behind her, the mostly-ignored feelings shifting from frozen terror to panicked fear. Slowly, Nelia turned to face him, and Scout unfroze and tried to run.

Quicker than he was, the bag raised up and the straps of the back clamped around his neck like a set of vines, cutting his airflow off.

Scout gagged silently and fell down as the straps dug into his neck and squeezed. He desperately tried to pull in air, but the straps were iron-tight. He raised his paws to try and pry it off and then extended his claws, ready to tear it apart just to breathe.

Before he could even touch a claw to a strap, two other hands grabbed his paws and yanked them back. A knee pressed into his back, and he was pushed forth, silently choking with his arms pulled painfully back, her knee being dug into the small of his back.

"Shh, shh, shh," Nelia crooned as Scout tried to struggle, but things were going dark. "Just go to sleep, I'm not playing around any longer."

Tears were streaming down his face as well before suddenly the pressure loosened. Scout fell onto his front, pulling in desperate breaths as Nelia tsked. "Can't actually kill you yet," she sighed as he coughed and sobbed for breath.

He tried to rise, draw a claw, or do anything.

Then a rock slammed into his head and Scout was knocked out.

Nelia grimaced distastefully at the bloodied rock in her hand, glancing at it before tossing it aside. She gestured and the spikes were ripped out of Soothe, her wounds healing before she even hit the ground with a heavy smack.

Nelia floated her over to them and picked Scout up by the scruff. She tossed him on Soothe's floating form and considered the cargo for a moment.

"Hmm." Slowly, Scout began to slide off and he too hit the ground with a splat. She yanked him up by the tail this time, swinging him back and forth for a moment before tossing him back on Soothe.

She gestured and the Treasure Bag returned to her, and she tore a hole in it and shook it relatively clean of items, berries and orbs clattered against the ground and falling all over.

Satisfied she ripped the straps out on one side each and used the extra length and pliable bag to tie Scout to Soothe.

Humming a cheerful tune, she began to stroll off with her grim cargo floating next to her.

"Deep in the woods, the fire grows higher~"