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!

99. I Promised You Forever

Every step, every victory, every mistake.

It's all come to this.

---

Scout stirred with a weak sound, his head pounded furiously, he could hear his blood pounding through his temple.

He tried to stretch and relieve some of the aches throughout his body, but found he couldn't move. In his addled state, he didn't react at first.

It wasn't a sharp startle that brought him to awareness. His eyes slowly began to open as a gentle voice made itself known. "Wakey-wakey dear." It was a comfortingly deep, motherly, voice. One who had rocked him to sleep, shielding him from the horrors around him.

The kind he never truly forgot.

"Before I cram some chesto berries down your throat," Mother Dearest continued and this time he did react a little more strongly.

His eyes opened and he found himself staring down at a smiling indeedee, a beat of confusion echoed through him before it all came back to him.

"A-ah!" Scout yelped, struggling against his binds weakly.

Nelia giggled at him as she drank in the flummoxed mix of alarm and building terror welling up in him. A subtle drink that gained flavour the longer she enjoyed it.

"Where? Where?" Scout cried, head flipping back and forth, searching out something.

She tittered again. "So eager. Don't worry, I've got everything this time. We won't have to dally much longer."

With that, she turned her back to him and to someone else. Scout followed her gaze and finally spotted Soothe.

She was akin to him. Tied to a post, restrained quite firmly with both ropes and something enchanted that dulled his senses and ability to access his Power. Nelia was gazing up at Soothe with nothing less than reverent Hunger.

"I know you're awake," she said. Soothe's expression was an unconscious mask, soft breaths coming in and out of her mouth. Nelia grinned at the act. "You know you can't hide anything from me." The smugness in her voice was like nails on a chalkboard and a muscle in Soothe's cheek began to twitch. "Never could."

She turned away from Soothe as well and didn't return to Scout, turning instead to face the area to his left.

Scout's eyes had adjusted to the dankly dark area he was in, and he was slowly able to make out more and more of the room they were in. Beyond the stakes they were tied to, there was ancient stone covered in a layer of blackish grime everywhere, raised in chunks and cracking from age.

Far to the right he could see what looked like the entrance, or perhaps exit, to a dungeon.

To his left, where Nelia was looking, was little besides a pit so dark he could never hope to see through it.

And yet….

"What is that?" Scout shrieked, he could see something and didn't know how he could see it. He squeezed his eyes shut, but he could still see It. He began to tremble violently on the stake, claws coming out on reflex, but he could barely move.

He was an offering on a spit to what could be nothing less than a towering maw descending into nothingness. He could hear things in the nothingness, soft cries and begging for mercy.

He vaguely realised he was crying, but that hardly mattered.

Nelia had turned her rapt gaze from the pit back to them. "Oh my goodness," she gasped. "I've talked about this before, with Blossom and Melody and so many more. I can't believe it's finally time! I must say, I've been building this villainous monologue for some time now!"

She waved her hands in a curious pattern and Scout found himself relaxing unbidden and uncontrolled.

"I can't have you screaming and crying and ignoring it all, Scout," she said sweetly. His body was still wracked with seizure-like shudders, but his mind had cleared enough for him to ignore It and focus on Her.

"Where does it begin you may wonder?" The First Fallen said, strolling back and forth between her captive audience. "At what point does this all 'start'? Does it start in the Dark Future? Does it start when I first crawled out of the egg? When Arceus-Zygarde lost his companion? All potential beginnings to this story."

"Why would we want to know?" Soothe spoke up, her voice low and hateful, yet drained and empty.

Nelia tittered. "Does it sound like I'm just going to get on with it without talking myself up first? Don't worry, I won't talk for too long. No one should be able to find you here, but why take the risk?" She stretched out, bones popping. "But you gotta treat yourself sometimes and I want to tell you two this. You're my co-conspirators in this, after all. You deserve to know what you've done."

She turned around, staring into the pit again. "My story begins three thousand years ago. I won't talk about my own curious backstory, however. It's not important. What is important is that it was a time of war. Arceus-Zygarde, a pillar of humanity's arrogance to name their rulers after gods, had gone mad and driven all those who loved him away."

She shook her head. "Some ran to the places he attacked, seeking aid to stop him. One such family was dear sweet Violet's. I suppose neither of you are Sean, but it matters. I raised Violet, fed upon her family's gratitude, and Violet showed me her spirit. She would fight to stop her uncle's madness and I was more than happy to help."

The name of Violet brought a soft frown to her face. "Ah, how I miss her. Truly, she and you would have gotten along, Scout. Brother and sister in a way. Hm." She smiled at him. He did not smile back.

"Our story there is long and arduous and mostly unimportant. So, I'll skip ahead to the end. The attack on the Ultimate Weapon." She shuddered at the name. "The Royal Children's final push to save them in, I joined of course. We reached the control room itself and the children attempted to stop Arceus-Zygarde. Yet, they did not know many things."

She smiled. "There had never been a human who sought the power he had. More than that, no human had spread such power as willingly. Esther, poor Esther, was merely the greatest failure of those twisted experiments. Experiments on The Shadow. And I had come to learn of Its power through these encounters and realised they were my saviour, sick and dying from overindulgence on pain rather than gratitude."

She nodded. "Arceus-Zygarde bore host to the greatest collection of corruption the world had seen. And as the children fought to free him of his actions, I took my shot to steal his Shadow and end the world."

Above them, the dark ceiling exploded with light as a reflection of a genocide flashed by.

"In one timeline, I was stopped. My gambit failed and Melody, not the same Melody, captured me in her irresistible dance. However, this timeline split was caused because my actions were unstoppable, my gambit unavoidable. Arceus preserved both timelines and here I had won."

Her smile began to dip, however. "Drunk off success and believing myself unstoppable, I immediately moved to revive the Master I had begun to serve. And here I will pause and take a further step back."

She even demonstrated, stepping backwards twice.

"In the beginning, there was chaos that birthed an egg. Before there was chaos, there was nothing. And before there was nothing, excuse the copyright infringement, there were monsters."

She released the enforced calm on Scout and dragged his eyes back to the pit. He began to scream again.

She let him take it for longer before Soothe finally spoke, screaming. "STOP IT!"

Smiling, Nelia did as asked, and Scout began to cry softly.

"Of who, Arceus is one of. The only one that could create and so It did. Created existence and disallowed its siblings to play, like a spoiled child refusing to share. For all of time Arceus has fought to hold them off, but none was as persistent or as cunning as The Shadow."

She spoke with deep reverence, with a pleasure that belied all the horror that she was.

"Even I can hardly grasp the magnitude of it all. But I do know. I know of The Shadow. Its goals are my goals, I have done well to please It, but my mistakes can only be forgiven with success. Twenty thousand years ago, after an eternity of attempts, It finally broke through Arceus' defences as man killed man and Arceus grieved, a piece slipped through and crashed into the land."

Her reverent smile dipped once again. "And then man came and did something. I do not know what, or how, but man found a way to take into itself the corruption of something beyond and balance it across all of them. My master was dazed and lay within the land for many, many, years but I knew where It was. Once I had killed humanity I knew I could revive It to lay waste to all that is!"

Her gaze turned to a hateful glare. Shame and fury warring on her face. "I was too hasty. Humanity was not dead, but dying, and would not die for some time yet. As my master flew again I realised another terrible thing. Arceus. Arceus' reality forces all who exist within it to buckle to Its rules. The eons that my master had lay had reshaped it into a falsified form and Its power had been funnelled similarly. No longer was The Shadow pure and tainted, it had become a warping of space."

Her disgust only grew. "In the timeline that could have been, it grows worse. Man found a way to turn Its power into both a fuel source AND a source of entertainment. They call it Dynamax, hardly realising it is merely a reality-diluted facsimile of true power. The only link that remains is that warping of space and the empowerment of base attacks. It is an insult to all that I and It is and will not be tolerated."

She took a breath and began to calm down. "I grow distracted, however. I awoke Eternatus and began to reform it into its true expression. Then, tragedy struck. Humanity. Once again. Empowering two minor gods and gifting them with mithril weapons, Zacian and Zamazenta struck my Master down and shattered It across the world. All at once my greatest victory collapsed into defeat and knowing that I could not enact revenge without my own destruction, I disappeared as the world changed."

She smiled serenely again, fully regaining her chill. "I dealt with the dogs in time, they will not interfere again. And the rest of them have shot themselves in the foot. To replace the dying humanity, the gods relinquished much of their own Power to empower the world. The world itself began to swallow the shards of my master, containing them within the twisted spatial labyrinths. Better known as Mystery Dungeons."

"And now," she tittered. "Now they are all too weak. The dogs are gone, the gods are weak, and everything everyone has done to slow me down. Thousands of years. Mistakes after failures after mistakes. I'm finally here. It was only ever a stall game for you all, and you've run out of time."

She turned to the pit once again. "With the shards of my master contained within the dungeons, scattered into dust so fine that I could never hope to retrieve it, for it faded away when I tried, I turned to other means. My master was not dead, only sleeping. I needed to wake it up. Pure Shadow could do it, I realised, for enough Shadow would form a dungeon even without a piece of my master. Accurately, The Shadow IS my master, so it makes sense."

She shook her head. "That's where the problem arose. Shadow Pokémon do not listen. They are not like me. They either become mindless animals that hunt and eat and fuck whatever until they are put down, or they become like you." She turned to Soothe. "And reject the gift given."

Soothe did not reply beyond a hateful glare.

"It disgusts me, it truly does," Nelia snarled. "You all either work with me out of fear and run when the option arises or entertain ideas of betrayal. Thinking you can serve your own interests better than you could serve The Shadow. Or worst yet, reject so hatefully you think you need revenge and work every inch to undo my plans."

She schooled her expression and turned away from Soothe. "Nothing worked," she admitted. "Even bringing Shadows here to offer did not work. This place is within a dungeon, any death of them would merely be absorbed. I could not guide their blessed corruption to my slumbering master. And I could never gather enough. Objects became dungeons, or once brought into Zero Isle would melt away into nothing. Only living bodies could carry it to themselves enough, but they did not HAVE enough, nor could I give it. I was stuck."

And then, shame on her face. "And so I grew lazy. In a timeline that was undone first, the reason that Keira came to this world. Even in that world, I had not won. Shadows crawled in the light and were overwhelming all, but even then I had no way to offer them to my master. I grew lazy after Keira. Convinced myself that victory was inevitable. That my immortal eternity would lead to a victory eventually. That 'time would run out' for my foes eventually."

She laughed a hollow laugh. "I was more right than I realised in that regard. Time did run out. For everyone. The Time Gears, stripped from Temporal Tower to repair much of the damage Dark Matter had done centuries before, caused the tower to fail and time to crash. I was there when time stopped." She looked haunted for a long moment. "And I ran desperately to this place to find it frozen in time. My master, forever locked in one of Arceus' bastard's broken realms. I could not awaken Eternatus now. Nothing could. Time had collapsed, darkness clouded the minds of solitary pokémon, and the sky was out of reach."

She gave a ghost of a smile. "Get it? Time, Darkness, Sky?"

They got it. Not funny, however.

"You know, when you're being held captive by a maniac the smart thing to do is laugh at their jokes."

Still nothing.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, be that way. I'm at the good part anyway. You both always wondered about who and what and why haven't you? Well, I have the answers, boys. Consider it my reward for doing so well, my last thank you."

She glanced between Scout and Soothe before focusing on Soothe. "I walked adrift, aimless, and lost. I had failed. I had lazed about, so confident that my victory was inevitable that I did nothing as the world ended and my victory was torn away from me. All that I had left was a spiteful need to break Darkrai. He had not caused the end, but he had taken advantage of it to paint himself as a saviour and led pokémon in his area. He was a praised god to them and loved it. This is why he tried to stop you because he grew too attached to the idea of being adored."

She laughed at the thought. "However, I still prayed to The Shadow for guidance, an idea. Anything to mean my failure could be undone." She smiled terrifically, turning to the pit and raising her arms in exultation. "And as a kind being who knew Its true follower, I received an answer."

She beamed at Soothe. "You. A skimmed reflection, a 'shadow' if you would, of a person who understood our world as a work of fiction. A game. It reached in and replicated you. Once you told me what you knew, I knew you were my answer. I took it from you, and I realised that my failure would be undone! In my joy, I missed your departure and from there I realised something more."

She glanced at Scout. "In the past, I would have no reason to change my ways. I had led Blackstone Village for nearly two centuries at the point time collapsed and without this revelation that victory was not, in fact, ensured, I would continue to do nothing. Perhaps forever. Comfortable in my life, dreaming of more but never doing. Disgraceful. My past self became a fixture of disgust for me as I pondered the issue."

"I could not time travel," she said firmly. "I am aware of that limitation, and I have lived so long that there would be no point I could travel to anyway. With the knowledge I had gained from Vic here I had figured out a rough idea of a plan, but no way to realise it. I was once again trapped, knowing that time would be saved but I would continue to fail."

Slowly, she began to smile. "And that, my dear Scout, is where you come in." She began to approach him, raising a hand to summon something from the darkness, a twisted, mummified, arm. "With time broken and reality itself in tatters, there were many things that could be done. With Eternatus frozen and Dialga ruling over the scraps remaining I knew I could do nothing in the Dark Future. Nothing…big at least."

She was closer to him now. "But something small that could slip through the cracks? Oh, that was a different idea entirely. I am an ancient being who had descended farther than anyone ever has. It was…not easy to pull a piece of The Shadow through the reality web nor was it easy to find where it ended up. But I found it, nonetheless, locked within a tiny little feral meowth. I knew I needed to do something to myself in the past. I knew of Dusknoir, Celebi, and Grovyle who would work with a human to save the world. What was one more, I asked?"

She was dangerously close to him now as he hiccupped weakly, not wanting to believe.

"It was a risk, I know, to 'change the story'. But without any change, I would be nothing. So, you were created. A kitten possessed by a piece of the true master. Not quite a Shadow Pokémon, because that would be dangerously obvious. It had to be small, a nestled little core deep within your pokémon soul. I gave you Vic's terrific knowledge and ensured it would not arise in your mind until you had endured the stress of time travel. And lastly, a gift for myself."

She floated up to him and poked his nose gently. "Once you touched me, and I would find a way to make that happen, I would know everything. Thinking of yourself as human, and having become a hero, you offered me a handshake when we first met. A strange gesture, one that I recognised from a very long time ago, but I took it. And so I found a way to defeat a paradox of time travel and the me who had lived and lost and failed and won in the Dark Future, she stood within the world of life once more."

In her other hand, she held the desiccated arm of Darkrai.

"Not all went as I thought it would," she admitted. "I had learned a long time ago that detailed plans." She waved Darkrai's arm tauntingly. "Tended to fail. If you needed to rely on people beyond yourself, they tended to mess up if you put too much stock into perfection. It had to be loose, a collection of ideas with whatever it took to reach them. I needed this knowledge and had to trust it'd get to me. I needed you to survive the paradox as well, and thankfully he did it for me and gave me a new gift indeed."

She tittered in his face, sickly sweet breath over his fur. "After all, I needed your cooperation for this next part."

Scout hissed, trembling as he refused to believe what she was saying about him. "I will never help you." Yet the dank fear was lurking behind him, in his ear, in his everything.

Mesprit, Cresselia, surviving what he couldn't survive.

She smirked at him. "I'm aware of that, Scout. I find that most people change their mind once loved ones are on the line, but that'd involve having to capture Rai and Mane as well and that's just a hassle to do something that you would be fighting to find any way out of anyway. No, thanks to Darkrai I don't need your permission."

She raised the arm, and the fingers began to flex, crackling as skin and bone snapped, dust spraying him in the face as Scout tried to imagine anything else could be happening.

"Actions have meaning if you can take advantage of them. This arm could have sent you back to oblivion, but it also grabbed onto that very thing that made you persist in the first place. You think anyone could exist as a living memory, why wouldn't Danny have been in the same position as you?" she added, feeling his refusal to believe. "No. You are more than that. And so, let's try this out."

The fingers began to sink into fetid darkness as Scout began to hyperventilate, trying desperately to struggle free as she pressed it closer and closer to his chest. The fingers all splayed outwards and Nelia grinned wildly as she slammed it into Scout's chest.

It felt like the wind and more had been knocked out of him and Scout's mouth parted silently as the fingers, palm, wrist of Darkrai sunk into his chest. Through a barrier of melting purple, it reached into his chest, through his heart, into his very core.

He had once been pulled by what felt like everything he'd ever been into existence, reformatted by Darkrai's power into a Dark-type, a weapon against the Fallen wherever she may be.

Or the best tool for her to use.

Scout slowly began to scream, a softly rising crescendo as the fingers dug into his very soul, tearing through without hesitation for something so very deep within him.

Something that had glinted when Mane had hurt Rai in that battle.

Something that had reared its head when Striker cut Rai down.

Something that had whispered to him as he threatened Sean.

Something that had driven him further as his body began to die from wounds and infection.

Something that sang as Darkrai obeyed and brought it back.

Something that had melted his wounds back into perfected life.

Something that had seen Cresselia's blade match and fail, repairing the damage before slaying her.

Something that screamed as Nelia ripped it out of its vessel.

Scout seized, Soothe was screaming, struggling violently against the hand in his chest, before falling entirely still, head lolling as his eyes glazed over, seeing nothing.

Darkrai's arm broke apart as something was drawn through it, breaking into dust as a pulse of something flowed through it and into the Fallen.

Nelia shivered, shuddered, and moaned as she took in a true piece of The Shadow. From son to mother, back where it should have always been.

She gave a satisfied chuckle and turned to Soothe, also struggling and swearing repeatedly. "Ah, but the story does not end quite there yet. I had realised what needed to be done. Humans… contained The Shadow naturally. Mithril has a limit after all." With a flick of her wrist, the silver sword returned to her hand. "What a more fitting way than this?"

She began to approach Soothe. "Humans and their mithril stopped me the first time, why not they be the instruments of my victory? You, barely even human, just a cursory copy of one really. But human enough. Over the years that you ran and hid you slowly but surely absorbed corruption, over and over and over again, no one told you the trick to stave it off. You fell, turned Darkrai, and came to me."

Her steps were light yet echoing forever. Soothe still struggled.

"Then left me and began your work. Ah… Victoria if you really want people to call you that. You never did accept that everything you did was just what I wanted. From running to returning, to running again. The purification of all those pokémon? I had learned you can't contain enough corruption in an object, nor can you corral enough of those beasts. All in one, however? A human who naturally takes it in, who is so spitefully determined to fight me that she'd purify everyone?"

She raised the silver sword to her chin and began to float up to Soothe, who only trembled now. "If you even really count as human. Human enough I suppose."

She smiled back to where Scout hung motionless. "He was a part of The Shadow; you were brought or made by It. The two of you are my greatest of allies. You are a big shot of adrenaline to wake up Eternatus. And now, by the bones of the hero that stopped me last time, you will be the key that ends the world."

She brought her other hand forth and blasted Soothe point blank with a Mystical Fire. "Okay, Vic! It's time to give it all up!" She blasted her again. "No one knows where you are!" Another blast. "No one can help you!" Another, another, ANOTHER!

The aura began to build as Nelia cried in exultation again. "Yes. YES! Break under the power of our master! Fall again! FALL! FALL! FALL!"

Soothe screamed.

And Nelia's will slammed into her mindless wrath all at once.

From the core she had ripped from Scout, she took the power that he had held. She now controlled Shadow Pokémon.

As Soothe, grieving and terrified, agony and horror, realising that everything she had ever done had only hastened this moment, made it all the sweeter for her tormenter, broke and descended into Reverse Mode, Nelia decreed her to S T O P.

And she did.

Nelia's hand curled around Soothe's throat and lifted her sightless head with a smile. "Now," she whispered, curling the blade along her cheek. "Give it all up to me."

From Soothe's throat and pores, arms and legs, eyes and ears, from all across her body burst an eruption of chaotic corruption. So much that the dungeon they were in shuddered in an effort to draw it away harmlessly.

However, it was caught in the channelling effects of Keira's parasitic mithril first and Nelia raced across the darkness as more and more and MORE burst from Soothe, drawing a line for the river to follow.

And follow it did.

A town's worth of corruption plus twenty years of passive absorption all erupted at once, being sent into the void where a monster dwelled dreaming of nothing in abject silence.

Soothe began to scream as it was all torn from her body, fur deepening in colour, the dullness to her eyes lightening off, her screams taking a deeper, more agonised, sound as It was freed from her unworthy form.

The river swelled wider, deeper, greater. A veritable flood of Shadow Essence blowing the stakes down and causing the mithril of the Legendary Lucario, merely channelling it rather than containing it, to tremble severely, nearly cracking from the strain.

It all rose in a final crescendo before it was all gone, and all fell silent.

Nelia panted for breath, sword raised in a victorious pose, staring eagerly into the pit, watching, waiting, hoping.

Soothe was barely conscious on the ground, breathing with eyes open and that was all.

Scout's glazed expression finally began to shift. His heart restarted and a ragged breath tore into his lungs. He had been blown down, the ropes snapping on some jagged rocks. He began to wriggle out of them as Nelia looked back and forth, anticipation in the air.

For a moment, Scout had a wild hope that it had failed.

Perhaps it was merely waiting for someone to hope for that, for them a deep, eternal, rumble began to build, popping his ears and causing Nelia to shriek in glee.

"I DID IT!" she cried, raising her arms in celebration as something awful began to rise. "I FUCKING DID IT!" She cheered and whooped in glee.

Scout began to edge his way towards Soothe. Between them was their bag, mostly emptied by Nelia but there was a few hidden parts of the bag he hoped she hadn't cared to go through. He grabbed the bag and looked through it for something.

Slowly, within the pit, something began to raise. Scout froze as something, darkly violet to the point of blackness in the little light there was with molten red highlights running like blood began to rise. Pits of pure white glowed ominously as a choked sob came from Nelia.

"It's been three thousand years," she murmured, reaching up on her knees. Then she laughed hysterically and spun around, snapping up Soothe in a Psychic grip and ragdolling her. "NEVER THOUGHT YOU'D HEAR THAT MEME AGAIN DID YA, VIC?"

She threw Soothe against the walls and then tossed her back, not seeing Scout and she spun back to Eternatus in sheer joy. "At last. At last. At last, I did it. Master, I have awoken you to a helpless world! We shall rebuild your essence and then consume AL-"

Something smacked into the back of her head. Felt like a small hollow rock. She turned, confused. "What di-" And then the pokéball activated.

Nelia was pulled into red light and then into the pokéball, dropping to the ground with a cute little click on the stone before beginning to rock, pausing for a moment in what could almost be considered shock.

Scout bolted, he grabbed the barely-moving Soothe and pulled her up, slinging her arm around his neck and dragging her along.

Eternatus watched them run as the dungeon around them began to melt. The sands of its body being drawn back to the creature and causing the very reason the dungeon existed to derail, the twisting of time and space undoing. Scout managed to pull Soothe into the exit port of the dungeon before it unravelled much, finding himself at the entrance of the dungeon and he continued to pull Soothe along.

Nelia burst from the pokéball with a bellow of offended fury. "OKAY, YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"

And then she noticed he, nor Soothe, were there.

"You-he-I…UrrghARGH!" She howled in fury. "Damn fucking DAMMIT, I STILL NEED HER!" She went to charge after them, knowing they couldn't be more than ten seconds away.

Before she got far she realised the exit of the dungeon was disappearing faster than she could approach, its distance from her lengthening every moment. Eternatus was consuming the dungeon at such a rate that they'd make it at least half an hour from her position before she could find where they had first appeared.

Nelia turned back to Eternatus as it began to pull itself more and more out of the pit. "New plan," she said lowly, imparting her stolen control over the corruption upon Eternatus' reality-broken form and forcing it to obey. "We got to go now."

She placed herself on Eternatus' head and rode it as it flew out into the sky. For good measure, she directed it to launch a devastating Dynamax Cannon upon the landscape as they flew, hoping to spook Scout into sight.

---

"Come on Soothe, please."

Scout was a little pokémon, skinny and not known for his strength like Guardian was. Soothe was a lot bigger than him and it was not easy to drag her along.

The initial adrenaline rush could have allowed him to pick her up and run for an hour. And he had. Once that horrific skeletal monstrosity in the air began to bombard the earth with crackling jets of destructive energy, he'd pulled Soothe under a tree and hid until the world stopped shaking.

After that, they had to keep going, they couldn't stay here.

"Soothe, please," Scout begged.

What made it difficult was, after the rush had passed, he had a near-unresponsive audino to pull along. Soothe was… awake. That was about the most he could guess, and even then he wasn't entirely sure.

Her eyes were open, and she was breathing, so she wasn't dead. She was not responding to anything he said, and it took a lot of pulling to make her stumble along.

His chest ached, it felt like he'd had something ripped out of him and, between the moment of unconsciousness and Nelia digging into his chest with Darkrai's decapitated arm, that would be in his nightmares forever, he gathered something probably had. That was more of a metaphysical thing, and he felt awfully light on his feet than his literal heart.

Light enough that the lingering shock of it all wasn't slowing him down.

He couldn't say the same for Soothe. The moment he began to lax his pull, needing a break, she just shut down again, sitting in place with a blank stare, beginning to bunch up on herself. He tried talking to her, but she wasn't responding.

He had no idea where they were, or did he? Nelia had mentioned Zero Isle, he cursed himself out six ways from Sunday. Of course, it was. This was an island. How had they gotten here so fast? A magnagate he guessed.

Could he find it? With Soothe in her state, was that even a good idea? He didn't know what to do. Nelia had flown off with a demon to do something terrible, and they were stuck here. No one knew where they were.

He rubbed at his charm in distress. The cool, firm, metal was a comforting pressure to push his paws against.

"Come on Soothe I can't carry you!" Scout cried. "Soothe! COME ON!"

She didn't even twitch.

Frustrated and emotional, Scout wanted to bury his face in his hands and scream.

However, they were hardly out of danger yet. The dungeon dissolving around them had given them a significant head start, but that only went so far with dead weight.

A roaring that shook his very bones drew Scout's eyes to an eruption of earth, the landscape being split apart and obliterated by a colossal flying demon being ridden by an even-worse one.

The rain of destruction did little to ease Nelia's irritation as she scanned the ground. "Go forth," she commanded Eternatus. "We need to get you stronger before any such legend decides it's time to interfere." As they flew, the dungeons below them melted away into nothing, drawing more of the shattered 'Wishing Stones' into Eternatus and reforming its body more and more. Nelia knew where they had to go, the location of the largest piece of Eternatus' body.

She knew because it was large enough that the reality-twisted Dynamax phenomenon was in effect there, although only for one pokémon. A massive trapinch that looked capable to devour the world itself.

They had one destination, she hoped to have company to take to it.

It was time to go to Skyfall. It was time to end it all.

And as they flew, the world began to grow a little darker. The day was setting awfully early, and storms began to arise throughout the continent and around it. Slowly, yet swiftly locking those within it into it.

This is the end. Close your eyes… and count to ten.

"Fuck!" Scout yelped and pulled Soothe into a dragging run. Nelia was an indeedee and he didn't know the range on her emotion senses, but he knew they existed.

Sprinting wildly was not easy, nor was it smart. He hoped they wouldn't be spotted, or that the laser beams blasting trees apart and sending earth flying wouldn't bury them either.

"Scout?"

The voice nearly scared the fur off him. It was not Soothe's voice. Soothe did not possess a rumbling cascade that sounded like an echo of sheets of glass smashing underwater.

Soothe did not sound like Giratina.

"Who? What? Where? AND WHY?" Scout yelped, looking back and forth in alarm. The voice was vague and distant, he almost wondered he was just imaging it to go to his happy place before he was dead.

"I can barely-" Giratina's voice faded as a dust cloud obscured them, but Soothe began to cough as she breathed in the ash without hesitation.

Scout's mind raced with thoughts, and he remembered clearly about Giratina's ability to see through reflective surfaces. He couldn't think of what that could be here, but he also remembered something about portals and shaymin and they were sprinting forwards again.

"Water, water, water," Scout panted, repeating it as the world shook, screams and roars left the world trembling, and the weight at the end of his arm never ceased.

Wherever they were was not a large island, and with the dissolving of the dungeons, its size was more apparent. He could see a glimmering blue strip on the horizon and looking around he could see Eternatus, but it wasn't charging after them.

Adrenaline had pushed him to heights before, and he charged with Soothe hopping and bouncing after him. He likely pulled both of their arms and tore some muscles from the relentless march, but it was that or death.

"GIRATINA!" Scout called as he raced for the shore. "CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

"Scout?" Giratina's voice was there again, distant but louder than before. "What is going on at Zero Isle? I can barely-" A wave crashed and obscured its voice. "Corruption is almost blinding, what is-"

"PLEASE GET US OUT OF HERE!" Scout cried. Part of the craggy coastline to their right dissolving into purplish flames and Scout shrieked as Nelia's voice cascaded all around them.

"THERE YOU ARE!"

"-aymin and th-ETERNATUS!?"

"NOW!" Scout roared. From the other side, Shaymin's cry echoed across two worlds as a hole was torn open. A Dynamax Cannon went straight through the portal, narrowly missing Giratina but causing something to be obliterated behind it, the shockwaves rippling into their world and causing a sandbank to fold up and disappear from reality itself, completely erased.

Scout threw Soothe and leaped, falling into a horrifically thick cloud of distortion before Giratina snapped the portal closed, grabbed them both, and swung them out of harm's way before either of them breathed in too much of the toxic refuse left by incorrections in the world.

The Reverse Distortion was a beautiful land. Jagged and rough, it was not shaped to be anything more than what it was. Both a reflection as well as a counterbalance to the world that is.

Scrambling for purchase on Giratina's scaly body, grabbing Soothe as she just let herself flop like a ragdoll and nearly falling off as her greater weight pulled him before Giratina corrected for them, Scout tried to believe they were safe.

"Tell me what has happened," Giratina asked firmly, having no time to bullshit with small talk.

"I-Indeedee awoke a thing called Eternatus," he said, and Giratina hissed at the name, its whole body shuddering up and down. "Figured you'd know what it was."

"That thing is a piece of The Shadow," Giratina said.

"Yeah," he babbled, shaking violently. "She-she-she-she said as much. How did you know where we were?"

"How has this occurred?" Giratina asked, ignoring his question.

Strangely, the directness was calming in a sense. He could give information, not having to think about himself or Soothe so much. Giratina was probably the closest thing to a genuine god they had, and it was listening.

"Me and Soothe were part of her plan. I had the ability to control Shadow and Soothe being human means she could absorb enough. Nelia took the power from me, I think, with Darkrai's arm and then used all of Soothe's Shadow to wake Eternatus. I think she's purified, but she's gone… like that."

"The situation has escalated far beyond what was expected," Giratina said, shaping its way through its world to move at speeds beyond mortal limits. "Dialga and Palkia have taken too long to ensure their realms stability, it is time to act. Eternatus is a threat to everything."

"What are you going to do?" Scout asked, holding himself and Soothe onto Giratina as the area around them began to blur.

"Fight."

It all came to a sudden stop, circling a waterfall that fell into nothing.

"Scout, I cannot leave the Reverse Distortion to the predators from beyond. With Eternatus' awakening, the realms will be under even greater strain than before. However, this is not a fight any mortal pokémon can win. The Creation Trio must intervene. First, all the shaymin must return to the Reverse Distortion to stabilise it in my absence. I will wait for the perfect moment to intervene, for I cannot risk anything less."

A portal was torn below them as the one shaymin here scrambled out of Giratina's hold. "Please don't tug me along like that again," they begged.

"Go now," Giratina said, lowering itself down to the portal for Scout to go through. "This should take you close to where the saviours and the saved dwell."

"Thank you, Giratina," Scout breathed, taking Soothe's paw and leaping without hesitation as they returned to the world that is.

Scout closed his eyes as they leapt through realities and stumbled as they arrived. "Come on," he said softly, pulling Soothe's arm around his neck again and trudging forwards.

"Is anyone there!?" Scout yelled periodically, hoping he was going in the right direction. "ANYONE? HELLO?"

He walked for well over an hour, mostly due to Soothe's dead weight until his sensitive ears caught something his sore throat couldn't call to.

"We have to catch up immediately!" squeaked a familiar voice. "Who knows how long they'll have before-"

"Hello?" Scout managed to call. "Is that you Sunflora?"

Things went silent, he continued pulling Soothe through the bushes before.

"SCOUT!?"

A sunkern came bouncing forth in a flurry, spotting him and Soothe and shrieking. "OH MY GOSH YOU'RE HERE!?"

He exited the brush and looked up.

Slowly, Soothe's arm slipped out from his shoulders as his eyes met with a pair of others.

He took a half-step forwards, stumbled, before breaking into a run. "GUYS!"

"SCOUT!" Rai and Mane cried, barrelling over and leaping for him. They slammed into each other halfway, collapsing into a pile of fur and limbs, laughing and crying.

Scout accidentally clunked their heads together as he hugged them desperately, sobbing with relief. "Guys, guys, guys," he blubbered, rubbing his face against them both and they cheered and cried as well, sparking and heated tongues licking his cheek and down his arms.

Scout began to mewl softly, a weak little sound only heard in their most private moments. He had so many things to say but nothing was coming except a desperate need for them not to go, not to be taken away again.

As Team Ion reunited, Trill flew over them to where Soothe had remained, staring blankly ahead at nothing.

"Soothe?" he whispered, raising a wing to brush her fur. "Soothe?"

There was no Saniya to float over gently as well as soon as she had recovered she had taken Rhythm and disappeared back to the Cathedral.

Instead, a zangoose stumbled forwards, his legs still a little weak from having to march so soon after being revitalised. Even though his legs were jelly, he still made his way forwards, a conflicting set of emotions crossing his face.

Trill continued trying to get a response from Soothe, shaking her gently and repeating her name as Spire reached them. "I-I can help," he said softly, taking her state as physical weakness at the moment. Trill was smaller than her, but Spire was around the same size. He carefully placed Soothe's left arm around him and stood, lifting her to her legs.

"Come now," Trill asked softly. Spire took a step, it took until he was nearly dragging her for her to step as well and they slowly walked past Team Ion's reunion.

"We better give them some time alone," Striker said, not quite looking at Team Ion. Rai nipped at Scout's neck as Scout's paws raked through Mane's fur.

Trill and Spire pulled Soothe away and the pokémon stepped back as confusion was put aside for what was here and now.

"What happened?" Spire asked Soothe, but she wasn't speaking. She only stumbled here or there, and they took her aside completely for some privacy.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of eyes, were on Soothe. Pokémon from Blackstone and Treasure Town, purified by Soothe's hand, saved by her. People wanted to help, but she could not respond to anything let alone a crowd.

Eventually, Team Ion emerged a little bedraggled, and Scout stepped forwards. Guardian pulled him into a relieved hug, one Sean joined happily.

Striker did not hug him in front of everyone, but he did tussle the top of his head happily before hesitating, staring down at Scouts face, and then throwing coolness aside to pull Scout into a hug as well. "I'm glad you're okay," Striker muttered.

Guardian sniffled. Sean grinned.

Striker released him, but only from the hug. "Don't care," he said to the eyes on him, as cool as always. Scout grinned up at him, eyes sparkling.

Guildmaster Armaldo parted the pokémon and stepped forwards. "Meowth… it is good to see you again," he said gruffly.

Scout nodded. "I'm so happy to see everyone again," he said, Rai and Mane, rubbing up against him. Scout leaned into Rai before licking Mane's mohawk.

"I love you," Mane murmured.

"I love Mane," Rai mumbled.

"Love Rai," Scout whispered.

"Rai too," Mane agreed.

"You too," Rai said.

"I love you both," Scout whispered. "Sorry I scared you like that."

"What happened?" Chitin asked sternly. "Chimecho's word came, once Saniya recovered she and Wigglytuff left to assist you, Chimecho and… Sunkern only arrived a short time ago, saying that you two were planning a trap and now you both show up with Audino looking dead to the world and no sign of those two? What happened?"

Scout looked for Soothe, but she wasn't in sight. Neither was Chatot. Nor Wigglytuff, but he wasn't amid the group anyway.

He looked back to Chitin, to Team Sunrise, to Rai and Mane, to everyone desperate for some answers and guidance to what was going on.

He nodded, knowing this time it was his role to tell the tale. "I wish I had enough time to tell everyone Soothe's story, the fact that she's the hero and has suffered so much fighting every step of the way. You all know what she's done recently, freeing so many from the grip of that evil." He took a heavy breath. "Indeedee knew where we were. Not long after Chimecho and Sun…kern left, she arrived. She overpowered us and took us to Zero Isle."

From there, Scout explained the story as best as he knew. He didn't give the Fallen her day in the limelight by explaining the millennia of evil she had concocted to reach this point, he focused on what she had done to Soothe, the saviour of hundreds, of what she had done to him, even a little of what both of them were.

He explained Eternatus, both from what Nelia had said and Giratina confirming much of it.

"Giratina said to get all the shaymin from Sky Peak to get to its world and balance it out. Giratina is going to help fight Eternatus along with Dialga and Palkia."

With everything explained to the best of his ability, Chitin began to send pokémon about.

"Azelf, Uxie hear all of that?"

Azelf nodded.

"Mesprit wants to say she's encountered a group of pokémon searching the Hillcrest area for Scout," Azelf added.

"Tell them to get a move on meeting up with more. We're going to need all the help we can get."

"Scizor says word is being sent to the Shaymin Village already," Azelf said, bobbing their head. "They'll only need the path into the Reverse Distortion."

"Someone needs to head to the Cathedral and ascertain what Celebi and Wigglytuff are doing, they must have arrived too late but haven't returned yet."

"How long has it been since you've slept?" Rai murmured, as pokémon began to move again, orders being yelled and repeated.

"With us?" Mane purred.

"Haah," Scout laughed, feeling so very tired. "I've missed you."

Rai began to pull him away and Scout followed, Mane right behind him. Boxing him in so he wouldn't disappear into the air on them or something.

Scout would eventually sleep some of the best sleep he ever had. A deep exhaustion down to his bones and further, dropping him off with not a nightmare to mock him, surrounded by the love and warmth of Rai and Mane. Back with them at last.

---

As the reclaimed pokémon were moving again, pokémon began to branch and split into groups with tasks. Right after escaping the place, they were headed straight back to the Cathedral.

It was back north, a large defendable location, and was the place where Timber had died. One of the few remaining pokémon to be saved, they wanted to ensure they could capture him.

The rest of the pokémon moved as one. Soothe remained unresponsive, but she was able to be carried significantly easier. Members of Blackstone Village took care to keep her warm and safe, being carried on Arcanine's back with Gardevoir as well sitting behind her to balance her.

They rotated out, with Spire the zangoose taking over for Gardevoir. Arcanine needed no break.

And as pokémon marched, Team Voyage was reunited as well.

"BLOSSOM!" Boom sobbed, hanging onto the sunkern as if she was a buoy in a raging ocean storm. Jet was hardly a second behind, nearly smothering the little pokémon as they cried all over her.

"Oh my gosh, guys," Blossom said, tearing up as well. "You're going to make me crryyy."

Melody kept a significant distance from the rest of the guild. Blossom may have forgiven her, and maybe even the rest of them had too, but she had no forgiveness for herself.

Strangely enough, that meant she found herself close to Chitin again.

"Chimecho," he said politely, giving a nod.

"Guildmaster," Melody replied softly.

He had no reason to remind her what they both already knew, and so they coexisted in a certain kind of silence, while not particularly comfortable was still familiar enough to serve.

Croagunk was the first to approach her properly, his lidded eyes showing no judgement or wariness and he offered her a flower, one protected from his toxic grip.

"Here," Croagunk said, holding it out.

Melody had no idea what to say about that. "I…." She frowned, looking down.

"Nobody blames you," Croagunk said, reaching forwards to set the flower around her sensor. "I understand if you blame yourself, meh-heh. If you need some time to yourself, you'll have it. If you want to hug and cry, you'll get that too."

Melody had her head bowed. "It's not…."

"So simple?" Croagunk asked. She quirked a brief smile and nodded.

"Maybe not with the Fallen around," Croagunk said patiently. "What went down, that's not just forgotten. You did the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. We're not pretending absolutely everything will just be like it was before right away."

She was listening.

"You're not Chimecho the Shadow Pokémon anymore, though. We want to get to know you again. See who you are. When you're ready to give us that chance, someone will be there for you. Until then." He smiled at her rather than something like pulling her into a hug. "Let's focus on stopping the baddie and then healing, alright?"

"…alright," she whispered. He nodded and let her have her space.

"Pretty loyal friends you got there," Chitin said roughly. She looked up at him, his eyes firmly on the next hurdle to stomp his way over.

"It's hard to imagine how or why they're so kind," she said softly.

"Aye, there's no surprise there," he muttered. "Living with paranoia and deals for years ain't a healthy mechanism for an accepting mind." She frowned at him, sounded like he wasn't talking just about her so well.

He saw the look and snorted. "Not all bad in life can be traced back to a singular evil psychopath."

She blinked and nodded, recognising that.

"Just learn to move on and be thankful that your mistakes at least can be undone."

By Cara's direction, no one being able to contain him in a hospital bed for long, pokémon raced across the continent. Mesprit brought the pokémon she had found forth with her, Saniya and Wigglytuff were found and directed back to the main group before Saniya was split off to herd up the shaymin and send them to hell.

Their idea of it at least.

Scout was not fully prepared to see Wigglytuff again.

He didn't even get the chance to see Saniya as she was already off on a mission, but he made it a point to seek out Wigglytuff, Rai and Mane joining him.

He was kept apart from the group still, but Trill had gone out to give him company and they followed. He had technically been a teammate to them once, Rai admitting that they'd thrown Rhythm out of the team once it came to light that he'd known that the author of the notes was Soothe.

Scout wasn't sure how to feel about that. From Rhythm lying to them actually throwing Rhythm out, but he couldn't blame them either.

"Seeing Rai that bossy would have been a turn-on had it not been the worst thing," Mane commented.

"Shut up," Rai said.

"Yes sir." Mane smiled pleasantly and got bapped on the head for it.

"Scout, Rai's being mean to me."

"Want me to kiss it better?" he asked.

"Yes."

Scout pecked him on the forehead and Mane blushed. "I would have liked it better had you made out with me," he grumbled.

"No you wouldn't," Scout said, still close enough to whisper to his ears.

"Maybe later." Mane grinned.

It was easy to forget the end of the world when they were together again.

It hadn't been that long, although the days had blurred together as exhaustion and tension got the better of him, Rai and Mane had felt every day.

Guardian floated behind them, a cheerful protector blanketing them in his entirely natural and normal shadow. Striker by the side that Rai tended to take, Sean stepping alongside Mane. They were missing a Saniya, but it was okay.

For the first time in what felt like forever, things felt okay.

They weren't and this calm wouldn't last, but just for the moment, Scout leaned into it. A reminder of why they fought. A reminder of the world they had saved two times over. Things were good and it was something to fight to keep that way.

"Can't believe things are as good as they are," Scout said. Guardian's hand fell on his shoulder for a moment.

"So many people are back," Mane said with a smile. "The Guild's almost together again." It'd never quite be the same as it was, for Dugtrio was gone and there was no coming back for him. Yet change happened anyway.

"I can't believe you evolved," Scout said, looking up at Sean. "I hate that you're that much taller than me now."

Sean grinned and pointed a thumb towards himself. "What? You used to look up to me anyway. I'm still probably shorter than I should be."

"I do remember you seeming so tall," Striker said with an amused huff. "When I was a treecko and unaware of how tiny you really were."

"Hey! I was perfectly average-sized for a human of my age."

Sean's grin lingered before it dropped, and he grew serious for a moment. "I'll never forget Violet and what she did for me. She didn't deserve what happened to her. Nelia has hurt so many people, and for what?"

"I believe Wigglytuff himself said it best," Guardian added solemnly. "For nothing. Nothing she's done has been worth anything and we will ensure that she cannot harm anyone else."

"Soothe made that promise," Scout said softly, looking back to where Arcanine strode and Soothe was. "The night we fought her and failed, after she killed Bidoof." Part of him didn't feel much of anything about that, he focused on saving Timber because they'd get the chance. They would.

He ignored the niggling of doubt, which was natural. Even if he was missing whatever allowed him to command the Shadows before and Soothe was indisposed. They would.

They had to.

"Then it'll be kept," Guardian said heavily. "In the end, Wigglytuff was not wrong to trust her even if his actions in doing so made things so much more complicated than they needed to be. He was right in his judgment of her character; her promises are kept."

Scout smiled at his father and nodded. "Not to bring the mood down," he apologised.

Rai licked him on the cheek. "You didn't. It's a reminder of the good. I look forward to this being over. I want to get to know my father." He glanced at Guardian. "Yours is so cool after all."

Guardian straightened up all proud.

"If I ask your dads to beat up mine, would they?" Mane asked with a curly grin. Scout hugged him and he rolled his eyes. "I'm making a joke, but also totally would be okay with it if they said yes."

"Tell me the time and location." Guardian cracked his knuckles. "As far as I'm concerned, you're my kids too."

"Aww, daddy."

"You can't call me that, though."

"Father Dusky?" Rai asked.

"That's even worse, somehow." Guardian nodded and gave a single clap. "Bravo."

Rai beamed. Scout snickered uncontrollably.

Once Scout began to get tired, he was placed on Mane's back and continued onwards. It was nearly over, he could feel it.

Trill glided serenely by Wigglytuff as they led the charge forwards, having returned from checking on the main group. On Soothe.

"How is she?"

Trill sighed, shaking his head sadly. "Not good," he answered, Wigglytuff frowned at that. "Mostly unresponsive, even to me. She had a blanket and she just held it in her lap for some time. Eventually, after falling asleep, she's covered herself with it."

"So, she's more responsive in her sleep than awake?" Wigglytuff asked. Trill nodded. "That's not ideal."

No, it wasn't, but Trill didn't appreciate the clinical disappointment in Wigglytuff's voice.

As the reclaimed pokémon were moving again, Wigglytuff was well ahead of the group to avoid anything undesirable from occurring. Right after escaping the place, they were headed straight back to the Cathedral.

It was back north, a large defendable location, and was the place where Timber had died. One of the few remaining pokémon to be saved.

Yet when they arrived it was not to any horrors, bidoof's or otherwise. It was to Dialga and Palkia.

"FOOLISH MORTALS!" Palkia boomed. "WE HAVE COME TO-" He was kicked in the shin by Dialga and cut off into a cough. "Owww."

"We've arrived," Dialga said calmly, not purposefully deafening every living thing in their radius. "Our realms as secure as they can be made with the time offered, Giratina has alerted us to the escalation of the situation and is readying themselves to act once the plan is determined."

"About time you all showed up," Palkia complained, rubbing his leg. "We arrived like… like forever ago."

"Eleven hours, twelve minutes," Dialga said flatly.

"Time telling nerd."

"Where did you even learn that word?"

Palkia pointed at Sean who had the gall to look offended at being singled out by the deity of space for telling him about nerds. "I did not tell him to call you that!"

"The fact that you do not deny the initial is painful enough," Dialga said.

The time/space duo stood tall and strong, small and weak. They were mighty beings indeed, yet both significantly reduced, weakened, and young. They were not the strongest beings in the clearing let alone the planet.

They were still mightily useful to have on hand, nevertheless, and any help was appreciated.

The Blackstone and Treasure Town pokémon began to spread out, setting up encampments and taking scope of the general area for threats, preparing meals, and readying gear.

All the while, Soothe stared blankly ahead. She was initially placed out in the open, hoping the hustle and bustle of life around her would snap her out of whatever was going on.

A few pokémon approached her to thank her for what she had done.

"Hey, uh… I just wanted to say a couple of things," Jet said, having scuttled quietly up to her. The audino didn't respond to his voice.

He took a breath anyway. "Loudred and I knew we were going to die, but the moment was worth it to get Sunflora out and maybe get a warning to people. She died too, but you brought her back. You brought us all back. I just… we just want to thank you."

/

Jet gasped as the memory of flames consuming his body finally ended, he took a breath of air that held no stink of smoke or rotting despair.

His mind flashed through several things. Holding the line as Blossom disappeared with a cry, rushing forth alongside Boom to meet the maker of this decision.

Telekinetic grips crushed his exoskeleton, but it was Boom's low moan that had stuck with him as a blade was slammed through him.

They had been thrown together, to die as one as a fireball approached. A final cry of water and voice managed to halt the fire for a moment, slam the evil one into her own cages, but it was not enough to win. Not nearly enough.

Then darkness, crawling slinking pain that probed everything. An unliving nightmare, better left asleep because the waking world was even worse.

He had died and then raised again to hurt more. As his thoughts began to settle, he wondered who had been hurt at the ends of his pincers, but then he heard Boom give a choked gasp of his own.

They huddled together as they had before, breathing hard and heavy, tasting the air and realising they were still themselves.

They were still alive.

And the one who had pulled them from that nightmare, resplendent like a lavender angel, stepping amid the lepers and the lost and the broken and providing mercy all the same. Not the mercy of final rest, they would have to live.

They would have to.

A creature so many had feared as a monster, as a demon, had shown her true colours and had saved them all.

/

Jet was not the only pokémon to approach the saviour. Citizens from Blackstone Village dared to step in. Hand in hand, Gardevoir and Swampert pledged their support for anything she would need, Piplup assured her this debt would be repaid, even surly Samurott offered a softly-spoken whisper of gratitude.

Together as mother and son, Marill and Azumarill came to her, still blank-eyed and unresponsive to anyone.

"You saved my son," Azumarill whispered with tears in her eyes. A shudder ran through her body as she tried to hold a sob back, not wanting to make this uncomfortable.

She uniquely held a certain understanding of Soothe's condition, yet only understood the bare details, skimming over the idea of what had happened to her. She understood the shutdown Soothe was suffering, even if she did not know what could be done to undo it.

She only hoped the words of gratitude from herself, and others meant something.

Marill released his mother's paw and stepped in to Soothe to offer her an apple. "A-Azurill and I always gave mother an apple when we could to show her our care," he said awkwardly, Soothe not taking the apple. He set the apple by her and had so many things to say at once, but no words to say them by.

"…I can't wait to hug my brother again," he said instead. "I can do that again, because you helped me."

/

Marill had walked on unsteady legs at first, but his time in the guild had built up some muscle, strength, and discipline and he wound up leading the purified group along the map coordinates given to them.

It had been a hard few days. Fear and trauma ran rampant through the purified pokémon, not sure where the monster would be next. If they were ever truly safe. If they could slip back into that fog of haze again.

Azumarill had spoken a eulogy for her son, set the bluebell flowers down wherever she had gone. She had lost her love and then one of her sons. She had to live for Azurill, but he was away somewhere safe, and the days were hard as she wondered if he was still alive.

As pokémon began to find the group, from pokémon from Blackstone Village and then ones from Treasure Town, she could not dare to experience the rose thorn of hope.

She could not bear to let herself hope that he too could walk into their camp again, right as rain and himself still. The pain of that dashed feeling would break her. So many times she had dreamed that Floatzel would turn up at her door, simple dreams she did not believe as much as she hoped it could be true.

Then, Marill was there.

He was dirty, sticks and stones, scrapes and blood. He held a map, a rough bag, and led a group of pokémon like the brave soul he was.

He had been used as an example, cut down callously merely to spite the idea of hope and redemption, that innocents could be spared the coming chaos.

His eyes met hers, she still couldn't believe it. One did not hold that which they lost again, death was forever, loss would a scar that could never fade, he was-

Hugging her and crying, calling her mother, hugging her so strong she could believe that she was actually being held.

Azumarill hugged her son and sobbed in his arms, her baby had come back to her.

/

"You brought Marill back," Azumarill said once again. "You rebuilt my family and gave me back something I could never hope to have again. My son. I can never thank you enough."

There was still no response, and they gave her space.

Soothe's numb expression eventually led to pokémon growing upset at this horror that had befallen her and she was taken to be private, where eyes no longer lingered on her constantly.

She closed her eyes in a tent and went to sleep.

---

Giratina's ancient eyes tracked motions in the Reverse Distortion around it. Trails of corruption expanding rapidly, choking out aspects of its own realm.

Eternatus' mere presence was collapsing boundaries. The dungeons were being drawn into its proximity. While that was a good thing in some ways, it was bad in more.

It took the very essence that forced the existence of the dungeons in the first place, but the pressure of its presence upon the world was becoming a denser and denser point.

A single needlepoint that pressed ever-harder, risking a puncture like nothing else before. Time and space were unstable enough, the Reverse Distortion was beginning to flood with corruption trying to balance out the presence that was building in the world.

However, it was something Giratina could at least track, and with eyes on the other side it could determine a rough idea of where Eternatus and the Fallen were.

Yet, other problems were building. The thickness of the corrosive correction its world was causing was slowly blinding Giratina to parts of the Grass Continent.

Worse yet, the gravity of Eternatus was causing parts of the Reverse Distortion to be pulled together, almost folding over each other. A terrible storm was whipping across the Grass Continent, choking it out from the rest of the world.

A storm that was closing in, dragging across the coastline of the continent and further in, pulling pokémon fleeing for their lives as bizarre storms caused monstrous growth and building panic that led to rampages.

Through a pair of mirrors supplied by Flaaffy and Saniya, Giratina communed with the leadership on the other side. Involving Chitin and Wigglytuff, Azelf for full communication to the others, and Scout and Saniya as representatives of their teams. And Dialga and Palkia.

"Eternatus was broken by Zacian and Zamazenta the first time," Giratina explained.

"Who Nelia said she's already dealt with," Scout pointed out.

"Listening to a manipulating liar isn't the smartest of choices," Giratina rebuffed. "Yet, it is likely this holds a measure of truth. The pair went into hibernation, having exerted everything they had to break Eternatus, to be awakened by their weapons if needed again. Without knowing where these weapons are, and without the time to search for them, it is best to discount them in the coming conflict."

"If the three of you," Chitin said. "Wigglytuff and myself all battle Eternatus, surely it can be destroyed again? We may be lacking Lucario, but Wigglytuff and I still proved crucial to Palkia's defeat."

"That was fair," Palkia said. "But also ow. There's another problem though."

"Palkia is right to be wary," Giratina replied. "The legends all gave up a portion of their strength to protect against what Eternatus is, therefore it obviously did not do the same. Even the Palkia you fought was but a hazy reflection of how powerful it would have been otherwise."

"How are you going to fight Eternatus then?" Scout asked alarmed at the idea of a fully powered god. "I mean, no offence but Dialga and Palkia aren't even the strongest here."

"Offence is taken," Palkia said immediately.

"We agree on that," Dialga rumbled.

"I'd kick both your tails," Saniya said with amusement. Scout tried his best not to look nervous.

"To borrow a common term in these times of strain, we have to," Giratina said. "To offer a more acceptable answer, Eternatus surely is not at full power. The true Eternatus is something far worse than that skeletal copy I witnessed. In whatever state it is in at the moment, it is not at its full strength either."

"I would wager Nelia has some sort of control over it as well," Wigglytuff said firmly. "If she is directing it as such as you explained," he said to Scout. "If she dies, perhaps it'll be weakened further."

"A potential." Giratina nodded. "Thus, I believe we are nearing the culmination of this plan."

"Let's run it down again," Chitin said for safekeeping. "We track the Fallen to her hidey-hole with a specialised group built of the guild and the available teams on hand. The shaymin are ready to stabilise the Reverse Distortion to allow you to exit for some time. We find her, we create a large reflective surface and summon you. You, Dialga, and Palkia deal with Eternatus while the rest of us slay Indeedee."

"I slay indeedee," Wigglytuff corrected.

"We," Chitin replied firmly. "You are our best shot of doing so, but we cannot believe that you can do it on your own if she cared not for your revival." Melody's words were remembered.

"The only question left is where?" Chitin asked.

"My estimates are only rough ideas," Giratina explained. "Finding them will be up to you."

"I believe I know where they are," Wigglytuff said. All eyes turned to him.

"How?" Dialga asked warily, it was not forgotten that he was still Shadow.

"The knowledge of the general scope of their location and Eternatus' ability as explained by Giratina," Wigglytuff explained, putting that often-forgotten cunning explorer's mind to use. "Giant pokémon due to a manipulation of space caused by reality's reformatting of Eternatus. Across the Grass Continent, I have been nearly everywhere, and there is a place where there is a giant pokémon, a trapinch so large at the bottom of a dungeon it appears to be consuming the world itself above it."

He pointed down to the map. "I have only been there once, when Soothe and Trill and I explored together. We called it Skyfall, one of the only places we saw no reason to ever go back to. There is nothing there except that creature at the bottom."

"Why there though?" Palkia demanded.

Wigglytuff explained his reasoning. "If the pieces of Eternatus were so dangerous that the dungeons themselves formed to contain them, why aren't these giant pokémon more common? Why aren't they something in every dungeon? No, it's got to be something about this dungeon. I would bet there is just a whole lot MORE of Eternatus in that dungeon, so much the dungeon can't fully control it all. If Nelia is trying to rebuild Eternatus after it was shattered, she would be after the biggest pieces would she not?"

He began to trace his paw down in a line. "Dungeons are fading all in a specific line, from Zero Isle to the near-centre of the continent, that's where this line is leading. Could it be random? Possibly, but nothing about this seems to have been left truly to random chance. It's intentional. Skyfall is right here, right in the path they are going, right in the area Giratina cannot see due to the building corruption. It must be here."

"Skyfall," Scout said softly before giving a mirthless snort. "That would make a really stupid amount of sense."

Wigglytuff gave an empty little laugh himself. "It was Soothe who named the place," he said. "One of those inside jokes we'd never have gotten. Do you all believe I may be right?"

Slowly, people began to nod.

"Skyfall it is then," Giratina said. "We have no time to lose, gather your forces, begin the charge, once you are ready, you know what to do.

The pokémon nodded and disbanded to round up everything needed.

Not everyone would be joining them. United fronts were the Fallen's bane, but tossing people mindlessly into the fire was no better. The larger a group, the easier it was to find a weak point to break open.

Scout visited Soothe before the exit was made, poking his head into her tent before entering fully.

"Soothe?" he asked, she was curled up under the blankets. "I'm not going to ask you to reply to me," he said, settling down to sit and watch the lumpy sheets. "I don't know what's going on in your head, what you're thinking, what you're reliving. I just want to see you before I go, tell you it'll be okay."

He took a soft breath. "I believe your words when you give a promise. I believe what you said to Indeedee after she killed Bidoof. He hasn't appeared yet, but pokémon are staying behind. Villagers and such, it's going to be over soon and we're going to win."

He nodded to himself, finding it in himself to believe that. "Nelia knows the story because she took it from both of us. I don't know how she's convinced herself she can win when they always end with the evil stopped. I don't know, things feel a little different. Dialga was terrifying, Darkrai was terrifying. It felt like we were on the cusp of losing everything every step of the way there."

He smiled. "I'm still scared, she's still so dangerous, but everyone is working together and… as you said, she's never been able to defeat a united front. That's what we are. We are united. And a lot of that is because of you, but also just the strength of people in general."

Looking down at his paws he finished out his thoughts. "That's all I wanted to say. You've done your job, done so much more than anyone ever could have asked you to do. Thank you. Thank you…."

With that he pulled himself out of her tent and joined the rest of them.

Rai and Mane bumped him between them as he joined them. "I want you to promise me something," Rai said firmly.

"Yeah?"

"Don't die."

Scout smiled at the frown on his face as he asked that and bopped his nose with his own. "Okay."

Rai blinked. "Okay? You're actually promising that?"

"Dangerous," Mane said, sounding confident, sounding worried.

"I believe Soothe," Scout breathed, straightening up as teleporters began to arrive. "She said no one else would die."

He was given a funny look for that. "You know she can't actually… do anything from a tent?"

Scout continued to smile, feeling hopeful for the first time in what felt like forever. "She's done enough," he said.

"Taught you Substitute," Mane purred. "I look forward to testing out what that can do."

"Oh it's pretty cool, can talk and all."

"Yeah, I bet."

Scout rolled his eyes as Rai giggled. He rolled into Rai's back and they began to trot forwards to where the final fighters were gathered.

"We can move ourselves," Dialga said, he and Palkia floating above the group.

"Race you!" Palkia yelled before disappearing into a portal.

"Wha? Palkia!?" Dialga raced after it.

"Are you all ready?" Kirlia called. Alakazam and Claydol began to move forwards into position.

"Scizor will see us there," Azelf said with a smile. "With more fighters. Mesprit and Uxie will be joining us as well."

"Ready to move!" Chitin barked as everyone nodded. "Let's end this."

Kirlia nodded and the teleportation began.

---

This is the end~

As the world melted back into view, the grace of teleportation through triplicate being a smoother trip than any of Saniya's blistering ports, pokémon gasped in alarm as they took in where they were.

Skyfall had already melted away into nothing, a cavernous pit that sunk into what seemed like the core of the world itself. A place that had once been one of the deadliest dungeons of all, reduced to what it was before Eternatus had been broken.

A sprawling human ruin, towers and statues littered the area, sandstone chunks having lost all marksmanship and being left as dusty remnants of lives long passed.

It was as if the life itself had been sucked out the air around them, leaving it stale and dry, pokémon began to cough as they adjusted to this place.

The buildings were tall and broken, fragile yet rigid. The dust of sand seemed to have melded with the buildings themselves before drawing what little of humanity had once existed here into nothing. Akin to a beach filled with lonely sandcastles, build by hands that had rotted away to dust.

Close your eyes… and count… to ten~

A large spire crested out in the middle, a breaking, rotting tower that tried to spear the heavens themselves before being turned to salt for its maker's hubris.

A tremendous storm rattled overhead, the clouds themselves a deeply violent red, curling as clouds in triplicate floated around, circling each other and nothing else.

The sky was a dungeons sky, yet there was no dungeon here. Feral pokémon ran rampant in the streets, or perhaps even worse than they.

Bring them close, keep hold of your friends~

Across the air itself, right in the eye of the storm, where the broken tower stretched closest to the sky, floated a dark blot upon the skyline.

Upon the world itself.

Her voice was cresting through the streets, through the dead air, through their ears.

This is the end.

This is the end.

"THIS IS THE END!"

Nelia raised a hand to the sky, exulting the storm above her as the world itself grew dark and cold, hot and unbearable. Ice formed where fires burned and drops of water struck like bullets.

The sky itself cracked.

Once, a beat not unlike a heartbeat striking through the ears of everyone in the vicinity.

Twice, a beat like a heartbeat pounding the minds of everyone on the continent.

Thrice, as the heartbeat of the world seemed to rise, beating frantically with every last beat it could ever have pulsed. The world itself was about to die. Eternatus was rising towards the cracking skyline.

Chitin's words were being lost to the storm, Wigglytuff bursting ahead at a desperate speed, Trill flying after him frantically.

Yet words nonetheless, Marill and Saniya formed a globe of water reflective of the storm above them and a sundering cry split two worlds at once.

Giratina burst forth as Dialga and Palkia descended with roars, flying for the spire.

"Let the sky fall," Nelia sang as the sky beat like a heart. "Let it crumble. I will stand tall, I'll end it all."

The skies were warping, the warping of the sky, the sky was falling.

"THIS IS THE END!"

And the sky fell.

Colours burst across the sky that didn't exist, a shockwave of sundering barriers so intense the Creation Trio hit the ground faster than the shockwave could hit the gathered forces.

Eternatus had disappeared into the sundering and The First Fallen laughed as the world began to end.

From the shattered sky, emerged a monstrous form. Stretching out like a tentacle, yet tipped with things that brought to mind fingers. Fingers with eyes on the tips, on the palm, rolling everywhere as they tried to work out what sight was.

The Creation Trio rose up again as the pressure had abated, Giratina cursing out everything for they had taken too long.

Or perhaps they had never any time to begin with, the artisans choice of this happening as soon as they arrived brought to mind the sadistic showmanship of Nelia. Perhaps she had waited. Perhaps their presence had been needed in some way.

Whatever it was, it didn't matter. Plans change, they always do.

"KILL THE FALLEN!" Giratina roared as it went straight for Eternamax Eternatus' palm.

"WE'LL HOLD THIS THING OFF!" Palkia roared, striking lines in space to shatter the fingers of the arm of The Shadow.

Dialga risked staring into the crack in the sky where the arm protruded from. He was nearly dazed by the magnitude of what he saw, the Aternum was pierced, the continent was collapsing under a dark storm, no one would be able to help them. Not even Arceus, not even anyone, no one no one no one

"MOVE!" Palkia yelled, slamming into Dialga to throw him out of the way of a burning beam of light. Dialga shook his head and pulled himself into the game.

They had to fight this thing and win, the rest would deal with the controller below the arm.

The eruption and shattering of the sky had almost cracked the boldness of the pokémon, but not entirely. Not entirely.

Still, they had all frozen up at first as they looked up, failing to see the dangers rising from below.

Staring up at the Warped Skies.

---

"Hello, I am Indeedee. Are you okay?"

"Please!" he begged, reaching her. "Please, can you do anything? Anything at all. I cannot lose him."

"Indeed," Trill said, eying her for a moment before his eye quirked, and he bowed briefly. "You have my… truly… just. Thank you. I am… I am Trill, better known as Chatot."

"I am Zangoose, and I won't let you hurt anyone again!"

"You're not so bad, are you…?"

"The name's Spire and I help people, haa… I think I can help you too."

"Uh… h-hello?"

"Haahahaha. Knock-knock, Bell?"

"The name's Timber, I reckon you should know that."

Locked in cages.

Mind defiled.

Soul torn asunder, barely even your own anyway.

A fake.

A copy of the real thing.

Summoned by the demon.

Nothing but a fool.

Everything you've ever done is just part of her plan.

Soothe saw, heard, and felt nothing as she was wrapped in her own memories.

Repeating thoughts, experiences, moments.

Her best moments, everything that had carried her through nearly two decades of coldness, pain, wrath, and hatred.

Drinking with Rhythm and Trill – A liar who refused to trust anyone.

Being named by Saniya – You had a name, so many names, 'Victoria'. Nothing but a liar over and over and over again.

Sharing jokes with Timber – He died, to your own blade, you broke his heart and then had it ripped out and failed to avenge him.

Everything was being discoloured in self-hatred, trauma, and despair. She failed to hear the voices of gratitude, accept the words of her good deeds.

Despair was comfortable.

Despair was reliable.

Despair was normal to her.

She had lived for so long with just one reason to move forwards. One dream to enact before it was all over.

Despair was comforting. It was cold and wrapped around so tightly, it made you feel numb to the pain outside, it was safe.

Despair was safe.

You couldn't be hurt if you cared for nothing, not even yourself.

Despair was so very safe. It whispered sweetly to you, it kept you cocooned in its embrace. You'd fight to remain in its hold forever, fearing the pain in your eyes at the sight of light, fearing the pain in your body at the offering of an embrace.

Despair was all you ever needed for the rest of your life, however long that would be. Cared for nothing, cared for by no one. Nothing would be lost with you, and be despairs soft hold you knew that was okay. You wouldn't hurt anyone again.

She was so afraid of hurting people.

Victory had hidden behind Indeedee, letting her fight off the corrupted monsters around them.

Soothe had stayed behind Cel, or Saniya whoever you wanted to call her, knowing that the celebi was strong enough, able enough, to fight who needed to be fought.

She'd walked alongside Rhythm and Trill, a gentle hand to undo pain, hating to deliver it herself. Ferals were often touched by the audino's light as they passed by, even they did not deserve any more pain than they suffered already.

Soothe had never wanted to hurt anyone.

Yet everywhere she went.

She heard Timber sobbing as she forced him to run away.

She heard Scout whimpering in his sleep as he missed those he loved.

Breaking Rhythm's heart and isolating him in the guild for years and years, Trill able to do little but stand by him in the hopes he could be back to his true normal one day.

People screaming and yelling and crying.

She tore the Shadow out violently, giving them no time to give it up naturally.

She knew what that felt like now.

To be violated in so many ways.

To feel It stripped from her flesh, torn from her body, and given as a sacrifice.

She was the same as the demon, wasn't she?

Everywhere they both went, pain followed.

She wanted to die.

It would be less painful than this.

Less painful than being able to feel it all again.

The Fallen had purified her. An irony too bitter to stand.

And she could feel it all again.

All the pain.

All the guilt.

All the suffering.

It was nothing but pain and guilt cycling through her mind, behind her foggy eyes. There was no strength to her body, it was all taken away. She was an empty vessel, a puppet whose strings had been cut, a discarded tool.

On the outside of the tent, away from the world, a commotion arose as a splintering of stinking purple energy split trees and pokémon shouted.

Sean was not here.

He still needed to be contained.

A barb split a tent and Soothe felt the wind on her fur again as a voice broke out a country tone on repeat.

"Yup. Yup. Yup."

She raised her head herself, as pokémon tried to dogpile a corrupted bidoof, restrain it to be saved later.

She watched blankly for some time as the fight rampaged before finding herself on her feet. The fogginess had lifted slightly, enough for her to remember she existed in the here and now again.

Pokémon gasped as they saw Soothe walking in, quickly and firmly.

Timber's head poked through a gap before an eruption threw pokémon off him. She broke into a run and tackled him, slamming him into the ground. He was a heavy bidoof, but she was bigger than he was.

Her paws pinned his forelegs to his body, her knee pressing onto his soft belly as he snarled and spat, eyes rolling and saliva frothing.

Her gaze firmed up as her hands began to press into him and he began to seize. Pokémon who had seen it before began to cheer as Soothe slowly, carefully, gently even pulled the Shadow out of Timber.

Its energy sinking into her body again. She was a purified pokémon now, it settled laxly, pacified by her own purification. It was still there, though.

Her arms rather than pressing were holding, knee pressing firmly but not painfully, she was drawing it out of him and into herself. Calling him back. Calling them both back.

And she blinked, mind restarting.

"S-Soothe?" Timber asked, blinking in confusion at being pinned by Soothe.

She looked down at him, her mouth parting slightly as his eyes were clear.

"Timber?"

A smile began to appear on his face, tears in his eyes. "Yup-yup. I reckon you mighta saved me, golly I'm relieved for th-"

He was cut off as she pulled him up into a firm hug and howled.

"I'm sorry!" Soothe nearly screamed, wanting to pull away and distance herself, yet wanting nothing more than to be hugged back.

He hugged her back and she began to collapse against him, sobbing relentlessly onto his shoulder.

"I-It's okay," Timber said, trying to be comforting. "I'm okay. Ya saved me. You saved me, Soothe."

She just cried harder.

All at once she really felt it all.

All the pain.

All the traumas.

All the guilt.

All the regret.

All the love she'd lost to darkness and spite.

All the good times she'd let get corrupted by hateful corruption.

Everything she'd lost to nearly twenty years of isolation and fear.

By the time she pulled back, his back was drenched in her tears, but she wiped them with a shaking arm and stood up.

"I have a villain to stop," she said assuredly, shaking and bowed but resolute.

"Uh-huh?" Timber said, not entirely following everything he had missed. "Well, I'm coming too!"

Soothe glanced back at him, a flicker of uncertainty bare to the world in her eyes. He stared back, confused but assured himself, he wasn't letting her go alone.

She nodded.

The teleporters, of which Kirlia had returned to the coalition here, could help them.

She extended a paw, he took it, and she helped him up.

Together, they went, hoping they weren't too late.

---

Pity I couldn't end the chapter on 'Warped Skies' but still.

Cinema-Sins ding - *Roll Credits*.

Lol, not quite.

That ending part is a sort of representation of Soothe really being purified. Her body was purified by Nelia in the sacrifice, but it was violent and to her own ends. Here, in saving Timber the last to be hurt by Nelia, she's pulled herself back together.

Time for the final battle.