Chapter One Hundred and One.
We're here.
Darkness fell.
The sky erupted into light.
Eternamax Eternatus disappeared as the pillar of energy struck the Fallen's shattered corpse.
Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina were blown back by the sundering gasp of despair that would be the final breath of the world.
Soothe and Trill were sent flying as the energy impacted and erupted.
The bellowing roar of the Creation Trio was swallowed up into nothingness as what remained of the sky began to give in.
The red storm blew with such ferocity that the clouds all melded together into a bloodied mixture as the sky dripped as rain did.
Soothe landed with a shriek, rolling back several feet until the shaking of the earth beneath her shook her to a stop. "No," she muttered, bracing herself on muscles that burned from the strain. "No, no, no." She managed to stand and began to scream. "NO! NO! NO! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!"
"You were supposed to." She gasped painfully, grabbing her chest as even looking at the Abomination before her sent knife-like pains through her heart.
Her vision swam and her knees shook, Soothe nearly falling down. She spotted a speck of blue and black and realised Trill was lying still and not moving.
"No." She stumbled to his side, staggering as the world felt like it was tilting on an axis and crouched over his protectively. There was a line of blood trickling down the side of his head with a terrible spreading redness below his chest.
She pressed her paws onto his body and pushed every ounce of healing power she had left and-
She screamed as her paws erupted into dazzling light instead and struck burning splinters through his motionless form. "No-no-no," she begged and tried again, pressing HEAL-
She blew a hole in his chest and screamed. Trill was melting away in front of her eyes, bleeding his lifeblood into the earth that was vanishing into motes of light.
Tears poured down her eyes as a darkness enveloped her in a shroud, she slowly began to look up.
It was in front of her, staring curiously at the audino on her knees and covered in blood. Eyes spawned across the vantablack form that wavered in and out like a passing thought, they appeared on the head-area as a fish-egg like pattern of eyes all rolling before blinking into nothingness and forming one large eye that bore into her very soul before it shattered into a fly-like array that spread beyond Its head and down the things arms as well.
Her tears were drying in shiny trails on her fur as she stared, mouth agape and body unable to move. It continued to deform in front of her, spawning arms and legs in places they should not be, managing just barely to retain a bipedal form as something red pulsed through the utter void of darkness that was the rest of its form.
The eyes were pits of glitching white against the darkness that pervaded everything else. It raised a stabilising arm hooked with far too many thin, spidery, fingers and began to reach towards her.
She couldn't move.
She wouldn't move.
She closed her eyes.
And then force unlike the ephemeral blow she was anticipating struck her in the shoulders and pulled her back.
"ARE YOU MAD!" Trill squawked in terrified outrage, dragging her as she was inches from the Abomination that had been reaching for her. "MOVE!"
Something else took the blow for her and a rock pillar melted into bubbles of light.
Trill threw her back and Soothe collapsed like a ragdoll, her limbs jelly and outright refusing to obey the signals from her brain. Her mind had seized as well, confusion at his health warring with the overwhelming blue screening she was undergoing.
The wind was roaring in her ears, or was it the sounds of pokémon shouting and screaming, all mixing together into a violent cacophony that rung relentlessly through her head until the sounds of pain and carnage were all she could hear.
All she could ever hear.
She was trapped in a small, dark, cage with the screams of the maddened undead around her. Spire was howling, rattling his cage and she could do nothing, there was nothing, nothing, nothing-
Something grabbed her and began pulling her away, Soothe twitching in their hold as Team Ion and Sunrise, recovered enough to stand and act once more, fanned forwards.
"GET BEHIND ME!" Sean cried, arm thrown out to bar the path forwards as his other paw clung to the shaking silver sword, almost holding it back as he was almost tugged forwards.
The Abomination before them twitched in place in so many places it was hereand ther eand everywhere in their skin, under their claws, squirming through their ears to press heated coolness against their squishy brains.
The air itself was violently shaking, causing flying pokémon to be knocked out of the sky and ground-bound pokémon to stagger and stumble as the air in their very lungs began to squirm like it was attempting to escape.
The Abomination pressed fetid limbs into the quaking earth and thousands of string-like tendrils erupted like spiderwebs from Its fingers to sink into the quailing world, sinking so much farther than mere dirt and rocks.
"DESTROY!" Giratina bellowed, its roar failing to silence the very quail-cry of the world itself. Palkia swung out a blade of spatial destabilisation, aimed directly for the thing that offended reality around them so vilely.
A strike that could sever space and strike through anything splashed harmlessly against the Abomination, failing to even slice the earth. The moment the lavender blade had touched the squirming mass of unlight it had all been drawn in and vanished entirely.
Dialga's Roar of Time managed an identical feat, the strike did not even stir the darkness let alone inflict the explosive ruin the attack was meant to cause.
Giratina, the wisest of the three, did not add its own signature move into the mix, wary about the idea of touching the Abomination.
There was an almost-bizarre moment of peace, as everyone took a breath. The air was growing heavy in their lungs, almost seeming to slink down to the ground in submission rather than attempting to flee this place.
The shifting mass had not reacted to Dialga and Palkia's attacks, eyes and libs continued to spawn across its rippling form, unable to determine a single point to exist from. Eyes rolled and slid along its body, wide and white and possessing no eyelids.
They blinked anyway, sinking into the absolution of the Abomination's body. The only point of colour beyond black and white was that one beating piece of redness deep within its chest. That point appeared the most solid, almost like a shiny black carapace compared to the shifting oil sands the rest of its body was built from.
It was not a truly peaceful interlude, however, the world took an anticipated breath and then hell broke loose.
The Abomination shifted, the hooks that had been buried so very far all strained as one and the world around them cracked.
From the earth they stood upon to the sky they stared up to, space violently cracked and surged, the world roaring in agony as its pieces were ripped apart and severed from the whole, chunks falling away into nothingness.
Pokémon screamed and howled in terror as the world felt like it was falling apart around them. And then cried for help when the world DID begin to fall apart around them.
Cracks split through the earth and within the cracks burned oblivions light – There was nothing below the earth they stood upon, if there ever was it then it had been consumed long ago. Something massive shifted into the crumbling earth, exposing smooth plates of bright orange.
Different parts of the ruin battleground rose as others sunk, some buildings collapsing into the void that was breaking apart below them while the wind surged, being sucked out through cracks in the sky.
The sky was cracking further and further as the world began to split apart, the Creation Trio were roaring something but whether it was a warning, to each other, or simply panic could not be determined. They were roaring, swooping in the failing sky as the world was beaten down over and over and over.
The sky was falling, the sky was falling, the sky fell.
The Sky Has Fallen.
The skyline erupted, what few patches of blue amid the stormy red fading entirely as hands began to smash through the very sky itself.
Ringed around the shining hole of oblivion in the sky before the cracking skyline gave in entirely and shattered like the earth had.
Eternamax Eternatus' began to emerge, some slowly, some swiftly and eagerly, roaring in exultation as reality was finally opened to them. Hands reached down, slamming into the earth and dragging clumps of it to be dissolved in the radiant light beaming from them. There were dozens of them, and the sky continued to crack and shatter, expelling more and more of them.
One Eternamax Eternatus nearly ended the world.
This would be dozens, hundreds, millions of them until the world and everything within it was dragged into true nothingness and time and space ended forever.
"WHAT DO WE DO?" Scout cried, the seven pokémon huddled together in horror as the world began to end.
"DESTROY IT!" Giratina bellowed, being flung down to the ground and crashing through a hill. Dialga and Palkia flew down sharply, Dialga breathing another breath of time-twisting annihilation that splashed harmlessly off the Abomination.
Palkia roared a piercing cry, forming his Spatial Rend but not flinging it this time. It settled into his hand before manifesting further into a terribly great sabre, not dissimilar to Striker's own.
He raised it like a lance and rushed the Abomination, beady eyes set firmly on the entity's beating heart.
The spatial lance struck home as the thing wasn't moving at all, and it dissolved into nothing, melting like a sandcastle in the tide as the bladed tip simply melted into the shifting body rather than piercing it.
Palkia had struck with so much force that he wasn't anticipating the blow to simply be accepted and he staggered, flinging his hands out and touching the thing directly to stabilise himself.
Immediately recoiling, Palkia darted back shouting in panic. His hands were covered in the oily corruption, and he grabbed at his head in panic before yelping and trying to shake it off.
The Abomination stared at him as eyes spawned across its 'face' and then stopped rolling mindlessly. They all swung forth, each one developing pupils and focusing straight on Palkia, eyes straining and bursting from the effort, fading back into nothing as more crawled over as It looked directly at Palkia.
One of the arms spawned out of Its body rose.
Dialga was barrelling in, crying a warning.
Palkia had frozen, staring the end in the face.
Something dark and sticky burst from the Abomination's raised arm and slammed into Palkia's chest, spreading rapidly upon impact as he panicked, writhing against the darkness that swiftly began to envelop his body.
Giratina, having pulled itself up spotted what was happening and cursed, slipping through sub realms rapidly and tackling Dialga out of his path, slamming him across the side rather than slamming into Palkia. "DO NOT TOUCH HIM!"
"HELP ME!" Palkia cried desperately, trying to pull the corruption sliding over his body off and crying out, writhing. "PLEASE!"
"I WILL NOT ABANDON HIM!" Dialga bellowed and Giratina was forced to knock him back down with a headbutt.
"We must act," Giratina growled as Palkia's head was the last part of his body not covered in the stuff. Giratina rose up and gave a piercing cry that could be heard across realms and dimensions, even past this nightmare bubble they were within.
A dimensional hole tore into existence as the Shaymin gave it their all and Giratina allowed Dialga up. "POKÉMON! KNOCK PALKIA INTO THE HOLE!" Giratina demanded, Palkia whimpering softly as his head was slowly covered, going up his nose, in his mouth, into everything.
His struggles began to cease, twitching slightly within the awful cocoon he was sealed within. Mouth agape in a silent scream.
Given direction, Team Ion and Team Sunrise flew into action, much of the rest of the fighters still staggering in the upheaval of the land around them.
They knew not to touch him, thus it was Saniya, Mane, and Guardian who went forth. Palkia was smaller than the previous, thus Saniya was able to snare the wriggling victim within a Psychic and begin to push as Guardian snared his limbs in shadows.
The corruption over his form began to slide along Guardian's own shadows, seeking their master to envelop as well and that was when Mane came forth and began unleashing Fire Blasts without pulling any punches.
From Saniya and Guardian's pull knocking his balance out and Mane's explosions, Palkia was knocked towards the portal Giratina had called to open.
"Pokémon," Giratina said heavily as the struggling Palkia was thrown into the Reverse Distortion. "You must find a way to destroy this avatar. DIALGA! Stop Palkia in any way you can.
Dialga leapt into the portal after Palkia and Giratina circled it, guarding the portal to its own realm as the world the Reverse Distortion balanced began to fail under the pressure of The Shadow.
"What DO we do?" Scout asked again as the three returned to them. The land around them continued to shake and crack further, dissolving into light that Rai found painfully familiar.
"Dialga and Palkia couldn't scratch that thing," Mane growled, pawing in place as his body screamed at him to run and hide but his mind refused to bend to that. "We can't risk touching it after what just happened!"
"The sword, it's…." Sean raised the silver sword, it continued to shake violently in his grip, he had caught the grip well, but his arms were aching. "It's trying to move on its own."
"That can't mean anything good."
"It feels… angry," Sean muttered, aura tassels having risen slightly. "But I don't know at what."
"That's got to be a weak point!" Rai insisted, gesturing right at the beating core within the Abomination. A blood-red impact point that glimmered proudly against the rest of the nightmarish form. Somehow, the heart was the worst part about it. He lit up with electricity. "I'm going to try."
His aim was impeccable, a lightning strike raised from the earth rather than descending from the sky. It struck home with perfect accuracy and, like Dialga and Palkia, failed entirely, being drawn into the thing without issue.
It did not even respond to Rai's attack, the eyes spawning and fading rampantly like before.
"What do we do?" Scout asked a third time.
No one knew.
"We cannot touch it," Guardian said firmly.
"Attacks aren't doing anything!" Saniya despaired, trying an Ancient Power for good measure.
"It may have corrupted Palkia with a single touch," Striker muttered.
"That spot has to be a weakness, but nothing is doing anything," Rai growled.
"Should we just throw rocks at it or something?" Mane snarled.
"We don't have much time," Scout whimpered, the ground was falling apart at their feet, and they had to move lest get sucked into the void below.
"I think it's gotta be me," Sean said softly. He took a step, the sword began to fight less. "Humans were designed to fight this thing, right?"
"Sean." Striker's arm was on his shoulder, stopping him. "No… you can't risk yourself like this."
"This isn't an argument to have right now," Sean replied, lifting Striker's hand off him. He gave him a comforting smile that did not help at all. "Come on, we all know this is the case. I've got Keira with me, I'll be fine."
It was a lie, and they all knew it.
He didn't wait for them to argue further, sending off into a swift run after he said his piece. His name followed him in cries of fear, but he didn't let them slow him down.
The world cracked like eggshells where his feet pressed, splintering like glass before falling into the hungering void below. Sean built a battle cry in his chest, wielding Keira in his paws as he closed the distance between him and the Abomination.
"SEAN!"
His friends, his partners and family, were not content to just let him race forth unaided regardless of what he or they could do. They all began to rush after him, but the world was shaking so firmly, and his path was fading into nothingness that they couldn't reach him.
Space was twisting around them, warping into long trails while others began shorter ones. A pebble fell and became a boulder moments before it nearly hit Saniya, being thrown back by her power.
The shouts of the world began to build and build until there was nothing but rampant chaos and a building, rumbling, growl.
It was almost like a rumble of a belly. One that had not fed in eons.
Saniya shrieked and pulled everyone back, except Scout who was immune to her touch. He continued climbing blindly before the orange sandstone he was assailing moved and shifted and opened.
"SCOUT!" he heard his partners and fathers cry as the earth tore itself apart to create a maw so wide it could swallow the very sky itself.
He had a brief moment to realise he was about to die before it snapped forth.
An Energy Ball struck him with explosive force and knocked Scout through the closing teeth until he rolled onto the facial structure of the living mountain.
The emerged trapinch roared in fury of its meal being stolen from it.
It was shaking itself through the mountains and earth below, crawling out of the void itself at last to feast upon all things. The final manifestation of The Shadow's Hunger. Dynamax'd forever, it opened its maw again to reveal a burning wetness that sucked in deeply, drawing clouds from the splintered skyline and even several Eternamax Eternatus limbs.
With most of the ground having vanished into floating islands above annihilation incarnate, the trapinch was the only solid ground remaining and barking orders from the guild began to move pokémon from island to island.
Mindless of what had risen behind him, Sean came for the Abomination itself, pointing the silver sword like a javelin and getting ready to pierce it straight through the heart.
/
Within the Reverse Distortion, Palkia had stilled, stopped his struggling and was lying lifeless on a floating island.
Dialga circled him cautiously as Giratina kept a careful eye on both realms, needing to know where and when it had to act. The warping of time and space caused by Eternamax Eternatus' first appearance had begun a terrible storm that cut them off from the rest of the world.
As they all began to emerge Giratina was silently grateful for Its mindless nature. The storm had warped space to such a degree that they were contained in a small pocket dimension. It was unstable, no help would come, and there was nowhere they could easily run and hide. At least it held The Shadow back for the moment, the world yet again proving its tenacity to survive, containing the greatest injection of Shadow to ever happen.
Palkia's body twitched once.
Twice.
And Dialga tore through a hole in the Reverse Distortion, narrowly avoiding falling spatial slashes. He reappeared and unleashed a series of explosive meteors upon Palkia's featureless Shadow-melted body. The meteors exploding violently against the darkness and briefly lifting parts of it before it surged once more, smothering Palkia entirely once again.
/
Upon four massive legs, the trapinch rose to meet the world itself in eternal hunger, maw stretched wide open as air and dust were drawn into it to never leave. Scout was running along the hard exoskeleton he managed to reach, stumbling with aches all through his body.
Striker's wrath was painful, even with emergency healing he was still in a lot of pain and his whole body was beginning to feel like jelly.
He'd saved him though, for that Scout was absolutely grateful.
The rest of Team Ion and Sunrise were trying to attack the trapinch, but whatever fell powers had animated it to such a size seemed to be resilient to attacks and it was not even responding to their combined might.
He had an idea though.
Trapinch had eyes after all.
Rai was not the only one who could strike a rampaging kaiju's eyes amid a stormy final battle, but he was going to honour this one on him regardless.
And then Mane for the next eye, maybe, he'd had a pretty good shot on the Dream.
First, he had to reach it without falling over and rolling off.
/
The blade itself seemed to guide Sean's paw and he wondered if Keira was still with him in spirit even a little.
As he reached the corrupted clot digging into reality itself, he pointed the blade and struck like a spear. It was dead on, striking right where the pulsing heart that once belonged to Nelia beat.
The sword struck what felt like pure metal and slid along the carapace, digging a bleeding line in the body of the Abomination.
Immediately, It stopped swaying in place, serenely existing as chaos reigned. All eyes spun to him, and the sword jerked back, Sean kicked off with a Force Palm and launched himself flying back as the Abomination blindly grabbed at him.
Excitement bloomed in his chest as he realised he'd connected without his attack simply failing entirely. The silver sword could damage the thing destroying the world!
Nelia had created it, but she had been responsible for Soothe as well and Soothe had killed her. She created the tools for her own downfall, and Sean was ready to give it all to end this.
/
Dialga breathed the breath of fury, eradicating the corruption clinging to Palkia's chest. The Reverse Distortion was swirling, its temporality balancing properties swarming around Palkia as Dialga tried to tear the otherworldly corruption free.
It swung back before he could obliterate much, Palkia's own rends of space striking lines in the balancing realm. His attacks being tainted in Shadow and swallowed up by the smoky corruption that was natural to the Reverse Distortion.
Air crunched around Dialga, squeezing his chest and pulling a wheeze out of him as Palkia manipulated the area around them, dominating the balance of the Reverse Distortion with Shadow-enhanced powers and sending Dialga through a large mountain range.
The damage to which ricocheted through the world it balanced, causing rocks to shatter into nothingness as their reflections were obliterated.
Dialga groaned, he was too tapped from battling Eternatus. He climbed out weakly, gasping for breath as he felt his heart thunder in his chest, the beating clock of time speeding up to pass his blood through his body. There was nothing arcane to it, yet he still felt that connection to the timestream waver as he began to grow tapped out.
He took a deep breath, ready to unleash meteors or another roar that echoed through time. What emerged was a breathy gasp, Palkia flew in, hands outstretched.
He reared and darted to the side, barely avoiding those corrupted hands reaching out for every tender spot that Palkia had begun to learn.
Dialga unleashed a raw pulse of energy to knock Palkia back, but he was getting forced into a corner. His mouth was dry, and his throat parched, yet he still tried another angle of attack anyway.
"Palkia? Can you hear me?"
/
"SCOUT, ARE YOU OKAY?"
/
"Think fast!"
Saniya was beating the remaining atmosphere into submission as she scaled the titanic maw, eyes locked on a tiny blot of darkness against its brilliantly orange body. He was running and climbing, claws digging in as the beast shifted and opened its mouth, sending waves of destruction against the world to soften it up a little.
Akin to digesting its meal on the outside first, pokémon were attacking back but no one could scratch something that big, they could only take cover as it attacked blindly, eyes milky white and unseeing.
Scout cut tiny holes in its shell as he began to slide downwards, it tilted often allowing him to slide often and pick up some intense speed. He knew if he slipped his hold he might fall and never recover, falling into the void below and be lost in a way that no one could bring him back from.
He was also sure he was burning what few 'lives' he had left with this stunt, but he'd evaded the maw and was in a perfect position to act. Saniya was forced back from the trapinch's sheer breath, the stink choking pokémon all over before it unleashed another destructive wave.
Scout had his eyes set on the prize, and behind him trailed a shadowy trail of smoke.
From Nelia to Striker, Scout was covered in blood and only most of it was his. His blood burned in the air, turning to smoke and following him like a loyal shroud as Scout neared the trapinch's only sensitive part.
Its right eye.
He raised a bloody paw, feeling blood peel off his body, the dried blood that had begun to scab releasing that protection and causing blood to leak again. He burned it all in the statement of the Ghost-type, of his father.
He did not give all or most of his blood, he had no intention to die here or now, but more than he had ever used before.
Strangely, his mind turned to a time he bartered in blood with his father, Guardian explaining that certain sizes of Shadow Balls were improbably due to collapsing.
Then later as he defied his own rules and in a combined attack, they gave Cresselia peace.
Either way, he was beyond the need to hold back, and Scout sent too-much blood into a Shadow Ball until it crested titanically, visible from the ground where pokémon gathered together to not be alone in these final moments.
With a piercing cry that struck through the trapinch's own bellows, Scout brought it down onto its wide-bulging eye and the unstable mixture of blood and power exploded in a furious roar of shrieking defiance.
He felt his fur burn and flesh shrink away from the sheer volume of ghostly energy. He couldn't call it otherworldly with true eldritch powers being thrown around in this fight.
His attack sent him flying, but he had anticipated that and let himself be thrown forth, the trapinch screaming as it staggered from his attack, finally shifting enough that its weight caused the disintegrating ground to collapse on the points it pressured, stumbling further and further.
A smoking crater was all that was left of its eye, and it shook its massive head, the weight pushing it even further as the beast tilted, realised it was tilting, and overcorrected, clawing the earth away as everything all gave in at once.
Saniya was flying out again, arms outstretched as Scout flew above the pocket lands that made way for oblivion. He could see everything for a moment, the countless Eternamax Eternatus' clawing the world apart, as well as each other.
The pocket marked ground, holes having collapsed like mine chutes that fell away into nothingness below.
He could see the void below them itself, it reminded him of a movie. The Rise of Darkrai, when Alamos Town had been dissolving in the subspace dimension Palkia had pulled the town in.
Even the dissolving of the land looked similar, also similar to his dissolving into light after Temporal Towers.
He wondered if that's what Giratina had done, locked this battlefield down in an effort to contain The Shadow here to hopefully destroy it. He hoped that was the case, or else there would be unreal damage if they won this.
He smiled, closing his eyes, Saniya caught him. His Dark-type aspect affected her ability to fly, but she still had wings and had not skipped arm day as often as leg day and carried him as best she could down towards the ground.
The trapinch collapsed through a widening hole and fell into the void.
"I'm… fucking… awesome," Scout murmured.
"Yeah, you are," Saniya breathed, landing in Guardian's arms as he floated out to them as well.
"Don't scare us like that again," Guardian murmured, just relieved. "Please, I don't think any of us can handle that again."
Striker was pacing, Rai and Mane had come sprinting though and leapt up into Guardian's arms as well as Saniya wriggled out and flew over to Striker.
She laid her hand on his shoulder and he stilled enough to smile at her.
"Okay!" Saniya yelled. "We gotta move-move-move! Soothe already went ahead and I'm going to bet she didn't fall into the void because that would be LAME!"
"She went ahead?" Scout asked in alarm.
She went ahead.
"Think fast!" Soothe yelled, a barrier manifesting between Sean and a struck of corruptive essence, splashing over her barrier and sinking in before she negated it and they both disappeared.
"What?" Sean turned his head. "How are you-"
"NOT the time for chitchat," Soothe growled, flicking her hands like she was tossing pieces of fluff away from her, barriers manifesting to absorb numerous globules of all-consuming corruption.
Sean zipped it and nodded, bearing the sword in his grip tightly, arms shaking from exhaustion and panted hard, the Abomination was relaxing after the scratch and the barrage lessened.
"GO!" Soothe shouted. "Don't stop even for a second, I have GOT you!"
Sean might have had word on the need to develop trust, but this wasn't the time and he obeyed, falling into a sprint as his leg muscles burned and chest heaved.
As he ran, the Abomination flicked back into action and the land cracked underneath him, splitting apart and tearing holes in his step. He almost hesitated, but then a barrier appeared under his feet and Soothe yelled at him again.
He ran forth on barriers held only by the will and control of a former Shadow Pokémon, but also former human, and raised the silver sword.
He swung it down like the axe it wasn't, and it bounced thickly off the core of the Abomination. It was not deflected like plastic, he felt it sink in before something pushed back and deflected it, a deeper cut being left in its body before it rampaged again.
He darted back, barriers appearing all around him as darkness erupted like falling rain, absorbing a corruptive wave of damnation as the sword buzzed in his paws.
"Did you seriously swing that like an axe?" Soothe shouted as Sean ran for cover, swinging her arms back and right, bleeding from the nose from the effort of creating so many barriers at such a distance. She was woozy on her feet, or maybe the world was only shaking to Sean.
Once he was close enough she dropped the array of barriers and switched to combat, sending streaming trails of light from her fingertips. It splashed harmlessly against the Abomination, being drawn into Its body upon impact, but she didn't stop, and Sean grabbed her paw.
"It won't do anything, it's just the sword!"
"The sword is a Shadow Channel," Soothe shot back. "As are we." She pressurised the shots and turned them into her pistol burst variant, a deep echoing gong resounding out as she unleashed on the Abomination without pause.
Sean dropped her wrist but tapped into duplicity and shot his own array of light at the thing too, embalming it in an array of glittering light so thick it almost choked out the darkness.
Almost.
Something pulsed deeply like a lock being struck by a sledgehammer and trails below their feet dissolved the earth into nothing. They fell for a moment before Soothe formed barriers again, below them and then all around them as they were set upon by a cloud of tendrils.
Soothe hissed, falling to one knee as her defence was pressurised, she couldn't release these ones or else the rest would overwhelm them, forcing her to hold these barriers up and be sapped at without restraint or mercy.
"Have that sword at the ready," Soothe grunted, feeling the strain overwhelming her. "Deep breaths."
"What are you about to do?" Sean yelped.
"Thought we could try fighting our way through, mix things up a little."
That… didn't seem like a mix of anything new at all, but Soothe groaned and the barriers were breaking, and Sean raised Keira to the sky.
"Get ready," he whispered, to himself perhaps?
"Now!"
The Protect collapsed and the nightmares surged in.
/
"PALKIA!?" Dialga repeated, flying circles in the Reverse Distortion as the corrupted deity tailed him. "LISTEN TO ME!"
"GRAAghAGhH!" Palkia screamed a warbled cry, severing the very tip of Dialga's tail and causing pain to flood his system.
Dialga swung around in air, as a heavy quadruped this wasn't easy and he felt dizzy, unleashing a beam of destruction upon the charging dragon and lighting it up in a flash of draconic power.
It burned away yet again, but this time Dialga called through it. "Palkia, listen to me!"
"P-P-Pain," Palkia gasped, a soft, weak, small voice amid the carnage. "Hurts."
"I know it hurts," Dialga said, trying to sound soothing but probably just sounded aggressive. "I'm trying to help you."
"H-H-Help?"
"Yes!" Dialga cried. "I will help you!"
Palkia raised an arm, stretching out across the gulf between them. Before a moment had passed, the corruption sticking to his body surged out again, snapping around his arm and pulling it down to anchor it to his side and Palkia roared in fury once again.
Dialga flew on, sending a trail of meteors behind him to slow the approach of the monster that had taken his partner.
Dialga and Palkia throughout history in multiple worlds had held long-standing rivalries.
No beings in creation had died as often as they had, and it was usually to each other, their rage unable to subside, their rivalry unable to be ignored. Time, or Space. Existence couldn't hold without both of them, yet they were at odds relentlessly across time and space.
Yet, for the first time ever, not only were they not enemies, but they were close. Very close. They still fought, but the battles were more skirmishes, the arguments were able to be resolved, the fury between them had abated.
Maybe it still existed. Maybe the darkness clouding Palkia's eyes was just releasing what he always wanted. Maybe, Dialga felt it too, the bubbling need to lash tooth and claw, roar and time, until once again only one stood.
Yes, that still burned deep within him. Deeper than the diamond, deeper than his heart, deeper even than his soul.
Palkia must feel the call to battle, the song of finality that had been sung between them more times than songs had been sung.
Dialga could feel it still.
And all at once, he refused the feeling. It was just a feeling, it was not him, and it was not Palkia.
"I will not fight you," Dialga said, softly, coming to a stop. He was not cornered, but to an outsider, he may look it. Panting for breath, head partially bowed, eyes fixated on his opponent. "I will not hurt you."
Palkia did not seem to share his sentiment, giving a piercing kaiju shriek as he flew in to take down Dialga.
"PALKIA LISTEN TO ME!" Dialga cried, voice reverberating not through time and space, but just between them.
Palkia was still approaching.
"THIS ISN'T YOU! YOU MAKE BAD JOKES, YOU INSTALL CLOCKS IN TEMPORAL TOWER THAT TICK RELENTLESSLY. YOU'RE AFRAID OF RIOLU AND LUCARIO AND MADE ME PROMISE TO PROTECT YOU FROM THEM! I CHECK THE SPATIAL RIFT EVERY MONTH FOR ANY OF THEM. THAT'S WHO YOU ARE, NOT THIS!"
Palkia slammed into Dialga with full force, slamming him over with a startled cry.
"DIIIAALLLLGA!" Palkia bellowed, clinging onto him as his head struck through the darkness digging into his eyes. "HELP ME!" He was Palkia. He was Palkia. He was Palkia.
And gods were built to resist this corruption like nothing else. It could not latch on truly, only smother him and move his arms and legs. He heard Dialga's cry and fought back.
Dialga was thrown down by Palkia's weight but was able to roll with the punches and flip them over, pinning Palkia underneath him.
Without hesitation, he struck, biting down on Palkia's neck where the darkness was creeping up. It tasted foul, like rotten garbage seeping in the sun for a couple weeks before being fed to a skuntank who excreted it.
That's what corruption tasted like.
Dialga had no concept of a gag reflex and he continued to bite and tear, ripping the corruption off with his bare teeth as Palkia writhed and struggled underneath him.
"Fight it!" Dialga snarled.
"It looks like I need to fight YOU!" Palkia gasped as Dialga's sharp teeth went for his neck again. "Ahhh, Giratina help me!"
Dialga growled and continued striking at the corruption. It did not stick to him so easily, being drawn out by the grip of the Reverse Distortion, building a terrific cloud of poisonous smog around them that began to choke them.
"We need to move," Dialga wheezed, but he couldn't let the corruption retake Palkia as it was not all removed.
Living was also important, and they floated out of the smog gasping for breath, the sickness was trailing off Palkia as he moved and Dialga began to tear at his lower body once they were clear.
"Watch the tail, who said you could bite my tail!?"
"Would you shut up? This is serious," Dialga said amid tail and corruption in his mouth.
Power built in his chest, his flickering diamond flashing one more time before Dialga roared.
The pulse blew Palkia back with a shout as the corruption was peeled from his body, the Reverse Distortion smoking into toxic smog to try and contain the madness that it was.
Dialga panted for breath, groaned once, and slumped over.
/
Pink exploded everywhere as Sean heard Saniya's howl of unrelenting fury.
"YOU WILL NOT TOUCH THEM!"
Darkness had fallen on them before it was blasted back by the light.
And before them floated an enraged little pixie. Saniya's expression told the world that she had had enough. Enough chaos. Enough world-ending catastrophes. Enough Shadow nonsense. Enough pain. Enough despair. Enough loss.
"Cel."
"Saniya."
Saniya raised both hands. One gave them a thumbs up, the other raised her middle finger at the Abomination.
Then she lowered her arms, hands clenching by her sides.
"Soothe, Sean, get up." Her eyes were blazing, and gentle tugs pulled them up off Soothe's remaining barrier and onto more firm ground. Sean was shaking, Soothe had gone very still, almost seeming like a statue.
"We're gonna break this thing, kay?" Saniya asked as they came to her sides, each one forming a glare to face the corruption incarnate with.
"Sounds good," Soothe said easily. "That red heart has to be Nelia's. One last target to rip out and crush until she's well and truly gone."
"It almost seems like too obvious of a target," Sean said, Keira's blade lifting itself in his laxing grip.
"Making it the perfect disguise," Saniya reasoned. She'd teleported through the shattered skyline once they'd seen the darkness descend upon Soothe and Sean. The rest were charging forth, leaping from island to island as the area behind them were beginning to collapse into the void. Ironically, the area where the Abomination was seemed the most stable, anchored by the hooks the thing had dug into the space around it.
The portal into the Reverse Distortion burned closely and Giratina finally rose their head from the portal as Dialga freed Palkia. "It is almost time," it growled, rising up into the shadow of the eternal serpent and vanishing incompletely.
In the myriad of cracks all around them, Giratina could be seen swimming through some of them. At one with the layers of reality like no one else was.
As the ground collapsed, strings of darkness split across the void to latch onto more earth and begin draining them as well, creating bridges of soft darkness that fed upon everything that touched them.
Soothe and Saniya combined were enough to pull the battle force above the danger zone, but as the Abomination writhed and twisted it was clear that there was nowhere that was safe.
Most of the land around them had been consumed by the void below or the Eternatus' above. With nothing else to feast upon, the horizon being torn like a strip of paper and consumed by grasping arms, the dull lights of the hands of The Shadow began to approach the last bastion of life left in this pocket realm.
Giratina could feel the Creation Trio's silent trick giving into the vacuum within it. More arms were pouring out of the tear in the Aternum above and eventually they would physically outnumber the atoms that remained and tear through the final barrier and feast upon the rest of reality.
They had to destroy the core controlling it all now, and so Giratina emerged above the fighters and gave a rallying cry.
"GO! FIGHT!"
Team Ion leapt up onto Giratina's back while Team Sunrise raced across the shadowed ground with Soothe in tow.
Barriers deflected the barrage of darkness and Giratina breathed ghostly flames alongside Striker's Energy Balls to disrupt the rest.
The bones of the Legendary Lucario drank the darkness around them, surging with fell-craven might as Sean brought it down once again.
Bladed tip poised to spear through flesh bone and soul, he struck it home and cracked the shell of the Abomination.
The resulting shockwave of pure energy nearly cut Sean in half, Soothe's barrier blunting it just enough to slice him down to his metallic ribs instead, he was thrown back, sword falling out of his grip.
It was snatched by Guardian who struck in with all the strength his great arms wielded, digging the tip through the writhing creatures chest. It was so firmly rooted into place that even as Giratina sent a shockwave of energy to blast it back at the hole to the Reverse Distortion, it only succeeded in dislodging Guardian.
Saniya summoned Keira's remains back and Striker leapt, snatching it up as Guardian and Sean caught each other, Saniya catching them.
Green energy surged through the sword, crackling along it like lightning rather than being absorbed as Striker cleared a hurdle of Shadow and slashed out, striking the things head off.
It grew three more heads and surged like a struck Wobbuffet and beat Striker with a full-body blow that stuck corrosive slime to him. He slammed into Soothe and then they crashed into a shield behind her, the slime peeling off Striker and fading into Soothe as she grabbed the sword herself.
With the silence of exhausted hate, Soothe just charged through the storm of shadows that spun around the Abomination, absorbing everything that touched her or the sword until the blade was almost shattering under the strain.
She lined up her shot carefully, pressed all her weight behind it, and slammed it home.
The blade struck the cracked, chipped, carapace and strained for a moment. The sword was buzzing furiously in her grip, but it was slowly sliding forth.
Soothe had her teeth grit hard enough they felt like they were breaking. Her skin could burst into flames as her veins pumped acid through her body. Her eyes were melting into her nose, and she could smell her vision.
She took another step. Walking was akin to stepping into a tornado built of glass, each shard reflecting a painful memory cutting relentlessly into your very mind. A pain that you could never adjust to, no nerve was being plucked, it was all an assault on your very sense of self.
Another step. Her mouth was agape, her tongue leaking out of her mouth and dripping down her body, cut out and ruined for daring to speak a word against that which was better than her. The punishment inflicted on all who deserved it
Another step. The sword was vibrating at such an intensity it was ripping at the carapace, shattering it further, but the intensity of corruption it was absorbing was getting too much. The blade itself was beginning to chip at the edges, cracks forming and spreading beyond the hilt, into Soothe's paws, her arms cracking apart, spreading further to crack her heart to pieces.
The heart!
The silver sword burst from her grip, being flung back as Soothe was thrown with a pained shriek, but it and the enemies cries of pain were drowned out as Saniya descended like an avenging angel.
"BURN!" And with her she carried an array of stones and leaves.
Sticks and stones can break some bones, but monstrous abominations too apparently.
She brought it all down in a catacylsmic blast, burning the whips and slashes to dust as a gentle mist crested down onto Soothe, filling her with just a tiny touch of vitality. She pulled the iron thorns out of her fur and leapt back in.
She slammed the sharp tip of one into the Abomination before it shattered and melted, another shockwave knocking the other one flying.
"CATCH!" Saniya flung it back and Soothe slid it into the Abomination as well, oily gunk coating her paws as she pushed with all her might.
Soothe forced it in even further, a roar tore around her ears, she was deafened to the sounds of carnage. The wind, or was it sand, tore at her face, ripping her fur out and exposing the human underneath who dared to pretend to be-
She. Did. Not. Relent.
Something was pushing back.
Back with a thousand shining arms.
Back with the force of the falling sky.
Back back back backbackbackbackbaCKBACKBACKBACK!
The sword struck through the other side and then It all struck back at once. Closing in with an implosion-like motion as everything crashed onto Soothe at once. Holding the sky itself up on her shaking legs, the force of a hundred thousand titan arms colliding with her all at once to knock her the fuck out!
The thorn was torn free as she was beaten.
Yet the blade was not just one persons to bare.
The invulnerable carapace of the Abomination had been cracked by the strength of the silver sword and those who carried Keira's will forth
And that was when Giratina called all who remained to arms. "THE WEAK POINT HAS BEEN EXPOSED, STRIKE SWIFTLY!"
Giratina rampaged through the fading light, breathing a ghostly wind to claw at the Abomination before its darkness could patch the wound, for the red heart of the Fallen still beat within Its chest, bloodied but not beaten, its impermeable carapace broken by the strength of Keira, Sean, Guardian, Striker, and Soothe.
At long last, the Abomination was reacting without prompt, something within its vacant mind seemed to have acknowledged it was under threat and it was lashing back with impunity. Eternatus' arms were reaching forth, unleashing hellish light upon Giratina as it swung around for a second volley, a cried warning from Team Ion all the defence it could get.
Giratina rolled, throwing Team Ion underneath it but exposing its weaker underbelly and took a combined attack from three Eternamax Eternatus, falling with a piercing shriek as Team Ion were thrown violently forth.
Soothe was down, there was no barriers to protect them. They landed upon the dark paths themselves, immediately the darkness began to sap at their vitality, seeking to undo their Power before undoing everything else that they were.
As the Abomination shook, no sound was emerging from its presence, although the rushing of wind blew at Team Sunrise as they tried to come to Ion's aid.
Scout palmed a seed in his paws, and he forced himself to his feet, suffering under the sapping darkness in a different way to the others. It had once been a part of him, or maybe he had once been a part of It, part of It still knew him, and he was able to stand and pull Rai and Mane out of the muck they were sinking in.
To do so, he had to take their place and he felt the darkness snaring him by the legs and the tip of his tail, dragging him down as he struggled.
"Mane!" Scout yelped, throwing the concealed blast seed to him. "Blow its heart up, quickly!"
Mane whimpered as he forced his claws out, skittering across the darkness, feeling everything be drawn out of him. He marshalled the willpower that he walked through the Spatial Rift and shattered the Dream and began to charge with every ounce of his strength. Within his mouth, he made sure not to bite down on the seed, he kept his eyes on the target and leapt for the thing.
Its eyes all twisted to him, ripping through other eyes in their violent haste, darkness like spiderwebs tripped Mane and caught him in a pincer-tight grasp.
He spat the seed forcefully before shrieking out into a cut-off gasp as he was caught and squeezed for all that he was worth. His bones, blood, soul, fire, it would all be rung out of him before the shrivelled shell would be consumed as an after-meal snack.
He tried to manifest some fire to detonate the seed, but he was losing it all, it was being drained, he was dying, he was dying, he d-
A spark of electricity flew forth.
As Mane spat the seed it fell into the chest cavity, nestling by the beating heart, protected from the hungering darkness as an anchor point.
The single part of reality that had accepted It well and truly, knowing exactly what It was and what It would do upon finally breaching through Arceus' defences.
The hunger that would consume the world and everything that ever was.
It existed outside, a maw that stretched wider than the jewel that reality was, a morsel held tantalisingly up at the nose of a beast. Nipping constantly, It had finally been invited inside to feast, and feast it would.
The blast seed fell by the heart of the fallen, and then a small jolt of electricity struck it.
The seed exploded.
The Abomination staggered back, knocked loose by the eruption. What passed for a head peered down at the smoking crater in Its chest. The heart had been obliterated, leaving smoking sludge to drip out like rotting ooze.
There was a pause.
And then everything began to come undone.
With the anchor point lost, the Abomination could not maintain Its grip on the world, and it began to shake and tremble like a VCR glitching, growing staticky and blurry, barely able to move, barely able to act, barely able to be.
And that was what Giratina had been waiting for.
Smoking, shaking, spikes snapping and dissolving and shadow tendrils fading into light, Giratina ROARED. "PUSH IT INTO THE PORTAL!"
Soothe was still unconscious and Team Ion were almost falling into the void, but as the Abomination lost Its grip on reality, so did Its attacks and Saniya threw Guardian in to snatch them before they could fall.
He stuffed them in his belly mouth before using tendrils to anchor himself for Saniya to pull him back with Psychic, Sean duplicating her attack to assist.
Guardian was pulled clear as Giratina's order crossed the ruins to all who were conscious to hear it.
"YOU HEARD THEM!" Chitin and Cara cried together. The Guild. The amassed pokémon of Treasure and Blackstone. Team Sunrise. The Lake Trio.
They unleashed a final combined attack of sheer force, slamming into the discombobulated abomination and finally pushing it free of the spot it had anchored into.
A combined blast of light as pokémon refused to give into The Shadow and knocked it back as the ground below it was obliterated in the attack.
Giratina surged after the abomination as it was launched into free fall, towards the portal of the Reverse Distortion and they both passed through as the arms above all twitched erratically, Eternatus tearing into Eternatus in a skyline orgy of violence.
Palkia was thrown out of the Reverse Distortion by Giratina, right at the amassed pokemon. "SPACE BUBBLE THEM NOW!"
The flailing corruption limbs and eyes was caught by Giratina as it threw It into the realm that was controlled solely by Giratina. It was the master of the Reverse Distortion, the reflection of reality, the true shadow of reality.
Giratina flew around the abomination, crafting a crystalline structure around it to contain and blend the foul thing into Giratina's own world. It nodded at four cardinal points, each lighting up in dazzling light to construct a cage of being that reflected the entire collapsing sub-dimension that Nelia and Eternatus had forced them into creating.
Giratina could see The Shadow's arms reaching for the portal, seeking their exit as that-which-guided-them was pulled into it as well. Given enough time, and that would not take long at all, Giratina knew they could corrupt and collapse the Reverse Distortion as well and truly plunge all of reality into oblivion.
Giratina took a breath, hoped Palkia had been quick enough and then called for that section to collapsed entirely.
The four cardinal points had erected a cage of dominion that Giratina held absolute sway over. With a sub-realm containing the madness and already on the brink of utter collapse already, Giratina deleted that section of space from the Reverse Distortion. The destruction of the rocks and mountains in Dialga and Palkia's battle had reduced the same in the mirrored 'real-world' to vanish completely.
With the abomination under its domain, severed from whatever Nelia had done to create it, and contained within the Reverse Distortion, Giratina's absolute will of the oldest mind in creation slammed into an entity that existed before the beginning but had no mind to speak of.
Eternal will vs no will at all.
Space collapsed, crunching together in a single clap.
Palkia had flown crying out to gather, throwing up a massive bubble of space upon which he controlled, and he could only hope all the pokémon had been gathered into one place. He had seconds at most, Dialga could tell him the exact time, but Dialga was down and out and Palkia had no time.
He grabbed everyone could he see in the final few islands that persisted in this collapsing void and shielded them within the spatial realm.
Hands came at them from everywhere that didn't exist at once.
Pokémon clung to each other and closed their eyes.
Palkia too closed his eyes.
Only a few left their eyes open, defiant to the end and witnessed as reality suddenly snapped like a strained rubber band. Closing up like a book snapped shut. The skyline of arms. The shattered dimensions above. The crawling void below. Gone. Snapped up and collapsed in an instant.
Everything was dark.
Then everything went white.
The sun warmed his fur, probed his eyelids, and pressed its ever-burning presence along his entire body, from the top of his head to the tip of his tail.
He moved over, making a pained sound. There was an overpowering feeling of foggy weight on his brain, everything hurt, and he didn't feel like dealing with life at the moment.
Falling back asleep was a mercy. One that would not be granted.
He groaned, wanting the brightness to stop and tried to roll over and direct his face away from the sunlight.
Immediately, the comfort of firm stone underneath him gave way and his eyes snapped open with a shriek. "AH!"
"Oh my gosh!" A boyish voice yelped out and struck as fast as a whip, catching his tail in sharply pointed teeth. Still, he'd rolled too fast, and they had jumped out too quickly and they too began to fall.
"Watch it!"
The second body was caught, and they hung for a moment.
Scout with his tail in Rai's mouth, Mane's forelegs around Rai's back legs.
Scout's heart pounded rapidly for a moment, mouth agape as he hung upside down before Mane chuckled. "That's not much of a drop."
"Gun'k eyan hink agouk ik," Rai said through Scout tail.
"Please pull me up," Scout begged.
"Fine, I can see you're falling for me already." Mane pulled, groaning as no one helped him either, and retrieved Scout and Rai from their perilous drop to their dooms.
Or a few dozen meters to more stones. Painful, but not a lethal fall.
Rai, Scout, and Mane panted together, Rai spitting out some tail fluff before Scout asked the question on their minds. "Is it over?"
"Are we dead?"
"Did we win?"
They looked around. They were resting on a plateau, a piece of island that seemed to have just been dumped out in a grassy plain. There were other pokémon about, all in various stages of unconsciousness. Guardian was right by them, belly mouth lolled open and pointed towards them, his chest was rising and falling steadily.
The sun shone brightly above their heads, providing light to see other islands that contained other pokémon, although some had fallen off and rolled down towards the plains below.
Palkia lay roughly in the middle of it all, snoring up a storm. Dialga was laid gently on top of him, belly to belly and sleepily nuzzling Palkia.
Giratina, with six legs for support, stood with a conscious Bug-types and the floating Lake Trio, discussing matters seriously.
Chitin saw Team Ion approaching and beckoned them over. "Good to see you're up," he said firmly, standing very still.
"What's happening, did we win?"
Chitin seemed to nod, but he wasn't quite looking at them, gazing off into the distance. "I'll… let… Giratina." And then he fell over, it was slow at first before suddenly crashing down.
Rai and Scout yelped as Mane leapt over to Chitin's side. "What happened!?"
"Do not be too concerned," Giratina rumbled. "Guildmaster Armaldo simply refused to rest until there was someone else to take command in his place. We'll get him help if he needs it, or just a tent to have some privacy."
Looking up from Chitin as he began to snore, they faced Giratina who was also swaying in place.
"Are you… okay?" Scout asked.
"Fear not, but I will be swift. With the death of the Fallen and the collapse of that section of reality to destroy the embodiment of The Shadow, the world has been saved. The Reverse Distortion will, unfortunately, take a severe beating to balance the damage caused by the forced destruction of that sliver of the world."
"How did we survive?" Mane blurted out.
"Palkia shielded you all, that is… the best that I can say at this point. With the shaymin in the Reverse Distortion I feel as if I…."
And then Giratina fell over as well. The crash that resounded was far more earth-shaking than Chitin's collapse.
Team Ion stared at Giratina in horror, but that was when the Lake Trio decided to float down.
"About time," Mesprit huffed, glaring at Giratina.
"I cannot fault them," Azelf said serenely.
"You never would argue someone's willpower," Uxie said softly, shaking his head. As one, they turned to Team Ion and smiled.
"By de facto you are in charge. What are your orders?"
Rai and Mane's eyes were wide, and they turned to Scout. "What are you looking at me? Rai's the leader of the team."
"I… I guess let's make sure everyone is alright and doesn't need any urgent help."
"Sounds fair." The Lake Trio nodded. "We'll stabilise the Creation Trio."
Pokémon began to wake up, feel around, realise they were lying alive in the sun and a ragged cheer erupted from the victors. It was weak, it was tired, it was hurt and terribly scarred. It was alive.
Soothe found herself awakening to sounds she'd rather not here.
"He's losing blood!" Melody cursed. "Everything else can be fixed, but if he loses too much there's no coming back from that!"
Trill had nestled nearby and soon was pulled out of his weariness to help with Mirror Move as well, they needed to stop the internal bleeding as well as the external injuries.
"Blood transfer," Trill whispered, as some old memories flew back to him. "Komala had brutalised all of us in the battle, Rhythm took far too much of a beating to be safe. Even with Soothe's healing, he was getting worse, not better. She raised the matters of blood transfer. It was risky, she said, due to not knowing what kind of blood he could safely take, it was do or die, however. She gave him his blood, audino and wigglytuff being similar enough. He recovered."
"Soothe!" he cried, spotting her stirring and flying right to her. "Rhythm has lost a great deal of blood and-"
"Like Komala," Soothe replied, she sounded numb.
He stuttered, not expecting her to determine what he was asking immediately.
She crawled over to where Melody floated, Sean had been brought along as well to do what he could.
Banette was being flown in on Swellow's claws, Trill having called for her as well. It had taken a willing Ghost-type the last time to safely extract and inject the blood and she was probably the best bet considering banette in general.
"Here's what you do," Soothe said, kneeling by Rhythm and laying her hand gently on his forehead. He was cold, but looked hot and sweaty. She extended her left arm. "Shave my arm in the crook as best as you can, I'll help you find a right vein. Have something sharp?"
"Always do," Banette confirmed, she stared briefly at Rhythm in concern before coming in close. She gripped the offered arm with a tightness impressive and slashed out.
Just the fur was severed, leaving her skin exposed. "Someone strong needs to hold my arm to compress above where the blood comes from."
Machoke was pushed forwards and he leaned in, trembling slightly as he grabbed her arm. "Don't break my arm, but don't be too gentle either. More than that."
Once her arm was constricted enough she continued. "Banette, feel for a vein, they should have risen. Chimecho, if you haven't already find a vein on Rhythm as well and be ready to open it. This is completely beyond medical suggestions, but we don't exactly have IV's. Banette, once it's ready you're going to pierce my vein and begin drawing out blood. Machoke, keep a hold of my arm."
"How big of a hole?" Banette asked.
"You're extracting blood. Fairly big, but not so much I'll bleed out once you have enough. Needs to be small enough to seal with pressure afterwards."
"I'm ready," Melody said firmly, doing her best to be steady and ignore the tension around them all. Rhythm looked so small. Guildmaster Wigglytuff should never look small, he was great in personality, filling a room with his exuberance, not pale and still on the ground.
"Do it now."
She did not so much as twitch when Banette stabbed a fire-cleaned needle into her arms vein and her blood began to flow fast. Banette lifted the blood out with the Ghost's connection to offered blood, rising a red rainbow in the air, drawing more and more out like she was pulling a rope out of a lake.
Soothe's fingers twitched slightly as her arm began to feel cold and prickle with pins and needles. The blood was lifted through the air swiftly so it wouldn't begin to coagulate and into a similarly-shaved spot on Rhythm.
"It's hard to eyeball," Soothe said as the transfer continued. "So, just go until I tell you to stop."
Which it did, for nearly fifteen minutes she was bled into Rhythm until Soothe finally said. "Stop."
Pressure was applied to her wound with a bandage, Machoke released her arm and rubbed his fingers, leaving a dent and bruise under her fur.
She was a little pale under her fur, but not too bad. "That's as much as we can do," she said softly. The sounds of survival had not abated, as more and more pokémon woke up and realised they had survived that ending more voices were added to the mix.
Every cry of fear and relief.
Every twitch and groan from the Creation Trio as they too were being set upon with care from various thankful pokemon.
Every roar. Every whimper. Every sound repeated in their heads from the battle they had wrought.
Soothe was just so tired. She had always known she would either die to stop Nelia or die trying, yet she still breathed, her skin prickled strangely at being shaved and she stared at her pale skin normally hidden under lavender fur.
Someone had bandaged it carefully, large claws slicing through, she blinked to herself again, realising it was a zangoose.
"Spire?" Soothe asked, she might have whispered it, but it was so loud that she might have yelled it instead.
He smiled, shuffling down to sit next to her. She realised she was reclined against a rock, just watching the goings-by blankly. "Yeah. It's good to see you're alright."
Alright? She wasn't sure about that. She looked down, not entirely recognising her own legs. They were hers, yes? They had always been, if Nelia's monologue could be trusted to be true.
'A copy of an idea of a real person'
She wondered if that made it better? The idea that she hadn't been separated from her family, them never knowing what happened to her.
The rest of her wondered if that made it worse. They would never miss her, never even know she was gone.
"Yeah," she said instead. "You too. You… you weren't here for the battle were you?"
To her relief, he shook his head. "We've only just arrived recently, word getting back to the Federation that it's over and that people need help. They're moving Wigglytuff and a few of the most injured first. Looks like everyone's accounted for, no one's died."
Yet hung in the air between them, or maybe just her.
She was happy he hadn't been here for the fight. He was too gentle for that.
He had been the first pokémon to aspire to stopping her reign of terror and stop her for good. Yet, never once had he even tried to fight her. He'd come to her, claws large but blunt, eyes firm but kind, and had used words rather than moves to defeat her.
He had even tried to reason with Nelia.
He was still talking as she stared out into nothing, her ears picking up his words but her mind failing to make sense of them. She heard his tone rather than his words. Calm, hopeful, even proud. She was happy he was mindless in the cages. To remember was a burden.
Did that mean he wasn't strong enough to withstand The Shadow? To waver at the point of absolution and be crushed by the eternal weight of an unspeakable entity. Was that a weakness?
What was wrong with her to wonder that?
She didn't realise it at first, but warmth enveloped her, around her shoulders and over her chest. She didn't realise at first, stuck in her own thoughts, before jerking back to reality and realising she was being hugged.
He was still speaking, but his tone had changed. She still couldn't understand the words, but his tone spoke for him. Concern, worry, gratefulness, more hope.
She wished she could feel that too.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, softly, not sure what exactly she was apologising for but knew there must be a bucket list of things to check off that way.
He was still speaking, tone shifting more towards worry and reassurance. It was nice. She leaned into it even.
Closing her eyes brought her back to standing on legs too long, blasting entropic annihilation upon the enemy of all things and enjoying every ounce of pain she returned to the devil herself.
She had never wanted to hurt anyone.
She wondered what was wrong with her again.
However, as Spire's soft words continued she slowly allowed them to encroach her thoughts and bury the unspeakable things in layers of softness and warmth. It was too much to face all at once. It was too much to face at all at the moment.
She was tired. Her eyes closed.
As survival sunk in, the pokémon had begun to call her The Saviour. As Spire lifted Soothe in his arms, all he could see was someone who had walked the hardest road anyone had ever suffered and come out the other side.
She was not okay, he could see that plain as day.
As he began to carry her away, towards the teleporters he did still hold onto a small simple hope.
He'd told her it once, promised it without saying 'I Promise' but meaning them all the same.
"One day you'll look back on this and know you survived it. That it's over. One day you'll be okay."