Slowly, she came to awareness.
It was very bright around her.
It was very dark.
It was neither, actually.
As she adjusted, her malleable mind realised it was in an infinite expanse of clear. It nearly might have broken under that, had she had a brain to begin with.
Cornelia Evergreen.
Nelia looked in the possible idea of up sharply at the voice that permeated all things.
"Arceus," she said, lowly. She could see her arms again, her fur, her being of self.
Now the void around her was translated more white, as white as Arceus' fur. It was easier to endure than endless clear.
Arceus gazed at she who called herself Fallen in a deep silence for a long time.
Watch.
It said.
Listen. Witness It.
She could see, but not act. See as the Abomination thrashed blindly, sat vapidly, did nothing unless struck first.
She watched as her plan failed. Her own heart, unworthy in its pokémon nature, was unable to hold The Shadow in place enough, that strikes from the humans and her own mithril weapon destroyed Its invulnerability and annihilated it.
She watched it until it was over.
You Have Failed.
Nelia was silent for a long time, tasting the bitterness of the situation, felt the sting of everything coming to nothing in the end. Three thousand years of perseverance, victory within her very fingers, come to nothing.
"Where am I?" she hissed. "What is this place? Purgatory? Am I to be subjected to your miserable presence for eternity?"
This Place Is A Crossroads.
She was a little surprised at Arceus answering her, Its voice level and steady.
"A crossroads? There is a place to go?"
Here Is Where Life Comes When Their Time Has Ended. Here, Three Options Are Given.
It faced behind her.
To Go Back, Those Souls Lose Much Of Who There Were. The Stronger Of Which Return As Ghost Pokémon, With Scraps Of Memory, Of Who They Were, Retained.
It faced another direction.
Sometimes They Head Forth. Where That Goes, I Do Not Know. That Way Is Barred To Me And None Who Go Return.
It then faced her.
You Are Not Being Given A Choice.
She sneered at the creator. "I could have guessed," she scoffed.
Arceus simply floated there, here, everywhere.
Nelia grew twitchy under the cool gaze of the entity that she had worked so dangerously against.
"Disgusted with me, are you?" she asked. "You look at me like you noticed some scum under your hoof that you don't know how long has been there."
A Fitting Comparison, Is That Not?
She sneered again. "That's why I said it. For a so-called god you are easy to read."
You See The Things You Want To See.
Arceus replied, shaking Its head slowly.
You Saw It In The Shadow. You Saw It In The People Around You. The World Around You. In Me. You Create Your Own Narrative And Decide It Is True.
"That's what being alive is."
To You, Perhaps.
Its gaze was firm.
You Have Seen The Results Of The Battle. Of The Reality Of The Being You Called Your Master. Do You Understand Now, Cornelia Evergreen?
"Do not call me that."
You Avoid The Question.
Nelia twitched more in place, but she was pulled into replying regardless of how much she hated this. "It's an animal, isn't it?" she hissed hatefully. "A useless beast. It just stood there, doing nothing. Merely standing there was destroying everything, but there was no thought, only reactionary instinct. I thought…."
You Thought The Shadow Was A Grand Intelligence. You Thought It Being My Sibling Gave It An Affordance Of Concept Of Mind And Will. You Mistook Its Relentless Determination To Invade Reality As Cunning Intelligence.
Arceus was drawing closer.
You Felt Instinct From It As You Connected With The Shadow On Those Ancient Days And Created Meaning From What You Felt, Justifying The Lack Of True Communication As Your Own Inability To Hear What A Being So Great Could Say. You Formed Your Own Narrative And Crafted A Plan Believing It To Be Divine Guidance.
And closer.
When In Truth You Were Enacting The Wants Of A Mindless Force. Single-Minded Determination To Invade Because It Hungers For Light. It Can Never Be Repelled Because It Cannot Understand That It Will Fail Forever. You Served An Animal, Cornelia Evergreen, And Called It A God.
Had she had blood, she would be white as a sheet below her fur.
As it stood, Nelia was only speechless. Her mind screamed in defiance, that Arceus lied and was only the final dastardly trick to make her give up.
She was already dead, however.
And she had seen it for her own eyes, the mindless action of the Abomination using her body.
Excuses and justifications ran through her mind regardless, but they all ran into holes and the flaws destroyed them all.
Three thousand years….
Do You Regret Your Actions?
Nelia looked up sharply, hatred bubbling in her eyes that could be mistaken for tears.
She was silent for a brief moment.
"I regret following the Shadow," she whispered.
A Clever Response, Not Answering My Question Truly. You Regret Believing In Its Guidance, That I Can See. Do You Regret What You Have Done?
Silence again.
Slowly, Nelia began to smile. "Tell me something first," she asked. "Was I close?" she whispered breathlessly.
Arceus took Its turn to deliberate on her question, debating whether even to answer it at all.
You Came Closer Than Any Other.
It said.
Nelia laughed. "A clever response, not answering my question truly. Was I close to destroying it all? Everything that ever was? All that you created?"
Yes.
The frankness of the response knocked her off balance for a moment, but just a moment.
She nodded with a smile. "No. I don't regret a thing. My plan worked, every step of the way until the very, very, end. I just planned for the wrong thing."
Arceus stared into her for a very long time.
Your Honesty Is Acceptable. You Wish To Anger Me, Or Perhaps Just To Leave Me Disgusted. All I Feel For You Is Pity, Cornelia Evergreen. No One Will Mourn You.
"I will be remembered," she whispered, as soft as velvet.
Let That Be Your Only Victory.
"That's all I ever wanted," she crooned, sinking her teeth into vile smugness if only to spoil their victory. "Then, I…?"
A curious expression crossed her face and she looked down at her body. "What is this…?"
Her body was slowly fading, and she looked up sharply. "What is this?"
There Are Three Choices.
Arceus said.
To Go Back. To Go Forwards. Or To Stay Here.
It was so close to her, she leaned back.
You Are Not Being Given A Choice.
"What is here?" she hissed.
Here Is The Crossing. The Aternum. Here Is The Void Of Creation. This Is Finality, Cornelia Evergreen. All Things Here Become Null. Even The Shadow Itself. All Things Become A Part Of The Void Of Creation If They Remain Too Long. Annihilated Completely. This Is Your Fate.
Suddenly, panic gripped her as she realised that being remembered was all well and fine when she had potential backup plans, but utter annihilation?
The complete erasure of all that she ever was?
Discarded into true oblivion?
"You… you're lying to me."
I Am Not.
Nelia reached out suddenly, Arceus was so close if she could just grab It and-
It was gone.
It was forever away.
And she was stranded in oblivion, swiftly fading away into the Void of Creation.
She chuckled softly.
Was it really over?
It really was over?
It was really over.
It Is Over, Nelia.
Treasure Town.
A small little jewel on the western coastline of the Grass Continent.
Here you'll find the prestigious Wigglytuff Guild, always willing to lend a hand, paw, or whatever appendage they have to offer some help.
The guild is the first landmark to spot on your approach from either the land or the sea, a big pink wigglytuff head staring excitedly up towards the sky.
Sky's the limit, they never say.
There are no limits!
It has a cluster of feathers nailed into the building like a puff of fur, nailed in with a strong metal spike, a thorn made of tempered iron.
Lying like a trap hole before the guild is a grate thatched with smoothed wood, no need for splinters. Your footprint will be read to identify what species you are and ensure there is no one matching your description that might be a little dangerous running about.
It's an odd system, really, but it's cultural to the place and has been surprisingly effective. Pokémon train in the guild for many things, but identifying footprints of countless pokémon make them expert trackers, able to determine footprints to the exact pokémon they are tracking.
Like most, but not all, things silly in Treasure Town, there's a reason for it.
The guild is made of two main levels with some offshoots. The entrance to the guild doesn't really count as a floor as it's just a slope down into the guild. The first floor is open to everyone, you'll find notice boards for pokémon looking for work, as well as a few small businesses that have cropped up and plenty of pokémon to talk to.
Team Glee has begun a show of sorts that is held weekly, talking about current events, gossip, all with a light-hearted and funny spin to things.
There are plans to expand this floor a little further, make it a melting pot of activity, but for now, it is what it is. The Swap Cauldron has been moved up here since it was dislodged. Turns out, Croagunk is actually pretty happy staying with the guild regardless of being able to move the cauldron or not.
Further down, come to the guild-only area. No real secrets to be had here, just bureaucratic things that don't need strangers stumbling through.
Paperwork in a few offices, the medical wing, a list of outlaws for the sentries, the messroom, and the guild sleeping quarters can all be found here.
It's still open to anyone who wants to wander down here, although Chatot will get very flappy flustered if too many people come knocking on the Guildmaster's door.
Legendary Team's Ion, Sunrise, Flame, and Voyage have all come through this guild. Technically Team Sunrise are still part of the guild, but they also were never true apprentices in the intended meaning of that.
You can see the rooms they slept in. Well, technically only Team Sunrise as the guild was destroyed twice before, but the spirit is there.
There's a not-so-secret tunnel out of the guild as well, there to be used for evacuation if the need ever arises.
It has once before, hopefully never again.
Outside the guild is a long set of stairs, you'll need to climb them to reach the guild. Where the sentry gate stands is the signs of intense fire, rocks left scorched for some memorial.
Upon where the cliff overlooks a sea, a headstone stands. If it was once a grave, it isn't anymore. Instead, it's a memory that inscribes on it important names.
So, a grave in a sense, just not for the one it was intended for.
If you don't want to come to the guild yet, there is a lot yet to discover. Treasure Town was placed on the map thanks to the Wigglytuff Guild, but it existed before the guild did!
Upon reaching the town you'll find yourself at the crossroads and three directions to take. To go left is to follow a winding path that leads to a gorgeous beachfront, Lapras sometimes gather there if off work. There's a dungeon there, but it's easily spotted and easily avoided.
If you come back to the beach at dusk, you'll find krabby blowing bubbles which catches on the sunlight to create a rainbow display. It's a very peaceful place to wind down and relax at.
The right path is what takes you to the guild.
If you're paralysed with indecision, then there's a cute underground care right at the crossroads. Sit down, have a drink, trade some items at Project P, and get to know some of the regulars in town.
Best not to try the Spinda Special. It set a celebi on fire and intoxicated the Legendary Lucario, not for lightweights or people with biological digestive systems!
Once you traverse the entrance to the town, you'll feel right at home. There's a bank and a few shops, you'll find Marowak's Dojo, who taught Team Ion everything they know apparently!
The town is a little ramshackle at the moment, this is true.
The bank has a few holes, the Dojo got mostly collapsed, the Daycare was burned down to the bedrock and there's a lot of unfortunate holes in the ground.
Pokémon are hard at work picking up where things left off, however.
It's true what you've heard, it has been the centre of a couple disasters on the Grass Continent recently. All the more reason to visit and see history! They persevered and won the day.
If you go all the way through town, past the river, past the storage facility, you'll find Sharpedo Bluff. It's a public place, but people do live here so please don't be too intrusive.
Team Ion make their home here, but the home itself is private property so respect that please.
Treasure Town is rebuilding.
In the centre of town a bust has been pulled up, of the old founder of the town Elder Torkoal, or Hearth as his name is placed on the statue. Hearth built the town many, many, years ago and guided it up to the attack of the Fallen, where he gave his life to save all he could.
His sacrifice bought the survivors days of time and was directly responsible for the regrouping and ultimate downfall of the wicked one.
On the bust, lies a few simple words.
Treasure Town is not its buildings.
Treasure Town is its people.
Treasure Town lives as long as its people do.
And its people never gave in.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
Soothe sat quietly with Rhythm and Trill, discussing things in his throne room.
The name was inaccurate, the throne had been lost in Nelia's attack and Rhythm, relieved if he was to admit it, took just a normal comfortable armchair to replace it.
They now called it his throne room just to tease him.
Rhythm had recovered as best as he could from the final battle. He was out of the bandages now, fur had filled in mostly. He had some new scars underneath to replace the scar that she had left on him, the one on his stomach that disappeared when he became a Shadow Pokémon.
He hadn't come out of the final battle unscathed, however. Damage to his lungs left him breathless on too much exertion and he couldn't breathe too deeply without falling into a coughing fit.
She hadn't asked what that meant for the Yoom-TAH. She knew what it meant and didn't need to bring it up.
Despite it all, she hadn't seen him so happy in many years.
To be fair, she hadn't seen him at all in many years, but the principle still counted. Trill shared with her that he hadn't seen Rhythm so truly happy in so long.
Most pokémon had come out of the final battle fairly okay. No one had died, except Nelia, which was almost unbelievable. Word had spread about Soothe's oathing to Nelia that she would not allow her to kill anyone else and that was the final nail in the coffin, so to speak.
People called her the Saviour to her face now.
It was very disconcerting and left her wildly uncomfortable.
She almost wanted to tell people her name was Victory, or Victoria, or… well, not Saviour. Everyone already knew Soothe was her name.
Besides that, it had been a nice time in Treasure Town. Residing in the guild, in the place she had dreamed of being in. Chimecho had been convinced to NOT exile herself in shame, but she had pulled away from her many duties in the guild and primary acted as their representative in the Psychic Network.
That led cook up for grabs, no one had quite managed to fill that spot properly yet. Paperwork was easily covered by Trill, being scary was filled by Chitin who hadn't managed to slink off yet.
And nurse with Soothe.
She had Spire as a surprisingly-good assistant. She called him a PCA, which no one could work out what that stood for exactly.
It was agreed that the P had to stand for Pokémon, however.
Despite the comfort of the place….
"When?" Trill asked as they had lapsed into a sad sort of silence.
She gave a vague shrug. "Soon, I reckon. The longer I wait, the harder it'll be to find them. More chance they could hurt someone, or even get hurt themselves. I have to find them, save the rest of the Shadow Pokémon."
Rhythm nodded. It had not been a surprise when Soothe brought this up, really just a matter of when not if. She had a heart that not even Nelia had managed to lock away completely.
"You know you'll always have a home here," Rhythm said brightly, he was smiling despite his sadness. Not trying to hide it, his eyes sparkled with a few tears, but it was a proud sort of sadness, and nor was it a goodbye.
"Any time you need to take a rest," Trill added with a firm nod. "Or anytime at all, really, hee-hee." His eyes were bright too and his beak wobbled. "Oh, goodness, excuse me I think something's in my eyes."
"What's in your eyes?" Soothe asked.
"TEARS!"
Trill flapped up and grabbed her in a feathery hug, babbling. Soothe smiled and hugged him back, before being entrapped in a wider, stronger, grip as Rhythm joined in as well.
She might have been tearing up herself, no one could prove anything.
Today wouldn't be the day she would go, and probably not tomorrow either. Soon, however, soon.
"I hear you're planning to leave?" Spire asked, a little later.
"Funny how soon word spreads," Soothe replied, they were having lunch together.
"Nine times out of ten it's you who spread it," Spire said.
"And nine times out of the remaining one it's Sunflora."
Team Voyage were still around as well, helping the town rebuild, working hard.
They continued nibbling at their food.
"Where do you plan to go first?" Spire asked.
"Probably after Pyroar," Soothe replied. "He's bound to be the most difficult. The rest won't be too hard to find, as long as the word is spread and understood enough to capture the Shadow Pokémon until I can arrive."
"I see."
"Hm."
They lapsed into a comfortable silence, but one that held something unfinished.
Spire swallowed. "Do you think you'd need a brave, strong, pokémon to help guard you?"
"Reckon no one's gonna touch me and keep all their digits."
"What about an up-and-coming healer?"
One of her ear scopes twitched.
Spire smiled. "How about a friend?"
She considered him as if it was a hard choice. "A friend would be nice, where do you find those that aren't running the world?"
"Not sure, just around I think."
"Just around you say?"
"Yeah."
She nodded. "Yeah. I think so."
Spire rested his head on his paw. "I guess I'll start packing."
"Bold."
"And brash."
Soothe chuckled. "Thanks."
She wasn't sure she understood why he was so forgiving of her, but she wouldn't question it. She was beginning to get it, just a little bit.
Scout purred as Rai licked his ear slowly.
Team Ion were taking a well-earned, completely innocent, nap together, laying in a strip of sun coming through the teeth of Sharpedo Bluff.
Scout nibbled sleepily on Mane's paw and Mane had pushed his head in between Rai and Scout's bellies.
They were a tangle of limbs, and probably looked most uncomfortable, but it was far from it. Nothing was more comfortable.
Eventually Rai stirred and slipped out of the pile cautiously, trying not to wake them.
The lack of Rai was noticed, however, and slowly Scout and Mane returned to the realm of awakeness.
"Where's Rai?" Scout said sleepily.
"He's gone, it's cold, so sad," Mane replied sadly, crawling on Scout. "Comfort me, please."
Scout laughed quietly and hugged Mane and gave his neck a lick. Mane purred in one way, and then purred in question.
"Not now," Scout mumbled, just enjoying hugging Mane for a bit.
Mane leaned into it and they continued to snooze for a while before Mane sighed and rolled off Scout. Disturbed by the removal of warm pressure, Scout stirred and yawned.
"What time is it?" he asked.
Mane looked out through the teeth. The sun was still in the sky, but was trending towards setting. "Past midday at least."
Scout came to all fours and plodded up by Mane and sat with him, staring out over the ocean.
"It's nice that we can look at this stuff," Mane said.
"It's a great view." Scout smiled. He was looking at Mane and Mane detected the look and grinned at him.
He nuzzled Scout and their paws tangled slightly on the ground, Mane's left paw being between Scout's while Scout's right was in between Mane's, leaning against each other.
"Remember when we first met?" Scout said. "Properly, rather than dragging your unconscious ass back to town."
"You were totally into me."
Scout laughed, "I was, actually."
Mane brightened. "What? Really?"
Scout nodded. "Honestly, yeah. I could have asked a lot of people to get me that apple, but you were interesting. Guess I was a little drawn to you, you acted nothing like any other pokémon I'd met."
"I am pretty amazing."
"Always were."
Mane smiled, eyes slipping closed. "I never really knew what to make of you until the Dark Future. You really didn't think much of yourself, but I saw the way Rai looked at you and couldn't understand why you were so closed off."
"I wonder about that too," Scout hummed. "I guess I know now, trauma from Soothe being passed onto me. But still, that can't be the only reason."
Mane bobbed his shoulders. "Hard to tell, you're a bit of a mess of people, haa."
"What's the count now? Sean, Scout, Soothe, bit of shadow demon although not anymore maybe, Darkrai as well. He still did something to make me a Dark-type. Good thing you and Rai can put up with that."
Mane licked his cheek. "Good thing we love you for it all, not in spite of it."
Scout smiled, leaning into it. "We're all a bit screwed up. Thanks for always…."
Mane smiled, leaning in as well. "Same here."
"You two look cute," Rai giggled, his soft pawsteps nearly silent as he came back down. Scout and Mane looked back a one and smiled at him.
"All around me, all I see is cute," Scout said.
"Little bit of sexy too," Mane purred, waggling his eyebrows.
Scout licked his cheek, distracting him for Rai to pounce on him.
Mane blushed as Rai grinned at him and licked his nose. "You're cute."
"And sexy," Scout added.
"That too."
Team Ion were back.
Sean sat with his legs hanging over the edge of a drop to the sea.
He wasn't alone, which is why he was comfortable to hang so close to the edge.
"I think I want to see my parents again," Sean said.
He'd lost count of the years, difficult to tell the turning of time when he had no clock to track it with.
It had been at least six years since he'd stepped out on his journey at last, at the tender age of twelve.
Striker was the first to respond to that. "Should we ask Giratina if it's possible to repeat the process that brought you here?"
"I call dibs on punching Gabriel in the face, because I swear I'll find him."
Sean looked up. "You want to come with?"
"What do you take us for?" Guardian said, deeply amused at the genuine relief on Sean's face. "Did you think we wouldn't want to?"
Sean blushed under his fur and glanced down. "It's just a big thing to ask, leave the world you were all hatched in and fought so much to save."
"I'd like to see the place you came from," Striker said firmly. "Meet your parents. See what turned you into the kid that wound up in the Dark Future, who had the strength to save the world."
"It was hardly just me," Sean said loudly.
"Us too," Scout said, raising his paw. "I also mean go to your world. Keira knew Ash, Ash is followed by Team Rocket. I want to meet Team Rocket."
"Wouldn't that sue us for stealing their motto?" Rai asked seriously.
"Wouldn't they also try and steal you?" Mane asked seriously.
They both grinned. "Sounds fun."
"Gawd we could use a break," Scout groaned, leaning back. "Three times. Three times we saved the world. I think it might not be a bad idea to go somewhere else before something else decides to happen."
"That surely wouldn't happen so early," Guardian said, floating over.
"I have no idea how soon Dark Matter will do the thing, but since you mentioned that egg Carracosta and Ampharos found in Serene Village, I don't think it'll be THAT long."
Sean shuddered. "Should we… mmm, maybe not if something else is going to happen?"
"Absolutely we should go!" Saniya said loudly. "It's not our job to save the world every time. That's not even our story, really now is it? There are other heroes."
Sean and Rai chuckled. "Jessica was something to be sure, wasn't she?"
In the wake of the final battle and the slow return to Treasure Town, Lapras had arrived with a strike force at his back. Carrying specialists from Paradise, including the legendary human-turned-dewott Jessica herself.
They'd arrived after everything was already finished and Jessica had made a strong point to grouch about that before putting on a nicer face and greeting Sean as an equal.
It had hardly been twenty minutes later that Pokémon Square fighters had shown up as well with Team Go-Getters leading the charge.
The impromptu first meeting of the four humans, Dimitri, Jessica, Sean, and Victoria had happened moments later.
Soothe and Jessica immediately nodded to each other in wary respect while Sean and Dimitri got along like a house on fire. Discussions of making some sort of human council were raised, but nothing set in stone was decided then and there.
Manpower from Paradise and Pokémon Square helped across the Grass Continent as the Fallen had attacked far more than just Treasure Town, the rebuilding of Blackstone Village would be even more difficult due to the increased damage and isolation.
As Tempo was brought out and purified by Soothe, the rebuilding of the Clefable Guild could begin, although that Guildmaster was under pressure by authorities for her actions under Shadow Corruption on her prisoners.
A bunch of murdered prisoners did not go unnoticed, and discussions were tense and difficult about how much blame Tempo could actually be afforded for her actions.
Politics that Soothe kept far away from, even as calls for the Saviour to weigh became louder.
"You really think it's time for a break?" Sean asked.
"Absolutely," Mane replied, the first to do so as everyone else nodded. "We're all more than a little fucked up after everything that went down, and Azumarill's not even around to listen to our problems."
"She wants some time with her sons, it's okay," Scout said. Azumarill had taken Azurill and Marill and left town. Not forever, just a family excursion just the three of them. Spend time with her family that she'd almost lost.
No one could begrudge that.
Although Soothe's big ears picked up on a lot of comments and she occasionally took pokémon aside to the nurses quarters to talk a little in private.
"Do you think it's really over?" Mane asked.
He'd told them what happened when Rumble and Kogeki attacked.
Mane hadn't slain his brother, Rumble was far too strong to defeat without a lot of preparation. Rather, he'd modulated him enough to slow him down and bolted, just barely managing to escape. Rumble hadn't shown up since.
Part of Mane was anxious about that, part of him just hoped Rumble would go and never show his face again. Soothe was muttering about tracking down all the Shadow Pokémon, and a few had already been captured and healed, but Rumble would be a lot trickier to manage.
He almost felt responsible for that, but also just wanted that to be in the past and stay in the past.
"I think it is," Rai said firmly. Team Ion had found a deeper bonding in the wake of Nelia, learning from Scout and Soothe that she was responsible in a way for all three of them.
Her meddling leading to Scout.
Her release of a manectric that wound up killing Rai's family.
And working with Mane's mother and being responsible for her corruption as well.
Adversity had a way of things, that was for sure.
"It is," Scout said, he leaned against Rai and Mane, enjoying their warmth, their smell, their everything.
Team Ion smiled and nuzzled in.
"I'd love to be able to relax and not wonder what next will happen," Scout said. "If there's a way to go to your world, and still come back as well, it would be amazing. Just imagine, seeing another world like that! What an adventure."
Rai hummed in agreement.
"What about your father?" Saniya asked. Parents were important to her, she felt strongly for Sean's desire to see them again, Mane had none, Scout had Guardian, and Trill.
Rai's father had come back to life.
Rai didn't seem all that affected by it, however.
"There's not a whole lot to say," Rai sighed. Arashi and Kogeki had stayed in Treasure Town for a fair while, but not forever. "I never knew him."
"Don't you want to?"
Rai nodded. "I do. Which is why I agree about what Scout said. If we can come back as well. I think Kogeki will be a lot like Arashi, though. Always moving and wandering. I had a good time getting to know him here, but I don't know if I see him as my dad, exactly."
He blinked and smiled at Guardian. "Pretty sure I already have one in 'spirit' anyway."
"Daddy Dusky is the best," Mane purred, winking. Before sobering up with a genuine smile. "That meant a lot when you said that, though."
When he said they were his kids too.
Guardian was a little misty-eyed and took them all into a big hug.
Team Ion chuckled, it was impossible to imagine Guardian trying to end the world just, what, not even two years ago? Then again, he'd do anything for those he cared for.
Kogeki had been drawn into the fancy talk and energy that Krokorok and Totodile carried and chose to go with them for the time being. Rai was sad to see him go, but he counted a couple months with his father to be more than he could have ever asked for.
It wasn't a goodbye, either, just a see-you-later.
"Shall we do it then?" Striker asked. "Giratina can't really leave the Reverse Distortion, but that won't stop us from going in."
"How mad do you reckon they'll be?" Saniya chuckled. "We might be able to pull a Dialga and just bother Giratina until we get what we want."
"There's something to be said of bothering entities that maintain the very fabric of reality for transportation," Sean laughed. "I'm not sure what that is."
"Quality, that's what."
Sean smiled, looking out to the horizon. The world felt a lot brighter, he had a silver sword with a few cracks through it by his side, and he wondered about what Cara had said of his meeting with Arceus. About Keira.
Scout looked out to the horizon as well. The world was beautiful.
Striker looked out across the waves to where the sun kissed the sea, a good thing to have fought for.
Guardian looked out not to the horizon, but those close to him. They were his world, he was happy the still had a world of their own to live in.
Saniya just stared down the light of the sun, feeling the sea breeze on her face.
Rai looked back towards Treasure Town, wondering where his family had gone off to. Before being reminded that he had them right next to him.
Mane had his eyes closed, curled up with an unrestrained smile of contentment on his face.
Time finished up here, they stirred Mane and he sprinted back into town, hunger in his belly. Sean and Striker raced after him, and Saniya teleported ahead to cheat.
Leaving Rai, Scout, and Guardian to walk together.
"How are you holding up?" Scout asked Rai. Since Kogeki and Arashi had left again, Rai had been a little more affected by it then he showed on the outside.
"I'm okay," Rai sighed with a smile, knowing how well Scout could see. "I'll miss them, I wish I got more time, but he's alive again. I always wanted to have any time at all with my parents, so knowing I can see him again? It makes it okay."
He also turned a smile to Guardian. "I know a little bit more what it's like to have a parent around anyway."
Guardian's eye flickered a little in abashed happiness.
Rai and Scout's tails slowly entwined as they walked. "I can't believe the chaos is over," Rai said. "I can't wait to have a break from all this world-saving stress. I nearly evolved from it all, you know?"
Scout raised an eyebrow. "I didn't. You nearly evolved?"
Rai blinked, not realising this hadn't come up already. "Yeah, it was when Ara and I were fighting Kogeki. When we overpowered the lightning clash I nearly evolved, she did. I used the evolution surge to strengthen my attack instead."
"You didn't want to evolve?"
Rai shook his head. "I'd be so much bigger than you and Mane! Imagine me as a luxray." He laughed. "That'd be a little silly."
Scout frowned, feeling a little bad. He didn't want to evolve, and Rai knew that. Was he holding back on them because of-
"I can see what's going on in your head," Rai said, bopping him gently. "Don't think like that. I've got no attachment to evolving. For my line it doesn't really change much, I'd just get bigger."
"Would you evolve if we did?" Scout asked.
Rai nodded. "I would, but that doesn't mean that I feel like I'm stuck as a shinx. We do things as a team, I'm happy either way." He licked Scout on the nose, leaving a tingly feeling. "Okay?"
Scout slowly smiled and nodded. "Okay. Thanks, Rai."
Rai nuzzled him. "Always."
They approached the group, the runners had been held up with a conversation with Kangaskhan. She was still her lovely old self, she'd been given a nasty set of burns during the attack on the town and had some pain lingering from that, yet she smiled genuinely anyway.
"Truly, I am proud," she said, feeling all the way like a proud grandmother. It felt really nice to have her smile like that, and she pulled everyone into a hug.
Team Sunrise had worked a lot for her, and she'd seen Team Ion from their very beginning, the first person to see Scout and Rai, and Mane too, in the one spot.
After hugging it out, Sean turned to the collected pokémon with a grin, Saniya came wandering back through the sky when she realised she'd just left everyone behind.
"So, shall we bother the Creation Dragons again?"
And… that's it.
I feel a lot of things.
I have a nice song playing in the background, there's a smile pulling at my lips but my chest feels a little heavy.
I'm happy, and also a little sad.
It sure feels different to know you're approaching the end, and to actually write the final lines. I mean, I'll probably add a bit to this chapter before I actually post it, but that's editing, improving, and such.
Not the ending that I feel.
Ending….
Well, it's the end of an arc and, yes, the end of Warped Skies. No secret fourth arc where we get the Fallen's long lost twin come to finish her evil work, hahaha. Nope, Warped Skies is done.
Does that mean the story is over?
Well, for those who have come THIS far and have read so much, you will probably be happy to hear that no, the story is not over.
Where do things go from here though? I have three things, as well as a blurry fourth. The fourth is Warped Times and Darkness. Exploring things that Warped Skies didn't in deleted scenes as well as the other stuff. Only actually posted one chapter to that at the moment, but now that Warped Skies is over I'll post more to it.
That's bonus content (oh and we WILL have a few bonus chapters after this, but they are backstory stuff and so are a true bonus, not a continuation).
So, what is next then?
First up, I'll be doing a major edit of the entire story and releasing each Arc as separate, improved, versions. The story itself won't be changed too much, but taking what I have learned and spoken to my readers about, I know what things could be changed for the better and I want to do it.
So, if you're interested let me know stuff that you feel could be improved, changed, done better and such. I'll review everything seriously, I have good ideas but hearing more won't hurt I hope.
That's not quite the stuff you're all itching for, hopefully :P
First up, Team Ion and Team Sunrise travelling to the human world. They'll be crossing into my Trainer Fic eventually. With WS being done, I'll start working and posting that story properly and in the future of THAT story, when its timeline syncs up to where Warped Skies is, they will appear.
Much more relaxing story, comedy rather than bone-chilling horrors like Nelia was, hah.
The other thing that I hope people will be excited about is a sequel. An actual sequel, I don't entirely count the crossover into Roundabouts to be a true sequel although it also sort of is.
I have a lot to say on the matter of sequels and no better time to talk about it.
See, Arc 3 originally was WILDLY different to what it ended up being. Chapter 80 is the divergent point.
I had ideas from the very beginning of the story, even before twists like Scout and Sean being different people, I had a lingering little idea of how the protagonist could know the games. Even before Soothe existed, I had the little seed of a thought that the protagonist would not be quite who they thought they were.
Originally, Scout was going to be The Shadow. Not the whole thing, but his soul was entirely replaced by The Shadow, basically, a Shadow Creature made into a pokémon. I didn't go with that idea in the end. There were two reasons, it's pretty similar to a plot twist in another huge PMD story, I haven't read the one in particular, but I've read about it and learned that twist happened and thought, "Dang, I didn't know but it'll look like I'm just copying."
More than that, however, was just a bad feeling about it. It felt like a pretty hopeless plot point and would have led to a pretty 'bad' ending. So, originally Soothe was going to die in Chapter 80. She was going to reveal this to Scout, they'd fight, and he'd wind up killing her. I came to like Soothe's character as I was playing around with it in other things, and that mixed with my growing dislike of the 'required' ending which would be a Scout sacrifice to destroy Nelia, I wanted to change it.
To be clear, I had a sequel in mind where Arceus would give Scout thanks and another chance at life for all that he did, leading into an entirely original story where Scout would be reborn with just a 'prophecy' in his mind, as a purrloin, and he and his shiny half sister zorua (and yep, that would be Soothe) would try and figure out what that was, leading to them both regaining themselves and coming back to Treasure Town.
I liked the idea, but I disliked how it would have to come about and the years in between Team Ion and Sunrise would go through before Scout came back.
So, I discussed it all with my beta and decided to change it. Scout became a carrier for The Shadow, rather than The Shadow itself, and Soothe would survive.
Much happier with that. SO MUCH HAPPIER.
A sequel will come. Can't say when exactly, I am going to take a break and do some other writing for a while, let the sequel ideas come to me naturally as they have been. I had been on the fence if I would do one, but enough ideas has come to me that I've decided I want to do it.
It won't be as long as Warped Skies, TRUST ME. Every single time I've ever made a prediction for how long a story would be was wrong, but I cannot imagine three arcs and well over a million words for the sequel.
It'll still likely be pretty big! But not WS doorstopper levels of long.
And yes, it'll be set in Super. I intentionally layered up a couple things unresolved in WS just in case I wanted to go for it.
Mane's brother, and father.
What happened to Team Gazer, hmmm ^_-
The Expedition Society being warned about Dark Matter in advance. The retrieval of the water.
What Regigigas was trying to say, and ultimately even leaving Aegis Cave.
Soothe and Spire going off together to hunt for Shadow Pokémon.
And so on. I wasn't sure if I'd have enough to do with the story to be worthwhile, but I've worked out enough that I'm confident in saying that I will. Eventually.
Now. For the big demon in the room, let me talk about Nelia, the First Fallen.
Ah, Nelia.
I rate her as the most repugnant villain I've crafted over the years, she has some competition from a few, but I reckon she beats them out.
I really… had fun with Nelia's character.
She first came to me partway in Arc 1, just the barest vision of a shadowy figure wearing some cloak to disguise their appearance, and a name The First Fallen.
Originally, she was considered to be The Grand Master of All Things Bad (she and Rhythm would be separate characters, but she'd be a wigglytuff). The idea was amusing, but was scrapped fairly quickly.
I considered two other identities. An actual human who was somehow still alive, and a female meowstic.
I was keen on Meowstic because it checked every box. Bipedal, had a gender difference (and this was important because I had worked out she was Scout's 'mother' and thus having a strong difference felt like), was a Psychic-type that could cause lots of telekinetic trouble, and mirrored Team Ion by being a feline.
However, then Gen 8 was revealed, and I saw indeedee.
It was even better. Checked the other ones, but mirrored Soothe instead. Since indeedee totally look like some sort of galarian offshoot of audino.
As we learned more, it only got better. Normal-type, so that's a unique enemy, and feeds on gratitude. Who would expect someone who literally lives off people being grateful to them to be evil? It was a great disguise and allowed me to delve into the true twisted leanings of someone like that.
I originally didn't plan out a backstory for Nelia. I feared that if I built her one, I'd come to sympathise with her and I KNEW The First Fallen had to be utterly monstrous, a true demon with nothing redeeming or acceptable about them at all.
However, ideas slowly came to me and I was able to construct a characterisation of history that made her even worse.
I might actually write a short, multi-chaptered, story that does delve into her backstory and post it as a separate thing. Might not. We'll see.
She wasn't born evil, no.
She was a normal indeedee once.
She tasted the pain of someone's death and the pain of that was like a hit of a drug.
She actually is very reminiscent of the worst sort of addiction. She grew hooked on the feeling of others pain, uncaring of how sick it was making her, and slowly her morals eroded to try and reach that high again and again.
That's the one tragedy of the Fallen. Any sympathy she had, however, fades the moment she starts hurting others to get that fix, and disappears entirely when she went to the Shadow. She was dying, after all, from the toxin build-up of pain and rather than let herself die, she turned to the darkness to regenerate her body so she could continue doing what she was doing and grew to obsess over the monstrousness she had tithed herself too.
I enjoyed how the intensity of the final enemy appeared to go down as the arcs went on.
From Primal Dialga, a full-on deity, to Darkrai, more of a lesser god, and then to just this little indeedee. Yet the actual difficulty only rose, as did the malevolence.
Nelia was very fun to write when she was playing around with someone. Talking with Trill, with Sean, with Melody later. This faux-kindly nature that raised the tension of the scene just because the readers KNOW she's the absolute worst and could do something to anyone at any moment.
Her reveal was probably a bit too random, and is one of the things I'm going to try and do a little better in the rewrite. Make the reveal hit a bit harder. Nothing will hit like Melody's reveal as a Shadow Pokémon, I reckon, but I could still make it a bit more satisfying.
Hope you enjoyed her as a villain.
After feedback on Darkrai I wanted to make her super active as well and be a force to be reckoned with.
Guardian has like one actual fight against him, in the Hidden Land, and Darkrai has two. They both their fights.
Nelia has a dominant eight. Team Voyage, Sean, Rhythm, Blossom, Cara, Team Ion + Sunrise + Cara, the Team With No Name, and then Soothe. And that's NOT counting Blackstone Village, Banette and Torkoal, and Giratina as 'fights' either.
She only loses the one fight, against Sean, and only because she came out of that as the loser, rather than actually being defeated. Then, of course, against Soothe after literally the entire cast of the story has gone through her and drained her.
She's a juggernaut. She actually BEAT the Team With No Name, the strongest team in history. It was just Soothe losing it almost completely that undid her in the end.
And even then, after she died she still almost won, Soothe resisted so she called The Shadow into her own body. Two post-death attempts to still win, maniac. Arceus itself steps in afterwards to ensure she's truly obliterated.
I have enjoyed writing her, but I'm also very happy to have KILLED her. Fuck you, Nelia.
Her literal existence makes the world a worse place. Knowing she existed in my setting actually influenced me in a bizarre way. I'm the writer, of course, and anything I say go, but I got a little to into developing the Fallen's abilities and nearly reached a point where, without going and retconning things, she'd be impossible to actually beat.
In a meta sense, she's the antagonist of the very narrative itself. Her existence in the world makes it a worse place (and imagine what her presence has done to something like Dark Matter?)
Warped Skies is a little meta, has to be due to its premise, but I never wanted to go too far. However, as you might have noticed the narration itself seemed to be fighting against her in some of the chapters, or pushing for her to win.
Just one of those little things I like to test out, it was fun to write but that's as far as I'll go with meta related things.
I repurposed the original idea of the original ending, having Scout talk with Arceus, with Nelia here. Originally he was going to ask why It didn't help them, but I ended up being able to cover that with Keira's meeting with Arceus, so I just went with a sort of explanation of where she was and why she wasn't getting out of that one.
Arceus doesn't meet every soul who dies and passes into The Crossing. It made sure to do so for Nelia, however, to ensure she would be stuck there until the void claimed her and truly eradicated her for good. Should be no coming back from something like that, the void destroys even Shadow Essence (and has some fringe importance to stuff that goes on in Roundabout, but very much fringe backstory stuff).
Okay, time to talk about Soothe.
Ah, Soothe. My girl, my man, my violet star.
Created on a whim to give Wigglytuff some Dark Tragedy to his backstory, swiftly made into more interesting of a character by making her from the Dark Future, I had no intention of Soothe's direction when I first created her.
It was a reviewer SlytherinLife I think who made the prediction that she was human and that was just like "Oh My Gosh. YES, THAT'S PERFECT!" I owe so many amazing story moments to the readers and your clever predictions.
It all came together with Soothe and Nelia to explain Scout. Most Isekai fics give a handwave to how the character wound up in the world. Truck-Kun or the Bastard Omnipotent Beings, or just don't address it at all because HOW?
It took me a long time to determine it all for Warped Skies, but it is as follows.
The Shadow, being an Eldritch Abomination that exists beyond reality itself (think stuff like Azathoth) guided by Nelia, was able to skim the edges of our own and essentially pull a mirror of a person in. Soothe's 'real' self still exists while Soothe was pulled into the world and became an audino.
Now, the question has been raised. Is Soothe me? The answer is… complicated.
I'll start by saying no. If she was, she'd technically sort of know Keira and THAT would be awkward.
She is, however like me, an Australian pokémon fan who was (probably) a nurse, definitely an adult, and carries a number of my own traits, as they passed onto Scout as well and such.
The similarities are there. We put a little of ourselves in our characters, she has a bit more.
Poor Soothe. The stuff that happens to her is sometimes a little to the point of fantastical horror, but there are some things that are just a bit more grittily real and unpleasant.
She'll be the protagonist of the sequel. The main one at least. A line I wrote but never got to use for her was "We're all the protagonists of our story, Scout, but you stole mine." In the original intention for them to fight and Scout to kill her.
To make that death more heartbreaking I was going to have her live long enough to run off and lock herself back in her house with Timber trying to break in and comfort him by telling him knock-knock jokes, dying in the middle of the last one.
And was going to have her reveal her identity to Timber in the sequel by finishing that joke.
Soothe will also be the focus of the Bonus Chapter, yay, yay, woo! I hear you cheering. We'll see her story, basically. From her arrival in the Dark Future up to part way in Arc 3. I don't know how many chapters it will be, shouldn't be more than four, maybe just three. We'll see.
Those were planned to be like a Severus Snape-like reveal of past her death, we see her story and how she was actually the hero of the whole thing. But then she didn't die, so… it'll just be to see her story in the first place!
I like Soothe. I just happen to torment the characters I like :/
Next, I wanted to discuss Arc 3 and its themes as a whole.
In most regards, it's the darkest of the whole fic, with Nelia amassing a considerable body count, with the world being under immense threat from the Fallen and The Shadow breaking reality at the end there.
Despite that, I don't think any part of the arc gets more bleak than Chapter 56 did. The Chapter where Darkrai drops Treasure Town into a nightmare, Rai, Mane, and Sean are stuck on Ashen Island badly injured, and there seems to be no out at all.
That chapter, until Soothe jumps in, looked very much like an unwinnable situation with no hope. I wanted to preserve the feeling of hope in Arc 3, to counterbalance the horrors Nelia was doing so that the darkness wouldn't cause apathy in the readers.
This is part of the reason why, in the end, very few characters actually die. Die for real as in dead and gone. The real body count for Warped Skies, in the end is, Danny, Dugtrio, Violet, and Torkoal. One reasonably good character each Arc, two for Arc 3 (poor Violet). Keira doesn't count since she'll return in the Trainer Fic at the same time Team Ion and Sunrise (and maybe Cara too) will.
Nelia, Dialga, Palkia, Cresselia, and Darkrai all die as well but they're the bad guys so pffft. Technically there are likely some citizens of Treasure Town and Blackstone that died and wouldn't revive either, only Nelia (and Soothe and Darkrai) always cause a revival in a non-Shadow non-purified murder.
As nameless, faceless, characters they don't count.
It also comes from my own dislike of permanent character death (so I usually avoid much death at all because I have a habit of undoing it and that can lead to stakes feeling like nothing).
I justified it in two ways. First off, it's my story and I should write it the way I want. The other, bigger, reason was the overall themes of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.
Where people come through okay, happy endings are possible where everyone is okay.
Nelia's the reason the story as a whole is so dark, so her death is the weight needed to balance the scales in my opinion. Why go for a bittersweet ending as long as I can make the struggle to get there enough?
I will say the mass purification in Chapter 98 is, yeah, probably a little bit of bullshit, but it fit with what the story was doing, and I didn't have the space to linger on purifications.
I'm happy with how the story went, and I hope you are too. If not? That's also okay.
Another thing that I meant to do, but ended up being too logistically difficult, was to have Soothe provide a bunch of hints to Timber about Nelia's movements in Arc 3. Original plan was having Rhythm getting blackmailed and trying to drive himself out of power to avoid being used too much as Soothe tried to fight against the darkness corrupting her with small jokes with greater importance.
It all changed, and for the better really. Rhythm wouldn't stay in power if he knew it would be used against him like that and bless Timber, but he wouldn't get the hints.
There's stuff I would have liked to do differently throughout the story, most of which I'll try to do in the edit re-release of the story. More fluff between Rai, Scout, and Mane, a few smarter decisions, less filler in Arc 2, integrate Nelia's reveal into Arc 3 a bit better. Stuff like that.
Okay…
Some things that I also had planned. Originally, Gengar/Kenji was going to have a role in Warped Skies. Initially it was going to be part of the Aegis Cave part, he can read the language on the walls there, but there was no great way to integrate him without him just showing up randomly.
So, I was going to add him into Arc 3 but same issue. He's an interesting character, overall he's got no real ties to what's going on in Warped Skies but DOES have huge ties to the sequel. We might see Jessica, the Gates human, properly there as well. That's more of a maybe though.
We'll see the meeting between Dimitri, Jessica, Sean, and Soothe in a deleted scene, by the way~ couldn't really fit it into this one, it fits as a deleted scene.
Arc 3 had much of a vague focus on Scout. In that, each arc explores a member of Team Ion's backstory. Arc 1, we saw Rai's backstory, Arc 2 has Mane's backstory have importance, and Arc 3 we finally get the answer on Scout and his connection to it all. And where Darkrai was Team Sunrise's foe, Nelia was Ion's (and the Team With No Name. She's so bad she gets two).
At the moment, I think that's all that I can think of saying. I guess I'll add more to this if I think of it, or on my discord which I'll link at the bottom. Warped Skies might be over, but the story nor my writing will cease! I have other stories in mind as well, from a Yugioh Story to a Digimon One. I'd need to be convinced to do the Digimon one though :P the Yugioh should just be a matter of time.
As always, however, I'll have a post-credits scene so to speak.
Before we get to that, may I just offer my thanks? I started Warped Skies on a whim a little over three years ago. I thought 'I want to see a story like this, but it doesn't really exist… how about I make it!" I figured it'd be a side story to poke out here and there, probably get no traction and since it'd just be repeating the beats of Sky I might even lose interest in it.
I wanted to try it, however, and the feedback was incredible.
I cannot thank any of you enough for all the support you have given me, helping me learn so much and improve as a writer. I never thought I was any good at writing an actually interesting plot, you know? I'm confident with characters and dialogue, but I long-since accepted other aspects of my writing would just be mediocre compared to others.
I've learned, you showed me that I can break the barriers that I had failed to breach time and time again. I'm so excited to keep going, keep improving, keep writing and I have you all to thank for it. I'd put down names, but the list would be so long it'd look like Chapter 27's spooky section again!
Thank you.
Love you all, stay safe out there!
And my discord server if you're interested: discord gg/q5meZU2Pf7
~Team Ion (Ion the Undion/Nurse Ion)
Sean was nervous as he approached the door. His heart beat thickly in his chest, feeling heavy and light at the same time. A jittery feeling.
"You okay?" Striker asked softly, right behind Sean.
Sean took a breath and nodded. "Yeah, it's just…." He couldn't find the words, but Striker understood.
Guardian and Saniya were with Team Ion, taking a look around the town cautiously. Sean had exhibited the feeling of wanting to do this alone, but Striker could see him in a way others couldn't.
Partners through time and space.
He didn't want an audience, just a little bit of support, so the grovyle hopped along with him as Sean lightly pointed out landmarks in the strange place they were in.
It had been years since Striker had seen humans, but he hadn't forgotten how Sean had looked and grown over the years they had been together as man and mon.
Striker gave cool smiles and cooler waves to humans that looked their way, probably curious about the lucario wearing a terribly beat-up pair of baggy old pants and carrying a bag.
They looked important enough with the badges on their stuff, however, that they were not interrupted.
Sean called it Solaceon Town. Striker asked if that meant anything, Sean went on for a few minutes about the history of the farming community, and failed to explain anything about the name.
Now they were at a door. Striker was honestly impressed by the size of human buildings but also underwhelmed by the uniform flatness of them all.
Except that one building Sean said was a Pokémon Centre, that one looked interesting and impressive. The rest? None of them were shaped like the owners, how did anyone know where to find anyone else?
Sean just laughed at him when he asked, the tension slipping from his shoulders for a moment. That was all Striker wanted, and so they had continued until they reached this one door that Sean looked like was about to tear itself off its hinges and beat him with its body.
"Would you like me to knock?" Striker asked.
Sean took a breath and shook his head. "No," he breathed and took a step. He raised his paw, flipped it over, saw the spike and slowly turned back around again.
He brought his paw down, like a feather, a hidden claw scraping slightly but nothing else.
"We have a doorbell!" Sean gasped, spotting the button right to the side. Striker liked buttons, he might have asked to press it himself, but Sean already had.
A cheerful sound ran through the air, dinging a song to alert the occupants.
From within, Striker heard an oddly familiar voice bark. "Someone's at the door!"
And then shuffling.
Sean tensed considerably as they waited, needing to hold his aura feelers down with intense focus, Striker stepped in to support him in case he needed to lean on him, and they waited.
The door clicked and then swung open, revealing a tall human woman wearing a nice blouse and striking blue eyes. "Yes?" she asked, it relieved Striker they could understand her.
He remembered being able to understand Sean and Sean not being able to understand him in turn, a flight of fear hit him that Sean might not be able to speak to her and-
Sean opened his mouth to reply, but the woman had gasped sharply, hand flying to her mouth as her eyes widened, training firmly on Sean's own.
"Sean?" his mother whispered.
Sean's mouth fell wider. "Y-You know it's-?" he began.
Then, he was pulled into a desperate hug, his chest spike between her arm and her chest as his mother pulled him into an old familiar embrace.
"My baby," his mother cried, beginning to shake as Sean trembled, raising his arms to hold her back. "You've come back. Sean, Sean. DAVID! SEAN'S BACK!"
There was a commotion from inside as a taller human male, much older than what Sean had looked like when Striker first met him, came tripping through another room and hitting the wall. He bounced off with a loud. "WHAT?"
His mother was crying. "SEAN'S BACK!"
David ran in, spotted his wife hugging a lucario and, to Striker's confusion, accepted it immediately, throwing his arms around both and picking Sean up and crying as well.
His confusion was paramount as Sean's parents cried over his return. Striker was touched by the scene, but he felt like there was something missing here. There was something to be said about a mother always knowing her child, but Sean hadn't even said anything, and she recognised him.
"You might catch something if your mouth opens any further," a dry voice pulled him out of his thoughts and Striker stiffened as he came face-to-face with a krokorok.
That voice was…?
"Killer?" Striker spluttered.
Killer raised an eye. "I'd ask how you know my name, but I bet he already told you." He frowned at Sean, not appearing as thrilled.
Striker was blinking a lot, so Killer took pity and explained.
"I showed them all of Sean's weird art. He looks exactly like his pokésona, not sure how he managed that but that's impressive I guess? A postcard would have been nice though," he snorted.
"Sean has been busy saving another world!" Striker said hotly, needing to defend him.
"Who's drafting kids and why would they choose Sean?" Killer said, astonished at the gall.
Striker puffed up. "Alright, listen here I'll tell you everything." He wound himself up.
"Okay." Killer walked off.
Striker deflated. "What?"
Killer was gone, he turned back to the celebrating parents, they were all teary and snotty and his mother was kissing Sean on the cheek and assuring him he never needed to be ashamed of who he was but why hadn't he called and what evil experiments had been done on him because that must be the explanation of all of this.
Striker knew this would take some explaining. He really hoped Sean could still speak human, else this was going to be interesting to act out.
"Well, it starts on the day I left for my journey," Sean laughed, crying at the same time. "Striker, drag Killer back out here. Tell me, did Gabriel actually see Giratina take me or…?"
Striker walked after Killer to do as asked.
Beaming brightly, Sean would tell their tale out on the grass until the sun set.