"The Luddites shun the diabolical
A fecal trail across the land, although it
Stinks, feels, and looks identical
A pack of fools can take the stand"
"Faith" from Prequelle by Ghost
The Earth quaked with one breath, and died in the next. Air turned to poison that, already in everyone's lungs, suffocated the world before they could cough.
That morning, though, was rather unremarkable. Aside from the imminent fight for the fate of the world, the sky was cloudy, weather a bit warm, and overall, very bland. Even Earth herself suffered denial of this fate. No one could believe such a war could come, and neither could She.
Codi was a little bit annoyed, but optimistic. Dickhead Ass for brains had called her in for a meeting. The morning of apocalypse, and Wigglytuff still had it in his heart to remind her just how disgusting she was for doing what she stopped doing the very first chance she got. She really wasn't looking forward to it and honestly wanted to ignore the request outright.
Unfortunately, she did not. Because her brain was broken, she had an annoying hope in the back of her mind that this might go anywhere productive. Maybe it was misguided hope for herself acting out again, but part of her thought that, maybe, he'd changed his mind.
Codi knocked on the door before she stopped walking. She wouldn't be able to continue doing this the very next second if she stopped to think about it, so she didn't. The door opened itself.
A weary Wigglytuff greeted her with exhausted, red eyes and a barely held together tuft of fur on his head. When he saw her, he almost collapsed in relief. "Codi, thank you," he said. Stepping out of the way, he waved her in with a paw. "Please, come in."
"A'ight?" Codi said. Her tags jingled as she nodded and stepped into the room. A tiny little rug of pink that clashed with every other color in the room sat on the patch of wood that Ithos had scorched the last time she was in there. They hadn't had a chance to fix it, obviously, since the entire world was busy preparing for war.
As expected, people weren't going to let a monster win.
Codi walked right over the rug and up to Wigglytuff's desk. A lavish, leather chair sat on the opposite side with two piddly little stools on the guest's side. She wasn't going to sit on a stool.
"Er, please," Wigglytuff said. "Have a," Codi hopped up onto the stool, then spun halfway around in another jump to sit on the edge of the desk, staring Wigglytuff directly in the eyes, "… seat." Wigglytuff didn't sustain the contact for even a second. His ears looked like they might never stand tall again. Despite having a very nice chair waiting for him, he stopped where he stood.
"What's up?" Codi asked. Whatever was wrong with Wigglytuff wasn't her problem. He was probably stressed like the rest of the Earth was. He could get over that himself, but he'd called her in for a reason.
"Well, first of all, thank you," Wigglytuff said. With a breath, he finally brought himself the spine necessary to meet her bored gaze with a nervous smile. "I couldn't blame you for refusing my request, so thank you for coming." He was stalling. Codi just nodded. He'd already said that.
Wigglytuff's forced smile started to sour until he let it die with a sigh. "Yes, I suppose that's fair," he said.
Codi nodded, very well aware that she was being beyond fair to Dickhead Ass for brains. For one, she wasn't calling him Dickhead Ass for brains out loud. He absolutely deserved at least that much, and so much more, but she was nothing if not merciful to people who didn't deserve it. Wigglytuff almost looked miserable enough to apologize, but Codi wasn't holding her breath.
"I wanted to apologize," Wigglytuff said. As it turns out, Codi wouldn't have had to hold her breath for long, anyway. Since she wasn't prepared, though, one got caught in her throat anyway.
Codi stared back at him with a confused squint for a moment. She didn't know quite what to say and defaulted to, "For what?" It was how Mom had always responded to apologies when she was a hatchling. She wasn't trying to parent him, but she truly didn't know what else to say.
Wigglytuff winced, but resigned himself to his fate. "Our meeting before," he said. Codi nodded along. She'd assumed as much. "I treated you with unjust contempt. Given your background, I drew upon the worst conclusions I could find and imposed them on you before I had a chance to know what brought you there. Were I in your position, I never would have acted with such bravery as you."
"Ah," Codi hummed. She sort of zoned out halfway through, but what she heard was pretty promising. "Yeah, that was pretty shitty of you."
"Yes," Wigglytuff said, deflating even further. He rubbed at his sleepless eyes while desperately trying to hold onto some semblance of poise. "It was." He looked pleadingly up for a second before giving up on the attempt.
"What's your goal here?" Codi asked. She hadn't had breakfast yet. She looked around the room and spotted a bowl of apples near the entrance. With a quick shot of water and bubbles, she hit an apple against the wall behind it and into the bubbles floating behind. The momentum brought it right over to her, popping into a sprinkle when she reached up to grab it. She looked at the (now spritzed) Wigglytuff and took a bite.
"That's a good question, I suppose," Wigglytuff said. He started trying to flick the water off before quickly giving up entirely. "I had hoped to come to an understanding of some kind. Your skills in combat will be an incredible help to our side."
"They're on your side whether I hate you or not," Codi said. She took another bite of her apple while continuing to stare dispassionately at him. "I don't want the world to end."
"Right," Wigglytuff sighed. His already low stamina was running so thin that Codi could almost see it dripping off—nope, right, that was still her bubble. Well, regardless, he looked quite tired, though evidently not so tired that he'd get to the point. With another bite, Codi realized she'd have to get to it for him.
"I've never met a superior I didn't despise," Codi explained. She looked him up and down, then shrugged. "If you think you're any different in my eyes, sorry to say that you're wrong." With another bite of her apple, she used the paw holding it to point at him. "You didn't call me in here to convince me to join you, and I'd hope it wasn't because you thought I needed to know what exactly sucked about what you said."
Codi tossed the apple up and chomped it out of the air, swallowing after just a few chews. "So, best case scenario for me so far, this was pointless," she said, making Wigglytuff wince. She almost thought she heard a whimper, so she went without the worst case scenario. "I doubt that's what you wanted, though."
"Is an apology not its own end? Does it have to be a means to another?" Wigglytuff asked, annoying Codi with that stupid and annoying speech pattern of his. He sounded like an ancient relic.
"I dunno," Codi said with a shrug. "You could've apologized with a letter. You didn't." Wigglytuff opened his mouth for some objection. Either none came, or he lost his nerve, because he closed it shortly after. Codi tilted her head and nodded after a moment's thought. "You still feel bad about it, don't you?"
"What?" Wigglytuff asked. "Of course I do!" He shook his head while raising a paw in confusion. "Why else would I have felt the need to apologize?"
"Not about what you said," Codi said. Wigglytuff's confusion deflated to further depression, and Codi acknowledged as much with a simple nod. "This is about what Max said, isn't it?" Wigglytuff flinched as if disciplined with a wooden spoon. "Yeah, thought so." Codi leaned back to rest some weight on her forepaws while stretching her tail. "You still don't get why she said that, but you can't convince yourself she's wrong."
"That wasn't my reason to apologize," Wigglytuff whimpered. "You're not some interpreter to me." He shook his head, clearly missing the point.
"All right, whatever, I forgive you," Codi said, rolling her eyes. "There, now we can move on to what's got you fucked in the head." Wigglytuff gave the slightest beginnings of a pout, but didn't object. "What drives Fara?"
Wigglytuff wondered with his mouth agape before turning to give it some thought. Once he had some beginning of an idea, he turned to give a wrong answer. "Evil?" he asked.
"No," Codi said. "Do you think she walks around all day every day cackling about how evil she is?" She snapped her paw shut at Wigglytuff before he could even try to answer the rhetorical question. "Do you think that anyone who goes along with her does it because they, too, enjoy being evil?"
"Well, no," Wigglytuff said. His eyes, however, told a different story.
Codi raised an inquisitive brow, then nodded. "You've seen someone turn Tainted, haven't you?" she asked. She preferred Max's terminology, to be honest, but she wasn't sure if Wigglytuff would grasp what 'feral' was supposed to mean. Wigglytuff turned his head away as if to hide from the sight. The mere memory of what he saw was enough to make him narrow his eyes.
Then, at the corner of his mouth, Codi saw the very beginnings of a snarl. Disgust.
"It wasn't pretty, was it?" Codi asked. She kept close watch on her breath. If she didn't, she'd see Wigglytuff staring at Mom like every other bastard that believed Fara's lies. "I'm guessing that the sight stuck with you, then?"
"I couldn't forget that if I tried," Wigglytuff said. He shook his head and took a deep breath. "To see someone you've held pleasant conversation with succumb to such base instincts is a horror I'd rather not have seen." So much was wrong with everything he just said, but Codi let him dig a deeper hole anyway. "I don't have any idea how someone could let that happen to themselves."
Codi tilted her head back to keep from biting his neck. It certainly made her less willing to pull her punches, though. That much, she couldn't help. "You know it's not permanent, right?" she asked.
"What?" Wigglytuff asked. "Well, obviously."
"Right, so pokémon who've gone through it look like anyone else," Codi said. "If they're not in the middle of an episode, they're still who they've always been." Wigglytuff nodded along. "They're just normal pokémon." Suddenly, Wigglytuff paused his nodding. "What?" Codi leaned forward and held her chin with a paw. "Did I say something wrong?"
"Well, no," Wigglytuff reluctantly admitted. "I suppose you're right." His mouth twisted in thought as he turned away. "Though, that assumes their Taint doesn't befall them during conversation."
"What do you think of Max?" Codi asked. Her expression looked as bored as possible, save her eyes. She narrowed them ever so slightly to pin him in place with a subtle glare. He flinched away from it even before he'd turned to see it.
"Well, she is certainly," Wigglytuff mumbled. He sifted through a million four letter words in a desperate attempt to sound at least a little better than he did last meeting. "Driven, I would say. She has incredible strength and protects her friends like a mother would her cubs. She holds herself together, but as long as I've known her, she's struggled with her condition. Despite this, she acts very convincingly like us."
"Sure," Codi said. "Hey, just curious, does she have thoughts and feelings?" Wigglytuff blinked. "When you look at her, I mean." She narrowed her eyes further. "Do you think she has any 'rationality' behind her actions?" she growled.
Wigglytuff's eyes flashed for an instant of regretful recognition. "Well, of course," he said. His eyes wandered away from Codi's. He was avoiding eye contact. "Anyone does, so she does as well."
"You don't believe that," Codi said. Wigglytuff grit his teeth and continued to keep his eyes away from Codi's. "You don't see that when you look at her, do you?" Codi had trouble pulling her jaw open to continue speaking. "You just see a risk waiting to happen. When you look at her, you're wondering how long until she loses control."
"What if I am?!" Wigglytuff barked back. He hissed out gasps of breath and finally built up the nerve to glare into Codi's eyes. "Do you not see how she looks at us?! I can't walk up to her without feeling her prepare her cheeks to fry me! Of course she has her issues, and I'm sure they cause her great distress, but that is not anything I can help, and the fact of the matter is that, yes, she can certainly be a danger!"
Codi sat perfectly still. She'd zoned out after the first question. She'd hit the nerve she needed to, so she could pretty easily glean the rest from passive listening. What needed her focus more, though, was restraint.
"That," Codi hissed, "is what drives Fara." Sitting over her carefully maintained veneer of civility, a deep rage silenced Wigglytuff out of his own defensive excuses. With all that he'd just said, Codi knew how meaningless his apology had been. Instead of understanding, she only saw fear in his eyes.
"After Mom developed the condition, I watched the kindest people I'd ever known treat her with open contempt," Codi said. "They looked at me with pity when I refused to let them take me. They all thought I didn't know better.
"And I was the lucky one." Every word came out in a bite while she watched Wigglytuff with bored contempt. "When I got mad, upset, screamed, I got pitying stares and condescending lies told to me as fact." She hardened her gaze to show Wigglytuff a fraction of her anger. He flinched. "They arrested Mom for the crime of crying after a friend attacked her."
For the sake of Wigglytuff's safety, she forced herself to stop. The soft bustling of everyone rushing about outside didn't breach the thick door. They could both hear it, but it didn't touch the silence around them. It was cold, an ashen fireplace sat unused in the summer's heat.
"Do you know what I saw in their eyes?" Codi asked. She waited to hear an answer she knew wouldn't come. "Do you think it was hate? Evil?"
Wigglytuff answered with a silent turn of his head. He looked down in shame and guilt that he clearly didn't quite understand yet. He shrank under the burden of cruelties he didn't commit because, deep down somewhere, he felt the connection to the monsters he despised, and it made him sick. His face paled with distant eyes while he learned, without a shadow of a doubt, who he empathized with more.
It wasn't the victims of this violence.
"Fear and disgust," Codi said. "Exactly what I see in yours." She clenched her paw again, digging her claws into her scales. Finally, she let Wigglytuff see every bit of her anger until it subtly started to fade from her eyes. They grew distant and wide while her maw pulled back into a hungry snarl.
She bared her teeth at him while Wigglytuff's eyes shot open in terror. In an instant, his self-pitying evaporated as he brought his hindpaw back, ready either to defend himself or run. After all, Mom had the taint, so obviously her child would, too. Wigglytuff's brief moment of self-reflection died as he watched yet another beast growling before him.
"Toototo di, di," Codi growled. Her eyes were a flame of forgotten rage that needed no fuel to burn anymore. She stared at him like a predator does an especially annoying little prey. Clenching her paws tighter as Wigglytuff started to glow, she jumped onto her hindpaws and spun gracefully to the side.
Wigglytuff loosed an ear-splitting screech of terror that perfectly accompanied the high pitched wail of energy shooting through the spot where Codi stood. It vaporized the desk she'd stood on below her.
With a simple turn, she'd dodged out of the way. Now, she was balancing on one paw atop the unsupported corner of the desk he'd just obliterated. The other end of the desk smashed into the ground, sending a light shock wave through the ground that made her balance falter for just a second before she righted it once again.
Wigglytuff collapsed into gasps after his own attack, one paw holding his chest while the other held him up by what could charitably be called a knee. Codi stared down at him with disinterested contempt.
Wigglytuff looked confused. Hopping up, Codi smacked down on her precarious platform to make it fall forward instead of sideways. As it changed its trajectory, she slid down its new diagonal until her paws gently landed on the ground. A forepaw stayed behind a moment to stabilize it without once taking her eyes off Wigglytuff. She tilted her head side to side to crack her neck and started walking over.
Codi stared, entirely lucid, up at Wigglytuff. She walked over with a simple gait, if a bit awkward as a consequence of her species. It was obvious, now, that every bit of that slip had been an act, and yet, she still saw a grain of horror in Wigglytuff's eyes.
Silently, she walked right up to him. The warmth of his ragged breath spread its stink to her snout as his air invaded hers. She had no trace of the act on anymore. She could still see him struggling not to attack her.
It was a look she'd seen plenty times before.
Finally releasing her tightly clenched paws, she held them up to show the blood dripping to Wigglytuff. In the moment it took for his eyes to shift to concern, Codi reached up to wipe her blood off on his paws. It was the same symbolic gesture that she'd left him with last time, but with a constant glare of intentionality staring him down.
"You would make a great Soldier," Codi said. Her tags jingled as she walked away. She didn't look back once. Her point was made. She didn't need to see it land.
"Fucking idiot," Codi chuckled before the door closed behind her. Dickhead Ass for Brains might've heard it, might not have, but she didn't care. Hopefully, he'd figure out what was wrong with himself without bugging anyone else.
He certainly wouldn't be bugging her, now.
Codi didn't really pay attention to most of the pokémon around her, though it was mostly from that lingering boredom. She should've been more on edge considering the occasion, but she couldn't bring herself to be afraid. If what Max said was true, today was about to be the best day of her life.
She might see Mom again.
Then, just as Max had crossed her mind, she caught sight of a distracted flash of yellow rubbing herself down with a towel. Her eyes went right over Codi without the slightest bit of recognition as they did, all while she bounced about, fluffy as a freshly dried wooloo. She had the kind of smile that only came when everything was suddenly right in the world.
It seemed she wasn't exactly feeling the gravity of the day yet, either.
Codi smirked, already pretty certain what had Max so chipper until she caught sight of a sprits of gold on her left paw. It must've just been an extravagant gift, but she'd never clocked Max as the materialistic type. The more she watched Max's distant grin, though, the more she trusted her first instinct.
With the same smirk, she shuffled over to Max's path without her noticing. Even once Codi stood right in front of her, Max walked unflinchingly forward in her entirely unimpeded path. Codi watched as Max walked closer and closer, eyes everywhere but in front of her even when she looked directly at the totodile until, finally, she bounced off of her.
"KA!" Max squeaked. She almost tumbled back, but Codi quickly caught both her paws and yanked her back up. "S-sorry, excuse me." She shook her head with an apologetic smile and still didn't recognize Codi.
Codi was now entirely certain.
"Morning, Max," Codi said. Max blinked a few times. The towel still covered half of her head. Codi pulled it aside so both eyes could see. Finally, Max's eyes registered the Codi in front of her.
"Oh, Codi!" Max chuckled nervously. "Sorry, just tired." Codi pulled her paws away before the sparks bouncing down Max's cheeks could get her. Max finally stopped drying herself off with that towel and, instead of folding it up like a normal person, wrapped it around her chest. Humans.
"Tired?" Codi asked. She didn't bother hiding her smirk since its explanation was coming soon. "Makes sense." She nodded with appreciation while Max raised an ear. "Pretty big day, after all, pretty big day."
"Eh," Max said with a shrug. "Maybe the first time around." That didn't make any sense, but Codi nodded along like it did for fun.
"Sure, sure," Codi said. She nodded her head in the direction Max had been walking, and the two started walking that way together. "Even if it's not your first time, though, it's always a pretty big occasion." Max raised an ear at that, a wry grin starting to invade her forced nonchalance. "Oh, that reminds me!" Codi snapped her fingers and turned to Max. "Did he do that dumb fucking dance after?"
Max tilted her head for a picosecond before her eyes shot wide open, and her grin even wider. "You can tell!?" she cheered, bouncing in the air. This was. Not. The embarrassed reaction Codi was expecting. "Here, come on!"
Suddenly, the mouse was yanking her down the hall with little and no regard for the pokémon that had to make way or the one struggling to keep pace with one arm far too far ahead of her. Codi, miraculously, managed. Without looking back, Max started to slow just a bit, and it seemed to be all that she could take until suddenly turning to face Codi in the middle of the hallway, standing still as a stone.
Max stopped Codi herself and set her dow—Max had picked her up, okay—set her down right in front of her. "Look!" Max cheered, shoving her left paw in Codi's face. The only thing of note was a ring, though.
"Oh," Codi said. She tried to smile for her friend's very clear excitement, but she didn't see any reason to get this excited over a ring. It was jewelry. Nice, sure, but not really all that purposeful. Maybe Max just liked looking nice, though. Considering Codi's own neckwear, it's not like she had any room to judge odd apparel. "Looks great."
"Oh, right, yeah! Whatever, it's great," Max squeaked out. Well, at least Codi was right about her not being so materialistic. Max started to show her the ring again before slapping her face and shaking her head. "Right, do you know about marriage?"
"Oh, that?" Codi asked. The same second she asked the question, she put the puzzle together. A smile took over her entire expression with a wide smile that closed her eyes. "Congrats!" She yanked Max into a hug, and they both hopped in place together. Max seemed to be bouncing between their bounces, even.
"Thanks!" Max said. The towel started to fall as they bounced, and Max suddenly pulled away with a yelp to hold it up. "Wait, right." She rolled her eyes and chuckled.
Sense finally seemed to return to her, and she flung the towel around her neck in the same motion as she always did her scarf. Codi shrugged and pulled her in for another quick hug that Max eagerly reciprocated before once again yanking her down the hallway. Of all the electric types that had forcibly encouraged her to run, Max was both the most demanding and the one Codi loved the most.
Of course, loving more than a drill Sargent doesn't mean much, but it meant something to Codi.
"PIKA!" Max shouted at a closed door. She knocked forty times in the one second before throwing it open and yanking Codi in with her. Codi couldn't stifle a giggle at this all.
Ithos yelped and jumped back at the sight of her. "C-Codi, hi!" he said. Despite the panic in his eyes, he looked about as healthy and happy as Codi had ever seen him. His tail flared with vigor behind its bashful flickering. "Hey, so, hello!" He had the widest smile being eaten and attacked by shivers of nerves.
Codi raised a brow and put on a thoughtful expression. She circled a bit around Ithos, looking left, right, then right in his eyes with a discerning gaze. A paw to her chin, she nodded at all that she saw, making Ithos' flame flash with even more nervous embarrassment. She turned to Max to hide her smirk, but seeing the mouse giggle really didn't help. Somehow, though, she managed.
"And he's been like this all morning?" Codi asked. Even behind her giggles, Max managed a single solemn nod. Codi hissed in a breath of sympathy and turned back to a very confused and even more nervous Ithos. "Yep, I'm certain." Max's giggling almost ruined the punchline. Almost. "A good fuck, then?"
"WHAT?!" Ithos yelped. His entire face flashed red, but that was hard to see with the blazing white of his flame suddenly burning behind him. Max was rolling on the floor, now, letting out every laugh.
Codi let out her own snickers while staying ready and able to extinguish a sudden house fire. Luckily, Ithos pulled himself under control before it came to that. Smoke continued to billow off the top of his head, but his tail flame mellowed enough.
Now this is the kind of meeting Codi needed.
"Congratulations!" Codi said, flopping onto their bed. "What finally changed your mind?"
Ithos let out a whimper and tried to hide behind his paws. When Max pounced up, though, he immediately ran over to cover her mouth with a paw. "No!" he barked. Even then, an adorable, pathetic whimper wriggled its way into his demand. Max, mouth still covered, looked pleadingly up at him before rolling her eyes with a nod.
Max shoved his paw off her mouth, grumbling, "Fine." After sharing a glance with Codi, though, she was giggling again. She hid her mouth from Ithos to mouth, 'later,' and winked with the eye Ithos couldn't see when he pulled her paw down.
This was the day the world would end. Codi was having a blast.
"Well? That all you wanted to tell me?" Codi asked with a smirk. She gave Ithos a meaningful look that he didn't remotely understand. Once Max put her ring in front of him with a chuckle, though, he understood.
"OH!" Ithos cheered. He yanked Max up by the paw to show the ring to Codi with a full-face grin. "We're married!"
"Oh really?" Codi asked. Max slapped her paw to her face with a visible grin. Ithos tilted his head looking at her, confusion failing to touch his elation. "Ceremony and everything?" His eyes gleamed with understanding, and Ithos slapped his own face this time (also with a visible grin).
"Right, not yet," Ithos said. He rolled his eyes with a shake of his head. He looked down at Max with a bit of good natured frustration and grumbled, "What's the point of all of this?"
"No idea," Max lied. If Codi could tell it was a lie, Ithos certainly did. He gave her a harsher glare that made Max let out an exasperated sigh. "Buddy, look, it's a long story." She chuckled with an apologetic glance to Codi. "If you really want me to get into the ancient history of Covenant's tradition and how Christians stole it, ask me when we don't have a world to save."
Ithos raised his head to stare down his nose at her (a bit redundant considering height). Max narrowed her eyes while Codi watched with intrigue. After a judicious moment, Ithos nodded and said, "Dork."
Ithos let out a desperate yelp as Max tensed the arms around him to chuck him to the left. Before letting go completely, she snatched up his right paw and yanked him back into her hold. He spun back like a yo-yo, and she kicked his paws out from under him to catch him in her arms.
Max stared down at him with a remarkably predatory smile, flushing his cheeks while he stared up. His cheeks got even redder as she leaned down, inches from his face. "At least I can lead in a dance," she whispered.
Planting a kiss on his snout, she spun him back around and sat him by her side. It wasn't a dance Codi had ever seen in her life, but she had to admit, it was pretty fluid.
"So!" Max said. She turned to Codi. "Ready to-" her eyes shot to Codi's paws, "Codi, what happened?" She dashed over and yanked Codi to the side of the bed, holding Codi's paws in her own. Codi looked down to see the same bloody holes she'd put there talking to Wigglytuff. Max shot her attention to Ithos for a second to bark some order about antiseptic, then looked up at Codi.
"Oh, it's all right," Codi said. She felt her cheeks warm up a bit as she turned away. "It doesn't even hurt."
"Not what I asked," Max said. She let go of Codi's paws to grab the damp cloth Ithos brought over. "Might sting a bit." She dabbed the cloth over Codi's paws, wiping the blood away. Codi didn't flinch, the sting barely noticeable. That only seemed to worsen Max's frown.
"It's nothing, really," Codi said. Max kept watching her, waiting for a real answer. Her accusatory concern reminded Codi of…. "I was proving a point." She shrank down.
Max pulled her into a quick hug. "No point's worth hurting yourself," Max said. She looked away to hide a flinch as she said that. As she pulled away, she kept Codi's paws in her own and looked into her eyes. The injury hadn't even hurt while it was happening, yet Max looked up with the pain of a mortal wound. "Please don't do that, all right?" She cared so much that it looked like it hurt. Her eyes looked wet.
"Okay," Codi said. It reminded her of that Litwick in Glitterion. She hadn't had someone care about her this much ever since she left Mom. "Sorry."
Max yanked her into an even tighter hug. "No, it's all right," she whispered. She ran her paw down Codi's back, her claws perfectly tracing the scratchiest scales without having to search. Codi just limply returned the hug, letting Max's back hold her arms up. With a nod, she pulled away again.
"We've got you, all right," Ithos said, patting a paw on Codi's shoulder.
"Um," Codi mumbled, staring at his paw. "Okay?" She looked between them, both watching her with soft, sympathetic smiles. "Why are you two so serious all of a sudden?" She forced out a chuckle that cracked.
"Codi," Max cooed. She winced her smile wider, chest shaking with a bit of a chuckle. Codi didn't understand what was so funny. Max reached her paw forward to cup Codi's cheek, thumb dabbing right below her eye. "You can't tell, can you?" Codi just watched in further confusion while they continued, caring stares twisted her heart into knots. Max pulled her paw back to reveal it had gotten wet.
"Oh," Codi said. So that's why her face felt so tense. "I—sorry." The more she tried to speak, the more her voice broke to pieces.
"Don't be!" Ithos said with two heaping tablespoons too much cheer. Max gave him a glare, but he was still looking at Codi. Yet, when he spoke again, he'd corrected his tone anyway. "We've got you, all right?" He nodded. Codi nodded back. She still didn't know what was happening. Something was bursting out of her chest. She couldn't hold it back. Max and Ithos both hugged her. Codi started to break down.
After all this time, someone else finally cared. Yet, even now, she knew that was wrong. Everyone had cared for a long time. The minute she'd betrayed her station, the townspeople accepted her for who she was. What she'd done, who she'd been didn't matter. Not to Litwick, not to Chimchar, not to Oddish.
She was someone who needed kindness, and kindness she received.
Even stationed in support of hate, she had never forsaken kindness. Her training was a desperate plea out of love. She despised the role that she'd forced herself to take, so she did whatever she could to undermine it. They gave her a name, and she made it hers.
They could say the word; its definition was hers.
Her name as it was, she knew that she'd be under higher scrutiny than everyone else, but that thought never registered to her. She had suffered under hate for too long to pay it forward. A superior calling her forward for failing to ever find a single Tainted wasn't possible, but inevitable.
She'd never cared. She could never let that hate that scarred her consume her. Like defacing her tags, she'd taken her assignment and twisted it to her own whims. For so long, she'd accepted that she was, no matter what she said, no matter what she wanted, a Soldier. She knew that she'd never had a choice, but she also knew that didn't change what she'd done.
She'd never done Fara's will. She'd followed her own. She wore her tags, defaced and defiled, as a promise to herself that she'd never let herself articulate. She'd pretended to accept her role and swore fealty with her fingers crossed.
She was beaten, battered, bruised, but never broken. Hate engulfed her like the fire in a furnace while she sat back and enjoyed the warmth. Superiors called her by the name she chose whether they liked it or not because, no matter what a paper said, no matter what Fara decided, no matter what fate demanded, no one controlled her destiny but her. They could think what they liked, but she controlled what they said.
She had never let that hate consume her. She wore it like a cloak to hide that her heart had never ceased its beat. Fara wanted to beat hate into everyone, soldiers and citizens alike. All she'd done was fan the flames of her own demise. Codi thought she was lost, but kindness had never forsaken her. She had never forsaken it.
Fara wanted Codi to think that herself evil. That was the plan from the beginning. Convince her that she's fallen too far into darkness because hate and malice was all she knew, that she'd lost all claims to kindness.
It was kindness she showed to Mom. It was kindness that she'd shown to Chimchar. It was kindness that let her betray her best interests for the sake of her conscience. It was kindness that started a revolution. It was kindness that tended to her wounds after she gave up the only bit of safety she'd ever known. It was kindness that wrapped around her in an embrace of orange scales and yellow fur.
Codi wept.
At some point, she stopped weeping. Max and Ithos gave her another squeeze. Codi realized she'd reciprocated their touch when she squeezed them back. They pulled away in unison with her without a hint of awkwardness.
Max was soaked, and Ithos had a thick layer of steam around him. Codi must've cried a lot. Well, she was a water type.
"All right," Codi said. It didn't feel forced. As she hopped off the bed and onto the ground, she felt lighter than air. The weight that crushed her for so long had fallen away. "Don't we have a war to fight?"
"Codi," Ithos whispered with a look of concern. Behind his back, Max rolled her eyes. "Are you sure you-"
"Yeah, she's good," Max said. She pat him on the back and gave Codi an apologetic smile. "Sometimes, he cares too much for his own good." Codi tried to hide a chuckle, almost managing until Ithos pouted. Shortly after, Max joined in the laughter.
"Okay!" Ithos grumbled. "Fine, sure!" He threw his paws about in disdain and rage while his lips fought the urge to smile. "Wouldn't want a moment of tenderness to last too long! Mother Mew, no!" He tore Max's bag off the ground. "Oh Lovely wife of mine!" He chucked her bag at her. "Carry your own stupid bag." At this point, he had entirely failed to restrain his smile.
"Not your wife yet," Max spitefully corrected. She was grinning, too, but she was better about forcing feigned fury into her words. Yet, the harsh tone merely made Ithos harrumph as he turned to his own belongings.
"Oh, yet?" Ithos asked. He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder with a glare. "You won't need that yet if you keep this up."
Max flinched, quickly trying to hide it with a smile. "Well, maybe," she tried to force, but it didn't come out as she turned away. Her ears started to flag with her tail. Despite pushing back up several times, she inevitably slumped down. "Ka pi chu pi chuu?" she whimpered.
"B-babe, sorry!" Ithos sputtered. He ran over to her with desperate worry. "I—was that too far?"
Max hopped up and planted a kiss on his forehead. "Nah," she said. Ithos narrowed his eyes. Codi lost it.
"Gimme it," Ithos demanded. He held out a paw with a smile creeping out from under his fury. "Gimme the ring."
Max's eyes shot open. She yanked her paw protectively back, staring down at the ring while deep sorrow took over her expression. Ithos' playful anger started to break apart and into concern. "I-I…," Max whimpered. After struggling to work up the nerve, she finally yanked it off and put it in his paw. "Fine."
"W-wait!" Ithos sputtered. He tried to shove it back into her paw. "I-I was just-"
"Kidding?" Max asked, snatching it back. "Yeah, figured."
Ithos tackled her, screaming, "GIVE IT BACK!" Max deftly spun around as they fell, too busy cackling in laughter to fake it again. Even with genuine frustration burning in his eyes, Ithos was laughing as well. They continued their pointless wrestling and rolling about the floor while Codi did the same, wrestling instead with laughter.
Four sharp raps against the door yanked them all up and to attention at once. "Rude," Max grumbled. As she started to walk away, Ithos tried one last time to lunge for her left paw. She didn't even look to yank it out of his reach and open the door. "Hello?"
"Yo," Ash said. "It's time to…." He stopped talking to tilt his head at Max. He leaned over to catch a glimpse of Ithos and nearly hopped up in excitement. Smoke appeared between where he stood and Ithos, and Ash was suddenly standing right in front of him with one paw raised. "CONGRATS ON THE FUCK!"
Ithos yanked him up by the nape of his neck and stormed out of the room, cheeks reddening every step. Codi and Max shared a laugh as they followed behind. Before she went through the door, Max paused, hesitantly taking the ring off and setting it on the bedside table while her ears fell.
"Good idea," Codi said. She walked up to her other side and wrapped an arm around her. "Wouldn't want to break it in a fight."
"Yeah," Max sighed. She kept watching it with a forlorn gaze until finally forcing herself through the door. "I just hope Ithos doesn't get the wrong idea." Down the hall, Ash yelped out another laugh as Ithos swung him around the first corner.
"I think he'll have other things to worry about," Codi chuckled. Max chuckled back. They both had a quick hug before following after the boys. "Nervous?"
"Not really," Max said. As they walked, she started to develop a thin smile. It could've just been last night's occasion, but she seemed to carry herself a bit lighter even beyond that. "I'm just relieved so many people were willing to help." She leaned her head back, stretching her arms behind her. "Finally! Everyone's saving the world instead of waiting for me to do it."
"What, don't like the spotlight?" Codi chided. Max didn't need to answer with more than a glare, so she didn't. Hating the spotlight had been almost the first thing Codi found out about her when they met. "C'mon, not even one last ride?"
"Hell no," Max chuckled. She raised a brow at what Codi said, but shook that thought away just as quick. "I made it entirely clear to everyone that I didn't need some special transport. I'm normal. Boring. Lame."
Codi chuckled, that insistence almost adorable. The idea seemed to take a load off Max's shoulders with every breath. Of course it would, though. She must've had to stress about saving the world for as long as she'd been there. No one could go through years of that and come out the other side without crushing amounts of stress.
Codi suspected Max only survived because she was uniquely capable of letting it slip her mind.
"Well, all right, you unexceptional pikachu," Codi said as they approached the door. She trot a little bit ahead to get the door, and Max rolled her eyes. Codi pulled the door open and gestured outside with a paw. "Your unimpressive transport awaits."
Max started to chuckle until her eyes adjusted to the light. Once they did, her expression started to fall further and further with every second. She let out a little whine and slapped her face. Both paws came up to rub her eyes before she looked again, and she seemed disappointed that hadn't rubbed the sight away.
Codi quirked a brow. Did Ithos do something more embarrassing than usual? All the reinvigoration from earlier slipped out of Max by the second. It had to be the most disappointing sight of her life. Wondering what could possibly be so bad, Codi turned her head to see.
Right outside the door stood Lugia, Mother of the Sea; Ho-oh, Father of the Sky; and The Three Legendary Birds: Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres.
"Good to see you again, too, old friend," Zapdos chuckled.
Codi looked back at Max. They were old friends. Max was friends with Zapdos.
Of course she was.
"There is a scourge in the guise of sanctity
A perpetrator with a quill, although it's
Often steeped in well-spun mystery
The accuser sends the bill"
The world was a stage. Max felt the suspension straps around her as she flew into frame on Zapdos, all eyes on her. Destruction and Death filled the air with their noxious stench, and she flew in with a very pleasantly scented candle.
The Tree of Life was withering.
Luckily, Ash's plan was working despite that. Most of their forces had breached the weaker defenses on the East by taking the more treacherous path through the Sea of Wonders. It should have cut their numbers down significantly considering only water types and those they could carry could make it through. However, with all the pokémon that volunteered, they could've made a bridge from the Island of Storms to Life Garden and still had billions to spare.
All of Fara's forces fending off the assault from the Sea, Team Plasma flew on five Legendary Birds above a cover of clouds (courtesy of Zapdos) undetected. Even after a few hours, Codi was a bit starstruck to find herself sitting atop Lugia, Mother of the Sea. That sight made it easier for Max to keep her mind off the worst of their situation.
The world was watching, and she'd forgotten her lines. This time diverged so drastically from her last that she hadn't remembered anything since getting petrified. She should've known what to expect, but all she knew was that she won her first go around.
This time, all she knew was that Ithos would fail.
Ear-splitting screeches cut through the clouds below all around them. Beams of sheer energy shot through the air, vaporizing all matter it contacted into self-perpetuating fuel. Several surrounded them as they shot blind and sliced in careful, methodical patterns around the Legendaries. Their cover was blown, but Fara's Troops only knew they were up there.
Max bit back her nauseous groans while Zapdos zipped like lightning around every Hyper Beam surrounding them. Not letting herself look down, Max tried to keep her eyes in Zapdos' feathers, or the sky. She'd never seen it so close. Last time she was this high, she was too busy falling to notice it.
"Lugia, now!" Ho-oh screeched.
"Of course," Lugia said. She ceased her flapping (which didn't slow her flight in the slightest) to craft a delicate weave of psychic energy with her wings. The energy shined with blinding pinks and purples as she continued crafting it until she finally threw it over them all like a quilt.
The birds all screeched in turn, starting with Ho-oh. After her screech, she dove through their cover of clouds, followed by Articuno, then Zapdos, Moltres, and Lugia bringing up the rear.
Max held tight with all her might with one paw while the other went to her scarf. Even bound without a loose end, she could feel the wind trying to tug it off her neck. She couldn't remember what it did, but she knew it had enough importance to survive in her memory along nothing else but her name. It hadn't protected her from getting petrified the first time. She hoped it would this time.
Each Bird had folded their wings down to dive at full speed, giving Team Plasma their first view of the battlefield since they'd ascended. Huge explosions and artillery of every type cut into the shore of Primeval Forest. Max's shitty memory let the sight remind her of D-Day.
It's not the first time that war had come to mind recently.
Now having a clear shot, the legion of Hyper Beams all zeroed in on their descent. The assault smashed into Lugia's psychic shield, forming a cone around and behind Ho-oh's beak.
Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres adjusted their dives closer to the searing energy around them all. The clouds now far above them, they had a new cover courtesy of their enemies. Zapdos nodded back at Max with a cheeky grin. "Mind helping, Hero?" she asked.
The sheer absurdity of even a Legendary of Electricity asking to draw from her made Max the slightest bit less annoyed about it. "On it!" she called back. Electricity had already begun to arc around her.
Max put both paws into Zapdos' feathers and attuned to the ongoing charge. It fired far faster than her own, frying her a little bit the moment she tried to offer her own. After the initial pulse, though, she relaxed her body and let the charge flow through her. She couldn't push that frequency through, but she could let Zapdos.
Her tail flicked into the air. The added drag sent sparks flying through her fur instantly. She felt their charge and pulled every one she could into the ongoing current. Each blast of a shock sent through her went through that little bit easier.
The speed of the charge blasting through her started to feel less and less exhausting with every pulse. She attuned herself to the frequency and fed into it with all of her charge and more. Their combined energy started to fully engulf them both. She started pushing more and more into Zapdos' current until she'd put all her reserves into the attack.
Still, she felt herself burning with energy. The constant kaleidoscope of death in front of them started to finally wane. No one could sustain a Hyper Beam forever. Even with Expedition Society training, they wouldn't have the coordination to all stop at the same time.
The ground appeared mere miles below them, the air between already flooded with lightning, fire, and ice. The three had concentrated their attacks into a beam of their own. The charge ripped out of Max at Zapdos' call.
Max didn't feel the exertion at all. She glanced down at the electricity still coursing through her fur and found the culprit. Her Harmony Scarf had begun to intermittently pulse.
She looked over to Moltres and immediately had to look away. Ithos had engulfed them in a bright, white flame. Max didn't need to see his scarf to know it had begun to pulse as well. With this added energy at their beck and call, their combined attack continued to fire into the ground below without interruption. No one of their number had breached the beach, yet, so they laid waste to Fara's forces between each Soldier that had fired a beam earlier.
The air let out a pop! behind Max. She felt a hand smash into the back of her neck and rip her off of Zapdos before another pop exploded around her. A forest suddenly surrounded her while an Alakazam smashed her into the ground.
Once he'd let go, the electricity coursing through Alakazam brought him to his knees. He couldn't move. Max tried to heave air into her lungs as fast as she possibly could while rolling back onto her paws, but flopped back down when her vision grew too spotty to see.
When she looked at him, Alakazam's eyes had already begun to glow a blinding white. The rest of him followed suit before Max could recover, and a Hyper Beam scorched the air and earth around her in one concentrated strike. Her instinct brought an iron tail forward to protect her before she could think the tactic through. The attack was still searing through her.
She could still move. It burned like hell, but she could still move without even flinching. Energy pulsed through her in waves, reinvigorating her body to heal wounds before they formed.
Max threw herself into the air and slammed her iron tail into Alakazam's skull with a gut-wrenching crack. She flinched away from the sound as his body fell with a fresh dent in his head. It looked bare for a moment before the blood began to pour out. She turned away. Too late for regrets.
Gardevoir came to her mind.
Air sliced through the trees from the South. Soldiers. They knew where she was already. She did not.
Her team didn't, either.
Two leaves the precise thickness of her neck sliced through the air to make way for the bone following behind. "HALT, TAINTED!" boomed a chestnaught from fifty yards away. They'd shot first long before they told her to freeze.
Max didn't feel bad about Alakazam anymore.
Max waited for the attacks to reach less than a foot away and leapt over them. The dodge went smoothly until she heard the air splitting behind her. The bone smashed into the back of her skull while the leaves stabbed themselves into her back like knives. She ripped her tail ahead of her and flashed it to iron long enough for an avalanche of earth to slam into it.
The attack cracked through the iron typing like paper. She really shouldn't use iron tail to defend from ground attacks, but the reflex was too deep.
She stumbled back, dazed from the blows. Her tail flicked out beside her on instinct, correcting her balance. Even with blurred eyes, she felt Marowak's approach. He caught his bone after one last ricochet off a tree and leapt up to smash it over her head. Wait until he's just above…
Max leapt back in time to feel the air displace from the bone's movement and pulled her right hindpaw back while her right forepaw lagged behind. She threw her right hindpaw forward to slam her forepaw into Marowak's skull. A crackle of crimson lightning joined spidering fractures in the bone-head from the hit's impact.
Marowak tumbled back from the impact, clutching his head with a hiss of pain while vines shot out from the left. Max put up what resistance she could, but they wrapped around her chest in less than a second. Her mind raced as they ripped her off the ground and over to Chestnaught. Max sliced an iron tail through the vines once she left the ground and let out a light shock below to redirect her flight.
Lightning crashed below her and sent her several yards higher than she wanted. Her stupid idiot scarf glowed with its growing power as she flew helplessly through the air and through branch after branch. The slight hits knocked her off and dazed her constantly, preventing her from taking control back.
She finally hit a branch strong enough to hit her back. It caught her with a groaning creek and let her fall for three seconds. She was going to die. It was a good run.
Lightning struck above her again. The current shot down before crashing back up and sending her flying into the sky. Fate, it seemed, had a sense of humor and wanted to fuck with her before severing her spinal cord's connection with blunt force. Before she could fall again, she landed in plush yellow down.
"Are you all right?" Zapdos asked.
Max let out a gasp of relief and nodded. "Thank you," she said. Her head still ached from the bonemerang, and those two new gashes in her back stung more with even the slightest movements.
The leaves were still embedded into her skin. Great. She couldn't reach them, so she just hid into Zapdos' feathers and hoped the wind would sweep them away. It swiftly jerked them in every single direction, slicing the gashes deeper and deeper, until the holes in her back were finally loose enough to let them go. Her ideas simply weren't working out for her today.
Her position flying through the air protected her from the sudden rattling of the Earth below. It broke and erupted in tectonic shifts while booming creaks echoed against the atmosphere. The tremors and creaks all emanated from the far South of Primeval Forest.
Max looked at the Tree of Life just in time to see its branches beginning to fall.
The air exploded with the sound of the booming crack as they bent and finally broke off its central formation. Burgeoning with life one moment, they shriveled to lifeless husks before casting themselves off in Earth breaking shame. Every falling branch screeched through the air, wailing in the agony of Earth's death throes.
With every one, Max saw her scarf get brighter. Its glowing energy burned and burst to life before suddenly engulfing her. In an instant, the ache in the back of her head left, and the fresh holes in her back sealed.
So, it only worked when things got bad. It's a good thing that this was as bad as things could get, then.
Beyond just healing her, she could already feel it wasn't sitting idle anymore. That energy it fed her earlier filled her constantly, now. Just like she'd assimilated her own reserves into Zapdos' for that attack, the Harmony Scarf flooded and filled the charge pulsing through her. It matched her own frequency perfectly, feeling like a natural extension of herself. At the same time, she could feel it pulling her towards the Tree.
It had joined the pulse of her soul.
Zapdos shot about in random directions to dodge a new volley of attacks, all on her. Max felt the nausea leaving before it could set. At the same time, Zapdos had slowed her approach. The others were almost there. They couldn't slow down.
"Zapdos," Max shouted. "Don't worry about dodging." If the Harmony Scarf was really working, it would let her get away with something this stupid.
Before she clarified, she called down a bolt of lightning that exploded against her back. The instant it made contact, she shot the charge around them in a constant, crackling flow. It shot around Zapdos in a web as it emanated from and back into Max. She would shoot them all back out with cracks of lightning with all the strength she could muster. A stray Hyper Beam glanced Zapdos and dissipated as lightning shot down its length and into the pokémon that fired it.
Thunder Armor. Max hated that she knew what that was. She hated that it worked even more.
Without another word, Zapdos flung them forward with a beat of her wings. Weaving the charges around them, Max didn't need to worry about holding on anymore. The electricity held her against Zapdos' back for her.
Hit after hit crashed into them, and bolt after bolt of lightning ricocheted the blow back down to the move's origin. As the strikes built up, she could feel her electricity fading in potency. Even with the Harmony Scarf, she didn't know how much longer she could keep this up.
Zapdos squawked out another lightning strike that launched them further forward and flooded their surroundings with electricity. All the extra charge flew to Max without her slightest prompting and she continued weaving the barrier around them. As she maintained it, she could feel it bursting out with energy of its own. She thought it was the Harmony Scarf at first, but it wasn't more electricity.
The circuit had formed, lightning crashing through her like she was a wire. If it hurt, the Harmony Scarf healed any damage before she could notice. It was almost self-sustaining, so she started tuning into this different energy.
Lugia's wings weaving a barrier played before her mind. With every pulse of the electricity around her, she could feel another nascent charge starting to form. Just like when she'd learned Focus Punch, she felt her soul reaching out with an old limb, unused for years. She pulled in the new direction weaved the energy into the charge as she pumped it around them both.
Max just hoped she didn't forget something important in place of the new move.
A piercing pink glowed all around them both. In each current of electricity ran a strand of psychic energy behind it. As the electricity crashed around and through itself, it wove together with the psychic into an extra barrier of defense until it covered them both entirely.
Zapdos dove to the right to dodge another branch falling from the Tree of Life. It crashed to the ground, joining the after shocks of the ongoing earthquake. The Earth's heartbeat faltered.
Zapdos swept around to the base, landing at the front with the other four. Max saw Ithos turn around to see her, crowded around the entrance with everyone else. Zapdos bent to let her down, but Max had already leapt straight for her love.
"Max! You're all right!" Ithos cheered. As Max threw herself into his waiting arms, she saw his scarf glowing as bright as hers. Ithos caught her, spinning around once to redirect her momentum.
"What's happening?" Max asked. She crawled down Ithos to scurry over to everyone else. Ithos was the only one to have acknowledged their arrival. Even the Legendaries sat around the entrance, staring down with unreadable expressions. Max caught glimpses of blue and flashes of shimmering antlers beginning to dull. She ducked into the spot Ithos had abandoned and gasped.
Xerneas sat at the base of the tree of life, barely breathing, with blood trailing down her snapped neck. Wounds covered every inch of her, marked by bark that tried to come and seal them. Her hindlegs, contorted into odd shapes and wrong angles, wove into the roots of the Tree of Life. Despite her attempts, she was dying.
The Tree of Life was dying.
Xerneas' dead eyes turned to the scarf at Max's neck. She let out a sigh of relief that turned into a harsh, wet cough.
Come.
The word echoed in Max's mind. It was the same pull she'd felt from the scarf earlier. Ithos nudged her out of the way, and she knew that he'd heard it, too. Branches had already come to stop Xerneas' jaw from falling off. This was the only way she could speak to them. As they approached, they heard her final words.
My time was always to come to its end, for there can be no life without death. From the day we sprouted, I felt the illness that would befall us.
With a look more pained than before, she turned to Ithos. Her severed jaw seemed to smile.
Old friend. Look at us. Would that we had met one last time as you truly are. Even so, perhaps this darkness is not without its light.
She turned to Max, the motion already looking more difficult.
I suppose you won't meet me for another thousand years. Daughter of Man, twice out of your time, it must boggle your mind, yet… no. You've known this would happen. Perhaps not you, but that is not my mystery to understand. No, maybe not.
Xerneas coughed again as a branch grew out of her throat. She looked lower on Max for a bit too long until Max started bringing her tail forward for modesty and then looked away. Was she smirking?
I have my own mystery to keep from you, at least.
… mystery of her belly? Was. Was the Tree of Life calling her fat?
Xerneas' antlers dulled further as bark started to take them over. She gave one solemn nod.
My time has come to an end, but it is only mine. For even in Death, Life bursts forth. It is only through what has decomposed that life has the nutrients necessary to thrive. From our sick flesh comes the next generation to heal the earth and infect it with an all new illness.
As the light faded from her eyes, it brightened their scarves further. Pink and purple began to shine and gleam into a spectrum of color that no longer had a place on Xerneas' antlers. In crippling, fatal pain, she looked peaceful. The peace of death. Beneath it, however, a fire of unfinished business burned.
Both of you, so young, and yet, so old. Lost years you can't quite forget in lives you couldn't quite hide from yourselves. In love, the truth has come to one from the other. In time, the debt shall be returned. Love that transcends life, take what will be my death to the illness of the generation that preceded you, yet didn't create you. Take the last of me to become something greater; Spread my Death to Her; bring new Life to Us All.
Xerneas' eyes lost all that remained of their shine. Bark overtook her fur. Her breath stopped as her body rejoined with the Tree of Life shriveling around her. The branch that broke from her throat grew over to Ithos and Max. Two Lotus Flowers sprouted and sealed around themselves to form two seeds.
Goodbye, Mother of Creation.
Burning energy filled Ithos and Max as the seeds formed. A searing white burst forth from their scarves as the seeds fell into their waiting paws. Once they hit Max's fur and Ithos' scales, they went right through.
The searing white engulfed Max in an instant. It was her own energy, but so much stronger. She felt it coursing through her like every lightning strike of a storm at once as it filled her past the point she could contain. Her own soul flooded out with a heinous rip that cut her breath off before she couldn't feel her lungs. Her own energy overwhelmed her, her form too weak to contain it.
As her body burst beyond its limits, another formed around her. Torn limbs grew stronger, longer, while her shattered bones broke into new shapes, familiar and foreign. Her fur lit aflame and fell to make way for a new pelt as she outgrew her old. With a pang of regret and relief, she felt her tail reform behind her.
The transformation ended as suddenly as it began. The light surrounding her cracked and shattered, revealing her new form below. A simple probe to the sensations around her confirmed it. Finally.
Finally.
Max spun around and jabbed a paw into orange scales, screaming, "Who's the shortstack, now, bitch?!"
So overcome with joy as she rested her elbow on his (suddenly oddly lumpy) head, it took her a moment to find her love's eyes from the new vantage point. She must've been quite a bit taller, indeed. It was suddenly much harder to make out any details on Ithos' form. In fact, she could only make out the one hindpaw.
Chortles failed to conceal themselves above. She looked up, only for a paw to descend over her eyes. A deep voice, much deeper than she remembered, but still perfectly recognizable, chuckled, "It's still you." The paw pulled away to reveal a charizard with a purple scarf around his neck and familiar, piercing blue, laughing eyes. Wings billowed out above them both, massive and strong.
Ithos had evolved, too. In fact, he'd evolved twice.
Before she could pout, Ithos deftly ran his paw down her back and up her tail. Max flinched at the touch before her eyes closed unevenly while her mouth fell open in a dumb smile. "Chhhaaaaaaaa!" she squeaked, voice a touch more guttural.
"Still works," Ithos chuckled. He pat her head to help her shake out of the stupor.
Max glanced at her forepaws, now much larger and fluffier and took a deep breath of relief when she found all five nubbins still there (and twice the size, to boot).
…It was definitely a good idea not to wear the ring.
"Ithos, bro," Ash said. It shook Max out of her self-examination enough to look up at Ithos staring down at her. He'd watched her turn and twist herself about as she looked over her raichu form with deep interest. "Damn, was last night that good?"
Ithos jerked over to snatch Ash up by the nape of the neck, yanking him up to his new eye level. While he said something rude or threatening to Ash, Max watched his body ripple and tense along with the motion. His arms had only gained definition, the same with his chest. What really stole Max's attention, was the couple seconds his belly continued to jiggle after he stopped moving. Right at her head height, too, she could-
"Max," Codi chuckled. She jabbed a claw at Max's shoulder with a grin. Max hopped up out of her reverie and onto her right paw, her left paw up and ready to kick. It was an odd posture, standing on the balls of her paw, but it felt stable.
One ear up in intrigue, she brought both paws down and found her heels naturally rising. She probably could force them flat, but it felt more natural this way, just the brown tips of her paws touching the ground. It made her feel really bouncy. Her tail easily whipped around behind to correct her balance, too, making her feel even more stable than she'd been as a pikachu.
Her tail. A shot of panic hit her chest. She knew she was still a girl, but she had a touch of familiar terror. Deep in her lost memories, she could see a raichu's sharpened bolt in her brown paws. She could remember staring at it for a second, then whipping it out of sight before anyone saw her looking.
A scaled paw tapped the blunted end of her tail. She heard Ithos hum, disappointed, behind her. "I liked the heart better, to be honest," he said. Max let out a breath of relief. She hopped around and saw him wink as he let her pull it out of his paw.
He could tell that easy.
Max held her new tail in her paws again, the blunted edge not the only difference. Her black fur hadn't gone away. Its curve shot down with the far end of her tail like a knife's bevel, then dove for the sharp point of its first turn.
Ithos was wrong. This was way better than a heart.
The Earth quaked with an ear-shattering boom as another branch cracked and fell from the Tree of Life. A hail of attacks peppered the whole group before Lugia threw another shield up to guard them. The rest of the birds started returning fire.
"Come on, let's go!" Codi barked. She smacked Max on the back after a quick thumbs up of congratulation, then ran around the roots that used to be Xerneas.
Without thinking about it much, Max hopped over to meet her on the other side. Codi blinked for a moment, but a Hyper Beam slamming into Lugia's barrier stopped her surprise. They had to hurry. She dashed behind Ithos (who carried a complaining Ash), and Max followed behind. A few steps upright felt better than they would as a pikachu, but she dropped to all fours, anyway. She needed all the speed she had.
They had a world to save, and a bitch to kill.