(A/N: The story voted most boring and generic by the only review it's gotten on this fucking website returns after no hiatus, go fuck yourself. At least it was anonymous, so I could just delete it. I don't know why I bother posting to this website anymore. Even my hatemail says it hasn't read this fucking thing.)
"I am the one
I am the none
I am nobody
I am no one"
"Gaia" from Omnium Gatherum by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Deep, deep within the Tree of Life, all its sanctity had gone. Its grass had died and shriveled into bleeding sand, maintained only by the sinister pulsing of Dark Matter's necrotic stench. Passing through its roots had been a constant sight of death and decomposing corpses. What had survived had less blood to pump than it did puss to purge from its decrepit veins.
That had been a beautiful sunrise in comparison.
Death's bloating stench stuck to the air still, but it had left the land completely. Sick mockeries of life surrounded them. The once dead bark now had its agonizing heartbeat glow with the life keeping it from disintegrating.
Max trudged through bloody sap, finally having a reason to be glad she evolved. Ash and Codi weren't so lucky while Ithos had the privilege of hovering over the rotting filth that flooded the place with life. Its disgusting stick rejuvenated them against their will, a disgusting perversion of the Tree of Life pumping through the floor.
A shriveled once corpse of a bibarel sat against the wall, thrown into the corner again and again by the stagnant waves of the sewage they waded through. Engulfed in death, it cried out in agony because of its impossible life. They'd tried showing these ferals mercy earlier, but it was pointless.
The injuries always persisted when they came back to life.
Every twitch of its corpse assaulted Max's awareness. She could feel the rot of its pelt dissolving into the fluid keeping it alive with perfect accuracy, completely unable to stop it. She forgot how deep they'd gotten into this Dungeon, but it was far past the point she could keep her instincts silent. She guided everyone behind her while demanding they only watched her back. She had to suffer the sights. They didn't.
This hadn't happened before. If it had, she would've had very different nightmares.
"Help," hissed a gardevoir in the next room. It was a feral. Max was the only one who could understand it. "Please." She let everyone else think that their words were meaningless. "Let me die."
Max grit her teeth harder. The path in front of them twisted and shifted in on itself in an endless spiral that led nowhere. The horror of the next room persisted exactly long enough to torment her before she was once again lost in a wide, endless corridor.
Then, the Dungeon split open. Darkness hung beneath them, giving them mere milliseconds to feel the relief of that disgusting ooze before they fell into its same crevice.
Ithos acted quick, diving after everyone in the same instant they'd begun to fall. He maneuvered in spirals to swing under Ash and Codi first, banking around to let Max grab on as he passed. Max barely managed to get a hold of him, the yawning abyss around them stealing her attention. Just like the tunnel they'd been in, it had every end and none below. A constant twist and turn into nothing.
Then, the world around them shattered. Its yawning abyss exploded with the shimmer that had created and contained it. The world died around them for an instant before it came to life again in a destructive explosion.
Ithos' wings flagged under all the extra weight he carried. He managed to slow their descent as best he could, though, the Harmony Scarf helping with the worst of his exhaustion.
Spiraling roots replaced the Dungeon around them. They wound and wove into the walls around them, filling and expanding in the stone dirt to form a dome that mirrored its branches above. The Dungeon had broken to reveal what it was meant to contain: the full depths of the Tree of Life.
There, sitting on a single root growing out of the center, was Fara. Her eyes were empty voids of violet and black. Her lips pulled into a horrific smile that tore her skin beyond its limits, leaving a sick, slow drip of crimson. The dark light of the Voidlands surrounded them to illuminate the sight, its sick hue casting the holy site in a sinister hue.
Fara sat still and watched as they landed. Max hopped down the last few yards to land on her own and lighten Ithos' load. The room pulsed with the same purple of their Harmony Scarves.
"Max," Fara said. Ithos landed next to Max, Ash and Codi hopping off as he did. "It's so lovely to see you again." Fara dabbed a paw to the crimson streaming from her mouth. "Oh dear, it seems I've gotten a bit too excited again." Her eyes stayed on Max and no one else. "You just have that effect on me."
"Why?" Max asked. She didn't care about Fara's theatrics. Whatever Fara wanted out of this, Max didn't care. "All this nightmare you created. Why?"
"Nightmare I created?" Fara asked. She hovered a flattered paw up to her chest. "Surely, you must know how wrong that is." Her smile grew wider, threatening to reach around to the back of her head. "Even I couldn't have come up with something so cruel. Or have you forgotten what you truly are?" Biting malice crept into her voice. "Only a human could imagine this evil."
Fara flicked a paw to the group and sent a red, petrifying pulse into all of them. "Let me finish what you started."
"Giant body parasite
Gaia lives while others die"
All things considered, this wasn't going as smoothly as Codi had hoped. Whatever knowledge Max had left some serious gaps for them to discover in this little expedition. Still, with some improvisation, a sprinkling of friendship, and a heaping dusting of emotional labor, Codi finally got where she needed to go.
Hell.
"Welcome to Exile," a gardevoir standing over her said. He looked… off. Not quite empty, but close. Codi couldn't quite tell. He seemed to look at her because that's what eyes tended to do. "If you work hard enough, you may earn the right to shed your illness and rejoin the worthy."
"Uh huh," Codi said. She hadn't sat up yet. She was still laying down, getting acclimated to the whole 'Hell' thing. It was an interesting place, so far, with cloudy skies, violet sands and boring people.
She stared at Gardevoir.
Gardevoir stared at her.
Nothing happened. She looked for something, some recognition in his eyes. Not that he knew her, but that he saw her. That he saw a person. He stared at her, blank, speaking in an empty voice that seemed to crumple under the weight of its own breath. He looked perfectly healthy, perfectly fine, yet with nothing but death in his beating heart.
So, all in all, not a very threatening foreman. Codi had seen worse.
"Whoah," Ash called behind her. Gardevoir looked up, just as dead as before. "Didn't you die?" Well, that would explain the dead expression.
"The Righteous live on, degenerate scum," Gardevoir said with the swelling pride of a blade of grass caught in the wind. "Now, please come with me, and I will assign you your tasks."
"Oh, that's all right," Codi said. She finally sat up, stretching her neck. "We actually already have our assignments." Gardevoir looked dispassionately down at her. She couldn't tell if he believed her. He wasn't interrupting her, so she went on. "Where is everyone?"
"Where you're going," Gardevoir said. "The fields." He turned to the side and moved for them to follow. "Come this way." He didn't move. He stood stone still, waiting. He wasn't even forcing them.
"Do we go?" Ash asked. Their plan had been for a bit more hostile a welcoming. That was a pretty big reason that Ash and Codi needed to be there. Well, Max had said that they couldn't have avoided getting petrified anyway, but still, it made for a decent plan on the spot. Codi was just glad that Ithos and Max were still topside.
"Might as well," Codi said with a shrug. She shared a glance with Ash and they both hopped up. The moment they did, Gardevoir started walking forward. He didn't look back to see if they followed.
Gardevoir didn't look tired. His movement wasn't strained at all, but it barely had any motivation behind it. He didn't look dissatisfied with his job, with the situation, hungry, angry, depressed, anything. He walked in the directions that he needed to walk. Codi felt her stomach turn. She remembered putting on her collar the first time.
He was nothing but the orders he needed to follow.
This was Fara's plan for the Soldiers. Codi couldn't imagine any other reason to have them killed, unless Rescue Teams had started taking the problem seriously recently. This was the final resting place of the soulless husks that served her regime.
Codi reached up to feel her collar. It wasn't there. Looking at Gardevoir, she was terrified wondering how close she was to this end. She wasn't sure if she could pity him, but her heart wanted to.
"Here you are," Gardevoir said, turning one last corner.
As Ash and Codi rounded it, the first thing they saw was exactly what Ithos had called it. A mountain resting upon its own peak. Topside, it would've cast a shadow over everyone toiling below, but the light came from somewhere else here. Codi scanned the crowds of pokémon, but didn't see Mom. She took a breath.
They'd find her.
"Well, thanks," Codi said. Remembering why they were here in the first place, she didn't have an issue with their next step anymore. With a nod to Ash, they both turned to Gardevoir and launched their attacks, Codi a Hydro Pump to knock him off balance, and Ash burst forth with electricity crackling through his fur to send Gardevoir flying.
Gardevoir let in a gasp of surprise that turned into a shriek. His body broke and contorted as it smacked along the ground, his unholy screeching getting louder with every snap of his bones against the ground. Even when his neck snapped against the wall behind him, his voice grew louder as his eyes rolled into the back of his head before melting into the black sludge that oozed from his every wound.
His skin boiled, bubbled and burnt into a disgusting coagulation of itself as the shattered form gave way to the nothing that remained of his soul. Even as he screamed the agony of his soul's final breath, no emotion graced his expression. His soul had died long before he had, anyway.
As the last of his form boiled away into black void, the sludge began to build on top of itself. As a sack of sludge in place of a head fell under its own weight, it burbled another screech. For a moment, it glowed.
Reality itself seemed to bend around it in a ring that shot out of it. The wind blew light in the wrong direction as it emanated out from the rotting corpse of a soul. Codi and Ash tried to jump over it, barely clearing the blast as it shot under them. Codi immediately retaliated with another Hydro Pump, trying to wash the sludge of a soul into a slush.
Its form hissed and broke around her attack boring a hole into it. While Codi redirected her attack to keep hitting it, the void shadow started barreling towards her. Every second under Codi's assault, it shriveled and wasted away further, but it didn't stop its pursuit until Ash slammed into it from the side.
Whatever held it together started to fail. Its amorphous form withered under the weight of its own sludge as it sloughed off Ash and into the sand. Half of it evaporated while the other half dripped into a puddle.
"You remember them telling us this happens?" Ash asked. He somewhat stumbled back, shaking the memory of that sludge out of his fur. He glanced back at the puddle one last time before turning back to walk over to Codi. Codi glanced to see what he was looking at and saw a few fragments of bones and teeth that hadn't yet dissolved into the soul's new nothing.
"Nope," Codi whispered. That was a Soldier. He'd died. It wouldn't—she wouldn't let herself even consider the thought.
"At least he was easier this time," Ash said.
Codi nodded and turned around to face Reverse Mountain with fresh urgency. However long Mom had been in here was too long the moment they took her there. It was time for the biggest uprising yet. She and Ash started heading over together without another word.
Ash had some of the same determination in his expression. He might be a goofy idiot most of the time, but he knew when to shut up and get shit done, sometimes even giving off the impression he was smarter than he let on. Now was exactly one of those times. He'd only needed one look at Codi to know what she needed to do. Of course, why she came here was never a secret.
Plenty of pokémon saw their approach, but none moved to greet them. They didn't look tired, but no one was happy to see more come. Then again, of course they wouldn't.
Codi tried to hide her reaction as she looked them over, but it wasn't easy. Scanning their faces, plenty had the beginnings of that same, empty expression in their eyes. How long had they been here? How long did it take until…. She shook her head of the thought before it could finish. She was going to save Mom.
"Look who's special," some sniveling snivy snarked at them. Codi almost cared until she caught a glance of him. A child. He couldn't have been more than a year old. "You didn't need a guard to tell you where to go."
"Nah," Ash said, proudly pointing his nose to the sky. "No one tells us what to do." Codi envied his idiocy.
"No point in that anymore, dumbass," grumbled the ground beneath them. It rumbled for a few seconds until the dirt broke to reveal the tip of a muzzle with a pink snout. "Nothing else worth doing around here." He didn't seem interested in digging out further than necessary. "Your options are do work for eternity, or be bored for eternity."
That explained why no one really looked tired. It gave Codi some level of hope. At least the conditions weren't the worst they could possibly be. Ever since hearing about this, she'd been horrified that Mom was being tormented this whole time.
"Well, there's a third option now, dirt for face," Ash chuckled. It wasn't exactly inspiring hope in the oppressed like they needed to, but it was something. The uncaring snout of whatever ground type watched with the same rapt, lack of bored attention that the rest of the pokémon around did. "We know the exit."
That at least got their attention, but not by much. They seemed to wake up from their own zoned out thoughts to look at him, but there was no excitement in anyone's expression.
"All right, go then," the ground's mouth said. It finally saw fit to reveal itself, and the swinub connected to it wriggled out of the hole he dug. "I'm sure the soldiers everywhere won't mind. Do it." Finally free, he could glare up at Ash with his beady eyes.
"Well, uh," Codi mumbled. What was the best way to explain that she had the combat capabilities of a soldier that wouldn't make everyone in a thirty yard radius instantaneously interested in the taste of her blood? Lying, probably. "That's actually why we got exiled." She nodded as she thought to make it more convincing, then shrugged. "We kept killing them."
"Ok," Swinub said. He glared up at her from the side of his vision after rolling his eyes. "They have the entire continent on lock, but you two keep killing them. I'm sure everyone-"
"Wait," someone interrupted from the side. Codi turned to see a blank face floating beneath two red eyes. She wasn't sure where its expression was, but it didn't look nearly so defeated as the others. "The human, she was freeing towns when I was arrested."
"Please," an arcanine on the opposite side sighed. "Fara just made up that human. Look around." He didn't even bother to nod his head to their surroundings. "This time, we're doomed." He rested his muzzle on his paws again, sneering at Yamask. "Besides, what could a single human do against Fara's legions? Do you really think Lively Town was done by a human?"
"Yeah," Ash agreed. Codi couldn't even comprehend the level of mistake he was making. "Max's just a pikachu, but you know who ISN'T a pikachu?!" He clapped a paw on Codi's back. "CODI!" Luckily, everyone was staring in confused disgust at Ash instead of her. Codi didn't relax. She could feel it.
It was about to get worse.
"In fact! Codi's inspired the WHOLE CONTINENT to get those Soldiers outta there," he continued. Yamask seemed pleased. Codi was starting to envy Gardevoir's fate. "Because get this," he pulled his arm around Codi's shoulder, "this Soldier decided she'd rather see a town free than follow her station." This idiot was telling an entire field of exiles that she was a Soldier.
She was going to die.
"CODI?!" Yamask screamed. Codi didn't flinch as it flew inches from her face. This was it. So much for saving them. "From Glitterion, right?!" Odd. That didn't sound like being killed yet. Maybe it was taking a second. "No way! I've been telling anyone I can about you!"
"He has," Arcanine grumbled. Okay, good, he was still bored. Yamask was the only one riled up, and it seemed happy. She might be okay. "But apparently, he forgot that totodile had a broken spine."
"A what?" Codi asked. She finally stepped just a bit out of accepting her death for a second. She turned to squint at Yamask, though it's not like it was the ghost's fault. Stories spread with the weirdest embellishments sometimes, so it must've just heard that she had one.
"Oh, she does," Ash said. Codi blinked. This wasn't even a convincing lie. "I don't know why it's not there anymore."
"Ash, what are you talking about?" Codi grumbled, shoving him off. Whatever he wanted to accomplish with this, she didn't. She glared at him, then turned to Yamask. "Look, yes, I'm that Codi, but I don't have-"
Why did she get a week off during training? During a spar, she'd gotten beaten so bad by a trevenant that she couldn't move for the next two days. It. Her back. Her.
"Did," she mumbled. She stared off in the distance for a moment, trying to process the disbelief. It couldn't have been true, though. She was fine, but she couldn't believe that anymore. She glanced at Ash to see him awkwardly looking away as if he'd just let some secret slip. He knew. Her disbelief shifted to rage. "IT'S BROKEN?!" Nobody had ever told her a word about it! "Why didn't you tell me?!"
"I THOUGHT YOU KNEW?!" Ash wheezed like a stupid idiot trying to be funny—ohhh, she was holding him up by the throat. Codi forced herself to let him drop, and he eagerly got to rubbing his sore neck. He recovered quick and hopped up, throwing his arms up in confusion. "I didn't want to be rude?"
"Is it rude to tell someone they look fucked up?!" Codi barked. The crowd around them flinched back. She yelled just like a soldier. Yet, some part of what she'd just said kept them from cowering.
"Um," Ash hummed. He tilted his head at her, brow furrowed. "I thought so." He looked up at the sky, then down to the ground in thought, rubbing his chin. "I'd be pretty bummed if someone told me I'd lost my spines." He froze in horror, then suddenly took a breath of relief. "Ohhh, right. I don't have those." Out of nowhere, Arcanine let out some deathly, wheezing snort, and the crowd descended to chaos.
Codi flinched—was it an attack?—only to turn and see everyone laughing. The scales on her cheeks turned a deep indigo. The laughs were small, barely more than chuckles, but the act alone seemed to bring some color back to their faces (as well as her cheeks, as previously mentioned). She let out a breath of relief.
The laughter died down as fast as it came. If nothing else, it had aided in the end of their boredom. It was impossible to know how long they'd been bored, too. It seemed to mean a lot to them. Even Swinub seemed in higher spirits.
A giggling snivy poked at her from below. Behind his mirth sat the gleam of hope, uncertain if it should sprout. "Does that mean it's true?" he asked. "C-can we go?"
Codi smiled down at him, kneeling to pat his head. "Yep," she said. Still, he seemed uncertain.
"B-but the guards," Snivy said.
"What about the guards?" Codi asked. Her warm smile started shifting to a smirk, and she glanced around to the other pokémon in the crowd. "See, Fara's not too smart." She turned back down to see Snivy listening with undivided attention. "It might take ten of us to take down one Soldier." She shared a glance with most of the crowd. Even Arcanine nodded along, able to see where this was going.
"So it's a good thing there's thousands of us."
"I am God
I am you
I am me
I am Gaia"
Max froze in place as the blast launched, throat closing up in anticipatory terror. It smashed right through her, the energy twisting and tying its tendrils all around her. She could feel it clawing at her for some purchase while evaporating against the Harmony Scarf's energy. It tickled against her hope, but couldn't strike her deeper. Yet, she couldn't stop herself from shaking until she felt Ithos' paw at her back.
"Aw, still cowering, are we?" Fara asked. Max snarled as she looked up. Fara's smile turned a touch more natural in disappointment. "I actually have to lift a paw, and it's against a coward. Oh well." She leaned forward to stand. "What else should I expect of a human?"
Fara brought a paw to the crimson sludge dripping from her maw. With a glint of excitement, she flicked the fluid at them. The blood launched from her paw, into Max's chest, and right out the other end.
"MAX!" Ithos screamed. He lunged to keep her from falling.
Max tackled him out of the way of Fara's next assault. She brought a paw to her chest while she coughed, the hole already mending. "I'm fine," she choked out through the thick taste of iron at the back of her throat. The Harmony Scarf wasn't going to let something so trivial as a mortal wound finish her off.
"Ohh, so protective," Fara hummed. The sound of her voice made Max's skin crawl more every second. "You really give the impression you care. It's cute." Ithos helped her up, neither saying a word. Fara wanted them angry. She wouldn't get that. Fara clicked her tongue. "Pity." Her blank voids of eyes watched in further disappointment, smile still too wide for her mouth. "I thought we'd have fun."
Fara kicked the pooling sludge beneath her up and into her forepaw. It solidified in her paws, whipping into formation as she twirled it around, finally snapping it way from its origin. She ripped it back and flung it forward, scarring the ceiling on its way between Max and Ithos.
They both slid away, but the attack would never have hit either of them. That wasn't the intent. A massive spike shot out of it before Max had finished sliding, impaling her through the paw. As she shrieked in pain, the tendril it shot from slammed her into the wall behind her. The impact splayed her arms out, and another spike pierced through the opposite forepaw.
The agony worsened as her body kept trying to heal the wound. Mending flesh tore against itself to grind against the searing wounds she hung from. It was a pose she'd seen before, but she hoped it wasn't intentional. At least pikachu legs were too short to complete it.
Another spike jabbed through her left hindpaw. It yanked it over her right to do the same, then pierced them both into the bark behind her. It was definitely intentional at this point.
She really wished she hadn't evolved.
"Look at you, little savior," Fara said. "Only a human could die so spectacularly as you." Her eyes shone with malice while she watched in open-mouthed glee that Max could barely see. The searing pain was filling her vision with white. "Our Human Savior in Pokémon flesh has come to liberate us all, correct?" Max could barely hear her over the ear-splitting ring of pain. "You must need to be so special."
"She is," Ithos hissed. He dove for Fara from above. She immediately started flinging improvised blood weapons towards him that incinerated in the flames surrounding his body. By the time he hit her, he was nothing but a ball of fire.
The whole room rattled; Max shrieked in pain again. Glancing at her wounds, she groaned in agony. The nails were completely smooth, so she had an escape. This was going to suck.
Max steeled herself to pull up for one agonizing breath and threw her forepaws forward. The worst slurping sound of her life tormented her ears before she heard an even worse one as her hindpaws snapped and slipped off the lower anchor. It hurt too much to breath. Even as her flesh mended, she could feel the awful gap it was closing.
In a daze, she was glad they were closing, at least. The last thing she needed were stigmata, well. The last thing she needed was to get crucified, but following that, she definitely didn't want a living reminder that she'd cheated death.
She really shouldn't have named that guy Paul.
Max rolled onto her side as the flesh of her paws met in the middle, the fur following shortly after, and watched Ithos. He ripped Fara into the air while she was still engulfed in flames, flew three loops in the air to build momentum and smashed her to the ground at the base of his last. She didn't know he'd learned Seismic Toss, but she wasn't surprised. He was always a quick learner.
Fara cratered the ground around her when she landed. Spikes shot out from her new hole in the ground that Ithos had to desperately weave around. He dove out of their path for the most part, but couldn't stop several clipping into and through his wings.
Trying to escape tore his wings to shreds. His voice boomed in a shriek of agony several times the volume of Max's. He couldn't heal in time to glide to the ground. His momentum sent him careening towards Max.
Max jumped before she could think, vision going white when she did. Her hindpaws hadn't quite healed enough for that yet, but they held her weight when she landed. They still hurt, but she could endure the pain. She dropped to all fours and dashed over to Ithos, praying he was all right.
Her ear flicked up. She could feel Fara climbing out of that crater already. Fara picked up the end of the whip she'd made earlier again while her contorted bones cracked back into place. With a flick of her paw, the whip came for both of them.
Max swallowed the imminent pain and yanked Ithos up by the tail, spinning him once before jumping and letting his momentum fly them out of the way of Fara's attack. Every single muscle involved in doing that audibly ripped, but if the Harmony Scarves would heal them, they didn't really need to worry. It only hurt. A lot. She was used to pain. She woke up in Ithos arms.
Maybe she wasn't that used to pain.
"Max?" Ithos asked. Turbulence whipped her tail around behind them, letting her know they were flying. Ithos flicked her on the nose. "Don't do that."
"Chuuu," Max growled back.
Ithos dropped and let her hop out of his arms. Max wasn't out long, then, because Fara's bones were still snapping back into place. She wasn't using moves, still clutching that whip while she watched Ithos and Max. As the last of her bones snapped back into place, even her smile mended.
"Good," Fara hummed. "How many times will I get to kill you before you give up?"
"Just the one's fine," Max barked.
Fara's smile ripped into her cheeks again. "Losing yourself so soon?" she asked. "Wonderful."
Max grit her teeth, clenching her fist as she pulled it back. Even now, she was more used to a human fighting stance. "I won't lose what's important," she said. "Not again."
Fara ripped her whip into the air, then lashed it towards Max. Ithos dodged out of the way, but Max stood still and waited to catch its tip in her paw. It ripped through her fur as it wrapped around, but she yanked it back to hold it in both, bringing Fara a few feet closer as well before sending enough electricity down its length for lightning to strike the Ampharos.
Fara leaned back, absorbing the attack with glee. She let out a chilling moan as the echoing roar of thunder faded. With electricity still arcing through her, she looked down at Max, licking the black blood off her lips. As she did, the wound that it came from disappeared.
"Those scarves," Fara said as her charred fur faded into yellow. "Their power, it's the divine Tree of Life, yes?" Max ripped the whip back and out of Fara's paws. It flung behind her, writhing. "That power is not yours."
"You've robbed the Water Continent of everything," Ithos barked. He didn't quite get it, but of course he didn't. He didn't have a frame of reference for what Fara was talking about.
Max did.
"Yes, but I did it with my power," Fara sang. She stepped back and sat against the root she'd sat on when they entered. As she did, the whole of the room rumbled. "For unlike you two, I've been with these people for millennia." As she spoke, the walls began to shake. The roots that made the room rumbled.
"My power comes from the people," she said. Her back arced in delight as she raised a paw towards a root, feeling it writhe at her call. "I know them better than this supplanted savior ever could, for I am the darkness inside of everyone's hearts." Her voice dripped with disdain while she cackled in glee. The roots of the Tree of Life continued to writhe at her beck and call.
One collapsed between Max and Ithos before another wrapped around Max and yanked her over. In an instant, she could feel Fara breathing into her ear. A damp paw traced down Max's face, leaving a warm trail. The root began to squeeze around Max as Fara leaned into her ear.
"I am the silence they're too afraid to say," Fara whispered. "It was only thanks to your kind that I learned what I really am. What I could truly become." As her grin widened again, her black blood dripped into Max's ear. "I am the truth that everyone shuns; the hate that everyone feels, but none can utter. I am the Fact that a fool despises in favor of feeling. Tell me."
Fara dipped a paw down to squeeze between Max's legs. "Does that sound familiar?" she mused. Max tried to build a charge, but the roots sapped her electricity as it came. Fara chuckled. "This body, I'm sure you love it. Longed to be what you never could, isn't that so?"
Max grit her teeth and glared at Fara, the only form of protest she had while the roots began to tighten around her body. Fara removed her paw as the bark ground against Max's skeleton. Max grit her teeth harder, not willing to give Fara the satisfaction of a scream. "I'm so glad that I wished you would come," Fara said.
Even while her bones began to groan, the realization shot through Max. Jirachi. This was why he'd cowered away from her in the Voidlands. This was what he'd done.
The tremors were from her.
"Look at you, where do you draw your strength?" Fara asked. Max could feel her bones cracking against the roots' strength, mending just in time to snap again. Fara shot a paw to her right to rip Ithos out of the air. "Love?" She chuckled and tossed Ithos against the wall behind her. "Only a human could think of something so insipid."
Just like on Revelation Mountain, Ithos dug his claws into the wrist at his throat, and just like before, Fara didn't flinch as he left dark, dripping gashes through her fur. She wouldn't take her eyes off Max. Fara watched her in violent anticipation.
Max could feel her bones snapping and mending, now. Over and over again, she felt her ribs collapse. She was endlessly on the brink of death, yet felt nothing.
Horror left a gash in her heart, but didn't stay long enough for her to feel it. Only echoes of the pain made it through before it disappeared as well. The only sounds that came from her were thanks to the roots crushing her. She looked up as Fara watched, already aware of why she hadn't felt anything since Fara had captured her. Eleos was always more subtle, but the feeling was the same.
"You've figured it out, then," Fara said. Ithos choked out a plume of flame that engulfed her. She didn't move as her fur caught fire, still watching Max. "You know, it's amazing the hell people will endure if you acclimate them to it first."
Max kept her eyes on Fara with a desperate sneer contorting the entirety of her face. With every tightening of the roots, she used the jerking of her body being crushed to mask her arm's movement. Her right paw had already dipped into the front pocket of her bag. Thanks to Codi, she actually kept them in a sensible place, now.
"Have you ever experienced the reverse?" Fara asked. "Tell me." She traced another paw down Max's face. "What do you think will happen if I stop, letting you feel all that pain at once?"
"I don't know," Max said. With all the blast seeds in her paw that would fit, she smiled. Codi might have talked some sense into her about organization, but she never went through with the advice of being safer. Hopefully Neb wouldn't mind, but she wouldn't have to face her for another thousand years. "Let's find out."
A light shock was all it took to trigger the blast. She couldn't hear anything. She assumed it was because she'd merely burst her ear drums, but her left rang like a siren. When she saw a bit of yellow and dark brown in flames off to the side, though, she figured it out.
Best not to look at that side of her for a bit.
Ithos engulfed Fara in a blinding white blaze before flying over to Max. He'd come out relatively unscathed, thank God. Max watched Fara burning with a bit of trepidation. It was only a matter of time.
"MAX!" Ithos screamed. He rushed over to her with horror in his eyes. Maybe Fara was letting him feel his, or maybe he hadn't noticed his terror wasn't there yet. Either way, Max knew she'd join him in a few seconds. Yet, when Max felt hearing return in her right ear, she still had yet to feel a thing. Fara must've needed her agony to heal.
"I'm all right," Max said. She pushed herself up, letting out a breath of relief that her pawpads could feel. They were back already. "Look at me." She smirked up at him, not entirely confident in how much she'd really healed. "Picture of health."
Ithos slapped his paw to his face, dragging it down his snout. "I hate you," he growled. "So much."
"Love you, too, dead flame," Max cooed. She jabbed at his leg with her right paw and jerked her head towards the blaze that was Fara. "We're not getting anywhere with this."
When Ithos turned his head, roots propped up Fara's body. They stabbed into her to repair what was left, even as she continued to burn. Just like Max had healed, Fara was already halfway back to perfect health. Fara had come to the roots for a reason, then. Of course she did. Eleos had wanted to destroy the Tree of Life; Fara wanted to control it.
She'd succeeded.
Max tapped her Harmony Scarf one last time in thanks. She looked up at Ithos and watched him come to the same realization. He was a bit more terrified of the prospect than her. Max didn't blame him.
"She fused with it," Max said. "There's no way to save it anymore." They'd save the Tree of Life next time. This one was already done for. Luckily, despite Xerneas talking in nothing but riddles and archaic nonsense, Max figured out what she'd said. She'd had experience with arcane riddles, after all. "Remember what Xerneas said."
"I know," Ithos growled. "This was her plan, just." He shook his head, chuckling slightly. "Didn't she say you wanted to control the Tree of Life?"
"Yeah, well," Max hummed. The flames on Fara started to fade away. "There's something you always gotta keep in mind with a fascist." She drew her right hindpaw back in preparation for the next clash. "Every accusation is a confession."
"Gaia sees
Gaia breathes
Gaia's needs incomplete
Gaia bequeaths"
"Don't let up!" Ash called. A small battalion of pokémon were all working together to slam a garchomp into putty against the wall behind it. A constant barrage of water, leaves, and vines hit it with enough constant force that it didn't have a chance to break free as its form dissolved into the sludge of a void shadow. "Pick it up, almost there!"
Ash signaled Codi, and she started blasting it, too. The addition of her Hydro Pump concealed the rest of the body and hid the transformation from everyone else. Best if as few people as possible saw that for the sake of moral.
"STOP!" Ash barked. All at once, every attack halted, leaving nothing but a puddle of darkness washed away by the water that had destroyed it. It was all going rather well.
Codi took a deep breath as Ash turned to congratulate everyone. Even saving it for the end, these Hydro Pumps were starting to exhaust her. That she could deal with, though. If nothing else, she'd learned how to handle exhaustion.
What she couldn't handle was uncertainty.
They had gone almost the full way around Reverse Mountain and hadn't found Mom yet. She couldn't let herself even imagine the worst. It ate at her anyway. How long had Mom been trapped down here?
Codi shook the doubts out of her head. Mom was still alive. She knew it. She grit her teeth and went to the nearest pokémon. Yet, even as she tried to hold onto hope, she could feel her heart breaking. There were barely anymore places to check at all. She wasn't sure who's gray knee she tapped when she did, already preparing for disappointment. "Have you-"
"Have I seen you before?" Aggron asked. Codi blinked, then squinted up at him. She'd never seen an aggron in her life. Yet, he didn't lose any certainty in his inquisitive gaze. "Sorry, you just…." Realization flashed in his eyes and he snapped his fingers. "Right! There was this feraligatr."
Codi's heart leapt, then stopped. He said 'was'. Past tense.
"Yeah," Aggron went on. His expression remained unchanged. Even while Codi could feel a sob choking at her throat, Aggron looked down in simple curiosity. "Weird. You have her same eyes."
Codi grit her teeth. There was no point in hoping anymore, but there was no hope in tears, either. Max had only ever said there was a chance, after all. She knew it was a long shot from the beginning. Hope could bring a lot. It could bring a despot to their knees. It could bring freedom.
It couldn't bring the dead back to life.
Yet, Codi still felt her heart beating. She wished it wouldn't, but it did. She wanted to accept what was already true. Had to.
She couldn't.
"Th-thank you," Codi said. Aggron blinked, turning awkwardly to the side. He probably realized it was a bit strange to tell a stranger they looked like someone else of their species. "Has it…," Codi prepared herself for disappointment, "How long has it been since you saw her?"
"How long?" Aggron asked, humming. "Well, I don't know. There's not exactly day and night here." He chuckled as he looked down to see Codi considering homicide for the ill timed giggle. "J-just—oh." He glanced up. "Th-
A dense, desperate bundle of scales threw itself around Codi with sobbing relief. Codi's breath hitched. The tears that had readied themselves for disappointment didn't have to go far. She looked down and saw teal scales wrapped around her. Codi felt herself struggling to breathe again. For all the hope she'd had since Max told her, she'd never imagined it could really happen. Could it really be Mom?
"MI PRECIOSO CORRIENTE!" Mom screamed—directly into her ear while squeezing all the air out of her lungs like she always did. Codi didn't care. She couldn't have breathed, anyway.
The crushing abated, and Codi saw the face she'd never see again. An ocean of tears streamed down Mom's eyes. "Look at you," Mom choked out through a sob. Codi could feel her own tears starting to build as Mom squinted her eyes at Codi in disbelief. "I never thought I'd see you so strong before you've even evolved!"
"M-Mom!" Codi whined a familiar whine. Her cheeks burned a deep indigo while she struggled to believe her own words. Yet, her complaint didn't stop Mom's squeezes of inspection.
"All those stories," Mom said, shaking her head. Her voice was a mess of constant cracks, cries and whimpers, but she didn't hesitate to let them out. "I never doubted it was you." She yanked Codi into a rib cage-creaking hug again. "I'd ask anyone I met to tell me about it. If anyone could save us, I knew it was you."
Even while she felt her oxygen reserves depleting, Codi had to chuckle. Nothing she'd done had warranted this level of faith in her. It was… well, she had done that, but it's not like she had any precedent, and—
Mom shook her in a desperate hug that ripped a squeak out of Codi, and Codi out of her thoughts. "Oh, mi retoño está creciendo muy rápido," she cooed. Codi felt a familiar cut through her heart. "Mijo, te amo." Mijo. She'd never had the courage to tell Mom.
She still didn't. Was it worth it? A fresh sob broke through her throat, and Mom clutched her tighter in response. It only made it worse. She couldn't… no.
It wasn't worth the risk. She couldn't tell her. She'd accepted it for long enough that she was used to it already. It's what she'd grown up with. It cut right through the deepest part of everything she knew about herself, but it was worth it. She couldn't bear that rejection, especially not after she'd just gotten Mom back. She couldn't.
And yet.
"M-Mom," Codi forced out. Every letter cracked. Mom tried to pull her away for eye contact, but Codi gripped her scales for dear life. She couldn't do this. She knew she couldn't. Why was she talking? What was happening? Who was talking? Was she? Why? What was she even saying? "I-Instead of son—," WHY WAS SHE SAYING THIS?! "—c-can you call me daughter?"
Hope had killed her once again. She flinched, already regretting her own words. She couldn't open her eyes, couldn't bear to see Mom's disgust.
"Oh, you mean," Mom said. Codi found her eyes open before she could stop them. Now, she couldn't bear to close them. Mom had a thoughtful expression that burst into surprised, horrified realization. It was exactly what Codi feared, yet before she could cower away, Mom whimpered, "Mija, soy una madre fracasada."
Codi froze. Mija. Tears took her eyes over again. A chuckle forced itself out, followed by several sobs as she clutched Mom tighter. "M-Mom, no!" she wept. "It's not your fault, really!" She tried to force more comfort out, but it was fruitless.
She was a complete and utter mess of sobs. So was Mom. They held each other in weeping comfort for the first time since Codi had to leave. They'd held each other like this countless times before.
This was the first time as mother and daughter.
"Dirt is diseased
Gaia dies
No one sees"
Max did all she could to attack Fara. She had to contend with every single improvised weapon and attack Fara pulled out of her ass at a moment's notice and return fire whenever she got a chance. None of it even accomplished anything for either side, but that was the point.
Max sliced a whip flying towards her out of the air with an iron tail, using the same arc to sweep it out of the way before its remains flew into her. The remains instead flew and smoldered into the blaze that had begun behind her. Max had to keep Fara busy long enough for Ithos to get the Tree of Life to catch, but not only catch. It was living, wet wood, and it's not easy to burn a living tree.
With a yelp, Max ducked her head out of the way of an incoming chakram before it could cleave through her neck. She wasn't sure if the Harmony Scarf was quite enough to heal decapitation. She didn't want to find out.
Fara was not pleased. Roots ripped out of the ground around Max and stabbed for the ground she stood, only to hit dirt. She couldn't remember quite how to use Double Team, but she could manage enough speed to dodge. It felt more like quick attack, but she had to dodge another spinning disk of death coming for her skull.
Max dropped to her forepaws and flew forward. Rumbling preceded every root that ripped out of the earth beneath her. She focused on her awareness to dash out of the way of every one before they could come, all while she focused crimson lightning into her right paw.
The ground right between her and Fara rumbled. With a final burst of speed, Max threw herself into the air and smashed her fist into Fara's face with a satisfying crunch. The force flung Fara into the nearest wall.
The root stabbed into Max's left thigh and flung her to the side. She shrieked in pain as she hit the ground, then louder as she got up. These blows didn't do lasting damage, both of them healing from the same source. Until they took out the source of Fara's power, this would never end.
It would leave them just as vulnerable.
It was a risk they had to afford to take, though. Max's vision seared white as she threw herself into another run for Fara. Already, Ithos had a swarm of roots coming for him. His flames served the purpose of defense better than anything she had, at least, but that's not where they needed his flames to go. Max grit her teeth and forced herself to keep running.
Max threw a burst of electricity right for Fara as she ran. Fara had yet to get all the way up again. Her healing was taking longer. Max could still feel the gash in her leg. It was working.
"Enough," Fara whispered. The entire room rumbled with her words. The blaze had begun to take over the entire North wall, now. It was slow to spread at first, but already they had begun to climb to the ceiling that led to the Tree's trunk.
Fara ripped two roots out of the ground with her own paws. She gave a subtle flick with her arms and sent them flying around Max again.
Max leapt out of the way just in time for another root to smash her back into the ground. She brought her right leg up to catch herself and heard it snap as it slammed into the ground too early.
The middle of her shin wasn't supposed to bend. It was bent. It looked like her leg had gained a second joint. For a moment, she couldn't feel the pain and watched Fara's healing complete. An instant later, her vision turned white.
It was a complete daze in her mind. She could feel the roots wrapping around her, crushing her, and yanking her towards Fara. Someone screamed her name before she heard the world around her close itself off. Momentary glimpses showed her nothing but darkness. What little that came through in her awareness told her she was surrounded by roots, right next to Fara.
"I am God," Fara whispered into Max's ear. Max fought to pull herself back into consciousness. She couldn't tell if she'd opened her eyes yet. Then, she saw the subtle glow of red in Fara's eyes.
"You're Dark Matter," Max wheezed. She wasn't even sure what point she was making, but she kept talking. "You feed on suffering."
Fara's cheek ripping smile shined in the darkness. "Yes, I do," she cooed. The roots yanked Max closer with a harsh squeeze that brought out several snaps. "Like yours." Pain flooded the entirety of Max's consciousness for a second. "There's something else I've learned from your kind." Fara leaned right up to Max's ear. "In fact, you'd know this better than most." A root cleaved the end off her tail to hold it in front of her.
"None can bring more suffering and pain than a God."
Fara gave her a second to see her own tail right in front of her. Max almost started wondering how Fara even knew before the familiar, searing pain tore her out of consciousness. She'd only held on for so long because Fara had been waiting for the right time to let it hurt.
Every root writhed around her. None were still. The bark pressed against her chest, stomach, ripped through her fur with every twitch. Her body's seizing repeatedly sent her back to unconsciousness.
"You can feel it already, can't you?" Fara whispered. The sound echoed in Max's ears long before she made sense of the words. Writhing roots tied and quilted into themselves around her and Fara. Fara had stopped wasting her time pretending to breathe while her form dripped with black ooze, failing to express the totality of her glee as she stared down at Max's suffering.
The sludge dripping beneath her, the roots writhing, and outside the whole world crackled in an endless inferno. As she felt more and more of the flames licking the room, her stomach dropped out from under her. Her instincts had flooded her mind while she was unconscious.
In pitch black, the shimmer that flew over her shined like the sun for a moment before plunging her back into endless darkness. She couldn't see it, anyway. She'd screwed her eyes shut when her stomach started flipping.
"No, please," Fara cooed. Her paw teased at Max's chin, coaxing her to look up. "Let me see that fear one last time."
Another shimmer ripped Max's air from her lungs while the root around her tightened to make sure no more came. The whole of the world crackled with fire around them. The inside of their little dome was already heating up while flames engulfed the outside. Max watched her tail struggling to heal. It was working. Their plan was working.
Fara, miles away, filled Max's vision as she glowered down at her. Ithos was adding to the flames outside their dome right outside. The shell Fara had trapped her in was crackling, but it was taking a while.
"Let's make a deal," Fara hissed. Max spit on her face. Even with instincts clawing control out of her paws, she wouldn't listen to this bitch for a single solitary second. Fara's grin grew wider. "Oh, don't worry. You don't have a choice in the matter."
To prove her point, another shimmer ripped Max further away from herself. She could feel the world around her; she could feel it all grow distant. Her building rage, terror, pain all felt so far away, further with every second as she desperately tried to hold on. She couldn't let herself realize what Fara's plan was or she'd lose the last bit of control she had.
"It'll be a lot easier for me if you two take care of each other," Fara said. The roots around Max loosened their grip, but didn't let her move. They simply stopped crushing her bones.
Fara was letting the healing run its course.
It was slow, agonizingly slow now. Especially as Fara forced her to endure the full extent of it all, now, steeping her in the miserable agony. "Come on, little boy," Fara hissed into her ear. "You know how to make the pain go away. I can see it in your eyes." Fara's deformed grin filled Max's vision.
"Inky, feral black," Fara said. She drank in the sight before her with a full-body bliss. "You wanted to be the savior, didn't you?" Max tried to grit her teeth to hold on. Her mouth barely closed. "Think of it this way, then. You'll get to save the Tree of Life." Every second that passed by, Ithos' pounding against the dome grew louder. His flames burnt it thinner. "A shame you won't remember your moment of glory."
Even as Fara let the healing run its course, Max could feel the horrible, searing throbs of her leg. She'd really hurt it. Of course she had. If she had the neurons to spare, she might've considered it nostalgic.
She didn't.
No matter how hard Max tried to hold on, she could feel the pain growing more and more distant. She couldn't tell how much was from healing or how much was from instincts. The torment of not knowing made it all the harder to hold on. She whimpered in desperation.
He was half-flying, now. She was going to hurt him again. There was nothing she could do to stop herself anymore.
She would be the reason he failed.
An orange paw smashed through the roots around them, bringing a searing blaze of flames and embers with it as it snatched Fara by the neck and ripped her out. More shards of the roots shattered when it did, leaving Max with a perfect view. As the roots around her lost their strength, she had to watch.
The bright yellow blaze surrounded everything outside. It seared her vision for a moment as it struggled to adjust in time. It was too slow. Even when she could make out the sight, it was nothing but shadows in vague shapes.
Flames engulfed Fara more and more. She put up a token resistance against Ithos, but it was nothing. Her body was failing. It was a slaughter.
Ithos flawlessly countered every pitiful attempt at attacking him and struck back ten-fold. Fara tried to back away, so he snatched her by the neck again and threw her to the ground. Max's eyes finally adjusted to see the rage in his eyes as he engulfed Fara in flames.
Fara's healing failed against the assault. Her writhing slowed more and more, but he didn't make any motion to stop in the slightest. He kept attacking more and more, again and again until her head was in his paws.
A crack resounded through the room's unending blaze as he snapped her neck.
