(A/N: Hey, ffn fixed views for me, hell yeah. anyway.)
"Though my memories have faded
They come back to haunt me once again
And though my mind is somewhat jaded
Now, it's time for me to strike again
Tonight, it's a Hunter's Moon"
"Hunter's Moon" from Impera by Ghost
It was hard to tell if they were making any progress. Approaching seemed like a horrible idea, so Ash had the fighting, rock, and ground types cover the front and form a dam that sent the toxic sludge constantly spewing from the gigantic gengar's mouth. Whatever attack it was, if it even was an attack, was corrosive enough to constantly wear it down.
With an earth-shaking cackle, it sent out a wave of dark energy that flowed right over the dam and hit everyone within twenty yards of it. Codi clutched her head as it hit her, skidding a few back. As the attack flew over her, it pelted her mind with the worst horrors she could imagine.
Codi forced herself back up and looked around. A drowzee close by was having the most trouble getting back up, so she rushed over to lend them a paw. They took her help gladly, smiling behind their big nose.
"Thanks," they said. Shaking their head one last time, they looked up with terror in their eyes. No one had expected this hurdle.
"Here, you've got to get back," Codi said, pushing them further from the dam. Drowzee pushed back with another shake of their head. Before they could explain their objection, Codi had already begun to say, "You don't need to be close to attack it! Get back first, then return fire!"
Drowzee acquiesced, letting their rebuttal die as they turned to follow Codi's advice. Codi gasped in breath and looked back. How the hell were they going to gain any ground against this thing?
"NOW!" Ash screamed. Even thirty yards back, she could hear his yell. She turned to see what the hell he was yelling about, a storm of pink stars and beams blocking the empty sky above as they all flew right for Gengar. For every attack that fizzled out on the way, ten more landed true, pelting all across the Gengar's gigantic form. Then, she heard Ash scream again, "TWO!"
Again, attacks blocked all sight of the sky above, this time with a veritable rainbow of water, fire, leaves, ice, rocks, and everything else alongside the same beams and arrows of the previous barrage. They hadn't hit before Ash called again. Wave after wave of attack came to beat and batter the massive ghost.
Gengar's massive, grotesque smile twisted in on itself while its eyes filled with rage. It had no mind, no soul, but it looked on the whole crowd with murderous glee. Codi leapt towards the dam.
"DOUBLE TIME, REINFORCE IT!" Codi barked. As much as she hated it, she could still yell like a soldier, and it proved useful in certain circumstances such as these. Everyone on the front line gave nods or shouts of affirmation before slamming whatever they had into the ground. The whole mountain rumbled as another wall came to shove the other forward.
Two purple fists slammed through, one on each side, the sea of sludge immediately following behind. The pokémon who hadn't gotten hit rushed to help those who had out of the tidal wave. Anyone too far to help with that got to repairing the holes Gengar had put in the wall.
The waves of sludge hissed as they sank and sizzled into the dirt. Even slight dips left most pokémon dazed or knocked out entirely. Gengar wasn't content simply crippling their defenses, though.
Its fists had smashed through crowds of pokémon with ease. It met no significant resistance as it smacked over them like a very poorly organized game of bowling. Codi winced at the sight as she saw the sheer devastation it could manage with a single attack. She remembered Glitterion, how quickly those grass types had been to back away when she'd knocked half of them all down. This was already so much worse.
"GET THE WOUNDED TO SAFETY!" Codi barked. If she could take control of the situation, maybe no one would notice. They could at least push through for another crowd since there were plenty waiting below. Still, she was struggling to believe anyone's hope could survive this.
The whole of the rag-tag army cheered as another barrage slammed into Gengar. Half of them worked to drag what wounded couldn't get themselves to safety while even more streamed in to take their place. Codi caught a glimpse of that drowzee with horror in their eyes now staring up at Gengar with exhilarated determination.
Then, drowzee caught her staring. "Doing all right, totodile?" they asked.
"I—are you kidding?! Absolutely!" Codi cheered. Almost a whole city of people had been taken out in a single blow, yet no one but her seemed to notice. "I just can't believe it."
Even though she was being vague, Drowzee nodded with a smirk. They seemed to get what Codi meant even if she didn't say it directly. "It's not like we really have a choice, do we?" they said. They shook their head with a chuckle and shrugged. "You kidding? We just found out there's a way out. You could kill me and I'd still be stoked."
Codi blinked. Drowzee got back to their station. Ash shouted again, calling upon the next barrage flying towards Gengar. In minutes, all the pokémon that had fallen had someone else taking their place.
Hundreds of attacks flew for Gengar every second. An endless spectrum of technique from great to barely even functional filled the air above, with every one that hit having an effect, however minuscule on Gengar. It seemed impossible that they'd made any progress so soon, yet she could already see its immense form flagging under its own weight.
Its sea of sludge for a moment grew to the point that it splashed over the dam, but only because its own form had joined in. The slime of its body collapsed all at once in a massive wave. The dam was too high to see all but the highest splashes flying off the mountain.
As its form faded, a gate of light took its place. They did it.
For now.
"WOUNDED FIRST!" Codi screamed. The dam collapsed, and she felt a pit building in her stomach. She couldn't expect these people to just selflessly go back for the wounded. "WE DON'T KNOW WHEN THE NEXT-"
Basically everyone who could had someone in their arms or on their backs. No one rushing by her lacked a charge. She even watched as what had to be an entire nation of joltik carrying a lapras on their backs. Everyone—absolutely everyone—was working together to get the most vulnerable out first. She couldn't believe it.
"You seriously can't still be surprised at this point," Ash said. Codi realized her jaw was hanging open. She couldn't close it, and Ash chuckled. "You're in here, aren't you?" That didn't explain anything. "What was it Max said?" Ash hummed to himself before snapping his nubbins. "Yeah! Everyone's fucked, so if they could unfuck even one guy, everyone would."
Max did not say that. Codi got the gist.
"Under a headstone, sister
I'm dying to see you, my friend
Back in the old cemetery
I'm dying to see you my friend"
A flash blazed through Max's eyelids. She could feel her consciousness returning, but couldn't open her eyes yet. For a second, she thought she felt fur tangling with hers before scales took its place. Had Ash made it out already? She must've imagined it, though. Peaking one eye open, she could only see Ithos holding an oran against her mouth. Her eyes shot open.
"ITHOS!" Max shouted. She threw herself around him and hugged him tight. Guilt cut her deep enough that she failed to feel her leg's low rumblings of displeasure at the sudden force. "You're—what did she say?!" She couldn't see through her own dizziness from hopping upright so fast.
Ithos shook in her hold a bit as he returned the hug. He only gave her a quick squeeze. One arm remained wrapped around her while he stuck the other one out. His eyes trained on his own paw as he turned it over under his gaze. "I-I don't know," he lied. He couldn't squeeze her tighter. He couldn't take his eyes off his paw.
"Listen to me," Max said. She yanked herself back without breaking the hug and stared into his eyes. "Whatever she said, it's wrong." Ithos flinched, still staring at his paw. "It's not true. She just says whatever she can to get into your head."
Ithos just kept staring at his paw in silence. Max didn't know what else to say, but they'd run out of time to talk. Fara's tendrils flew after her from behind Ithos. Max shoved him to the side with her hug to get him running out of the way with her. He managed to shake out of whatever occupied his mind and run alongside Max, holding half her weight so she could let her leg rest some more.
"Chu!" Max yelped, tendrils whipping across her back. Ithos tried to pull her further along, get her to safety, when the ground began to rumble. They jumped back, both getting a vicious whipping from the tendrils. The pain made it even harder to notice that the rumbling didn't stop when the spikes shot out.
Max ripped Ithos to the side again. Her left leg barely gave her enough leverage on its own. Its point didn't hit them, but the sides of the spike threw both of them to the ground.
In the air, Ithos pulled Max closer so she'd land on him instead of the ground. He somehow managed to stop their spinning in the air, too. His air control from time as a charizard must have persisted, somehow. After barely skidding at all, he effortlessly rolled upright.
"I-Ithos?" Max asked. Had he even been touching the ground when he pulled that off? She looked to see him staring at his paw once again.
"Come on," Ithos said before she could ask. He clenched his paw into a fist and glared at Fara with a snarl. "We can do this." It sounded like he was saying it to himself more than her. Max could feel his scales struggling to stay warm.
"Ithos!" Max shouted, shaking him out of whatever hell Fara had built in his head. He jerked out of his thoughts with wide, surprised eyes, and she commandeered his gaze with her own. "What did she say to you?" Another legion of tendrils came to whip at them, so Max turned halfway around to blast them all with a lightning strike.
"We don't have time!" Ithos barked. The more he tried to force anger into his voice, the more she could hear the sad, terrified boy she'd met their first day together. He could see with a single glance that she wasn't letting this go. "P-please." The veneer of rage faded further as his cheeks started to redden.
"No," Max hissed. She shivered in his hold. She could still remember Eleos' influence crawling into her darkest desires. She'd brushed Ithos off at the time; she wouldn't let him do the same.
She wouldn't let his ending be hers.
Ithos pulled her to the side and blew away a horde of tendrils with a plume of flame. "I don't—," they both jumped out of the way of an incoming spike from the ground, "—know what to tell you," he grumbled. Max squeezed his back with the paw there, and it seemed to comfort him slightly.
"Tell me everything," Max said. Ithos flinched, so Max yanked him into her arms. She glared up at him while he struggled to meet her gaze. "I've been through that. I know." Ithos flinched away further before glancing at her, disbelief pulling the edge of his mouth up into a snarl. Max gripped him tighter. "I wanted to die. When it had me in that cocoon thing, Dark Matter made it finally feel possible."
"M-Max," Ithos whimpered. To Max's horror, she could see him acquiesce in understanding. After he lit another set of tendrils aflame, he sucked in a breath. "I, for me," thank God, it was different, "I just."
Again, Max watched him keep clenching his paw while he watched it. He seemed convinced it would change any second. With a few more pumps, though, he shook his head and looked back at Max. "I don't belong here," he said. Another set of spikes started to rumble the ground, so he yanked them to the ground in another tomb. They flew into the air with a mild, head-splitting jostling.
Ithos didn't seem to mind, going on as if nothing happened. Once they hit the ground, the tomb shattered around them. As Ithos yanked her up, he said, "Y-you need to be here. It was your skill, smarts, and strength that brought us here. I'm only here because I…," he looked away with a wince, "put myself in your life."
If her leg didn't hurt as much as it did, Max might've chuckled. She at least managed a warm smile. "Ithos, you fucking idiot," she said.
"Wh-HEY!" Ithos yelped. For a lizard, he had a striking resemblance to a wet puppy once his rage abated. Max smiled wider while he glared at her. "Is that really helping things right now?"
"Ithos," Max sighed. She'd already told him too much. What did a little bit more matter? "Everything I learned was from you. The first time I landed, I couldn't walk. I thought my own electricity was going to kill me. I hated myself and everyone else. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to make it through the first day."
Ithos stared at her in confusion until shaking his head, mumbling, "Last time." He threw them both into another rock tomb right as Fara flung a wave of darkness over them. The hit slammed them deeper into the ground. Their tomb cracked, but didn't break.
Rather than break out, they stayed inside to take a breather. As the adrenaline waned, Ithos wilted in Max's hold. His flame, the only light in their little cage, dimmed. It was barely lit at all.
"What about this time?" Ithos asked. The whole world shook around them as Fara slammed their tomb further into the ground. Max hoped they didn't run out of air. "What good am I? If you already knew what to do, where to go, how to deal with this." He shook his head. They had plenty of oxygen left, but he already seemed out of breath. Even in the dim light, Max saw tears wet his eyes. "I could've been anyone."
Max shook her head, bringing her paw to dab the tears away. "Ithos, do you really think I'm any different?" she asked. He didn't have the energy to look up for clarification anymore. "I'm just a pikachu." She put a paw to his chest. "You're just a charmander." He winced but let her go on.
"We're not special," Max said. "It could've been any human. It could've been any pokémon." She clutched his paws in hers and pulled closer. "But it was us." She stared into his wet, terrified, uncertain eyes and smiled. "And I'm so glad it was you.
"Even if you meant nothing to the world, you mean the world to me."
Ithos yanked her into a hug as he began to sob. He sputtered out every single word in the dictionary too fast for her to even pretend to hear, and she was pretty sure he had no chance of understanding, either. As she pulled him tighter, though, she knew exactly what he meant. Her paws tickled the scales running down his back and told him exactly what he needed to hear.
The entire world quaked and collapsed around them. Ithos suddenly yanked her tighter, forcing her to hold onto him before he ripped through the earth above them. The already rampant smell of dirt flooded the air with the stench of ground as he dug them to the surface.
Max would've asked when the hell he learned how to dig, but she didn't want to eat the dirt he was tearing through. They breached the surface with enough speed that they actually caught air. He'd practiced it, too?
They were right in front of Fara.
"YOUR REIGN END—," Ithos stopped screaming directly into Max's ear when she flinched away with a yelp. "S-sorry!" He gently plopped her back on the ground and turned back to face Fara again. "—S NOW!" He jabbed a paw into the air before stabbing it towards Fara.
Max wanted to call him a dork so badly, but he needed this moment.
Dork.
Another fully focused blast of all encompassing darkness shot right for Ithos. He was prepared. He threw his paws into the ground and sent an earthquake of stone all the way around Fara. Her attack smashed a crack into the tomb inches away from his head, only giving it a proper place to break as the tomb collapsed and crushed around her.
As the rocks shattered around her form, tendrils shot out of every crack and flung them away. With a clear shot, they dove for Ithos and Max. An explosion of flame erupted from Ithos' mouth as he evaporated every single one in the air, giving Max a nod.
Max nodded back and took a breath before throwing a calling charge into the sky. She couldn't even see her own attack, only hearing it crash through Fara. She gave her leg a little test, and it seemed okay-ish.
A spike shot out from between Max and Ithos while he was still incinerating the air in front of them. Max had to leap left while he rolled right. Once they'd shared a glance, they both turned to Fara and got ready. Max threw herself forward and pulled all the charge she had around her in again, trying to regain what she could from the residual lightning.
Tendrils shot out of Fara's bars and whipped at her, but Max had already pulled most of the charge outside her. A few tendrils whipped into her, but the scrapes were minor enough to ignore as she bobbed and weaved as she ran. She could feel her fur standing on end as she shrouded herself in electricity.
Max rolled to the side before a spike could skewer her, then threw herself into Fara. Her charge cracked through Fara's form with enough force that it encased the entire skeleton of the sphere. As it wrapped around to the other side, the unalike charges on either side attracted each other and ripped right through Fara's core.
While electricity crackled through her, Ithos blasted her other side with a bright white plume of flame. Fara's tendrils flew to his side in an attempt to block the blaze before it burned right through.
Max latched onto what bars she could get a hold of and threw herself up to the top of Fara's form. She didn't bother trying to stand upright before swinging a fist back and using the full rotation of her other shoulder to yank herself into a Focus Punch that rattled Fara's skeleton.
Max flung herself up for another Flying Press only for tendrils to rip her out of the air and slam her into the ground. Max gasped in air as it fled her lungs. The tendrils began to wrap further around her again. She didn't have enough oxygen to resist, yet, even as she heaved as much air in as she could. The impact itself also left her too dazed to do anything before tendrils had already climbed halfway up her chest.
Let's try this again.
Max got ready to call on the same trick Eleos taught her when a white hot blaze engulfed the air in front of her. The tendrils lit like kindling while Ithos screamed, "GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU BITCH!" Before Max could applaud him on his first swear, he'd already rushed to rip the evaporating tendrils off of her.
After yanking a few pawfuls away, Ithos threw himself over her to form another Rock Tomb. Max hadn't even had a chance to see what slammed into their protective shell. The rattling made her glad to have the protection.
Ithos threw himself on top of her. Even as their casing rumbled from the attack, he slammed his lips against hers in deep passion. All of his strength for a moment into a kiss that molded her lips around his, leaving her doubly out of breath from the kiss and the attack. She'd certainly never expected to be the one surprised by a kiss at an inopportune time, but she didn't mind at all.
Then, Ithos pulled away from the kiss. With a cool smile that told Max exactly how proud he was of his performance, he pulled his head back. He proudly flicked his head back and smacked it into the protective casing above.
Max couldn't wait to marry this fucking idiot.
She didn't bother trying to stifle her chuckles as he collapsed back down, clutching the back of his head. It would've been a losing battle. She just hugged him and kissed his forehead. "You good?" she asked.
"Mhm," Ithos grunted through a wince. It wasn't remotely convincing, but he pulled them out of the tomb anyway.
Tendrils waited for them outside. The moment they breached the surface, the tendrils began to whip and slash at them. Ithos clutched Max tighter, but that only gave her less options. Just when Max started to suspect that his confidence was becoming a bit too much, she noticed darkness building around Fara.
"ROCK TOMB!" Max barked.
Ithos, three fourths of the way into sending a flamethrower out, chomped his mouth shut and tried to throw them into another rock tomb. The fire of his own attack immediately left him a coughing, sputtering mess. His paws hit the ground, and Fara's attack hit him.
All of his weight slammed on top of Max and got rid of what little air she'd built back up. This time, though, the blow didn't knock the life out of them. It was probably partially from the fact that they'd taken it together, but Max was almost certain that it was a good sign as well. As they tumbled across the scorched earth below them, the lack of follow up attacks bolstered her certainty.
Their rolling lost momentum, but Ithos gave himself one final push to get himself off her on the last one. He was gasping for air even more desperately for Max. Both took a second to look at Fara.
Fara's place floating in spite of gravity faltered. Her protective bars had bent and morphed around the impact of their attacks while she started to shake. She seemed to fight the inevitable for a moment before she came crashing into the ground below. Dark black smoke joined the dust from her impact. It billowed around her, curling and whipping uselessly against the air. She seemed to need a breather just as much as they did.
"M-Max?" Ithos asked between coughs. Max shuffled over to squeeze his paw. Even though he knew she was listening, he seemed hesitant to share what was on his mind. She gave him another squeeze, and that pushed him to look away from her and mumble, "W-was—did I look cool?"
Max slapped her paw to her face. "Of course," she said, shaking her head. "The coolest."
The stupid dumbass idiot that she loved more than life's chest swelled with pride.
"I'm coming
I'm dying
To see you
One last time together"
Only ten remained. Codi was far past exhausted. Everyone was. She couldn't believe she'd agreed to help finish Fara off after this.
Mom yanked her into a hug. She'd refused to go until Codi could. Neither really wanted to say goodbye yet. They sucked in what air their lungs could get with their arms wrapped around each other. In the moment, they didn't need words, but that wasn't a big deal.
They'd have plenty of time to talk after this was over.
Tears spewed from Codi's eyes as she pulled out of the hug and shared one last, pointless glance with Mom. She only saw a blue blob, and she was sure Mom saw about the same. Every second since Max had told her it was possible, Codi fought for her life to believe it was. The whole time, she had nothing but doubts. Even when Mom found her, Codi was convinced she'd trapped them both in hell.
Mom disappeared into the portal to freedom. It was just Ash and Codi, now. After taking down the mountainous Gengar, wave after wave of random pokémon had come together to beat impossible odds.
Codi half expected something to finally go wrong at the last second. She wiped her eyes to share a glance with Ash. Something was coming, something was about to take their happy ending away. She couldn't believe that, after everything, all the hell she'd been through, she could ever receive a happy ending—and this wasn't even the ending! She knew—knew—that something was coming to ruin the moment, rip it out from under her.
"Do you think this'll help me get laid?" Ash asked. Excitement suddenly blazed in his eyelids as he hopped up in earthshaking excitement. "Yo! Is it possible to fuck in the Voidlands?!"
Well. She wasn't wrong. The moment was ruined.
Before he could turn to bother her further, Codi snatched Ash up by the neck. She tossed him through the portal. Even now, she expected it to close behind him. It didn't. The bright light of salvation she'd fought for alongside the thousands of exiles didn't dim in her presence.
She deserved it, too.
"Though my memories have faded
They come back to haunt me once again
And though my mind is somewhat jaded
Now, it's time for me to strike again
Tonight, it's a Hunter's Moon"
Fara lashed across them with another wave of sheer darkness. Neither of them managed to get out of its way in time. It sent both of them tumbling across the floor. Every time, Max found it harder and harder to get up.
You will never kill me.
"You look pretty dead to me," Ithos hissed. He started pushing himself up. With a wince, he collapsed back down to a kneel.
I could say the same to you.
Ithos grit his teeth while his eyes blazed in anger. His mouth pulled back to bare his teeth in a snarl. He glared up at her with unflinching hope, even as he struggled to keep himself from falling down. A desperate attempt to prove he was in better shape than her had him fall forward, gasping for air. Yet, even then, he didn't let himself stay down.
Weak. I will finish disposing of the two of you soon, but even if you prevailed, what would you accomplish? Your friends are already gone. I've millions in my employ, and the world looks upon me as God. To kill me is to isolate yourselves from the people you claim to save.
Even on all fours, Max was struggling to stay up. She didn't have the energy to limp on her bad leg anymore, and that made it so much worse. Every time she got up, she felt its ache worsen in time with every new blow.
She didn't have a choice, though. Tendrils whipped at her right while the ground at her left rumbled. She tried to swipe the tendrils away with an iron tail, but the attack failed, letting them wrap around her tail and yank her back. She let out a yelp at the sudden pain, but it wasn't dislocated. As they started to lift her up, she sent a shock down her tail's length that weakened them enough for her to break free.
Do you think death will end me?
Max used her newfound freedom to flop into the dirt. She grit her teeth as she reached into her bag and yanked out her last oran. It wasn't going to be enough. They needed Ash and Codi already, but they had no idea how much longer until they made it, if they even—no. They would make it. She knew that.
I am life's immutable truth. You may suppress me, deny me, but I will always crawl back. In whispers alone, in silent rage left to simmer, your ideal of love is always revealed to be a fantasy. The Rescue Society has reigned for centuries on the lie that every contribution is of worth, of note. Look at how many people were hungry for me because of them.
Deny the natural order. It will always reassert itself.
"You're wrong!" Ithos barked. His weakened flame blazed brighter. Gritting his teeth, he managed to push back up and stand. "Not everyone can do the same things! Not everyone is strong!" With a glance at Max, he smiled, tail blazing with stronger resolve. "But everyone has a place to belong! Everyone's valuable!"
You're right.
A spike shot out of the ground right in front of him. He dodged getting impaled only for its tip to rip up the length of his form.
"ITHOS!" Max screamed. She threw her paw towards him as he flew through the air. Without all four on the ground, she tumbled right back down with a grunt. She couldn't stop the tendrils grabbing her.
Everyone has a place. The strong belong above the weak.
Max watched Ithos slam into the ground, completely limp. Blood streamed out of the gash up his torso. She couldn't tell how deep it was as tears clouded her vision. All she could see behind the blur was his tail flame. Every second, every breath, every sob, it grew a bit dimmer. Tendrils tightened their grip around her.
All this time, she'd denied it. She'd never let herself believe what Grovyle said. Hoping against hope, she knew for certain that she could prove this next inevitability wrong. She took on that burden without a second thought because she couldn't let herself let go of a second chance. She needed to believe that she wouldn't have to lose him again so much that she denied a simple fact of fate that she couldn't deny when his tail's flame went out.
This is when Ithos failed.
Oh deary me. Perhaps I've gotten carried away.
Fara's tendrils yanked Max's attention forward. For whatever reason, she wouldn't let Max watch life leave Ithos' body. Probably because she wanted Max's attention all to herself.
I will say, this was a much more exhilarating encounter than last time. After all, look at you. You've managed to last so much longer before becoming a sniveling mess.
Tendrils ripped Max's bag off her, leather tearing like paper. Max hadn't even been reaching for it. She didn't have anything to reach for, but it was a risk Fara didn't want to take. Fara drew Max closer, the malicious red glow of her core shining bright through the constant fractures and breaks surrounding its skeletal casing. Max didn't have the strength, physically or otherwise, to offer any resistance.
Your kind, so predictable. 'Stronger together' merely means that you're weak alone.
A tendril tightened around Max's neck.
Well, I don't see anyone else but you down here. You have no one left. Your love has perished, your friends are gone, and the world is mine. That leaves you with nothing. I can tell from the beat of your heart that this is familiar, isn't it?
I remember when we first met, I saw something in you. I thought it was that you had the strength to have proven yourself capable on your own. Now, I see the truth. You had to grow that strength.
Because you were destined to be alone.
All tendrils but the ones around her neck let go. They slammed her into the ground, leaving her gasping for air. Everywhere hurt. Her lungs couldn't bring enough oxygen. Even her pulse made her leg throb with pain that she couldn't bear to feel. Her only solace was that, as her heartbeat weakened, so too, did the throbs of pain.
Her vision was darkening. She pulled her face out of the ground with strength she didn't have to look at Ithos one last time. His tail had stopped burning. The blood had stopped flowing. He lay there, completely motionless save for the spasms of life leaving his body. One subtle, grotesque spasm turned his head to face her. Both eyes and his mouth sat wide open, his tongue lolling out.
His eyes moved to hers. One winked.
The shell of a seed crumbled out of his right paw. A reviver. He was going to make it. He was going to be okay. Max took solace in that as her heart ached with regret. She was going to leave him again.
The ground below her rumbled. Her end was almost here. Her vision was fading as she felt the spike coming to skewer her, finishing her off. If only it had come sooner, it might've been painless. As it was, though, it's not like she could complain. She didn't have the energy. It was already practically to the surface.
A pale yellow stub of a paw poked out of the ground with a seed, inches from her mouth. It tapped the seed around her face a few times before finding her mouth and pushing it between her lips. With a thumbs up, it disappeared.
Max bit down on the reviver, hiding its flash in her mouth. She could breathe again. Everywhere hurt again as her heart started beating stronger. She was barely alive.
She was alive. Ithos was alive.
Ash shot out of the ground with Codi in tow. "HEY BITCH!" Ash screamed. Codi hopped off him so they could fall to the ground separately. With the widest grin Max had ever seen from her, Codi threw all her weight on top of one leg to cross its twin in front, splaying one paw in front of her muzzle while the other high-fived the air behind her. Max recognized the pose.
…Codi and Cori even shared interests in media, it seemed.
A desperate storm of whips shot after them, but Ash effortlessly blew them all away with a plume of flame while Codi returned fire. She pulled the paw in her face aside to send a Hydro Pump to Fara. Even from so far away, it was strong enough to have Fara's spherical skeleton roll back a bit.
With the attention off them, Ithos hopped up and ran over to Max. He limped every step, but refused to slow in the slightest. He tried to tug her up, but she yanked him down instead. He landed on top.
That was a mistake.
She didn't give a damn. Everything hurt, but she couldn't feel the pain because she could feel his scales again. He was alive. They were alive. She shook her head in disbelief while her entire body ached from every sob. That stupid exaggeration of death he made was going to haunt her nightmares. It was so obviously fake. She felt like an idiot for actually falling for it.
They had to put their celebration on pause when a wave of darkness threw them both to the side. It mostly glanced over them, but still sent the two tumbling over each other in the soot-soaked dirt. Luckily, that same attack had also sent Ash and Codi flying in the same direction.
Ash pulled Ithos up, and Codi grabbed Max. Upon standing, they both got a nice, juicy sitrus shoved into their mouths. Max eagerly choked it down before throwing her arms around Codi.
"Leg," Max groaned. She didn't want to risk letting it hold weight again, not yet. Codi happily took on the extra weight, and Max took in a breath of relief. She turned to see if Fara was faring any better. She wasn't. All across her skeletal sphere, bars and bones had broken in against their attacks. Her core barely had any defenses left anymore. What remained of the skeleton had warped beyond recognition.
"So," Codi said. "How you feeling?"
Max tilted her head in thought. She didn't take her eyes off Fara. "Bad," she answered. Codi nodded in agreement. "How about you?"
Codi's grin grew out of its failed attempt at concealment. She ripped Max into the air and spun the defenseless mouse in the air, cheering, "I FOUND HER! SHE'S FREE! SHE'S ALIVE, WE DID IT AND EVERYONE IS OKAY!"
Max did her best to take part in the joy during the painful and aural onslaught. At least her leg didn't have to hold her weight, but the rest of her body wasn't in any condition to spin, either. She tried to hold in her complaints, but a groan inevitably forced its way out of her chest. Codi honored the complaint by yanking her into another hug. Even despite the pain, though, Max was smiling.
"Heads up," Ash barked. He jabbed a paw in Fara's direction. She'd shot tendrils into the ground again. "Break's over."
Codi nodded and let Max down gently, but didn't let go. Max tried to stand, very carefully putting any weight on the splint. It hurt—a lot—but so did everything. "You sure you should be walking on that?" Codi asked.
"Oh absolutely not," Max said. With that clarified, she wriggled out of Codi's grasp and flopped her forepaws down. All fours barely helped, but barely wasn't nothing.
If anyone had complaints, there wasn't any time left to voice them. Fara's whips had begun shooting out of the ground around them. Ash and Ithos took opposite sides to incinerate them before they got close. Because of Ithos' exhaustion, Ash had to take care of far more than half, but he took the load well. Once the barrage finished, they started their approach.
Max had some horrible mix of a hobble and a leap going, keeping her right hindleg completely off the ground and relying purely on her left. It worked enough to help her keep pace with everyone else. While Ithos and she focused on not collapsing, Ash and Codi watched for attacks.
Another wave of tendrils came, but this one was even weaker than the last. Ash repelled it entirely on his own without breaking a sweat. Fara was losing steam.
They won. The rest was a formality.
The earth below rumbled, so they leapt forward. Codi made sure to catch Max before she could land with a disbelieving shake of her head. "How the hell did you survive this long being so reckless?" she asked.
"Well, that's simple, Codi," Max explained. She had to gasp for air after the one leap. "Perhaps you missed it when you arrived, but I actually didn't." Giving Codi a parting pat, she dropped back down to get going. "Thanks for that."
They started their approach again, just as carefully, but they had significantly less against them. Fara's attacks had lost most of their potency while Ithos and Max fought her. It hadn't mattered much then because they were just as battered as she was. With two fresh fighters on their side, Fara could only prolong the inevitable.
Do I determine the direction of the Earth?
No one but Max gave her words any reaction, and Max had only flicked her ear. Everyone else walked on without the slightest suggestion they could hear her.
Yes, dear, I intend to speak with you directly.
"Max?" Codi asked when Max hopped up and looked around. Max tried to find the tendril that had snuck onto her, but she found none. Max looked at Codi to ask before shaking her head. Codi raised a brow, but they had more important concerns.
No, this isn't my last gambit, don't worry. I'm still waiting on that one. I'd simply like to probe your mind, if that's all right.
It seemed pointless. Max couldn't think of a single reason she should hear Fara out after everything she'd done. She was more interested in warning her friends that Fara just told her she had a last gambit waiting for them, but that sounded just as fake. Was it some attempt at an extension of good will?
Well, yes. That was my intention. How you take it is up to you, though. You've proven resilient against my influence beyond even the love you hold so dear. This is no risk to you, but that means you don't have to listen, either.
Max didn't have anything better to do. Fara was right, after all. This couldn't really benefit either of them.
Thank you. Now, I'll ask again. Do I control the direction of the Earth?
Max nodded along, getting where this was going. She watched as another horde of tendrils helplessly fell against Ash's flamethrower. They seemed to lose steam and focus. Either Fara was tiring herself out further, or this conversation distracted her.
This world was sick before my influence. It will be sick when I leave it. Power, once established, scarcely returns to nothing. You may destroy me, indeed, you will, but I've left a world behind in my image. After all, one with a faith such as yours should know, a dead God can have just as much influence over a world, if not more.
The memory of those spikes sticking her to the wall made Max shiver. Even though the wounds had long healed, they ached from the phantom pain. She really wished Fara didn't—wait, why did Fara know about that.
I've said it before. All my plans came from the study of your kind.
This world, you thought it pure. You thought it idyllic, a land of fantasy that you could traipse into and correct before it tipped outside of its Eden. The typical pride of a human, you thought yourselves the first beings capable of sin.
But there was blood long before the first weapon was crafted.
What will killing me accomplish? You heard my discussion with Ithos, but you know better, don't you? Kill me, deny me, but you will never end me. What do you want to gain from this? You call yourself righteous, the heroes of this world. Indeed, you are a light of hope that soon will extinguish the evil. Is it, then, the accomplishment of vanquishing evil?
Or the assurance that you're above it?
Codi blasted Fara against the wall on one side while Ash and Ithos chased after her to burn the other. When Fara's skeleton slammed into the wall, Max finally had the last piece of the puzzle in her paws.
"Ithos will fail, but Fara will not win."
Their victory hadn't been from destroying Eleos. They'd beaten it, but that wasn't its end. Their victory had come from staring into the face of darkness, the face of evil and accepting it, not as an aberration, but as a fact of life. Eleos had been in unimaginable pain because suffering was all it ever was or knew. Their act of mercy had been their victory.
Max shook her head in disbelief. Eleos only existed because Fara was right. They would let evil continue to fester in the dark until its infection rose to the surface. Their only chance at stopping this cycle was to show Fara mercy. Max grit her teeth.
Grovyle was right. She couldn't stop this.
It was a trick, though, wasn't it? Max already knew that the next time Dark Matter came, it wouldn't be remotely similar. Eleos had never manufactured a genocide.
This influence, this evil was so far greater than what Eleos had ever done. Eleos had wanted to destroy the Earth, but Fara tried to take the world and mold it into some sick hellscape. She'd taken and corrupted people beyond what anyone could become. She'd twisted souls into something worse. No one—no one could have stooped to the level of… a Soldier.
Codi was different. She'd taken the job because she had no other choice. She'd betrayed Fara the first chance she got!
That chance wasn't a guarantee, though.
Max threw her lightning into the barrage in frustration and terror. She could almost hear Fara laughing at her. The sheer cruelty of these soldiers, she couldn't believe that they were anything but minions created and molded by Fara from the beginning. Parry, he'd—he'd been a normal person.
Her stomach turned. She called lightning to strike Fara once again.
They were all just ordinary people.
This whole time telling herself and everyone else who would listen that she was just a pikachu, she'd missed the obvious. She wanted the world to know that any of them could save everyone. She wasn't anyone special, any especially pure heart. Everyone had the power to be good.
That meant they could choose to be evil, too.
Fara had stopped trying to retaliate. She probably couldn't anymore. Codi barely took breaks to breathe while Hydro Pump after Hydro Pump forced Fara's skeleton into the wall further and further. It creaked and cracked under the force, powerless to stop it while Ash and Ithos melted its bars with a constant barrage of flames, and Max's explosions of lightning did the same.
It's time for my last gambit.
Fara's shattered skeleton began to build in on itself. Its darkness began to suck the light out of the air around it, bending it around its form as a dark miasma filled the ground below it. Its core glowed white while darkness enveloped the rest. It began to suck their attacks into its form while shaking with energy.
"GET BACK!" Max screamed in the same instant everyone stopped their attacks. They could hear its form breaking against itself with every second, building further and further into an incomprehensible combination of darkness and light.
Fara was going to explode. They had nowhere to run.
Max flinched away at the last second, too late to even say Ithos' name one last time. If she'd had another instant to think, she might've ripped Grovyle's safety net off her wrist and whisked herself to safety, but she didn't. Within an instant, Fara's most powerful attack, her last gambit came with all that remained of her power with an impossibly quiet pop.
Max blinked. She was fine. Did she die too quick to feel it? No, because her injured leg wouldn't have followed her into the afterlife. Probably. She couldn't see, but that was probably because her eyes were closed. She risked peeking one eye open.
A bubble surrounded the still burning explosion. Everyone seemed to see it at the same time as her except for Ithos, who was already staring at it with wide, terrified eyes while reaching an open paw in its direction… to block the blast? Well, they all thought they were about to die, who was she to judge.
"M-Mew?" Max asked. It was the same bubble he'd used to trap her after her… well. She was angry, okay? Yet, looking around, she didn't see that stupid cat anywhere.
"M-Mew?" Ithos asked. Some amount of disbelief had him forcing out a chuckle. "What makes you think—why would SHE be here?" Before Max could even answer that the Mother of Creation probably had a vested interest in stopping Creation from dying, Ithos sputtered on some more. "O-or, but y'know, maybe she just—I've heard she's really shy!"
"Ithos?" Codi asked. Ithos' tail flame burst into a white blaze. "What the fuck?"
Then, the bubble popped. Her love's boundless idiocy fell into the background of what anyone cared about while everyone held their breath. They all watched Fara's marble of a core that remained float to the ground.
Max started stumbling forward while everyone else watched in awe. She'd already experienced it, so she was numb to the surprise. She'd been waiting for this.
"You learned this from humans, did you?" Max growled. She almost collapsed in her last few steps but steeled herself before she fell. Grabbing Fara's remains, she forced herself to stand on two legs. Her right barely managed. It must've healed, some. "Then you should've known how this always ends." With a simple squeeze of her paw, she crushed Fara into dust. It sounded like glass breaking.
They won in silence. No one was there to cheer on their victory, and they were all too exhausted to cheer themselves. Max opened her paw and watched shattered crimson dust fall.
Even though she'd almost died she wasn't sure how many times, it felt anticlimactic. It didn't feel like an end. She didn't have to move her head to see the desolation that surrounded them, the desolation they'd caused. Fara had taken over the Tree of Life. There wasn't a choice. Was there?
She felt roots crushing her bones as fast as they could heal and winced. The motion was enough for her to fall back. Her leg still hurt. Every muscle she'd ever used before was sore while her bones felt reluctant to admit they hadn't shattered. Yet, even as she remembered the constant horrors of the last nightmare she endured, she didn't feel all that phased. She felt her pain slipping away and understood why this didn't feel like an end.
Ithos held her in his arms, letting her back rest against his chest. She wasn't sure when he'd arrived, but she was glad to have him. They made it. They'd survived. The world was safe.
For now.
"We did it," Max whispered. She stared blankly at the opposite wall. Ithos squeezed her tighter.
"You said you knew we would," Ithos said. Even while he held her, he lifted his paw to steal glances at it. He watched it with a hint of terror beating his heart faster while keeping vigilant eyes on it at all times. It was like he was waiting for it to do something, move on its own, change, something.
Now, that last conversation with Fara hung around Max's head like a noose. "What about everyone else?" she asked. It didn't have an answer, so Ithos didn't have one, either. He just sat behind her, bringing his paw back down to hold her tight and run his claws through her fur. The same paws that snapped Fara's neck were there to comfort her. Had Fara made that body herself, or taken it over?
"Why does it feel like I did the wrong thing?" Ithos asked. Max shook her head, still not sure herself. Ash and Codi were off tending to themselves, seeming to recognize Ithos and Max needed a moment. "She was evil, wasn't she? We got rid of evil."
Max took a deep breath in to shake her head. Right. Just like before, he didn't have a frame of reference for this kind of thing. Why would he?
"Evil still exists, Ithos," Max said. She thought back to Wigglytuff talking about Soldiers and realized she'd taken to thinking the same things about Fara. Maybe she hated him so much because she knew how hard it was to disagree with him deep down. "She might've been Dark Matter, but Soldiers were never void shadows. They were just people."
A serperior running his vines down Pip's feathers with eyes glazed over with desire. Max forced the image into her own head, sticking it there until she could see that snake as a person. The most evil thing she'd met outside of a cosmic entity, and it had hatched to parents that raised him.
"That's how we got to this point," Max said. It was right in front of her the whole time, but she'd only seen it after it was too late. "Soldiers think they're right because they have an evil to defeat."
"Max," Ithos whispered, balking a bit behind her head. "Please don't tell me you think that's the same as what we did."
"Well, no," Max said. She looked at the paw she'd crushed Fara with. "I know we did the right thing. I know what Fara wanted was wrong. That's obvious." She nodded along to her own words, remembering the feeling of her first hug with Dark Matter. "But I don't think that's why I wanted to kill Fara. I just wanted to know that I could never be as evil as her."
"Do you think we should've let Fara live?" Ithos asked. His eyes had scrunched shut in confusion while he tried his best to nod along in empathy. "We had to stop her, Max."
"I know," Max grumbled. Sometimes, the only answer to a problem is the most severe. "We couldn't have talked reason to someone like that. Her end goal was murder. All her rhetoric was lies." Even now, while she was trying to explain it to Ithos, she wanted to be proud for never having fallen for it.
Ithos held her while she thought it through. Either he wanted to hear her out, knew she needed to work it through for herself, or both. "It's just," Max mumbled. "We're not better than them. People only fell for that because they thought they were too smart to be tricked, but it wasn't ever about being smart enough. She terrorized people into thinking it was their only option."
"Or, made sure it was," Codi said. Max hadn't heard her approach, but she felt relief instead of surprise. "Even the pokémon that opposed her believed her." Wigglytuff.
Max glanced up at her to see a pained, supportive smile while her own eyes began to tear up. Max only knew the truth from the beginning because of who she was, what she had to live with. She wasn't too smart for it. She could only hope that she would've chosen compassion over pride if she'd been on the other side.
"I know, but, we can't," Ithos whimpered. Max suddenly realized the back of her neck was damp, and it wasn't from sweat. His claws were digging into her fur, but it had blended in with all the rest of her pain.
Then, he took a deep breath, steadied himself, and relaxed his paws while he exhaled, shaking his head. "I just want it to be over," he whimpered. His voice sounded completely broken. He'd been resilient through all of this, and it was pushing him over the edge.
Despite herself, Max smiled. "It is," she said. She started trying to turn around on her own, but Codi came to help her before she could hurt herself. "Thanks," she mumbled, embarrassed sparks popping down her cheeks. Resting on his thighs, she looked up into Ithos' eyes. Those eyes that had pulled her out of oblivion more times than she could count.
She'd get to stay with them.
"So, like. Is everyone else dead?" Ash asked. Max flopped her head against Ithos' shoulder, but a chuckle forced a smile on her lips. He couldn't read tone for the life of him. "The Tree of Life looks pretty dead. I'm pretty sure that's bad."
"Oh, that's fine," Ithos said. Wiping his tears away, he waved a dismissive paw at Ash. "We had a plan for that, here." His right paw grabbed Max's left. He pushed both out and splayed out his paw. When she did the same, the seeds Xerneas had given them pulled out of them and into each other with a dim light.
Yet, Max found herself tilting her head at Ithos with a smirk. This was Xerneas' idea, not his. "Pretty sure that wasn't your idea, honey," she chuckled. A strike of panic shot through Ithos' expression.
"W-we—yeah! Xerneas! That's what I said!" Ithos stammered out with a paper thin smile.
Max raised a brow before shaking her head. Only Ithos would care that much about being caught trying to take credit for someone else's idea. "Dork," Max chuckled.
Ithos nearly collapsed in relief. Max didn't get why he was reacting like that, but she just shook her head. They were all incredibly stressed from it all. Ithos was just on edge. It shouldn't be surprising he'd be on edge in the most Ithos way possible.
"Ohh, we're heading out!" Ash cheered. He smacked his paws together with the brightest joys shining in his eyelids. "Everyone in the continent's gonna want a piece of me."
Ithos and Max took refuge in each other to let out pained groans. Codi, on her own, had to suffice by slapping her paw over the bridge of her snout. After a few seconds, though, all their groans turned to chuckles, then to laughter. They'd saved the world, but that didn't change who they were. Ash was still a horny idiot.
Ithos bent over to pick up the seeds while keeping a firm arm around Max. After he tucked them into his bag, he helped her up. With the adrenaline essentially gone, Max didn't have a chance trying to stand on her own, much less walk. She eagerly leaned into his scales to accept the help.
Mere minutes ago, she thought she'd never feel him again.
The familiar feeling of steam rising up from tears dripping onto his chest let her know after everyone else that she'd begun to cry. She squeezed him, smile spreading so wide it hurt. He held her tighter, a paw at the back of her head, and she started shaking her head in disbelief. Even with Fara gone, his arms wrapped around her, his scales against her fur, she struggled to believe it.
In all the time she'd been here, she was terrified what it meant for him to fail. Every day together, the best she could hope to do was forget his fate. Even at her most optimistic, she could never get herself to believe he'd be there with her at the end.
"You're here," Max squeaked through her tears. She didn't have the energy to sob, but she didn't have the strength to stop herself either. "You're still here."
"We're here," Ithos whispered. A hint of strain worked its way into his voice despite his best efforts. He was holding a good portion of Max's weight, but neither could resist holding the other. Even running on empty, he'd happily hold her weight with her. "We're okay." He pulled her chin out to look into her eyes. "I've got you." He pressed his snout against her nose. "And I'm never letting go."
"Celare soror mea
Mors tua, vita mea
Celare soror mea
Mors vincit omnia"
It turned out that they'd needed more time to recuperate than expected. They'd taken a minute to build a fire in what remained of the Tree of Life's charcoal for a reason no one was sure on. The intent was to discuss a plan around it, but Max fell asleep on Ithos the moment Ash lit the flame.
"You learned dig?" Ash asked. Max's slumber was waning thanks to their conversation, but she wasn't rousing just yet. She'd just let it happen while staying in the blissful border between awake and asleep. "When?"
"Oh, uh, I don't really know," Ithos mumbled. Even half-asleep, Max heard the uncertainty in his voice and nuzzled into him for support. "Just sorta came to me, y'know?"
"No," Codi said. Ithos tensed even further at that, so Max gave him an unconscious squeeze. "How do you think learning a move works? You can't just figure it out on a whim." At worst, Codi seemed playfully interrogative, but Ithos still felt unbelievably tense.
"That's kinda Ithos for ya," Ash dismissively sighed. Ithos relaxed so much that he jostled Max further out of slumber. "Dude's a freak when it comes to that. I don't know if there's a move he can't learn in an hour."
"W-well, I can't—it's not like I can learn any move," Ithos sputtered. "I just—sure, quick to me, but—charmander, y'know?" He pushed out the most forced laugh Max had heard from him to that point. "It's not like I can learn more moves than any other charmander." Max could barely process the conversation going on, but she reached a paw up to give him comforting pats (on the front of his face), anyway.
"I think she's trying to turn off her alarm," Codi chuckled. Max gave her no heed as she determined Ithos had enough comfort from her and let her arm fall back down. Ithos seemed to relax as the conversation hit another lull, which let her drift closer to a return to fully sleeping.
"Maaaax," Ithos cooed. A warm paw came to rub her back which she happily accepted until it started ever so slightly shaking her. "C'moooon, sleepy-chuuuuu."
Max's face scrunched up into a grimace as she tried to retreat into Ithos' chest. Instead of getting the hint, that evil paw started wrapping around to scratch at her neck. It started at the back, then gradually circled around until she was forced to give it access to underneath her chin. Her fate was already sealed, the perfect trap tripped, but she was too blissed out to notice.
In dazed pleasure, Max's eyes started to open halfway. Flashes of orange and cream poked at her from the bottom of her vision. When she tried to lean into them, though, that paw kept her from doing so.
Before she could complain, warm, scaled lips met her own. It took her a second to remember what to do in response, but she very eagerly pressed her lips against Ithos' when she did. As her reward, that awful paw left her chin alone to go bother the rest of her some more. Max's lips were suddenly kissing air.
"Maaaaax," Ithos said, shaking her again.
Max squeaked out some whine again, but it was too late. She reluctantly brought her paws up to rub at her eyes. In her reluctant waking, she also felt her body's various complaints leveled against her. "Chuuuuu," she groaned with a deep wince.
"Probably her leg," Codi said from her right side. "Here, lay her down. I need to fix this."
"Fix it?" Max grumbled. She let her paws fall and looked over at Codi with bleary, half-open eyes. "Fix what? My leg?" She didn't get her clarification before Ithos ever so gently leaned her down to the ground.
"Give her a break. We were in a bit of a hurry when she did it," Ithos said. He let go of the hug, but kept a paw in hers for her to clutch. Max wanted to complain, but she also wanted to go back to sleep, so the indecision left her blearily staring up at Ithos' smiling face. "It'll be all right. She'll be gentle."
"With how bad this looks, I don't know if gentle will really matter," Codi hummed. Ithos grit his teeth and glared back at her. "Fine, sorry."
Max stopped caring about all this nonsense. She was laying down, and that's what mattered more. She turned her head to fall asleep, only for an oran to shove its way into her mouth. She grumbled as she chewed it down but refused to let it stop her sleeping. The waking world had tormented her enough for a lifetime. She deserved some peace.
Codi touched the paw of her bad leg. As she started unwinding the bandages, Max's eyes shot wide open.
"NONONONO!" Max squealed in desperate rebuttal. "DON'T TOUCH THAT, DON'T!" Ithos and Ash came to hold her down when she tried to throw herself up and stop Codi.
"Max, MAX!" Ithos barked. The shout shook her out of her terror for a second long enough to look into his eyes. "It's all right, okay?" Ash let go of her as her struggles waned, letting Ithos lean down a bit closer. "She's just going to wrap it again. It'll be over before you know it."
Max was already sniveling. This was going to hurt. It had to be the worst way to be woken up, and it was hard to reorient herself after the surprise of imminent agony.
Ithos' paw gave her shoulder a tight squeeze. She looked up at his smile and felt some security return. Even laying still, her leg hurt like hell, but pain alone wasn't what had her freaking out. Ithos got down to wrap his arms around her in a very gentle hug, and she heard her instincts in her head. They must've shown up in her panic and might've even caused it. In his touch, though, she could feel her own control returning.
After a deep breath in, Max sighed, "O-okay." Ithos squeezed her tighter once to pull away, but she yanked him back down. She needed the comfort. Her instincts were still blaring in her head like klaxons.
Codi started tugging the end of the bandage until it came undone. It came off Max's hindpaw without an issue, the little plank of wood plopping down into the dirt with an audible little thud. Codi gave her a moment's rest before starting to tug it before stopping entirely.
"Oh, wait, what am I doing?" Codi asked herself. She shook her head and brought a claw to the top of Max's bandages. "No way I'm reusing these filthy things. Ash," she jabbed a paw towards her bag, "get the bandages out of there."
"Oh, they're in Max's bag," Ithos said. Codi raised a skeptical brow at him, then shrugged.
"All right," Codi said. She turned to Ash again as she put her claw back in position. "Go find her bag." Ash went off with thudding steps and no complaint. Codi looked up at Max. "Ready?"
"No," Max whimpered, shaking her head. Ithos held her tighter. In a simple, terrifying movement, Codi's claw sliced down her leg, barely grazing the fur. Max squeezed Ithos into her chest, waiting for the pain to hit her, but it didn't come. After counting to three in her head a few times, Max let out a sigh of relief. Ithos did, too, once she relaxed her grip a bit.
Ash's search for her bag gave her a nice breather before she had to endure the worst of it. If she hadn't had a mini panic attack, she might've had time for some more shuteye. With her heart beating out of her chest, though, that wasn't happening.
Far too soon, she heard Ash's thudding steps returning. "I think you need a new bag, Max," Ash said. He plopped it down by her head, and both halves of the strap flopped down separately.
Max's attention remained on the bandages as they changed paws. She strained against Ithos' shoulder to watch Codi take them while giving her leg some very intense examination. "You're lucky," Codi said. Max didn't personally agree, but she heard her friend out. "Don't need to set the bone. The worst part's gonna be wrapping it."
Max still didn't agree with the 'lucky' diagnosis, but she grit her teeth and readied herself for the treatment. Ithos very kindly ran his paws down her sides as he hugged her and gave little pats. It wouldn't prevent the pain, but it made her feel a bit nicer.
"All right, can you lift it up for me?" Codi asked. Max gripped Ithos tighter and did her best. It immediately hurt ten times worse, but she got it off the ground.
Codi quickly got to work, throwing the bandages over Max's knee to wind them tight all the way down to her ankle. Max squeezed Ithos tighter once Codi started passing over the part that was actually broken, but the first pass was only tight enough to feel, not agitate. The second was twice as tight and twice as fast. Max wanted it to be over, but she already knew better. She didn't feel the splints.
Her strength flagging, she continued to hold her leg up as best she could while Codi nestled the splints against the bandages. This time, the wrap was tight. Even through two layers, she could feel the wood pressing against her bone.
White flashed in Max's vision. She realized she was screaming when she needed to take a breath. That useless oran they'd fed her did nothing for the pain.
Then, with a simple tuck, Codi set her leg down. At some point, Max had stopped managing to hold it up herself. Of course she did. She could feel it hurting with every beat of her heart. Warm streaks ran down her face. She was crying. Beyond that, though, she started to hear Ithos over the ringing in her ears.
"Done, it's all done. You're okay, you're okay," Ithos wheezed. "It's over." He was forcing himself to keep comforting while she squeezed every chance at air out of his lungs.
Max relaxed her arms, and both of them took in a deep breath. She'd been squeezing his weight against herself, too, and that had crushed her lungs enough that she was seeing stars now that it had stopped. She really, really wished they'd held off on burning the Tree of Life until her leg had healed. At least she'd only be in agony for the next week or so.
In her pain, she'd drifted off. It was a quick rest, and she could barely even tell that she'd fallen asleep at all. If only she'd learned the move proper, it might've actually revitalized her a bit. Instead, she woke up exhausted and groggy.
"There she is," Ithos whispered. Max groaned before she could pretend she hadn't heard him. He was holding her in his arms again, sitting on his lap so her leg didn't touch the ground.
"Sorry about that," Codi said. She pat Max's shoulder and gave an apologetic smile when Max looked over. "I don't think you should walk on that for a while."
Max nodded once before squeezing herself tighter against Ithos. He gave her very soft squeezes back, running his claws down her back with a perfect mix of scritches and rubs. Aside from her leg, she still had every sore muscle she could imagine. His warm scales made for the perfect massages she needed to have some semblance of relief.
Too soon, she could feel him helping her up. She only had the strength to whine in resistance. Her weight rested firmly on his side while she kept her leg high off the ground, not risking even the slightest bit of weight.
"Okay," Max growled through grit teeth once she made it up. She wasn't happy, but she'd push herself along to get this over with. "What's the plan?"
"Dig," Codi said. Max stared in wait for more information. "We can't exactly fly out of here, so Ithos and Ash'll dig us out of here." That made plenty of sense, so Max happily nodded along. She was a bit surprised Ithos knew dig, but she vaguely remembered him using it during the fight. It kinda reminded her of the conversation she'd half-heard while half-asleep, but she didn't care enough to pursue the issue.
With a simple nod, Max hopped herself up onto Ithos. For some reason, he didn't expect this and tumbled backwards when she did.
"Oh, uh, Max," Codi said. "So, because of size, we'd planned on you going with-" Max aggressively squeezed Ithos tighter, shaking her head. She had to wake up before she wanted to. She would not let go of Ithos before she wanted to. Codi let out a sigh. "Right. Fair enough."
Ithos started to roll over, and Max begrudgingly moved to his back. It was surprisingly comfortable. She might just have to ask for piggy back rides more often.
With a few more breaths, they were off. Max buried her nose into his scales to protect it from the reeking stench of earth flooding her surroundings thanks to the move's typing. It helped, but not perfectly. Even trying to filter the air through the harmony scarves didn't do much. She tried her best to ignore it while squeezing her tail tighter around Ithos.
"I love you," Ithos said.
Max smiled, halfway to a chuckle. He was impossibly sweet. She nuzzled her cheek into his scales. "I love you, too," she said. Even now, she was struggling to believe they'd made it. She almost wondered if they'd run into some obstacle on the way up.
Then, they broke through grass. Max squinted her eyes against the setting sunlight. They made it.
"FREEZE!" someone shouted at them. Max glanced up, expecting to see Soldiers, but they didn't have collars. She couldn't make them out with her eyes barely adjusted, but they looked like Rescuers.
Ithos rushed to help her down. She collapsed against him so he could hold the half of her weight she didn't trust her leg to hold. "Hold on, we're on the same side!" Ithos said. Max's eyes adjusted enough that she was certain they were Rescuers, and even more certain that they didn't see them as allies. "We beat Fara."
The blastoise taking point narrowed his eyes down at them. "You burned down the Tree of Life," he hissed. Max let out a breath of relief. They could just lie and say Fara did it.
"We had to!" Ithos barked. Max blinked. They were going to die. He was going to kill them.
"HAD TO?!" Blastoise barked. "You've killed us all! What chance is there to survive, now!" He pulled back into a fighting stance, the scorched remains of the Tree of Life behind him. A blackened shell stood in its place with many branches scattered all around it.
Max took a deep breath. This was going to be a hard sell.
"Have ye no faith?" Max asked, voice light and airy. She looked up at Blastoise and through his eyes. A paw went to her chest. Very slowly, very subtly, the purple of her scarf grew a bit brighter. "I, human that came with your salvation, have not forgotten your plight." Ithos glared at her in wide eyed disbelief, but she kept her eyes on Blastoise's. "Xerneas' blessing has not left us yet."
As Blastoise opened his mouth to object, her scarf began to glow. Even Ithos had to double take at the sight. His glare turned to shock. "M-Max?" Ithos asked.
Max closed her eyes, holding a nubbin up to her lips. "Listen, children of Mew," Max whispered. "Can you hear its call?" Despite her request, both simply stared at her in confusion as her scarf began to glow brighter. "Charmander, your bag." Even though he was beside her, she held a paw out in front of her. "A seed resides within."
Ithos shrank a bit at being called Charmander, but he did as she asked. Flicking his paw into his bag, he tugged out the seeds Xerneas had given them. Max nodded with a bit of disbelief. This ceremony felt familiar.
"Life has ended, yes," Max said, same airy tone carrying her voice. It barely managed to cut over the wind. She bent down, digging a shallow hole with her paws. "But for every end, there is a beginning. For every damnation, we find salvation. In every tragedy, there is hope. In all death," she dropped the seeds into the hole she'd dug and covered them up, "life comes forth to replace it."
The exertion nearly had her topple over, so she was glad Ithos had a strong grip on her. Her wise facade faltered slightly when he yanked her back up and she squeaked. Still, she managed to mostly keep her expression solid. She tried to hide her gasps as she waved a paw over the seed looking expectantly at Blastoise.
"Today marks the world anew," Max said. She continued to look expectantly at Blastoise until he finally bent over to drip the lightest stream out of his cannon onto the mound of dirt, then stepped back to stand on Max's left. "New beginnings, second chances, all deserve a chance at redemption.
She felt a bit guilty going through with this, but more than that, she needed to not get unanimously voted for the death penalty. "I dub this day," she said, "The Day of Life."
Blastoise watched the ground for a moment. Every second that passed with no change, his eyes narrowed further. When the glow of her scarf began to dissipate, he only looked more frustrated. Max was really banking on Xerneas' plan being supernaturally quick to grow, so this was gonna be problematic, to say the least. Right at the end of Blastoise's patience, a little sliver of green peaked out of the ground.
Blastoise's building frustration melted steadily into surprise. Ithos looked a bit surprised, too, but Max managed to look like she'd expected this to happen. As the sprout began to grow, she tugged at Ithos.
Keeping one eye on Blastoise, she used Ithos to hobble back. Further branches and brambles began to sprout from the same spot, taking the turtle's attention, so she managed to pull Ithos three more steps back before pulling his head down to whisper, "Run."
Without more than a nod of acknowledgment, Ithos helped her turn around and let her use him as a second leg as they booked it. He was far too tired to be carrying her weight for her, and they were both gasping for air before they hit the treeline. With as many close calls as they'd had to go through lately, though, they didn't bother risking one more for a problem so silly as physical limitations.
Their pace slowed to a brisk walk the moment they hit the treeline. They didn't stop, but they struggled to keep even that pace. Max had to hop with every step while keeping her leg up, and Ithos grunted every time she did, clutching the barely healed gash in his chest. They slowed and slowed with every breath until they collapsed from exhaustion.
Gasping for breath, Max managed to wriggle around and look from where they came. She couldn't see past the trees, and she didn't see anyone following. They were safe. She collapsed onto her back.
Ithos brought his right paw to meet her left, the closest either of them could manage for an embrace at the moment. He tried a few times to pant out some words on his mind, but his own gasps for air cut him off every time. What remained of his tenacity was just as exhausted as him, so he gave up for the moment and let them sit in the silence of their own gasping breaths for a while longer.
Quite the commotion came from where they'd left. Glancing down her snout, she could see the very beginnings of vibrant green sprouting far above the gaps in the canopy. Panicked, joyous shouts rang out, too, as everyone gawked at the sight while also trying to get away from it.
"How," Ithos finally managed to pant out. He started to smile, shaking his head while looking up at the sky. "How did you do that?"
"Honestly?" Max sighed between gasps. "Lucky guess."
Resigned to his fate, Ithos closed his eyes in a wince. "Of course," he chuckled. He gave Max's paw a hearty squeeze that she eagerly returned. They lay together in silence a bit longer, listening to the far off jubilee, until he turned to look at her scarf. "Was Xerneas telling you to do that?" With a little frown, he glanced down at his own to prod at it with his free paw.
"Nope," Max said. All that time ago, she was surprised she'd even remembered it. It was a good lie then that gave her the idea for an even better one. "That wasn't my scarf." She shook her head with a chuckle.
"What?" Ithos asked. He was trying so hard to look frustrated at her, but he simply couldn't hide his smile. "Then what was it?"
"Nothing," Max said. Continuing to chuckle, she just pawed at her scarf. "Just a weak, localized version of flash." Her smile pulled into a wide, dangerously proud smirk as she turned to face him. For all the times he'd smirked down at her, she deserved one, too.
Ithos could only stare at her in disbelief. Whether it was in frustration or amazement, Max couldn't tell. She just knew that she'd managed to get one over on him as well as Blastoise. Eventually, a smile started tugging at the edges of his lips. He began to chuckle as he yanked her into a hug. Max squeaked before eagerly nuzzling into his chest. "I hate you so much, you know that?" he chuckled.
"Maybe," Max chuckled. She pressed her cheek into his chest and looked up. She could look up at that face for the rest of her life, and it still wouldn't be enough time. "I love you, too."