There's a content warning for this chapter overall for violence, but especially the end of this chapter for something pretty brutal.
The first thirty seconds.
A roar that split space jolted everyone in Treasure Town awake. It spoke with and without words—a declaration of destructive judgmenet that was understood by every soul to ever ever hear it.
Scout and Striker went tumbling down the steps of the guild, crashing painfully against each other before breaking apart and falling alone.
The next thirty seconds.
Pearls shining with eldritch power that only the self-professed wise and short-sighted declared to be Dragon-type. This was far, far, older than that.
A curved break in space ripped atoms apart as a sabre of light was delivered to the target, slicing through the ground and aimed at the place the being knew, knew that it held the first of its targets.
The dreams had told it. The whispers had told it. It could see the foul blots in its beautiful tapestry now, entities of rot infecting its work and sundering it with their selfish desires to live.
The dreams had told it what to do indeed, and it followed suit, trusting its own mind to be whole and unaffected. Trusting its immortal judgement as absolute and pure. Trusting that it was right.
Palkia used Spacial Rend and the Wigglytuff Guild began to crumble into the sea.
Before the guild could surrender to the sea entirely, however, a blaze of light split the darkness as hundreds of shining spears stabbed through the breaking earth and anchored the guild in its teetering position.
Keira the Legendary Lucario had responded, her Power blazing like a halo around her as she shouted into the storm for the pokemon inside to move.
Palkia gazed upon the defiance and found it wanting. Another arc of sundered space came down aimed at the blot of greying opposition.
Keira raised both her paws in what would have been called a Kamehameha in another world, a purple sphere of energy cascading with a comet's tail rising to meet the Spacial Rend.
The impact of the two forces meeting sent a shockwave that knocked the sea back and for every instant Keira's attack tried to hold Palkia's at bay, the spears she had formed to anchor the guild burst into nothing and the land began to fall towards the sea again.
A cacophony of movement obscured sight as the rend cut through the Dragon Pulse and struck the guild a second time.
Palkia's roar had shaken space, but its attack shook the world as Treasure Town rocked with the destruction of its icon.
As the cliff broke and fell back, the wide-eyed welcoming smile of the big wigglytuff gazed up at the sky, almost meeting Palkia's eyes. The feathers, long worn and forever loved, struck the wigglytuff's eyes and the bands holding them broke, scattering to the displaced winds.
A modest grave fell with it, down to the sea as the rocks crumbled and were embraced by the sea.
Palkia roared in vindication; it did not realise the truth.
Its attack, as sharp as it was deadly, was misguided and incorrect. It was not supposed to do this, and its jubilation would be ended by stark reality.
The apprentices of the guild had, for the most part, chosen to camp out in the main foyer of the guild rather than take to their rooms. Enjoying a slumber party in a farewell ritual to a group of graduates, playing some Truth.
Team Celestial, however, had retired to a room, and the time Keira had bought had given them time to scramble out to the foyer. Waves crashed fruitlessly against the cliff as water swelled from the disturbance it had been overcome by.
As the second rend hit, the town's icon fell, blasted into the sea as rock and dust obscured the pokemon still within.
Palkia, wanting to ensure the deed was done well and proper, formed a third Spacial Rend to aim at the remainder of the guild. To destroy the entire cliff, jutting proudly in the sky against the waves. This arrogance would be paid for dearly.
The cliff was also still crumbling, one slice was all it took to bisect it, but the disturbance of so much weight being pulled had ripped the balance out of the entire thing. The erosion the sea had inflicted had taken its toll at last. As the apprentices tried to reorient and pull everyone out of the danger zone, the earth was split again.
Lucario… Keira, as powerful as she was, she still did not have the strength to carve through the Spacial Rend. Palkia was a ten on her own list. She couldn't strike through it, but she did have enough strength to survive it when the attack ripped through her. Blocking the killing strike against the guild with her own body.
Palkia snarled in discontent as Keira defied it, but she fell limp and crashed on the stairs, rolling down them. As if the fall of the Legendary Lucario was the final straw, as the last of the spears faded, the cliff broke, and the guild entirely fell into the sea.
Armaldo, however, and Guardian had reacted fast enough. Armaldo's String Shot and Guardian Shadow Sneak had pulled everyone they could against the wall, where it was not collapsing just yet.
Yet, not everyone was at the slumber party or as close by as a room. Diglett and Dugtrio continued to rest in their own quarters, further down where they had dug out a home for themselves. It was lower than what Palkia had struck, but upon the cliff breaking entirely, they fell.
Dugtrio and Diglett fell towards the ocean, in the air and separated from the others, contained within a sphere of soil. Saniya was unconscious, having taken several rocks to the head and Keira was also down.
Luno, the second grovyle, was the closest to the edge as the roaring of gods pounded the air around them. His sister was stunned and Sol was staggered, but his eyes were clear as he saw the father and son begin to fall.
He raised a hand, a thorned vine struck out in one single attempt.
Dugtrio saw the sea.
He was a father to a kind young boy. He only wished he could have watched Diglett continue growing up.
He was a father, and he hesitated not even a single moment, jetting himself out of the column of soil they had slept on. For a moment, Dugtrio's whole body was out of the ground. For only a moment. The vine grazed him, just grazed him.
His quick action and force of propulsion propelled Diglett up and back, just in range for Luno to adjust and snare him with the thorned vine and pull him with all his might, slamming the ball of soil into the wall and saving Diglett.
But Dugtrio couldn't know that. He could only trust that he did all he could. The last thing he saw was the sea.
"DAAAAD!?" Diglett screamed, he had burrowed up to the top of the cliff as soon as possible, but the waves were smashing and roiling a salty storm, and Armaldo was throwing pokémon up to Guardian, getting them away from the cliff as the place was still crumbling further.
He continued staring out, crying for his father as Wigglytuff moved. Armaldo could be trusted to keep everyone else okay. Scizor held Lucario in his arms, having caught her after she blocked Palkia's attack and flying up.
Dugtrio had hit the sea too hard. He was a Ground-type. And the displacement of water was swallowing everything.
But still, Diglett cried out. "DAAAAD!?"
Palkia was aiming for them a fourth time, but Wigglytuff was faster.
The ground was already shaking, so nothing could tell if it was Palkia or Wigglytuff doing it. It was Wigglytuff, ascending the sky to the dragon god of space.
Wigglytuff roared, striking Palkia out of the sky with everything he had. The deity of space staggered in the air before whatever it used to float failed it, and it fell down, smashing down into the middle of Treasure Town.
Wigglytuff sprinted forth, face screwed into a snarl and tears striking his eyes but not falling. Not yet.
Before he could go too far, however, a bone appeared in his way.
"You cannot defeat Palkia," Lucario said, having been the one to stop him. A bone rush glowed in the night, held in a remarkably steady paw even as she braced against Scizor.
She had a huge cut along her chest and jaw, but it was shallow for the likes of what had caused it. Beyond Dragon-type or not, she had withstood the Spacial Rend with steel bones and a harder will.
Rhythm replied with a stare that went through her, "Can you?" he asked.
Keira almost cracked a smile. "No. But the two of us at once… I think that's a better chance of not letting everyone here die."
Rhythm faced her and nodded.
"I can-" Cara begun but Keira squeezed his shoulder, almost denting him.
"You'll die," she said as if she knew the future. "Protect them here, please."
Cara's expression was a thousand emotions at once, felt over the course of a second. There was so much anger, desperation, and fight but he listened to her words and nodded.
He grabbed at the pendant around her neck with an inquisitive expression. She nodded and he cracked it open.
"Hey?" Keira asked, snatching the Awakening inside. Rhythm's eyes widened. "You know Sing, right?"
"I do." He nodded.
"Good," Cara said as Keira's fist closed around the Awakening.
"Assuming we both survive this," Keira said, her voice echoing as energy enveloped her. "You HAVE to put me to sleep after this."
Rhythm nodded again, he knew the consequence of using an Awakening. And if she was the one to use it, he could not imagine the devastation an out-of-control Mega Legendary Lucario would cause.
The winds changed as a sphere of churning light roiled around her. A distant wail of pure Power sung as Keira's potential was unleashed.
She roared herself, her chest and paw spikes returning to full form, her tassels tipped with red and levitating behind her, pupils taking the symbol of mega evolution.
As Palkia pulled itself up, Keira rose into the air under her own ability and raised her paws as Rhythm sprinted along the ground.
Keira bellowed as she unleashed an aura storm. As a normal lucario she had no capacity to control her aura, she had been born that way and then broke herself trying to prove she was strong despite it.
But she still had aura. Massively powerful aura that surged at times uncontrollable. It had melded with her trainer and gifted him with understanding. She couldn't control it unless she was in a mega form.
Mega Keira had full access and more.
Keira's aura turned the night temporarily into day and blasted through Palkia, letting out a shockwave that tore wood off buildings, driving it to its knees before Rhythm reached it and went for the head.
Delivering blows with strength that should have been impossible for such a small frame. Such a hit would break a lesser creatures spine, and even Palkia was impacted by the haymaker.
Palkia struck at Rhythm with talons burning of purple energy. The wigglytuff may have been a Fairy-type, but this was no mere gabite's Dragon Claw.
He was punted through the Duskull Bank and further than the crossroads. But then Keira was in front of it.
Six, twenty, fifty Bone Rush's began to appear. Not in her paws but floating around her, each point sharpened into a spear she learned to do centuries ago to kill one specific person.
Palkia hesitated and Keira unleashed her spears. Palkia's eyes shone green, and a shield appeared around it, deflecting the first volley.
Keira smirked and vaunted forth, tapping the Protect shield shamefully lightly, shattering it with a Feint. The next volley smashed into Palkia's scales, finding no purchase. But more and more and more formed until she had a continuous motion beam of spears barraging Palkia with everything.
Palkia stomped and the entire town inverted, gravity still existed, however, and Keira lost her focus as the world righted itself, her spears vanishing and leaving herself prone and falling in the air.
The charge length for Spacial Rend was too long, so Palkia tossed a globe of water instead. It was no less mighty and blew Keira out to sea.
Growling at the disturbances daring to impede its work, the work needed to save this world, Palkia began rising back into the air. He captured Rhythm in a sphere of unbending space when he tried to grab its feet and drag it back to the unworthy earth.
"I. MERCIFUL. I. SAVE," Palkia's speech was stuttered and broken, and it shook his mighty head in pain. "DISTORTION! DISTORTION MUST BE CORRECTED! DISTORTION!"
"Hey!" Keira yelled, returning the town sopping wet and breathing hard. Palkia looked down at her, far too high in the sky. "DICK JOKE!"
At first, Palkia didn't react, then an old festering insult snapped to its addled mind, and it roared. "YOU DARE?"
Keira positioned her paws together, fingers separated and palms touching. Her tassels were always levitating, but they thrummed with power here. Her aura was burning her fur off, so much of it was unleashed and amplified she could barely control even like this. She unleashed a second Aura Storm as Palkia cast another Spacial Rend.
The Deity of Space met the Legendary Lucario in a struggle of power, and unlike the first time, this was evenly matched. A corona of light lit the sky with a second sun as shockwaves burned the trees far back and scorched the roofs of the buildings.
Palkia could hardly fathom a pokémon, not of its own level matching its most powerful attack and the sphere around Rhythm faded due to this distraction.
Keira was matching it, but she had to put everything into her attack at every moment, while Palkia's Spacial Rend stood on its own without any further boost. Palkia, thankfully, was too stunned by this brazen display to react, and the ground shook again as Rhythm added his Power to hers.
The Yoom-TAH connected with the Spacial Rend and under Mega Keira and Rhythm's combined power the Spacial Rend gave out and dissipated into nothing.
Palkia didn't react again, stunned it could be overpowered even briefly before the combined attack blasted it further into the sky. It began to fall, its floatation knocked out again from the blow unlike its battles with Dialga.
Keira staggered once she could release her surge and groaned, nearly falling over. "We can't keep going here," she said, catching herself with a paw. "The town will break before it does."
Rhythm nodded, helping her up. "How do we get it out of here?"
Palkia began to fall, but it righted itself and snarled. Its attention was off correcting the disturbance, this was two pokémon. Two tiny specks that saw fit to challenge it. Palkia disdained this world for taking so much power away from it, that it had to hide away, for these pokémon could pose a threat to it.
Palkia's pearls glowed, but not for Spacial Rend this time. It cast its hands to the sea behind Sharpedo Bluff and pulled the ocean up. Space was an ocean of sorts, but a more literal ocean would be good enough. Millions of gallons of water began to shadow the town, darkening the land for a death blow.
"That'll wipe the town OUT!" Rhythm gasped. He launched himself up, hoping to stop Palkia before it could smash Treasure Town with the ocean.
He reached it. But not fast enough.
His blow to Palkia's abdomen stopped the entire basin being emptied and dropped on the town, but a good portion of it had already been pulled up, and now it began to fall. Most pokémon lived further out, but there were pokémon who lived in the town—most especially the nursery, children.
Rhythm grabbed Palkia's leg and swung it, tossing the titanic beast onto the town square. It'd take the brunt of its actions if there was no other choice.
He then looked up, almost in awe of the sea as it began to descend upon him. Rhythm tried to find the voice to attempt to blow through it, but he knew he didn't have the time.
Then a Bone Rush flew forth. It struck Rhythm and curled around him, he glanced down, seeing Keira gesturing to bend it into a hoop that pulled him away.
"The nursery!" Rhythm cried. Most of the town was uninhabited. Spinda's Café was outside of town, but the nursery wasn't.
She tossed him back, and a String Shot hit him in the back, and he was pulled towards Spinda's Café.
Keira rushed forth herself, forming a dozen-dozen spears to interlock in a desperate water-blocking barrier.
Chansey was standing on her roof, staring up at the falling ocean in mute passive horror, a Protect glimmered around her and her building, but against that much force, it'd be as useful as a piece of paper.
Keira reached her as the fall of the water drowned out all noise. She didn't know Protect, she was too proud. She cursed that part of her as she created a Bone Rush igloo over the nursery.
"Hold that Protect up!" Keira yelled as Chansey hesitated. She did, and everything went white as nothing, but shimmering bones could be seen around them.
Chansey saw Keira's legs buckle underneath her and she fell to her knees as a titanic blast of sound shattered the windows of the nursery. She immediately transferred some Power to a healing move and began beaming it into her while still holding the Protect.
Singular spears broke, and water blasted through with the force of massive weight. It struck the Protect, extended too wide and nearly shattered it. Keira formed new bones to replace the breaking ones, and her nose began to drip with blood.
Her arms shook and the moment lasted for an age as Chansey held close, protecting the children as they wailed beneath them.
"Don't… give up," Chansey pleaded. The sheer weight pressuring Keira's energy was obscene, but she needed no encouragement. To give up was to let the children die.
After what felt like an age to them both, finally, the weight stopped, and Keira collapsed to her paws, barely holding herself up and conscious as the bones vanished.
Palkia had taken the brunt of the attack as well, thanks to Rhythm knocking it down but Palkia had parted much of the ocean away from itself. Electivire's shop was simply gone, the marketplace as well was smashed to pieces. Kangaskhan's Storage still stood, as did the bank.
The trees farther back were wiped away, but Palkia had diverted much of the water that would have hit the rest of the town. The Dojo was heavily damaged but still stood.
Rhythm, far back, had protected Spinda's Café as best as he could, the pokémon still in there unable to do anything but hope the Guildmaster could save them. The roof had nearly collapsed but had managed to hold firm.
At the nursery, Chansey was desperately pressing something into Keira, arms shaking and Keira took a soft bite of an egg. "Please get up," she begged. "It's coming back!"
She swallowed Chansey's egg and began to stand, her legs weren't working though. Faintly, Keira had a feeling that they had both broken under the strain.
"Lucario!" a rougher voice yelled, and she looked up to see Armaldo and Rhythm rushing across the flooded ground. Chansey grabbed onto Keira and helped hoist her up, letting the drained lucario grab onto her to steady herself. Her legs were just... not working. They slid off the roof, and Keira groaned from the jar to her legs.
"The apprentices will be fine," he barked at Rhythm, who was arguing with Armaldo's presence, knowing Guardian and Cara would keep watch over them. He wouldn't just stand back and hide with them, though. "What is the plan?"
"We get Palkia out of here," Keira gasped, and Armaldo nodded.
"Very well."
"Wait!" Chansey said, shoving an egg at Rhythm too. "And give me a second." She ran into the nursey, calling for someone to get something. She returned in seconds, sprigs in her hands. "Revival herbs. Eat them."
She handed Rhythm and Keira them. They ate without question. When properly prepared, the herbs were even stronger than Reviver Seeds, as they were the plant the seeds grew into. It was an astoundingly powerful stimulant. Capable of 'reviving' someone to continue fighting even at the point of collapse. Chansey knew how to properly prepare them.
Already they both needed it and had hardly actually been hit.
Keira could feel the weight on the back of her mind. The ache that lurked there, growing wider and wider. She suppressed it. She had to keep going. But it was still there and growing. Her legs began to work again, her metal bones scraping apart. She hoped her legs wouldn't break through her skin again, that was always a bad time when that happened.
The grizzled explorer Armaldo knew he was the weakest of this little trio. Rhythm was exceptional, and Lucario had just proven her strength was not just a tale by amazed and foolish pokémon.
He wasn't them, but, he was still far from weak.
They nodded to Chansey and ran out to stop Palkia. She stood outside, standing between her children and anything that might happen again, shaking but not budging. She spotted Banette running across the flooded street towards the nursery and almost might have smiled.
String Shots snared Palkia's legs even as it tried to pick itself up from the lake' worth of water it just dropped on itself as Keira ran behind it with Armaldo supplying a thick string connected to the tie to pull on.
She kicked Palkia in the back of the head and knocked it up before unleashing another Aura Storm on its back as Rhythm pulled with all his might.
They moved space, or just Palkia, forcing it out of the town and up and away. Rhythm pulled it to his right, braced on the ground by Armaldo, to the eastern parts of town where no pokémon lived.
He then grabbed Armaldo to carry him, and the three sprinted after Palkia before it could recover too much.
Out of town, in a clearing that wasn't a clearing a minute ago, Keira, Rhythm, and Armaldo met Palkia in battle.
It had mostly stopped talking, reverting to bestial roaring.
Keira was watching it carefully. No sign of Shadow Moves, which was a big relief, but this was not normal. Palkia would not be reasoned with, attacking them immediately as they entered even when Rhythm tried to talk to it, away from where it could harm others.
Palkia didn't listen. It repeated just one thing as it attacked. "DISTORTION. DISTORTION. DISTORTION. DISTORTION."
"This isn't working!" Keira shouted, unleashing a Dragon Pulse on Palkia's face. "Wigglytuff, we cannot hold back!"
He set his jaw and nodded. They each took a side, moving often, to stay still was to die. Armaldo snared Palkia's arms and legs from a distance, he was the slowest, least agile, and least powerful here. He could not take much of a hit from the likes of Palkia, but he could stop it from hitting the others as easily.
He pulled a Spacial Rend arm back and prevented it from shearing Keira in half. He tripped it by binding its legs which gave Rhythm the opening to deliver one hell of a haymaker to its chin.
Whatever had happened to Palkia had robbed it of cunning, it had stopped using Protect. Or perhaps just because Keira could shatter that easily anyway.
They thought it was robbed of its smarts at least. Both gems flashed, and Keira and Rhythm got caught in curves in space.
This attack had, in another world, held Arceus Itself in place. Neither of them could break it, and the spheres began to shrink, threatening to crush them.
But to do this, required every bit of focus and control. Armaldo had merely been providing support, but as his student was threatened with being crushed into nothing, he acted.
A String Shot against Palkia's body to fling himself like a spider man, connecting both of his arms together and pulling on the well within him to form one of the most devastating moves known to pokémon.
A sphere of rotating energy began to burn around him as Armaldo used Giga Impact. The move was desperete, unbelievably reckless, and stupid. It was something Junior would do. And it guided him into striking Palkia's left pearl.
For a moment, the attack appeared to bounce off, but Armaldo pressed harder, forcing everything into it, and the pearl bent.
In one world, it had taken a direct hit from Roar of Time to crack Palkia's pearl. In this one Chitin the armaldo shattered it with a Giga Impact.
Palkia screamed, and the world inverted black and white and begun smelling like the letter purple.
Rhythm fell to the ground as Palkia staggered, misty energy and blood pouring from the wound as it tilted.
The world began to shake as Rhythm, charging his Yoom-TAH in the sphere, touched the earth.
"Pull it back!" he yelled, voice reverberating with the power of an actual earthquake. As Chitin still had his string connected to Palkia, he was able to pull back despite the stunning effect of his own Giga Impact.
Palkia tilted back right as the sphere began to crush Keira's bones and Rhythm unleashed the Yoom-TAH on Palkia's other pearl.
And shattered it in kind.
With both pearls shattered, Palkia staggered back as Keira hit the ground running. Its eyes were going white and grey and colours that did not exist as its control over space suddenly fluctuated. The ground around them turned into roses, then daisy's, then shards of broken glass.
The sky began to resemble the surface of the moon, and the stars began to take the shape of grinning faces and monstrous shadowy hands reaching into existence.
Keira's Aura Blade smashed into Palkia's chest and shattered. Then another. Then a sharpened Bone Rush. Then a regular one. Then a dozen regular ones.
"Break. Its. Scales!" Keira yelled, striking the same place over and over with every move she could muster. The spears disappeared and was replaced with a continuous stream of Dark Energy, Keira roared several lifetimes worth of pain as she charged her Dark Pulse with everything.
Palkia raised its head, eyes ending and a tether snapped.
Lucario did something. Purple and blue and black and orange and glyle and groon and sounds and sights and shadows and nightmares
Keira did sOMEthINg. Purple, Blurple, Fallow, Creed, Russsst, and SLINKing to the EVEning had approached the VIXen.
She DID something. Keira did green. LUCario did nothing. keirA did everytHINg.
Keira crashed her metal bones into Palkia, her aura controlled under the sway of mega evolution, created to bleed the energies of others, or men and mon and gods alike as The Second Fallen created his weapon. Her aura pierced Palkia and drank deeply.
The world returned to normal as Keira did - and Palkia stumbled back.
"It's losing control!" she shouted, as Wigglytuff and Armaldo recovered from that localised special distortion they had suffered through.
"Ah my head," Wigglytuff groaned, clutching the back of his skull.
"It'll do worse if we don't stop it NOW!" Lucario roared, pulling them all up again. "Keep attacking the chest!"
The space around them stabilised in the heart of a supernova as Rhythm detonated a punch on Palkia's chest, ripping its scales off, as Keira moved to Armaldo.
"Throw me with that," she ordered, and he understood. Balancing perfectly on his pincer, he held her with the other one.
Armaldo used Giga Impact a second time and threw Keira with the weight of the world.
Keira's Aura Blade formed into a pure spear that gleamed with Palkia's own draconic energy and she struck Palkia in the chest.
And tore straight through it.
She dug the blunt end into the dirt as she ripped through Palkia's, covered in the ichor of a deity. She tilled the land as she dragged herself to a stop.
Palkia continued standing. The supernova was gone. The ground was normal. The sky was the sky.
Slowly, Palkia tilted again and crashed to the ground. The ground shook, but only from the weight of such a large object hitting it. There was nothing different now, Palkia was dead.
Armaldo groaned and fell onto his back and Rhythm ran to Keira's side, she was holding herself in place with the fading Aura Spear and shaking.
"Do it," she growled, eyes flickering. "QuICklY."
Swiftly, but with a shaking voice, Rhythm Sung and Keira's eyes squinted, growing heavy. Her trembled began to cease, and she sighed out a breath and dropped.
Her mega form shivered before dissolving off her.
Rhythm stepped back, groaning in relief. He turned back to Palkia's corpse and carefully made his way closer.
"Is it dead?" Chitin asked. He knew it was, but he had to hear it.
"Y-yes."
"Good. Dugtrio's avenged."
Rhythm recoiled slightly, the words stinging, and he closed his eyes, sniffling.
"My-my, that is quite a surprise."
Another voice jumped them to attention, and Rhythm spun on the figure.
He gasped. Shiny black body, almost like tattered fabric, red growth and a shining blue eye. He recognised this pokémon. He recognised Darkrai from so many years ago. Its form burned into his brain as Soothe savaged it.
And as Darkrai met his eyes, he knew Darkrai recognised him as well. He knew it down to his very bones.
Behind Darkrai, a black glow was fading from around Keira, and she began to gasp and groan in pain.
"I had expected Palkia to be defeated," Darkrai continued as he floated back. "But killed? That does change things. And to surrender the Legendary Lucario in the process, oh yes this is a good day."
Rhythm unfroze and went to attack, but Armaldo yanked him out of the way of a Dark Void. Darkrai chuckled and shrugged in an 'oh well' fashion and sunk into the shadows, disappearing from sight as more pokémon began to arrive.
"You watched me die," his whisper carried across the grass and dug through Rhythm's heart with a rusty spoon. "You led her to me and caused all of this. Well. If your newly graduated protégés would like to find me… ask Ponyta where he came from."
The shouts and cries all just became white noise to Rhythm and Armaldo as they stared at Keira beyond Palkia's corpse. She was in a nightmare? Lucario was in a nightmare?
A nightmare which, if Scout was correct, she couldn't wake up from.
Keira, the Legendary Lucario, was out of the game.
Remarkably, Scout hadn't flipped out after Palkia was slain.
Perhaps that would have been better, however. After Striker had tackled him out of the way, they'd scrambled back up to do anything they could to help. Most of the guild was surprisingly alright, Saniya unconscious from rocks to the head and Dugtrio was… missing. Yet, after being surprise-attacked by a rampaging deity, that was less damage then it could have been.
Scout had ran off once the world stopped being purple and Rai and Mane hadn't thought to follow him until he was already gone.
As they split off to look for him, Chansey and Chimecho did everything they could to rouse Keira from the nightmare. Wigglytuff putting her to sleep had been too perfect of a target, she was entirely wrapped in the grip of Darkrai's power. No Heal Bell, Chesto Berry, or even operation changed anything.
When working on her, Keira first as she had come out by far the worst from the battle, Chansey discovered something upsetting.
"How does she walk?" she whispered. She hadn't raised her voice once since Keira had blocked the ocean from striking the nursery, besides when retrieving the revival herbs.
"What do you…?" Chimecho asked, almost as softly. She had looked for Diglett, seeking to maybe offer some company, but he also hadn't been seen.
Chansey ran a hand down Keira's left leg. "I'm feeling and testing and… I can't find signs of any cartilage. At all. You test."
Chimecho did, she could detect issues in the body far more capably while Chansey was better at treating what things she did find. Her grave expression turned into horror.
"Nothing at all. How can she possibly walk? Her joints. The amount of pain would be… I cannot even imagine."
Chansey stared at her sadly, and Chimecho shook her head. "No! No, this cannot be right. Let me check again."
She checked both legs, every joint. "I thought she said she doesn't age…?" Chimecho asked.
"Cartilage doesn't regenerate naturally," Chansey pointed out. "And lucario have metal bones… the amount of time she's lived has worn that away."
"Lucario don't suffer arthritis like this even with their unique skeletal structure!" Chimecho protested.
"And she's far older than a normal lucario," Chansey retorted, that quietened Chimecho. "In time… it'd wear down, even for her."
Chimecho was quiet. "Let's just… continue. There are so many old scars, I just…."
"If this is too much?" Chansey began.
"No!" Chimecho said sharply. "You are not the only healer! I must continue."
Chansey didn't verbally reply. Chimecho clearly didn't want to go back to the guild, what was left of it at least.
With the location destroyed, the guild had been taken into Spinda's Café. It was better than them mutely wandering the wrecked town with no idea of what to do.
Electivire and the Kecleon Brother's didn't express much of a reaction to their destroyed businesses.
"We can rebuild it," Green said as Purple hugged him.
"I've got nothing to whine about." Was all Electivire would say. He had taken to looking for Diglett as well.
Scout, Diglett, and then Wigglytuff were the pokémon who were missing. In the end, they were all found at the same time.
Scout wasn't with the two, he was only close by. Wigglytuff, however, had found Diglett himself and was sitting with him as Diglett cried.
Mane found Scout holding his head, eyes wide and staring into nothing. He barely reacted to Mane when he yelled his name and raced up to him, very slowly lowering his paws and turning to look at Mane.
It was an expression Mane had never wanted to see again—just a look of blank shock and a dawning sense of guilt.
"Come on," Mane said, butting his chin softly with his head. "You shouldn't run off like that."
Scout didn't respond, Mane noticed that he was trembling.
"Scout? Say something."
Scout opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He looked like he was trying to say words, but not even stutters escaped. He just looked back and forth.
Rai caught up and ran over himself. "Oh, you're okay."
"Rai, he's not okay," Mane said, voice breaking. "He's not saying anything."
"Scout?" Rai said, reaching them. Scout's blank look drifted over him, and he felt chills. "Scout?"
Scout swallowed and closed his eyes, letting out a shuddering breath. "It's my-"
"Don't!" Rai yelled, startling Mane. "Don't you dare blame this on yourself!"
"But I-"
"Who gives a flying FUCK about that all!" Rai shouted. "This isn't a book you can just read and know the ending every time! Things are different, things are not in your control! You can't blame yourself! Every time something bad happens, you can't blame yourself if you don't also accept praise when things do go right! You're not Arceus or some higher being! This ISN'T in your control because if it was this wouldn't have happened!"
He crashed into Scout and pinned him, tears hitting his eyes but also anger. "Please don't close up, because if you do… if you do…" Rai trailed off into a soft whine. He closed his eyes as a sob ran through him.
He wasn't close to Dugtrio. He wouldn't claim that. Not many pokémon were. But he still was a kind and reliable figure, someone Rai had grown up knowing was around. The guild as well, strong and proud and unassailable. The idea it could be destroyed was so beyond consideration, no one had ever thought it could happen.
He shook because someone had tried to kill them all and didn't care what had to be done in order to do it.
Palkia had died as well.
Seeing the mighty creature reduced to a corpse like anyone else brought back memories of Dialga dying, followed by the locked-away thoughts of Scout disappearing and Sean's wailing screams that followed.
Scout's paws raised up and wrapped around Rai, pulling him into a hug. They didn't speak, just held each other.
There had been nothing that they could do. Palkia had come for them, but hadn't come to drag them to some rift in space where they could escape.
That was the worst of it. The feeling that it was supposed to be them. Not the guild.
"Yeah, we're not going to let you think you can take it all on yourself again," Mane said, voice shaking. "We all knew and none of us were able to stop this. It's on all of us or none of us and there was NOTHING anyone could have done." He stepped forward. "Dammit Scout." He shook his head hard. "Dammit, don't do this to me."
Mane was pulled in by Scout and Team Ion tried to remember how to breathe together.
Sean sat with Saniya in silence.
She had been the first to react when Palkia's roar had split the sky and deflected a large piece of falling stone from hitting the slumber party and then the Swap Cauldron. Everything happened too fast, and she took a smaller stone to the head and dropped, Sean had nearly fallen into the sea catching her, but Guardian had saved them both.
He was silent because he couldn't speak. Dialga, Primal Dialga, had been terrifying. But it was always such a distant fear, an orcus on a throne far away. Only the very end had involved it directly.
Palkia, however, had come for them directly. He knew it was them it had come for. They knew that they were all making distortion, and with four of them, rather than the three of Team Ion, of course, Palkia would target them first.
No one had thought of that. Fresh off Scout's correct knowledge of Scizor's location, the fact that Palkia went for Team Ion was obvious.
It was strangely humbling. Scout sharing his knowledge, finally, brought everyone onto his level. And just like him, they had made a miscalculation.
It was so small and so easy to make. They had quietly believed that perhaps they could have done better with the knowledge he had, used it smarter, told it earlier.
But they had it now and this still happened.
Striker and Guardian didn't sit by Saniya's bed. She was fine, just unconscious, and Sean knew he didn't need to watch her. He just couldn't feel his legs. He wanted to see Violet and hear Saniya. He wanted to cry.
They were in Chansey's nursery, along with Keira a bed over. Sean could barely even muster the strength to look up to her, or maybe he just didn't want to.
Keira was so strong. So unimaginably strong. He knew it years ago when overhearing Felix talking to - or was it with? - her about their upcoming journey. He had seen it in the battles they had fought in their hometown, and then on television against a trainer far their senior and later again against a legendary pokémon.
She had lost both those times on screen. But the fights she had fought, the skills she had shown. She had beaten Team Sunrise without much trouble at all, and they had saved the world itself.
He could only watch on that shattered cliff as she clashed with a god. Primal Palkia. Sean knew it was true. Or, at least, near-primal, like Dialga, had been when he, Rai, and Scout had faced it.
They had no chance of defeating Dialga, and the rest of Team Sunrise had disclosed their fight against Primal Dialga, weakened by its other fight and disappearing, they could only barely hold it off from attempting to go to the past again until it submitted to the changing of time.
Keira had not only stood against Palkia but killed it.
She, Wigglytuff, and Armaldo had fought it without fear or perhaps just without hesitation.
And Sean couldn't even find the will to step into town and find someone to help. He couldn't even go to the children, still shaken by the attack and try and keep them busy and calm.
No….
Sean closed his eyes and took a breath. He could do that. He had faced Dialga itself. He could stand to calm down the poor children.
And yet, as he walked, he couldn't help but think of the fact that for as mature as he had been forced to become by the Dark Future, he was still just a child himself.
Still, he could plaster a smile on his face and babysit the younger ones. That he could do.
The town was just in shock.
It had never suffered an incident like this.
The trouble with Patrat was long past and in this world, Guardian had never had the chance to throw Striker into the Dark Future. Guardian himself was active, searching tirelessly.
Dugtrio still could not be found.
Eventually, Sol took Guardian's place, the Ghost-type unwilling to yield without a fight. Armaldo had to subdue him with a sleep seed and force him to rest.
Striker was already going out to close-by dungeons to begin finding supplies that had been lost when the marketplace was destroyed. Kangaskhan also opened her stores of items to anyone and everyone.
Palkia had attacked at night, past midnight. The day moved slowly and quickly, and then it was another day.
Scizor, who had visited Keira's bedside only once before setting out to help the town, made an unpopular decision on the third day.
"I'm taking Lucario and leaving," he said to Chansey and Chimecho.
"You will do no such thing," Chimecho barked, she had also barely slept only when she had to and with the aid of a sleep seed.
Armaldo and Wigglytuff were called to the dispute as Scizor and Chimecho got into a frightful argument that strained Sean's ability to keep the children calm.
"She is not safe here," Scizor said, once he had been separated. "There is nothing you can do or say to convince me of that."
"Scizor, you cannot just traipse off into the wilderness with her," Armaldo growled, another pokémon not sleeping much. He slept in shifts with Wigglytuff, the two of them keeping the town moving as best as they could.
Arguments were common as nerves were shot from this incident. A few sets of pokémon had left entirely, not feeling safe anymore.
"I am NOT," Scizor snapped back. "I have already contacted Kirlia to come teleport us to… I'm not saying, anything that is said could be used against her."
"And what are you going to do then?" Armaldo demanded. "Do you think someone there will miraculously be able to wake her up?"
"Better than waiting here for another attack."
"Scizor," Wigglytuff pleaded. "If we are right, Cresselia should be coming by soon and-"
"Cresselia," Scizor retorted sharply. "IF you are right. By your standards, THIS was not meant to happen. I cannot trust Lucario's health here. If Darkrai comes for her, or another legendary, or just SOMETHING. You have no idea of the ramifications if Lucario dies and I cannot TRUST her safety in a destroyed town."
His eyes softened, anger shifting to worry and he added, softer, "She is my friend. I am taking her to safety. I have to do this."
"If Cresselia does show up," Scizor continued, turning to Chimecho. "You can contact Kirlia and we'll come back. But until then I am getting her to safety."
And once Kirlia did arrive, he picked her up and carried her out. Kirlia brought supplies with her, a small peace offering before warping away with Scizor and Lucario. They were gone.
Ultimately, no one could fault him. There was no idea if and when Cresselia would show up and leaving Lucario here was little better. With the care of her removed from them, Chimecho and Chansey were able to rest.
Saniya was up again, and there were no other injuries that needed their supervision.
On the eve of the third day, they held Dugtrio's funeral.
It had taken so long just out of a disagreement of where to hold it. Dugtrio had loved the sea so much, but the sea had taken his life as well. Diglett made the deciding choice, and indeed they held the service at the beach.
With himself lost to the water, there was nothing at all to bury. Between Machoke and Striker, they carved part of the rock of the beach to be shaped roughly like Dugtrio, a reminder of his vigil.
Most of the town came, coming in and out. Diglett was there the entire time, he ultimately said nothing, and with him not speaking, no one else chose to make any speech themselves.
Dugtrio had been a mon of few words, waxing on about him felt wrong.
Diglett never understood his fathers love for the sea, and he still didn't. He just stared out at the waves, wondering what it was about it. It was beautiful, yes. It was forbidden as well, as they were unable to swim and the sting of water was too much to bear for long.
He knew it was more than that, however. And now he'd never know, as his father never found the words to tell him.
Diglett was the last to leave, having been given privacy by everyone in the end. He burrowed back to town and began to help.
The ground had been flattened by Palkia, and so it was very difficult to dig even with the water softening the top layer. This, however, was what he could naturally do.
It was something they both would have done, digging out the ground to prepare for someone else. But it was only him. It was only him digging, so it took a while to do. Doing it on his own hit him with a lot of different emotions, but Diglett didn't stop.
It was on that third day, in the evening, that they received more news. A natu stuttered but resolved to tell them of Team Go-Getters fate. More bad news. Sunflora, however, was on her way back soon. Team Gazer remaining behind to ensure the sleeping pokémon's safety.
The guild's apprentices had nowhere to go. Few of them had actually lived in Treasure Town before coming here. Only Rai and Marill had lived here beforehand, and they had a home. Small ones, however, that couldn't fit more people.
With supplies retrieved from other towns, pokémon's generous homes, and woven together by Leavanny, the guild had several tents to set up. They set up on the flattened ground, where trees used to be. The roots still being there for some.
It was patchwork and ugly, but it kept the cold out and them together. They needed to be together. Marill returned to stay with his family.
Wigglytuff had quietly built another grave for Trill. The previous one, and everything he had left of him, lost to the waves.
Wigglytuff's library, his silly old broken window, Trill's roost, the three's pawprint, the memories. It was all underwater now. As was the Swap Cauldron.
Shockingly they had retrieved one thing, bobbing in the water had been Wigglytuff's throne and it was seated in the middle of the tents.
The fact that it was the throne, something he didn't even like, filled Wigglytuff with a kind of bitter amusement like sour grapes with nothing else to eat. But he held onto it, it was the only material possession he had left.
Armaldo had been very concerned Wigglytuff would backslide into what was crushing him before, but whether it was Team Celestial having relit that spark or just the determination not to let anyone down, Wigglytuff had continued without that dead dimness returning.
There was always something to do. Move something. Build something. Help something. He was looked to for guidance and Wigglytuff, in turn, relied on Armaldo for council.
He did make the decisions, however. Armaldo only advised.
Palkia's body was too large to move, so no one knew what to do with it. Letting it rot would not be accepted, some had believed the deity would just vanish, but its body remained.
With the memory of Dialga's return, those in Team Ion and Sunrise worried about the next Palkia. The new Dialga had been small and undoubtedly weaker as well. It had been larger when Team Sunrise revisited, but not to the stature the previous Dialga had been.
If Darkrai was able to drive Palkia to such madness. To a near primal state. What might he do to the new one? Small and weak and helpless against his manipulations. Scout cursed himself nearly every waking moment for ever letting someone he knew was a vicious manipulator get even the slightest inch close to him and his own.
Scout's memory of where the Spacial Rift was located was too general to set out for and considering how everything kept being different no one was certain it would be in the place he remembered it as.
If his memory was correct at all.
Team Ion was among the pokémon going to other towns for aid rather than dungeons. Their fame was a better bartering chip then a sad story, but with both, at once Treasure Town found itself with no lack of helping hands.
It was on the sixth day that the last player finally entered the game.
"Oh… my," Cresselia gasped as she floated down to the middle of Treasure Town.
The devastation was far removed from what she had heard this place to be like. Unless they were in the middle of some big renovations and decided digging holes and splashing saltwater in them – while right on the coast – was a good idea, this was not right.
Many eyes turned to her as the moon dancer gently descended from the sky. It wasn't night, not even close, and the light stung her eyes, but this could wait no longer.
Word spreads quickly among pokémon, after all. Treasure Town's woes reached even the wanderers' ears, and as soon as Cresselia knew it was Darkrai, she came.
Word had spread of Treasure Town's incident. Darkrai had done this. Done something to the mighty deity of space and drove into primal madness.
Whispers continued that the Legendary Lucario had intervened and slew Palkia, but such a claim was absurd.
Surely even someone as vaunted as Lucario could not have killed a greater legendary.
A massive corpse spoke otherwise.
A dozen voices cried out to her as she descended, but it was too loud and shrieking to parse through, and she had to call for silence.
"Please," Cresselia spoke softly, but still carrying to everyone. "I can not abide being yelled at. Speak calmly and tell me what has happened so I can help you correct this."
Some of the pokémon shifted, moving out of the way as a wigglytuff came forth. "You are Cresselia?" he asked.
She nodded. "The very same."
"We have been expecting you."
That was a surprise. "You have?" There was concern there, had Darkrai's whispered lies swayed their brittle minds?
"Please. Come." Wigglytuff gestured towards a collection of tents. Cresselia hesitated, and concealed a Slash just in case, and followed.
She met with Wigglytuff in privacy. No Armaldo or Team Ion was here, everyone else was too busy, and Wigglytuff couldn't ask for everything to stop. He could explain things.
"Why did you expect me?" Cresselia asked. Her voice was serene, like silk. But Wigglytuff was not blind, silk could hide steel very easily.
"You are Darkrai's better counterpart, are you not?" Wigglytuff asked. Lucario's words rang in his mind in the wake of another legend, he wouldn't just tell her anything and everything. Only what had to be told.
"You know of his twisted ways, then?" Cresselia asked. In this place, with the signs of Darkrai all over the place, it was perhaps a foolish question. But one she still had to ask.
"I am very aware," Wigglytuff replied, voice steeled in anger. "He has killed Dugtrio, destroyed the guild, broke the town, led to the death of Palkia, and plunged Lucario and Team Go-Getters into nightmares they cannot awaken from."
"That sounds like him," Cresselia replied, softer than Wigglytuff, and sounding entirely unsurprised by such fiendish actions. "Is Lucario here? I should be able to rouse her from his clutches."
Sadly, Wigglytuff shook his head. "No. She was taken by her student, Scizor, to safety as he did not believe you would come. Team Go-Getters is also away, but they are close by in Evertrail Town."
"I will see to saving them," Cresselia said, nodding. "But not at the moment. Darkrai must be stopped first, or he will simply do it again."
"If anyone can be woken, it's someone else to fight against him," Wigglytuff replied.
Cresselia still shook her head. "Not while his trail is still fresh," she said. "I must find him. I must. He must be stopped." Her voice almost raised, but she culled it. "You can not imagine the things he has done. What was stopped? The world that never was."
"The Dark Future," Wigglytuff replied, to her shock. "No. I may not have been myself, but my partner… before I lost him, he went, and he told me what he experienced. The ones who stopped it, also, are here."
"A second-hand experience is nothing to what I have witnessed," Cresselia replied. "We magical creatures of legend are attuned to the world far closer than pokémon such as yourself. Changes in reality are felt, and our minds can piece together aspects of what was changed."
Her eyes were dark. "Through dreams. I am the guardian of dreams as Darkrai is the assaulter of them. We both know what the world was to become. I know what he has done and what he seeks far more than anyone else can. I. Must. Stop him."
She rose up, looming over Wigglytuff. "He seeks only a world that bends to his whims. The Dark Future was not enough, not for him. He will do worse. Far worse. I will help all that he has harmed in time, but he must be destroyed first. I plead your assistance, weak as you may be. You were here when he was. What happened, recite it to me in full?"
Wigglytuff brushed off the vague sense of superiority Cresselia emitted like light and told her. She listened in silence, only speaking up when his voice got high and pained.
"Please," she said, raising a wing, "I cannot stand high-frequency noise. It hurts. Control yourself."
Wigglytuff wiped his eyes and continued softly until she was satisfied. "I shall go to Palkia's corpse. You did right by not removing it, Darkrai's taint may still be there, and I can use it. I have never been so close, it is always weeks and months and years that I find his trace lingering, not days. Never days."
She swept out without another word as Wigglytuff conferred with Armaldo.
Team Ion and Sunrise were called over as well as was another pokémon.
"You wanted to see me?" Ponyta asked, ducking into the tent warily. He couldn't turn his flames off after all and didn't want to burn anything.
"Come in, Ponyta," Wigglytuff said gently. Ponyta looked a little unsure about the collection of pokemon facing him.
"Very well." His hooves squished on the damp dirt, but he restrained a disgusted look at that. "What can I do for so many pokémon?"
"Before Darkrai disappeared," Armaldo said without hesitation. "He said if we wanted to find him, we had to ask you where you came from."
Ponyta's eyes widened, and his pupils constricted to pinpricks. "I-I-I what?" He stomped his foot. "What are you trying to imply here?"
"We're not implying anything," Wigglytuff soothed. "It was a very odd thing to say, and with the movement of the last days, it's been hard to even remember he said it. But it was very clear."
Ponyta looked troubled. Only his companions in Team Flame and Torkoal knew the truth. He hadn't told anyone else, not even Chatot or Wigglytuff when he apprenticed at the guild.
Despite his clumsiness feeling like it was obvious to the world.
"Why the hesitation?" Armaldo asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Now you are implying something," Ponyta snapped. His expression turned to a downcast frown. "Alright. I am from a dungeon across the sea. To the ashen island northwest of here. Dark Crater."
Standing stiffly with visible discomfort, Scout made a sound that attracted his attention. "You know of it, then?" Ponyta then noticed that everyone looked a bit shaken. "What is it? Judgement for what I was?"
"I did not know there were any pokémon who lived there," Wigglytuff admitted. "Only dungeons."
Ponyta huffed and shook his mane but didn't spit out the words. There was silence, and it began to sink in. "Oh."
"Is there anything more that you need of me?" Ponyta asked, a mixture of shame and anger running through his normally-polite voice.
"No, Ponyta. Thank you."
Ponyta left and decided he had to destress and headed right for the Hot Springs, ignoring anything else. Torkoal would be lonely with everyone helping out at town, he reasoned. The old leader deserved an update; therefore, he was still providing a service.
Satisfied, he ran along. He did pause when he passed by Palkia's corpse, that luminous creature that had floated down like an angel was observing Palkia's corpse.
He didn't linger, not wanting to be around that.
Back at the tent, Scout was talking. "That didn't change, it seems," he said. "Different how Darkrai let us know, though."
"It was a trap, though wasn't it?"
"Yeah. He had a backup and an escape plan. Cresselia was also entirely useless, but that was maybe a game thing than an actual thing. Hopefully."
"His escape won't work, though," Saniya said. "I cannot time travel, and that's my species thing. Even Dialga wouldn't be able to. It's not just turned off and can be brute-forced. Time travel just doesn't work at the moment."
"He'd have another backup in mind then," Scout pointed out. "Darkrai… Darkrai damaged the tower. When pokémon headed back in time to fix that, he attacked them in the middle of time travelling. When time was saved anyway, he distorted space and then pinned the blame on us. Plans upon plans, if he is there, then he's got something up his sleeve."
"Do we ignore it then?" Sean asked. "Just… not go?"
"If he is there then there is a chance of taking him out," Armaldo said. "If Wigglytuff and I go…."
"He'd run immediately." A new voice made itself known, and they jumped, Cresselia barging in. "It's Darkrai's tactics. Confuse, split apart, and never take on more than he is entirely confident he can handle."
"Do you not knock?" Armaldo growled.
"There is no time for knocking," Cresselia snapped. "Darkrai's trail is fading, but still, I've hunted him for a long time. I can follow the barest hint, I have followed years-old paths. He's overextended himself here, taking Lucario was his error as he's left a fresh mark. His arrogance is his greatest weakness. There is a visible trail, and I know where it leads."
She looked right at Scout. "Dark Crater. Like what was said."
Scout felt very judged for a moment like she knew everything.
But in actuality, he knew she'd just overheard them talking about it.
"You did not mention that Darkrai had spoken of where to find him," she said, eying Wigglytuff.
"With everything happening, the memory slipped me only until after our conversation," he replied. It actually was the truth, she had reminded him, but she seemed doubtful.
"I do hope that is the case," she said softly. "We cannot allow Darkrai's machinations to go unchecked, sowing doubt is but one of his favoured tools. Do not allow such things to beguile you."
"We are doing the best we can," Armaldo snapped out. "Forgive us if suffering two legendary pokemon trying to harm us has made things somewhat tense."
Cresselia's eyes fell on him. Ancient and narrowed. But he had faced Palkia and would not be cowed.
"Very well," Cresselia acquiesced. "My apologies. I have sought Darkrai for so long, that I sometimes lose my way. Is there anything else?"
"No," Wigglytuff said. "That's all we know. We are just discussing now if Dark Crater is a worthwhile lead to follow. Your guidance would be greatly valued."
She nodded and said her piece. "I can traverse to Dark Crater myself, I can fast travel along. But… but for all my strength, I cannot destroy him on my own. He is far too slippery and, regrettably, he has an advantage over me in battle."
"Then, you want help?" Armaldo asked.
"To stop Darkrai, will anyone step forth?" she received a chorus of nods and smiled at them. "Bravery is commendable, but there are limits here."
"I will not put anyone else at risk," Wigglytuff said. "I will go with you."
"Wigglytuff," Armaldo interjected. "The town needs you. I will go."
"Neither of you will," Cresselia cut in. "If the whispers of the townsfolk are accurate, you two played a part in felling Palkia. Darkrai will not even deign to face us with either of you with me. No." She eyed the smaller pokémon in the room.
The teams stepped forth, all ready to act.
"You can join us," Sean said. "I'm a former human, five of us can enter a dungeon and be safe."
"Again, you do not listen," Cresselia sighed. "Darkrai only fights a battle he THINKS can win. The other legend." She looked to Saniya with something actually resembling respect. "She cannot. The ghost, despite Darkrai's advantage, has too much of a presence."
Guardian frowned at that.
"And the grovyle… perhaps… but no. You may be vulnerable to the dungeon we will face, but you are firm and strong."
"So... us then?" Scout asked, nodding to his teammates and Sean.
"…No. Not all four of you."
"We can go in as five with me," Sean said.
Cresselia shook her head again. "No," she repeated, firmer. "Darkrai will still flee. You saved the world, you fought Dialga. Even with any of you with me, he may still run. But I don't think so. He left this challenge to draw some of you out."
"Then why should any of us go?" Mane asked. "We're just walking into his trap!"
"Darkrai is the kind to ensure the deed is done by his own hand," Cresselia answered. "He will be there. We have to catch him off guard, play his game, let him believe he has the advantage and strike as one. Going as five, into a dungeon as torrid as the Dark Crater is asking for a fruitless endeavour. But we can still stack the deck."
She looked right at Mane. "You. Your type will assist us in the sweltering heat." She looked at Rai. "You. You have no advantage or disadvantage against Darkrai, but the dungeon itself contains Ground-types. You will be tested, and exhausted, it will lead Darkrai to believe you are vulnerable. You must not be when it counts."
Rai nodded, tensing his jaw and swallowing nervously.
She looked between Scout and Sean for what felt like a very long time.
"You," she said, ultimating on Sean. "We have to have some advantage, however minor. Your type has an advantage against his, he will target you first though. You accept this?"
Sean nodded.
Scout was not impressed. "Excuse me?" he asked, quietly and respectfully. "Why not me?"
"Ultimately the answer was clear," Cresselia said, her eyes piercing. "You are drenched in his lurid touch. If you were to accompany us, whatever he has done to you would surely spell our doom. You need to be kept away from others. If we destroy Darkrai, whatever he has done to you will be removed with him."
As hard as that was to hear, Scout couldn't deny that. Darkrai had known he knew too much, did he know what Scout knew? Is that why Palkia had attacked so viciously? Was that why everything had gone wrong?
Had Darkrai taken his knowledge of the world and turned it to evil? That was what Scout feared. That he still was responsible for everything due to his moment of weakness.
So, in the end, he couldn't argue Cresselia's logic, and she took them to herself to arm for battle. Tomorrow. Tomorrow they would end this.
Morn of the seventh day since Palkia's death.
Pyroar had lingered, seething in anger.
Trapped in the jail, charmed by an enchanter.
Plotting his moves, plotting his marks.
Strings he could pull, threads he could rip.
Destruction to carve, burn up with sparks.
A guard he could fool, easy to trick.
His door then did click, it even swung open?
He ran for it then, please he was hoping.
No one stopped him. No one noticed.
He would have his freedom, that he devoted.
Yet as he had run, counting his luck.
Expecting his father, running amok.
You should have learned the lesson, and that is the danger.
Becoming the warning of playing with strangers.
Pyroar stood in the quietsilentgravelike clearing. He had run far, confident that he had passed through at least one town that wasn't Blackstone, most likely Towntownyyttowtowtotowny Town. He had run to the point of exhaustion weakness entirely helpless now and then ran some more.
He couldn't believe his luck at his cell failing to be locked. He thought there were supposed to be two layers to it. The physical lock turned with a key and another lock that shut through the enchantment. The jailors had grown careless, relying on the enchantment to do their work for them.
It was hilarious, really. Truly funny, he laughed, I laughed, I'm sure you laughed. Delphox of Fissure selling her services, enchanting cells and such to safely contain pokémon that needed to be locked up, but those enchantments only lasted so long. She could charge a premium for doing it, and always had to be called back soon enough.
Pyroar knew there was a hustle to it. Gotta get that cash. Care not for the prison breaks that can easily be thought to be something else. The enchantments could be permanent, or at least far longer-lasting, he was sure. It made sense. Everyone was out for themselves, and that's what you'd do. Isn't it?
Very hilarious. If only that was the case. But he wasn't. You know that isn't the case.
He really, truly, wished that was the case. Understandable, really. He might not be in the talons of the fallen. Or that his father had managed to break him out. That weak fool abandoned you when you turned on him. That too would have been preferable. Because Pyroar could enact revenge, right?
Hahaha. You really did think he didn't abandon you. You really were just going to run and hope you could run far enough. You're pathetic, Rumble.
But no. It was a trap. Who would have guessed?
By the desperate pulls of his lungs trying, and failing, to draw in oxygen, he knew it had been a trap.
The hand on his back, ever-so-gently stroking him also informed him that it was a trap. A trap he had so willingly walked into—Exhaustingtiringweakening himself with the run.
He couldn't breathe. And not for lack of trying.
Pyroar's mouth was open, desperately trying to pull air through but there was something in his mouth, in in in in in farther than that. In his throat. Down his windpipe. Something crawling or cloying or thickening. Something worming itself through his body. Pinching the channels that air was drawn through so tightly. He couldn't breathe.
He couldn't breathe.
He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe.
Help.
Almost as bad was the touching. So gentle, almost kindly, the perfect pet for a feline like him. It would have been lovely if he could breathe. The touch was lovely if he could breathe. The touch was lovely. If he could breathe. It seemed like it knew how to best treat a feline. If only he could breathe.
He couldn't do much more than think.
Mother had always told him he'd be a king.
He acted as if she wasn't going to murder him too.
Safer to be the golden child than let how Mane was treated be turned on him too.
Is that shame I can sense in you? How sweet that you can feel it, Rumble. Your mother would be embarrassed to see it, good, Scorch was always a bitch.
He couldn't even see what was doing this to him. All he knew was the gentle touch and then the soft, haunting, voice.
"Why don't you cast yourself on me?" the voice sang, softly and gently into his ears. He could feel it moving and desperately tried to turn his head and hit this attack with fire, or Bulldoze the ground, or do anything to save himself. But he was also floating just above the ground. Just the tiniest bit, he could feel blades of grass on his paw pads. It was taunting how close he was, but no Bulldoze.
He could sense a lot of things. The pump of his heart in his head. The drift of a breeze. The distant song of a wild pokémon. Many things he would never have noticed before. Maybe they would have been nice to talk to….
Things were getting fuzzy, and the pain in his lungs was fading to something vague like it was far away.
Distantly he realised he was dying. His mind was too sluggish to process that right. All he could think of was how dry his mouth felt, like old metal corroding on his tongue. Where was Father? Why did he abandon him, didn't he do everything he told him to?
Your mother was right.
It hurt.
The hands were moving, from his tail to his back and up to his neck. Two of them now, rather than just the one previously stroking him. He felt whoever was doing this move as hands closed onto the back of his neck and the lower part of his jaw, pressing against both the hard and soft parts of his head.
The voice continued to sing soft, gentle, lyrics, the kindness and love of a mother. "I promise you won't feel a thing." And then his neck twisted at a sharp angle, snapping brutally and Pyroar dropped to the ground.
The worst part was that… the voice lied. He could breathe again, somehow, but not move his limbs. Breaking the neck doesn't kill immediately, after all. Why this was bad?
The hands touched him again, a final mocking stroke down his spine. He could barely feel it, but what he could feel was the aftermath—a line of heat drawn down his back that flickered and smouldered. "There are golden treasures underneath. You'll see."
Fire touched his fur. Fire from the line of flame drew down his spine. The fire he had lived his whole life, most ironically, ending it in agony. Because as a Fire-type, the flames wouldn't kill him quickly.
He could barely even wheeze out a scream. Something was going up to his nose, in his ears, through his brain pounding every part of him and demanding he give everything. Mother was so very right but he tried so very hard to push back against it. He didn't want to be. But that only consumes you more, Rumble.
The last Rumble saw before the flames took him entirely, but not mercifully, was the flickering shadow of a monster with horns.
"Now, please. Give yourself to me."