Episode 13: Signs of a change

Shota failed to stand as still as he wanted to. The Togedemaru attempted to focus on a wall of electricals and high-tech controllers that towered above him. The machines were all black, with a web of different coloured wires, dials, switches, and occasionally, screens, all across an entire wall of the room. He was trying to pick out a specific one, but couldn't focus his thoughts for long enough to even start choosing one.

He blinked sweat out of his eyes and sighed. It was always unnecessarily hot in here, especially when the airship was active and halfway through space. He had no time to dawdle, and yet every bone in his body refused to act.

"Yes yes, I know. But it's still hard, you know? Blowing the wrong fuse will just make everything inconvenient to everyone," Shota said. Cacturne was behind him perfectly motionless. "Ramuda, listen. I hate it when you start doing this. This is something I have to do, alright? I don't care if you'll find it easier."

Shota faced the machines and stared up at the wires and the points where they connected. "It'll all be over, yeah? I just spark the right wire, and this whole ship goes alight. The prince will be dead, the king will mourn his loss and start acting seriously, and…"

And then, silence fell. Shota faced forward and shuddered hard. "We're all in this together, huh? We all agreed our losses are worth it for the greater good. That's why we're all going to do this, no matter what it takes," he breathed out. "Heh, you know, it reminds me of how my sister died. She was the only one in our little herd that said we should keep living life normally."

Ramuda didn't move an inch, and yet, Shota seemed to understand words from him and turned to face him. Tears were in his eyes, but he was smiling and shaking. "Yeah, seriously. Our home got flooded by black water. Then the cave we found as an emergency got destroyed by a fissure, and yet, she just kept going. She kept believing in Jyararanga and the other dragon gods, pep talking the whole herd every time their morale dropped. So we followed her to new home after new home."

Another moment of silence. This time, Ramuda's thorny arms swayed a little bit, but still no words left his mouth, so Shota kept answering him. "Now I'm here. The whole herd is gone but me. I have nothing to go back to. No one who works here does. That's why we decided on this suicide mission."

"… Then do it? Ramuda, this isn't something you just do! My whole life's flashin' before my eyes, you know? Yeah it's selfish that all the king cares about is that royal wedding, but like, what if… just what if – and this is purely hypothetical – what if that marriage was actually leading to something? Something better, something that could save all of Eris. Something like my sister wanted," he cried. He sighed and looked up at the wires again. His lightning bolt shaped tail stretched upwards along with the spines on his back, and his cheeks began to crackle. "You're right. For the greater good. Let's do this."

Ramuda's arms slowly hung forward and became still. Seeing he was ready, Shota shut his eyes and breathed in deeply. "Was nice knowing you, Ramuda. And I'm so sorry, sis. But I'm gonna join ya."

"Stop! Don't you dare!" Rune roared exaggeratedly, charging into the room so fast he threatened to trip and roll forward. Seeing Shota about to release an electric attack, he threw his scalchop as hard as he could and then launched into an Aqua Jet attack.

"What the—" Shota choked. The scalchop hit him hard enough to knock him forward slightly, followed by him getting smashed into the wall in front of him by the Aqua Jet. Rune crashed into the same wall and both Pokémon bounced off of it to the ground, grabbing their faces in pain.

"Rune, watch out!" Ptero shouted as he and Kelsith appeared a moment later.

The Oshawott's eyes snapped open at the warning, spotting Ramuda just above him and ready to smash its arms down with a Needle Arm attack. Rune just about rolled away from it, not fazed by the huge hole in the ground the attack made. He rolled over to his scalchop and immediately turned it into a Razor Shell, having to use it to block subsequent Needle Arm attacks. Ramuda mercilessly swung at him before he could even get to his feet.

"Whoa whoa whoa, Ramuda!" Shota said. Kelsith caught him in her feelers before he could jump into the fight, covering his mouth in an effort to strangle him. With him kept busy that way, Ptero could take flight above Rune's battle, where he released a strong electric shock that froze Ramuda to the spot.

Rune shielded his face from the flash of electricity that surged across Ramuda's body, surprised to hear a cry of pain from the grass type. He knew what he had to do however, and flew to his feet to slash the Cacturne at full force. A clean cut across its front sent it to the ground outside of Ptero's electricity, bringing the battle to a pause.

"Thank goodness, we made it in time. You saw right through their plan," Ptero gasped, catching his breath as he floated to the floor. "Whatever your intentions are, your actions stop here. You are—"

"In breach of his royal highness's safety, blah blah blah I get it. Got any other authority to abuse?" Shota spat. He tensed up and let out a light electric shock, making Kelsith yip and release him. "Quick Ramuda, Sandstorm!"

Rune only had time to gasp before Ramuda punched the floor to summon a huge gust of wind with the force of his hit. Waves of sand came with that wind, engulfing the room in a shower of orange sand and rocks. Although it didn't last long, everyone had to shield their faces from it, and coughed or spat to help themselves. Once it died down, Ramuda and Shota were nowhere to be seen.

"Ugh, smart little- they can't have gotten far. Back to the bridge!" Rune instructed.

"More running? After all of that." Kelsith skipped after him and Ptero.

"Don't complain. If we don't do this, we could die!" Rune shouted.

"Shota…" Ptero muttered.

…

"Rune, you left me alone!" Diantha cried the moment they got back to the room below the roof. She ignored every sense of urgency to run over and body slam him. "It was so scary and they were so tough! We had to battle and fight and-"

"Sis, please!" he fought her off.

"Not until you make it up to me! I had to put in so much work."

"Yes, fine, whatever! Just- stop!" he said as he managed to push her away.

"Yaay! I'm getting treats on Faernia, now. All the more reason to actually win this." She giggled at her victory, and posed beside him.

Rune ignored her to get a proper look at the room, surprised to find that most of the battle had already been dealt with. All the Pokémon that had attacked them were defeated on the ground, and glared aggressively. The room wasn't even that messy, as if everyone fighting had been aware that a badly aimed attack could destroy the glass roof.

On the other hand, Shota and Ramuda were as threatening as ever, both stood by a bookshelf on the side of the room. Now that the attention was fully on them, Shota stepped forward and signalled Ramuda to act. The Cacturne pushed the bookshelf aside to reveal an emergency exit that looked like it led right out of the airship. A large wheel served as the door lock.

"That's—" Rune choked.

"You must be naïve if you thought you could stop me from a plan like this without stopping my backup, too. You're at my mercy, royals!" Shota posed similarly to Diantha.

"Are you gonna run away? Wait a sec, if you open the door while we're in space, what happens?" Diantha cried.

"The worst will happen. The air will drain out of the ship, and we'll all be flung out into open space. We'd be dead for certain," Ptero stated. Everyone gasped and glanced at him, but he ignored them and continued. "Shota, what exactly are you playing at? What's the meaning of this charade?"

"The meaning of this 'charade' is to trigger King Jyararanga!" Shota pointed at them. "He's been doing nothing about the suffering Pokémon, and then when times are at their worst, what does he do? Prepares for a royal wedding? To hell with that! We'll kill you, prince, and then he'll realise that he has to act. He has to act, or his own Pokémon will overthrow him."

"But if you open that door, you won't survive, either. We'll all die!" Ptero raised his voice. There was a pause.

"Yeah, that's not much of a cost, you know. Not like I have a life to go back to. We all decided that when we made this plan." He shut his eyes. "Unless you were to let us hold you hostage?"

"Hostage?" Rune raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. If you don't want me to open this door and kill everyone here, let us hold you hostage. We'll make King Jyararanga work for your safety!" he said. Ramuda slowly cast him a look, though only his head turned. "So go on! Lay down your weapons, all of you! Paws in the air, unless you wanna lose that air!"

Rune and the others didn't move and glared at him with furious mugs. "Go on! I mean it! I'm not afraid of death!"

"Will you stop fighting if we do?" Rune asked.

"Of course. If you start doing as I say and be a good little hostage, then I won't need to fight any of you," he promised. Rune slowly crouched and slid his scalchop onto the ground, doing the same for the sword on his back.

"Your highness!" Ptero gasped.

"Do as he says, everyone. Lay down your weapons and paws in the air," Rune ordered. The others groaned and grumbled, but hesitantly did as he asked.

"What're you talking about? This gets us what we want, and we get to live!" Shota turned to Ramuda. The Cacturne didn't say anything, but its opposition was visibly obvious. For whatever reason, he wasn't happy with what Shota had just proposed, and that much made Rune freeze and pay close attention to him. "Yeah it was an 'on the spot' idea but it works, doesn't it?"

There was another pause, and then Shota flipped out and started bouncing on the spot. "What do you mean it's the coward's way out? What, do you wanna die really badly or something?"

"Er, who's he talking to?" Diantha tilted her head.

"Gah, wait, I didn't mean that literally! I'm trying to say that—" Shota gasped. That small moment of distraction Diantha created with her question proved to be fatal, as Rune had glanced at her to offer a short answer. In that small moment, Ramuda's arms were turning the wheel to unlock the emergency exit. Even Shota couldn't stop him now, despite being so close to him.

"Everybody get down!" Ptero threw himself to the floor.

"Ramuda you mad thing!" Shota cried as well, slamming himself to the floor with everyone. His prickles lodged him into the ground stiffly, but even that proved to be of little help to the bizarre force that burst in the moment the door was opened.

Rune couldn't help but cough and cry out, taken by surprise at how powerful the wind was. The moment the door was opened, Ramuda went flying straight out and vanished from sight. Books, paper, food, dust, and more went hurtling out of the exit at blinding speed, all while a frightening howl came from the door. Along with this terribly strong wind that vacuumed everything out of the room came a destructive cold, one that seemed to suck the oxygen and energy right out of Rune.

In seconds, his body felt like it was straining beyond its limits. Frost and ice generated from sweat all over his head and arms, whilst his breath was reduced to sharp coughs and prickly gasps. He could barely turn his head to look up at the situation, feeling like his eyes were about to slice open from the moisture freezing them. He could just about make out Shota slipping free however, unable to resist the heavy wind pulling him free from the floor.

"N-no you don't," Rune growled.

He let himself relax, and immediately got taken up into the air. He soared over and unintentionally tackled the Togedemaru, but the two of them quickly latched back onto the floor, their hands linked and bodies as flat as possible. Without even realising it, Rune had erected a Razor Shell just to help, having it stabbed into the floor as well. He wasn't sure when he caught it, but he was very glad that he did.

"Prince!" Shota said dryly, eyes widened at what he was seeing.

He was in just as bad a state as Rune was, half frozen over and straining to stay conscious. Rune didn't answer him. He stared back and ensured that he held them both down as much as he could. Shota quickly got over his shock and joined in with that, keeping hold of Rune as tightly as he could.

Then, all of a sudden, the howling came to a complete stop. It was still freezing cold, but everything silenced besides everyone's shaky breath and surprised groans. The debris stopped getting sucked out of the ship, the wind ceased to pull at everyone, and the air stilled enough for it not to hurt to breathe. Rune was the first to get up, not understanding what had just happened. The emergency exit was still wide open, viewing nothing but the dark depths of space, but nothing moved anymore.

"Safeguard?" Diantha whispered to herself, able to see what he couldn't. A little way outside was a protective barrier around the ship, one that had given them their saving grace. But who had used it, and when?

"K-Kelsith, your feelers! Shut the door while we have the chance!" Emerson shouted.

"Ah, right!" she gasped as she stretched her feelers over to it. It clearly took effort and more strength than she had, but she managed to shut it, where Rune took over and turned the wheel to lock it back up the moment he could.

"What just happened?" Ptero asked. Diantha was the only one seemingly not surprised, looking for the unidentified Pokémon that had used Safeguard to give them this miracle. She found them quickly, and took in a sharp breath the moment she did.

Mirror, the masked Absol, was on the roof of the ship staring directly into her eyes. He didn't even have anything to protect him from the danger of outer space, and yet, he was perfectly fine and curious as ever. He jumped out of sight before she could collect herself to say anything.

"P-prince, yo-you—" Shota struggled to say. Rune swiped at him as hard as he could with Razor Shell before he could finish, sending him tumbling to the centre of the room. He whined as the wind was knocked out of him, and choked when he opened his eyes. Rune was directly in front of him with his Razor Shell pointed straight at his face.

"I'll be damned if I let you die after all of that. Too bad your little Cacturne friend had more of a death wish than you!" Rune said. Shota uttered a reply until his fear disappeared, where he stood back up and attempted to retort. Rune slashed him before he even made a sound, this time so hard that a cut was made above his nose.

"Rune!" Diantha cried.

"Don't even bother. I'm not killing you and this situation is getting reversed, like it or not," Rune huffed again. "Listen to me, Shota. You'd die for the sake of the world, won't you? To see Jyararanga resolve our issues and save us all."

"Y-yes. Even though I don't want to—"

"Then you can put that much effort into aiding us. You and all your little cronies can. Rather than putting your energy into destructive feelings and the murder of royalty, you can dedicate what little of your worthless lives is left to servitude. That way nobody gets hurt and we all get what we want," Rune said, keeping his sword pointed at Shota. "The purpose of my marriage isn't leisure. It's coexistence. I'm marrying the princess of Faernia so that our planets might mend our broken relations. When we do that and combine our planets' natural talents, we can resolve the issues these worldwide disasters are causing."

"Wait, that's why this royal wedding is happening?" Shota gasped.

"Well duh, what did you think it was? Daddy's not ignoring you Pokémon. It's just that this is a problem affecting Faernia as well as Eris, and no one knows what the problem is right now. If we could help ya, we'd have done it without going through all this marriage nonsense!" Diantha cried.

Shota shuddered and glanced at Rune, who was still glaring at him. His fury had died down however, and distraction could be seen in his face.

"Emerson, Kelsith, would you do me a favour? Take Shota away and make sure he continues to fly the ship. Keep a constant eye on him. Galen, Ptero, you keep an eye on these other Pokémon," Rune ordered. "All of you are in this same spot, just so you know. You're now soldiers working for me. If you can throw your lives away on a mission like this, then you can also use them to help me."

"Aye aye your highness! And while I'm at it, let's fix that bookshelf, shall we? Last thing we want are any sneaky 'accidents' with that door" Galen saluted him.

Rune sighed, almost forgetting about Galen's oblivious nature. With his orders given, he stumbled over to the back wall. He leaned against it and folded his arms, but had to fight the urge to slump against it.

"Rune- I mean, your highness," Ptero said quietly.

"What?" he replied, unable to hide a tired breath. His body felt like it was it was about to collapse. "You have your orders. Get to them. We need to get everything under control asap. Don't concern yourself with me, I'll get a status report done in a minute."

"What about me big bro? You're not gonna put me to work, are you?" Diantha groaned. Rune paused and stood straight.

"You can er… look, just don't get in the way. Do relief stuff. Go make sure nobody else is hurt or anything," he suggested.

"Alright! I know exactly what I'm gonna do. Don't worry about me then," she giggled. Mirror, why'd you come here? And why'd you save us like that? I'm gonna go find you and find out, like it or not!

"I need to apologise," Ptero said.

"For what?" Rune replied in surprise.

"I underestimated you greatly. Just here, I'm impressed. But you're a prince – I shouldn't have tested you in the first place." He folded his arms. "I also have to apologise for the fact that this even happened. Shota is an old friend of mine. We're both mailmon who travel between the planets, so it's honestly a shock to find him this way."

"You just want to thank me for sparing him, don't you? If he steps out of line, he's getting executed all the same. Count yourself lucky," Rune warned, but he began to slump. "Damn it, what's- I can't stay awake."

"Your highness?" Ptero said.

Rune tried to respond but only managed to breathe out once more before fatigue took a tight hold of his body, and his sight and hearing blurred completely. Next thing he knew, he couldn't feel anything of the blurry imagery before him, and fell forwards into a deep slumber.

…

…

"I see. How much will you refuse to listen, Rune? Will it be until you allow yourself to be mortally wounded? Is that what you would consider protecting the ones you love? Even with the solution told to your face, you're struggling to keep standing and fighting. It's laughable. Someone who spent ten years of their life getting stronger for the sake of protecting, and you can't even so much as defeat a single Constellar. If you keep behaving like that, you won't stand a chance against the real thing."

"Even after seeing everything that happened and being faced with your demise, you let your anger control you and fell for the very same attack."

"… Is that because of what he said? Why did I…?"