November 8th, First Year

"Just so you know, there are no stores in this entire dungeon."

Mangrove's uttered words gnawed at the forefront of Jaku's mind. It was all she could do to focus and move preemptively, ducking low under the outstretched claws of an Aerodactyl before slicing her claws through its belly. It beat its wings and dragged her into the air but not before Jaku crawled higher, cutting through the enemy pokémon's wings. The Aerodactyl screeched as it disappeared and Peanut was there to break her fall, one ribbon stretched protectively across her as the next pokémon- a second Aerodactyl- prepared a volley of boulders. Hail showered the dungeon floor and cut through both of them like tiny knives.

The Aerodactyl sprinted forward before slamming into an invisible wall. Peanut boosted itself off of Jaku's back and lunged at the Aerodactyl, encasing the offending pokémon in a tight hold with his ribbons. Jaku wordlessly followed up and broke her claws over the Aerodactyl's snout and with a quick Psyshock from Peanut, the Aerodactyl fell, its own boulders burying it.

Jaku side-stepped the mess. "Glacier!"

"On it!" Both attacking pokémon dashed over to the Zorua who quickly spread a healing solution over them, using his abilities to pinpoint each and every wound. He nipped off one of Jaku's loose scales. "Heads up! Incoming Venomoth!"

Jaku immediately shoved Peanut behind her and without much fuss, downed the incoming bug-type with a sweeping Heat Wave. The last thing I need is for that fucking thing to start boosting its stats. She dashed across the floor to pick up the orb the Venomoth had been carrying before an iron spike flew out of the adjacent hallway and embedded itself deep into her shoulder. Peanut covered Jaku with Swift while Jaku wrenched the object out of her shoulder. "Peanut, get down!" She waited until Peanut had tossed himself aside and throat burning, Jaku blasted the hallway with fire, only pausing for breath when the scream of pain from the offending pokémon had faded. "Everybody here?"

"All here!" Raptor confirmed, sealing the hallway they'd come from with stones. "Lead on!"

For as much as Jaku hated Mangrove at that particular moment, he hadn't been joking about the difficulty spike. The last dungeon- Mt. Blaze- had been a cake walk compared to Sky Tower.

It hailed. Constantly. Enemy pokémon came in groups of twos and threes and they hid in the hallways, waiting for her to pass before stunning her and her party with volleys of spikes, seeds, and stones- whatever they could get their hands on. Every floor hid monster houses. Jaku had been counting. Her collection of Reviver Seeds dwindled by the minute.

She bolted over to the stairs and was the first one up, ensuring that she would be the one to handle the damage. As much as Jaku trusted her pokémon and believed in their strength, she would sooner come out dinged up than her beloved partners. Fuck. If this place is giving me trouble then I can only imagine how bad it would be if they took the helm.

Raptor struck his claws against the shifting floor, his wings spread wide to grab attention. "Shuppets!"

Shit! Shit, shit, shit! Jaku ducked into the room, her eyes catching on the dark forms that immediately slithered into the wall. She waited, expecting the sudden shrill calls of the hidden pokémon that forced her to cover her ears. Screech, double-boosted. Jaku anticipated the sudden chill that washed over her and endured the first Phantom Force, hissing as the enemy Shuppet pulled her to the floor. The other moved next. Phantom Force always hits its target. Always.

"Let me help!" Glacier struggled forward. "I have an advantage!"

"Stay put!" Jaku hissed back. She struck out with her claws and snagged the second Shuppet as it attempted to back away, a hasty Crunch more than taking care of it. The first Shuppet had backed all the way up and had put up a barrier. Light Screen. Well played, asshole, but that won't save you. Two Heat Waves back-to-back and the Shuppet fell, defeated.

"I'm here!" Glacier was on her with a healing salve in seconds. "We've got about five more Reviver Seeds. Let me handle the Shuppets! Please! You can't fight them as well as the other pokémon!"

Jaku got to her feet and ripped the loose scales from her back, grimacing at the pain. "You're in the third-position, Glacier. If you can manage it without moving past Peanut, you've got my permission."

"Thank you!" Glacier straightened up. "How ironic." His eyes narrowed as three more Shuppets floated off of the dungeon walls, cackling and shaking as they made a beeline for Jaku. "Heads up!"

Jaku guarded her teammates and ducked as Glacier lobbed a Shadow Ball at the cluster of Shuppets, dispelling them. She went after the first, Peanut and Glacier each picking an opponent. Focus on yourself, Jaku coached herself. Let them fight their own battles. I can't mollycoddle them; not right now. She finished off her own Shuppet and shuddered, feeling the urge to sneeze. She then paused. Loose hail floated off of the dungeon floor. "Silver Wind! Get back!"

The two remaining Shuppets, bruised but not yet beaten, melted into the floor only to pop back up beside the incoming Venomoth. Antennae twitching, it stared pointedly at Jaku before its giant wings twitched. Quickened.

Agility. Triple-boosted. "Get back to the hall, both of you!" Jaku roared. Spores poured into the whipped-up air and all Jaku could do was sit and take it, patiently waiting for an opening. She felt her arms twitch. Paralysis spores. God fucking dammit.

"Stay down!" Glacier peeled out of the hall and bristled, the hail disappearing only to be replaced by a fierce wave of sunlight. Sunny Day. "Your move!"

"Thanks buddy!" Jaku pushed past her paralysis and let off another Heat Wave which knocked out the accompanying Shuppet but not the Venomoth. "Three times forward!" she called; a message of strategy. Three times the Venomoth would get to move without being countered. Three times Jaku would have to endure more and more pain.

"How about a screen?" Peanut called back. A Light Screen effectively damped the pain. But that was before the Venomoth paused and reworked its moves.

Supersonic. The party was knocked into the ground, gripping their heads in their hands as the high-pitched sound waves tore through their airs and made their bones quake. Quiver Dance. Strength for the sake of building more strength while Jaku struggled to her feet, the floors and walls spinning around her. And then she was sent flying into the cloudy wall of the tower, panic seizing her heart as she phased right through it. Giga Impact.

A sharp pop in her chest and a brief ring of silence in her ears was the only indicator that the damage inflicted had been fatal. One more Reviver Seed Down. Jaku closed her eyes, splayed out her limbs, and raked her claws out until they eventually caught in the cloud wall. She kept her gaze upward, too afraid to glimpse the yawning emptiness underneath her churning back legs.

"Hold steady!" Raptor had darted after her before she could get knocked out of the tower completely, fixing his talons around her shoulders. "Trade places with me! I've got an advantage!"

"Granted!"

Deftly, Raptor touched back down and let Jaku fall from his grip, summoning a wave of boulders to volley at the Venomoth. Straightened. Pointed. Sharp. Stone Edge. 12Like missiles, they found their mark, pinning the Venomoth to the cloud wall where Raptor braced and sliced through the air with his wings, turning the enemy Venomoth into scraps. Air Slash.

Jaku spat the horrendous taste of the reviver seed from her mouth and shuddered into a fighting stance, quickly checking the dungeon room. "All clear! Follow me!" She let her tail unfurl all the way and quickly thumped it against each of her party members; a quiet check that everybody was still okay. Two more narrow hallways came and went and then a tight squeeze where the tower was coming apart at the seams. Like a cross-section, the dungeon continued across a wide jump. The earth was just barely visible many, many leagues below.

"Raptor!" Jaku called. "Do your thing!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Raptor fluttered out into the verge where the wind raked at his feathers, the steady stream of hail threatening to knock him out of the sky. "One-by-one!"

Jaku reached back and hooked her claws into Glacier's scruff, hauling him forward. "You're up first! Off you go!" She tossed him over to Raptor who grabbed on with his talons before sending the pale Zorua across the verge and safely over to the other side of the split tower. "Barrier!"

"Already up!" Glacier called back. He perched near the edge, digging his claws into the ledge. "Ready to receive!"

"I can jump!" Peanut yelled over the storm. He launched himself neatly over the gap and past Raptor, digging his claws into the dungeon floor without much fuss. "Ready to receive!"

"Last man over!" Jaku called in response. Unlike her teammates, she was the heaviest one by far. Raptor could handle her weight but not if he caught her during a drop. She locked eyes with her partner, took a step back and against the driving terror that made her legs shake- never was a fan of heights- Jaku threw herself into the air. Raptor caught her with his talons and dropped her onto the other side, allowing for her to catch her breath.

"You okay? Glacier murmured, knocking his beak against her snout. "Need a berry? We've got plenty of those for the rest of the way up."

"Only during battle," Jaku gritted out. She poked her head into the verge and winced as hail sliced her cheek. The tower stretched upward to such a distance that Jaku could only curse under her breath and turn back to her party. "We've still got a ways to go so let's keep at it!"

Hallway. Room. Monster House. Trap. Hallway. Room. Monster House. Trap. All while sustaining damage from the pouring hail. Floor after floor after countless floor filled to the brim with enemy pokémon and little to no good items that would serve to make her battles easier.

"Another verge!" Jaku called back. And this time, it's narrow enough to not need air support. Jaku braced and leaped off her side of the split tower, freezing cold air rushing over her scales as she soared across the empty space. She slammed into the other side and dug in tight. "Safe- "

The cloudy floor shifted and Jaku's stomach flip-flopped as she felt herself tumble backwards, watching the fog split and curl under her claws. Down she plummeted until her claws were split down to the quick, huffing as finally, the cloud layer solidified, leaving her panting and shaking, grabbing desperately onto the side of the tower.

Raptor was a blur of dark brown feathers as he dived down to grab her. He then slammed into an invisible wall. "I can't-" he swung around and thumped into yet another wall. "Why can't I get down there?"

Jaku groaned as she pulled herself onto the floor adjacent. "Wait for me!" she called over the din of the storm. "And for the love of Arceus, don't move until I catch up with you! They won't attack you if you don't move!"

"But- "

"Do as I say!" Jaku anchored her hind legs into the wall and slowly crept edged back onto the dungeon floor, recognizing the dents and holes in the wall. This is the thirty-fourth floor and we were crossing… the fifty-second. God, I hate this place. Fuck, this is going to take a long time-

"Burr! Fall! I'll catch you!" A few floors below, Mangrove and his team poked their heads out of the verge, Mangrove holding his arms wide. "Let go! You're at risk hangin' on the edge like that!"

"It's no use!" Jaku called back. He has to be on the thirtieth floor which means… wow. He's slow. "Keep going! I'll be fine!"

Mangrove cursed under his breath and ordered his team over the gap, sparing a long look at Jaku. "Wait for us at the summit!"

Before Jaku could answer, the wind and hail intensified. Something heavy and huge crashed into the tower- a fist accompanied by huge claws. Jaku scrambled onto a different ledge as a Lunatone and Solrock duo accosted her, an Aerodactyl sitting in the back launching boulders at her as she dangled by one paw. And to her horror, through the swirling clouds came a large silhouette with wings that mirrored a crescent moon. Salamence.

With no treasure bag and no supplies, Jaku recklessly dipped through the narrow corridors and avoided all of the skirmishes she could predict, scooping up anything and everything she came across until bits and pieces of seeds and orbs and stones poked out of her scales like quills. It was incredibly hard to lose the Solrock and Lunatone; triple-boosted Agility meant that they sped along after her like bullets and if she were to stop, Jaku had no doubt she would actually be defeated. Floor after floor, she dragged herself on, even resorting to eating the occasional pile of grimy food and suffering the consequences until finally, she began to hear voices up ahead.

"Coming in!" Jaku yelled, skidding into the same room she had failed to cross into hours ago. It felt more like days. She just narrowly missed being clotheslined by a baited iron spike, her head whipping forward as the spare String Shot caught her by the horns and took a chunk out of them, sending her stumbling across the floor. "Fucking christ! Okay, I'm back!"

"You're bleeding!" Peanut yelped.

Glacier leaped over and threw up another Light Screen before taking Jaku's place, Raptor jumping the two of them to assault the Venomoth that had been hiding on the ceiling. He only had a moment to call out a warning before a mob of enemy pokémon fell from the ceiling, their hisses and growls and shouts of anger drowning out any command Jaku could give.

Jaku pushed herself to feet, blood dripping into one of her eyes. Shit! I can't let them get overwhelmed! Jaku braced as she let off of a Heat Wave, the golden flames breaking through the crowd allowing for her team members to get back to the wall. "Stay out of the center!" she ordered, yelping as a barrage of small stones shot out of the flames and lacerated her legs, forcing her to the ground.

Out came the Aerodactyl who immediately used Agility, clawing and scratching at snapping at Jaku who could only blindly lash out at the punishment. Another Heat Wave. A few select pokémon withered and attempted to turn tail only to get hit with another more desperate Heat Wave. This time, a handful of pokémon went down and stayed down. But not the group of Lunatones who had finally pieced out where Jaku was in the seething mob. Not the Metagross who had been lying in wait, shaking off the fire damage as though it were nothing.

Stones. An ocean of pointed rocks and stony hail. Jaku could only throw up a wall in front of her teammates before being buried in rubble, feeling the ash and dust clog her throat. Teeth tore at her legs, dragging her blindly through the sea and deeper into an inescapable bite. Something warm oozed down her leg and before she could question how long it would take, the familiar pop of something snapping inside her signaled yet another loss of a Reviver Seed.

Jaku broke out of her rocky tomb and at full power seized the Aerodactyl by its snout and wrestled it to the floor, wrenching its head around with a sickening crack. She hefted up its body and used it to block the incoming pot shots coming from the gaggle of Lunatones before heaving it at the duo, using the diversion to grab the first Lunatone and crack its rocky body clean in two. The second Lunatone wasn't fast enough to avoid a similar fate. Neither were the third and fourth. The Metagross, burned from the fire and finally targeted, raised up its clawed arms in defense. It didn't last very long.

Wrathful and heaving, her pulse pounding in her ears, Jaku shoved the misty body of the downed Aerodactyl away from her. "How many… how many seeds, Peanut? Do we have left?"

"... Three more, boss."

"Fucking fantastic," Jaku scowled, peeling the wet, useless mop of spines off of her body. I need a break. Wordlessly, Jaku dragged herself over to the nearest wall and sagged down along its length, hearing her noisy breaths echo painfully despite the roaring hail. I need to breathe. I need to rest. This is starting to become too much.

Peanut sidled up beside her and shoved a quarter of a berry into her trembling hands, his ribbons shaking as they entwined themselves around the large gash in her leg. "Let us take the lead- "

"No," Jaku hissed back. The taste of the berry and the feel of it in her mouth adjoined with the rush of adrenaline made Jaku feel extremely close to vomiting. She shoved the rest of the berry back to Peanut. "Can't… Can't eat. Feel too sick."

"Then we can keep waiting here, right?" Glacier asked.

Jaku knew the answer to that question. Well, she felt it more than she knew it. She anchored her claws into the walls and shakily got back to her feet, signaling for her team to follow. "We… We can't stop here… Too dangerous… Time limits."

"There's time limits on these floors?"

"Yeah… Take too long… and something… something will… come and… sweep us out."

Jaku led the way to the next floor and then the next, having to rely more and more on her pokémon as the energy to use moves drained steadily until the point where all Jaku could do was lash out with her teeth and claws, the flame on her tail reduced to a wavering, rusty red flame. Every breath was painful. Smoke poured from her nostrils, serving to choke her more than invigorate her. Every joint and muscle burned with fatigue.

She barely noticed when Glacier nosed his way past her and began leading the group in her mental fog. Or when Peanut focused less on bolstering her and more on boosting Glacier's power as the tiny Zorua took up the mantle and began taking on the enemies while Jaku slowly lagged behind.

"We're finally here!" Glacier's voice rang out across the summit as he hopped back, Peanut joining him as Raptor half-dragged Jaku up the steps and onto the wide platform. "How long were we in there for?"

"Too long," Peanut groaned. He flopped down onto his side, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. "Mangrove wasn't joking. That place was horrible! It feels like we were in there for an entire week!"

Raptor nudged his beak against Jaku's cheek. "Doing okay, boss? You look like you're about to fall asleep."

"...M' fine." Under Raptor's protection and with assurance from her team that they would be fine without her protection, Jaku had let herself rest the few floors to the summit until she felt somewhat better. "Thanks for covering me, guys. I appreciate it. Really, I do."

"It's literally the least we could do after you soloed nearly forty-something floors," Glacier snapped back, having modeled Peanut as he snuggled against them. "But… this is actually kind of fun! I never thought battling would be this exciting! Can we do this more often?"

"You want to go dungeon crawling willingly?" Peanut echoed, his voice dripping with disgust. "You're despicable. Disgusting. I can't believe I'm on the same team as you."

"You just don't like getting your fur dirty!" Glacier teased back. "Should we start calling you 'Ribbons' now? Pink is definitely your color!"

"What do we do now?" Raptor asked, chickening all three of them under his massive wings. "This platform doesn't stop here- it goes up higher but then, boss, you'd probably know where we are; how to tell, that is."

Jaku yawned and glanced at the covered room they rested in, her eyes widening at the visage of a Kangaskhan Rock sitting by what looked to be the exit of the room. "Ah. We're not done yet. There's a part two to this dungeon."

"A part two? How long is that gonna take?" Raptor grumbled.

"Could be a few floors- could be another twenty," Jaku mused tiredly. "Good news is that we can rest here as long as we need to. Rest stops like these… they don't have time limits."

"Fantastic!" Glacier snuggled closer to Jaku, berry juice plastered onto his muzzle. "Oh, I know. Let's wait until you're feeling better and then keep going."

"Mangrove asked that we wait for him at the summit," Jaku mumbled, rubbing her cheek into the icy cloud floor. "M' sure he'll get here sooner or later."

Hours passed. Enough time that Jaku felt it was worrying that her supposed partner- the one who had helped handle the famed Rayquaza- was taking so much time. She slowly rose to her feet and stretched, shaking off the layer of ice that had been accumulating all over her body. "I'm gonna head back in and see if I can figure out where the others are. They're taking too long."

"Wouldn't that mean dragging us back in?" Raptor supposed.

"Nah. Rest floors are safe spaces; that Kangaskhan Rock over there is the hallmark and you'll end up back here if you try going ahead without me." Jaku desperately did not want to go back down to the floors below. And I really don't feel up to playing with anymore Salamances and or Metagross. No thank you. But she poked her nose out to stare over the stairway leading into the lower section of the tower. "... Should I?"

"No," Peanut and Glacier chimed in immediately.

"Hmm. I need to make sure the others are okay." Jaku set one foot on the stair and then paused, a self-satisfied smirk on her face. She watched Mangrove stumble out of the tower with Hydra, Castor and Lilith supporting him on all sides. That grin soured, seeing the immense amount of damage her own team members had taken. "Up here!"

Castor caught her call and waved. Before long, the rest of her party had made it up the stairs and Jaku wasted no time ensuring that all of them had their wounds healed promptly.

"Has everybody eaten?" Jaku called out. "Any wounds? Energy need supplying?" She then walked over to Mangrove who was quietly tending to his wounds. Handfuls of his quills looked to have been ripped out and fresh, angry bruises littered his skin. Jaku pulled a wad of berries out of her bag and set them in front of him. "Eat." Without another word, she turned and walked back to be amongst her team. At least this'll be over soon enough.

"What's next?" Castor asked the moment Jaku came back within earshot. "That dungeon took the wind right outta me. Phew." The Croagunk angled his head higher up where the tower dissolved into nothing but storm clouds. "Reckon we should just keep going."

"You can't," Mangrove rasped. He crawled toward the group, hands clasped together, eyes wide as he stared apprehensively at the skies. "This is the end of the line."

"End of the line?" Jaku repeated. "What do you mean? We just finished up with the first section. Kangaskhan Rock is right over there."

Mangrove only shook his head. "We're not on the Air Continent anymore. And you should know, Burr- mystery dungeons change their layout every time you enter."

"It doesn't change the number of floors, does it?"

Mangrove opened his mouth and then closed it. "Sky Tower is only ever supposed to be around thirty to thirty-five floors. We just cleared more than double that amount."

"Is that why it took so damn long?" Jaku ran her hand over the spines along her head, bristling. "Yeah, no wonder I was exhausted!"

"The enemies were much stronger too," Mangrove rasped. "They never used to be that bloodthirsty. And smart." He shook his head. "That's not the real issue, Burr. Listen, we already passed through the spire."

"... Of the tower?"

"No, you big idiot. I meant that the tower has two stages: the general tower and the spire. Usually, it's twenty something floors in the main tower and like five or six floors in the spire- where the Salamances and Metagross were."

"... Fuck. Then that means- "

"We're at the boss already."

Lilith glanced around and scratched behind her ear with her paw. "So we're here. Where's… what's their name? Rayquaza? You said they would be waiting for us here at the summit," Lilith asked, pointedly staring directly at Mangrove.

"Feels like that should be the case," Jaku murmured. She stared heavenward and waited for something to descend through the fog. The clouds thickened and swirled, greatly hindering Jaku's ability to see a few feet past her own hands. "What type is Rayquaza anyway?" Silence. No answer. "Mangrove?"

"... Burr?"

"Yeah?"

"Where'd this thick ass fog come from?"

"The sky, idiot. We're all the way up in the cloud layer. I would be surprised if it was clear and sunny." She turned and attempted to find him in the fog. When her eyesight failed her, she instead attempted to pick up his scent. Nothing. "Hey, where are you?" She called out to her pokémon. Nothing. "Mangrove, do you see my partners?"

"They're not up here? I thought they were right beside you," Mangrove replied immediately. He too called out for his section of the team.

"Hold on, Mangrove. Stay where you are. I'm gonna try and clear this cloud cover." With a weak-willed Heat Wave, Jaku peered across the way as the dense cloud cover parted. "Oh, there you are. Over here, stretch."

"Who's got nicknames now?" Mangrove immediately shot back, his eyes immediately brightening as he hurried over to her. He froze, swinging his head around to look at the clearing. "... Where're all the others?"

Though the clouds had all been burned off, the platform was devoid of all life apart from Jaku and Mangrove. They both checked the edges and Jaku shuddered, expecting the worst when a familiar voice called out to her over the din of swirling air.

"Your Companions Are Safe. They Cannot Join You For This Battle, And So They Have Been Taken From The Dungeon."

Jaku scowled. Azelf. "You could've just told me this ahead of time." She then froze. "Hold on. Glacier was in charge of my bag which means… "

"They Retain All Of Your Items. Unlike Your First Encounter, This Time, You Must Succeed With Only Your Own Strength."

"Who're you talkin' to?" Mangrove snarled, approaching closer as he gazed around.

"Azelf, don't you dare tell me that I'm stranded up here without any items! No seeds? No berries? No nothing?" She whipped around and took hold of Mangrove's cravat. "Oi, where's your treasure bag?"

Mangrove paled and the tone of their situation seemed to settle in immediately. "Hydra was carryin' it... So neither of us have anything but the clothes on our backs, huh?"

"That Would Seem To Be The Case," Azelf resumed. "But My Champion, You Must Prevail. You Will Prevail. Have Courage."

"I already do, Azelf," Jaku snarked, scratching at her head in a feeble attempt to get the physic-type to leave her alone. She stared at the swirling clouds that surrounded the tower and began sharpening her claws. "There's nothing you can throw at me that I haven't been forced to handle before. Let's see what you've got, Rayquaza."

There were claws on her shoulders. "...Wait." Mangrove's voice was quiet. Unnaturally quiet. "Wait… Now… I think… Now's the only time I've got left."

"Huh?"

Mangrove took his hands off of Jaku's shoulders before stepping in front of her, removing his cravat to wring it around his hands. "That talk. The one I wanted to discuss with you- "

"Mangrove, we're about to body a legendary pokémon in the stratosphere. Is now really the best time to be having a chit-chat?"

"It's important!" Mangrove hissed. He flinched, glancing at the darkening clouds around them. "I… I didn't want to discuss this around your pokémon. It's private and I… I've been meanin' to tell you the real truth about what happened."

Jaku blinked. "The… truth? What, like, stuff that happened when you and I were partners in crime way back when?"

Mangrove's tail curled up underneath his belly. His eyes darkened. "I told you that I fought a few legendaries to come and get you- bring you back to our world. Where you belong." Mangrove let out a nervous chuckle. "That ain't the full truth. And after seeing the way you treat your pals- after hearing about how much they love you and all- I think-" Mangrove swallowed- "If things go wrong up here- which they will- then I want you to know the full truth before we end up dying up here."

"I'm not dying up here," Jaku dismissed him, attempting to sound braver than she felt. "But go on. Rayquaza has yet to show up. This ought to be interesting. Let's hear what you have to say."

Mangrove shuffled in place as though he wanted to scratch an itch but couldn't. "Do you… remember anything about our old place? When you were my partner? Bits and pieces maybe?"

Jaku couldn't say that she did or at least, she couldn't categorize which ones were related to Mangrove. He hadn't appeared in memories that came to mind. "No. Nothing comes to mind except for that nasty business related to Dusknoir and… whatever the fuck happened during my second run."

"Okay," Mangrove breathed. "Okay... You remember where we ran into each other here? For the first time? That cave up in the mountains?"

"Yeah, I remember that. I saw you first and ran and then you chased after me. Nearly killed me, you know."

"About that…"

Jaku took a step back. "Did you… kill me?" she asked tentatively. She desperately hoped it wasn't the case. "In our world? Is that why you said you were attempting to do good by the legendaries when you explained it to me way back when?"

Mangrove shook his head, seemingly contemplating something. "I was… responsible for your death but I didn't directly cause it." A long silence stretched after his words and when he was uninterrupted, he glanced nervously at Jaku. "You're not gonna say anything?"

"I'm waiting for you to explain," Jaku replied, still sharpening her claws. "Depending on what your story is, I might just deal with Rayquaza myself. So, what did you do?" Jaku froze. Her mind went immediately to the specific detail she'd noticed when she had been storming through that cavern in the mountains. "The eggshells…" she whispered. "Those were pokémon eggshells." Nausea gripped her belly like a steel trap, and she found herself taking numerous steps away from Mangrove, the spines around her neck bristling. "You disgusting bastard- "

"That wasn't me!" Mangrove yelled. He looked just as disgusted as Jaku felt. "I swear to you that was not me! I didn't plan for them to do that! I just wanted them to… I just wanted them to kill you. Drown you. Something quick where you wouldn't suffer…"

"I'm starting to understand why Azelf mentioned part of my memories being burned out," Jaku snarled. "Who? Who did what? I want names. I want answers. If you end up being partially correct and I do get to return back to your world, I want to know exactly what happened so that I know who to tear apart when I get there."

"You'll get their names," Mangrove promised. And slowly, a new story came to light.

They had been partners before. Once. A long, long time ago. When Burr had been young and impressionable and naive. Easily persuaded. Too scared to fight but too brave to run away. When Burr had been Mangrove's second after he had found her half-drowned in a stone quarry, nearly dead. The price for his caretaking? Her labor. Her unwilling recruitment into his 'expedition team' that consisted of him mapping out the treasures and paying customers and her doing most of if not all of the heavy lifting. Being blessed by Arceus and Dialga made one rather hearty and durable- something Mangrove had found out through trial and error when he had been younger.

Mangrove told a story. A story where Burr had gotten caught up in the plights of a world on the brink of being destroyed by an imminent asteroid collision. A world that would face an extinction if not corrected. A world of which attributed her arrival to the onslaught of natural disasters foretelling the asteroid's impact. But nobody had known about the asteroid. It all had to do with a certain pokémon's curse and another pokémon's mystical prophecies.

There were bits and pieces of other worrying things in Mangrove's story. Burr not being the first laborer to expand the 'expedition team' that Mangrove's family ran. Burr being chased from a warm town after the threat of being lynched by the townsfolk forced her to leave, Mangrove being dragged into the affair if only to ensure the wellbeing of his 'expensive asset'. Nearly getting killed by an enemy group, the leader of which almost crippled Burr on top of a mountain. No apology when the truth about the asteroid was revealed; just the expectation that Burr would be the one to deal with it.

"... So that's why you said you were up here before." Jaku had taken a seat to process the sheer torrent of information, her hands shaking uncontrollably. "You went with me to get Rayquaza to blow that asteroid apart."

"Exactly. Back then, we were still unevolved and both the dungeon and Rayquaza took mercy on us. But that's not what you want to hear." So Mangrove unfortunately continued to tell his story.

After the asteroid was destroyed, both he and Burr had been preserved from burning up in the asteroid's heat. All was well. Burr had remained in the pokémon world, unable to go home and unable to remember anything pertaining to it. A little older and a little wiser but still too naive to even want to go home. Too enamored with the way the pokémon world worked. Too dependent on Mangrove to even see the need to go home. But things changed as they always do.

Their reputation as a team skyrocketed and Burr's public image, moreso than Mangrove. Burr became something of a legend, taking on more and more work after Rayquaza's defeat to retain her public image until eventually, she outstripped Mangrove in both prestige and power. When their team was recruited by others for missions, they asked for Burr- never Mangrove. Burr was faster. Smarter. Friendlier. Burr had grown so fast and so quickly that Mangrove was constantly left behind in her shadow, growing more and more bitter about how things had turned out.

"I was bitter," Mangrove admitted. "I was so wrapped up in this idea of you being an item that belonged to me that when you started getting all this fame and fortune, I honestly believed that you would leave me behind. And you deserved to," Mangrove rasped, his eyes transfixed on the ground. "You deserved to be able to do somethin' better for yourself. You deserved to be able to bask in that glory. You deserved the best, and the only thing I ever did was take everything away from you."

Time passed. Mangrove had grown paranoid and bitter and jealous. Angry that his 'expensive asset' was no longer underneath his thumb. Angry that his partner rarely went on missions with him anymore, often called to join other groups, even when Mangrove had created the problem by insisting on staying home to manage finances and gain intel. He'd grown livid at all the attention Burr had gotten and had conspired to drag her back down to his level. So sick and tired of hearing this and that about his partner that he conspired to send Burr back to the human world. By putting out a secret tasking on her.

Friends of family, he had explained. All water-types. Pokémon that had been chosen by Mangrove specifically to overpower Burr at every angle. And the location had been in a cave by the sea. A beautiful limestone cave that overflowed with salt crystals that Burr had once pointed out to Mangrove during one of their old exploration trips, now doomed to fulfill a different kind of purpose. Mangrove had asked Burr to check out the place, spinning some tall tale about his family having a precious heirloom in there and to 'please go and take a look'. He hadn't been expecting Butt to go alone. But she had gone in all by herself. Because she hadn't felt the need to bring backup to something her 'friend' had assured her would be a rather quick and easy ordeal.

An ambush. Ten versus one. A horrible type advantage on behalf of Burr's opponents. Her first few steps into that once-beautiful limestone cavern had marked the last time Burr would ever feel the sun on her skin in that world. It was supposed to be a quick ordeal. Mangrove had hired the people to kill her and frame the situation as her getting in over her head. Happened to plenty of plucky headstrong adventurers all the time. Mangrove hadn't asked for his lackeys to bring evidence afterwards.

And for a while, things were silent. Mangrove hadn't heard anything and had assumed that the deed had been finished. He'd taken the things from his and Burr's shared storage bit-by-bit so as not to rouse suspicion. If anybody asked where Burr was, he'd lie and say that she'd taken a trip to a different continent and that he didn't know all the details. Who would be suspicious of him when he too was a hero of the people? Who would question him when he spent all of his days with his snout in a stack of papers, taking over the family business of buying out exploration teams to accrue wealth? Nobody.

Almost half a year after Burr had 'disappeared' had Mangrove thought to make sure. He reached out to his old lackeys. All of them criminals and rogues released after performing some good deed for Mangrove's family. He finally asked for proof. Bones. Skin. Teeth. Anything that he could easily confirm as once being part of Burr. What he'd received back haunted him.

"What? What did they tell you?" Jaku watched as Mangrove huddled away from her, nausea turning his face green. She took a sick pleasure in watching him squirm. Good, you should feel uncomfortable, traitor. Jaku then froze. That cave. It's the very same as the one I found Mangrove in here. Her eyes widened. "The eggshells?" She wasn't surprised when Mangrove nodded.

Even he didn't know what they'd done to her in the months following her supposed execution. What he had found out was that they hadn't dispatched of her immediately. It had been Charcoal- Team A.C.T.s Charizard- who had figured it out. But only after Mangrove had put out a listing faking concern over his partner being gone for too long. Charcoal, who had been one of Burr's closest friends. The only pokémon who had eventually apologized for being part of the lynch mob. And he had found her desecrated remains in that same limestone cave by the sea, wasted away, mangled, surrounded by broken eggshells telling a story that nobody wanted to hear or think about.

"Stop. Please just… stop. I don't want to hear any more of that fucking story." Jaku rose to her feet, feeling the need to dunk herself in magma as she felt utterly sick to her stomach. Maybe it is a good thing that Uxie chose to ban me from remembering that mess. The only time I'll ever be grateful to them. Jaku took a deep breath. "Just… go."

Mangrove blinked. "...Go?"

"I refuse to be anywhere near you." Jaku pointed one shaking claw the way they'd both come, a hot anger making her throat feel tight. "Get away from me. I don't want anything to do with you and I certainly don't want to return back to wherever the fuck you came from. Please, just go and don't ever talk to me again."

"No… No, no, no. Wait. My apology- "

"There is nothing you can say to me that would ever sound like an apology for the shit you put me through," Jaku hissed. "What you did- what you allowed to happen- was unspeakably vile and depraved. I expected something of you but not that. Nothing you do can ever make up for having me killed just to satisfy your own ego, you putrid sack of shit."

"I didn't mean for them to do that to you!" Mangrove argued, venom lacing his voice. The softness and discomfort that had hung over him while he'd been telling his story vanished in an instant. Rage took its place. "All I wanted was them to make it quick- "

"You still arranged for me to be murdered! Why would I ever want to talk to you again?"

"Because you're my partner!"

"I'd sooner be torn apart and desecrated by those lackeys you hired than call myself your partner!" Jaku snarled, digging her claws into the tower floor. "You're an excuse for a pokémon! Just get the hell out of here already! You were too scared to face up to Rayquaza and now you feel entitled to my friendship just because you admitted that you planned to have me murdered!"

"Let's step back." Mangrove held up his hands for peace. Stared her down while Jaku trembled and shook and snarled with evident rage. "I wanted to make amends and bring you back home- "

"For what? According to everybody back home, I'm already dead. What? Were you going to just pretend that everything was alright?" Jaku's eyes widened, and she bared her teeth, even more disgusted. "...You weren't even going to tell me, were you? I asked you yesterday and you said you'd tell me 'some other time'. You were going to lie in order to bring me back like cattle, weren't you?" Mangrove bristled and stood at his full height, but it was the anger and guilt in his eyes that told Jaku everything she needed to feel sure. "Leave. Now. Before I show you just how much I've outpaced you."

"And I am also one to agree." The clouds had parted and from the heavens came a massive serpentine-like dragon whose pointed scales shone like emeralds. It sank gracefully onto the cloud platform, physically separating Mangrove and Jaku with its bulk. "I am both delighted and pained to see you both here, high in the heavens where land dwellers ought not reach, having come so far but yet having changed inexplicably." Rayquaza lowered their massive head until they cast shadows across Mangrove's form. Their disappointment was palpable. "One much more than the other."

"It was a mistake, Rayquaza!" Mangrove protested. He stepped back when Rayquaza slithered toward him. "I was jealous and bitter and wrong! I've changed! I swear it! I only came to make things better-"

"You haven't." Rayquaza's tone held nothing but sadness. "Your journey here was one conceived with lies. It was only by forcing Jirachi's hand that you arrived here where you obviously do not belong." Rayquaza shook their head, the scales along their tail rattling as they too pointed at the stairway. "Go. Leave my tower and never come back. Return with the cursed crystal your land dweller seraph created and never desecrate my temple with your presence ever again."

Mangrove peered past them to stare beseechingly at Jaku but by then, she'd turned her back on him, choosing to focus her burning eyes on Rayquaza's colorful scales. He muttered something under his breath and after tying his cravat around his neck again, he vanished, leaving Jaku alone with Rayquaza.

"So…" Jaku gained more distance from Rayquaza, the spines along her neck bristling. Tears of anger and disbelief and grief threatened to spill from her eyes and she used her filthy hands to wipe them clear. "Let's get this done and over with." But before she could begin the battle, Rayquaza stopped her.

"At first, I descended because I anticipated challenging you two again. Your strength as young pokémon delighted me so, but after witnessing that horrifying revelation…" Rayquaza instead coiled in upon themself. "I do not wish to fight you. You have suffered enough and any damage my power might do pales in comparison to the damage you must now access within yourself."

Jaku fell to her knees, half-relieved that she wouldn't have to fight Rayquaza and half-exhausted from forcing herself to listen to Mangrove's cursed story without splitting him jaws to tail-tip. "...Thank you."

Rayquaza lifted their tail and revealed the awaiting Time Gear hanging by the tip of their tail. "Perhaps, when your situation is better and you have come to terms with the violent things that have happened in your past, you might come and challenge me again?" And more quietly, Rayquaza added, "I know. I know that you suffer, both from your lost partner and from the one you lost the last we met."

Jaku flinched. "... Watts, you mean. You… you know what happened in my last world?"

"I do. And while I don't condone your actions… I understand the reasoning that led you to do what you did. You may not see it as a blessing that Uxie has taken your memories from you but it spares you the agony of remembering that which brought you your unshakeable pain." Rayquaza slithered away, a section of his bulk hanging off of the tower as the massive dragon stared blankly at the sky above. "We legendaries spend most of our time guarding our spheres of influence. So much so that you might say we neglect the bigger world, too focused on our own purposes to be concerned with the plights of the common people around us." He sent Jaku a knowing look. "That is your reasoning for hating legendaries. Such is the common logic for humans."

Jaku snorted, enveloping the gained Time Gear in her shaking hands. "Am I that easy to read?"

"I have known you since you first visited me atop my tower when you were small and naive to the world. When the energy Dialga blessed you with was radiant for all to see." Rayquaza tasted the air with their forked tongue, still not looking directly at her. "You didn't used to hate legendaries until you lost your beloved partner not so long ago. A fault of another god. And that lingering wrath has brought you to many other legendaries' homes to seek justice. All except for mine."

"...Did I spare you?"

"No. I simply was away when you came knocking. But that is not my point." Rayquaza's tail swished back-and-forth. "Mangrove shall be punished. This is the first I've heard about his deeds and so once we are finished here, I will see to it that he faces justice."

"But Dialga- Time isn't right here, you know?"

Rayquaza only cocked their head, a glint in their eyes as they regarded her. "An hour for you is a second to me, young one. Do not lecture me about time, young one. I was there shortly after it was written."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah old man." Jaku got to her feet. "I'm going." She turned and made her way to the steps before stopping. "...Thanks for giving me a bit of mercy. I appreciate it." When Rayquaza said nothing, Jaku turned, finding the clearing absolutely empty. So she turned back toward the stairs and slowly descended, turning the Time Gear around and around and around in her fingers as she went.