PMD: R&D

by Jusmove

The Absol guild isn't known for amazing expeditions, ace bounty hunters, or even adequate rescue operations. No, Absol's is known for the loud explosions and mad laughter echoing from behind closed doors. The world thinks they're insane, but when Dungeons begin to mysteriously spread across the land, maybe a little insanity is just what the world needs.

31. Hollow Garden - Part 3

Chapter 28: Hollow Garden - Part 3

A Morgrem teetered on one leg after its sucker punch bounced off of Lumi's reflect shield and left it off balance. He flipped his shield lengthwise and ripped it straight through the fairy feral. It burst into motes of light on impact.

He recalled his Amp orbs to hover around his head, prepared to defend or attack accordingly. His shoulders rose and fell as his breath came out in mind felt like mush from using so much mental concentration in the battle. Lumi scanned the base of the grassy hill they had retreated down from, ears alert, paying careful attention to any of his friends or family in case they needed any backup.

His back brushed up against Van's. They fell into a formation without a second thought, and a wordless grunt confirmed the other's status. Van's elbow nudged his shoulder, and brought his attention to the left, where a Granbull charged out of some bushes. Lumi pooled Helping Hand in his paws and slapped Van's outstretched hand, only for said hand to disappear in a flash of light a second later.

A trail of light shot over towards the Granbull. Van reappeared at the end of it. The added inertia pierced the Hattrem with the spike.

A roundhouse kick finished it off. Van realigned, looked around, and threw a claw up to confirm the all clear. Lumi scanned the surrounding area, and released a tense breath when he didn't spy anymore pesky fairies.

"Are we all alright?" he called out to the rest of the group, somewhat scattered in the chaos. A tired round of affirmatives rang out around the clearing; Damia huffed and puffed as she hunched over Clara, who clutched the random branch she had picked up and used as a weapon earlier. His parents had barely needed any time to slip into the fray, and quite honestly handled most of the ferals without too much trouble. His mother's chest rose and fell with deep breaths, fur slightly billowing with psychic energy ready to be released. His father, meanwhile, had his gaze stuck on the hill they came from.

As the adrenaline wore off, a tight knot formed in Lumi's chest at the sight of his father. He had been stern on occasion, yet never overtly "tough," so Lumi had seen him cry before. But never had he looked so utterly broken and…lost.

He took careful steps towards his parents, compelled by the urge to be there for his family, but then a different tug took hold. It reminded him of his duty, of the time they didn't have, and more importantly, demanded answers from Noivern. His tails whipped over the soft grass as he warred between two priorities, unsure how he should move forward.

A claw on his shoulder jerked his attention from his thoughts, and he looked up to the tired, but concerned gaze from Van.

"Hey. Got that look on your face again, but I can guess what it is." He glanced over towards the Espeon and Mawile. "You should go over there. Your dad's, uh, not lookin' too hot."

"Yeah, no, you're right. It's just..." He paced in place, and stole glances up at the hill. "I...I don't know if we have-"

"Enough time? Don't worry about it, always time for family. 'Sides..." Van grunted and held an arm to his shoulder, likely to hold a bruise.

"I think we all could use a little break right now. Things got kinda intense for a second there."

"I don't think it's over yet," replied Lumi. The Meowstic exhaled a breath, but then managed a light smile for his Partner.

"Okay, how about this. You know that weird, crystal thing Noivern and I messed with at the top of the hill? The one the root connected to?"

"Yeah?"

"It produces Aether, in like, a little pool around it. We can replenish some of our supplies and stuff if we use it. Can you take the girls and wait up at the top of the hill for my parents and me? We'll try not to be too long."

"You sayin' we can make items in here? I'd love to see that." A grin formed on Van's face, and he looked down at Lumi with his claws on his hips.

"We can pick up the slack and think of a plan forward, I bet Damia's already thinkin' up some strats. Take all the time you need, mon. Seriously, please do. That freaky scream from the tree scared the crap out of me, so if we could just sit here for a while, that would be great."

"I'll see what I can do."

They fistbumped, and his bubbling uncertainty bled away as he watched Van jog off to get Damia and Clara. Renewed, he turned to walk to his parents.

Clement stood stock still as Opal alternated between soft murmurs in his ear and licking his cheek where Noivern had struck him. Her ears flicked as Lumi's steps drew closer, and he let out a brief yelp as his body locked in a psychic embrace, then got raised in the air. His weightless form rushed over towards her, before she turned to catch him in her forelegs and push him back first on the ground. Soft grunts escaped his lips as she prodded him with her snout and gave inquisitive licks along his face.

"Are you okay? Does anything hurt? I saw that hit you took from that Kirlia, how's your side feel? Are the others okay? Where are they going?" She murmured this and that as she inspected him. He had enough, and pushed her head away with a paw.

"Mom, we're fine. Nothing an oran won't fix. Besides, I should be asking how you're doing." His eyes flicked to Clement, and from this close he could see his father's hands had balled into shaky fists. He frowned.

"They moved up the hill to just...give us space, I guess."

"You guess?"

"I mean! Um, I don't know...are you okay?" Opal stepped back as he got to his feet. "I know you guys are strong, but all that stuff with Noivern seemed to really affect you two in particular."

The prong on her tail flicked in agitation, even though her face kept a veneer of calm. He stepped forward and nuzzled her chin.

"I don't think I really know what's going on, but I wanted to let you know that if you want time to just sit down and process stuff, then..." He glanced back up at the hill, and he grabbed a tail as that sense of urgency came back again.

"Then...we'll just make time for it. I'm, um, here for you."

Opal blinked at him, and her lips warbled until a snort escaped her. She leaned her forehead down to press against his, and he could feel her purr.

"My sweet, thoughtful boy. You sure as hell didn't get that from me, that's for certain."

"Language."

Clement's half hearted admonishment came so quietly, they almost didn't hear it. Opal glanced over in mild surprise as he finally abandoned his thousand yard stare to turn and face the rest of his family. Up close, Lumi could make out just how haggard his father looked; bits of burnt garbage stuck to random parts of his body, and black soot stained his normally cream colored fur, along with purple bruises that had started to well up.

He folded his arms and tried to maintain a serious, objective expression. It didn't quite make it through his puffy, tear stained eyes.

"I appreciate the gesture, son. Really. But the mission is still going, and although I was...caught off guard, I am still perfectly capab-oof!"

Lumi's arms around his father silenced him, and he gave a ginger squeeze for good measure, mindful of his wounds. After a few seconds, he felt his dad's arms raise up to return the hug, and squeeze him back even harder.

He rolled his eyes. Dad had always been such a sap for hugs. He rubbed his back when he started to shake slightly, probably holding back tears again. Opal squee'd in the background, and Lumi held in chuckles.

"...I'm not winning any 'tough guy' points with your mother right now," murmured Clement with a sigh.

"I dunno. I thought the way you blew up that guy's portal dimension thing was pretty cool."

"Son, that was a strategic move in order to regain control of the situation."

"Oh yeah?" Lumi donned a smile as he leaned back to look at his father face to face. Ironically, his dad was one of the few people he could actually look eye-to-eye with, everyone else often towered above him.

"Sounds to me like it was reckless and impulsive."

"It was."

"You had no idea it would work."

"But I hoped it would." Now a small smile grew on Clement's face, and Lumi internally cheered at his success.

"Mmhmm. So, about...wait a minute." Lumi's tails jerked as he finally processed some information. "You said that Noivern was Lucent, but you also said Lucent...um..."

"Died? Yeah, that's kinda the big question, Lumi." Opal came over and sat on her haunches with a huff. "But that was him. No doubt about it. I don't know the how, why, or what, and at this point, I don't care. Right now, all I want to do is get my paws on him so I can knock some sense into that big head of his," she ground out.

"I'll just be blunt," started Clement. "If we see Lucent again, I don't know if I will be able to keep my emotions in check. Given that you were one of our clients to protect, neither of us anticipated that this mission could get even more personal. Frankly I...well I just really want to talk with him now. The fact that he doesn't remember us is very concerning."

Lumi opened his mouth to speak, but paused when Clement held a paw up.

"Regardless of how we feel though, we are still here to support your team in carrying out your mission of pausing the Keystone, and will do everything we can in service of that goal. Would I be correct in assuming you still want to go through with this?"

Lumi considered everything they were up against: currently miles behind in a race against six very capable pokemon with access to powers he didn't fully comprehend, the leader of whom had only recently shown that he probably hadn't even been trying this whole time. Not to mention an unknown entity who probably stood between them and their goal, and who was in all likelihood the Legendary he had seen during his glimpses across time.

Just thinking about these odds made his heart race. In the face of all of this information, he had only one answer he could reasonably give.

"Yeah."

"...And I can't say anything to make you reconsider?"

"Nah."

"Right. I should have figured," said Clement. He pinched his forehead and groaned right after.

"I don't know what you expected, Clem, I mean this is Lumi we're talking about." Opal looked at him with something like appraisal. "The fearless and unshakable leader of Team Nova. I don't think we need to worry."

"L-leader?" A blush warmed his face, and he grabbed one of his tails to squeeze. "No, mom, you got it mixed up. Damia's more of the leader, I'm just sort of-"

"Nah, don't even try it, boy. Clement, did you know our son managed to broker a deal with Lucent? Didn't give an inch, kept us all, including me, in check, and demanded Clara's safety when that big idiot tried to intimidate him? You should have seen him, he was handling business."

"Oh? Is this true son?" Now his dad looked at him with interest, eyebrows raised. Lumi held his paws up and shook his head.

"It was less of a 'deal' and more of a 'hostile alliance by circumstance.' We needed each other to move forward, so I just used that as leverage to make sure him or his followers wouldn't try to fight us before we activated all of the gates. And it's not like I really cared about what Lucent was saying. Clara's our friend, her safety came before anything," he explained.

His parents shared a look he couldn't quite decipher when he finished, and for some reason, nodded as if he had said something they both really liked. Clement stepped forward and gave a hearty pat on Lumi's shoulders, then turned him around to walk towards the hill.

"You've just made me very proud, Lumi," he said, both hands on his shoulders.

"What? Why? What'd I do?"

"Thanks for the pep talk, son. Now let's get back to your team, I bet they're all eagerly awaiting your guidance," added Opal, who came up on his side.

"I'm telling you, I'm not the leader!" Lumi objected as the two ushered him forwards. He continued to protest as they trudged back up the grassy hill, even as it seemed to fall on deaf ears. He couldn't be the leader, the others had way more experience with pretty much everything else, especially Damia. From his perspective he just...came up with ideas?

Now that he thought about it, Lumi wasn't exactly sure what his role on their team actually was. Maybe that would become more clear when they started doing stuff together on a more consistent basis than whenever something groundbreakingly crucial and serious happened.

They crested the hill, and were greeted to the sight of the rest of his team around the plateau, in front of the crystal gate and the pool of aether. Globs of the mystical liquid bubbled up and floated from the pool's surface.

They had gotten right to work; Van plucked one of the floating globs and molded it into the more recognizable form of a dud orb. A small pile of orbs already rested between him and Damia, who mirrored the process across from the Scrafty. She also picked up orbs from his pile and inspected them e before she either returned it to the pile, or murmured something before returning it to him. Off to the side, Clara sat amongst a smattering of random items, presumably ones they had collected along the way in the Leyline, and sifted through them to take stock of their supplies.

As he got closer, he caught Clara's attention, who waved at him. He returned it and then glanced back at his parents.

"I think we'll need some time to prepare," he said. Opal nodded.

"That's good. You just say when you all are ready to move forward."

"We'll establish a perimeter in the meantime, and make sure nothing gets the drop on you," added Clement. Lumi nodded to confirm, and watched them trot off in opposite directions.

Van and Damia seemed to have the orb making on lock, so he jogged over to go assist Clara. Besides, she had been one of the first ones to get separated, and had spent this whole time either wandering alone or as a hostage. He wanted to make sure she was okay.

By her wide smile, and the way she popped up from her knees to give him a bear hug strong enough to lift him from the ground and fling his legs back and forth, he wagered she didn't seem too shaken. The Meowstic chuckled and tried to return it as best he could, even as the breath got squeezed from his lungs.

"Hey...Clara..." he wheezed, "Need any...help?"

"Yeah! If you could help me set our bags, that would help. Having some trouble deciding what would be best."

Lumi coughed out an affirmative, and sucked in a quick breath when she set him down. He took a look at their modest accumulation of loot. A bunch of seeds and wands, some of which he couldn't quite remember from the primer he read, and a few sturdy green thorns that would serve as suitable spikes that he knew Van would make good use of. A smattering of berries also lay to the side, as well as a couple of elixirs that would be very useful for a quick energy boost if they needed it.

They had also amassed a surprising amount of Poké; a quick count showed a pile worth at least 5000. The gold coins glimmered amongst their items, and he didn't have to think long about who was responsible.

His father, bless his heart, didn't actually have a mind for numbers, and was a bit too honest to actually sell their wares from their shop in Thistle town for a decent margin. If it weren't for Opal, they'd have given away their stock for free, and she was the only one amongst them opportunistic enough to try and make this bread despite their circumstances.

"I already set everyone up with the essentials. Or, tried to." His ears flicked at Clara's voice. "There is at least one Oran for each of us, but we only found three reviver seeds. I just decided I won't take one."

"You won't...what? Why? Clara, that's-"

"Two of us are weak to Fairy, and we need to make sure you get to the Keystone okay, right? It just makes sense," she explained, then smiled. "I get the feeling we're going to fight, and I'm a bit of a weak link when it comes to fighting in the group, if you haven't noticed."

"I haven't noticed, actually. You're great at figuring things out on the fly, and you never back down from anything. Remember when we fought off Noivern when it was just us? You're a great fighter!" he asserted with a deep frown. It didn't sit right with him that Clara wouldn't have any insurance in the form of a reviver seed, and it felt even worse that she would just...give herself up like that. It seemed at odds to hear such detached logic from such a bubbly person.

Her paw on his nose surprised him. She giggled at his expression after she booped him.

"That's so nice of you to say. Although honestly, I see myself as more of a lover than a fighter. Who knows? Maybe that'll be useful."

Lumi tried to think of something to argue, but short of running out right now to try and find a fourth reviver seed, didn't have a good counter to her argument. He sighed, and resolved to do his best to keep her safe. To help, he put aside a Pounce wand, Switcher Wand, the Pecha berry, and a Quick seed. That, together with the Slow orbs he made earlier, should help him be able to get to his team quicker and help them should they need it, or pull them out of a tough spot.

He worked with Clara to decide what everyone else would get. Van would make good use of the Spikes and other throwable items, and he would also get the Stun seeds they had. He knew Damia had her gravity orbs to inhibit foes movement around her, so they thought she could use the single Blast seed to perhaps do some more damage, and the one Life seed to raise her vitality, since she liked to fight more up close. Clara decided to take the rest of the wands, (her Confuse Staff had been lost inside Swampert's portal dimension) along with the last two seeds; a totter and vanish seed. Lumi had to push a bit to get her to accept the vanish seed despite her protests that it would be very useful for him, but eventually acquiesced.

They sat in quiet focus as they distributed the items. The rustle of grass in the breeze surrounded them. A question about her well-being lingered on the tip of Lumi's tongue, but he wondered how he should formulate it; Clara had been kidnapped, and he remembered how distraught she had been when they had first been separated. He didn't want to just blurt something out like he normally would.

"Hey Lumi?"

Seemed she'd beat him to it. He gave her attention, and the Spinda had a small smile on her face.

"I don't know if I said thanks. For bringing us...well, me along."

He didn't expect that.

"Wha?"

"I mean, obviously I need to thank all of you for the rescue, your dad especially, but more than that, I'm glad I could be a part of something like this."

"But you just got kidnapped. Are you sure you want to be thanking me for that?" he asked, and his brows furrowed. "Did they hurt you at all while they had you?"

"Oh no, nothing like that," she waved him off. "Honestly, it was almost weird how accommodating they tried to be. Heck, Scolipede kept apologizing, like she never wanted to take me in the first place. Besides Swampert being rough towards the end, I'm perfectly fine."

"Are you?"

"Yeah! Well, I'm mostly fine. I feel like I'm a lot of things right now. Like, I'm relieved we all found each other, but also antsy and kind of scared. I feel way out of my depth..."

Her eyes swirls slowed to a near-stop as she paused in pensive silence, but picked up again a few moments later when she leaned forward and a giddy giggle escaped.

"But that's just what I mean! It's all so exciting! The way the aether has impacted the Leyline, all the new phenomena we've seen that has thrown out everything we thought was possible, what might be waiting for us at the tree, it's all so amazing! And we get to be one of the first ones to see it with our own eyes."

Now her excitement started to rub off on him, and he grinned. She took his paws in her own and squeezed them.

"And you! Ever since you showed up, it's just been one wild whirlwind right after another! You're like some kind of wacky danger magnet that just passively accumulates the weirdest, wildest outcomes around him!

"I've noticed."

"Like, pretty much nothing about you is normal. At all!"

"Yeah, I'm learning that about myself too."

"I'm so glad we're on a team together. I feel like if I stick with you, we'll get so in over our heads, we'll eventually uncover some super-ultra-mega secret of the universe, and have no idea how we got there. Gosh, just thinking about it makes my head spin..."

"I feel like we've already discovered a few secrets already," he said with a wink. "And maybe if we keep going, we'll find out if one of those secrets is if a certain Legendary might be interested in a certain Spinda. In fact..."

Lumi stood up to his feet and put his paws on his hips proudly. He looked down at Clara, who now had a faint blush at his words, and pointed at her.

"As your ultimate wingmon, I promise to not rest until we get you at least one date!"

"N-now let's not get ahead of ourselves...we're still focused on Van and Damia, remember?" she mumbled, but then glanced off to the side. "But...uh...you really think s-"

"We can talk about dating after we've survived the next battle. Stay focused."

Damia's firm voice jolted both of them from their conversation. Clara let out a shrill 'eep' and whipped her head around towards the approaching Dragonite.

"How much did you hear!?"

"Lumi made some bold declaration about getting you a date with the god of time, and then you turned into a blushin' mess," said Van as he came up behind her, and idly flipped a spike in his claw. "As much as I wanna hear the details, Damia's right. You got our bags sorted?"

"Oh, yeah! We organized them according to what we thought you'd be most comfortable with. And as agreed, each of you have the reviver seeds." She handed out the bags, and the rest of them shared a look at the mention of the seeds. They'd have to keep an eye on Clara.

"Alright," grunted Van, once everyone equipped their bags. "We have our items. Now we just need to figure out a quick way to get over there." He pointed at the glowing tree in the distance. Damia stepped forward and put a claw to her chest.

"I can fly u-"

"No."

"...Van we talked about this."

"And I said no," The Scrafty frowned up at the Dragonite. "I don't want a repeat of Windy Spire where you get shot out the sky by some Fairy. And plus it would take too long."

"It's the most straightforward solution. We don't have time to come up with something prettier."

"Ooh, wait, that reminds me!" Clara spoke up and stuck her tongue out as she dug around her bag before she pulled out a seed Lumi hadn't seen before. It looked like a tiny, golden spire, with a green vine wrapped around its center. It shone faintly with some kind of energy. He could tell it was valuable.

"We had a Pure seed with all the other stuff! Can't we use this?"

"Clara, those only work with stairs," said Damia. "And this isn't a regular Dung-"

"Stairs? Do you think the tree would count?" asked Lumi with a smile. He walked over, grabbed the seed out of her paw, and picked up a nearby Rollcall orb.

"I'll check."

"W-wait! Lum-"

Lumi bit the seed.

His tongue went numb. A surge of energy traveled down his throat and through the rest of his body, poofing some of his fur on end. His vision shrunk to a tiny pinprick of light, and his body had the strangest sensation of being split apart over a vast area. It only lasted half a second, before something clicked and he got slammed back together. The abrupt shift from losing and regaining form in the span of a second made him fall on his butt onto soft grass, and he sucked in a breath.

His deep breaths hitched as he actually got a look at his new surroundings; specifically, the up close view of the tree, now only a quick jaunt away.

"...Woah..." he breathed. His eyes trailed up and up and up to drink in every detail and sensation.

The base of the trunk, so wide it extended past the immediate area, glimmered a light gold sheen. Thick wood, from the bottom of the trunk to the top of its crown, seemingly miles high, pulsed with waves of color and energy that gave it a strangely incandescent appearance. When he finally beheld the underside of the top, a silent laugh escaped him at the incredible crown of leaves on thick branches that stretched wide over his head; they wavered in soft susurration and sparkled like colorful jewels, so bright it cast the forest floor he sat on into multicolor. This close to the tree, every inch of the forest had been covered in this 'shade' and for a while, amazement kept him rooted to the forest floor while he enjoyed the feast for the eyes.

A low, pained lament sliced through his wonder and replaced it with dread. The ground he sat on trembled with the strength of its undulation, its pain tangible enough to cause a tremor in the ground. He shot to his feet and unfurled his ears on instinct, wary of any attack.

It had been difficult to see amongst the other colors, but now that he was more alert, Lumi noticed a trail of purple and dark pink that bled from a deep gash in the surface of the tree, right in front of him. Wide enough to walk through, the hole had jagged edges and an uneven split. It reminded him more of an open wound than a natural formation, like a layer of loose skin that had torn from being agitated too much. The purple mist seeped from it, along with that dreadful sensation.

Something very powerful, and very hurt waited within the tree.

Lumi sighed and scratched his head. So many variables, so many ways this could all play out, and hardly any useful knowledge to help them prepare. Not that he was much of a planner to begin with. He had no doubt they could eke out a win, they would just have to stay flexible and think on their feet, something that his team was...

"...Oh, that's right. Should probably get them over here," he murmured to himself.

He palmed the Rollcall orb and held it above his head, the image of his team and parents firmly in his mind. It warmed the tips of his paws when he activated it, before it disappeared in a blip of light with little fanfare.

A shrill pop hit the air a few seconds later, followed by a thump. He turned and saw Van, who grumbled as he rubbed his bottom with a wince. His eyes flicked to other little blips of light that spawned in the air, and with a quick succession of more pops, the rest of their group fell to the ground, some more gracefully than others.

"Hey Van, the tree counts as stairs!" he said as he walked over towards the Scrafty. His grin wavered at how Van got up and stalked towards him with an unamused glare, along with the rest of his team.

"What?" He backed up slowly, and mewled as Van grabbed his ears and yanked him up. Soon, he found himself surrounded on all sides by his teammates, and had to look up at their annoyed expressions. A nervous chuckle escaped him as he took in their visible displeasure.

"How many times do we gotta tell you to think before you do somethin' mon?" Van groused, and jostled him by the ears a bit.

"Lumi, that was our only chance to make items, now we can't go back there!"

Damia growled. It sent more of a shiver down his spine than the anguish filled lamentation that emanated from the otherworldly tree they stood in front of.

"Go easy on him kids. His brain has always been a little different. Trust me, we know." He heard his mother say from behind them. After another shake for good measure, Van let him fall to the ground, and joined the others in marveling at their surroundings. Opal stepped forward with wide eyes, head pulled all the way back as she looked up at the tree. As she walked past, she grabbed a small stick on the ground in her psychic grasp, and he cringed as she gave a firm swat on his head with it without a glance.

"Besides, we were low on time anyway. At least we cleared the first hurdle," she murmured. "Now we just have to handle...whatever this is..."

"Judging by how the Dungeon is still stable, we can assume Noivern hasn't made contact with the Keystone yet," observed Damia. "Although, the reason as to why might be a bigger cause for concern. Even from here I can feel some kind of presence, and it's..."

"...Hurting," finished Clara. Everyone glanced at her, and she clasped her paws in front of her. "You guys feel it too, right? That pain? Gosh, I wish I knew what was wrong with whoever's back there. Poor thing..."

"I'm not sayin' you're wrong, but I feel a bit too much Power from whatever is making this to call it a 'poor thing," said Van, and Lumi could tell his breaths had started to get shaky. "Shoot, this is uh...this is real, isn't it?"

Everyone stood still at the entrance to the tree, not quite sure how to take the next steps, but keenly aware of the mounting pressure to do so. It didn't take him long to gather his courage, but just as Lumi raised a leg to step forward, he heard the grass shuffle from behind him.

Clement hadn't said a word since he got teleported over here, yet he stepped past everyone straight towards the mist-seeped opening in the bark. He stopped only a few meters from it, and stood still for a moment before he turned around and crossed his arms. Mouth pressed into a thin line, the Mawile started to scan everyone down the line with intense scrutiny. Searching eyes weighed on each of them for a tense, silent moment, and only after he managed to make Lumi wonder if he had whatever his father was searching for, did Clement finally decide to speak.

"...Creating a plan at this stage would be impossible with this many unknowns. There is simply no way to know how to move forward without diving in headfirst and remaining quick on our feet. Yet, you all showed you were more than capable of doing this from the moment we stepped foot in this cursed place."

His eyes narrowed at Lumi, and the Meowstic knew in an instant that this next part was directed entirely towards him.

"So, I will just say this. You are all aware of what it is like to faint in a Dungeon, correct? We made sure to acquaint you with the feeling before we got in here."

"And I won't forget it..." Lumi heard Van mumble. For his part, a paw raised to rub where his mother had robbed him of consciousness with a big rock. Tough love...

"Then I want to remind you of something very important. Should you fall in battle, and should you not have a Reviver seed on hand to restore your vitality, do not, and I repeat, do not, try and fight your body going into unconsciousness. It is a defense mechanism put in place to conserve the last bit of your energy in a critical situation. If and when you are defeated, lay down and stay down. If things are even remotely the same, the Dungeon will expunge a fallen body outside, where it should ideally be safer."

"Do I make myself clear?"

Each of them responded with nods and soft affirmations. Apparently this didn't please Clement, as he took a step forward and all but growled at them. His second maw hung open.

"I said, do I make myself clear?"

They straightened up.

"Yes, Dad."

"Sir yes sir!"

"Uh-huh, yup!"

"Y-yeah mon, I hear you!"

After their affirmations, he saw Clement's gaze shift to the far left. As one, everyone's heads turned to stare at Opal, who had watched them with a bemused expression. Her ears flattened when the attention shifted towards her.

"What? What's with that look?"

Clement stared harder. A silent argument only he was privy to took place in only half a second, and by Opal's subsequent sigh, his dad won.

"...Yeah alright," she grumbled.

Clement held his stare for a while longer before he gave a slow nod. Some of the tension left his shoulders, and the sternness in his eyes softened to an uneasy wariness.

"...Good."

With another glance back at the opening, Clement locked eyes with Lumi once more and gestured with a hand to join him.

"Come on, then."

It wasn't the most rousing final words before a big showdown, and had more of a 'let's just get this over with' energy. Regardless, Lumi's feet moved even before his father finished speaking. He scampered over to join him with a growing smile on his face, with Opal a few steps behind. He took one look at his dad's face and couldn't help but grin at the absurdity of it all.

Not even two weeks ago, they were a boring family who watched their boring shop in a boring town where nothing happened. Now they were about to step into completely uncharted territory for a fight that would decide the fate of the continent, and maybe even the world.

He hopped onto the bark and took the first step into that opening. The heavy saturation of such a thick concentration of aether weighed down his limbs and forced him to take thin shallow breaths, forced to squint at a destination obscured by the thick haze. Head low, every step became a struggle, and a cough escaped him as he stumbled to his feet.

A firm hand caught him by the shoulder and lifted him up. He could barely make out his dad's grimace through the haze, yet he still pulled Lumi along with a hand hooked under his shoulder, even as his own steps were unsteady. Lumi returned the favor with an arm around Clement's back underneath his horn, and together they braved the miasma towards whatever lay beyond.

---

Inner Sanctum

The fog cleared.

The splash of water underfoot replaced the clack of wood. Toes brushed against a flowered lily pad floating on its surface.

Rainbow light burned his retinas.

Excruciating pain two seconds from now.

Not even a chance to see what was in front of them.

No thought, only the urge to protect compelled his amp orbs forward to generate a shield in front of them. Lumi opened his mouth to scream out a warning, but he couldn't even hear himself over the thunderous clamor of whatever glimmering attack slammed into his shield. If anything did leave his mouth, it was a wail of pure agony from the immediate psychic feedback of trying to hold back something much, much stronger. Concentration cracked and wavered like his shield...

No.

Not yet.. He would make damn sure none of them would be hurt for his sake if he could help it. He owed them this and more.

His ears bled lava, hot skewers of pain punctured his brain, yet his pained howl turned into a determined shout as the urge to protect lifted whatever subconscious restrictions he kept on his psychic power and strengthened his barrier, amplified fourfold by his orbs to let him rebuff it and even push against the attack, if only for a few more seconds.

The acute pain and mental exertion from keeping up the reflect made it feel like much longer. The edges of his vision blurred, explosive sound from all around him beginning to muffle and echo as his strength ebbed.

He had almost spent everything he had before something grabbed him by the tails and pulled.

---

It had taken Van a few seconds to realize they weren't dead.

Well, 'realize' might have been a strong word. He hadn't 'realized' anything, had barely been able to process his feet getting drenched in water before they had been assaulted by a blinding avalanche of light that oozed power, the strongest attack he had ever seen. If he did die right then, he would consider it a rather lame way to go out; flat footed, a stupid dazed look on his face, and his last words would have been a weak little, "The fu-?"

But as it stood, he had very much not died, and he had his insane little Partner to thank for that. Lumi's ears were completely unfurled, arms cast out forward as he held up a shield of light, and he kept that thing up with a fierce roar that Van didn't know the lackadaisical Meowstic was even capable of making.

His bugged out eyes snapped to a crack that shot across the barrier. Another one, spiderwebbed all along the side. Lumi faltered, got pushed back.

Van snapped to focus. A claw delved into his bag, and he moved with only the goal of getting the hell out of there.

"Everyone MOVE!" he screamed, and grabbed Lumi by the tails. With the other hand, he flung a Warp Spike to a spot at the corner of his vision; didn't really matter where as long as it wasn't here.

The Scrafty felt his body compress and disburse, before coalescing at the spot he aimed at, shunted forward a bit more from speed and kicking up water in his wake. Tingles ran up his body, but he didn't pay them any mind. He had gotten intimate with the sensation through testing. He looked down and thanked Arceus that Lumi had also arrived along with him, one thing he had not tested is if he could bring someone else along for the ride, although it seemed like science felt like cutting him a break this once.

He picked up Lumi from the thin layer of water on the ground and propped him up on a knee. The Meowstic's lower body had been drenched, and his eyes, both in his head and his ears, rolled around in random directions.

"Lumi? Lumi, talk to me, please," Van murmured, and shook him a bit. Lumi mumbled something incoherent, and his head lolled off to the side. A warbling sound yanked his attention up, where the plume of water cast up from the strength of the beam finally crashed down as it receded, and Van finally got a look at the thing that made it.

His blood ran cold.

Atop a small hill of green, a four legged stag stood, head arched low to the ground. A crown of mighty antlers, shining majestic colors, reigned high atop its head. Its legs were long, sleeked with black fur that transitioned into a ragged, azure coat from the neck up that nevertheless spoke of unmatched grace. Even from here he could tell it stood full meters above him.

Something primal within the Scrafty recognized this as a Legendary Pokemon and asserted the name Xerneas in his mind.

Violent tremors wracked Xerneas' body and violated the picture of grace. Its proud head swayed left and right as if unsteady, and a purple mist seeped from its wide eyes. A deep grimace formed on its muzzle, and a long, low moan escaped its mouth that reverberated throughout the air and sent ripples along the water.

As he stood, rooted in terror, Vans eye's flit around to absorb more details of their environment.

They were underneath a violet sky that pulsated faintly. Circular islands with lush vines draped over their edges floated in the sky. Lily tipped columns, stone rotundas, gazebos, and other white structures stood amongst flower-filled hedges and other greenery to create beautiful terrace gardens, although some of them had been reduced to rubble. Bridges made of wide, tightly intertwined roots linked the hovering platforms together in a chain.

A black form swooped from the sky and down towards Xerneas. It cut across right in front of it and left quick swipes of pink in the air behind it which tore the very space apart with a sound like shattering glass. Xerneas reared up in pain, and energy gathered in between its antlers that it soon launched out the swirling light attack from before; Aurora Beam. The form swooped up and down in graceful arcs in the air to avoid the beam, and Van realized it was Noivern who expertly swerved beneath root bridges and around a floating island to dodge Xerneas' attack.

A rough tug on his arm tore him from his unblinking stare, and he sputtered as he got pulled along by a strong grip. He stared at Clement's black jaws, and the Mawile hastened to sprint towards one of the root bridges that led to a higher platform.

"Stay close, and hold on to him!" he yelled back. Van reaffirmed a one handed grip around Lumi and made waves in the shallow water as they ran across the way, mindful of the chaos that unfolded a ways away.

"Mr. Clement! Where are-"

"Focus on right now! Do you see that structure up there, across the bridge?" He pointed up at a terrace with a gazebo-like building amidst some hedges. They looked relatively intact.

"We need cover, so let's hurry before it decides to aim at us."

Van coughed out an affirmative and kept going, eyes on the terrace. He jostled Lumi a bit just to make sure he was conscious as they ran, and felt a wave of relief as he felt the Meowstic tighten his grip on shoulder. His amp orbs even trailed along behind in a weak psychic grip.

As they approached the root bridge, a spike of apprehension surged through Van when he realized that they would have to run across this strange, uneven root growth where a misstep meant a straight fall down to nothing.

"Dontlookdowndontlookdowngodammit…" he muttered to himself as they finally took a step onto it, and continued to do so as they ran along. As he tried to keep pace with Clement, who hopped across the root one gnarled twist at a time, Van had a sudden and profound hatred for his fear of heights, and tried desperately to focus on anything else.

A pink glint to the left drew his attention back to the rampaging Xerneas, and he saw what looked like four muscular, disembodied pink arms. He could hear the impact of their strikes against the Legendary's sides from here, and yet it just seemed to make Xerneas billow and wail in anger. However, if he focused on the trajectory of the arms, it almost looked like they came from…

"…Hey, mon? I think we got company ahead," he called out.

"I see it, don't worry. Let me deal with him while you tend to Lumi."

Clement's no nonsense tone actually helped reassure Van, and he picked up the pace across the bridge, the thought of falling into the pink void below now slightly less pressing.

They arrived onto the stone tiles of the floating terrace. Granite benches lined the sides, and a domed gazebo stood in the center, supported by beautiful columns adorned with vines.

The Machamp from before stood inside, arms aglow with pink and exerting strong shouts as he punched forward. A shot of adrenaline pulsed through Van at seeing one of their enemies so close and he stumbled as he stepped on.

He regained his footing, and blinked. Clement had already sprinted halfway across the terrace.

He saw Machamp look over his shoulder, then let out a surprised yelp. Clement jumped up, twisted backwards in the air, and yoinked the Machamp's head straight into his jaws. When he landed on his feet, he proceeded to flail his head around like a mon possessed, banging Machamp's body into the columns so hard it left cracks, and with so much force that an almost comical cloud of motion formed that made it hard to see what was actually going on.

"…dayum…" Van's words left him. He knew first hand how brutal the Mawile could be, but even as he was getting folded, he knew it came from a place of care, concern, and measured strength.

This right here? This wasn't that. This wasn't even the move 'Play Rough.' This was 'Play Downright Belligerent.'

"Is…is Dad…breakdancing?" he heard Lumi mutter in his ear, just as confused. The fact he had recovered enough to speak was overshadowed by how, if he squinted past the Violence Cloud, Van could indeed see Clement rotating on his back with practiced twists of his hips and legs while Macahmp's limbs flailed helplessly.

Maybe it was the chaos of the situation getting to him, his way of coping with something so out of his league. Or maybe this shit really was just that funny. Regardless, a breathy chuckle escaped Van as he watched Clement do work.

The Violence Cloud disbursed as the punishment ended, which in total probably only took like thirty seconds. Clement lay on his back, breathing heavy as his jaws slowly opened to release Machamp's upper body onto the floor. The muscled pokemon fell limp, tongue lolled out and undeniably unconscious.

"...Sorry you had to see that," muttered Clement as he pushed himself up from the ground. "I try to use only as much force as necessary to make enemies submit, but I just don't want to take chances right...now...ow..."

A wince formed on the Mawile's face, and he hunched over at an awkward angle. He reached a paw back and shuddered in pain.

"Ooh, oh my back...haven't moved like that in a while..."

Clement made another attempt to move his arms, and opened his mouth in a silent scream when a loud crack emanated from his spine. Van cringed in sympathy (his mom also had back problems), and was about to go over to assist when a sound like ripped paper tore his attention to the side.

A groan escaped his lips at the sight of a tear in space, which only grew louder when it opened and the Weavile hopped out.

"Goddammit..." he muttered, and quickly lowered Lumi next to a bench behind him and stepped to the front, ready to fight. Her fierce orange eyes locked with his, and she scanned the area before lingering on the downed Machamp and Clement.

Van saw her eyes widen as she realized how swiftly Machamp must have gone down, and how much of a threat Clement had to be to do that, but they soon narrowed in deliberation. His hand still rested on his back. He was weak, if only for a brief moment. Van realized this just a split second behind Weavile, who rushed forward towards the Mawile.

Hampered by his back, Clement couldn't react in time before Weavile grabbed his arm, twisted with her legs, and threw him clean through the portal she made before with a swipe of her claw it disappeared.

So much for another easy win. Van had both claws to his side as he slowly backed up from Weavile, who approached with claws out. His mind tried to come up with a way to get him and Lumi away from her, but he feared any sudden movements would earn a swift retribution. Her stride was measured and steady, but her mouth twisted in a frustrated snarl.

"Out of pity for you, I will only make this offer once," she growled. "Use an escape orb and flee this place, or else suffer a very painful defeat."

"...Hold up." Van stopped his retreat and raised a brow. "Pity? The hell do we need that for?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she replied. As if to make her point, the platform they were on shook with the force of some attack from the brawl happening on the other side of the environment they were in.

"This isn't the place for you two. You could get hurt or worse. Especially you, Scrafty." She gestured at him with a claw. "I said as much and I'll say it again, you're we-"

"Call me weak and see what happens, I swear to Arceus!"

God, this bitch pissed him off. Whatever fear he had started to bleed away into annoyance.

"Or what will happen? Hmm? Will you hide behind someone stronger like you did every time we've met so far, you coward?"

"Uh, guys?" chirped Lumi. Van barely registered his words over the mounting ire in his chest.

"Hold on Lumi. Oh, so I'm the coward!? That little weak ass portal shit you got, where you hop outta nowhere just to jump people, that's fine, but I'm a coward? Nah, you're trippin' mon."

"I have trained for over a year to master this technique that only enhances a lifetime of work to attain a level of combat effectiveness you could never hope to reach, you idiot! I could break you in eighteen different ways just from here!"

"Oh yeah? Well you should have mastered the technique of taking a bath, you raggedy looking piece of-"

"Guys!"

"Quiet Lumi!" Mauve yelled back. "Your limp-footed Scrafty friend is clearly so scared, he's latching on to any false bravado he can muster in an attempt to save face. Perhaps when I'm done rearranging said face, he'll actually have something to be proud of when he looks in the mirror and notices the improvement from before."

"First of all, don't use his name like you know him. Second of all, you really think I'm scared of you? It don't even matter if you could beat me, cuz I know all you're really good at is running away. Give me a fuckin' week, I'll whip up something that'll hurt way more than that little love tap I gave you earlier!"

"You'll have to 'whip up' some new legs after I'm done with you!" she yelled, and started to stomp forward.

"Oh my God you two I'm serious we need to-" Lumi tried to rush ahead to get between them, but Van muscled past him to meet her head on, and actually slammed his forehead against hers.

As if he'd ever back down. This bitch has attacked them, insulted them, and even spit on their generous hospitality. On his honor as a Scrafty, there was no way he was letting that fly any more.

"Come on then! Scrap! Duel! I ain't no bitch!" he screamed in her face, claws balling up handfuls of his pants.

"With pleasure! Enough talk, let's-"

"For the love of- LOOK!"

Van felt Lumi's paw reach up to grab his chin. He saw the other paw grab and squish Weavile's face, then twisted both of them to look up and to the side.

With the tips of its legs wretched in gold and standing on ripples in midair, Xerneas stood on its hindlegs above them, form almost obscured from the terrible luster of the energy that pooled from its antlers. It gathered into a swirling ball in between the antlers, and a fierce roar left its mouth, mirrored by the vehement glare in its purple-cast eyes.

A swirling beam exploded from between them. Without conscious thought, Van shoved Lumi forward as hard as he could, and only just barely jumped back far enough to narrowly avoid the Aurora Beam that crashed into the ground.

Van shouted, hands holding him up on the ground as bricks and stone burst from where the beam carved into the terrace garden. His heart chilled as the ground they stood on started to lurch, and dropped further when he realized this thing would actually destroy the whole floating island they stood on. He looked to the right as the beam cut a jagged path through the plants and stone structures, leaving sparkles and a trail of destruction in its wake along the small area.

Lumi and Weavile stumbled back from the chaos across from him. He staggered to his feet to try and reach his Partner, but a quake in the ground sent him to his feet again. He looked up, and blanched as the ground Lumi stood on seemed to sink further and further below. The beam destroyed enough of the island to cause its foundations to crumble and fall to the void below.

A fissure formed between them that grew larger with every passing second. Xerneas' roar and the clamor of the chaos around him silenced as the adrenaline of everything pushed him into a state of hyperfocus, and he ripped out another Warp spike to pull back and aim.

His target burned into his mind: Lumi, held tightly in the clutches of Weavile.

His jaw set with determination as he whipped his arm forward, focused sharpened to a pinpoint.

The ground quaked, his legs fell from under him, and he let go, aim disrupted.

A desperate yell escaped him. The image of Lumi and Weavile, buried beneath crumbling stone and greenery as the island finally fell apart, burned into his mind before he disappeared from the spot.

---

Boon watched the floating island break apart by the might of Xerneas. The crash of sound as it fell to pieces reached him while he stayed aloft in the air all the way across the sanctum.

"Casualty confirmed: Cole has been defeated. I no longer sense him in the vicinity, he must have been ejected by the Dungeon," Vox's wispy voice entered his mind. "I am unable to confirm the status of Mauve, besides the fact that she is still here, along with Meowstic somewhere below. What an unfortunate turn of events..."

He snorted. An understatement. Everything had gone straight to hell.

He had come inside expecting to finish his mission and drown himself in the nearest bar to forget any of this happened right afterward. Now he was two, maybe even three mon down against a roided up Legendary who only got madder when attacked, and somehow the little hero's group managed to find a way to get here to cause even more complications.

"Just one thing after another, isn't it?" he murmured as he snapped his claws, bore the encroaching vertigo, and blinked to right above the massive stag's head. Before it could do anything, Boon raised a claw bathed in pink, then slashed it down. A crescent-shaped blade shot out from where he slashed that warped the space around it, and rushed towards Xerneas. The impact burst into smaller cuts that slashed against both its hide and the space around it with the sound of broken glass.

It winced for half a second, then turned its attention to Boon. A whisper of something primal, angry, and unintelligible escaped its mouth before its antlers glowed white with energy that channeled to their tips. It coalesced into an image of the moon, and Boon didn't need to see any more before he promptly flew away.

He'd been clipped by Moonblast earlier in the fight, and it almost took him out of commission.

"On the bright side, Aurum has done an admirable job holding the attention of the three other interlopers." she continued. "They are currently locked in melee on the leftmost platforms."

Boon processed her words as he pulled off a frantic barrel roll to swerve just inches out of the approaching Moonblast's way, which hurtled off like a bright pink comet to crash into some building in the distance. His eyes trailed from the destruction down to the Falinks in question, who had apparently 'armied up' again in order to deal with the Dragonite, Spinda, and Espeon on one of the far terraces.

What once may have been a beautiful sculpture garden amidst a floating meadow of flowers had been reduced to an absolute warzone as the collection of Aurum forced Dragonite to hover in the air with Spinda while Espeon chucked broken pieces of granite around on the ground.

"Very helpful, considering our sudden drop in numbers, particularly at the beginning of this."

"Remind me to get Pads something nice after this. Poor guy..." Even being chased by an angry Legendary, Boon still winced at how swiftly Pads had been incapacitated.

They had arrived at the serene sight of these floating islands, with a large, stone tree in the center. The tree then came alive, screamed at them, and bowled Pads over with its antlers before anyone really knew what was going on. The Swampert fainted so decisively, the Dungeon kicked him out before he even hit the ground.

It felt like they had been playing catch up ever since.

"But if he's got their attention, that frees us up to deal with this guy." He dropped into a nose dive to avoid another blast. "You in position for another pass?"

"Yes. please lead it down towards the middle rotunda. I believe I can get a clear shot." Vox's voice whispered in his head. He echoed an affirmative and banked down to the right, above the central island and towards a smaller one with a few stone structures on it. He glanced over his shoulder to confirm that he still had the rampaging Legendary's attention, and indeed, Xerneas galloped towards him in midair, golden rippled emanating from thin air where it stepped.

It roared in some mixture of agony and righteous fury as another blast burst from its antlers. Boon tightened his wings around his form and twisted. The sting of Fairy energy brushed against his chin.

"Here big guy, just keep following my ass...there you go, nice and steady..." He intentionally slowed near the structures and hoped that this little gambit would work out.

Xerneas approached and picked up speed, its head lowered to spear him with its antlers. At the same time, he saw Vox step out from behind a gazebo, head high and faced up towards the Legendary. A deep purple aura sloshed and churned around her large body, the poison energy of Venoshock ready to be released. To give her a good shot, Boon stopped cold right above her, waited right before he got bowled over by Xerneas, and then snapped away as soon as it shunted its antlers up.

He popped in a few meters to the side and watched as a stream of poison slammed directly into Xerneas' face from below. It yanked its head back and let out a pained scream that seemed to shake the sky itself.

To his relief, it seemed that this attack actually made it falter.

"I'm going in!" he called, eager to take advantage of the opportunity. In the seconds that Xerneas was off balance, Boon beat his wings to fly close to its head, and the insides of his large ears started to rattle and glow white with energy. He sucked in a huge intake of breath, and the white energy in his ears brimmed with power, ready to release Boomburst at point blank.

Xerneas glowed a bright pink, and its form abruptly shifted into a ball of light that floated away. His Boomburst sputtered and died into sad soundwaves halfway through as the large orb of light float away to hover above the central island, only to reform back into Xerneas after another brief flash.

"Oh come on..." he grumbled. Boon leaned forward to rush in, but grew wary when the large stag stood still and bowed its head. Unsure what nature of attack this was, Boon chose to watch as Xerneas' closed its eyes. The unhinged, erratic movements from before stopped as an eerie calm began to emanate from the Legendary, who seemed to enter a meditative state on command.

The water it stood on took on a strange, pink tint, before golden light streamed from Xerneas hooves and sent golden ripples through the water, which ruptured and grew stronger before exploding into bright pillars of light all around it in a circle. Power emanated from everywhere around Xerneas. Boon struggled to reconcile the simultaneously peaceful and dreadful sensation it exuded.

If he looked closely, strange, gem-like sparkles coalesced from the water and surrounding plant life to be drawn towards Xerneas' form; a representation of life energy itself, he realized, but something seemed...off.

Improper, almost. As if some beautiful interaction between a Legendary and its element had been perverted. Flowers and bushes sprouted all across the grass, yet wrinkled into weeds. On the water, the lily pads browned and shriveled up, while reeds shot up only to droop and wilt. A sickeningly sweet smell assaulted his nose, and he glanced around to see a disturbing number of thorns had grown on the root bridges that led to the other terrace gardens, each of which sported a number of new, unnatural deformities.

This power hadn't been gently requested. No thoughtful exchange of energy, considerate of the delicate balance of nature or the ecosystem took place. Xerneas took power, the environment paid the price, and it grew strong.

Very strong, as noted by how it raised its head, and the sudden shift in demeanor Boon could tangibly feel. The sense of primal barbarism it gave off only seconds ago had dissipated, replaced by some long forgotten decorum, and even the way it raised its head to look out upon its domain had a kindling of divinity that made Boon float just a few feet back. He realized everything had gone silent, even the fighting from below, as everyone's attention locked onto Xerneas.

Its eyes still bled a purple mist, but they had become focused and sharp. Its wits had returned to it, enough to utter something other than a roar of pain, and much more chilling.

"Begone."

Its antlers glowed bright white and almost seared Boon's retinas. A massive swath of energy gathered above its head to form a huge projection of the moon above its head. It reared up on its hindlegs,

Xerneas used Moonbl-

A massive stone column shot from below and slammed into its head. The moon projection ceased as its head snapped to the side.

"Thanks for standing still, dumbass!" shouted a fiery voice from below. Boon's eyes snapped down to see Espeon, who stood defiant at Xerneas with a collection of broken columns wreathed in a psychic glow as her artillery. She cocked one of them back in preparation for another throw.

A stupid grin grew on his face, and fierce pride welled up in his chest at the sight of her. Something deep inside told him that only this Espeon would ever think to do something like that. Not-quite memories, more like half remembered feelings of fondness for her, draped over him like a warm blanket, and reminded him that of course Op...

Op...huh. What was her name? Op...Opera? Opossum?

A shout.

Displaced air shunted into Boon and forced him back. He glanced up and saw Xerneas gallop on midair with unparalleled speed, much faster than before. Espeon launched her columns with impressive force, yet Xerneas swerved around them as it bore down towards her, only seconds away. She wouldn't be able to dodge in time.

Boon blinked.

He clutched something tight in his feet and flew with all haste above the ruined sculpture garden and forward before he even knew what he had done. Something squirmed in his grasp, and he looked down.

Espeon hung from his lower talons, midriff held in a vice grip. A yelp escaped her as her legs dangled in midair, trees and gardens speeding by underneath them.

Her eyes met his. Her flailing stopped cold.

She looked pissed.

"Lucent! What are you doing!?"

A migraine formed at the use of the name, but he didn't get a chance to dwell on it when the shrill sound of a laser behind jolted his focus. He glanced back to the sight of a brighter Aurora beam trailing him by only a few feet,drawing a line of destruction across everything it touched. Boon put everything aside and focused on beating his wings to stay ahead. The landscape below became a blur.

Freezing cold singed the tip of his tail, and on instinct he tried to snap forward, but only ended up a foot or two ahead and with a pounding headache as a bonus. The constant fighting, flying, teleporting, and now the added weight of Espeon had started to take its toll.

"Lucent! It's gaining!" he heard her yell from below. He let out a tired grunt; he couldn't go any faster, and he feared what would happen if he risked another teleport with a passenger again. He could let her go, or...

His heart made the decision before his brain could stop him. He swung his feet up to fling Espeon up into his arms, curled his wings around her, and held her tight to his chest.

"This might sting a little," he murmured. To himself or her, he wasn't sure.

His chest lurched as he entered freefall, wings clutched around himself and his passenger to brace for the inevitable impact. Penetrating cold lanced his side and along his right wing a second later. Boon sucked in a gasp of pain, and tucked his head in further, his fall knocked into a chaotic spin that hurtled to one of the islands below.

An ornate, granite fountain broke his fall. His weight and momentum made him crash through it and skid along a stone floor back first, dust and rubble scattered alongside. Breaths sputtered out of his mouth in a light wheeze. Fresh pain throbbed all over his back and along the edges of his wings.

A dull ringing buzzed in his ears as he stared dazedly at the purple sky above, but the empty space on his chest made him blink to alertness. Although it made every part of his body scream in protest, Boon pushed his upper body up with a grimace to look around for Espeon on the plaza they had landed on, unable to do much more than weakly tilt his chest. He didn't spot her, and his gaze tilted up as Xerneas galloped forward, ready to finish the job. It slowed to hover above the island, and looked down on him with impunity as its horns resumed its earlier gathering of energy.

The largest Moonblast he had ever seen exploded from its antlers. Barely able to muster the energy to crawl away, Boon was ready to curse everything as it descended upon him when he heard the patter of paws beat on the stone.

A blur of pink rushed past his peripherals, and then Espeon ran in front of him. The ground itself ripped from its foundations with every step she took, chunks of earth and stone psychically removed and taken to accumulate into a wall in front of her. Her fur had poofed out with the psychic energy that undulated across her body, backlit by the luster of her gem that shone bright enough to almost match the massive Moonblast.

It all happened so fast. Her scream melded with a loud crash and then blinding white. An immense impact launched Boon back with sheer force alone.

Weightless.

Silence.

.

.

.

Breath.

He breathed. He could breathe. Shallow, dim spurts interspersed with raucous coughs, but he could breathe.

Was he outside? Did he faint and wake up outside the Dungeon? A weak moan of frustration escaped his cracked lips at the thought, but he figured he might as well make sure. It took a few flutters of his eyelids, but eventually he cracked open one eye to take a look at his surroundings.

A large hole in a far wall caught his attention first. It looked vaguely Boon-shaped, and a cloud of fresh dust scattered as crushed bricks crumbled from the top of it. He spied a glint of a purple sky past the bricks, so that meant he was still in the Leyline, thankfully. A glance to the left and right showed he had ended up in one of the little structures on the terrace, a low roof over his head and cramped walls.

He himself lay splayed out over a pile of ruined wall. His tail looked to be squashed under a slab of granite, he didn't think his leg was supposed to bend quite that far back, and he didn't even want to look at the state of his wings, but he wasn't unconscious. Jacked up beyond much reason, but he supposed that was pretty good when you went up against a surprise Legendary.

Something shifted on his chest, and he looked down.

Espeon lay crumpled against him. Streaks of red cut across her body, sleek fur now unkempt and in some places burned off altogether. He could barely see her chest rise and fall; only the absolute silence allowed him to hear her butterfly light breaths. Xerneas must have decided it had done its job and gone somewhere else.

She'd been in front of him. Took everything Xerneas intended for him point blank with only some rocks for cover.

Why?

He wrenched a slow, shaky talon up and willed it to nudge her head. Once, twice, and again until she wheezed. Not quite fainted yet, but on her way.

"H-he..." his hoarse voice coughed, then tried again. "Hey...talk to me."

She coughed again, but he saw one of her bent ears flick in his direction.

"...Was a big hit...you're not walkin' this one off. Dungeon's gonna eject you, you know," he murmured. "...Why'd you do it?"

Her wheezes steadied then, and for a moment he thought she had already fainted, until he felt her press against his chest. It must have been a herculean effort, dipping into energy she shouldn't have been to do it, but she put just enough force to roll over so she could look him in the eyes. One eye had been swollen shut with a purple bruise on its way, and blood dribbled from her nose and her forehead.

None of that detracted from her expression; a mixture of frustration, exasperation, and somehow, relief that made something in him melt.

"...You're..." she said after a moment. "...family...keep..."

Her eyes blinked and her voice got more quiet, but she kept going.

"Keep...our family...safe..."

The words left her mouth, and she closed her eyes again. Her body started to glow, and rapidly grew brighter until she couldn't be seen beneath a ball of light. Boon raised a claw up to try and touch her again, but before long the ball raised up in the air, and then blipped from existence.

A fog gripped his mind. His claw stayed raised and grasped at where she used to be, though he didn't quite know why. At that moment, everything felt so far away, especially the battle that surely raged on right outside this abandoned building. He couldn't think of it, any of it.

He just wanted her here. And he didn't know why.

"-on. Boon. Will you please respond? What is your status?"

Vox's voice. By the light intone in her voice, she had been asking for a while.

"...Uh...yeah. Yeah I'm...still here," he managed through a few coughs.

"Fortunate. I had feared the worst when Xerneas attacked you. It has become much more-" he thought he heard something like an explosion. "...active. Do not worry, I will make my way to your position to make sure you are well."

Oh God. Was she alright? That hit didn't have lasting damage did it? Espeon was stronger than that. Surely Op...Op...goddamit what is her name!?

"Boon, did you hear me? I said-"

"Yeah, actually, better idea. Just focus on getting the hell out of its way, don't bother coming for me right now. I'll uh...I'll just take five."

"Are you certain?"

"I'm-damn..." pain lanced up his right wing, and he grimaced. "Look, I'm fucked up but I'm safe for now. Just..give me a minute, I can walk it off. Coordinate with whoever is left and decide if we should stay or bail, the situation's kinda out of hand."

"...Very well," she murmured after a few moments. "I will be sure to keep you posted."

"Thanks."

He felt her presence in his head leave, and he let out a deep exhale. Five minutes. He needed five minutes to breathe.

What did she mean by 'family'?

That word, and the way she said it, replayed in his mind endlessly. Hell, his mind kept playing the last five minutes over and over again, and not by choice. The sudden silence and isolation forced him to confront everything he had tried to push to the side in favor of the goal they had worked towards for so long.

The sound of sliding rubble drew his attention up. He saw a black hand grip the side of the hole, and his blood ran cold. The rest of the pokemon came into view; cream body caked with dirt, and a massive jaw.

Mawile stood in the makeshift entrance and scanned the room, eyes creased in concern. When they finally landed on Boon's limp form, they stopped. He watched Mawile's face stiffen, then go completely blank.

They both stared at each other.

His headache flared up.

---

Did Clara think she would be in the middle of a warzone with at least fifty Falinks in some kind of alternate dimension while an angry god rampaged above them when she woke up this morning?

Not really, although with how her life had been going these past few days, perhaps it should have been in the cards.

Did Clara think she was actually contributing all that much? That was debatable, she mused, as she stumbled her way amongst a crowd of Falinks clones.

Sure, of the six of them, she might not have been the strongest, and didn't even have her main weapon with her like some of the others, but if anyone asked her, she would say she had been doing her honor as an Absol apprentice proud. She gripped an Infatuate wand tightly in one paw, and a Confuse wand in another, and turned what used to be a fifty on two situation into something like a twenty five on two, with some leeway in between. The Falinks either fought amongst themselves, or bumped into eachother while they scrambled to simp for her, and the whole time she fell over on her feet trying to get out of the way while Damia ripped and tore until it was done.

Did Clara think she'd be of any use against the aforementioned rampaging god when she saw it turn from obliterating the scariest Espeon she's ever met and the loud Noivern who could shatter space itself like it was nothing?

Oh hell no.

So when Clara saw Xerneas turn from its latest bout of destruction and set its sights on them, she meant to yell out a clear and concise warning for her and Damia to make an escape. What actually left her mouth was a mixture of a whine, squeal, and vaguely ursine grunt that left her in a coughing fit while she pointed frantically ahead.

Thankfully, Damia had become accustomed to the weird sounds her Partner would make on occasion, and got the message. Clara felt strong, scaly arms lift her up and into Damia's chest while the ground disappeared beneath her, and they zoomed away from the ruined sculpture garden they had fought on and towards another island lined with very thick hedges that could be used as cover.

Damia made a rough landing behind the hedge and crouched her body low, allowing Clara to slip out of her grasp to fall to her knees. She put a paw to her chest and breathed in deep; she hadn't even realized how hard her heart had been beating, everything had gone from zero to a hundred in an instant once they stepped inside.

"Clara, are you alright? Here, take this."

Damia proffered an oran berry in a claw, but Clara shook her head and pushed it back.

"I'll be fine, just need a second to catch my breath," she huffed. "Thanks to you and miss Opal, I kinda avoided alot of damage from Falinks."

"That's one good thing at least..." Damia got on one knee and peeked her head over the hedge to look over. Clara crawled to the side and looked around to get a better view of the situation.

Although they were annoying, the Falinks were doing a great job of keeping Xerneas' attention. They scattered from the island they were on to others, and although Xerneas dispatched them with concerning ease, there were so many that it started to glide all around the arena to eradicate the helmeted pests.

They had some breathing room. For now.

Clara watched on, but her ear flicked at the sound of cracked stone. She turned and saw Damia's fist mashed into the stone floor, shattered in bits. An agitated, stressed growl rumbled from her that Clara didn't often hear, and she looked at the ground with furrowed eyes.

"This is bad," she murmured. "Where are the boys? Clement? I don't know if Opal is still with us after that attack, and without her strength I don't know how we can..."

She trailed off, and took off her satchel to rifle through it with haste, eyes focused. Clara wanted to say something that may help, but couldn't think of any bright ideas either, so she resumed her vigil on their latest obstacle. Her eyes were glued to every movement Xerneas made;

Despite the terror in her heart at the sight of it, and the singleminded impunity with which it sought to eliminate them, Clara wrestled to reconcile the wrath in front of her with the pain that echoed from its voice every time it attacked. When it roared, she listened closely, and found that what she had assumed was rage held an undertone of pain. The same pain they had heard echo from the tree.

Every move it made, no matter how much it strove to maintain a veneer of composure, seemed to be a struggle. Every attack exerted it somehow. She wouldn't have been surprised if it wasn't even properly aware of its surroundings.

Well, that might not be entirely true, now that she thought about it.

"It...spoke." the words escaped her before she realized it, and her eyes widened at the revelation.

"What?" asked Damia.

"Remember? It said 'begone.' It spoke!"

"Yes, I remember. What does that have to do with-"

"M-maybe if it's well enough to speak, it can tell us what's wrong. We could help it!"

"Are you-Clara what the hell are you saying? This thing is dangerous!"

"Obviously, but I think there's more to it than that. I mean, look around, do you think any of this seems...right?" Clara gestured up at the purple, miasmic sky. "Look how wonky the aether has made its home, and to top it off we just barged in without an invitation. If it were me, I'd be a little upset too."

One of the Dragonite's eyes twitched, and she leaned down with a fang bared in frustration.

"Damn it this is not the time for you to get 'nice,' Clara! We have more important things to worry about than how this Legendary feels. We came here to pause the Keystone, stop aether from ruining everything, clear our guilds name, and get home safely. That is what you should be focused on right now!"

"How that Legendary feels will decide if we can even get home safe, Damia," growled Clara. She stood up and balled her paws at the dragon, annoyed that she wasn't being heard. "I'm not being 'nice,' I'm trying to figure out a way for us all to get out of here without something terrible happening! Or do you really think we can actually punch this thing until it stops, after what you just saw what it did to Opal, Noivern, and like half our team?"

"That's not-"

"We don't even know where the Keystone is. We don't even know if there is a Keystone in here! But if it can speak, if there's even a chance of us learning more and maybe even convincing it that we aren't a threat, then we need to take it."

"What, you think because you're on a first name basis with Dialga that you're suddenly some kind of 'Legendary whisperer?' We don't even know how talkative Xerneas would be on a good day, much less when it's going insane."

If her conversations with Dialga were anything to go by, Legendaries were very much capable of civil conversation. Damn what Damia, or even what mister Clement said. Her heart wanted to help alleviate its burden, but more than that, her mind longed to understand what made it act the way it did.

She said as much with crossing her arms and not budging. Damia held her gaze for a while, then rolled her eyes, exasperated.

"Look, I'm not…alright fine, you want to talk about what we know? Then let's put our information together and see what we know."

With one last glance over the hedge to make sure they wouldn't be bothered, Damia lowered herself more until she was face to face with Clara.

"I think you're right that something is clearly wrong. Its behavior is erratic and hostile, which we are assuming is not the norm. We also know that we are in a Leyline, which presumably has vastly increased aetheric density at its core that is the cause of this heightened level of deviation. From this, maybe we can conclude that its prolonged exposure to this level of aether has altered its mind to behave irrationally. Wouldn't that eliminate communicating it from the plan, if it's not present enough to hear you?"

"I see where you're coming from, but hear me out. Let's think about Keystones for a sec. They are aether regulators, right? We know that for sure because it came from Dialga's mouth. And we also know that Dungeons with exposed Keystones have different properties than normal ones, including more hazards. Remember the creepy Dusknoir sentry Purl's team mentioned, and the army of birds at Windy Spire? Maybe they're that way for a reason."

"Are you suggesting that active Dungeons are the way they are because they are trying to protect their newly exposed Keystone?" ventured Damia. Clara nodded eagerly, but Damia seemed Dubious. "Not a bad theory, but what does that have to do with the current situation? You already pointed out that there isn't a Keystone here. At least, not one that we've found."

"True, but we need to operate off the assumption that Leylines follow the rules of other Dungeons to some extent, which means there is something here that regulates the aether somehow, and whatever that something is, it's broken."

"And you are proposing that Xerneas is..."

"The protector of that regulator, yes. I'm not ruling out that exposure to too much aether is messing with its head, but there may also be the added element that it thinks we are a threat to what it's protecting. But that's the thing, we aren't! We are here to specifically put a pause on aether production, not cause any further harm. If we can find a way to communicate our intentions to Xerneas, maybe that can calm it down some."

"Even if that's true, it's basically in 'eradicate on sight' mode. How do you propose we actually calm it down to talk?"

"Ummmm...well we might need to impair it first. It's a little ridiculous after it buffed itself earlier. I made a Foe-Seal orb earlier, and I have some Slumber wands we can use to make it more lethargic."

"Pass me some of those then. I have a Slow orb I can also use. I have a feeling it's too strong for the effects to last for more than a few moments, but it's better than nothing."

"Hopefully by that time we can at least get it talking."

"You know this isn't much of a plan, right?"

"Aurum disagrees! Aurum very supportive of plan!"

The two girls stopped cold, and slowly turned their head to the source of the multilayered voice. A platoon of Falinks stared back at them, huddled together as if they had been a part of their little meeting from the starts.

Clara jerked backwards, prepared to move in case of a fight, but when her mind caught up with her body, she realized something that made her eye swirls spin rapidly. By the way Damia's whole body became rigid, she had the same thought.

If Falinks was here, then where was...

"Falinks..." Damia said, very slowly. "Please tell me you didn't bring-"

The hedge next to them billowed as something large approached from above. Clara didn't really want to look up to see what it was. A booming voice that made her bones shiver forced a whimper out of her mouth.

"Damn..."

"Leave this place."

Before she could blink, Clara had been wrapped tight in Damia's arms. She felt the weightlessness of lift off for a split second, but it didn't last before a loud boom assaulted her ears, and something caused Damia to lose her grip, flinging Clara a ways away. The Spinda rolled on tiled floors for a bit before she scrambled to her knees. Ahead, Xerneas floated above a deep crater that had replaced that hedge they hid behind, pink sparkles of Moonblast already dissipating. The Falinks got blown back and separated, seemingly knocked out.

Damia lay on her stomach only a few meters in front of her, prone and still. A shining light flew from her bag and hovered over, before dispuring in sparkling light that settled over her form. A second later, Clara saw Damia's chest rise and fall, and start to move again. Well, there went one reviver seed.

Her teeth were grit as she struggled to push herself up by her arms, but a look at her wounded side showed that she had borne the brunt of the attack. She may have been up, but she still needed help.

Clara's heart skipped a beat, but she suppressed her instinctive pain at seeing her Partner down and mashed a paw into her bag for a Pounce wand. They at least thought that far ahead. She took it out, and a flick of the wrist warped her the short distance in a split-second to crouch at Damia's side.

Her eye swirls slowed as she took in the bruising along the side of Damia's face and upper right side near her wing. Her normally pristine orange scales had bruised red, with a nasty crack along her side. A very, very strong hit.

"Don't worry sis, I'm here," she murmured as she fished out an Oran. The shrill sound of accumulating energy made her ears flick, no doubt Xerneas preparing another attack. Damia must have seen it too, because she tried to point a claw ahead.

Clara ignored it and focused on her task, deliberately pushing down the rising fear in her chest. With a wound like this, it would be better to apply the Oran to the problem areas, if she remembered her studies correctly. She forced her shaking hands to squeeze the berry for its juices, and started to rub it along Damia's side.

"Clara..." Damia pushed out through a wince. "B-behind..."

"I hear it, don't worry," she assured, entirely for Damia's sake. Maybe if she were Lumi she'd actually believe those words, but as for herself, she had to fight down rising panic. She didn't have anything else in her bag that could get them safely out, and tending to Damia's wounds was the first thing her mind latched onto in the few seconds she had.

The gathering energy reached a fever pitch, and she stole a glance behind to see bright pink gathering on Xerneas' antlers. A scared whimper left her mouth, and without thinking she covered as much of Damia as she could with her own body, which really wasn't much, but dammit what the hell else was she supposed to do!?

The sound of gathering energy reached a fever pitch. She closed her eyes and braced for the impact that…

Didn't come.

The sound cut off abruptly. A pained wail took its place, and a familiar voice shouted over it.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

Clara opened her eyes and looked up. Her mouth fell in awe.

Van hung from a spike jabbed in Xerneas' eye, limbs flailing and screaming his head off. Xerneas' head swayed left and right, but Van held his spike in a death grip. One of his hands left the spike to dig into his flailing bag, and he ripped out a purple orb. It started to flash with a dull beeping sound that quickened, and once it reached its peak, he placed both his feet on its chin and pushed off to jump away.

He tossed the orb in midair straight at Xerneas, and it exploded point blank in its face. Van fell the distance into a heavy roll and came out into a hasty sprint to skirt around Xerneas, and he took out two more orbs: a purple orb that he threw which exploded after a delay, and a green orb that he lobbed in their direction that burst into a shimmering wall that obfuscated the sight in front, erasing it from view.

He never once stopped screaming.

"Woah..." Clara murmured in complete amazement. Did he plan that whole thing? A Warp spike to get in, two Blast orbs to do burst damage and disorientate it, and a Camo Orb to hide their position for protection while he soloed a Legendary.

Did he think of all that on the spot? Oh, he was getting the biggest hug once they got home.

Then she looked down and saw Damia's eyes wider than she had ever seen them, and wondered if Van might be getting a little something else when they were home.

"Our hero has arrived," chirped Clara as she hurriedly returned to tending to Damia.

"Van…" she murmured. The trembling increased, her whole body started to shake, and Clara worried that something might have gone wrong.

"Damia? What's u-"

Damia exploded upwards to stand on her feet, which blew Clara back onto her butt.

"That's what I'm FUCKING TALKING ABOUT!" she roared, and then lurched forward.

"W-wait, you're still..." her words fell on deaf ears as the Dragonite disappeared past the Camo orb's invisible barrier, which warbled almost imperceptibly. Clara took a second to gather herself, before she rushed ahead to join the fray.

A flurry of motion assaulted her eyes when she passed the Camo barrier. She saw Van flick spike after spike at Xerneas, only to disappear from sight and then reappear twenty meters to the left just in time to avoid a quick Aurora beam. Xerneas couldn't focus all its attention on the Scrafty, as a renewed Damia roared from above it.

Rather than go aggressive with regular moves, it seemed she took their earlier conversation to heart, and dropped an orb that burst on top of Xerneas. Its frightening speed from before visibly slowed, which allowed Damia to actually avoid most of the attacks sent her way.

"You two, get back! I'm gonna drop it!" she shouted. Clara wondered what she meant by that, until she saw Damia come out of a dive roll in midair and palm an almost pitch black orb she hadn't seen before. A new design?

She reared an arm back and launched the orb at the ground beneath Xerneas. It burst on impact into a strange, dark explosion that seemed to suck in the light around it. Xerneas screeched as it abruptly dropped towards the black burst. Its legs shook as it struggled to stand, but a force kept it rooted to that spot.

Even from many meters away, Clara felt a gravitational pull drag her a few inches towards where that orb landed. Ah, that must be it; Damia made an adjustment to her Gravity Orb design. Seems Van wasn't the only one testing out new ideas.

A light flashed a few feet next to her, and Van appeared in a crouch. He breathed heavily, a dull spike clutched in one of his claws. Clara hopped over and gave an affectionate nudge.

"Couldn't have come at a better time," she said, but then glanced around. "Hey, where's Lumi?"

"Wish I knew, mon," he replied. Her ears flicked in worry, but the sight of Xerneas's struggling focused her on the task at hand. Van got into a sprinters pose, ready to bolt. "So what's the plan here?"

"Slow it down as much as possible, then ask it to stop attacking?"

"...figures"

"Throw everything at once, now!" shouted Damia from up ahead, Foe-Seal orb already in hand. Clara pulled out a Slow Wand and tossed it to Van, who caught it and ran ahead. For her part, she took a Sleep Wand and followed behind. She hoped that all of this at once would buy them at least a little time.

Damia dropped the Foe-Seal orb. It flashed as it fell. Xerneas' struggling cries hitched as its body movements started to stutter and jerk. Not wasting time, Van waved the Slow Wand, which dissipated from his claw into a wave of force that washed over the Legendary, making its movements that more sluggish. He backed off, but Clara ran ahead.

She reared back her arm to wave the Sleep wand, tongue out to make sure she aimed just right, but her footing got tripped up by the gravitational pull, having not realized how close she had gotten. The Spinda yelped as she stumbled forward, further into its pull, and her feet flew out from under her as she flew over straight towards Xerneas' head.

A grunt escaped her as her body slammed into its snout, arms and legs clenched around its muzzle. She looked up and large violet-tinged eyes stared back at her own; the eye Van stabbed was shut tight, and purple seeped through its eyelids. Clara didn't even register Van and Damia's shouts, when she realized she was now the focus of attention of this creature that could easily obliterate her if it so wished.

The sheer vitriol in its other eye told her that it very much wished to.

"Um. Hi?" she squeaked. Xerneas' eyes sharpened and it jerked its head left and right to shake her off, and she clutched on for dear life. She remembered the Sleep wand still in her paw, and she loosened her deathgrip just enough to raise and swipe it in its face. Its movements slowed noticeably when it dissipated into a blue mist. Its eye lost some of its edge as, at least for a moment, it became hampered by all of the effects they had stacked on it.

Okay. Now for the hard part: convincing it they weren't a threat.

"Um...uh..." words died on the tip of her throat. Anxiety hampered her thought process. Clara didn't think she was exactly gifted with a silver tongue. She might have put herself in a compromising situation for no reason.

The anxiety lessened however, when she looked, really looked into Xerneas's eye. It was frantic; the pupil would dart from her to anywhere else. She could feel its clipped breaths through its snout, which came out in such rapid spurts that it almost seemed to hyperventilate. Try as she might, she couldn't find the anger it displayed only moments earlier, if that was even what it had been to begin with. It just seemed...scared.

Without much thought, she placed a paw on its forehead and rubbed gently. The speed its eye locked back onto her was almost disconcerting.

"Hey, you're fine. You're safe," she murmured. Its eye still wandered, but it slowed, and its rapid breathing calmed a tad. Clara kept her voice low and measured.

"We're not here to hurt you. We want to help. Can you tell us what's wrong?"

Leave this place. Leave...

It renewed its struggle, and Clara grit her teeth as she pulled her head up to be more in its vision.

"Woah, okay, Xerneas! Xerneas, please calm down, we're here because there's a problem with the Keystone, and we're researchers and we want to-"

Liars. Trespassers on sacred ground!

"No, please! Dialga sent us here!" she screamed.

At once, its violent struggle ceased. An eerie calm settled, and some of the fog from its eye bled away into haunting clarity. The other one opened as well, clear and unwounded as if it hadn't just been stabbed. Clara heard nothing, not even its breath. She reached a shaking paw to place a paw on the pale fur on its forehead, and a low, almost sorrowful keen left its mouth.

D...Dialga? Dialga has...forgotten...us...

"No, they haven't, they would never! They sent us specifically to help you. We're here because he asked us to be here."

...They have sent aid?

"Mmhmm! Dialga gave us this mission just for you! Now please calm down, you don't need to be scared." That might have been a tiny white lie, but she figured it was close enough to the truth if it made Xerneas more cooperative.

Its words surrendered the power they once held for something softer, more vulnerable, and Clara could actually hear the feminine lilt that colors its dual-toned voice. When it spoke, it did so as if in a dream, not directly speaking to her as much as responding how one would to an errant thought that flickered just out of consciousness.

"...It burns. It has burned for so long. Where...we have not seen anyone in so long..."

"It...what burns?"

"Worldblood. Chaos. Damnable distortion flows into and out of my veins to...the stone grows weaker and demands more and it has been so...so long..."

Its head jerked. Ears pulled back and a desperate, pleading glint in its eye. Clara heard her heartbeat in her head as it seemed to actually see her for the first time.

"Has it...has it been enough time? Has Palkia's gambit come to fruition?" it pressed, something like hope in its voice.

"I...I don't..." Lost, Clara looked to the left at her friends. Van and Damia stood stock still, likely having witnessed the whole conversation ready to bolt at the first sign of things going poorly. Unfortunately, they looked as lost as her; Van shrugged, helpless, and Damia lowered her body closer to the floor in case she needed to help.

With a deep breath, Clara turned back to Xerneas and responded.

"We...are figuring that out," she tried. "But Dialga has a plan, so-"

"A way has not been found? My burden continues?" Its eyes quivered, before streaks of tears started to trickle down. "They said...they promised..."

"Clara, get down," Damia hissed from the side.

"But..."

"My forest withers...my strength fails...all for...

"Nothing. Fifteen hundred years of suffocation, fifteen hundred years of isolation, and it has all been for NAUGHT!

"Xerneas, please!"

CEASELESS AGONY IS TO BE MY REMUNERATION? HOPELESS!

It released a bestial wail and reared up to its full height, overcoming its debilitations. Clara lost her grip and fell a few meters to land hard on her back. She looked up, and screamed at Xerneas' powerful hooves coming down to crush her, paws up in a vain attempt to block.

The expected pain didn't come. She felt the twist of teleportation, and the ground felt different under her back. Van's deep yelp cut across the air, and she jerked up to see him fly across through the air. He must have used a Switcher wand to swap places at the last second.

He slammed into the ground like a sack of berries, and didn't get up. A few seconds passed, before his body started to shine white.

"VAN!" she screamed, as his body coalesced into a ball of light that finally blipped into nothing, apparently having already used his insurance sometime in the scuffle. Damia flew up to rake a claw across Xerneas' mouth, and grappled onto its head, but the Legendary lowered its head and jutted forward to slam its antlers into her stomach. Damia wheezed as she got knocked out of the air and hurtled to the ground. Clara pushed herself to her feet to try and run forward.

Damia lay on her back, a claw on her side where she got hit, and looked up defiantly at Xerneas as it channeled power in its mouth. She glanced Clara's way as she stumbled over herself to get to her, and raised a claw up to toss something her way. Clara caught it in clumsy paws; a seed.

Aurora beam gathered in Xerneas' mouth and impacted Damia with enough force to push her forward, leaving a divot in the earth. She dropped to the floor motionless after a brief struggle to push herself up.

Damia blipped out of the Dungeon seconds later.

"Da...Dami..." Clara mumbled, not quite able to process her sudden isolation. Her ears flattened on her head when the weight of Xerneas' gaze landed on her. She whimpered and backed up slowly, but then glanced down at the seed Damia had thrown her way.

A Warp seed. She'd be able to escape. Well, luck permitting.

Mortal.

Its words echoed with power and demanded her attention.

Return to the surface and tremble. The end of days is nigh.

"Wh-what!? No way! We're not finished yet, we can still fix this!" Clara yelled back, voice cracking halfway through due to nerves.

Her fur stood on end when its antlers started to glow, and the purple in its eyes shone ever brighter.

Then you struggle in vain.

Clara saw the power of the moon gather again at the tips of its antlers, and quickly shoved the seed into her mouth. She bit down, and not a moment too soon; the moonblast released and flew mere feet from her face before she felt her body be whisked away somewhere else.

It couldn't be reasoned with, and it couldn't be stopped. Something needed to change, and fast, before the 'end of days' really did come to pass.

She really, really hoped they could figure something out.

---

A/N: Man, I don't think anyone is having a good time right now.