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Chapter 32! In which we suffer through the fic's last junior trainers, Mark gets to celebrate his birthday a bit, and we see Spirit in action in all her pretty broken glory. Chapter 32: The Birthday Party “Chaletwo,” Mark muttered as the three kids walked back towards Stormy Town after...

Dave raised an eyebrow. What, the notion of telling Jean about her imaginary lion sister? Hard to imagine that being deeply important, but sure. He glanced at Shadow. The last of his shields was shimmering out of existence. He was back to looking like his usual timid self, but at least he...

My kids. They deserve a life. I'll do anything it takes for them. I'll keep them safe. They're all I live for. I don't care. Jean. That's what I'm going back to at home. Dave stepped back, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The buzzing in his brain began to calm, slowly. Jean...

Dave bared his teeth and lunged in for a Crunch. "Anything," he snarled, heart racing. "I'll do anything it takes for them, I don't care. I'll keep them safe." Yeah, look how that fucking went last time. A tendril of shadows snaked its way around his lungs. "They're all I live for."

Yet you still fight. Radiance burst bright and golden from his chest, and Fugu's attack shattered a barrier. "Yeah. Yeah, I still fight, because they deserve a life." He glanced off to where Shadow was, under a pair of shields. For once, the other Mightyena didn't look quite so pathetic and...

And there it was, Fugu pulling out her sword again. Shadow actually smiled a little as he stepped aside. Adrenaline pumped through Dave's veins as she charged, and he charged too, Shadows curling around his feet. "My kids," he began with a heaving snarl as he tackled her. "Every day I'm trying...

Dave's gaze snapped back to Fugu, his heart thumping. Goddamn it, the one moment he forgot to not look at him. "No. No, he didn't say anything. He's just sort of staring at me. Does that half the time." In his peripheral vision, Shadow's eyes were still fixed intently on him. The knot in Dave's...

"I mean, no, not really." Dave exhaled, looking away, and then realized that had been completely ambiguous and he'd have to clarify what he'd meant. I came to pay you back for the fucking fight. That's all. A breath. "As in, the state of the world, no, plenty of people sure seem to manage to...

Dave raised an eyebrow. "Well, my world is full of humans and it's sure not a paradise, so definitely leaning away from there being something special about us." So instead, what, everyone was just so fucked up by distortions that an average-ass human who's not affected could just pull them away...

Dave blinked. "Huh." It was hard to picture a world like Cibus just regressing into a postapocalyptic wasteland. How long ago was all this again? He knew better than to ask Fugu her age. "And then, what, the Omen Heroes just fixed everything?"

Was she calling him old? He couldn't even really protest, now that he was somehow in his fucking forties. God. "What, so Cibus was some kind of lawless hell within living memory? What happened?"

"Thank you!" Shadow said, attempting an awkward wave as he crouched down to see after him. "You're a nice Shadow too."

Oh, Lord, she was going to try to make him talk about feelings anyway. Dave sighed, sitting down on his haunches. "Cibus is the kind of universe my universe's cartoons take place in. Friendly authority figures all the way up, everyone gets along, tangible forces of hope and goodness and love...

"I mean, sure. People are hoping we'll retain something we learned here on a subconscious level, or whatever. Which is all well and good, but not exactly helpful when the problem is less the forgetting and more just what you're going back to to begin with." Off to the side, Shadow looked slowly...

Shadow looked at him for a moment. "All right. If you're sure it will be okay." He exhaled a small cloud of wispy shadows. "I hope Nate doesn't hurt you again. You don't deserve that."

Shadow smiled back at him with a couple of wags of his tail. "That's good! I'm glad we got to talk, too. Even though there's not a lot of time left." He hesitated a moment, looking back towards Nate's table. "Is he going to hurt you if you go back there?"

Shadow took a small step back and tried to discreetly make himself smaller, less threatening. "I say things he won't. Like how you apologized for Nate when he won't. And Dave hates that, but sometimes I think it's better that I said it." He paused. "I'm glad you're here, and that you said that."

Shadow thought back, to the fight where he'd first emerged. Everything was fuzzy back then, just blended together with Dave's own memories. Brisa rushing into danger, him powerless to stop it once again. "That's true," he said softly. "But you're here anyway. And... I think since we got here...

There it was. Shadow glanced back towards Nate's table. How far could a Shadow get from their original, anyway? "He shouldn't hurt you. You haven't done anything wrong." He paused. Wanted to offer to protect him, somehow, but he couldn't protect anyone, and he had an awful suspicion that Dave...

Shadow looked at him in incomprehension. Lots of friends? (In a flash, the sensation of punching Brisa, trying to make her attack him.) "So you... haven't come out, until just now?" He cocked his head. "Then why are you hiding here, now?"