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Pokémon Broken Things

Ice 8.5

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Ice 8.5: Face to Face
Danielle(?)

August 15, 2020

Sina and Dexio’s lab is air conditioned. You can feel Pixie purring away beneath your hand. This is the first time she’s had it in… weeks? Has it been that long? Longer? Shorter?

She leads you over to a seat and you take it.

“Thank you for coming over,” Sina says. “I know things are a little hectic right now.”

“I have nowhere else to be.”

Dexio snorts. “Still, your help is appreciated.” You’re pretty sure that’s what he says. You’ve already learned that you can’t get a translation for him. With his Kalosian accent and your questionable Galarian you can’t make heads or tails of what he’s saying. At least, you shouldn’t be able to. One half of your mind is much more fluent than the other.

“Help with what? Your message was kind of vague.” You were worried it was a trap. Then you decided that you didn’t really care. Either they had something interesting related to dragons to talk about or Noci and Coco could tear them apart for trying to ambush you.

It’s like having Alice behind you in a lot of ways. Just not in the one that matters.

“Right to business. Tell me, what do you know about Zygarde?”

You’ve certainly heard of her. Both parts of you have, although one usually calls her Cipactli. The first dragon. She’s the kind of god Dr. Karashina insisted you not tell anyone about, ever. No one’s entirely sure if she’s actually dead but you aren’t taking chances.

“I haven’t, no.”

You can hear your hosts shift around. They’re silent for a long time. Probably talking to each other. Kind of annoying when other psychics do that.

“I see,” Sina says. “Since you’re already here, would you mind talking to a dragon we found? She says she’s a ‘zygarde.’”

That makes you freeze. They already have Zygarde? Under control? Sedated? What do they want to do with her? Is there another secret mastermind in Alola trying to get a god on their side?

“Uh. Sure?”

“Has anyone told you you’re a terrible liar?” A new voice. Soft tones. Speaking Upper Draconic.

Is that…?

“I am Zygarde,” says the strongest dragon who ever lived. “Or a fraction of her. It seems my reputation precedes me.”

You don’t know what these humans know. What Zygarde wants them to know. You try to reach out for a silent conversation. It’s not hard to find her. But trying to connect with her mind is like looking directly at the sun. Too big. Too bright. You can do it for a moment, but it would be a bad idea to look too long. You still manage a sentence.

{Do you need help?} It sounds ridiculous that something like her could need help from someone like you. But if these researchers are holding her against her will… maybe you could stop them. Unless they can make Zygarde fight you. Then you would have no chance.

“I’m quite comfortable where I’m at, although I would appreciate it if you kept quiet about some of the details of my history.”

It’s reassuring. But could they make her say that? No. If they could control Zygarde and they knew what they had, this wouldn’t be how you found out.

“I think I get it.” You do not. Time to move on, though, since talking about it too much could tip your hosts off. “I acknowledge your territory.” You said the same thing to Reshiram a long time ago. It’s like you told Kekoa. Wherever a dragon god is, that’s their territory.

Zygarde’s territory is the entire planet. Although territory may not be the best word. In Anahuac they say the entire planet is her body. The dragons don’t go that far. It’s just her domain in the same way that the seas are Kyogre’s domain or Unova belongs to The Dragonmother’s Children.

“I do not have territory anymore,” the goddess says. “I ceded all of that to my children. Ah, that reminds me. I would appreciate it if you kept quiet about my return if you ever meet my eldest. She has a history of overreactions.”

Like killing off almost all life on Earth at least once. Maybe twice. You think The Great Dying was also him… her and her siblings, but you don’t know for sure.

Rayquaza being a girl and no one knowing about it is maybe the most normal part of this conversation.

“I can promise that.” It’s not like you have any chance of actually meeting her. She never comes to the surface. The only time she has in millions of years was when her siblings were fighting again.

“It’s interesting to meet one of the twins’ pets. I look forward to learning what about your breed of human is so endearing to them.”

Breed. Like your bloodline is just some livestock. You’re pretty sure they haven’t been intentionally breeding you or anything. Reshiram even thought your ancestors had died out a long time ago. You weren’t one of theirs at all. At least, you weren’t the project of this world’s Reshiram and Zekrom. “I’m not one of their champions. They have other ones.”

“Is that so? I had seen the video of you conversing with The Flame-bearer and assumed you had been adopted.” Adopted like a daughter or like a pet? You’re pretty sure she means like a pet. “A shame. I had been hoping to meet some of the new settlers. It’s been ages since I last talked to a fellow star-traveler.”

Some stories say that Zygarde came from the stars on a meteor. Others that she simply drifted through the void until she found the sun. It seems at least one of those is true. You know the Dragonmother did. She’s probably a ‘star-traveler’ like Zygarde.

You are, sort of, but not in the same way. You’re from an Earth… probably.

“I have a metagross. She was born here, but maybe she knows something.”

“Perhaps. They’re relative newcomers to the cosmos. I had not heard of anything like them when I went to sleep.”

Interesting. You don’t really know what the metagross’ whole deal is. You also don’t really care. Yes, you could ask, but you don’t trust that Noci would tell you the truth. It also doesn’t seem like she wants to harm you or the people around you. Sometimes she just makes mistake.

[I have never made a single mistake in my entire life.]

Sometimes she just makes mistakes and she needs to learn her limits.

“I’m guessing you know more than you were letting on,” Sina says.

“She’s a very old dragon. Shows up in stories. I didn’t think she was still alive.”

{And does humanity have anything to fear from her?} Dexio asks.

Is that what this is about? They’re not planning to use her; they’re scared that she’s using them?

“I think that it’s best to keep dragons from wanting to kill people.”

Yes, they could call Rayquaza if Zygarde starts attacking humanity. That would stop her. It would also probably kill almost everyone else.

Zygarde huffs. “I don’t want to kill anyone.”

“She says she doesn’t want to kill anyone.”

“Yes, we know,” Sina says. “Would you mind telling us some of the stories she appears in?”

You tentatively reach out a mental link towards Zygarde again. You don’t say anything. Just let her know that you would like her to talk.

“There may be time for that later,” Zygarde says.

“I’m sorry. That’s all I have now.”

“I see.” Sina’s clearly disappointed but she isn’t pushing. Good.

“You’re still planning to go to Lanakila, right?” Dexio asks.

“Yes. I’ll do some training at the base and then…” Well, you won’t be climbing. Just waiting.

“I really wouldn’t,” Sina says. “Lot of asbestos and other poisons in the air after the bomb hit. You can stay here and train as long as you like.” As long as you pay us with information. She doesn’t say it, but you understand.

“I would not mind the company,” the goddess adds.

Fine. If she agrees, too.

“I’ll have to ask Lyra. I think we can work something out.”

*​

You agreed to tell Vengeance and Leo about some military strategy from Anahuac. It’s something they teach everyone, boys and girls alike. Anyone could be called upon to defend their town if it were attacked. It is important to know what strategies have worked for and failed the empire in its history.

This is something you do every week. This week you were going to talk about a famous campaign against the… you can’t really remember.

You can’t remember any of it.

Not the campaign, not the battles, not even who they were fighting. Probably the Maya or Zapotec. It’s usually the Maya or Zapotec. You think. Even that’s hazy.

It’s a little terrifying. Especially since you don’t know why it’s happening. Do you just have too many memories now? Are some getting pushed out? Maybe it would be okay if you could choose, but if you can’t…

Noci has some explaining to do.

[Your complaint has been updated. We are working hard to resolve the matter in a timely matter. Please hold.]

Apparently even your soul is torn now.

You take a deep breath. Okay. There’s nothing your pokémon can do about this. They do not need to know. Lyra has asked that you tell her when things change. You should do that. Later.

“You know what? Since Madeline wants to know, we can talk about how you fight against giant dragons.”

This is something both halves of you know well.

“Finally! I can spar against Coco and win again,” Cueptiltia says.

First, you’re not sure he ever ‘won’ those spars. Second, there is nothing you can tell him that would let him beat Coco without evolving. Maybe even after evolving.

“I have not asked and I do not need to know how to fight scalebags.”

Madeline is perched in your lap. She has been perched in your lap almost constantly since you got here. Every time Pixie or Leo wants attention there is a standoff about it. She makes a show of only letting you play with Coco out of the goodness of her heart, and not because she’s scared of dying for a second time.

“It sounded like you lost to Coco.”

“I made a slight miscalculation.”

“Sure. How do you plan to beat her next time?”

She has no answer. You can feel her mind stewing with unkind words. At least she doesn’t say them. It’s a little progress. The girl is very clingy and hasn’t quite learned not to say every thought that comes through her head. You like her. Really. Sometimes you just want time to breathe where she isn’t there giving her thoughts.

You only got her to leave you alone this morning because you were talking to a dragon and she thought that sounded boring. She decided that it was a good time to start her little training plan. You don’t mind that. You had a similar thing in Unova that didn’t quite make it to Alola because you were blind and dealing with a lot. You just wish you got space outside of a training session that you should probably be at. All of your other pokémon are either good with personal space or at least quiet when you need them to be. Except Searah. But Searah is kind of dumb. You don’t need a lot of brainpower to cuddle her and sometimes answer questions.

You shake your head. Searah is dead. You’re getting lost again.

“Thought so. There are a few types of dragons. The blades, the breath, the armor, and the wings. The blades hit hard up close but don’t have a lot of ranged options or thick armor. Think haxorus.”

“What’s a haxorus?” Vengeance asks.

How does he not know—you’re not in Unova. “They’re a dragon that stands on two legs and has an axe for a head. You don’t want to get hit by that axe. They aren’t that fast and their armor is thin. Thin for a dragon. They can still take weak attacks without noticing. Your goal is to hit them without getting hit even once. How do you do it?”

“Is Coco a blade?” Leo asks.

Kind of? She has bulldoze to knock things down at range. She’s also really tough. Her scales are about as thick as Alice’s and you’ve seen her keep going after tanking slashes from a scyther and dragonfire from a druddigon when she was just a zweilous. Then there are Coco’s bones. Sure, you could break her leg and slow her down. It just might take a machamp to do it. “Sure.” ‘Blade’ is still the best way of characterizing her. One close range attack that can take out almost anything.

“She doesn’t turn around quickly,” Leo says. “Make her charge. Hit her back. Run away. Do it again.”

“Cowardly,” Vengeance mutters.

“Do you think you could fight her head-on and win?”

He doesn’t answer that.

“You can be a victorious coward or lose with honor. Your choice. You can’t beat most dragons with force. They win. And Leo, that’s a good idea. But dragons are still big and have scales. You would need to do it a lot of times without getting hit once to win. She’s not stupid. She’ll use roar or stealth rocks or bulldoze to try and throw you off. In the end you probably lose.”

“How many times must I hit her?” Madeline asks.

“A lot.”

“Yes, but how many?”

“Depends on how hard you’re hitting.” Even if you had an exact number, you wouldn’t tell her exactly how to beat your daughter. Just the broadest strokes.

“Should I hit from far away?” Leo asks. “I don’t know a lot of moves for that.”

“It can work, but weak moves won’t do anything even if they hit.”

“I do not suppose you have a moonblast TM to borrow?”

“Nope.”

“Then how do we win?” Cueptiltia asks.

“One on one? You don’t.”

[I can!]

She could. That does not mean she needs acknowledged. “You need to wear them down or hit them from multiple sides at once. One to distract, one to strike. If you’re alone with a blade, or any dragon, the best plan is to not fight the dragon.”

“Booooooooring,” Madeline protests. “You’re just holding out on me.”

“I’m sure Coco would fight you one-on-one again if you think there’s a way to win.”

Dragons have never hated fairies as much as fairies seem to hate dragons. Fairies are simply an annoyance that can be crushed if needed. Being immune to dragonfire doesn’t mean they can survive every other attack from a giant dragon. Sometimes they need reminded of this. Madeline was. She still did not learn her lesson.

Maybe your other pokémon need a demonstration. Coco should be happy to help.

*​

Madeline tries running away and firing dazzling gleam after dazzling gleam with some shadow claws and wood hammers mixed in. She just makes Coco mad. It’s a little fairer when Pixie, Leo, and Vengeance join in. Coco still wins the first time.

You go to the side and give Pixie some advice. She has a lot of tricks. Even more than Madeline. Just a few less ways to deal damage. And lower average damage, too. She doesn’t need to be reminded of that when she’s already upset about the ghost taking some of her attention away. The only reason they haven’t torn into each other yet is that Pixie wants to get stronger and you… aren’t the best trainer. Haven’t been the best trainer. Even if you wanted to get back into your old regimen, it would be much harder while blind.

You give Pixie some advice on what tricks she should pull, what move she should disable, and where she should aim. Enough to let her pull off a win when Madeline couldn’t.

In the next round Leo gets up to Coco’s eyes and makes her give up. But the only reason he could do that is Pixie disabling thrash and making the ground too slippery for Coco to charge or turn around well. Madeline is smug about the victory but it belongs to Pixie and Leo and they all know it.

*​

The soft grass dampens your footstep as you walk into the night air. It feels nice at this hour.

You’re sure Madeline followed you out. Just can’t hear her right now. She can shut up when she wants to. Usually when she’s trying to scare someone.

“Hey, Pix,” you call out.

“Hello—” You hear the sound of an ice beam followed by Madeline’s cackling laughter.

“Got you~”

Pixie hisses. Great. Can’t even talk to one of your team members without everything falling apart.

You walk closer to Pixie and sit down. She closes the rest of the distance and you idly scratch her ear. You can feel Sitrus’s mind when you reach out. She was probably talking to Pixie before you interrupted.

Madeline tries to hop into your lap. Pixie lunges and barks.

“You just had it for hours. Give Pixie a turn.”

“I’m starving,” she whines.

If you are not keeping her fed, then you don’t know how anyone feeds a mimikyu. You still reach out a hand and let her rub against it. She’ll start asking for more active petting in a bit. Still gives you time to talk to Pixie.

“What were you doing?”

“Watching the stars,” she says. “They’re so much brighter here.”

“Less city light.” You remember the difference between New England and Unova. Castelia shines so bright that all of Unova lives under its glow.

Pixie’s tails twitch. “Do you think Kalani is in the stars?”

She told you once that vulpix think their ancestors become stars when they die. If that was true, then Kalani would be there. You don’t think Pixie would want to see the fox who bit off her ear every time she looked up at night. How do you answer this?

“I think she is,” Sitrus says. “Yet you must remember that the stars are very far away. We can remember the departed and feel their influence on the present, we may even speak towards them, but they can no longer reach us.”

She’s good at this. Is this the first time she’s seen this happen? Well, not exactly this. Just something like it. And why can’t she be anywhere near this nice to you?

Madeline snorts. “Stars aren’t dead people, silly. They’re big balls of flaming gas. Dead people are just dead. Or undead.”

“No one asked you,” Pixie hissed.

“Do you think I don’t want to talk to anyone?” For a moment Madeline actually sounds hurt. Then it gets drowned out again in her usual playfulness. “Of course I do, but that’s not how the world works. Oh! I can tell you more facts about space. We’re fairies. We’re supposed to know this stuff. Clearly no one taught—”

You feel Pixie tense and pounce.

Madeline runs, still laughing, while Pixie chases her with something between a growl and a roar.

“Do you know if she was human?” Sitrus asks.

“I think so.” She’s talked about how nice it is to speak with ‘another’ human.

“How old was she when she passed?”

“No idea.” Sometimes she seems very mature. Then there are moments like this when you think she might be closer to Cuepiltia or Pixie. You aren’t sure how dying impacts mental age, either, and you can’t really go to the library or search the internet to find out. Even Dexio and Sina don’t have a satellite internet connection.

[If only someone in constant contact with you had access to the internet and a swarm of dull-but-lovable minions who do her bidding.]

You still aren’t sure where she got the beldum she claims to command. She hasn’t been hoarding supplies to make them. Is that even how beldum are created? No one seemed to know from what you’ve read.

[They don’t need to know.]

“I’ll talk with her,” Sitrus says. “Young fairies need firm boundaries that are constantly reinforced. Otherwise, they will continue to push and claim all that they can. This isn’t a problem if those boundaries are far from where the line actually needs drawn.”

“And they just obey the rules?”

“They obey the rules as written. The game of subverting the rules without breaking them is usually vastly more entertaining than whatever breaking the rule outright would get them.”

You remember when Sitrus was reasonable like this. She never liked you but you could at least have talks that didn’t end in screaming or crying.

“Were you ever pursuing antidepressants?” she asks. Seems she’s still mad that you’re depressed. Even if she won’t admit that’s what she’s mad about.

“Dr. Livens talked me into doing it when the journey was over. Said that it was dangerous to start a new drug while traveling.”

“Generally good advice. I take it that there are no more available with things as they are.”

She doesn’t add ‘because of you’ to the end. You can still hear it loud and clear.

“No. Lyra’s having to wean herself off of them.”

[Working on a solution. Please hold.]

{Would that also be enough for me?}

[I do not think taking new psychoactive medications is advisable until your current complaint is addressed.]

Sitrus huffs. “She’s probably right.”

“Was Noci sharing that?”

“Most of it. If your… current situation… can be resolved, I would offer you an egg as a bridge until a regular antidepressant supply can be established. Not a full egg. Not every day. A third a week at most.”

And now she’s being nice to you like she didn’t just stand aside to let you be killed. What is that about? Is this an apology?

“I had a long conversation with the queen of shadows about my recent conduct. I am willing to admit that I took legitimate grievances to an unreasonable extreme. The situation surrounding the war has also changed. Renoucning the phantoms no longer seems like a surefire path to less suffering.”

“That’s a pretty big change of heart.” You still don’t entirely believe this. She doesn’t seem like someone who changes easily, and she hated you enough to let you die a few days ago.

“I like to think of it as a return to form.” She takes a shaky breath. It’s remarkably human. “I was not always consumed by my bitterness. My past self might not appreciate who I have become. Even he…” You can feel her attention snap elsewhere. “Girls! Too far!” She rushes off with speed you forgot she had.

You’re not going to immediately start trusting her. You will at least accept that she might be trying to turn things around for now. It’s easier than fighting her while dealing with Pixie and Madeline and the whole mess with Cuicatl. Maybe she can help with those, too.

*​

August 16, 2020

You’ve felt Zyarde’s attention on you all morning. Just haven’t felt comfortable speaking with her with Madeline around. She has no respect for dragons. Disrespecting a dragon god could get her torn apart. If you told her why you didn’t want her talking to Zygarde, she would go ahead and do it.

During the training session you have an excuse to pull Coco away. You send a thought out to Zygarde and she finally approaches.

“Aren’t you a beauty?” the goddess says. “To think that the common dragons got so big so soon after I fell asleep. And what nice teeth you have! I have met star-travelers with far lesser fangs.”

Coco met a god and immediately showed them her teeth. You aren’t even surprised.

“You’re small for a god.”

“This form is. My full body…” The ground rumbles like Coco’s bulldozes. No, not quite. It’s less that the top of the ground is being torn up. More like something enormous is moving far, far below. “…is bigger than this avatar might suggest.”

“What do you want with Cuicatl?” Coco asks. Is she trying to intimidate a god? After that. Maybe it’s not just Madeline who needs a lesson knocked into her.

“Merely to ask questions of her. There is still much of this new world I do not yet understand. Rest assured, I will have plenty of questions for you as well. You are the first member of your kind I have met.”

“What questions do you have for me?” you ask.

“Several. I will eventually ask about your homeworld.” You tense up. How does she know about that. “It seems a sensitive subject, though. I will give you time to discuss it on your terms.”

“I don’t actually remember anything being different.” If you ever did, Tapu Lele took care of it.

“Interesting. You were also one of the humans who began this conflict, correct?

Zygarde knows, the red florges knows, at this point you assume the Americans know.

[They seem far more concerned about me than you.]

{You killed one of their pilots.}

[Details.]

“I had something to do with it.”

“May I ask why you made your decision?”

You take a deep breath. How much does she know? How much do you need to repeat?

“I was not in a good place at the time. It wasn’t a rational decision. They were just going to take my daughter and I had a way to stop it. It wasn’t about Alola or the Americans. I was desperate and someone gave me a way out.”

“Do you disapprove?” Coco asks. Again, too challenging of a god.

{Back down. She can kill you in a heartbeat.}

{I’m just figuring out what she wants.}

Should you apologize for her? Dragons usually don’t accept those apologies. But the idea of Coco going through what Hala did to Pixie? It terrifies you to the core.

“No,” Zygarde says. She doesn’t sound bothered by Coco’s tone. “I understand why such fragile creatures value non-violence. I simply do not see the point myself. Declaring to the world that you will not fight does not prevent violence, it simply allows it to happen to yourself and those you love. You had a boundary. Others breached it. You retaliated. Your boundaries are more likely to be respected in the future.”

“I broke one of the American’s boundaries. If they retaliate and we keep escalating…”

You sigh. It’s done. You didn’t even care until… well, you’re guessing Danielle cares more about peace than Cuicatl.

“They slighted you and misjudged the risk of loss,” Zygarde answers. “That was their choice and they bear the consequences of it. They acted, you reacted, they may choose to act again if they believe the course is still justified with a better understanding of the potential risks.”

“You talk about fighting for yourself,” Coco says. “Yet you just let your children kill you. Why?”

“I suspect your parents would do the same.” She sounds wistful. Maybe a little sad. She is right, though. You would. “I gave my children all they needed. The day came where they needed freedom. I gave them enough of a fight for there to be satisfaction in it. There is no honor in vanquishing a god if she dies in her sleep. Then I happily gave my children all I knew how to give.”

Cuicatl thought Danielle did something like that for her, which is really weird to think about right now when you’re somewhere between the two. It was also held over her. That she had done something wrong even in birth. That she should make up for what she had done. It’s… justified? Infuriating?

Coco and Zygarde go back and forth for a bit before something vast approaches your mind.

“Are you alright, child?”

“I…” Did you freeze up again?

[I have a plan for resolving your complaint. Please hold for a little longer.]

Damn it.

*​

August 18, 2020

Noci insisted that it was time for you to meet the totem. You were hoping, well, Madeline was hoping for a little more time to see if her training could pay off. It doesn’t bother you too much. Acerola wants this done sooner rather than later. You just don’t know why Noci is so insistent.

She sets you down on a sandbar that’s under an inch or two of water. The old trial site. The cool water washing through your sandals is really nice on a hot day. Then you wait. She seemed to think the bruxish would come to you here. You have no reason to doubt her. it’s just annoying to wait under the tropical sun. Nothing you’re used to—exactly what you’re used to. And what you’ve been doing for almost a year.

It’s too damn hot even in shorts and a t-shirt. Which is what you get for wearing cotton instead of the huīpīlli. Like wool would be any—

Something big moves onto the sandbar and a wave crashes up to your knees.

“Aren’t you an odd one?” The mental voice is accompanied by loud clacking with a buzzing sound behind it. Really, really annoying. “I’m not sure that I’ve seen a human’s mind do that before.”

“It’s a long story.”

“You fell from another world, Tapu Lele performed psionic reconstructive surgery on you, probably sequestering some memories in the process that did not fit her preferred narrative, a metagross who seems a little too eager to insist that she listens to your orders decided to perform more psionic reconstructive surgery with minimal training, now there are two sets of memories with their own identities tearing apart your soul and occasionally overloading your mental processing abilities? Is this correct?”

What. The. Fuck?

[I believed my explanation would be more objective and thorough than yours.]

That doesn’t mean she can just go sharing your secrets with anyone and everyone! Is this how the florges and Zygarde found out about what you did?

[I am almost certain that the florges was told by another florges, who may or may not have been the florges who originally influenced your decision. Massive gossips. Will not shut up. I am beginning to believe it is a natural trait of the fairies.]

{And metagross.}

[This was a conversation between physicians.]

Never took her for a healer.

[I have reviewed the sum total of human neuroscience and already made several advancements. I also plan to conduct multiple studies previously vetoed by review boards without a sense of humor.]

Not relevant. You can argue with her later.

“Do you know the other reason I’m here?”

“The self-proclaimed queen of this land wants me to help fight for her against other humans. This will likely result in less pollution in the long term at the cost of more landslides and explosives landing in my waters in the short term. I am still weighing my options.”

[See how efficient this is?]

“You’re also here for an informal psychic trial. I am willing to accept, both for the exercise and to see your mind in action for a while longer before I attempt anything.”

“You’re going to try and fix me?” You’re getting tired of people trying to do that without asking.

“I am going to have a long discussion with you, ideally both of you, about what you want and how we could go about achieving it.”

What do you want? The problem to go away, yes. You hadn’t thought you’d actually have a say in how it happened. You’d just wake up one day and find out what the cost was. It’s how you got into this mess. And the last one, probably. Maybe the one before that. You assume there was one before that even if you can’t remember it.

“Let’s clear your mind, shall we?”

“Forcefully?”

“No. Just with a battle.” He sounds offended you’d think that. Good. You’re starting to like him, horrible voice aside.

You pull out Noci’s ball. “Is it safe to put you in storage? Want to think through this on my own.”

“The Americans are distracted. You have about an hour before they decide they wish to capitalize on the opening and settle on what to do.”

“Good.” You withdraw her for the first time since… well, since she captured herself. Is she influencing you to keep her out? Is that just something you naturally do? You can’t really remember withdrawing her before she evolved, either, but that’s normal with most of your pokémon.

It’s probably the safest approach. The talk with the florges could have gone a lot worse if she hadn’t been around.

“I am summoning a pelipper, claydol, and raticate to my side. Pick your first move.”

You try and quickly realize a few problems. First, you keep thinking of plans involving Tchaikovsky, Alice, and Spike. They are dead. Second, you have limited experience fighting multiple opponents at once. Third, you are blind.

How are you supposed to fight things you cannot see?

You are useless here.

This part of you.

You reach out below and try to summon… something. You haven’t talked to your other half. Can’t really tell when you’re you and when you’re her. You can sort of feel her sliding to the fore. Parts of you change. It feels natural. Normal. Like the way it was before was wrong.

It will feel like that when those parts come back, too.

“Fascinating,” the bruxish says. “Most fascinating.”

Focus. Battle. Four pokémon. Madeline and Leo can handle the claydol, raticate, and bruxish. Pixie can maybe take the claydol. Cuepiltia has the best match against the raticate. First, take out the pelipper. Then see how far Leo and Madeline can go. Have Cuepiltia and Pixie do cleanup. Obviously Noci could win by herself, but you’re trying to let your pokémon test their training. Feels boring to just let her sweep.

Kind of feels boring to let Coco handle things herself, too. You’ll just leave the pelipper to her.

She appears and the waves crash around you as the water and ground adjust. Your daughter growls and you can feel it in your bones.

“Attack pelipper.” {Bite if you can. Rock slide if you can’t.}

The bird avoids the bite. Maybe for the best. Coco wouldn’t have much fun if her part was over that quickly.

You almost immediately have to start bracing and moving to keep your head above the water. The ground shakes. Probably the claydol. The wind howls. Maybe a cold rain starts falling. Maybe that’s just the spray from the ocean. The waves are lashing up to your chest. Coco’s steps thunder down and almost knock you over every time she moves.

{What’s happening?} you ask when the waves calm down—no, when the waves just take a little break. You sputter and try to wipe the water off your face. It’s just as wet when you finish as when you started.

“The fish is making waves. Sometimes lunges. Swims away. The rock is shaking the ground. The rat is—” The ground shakes and something yelps. “Kicked the rat. Kept trying to bite. Bird is flying. Hard to hit. Not enough rocks.”

“Okay. Use stealth rock and make more.”

She doesn’t have a lot of ways to hit flying pokémon. Stealth rock and rock slide. A lucky bite. That’s kind of it. Need to work on that. Can tyrantrum learn smack down?



You were expecting a response.

Wait, Noci’s in her ball.

Huh. Weird to be alone in your thoughts. Well, as alone as you can be with Danielle lurking somewhere.

If not smack down then—

This time a wave knocks you flat off your feet. It takes a moment to reach out and feel the bottom. Another few to push yourself up and breathe.

“—the bird,” Coco says. “What now?”

“What?”

She turns around. And then she growls. Low. Powerful. “Who hurt her?”

You wave her off. “Accident. Pelipper’s down. Anyone else?”

It takes her a moment to calm down. “No.”

“Good. Can the others get a chance? Don’t want you to win by yourself.”

Coco doesn’t need as much flattery as Pixie and Madeline. Still good to give it to her. You didn’t have a lot growing up. Well, there was—

You feel the headache coming and shove the thought aside. Not freezing up where you can barely stand.

“Fine,” Coco concedes. “So long as they win.”

“They will.” With or without Noci.

You withdraw her and the water shifts again. There was a shallow sandbar beside you when you started this. Even the water you were standing in was shallow enough for your smaller team members. It’s up to your calf now. The dry land might be gone. This could be a problem.

Still, you need to at least get the bruxish out of the way. Cuepiltia and Pixie can at least soften up the raticate and claydol. If you have to finish with Noci you can live with it.

Leo can fight underwater. You send him out.

{Straight for the totem.}

He lunges.

There’s a splash as they both go beneath the surface.

{Is there still land?} you ask. Not being able to see is kind of a pain in the ass.

{Very little. Shallow enough water for allies.}

Okay, good. He guessed your next question. You’ll let him do his—

Whatever noises the bruxish makes, they get a lot louder. Suddenly the world feels unbearably hot and dry. Do you have water? Blood? Anything? Anything at—

“What was that?” the bruxish asks.

The bruxish.

The totem.

In Alola.

Not… that place.

You take a few deep breaths.

“Ultra Space, I think. Sometimes it pokes through.”

“Noted. Carry on.”

Something slams into something else. Leo hisses and then the raticate squeals.

“Hard to fight two enemies at once,” Leo says. “Nowhere to run.”

Just two?

“What’s the claydol doing?”

“Making rocks.”

That will be a problem. “Break his concentration.”

You feel the water shift and the sand vibrate as Leo jumps. He falls into the water with a massive splash a moment later.

“Teleports.”

Definitely a problem. One that Pixie or Madeline will be better at solving.

“Back to the bruxish.”

He grunts and there’s another flurry of splashes. A gnashing moan of pain. The sound of something hard cracking.

“I’m done. Will heal. For now. Not pushing,” Leo says. “Fish is injured. Not retreating.”

Still on track. Just need Madeline can finish the totem quickly and do a little damage to the others.

You send her out. Blindly. Don’t know where the land is. Probably should have asked Leo before withdrawing him.

She hisses in annoyance. “Was this an intentional slight?”

“No. Field got wrecked.”

“I take it this is the brute’s doing?”

You don’t answer that. She can ask nicely if she wants answers. Dexio suggested it and Madeline was horrified enough that it started to sound like a good idea. You’re making Pixie do it, too, although she had been doing better. Just can’t apply it to only one or they started fighting.

“Can you go underwater?”

“We are finishing my new veil tonight if I must.”

“Okay. Might be good to have a spare in the future?”

You can feel her perk up. “Yes. I will have several. Perhaps the next one can be—”

“There’s a battle going on.”

That causes her to focus. “So it seems. You need me to target the… that fish?”

She insisted that bruxish were hideous. Almost too ugly to fight. You told her to get over it. Kindly. Eventually. Had to tap deeper into Cuicatl for that. You just ignored ‘covsky’s shit-stirring whenever you could. Eventually he’d relent or start bothering someone else. Don’t think that would work on fairies.

“Yes.”

“Hmph.”

You can hear her move like a rock skipping across the edge of the water. Then they both go under. Then splash back up. An impact. Is the bruxish trying to throw her into the raticate? It’s not a bad idea. Having two big melee attackers feels kind of weird. They have to get in each other’s way, right?

It’s really frustrating not being able to give good orders. It’s making you rethink how effective parts of your old training plans would actually be. They were more about getting the team to instantly respond to orders and attacking relentlessly while you watched for traps. There’s going to need to be strategy lessons in there like you were doing the other night. Like you’ve been doing with Leo and Vengeance.

Something breaks the surface and you can hear Madeline gasp. Drama queen. You know she doesn’t need to breathe. She told you while you were trying to figure out how her body worked and couldn’t find any lungs. “Ugly swam away. I’m getting out of the water.”

She’s not at her best standing in place. At least the raticate should come to—

Your sash gets pressed against your body and you hear a pokéball withdraw Madeline. Fine. You can have the rest of the team finish this. You know the raticate’s already been hurt by Coco and Leo. The claydol… that’s going to be a problem.

You send out Vegeance and the rufflet screams. He really loves screaming. Whatever floats his little boat. You kind of prefer being able to hear. {Close combat on raticate.}

The dark-type’s probably a lot bigger than him. Bigger teeth. He’s also been kicked by a tyrantrum and cut by a golisopod. Vengeance’s type advantage should fully swing things.

Then there’s not a lot to do. Listen to him attack. Doesn’t sound like the raticate is having a good time. They’re cowards. The moment something stands up to them they either give up and run away or call in more friends. You thought about catching one in the Castelia Tunnels but none impressed you and wanted to stay on the team.

The raticate gives up long before your little bird.

“You hurt?”

“I can keep going.”

You’ll let him, even if he’s not the most useful here. He’s kind of slow. The claydol can teleport away. He doesn’t have any ranged attacks. Should you teach him one? He’ll be able to fly eventually. Still might struggle with faster fliers…

You’ll ask Madeline for her thoughts. Later.

“Whirlwind the rocks.”

You’ve been trying to get him to learn defog. Coco can set rocks and he can try to blow them away. Kekoa was working on it with him. Just didn’t have a reliable setter to train with. He learned whirlwind in the last few days. It’s a step forward. Just not quite where you want to be.

“The claydol is spinning. Bringing the rocks with him,” Vengeance says.

What? They can do that? Is that psychic? Some weird rapid spin combination? Both?

{Protect if you have to. Whirlwind until then.”

You hear rocks hit a barrier. And keep hitting the barrier. They’re waiting Vengeance out. They’ll probably succeed, too. New plan.

{Crush claw.}

He’ll go down afterwards. That’s fine. He hates it when you withdraw him early. At least now he’ll do a little damage.

He screams. You withdraw him when the screams start sounding more like pain than anger.

That leaves Pixie. And Noci. How do you want to play this? Something needs disabled. Teleport? The spin move? The spin move can do more damage. Might be the only way to do damage. Teleport makes hitting harder.

You send her out.

{Aurora veil.}

You’re so glad she learned it. You were waiting on that for months. It’s where all the really fun ninetales strategies begin.

Something slices through the air again. Is that what the spinning sounds like? Cuicatl would be better at this. Should you try and pull her up again? You’re pretty sure you’re better at fights. Have the gym badges to prove it.

She has eight trials behind her.

Those still seem less impressive. This has been tricky, but not ‘fight a pro trainer five v five in the middle of a hostile crowd’ hard.

The rocks don’t make the same sound when they ‘hit.’ You’re not sure they hit through the aurora veil at all. Pixie doesn’t make a noise. Can’t smell blood. Would you be able to smell blood over the saltwater? Cuicatl’s blind. That doesn’t mean superpowers. Except for the ones that you both have.

“Ice beam.”

The air grows colder. Pixie growls in frustration. “Teleports.”

“Try again.” {Disable the teleport.}

You reach out to help before pulling away. Probably shouldn’t. That hurts at the best of times, and with everything else going on in your mind it sounds like a bad idea.

There’s another pulse of cold air and the claydol lets out an inhuman groan.

She has aurora veil for defense and a super effective ice beam for offense. Hopefully that’s enough? Or is there something else you can do. She knows… hypnosis. Claydol have a lot of eyes. You saw a picture once. Can they close the eyes? Do the clay robot doll things have eyelids? You know some pokémon don’t.

Pixie grunts. Guess the rocks are breaking through.

“Hypnosis.”

The sound of the claydol’s whirring rocks moves further away.

“Did it work?”

“It closed its eyes. Too many eyes.”

It can do that. Great. Was worth a try.

Now you’ll just have to… can you really only sit back and wait? Every match is usually engaging. You have to set up your own traps while searching for your opponent’s. Now you can do half of that, tops.

Cuicatl’s lucky that all of her pokémon are smart. She would not work well with Spike or Searah.

The claydol makes an extremely dramatic noise before something heavy crashes to the ground. Was that acting? Actual pain? You would feel bad about hurting a wild pokémon like that.

“Don’t worry,” the bruxish says in his grinding, overlapping way. Guess he’s back. If he ever really left. “Alph’s just a drama queen. You’re fine, right?”

There’s another noise. Shorter. Lighter.

“What a shame that I couldn’t see your metagross in action. I was very much looking forward to it.”

Pixie nudges your leg.

“Salt. Hate it.”

You withdraw her. At least she tells you she wants withdrawn instead of just doing it.

“I don’t think you want to see her fight,” you tell the totem. “She’s terrifying. It would be over as soon as it started.”

“She’s rough, hmm? Perfect. Tell me, is she mated?”

Is she—

She’s not even organic, why would—

No. You don’t want to know any more about this.

“I don’t think she’s looking.”

“What a shame. Well, send her back out. I’m ready to get started.”

*​

“Are you ready?” the totem asks after a few minutes of preparations.

You still don’t even know what you’re preparing for or how to prepare for it.

[Creation of a shared psionic space. It will allow avatars of your separate personalities to speak.]

Does that involve tearing you all the way apart? That can’t be good for your soul, right?

[All variables have been considered. The ghost you’re tethered to has said this is no riskier than continued inaction.]

She really has been talking to everyone but you about this.

[I have been speaking with experts. You will be consulted when you gain sufficient expertise in conducting psionic reconstructive surgery rather than simply being subjected to it.]

“And whose fault is that?” you grumble.

[What is the human expression? ‘Fuck up my brain once, shame on you. Fuck up my brain twice, it is my fault for not gaining better psionic defenses. Fuck up my brain three times, that is a good idea and will fix all problems. I mean this unironically. Your consent would be appreciated but is not required.]

“Your consent is required.”

[I was joking. The joke was not received. Recalibrating humor… Knock knock? Who’s there? A supercomputer capable of simulating even your fractured mind at 99.8% accuracy at fifty times the speed of thought. The simulation was asked for consent. The simulation consented. This is what efficiency looks like.]

You really don’t get why Cuicatl trusts this thing absolutely. You suppose you’ll have to ask her.

You, unfortunately, don’t have any better ideas.

“Will I drown if you knock me out?”

The sand underneath your feet gets pushed up until you’re completely above the water.

[Any further pointless questions?]

You take a deep breath.

It’s just a talk.

You shouldn’t be scared. It’s fixing things.

The hairs on your arms are still standing straight up.

“Let’s get it over with.”

*​

You aren’t entirely sure why this is the place your mind goes. It’s in the background of a few memories, but none that are too important. It still feels deeply familiar. You lift up your mug of coffee and look out the window at the rain-soaked Nimbasa streets below.

It’s good coffee. The best in the city as far as you’re concerned. You’re not mad you ended up here. Although, you can’t help but wonder if Cuicatl is somewhere else right now. She’s sitting across from you in the booth, but maybe in her mindscape she’s at home in Anahuac or something. It’s a little hard to remember the details of her life right now. What would be comfortable to her.

She’s practically swimming in the booth. You both are, but you’re a little older. Or not? You are her mother. You know that. Sort of. The strongest parts of your memories, though, are the ones from your journey. Which was… you can’t remember. You were a teenager, probably. Perhaps a little younger.

You blow over the top of your mug.

However constructed Cuicatl is, you’re worse off. Tapu Lele wasn’t even trying to make you functional.

“I’m guessing there’s only room for one of us,” Cuicatl says. Her accent is pretty thick. Thicker than Dexio’s, even. You’re not entirely sure you could understand her outside of a telepathic space.

You set the mug down. Guess things are getting serious. “That seems like a good assumption. Sharing is what got us here.”

She looks down. There’s a drink in front of her. Does she know it’s there? Is it there in her reality?

“I’ve had control for almost a year. It would be fair if…”

You really should have seen that coming. You take another sip while you gather your thoughts.

“Since when has the world been fair?”

She opens her mouth to object. You cut her off. It was a rhetorical question.

“Never. I don’t think you really believe in fairness, either. If it was ‘fair’ for you to destroy me, would you be arguing we should do it?”

“Maybe,” she lies. Poor girl. You know all of her tells. They’re yours.

“Do you have boundaries?” you ask. “Like, have you ever sat one and enforced it?” You can’t entirely remember. Your past is hazy. Hers is practically gone right now.

“We just talked with Zygarde about this.”

You roll your eyes before taking another drink. Not quite what you meant.

“That was setting a boundary to protect someone else. You ever sat one to protect you and stuck with it?”

“Kekoa was being an ass when we first met. I told him no.”

Right. You can sort of remember that now. That was early on. You need to modify your theory a little bit.

“Hmm. Perhaps. I guess you can make limits for strangers. But has someone you care about ever hurt you and you didn’t forgive them for it?”

“I just broke up with my girlfriend.” Her arms are crossed. She’s pouting. Doesn’t like being pressed on this. Tough. You might have one chance to speak with her and you’re going to make it count.

“After I came out. Were you on track to do that before?”

Her eyes narrow. “Might have happened.”

Sure. Whatever she thinks. You look back out the window. The streets are empty. You didn’t notice at first glance. It feels wrong. This part of the city is always overflowing with life, even in winter.

“If you did set a boundary, do you think people would respect it?”

She takes a deep breath. “Some would.”

“Anyone you remember from before Alola?”

“…maybe Renfield or Searah.”

Renfield is respectful like that. He certainly wouldn’t pull any of the metagross’s bullshit. And if he did, you would be pissed. Cuicatl’s mostly just annoyed that her pokémon hurt her in a way that could get her entire identity erased.

She’s said enough, though. You know why she doesn’t think she can stand up for herself.

You don’t remember a lot about your husband. Just that things started to go south shortly after you literally went south. Never bad enough that you left, but you definitely should have. Seeing what he did to Cuicatl makes your blood boil, even if you can’t remember it. Lightning booms in the distance with your rage. Cuicatl jolts in her seat. Maybe she is in Nimbasa with you.

“Cuicatl, it might be fair to me if you fold. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone else. I barely remember your journey before a month ago. I wasn’t the one who met your friends and team. I had people. They’re gone, now.”

With a thought, Renfield’s ball appears on the table. You palm the rough wood. What would wouldn’t give for him to be here now. He would know what to do.

“If I have to leave, though, I need you to promise that you’re going to stick up for yourself. The people around you deserve it. More importantly, you deserve it, too.”

Cuicatl takes a shaky breath and finally picks up her drink. She barely drinks anything before setting it down. “Growing up, I thought that you could do anything. You trained the team and traveled across Unova on your own. If you had been there…”

“Things would have certainly been different.” There’s another roll of thunder so loud that the cups rattle on the table.

“You’re here now. Do you have to go?”

“There are a few options.” The bruxish finally speaks. His voice is much more pleasant when it takes the form of a little intercom message above you. “The first is the partial or complete destruction of one personality. We could optimize the central nervous system to either restore sight or increase psionic abilities at the same time.”

Cuicatl bristles. Good. You weren’t really looking forward to oblivion. You would pass to give Cuicatl a chance, but that doesn’t mean you’re looking forward to death.

“We could also attempt integration. This would be the most stable option in the long term and also allow for some enhancements. You could decide which parts of the separate personalities remain in the restored whole.”

That’s still a little close to death for you. It’s a little more palatable, but whatever came next wouldn’t be you. Just like you.

The idea is deeply unappealing. This is still probably Cuicatl’s decision to make. She doesn’t seem quite as opposed to this option.

“Finally, we could use the efficiencies to clear up space for a second personality to operate in a subordinate role. It would still need frequent rest and there would be a few problems stemming from it. Heightened or dulled emotions, weakened psionic abilities, potential dysmorphia, mild but persistent claustrophobia, maybe even temporary paralysis if the subordinate personality attempted to seize control. I would recommend either subsummation or integration in the long run. Coexistence is probably just a way to buy time to work out an integration agreement.”

That sounds messy. The other options are probably messier. You take one final sip of coffee and leave the mug dry.

“Well? I think the ball’s in your court.” You would take your own advice to stand up for yourself. You will if she decides to destroy you entirely. At the very least you are making her take some of your confidence. You’re also incomplete. A mother and a teenager all at once. An interloper in someone else’s story. Whatever she claims about fairness, she does have the right to decide here.

“How bad is coexisting going to be?” Cuicatl asks.

“Unpleasant, but survivable. Symptoms should be less than your current arrangement.”

‘Should be.’ You don’t like the risk there. It sounds like there’s a path to fixing things if this doesn’t work out, though.

“I guess we try to live together?”

You close your eyes to think. If you agree to this, you are hurting her. Probably hurting yourself, too. Being conscious and unable to control your own body sounds like a special form of hell. You aren’t sure how integration would work. Who would be left behind. This does give you some time to figure out those answers and see how bad the side-effects are.

“Sure.”

*​

You slowly drift awake. The waves sound distant. There isn’t sunlight tearing into your skin. Someone must have moved you from the beach. You flick an arm out to feel what it hits. Soft. Blankets. Something shifts against you and clenches tight. It’s long, thin, and very strong. Madeline must be out of her veil.

Right. It got wet. You agreed to fix it.

You slowly sit up and stretch out.

The world feels quiet. Fixed. Like the ground was spinning and then it stopped and now you feel dizzy.

You try to reach out for your mother’s memories and come up with nothing at all. There’s a moment of panic. She left one thing for you and now it’s gone forever.

You feel something stir at the back of your head.

“Don’t be so dramatic, love. I’m right here.”

Relief floods through you. For years you just wanted her to be there and had to settle for memories. Now she is here and your brain isn’t collapsing. Probably. Hopefully. The totem’s warning was pretty scary. You don’t feel any of that now, though.

You reach out with your gift and… oh. Definitely doesn’t reach as far. You can still feel people. Could probably message them. Just feels like you’re wading through mud.

“We should probably tell Lyra about this. Can’t imagine she’s going to be thrilled to learn that more surgery happened while she wasn’t there.”

“Yeah…”

That’s one problem solved and a few more created. But you can’t really be mad about it. You still have your pokémon. And Lyra. And now Danielle. Things are going to be okay.
 
Ice 8.6 New

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Ice 8.6: Stronger
Genesis

August 14, 2020

Your pokémon are relatively low maintenance. Ferny and Callisto can feed themselves. You aren’t sure that Count Cloudy needs to eat at all. Sometimes he floats into smoke or dust and sits there for a while. A website you read said that might be eating. That means you only need to find food for two of your pokémon.

It’s the dry season in Alola. Some of the kids you know who live on the mainland looked forward to summer every year because the weather would be pleasant at home. No need to go down south for the weekend with all the hassle that brings. In Alola, summer just means that it’s almost unbearable outside. That’s been fine before. You could just go inside more for a few months.

That’s not an option now. Yes, Cloudy can still make things cooler. Not for long. Not without getting tired and needing to nap. You don’t like pushing your pokémon to their limits like that.

It also means that there’s less water. You found a pond for Oliver and Sir Bubbles. There’s just enough plants there for Oliver. You can just put leaves or grass in water if things get really rough. He doesn’t like it, but he will eat it.

Sir Bubbles is harder. He hunts, sort of. He finds bugs and shoots them with water so they can’t fly away. There just aren’t a lot of bugs out right now. They’re in some kind of heat-hibernation. He’s found some food, but not really enough. You’re going to need to figure something out.

You sigh into your coffee and take a cautious sip. A hot drink sounds terrible right now. Unfortunately, today will require a lot of energy and you still aren’t sleeping well in the heat. The nurse gives you a sympathetic look.

“You know, the weirdest thing happened to me last night,” she says. You nod, half-awake, because it’s the polite thing to do. “There was a break-in. Whoever it was looted my kid’s bedroom. Not for money. Didn’t go downstairs for food or electronics or jewelry or anything. Just tore some drawers out, messed up the closet, and stole some blankets and pajamas. Ripped up a stuffed animal while they were at it.”

“Is she hurt?” That does sound odd. You still shouldn’t laugh if there was an injury.

“No. He was out.”

He. Right. Male children can also own stuffed toys.

“Maybe they were trying to scare us,” she says. “But it wasn’t very effective. I don’t know who they were or what they want me to do.”

You hear Levi plod down the hallway and blearily look towards the coffee machine. He’s been addicted to it “for a while” in spite of his age. There’s one pokéball visible in his pocket.

Maybe you could figure something out for Bubbles that didn’t require you to leave town. That’s not going to be the case for Red. She’s big. She can’t just eat insects. At least, you’re pretty sure she can’t. The nurse and Cuicatl agreed.

Red has never hunted a day in her life. You know your father battled with her when he was younger. That was a long time ago. Now she’s an old lady who sometimes get asked to light a fire or go on a walk.

She’s hungry again and now it’s your problem. You don’t even know what lives here to hunt. There aren’t any tauros. You asked. Skarmory probably aren’t edible. Lighter birds would just fly away. The graveler are actual rocks. You are not hunting persian. Most of the young pokémon are too small to last Red more than a few hours. That leaves raticate, gumshoos, and maybe something else. Except those can all fight. Cuicatl could take down some gumshoos for Red because she had a trained golisopod. You don’t. None of your pokémon are really that strong. Except maybe Callisto. You haven’t really fought with Callisto, though.

Even if you knew what easy prey was, you still wouldn’t know how to find it.

For maybe the fiftieth time since your breakup you think about calling her or Lyra or someone. You didn’t even want to talk to them before. Just…

Levi looks at you like you have all the answers. You don’t. You don’t even know what kinds of books would have those answers or where you would find them.

How did Cuicatl take care of her sibling when she was nine? Who even taught Lyra domestic stuff? She has a family similar to yours.

Levi finishes his cereal and stands up. He makes sure to push the chair back under the table. Then he takes a few steps away before remembering that he has to clean up after himself now.

“Don’t worry about the dishes,” the receptionist says before you can jump in. “Just don’t stay out too long. Between the heat and the ghosts…” She shakes her head. “Be careful.”

“We will. Promise.”

You’re only trying to find and kill a big pokémon. What could possibly go wrong?

*​

You do not want to kill the scrafty. For one, it looks way too human. Bipedal, big head, thin torso. Even kind of has hair. Like, it’s clearly not human with the scales and skin pouches. It still feels worse than killing a bug.

It’s also not making this quick. First, it didn’t run away, even when you sent a freaking pyroar out. He’s annoyingly strong, too. No real hair to light on fire. All of Red’s bites just get loose skin flaps that leave the scrafty enough room to turn around and sock her, hard. He’s bleeding and a little burned, but he’s still fine and Red clearly doesn’t like this fight.

Sir Bubbles is not helping. You tried having him stand back and use bubble beam. Half the bubbles hit Red. You tried having him get in close. That did not go well. At this point you want to just stop and leave, but your pokémon are wounded and you haven’t seen anything else big in hours. This is your last chance to hunt. Hopefully the Pokémon Center can patch everything up when this is done.

“Biting isn’t working, body slams aren’t working. Maybe cutting could? The skin shouldn’t help with that,” Levi suggests.

It could. You send out Ferny and point to the scrafty. “Leaf blade. Kill. Or wound. Or something big.”

His jaw drops and he looks at you aghast. Darn it. Not the time.

“…does Bubbles know hypnosis?” Levi asks.

Why did you not think of that before?

“Bubbles! Get back, use hypnosis. Hang back a little bit, Red!”

There must not be anything out here that uses hypnosis. Or maybe the scrafty just isn’t used to being attacked by politoed. He hangs back and just growls at Sir Bubbles while he booms back with his own threatening sounds. Eventually he sags just enough that Red feels comfortable leaping and… tearing.

You lower your gaze and see Ferny looking at you with deep concern. Right. Plant doesn’t want to hunt. Should have withdrawn him earlier. You do now.

You’re not doing this again. You’re finding somewhere with easier prey that you don’t have to think as much about. Or, at the very least, you’re getting strong enough to end things in one shot.

*​

You got out of dishes at breakfast and weren’t there for lunch. Still have to clean up the kitchen for dinner. It’s only polite.

Levi is “helping.” He clearly has no idea what to do. Just stands around occasionally moving a rag across a dish while looking very confused. Should you teach him? You’re tired and just want this to be done. You remember how long it took for people to teach you when you were first starting out. Now you like to think you’re pretty decent at cleaning things, although your gear didn’t look brand new on the trail no matter how much time you spent on it.

It was very frustrating.

Maybe you can teach him one thing tonight. How to put things into the drying rack. It’s not that hard. Gives him something to do. He seems very pleased with himself by the time you’re done wiping everything down. It’s more cluttered than you would like. A few things are diagonal when it would be more space efficient to be perpendicular to the base. Still fine. Nothing broke, everything fits in. You can give him more tips tomorrow. Maybe introduce him to something else.

Were you this useless a year ago? Why did they put up with you?

*​

August 15, 2020

You’re stuck in your room again.

Well, it’s not quite the same. You could go outside. It’s just so, so hot. Even worse than yesterday. In the nineties. All you have to fight it is a tiny little battery-powered fan. And Cloudy. He can really only drop the temperature a few degrees if he has to keep doing it for hours. Still too hot.

To top it all off, you’re bored. There is no internet. The TV doesn’t have power for movies or television. Your phone charge needs to be very carefully conserved. You only have one book. You bought it ages ago on your first date with Cuicatl and have read it cover-to-cover four times since. You’re not in the mood for a fifth.

You absolutely should have grabbed more while you were at the mall. Can’t exactly go back now, though.

You can’t talk to your pokémon because you don’t have a translator. Definitely didn’t do enough of it while you had Cuicatl and her relatively-safe metang around. You really want to know more about Callisto in particular. How is she feeling away from her island? Is Oliver feeling okay? Is Ferny mad about yesterday?

You could try to be a trainer and actually train your pokémon. That would require making them exercise in this heat. Pass. It’s even too stuffy to sleep. That just leaves daydreams.

*​

There’s a familiar knight at the front of the hoard. One who rarely fights herself. Where you have your team of knights at your side, she has monsters. It should have tipped you off a long time ago that she was not bound by chivalry. Alas, you were deceived for months.

Her dragon and giant spider sit at her sides. Her one potentially human companion, a heavily armored knight with two cleavers, stands in front of her. You have never heard him speak.

“We don’t have to do this,” she says. “I have what I want. You just need to get out of the way.”

“And let you trample more innocents?”

You’ve seen the work of her monsters and the hoard behind her. You will not let them pass. Whatever it takes.

She looks at you like you aren’t even there. Like she doesn’t care. Like you mean nothing. Maybe you never did. “Fine. Be that way.”

Her dragon roars. The silent knight lunges. The spider just stares you down.

How do you handle this? Her two smaller monsters aren’t a problem. They can just be batted away with your shield. Maybe you have one of your knights take on the fox before they can put something to sleep or steal memories or any of her many tricks. The problem with her isn’t just the brute force. Giving her too much room could be dangerous.

The silent knight does have brute force and thick armor. How do you go about dealing with something like that? Cammy the Giant can try to smack him around with her lance. Maybe just step on him. He’s quick, though. She isn’t. Slow him down? You do have a few tricks. Sleep. Does he have eyelids over his weird bug eyes? You can’t remember him blinking.

He resists water so there goes half your team. Lord Oliver and Sir Bubbles can’t really overpower him. Maybe Ferny could? Like, cut between the plates or something? Except he’s also a bug-type. Would Ferny even want to fight?

And this is all before you have to deal with the spider and dragon. Maybe you can put the dragon to sleep or something. Or Cammy, Callisto, whatever, could overpower him. Maybe. Does she have ranged dragon attacks? You haven’t really asked. You know she has leaf storm. It’s hard to imagine leaves mattering here. Even sharp ones. Unless they got in the eyes.

Then the metagross… your Father had strong pokémon. Corviknight, vikavolt, pyroar, more that you aren’t as familiar with. He got torn apart. Literally, probably. Levi didn’t seem to know. You weren’t asking the murderer about her kill. If Cuicatl knew, she didn’t tell you.

If she tried to kill you or Levi, there’s probably nothing you could do. She wouldn’t even have to give orders. She’d just win.

She says that she’s not mad at you. You’re still mad at her. For a lot of things. Starting a war, killing your parents and traumatizing your brother, leaving the moment things got hard.

There’s also a traitorous part of you that wishes she was still here. She has a lot of problems. You also felt safer when she was around. She gave good cuddles. She’s cute. She was kind to her friends. Ruthless to her enemies. Maybe that could have been toned down. You probably could have made things work, eventually, if she’d given you enough time.

There’s no way of knowing now. You’ll have to make do. However hard it is.

You’re going to need help. With a lot of things. Battling’s up there. Thankfully, there’s someone who lives nearby who was almost good enough to beat Cuicatl. You’ll ask him tomorrow.

*​

August 16, 2020

Levi sets his fork down in the middle of breakfast. He leans back and folds his hands in his lap just so. He was always better at etiquette than you were. “Do you know what happened with Exodus?”

“No idea.” No one ever filled you in between your rescue and the war. You had just assumed she was still being kept at the school. Now, with your parents dead? You assume your aunt and uncle have custody. That requires you to further assume that they are alive, off the islands, and the child who might legally be in their custody is their top priority. You can’t really be sure of any of that. The metagross might have assumed they would plot revenge on Cuicatl for what she did to your parents and killed them off preemptively. No one is able to get in or out of Alola right now. You bet they could still find a way if they really put their minds to it. Your cousin has a lot of strong flying-types if nothing else.

Could you ask her for help with training? You come back to the same question: how would you even reach her? She’s either on Lanakila at the Pokémon League or she’s in Heahea at her home. Your team isn’t in any shape to climb a mountain. Cuicatl and Lyra are heading that way. They’ve also made it very clear that they want nothing to do with you.

Levi looks over to the receptionist. She’s keeping the Pokémon Center in order when the resident nurse is busy. “Is there any way to get news to or from the mainland?”

“Just dragonite post right now. They’re way backed up. Government use only.”

One of the only other people staying here snorts from her table. “Didn’t know there was a government right now.”

“The League, the rangers, and I guess the governor,” the receptionist answers. “The guard is in ruins. Not a lot he can do.”

“I met a dragonite once,” you mutter. Better talking about the pokémon than the state of the world. Not much any of you can do about that. “Tried catching a dratini and did not know his mother was around. She took off and left me deaf for a few days. Had to get through the rest of Vast Poni Canyon without being able to hear.”

It was terrifying at the time. You didn’t know if you were going to end up unable to hear for the rest of your life or if everything was, somehow, going to be fine. One moment the world is as it should be and the next, bam, disabled forever.

In the last few months, your life has changed in an instant far too many times for your liking.

You look up and see your brother staring at you like he used to when you were both really little and you could put him on your back and run around. Like you can do anything. Like you’re the knight you are in your daydreams. You immediately look back down at your bowl of dry cereal. You aren’t what he thinks you are. You can’t keep him safe. You can barely keep your pokémon fed. You have no idea what you’re doing.

The most that can be said for you is that you have an idea for how to start changing that.

*​

The kahuna’s home looks like something right out of a television show. White fence and walls. Trimmed lawn. There’s a playset in the front yard, which is a little odd. You thought those were typically in the back. There’s a meowth napping in the shade beneath it. He keeps an eye on you as you walk up to the front door.

You do not like Kahuna Nanu. He hurt Cuicatl on purpose during their fight. And it sounds like he had a big role to play in keeping her real identity from her. If he had just been a little more transparent or a little less callous, it’s quite possible this war never would have happened in the first place.

Unfortunately, he is by far the strongest trainer in this town. You need help. You know you should have done this when Lyra offered back on Poni. But you didn’t need it then. Didn’t want it. Fighting isn’t your thing and you found it hard to imagine a world where you didn’t have a very scary girl fighting for you. Couldn’t imagine that one day you would have to plan what to do if she came for your family again.

You ring the doorbell. Nothing happens. Is he out? He is the kahuna. He probably has better things to do than sit around at home. Should you ring it again? He must have got the message if he’s home. You won’t. You’ll just… come back tomorrow, probably.

The door swings open just as you turn around to leave. The kahuna’s more than a little disheveled. He’s wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt that could be something other than pajamas, but you doubt are. There are deep bags under his eyes and his hair is as messy as it can be at its short length. It looks a little longer than you remembered, too.

He looks you up and down before practically collapsing into a lean against the wall. “Can I help you?”

“Good morning. I’m Genesis—”

“I know who you are. Here for revenge? Thought she’d come and take it herself if she wanted it.”

Does he think you could kill him? Or try? Come to think of it, he doesn’t have any pokémon on hand. That’s a little weird for a trainer. Is he really answering his door unarmed while society is falling apart?

“No, um. I’m not here about that. We broke up. She’s somewhere around Lanakila right now.”

He sighs. “Good. I’ll be the first to admit that Foster took it too far with the racism. I probably could have been a little more delicate breaking the news to her. I was, once, but after the fifth time someone yells at you for something Tapu Lele did, well, hard to keep a light touch. Doesn’t begin to excuse what she did in response to it all.”

Your eyes narrow. “You know about that?” Did someone tell him? Did he overhear? Who all knows? You’re mad at her. That doesn’t mean you want her to die. Even if it’s just the logical consequence of her actions.

“Kid, my great-something-grandma made that knife. Didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what faller my niece looped into her little crusade.”

“Acerola’s your niece?”

He looks past you into the yard. “You’re letting all the hot air in. Wanna come inside?”

“Sure?” That was what you wanted in the first place.

He leads you into his kitchen. The inside of the house is a lot messier than the outside. Paper bags litter the floor in various stages of destruction. One is whole and seems to have something wiggling around inside. Several are flattened. At least two have been torn to pieces. The garbage can is overflowing with an already-full garbage bag placed beside it. Most of the kitchen table is covered in papers, bags of things, cans, plates, or other debris. He sits down at it, unbothered. You sit down about a third of the way around. Still lets you kind of see him. He does not apologize for the mess.

“I’d rather not talk about family drama with strangers. Now, why are you here?”

“I need to get stronger.” He raises an eyebrow. “My team isn’t powerful enough to stop people from hurting me or my brother. Or maybe it is and I don’t know how to use it. I have to hunt for an old pyroar now and I can’t even do that right and. I need a teacher. You’re the strongest trainer around.”

“And the busiest, pass.”

You blink. “Just like that.”

“Just like that.”

“Without even giving a reason?”

He shrugs. “Told you, I’m busy. Malie’s eating itself alive. City folk are camping out on the routes, eating the bear’s food, and then getting shocked when the bears bite back. Everything around Tapu Village is an environmental disaster, to say nothing of the ghosts. When I am at home, I’d rather be relaxing than tutoring some brat.”

“You’re kind of an, an asshole, you know that, right?” For this. For everything that went on with Cuicatl. You’re guessing there are a lot more reasons you don’t know about.

“So I’m told. Is that all? I was hoping to get a little more sleep before it gets ungodly hot again.”

The front door slams open so hard you can practically feel the handle hit the wall. Nanu winces and your soul almost jumps out of your body.

“Who’s the big, bad kahuna who beats you down, and beats you down, and never lets up!”

Nanu turns to look at the newcomer with mild distaste.

You’re mostly just… confused? He’s wearing black pants and a black jacket despite the heat. He has a necklace that you’re 99% sure is made of gold-painted pop tabs and a ‘gold’ watch that looks obviously fake. At first you thought that his hair had gone white unfortunately early, but, no, it looks like it’s actually just one of the worst bleachings you’ve ever seen. His hair sticks out in wild, textureless tufts. Parts of the underlying black are still clearly showing. Did he do it last night? By himself? In the dark? His sunglasses, which would be useful given the weather, are asymmetrical with one side having a… bite out of it? You think? What is going on?

“Hello, Guzma,” Nanu says. “Do you need something?”

Guzma? That’s… oh! He was the old boss of Team Skull.

…oh no, he was the old boss of Team Skull. At least you have an actual kahuna here in case he tries anything.

The gang leader walks up to the table and yanks a chair back before whirling it around. He sits down in it, legs spread behind the chair’s back, and arms crossed in front of it. “Oh, nothing much. Just got a promotion. Thought I’d break the news to the old guy in person.”

“Congrats.” Nanu pulls out a half-empty glass of water you hadn’t seen before. “You’re in for it.”

The big, bad kahuna. A promotion? Wait. No. “You’re the new kahuna?”

“Dead on the money, princess.” He barely spares you a glance. That’s good. You don’t really want him thinking about you. “What’cha got to say, old man?”

“Sucks to be you. An entire island of people and pokémon who won’t. Stop. Complaining? Yours now.” He gestures towards you. “Hell, just got a new one this morning. She’s your problem, too.”

“I think I’m good,” you whisper.

“Nah, nah, I’ve got this. What’s the problem, kid? What can the big, bad kahuna do for you?”

You aren’t sure if you’re getting out of this anymore. How can you make this request as boring as possible? Then you can go back to Nanu later since he no longer has a job to pretend to be busy with. He’s an ass, but he’s safer.

“Just needed a little advice on training. That’s all.”

“Hell yeah. So, just starting out? Middle of the challenge? End? What are we talking?”

“Middle, kind of? My pokémon are evolved. I just don’t really know how to command them. Felt important to learn right now.” He doesn’t need more details.

“Alright!” He slams a hand against the chair back before getting up to his feet. “Let’s go out and see what we’re working with.” He turns to Nanu and winks. “See, old man? Already doing more to educate the youth and all that.”

“Have fun,” Nanu drawls. “And don’t wreck my lawn. Just mowed it.”

*​

Guzma walks back and forth in front of your pokémon like a commander inspecting his troops. Finally, he stops, looks up Callisto’s long, long neck, and gives a low whistle. “And you’re sure you need my help?”

“I only beat two trials. That was almost a year ago.”

The first one was all Ferny. Second one was a mix of castform setting up the sun to fight a steel-type and Ferny still being pretty strong. You think his last trainer might have been a serious fighter? Serious enough to really care what his pokémon evolved into. You didn’t have a major preference for Bubbles as long as he was happy with it. You do wish he picked the one that wasn’t quite so loud, though.

“Well, what do you want to learn to fight for? Best strategies depend on what we’re fighting and why. We burning shit? Protecting it? Assassinations?”

So morbid. How do you even—no. You aren’t humoring him. “Hunting. Hunting pokémon. My brother has a pyroar. She’s old. We tried to hunt a scrafty and it, I mean we did it, but it took too long.”

“Huh. Could’ve picked something easier, y’know?”

“Not much around here.”

“Not during the day. Got to get out at night and find a big, juicy raticate. Hey, I’m free tonight. I can take you out, show you how to find one—”

“I’m afraid I’m busy.” You do not want to be out with this man at night, alone. You definitely do not want your brother there with him.

His jaw drops. “Busy? At night? Now? Middle of a war?”

“Yes.” This is probably less awkward than backtracking.

“Well, uh, okay, then. I guess we can talk about ganging up on a big pokémon? That’s close enough.”

He reaches down to his belt and taps a scuffed pokéball. Light pours out. And keeps pouring. It’s not as much as Coco or even Callisto, but it’s still a hefty pokémon. When the light finishes pooling, the newly formed golisopod tenses as if to pounce. You’ve seen Cuicatl’s do it a lot. Although this thing positively dwarfs hers in size. It has to be nearly a foot taller, with thicker armor and sharper claws to boot.

“Do they usually get that big?” you ask.

“Hah! Scared of his size?”

“No. My girlfriend—” You catch yourself. “Ex-girlfriend had one that was smaller. Just wasn’t sure which one was normal.”

“Eh. When’d they evolve?”

“Few months ago?” You think. She says she caught a wimpod and that would have happened after you… left. Probably. Your memories aren’t always right about those things.

“Just a baby, then. Give them time.”

“I thought bugs didn’t live very long?”

“Some don’t, some do. These guys go. Now, you ready to fight or what?”

“Yeah, just give me a second.” You turn back towards your team. Alright. Strategy time. How do your five pokémon take on one golisopod? You know that Lyra and Cuicatl said you had a ‘weather’ team. What you do should focus more on Count Cloudy. Sun or rain. Golisopod are water-types. Sun could help with that. Cloudy already has embers flickering through his body. It would be easier on him than trying to summon rain. “Cloudy, use sunny day! Everyone else, attack the golisopod!”

There. No way he can fight five of your pokémon at once.

*​

He can fight five of your pokémon at once. It doesn’t even look like he’s trying.

You have Bubbles try hypnosis. The bug just lunges his way and starts slashing. Sir Bubbles gives up and just starts trying to body slam him back. It does nothing.

Oliver shoots out a stream of water that barely even makes it to the golisopod. As soon as Sir Bubbles is down, the bug leaps towards him and starts attacking. Oliver eventually puts a small, flickering shield up. Protect. Right. Lyra taught half your team the move. Said it could be important. You’d just kidn of forgotten she did that.

Ferny rushes in before things can get too far out of hand. His head leaf is glowing and seems about twice as long as usual. The golisopod catches it in a claw before swiping out with his other large arm. Ferny darts away with a quick attack. Good! He knows what he’s doing. Even gives Oliver a chance to run away.

It doesn’t buy Ferny that much time, though. The golisopod is even quicker than Cuicatl’s. He tries to run but trips over himself. (Was he always that fast?) He does turn in time to lash out with another leaf blade. The golisopod just catches it with a claw and then lunges forwards to bite into his side. He really, really does not like that. You withdraw him pretty quickly so he doesn’t get too hurt.

Callisto slams her head down straight into the golisopod. It knocks him flat. For a moment. Then he manages to somehow twist around so that his legs are wrapped around the dragon’s neck. Callisto tries to right herself, tries to shake him off, tries to call for someone else to do something. The last one works, kind of. Cloudy shoots a ball of fire at her. She seems to like that even less than the bug’s slashes. You withdraw her.

The stupid bug lands on its feet. Just him, Cloudy, and Oliver now.

“Alright, let’s stop there,” Guzma says. “Weren’t kidding about your skill, huh?”

That’s an insult. An accurate one. You have no grounds to say anything.

“I get what you were thinking with the sun. You’re fighting a water-type. Why not make him weaker? ‘cept, I wasn’t going to use water-moves on any of your ‘mons. It made your leafeon a little faster. Didn’t look like he really knew how to use that speed. No teamwork to be seen.”

“I know,” you hiss. “That’s why I need help.”

Guzma sticks his hands up. “Hey, just telling you what I see. I’d train on having your team work together. Make sure they know what to do in different weathers. When to have one block and others attack. Easy stuff. Should be videos on… ah, shit, internet’s down. Well, doesn’t take an expert. Find someone, anyone, and ask for some help. Hell, I know a guy who just retired an hour ago.”

You look towards the house, half-expecting to see Nanu watching the two of you through a window. He is not.

“I don’t think he wants to help.”

“Sucks. Tell him it’s the new kahuna’s orders. We’re an island full of model fucking citizens now. Everyone does their part.”

*​

“How bad is it?” you ask the nurse. Some of the cuts were pretty big. The golisopod was stronger than Cuicatl’s. at the time you didn’t think anything looked terrible, but you’ve never been a great judge of these things.

“Nothing to be too worried about. Mostly false swipe hits, actually. A few weaker bug bites. It’s all shallow, even if the claws… what were you fighting, again?”

“A golisopod.”

“Huh. Didn’t know any of the locals had one.”

“Not local. It was, uh, Guzma. The former Team Skull boss. He’s the new kahuna.”

The nurse stares at you like she’s expecting you to break out into laughter and give the game up.

“I’m not joking.”

“Well, Tapu Bulu sure, uh, has interesting taste. Why did you fight him? Grand Trial?”

“No. I’m just trying to learn how to fight. My brother’s pyroar needs to eat and our hunt didn’t go well and.” You look around the lobby. He isn’t here. Doesn’t know your back. “I need to take care of him now,” you say in a lower voice. “I don’t know how to do that. I thought getting stronger would be a place to start so I went to Nanu. He said no.”

The nurse gives you a long, probing look. It doesn’t feel bad. Maybe a little uncomfortable. It’s hard to describe. “Are you new to being a primary caregiver?” she asks.

“Yes?” You don’t see what that has to do with your battle skill.

“I see. How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Sixteen.”

“And how old is your brother?”

“Twelve.”

She scribbles down a note on a piece of paper. “Well, I would love to tell you that you don’t have to be strong and that the world is a safe place. Unfortunately, that’s not true at the moment. I can’t really help with training, but I can get you some books or resources on parenting if you want them. Or maybe one of the other guests knows more about the battling side of pokémon than me.”

“You don’t have to—”

She literally waves off your concerns. “You’ll thank me later. Or your brother will.”

You are thankful, now. You just don’t know how she figured out what you wanted without you telling her.

*​

Someone nudges your shoulder and you slowly drift awake.

“Wah?”

“Hi,” Levi whispers. He climbed down from his bunk to your level. “I wanted to talk.”

“’bout what?” You glance at the book on your nightstand. It’s about teenagers. Things they supposedly like and dislike and how they think. You aren’t sure how much of it is accurate to you. It does explain your peers a little more, though. A few things you’ve asked or assumed are even a little embarrassing in hindsight now.

“I had a nightmare.”

Isn’t he a little too old for this? He looks so earnest, though. You can’t help but hear him out.

“I worry—” He shakes his head and clenches his fists. “No, I’m not worried, I’m scared.

“About?”

“That monster. The metagross. It just tore our family, our home, apart. And it wasn’t even trying! It was like Red with a rattata. If it came back, is there anything we could do about it?”

You exhale. “Not right now. I’m working on getting stronger. Hopefully soon.”

He looks down and clings one arm to the side. “I’m scared you’re going to get hurt and it will have been my fault.” It comes out as barely a whisper.

“Come again?”

“You broke up with Cuicatl because of me. She must be angry. And the metagross… I don’t want to be the reason why more people get hurt, but I don’t think I could stop it.”

He’s worried about you more than himself. You understand. You’re more worried about him than yourself as well. “I don’t think either of them are coming back,” you tell him. “She isn’t mad; she doesn’t care at all.”

It was quiet when she ended things. She was tired. Resolved. She never lashed out. Didn’t threaten you with her team. Didn’t accuse you of anything explosive. She had just decided that she’d had enough and was going to move on now. She saved your life and spent months with you. You were her first kiss, first partner, first everything, and after one or two bad moments, she was just done. She was the great castle keeping you safe from the world and providing a place of comfort. You were just… nothing. A troublesome guest, perhaps.

You still care. Maybe it’s love, maybe it’s hate, but you feel something.

“That’s good,” he says, even though it isn’t. It’s complicated at best. Then he walks a step closer to your nightstand and runs a finger along the cover of your parenting book. “I still think we should find Kahili. She’s really strong, right? She can help.”

“We’ll try,” you promise. You still aren’t sure how you’re supposed to find anyone in Alola right now. Climbing Lanakila to reach the League feels out of the question at your current level of skill and power. Maybe the base would be more manageable, though? It may require briefly encountering Cuicatl and Lyra.

That’s probably okay, though. They don’t care.

You let out a long yawn. It’s not too hot right now. You should really get back to sleep before that changes.

Xerneas knows you’ll still have your share of problems in the morning. May as well be rested.
 
Ice 8.7 New

Persephone

Infinite Screms
Pronouns
her/hers
Partners
  1. mawile
  2. vulpix-alola
Ice 8.7: Ultimatums
Kekoa

August 25, 2020

Smoke hangs in the air on your way to work. It’s frustratingly normal these days.

There’s basically no power. No food, either. The people in the city are still finding ways to survive. You hear fewer wingull when you walk near the water. Barely hear a meowth or rattata scurrying by when you stay out late with Armoranth. People don’t want to eat it raw so they make a fire. It’s the end of the dry season; it doesn’t take much for a fire to spread. A lot of the firefighters left town or won’t show up to work with no pay. Some are injured from earlier blazes. Spraying water from the pipes means there’s less to drink. They try not to do that anymore. That just leaves pokémon. Only so much they can do with the tropical summer air.

Some of the city is always on fire. You’ll probably have a few patients from it today. Burns. Smoke inhalation. You’ve seen your share of both.

No one bothers you on the jog to the field hospital. You’ve got a skull patch on and Skull lays down the law in this part of the city. Anyone who has a problem with that went somewhere else and set up their own gang. Maybe they don’t call it that. Community watch. Neighborhood patrol. A group of people with guns or pokémon who make the rules and take things when they need them. A gang by another name.

You don’t blame them. The city’s gone to shit and the cavalry isn’t coming. Acerola’s in hiding, the Americans won’t land, the champion hasn’t left her throne, and no one else is strong enough to take over. You can try to go it alone or you can find strength in numbers.

Rudy nods at you as you slide behind the reception desk.

You pull your clipboard up and turn to a new page. “Another line is open,” you announce.

There are fewer patients from Skull these days. More from the community. That’s good. Means you’re doing good. Also makes it less likely the Americans bomb the place. They haven’t done much lately and it’s making Rebecca nervous.

A lot of people are hungry. You don’t have food to give them. Some are starting to have problems from hunger. You’ve learned way too much about what symptoms the med staff will and won’t bother to do something about. Almost everyone’s hungry. Even Skull’s rations have been taken down to a meal and a snack a day to keep them going longer.

The grass Anuenue eats is starting to look pretty tasty some days. Shame you don’t know enough about native plants to know what’s worth eating. There’s a book getting passed around, but it hasn’t gotten to you yet.

You have no idea how Cuicatl’s keeping her ridiculous team fed. Knowing her, she’s probably found a way.

First case you can kind of do something about is a man in diabetic shock. Family didn’t have anything to give him to get the blood sugar up and he got carried here by a graveler. A nurse takes them back. They have stuff for that. They just won’t be able to give him insulin to keep it from happening again. Supplies are low everywhere and it’s a bitch to get anything past the blockade. You heard someone was working on making some. You don’t buy it. Sounds too much like a pleasant little lie to keep people from freaking out when they realize they’re going to die.

Doesn’t stop most people from freaking out. Usually at you. Usually when there’s nothing you or anyone here can or will do. You tried at first. Pled their cases to people in the back. That’s a child, damn it, surely there’s something. Never worked. You never turned a no into a yes. Machoke tells you that’s the staff being merciful to you. Means it’s not your fault. There’s nothing you could possibly say that would change their minds. It’s not your fault.

It's hard to feel like it when someone’s panicking and they should be panicked because everything is fucked and you have no idea what to do about it but sit there and write another sentence on two on the intake form. You hate being yelled at and not being able to yell back, but they’re scared and they’re right. They should be getting treated. There should be medicine. But no one is willing to step aside and actually help the people they claim to represent.

You put in a six-hour shift most days. That’s all you can take.

None of your team can heal. Armoranth is skeptical that getting a comfey’s a good idea. Making it out to Akala and back would be risky. Possible for Skull, but the people who allocate shit haven’t given you the go-ahead. Even if it doesn’t feel like you’re doing anything, you still keep going to the hospital. You can’t solve the big problems; you can at least do this.

“Do you blame yourself for Alola’s state of affairs?” Moe asks while you’re explaining all this to the team. You have told him to go away. He keeps coming back regardless. Armoranth keeps translating for him, however much you’ve asked her not to. You can usually can just ignore him. Not to do.

“Why the fuck would I do that?”

“You wanted a rebellion against the Americans. You assisted in the theft of an artifact that was almost certainly used to start the current crisis. There is a compelling case for holding you partially responsible for the current state of affairs.”

“You were there, too. Does that make you responsible?” you hiss.

“Arguably, yes.”

“And how are you dealing with that?”

You didn’t want this shit. Just a quick war if there was one at all. Not holding everyone here to die slowly.

“The situation is unfortunate but not unusual. People die. Life moves on. It is a very peculiar thing to cling to the lost and insist that perhaps, if you just tried hard enough, the unending march of time would halt for you.”

“You think people should just accept that you’re responsible for people dying because, hey, no fucking biggy, we all die eventually?”

This is why you try not to argue with the damn ghost. You used to think Armoranth was insufferable. She has nothing on this motherfucker.

He lifts his ribbons up in an imitation of a shrug. “What would it mean if you were responsible?”

“I’m not dealing with this. I don’t need two pokémon playing therapist.”

“Do not compare us,” Armoranth whines. “I am not proposing that the heaviest of guilts are entirely irrelevant.

“As I understand it, the Ultimate Weapon was not fired by a—” Moe keeps moaning. Armoranth does not translate it.

It looks like they’re getting into it telepathically. She attacks him sometimes. He just shrugs it off. Sometimes launches his own attacks back. You can’t find it in yourself to have Leilani light him up and drive him away for good. He’s still sort of your pokémon. You just miss the days when you didn’t have to listen to him.

Kapuna says something. The words wobble too much to understand. Armoranth hasn’t quite figured out Cuicatl’s group chat trick. It gets unfocused when she’s distracted.

“Sorry.” You flick your head towards the fairy. “She’s busy. Can you repeat that?”

“What is insulin?” Kapuna asks.

They always have the weirdest questions. The ones you only kind of know the answer to.

“Uh. It’s something humans make for their blood. Like, our organs do, we don’t have factories or something. Well, we do have factories for it. Some people can’t make it inside of them so they need to get it injected.”

“And what does it do?”

“No idea.”

You’ll have to find a textbook or something. They don’t like ‘no idea’ answers. You’ve had to learn a lot of shit. How oil helps cars run, what the clouds are made of, why it barely rains for half the year. The local high school’s library almost never has anyone in it with school out for societal collapse break. No one’s bothered to loot the books.

“I’ll ask someone on my next shift.” Or see if any of your teammates know. Maybe Golbat? She knows weird stuff sometimes.

*​

August 27, 2020

You ask Golbat while you prepare the new home base she found. She doesn’t know, either.

The new place is an old single-family home a little closer to the city’s edge. Still solidly in Skull territory. From the dust it doesn’t seem like anyone’s been here for a while. A rental? Did the old owners leave after Necrozma? They must have left before the current crisis started. It’s nicer than your current safehouse. You’re in the fourth biggest bedroom and it’s still the nicest place to sleep you’ve had in your life. Feels like your family’s home growing up could fit in this place three times over.

Most importantly, it’s wheelchair accessible for Machoke. He could be in one for a few more weeks.

It takes some discussion to figure out how to move your food stores over without starting a riot. In the end, Rebecca just creates a white-out snowstorm with her froslass while you haul the food in a few wagons. It’s not very elegant. Looks suspicious as hell. Still keeps people from knowing exactly what you’re moving and where you’re taking it.

*​

Machoke sits at the head of the table with the rest of your little band scattered around it. Minus Armoranth. She’s ‘out.’ You have no idea what that means, but she ordered you not to follow. You would have if not for the team meeting.

“Well, I guess it’s time to be honest about what we’re all still doing here,” he says. “If you want to leave, I don’t blame you. The boss is dead and the city’s dying. Might be safer somewhere else. I don’t even know what the team’s goal is anymore.”

“We are discussing that in the security council,” Loudred, Rebecca (still struggling to always call her by her real, human name) says, quiet and even as always. You had no idea she was on the security council now. You didn’t know there was a security council. Doesn’t feel like you’ve been told anything about what’s going on. “The Americans have offered us a chance to surrender if we find and kill Acerola.”

Golbat snorts. “And why would they keep their word?”

“I do not trust them, either,” Rebecca responds. “There is a proposal to move all native Alolans in a camp in the desert. They say we would go there, too. Historically, things have rarely ended well for the people in the camps.”

“Well, that’s fucked,” you add. Should have expected the Americans to want to take even more from the kanaka than they had before. Slaughter or evict you like they did the Atlantic tribes. “Can’t really leave Skull with that on the line.”

“I do not believe Skull will play a large role in the war’s outcome,” Rebecca says. “The only real deterrent to the military is the ghost army. If it were gone, Team Skull would be unable to provide effective resistance. Even if the Americans invade while the army is still present, we would play at most a marginal role in the conflict. We are trained to fight riot police, not the marines.”

“Barely even managed that,” Machoke mutters. Right. If the Americans come back, there will be even more bullets than before. You remember the panic. When the time came to prove yourself, you were no hero. You would have stood there like a sawsbuck in headlights and died without accomplishing a damn thing if Machoke hadn’t tackled you to the ground.

Maybe you should train to be better than that. So that next time… your stomach churns and the hair on your arms sticks up. You don’t want there to be a next time.

“Hey, Kekoa, you good?” Golbat says. She’s moved closer to you. When did that happen?

“Y-yeah. So, uh, what are you all doing?” Good save.

Really fucking sucks that you have panic attacks about a second thing, though. Better to be mad about that then feel the fear still coursing in your blood.

“I want to eventually move out to the wilds,” Rebecca says. “It will be safer when the war resumes. But I could be persuaded to stay until our food stores are fully exhausted.”

Golbat shakes her head. What little hair she has left shakes around. She cut must of it off when the war started. She didn’t seem to like it. You know some trans femmes are really sensitive about that. Said it had to be done, though. “I don’t have anywhere else to go. Never have.”

“And I’ll be here until I can walk again.” Machoke smiles at you. It looks fake. “What about you? I’m sure your friend is fine, wherever she is. You going back?”

“I can’t just abandon you.” And you mean it. You like them. All of them. Rebecca is scary, but she’s a surprisingly real and open person underneath it all. Delicate, even. You feel safe around her but still kind of feel like you need to comfort her sometimes. Golbat’s like the older sister you never had. You never knew how nice it would be to have an older trans person to turn to. Machoke’s a pretty reasonable authority figure when he lays off the hazing. Even that never felt terrible. Would’ve rather had him as a brother than Jabari. “Can’t abandon the cause, either.”

Machoke looks at you with a little pity. Never mind. Feeling less generous towards him now.

“Kekoa, we’d still be fine if you left.”

“You can’t know that. Not now.”

“Alright. Just know that I wouldn’t consider it abandonment. It’s taking care of yourself.”

“I’m fine. I don’t need people to take care of me.”

He gives another fake smile. “Sure, you don’t.”

“I’m helping people.”

“Never said you weren’t.”

“I would miss you,” Golbat says. “but I would understand.”

Rebecca says nothing.

*​

August 26, 2020

Another day, another crash of bodies and pleas and paperwork.

It’s routine for what it is up until 11:00 or so when the radio beside you starts playing the emergency alert sound. Which it really shouldn’t since it’s just for Team Skull use. You don’t even think it can get the local stations. Haven’t checked since they’re all off-air. Is this a rotom or something? You can see other people tense up throughout the clinic.

“Attention: You are about to receive a message from the President of the United States. Please find a safe, quiet place to listen. Attention: You are about to receive a message from…”

Someone groans. “Not this asshole.”

You didn’t know they could do this. Is it just coming to Skull? Everyone? Why haven’t they sent a message before?

“My fellow Americans.” Hell of a thing to say to a country revolting against being American. “I come to you in a dark time in our nation’s history. Maybe even the darkest time.” It was literally darker six months ago. It goes on like that. You quickly tune most of it out and go back to reviewing your paperwork. Maybe he’s trying to break your morale by forcing you to listen to his goddamn speech.

“…that is why I am giving you this ultimatum. It’s a big word, isn’t it, ‘ultimatum?’ It means you have a choice, except, there’s one good option and one very, very bad option. We need you to kill Acerola. What a nasty girl. She’s controlling the ghosts and we need you to kill her. Prove that you’re on our side and we can bring back peace and prosperity to the islands. Fail, and we will kill her at any cost. There will be devastation that, quite frankly, no one can imagine. Big, big devastation. We have bombs, the biggest bombs, and we will make Tapu Village look like, like, like a very small thing, is what it will look like. We will drop them anywhere she might be hiding. And maybe some people will die who maybe shouldn’t have. That’s why we need you to kill her first.”

Holy shit. He’s just coming out and saying he’s going to kill you all if he doesn’t get what he wants. And if he does get what he wants, all of your people are getting sent to the fucking desert to rot. That’s. He can’t get away with that. There’s a way to stop it. Something. There has to be.

“And also, frankly, you should be killing Team Skull. They’re bad people. The worst people. They’re maybe responsible for all of this. We don’t know. We don’t know. But a lot of—a lot of people don’t know this, but they were attacking a museum, a beautiful museum, classical architecture, big arches, it used to be a palace, you know? Now it’s a museum. It was pretty good as palaces go. Not as good as the White House. Nowhere close.”

You think he’s talking about ‘Iolani Palace. It is a museum now. It’s just not the museum you were robbing. He can’t even get the building right. You know you should be more worried about asking people to kill you, but the small detail is infuriating. He can’t even be bothered to learn about your people’s most important sites.

“…and some very smart people are saying, ‘well, that’s a big coincidence, isn’t it? Maybe they did this.’ That’s what I said when I heard it. And the cabinet, they were surprised by how smart it was. They said, ‘Mr. President, I don’t think we ever would have thought of that.’ It’s true. It’s true. So maybe you should kill them, too, just in case they have some way of controlling the ghosts. Or for revenge. They’re—look what they’re doing to your beautiful islands. The parks are overgrown, the buildings are all defaced. Some are burning. Everything has been looted.”

The people are starving.

“We’re going to come back. We’re going to rebuild it all, frankly, even better than it was before. But we need you to kill Acerola and maybe Team Skull. Maybe they know where she is. And we need you to do it in two weeks. Maybe less. We’ll see. Because then we’ll have to do it ourselves and you might not like that. But we have to. We have to be tough.

“We’ll see you then when we liberate these beautiful islands. Until then, this has been your favorite president, Donald J. Trump.”

The national anthem starts playing. You turn the radio off. The people by the other radios in the room gradually follow suit. For a moment no one says anything. What are you supposed to say when someone tells you they might kill your entire people in two weeks, but they say it in the dumbest way possible? Laugh? Cry? Fight?

You’re going to fight. Just a question of when and where. They don’t get to just do this to you.

The guy in charge of this place, Kecleon, stands up and uses his booming ‘shut up and listen’ voice. “Alright, let’s not panic. First things first, if you’re a patient and can walk out, I suggest you do so. This place is a hard target now. I would love to say there are other clinics to go to. You can try your luck at the hospitals. I’m sorry I can’t do more, but, hey, not really my call at this point.”

“Is it true?” One of the patients shout. “Did you start all of this?”

“Not knowingly.”

Someone starts screaming.

Kecleon talks over her. “Some of our patients can’t walk out. I will need volunteers to help move them, I don’t know, some place less obvious. Can someone figure that out? Voltorb?”

“On it,” a mousy girl who can’t be any older than you responds.

“We’ll need some people to watch the door and make sure no one fucks with us until everyone’s evacuated. I’ll need a few people to gather supplies as well. If you can’t or won’t help with one of those tasks, please leave now. It was good working with you.”

What should you do? Your eyes drift down to the papers in front of you. Lists of all your patients. Would someone use that against them? Will there be a clinic after this? Probably not. Sounds unsafe to let the public in when they might attack. You should destroy these.

You send out Leilani and throw the papers onto the concrete floor. “Shock them. Burn.” He’s not a fire-type, but you know trees burn when there’s struck by lightning. Same deal. And he really shocks the hell out of them. Way more force than was needed. A lot of people startle or jolt away.

“Just burning records,” you shout. That calms some people down. Even gets someone else to bring some binders over. People give you a lot of space after it, though. Whatever. As long as they’re busy.

More people are leaving than you expected. Cowards.

The people guarding the door snap to attention as something drifts straight through the wall closest to you. An orb of grey smoke with purple ribbons trailing. Moe. “He’s with me,” you call. No idea how he found you so fast. You don’t really know why he came at all. For once, you’re glad to have him.

You keep burning records for a while. Moe adds some ghostly fire and a few other people start emptying out filing cabinets and bringing it to you. One contributes a houndour to the cause. Most of the paper is burned by the time things go to shit.

There’s a banging on the modified garage door you use as a back entrance as fists literally dent it. Another pokémon joins and the metal slab begins to warp before getting knocked off its hinges entirely. On the other side are a poliwrath, annihilape, and machamp. You think that’s the team of one of the local ‘neighborhood watch’ leaders. Can’t remember much about him.

“Leilani, thunderbolt! Moe…”

You shout orders and things move. Leilani kind of fucks up the poliwrath in one hit. Then she has to recharge. One of the trainers at the door has a comfey and xatu. Moe fires off will-o-wisps. Maybe this is winnable?

It is not. The annihilape wipes out the xatu in one hit before jumping up to Moe with a brutal strike that knocks half the air out of him. The machamp starts throwing punches faster than you can track with your eye. Uh. Fuck. Surely someone’s coming from the other side? You look over. No. They’re being attacked, too. All of your entrances are. They aren’t letting you escape.

In the time it takes to see that, the poliwrath has already thrown the xatu at Leilani so hard that she gets knocked out of the sky. You withdraw them both and send out Anuenue. New plan. You point at one of the walls you’re pretty sure leads outside. “Break it down!”

He looks about as happy as you’ve ever seen him as he gets into a rollout and crashes into the bricks so hard that they explode outwards. Thank fuck. You run out and join him. He keeps pace beside you as you get away. Hopefully someone else is following. Maybe a lot of people. Or maybe the ghosts come as reinforcements and turn the tide.

You doubt it. Deep down, you know that a lot of people aren’t leaving that clinic alive. Your lungs burn and your legs ache but you don’t dare slow down until you reach the base. Even Anuenue is flagging by the time you get there. You slam the door open and bolt inside. Machoke and Golbat are sitting at the table. Armoranth has also pulled up a chair, although she’s too short to see over the top. You offered a high chair. She almost murdered you.

“Where’s Rachel?” you ask.

“Out.” Golbat seems very tense. Right. She’s already lost someone.

“Are we evacuating?”

Machoke sighs and rolls back from the table. “Not really an option for me.”

Right. Shit. What now? You could try to fight everyone else in the city. Maybe the ghosts will help. That ends in a bloodbath, whoever wins. Find Acerola? No. there’s no guarantee the president keeps his word. He’ll probably throw you all into the camps whatever you do.

“I do not believe it is safe here,” Armoranth says. “Kekoa…” Is she about to order you to leave with her? Abandon your friends?

You don’t get a chance to find out.

[Knock knock.] A telepathic ‘voice’ comes from outside the door. You don’t know why you know where it comes from.

Armoranth goes very, very still.

“What is that?” Golbat hisses. Machoke has already sent out his scrafty. Golbat’s drawn a kitchen knife.

[Boo.]

“Boo—knock knock jokes? Now?” What the hell?

[Did I dumb it down enough for you? Humans do not have a great track record of understanding my humor.]

The door swings open and Rebecca steps through. “Grab a bag,” she says. “We have a ride.”

You rush over to your room and start throwing things into your pack. It’s familiar. You’re used to packing all your possessions and leaving at the drop of a hat. You don’t know what the weird psychic is. Rebecca seems to trust it. Good enough for now.

Armoranth stays rooted to her seat. You at least grab a book for her.

You’re the first to get back to the entry. Rebecca meets you a few seconds later. Golbat and Machoke take almost two more minutes. You try and breathe. Slow your racing heart. Doesn’t do much. Everything feels urgent in a way that it hasn’t since the museum.

Rebecca nods when everyone’s together and walks out. Armoranth reluctantly follows. There’s a real metagross out there with bloodstained claws. Two metang flank it. Is one of those Cuicatl’s? Is this her doing? Is trusting a literal killing machine really better than taking your chances with hordes of people who want you dead?

[Yes, sort of, and yes.]

“What?” Machoke asks.

[I was responding to the angry one’s thoughts. It is safe to trust me. Cuicatl mostly knows the basics of what I’m doing. You should come with me if you want to live.]

You ignore the quips and focus on the blood dripping from its front arms. Fuck. That thing is an actual killer. You look back and forth at the metang to try and tell which is Cuicatl’s. You can’t. They all look the same.

[L O L who is the racist now?]

Did it just spell out—

[Yes. And you are not looking at the correct machine.]

Your eyes focus on the metagross. What? Is that monster the same pokémon that watched you pee every night?

[Direct observation has been rendered unnecessary. I have access to almost every camera system in Alola now.]

You stare at it.

It stares at you.

You take a deep breath. “I think it’s safe to trust it for now.”

[Good boy.]

“I disagree,” Armoranth says.

[I disagree with your disagreement.]

The two metang lower themselves for riders to get on.

Machoke yelps as he’s yanked into the air by an invisible force, wheelchair and all, and dragged to the back of the metagross—Noci(?)’s—back. You still have no proof it isn’t pretending. It is still very dumb to trust this thing. But if it wanted you dead, you would already be dead.

You think about asking it to go back to the clinic and help there. You doubt it would matter, though. That fight is probably over, one way or another.

You get yanked out of your thoughts and jerked off the ground. The metagross pulls you and your pack forward and sets you down on its back. It feels about the same as when Noci did it before, only now the grip is tight enough that you can barely move an inch to the side. Armoranth screams when she’s lifted. You can see the air ripple violently around her as she tries to fight it. She doesn’t succeed. After a few seconds she’s telekinetically shoved into your lap.

Before she can say anything, the metagross jumps into the sky and starts racing east. The buildings zip by faster than you can track. The air never slams into you like it should. Psychic nonsense? Probably.

[You would not understand the mechanics if I bothered to explain it to you. I will not waste our time.]

“You’re… Noci?”

[The one and only.]

“And you knew where I lived?”

[I try to keep track of most things that matter to Cuicatl. Or Danielle. Mostly Cuicatl, though. Danielle is a nag unduly burden by morality. I regret making her already.]

“What?”

[Again, I doubt you would follow if I did bother to explain.]

That still sounds concerning. Did Noci make an AI friend for Cuicatl? A clone? And Noci’s just going to kill them?

The world stops blurring past you and the metagross touches down.

Armoranth leaps off immediately and takes several big hops away from the steel-type.

“You—” She cuts herself off almost immediately and floats back another few feet. “…fine. For now.”

How the hell did Noci win the argument in a few seconds? You don’t think you’ve ever seen anyone shut her up before.

You look around the area as you get to the ground. It’s a clearing in the middle of the woods with a cabin. A generator sits next to the cabin. It looks pretty new.

[The refrigerator is well stocked and small game remains abundant in the area. You are 10.6 kilometers from the nearest civilization. You are welcome.]

“How did you set all this up on short notice?” Machoke asks.

[I did not.]

“If you didn’t then.” He stops and frowns. “Do you mean that you didn’t do it or that it wasn’t on short notice?”

[Yes.]

“That’s the most you’re going to get from her if she doesn’t want to tell you.”

Golbat looks over to you. “You know them?”

“Kind of. They’re Cuicatl’s pokémon and, uh, I guess she sent her? Or knows that she’s here. Something like that.”

Rebecca steps towards an unfamiliar metagross with a lot more confidence than she probably should have while doing that. “Is she here?”

[Negation.]

“Where is she?”

[Classified.]

Rebecca and Machoke share a look you can’t quite read. He steps forward.

“Are there conditions on the gifts?”

[I would appreciate it if you tried not to die. If you must die, please do so spectacularly while a camera is rolling.]

“I’ll, uh, keep it in mind.”

The metagross shifts to look directly at you.

[Well? Do you want to go see your sister?]

“Sister?” Machoke asks in a whisper.

That’s not a word you ever used with her. It’s one you’ve privately debated since you left. Are they reading your mind? Like, all of it, not just the surface thoughts. It’s only been a few minutes and you remember Lyra saying that metagross weren’t the best telepaths. Surely they couldn’t have gotten that deep.

“I guess I should.” She saved your ass. And you would like to make sure that she’s doing okay. You’ve been sure that she was, but it would be a relief to see it.

“Absolutely not,” Armoranth says. Her arms are crossed and she looks very annoyed.

You sigh. “Going to order me not to?”

Her face twists with something before she pouts and looks down.

“No.”

“Want me to bring your stuff in?” Golbat asks.

“Yeah.” You slide your pack off and hand it to her.

The others are quick to get inside and away from the metagross. The metang fly off, too. Soon enough only you, Armoranth, and Noci are left.

The metagross lowers her main body so you can climb on. You notice that the blood must have been whipped off her claws by the wind on the way over; they’re spotless now.

You climb on and they blast away. On the way over you try and think of what to say to them and come up short. You try to think about what you’re going to say to Cuicatl. That’s… also hard. You have met her once since you left. That almost immediately turned to violence. Not against you. For you. You know she still cares. She’s just angry.

You get that. You really do.

It takes longer than you expected to get there. She’s all the way over on Ula’Ula and Noci takes the long way around Akala rather than flying straight across the ocean. It’s still not enough time to figure things out.

You’ll just have to wing it.

The metagross takes you just a little to the northwest of where you used to live before all this. Noci took you the long way around so you didn’t get to see Tapu Village. You wonder if that was on purpose.

Cuicatl’s standing by the coast when you get there. She’s in some pretty normal jean shorts and a t-shirt, hands rammed into the short’s excuse for pockets. Her hair’s longer than when you left. Still not as long as it was the first time you saw her. She seems tired. And a little… off. It’s hard to put your finger on why. She doesn’t actually react much when you get off the metagross.

Lyra does. She steps forward with a strained smile. “Welcome back, idiot.”

“What’d I do?”

“Left when you were still needed.”

You inhale. You don’t want to get into an argument now. Not before you’ve even said a word to Cuicatl. Or heard one from her. “You know why I did.”

She rolls her eyes. “If this was about helping Genesis, you would have stayed to help Genesis. Trust me, I was way more pissed than you and managed not to join a doomed revolution.”

Oh come on. Is she playing stupid on purpose? “It wasn’t doomed. We won!”

“Because you got bailed out. If…” She shakes her head. “If different choices had been made, you would have been gunned down in Hau’oli with nothing to show for it.”

Does she know that Plumeria went off to save you? That the ghosts showing up wasn’t an accident? Of course she does. It was blasted all over the airwaves an hour ago. Maybe less. They aren’t so far away from people that they wouldn’t have found out. Noci at least heard the message.

You look towards Cuicatl for help or an argument or something. Instead, she’s just standing there. Quietly. In a way that’s just slightly wrong.

You’re starting to think that the metagross did something to her.

“Where’s Genesis?”

“We broke up,” Cuicatl says. A shiver runs down your spine. That’s not her accent. It’s not even the neutral thing you heard her as for the first month you knew her. It’s… Unovan? Bostonian? Something. Not her. “Incompatible values. Or maybe she was just feeling powerless and wanted to take it out on someone. I don’t really care. She’s somewhere else, now.”

“What are you?” you ask.

She tilts her head. Not quite as far as Cuicatl does. It’s still close enough that you almost buy it until she opens her mouth. “How’d you tell?”

“Accent,” Lyra says.

“Shoot. Doing… how do you…” She scrunches up her face. “This better?”

It is. Doesn’t change the fact that you know something is off.

She sighs. “I just want you to know, whatever she says to you, it isn’t harsh enough.”

“What. Are. You?”

“If you wanted to know, you would have stayed long enough to find out.”

Lyra clears her throat. “Trust me. It’s complicated. And I’m sure that Cuicatl doesn’t want to be kept waiting any longer.” She glares at… whatever it is while she says the last part.

“Fine, fine. Back in the cage.” There’s a hint of fear at the end. Then she goes slack. Almost falls to the ground before she catches herself, stands back up, and stretches her arms as far up as they go while standing on the balls of her feet. She’s still not even close to looking you in the eye.

She smiles. It’s Cuicatl’s smile. Good. She was really freaking you out there.

“Sorry about Danielle,” she says with her normal voice. “She gets cranky after a few hours in the back.”

Danielle. Noci said that they made a Dani. This was their doing. You turn to glower at them.

[Like I said, I regret it.]

“I’m just glad I got to meet her.” Cuicatl finally looks over to you. “Are you hurt?”

“No. Uh, who’s Danielle?”

Cuicatl frowns. Again, it looks like her. “Long story. Don’t really want to waste time telling you if this is you’re just going to leave right after.”

“You are planning to leave, right?” Lyra asks. “You didn’t bring your bags.”

“I’m. Uh. I’m sorry, but there are still people I have to protect.”

Cuicatl’s eyes narrow. You wonder what purpose it serves. “There always will be, won’t there?”

You don’t want to say that. It’s also hard to imagine things changing soon. The members of your squad have had your back. It’s only fair to have theirs when things go to hell. Besides, it’s not like Cuicatl needs protection with a tyrantrum and metagross.

“You heard the broadcast, didn’t you? There’s a massive target on our backs.”

“If you left Skull, who would know?” Lyra asks. “You could be safer. You all could be if you just went your separate ways. Unless there’s some secret agenda you still have?”

“I think it’s just survival now.” What she’s saying makes sense. It also feels wrong to leave them after all this time. That doesn’t make it right to leave Cuicatl again, but you can’t make both happy and one group needs you more than the other.

“Fine,” Cuicatl says. “I guess you were lying when you said you would come back when you won. I should not be surprised.”

“Does this look like victory to you?” It comes out as a hiss. Damn it, you’re getting angry. You did this last time, too. You have to stop doing this when you meet her. You like her. Why do you always fight?

She shrugs. “The Americans are not here. You all lived on the land before electricity. Can you not do it after?”

“I have no idea how to do that.”

“That’s not really a fair expectation.” You were not expecting Lyra to come to your defense. Cuicatl’s been fighting with you but hasn’t really lost her cool. Lyra looks more irritated. She’s also never really liked you. “The environment has been degraded and the crops are wrong. Too much pinap and sugar, not enough taro. More people than there used to be, too.”

Cuicatl closes her eyes and goes silent for longer than you’re used to.

You look towards Lyra. She mouths something. You can’t quite tell what.

Cuicatl finally opens her eyes. “I guess. You’re welcome for the help with Armoranth, by the way.”

“Welcome for what?”

“She didn’t…” She looks confused before her face shifts towards anger. She says something her power doesn’t translate but that definitely sounds like some serious swearing. “I didn’t agree to make her tell you.”

“You weren’t in a great state of mind. I think you can be forgiven.”

“Still…” Cuicatl takes a deep breath and shakes her head. “I bargained with the white florges. Your deal with Armoranth is over.”

You wonder if Armoranth herself knows that. She did meet with the florges a few weeks ago. Was that what the meeting was about? “What did you have to give?” It couldn’t have been cheap. Not if the florges knew how much Cuicatl wanted it. Your bargain wasn’t even that bad in practice. You’re really worried she gave a lot more than it was worth.

“A few drops of blood.”

Fuck. You don’t know a lot about magic, but everything you have read after getting stuck with Armoranth says that blood magic is really, really bad.

“I probably would have done it anyway. Wasn’t just for you.”

“What else is worth getting involved in blood magic for?”

“I’m not doing this.”

“What?”

Cuicatl grimaces. “You don’t get to run out of my life, refuse to come back, and then get to know all of my secrets. You made your choice. Deal with it.”

“We don’t need to do this. Noci found a nice place on Melemele. You could go there. If we’re under fire, you’re strong enough to—”

“I see. You only come to me when you need something from me.”

A blissey walks into the clearing and says something in their strange voice. Cuicatl glances their way.

“Are any of your pokémon hurt?”

Right. You hadn’t even thought about how that was going to get taken care of. “Yes, two of them.”

You hand the balls to her. She tucks them into her pouch and darts off.

“How’d you get a blissey?”

“I didn’t. She’s not on the team. Just sticks around to help Pixie and tell people it’s perfectly fine to kill me.”

“What?”

“She’s not exaggerating,” Lyra says. “The blissey’s a bitch.”

“Says she’s getting better.” Cuicatl shrugs. “We’ll see. Coco can take care of her if it comes to it.”

The conversation dies out. Tends to happen when you talk about murdering someone like it’s no big deal.

Lyra’s the first to break it. “I guess you’ll be here for a while if Sitrus is healing your team.”

“Yeah.” Hadn’t actually thought about that. Whatever blissey do, it’s not instant.

Things get weirdly civil after that. Ihe comes into the camp with his much, much larger friend. He instantly challenges you to a fight. Cuicatl talks him down to fighting one of your pokémon. You know Anuenue would crush him so you go with Kapuna.

The fight is mostly just a few minutes of a very angry bird attacking a floating rock that doesn’t even bother to defend themself. Just kind of floats away every now and again. Should you use this as a training opportunity or just let this keep going?

Ihe stops attacking and flies away. Guess that answers it for… wait. He’s rubbing his talons against each other. That’s hone claws. You never really bothered with it because he didn’t have the bulk to set up and still wouldn’t be doing that much damage afterwards. He also doesn’t use it a lot himself. What’s going on? You look towards Cuicatl and see she’s looking towards Ihe with interest. Right. Probably directing things.

Fine, if this is a trainer battle, you’ll play along.

“Ancient power.”

“Whirlwind.”

That has a to be a trap, right? Why else would she order aloud? Would it matter if it was? Is there actually anything the bird can do?

It… doesn’t seem like a trap. Kapuna uses ancient power. The rocks barely have any speed once they reach Ihe through the wind. He’s still idly sharpening his claws. Fine. You can work around that.

“Power gem.”

“Sidestep.”

Why is she saying her orders? This has to be the trap, right? Or maybe next time. Make you let down your guard, then give an order while the pokémon does the opposite?

The power gem flies out. Ihe whips the winds up around his wings and lunges to the side. Aerial ace. You never had any luck getting him to do anything with it but attacking. You… never really tried to be honest. You put most of your training time into tailwind. That’s what he could do that none of your teammates could.

That probably made him mad. You know it made him mad. You just sort of expected him to deal with it.

Maybe you’re a shitty trainer.

Without an order, Ihe starts flying towards Kapuna. Okay. Now she’s doing silent orders. Still telegraphed.

“Protect.”

The barrier goes up just in time for your opponent to slam into it. He doesn’t seem to care. Just starts pounding against it over and over again. It shouldn’t do much. He’s weak. Although after a few boosts…

The shield wobbles a little. You should probably order an attack, just to be safe.

“Ancient power.”

As soon as the shield drops, Ihe flies the rest of the way in and starts thrashing against Kapuna. It shouldn’t do anything. It does, anyway. Small pebbles and a cloud of dust fall away from the carbink. The attack doesn’t have any technique. Just reckless attacking at every opportunity. Close combat? You know her tyrunt—tyrantrum—can use it. Did she teach it to him? How would that even work with the size difference?

Kapuna picks the fallen pebbles right back up and uses them for ancient power. With the close range, the type advantage, and the dropped guard, it really doesn’t take long to make Ihe back off. There’s blood on his wings and chest. He still doesn’t look like he wants to quit.

Cuicatl crouches down and calls the bird over. He gives one last screech, sounding way too smug for a bird that was about to get his ass beat, and runs over to her for praise. He preens under her attention more than he ever did for you. It’s not a big deal. You’re not jealous. That’s not what the feeling in your chest is. You just made mistakes you can learn from. That’s normal.

“Great job, Kapuna.”

They turn around. Huh. They got beat up worse than you thought. A lot of the rocky outside was chipped away to show the crystals underneath. It happens in fights. You just didn’t think it would happen in this one.

“You would’ve beat him if it kept going.”

Vengeance must hear that and understand. He turns around and makes a very loud cry. Fight probably would’ve restarted if the blissey didn’t walk back over.

She talks to Cuicatl for a bit and then carries the two pokéballs to you.

“The vikavolt needs to molt. Let him rest for a long time and give him lots of food. The drifblim needs to go to a funeral or something,” Cuicatl translates.

For a brief moment that you’re not proud of, you wonder if you really have to. Moe’s been a pain in the ass and you can’t figure out how to get him to leave. Then you kill that thought. He came to help you today. He got hurt looking after you. It won’t even be hard to find a funeral right now. Hell, you can hold one for. Well, for the people you’re trying really hard not to think about.

Cuicatl walks closer and reaches out an arm. You guide it to your shoulder and she squeezes down. At least she isn’t mad anymore. “Is there anything I can say to make you stay?”

“Probably not. I, uh, I will try to call and visit.” Stupid. Cell towers aren’t working and you ditched the satellite phone Shirona gave you a long time ago.

[I’m sure I can work something out.]

Something that lets them spy on you.

[Obviously.]

Cuicatl leans in and gives you a quick hug. She steps back before you can even think about returning it. “Be careful out there. It’s dangerous.”

“Yeah.” Especially since a madman might turn you all to glass in a week. That’s another thing that you haven’t really had time to think about. It’s something that not even Cuicatl could protect herself from. “You too.”

*​

“What did you do to her?” you ask Noci about a minute after takeoff.

They respond by going into a nosedive into the surrounding forest. You try to hold on but there’s nothing to hold onto on her back. Suddenly, the psychic hold on your body goes away and you go barreling down towards the ground.

Your back slams into a tree and something cracks. You hope it was the tree.

Noci slowly lowers herself down to your level. They’re flexing their claws in and out. Sunlight gleams off the edges. What the hell did you do to piss them off like this?

[Congratulations.] And that’s all they say. Clearly trying to bait you into talking yourself. Fine. You can do that. But they cut you off the moment you open your mouth. [Now you know what your brother was thinking.]

You painfully pull yourself until you’re at least sitting upright. At least you can do that. Means nothing important was broken. “The hell are you talking about?”

[Your sister needs support. You are choosing the war instead. She will be fine, after all. There are people who will take care of her.]

“She has a lot more than I had.” You got dumped into foster care. She’s probably thriving. Even seems to have gained a little weight while society collapsed around her. Besides, she’s years older than you were. You can kind of see where the robot’s coming from, but it’s just not true. You’re not Jabari.

[Her support system consists of another traumatized teenager, two juvenile birds, an extremely misanthropic blissey, a ghost and fox with attachment issues, and a large crustacean. The crustacean is the most well-adjusted member of this group. I assure you, she is not thriving.]

“Leaving yourself out there.”

They lower themself closer to you. The claws are so close you could reach out and touch them.

[I wanted nothing more than to be different from the rest of my kind. I tried to help. I misjudged my capabilities. It ended poorly. I fear that I will have further traumatized the person I meant to protect by the time the matter is finally resolved. My attempts at providing emotional support have had mixed results at best. You have no idea how much it pains me to enlist the aid of a human as dreadfully inefficient as yourself, but you are capable of providing comfort to Cuicatl that I am unable to.]

You slowly, painfully get to your feet.

“What did you do?”

[Split her mind in half.]

“And you thought that was going to help?” Is that a metagross thing? ‘I have four minds inside of me and I turned out fine.’

[I have one mind inside of me, thank you very much. I was not intending to split her mind. I was intending to give her access to memories Tapu Lele had sealed.]

“The fuck does Tapu Lele have to do with anything?”

They stare at you for long enough that it gets deeply uncomfortable.

[Cuicatl is a faller who narrowly survived a long journey through an alien desert during which all of her previous pokémon died. She narrowly survived on the brink of starvation with significant physical damage, some but not all of which was healed in the aftermath. She was brought to Tapu Lele who reconstructed her mind in a way that mostly made internal sense. She did so by haphazardly inserting, editing, and sealing memories. Her human accomplices assembled a set of physical items for her to own and dropped her into Hau’oli City with no knowledge of what had happened before. She learned this immediately after learning that she not be receiving a Class V license due to the casual racism of the electorate and a double betrayal with VStar Incorporated. She alienated herself from others in the aftermath and was approached by Acerola, Plumeria, and The Lady of the Scarlet Forest who persuaded her to perform a blood ritual to summon the Marching Shadows, an army of the undead created by a civilization of Ultra Space explorers or nomads to aid the Alolan monarchy. I evolved in the aftermath to better protect Cuicatl and decided I knew enough about human psychology to undo Tapu Lele’s work without significant side effects. I did not. Now she is sharing her mind with an entity that believes itself to be her mother. I cannot confirm its actual identity or origins. The split is deleterious to both of their physical and mental health and I am trying to pressure her to destroy it and subsume the parts she cares to that would not significantly inconvenience me. I am also working to prevent the total annihilation of your little home as my charge happens to be living there. I otherwise would not care to do so. Is your brain efficient enough to handle all of that information?]

“Um.”

[No? Okay. Let’s try this: Unit.Cuicatl is Condition.Sad. She is always Condition.Sad. She is now particularly Condition.Sad. Humans possess Trait.Empathy and do not want other humans they have affinity for to be Condition.Sad. Unit.Kekoa has affinity for Unit.Cuicatl and should not want her to be Condition.Sad. Close physical proximity to other humans can reduce Condition.Sad. Continued refusal to obtain close physical proximity suggests either a lack of Trait.Empathy or extremely low intelligence. Both are obviously true for you. This is an inefficient use of my time. Goodbye.]

And then they rocket away, leaving you trapped in a random clearing in a random forest on Ula’Ula. They’re being childish. Making you do the thing they want in order for you to get home.

You spend a while stumbling around the clearing and cursing them out. You weigh how you can get back to Melemele without them. Then your back starts to hurt and you have to sit down. And think.

They… might have had a point. You could barely follow half of what they were saying towards the end. It still sounds like Cuicatl’s been through a lot with only Lyra and her pokémon. And Genesis, but it sounded like she was doing more to hurt than help. That tracks. She was always an uptight bitch to you. Figures she’d turn that on Cuicatl eventually.

She isn’t doing great. You’d kind of figured she was fine when you ran off. Kind of figured she was fine today. She was going to be okay while you fought the people who needed to be fought. What you were doing was okay.

That metagross is scarily effective.

[Indeed.]

You whirl around and wince in pain. They aren’t there. You turn around again to see them descending. Mental ventriloquism bullshit.

[Now, I believe you should have a talk with your little flower. It promises to be entertaining if nothing else.]

*​

Armoranth doesn’t fully relax until the metagross is out of sight. Even then she seems on guard.

“I take it she told you?” she asks.

“Yeah.” You take a deep breath. Your anger’s a little drained right now after the talk with Noci. You can always find a little more, though. “What the hell? Do you think it’s fun to pretend to own people?”

“A little, yes.” She just shrugs while you glare at her. “It’s fun to deceive people with information you have and they do not. Surely even you have done so on occasion?”

“Not with something that important.”

Armoranth rolls her eyes and shifts her flower behind her. “Were you really harmed in any way? Have I made you do something you did not wish to do?”

“You told me not to catch a comfey.”

“Because it was stupid and unnecessarily risky. Have I made you do something or refrain from doing something when it was not in your own best interests?”

“Sleep on the ground.”

She twitches in annoyance. “Have I made you do something or refrain from doing something when it was not in your own best interests after you otherwise would have been freed?”

You try to think of something and can’t. She even let you have the bigger bed at the new place, well, the old new place, which you thought was odd. That was after she met with her aunt.

She seems satisfied by your silence. “Now, then, will you drive me away? Or perhaps we can make a new bargain?”

“I’m not bargaining with you.”

“On purpose. You likely will on accident.”

You sigh. You actually do like her. She’s not so bad deep down. She’s also not really repentant for owning you and might try it again in the future.

Maybe it’s a problem that takes care of itself.

“I’m going back to Cuicatl. You want to go?”

Armoranth really doesn’t like her.

“Is this a good idea? She’s vicious and has powerful brutes at her command. What’s keeping her from killing you in a fit of rage?”

“I’m not sure they’re actually at her command.”

“Oh?” She twirls the flower around behind her. “Pray tell.”

“The metagross has been fucking with her head. Seems to regret it because it didn’t work out the way they wanted. I think she’s more owned by Noci than I ever was by you.”

“And you believe that you could fix this, somehow?”

“I think I owe it to her to try.”

“Have you made a bargain to that end?”

“No, it’s—” You throw your hands up in frustration. “Not everything has to be a deal, you know? Sometimes you can just do things because it’s the right thing to do. “You can go home if you don’t want to go with me. No one’s going to bother hunting you right now.”

She looks down. “No. We don’t return home once we’ve left. I… suppose someone will need to keep an eye on you going forward. I certainly don’t trust your friend to do so.”

“Okay.” You look up towards the cabin. “Guess I need to say goodbye.” The very thing you had been hoping to avoid.

Armoranth drifts over and runs one of her hands across your knuckle. “I suppose I can help with that, too.”

Well. You have some friendships to end and a funeral to plan. But, compared to everything else happening around you? It doesn’t feel that hard.
 
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