Destiny Village ~ X-Eye Cauldron

[Chibi Pika]

Right... Brisa had mentioned that Dave had chewed out her dad at Spirit's Edge. "Her dad can go fuck himself," Starr muttered, keeping her glare fixed on a random bit of sauce on the table. "She's better off without him."

Dave kept going on about how they'd never remember this, never see her again, never find out what happened... and through it all, Starr kept feeling the burning need to prove him wrong. The whole time she'd been on Cibus, she'd known the day was coming where she'd go back home and forget all of this. And now that it was actually within sight, she just couldn't let him be right about that.

"Look, maybe you'll never find out, but when I get the chance to come back here like those Miracle weirdos, I'm fucking taking it." The words had fallen right out of her mouth before she'd even put any thought into them.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave looked at her, at the fierce determination in her eyes, a cold hand gripping his insides. The Miracle Matters. Well, they hadn't exactly gotten to come back to their Cibus, had they? Even if Team Spectrum were called back, they weren't fucking coming back here. They just might get pulled off to some whole other fucking universe to run errands for some other fucking god. Maybe, like Kora, he'd find another Soda in some other stage of deterioration who didn't remember him. Yeah, that'd be fucking brilliant. Some other Cibus where nothing's the same anyway other than them.

He nearly retorted with that, but it stuck in his throat before he could start. Other than them. The Miracle Matters had, at least, all been called to the same universe together. Regained all their memories. Continued where they left off, for a little while. Followed up with each other. Goofed around together on their own, like nothing had happened. Even got to have a fucking battle together like old times.

He took a long breath, glancing away. "Yeah. You know what, I'm probably coming too."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr blinked. For a moment, she'd thought she'd misheard Dave. She'd been waiting for him to say that wanting to coming back was insane. He'd never wanted to be here, was never thrilled with being a Pokemon, and was apparently ready and waiting to just forget all about it. But no, there was no sarcastic quip. Just resigned agreement.

Well... Brisa would be glad.

Starr finished off the rest of her drink and leaned back in her seat, arms across the back of the booth. "Guess I'll see you then, huh?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"See you then. Thanks for the chat."

If that happened. Who was to say? It'd be up to the whims of whatever gods went about summoning 'heroes'. No power to even influence it, when the request'd come from another fucking universe.

But it was something. Maybe Brisa and Starr could have a nice happy reunion and Brisa'd tell them how the thing with her fucking dad went.

Dave stood up from the table and nodded to Starr before turning to leave. Shadow gave her a grateful look before he followed.

<><><><><>​

 

[Negrek]

The X-Eye Cauldron was loud and boisterous today--plenty of Destiny Village had turned out to celebrate their world not getting plunged into eternal misery, and many of its residents had even participated in the final battle, in small ways or large. Drinks were discounted, and the air was filled with the buzz of people discussing the fight and bursts of spontaneous song.

Nate sat in a booth with Rocky, a plate of nachos, mostly untouched, between them. Nate's drink, on the other hand, had very much been touched.

"Come on, why so glum?" Nate asked. "You'd think we didn't just save the entire fucking world for good this time or something."

Rocky had his ears pinned back, and only glanced across at his host. The bag by his side stirred fitfully. "Can we go home? I don't want to celebrate."

"What, really? You'd rather hang out with the grumpy cats and their six crazy kids than your old friend Nate?"

"I would if you're going to be all weird about things," Rocky muttered.

The bag shifted again, flopping over sideways. Yellow eyes glowed briefly from beneath its flap, and then a small, half-formed arm shoved out into the air.

"Weird? Dunno what you're talking about. Everybody's happy, right? Happy times."

A small, dusky mudkip struggled free of the bag and tumbled to the seat of the booth with a faint squelch, then dropped to the floor under the table. He huddled there a moment, pressed up against the wall, but no one seemed to have noticed. Overhead, Nate said, "So, decided what your first adventure's gonna be once you finally get rid of all us Team Spectrum types?"

The shadow mudkip shuddered, then set off again, squeezing under Nate's seat and starting to cross beneath the neighboring table, leaving a trail of tiny, gooey footprints behind. He stopped abruptly, though, before ducking under the third table. Across the aisle Dave was sitting with his own shadow, having a drink. "Celebrating." The shadow mudkip scooted deeper into the darkness beneath the table. Almost no one in the bar would be able to see him, but those two would.

Continue forward and risk Dave noticing, or go back past Nate again? The shadow mudkip wavered a second, tears gathering at the corners of his yellow eyes. He backed up slowly until he hit the wall. Back or forward? They were both scary. Maybe he should just stay here and hope nobody noticed. He tucked himself as far under the booth's seat as he could, sniffling, only his yellow eyes showing in the dark.

 

[Dragonfree]

The fight was done and they'd saved the world and they were going home soon and all this would be gone and forgotten. If ever there was an occasion for a drink it was now.

Shadow sat and watched him as he drank. Dave drummed his paws on the table, debating whether he wanted some company. Probably not with him around, honestly. Also, the only person he could see at a glance that he knew was Nate, sitting with Rocky a couple booths away across the aisle, and the less reason he gave him to be a pointless asshat, the better.

Shadow laid his ears flat, looking away. After a moment he ducked under the table. Dave peered at him for a moment, but whatever. If he was going to be weird, let him. He rose back upright and returned to his drink.

Under the table, Shadow gazed over in the direction of Nate's booth. Rocky looked uncharacteristically troubled as Nate tried to keep up a conversation. Maybe they didn't want to say goodbye, either.

And down below at the table across, under the seats, was a pair of yellow eyes, watching. Shadow tilted his head to see better.

 

[Negrek]

The shadow mudkip stopped breathing when Dave's shadow stared right at him. He squeezed his eyes shut instinctively, but the mightyena would have seen that, wouldn't he? Stupid. He should have been more careful. The mudkip wanted to put his hands over his face, but all that would do was glue his eyes shut completely, the gooey ends of his fingers leaking over them no matter how much he tried to stop them.

The mudkip started to scoot back towards Nate, and towards Rocky's bag, which was something like safety. But the mightyena was big, and if he followed, Nate was bound to see him. And if Nate saw him, he might see the mudkip, too, and if he knew he'd been out of the bag...

The mudkip squeaked and stopped moving again, and stayed with eyes pinned shut, shaking. Maybe if he didn't move, the mightyena wouldn't notice him? No, of course not, that was stupid. The mightyena had already noticed him by now. If he hadn't been stupid to begin with, and had just stayed where he was, the mightyena probably would have moved along already. He was stupid, and pathetic and weak and frightened, and now the mightyena was watching him.

So what now? Something to make the mightyena go away. Something to make him lose interest. They couldn't fight here, not without Nate knowing. Telling him to go away probably wouldn't work, either. That never worked.

Maybe if he was lucky the mightyena was only curious and would leave when he realized the mudkip wasn't interesting. Figuring out what he wanted could be the fastest way to get him to leave. The mudkip took a deep breath and stammered, "Wh-what do you want?"

 

[Dragonfree]

Shadow crept a little closer, looking over his shoulder, but Dave was paying him no mind, occupied with his drink and the loud argument going on at the next table that he heard every word of despite his best efforts. "...Are you Nate's Shadow?"

 

[Negrek]

The shadow mudkip cringed. "Yes," he said. "Sorry."

 

[Dragonfree]

"...Why are you sorry?" Shadow glanced back at Nate's table. The Mudkip's demeanor was strikingly unlike his original, tiny and frantic and panicked. "Is he mad at you?"

 

[Negrek]

"Sorry..." The shadow mudkip shuddered, oily tears leaking from under his closed lids. "Sorry for being mean to you. For saying things that weren't true about you, and attacking you, and trying to make you mad. Sorry for calling you a shitty mightyena and making fun of you for wanting to, to..." The mudkip shivered again. "And sorry for being mean when you tried to say thank you outside the forest. S-sorry, I'm... sorry..."

 

[Dragonfree]

Shadow blinked. ”That’s… that’s okay.” The Shadow Mudkip looked so small and scared, and it was weird. Shadow winced, looking away. ”I’m… sorry, too. I hurt you, a lot. And I was mean back. I mean, he was, but it’s the same thing.”

But being sorry didn’t fix anything, did it? Here was Nate’s Shadow, just as scared and miserable as he was, and he’d made it worse, because of course he had.

”I don’t hate you, not really. I’m glad Mia has fun with you. I wish we could have been friends.”

 

[Negrek]

The shadow mudkip opened his eyes, blinking away tears. "I deserved it," he said softly. "It wouldn't be a good idea to be my friend."

The mudkip looked briefly back at the table he'd come from, where Nate was now sitting quietly, looking vaguely as though he had a stomachache. "I hope Mia and Rocky stay friends after we're... gone," he said. "I know he's going to be lonely. It isn't fair that we should have to leave them behind."

 

[Dragonfree]

Shadow shivered, ears flattening against his head. "The real Mia is dead," he muttered. "It's not really her but... I don't want to lose her again." His gaze followed the Mudkip's to the table. "She seems happier in Cibus than the real one ever was back home, though. I hope she does stick with Rocky, even when you're gone."

 

[Negrek]

The shadow mudkip shuddered again. "I heard about that," he said, shifting in place. Goo squelched faintly as he did so. "I know that you care about her a lot. Which makes it worse that I..."

He closed his eyes again, then tried to wipe his tears away on his shoulder. They stuck tenaciously to his damp skin. "I guess at least after this, I won't have to be... like this any more. I can go away. We both can." He looked glumly up at Shadow. "At least shadows don't exist in Nate's world. They don't in Dave's world, do they?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"No. There's nothing like that. Just people." Shadow paused, looking away. "I don't know what will happen when they leave. Maybe we'll just disappear. But they'll have to go on anyway, with the same lives that they had, and the same problems, and the same people will still be dead."

He glanced back at Nate's Shadow. "Nate doesn't like you, does he?"

 

[Negrek]

"I guess they will." The shadow mudkip shifted again. The puddle around him was spreading, slowly. "But Nate's lucky. He likes where he used to be better than here. Nobody's dead. And he'll be glad if I disappear. Why wouldn't he? I'm everything bad about him." The shadow mudkip unstuck one of his hands from the floor and held it up, dripping, as if to emphasize his point. "Dave... doesn't really like you either, does he?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"No. I'm scared and pathetic and talk too much." Shadow looked down, at the spreading shadow puddle around the Mudkip. "But he likes me better if he... just pretends I'm somebody else."

He hesitated, looking back up at Nate's Shadow for a lingering moment. "I don't think you're what's bad about Nate. All those things you talked about? He did them, and you apologized for them."

 

[Negrek]

"I did those things, though," the mudkip said. "I was with Nate the entire time. And I never would have said sorry... if you didn't come over and try to talk to me." He sighed. "I'm a coward. But... I don't understand. What do you mean, Dave pretends you're somebody else? He thinks you're not a part of him?"

 

[Dragonfree]

"He knows. But that's a lot of why he doesn't like me. He doesn't like himself very much." Shadow paused to gather his thoughts. "But I remind him of his daughter sometimes, and he loves her. So if he just doesn't think about me being him, he doesn't hate me as much. I'm just some other Mightyena who's weak and needs help. Like a kid."

The Mudkip still had tears in his eyes, dripping shadowy liquid onto the floor. Most people's Shadows had evolved with them. Nate's was still just a Mudkip, small, scared, crying.

Shadow carefully, hesitantly extended a paw towards him.