Pokémon Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Path of Valor

[Adamhuarts]

Hey there! I'm here for your Vwheel review exchange. While I was only required to read a single chapter for this I somehow wound up binging four chapters haha. I guess that speaks to how much I enjoyed my time. I'm no good at in depth critique reviews so I hope my general thoughts will suffice!

Beginning with chapter 40 this came right after the special episode detailing Gene and Nova's backstory. From what I could gather, Bahamut is morally grey at best, cruel and evil at worst. His actions left scars on so many, and Gene being a bit of a jokester to be much sadder in hindsight. You and Namo sure love that trope XD.

Another thing I'm very sad about is all the Mews being crushed into gene therapy toothpaste. Why did you gotta do that? :(

Moving on, the scene where Yuna yelled out her frustrations was kind of cute ngl. She sure has grown quite a bit during this arduous journey. I almost forgot this was initially a sports cup story with some shady on the side.

In the 41st chapter it begins with Yuna's mother, Wyrm Thingy Sr., embarking on a lone infiltration quest into Radiance so that she can get the spotlight and also kick some tushie. Probably. The wyrm thingy jrs that showed up at the end there were adorable and I hope for their sakes that Wyrm Thingy Sr. returns home safe. It's ironic that Yuna isn't even in Radiance for a while, but they don't know that.

The scene that followed this does a good job in showing how unworthy and self centered Shimmer truly is. While his people are in crisis, here he is hightailing it out on his own while showing next to no empathy for the less fortunate around him. I wondered if he'd redeem himself by the end of it but nope he continues to slip further down the slope. Somehow his copium reached its peak and he blames Yuna for everything… sosomehow?

Vegna was really cool, though I still see him as a grumpy grandpa. His rude remarks to others definitely work pretty well within the story I feel, since there's a dissociation aspect to it. Hadn't noticed that properly until I saw him again within a fic.

If there's one thing I can critique in this chapter, is that the fight scenes were a bit hard to follow. Some parts of it felt clunky or stiff or the pacing of events felt off in a way. I am not quite sure what it is. They were written just fine, but I didn't feel strongly about them. Could be because they were fights against random goons and I didn't care for Shimmer, the character in hardship during the fights, so it didn't emotionally resonate with me.

In chapter 42 we're greeted with a Chiaki who's been completely fucked up by his injuries.. I forget that not every pokemon setting has super magical healing powers and health care.

Chiaki absolutely did NOT have a good time in this chapter. First he learns that he's basically fucked up for life, is going to jail, and then it turns out the person he'd been trying to save all along didn't even want his saving nor did she actually need it. It was heartbreaking seeing him fall to rock bottom. Luckily, that wouldn't last for long.

And then along came this what in gods name is that thing which spoke exclusively in internet slang and emojis. Surprisingly, Ahsen managed to not be annoying and got me to smile here and there. Gives me spamtomesque vibes, if that's a way to describe anything. I haven't read much of guiding light, so I didn't realize that the morpho knight was a reprisal from that fic. It's a pretty cool idea. Chiaki gets fire powers, twink stat upgrade and also kidnaps a hapless victim. YIPPEEE

The best way I can describe chapter 43 is that it was JUICY. This is the chapter where Vortex finally began to get some comeuppance after everything he's done so far.

We got to see the aftermath of Starlene's brainwashing broadcast session and a buckload of reveals. Well the reveals were new to the characters in the scene but we the readers pretty much knew. Still, this chapter brought out the best in some of the characters taking part in it.

I enjoyed how decisive and strong Isola carried herself in this chapter. She did not cower to the mob and always commanded the flow of the discussion. Vortex got what he had coming for him, assuming he doesn't slip away somehow, and Shimmer continues to be a pathetic honse what a silly honse he is.

Justine was also pretty good and I definitely chuckled when they acknowledged all the leather she was wearing. I wonder if she has any artwork of her XD.

Overall I thought these four chapters were pretty splendid. I'll definitely be jumping back in to read more. Even if some say PoV isn't for everyone, it's managed to click with me. The later chapters made it easier to still enjoy the story if you aren't privy to the plethora of references to other stuff and I liked that.

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 80: A Revaulting Situation​

These Overseer guys really want me keeping up with these audio diaries. All part of the healing and adjustment process, they say.

But healing from what? Leaving my home? Since we struck that deal, I've had time to mentally prepare myself. I knew this would be a big change. And change and I tend to go together like ice cream and horseradish. Which I only tried on a dare, for the record!

... Wait, what am I saying? No one's going to listen to these but me.

Gah, c'mon. Focus, dummy. You're supposed to be talking about what it's been like in this Overworld place. Deep breaths.

Right. Okay. So, like, it's really abstract and esoteric. Still haven't pieced together how the Overworld works or anything. I've seen a fair few Overseers. Some of them give off the vibe they know me. Or heard of me. Apparently, there are actually a few reformed Dark Matters amongst this group. So, uh, that's something. And a couple of 'em go by "Diyem," which is, like, the kind of dumb name I'd come up with for a pokémon I caught in one of the games way back when I was human. Whatever floats their boats, I suppose.

If I'm being honest, it kinda feels like I'm back in high school. Except I'm the new kid who transferred in in the middle of the semester.

XxX​

Despite the countless voices stacked atop one another, the Butterfree Effect's words were sickeningly sweet. Somewhere in the back of Yuna's mind, she knew to expect them when the warning about the latest anomaly blared up. Just not this soon.

Then again, this was the fastest she'd located a core. Sort of.

"It is as I said before." Butterfree Effect folded their hands behind their back. "Even with an early arrival, our meeting was written into the stars."

Yuna frowned. Wasn't the whole reason they sent Walking Wake after her to avoid this. "But you tried to kill me and my friends."

"Whether your drakloak shell won or lost that battle mattered not," Butterfree Effect responded. "The end result was always another meeting. No matter what questions you conjure, the answers still lead to a single outcome."

She strained to stop her tail from lashing at Butterfree Effect. Yuna wasn't interested in retreading their tired riddles. If this was another projection, they couldn't do anything to her, anyway.

"Okay. Well, glad to satisfy your predictions," Yuna deadpanned. "Enjoy standing in this dark hallway alone."

As she floated past, however, Butterfree Effect cut back in front of her. They hadn't taken any steps. Moved any muscles.

... Did they even have muscles?

Guess the projections can teleport.

"Returning to your puppet's friends?" Butterfree Effect nudged up their mask. "You can brainstorm all you want. It won't change your situation. Or this world's fate."

There was that Xeromus-esque claim about futility. Yuna continued silently down the hall. Again, Butterfree Effect warped in her path.

"They've heightened security for this event." Butterfree Effect's mask rippled. Yuna thought she saw emergency lights flickering inside it. "Because the previous gold medalist disappeared suddenly and unexpectedly."

Yuna took a deep breath to keep her shadows in check. Though still pooled around the base of her tail, they were at least behaving themselves. "I bet you had something to do with it."

"How flattering." Butterfree Effect was amused, despite their distorted voice. "However, I am as much a bystander in this as you." Static encircled their arceus-like hair. A strange red and white hat with an unfinished triangle appeared atop their head. "They claim this young man was 'betrayed' by those he thought closest to him. And then he vanished in the aftermath."

Butterfree Effect snapped their fingers. Static pulses ate away at their hat, replacing it with the arceus hairdo once more. "Perhaps such a tale makes you nostalgic, Yaldabaoth?"

A powerful tug gripped Yuna's lower half. For a moment, her vision blurred. Clear blue skies painted over the hallway. A wrecked temple with jagged, broken pillars grew further away from Yuna.

She squeezed her eyes shut and smushed her cheeks with her hands. "No idea what you're talking about," Yuna said, doing her best to wear a stern expression.

The Butterfree Effect sighed. "As predicted." They folded their hands behind their back again. "You're right. It's not an entertaining tale. In fact, I've seen 3,741 worlds just like this. And they have all turned out the same way."

Yuna fixed her gaze on the door leading back down to the sewers. Would Butterfree Effect follow her there if she left?

"Stagnation. Decay." The projection popped into Yuna's line of sight. "Left to wither away into nothing."

The drakloak headed forward again. She drifted left, thinking the projection would move to cut her off. Except Butterfree Effect didn't. So, when she swerved right, they were there. Standing right in front of her and nudging at their mask.

"You are an open book, Yaldabaoth." Their mask rippled. Yuna thought she saw a reflection of her own inky black shadows in it. "Your moves are as predictable as your inability to accept the truth."

Yuna finally spat some dragonfire at Butterfree Effect. It washed over the projection, dimming them, but failing to snuff them out entirely. "If this is really so predictable, then why are you wasting your time talking to me?"

The shadowy reflection faded from Butterfree Effect's mask. Instead, there was a faint drakloak silhouette attached to it. That faded just as fast as it appeared. "All right. To the puppet, then. Yunavresca, was it?"

Great, they knew her name. Somehow. Yuna shot more dragonfire at Butterfree Effect and sped forward. This time they reappeared directly in front of the door, casting an odd purple glow against the otherwise dark gray metal.

"Do you think it's fair," Butterfree Effect began, "for so much suffering to be spread across all of reality?"

Yuna's shadows tugged on her lower half. She wasn't sure if they wanted to lash out or were encouraging her to keep going, even if it meant flying into the projection. Something she was still nervous about. If they could teleport around, were they truly powerless?

"The truth of reality is one of stagnation." Butterfree Effect's mask again swirled around into a purple void. "Every universe is destined to fade away into nothingness. The souls siphoned by the Overworld where they will slumber for eternity."

The void shifted. Tiny hands held feathered quills that scribbled across Butterfree Effect's distorted face. "Thousand arms crumble away. The storytellers lay down their pens or canvases." The hands tossed the quills away and simply tapped at the air. "The keyboards go silent." At last the hands merged into an open book that promptly slammed shut... and reformed their arceus wheel mask. "Whether gradually or abruptly, the story always ends.

"Worlds without gods fizzle out." A sun appeared in the center of their mask, only to be extinguished like a blown out candle. "Those 'blessed' with divinity will see it abandon them. Or turn to destruction. Or be seized by those with malice in their hearts."

Butterfree Effect warped directly in front of Yuna. The drakloak instinctively recoiled as they snapped back to the door. "Why does this happen, Yunavresca?" They stared her down. The dim room warped their mask even more than usual. "You now know of the Overseers. How can such a powerful group choose to stand by, letting each and every world meet their end?" They shook their head. "No, more than that, insist that these ends are necessary for some sort of cosmic balance?"

"I..." Yuna thought she had a retort at the ready, but her voice trailed off. Her gaze fell to the floor.

The shadows tugged on her lower half again. As if they were chewing her out for even listening to this thing. The drakloak needed to leave. Yuna spewed dragonfire at Butterfree Effect and shot forward. Panic welled up inside as the purple, distorted figure grew closer. They hadn't moved. What would contacting them do to her?

And yet, Yuna didn't slow down. In fact, she sped up. Was she getting lighter?

Before Yuna knew it, she was on the other side of the door. As if she'd phased through both Butterfree Effect and the door in one shot. And shadows were trailing off her body. Yuna glanced at her hands, then decided she could ruminate more when she was back with the others.

The drakloak began to descend when she glanced purple flickers in front of her. Her tail crinkled up upon seeing the Butterfree Effect standing sideways on the wall.

"Unfortunate." They folded their hands behind their back. "But expected." A distorted sigh followed. "Poor little puppet. Burdened with the illusion of choice." They nudged their mask up. "Let me make this simple, then, Yaldabaoth. You want to reach the core, but the vault is designed to withstand pokémon attacks."

Butterfree Effect lifted their right hand. "And the missing, 'betrayed' human is inside, bathing in the core's energy as we speak alongside one of the creatures your puppet knows as Phantoms."

Yuna swallowed hard. A Phantom was already here? And inside the vault, too?

"You've seen how many people are here for these festivities, Yaldabaoth," Butterfree Effect continued. "So, what will you do? Will you open the vault and allow the Whisper of Ruin to rampage through this stadium— nay, the whole city? Or will you wait... all the while running the risk of more cores gathering more power and endangering other realms?"

They had both arms raised. "Surely, you understand now. The result is the same no matter what choice you make. Chaos leads to suffering." Butterfree Effect shook their head. "Reality's truth is unavoidable... unless you stand aside and allow me to affirm all phenomena. My Eternaverse will inscribe a new truth for reality. One where all souls are free from burden. From suffering."

Yuna squeezed her eyes shut and flew down the empty shaft. After a few seconds, she forced her eyes open. No eerie purple glow. They hadn't followed her.

What if she phased through the door to the sewers? The drakloak headed through it. A quiet sewer tunnel greeted her.

No sign of Butterfree Effect. Perhaps Yuna had gotten far enough from the anomaly core? Maybe if she checked her X-transceiver?

"Hello?" Yuna whispered. "Anyone there?"

"Cripes! There you are, Princess!" came Nikki's hasty response. "The hell happened? You went silent on us for a while."

Yuna sighed in relief. "I found the core. But it's locked in a vault."

"Pfbt. So?" Cracked knuckles came through Yuna's speaker. "We'll bust it open."

The drakloak shuddered, recalling Butterfree Effect's warning. "I don't think it's going to be that simple." Her shoulders sagged. "I'll explain more when I get back."

She took a deep breath as she flew deeper into the sewer tunnel. It'll be okay, Yuna told herself. Even with all the dumb destiny talk Butterfree Effect spewed, there was one thing they hadn't brought up: this wasn't Yuna's decision to make alone. There was a whole team she could run this by.

This wasn't an impossible situation. They'd come up with a plan together. Yes, there was still a way for this to work out.

XxX​

Igneous walked silently on the gravel path, ignoring rows of tombstones on either side of him. A small part kept urging him to leave the cemetery. If Sakaki was here, things would only be awkward. Why was he even entertaining his dad, anyway? The nidoking had an important story he was supposed to be working on. All of this would prove nothing but a big distraction.

Nevertheless, the grovlazzle put one foot in front of the other. The tombstones got progressively bigger until Igneous reached the back of the cemetery. He gazed at the oddly large brick wall. Why was it so tall? It wasn't keeping out graverobbers. Not flying ones, at least.

He looked left. Sure enough, Sakaki stood several meters away. He faced a white marble tree with leafy wreaths wrapped around them. As Igneous approached, he glimpsed the words carved into the base of the statue.

REINA. BELOVED WIFE, MOTHER, AND TEACHER.

Igneous had seen it over and over again through the years. He thought he'd gone numb to it. But with everything that happened since Venish, Igneous couldn't push the memories out of his head.

A withering sceptile lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by vases of assorted flowers. IV lines jabbed in her arms. Rammed up her legs. Strange liquids dripping into her lines. Machines beeping and hissing in the background. Breathing for her. Keeping her heart beating because she'd lost the strength to do so.

"So, you showed up after all."

The grovlazzle jolted stiff. Sakaki was looking right at him. Igneous noticed the bouquet of flowers on the ground in front of the statue. Freshly picked tulips. His mother's favorite.

"Yeah," Igneous didn't take his eyes off the flowers. He didn't want to talk with Sakaki, but staying silent wouldn't get the nidoking to leave any faster. "Surprised you remember."

Sakaki stuck his hands in his blazer's pockets. "I've brought her some every three months." There was a bit more fatigue as he added, "Which I'm sure you never noticed."

Igneous had to stop himself from curling his hands into fists. "Can you blame me? You replaced her so quickly."

Silence. Sakaki turned away from him. "She would've wanted me to move on."

"Not within a few short months!" Igneous snapped.

Sighing, Sakaki folded his hands behind his back. "Everyone grieves differently. Your stepmother was there for me when I needed her. I can't expect you to understand. You were... lost in your own spiral."

Wincing, Igneous forced bitter, familiar images of lying on a cold floor, staring at the stump where his right arm was supposed to be from his mind. He couldn't think about that. Not now.

"It didn't occur to you... how it might've come across to me?" he muttered.

"Every time I tried to talk to you, you weren't there."

"Because I was finding out who was responsible." Igneous' head leaf simmered. "It was meant for you." His gaze fell to the ground. "They wanted to poison you. And you just let her open that envelope."

"How was I supposed to—"

"Weren't you the one who had your underlings screening your damn mail?!" Igneous growled. Embers smoldered on the ends of his tails. He realized this and promptly turned out. "Y'know what? Forget it. This was a mistake."

"Chiaki."

"It's Igneous." The grovlazzle stomped off without another word.

With every row of tombstones, his mood soured further. Not toward Sakaki, though. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Igneous rapped the side of his head with his claws. Clearly, Sakaki did still value her. He wouldn't pull off empty gestures just for Igneous' sake. The nidoking abhorred wasting time on such frivolities.

Which means I'm the problem. Igneous kicked a pebble and watched it tumble down the gravel path. He approached it and kicked again. It rolled past the security kiosk with a sableye fast asleep inside and through the open gates.

... Where it stopped near a gray-white, fluffy hoof.

Igneous tensed. "What are you doing here?" He walked faster. The grovlazzle doubted Shimmer's mere presence meant there were paparazzi or anything nearby, but a tiny part of him feared it nonetheless.

Shimmer nudged his head right. A latias with glowing blue, speaker-like wings leaned against the other side of the stone wall. She turned her head slightly and waved to Igneous. He dumbly waved back while trying to locate Scarlett.

"We might've overhead what you were saying to Gene," Starlene admitted, poking her claws together. "I know you asked for space. But someone wanted to make sure you were okay." She paused, looking over her shoulder. "From a respectable distance. Decent compromise, right?" Starlene wiggled her claws with enthusiasm that progressively dimmed the longer Igneous stared blankly at her.

"I thought she was up to something fishy," Shimmer said, his fluffy tails twitching. "So, I followed, too."

Silence. Igneous' gaze drifted to the cemetery wall. He couldn't snap at them. He'd already done badly enough with Sakaki. The grovlazzle trudged toward Starlene, not meeting the latias' gaze. A pink flicker was all that told him Scarlett recalled her. He waited for the dragonair to ask if he was okay, but she stayed silent. Still respecting his boundaries, he supposed.

Igneous leaned against the wall and looked up. A thick layer of clouds hung overhead. The kind of dark clouds that threatened to drench the area, yet somehow held back.

"Should we... ask to return?" Shimmer wondered. The ponytales paced slowly in front of Igneous.

"Not yet." Igneous took a deep breath. "Need... a bit more time."

That drew a slither from Igneous' left. "I suppose there are a couple of meanings behind that, huh?" Scarlett whispered.

Igneous didn't reply. He could say something. Scarlett at least had a vague idea of what was happening. She was offering him a chance. So, why couldn't he just come out and explain himself?

It had to be the memories. Igneous didn't want to grapple with them. The only way to suppress them was not to talk about it. That was how it worked.

"The spirit never forgets."

Xeromus' words sent a shudder down Igneous back. His claws scraped the stone behind him. Igneous tucked his head down and closed his eyes.

"I lost my mother several years back," Igneous whispered. He tensed, waiting for the memories of that dim, flower-filled hospital room to flood in. They held off. And the others weren't responding. That was his cue to keep going. "Shimmer's already heard about it. My father was working on a big Beacon piece. Someone didn't like that. They sent him mail in a poison-laced envelope."

He glanced left. Saw the confusion on Scarlett's face. "The kind of venom that can work on a poison-type. Like salazzle toxins."

The "Oh" formed on Scarlett's lips was clear even without her saying it.

"The point is... my mom opened the envelope. Inhaled the venom." Igneous' claws scraped the wall again. "Both my parents hid it from me. I thought Mom was looking a bit frail, but she always played it off." He sucked in a hard breath. "Until I found out she was in intensive care at the hospital." Igneous closed his eyes again. "It was slow. Looked painful. Dad kept her on life support for a month... mostly because of me. Because I... I loved my mom. I couldn't lose her.

"My dad... went to other people to grieve. But not me." Igneous stared at his orange and yellow belly. "I poured myself into figuring out who was responsible. Tried to go after them myself." He held out his right arm. "Lost an arm because of it."

Scarlett's eyes widened in realization. Igneous rubbed his right arm. "I had a great prosthetic. Only a couple of people at Horizon knew the truth before that explosion in Venish."

... And plenty of Ryujin. Not that they had to hear that part.

"What I didn't tell Shimmer was that, while this all happened, Dad found someone else." Igneous' brow furrowed. "A well-known salazzle fashionista. Married her within a few months." He shook his head. "I haven't been able to forgive him for it. It felt like he'd left me and Mom behind."

He paused, wondering how much further to go. The only other thing Igneous needed to say was—

"So you grew distant, until you took your mom's insurance money and went to Horizon."

Igneous nodded slowly at Shimmer. He noticed a flat expression on Scarlett's face. She must've been conflicted over hearing he had told Shimmer about this after asking her for space on the matter. And that left Igneous mentally kicking himself. Way to screw up again, dumbass.

He scrambled to say something to her to save face. "I wanted to tell you after Tulpise, but—"

"We ran into each other." Shimmer glanced at him. "There was a bit of an argument and it slipped out on his part. He really did want to tell you first."

Igneous did his best to keep a straight face, pressing his back harder against the wall. "Right. Something like that."

Scarlett coiled up tighter. She looked down at the older, abandoned buildings across from the cemetery. "It's fine." The dragonair took a deep breath. "I get it. Family's complicated."

Her neck bauble flickered. "Okay, I don't really get it. Orphan and all that." She shrugged her tiny wings. Igneous raised a brow. Scarlett promptly puffed her cheeks. "It was a joke. Y'know, dark humor and stuff?"

Ah. Igneous weakly chuckled.

"Don't give me a pity laugh." Scarlett wrinkled her snout. "This isn't open mic night!" Sighing, she loosened her coiling a bit. "But seriously. I don't really know what to say."

"You don't have to comfort me," Igneous insisted. He pushed off the wall and walked between Scarlett and Shimmer. "I've been dealing with this on my own for a while."

Scarlett slithered to his side. "And you don't think that isn't working?" Her neck bauble flickered. A spectral Starlene gave him a disapproving look. "I won't tell you what to do," Scarlett said, glancing over her shoulder the moment Starlene's illusion poofed away. "Just, y'know, maybe balling it all up isn't the answer here?"

Igneous blinked slowly. His gaze fell to his feet. It needed a bit of mental gymnastics, but Igneous saw the connection between Scarlett's words... and Sakaki's actions.

He spent all that time with Igneous' eventual stepmother instead of bottling it up. And who had Igneous leaned on?

No one.

Sure, Valkyrie helped him with tracking down who was responsible. But she was doing her job. Igneous never talked about this stuff with her. Only about the next steps.

God, was he really that stupid?

"Still awake?"

Scarlett's tail waved in front of Igneous' face. "If you want to go back to the station, we can go back. I'm pretty sure people are just bickering about the new mystery dungeon. Or anomaly. Or whatever we're calling it."

Igneous stiffened at that. "Bickering?" He hesitantly reached his hand up and turned his X-transceiver on.

XxX​

"Absolutely not!"

"Absolutely not!"

Seifer flinched after he and Widget said the same thing in tandem. The keldeo looked at Yuna. "You can't possibly agree with him."

Yuna bit her lower lip. "I, uh, would prefer not to cause problems for this city." She wrung her hands out. A part of her expected Gene to suggest brute forcing the mysterious vault, yet it still surprised her how quickly and casually he threw out the suggestion.

"Look, we heard what Yuna said." Gene was annoyed. From people disagreeing with him? Surely, he saw that coming, right? "We're taking a gamble no matter what we do. We can put one city in danger... or multiple places could get swept up in this. Don't gotta be a mathematician to know that the former's less than the latter. We break open the vault and destroy the Phantom—"

"It's actually called a Whisper," Yuna blurted out, only to throw her hands over her mouth. Of all the stupid times to get caught up in technicalities.

"Okay, sure." The eyeroll practically dripped from Gene's words. "Doesn't change the plan: D-E-S-T-R-O-Y, oh my!"

"It's a bad idea!" Widget immediately countered. "It doesn't sound like there's a way to contain the thing like in LaRousse. Nothing'll stop it from wreaking havoc the moment the vault's open."

Which was Yuna's big concern. In the middle of a big sporting event, there was no way they could clear out that stadium.

"Psssht. You're thinking too hard." Smirking, Nikki clasped the sides of her leather jacket. "It's simple: we take the safe with the core... and move it somewhere else." She pushed the air in front of her. "Find some abandoned field and plop it down. Easy peasy lemon squeezy."

Leo bobbed up and down on Yuna's head, seemingly enthralled with the idea. The drakloak herself had doubts, though. Such a simple solution couldn't possibly work, right?

"Can you even move an anomaly core?" Cid wondered. "What if they're anchored in place, only following the planet's rotation? It's just as likely that if you move the vault, the core will simply... phase through it. Leaving whatever's inside free to rampage through the stadium."

Nikki's mohawk shrank a bit. "Tch. They're big balls of staticky gobbledegook. How am I supposed to know?"

"Yeah, how dare the scholar counter you with logic," Cyril scoffed. Seifer snrked, to Yuna's surprise. Since when did the keldeo like sarcasm?

"I don't see anyone else coming up with anything." Nikki tapped a foot impatiently on the stone ground. "We're burning—" She cut herself off and looked up. "Moonlight, I guess?"

Silence followed. Yuna looked out at the river. Boats floated atop the water, carrying scores of people watching a bunch of moving lights that pretended to be a flying cramorant. She couldn't stomach the thought of letting something bad happen to all the people here. But she didn't want other places in danger from doing nothing.

Yuna squeezed her hands against her face. The Butterfree Effect told her about this on purpose. Perhaps they knew the situation would leave the resistance paralyzed with indecision.

"Okay, fine." Gene finally spoke up again after having his original idea shot down. "The only way to play this safe is to go the ironic route. We gotta get nuts for safety!"

Seifer raised a brow. "Which entails?"

"Instead of letting whatever's in that vault out to cause a real disaster, we stir up a fake one to force everyone away from the stadium."

Suppressing a wince, Yuna watched the stadium in the distance, with its colorful lights projecting into the night sky. If she was following Gene correctly, then...

"You're going to attack this place. Or pretend to."

Gene chuckled. "Not who I was expecting to catch on, but I'll take it! Between me, Birdbrain, and, say, you summoning one of the Sages, we've got everything we need to raise some hell!" He paused. "Well, fake hell. You get the idea."

"But that's still dangerous," Widget squawked. "If you cause a scene, people might hurt one another in the ensuing panic!"

To that, Gene laughed. "That's where the rest of you come in. We're going to make a convenient escape route for a fake assault on Wyndon. So, get ready, because I'm coming over to scout the city out."

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Heya, going to do something that I haven't done in a long time and review a chapter of PoV on its actual release date (well, it took a day or two to get this final posted version out in the wild, but close enough). So let's jump right into the part where PoV becomes a trainerfic in…

Chapter 80

Spoiler

These Overseer guys really want me keeping up with these audio diaries. All part of the healing and adjustment process, they say.

But healing from what? Leaving my home? Since we struck that deal, I've had time to mentally prepare myself. I knew this would be a big change. And change and I tend to go together like ice cream and horseradish. Which I only tried on a dare, for the record!

... Wait, what am I saying? No one's going to listen to these but me.

This... sounds an awful lot like

from that overall "voice", just saying.

Gah, c'mon. Focus, dummy. You're supposed to be talking about what it's been like in this Overworld place. Deep breaths.

Right. Okay. So, like, it's really abstract and esoteric. Still haven't pieced together how the Overworld works or anything. I've seen a fair few Overseers. Some of them give off the vibe they know me. Or heard of me. Apparently, there are actually a few reformed Dark Matters amongst this group. So, uh, that's something. And a couple of 'em go by "Diyem," which is, like, the kind of dumb name I'd come up with for a pokémon I caught in one of the games way back when I was human. Whatever floats their boats, I suppose.

Okay, yeah. This is

. Though I suppose that this is a sign that POV-2020 is adjacent to HOC-2017 or whatever its universe designation is or one of the Blacklight universes since I'm not sure if there are settings with 'Diyem's, let alone 'Diyem's that are Dark Matters outside of things that Namo has been involved in writing in some capacity.

Though wait, does that mean in a hypothetical Spanish/Italian translation of HoC, that Diyem would be called something like 'Emmeo'?

If I'm being honest, it kinda feels like I'm back in high school. Except I'm the new kid who transferred in in the middle of the semester.

I mean, if who wrote this is who I think it is. Considering what his high school experience was like. That's... uh... not a positive sign at all for what this was like here.

Despite the countless voices stacked atop one another, the Butterfree Effect's words were sickeningly sweet. Somewhere in the back of Yuna's mind, she knew to expect them when the warning about the latest anomaly blared up. Just not this soon.

Ah yes, just casually trotting out the music from the final walkup to Zanza in XB1. Totally not an ominous sign here. Even if the demiurge in this particular encounter is the protagonist.

Then again, this was the fastest she'd located a core. Sort of.

"It is as I said before." Butterfree Effect folded their hands behind their back. "Even with an early arrival, our meeting was written into the stars."

So... no visions of the future mechanic for Yuna to kick fate where the sun don't shine? Or is that something that's still in the pipeline for her? ^^;

Yuna frowned. Wasn't the whole reason they sent Walking Wake after her to avoid this. "But you tried to kill me and my friends."

"Whether your drakloak shell won or lost that battle mattered not," Butterfree Effect responded. "The end result was always another meeting. No matter what questions you conjure, the answers still lead to a single outcome."

I mean, at least that's a good sign that Yuna's personality wouldn't get overwritten by Yaldabaoth overtaking her? Maybe? Since the Butterfree Effect's phrasing there implies that in the grand scheme of things, that Yuna's Drakloak body is functionally just a cosmetic skin for who she really is.

She strained to stop her tail from lashing at Butterfree Effect. Yuna wasn't interested in retreading their tired riddles. If this was another projection, they couldn't do anything to her, anyway.

"Okay. Well, glad to satisfy your predictions," Yuna deadpanned. "Enjoy standing in this dark hallway alone."

As she floated past, however, Butterfree Effect cut back in front of her. They hadn't taken any steps. Moved any muscles.

... Did they even have muscles?

Guess the projections can teleport.

Yuna:

"Seriously, could you make this any more creepy or uncomfortable right now?" >_>;

"Returning to your puppet's friends?" Butterfree Effect nudged up their mask. "You can brainstorm all you want. It won't change your situation. Or this world's fate."

I... take that comment about the Butterfree Effect's commentary being a positive sign, really.

Though hey, the last time I saw a demiurge just chilling in a host's body, said host was still around to go and do things once they separated with a bit of help? So maybe that'll happen to Yuna, too?

There was that Xeromus-esque claim about futility. Yuna continued silently down the hall. Again, Butterfree Effect warped in her path.

"They've heightened security for this event." Butterfree Effect's mask rippled. Yuna thought she saw emergency lights flickering inside it. "Because the previous gold medalist disappeared suddenly and unexpectedly."

Oh, well that's not ominous and worrisome at all.

Though I wonder if that gold medalist was Ash, there.

Yuna took a deep breath to keep her shadows in check. Though still pooled around the base of her tail, they were at least behaving themselves. "I bet you had something to do with it."

"How flattering." Butterfree Effect was amused, despite their distorted voice. "However, I am as much a bystander in this as you." Static encircled their arceus-like hair. A strange red and white hat with an unfinished triangle appeared atop their head. "They claim this young man was 'betrayed' by those he thought closest to him. And then he vanished in the aftermath."

I see that even PoV isn't immune to the horrors of Ash Betrayed, though I suppose I should've seen this coming from the literal TPP content like 40 chapters ago.

Yuna: "... An Ash Betrayed universe? Really?"

Butterfree Effect: "Well, yes. Our story does run on memes and absurdism a good chunk of the time, but anyhow..."

Butterfree Effect snapped their fingers. Static pulses ate away at their hat, replacing it with the arceus hairdo once more. "Perhaps such a tale makes you nostalgic, Yaldabaoth?"

Yuna: "Seriously? Would it call you to just call me 'Yuna' for once?"

Butterfree Effect: "Tch, why beat around the bush? We both know who you really are, after all."

A powerful tug gripped Yuna's lower half. For a moment, her vision blurred. Clear blue skies painted over the hallway. A wrecked temple with jagged, broken pillars grew further away from Yuna.

Ah yes, just casually flashing back to the last Volo quest from PLA.

She squeezed her eyes shut and smushed her cheeks with her hands. "No idea what you're talking about," Yuna said, doing her best to wear a stern expression.

The Butterfree Effect sighed. "As predicted." They folded their hands behind their back again. "You're right. It's not an entertaining tale. In fact, I've seen 3,741 worlds just like this. And they have all turned out the same way."

I... don't even want to know if there's really that many Ash Betrayal fics floating around out there or not.

Yuna fixed her gaze on the door leading back down to the sewers. Would Butterfree Effect follow her there if she left?

"Stagnation. Decay." The projection popped into Yuna's line of sight. "Left to wither away into nothing."

Shots fired at all the deadfics floating around out there, since... yeah. That more or less accurately describes the world of a deadfic.

The drakloak headed forward again. She drifted left, thinking the projection would move to cut her off. Except Butterfree Effect didn't. So, when she swerved right, they were there. Standing right in front of her and nudging at their mask.

"You are an open book, Yaldabaoth." Their mask rippled. Yuna thought she saw a reflection of her own inky black shadows in it. "Your moves are as predictable as your inability to accept the truth."

Is she even cognizant of the truth right now? ^^;

Yuna finally spat some dragonfire at Butterfree Effect. It washed over the projection, dimming them, but failing to snuff them out entirely. "If this is really so predictable, then why are you wasting your time talking to me?"

The shadowy reflection faded from Butterfree Effect's mask. Instead, there was a faint drakloak silhouette attached to it. That faded just as fast as it appeared. "All right. To the puppet, then. Yunavresca, was it?"

Butterfree Effect: "Yeah, you know how in Xenoblade 1 there was the whole thing about the protagonist being indwelled by a malevolent demiurge figure for the first 60 hours of gameplay? That's you right now."
Yuna: "... That's- That's not actually canon, is it?"

Great, they knew her name. Somehow. Yuna shot more dragonfire at Butterfree Effect and sped forward. This time they reappeared directly in front of the door, casting an odd purple glow against the otherwise dark gray metal.

"Do you think it's fair," Butterfree Effect began, "for so much suffering to be spread across all of reality?"

I swear, this is going to turn into something like an advertisement for the White Ending from SMT4 at this rate, I can already tell. Since this feels a lot the sales pitch that the White gave to just end everything in that game.

Yuna's shadows tugged on her lower half. She wasn't sure if they wanted to lash out or were encouraging her to keep going, even if it meant flying into the projection. Something she was still nervous about. If they could teleport around, were they truly powerless?

"The truth of reality is one of stagnation." Butterfree Effect's mask again swirled around into a purple void. "Every universe is destined to fade away into nothingness. The souls siphoned by the Overworld where they will slumber for eternity."

Something, something, Grovyle literally gave a definitive rebuttal to this general train of thought in SE5. Which Yuna has likely been exposed to in some capacity thanks to Shaymin the Wanderer being a thing in Etherium.

The void shifted. Tiny hands held feathered quills that scribbled across Butterfree Effect's distorted face. "Thousand arms crumble away. The storytellers lay down their pens or canvases." The hands tossed the quills away and simply tapped at the air. "The keyboards go silent." At last the hands merged into an open book that promptly slammed shut... and reformed their arceus wheel mask. "Whether gradually or abruptly, the story always ends.

Boy are we getting really meta right now. I wonder how much of this you putting voice to occasional "god, I'm never gonna finish this" gremlins, since this feels like some prime

material for fanfic writers in particular.

"Worlds without gods fizzle out." A sun appeared in the center of their mask, only to be extinguished like a blown out candle. "Those 'blessed' with divinity will see it abandon them. Or turn to destruction. Or be seized by those with malice in their hearts."

TL/DR:

Butterfree Effect warped directly in front of Yuna. The drakloak instinctively recoiled as they snapped back to the door. "Why does this happen, Yunavresca?" They stared her down. The dim room warped their mask even more than usual. "You now know of the Overseers. How can such a powerful group choose to stand by, letting each and every world meet their end?" They shook their head. "No, more than that, insist that these ends are necessary for some sort of cosmic balance?"

Because in the end, the Overseers are fictional entities in themselves that have no control over whether or not the creators of various Pokémon stories keep their tales going or not?

I mean, even in real life, stars burn out and die and from the best we know of, universes too will succumb to entropy. It's just a part of reality.

"I..." Yuna thought she had a retort at the ready, but her voice trailed off. Her gaze fell to the floor.

The shadows tugged on her lower half again. As if they were chewing her out for even listening to this thing. The drakloak needed to leave. Yuna spewed dragonfire at Butterfree Effect and shot forward. Panic welled up inside as the purple, distorted figure grew closer. They hadn't moved. What would contacting them do to her?

And yet, Yuna didn't slow down. In fact, she sped up. Was she getting lighter?

Ah yes, Yaldabaoth has decided that Yuna has heard enough and needs to get out before messing up his rebirth or whatever.

Before Yuna knew it, she was on the other side of the door. As if she'd phased through both Butterfree Effect and the door in one shot. And shadows were trailing off her body. Yuna glanced at her hands, then decided she could ruminate more when she was back with the others.

The drakloak began to descend when she glanced purple flickers in front of her. Her tail crinkled up upon seeing the Butterfree Effect standing sideways on the wall.

Yuna: "Are you kidding me?! What on earth does it take to lose this guy?!"

"Unfortunate." They folded their hands behind their back. "But expected." A distorted sigh followed. "Poor little puppet. Burdened with the illusion of choice." They nudged their mask up. "Let me make this simple, then, Yaldabaoth. You want to reach the core, but the vault is designed to withstand pokémon attacks."

Butterfree Effect lifted their right hand. "And the missing, 'betrayed' human is inside, bathing in the core's energy as we speak alongside one of the creatures your puppet knows as Phantoms."

I can't tell if this is going to be amazing or really, really cringe. Maybe both at once.

Yuna swallowed hard. A Phantom was already here? And inside the vault, too?

"You've seen how many people are here for these festivities, Yaldabaoth," Butterfree Effect continued. "So, what will you do? Will you open the vault and allow the Whisper of Ruin to rampage through this stadium— nay, the whole city? Or will you wait... all the while running the risk of more cores gathering more power and endangering other realms?"

Oh boy, what a choice there. There's... a third option that's not being presented here... right?

They had both arms raised. "Surely, you understand now. The result is the same no matter what choice you make. Chaos leads to suffering." Butterfree Effect shook their head. "Reality's truth is unavoidable... unless you stand aside and allow me to affirm all phenomena. My Eternaverse will inscribe a new truth for reality. One where all souls are free from burden. From suffering."

Since there is an absolutely terrible track record of promises like these actually panning out in fiction.

Yuna squeezed her eyes shut and flew down the empty shaft. After a few seconds, she forced her eyes open. No eerie purple glow. They hadn't followed her.

What if she phased through the door to the sewers? The drakloak headed through it. A quiet sewer tunnel greeted her.

No sign of Butterfree Effect. Perhaps Yuna had gotten far enough from the anomaly core? Maybe if she checked her X-transceiver?

"Hello?" Yuna whispered. "Anyone there?"

Yuna: "Since I think that I'm having a bit of an existential crisis right now and could really use someone to talk to..."

"Cripes! There you are, Princess!" came Nikki's hasty response. "The hell happened? You went silent on us for a while."

Oh, so Yuna was just spacing out in the middle of that whole Butterfree Effect encounter, huh? ^^;

Yuna sighed in relief. "I found the core. But it's locked in a vault."

"Pfbt. So?" Cracked knuckles came through Yuna's speaker. "We'll bust it open."

Yuna: "Um... yeah, about that. Things... aren't going to be quite as straightforward as that." ^^;
Nikki: "And just what's that supposed to mean?"

The drakloak shuddered, recalling Butterfree Effect's warning. "I don't think it's going to be that simple." Her shoulders sagged. "I'll explain more when I get back."

She took a deep breath as she flew deeper into the sewer tunnel. It'll be okay, Yuna told herself. Even with all the dumb destiny talk Butterfree Effect spewed, there was one thing they hadn't brought up: this wasn't Yuna's decision to make alone. There was a whole team she could run this by.

This wasn't an impossible situation. They'd come up with a plan together. Yes, there was still a way for this to work out.

Igneous walked silently on the gravel path, ignoring rows of tombstones on either side of him. A small part kept urging him to leave the cemetery. If Sakaki was here, things would only be awkward. Why was he even entertaining his dad, anyway? The nidoking had an important story he was supposed to be working on. All of this would prove nothing but a big distraction.

Ah yes, AA6 music. Wasn't expecting that one to make an appearance here.

Nevertheless, the grovlazzle put one foot in front of the other. The tombstones got progressively bigger until Igneous reached the back of the cemetery. He gazed at the oddly large brick wall. Why was it so tall? It wasn't keeping out graverobbers. Not flying ones, at least.

It's a privacy measure, perhaps? I mean, your dad is a mob boss, so...

He looked left. Sure enough, Sakaki stood several meters away. He faced a white marble tree with leafy wreaths wrapped around them. As Igneous approached, he glimpsed the words carved into the base of the statue.

REINA. BELOVED WIFE, MOTHER, AND TEACHER.

Ah yes, time for things to get really

really fast.

Igneous had seen it over and over again through the years. He thought he'd gone numb to it. But with everything that happened since Venish, Igneous couldn't push the memories out of his head.

A withering sceptile lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by vases of assorted flowers. IV lines jabbed in her arms. Rammed up her legs. Strange liquids dripping into her lines. Machines beeping and hissing in the background. Breathing for her. Keeping her heart beating because she'd lost the strength to do so.

Didn't have to wait long at all for the mood to set in, really.

"So, you showed up after all."

The grovlazzle jolted stiff. Sakaki was looking right at him. Igneous noticed the bouquet of flowers on the ground in front of the statue. Freshly picked tulips. His mother's favorite.

"Yeah," Igneous didn't take his eyes off the flowers. He didn't want to talk with Sakaki, but staying silent wouldn't get the nidoking to leave any faster. "Surprised you remember."

Ah yes, time for the awkward moment between two people who don't particularly like each other very much brought together by grief.

Sakaki stuck his hands in his blazer's pockets. "I've brought her some every three months." There was a bit more fatigue as he added, "Which I'm sure you never noticed."

Igneous had to stop himself from curling his hands into fists. "Can you blame me? You replaced her so quickly."

Just noting the family drama in action here. Though I suppose this would explain a thing or two about why Igneous is so frosty with Kyoko.

Silence. Sakaki turned away from him. "She would've wanted me to move on."

"Not within a few short months!" Igneous snapped.

Sighing, Sakaki folded his hands behind his back. "Everyone grieves differently. Your stepmother was there for me when I needed her. I can't expect you to understand. You were... lost in your own spiral."

I mean, considering how Iggy lost an arm before ultimately somewhat coming to terms with his mother dying... yeah.

Wincing, Igneous forced bitter, familiar images of lying on a cold floor, staring at the stump where his right arm was supposed to be from his mind. He couldn't think about that. Not now.

"It didn't occur to you... how it might've come across to me?" he muttered.

"Every time I tried to talk to you, you weren't there."

I mean, Iggy does seem to be a master at failing to communicate in this story, so... I'm pretty sure mob boss dad has a point there. ^^;

"Because I was finding out who was responsible." Igneous' head leaf simmered. "It was meant for you." His gaze fell to the ground. "They wanted to poison you. And you just let her open that envelope."

"How was I supposed to—"

"Weren't you the one who had your underlings screening your damn mail?!" Igneous growled. Embers smoldered on the ends of his tails. He realized this and promptly turned out. "Y'know what? Forget it. This was a mistake."

Um. Iggy, not to cut into your moment blaming dad for your dead mom problems, but that should make you two very, very worried about whether or not there are moles within the Ryujin Clan considering that there are alternative explanations for that epic fail beyond 'incompetence' there.

"Chiaki."

"It's Igneous." The grovlazzle stomped off without another word.

With every row of tombstones, his mood soured further. Not toward Sakaki, though. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Igneous rapped the side of his head with his claws. Clearly, Sakaki did still value her. He wouldn't pull off empty gestures just for Igneous' sake. The nidoking abhorred wasting time on such frivolities.

Oh, so he's making an

face, huh?

Which means I'm the problem. Igneous kicked a pebble and watched it tumble down the gravel path. He approached it and kicked again. It rolled past the security kiosk with a sableye fast asleep inside and through the open gates.

... Where it stopped near a gray-white, fluffy hoof.

Igneous tensed. "What are you doing here?" He walked faster. The grovlazzle doubted Shimmer's mere presence meant there were paparazzi or anything nearby, but a tiny part of him feared it nonetheless.

Well. Let's hope that Sakaki's proper job isn't an open secret in Radiance, otherwise this moment is going to get really, really awkward for Iggy in short order.

Shimmer nudged his head right. A latias with glowing blue, speaker-like wings leaned against the other side of the stone wall. She turned her head slightly and waved to Igneous. He dumbly waved back while trying to locate Scarlett.

"We might've overhead what you were saying to Gene," Starlene admitted, poking her claws together. "I know you asked for space. But someone wanted to make sure you were okay." She paused, looking over her shoulder. "From a respectable distance. Decent compromise, right?" Starlene wiggled her claws with enthusiasm that progressively dimmed the longer Igneous stared blankly at her.

Igneous: "Wait, but I thought that Shimmer was more or less catatonic for the past two weeks from the aftermath of Tulp-"

Shimmer: "Igneous, that was two weeks ago!" >_>;

"I thought she was up to something fishy," Shimmer said, his fluffy tails twitching. "So, I followed, too."

Silence. Igneous' gaze drifted to the cemetery wall. He couldn't snap at them. He'd already done badly enough with Sakaki. The grovlazzle trudged toward Starlene, not meeting the latias' gaze. A pink flicker was all that told him Scarlett recalled her. He waited for the dragonair to ask if he was okay, but she stayed silent. Still respecting his boundaries, he supposed.

Sakaki: "Chiaki, we're going to need to have a talk about this afterwards."

Igneous: "I mean, I'm pretty sure that we brought Shimmer up to speed about everything over the past two weeks? So we should be fine... I think."

Igneous leaned against the wall and looked up. A thick layer of clouds hung overhead. The kind of dark clouds that threatened to drench the area, yet somehow held back.

"Should we... ask to return?" Shimmer wondered. The ponytales paced slowly in front of Igneous.

"Not yet." Igneous took a deep breath. "Need... a bit more time."

That drew a slither from Igneous' left. "I suppose there are a couple of meanings behind that, huh?" Scarlett whispered.

Igneous: "Probably, but- I just really need to be alone right now, okay?"

Igneous didn't reply. He could say something. Scarlett at least had a vague idea of what was happening. She was offering him a chance. So, why couldn't he just come out and explain himself?

It had to be the memories. Igneous didn't want to grapple with them. The only way to suppress them was not to talk about it. That was how it worked.

"The spirit never forgets."

Xeromus' words sent a shudder down Igneous back. His claws scraped the stone behind him. Igneous tucked his head down and closed his eyes.

And more AA6 music. Did you replay it recently or something? Since you sure seem to be on a kick for it this chapter.

"I lost my mother several years back," Igneous whispered. He tensed, waiting for the memories of that dim, flower-filled hospital room to flood in. They held off. And the others weren't responding. That was his cue to keep going. "Shimmer's already heard about it. My father was working on a big Beacon piece. Someone didn't like that. They sent him mail in a poison-laced envelope."

He glanced left. Saw the confusion on Scarlett's face. "The kind of venom that can work on a poison-type. Like salazzle toxins."

The "Oh" formed on Scarlett's lips was clear even without her saying it.

So wait, what is the normal concentration of poison from Salazzle poison delivered naturally? Since Reina quite literally just shriveled up and died from the dose she received from that envelope.

"The point is... my mom opened the envelope. Inhaled the venom." Igneous' claws scraped the wall again. "Both my parents hid it from me. I thought Mom was looking a bit frail, but she always played it off." He sucked in a hard breath. "Until I found out she was in intensive care at the hospital." Igneous closed his eyes again. "It was slow. Looked painful. Dad kept her on life support for a month... mostly because of me. Because I... I loved my mom. I couldn't lose her.

"My dad... went to other people to grieve. But not me." Igneous stared at his orange and yellow belly. "I poured myself into figuring out who was responsible. Tried to go after them myself." He held out his right arm. "Lost an arm because of it."

Along with the respect of much of the Ryujin Clan, but let's not get into that right now.

Though I'm just realizing that this is the story parallel to the scene where Shimmer opened up to Iggy a couple chapters ago right outside of Horizon Gardens.

Scarlett's eyes widened in realization. Igneous rubbed his right arm. "I had a great prosthetic. Only a couple of people at Horizon knew the truth before that explosion in Venish."

... And plenty of Ryujin. Not that they had to hear that part.

Yeeeeeeeeah, let's not get into Iggy's mob ties right in front of everyone right now. That would probably be wise. ^^;

"What I didn't tell Shimmer was that, while this all happened, Dad found someone else." Igneous' brow furrowed. "A well-known salazzle fashionista. Married her within a few months." He shook his head. "I haven't been able to forgive him for it. It felt like he'd left me and Mom behind."

Boy would it be awkward if Sakaki just walked in on him right about now. Since I'm pretty sure it wasn't described that Iggy put a whole bunch of distance between him and his dad. ^^;

He paused, wondering how much further to go. The only other thing Igneous needed to say was—

"So you grew distant, until you took your mom's insurance money and went to Horizon."

Igneous nodded slowly at Shimmer. He noticed a flat expression on Scarlett's face. She must've been conflicted over hearing he had told Shimmer about this after asking her for space on the matter. And that left Igneous mentally kicking himself. Way to screw up again, dumbass.

Yeeeeeeah, that's been kind of a worryingly consistent trend for Iggy throughout the story. Which I'm pretty sure is as good a sign as any to stop trying to do things on his own already.

He scrambled to say something to her to save face. "I wanted to tell you after Tulpise, but—"

"We ran into each other." Shimmer glanced at him. "There was a bit of an argument and it slipped out on his part. He really did want to tell you first."

Igneous did his best to keep a straight face, pressing his back harder against the wall. "Right. Something like that."

Scarlett coiled up tighter. She looked down at the older, abandoned buildings across from the cemetery. "It's fine." The dragonair took a deep breath. "I get it. Family's complicated."

Oh, so Scarlett also has/had a messed-up family life of her own, huh? Since I can see that reaction from her.

Her neck bauble flickered. "Okay, I don't really get it. Orphan and all that." She shrugged her tiny wings. Igneous raised a brow. Scarlett promptly puffed her cheeks. "It was a joke. Y'know, dark humor and stuff?"

Ah. Igneous weakly chuckled.

I suppose that I was kinda right about Scarlett, but at the same time pretty wrong. Though I suppose that would certainly explain a few things about why we've heard absolutely bupkis about her family.

"Don't give me a pity laugh." Scarlett wrinkled her snout. "This isn't open mic night!" Sighing, she loosened her coiling a bit. "But seriously. I don't really know what to say."

"You don't have to comfort me," Igneous insisted. He pushed off the wall and walked between Scarlett and Shimmer. "I've been dealing with this on my own for a while."

Um, yeah. Considering how well that's been turning out for you, you should really consider a change of tack, Iggy.

Scarlett slithered to his side. "And you don't think that isn't working?" Her neck bauble flickered. A spectral Starlene gave him a disapproving look. "I won't tell you what to do," Scarlett said, glancing over her shoulder the moment Starlene's illusion poofed away. "Just, y'know, maybe balling it all up isn't the answer here?"

Igneous blinked slowly. His gaze fell to his feet. It needed a bit of mental gymnastics, but Igneous saw the connection between Scarlett's words... and Sakaki's actions.

He spent all that time with Igneous' eventual stepmother instead of bottling it up. And who had Igneous leaned on?

No one.

I mean, yeah. Considering how you've been a bit of a failure knight for solo missions in general... you should really take the hint here, Iggy. ^^;

Sure, Valkyrie helped him with tracking down who was responsible. But she was doing her job. Igneous never talked about this stuff with her. Only about the next steps.

God, was he really that stupid?

Narrator:

Igneous: "Gee, thanks. I feel so much better right now." >_>;

"Still awake?"

Scarlett's tail waved in front of Igneous' face. "If you want to go back to the station, we can go back. I'm pretty sure people are just bickering about the new mystery dungeon. Or anomaly. Or whatever we're calling it."

Igneous stiffened at that. "Bickering?" He hesitantly reached his hand up and turned his X-transceiver on.

Oh boy, coming straight off an entire scene of emotional turmoil and then straight into figuring out what on earth to do about sealing the anomaly in the Ash Betrayed-verse, that's certainly not a volatile combination there.

"Absolutely not!"

"Absolutely not!"

Seifer flinched after he and Widget said the same thing in tandem. The keldeo looked at Yuna. "You can't possibly agree with him."

Wait, wait, wait. Just what game is this song from?

Yuna bit her lower lip. "I, uh, would prefer not to cause problems for this city." She wrung her hands out. A part of her expected Gene to suggest brute forcing the mysterious vault, yet it still surprised her how quickly and casually he threw out the suggestion.

"Look, we heard what Yuna said." Gene was annoyed. From people disagreeing with him? Surely, he saw that coming, right? "We're taking a gamble no matter what we do. We can put one city in danger... or multiple places could get swept up in this. Don't gotta be a mathematician to know that the former's less than the latter. We break open the vault and destroy the Phantom—"

Damn, ice cold there. Even if it's hard to argue his logic from a 'needs of the many' perspective.

"It's actually called a Whisper," Yuna blurted out, only to throw her hands over her mouth. Of all the stupid times to get caught up in technicalities.

"Okay, sure." The eyeroll practically dripped from Gene's words. "Doesn't change the plan: D-E-S-T-R-O-Y, oh my!"

Yuna: "... Okay, yeah. I'm getting a really, really strong urge to just sit this one out and let you all have at it, since... yeah, I really don't want to get involved with this." >_>;

"It's a bad idea!" Widget immediately countered. "It doesn't sound like there's a way to contain the thing like in LaRousse. Nothing'll stop it from wreaking havoc the moment the vault's open."

It's the Squaresoft Protagonist Way™️~

Which was Yuna's big concern. In the middle of a big sporting event, there was no way they could clear out that stadium.

"Psssht. You're thinking too hard." Smirking, Nikki clasped the sides of her leather jacket. "It's simple: we take the safe with the core... and move it somewhere else." She pushed the air in front of her. "Find some abandoned field and plop it down. Easy peasy lemon squeezy."

Oh lordy, you were waiting for an opportunity to do that Spongebob meme, weren't you? >:V

Leo bobbed up and down on Yuna's head, seemingly enthralled with the idea. The drakloak herself had doubts, though. Such a simple solution couldn't possibly work, right?

"Can you even move an anomaly core?" Cid wondered. "What if they're anchored in place, only following the planet's rotation? It's just as likely that if you move the vault, the core will simply... phase through it. Leaving whatever's inside free to rampage through the stadium."

Nikki's mohawk shrank a bit. "Tch. They're big balls of staticky gobbledegook. How am I supposed to know?"

I mean, at least her idea has a chance of getting the anomaly out without immediately freeing the Whisper as opposed to Gene's idea which will free said Whisper to turn Wyndon into an ex-city, so...

"Yeah, how dare the scholar counter you with logic," Cyril scoffed. Seifer snrked, to Yuna's surprise. Since when did the keldeo like sarcasm?

"I don't see anyone else coming up with anything." Nikki tapped a foot impatiently on the stone ground. "We're burning—" She cut herself off and looked up. "Moonlight, I guess?"

Silence followed. Yuna looked out at the river. Boats floated atop the water, carrying scores of people watching a bunch of moving lights that pretended to be a flying cramorant. She couldn't stomach the thought of letting something bad happen to all the people here. But she didn't want other places in danger from doing nothing.

Nikki: "Just saying, we could try my idea. It's not stupid if it works. And if it doesn't... well, at least it won't end any worse than Gene's idea?" ^^;

Yuna squeezed her hands against her face. The Butterfree Effect told her about this on purpose. Perhaps they knew the situation would leave the resistance paralyzed with indecision.

Devilish there. But I could buy it.

"Okay, fine." Gene finally spoke up again after having his original idea shot down. "The only way to play this safe is to go the ironic route. We gotta get nuts for safety!"

So... what, cause a bomb scare or something to get the stadium evacuated? Not sure what you're going for there, Gene.

Seifer raised a brow. "Which entails?"

"Instead of letting whatever's in that vault out to cause a real disaster, we stir up a fake one to force everyone away from the stadium."

Yeah, I had a feeling. Though it does make sense and would probably cause a lot less collateral instead of just oopsing the stadium in the middle of a match on the field.

Suppressing a wince, Yuna watched the stadium in the distance, with its colorful lights projecting into the night sky. If she was following Gene correctly, then...

"You're going to attack this place. Or pretend to."

Gene chuckled. "Not who I was expecting to catch on, but I'll take it! Between me, Birdbrain, and, say, you summoning one of the Sages, we've got everything we need to raise some hell!" He paused. "Well, fake hell. You get the idea."

And then suddenly, for no reason at all, Team Bastion popped up on the anti-terrorism watchlist of every region in this universe.

"But that's still dangerous," Widget squawked. "If you cause a scene, people might hurt one another in the ensuing panic!"

To that, Gene laughed. "That's where the rest of you come in. We're going to make a convenient escape route for a fake assault on Wyndon. So, get ready, because I'm coming over to scout the city out."

Nikki: "Gene, that's-"

Gene: "Not stupid if it works? Also, clearing out the stadium would give us a freer hand to try out your meme proposal for dealing with the vault." ^^
Nikki: "Ugh, fine. Whatever. Not like we have better options at the moment."

Alright, made it to the end. Not a lot of action this time around, but definitely a whole heap of character drama, especially regarding how Yuna's basically shaping up to be Shulk as a missile dragon and Iggy realizing that he's been going about his personal problems the wrong way for literal years, along with the promise of explosions next chapters... and memes.

Lots of memes. I don't have any firm complaints to lob at this chapter. I'll admit that I did raise my brow a bit at how things are apparently going to incorporate an Ash Betrayed subplot in the imminent future, but I suppose I'll reserve judgement on things until they happen since there's a long track record of "it's not stupid if it works" in this story with things that sound a bit out-there in terms of plot beats on paper.

Glad to be caught up with this story again, @Ambyssin . And hope the feedback was fun to read. ^^

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 81: On the Wind, Past the Stars​

Entry 3451
Just seeing Mewtwo again stirred up old wounds I thought had long healed. The cruelty of Team Rocket's boss. Mewtwo's betrayal of my trust. How he hurt me. Broke off a piece of my face.

The crystal was still there in his shoulder. Taunting me.

Chiron hid him from me this entire time. She wouldn't trust me. Only said to trust that type: full anomaly.

And now she's gone.

I won't forgive them. Both these creatures are affronts to nature. I will destroy them along with Eternatus. I just need more power.

XxX​

Seifer didn't enjoy feeling like a sitting ducklett. No matter how much Cyril assured the keldeo his illusory veil was holding up, his gut squirmed with each human officer and sniffing dog that walked past. Surely, one of the arcanine or houndoom would pick up their scent eventually.

"Are you sure we're safe this close to the rift?" Seifer still had no idea why the police were patrolling this place so relentlessly. The anomaly was plain as day. It wasn't as if they had the personnel to stop someone from approaching it entirely.

"Am I sure? Pssht." The cosmic zoroark's hair rippled into a black hood. "Only a sith deals in absolutes, young keldewan."

Seifer tilted his head. The heck was Cyril doing?

"Seriously?" Cyril did his best to keep his voice a whisper. "You never saw Space Wars? The hero's a keldeo like you."

Seifer stared back blankly. Was that... a piece of Radiance or Eternatus media?

"For crying out loud." The dark hood disappeared, leaving Cyril scratching his starry mane. "What movies have you seen?"

The keldeo squinted in thought. "Uhh..." He frowned. Nothing was springing to mind right away. "Do educational pictures from back in my Horizon Academy days count?"

Cyril facepalmed. "Welp. Guess I know what we're doing for a date night."

He couldn't be serious. "I'm sorry?" Seifer raised a brow. As much as he wanted to get back to the original question, Seifer couldn't let that go. "Are you going to drag me to a Radiance movie theater?"

"Nah." Cyril waved him off. "Veg on a couch with the first three Space Wars." His smirk faded slightly. "No need for the prequel or sequel trilogy. Pure trash right there." He sounded deathly serious.

"I was not... aware people got that passionate about movies," Seifer muttered. A policewoman and her two growlithe strutted past without even gazing in their direction. The two dogs were sniffing around, yet neither of them paid much mind to the two resistance members.

That was enough impetus for Seifer to steer the conversation back to its intended purpose. "Seriously, this is creeping me out," the keldeo whispered. "Why aren't they on to us?"

"You can thank our skorp recruits for that one." Cyril reached into his mane and produced some sort of spray can. It was completely black. "Essence of tar pit. Sprayed it all around the area. Everything smells like tar."

"But isn't that more suspicious?" Seifer said. Cyril then knelt down and gently tilted the keldeo's head toward the staircase leading up to Indigo Plateau's stadium. There was construction equipment sitting off to the side.

"Not unreasonable," Cyril said, smirking slightly.

Seifer was going to respond, but the cosmic zoroark put a yellow claw to his snout. "Ah, ah." Cyril's smirk grew. "If you say too much, you'll jinx us."

Seriously? He didn't peg Cyril as the superstitious type.

Cyril shook his head in disbelief. "I'm flirting with you, dumbass."

"Oh." Seifer's cheeks reddened. He sat down and stared intently at the rift. "W-Well, we're on the job. We have to get Widget to the rift. Save it for later."

"That's our consummate professional." Cyril hip-checked the keldeo, then tapped where his X-transceiver was in his right ear. "Yo, Boss Kitty, how goes it on your end? Got any leads or what? Not sure how much longer this tar pit spray will keep the dogs' noses off our scents."

XxX​

"We've got a lead."

Gene's arms were firmly crossed. He floated on a metal rooftop beside Cid, looking out over the river and the reflections from the drone light show still going on around the stadium. Yuna, Leo, and Nikki were behind him. The girls were talking amongst themselves about whatever. Gene didn't care.

"You don't sound happy," Cyril pointed out.

The shadowy mewtwo pinched his brow. "I'm not. Because it's..." He couldn't even put into words how stupid Cid's findings were. Better to let the orbeetle handle it. "You tell 'em."

"It would appear Team Rocket exists in this world," Cid said, eyeing Gene nervously. "Although my Dynascan suggests they're... a far cry from what Gene's described."

"It's just three of them!" Nikki said, mohawk rippling. "How big of a deal can it be? You said it yourself, dude." She smacked her fist into an open palm. "If we're going to cause trouble, we go to local troublemakers. That's just maths."

"I know that!" Gene snapped, yellowing tail lashing at the air. He dropped down on the roof, flinching from the cold stone under his toes. "It's not... an easy thing for me to do without seeing these people for myself."

Nikki put her hands on her hips. "Then let one of us talk to 'em." She jabbed a thumb against a chest gill. "I speak fluent skullduggery."

Gene turned away from them. "These aren't petty graffiti artists." He shook his head. "Forget it. I'm worrying over nothing. If it can't work out, I'll fling 'em into the river and we'll just do things ourselves."

"You'll what?!" Widget squawked through the comm line.

"Oi, keep quiet while we're walking!" Cyril growled.

Shaking his head, the shadowy mewtwo hovered into the air. "Down, boy." He chuckled. "They're crooks."

"That doesn't mean you fling them into a river! What if they can't swim?!"

Gene rolled his eyes. Annoying do-gooder birddogfish. "Fiiiine, I'll toss 'em in with some water floaties. Will that work?"

He didn't wait for Widget's inevitably irritable response. Cid pointed him in the direction of the three Rocket operatives.

"Keep a low profile in the meantime." Gene saluted the others and shot off into the night sky.

"What the hell do you think we're doing?!" Nikki shouted after him. Smirking, Gene pressed on, flying over a steel bridge with a few slow moving vehicles. The people clustered on the sidewalks were nothing but blurry specks under the night sky. Gene fixed his gaze ahead of him. The road split off in a few directions, with the northeast branch heading toward a very large roundabout where each offroad headed for a big, square building.

Even from this distance, all the signs suggested these were hotels. Which fit with Cid's description.

Gene assumed all the Malice flowing through him was what let him read these signs. Didn't account for the others on Team Bastion. He suspected that was a combination of Yuna and the little godbutt.

Let's see... second one. Gene headed for the second offroad. The Grand Wyndon Hotel was the smallest of those clustered by the roundabout. Definitely the oldest, judging by its blurry brick composition. Not so grand anymore, are ya?

He stopped and hovered over the building. Gene's chest rose and fell — well, the parts without the Malice Crystal did — as he mentally prepped himself. It was only three Rockets. They couldn't be that high on the totem pole. Otherwise, Cid would have senses an abundance of Rockets scattered around.

At least, if it's anything like the Team Rocket I knew.

Gene slowly descended. He positioned himself between windows as he passed by the top floors. Gene pressed himself against the building wall. Cool bricks brushed against his fingers and his left side.

Sixth floor. Fifth floor. Here.

The shadowy mewtwo stopped. He inched closer to the lit window in midair, then noted the curtains were drawn and stopped. Gene couldn't get closer without whoever was inside spotting him. If only he could get a glimpse... or even hear something. This building was old. Surely it wasn't that good at filtering out noise.

"... Da same wit'out a twerp to tail."

Gene's smirk returned. Bingo. That accent was atrocious, but at least Gene could understand it.

"Oh, listen to yourselves!" It was a new, female voice. "I didn't spend eight hours cramped in coach to lay around here watching you two mope like a pair of sad, sorry shroomish!"

"WOOOOOBBBBAAAAAFEEET!"

"Easy to say when you're not the one who had to drain his bottle cap collection just to cover the air and hotel fare!" a third— no, wait, fourth voice interjected. "We came here with the promise of Monarch pikachu pilfering for the boss. And instead all we have are empty hopes and dashed dreams!"

Gene had heard enough. These didn't sound like high-level Rockets. Or even competent ones, for that matter. But hearing "Monarch" and "disappeared" got the gears in his head turning. Hadn't Yuna brought that up when she was explaining the situation? Gene kind of tuned that part out.

Cupping his right hand over his face, he whispered. "Hey, Princess. What was that you mentioned about some missing trainer?"

"The guy who was supposed to defend his title here disappeared," Yuna replied, somewhat hesitantly. "And he might be stuck inside the anomaly core."

Theeeere it was. All the ammunition Gene needed. He cracked his knuckles. Showtime.

The shadowy mewtwo backed away from the wall. Gene scrutinized the window once more. Not the opening type. Typical stingy hotel.

Phantom Warp it is, then. Gene focused on his Malice Crystal. Next thing he knew, he was inside the modest hotel room, glancing at the meowth face down on one bed and the red and blue-haired people recoiling from the sight of him.

"Good news, plebs." Gene snapped his fingers. "The powers that be have heard your pleas. You want answers to your 'twerp' troubles? Well, I've got 'em."

Wobbuffet screamed and jumped for the red-haired lady, who displayed surprising strength in actually catching and hanging onto him.

"Ayy, what's da big idea?" Meowth sat up and shook his fist at Gene. "We didn't order no room service. Scram!"

"Hang on." The blue-haired man tilted his head. "Weren't you listening. It sounds like this eggplant pokémon might know where the twerp is!"

Gene quirked a brow at that comment. And at the fact that Meowth was speaking like a human. Or like any of the resistance. That would've been curious, but these Rockets neither attacked him nor chucked poké balls.

He wasn't going to draw any conclusions about whether this world had its own mewtwo, but Gene could say with certainty these three were total idiots. Were they representative of what Team Rocket was like in this direction? How was it still alive employing people like this?

Never mind that. Gene was on a timetable. "That's right." He lifted his right hand. A few throw pillows levitated over to him. Gene idly twirled them around their hand. "Team Rocket, yeah?"

The woman's eyes sparkled. She unceremoniously dropped Wobbuffet to the ground. "Did you hear that, James?" She dashed to Gene's side. "Word of our dastardly deeds has spread!" The sparkles turned to fire in the lady's eyes. "Or perhaps you recognize a certain dazzling enchantress of the stage?"

Rolling his eyes, Gene flicked his tail left. A little telekinesis was all he needed to push the lady back toward the wall by the thermostat. "Don't flatter yourselves." Gene let a throw pillow drift onto his finger and spun it around like it was a basketball. "Your jumpsuits have giant red Rs on 'em."

He tapped his right temple. "Also, powerful psychic. Able to read your minds so smoothly you wouldn't even know I was there."

Meowth's fur stood on end. "Sheesh, dis guy do impressions of da boss or sometin'? He loves dat tick!"

"Eggplant color and physique aside, the resemblance is uncanny," James added. "Just who are you, Eggplant?"

"Yeah!" Meowth crossed his arms and nodded. "And what kinda tricks are you playin' at? You wanna help us wit' our twerp troubles or not?"

"Oh, I do." Gene landed on the brown carpet. He tossed the throw pillows to the far bed one at a time. "Just had to make a point. If you get I'm strong, then you get I've got the power to find your twerp for you."

Meowth stroked his chin. "Dat's a bold claim for a complete stranger to make."

"Quit being sticks in the mud." The woman stomped a foot on the ground. "How often do we rely on the twerp trusting strangers for pika procurement opportunities, hmm?"

The other two were silent. Gene leaned back against the window. "If you want more transparency, the reason I found you guys is because I need your help as much as you need mine." The shadowy mewtwo looked at his hand, turning it back and forth like he was admiring a manicure he could never get.

"Our help?"

"Wobba?"

Even Wobbuffet sat up at that. The quartet shared astonished looks. Gene took that as his cue to continue.

"Your precious 'twerp' is in Wyndon Stadium." He pushed himself off the window so he could gesture toward it. The drone show had finished, but the stadium remained lit, projecting into the night sky. "He's trapped with something dangerous my team is here to get rid of."

"Da twerp around sometin' dangerous, huh?" Meowth shook his head. "Dat's as classic as peanut butter and jelly."

"Mmmhmm." The woman nodded along. "Or hot fudge and whipped cream."

"Or pineapple on pizza!" James added.

"You take that back!" Meowth and the woman shouted in unison. Wobbuffet mimicked them, though he could still only say his name for some strange reason.

"Come on, Jessie, it's not that bad." James held his hands up by his face.

"Focus!" Gene's tail lashed at the air. His eyes and Malice Crystal flickered. The quartet went stiff as boards. Stars, they were a handful.

"Let me repeat myself: there's something dangerous at the stadium." Gene gestured to the window with both arms this time. "The stadium full of people here for the big event." He thrust his arms at the window a second time after the Rockets didn't respond to him. "Is it sinking in yet?"

The four of them huddled amongst one another briefly, before Jessie and James nudged Meowth forward to the edge of the bed. "You want us around to get da twerp outta danger!"

Gene levitated up a throw pillow and bapped Meowth's head with it. "Hey!" He rubbed his slightly messy fur.

"I need you guys to do your jobs," Gene growled, tail twitching in irritation. "And help me cause a scene in the stadium that'll force everyone to leave." He walked his fingers across the air. "Once the stadium's empty, we can safely deal with the threat and get you your twerp back."

"Causing a scene?" Jessie's eyes sparkled. "Do you think we can—"

"By doing Team Rocket stuff," Gene cut in. "C'mon, what kind of grunts are you? Think of all the pokémon there ripe for stealing." He hated floating that idea out there. But with the way these three acted, they couldn't swipe a 'mon if their lives depended on it. And if they somehow did, Gene had little doubt he could stop them from getting away.

Again, the quartet huddled up. Gene could have listened in. He doubted anything they were saying was a big deal. Maybe scheming up some sort of idea on how to cause a scene. Not that there was much to think about. They just had to send out their pokémon and let them go to town.

Unless this wobbuffet and meowth are all they have...

"We've got it!" Jessie declared, raising her right arm triumphantly. "One dynamic Team Rocket display for the ages, coming up!"

James flopped against the bed. "And one rainy day bottle cap collection down the Wyndon drain."

Gene quirked a brow. Though he was tempted to press for details, he opted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Not that they'd earned it. "How much time do you need?"

"Heh heh." Meowth's head coin glistened under the dim yellow hotel room light. "You just leave dat part to ol' Meowth! We'll be ready to rock and roggenrola dat stadium before you can down a Wyndon tea and biscuit!"

The shadowy mewtwo casually threw up his hands. "Fine. Then I'll tell my teammates to get ready while you do your thing. As soon as you're ready, shoot a Pay Day into the air. That'll be our signal."

The three Rockets shared unimpressed looks. "And just where will you be to even see a signal like that?" James wondered.

Smirking, Gene leaned against the window. "I've got my ways." He Phantom Warped through the window. Once he was on the other side, he pointed two fingers at his eyes, then back at the Rockets. They silently nodded that they got the memo.

Gene flew up to the hotel roof and perched atop it on his right foot. Whatever trepidation he had with turning to the organization that birthed him was gone. Instead, all he could wonder is whether those goofballs could get him what he was looking for. Otherwise, Team Bastion would be stuck on fake demolition duty.

He tapped a finger against his right horn. "Attention, resistance. This is Gene. I've gotten us our backup for Operation Gone With the Wyndon."

Several groans crackled through his X-transceiver. "Puh-lease tell me you didn't have that one pre-prepared," Artemis said.

XxX​

The broad strokes of Gene's horrendously named operation were simple, if revolting to Seifer. Gene, Quetzal, and Jade would act as big, scary pokémon under Team Rocket's control and "attack" the stadium. Assorted monks and dragons would help steer people away from the stadium. Noctum was on standby with rift generation while Vegna and Valkyrie were reserves to call on in an emergency.

Not an elegant plan, in the keldeo's opinion. His stomach twisted at the notion of his teammates acting the part of criminals. At least Seifer wasn't being asked to take part in that ridiculous ruse. Probably on purpose, knowing Gene.

That left him and Cyril to continue slowly and invisibly ferrying people across Indigo Plateau to the anomaly. Cyril deployed some fresh tar essence to keep the police dogs from catching literal whiff of them. Then it was a matter of walking back and forth across the same grass and tiles behind the outer rim of the Pokémon League building.

On the walk back toward the forest for their final pickup, Seifer decided to break up the monotony. "So, um, you and Gene were together once?"

Cyril's cosmic fur frazzled ever so slightly. "Wouldn't call it that."

The keldeo wasn't buying it. "Then why did Gene tell me you're pretty mind-blowing once you get going?"

"Course he'd say that." Cyril rolled his eyes, yet quickened his pace. "We were never together, per se. Friends with benefits. Nothing more."

Seifer followed Cyril, raising a brow. "Benefits? Like you gave each other insurance? And vacation days?"

He wasn't expecting Cyril to stumble. Seifer's tail scrunched. He feared the illusion dropping. But no cops looked in their direction. Cyril must've kept it up.

"Was it something I said?" Seifer whispered.

"Uh, yeeeaaaah?" Cyril ran yellow claws through his cosmic mane. He left the stone pathway and headed onto the grass. "There's no way you're that sheltered."

"Meaning?"

"Any sane adult knows what 'friends with benefits' means, dude."

Seifer frowned. "Well, I don't." He also stepped onto the grass. They both headed toward the tree line.

Cyril sighed, then chuckled. "It means you sleep with your buddy from time to time." He paused. "Or often." Cyril shrugged. "Different strokes for different folks."

"Oh." Seifer looked down, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. "Is that... something you still do?"

"Hell nah." Cyril waved him off. "We stopped doing that when I started working with the Ryujin. You're the first guy I've been with in quite a while."

Seifer wasn't sure how to feel about that. Cyril stopped and looked over his shoulder. "That's a good thing, y'know."

"R-Right." The keldeo quickened his pace until he was at Cyril's side. He was putting his hoof in his mouth. Seifer had to salvage this somehow. "Sorry. I guess I—" He cut himself off, but made sure to keep walking.

"You had assumptions based on how you were raised." Cyril rested his hands inside his starry mane. "I get it."

Now it was Seifer's turn to stumble. How was Cyril always able to read him so effortlessly? He quickly collected himself. The forest line wasn't far off now. "I was taught that courting meant fancy dinners or outings to entertainment venues. And things like... intimacy came after marriage."

A snrk made the keldeo's ears flick. "What?"

"Nothing. Unintentional wordplay." Cyril waved him off. "Point is, there are different ways of dating. If you want to stick to the fancier stuff, well..." The cosmic zoroark looked down at his wispy, jewel encrusted legs. "Not my forte. But I'd give it my best for you."

Seifer shook his head. "Honestly? No. I don't want that stuffiness." Certainly not while trying to save the omniverse or whatever. "What we have is... not what I was expecting. But it's a pleasant surprise."

Smirking, Cyril bowed despite not facing Seifer. "Happy to be of service~"

He's doing that on purpose. Seifer turned away while continuing forward. "Come on. We ought to focus. We're almost done here."

"We're ready to go on our end," Quetzal said through the X-transceiver. "What's the hold up?"

"Nothing." Cyril approached the tree line and stood at attention. Though the smirk on his face betrayed his attempt at seriousness. "The veil's up whenever you're ready."

Blue light crackled in front of the trees, then split apart into a rift. Jade, Quetzal, Yiazmat, and Calcifer stepped through. Noctum followed, with the rift closing behind him.

"You're sure you can keep everyone hidden, Zoroark?" Yiazmat mainly looked at Jade.

"What's with the side eye?" Jade pouted. "So, I had a second helping of chocolate cake last night." She put her right wing on her right hip. "The salazzle part's got curves for days. That ain't changing."

Cyril held his hands up. "It'll go better if you keep quiet and stick close to me." He glanced at Jade. "Or reasonably close, in your case."

Jade's tail flaps bristled. "This is salugia bias! I'm—"

Yiazmat harshly shushed Jade, who looked down guiltily. "Let's get going. Quickly."

The group headed along the grass. Unlike the way back, Cyril and Seifer kept them further from the stone path around the League building and closer to the trees. The keldeo trained his gaze on every police officer and dog in the area. They remained at a distance, which was good.

... Except they were getting further from the team. Heck, it was like they were gathering in another spot. Was this a shift change or something? Seifer didn't like this. He quickened his pace.

"Move faster," he whispered. "I think the police are up to some—"

His eyes widened. Seifer lunged for Jade and managed to shove the large salugia out of the way before multiple Focus Blasts whizzed by, leaving streaks of red behind.

"What the—" Jade squawked, dousing the grass beneath her in pink-purple vapors.

Seifer looked up. Three Eternatus Bombardiers had their large blasters pointed right at them. And more Focus Blasts were charging in the barrels!

"Ah-ha! Illusion detected!" one Bombardier declared. "Authorization granted for full anti-zoroark excessive force!"

"How splendid!" another Bombardier cheered. "I bet fifty eternabucks I'll bag the furball!"

"We're found out!" Cyril waved them in the direction of the rift. "Move, move, m— shit!"

The cosmic zoroark dove to the ground. Focus Blasts rained down on where he was standing, kicking up chunks of dirt and mud.

"You don't need to tell me twice! Ladies first!" Jade squawked, awkwardly rolling to her feet. A couple of Focus Blasts knocked her back on her rear, though she didn't look all that harmed by them.

"The empire's here!" An Aura Sphere whizzed up from Seifer's prosthetic horn. The Bombardiers scattered, revealing even more Bombardiers and Gunners descending from higher in the sky. "And they've got reinforcements! We have to leave!"

"No! Get Drumstick and Birdbrain through the rift first!" Gene barked. "That's an order!"

The first Bombardier was already prepping its next Focus Blast barrage. "I spy loitering rebels in need of some attitude adjustments!"

A gray metallic burst struck it from below, then a pair of dreepy-shaped blue bolts hit its right arm, destroying the blaster.

"Hurry!" Yiazmat cried.

"We'll cover for you!" Calcifer opened his metallic mouth and spat another Flash Cannon skyward. The Bombardier trying to retaliate was forced to fly out of the way, letting Noctum strike it with a well-aimed Flamethrower and shatter its cockpit. The explosion caught the Bombardier that lost a blaster, destroying it as well.

"Quetzal, grab Jade! Her waddling's too slow," Seifer ordered.

"On it!" The orange zapdos zipped to Jade's side and kicked her into the air.

"Waah! Hey!" Jade flailed around before landing on Quetzal's back. Despite the size difference, Quetzal managed to carry her on his back. He darted toward the rift, orange sparks trailing behind him. Seifer reared up and shot Hydro Pumps to Quetzal's right, snuffing out the Focus Blasts trying to get in the way.

Cyril directed the two toward the rift and the dove inside without a second thought. "All right, they're in! We're getting out."

"Not a chance!" Gene cut in. "If they head through the rift, they'll screw everything up! You have to keep them at bay."

Seifer dropped down to all fours and galloped toward Cyril. "Are you mad?! We can't handle this many!" Focus Blasts whizzed by, fortunately missing the keldeo.

"It worked with the pirates," Gene said. "And you can actually get reinforcements this time. So, whatever you do, defend the damn rift!"

Seifer skidded to a halt, barely avoiding two Thunderbolts intercepting his path. He shot an Aura Sphere straight up without looking. A mechanical cry followed by a shower of sparks and metal parts told him he'd gotten the Eternatus Gunner responsible.

Sighing, he glanced at Cyril. The cosmic zoroark was a bit shaken, but managed to gather up a Shadow Ball and toss it at a Bombardier focusing on Yiazmat and Calcifer. The ectoplasm got the Bombardier in the back, knocking its cockpit out of its body. Calcifer easily finished it off with a small Flash Cannon.

"You heard him," Cyril said. "All hands on deck, I guess." He jumped away from Seifer, gathering ectoplasm into another Shadow Ball.

Right. Orders were orders. They had to stand their ground. He scanned the singed and scorched ground and spotted Noctum spitting fireballs airborne.

"Noctum, what are you waiting for?" Seifer called. "Get some distance and bring us backup now!"

The black charizard scrambled away while Yiazmat and Calcifer covered with Dragon Darts and Flash Cannons. Seifer glanced at the approaching clusters of Troopers, then back at the roof. Even with reinforcements, keeping them away from the rift was going to be a tall order.

With a shaky breath, Seifer charged an Aura Sphere in preparation for the oncoming onslaught.

XxX​

CDL-091: Indigo Plateau, Planet Earth
The main headquarters of the Pokémon League for both Kanto and Johto. Honestly? It's not that impressive. Not a lot of imperial tech around the area. Though I want to say part of that is because Paradox has his own Pokémon League in Planet Axiom, the center of his empire. I guess he just... lets Earth's Leagues do their own thing. They're so steeped in tradition anyway, that he figures Earth's inhabitants are the only ones who'll care about these places.

Sad thing is? Paradox is probably right.

 

[Mirage]

Chapter 4​

Excited to be back for more!

Wouldn't something like 'Team Diversity' make more sense, then? Yuna kept the thought to herself. Frankly, it was better than anything she could imagine her teammates coming up with.

Got a bit confused here on whether the "it" refers to "Team Diversity" or "Team Bastion" here. It changes the tone of Yuna's comment, depending on whether she thought she could do a better job, or whether she thought Cid was the one who did. I'm guessing the latter, since it seems more in line with her character, though it could be spicy if we saw Yuna in a rare moment of jealousy.

The smoke faded away to show a cinderace standing at center stage, right arm thrusted upward.

I'm imagining him striking that pose Leon does!

"Any questions? Well, I don't care! My function's explaining, not answering. Heh heh. Good luck!"

I have to wonder if there aren't a few real world college professors who inspired this joke. I certainly know a few who subscribe to this philosophy...

"And if you're one of the teams bounced super early, you're pretty much the laughing stock of the school," Nikki added, strumming her chest-gills. She looked Yuna in the eye, and when the dreepy's gaze fell, slapped her knee and laughed. "Kidding, Princess! Cripes, you're nervous. But you don't got nothing to be scared of. I told you… we got this."

I will say, I'm kind of surprised at how fast Yuna's teamates (especially Nikki) seem to be warming up to her. It felt like last chapter they wanted nothing to do with her, and now Nikki's even cracking jokes with her, though not much has really happened between the three yet.

Nikki smacked her chest gills as hard as she could. Loud, off-key electrical cords blared, drowning out Yuna and Chiaki's screams.

Aaaaaand there it is, the secret plan we've been building up towards! Seems to be some kind of sound move. Nikki seems very confident it'll knock out the other competitors, but... I dunno. I have my doubts, I can't see her decision to hide her plan from her teamates going well

Vortex once again was a key star in this chapter. For as much of a mastermind as he is, it was fun seeing him put on the ropes here - even he's not invulnerable to feeling frustrated and having his plans screwed up. I believe I mentioned this in the review for last chapter, but I really love that I'm legit unable to tell whether or not he's going to be a villain - he's manipulative as hell and clearly has his own agenda, but he also seems to genuinely believe in the cup as inspiring his students, which is to say, he doesn't seem to be strictly motivated out of self interest. The line between evil and well intentioned good can be extremely thin, and I wonder if Vortex is going to become an example of that.

Looking forward to seeing if my doubts are correct, or if Nikki proves me wrong!

 

[Mirage]

​

Chapter 5​

​

Back for more - let's see how Nikki's plan went!

But before we do that, it likes we have a detour with the phantom again

RIP to literally naming someone "Fraud". Maybe not the best person to have as your only free thinking minion

That raises the interesting question though of whether Xeromus works for Despair or not. He could be mind controlled, which might explain his loopy behavior, but maybe he's also just legitimately like that and Despair doesn't know who he is. That would be pretty funny, them meeting for the first time and Despair going "who the hell are you???"

The Phantom grabbed his mask and squeezed the nose. "I was getting closer. Closer to freeing them. To undoing my mistakes."

That's a very juicy line what does Despair mean by mistake, and who is he freeing? That he's trying to undo a mistake makes the previous line about needing power all the more interesting. Is he maybe not as villainous as he's come off as so far...?

The time and power and pooled into them would go to waste.

I think this fragment here got chopped up during editing, it's got a redundant "and".

To use that awful ether and spread more and more of His distortion all around.

Curious who the "Him" that Despair is thinking of here is. Xeromus also mentioned a "Him"... coupled with there use of shadow attacks, maybe an opposite counterpart to Bahamut?

---

Well crap, it looks like Nikki's plan actually did work out, I'll have to eat my words

Huh... Looks like Team Bastion's getting attacked by a bird with some type of fire move. I want to say Robin, but the announcer's imply him and the rest of his team are elsewhere in the maze, and that he wouldn't be allowed at the tops anyway. That's pretty odd, some kind of interference from the phantoms maybe?

"But you're the one holding me!" Yuna squealed and her last words were stretched out as Chiaki lunged forward. He kicked off the wall to his left and launched himself to the opposite wall. The grovyle leaped from wall to wall, all while keeping his grip on Yuna. Her flailing and flopping about let her see the problem: Air Slash crescents raining down from the cloud of smoke.

The mental image of Yuna flopping around helplessly while Chiaki wall jumps all over the place gave me a real kick

Poltergeist... That's neat, TIL! I didn't know this move existed until now.

Oooofffff course, Vegna shows up at the end. He was interfering the whole time, wasn't he? That would explain the Ghost type attacks. Did he interfere just so his team could win...?

Oh no, oh noooooooooo. Why Nikki? Why?

At least I respect Professor Vegna a lot more now, not only in that he's justified in interfering, but also that he stops Shimmer from clowning on Yuna. I also love his shtick with the random quotes from Gaol - I'll be looking forward to reading many more of these!

And we end our chapter getting news of another phantom attack. Curious about Chiaki's servant - I don't recall him having one, although I may have just forgotten from earlier. Will be looking forward to seeing what happened, as well as seeing whether Team Bastion will even be able to continue in the cup or not!

 

[Mirage]

​

Chapter 6​

​

Back for more - let's see how Noctum and Baraz fared!

Vortex stuck his cane into Baraz's path. The dracozolt stopped short and lightning crackled down his upper half. "Speak only when spoken to," Vortex repeated. He brought his cane back to his side. With a deep breath, he regained his cheerful expression and continued forward.

Vortex still on the ropes, I see. Whatever they pay him, I bet he doesn't feel like it's enough haha.

Though Noctum could scarcely understand why any pokémon would need an actual weapon. Weren't their own attacks sufficient?

Honestly, if it weren't Zacian, I'd totally be with Noctum on this one. A stabby stick isn't much help against a flamethrower or energy laser beam.

Of course, Noctum knew Baraz's beady little eyes could only sparkle so much. The dracozolt waddled up to Seifer. "I'm Dracozolt Baraz. It's an honor to meet you."

So much for "speak only when spoken too"

"A whimsicott," Demerzel replied. Before Noctum could object, the beads around his neck glowed. "Yes, I realize that I do not look anything like one. When I was young, I got sucked into a mystery dungeon. Though the Radiant Guard rescued me, the distortion mutated my body. Hence my appearance."

Oh, damn. So in PoV, it seems even entering a mystery dungeon is dangerous, as Despair and Fraud (still can't get over his name ) were also talking about this last chapter. Kind of excited to see what they'll be like inside once we enter one!

Noctum ignored the jab, knowing it was meant for him. However, it was Vortex's tail that flared up.

I really liked this interaction here - even though Vortex keeps acting as though he's above Noctum, they're still ultimately the same species. It's also something I thought was kind of interesting in Chapter 2 - I thought it was odd that the Kingdom of Radiance would have a (would-be) dragon in such a high ranking position, and indeed, it looks like Vortex does get some shit for it.

Definitely suspicious to see Demerzel acting so friendly to Baraz and Noctum. It's likely for political reasons, as he was revealed to be one of the big supporters of the treaty earlier when he was talking with Vortex. But I also have to wonder, maybe with his disfigurement due to the distortion, if he might also sympathize with being rejected or looked down upon. Definitely a character I look forward to seeing more of.

He flicked his head to the right. His orange mane swished behind him.

The more I see of Seifer, the more I'm starting to wonder how much him and Shimmer have interacted. They really do channel each other's energies sometimes

Noctum followed the blur until it slowed up and revealed… a garchomp? A cursory glance suggested it wasn't one of Dimitri's assistants.

Another dragon? Now that's juicy I have so many questions - who are they, where are they from, what's a dragon doing here in the Kingdom of Radiance? But I assume we'll get some answers here shortly.

Noctum raised a brow. Is that what they called the distortion's power in the Kingdom of Radiance? What a stupid name.

Hah, a chance for the Aeons to feel superior!

"That," Baraz straightened himself up, "is the technique… we Aeons have used… to keep the distortion… under control." He took a few deep breaths. "Cosmic Blessing. That's what it's called."

Awesome - we get to see the reason for the creation of the treaty, and ultimately the basis for the story to start. This is the first time I think we've really seen the Aeons hold something over the (umm... Radians?), that they've discovered a counter to dynaforce and the dungeons. Very curious to learn more about how it works and why the Kingdom of Radiance hasn't been able to discover it, even though they seem to be more technologically advanced as a whole. Maybe something inherent to Dragons? (though if Noctum can use the same power, then it seems as though it doesn't rely on being a member of the Dragon type at least)

A life-sized playing card with a plague mask appeared. It spun around, then spat out a nickit and a greedent.

I'm very at seeing these guys again, and very at seeing them here. I really hope they don't just get killed off soon!

If Depsair had eyes, he would've rolled them. He settled for slamming his spectral fist against a rock. "Why did you bring me a couple of clowns? Does it look like I'm running a carnival here?"

(Despair's name appears to be typoed here)

The contrast here between the big bad scheming evil and the bumbling thieves has me absolutely rolling here. Some real "I'm surrounded by idiots" energy.

I look forward to seeing more of the duo though - they're been hilarious in every scene they've showed up in so far!

So overall thoughts - great chapter with a lot of action and some interesting lore drops. Excited to see the thieves back, I hope they play a greater role in the story soon. We didn't see anything further about Team Bastion's continued involvement in the competition - without being involved, will they just break up? Guess we'll have to see.

Thanks for your hard work in writing the chapter, and PoV in general! I've been sick with the flu the past couple of days, and the distraction from the throat pain and nausea is very much appreciated. Looking forward to Chapter 7!

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

And alright, last time, you teased that there'd be Ash Betrayed in the imminent future of PoV, so let's go ahead and see how much of a glorious trainwreck that turns out to be in…

Chapter 81

Spoiler

Entry 3451
Just seeing Mewtwo again stirred up old wounds I thought had long healed. The cruelty of Team Rocket's boss. Mewtwo's betrayal of my trust. How he hurt me. Broke off a piece of my face.

The crystal was still there in his shoulder. Taunting me.

Wait, just how many of these entries did Bahamut write anyways? .-.

Chiron hid him from me this entire time. She wouldn't trust me. Only said to trust that type: full anomaly.

And now she's gone.

I won't forgive them. Both these creatures are affronts to nature. I will destroy them along with Eternatus. I just need more power.

Well, that certainly paints a few of those later scenes from the Gene Special in a whole new light.

Seifer didn't enjoy feeling like a sitting ducklett. No matter how much Cyril assured the keldeo his illusory veil was holding up, his gut squirmed with each human officer and sniffing dog that walked past. Surely, one of the arcanine or houndoom would pick up their scent eventually.

You'd think that, but law enforcement in Pokéworld has a long and storied tradition of being borderline useless, so... yeah.

"Are you sure we're safe this close to the rift?" Seifer still had no idea why the police were patrolling this place so relentlessly. The anomaly was plain as day. It wasn't as if they had the personnel to stop someone from approaching it entirely.

Because they have zero idea of what on earth they're dealing with? That's a good reason to put yourself in harm's way needlessly, right?

"Am I sure? Pssht." The cosmic zoroark's hair rippled into a black hood. "Only a sith deals in absolutes, young keldewan."

Seifer tilted his head. The heck was Cyril doing?

So Space Wars just has straight-up Sith in it, huh? Guess it's almost literally Star Wars under a different title.

"Seriously?" Cyril did his best to keep his voice a whisper. "You never saw Space Wars? The hero's a keldeo like you."

Huh, surprised you didn't go with Lucario given how popular the "Aura as the Force" comparisons are in the fandom, but noted.

Seifer stared back blankly. Was that... a piece of Radiance or Eternatus media?

"For crying out loud." The dark hood disappeared, leaving Cyril scratching his starry mane. "What movies have you seen?"

Seifer: "Not that one, obviously?" ^^;
Cyril: "... Yeah, we clearly need to fix that sometime, clearly. (Those newer sequels we can probably skip though, since they were kinda meh outside the SFX.)"

The keldeo squinted in thought. "Uhh..." He frowned. Nothing was springing to mind right away. "Do educational pictures from back in my Horizon Academy days count?"

Cyril facepalmed. "Welp. Guess I know what we're doing for a date night."

Yeah, I knew it. :P

Though I suppose this would explain a lot for just how "sheltered" vibe-wise Seifer has been throughout this story.

He couldn't be serious. "I'm sorry?" Seifer raised a brow. As much as he wanted to get back to the original question, Seifer couldn't let that go. "Are you going to drag me to a Radiance movie theater?"

"Nah." Cyril waved him off. "Veg on a couch with the first three Space Wars." His smirk faded slightly. "No need for the prequel or sequel trilogy. Pure trash right there." He sounded deathly serious.

Alas, no Machete Order viewing with Cyril, I see. Though does he also have the OT on whatever the equivalent of Laserdisc is? Since that's widely considered to be the definitive home media version of it.

"I was not... aware people got that passionate about movies," Seifer muttered. A policewoman and her two growlithe strutted past without even gazing in their direction. The two dogs were sniffing around, yet neither of them paid much mind to the two resistance members.

That was enough impetus for Seifer to steer the conversation back to its intended purpose. "Seriously, this is creeping me out," the keldeo whispered. "Why aren't they on to us?"

Seifer, have you seen how competent law enforcement is in Pokémon settings? Yours included? ^^;

"You can thank our skorp recruits for that one." Cyril reached into his mane and produced some sort of spray can. It was completely black. "Essence of tar pit. Sprayed it all around the area. Everything smells like tar."

I shall refrain from posting the XBX battle music right now, even if between being on a whole different planet and the tar-smelling odorant, you're definitely cranking up the unintentional parallels.

"But isn't that more suspicious?" Seifer said. Cyril then knelt down and gently tilted the keldeo's head toward the staircase leading up to Indigo Plateau's stadium. There was construction equipment sitting off to the side.

"Not unreasonable," Cyril said, smirking slightly.

Cyril: "Look it was this or getting out the Durin Berry essence and... yeah, trust me, you want the tar essence." ^^;

Seifer was going to respond, but the cosmic zoroark put a yellow claw to his snout. "Ah, ah." Cyril's smirk grew. "If you say too much, you'll jinx us."

Seriously? He didn't peg Cyril as the superstitious type.

Cyril shook his head in disbelief. "I'm flirting with you, dumbass."

But of course. I mean, you'd think that it'd be tempting fate doing this on the job, but that's never stopped Cyril in the past. o<o

"Oh." Seifer's cheeks reddened. He sat down and stared intently at the rift. "W-Well, we're on the job. We have to get Widget to the rift. Save it for later."

"That's our consummate professional." Cyril hip-checked the keldeo, then tapped where his X-transceiver was in his right ear. "Yo, Boss Kitty, how goes it on your end? Got any leads or what? Not sure how much longer this tar pit spray will keep the dogs' noses off our scents.

inb4 Cyril's flirting winds up giving them away at some point due to his and/or Seifer's movement attracting the attention of the police dogmons.

"We've got a lead."

Gene's arms were firmly crossed. He floated on a metal rooftop beside Cid, looking out over the river and the reflections from the drone light show still going on around the stadium. Yuna, Leo, and Nikki were behind him. The girls were talking amongst themselves about whatever. Gene didn't care.

Huh, that's definitely a different opening from a R&C song than I'd have expected.

"You don't sound happy," Cyril pointed out.

The shadowy mewtwo pinched his brow. "I'm not. Because it's..." He couldn't even put into words how stupid Cid's findings were. Better to let the orbeetle handle it. "You tell 'em."

"It would appear Team Rocket exists in this world," Cid said, eyeing Gene nervously. "Although my Dynascan suggests they're... a far cry from what Gene's described."

I mean, yeah. This is an Ash Betrayed universe, so Anime!TR would logically be kicking around somewhere.

"It's just three of them!" Nikki said, mohawk rippling. "How big of a deal can it be? You said it yourself, dude." She smacked her fist into an open palm. "If we're going to cause trouble, we go to local troublemakers. That's just maths."

"I know that!" Gene snapped, yellowing tail lashing at the air. He dropped down on the roof, flinching from the cold stone under his toes. "It's not... an easy thing for me to do without seeing these people for myself."

... Oh, so they're going to hire Anime!TR to carry out their staged disaster, huh?

Nikki put her hands on her hips. "Then let one of us talk to 'em." She jabbed a thumb against a chest gill. "I speak fluent skullduggery."

Gene turned away from them. "These aren't petty graffiti artists." He shook his head. "Forget it. I'm worrying over nothing. If it can't work out, I'll fling 'em into the river and we'll just do things ourselves."

"You'll what?!" Widget squawked through the comm line.

I get the feeling that Gene might wind up doing that anyways by the end since... yeah, I don't see him being particularly impressed by Anime!TR considering what his baseline assumption for how TR is supposed to be is like. ^^;

"Oi, keep quiet while we're walking!" Cyril growled.

Shaking his head, the shadowy mewtwo hovered into the air. "Down, boy." He chuckled. "They're crooks."

"That doesn't mean you fling them into a river! What if they can't swim?!"

Gene:

Gene rolled his eyes. Annoying do-gooder birddogfish. "Fiiiine, I'll toss 'em in with some water floaties. Will that work?"

He didn't wait for Widget's inevitably irritable response. Cid pointed him in the direction of the three Rocket operatives.

"Keep a low profile in the meantime." Gene saluted the others and shot off into the night sky.

Time to see Gene's

reaction to seeing just what these three are like in 3... 2...

"What the hell do you think we're doing?!" Nikki shouted after him.

Smirking, Gene pressed on, flying over a steel bridge with a few slow moving vehicles. The people clustered on the sidewalks were nothing but blurry specks under the night sky. Gene fixed his gaze ahead of him. The road split off in a few directions, with the northeast branch heading toward a very large roundabout where each offroad headed for a big, square building.

Even from this distance, all the signs suggested these were hotels. Which fit with Cid's description.

Boy I sure hope that this Wyndon isn't a CCTV-riddled privacy nightmare like IRL!London since... yeah, Gene's going to become the subject of a GBC news story in like a day at this rate.

Gene assumed all the Malice flowing through him was what let him read these signs. Didn't account for the others on Team Bastion. He suspected that was a combination of Yuna and the little godbutt.

Let's see... second one. Gene headed for the second offroad. The Grand Wyndon Hotel was the smallest of those clustered by the roundabout. Definitely the oldest, judging by its blurry brick composition. Not so grand anymore, are ya?

Wait, is this an actual location in the anime? Since I couldn't turn up any hits for this from a Google.

He stopped and hovered over the building. Gene's chest rose and fell — well, the parts without the Malice Crystal did — as he mentally prepped himself. It was only three Rockets. They couldn't be that high on the totem pole. Otherwise, Cid would have sensed an abundance of Rockets scattered around.

At least, if it's anything like the Team Rocket I knew.

Small verb tense error there. And yeah, I'm already prepping the popcorn for when Gene gets to see a very different Team Rocket from what he's used to in like a minute. >:V

Gene slowly descended. He positioned himself between windows as he passed by the top floors. Gene pressed himself against the building wall. Cool bricks brushed against his fingers and his left side.

Sixth floor. Fifth floor. Here.

The shadowy mewtwo stopped. He inched closer to the lit window in midair, then noted the curtains were drawn and stopped. Gene couldn't get closer without whoever was inside spotting him. If only he could get a glimpse... or even hear something. This building was old. Surely it wasn't that good at filtering out noise.

Wait, what is that track used from in PokéAni? Since it sounds like something from some sort of Detective Noir show.

"... Da same wit'out a twerp to tail."

Gene's smirk returned. Bingo. That accent was atrocious, but at least Gene could understand it.

"Oh, listen to yourselves!" It was a new, female voice. "I didn't spend eight hours cramped in coach to lay around here watching you two mope like a pair of sad, sorry shroomish!"

"WOOOOOBBBBAAAAAFEEET!"

Those three can afford plane/train tickets? Could've fooled me with how often they have money problems in the show.

"Easy to say when you're not the one who had to drain his bottle cap collection just to cover the air and hotel fare!" a third— no, wait, fourth voice interjected. "We came here with the promise of Monarch pikachu pilfering for the boss. And instead all we have are empty hopes and dashed dreams!"

Oh, so that's how they afforded their plane tickets.

Gene: "... Um, Cid? Are you sure you found the right guys?"

Cid: "It's what the Dynascan said, so..."

Gene had heard enough. These didn't sound like high-level Rockets. Or even competent ones, for that matter. But hearing "Monarch" and "disappeared" got the gears in his head turning. Hadn't Yuna brought that up when she was explaining the situation? Gene kind of tuned that part out.

Oh, so that's your explanation for why Ash's Pikachu is special to the point that Anime!TR would literally spend two decades trying to steal him from Ash. Will be interesting to see if this actually gets expanded on in this story or not.

Cupping his right hand over his face, he whispered. "Hey, Princess. What was that you mentioned about some missing trainer?"

"The guy who was supposed to defend his title here disappeared," Yuna replied, somewhat hesitantly. "And he might be stuck inside the anomaly core."

Theeeere it was. All the ammunition Gene needed. He cracked his knuckles. Showtime.

Not in a bad way, mind you, but I definitely never would have imagined something like this happening when I started out with PoV.

The shadowy mewtwo backed away from the wall. Gene scrutinized the window once more. Not the opening type. Typical stingy hotel.

Phantom Warp it is, then. Gene focused on his Malice Crystal. Next thing he knew, he was inside the modest hotel room, glancing at the meowth face down on one bed and the red and blue-haired people recoiling from the sight of him.

"Good news, plebs." Gene snapped his fingers. "The powers that be have heard your pleas. You want answers to your 'twerp' troubles? Well, I've got 'em."

Team Rocket:

Gene: "Yeah, yeah, I get that a lot. Can we move onto the part where you do something useful and not make me second-guess working with you?" >_>;

Wobbuffet screamed and jumped for the red-haired lady, who displayed surprising strength in actually catching and hanging onto him.

"Ayy, what's da big idea?" Meowth sat up and shook his fist at Gene. "We didn't order no room service. Scram!"

"Hang on." The blue-haired man tilted his head. "Weren't you listening. It sounds like this eggplant pokémon might know where the twerp is!"

Oh lordy, it's actually in character for how they are in the anime.

Gene quirked a brow at that comment. And at the fact that Meowth was speaking like a human. Or like any of the resistance. That would've been curious, but these Rockets neither attacked him nor chucked poké balls.

He wasn't going to draw any conclusions about whether this world had its own mewtwo, but Gene could say with certainty these three were total idiots. Were they representative of what Team Rocket was like in this direction? How was it still alive employing people like this?

Team Rocket:

Gene: "... Cid, you're sure that these are the right guys? Since I'm not exactly sanguine about our chances getting anything done with them." >_>;

Never mind that. Gene was on a timetable. "That's right." He lifted his right hand. A few throw pillows levitated over to him. Gene idly twirled them around their hand. "Team Rocket, yeah?"

The woman's eyes sparkled. She unceremoniously dropped Wobbuffet to the ground. "Did you hear that, James?" She dashed to Gene's side. "Word of our dastardly deeds has spread!" The sparkles turned to fire in the lady's eyes. "Or perhaps you recognize a certain dazzling enchantress of the stage?"

Gene: "I've never seen you before in my life, lady. And at this rate, I'm going to wish I never had afterwards."

Rolling his eyes, Gene flicked his tail left. A little telekinesis was all he needed to push the lady back toward the wall by the thermostat. "Don't flatter yourselves." Gene let a throw pillow drift onto his finger and spun it around like it was a basketball. "Your jumpsuits have giant red Rs on 'em."

He tapped his right temple. "Also, powerful psychic. Able to read your minds so smoothly you wouldn't even know I was there."

Meowth's fur stood on end. "Sheesh, dis guy do impressions of da boss or sometin'? He loves dat tick!"

Wait, Gio does this in PokéAni? Is that a more recent season thing? Or is that a particular quirk of this universe?

"Eggplant color and physique aside, the resemblance is uncanny," James added. "Just who are you, Eggplant?"

"Yeah!" Meowth crossed his arms and nodded. "And what kinda tricks are you playin' at? You wanna help us wit' our twerp troubles or not?"

I mean, considering Anime!TR's baseline level of competence in most seasons... yeah, Gene's going to wind up needing to do all of the real work, huh?

"Oh, I do." Gene landed on the brown carpet. He tossed the throw pillows to the far bed one at a time. "Just had to make a point. If you get I'm strong, then you get I've got the power to find your twerp for you."

Meowth stroked his chin. "Dat's a bold claim for a complete stranger to make."

Gene: "Alternatively, I could throw you out of your hotel window and into the river with my mind to prove the point-"

James: "No, no! We believe you're strong enough to help!" O_O;

"Quit being sticks in the mud." The woman stomped a foot on the ground. "How often do we rely on the twerp trusting strangers for pika procurement opportunities, hmm?"

The other two were silent. Gene leaned back against the window. "If you want more transparency, the reason I found you guys is because I need your help as much as you need mine." The shadowy mewtwo looked at his hand, turning it back and forth like he was admiring a manicure he could never get.

Gene: "Cyril, go ahead and start preparing the whiskey for when I'm back. I can already tell I'm going to need it." -_-;

"Our help?"

"Wobba?"

Even Wobbuffet sat up at that. The quartet shared astonished looks. Gene took that as his cue to continue.

This gets especially hilarious if mentally remapping Wobbuffet to his Japanese media counterpart where literally every line he says is a pun to "That's the way it is".

"Your precious 'twerp' is in Wyndon Stadium." He pushed himself off the window so he could gesture toward it. The drone show had finished, but the stadium remained lit, projecting into the night sky. "He's trapped with something dangerous my team is here to get rid of."

"Da twerp around sometin' dangerous, huh?" Meowth shook his head. "Dat's as classic as peanut butter and jelly."

I mean, Meowth's not exactly wrong there...

"Mmmhmm." The woman nodded along. "Or hot fudge and whipped cream."

"Or pineapple on pizza!" James added.

Aaaaand then James just had to go and ruin it there.

"You take that back!" Meowth and the woman shouted in unison. Wobbuffet mimicked them, though he could still only say his name for some strange reason.

"Come on, Jessie, it's not that bad." James held his hands up by his face.

No, it's genuinely that bad, James. I see that growing up wealthy didn't give you taste.

"Focus!" Gene's tail lashed at the air. His eyes and Malice Crystal flickered. The quartet went stiff as boards. Stars, they were a handful.

I mean, yeah. There's a reason why they're perpetually pissing off everyone in Team Rocket that's even marginally more competent than them in the show.

"Let me repeat myself: there's something dangerous at the stadium." Gene gestured to the window with both arms this time. "The stadium full of people here for the big event." He thrust his arms at the window a second time after the Rockets didn't respond to him. "Is it sinking in yet?"

The four of them huddled amongst one another briefly, before Jessie and James nudged Meowth forward to the edge of the bed. "You want us around to get da twerp outta danger!"

Gene levitated up a throw pillow and bapped Meowth's head with it. "Hey!" He rubbed his slightly messy fur.

Gene:

Meowth: "Dat's a 'maybe', right?" ^^;

"I need you guys to do your jobs," Gene growled, tail twitching in irritation. "And help me cause a scene in the stadium that'll force everyone to leave." He walked his fingers across the air. "Once the stadium's empty, we can safely deal with the threat and get you your twerp back."

"Causing a scene?" Jessie's eyes sparkled. "Do you think we can—"

"By doing Team Rocket stuff," Gene cut in. "C'mon, what kind of grunts are you? Think of all the pokémon there ripe for stealing." He hated floating that idea out there. But with the way these three acted, they couldn't swipe a 'mon if their lives depended on it. And if they somehow did, Gene had little doubt he could stop them from getting away.

I can't tell whether or not this is going to work or wind up blowing up in spectacular fashion, but either way, I'm sure that this will shape up to be hilarious.

Again, the quartet huddled up. Gene could have listened in. He doubted anything they were saying was a big deal. Maybe scheming up some sort of idea on how to cause a scene. Not that there was much to think about. They just had to send out their pokémon and let them go to town.

Unless this wobbuffet and meowth are all they have...

... Right, they let all their Pokémon go at the end of PokéAni or something like that, huh?

"We've got it!" Jessie declared, raising her right arm triumphantly. "One dynamic Team Rocket display for the ages, coming up!"

James flopped against the bed. "And one rainy day bottle cap collection down the Wyndon drain."

Gene quirked a brow. Though he was tempted to press for details, he opted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Not that they'd earned it. "How much time do you need?"

I mean, not that this isn't going to be hilarious for the readers, but... yeah, this sounds like a recipe for disaster for actually getting serious mission stuff squared away.

"Heh heh." Meowth's head coin glistened under the dim yellow hotel room light. "You just leave dat part to ol' Meowth! We'll be ready to rock and roggenrola dat stadium before you can down a Wyndon tea and biscuit!"

... Is he going to do that guitar routine from Pokémon Channel or whatever that was from? Since that feels like a very specific choice of words there.

The shadowy mewtwo casually threw up his hands. "Fine. Then I'll tell my teammates to get ready while you do your thing. As soon as you're ready, shoot a Pay Day into the air. That'll be our signal."

The three Rockets shared unimpressed looks. "And just where will you be to even see a signal like that?" James wondered.

Smirking, Gene leaned against the window. "I've got my ways." He Phantom Warped through the window. Once he was on the other side, he pointed two fingers at his eyes, then back at the Rockets. They silently nodded that they got the memo.

Ah yes, it's that gesture that sometimes shows up in media. You've been waiting a while to use this in the story, haven't you?

Gene flew up to the hotel roof and perched atop it on his right foot. Whatever trepidation he had with turning to the organization that birthed him was gone. Instead, all he could wonder is whether those goofballs could get him what he was looking for. Otherwise, Team Bastion would be stuck on fake demolition duty.

He tapped a finger against his right horn. "Attention, resistance. This is Gene. I've gotten us our backup for Operation Gone With the Wyndon."

Several groans crackled through his X-transceiver. "Puh-lease tell me you didn't have that one pre-prepared," Artemis said.

Yeah, he'd totally been working on that one in his head for a while, I can already tell.

The broad strokes of Gene's horrendously named operation were simple, if revolting to Seifer. Gene, Quetzal, and Jade would act as big, scary pokémon under Team Rocket's control and "attack" the stadium. Assorted monks and dragons would help steer people away from the stadium. Noctum was on standby with rift generation while Vegna and Valkyrie were reserves to call on in an emergency.

I mean, Gene did say he was going to create a mock disaster, Seifer. Just what on earth did you think he was going to do for one in a Pokémon setting?

Not an elegant plan, in the keldeo's opinion. His stomach twisted at the notion of his teammates acting the part of criminals. At least Seifer wasn't being asked to take part in that ridiculous ruse. Probably on purpose, knowing Gene.

I mean, if he could pick up the general vibe that you weren't approving of the idea to do a mock disaster to begin with... yeah, that would be as easy a tipoff as any for Gene to just ask Seifer to sit things out.

... On the plus side, he can go and binge Space Wars with his new BF? :V

That left him and Cyril to continue slowly and invisibly ferrying people across Indigo Plateau to the anomaly. Cyril deployed some fresh tar essence to keep the police dogs from catching literal whiff of them. Then it was a matter of walking back and forth across the same grass and tiles behind the outer rim of the Pokémon League building.

Or not. Guess they're still in 'hide and be sneaky' mode at the moment.

On the walk back toward the forest for their final pickup, Seifer decided to break up the monotony. "So, um, you and Gene were together once?"

Cyril's cosmic fur frazzled ever so slightly. "Wouldn't call it that."

Yeah, they were together once. Maybe "one-night stand"-tier together, but it was still together from that reaction. >:V

The keldeo wasn't buying it. "Then why did Gene tell me you're pretty mind-blowing once you get going?"

"Course he'd say that." Cyril rolled his eyes, yet quickened his pace. "We were never together, per se. Friends with benefits. Nothing more."

Seifer: "With that sort of reaction? Seriously, Cyril. Just how naive do you think I am?"

Seifer followed Cyril, raising a brow. "Benefits? Like you gave each other insurance? And vacation days?"

He wasn't expecting Cyril to stumble. Seifer's tail scrunched. He feared the illusion dropping. But no cops looked in their direction. Cyril must've kept it up.

"Was it something I said?" Seifer whispered.

How on earth is Seifer this sheltered from sexual innuendo anyways when he was still knowledgeable enough to get gay with Cyril? .-.

"Uh, yeeeaaaah?" Cyril ran yellow claws through his cosmic mane. He left the stone pathway and headed onto the grass. "There's no way you're that sheltered."

"Meaning?"

"Any sane adult knows what 'friends with benefits' means, dude."

Cyril, are you seriously questioning Seifer being this sheltered when he literally didn't know what the obvious Star Wars expy in your setting was? >:V

Seifer frowned. "Well, I don't." He also stepped onto the grass. They both headed toward the tree line.

Cyril sighed, then chuckled. "It means you sleep with your buddy from time to time." He paused. "Or often." Cyril shrugged. "Different strokes for different folks."

"Oh." Seifer looked down, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. "Is that... something you still do?"

Seifer: "Since I thought that we had something a lot more intimate than that with each other..."

"Hell nah." Cyril waved him off. "We stopped doing that when I started working with the Ryujin. You're the first guy I've been with in quite a while."

Seifer wasn't sure how to feel about that. Cyril stopped and looked over his shoulder. "That's a good thing, y'know."

This probably would've been a good thing to bring up before you two started riding on each other, just saying.

"R-Right." The keldeo quickened his pace until he was at Cyril's side. He was putting his hoof in his mouth. Seifer had to salvage this somehow. "Sorry. I guess I—" He cut himself off, but made sure to keep walking.

"You had assumptions based on how you were raised." Cyril rested his hands inside his starry mane. "I get it."

I mean, yes, but you kinda went around the bases really, really quickly with Seifer, Cyril. Especially since you knew that he was from a sheltered background.

Now it was Seifer's turn to stumble. How was Cyril always able to read him so effortlessly? He quickly collected himself. The forest line wasn't far off now. "I was taught that courting meant fancy dinners or outings to entertainment venues. And things like... intimacy came after marriage."

A snrk made the keldeo's ears flick. "What?"

... How on earth did this guy even know enough about how sex worked to have a night with Cyril that wasn't just awkwardly standing around?

"Nothing. Unintentional wordplay." Cyril waved him off. "Point is, there are different ways of dating. If you want to stick to the fancier stuff, well..." The cosmic zoroark looked down at his wispy, jewel encrusted legs. "Not my forte. But I'd give it my best for you."

Seifer shook his head. "Honestly? No. I don't want that stuffiness." Certainly not while trying to save the omniverse or whatever. "What we have is... not what I was expecting. But it's a pleasant surprise."

Smirking, Cyril bowed despite not facing Seifer. "Happy to be of service~"

Ah yes, so sword pony is content to be ridden on for a while. Duly noted.

He's doing that on purpose. Seifer turned away while continuing forward. "Come on. We ought to focus. We're almost done here."

"We're ready to go on our end," Quetzal said through the X-transceiver. "What's the hold up?"

"Nothing." Cyril approached the tree line and stood at attention. Though the smirk on his face betrayed his attempt at seriousness. "The veil's up whenever you're ready."

Quetzal: "It sure doesn't seem like nothing with that expression."

Seifer: "It's... um... personal matters. Anyhow, let's just go ahead and get you over to Wyndon right now..."

Blue light crackled in front of the trees, then split apart into a rift. Jade, Quetzal, Yiazmat, and Calcifer stepped through. Noctum followed, with the rift closing behind him.

"You're sure you can keep everyone hidden, Zoroark?" Yiazmat mainly looked at Jade.

I mean, if you have to ask the question, that's probably as good a sign as any that Cyril can't. Especially when Jade is one startling moment away from flooding her immediate surroundings with pheremones.

"What's with the side eye?" Jade pouted. "So, I had a second helping of chocolate cake last night." She put her right wing on her right hip. "The salazzle part's got curves for days. That ain't changing."

Cyril held his hands up. "It'll go better if you keep quiet and stick close to me." He glanced at Jade. "Or reasonably close, in your case."

Jade's tail flaps bristled. "This is salugia bias! I'm—"

If the idea is that Jade's pheremones are a risk to being discovered (which I presume is the intent here), it might make sense to say that a bit more explicitly at some point since things felt weirdly like they were beating around the bush here.

Yiazmat harshly shushed Jade, who looked down guiltily. "Let's get going. Quickly."

The group headed along the grass. Unlike the way back, Cyril and Seifer kept them further from the stone path around the League building and closer to the trees. The keldeo trained his gaze on every police officer and dog in the area. They remained at a distance, which was good.

... Except they were getting further from the team. Heck, it was like they were gathering in another spot. Was this a shift change or something? Seifer didn't like this. He quickened his pace.

Yeeeeeeah, they're not going to make it through the rest of this scene without getting discovered by the cops, are they?

"Move faster," he whispered. "I think the police are up to some—"

His eyes widened. Seifer lunged for Jade and managed to shove the large salugia out of the way before multiple Focus Blasts whizzed by, leaving streaks of red behind.

"What the—" Jade squawked, dousing the grass beneath her in pink-purple vapors.

Seifer looked up. Three Eternatus Bombardiers had their large blasters pointed right at them. And more Focus Blasts were charging in the barrels!

Whelp, looks like I was worried about the wrong thing there. And like we won't need to worry about a fake disaster chasing people out of Wyndon's stadium after all.

"Ah-ha! Illusion detected!" one Bombardier declared. "Authorization granted for full anti-zoroark excessive force!"

"How splendid!" another Bombardier cheered. "I bet fifty eternabucks I'll bag the furball!"

I really need to get around to playing the PS5 R&C game, since a lot of the links you've dropped from it have been bangers.

"We're found out!" Cyril waved them in the direction of the rift. "Move, move, m— shit!"

The cosmic zoroark dove to the ground. Focus Blasts rained down on where he was standing, kicking up chunks of dirt and mud.

"You don't need to tell me twice! Ladies first!" Jade squawked, awkwardly rolling to her feet. A couple of Focus Blasts knocked her back on her rear, though she didn't look all that harmed by them.

I mean, Jade's presumably still part-Psychic? That would probably help with tanking those blows, just saying.

"The empire's here!" An Aura Sphere whizzed up from Seifer's prosthetic horn. The Bombardiers scattered, revealing even more Bombardiers and Gunners descending from higher in the sky. "And they've got reinforcements! We have to leave!"

"No! Get Drumstick and Birdbrain through the rift first!" Gene barked. "That's an order!"

Yeah, the Eternatus Gunners are just going to follow along straight into the middle of that Wyndon stadium, huh?

The first Bombardier was already prepping its next Focus Blast barrage. "I spy loitering rebels in need of some attitude adjustments!"

A gray metallic burst struck it from below, then a pair of dreepy-shaped blue bolts hit its right arm, destroying the blaster.

"Hurry!" Yiazmat cried.

Whelp, I see that the Eterna Empire cheaped out on their build quality. Again.

"We'll cover for you!" Calcifer opened his metallic mouth and spat another Flash Cannon skyward. The Bombardier trying to retaliate was forced to fly out of the way, letting Noctum strike it with a well-aimed Flamethrower and shatter its cockpit. The explosion caught the Bombardier that lost a blaster, destroying it as well.

"Quetzal, grab Jade! Her waddling's too slow," Seifer ordered.

"On it!" The orange zapdos zipped to Jade's side and kicked her into the air.

Waaaaaaait, why on earth did she not just fly during all of this? Was the air too thick with attacks or something like that?

Not that the solution for getting her moving here isn't appropriately lulzy.

"Waah! Hey!" Jade flailed around before landing on Quetzal's back. Despite the size difference, Quetzal managed to carry her on his back. He darted toward the rift, orange sparks trailing behind him. Seifer reared up and shot Hydro Pumps to Quetzal's right, snuffing out the Focus Blasts trying to get in the way.

Cyril directed the two toward the rift and the dove inside without a second thought. "All right, they're in! We're getting out."

"Not a chance!" Gene cut in. "If they head through the rift, they'll screw everything up! You have to keep them at bay."

Cyril: "Oh for crying out loud..." >.<

Though I suppose this is a sign that we might actually get to see what the Indigo League E4 and Champion look like in this universe? Since this fight is occurring right on their doorstep... ^^;

Seifer dropped down to all fours and galloped toward Cyril. "Are you mad?! We can't handle this many!" Focus Blasts whizzed by, fortunately missing the keldeo.

"It worked with the pirates," Gene said. "And you can actually get reinforcements this time. So, whatever you do, defend the damn rift!"

Gene, don't make me break out the Bubsy macro again, since... yeah. When your own guys are telling you they think they're in over their heads, it's a bad idea to blow them off.

Seifer skidded to a halt, barely avoiding two Thunderbolts intercepting his path. He shot an Aura Sphere straight up without looking. A mechanical cry followed by a shower of sparks and metal parts told him he'd gotten the Eternatus Gunner responsible.

Sighing, he glanced at Cyril. The cosmic zoroark was a bit shaken, but managed to gather up a Shadow Ball and toss it at a Bombardier focusing on Yiazmat and Calcifer. The ectoplasm got the Bombardier in the back, knocking its cockpit out of its body. Calcifer easily finished it off with a small Flash Cannon.

"You heard him," Cyril said. "All hands on deck, I guess." He jumped away from Seifer, gathering ectoplasm into another Shadow Ball.

Cyril: "I mean, I have no freaking clue how we're supposed to make this work, but... uh... at least we do have all those faceless randoms we picked up over the last few weeks? They would be able to at least not make things worse?"

Right. Orders were orders. They had to stand their ground. He scanned the singed and scorched ground and spotted Noctum spitting fireballs airborne.

"Noctum, what are you waiting for?" Seifer called. "Get some distance and bring us backup now!"

I mean, at least it probably won't result in another Rem Canyon Expedition exercise again? ^^;

The black charizard scrambled away while Yiazmat and Calcifer covered with Dragon Darts and Flash Cannons. Seifer glanced at the approaching clusters of Troopers, then back at the roof. Even with reinforcements, keeping them away from the rift was going to be a tall order.

With a shaky breath, Seifer charged an Aura Sphere in preparation for the oncoming onslaught.

Well, that's certainly a tense note to leave off on there. We really went from 0-100 in this chapter in terms of immediate peril, huh?

CDL-091: Indigo Plateau, Planet Earth
The main headquarters of the Pokémon League for both Kanto and Johto. Honestly? It's not that impressive. Not a lot of imperial tech around the area. Though I want to say part of that is because Paradox has his own Pokémon League in Planet Axiom, the center of his empire. I guess he just... lets Earth's Leagues do their own thing. They're so steeped in tradition anyway, that he figures Earth's inhabitants are the only ones who'll care about these places. Sad thing is? Paradox is probably right.

Shots fired, there. I see that Cyril isn't a huge fan of mainline-style battling leagues himself.

Alright, made it to the end of things, lemme just gather my bearings and process what on earth just happened there before I start recapping...

Okay, all good now. Though the main stars of the show for this chapter were its ability to keep the audience off-guard, since I wasn't expecting PokéAni!TR to make an appearance in this story, much less to become plot relevant in the process. The ending note was also a handy way of reminding everyone that even if the past couple chapters have been slower-boil, that things can go to hell in a handbasket in short order and it was a decent place to leave things off on and motivate readers to come back.

I don't have too much to complain about in this chapter beyond a couple scattered typos and points where I thought the text wasn't as clear as it could've been. I'm not fully sure how I feel about PokéAni!TR getting swept up in the plot, though I suppose with everything that has appeared in this story up to this point, that it'd certainly be on the table, and it does jibe with the "goofy and chaotic" part of the story's shtick. I'll reserve judgement on their appearance and role until the dust settles, since if nothing else, they're certainly written in a convincing manner.

Glad to finally be caught up with this story again @Ambyssin . And I'll be looking forward to catching up with your new update sometime after it drops. ^^

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 82: Defendat Mundum​

Noctum somersaulted, dodging a Rock Blast, then returned fire at the Eternatus Gunner responsible. His Flamethrower destroyed the cockpit and the unown vanished in purple smoke. Another explosion rang out behind him. He looked over his shoulder. Through the smoke, he spotted a mega garchomp atop the Pokémon League's roof, sniping at Eternatus Troopers in the air with well-aimed Dragon Pulses.

The black charizard nodded to Valkyrie, then Phantom Warped away from her, dodging more Rock Blasts.

"Hey!" one Eternatus Gunner shouted, trying to follow Noctum with its blasters. "No fair! Someone tell the lizard dodging is not permitted!"

Dreepy-shaped blue spears flew in from Noctum's right. They shattered the Gunner's glass cockpit, ejecting the unown into the air. Then that buzzwole guy — oh, what was his name again? Beef? — swooped in from behind, grabbed the body, and hurled it at three Eternatus Bombardiers behind them. All the bots were gone by the time the smoke had cleared.

"Ha!" Buzzwole flexed his right arm. "Ja, take to air good idea! Like discus with no pesky ground!" He flexed his left arm. "I was three-time all-city discus champ in heyday!"

"Uh, congrats?" Noctum tilted his head, then saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye. He stopped flapping his wings for a rapid descent. A Thunderbolt surged overhead, but then a large boulder broadsided him. Noctum spread his wings to stop from careening into the forest. He wildly spat fire in the direction of the Rock Blast.

"Ha ha! Score one for the good guys!" An Eternatus Bombardier threw its blaster-equipped arms to the side, then hovered up to skirt the Shadow Ball that came from below. Noctum landed in the grass by the anomaly portal so Seifer and Cyril could give him some extra cover while he got his bearings.

"What's wrong?"

Noctum was ready to complain about rocks when he realized the keldeo was talking to Cyril. "Did that idiot... seriously dab on us?" The cosmic zoroark had another Shadow Ball ready. "Stupid emperor and his 'how do you do, fellow kids?' mindset." He hurled the ectoplasm upward. "Give it a boost, will ya?"

Seifer pivoted, blasting Hydro Pumps skyward from his hind legs. It pushed the Shadow Ball past the Bombardier's Rock Wrecker and blew apart its right arm.

"Gah!" It hovered erratically. "A minor setback, but I am still functional!"

Noctum fired a Dragon Pulse, striking the Bombardier's torso. The unown pilot ejected the cockpit. "You will not be rid of me that easily, meatba— guuuuh!"

A second Dragon Pulse streaked in from the direction of the League Building, destroying the last bits of the Trooper.

"You make such a cute little threesome down there," Valkyrie scoffed. "But get back in the air, you dweeb! We need you up here!"

Cheeks burning, Noctum took off. A few stray Thunderbolts and Ice Beam peppered the air around him. Noctum spat fireballs to his left, then spotted two Gunners on his right trying to hit Valkyrie with Ice Beams from afar.

Not on my watch. Noctum Phantom Warped behind them, then buffeted the Gunners with Air Slash crescents. They didn't even have time for mechanical shouts before their bodies broke apart. Noctum flew through the smoke and dust left behind, slowing down by the rooftop.

"How's it looking?" Noctum had lost track of Yiazmat and Calcifer in the chaos. He did spot Archie gleefully gliding over the grassy field atop a jet of water, sending black crescents at Gunners and Brawlers from his jagged horn.

"I don't like this," Valkyrie said. She spat a Dragon Pulse at an airborne Eternatus Bombardier taking aim at Seifer and Cyril. It struck the middle of its back. Noctum added a Flamethrower to take it down.

What else is new? The black charizard managed to keep that one to himself. "In what way?"

"They've got the numbers, but they're not advancing on the rift," the mega garchomp said, pointing a scythe-like arm left. Cyril and Seifer stood their ground, shooting Shadow Balls and Aura Spheres at Gunners flanking them from the sky. Buzzwole Whatshisface flew in and rammed one into another with his right shoulder.

"New barbells for mein collection!" he declared, laying on his back in midair and... bench-pressing the disoriented Gunners?

"Stop the rebel!" a Bombardier shouted from far to their right. "Using Troopers as weights is against the law! And very rude!"

Noctum snapped back to attention when he saw blue sparks in the corner of his eye. Another Dragon Pulse from Valkyrie blew apart a Bombardier over by the forest's edge.

"Okay, yeah. You've got a point." The black charizard landed on the roof. "They're just... shooting at Cyril and Seifer from a distance." What was he missing? "Maybe they're afraid of disappearing forever if they get destroyed in the other dimension?"

"You think Paradox cares about that?" Valkyrie stomped on the roof. Stone Edge spires jutted out from the ground, where several dragons were in a standoff with Eternatus Brawlers. One spire upended a Brawler trying to clobber an unsuspecting goodra with an ice-encrusted mace. "He's already sending 'em out here for us to mow down."

Noctum frowned. Last he recalled, the unown got returned to some factory if they were beaten out here. He doubted that connection held up where the anomaly was. Which was worth caring about, in Noctum's opinion. "Well, do your, uh, instincts give you anything to go off?"

The mega garchomp huffed out blue-purple embers. "Not really." She summoned more rock spires from the ground, but the two charging Brawlers burst through them with their spiked maces and struck at the same goodra from before. She tumbled back, ice encrusting her gooey body.

Tail flame sparking, Noctum dove off the roof and bathed the Brawlers in bright orange flames.

"Aggh! Deploy the anti-flying lizard punches!" one Brawler screamed.

Noctum wasn't prepared for the flurry of electrified maces that followed. He swerved past the first two, but the third clubbed him in the jaw. The static locked up his wings. He hit the ground and skipped across it, smacking the remnants of an earlier Stone Edge spire and tumbling through scorched grass and dirt until he came to a stop.

Grunting, Noctum tried to right himself, but his world was spinning. Paralysis locked up his limbs. He tasted dirt. The black charizard snorted some flames, scorching grass by his face and giving him a tilted, dusty view of the perimeter around League Headquarters.

"The lizard's down! Smack him! Annihilate him!"

Mechanical whirrs and clanks filled Noctum's ear frills. Multiple Brawlers pushed past the Aeon troops and were running at him. Electricity coursed through their spiked maces.

He had to get up. Move his legs. Wings. Something.

Come on! Not like this! Teeth gritted, Noctum fought against the paralysis. He'd almost managed to push his upper half off the ground, when a thunderous rumble sent him tumbling further back through the grass toward the forest's edge. It must have scattered all the Brawlers to the wind, too. None were chasing him down anymore.

Before Noctum could even process the tremor, a terrified shriek sent his heart into his throat.

The queen!

Her screams proved the second wind Noctum needed to get up. And just in time, as he was able to catch the dragapult careening through the air and stop her from colliding with him.

"Your Highness?" The paralysis somewhat muffled Noctum's speech. "What happened?"

Yiazmat's eyes were wide. At first Noctum thought his muscles were twitching from the lingering static, but soon realized she was trembling.

"They hit him," she said.

"Huh?"

"Calcifer! With a strange blast!"

The ground trembled once again. Cyril and Seifer rushed toward them, the former swearing up a storm and the latter looking back and shouting something.

On the other side of League Headquarters, a duraludon head poked up. And up. And up. They were growing to the size of one of the gigantic buildings from Eterna City!

Noctum's tail flame pulsated erratically. "What is— don't tell me—"

"Ha ha ha!" An Eternatus Bombardier flew around beside Duraludon, shooting tiny fireworks. "A brilliant success! One Paradigm Lieutenant shot to the head! I've got a new host for Halvus!" It gestured toward a few Gunners staring at it in confusion. "Oh, this one is so going on my bi-annual evaluation! I'm getting promoted for sure!"

The towering duraludon looked down at the League building's roof... and the mega garchomp standing alone on its edge.

"I spy a hotheaded rebel... who needs a good cooldown!"

Blue-violet currents swirled around the roof. Noctum apologetically let go of Yiazmat. He focused on the Malice Crystal in his chest and lunged forward, aiming to pry open a rift.

"Valkyrie!"

XxX​

"I don't like this."

From their point in the sky high over the river, Quetzal shifted uneasily on Jade's back. "We should be with the others, fending off the empire," the orange zapdos said.

Gene's gaze was fixed north of them, where he'd met the Rockets. There were warehouses close to the part of the river the trio were floating over. Allegedly, whatever the Rockets had up their sleeve involved one of the warehouses. So, this was where they had to wait for the signal.

"Rebels have to take risks." Gene's tail lazily swished back and forth. "Too much on the line with this one."

"Is it really that much of a risk to go back for a bit and—"

"Yes!" Gene crossed his arms. "If the emperor gets wind I'm there, he'll send everything he has at us. Then we'll really be screwed." He gestured toward the stadium. "Here? We can seal the anomaly. The kid can take us back to the outpost."

"And what about the folks on Indigo Plateau?" Quetzal countered.

"We'll rift 'em back once we're back." Was it a perfect plan? No. Gene rarely had the luxury of perfect plans. "Look. I'm choosing to have faith they can handle themselves. Optimism and all that." He looked over his shoulder. "You should try it."

Jade bobbed her head. "Yeah. We gotta cheer them on!" She paused. "In spirit, because we've gotta play the heels!"

Gene raised a brow. "Heels? Where'd you pull that one from?"

"Guzzie Junior," Jade chirped.

Sighing, Gene turned back around. "Of course you did. Yo, Chrome Dome. How we looking?"

Grumbles came through the X-transceiver, followed by Cid saying, "As best I can tell, nothing about the stadium should block rift formation. Yuna should be free to open one."

"Great." Gene clapped his hands together. "You in position, Princess?"

"Uh, sure?" Yuna said. "I'm still by the dimensional rift."

"Good enough." Gene brimmed with false enthusiasm. Yes, it wasn't a great plan. Or even a good one. But at least Gene was trying to find a middle ground. Someone had to believe this would work. The shadowy mewtwo didn't need any self-fulfilling prophecies mucking things up.

He spotted faint golden sparkles by one of the warehouses. Squinting, Gene held up his right hand. "It might be showtime, folks."

More golden sparkles littered a lot next to one of the warehouses. And the sparkles moved. Sure, Gene was far away. But it was totally Meowth using Pay Day. That meant it was go time.

"Follow my lead," Gene said. He surged forward, not bothering to wait up for Jade and Quetzal. The stadium's bright red, white, and blue lights quickly came into view, spilling over the outside grounds. Pop-up shops lined the walkways. People and pokémon flitted between them. Occasional camera flashes popped up at complete random.

A pity Gene had to break up this party. It could've been fun to watch the battles unfold. Or even take part.

... Ah, who was he kidding? Gene would wipe the floor with any of these trainers.

His expression sharpened. Gene thought back to those distant days where this was natural. Storming an area. Peppering buildings in Shadow Balls to force his way in. Telekinetically swiping poké balls from trainers before they could open them.

It's just for show. Only have to fake it.

The wailord blimp was flying in the middle of the stadium. A perfect target. Gene focused his ESP on it. Any auras?

No. Perfect. A remote-controlled blimp was easy pickings.

Gene held his hands up. A Shadow Ball formed, growing larger and larger. The moment he heard shouts from the ground, Gene hurled the massive Shadow Ball toward the blimp.

This next part needed finesse. Gene forced the Shadow Ball to burst apart, spreading blue-purple light over the area. As screams and shouts erupted beneath him, Gene opened a rift. He forced the blimp through with a psychic pulse. A loud thud told him his endeavor was successful: the blimp was forcibly downed in a barren field. No debris to rain down on anyone.

Loud squawks sounded behind him. Gene turned to see Jade carefully sweeping an Aeroblast across the river. She didn't hit any boats, but kicked up enough spray to send people running in the opposite direction.

Quetzal was next, jumping from Jade's back. He dove through yamper and boltund balloons whose pops echoed across the area.

Drawing from his Malice Crystal, Gene pooled the energy toward his head to project his telepathy.

"Run, pitiful weaklings!" he declared. Gene glanced at the stadium and saw the center of the grassy battlefield unoccupied. People were fleeing from seats and the ground into corridors that would lead them through the stadium.

"Your pathetic Coronation is canceled!" Gene whipped up a Hurricane in the center of the stadium. It ripped through the turf, flinging grass and dirt chunks in all directions.

There were a few people who weren't running though. Assorted corviknight and staraptor with humans atop them making beelines for the shadowy mewtwo.

"I said begone!" Gene surrounded them with Psystrike orbs. A gesture only intended to provoke the birds into fleeing. There were frantic wing flaps, but most held their ground and looked as though they were readying attacks.

Growling, Gene dispelled his Psystrike. Instead, he opened another rift toward the same spot he sent the blimp. A psychic pulse sent the birds and their riders tumbling back. He abruptly shut the rift, then Phantom Warped away from several Fire Blasts and Thunders streaming up from below.

Oh joy. The fuzz. Gene glanced over his shoulder to see Jade flying circles by the front of the stadium, shooting Aeroblasts skyward instead of at the ground. Like something out of one of those kaiju pokémon movies.

... Considering they were acting, it was an apt comparison.

Before Gene had the opportunity to send the police through a rift, however, metal tendrils shot past him. Strange, electrified nets captured the pokémon taking aim at Gene. They flailed about as the tendrils retreated to Gene's left, heading outside the stadium to a... robot meowth?

Nope, Gene wasn't imagining things. There was an absurdly long meowth robot at the western edge of the stadium. "The hell?" Gene scratched his head.

The large gold coin atop Meowthbot's head opened up, revealing the Rockets sitting in some sort of pod-shaped control room. It raised up higher above the machine's head. The glass pod opened up and the three stood up... brandishing megaphones?

"This party's over, so prepare for trouble!"

"And we'll find our pika prize to make it double!"

Jessie thrust her right hand behind her. "To protect the world from devastation!"

James mirrored the gesture with his left hand. "To unite all people within our nation!"

Gene's jaw slackened. Was this— were they doing a bit? Now of all times?!

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

James somehow produced a rose and held it up to his nose. "To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

The robot's head projected a giant red R that rotated around a holographic globe.

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!" Jessie declared.

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" James added.

Meowth then hopped up between them "Meowth, dat's right!"

Even Wobbuffet popped up, but Gene couldn't hear him without a megaphone of his own. He just floated there, utterly confused as to how these loons would stand there atop their giant robot and recite some stupid motto.

Jade came to a stop by the robot and raised her right wing. "Um, yes, excuse me. Hi. I have several questions."

The Rockets saw Jade and shrieked in unison.

"Jessie, do I finally need glasses or is there a lugia right next to us?" James said.

"And a talking one at that!" Jessie said. "Back inside! Back inside!"

"Right! Time for da Gigagigameowth to do its t'ing!" The control pod retreated back inside the robot's giant coin.

"Hey, wait!" Jade flapped her wings frantically. "That didn't answer any of my— eep!"

Metal tendrils emerged from Gigagigameowth's mouth. Jade flailed about in midair, then flapped her wings twice and quickly ascended out of their way.

Scowling, Gene surged past the outer rim of the stadium, Malice Crystal sparking. It might've lit the area up like a flare if things weren't bright enough already. "Hey, hey!" The shadowy mewtwo waved his arms around. He stopped by Gigagigameowth's golden coin. "No friendly fire! We have a deal, remember?"

"Dat featherhead's wit' you?!" Meowth said.

"Talk about friends in high places," James added.

"Hmph. Her salazzle outfit needs work," Jessie scoffed. "Maybe we should tutor her when this is over. We're masters of the craft!"

Gene was not going to entertain their antics any further. "Quit standing around and cause some chaos!" He spun around and blindly hurled a Shadow Ball toward the abandoned grounds outside the stadium. Gene made sure to destroy it before it could actually hit anyone or anything. "We can't get the guy out of the safe until the place is good and empty!"

"Just leave dat to us!" Meowth said. Gigagigameowth jumped around with surprising speed for such a huge machine. "Super Net Knuckles, fiyah!"

Gigagigameowth's fists detached from its arms and immediately exploded into nets that descended on people who were fleeing across the bridge leading to the stadium grounds.

Grimacing, Gene headed in the opposite direction. This was fine. The moment the others had the safe situation under control, he'd wreck that stupid robot and free whatever people and pokémon Team Rocket was trying to snag. The idiots weren't even using poké balls.

He spared a brief moment to scan the insides of the stadium. Minimal auras. All streaming away from where Yuna claimed the safe was, except for a handful. Some of them were clearly the team. But the other weaker ones...

"Hey, what's the situation?" Gene said, flying around the stadium's outer rim to keep eyes on Jade and Quetzal. The former kicked up more water with a river-aimed Aeroblast while the latter was striking street lights with his muscular legs, denting them at angles street lights weren't meant to bend. "We're thinning the herd out here quickly. How about you guys?"

"Water evac team here! We've got plenty of rescue boats heading away!"

"Ground evac team. Streets are getting a bit clogged, but the police have fliers coming to help!"

That was better than Gene expected, all things considered. "And you, Princess? I'm sensing some unfamiliar auras by the safe."

XxX​

Floating directly in front of the safe door, Yuna looked apologetically at the security officers, alakazam, and togekiss lying on the ground, twitching from paralysis. "Yeah." She rubbed her shoulder. "Nikki might've, uh, put them down for the count."

"It's just paralysis." The toxtricity flicked her right wrist dismissively. "They'll get better."

"Yeah, but the point is they're not supposed to be here when we open the safe." Widget looked between them and the vault with a frown on his beak. "What do we do with them now?"

"Open a rift to that roof you guys were on before," Gene suggested. "We'll have to leave them there."

Widget winced. "But that's out in the open!"

"Do you want to take your chances with what's on the other side of that door?" Gene countered.

The cosmic silvally shifted his weight uncomfortably. "I'd rather not." Sighing, he bowed his head at Yuna. "Do it, I guess."

With another apologetic look, Yuna opened a rift beneath the guards. She watched them drop onto a blue roof, then sealed it up. Pushing that from her mind, she hovered closer to the safe door. Cid leaned against the handle, his spots pulsating with pink energy.

"Anything?" the drakloak wondered.

"Almost." Cid squinted. The orbeetle's spots flickered erratically. "I think I—"

The clicks were barely audible, but the metal thuds that followed were loud enough to make Yuna back away. Cid grabbed the handle and slowly turned it. "Nrrrgh. Can a guy get a hand? This thing's... heavier than I thought."

"Pssht." Nikki rolled up her sleeves. "Stand aside, egghead." She rubbed her hands together, grabbed the handle, and easily shifted it to the open position. The vault door began to open.

Yuna saw that familiar inky blackness pooling in her tail. "Uhh, maybe you guys should stand back befor—"

The door suddenly flew open. Black flames washed over Cid, knocking the screaming orbeetle down the hall. Then a large pink beam sent Nikki tumbling in Cid's direction.

Something— no, two somethings glistened within the darkness of the vault.

"Get back!" Widget cried, shifting to his flight mode and sending electricity right into the vault. A pink barrier appeared and deflected the Thunderbolt.

"I did warn you, did I not, Yaldabaoth?"

Glowing pink eyes flared up. Yuna had no time to react as a green, crystalline bird shot out. The strange, balloon-shaped gems atop its head cast an eerie glow in the hallway. Squealing, Yuna forced Reshiram from the Soul Dew, where he met another pink beam with streams of blue fire.

"Hey!" Reshiram spread his wings apart to try and stop the bird from making any further forward progress. Instead, it vanished in a flash. Reshiram looked around in confusion. "The color wasn't right, but didn't that kind of match up with what Quetzal said Necrozma turned his partners into?"

"I'm a bit, gah, busy!"

Widget darted left and right between the wall and the railing, barely avoiding bursts of black fire from a second, neon pink bird with fiery green wings. The crystal antennae emerging from its head pulsated with ominous energy.

"It... is them!"

Yuna looked over to see a singed Cid's spots glowing asynchronously. "Quetzal's teammates, Shiva and Ifrit!"

Yuna couldn't process that before Shiva reappeared, striking Reshiram in the face with a tremendous flurry of Air Slash blades. Reshiram dropped to the ground, pawing at his face with his fluffy wings.

This didn't make any sense. Butterfree Effect had said there was one daemon inside the vault.

"There was one." Shiva's beak moved, but it was clearly Butterfree Effect's voice. "But it seems this Whisper decided to invite an extra friend to our festivities. Isn't that right?"

Shiva looked over her shoulder. Yuna decided not to wait. Her Soul Dew glistened. Reshiram dropped his wings and shot a Blue Flare at Shiva. Her eyes flashed pink and another barrier appeared, snuffing out the flames.

An unfamiliar human appeared by the strange articuno's side. The brim of his red and white hat obscured his face. But the pikachu on his shoulder had an empty look about him.

"... This place is boring." The human grabbed Shiva's leg. Eyes widening, Yuna sent another signal to Reshiram. At the same time, a shockwave came from Yuna's right. Nikki was on her feet, clearly steamed from the earlier blow.

"We're leaving." The human tugged Shiva's leg. Her eyes brimmed with psychic energy. Then she and the human vanished. A mechanical squawk and a thud drew Yuna's attention left, where Widget hit the ground with no signs of the moltres Whisper around him.

"Where'd they go?!" Widget sprang to his feet, looking around in a panic.

"Who cares!" Nikki approached Yuna, wincing with every step. "They abandoned the core! Get the kid here and let's blow this joint!"

"We can't leave this place with those things running amok!" Widget snarled. "I'm going after them." The miraivally's thrusters ignited. He sped out of the room.

"Oh, c'mon, seriously?!" Nikki ran after him. "No fair! I can't even fly!"

Yuna had to admit Nikki brought up a good point. Besides, if the two Whispers were really from their world, couldn't Leo drag them back with the rest of the team? Gulping, the drakloak approached the vault.

Her shadows swung her lower half back. Yelping, Yuna barely managed to stop herself from falling to the ground. But then she spotted flickers of distortion within the vault. She spun left before a sudden twister emerged from the ground near where she was floating.

"Iiiiii don't think the core's going to let you in," Reshiram said.

"I see that." Yuna backed further away. With both previous cores, they stopped pokémon with those weird crystals growing off them before going inside. "Maybe its... accessibility is related to those crystals? Like, we have to shatter them?"

She turned around. Cid leaned against a wall, rubbing his shut eyes and groaning.

"Cid, you've got to help!" Yuna begged. "Track down the birds. Where did they go?"

The orbeetle's face scrunched up in concentration. "I just... lemme... hgggrrrgh." He squeezed his cheeks tightly. "They're out on the stadium's battlefield!"

Right. The battlefield. Yuna surveyed that place earlier as a precaution. She just had to think. Picture the striped green field with the weird white lines and poké balls painted onto the grass for some reason.

Yuna stuck her hands out. A jagged rift opened in front of her. Pink lasers rained down haphazardly on the other side. Flinching, the drakloak hovered through.

"On your left!" Reshiram darted past her, shooting a Dragon Pulse to block a pink beam from Shiva.

Just what was that attack? It was way too big to be a Psybeam!

"Boring." The human was riding atop Shiva's back as she hovered over midfield. "Warp, then Freezing Glare."

He and Shiva vanished in a flash. Yuna's shadows pushed against her back. She turned around and found another of those pink beams heading right for her from the sidelines!

"Yuna!"

Over Reshiram's cry, Yuna dropped to the ground. She phased through the grass the moment her Quick Attack energy wore off and swam through the soil. Yuna had to trust Reshiram would offer enough of a distraction for her to do something. Anything.

But her own attacks were so weak. Unless I use the shadows...

Yuna swam through the ground, then emerged by the sidelines, swiping up at the air in front of her. A gray, spectral leg uppercut the distorted articuno. She was right in Reshiram's path. He had a clear shot to Blue Flare her!

... Except a lightning bolt zapped his rear. Yowling, Reshiram threw his wings against his rump. Shiva righted herself and swept another Freezing Glare right at a startled Yuna.

The drakloak wasn't ready. She tried to will her shadows into some sort of shield, but the blast got to her first. Yuna pinwheeled back toward midfield, passing by Nikki wildly trying to strike Pikachu with poisonous globs only for him to easily flash step away and pepper Reshiram with pot shots.

An unseen force seized Yuna moments before she struck the ground. It yanked her toward Shiva and the human.

"Is it finally sinking in?" Butterfree Effect's masked head pooled over Shiva's. His arceus hairdo crackled ominously. "How out of your depth you are, puppet?"

Yuna couldn't even squirm. The psychic grip was too strong. Reshiram faded back into the Soul Dew. Yuna didn't even know what happened to Ifrit. Was he still around or had he made a break for the city?

"I told you there is no point in resisting me," Butterfree Effect continued through Shiva's beak. "If you had left the vault sealed, I could have claimed the plates within the core. Affirmed the fate of this world. Instead, you continued walking the path of chaos. You are truly no more than a puppet."

What were they talking about? They were the one who told Yuna about what could happen here in the first place!

"No more talking." The human shook his head. "It's boring. As boring as an opponent who can't fight back." He looked directly at Yuna. "Get rid of her."

Yuna's eyes widened. The world spun around her. Shiva must have teleported her high into the sky.

Within seconds, Shiva's eyes brimmed with cold pink energy. Then, a terrible, icy pain surged through Yuna's ectoplasm. It wasn't truly an ice-type attack, yet it sure felt like one.

Air rushed all around a flailing Yuna. Shiva quickly grew farther and farther away. Was Yuna falling? Tumbling through the air?

She got her answer when her momentum screeched to a halt against a solid wall of frigid water. The night sky, stadium lights, and distant explosions blurred. Bubbles drifted past her vision when she tried to shout. Water flooded her inner ectoplasm.

Yuna tried to swim upward. She couldn't. Fierce wind currents were pushing her further down. Everything was getting darker. Darker. Darker.

She tried to go intangible. It didn't work.

Yuna reached out to her Soul Dew. It wouldn't respond.

Her shadows, then?

... No. She couldn't feel them.

Everything was pitch black. Fear took hold. Yuna didn't have organs, but there was a drowning analogue for ghosts. When their inner ectoplasm filled with so much water it choked their spirits and snuffed out their lives.

The current pushed her further into the depths. Shiva must have gotten corrupted by the flying-type plate. That was how she was forcing Yuna down. The drakloak couldn't overcome the river's intense churning. It dragged her deeper and deeper.

A heaviness weighed on her gut. Tugged at her tail and neck. It surrounded her head and swallowed up her face.

After a final, desperate wriggle... Yuna went still.

XxX

~Wings of Ruin: Shiva~
The Affirmer's flight took Him across worlds, linking these realms together. He saw those who were suffering. He vowed to ease their burdens. When He bound Space, Time, and the Elements of Mind with the Red Chain, the links drew the realms together into one. Thus began the Great Harmony.

XxX

~Beak of Ruin: Ifrit~
Like pestilence, the Renegade tailed the Affirmer throughout His journey. It took control of its counterparts. The Affirmer outmaneuvered it time and time again. Yet it did not give up the chase. Even at the dawn of the Great Harmony, the Renegade appeared to attack the Affirmer. And this aggression left enough lingering chaos to shatter the Great Harmony.

XxX​

Path of Valor Almanac
The chapter title is latin for "protect the world," in reference to Team Rocket's anime motto. Shiva is a member of the Trimutri holy trinity in Hinduism. Within the Hindu tradition of Shaivism, he is the Supreme Being, responsible for creating, protecting, and transforming the universe. In contrast, Ifrit is a demon associated with death and the underworld within Islamic culture. Quetzal is from the Aztec deity "Quetzalcoatl," related to the wind, sun, merchants, learning, arts, and crafts.

All three are recurring summons in the Final Fantasy franchise.

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Alright, diving in as a twofer of knocking out my Review Tag and getting in one last review before the timer rolls over for PMDiner's Review Event with…

Chapter 82

Spoiler

Noctum somersaulted, dodging a Rock Blast, then returned fire at the Eternatus Gunner responsible. His Flamethrower destroyed the cockpit and the unown vanished in purple smoke. Another explosion rang out behind him. He looked over his shoulder. Through the smoke, he spotted a mega garchomp atop the Pokémon League's roof, sniping at Eternatus Troopers in the air with well-aimed Dragon Pulses.

The black charizard nodded to Valkyrie, then Phantom Warped away from her, dodging more Rock Blasts.

"Hey!" one Eternatus Gunner shouted, trying to follow Noctum with its blasters. "No fair! Someone tell the lizard dodging is not permitted!"

Oh, I see the spa music's back again. Also:

Valkyrie:

Noctum: "You'd think they'd be more used to their enemies actually putting up a fight..." >_>;

Dreepy-shaped blue spears flew in from Noctum's right. They shattered the Gunner's glass cockpit, ejecting the unown into the air. Then that buzzwole guy — oh, what was his name again? Beef? — swooped in from behind, grabbed the body, and hurled it at three Eternatus Bombardiers behind them. All the bots were gone by the time the smoke had cleared.

Oh, so Biff says his own name with a German accent. Makes sense given what we saw of his dialogue back in Tulpise.

"Ha!" Buzzwole flexed his right arm. "Ja, take to air good idea! Like discus with no pesky ground!" He flexed his left arm. "I was three-time all-city discus champ in heyday!"

All-city, huh? Meaning that he came from Ultra Megalopolis, or...?

"Uh, congrats?" Noctum tilted his head, then saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye. He stopped flapping his wings for a rapid descent. A Thunderbolt surged overhead, but then a large boulder broadsided him. Noctum spread his wings to stop from careening into the forest. He wildly spat fire in the direction of the Rock Blast.

"Ha ha! Score one for the good guys!" An Eternatus Bombardier threw its blaster-equipped arms to the side, then hovered up to skirt the Shadow Ball that came from below. Noctum landed in the grass by the anomaly portal so Seifer and Cyril could give him some extra cover while he got his bearings.

"What's wrong?"

Noctum was ready to complain about rocks when he realized the keldeo was talking to Cyril. "Did that idiot... seriously dab on us?" The cosmic zoroark had another Shadow Ball ready. "Stupid emperor and his 'how do you do, fellow kids?' mindset." He hurled the ectoplasm upward. "Give it a boost, will ya?"

I have no idea how you manage to mix absurdist humor along with deadly serious plot beats in your writing, but it leads to snerk-worthy moments like these.

Seifer pivoted, blasting Hydro Pumps skyward from his hind legs. It pushed the Shadow Ball past the Bombardier's Rock Wrecker and blew apart its right arm.

"Gah!" It hovered erratically. "A minor setback, but I am still functional!"

Ah yes, I see that there's a Monty Python and the Holy Grail analogue in PoV's omniverse, too. :V

Noctum fired a Dragon Pulse, striking the Bombardier's torso. The unown pilot ejected the cockpit. "You will not be rid of me that easily, meatba— guuuuh!"

A second Dragon Pulse streaked in from the direction of the League Building, destroying the last bits of the Trooper.

"You make such a cute little threesome down there," Valkyrie scoffed. "But get back in the air, you dweeb! We need you up here!"

At first I thought that was going to be one of Lance's dragons, but I suppose that makes a bit more sense.

Cheeks burning, Noctum took off. A few stray Thunderbolts and Ice Beam peppered the air around him. Noctum spat fireballs to his left, then spotted two Gunners on his right trying to hit Valkyrie with Ice Beams from afar.

Not on my watch. Noctum Phantom Warped behind them, then buffeted the Gunners with Air Slash crescents. They didn't even have time for mechanical shouts before their bodies broke apart. Noctum flew through the smoke and dust left behind, slowing down by the rooftop.

Noctum: "... Were they always this easy to take apart? Since I swear that these Eternatus Gunners used to be a lot harder to fight like 30 chapters ago..." ^^;

"How's it looking?" Noctum had lost track of Yiazmat and Calcifer in the chaos. He did spot Archie gleefully gliding over the grassy field atop a jet of water, sending black crescents at Gunners and Brawlers from his jagged horn.

I should be a lot less surprised that Archie's just having the time of his life going full swashbuckler right now.

"I don't like this," Valkyrie said. She spat a Dragon Pulse at an airborne Eternatus Bombardier taking aim at Seifer and Cyril. It struck the middle of its back. Noctum added a Flamethrower to take it down.

What else is new? The black charizard managed to keep that one to himself. "In what way?"

"They've got the numbers, but they're not advancing on the rift," the mega garchomp said, pointing a scythe-like arm left. Cyril and Seifer stood their ground, shooting Shadow Balls and Aura Spheres at Gunners flanking them from the sky. Buzzwole Whatshisface flew in and rammed one into another with his right shoulder.

I suppose that I should go and track down an Admiral Ackbar gif right about now, since... yeah. This sounds like we're headed in that direction pretty quickly.

"New barbells for mein collection!" he declared, laying on his back in midair and... bench-pressing the disoriented Gunners?

"Stop the rebel!" a Bombardier shouted from far to their right. "Using Troopers as weights is against the law! And very rude!"

Ah yes, I see the Eternans have their priorities straight right now. o<o

Noctum snapped back to attention when he saw blue sparks in the corner of his eye. Another Dragon Pulse from Valkyrie blew apart a Bombardier over by the forest's edge.

"Okay, yeah. You've got a point." The black charizard landed on the roof. "They're just... shooting at Cyril and Seifer from a distance." What was he missing? "Maybe they're afraid of disappearing forever if they get destroyed in the other dimension?"

Wait, that was established as something that would happen to Eternatus Gunners in the past? .-.

"You think Paradox cares about that?" Valkyrie stomped on the roof. Stone Edge spires jutted out from the ground, where several dragons were in a standoff with Eternatus Brawlers. One spire upended a Brawler trying to clobber an unsuspecting goodra with an ice-encrusted mace. "He's already sending 'em out here for us to mow down."

Noctum frowned. Last he recalled, the unown got returned to some factory if they were beaten out here. He doubted that connection held up where the anomaly was. Which was worth caring about, in Noctum's opinion. "Well, do your, uh, instincts give you anything to go off?"

Valkyrie: "That we're being baited into a trap and they're holding onto the big guns to roll out when we're worn down?"
Noctum:

The mega garchomp huffed out blue-purple embers. "Not really." She summoned more rock spires from the ground, but the two charging Brawlers burst through them with their spiked maces and struck at the same goodra from before. She tumbled back, ice encrusting her gooey body.

Goodra: "... Ow." X_X

Tail flame sparking, Noctum dove off the roof and bathed the Brawlers in bright orange flames.

"Aggh! Deploy the anti-flying lizard punches!" one Brawler screamed.

Noctum wasn't prepared for the flurry of electrified maces that followed. He swerved past the first two, but the third clubbed him in the jaw. The static locked up his wings. He hit the ground and skipped across it, smacking the remnants of an earlier Stone Edge spire and tumbling through scorched grass and dirt until he came to a stop.

Noctum: "Okay, so they haven't gotten any easier to fight. Good to know."

Grunting, Noctum tried to right himself, but his world was spinning. Paralysis locked up his limbs. He tasted dirt. The black charizard snorted some flames, scorching grass by his face and giving him a tilted, dusty view of the perimeter around League Headquarters.

"The lizard's down! Smack him! Annihilate him!"

Eternatus Brawler: "♪ Don't stop until we dominate, won't you feel great- ♪"
Noctum: "Oh my god. I just had to get stuck with the one singing cringy pop music."

Eternatus Trooper: "You take that back, rebel scum! That song's a classic!"

Mechanical whirrs and clanks filled Noctum's ear frills. Multiple Brawlers pushed past the Aeon troops and were running at him. Electricity coursed through their spiked maces.

He had to get up. Move his legs. Wings. Something.

Noctum: "V-Val?! A Cheri Berry would be nice right about now!"

Come on! Not like this! Teeth gritted, Noctum fought against the paralysis. He'd almost managed to push his upper half off the ground, when a thunderous rumble sent him tumbling further back through the grass toward the forest's edge. It must have scattered all the Brawlers to the wind, too. None were chasing him down anymore.

Before Noctum could even process the tremor, a terrified shriek sent his heart into his throat.

The queen!

Ah yes. This fight is going well™️ right now.

Her screams proved the second wind Noctum needed to get up. And just in time, as he was able to catch the dragapult careening through the air and stop her from colliding with him.

"Your Highness?" The paralysis somewhat muffled Noctum's speech. "What happened?"

Yiazmat's eyes were wide. At first Noctum thought his muscles were twitching from the lingering static, but soon realized she was trembling.

"They hit him," she said. "Huh?"

"Calcifer! With a strange blast!"

Oh. We're about to see Calcifer get unwillingly G-Maxed, aren't we? Since I remember those G-Max fights from very early on in this story...

The ground trembled once again. Cyril and Seifer rushed toward them, the former swearing up a storm and the latter looking back and shouting something.

On the other side of League Headquarters, a duraludon head poked up. And up. And up. They were growing to the size of one of the gigantic buildings from Eterna City!

Yeah, I knew it.

Noctum: "... Maybe it just affected his body and his mind's unchanged?"

Noctum's tail flame pulsated erratically. "What is— don't tell me—"

"Ha ha ha!" An Eternatus Bombardier flew around beside Duraludon, shooting tiny fireworks. "A brilliant success! One Paradigm Lieutenant shot to the head! I've got a new host for Halvus!" It gestured toward a few Gunners staring at it in confusion. "Oh, this one is so going on my bi-annual evaluation! I'm getting promoted for sure!"

Well, that went significantly more off the rails than what I was expecting, and boy is that throwaway comment ominous.

The towering duraludon looked down at the League building's roof... and the mega garchomp standing alone on its edge.

"I spy a hotheaded rebel... who needs a good cooldown!"

Noctum: "Okay, yeah. The blast affected his mind too."

Blue-violet currents swirled around the roof. Noctum apologetically let go of Yiazmat. He focused on the Malice Crystal in his chest and lunged forward, aiming to pry open a rift.

"Valkyrie!"

Noctum's... gonna dump G-Max Calcifer into the middle of Wyndon, isn't he?

"I don't like this."

From their point in the sky high over the river, Quetzal shifted uneasily on Jade's back. "We should be with the others, fending off the empire," the orange zapdos said.

Ominous music is ominous. And don't worry, Quetzal, I'm pretty sure you're going to get your wish in like 30 seconds.

Gene's gaze was fixed north of them, where he'd met the Rockets. There were warehouses close to the part of the river the trio were floating over. Allegedly, whatever the Rockets had up their sleeve involved one of the warehouses. So, this was where they had to wait for the signal.

"Rebels have to take risks." Gene's tail lazily swished back and forth. "Too much on the line with this one."

"Is it really that much of a risk to go back for a bit and—"

"Yes!" Gene crossed his arms. "If the emperor gets wind I'm there, he'll send everything he has at us. Then we'll really be screwed." He gestured toward the stadium. "Here? We can seal the anomaly. The kid can take us back to the outpost."

Can't tell if that's meant to refer to Widget or Ash there. Though why do I get the distinct feeling that Paradox already knows of Gene's presence right now?

"And what about the folks on Indigo Plateau?" Quetzal countered.

"We'll rift 'em back once we're back." Was it a perfect plan? No. Gene rarely had the luxury of perfect plans. "Look. I'm choosing to have faith they can handle themselves. Optimism and all that." He looked over his shoulder. "You should try it."

Wait, Gene actually makes plans instead of improvising on the fly? Since it's honestly a bit hard to tell sometimes. ^^;

Jade bobbed her head. "Yeah. We gotta cheer them on!" She paused. "In spirit, because we've gotta play the heels!"

Gene raised a brow. "Heels? Where'd you pull that one from?"

"Guzzie Junior," Jade chirped.

Jade: "... Seriously? Shouldn't you be more familiar with this whole wrestling terminology thing given that you fight at his-"

Gene: "Look, I just show up there to kick space pirate ass, okay? I don't pay attention to the particulars." >_>;

Sighing, Gene turned back around. "Of course you did. Yo, Chrome Dome. How we looking?"

Grumbles came through the X-transceiver, followed by Cid saying, "As best I can tell, nothing about the stadium should block rift formation. Yuna should be free to open one."

Nothing yet anyways. Since if things are going to go where I think they are for Noctum's desperation move at the end of the last scene... yeah, it might get a bit hard to form that rift.

"Great." Gene clapped his hands together. "You in position, Princess?"

"Uh, sure?" Yuna said. "I'm still by the dimensional rift."

"Good enough." Gene brimmed with false enthusiasm. Yes, it wasn't a great plan. Or even a good one. But at least Gene was trying to find a middle ground. Someone had to believe this would work. The shadowy mewtwo didn't need any self-fulfilling prophecies mucking things up.

Huh, so a lot of Gene's outward chill and self-confidence is an act he projects to others. I suppose I should've seen more of that coming from his bedside talk a couple chapters ago, but noted.

He spotted faint golden sparkles by one of the warehouses. Squinting, Gene held up his right hand. "It might be showtime, folks."

More golden sparkles littered a lot next to one of the warehouses. And the sparkles moved. Sure, Gene was far away. But it was totally Meowth using Pay Day. That meant it was go time.

... Wait, he can see spare change flying around like that at that distance? Or does Pay Day work differently in this setting?

"Follow my lead," Gene said. He surged forward, not bothering to wait up for Jade and Quetzal. The stadium's bright red, white, and blue lights quickly came into view, spilling over the outside grounds. Pop-up shops lined the walkways. People and pokémon flitted between them. Occasional camera flashes popped up at complete random.

A pity Gene had to break up this party. It could've been fun to watch the battles unfold. Or even take part.

... Ah, who was he kidding? Gene would wipe the floor with any of these trainers.

I mean, that depends on how the Betrayed Ash of this universe would be scaled, since... yeah. They can get pretty broken in some stories.

His expression sharpened. Gene thought back to those distant days where this was natural. Storming an area. Peppering buildings in Shadow Balls to force his way in. Telekinetically swiping poké balls from trainers before they could open them.

It's just for show. Only have to fake it.

Well. I see that Gene got up to quite a few things that didn't make it into his special based off that line of narration.

The wailord blimp was flying in the middle of the stadium. A perfect target. Gene focused his ESP on it. Any auras?

No. Perfect. A remote-controlled blimp was easy pickings.

Gene held his hands up. A Shadow Ball formed, growing larger and larger. The moment he heard shouts from the ground, Gene hurled the massive Shadow Ball toward the blimp.

Gene, you realize that that thing's probably going to kill at least a dozen people if it lands anywhere that's not in the river, right? Though nice background music for this moment.

This next part needed finesse. Gene forced the Shadow Ball to burst apart, spreading blue-purple light over the area. As screams and shouts erupted beneath him, Gene opened a rift. He forced the blimp through with a psychic pulse. A loud thud told him his endeavor was successful: the blimp was forcibly downed in a barren field. No debris to rain down on anyone.

Gene: "See? I planned around the falling debris, too. All's well that ends... not as bad as it could've." ^^;

Loud squawks sounded behind him. Gene turned to see Jade carefully sweeping an Aeroblast across the river. She didn't hit any boats, but kicked up enough spray to send people running in the opposite direction.

Quetzal was next, jumping from Jade's back. He dove through yamper and boltund balloons whose pops echoed across the area.

Drawing from his Malice Crystal, Gene pooled the energy toward his head to project his telepathy.

Wait, Gene can do mass telepathy, too? I mean, I suppose I should be less surprised given some of his depicted antics in his special, but...

"Run, pitiful weaklings!" he declared. Gene glanced at the stadium and saw the center of the grassy battlefield unoccupied. People were fleeing from seats and the ground into corridors that would lead them through the stadium.

"Your pathetic Coronation is canceled!" Gene whipped up a Hurricane in the center of the stadium. It ripped through the turf, flinging grass and dirt chunks in all directions.

Cid: "Um... Gene? Is thatsupposed to sound that natural coming from you?"

Gene: "All part of the show! Don't worry!" ^^

There were a few people who weren't running though. Assorted corviknight and staraptor with humans atop them making beelines for the shadowy mewtwo.

"I said begone!" Gene surrounded them with Psystrike orbs. A gesture only intended to provoke the birds into fleeing. There were frantic wing flaps, but most held their ground and looked as though they were readying attacks.

Gene: "Aw crap. I hate enforced method acting."

Growling, Gene dispelled his Psystrike. Instead, he opened another rift toward the same spot he sent the blimp. A psychic pulse sent the birds and their riders tumbling back. He abruptly shut the rift, then Phantom Warped away from several Fire Blasts and Thunders streaming up from below.

Oh joy. The fuzz. Gene glanced over his shoulder to see Jade flying circles by the front of the stadium, shooting Aeroblasts skyward instead of at the ground. Like something out of one of those kaiju pokémon movies.

Damn, the Wyndon Met really brought out their big dogs for this one. Though I suppose it makes sense given that this is a major public event where any disruptions would want to be put down with extreme prejudice.

... Considering they were acting, it was an apt comparison.

Before Gene had the opportunity to send the police through a rift, however, metal tendrils shot past him. Strange, electrified nets captured the pokémon taking aim at Gene. They flailed about as the tendrils retreated to Gene's left, heading outside the stadium to a... robot meowth?

Ah yes, Team Rocket up to their old antics all over again. I'm surprised that they still had the budget for this.

Nope, Gene wasn't imagining things. There was an absurdly long meowth robot at the western edge of the stadium. "The hell?" Gene scratched his head.

The large gold coin atop Meowthbot's head opened up, revealing the Rockets sitting in some sort of pod-shaped control room. It raised up higher above the machine's head. The glass pod opened up and the three stood up... brandishing megaphones?

Gene: "... Okay, so working with the Three Stooges was a terrible idea after all." >.<

"This party's over, so prepare for trouble!"

"And we'll find our pika prize to make it double!"

Jessie thrust her right hand behind her. "To protect the world from devastation!"

James mirrored the gesture with his left hand. "To unite all people within our nation!"

Gene's jaw slackened. Was this— were they doing a bit? Now of all times?!

Gene:

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

James somehow produced a rose and held it up to his nose. "To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

The robot's head projected a giant red R that rotated around a holographic globe.

Gene: "Well, I suppose that would explain why they had to resort to selling a bottlecap collection to afford airfare here." >_>;

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!" Jessie declared.

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" James added.

Meowth then hopped up between them "Meowth, dat's right!"

Even Wobbuffet popped up, but Gene couldn't hear him without a megaphone of his own. He just floated there, utterly confused as to how these loons would stand there atop their giant robot and recite some stupid motto.

It helps that they had over two-and-a-half decades of experience and rote repetition doing this up to this point. :V

Jade came to a stop by the robot and raised her right wing. "Um, yes, excuse me. Hi. I have several questions."

The Rockets saw Jade and shrieked in unison.

"Jessie, do I finally need glasses or is there a lugia right next to us?" James said.

"And a talking one at that!" Jessie said. "Back inside! Back inside!"

Gene: "Whelp, so much for them being a convincing-seeming threat to the general public." >.<

"Right! Time for da Gigagigameowth to do its t'ing!" The control pod retreated back inside the robot's giant coin.

"Hey, wait!" Jade flapped her wings frantically. "That didn't answer any of my— eep!"

Metal tendrils emerged from Gigagigameowth's mouth. Jade flailed about in midair, then flapped her wings twice and quickly ascended out of their way.

Jade: "Okay, so they're not total joke villains! Duly noted!"

Scowling, Gene surged past the outer rim of the stadium, Malice Crystal sparking. It might've lit the area up like a flare if things weren't bright enough already. "Hey, hey!" The shadowy mewtwo waved his arms around. He stopped by Gigagigameowth's golden coin. "No friendly fire! We have a deal, remember?"

"Dat featherhead's wit' you?!" Meowth said.

"Talk about friends in high places," James added.

"Hmph. Her salazzle outfit needs work," Jessie scoffed. "Maybe we should tutor her when this is over. We're masters of the craft!"

Yeah, this is going to end with them attempting a backstab and getting blasted off over the horizon, isn't it?

Though yeah, feeling really good about my prediction that Calcifer's going to come crashing into things since we already have one tower-sized fighter in the ring right now.

Gene was not going to entertain their antics any further. "Quit standing around and cause some chaos!" He spun around and blindly hurled a Shadow Ball toward the abandoned grounds outside the stadium. Gene made sure to destroy it before it could actually hit anyone or anything. "We can't get the guy out of the safe until the place is good and empty!"

"Just leave dat to us!" Meowth said. Gigagigameowth jumped around with surprising speed for such a huge machine. "Super Net Knuckles, fiyah!"

Just saying, there's realistically a nonzero chance that this is going to cause a bunch of people to shelter in place, so...

Gigagigameowth's fists detached from its arms and immediately exploded into nets that descended on people who were fleeing across the bridge leading to the stadium grounds.

Grimacing, Gene headed in the opposite direction. This was fine. The moment the others had the safe situation under control, he'd wreck that stupid robot and free whatever people and pokémon Team Rocket was trying to snag. The idiots weren't even using poké balls.

... I mean, considering how they're significantly better-equipped than expected for a has-been team and this is an AU, are you sure that they'll be that easy to kick over, Gene?

He spared a brief moment to scan the insides of the stadium. Minimal auras. All streaming away from where Yuna claimed the safe was, except for a handful. Some of them were clearly the team. But the other weaker ones...

Oh, well. That's worrisome there.

"Hey, what's the situation?" Gene said, flying around the stadium's outer rim to keep eyes on Jade and Quetzal. The former kicked up more water with a river-aimed Aeroblast while the latter was striking street lights with his muscular legs, denting them at angles street lights weren't meant to bend.

"We're thinning the herd out here quickly. How about you guys?"

"Water evac team here! We've got plenty of rescue boats heading away!"

"Ground evac team. Streets are getting a bit clogged, but the police have fliers coming to help!"

That was better than Gene expected, all things considered. "And you, Princess? I'm sensing some unfamiliar auras by the safe."

Gene: "Is that supposed to be that trapped kid or whatever down there? Or else what's going on?"

Floating directly in front of the safe door, Yuna looked apologetically at the security officers, alakazam, and togekiss lying on the ground, twitching from paralysis. "Yeah." She rubbed her shoulder. "Nikki might've, uh, put them down for the count."

"It's just paralysis." The toxtricity flicked her right wrist dismissively. "They'll get better."

Nikki: "Just saying I wanted to Boomburst 'em, but nooooo..." >_>;

"Yeah, but the point is they're not supposed to be here when we open the safe." Widget looked between them and the vault with a frown on his beak. "What do we do with them now?"

"Open a rift to that roof you guys were on before," Gene suggested. "We'll have to leave them there."

Yuna: "Boy it sure is a good thing that these rift teleports don't really strain us all that much, otherwise that would've potentially been a problem." ^^;

Widget winced. "But that's out in the open!"

"Do you want to take your chances with what's on the other side of that door?" Gene countered.

The cosmic silvally shifted his weight uncomfortably. "I'd rather not." Sighing, he bowed his head at Yuna. "Do it, I guess."

- Cue paralyzed angry noises from the security team -
Yuna: "Er... sorry? Though it really would be safer for you to just take a step back and let us do our thing, so..." ^^;

With another apologetic look, Yuna opened a rift beneath the guards. She watched them drop onto a blue roof, then sealed it up. Pushing that from her mind, she hovered closer to the safe door. Cid leaned against the handle, his spots pulsating with pink energy.

"Anything?" the drakloak wondered.

"Almost." Cid squinted. The orbeetle's spots flickered erratically. "I think I—"

The clicks were barely audible, but the metal thuds that followed were loud enough to make Yuna back away. Cid grabbed the handle and slowly turned it. "Nrrrgh. Can a guy get a hand? This thing's... heavier than I thought."

Ah yes, the moment of truth before we see just how ridiculous things are about to get once Betrayed Ash makes his grand entrance.

"Pssht." Nikki rolled up her sleeves. "Stand aside, egghead." She rubbed her hands together, grabbed the handle, and easily shifted it to the open position. The vault door began to open.

Yuna saw that familiar inky blackness pooling in her tail. "Uhh, maybe you guys should stand back befor—"

Oh, well that music isn't an ominious sign at all for where things are about to go here.

The door suddenly flew open. Black flames washed over Cid, knocking the screaming orbeetle down the hall. Then a large pink beam sent Nikki tumbling in Cid's direction.

Something— no, two somethings glistened within the darkness of the vault.

"Get back!" Widget cried, shifting to his flight mode and sending electricity right into the vault. A pink barrier appeared and deflected the Thunderbolt.

"I did warn you, did I not, Yaldabaoth?"

Yuna: "Oh for god's sake! Seriously?!" O.O

Glowing pink eyes flared up. Yuna had no time to react as a green, crystalline bird shot out. The strange, balloon-shaped gems atop its head cast an eerie glow in the hallway. Squealing, Yuna forced Reshiram from the Soul Dew, where he met another pink beam with streams of blue fire.

>that boss intro art

Well then. I wasn't expecting to see them again. Much less like this.

"Hey!" Reshiram spread his wings apart to try and stop the bird from making any further forward progress. Instead, it vanished in a flash. Reshiram looked around in confusion. "The color wasn't right, but didn't that kind of match up with what Quetzal said Necrozma turned his partners into?"

"I'm a bit, gah, busy!"

Widget darted left and right between the wall and the railing, barely avoiding bursts of black fire from a second, neon pink bird with fiery green wings. The crystal antennae emerging from its head pulsated with ominous energy.

And there's the other now as well. So you didn't forget about them all this time. What has it been, 50 chapters by this point since we last saw them?

"It... is them!"

Yuna looked over to see a singed Cid's spots glowing asynchronously. "Quetzal's teammates, Shiva and Ifrit!"

Butterfree Effect: "Well, I can tell you and your vessel's friends are going to be busy. Have fun sorting things out, Yaldabaoth."

Yuna couldn't process that before Shiva reappeared, striking Reshiram in the face with a tremendous flurry of Air Slash blades. Reshiram dropped to the ground, pawing at his face with his fluffy wings.

This didn't make any sense. Butterfree Effect had said there was one daemon inside the vault.

"There was one." Shiva's beak moved, but it was clearly Butterfree Effect's voice. "But it seems this Whisper decided to invite an extra friend to our festivities. Isn't that right?"

So the Butterfree Effect is an "exact words" troll. Duly noted.

Shiva looked over her shoulder. Yuna decided not to wait. Her Soul Dew glistened. Reshiram dropped his wings and shot a Blue Flare at Shiva. Her eyes flashed pink and another barrier appeared, snuffing out the flames.

An unfamiliar human appeared by the strange articuno's side. The brim of his red and white hat obscured his face. But the pikachu on his shoulder had an empty look about him.

Aaaaaand there he is.

"... This place is boring." The human grabbed Shiva's leg. Eyes widening, Yuna sent another signal to Reshiram. At the same time, a shockwave came from Yuna's right. Nikki was on her feet, clearly steamed from the earlier blow.

"We're leaving." The human tugged Shiva's leg. Her eyes brimmed with psychic energy. Then she and the human vanished. A mechanical squawk and a thud drew Yuna's attention left, where Widget hit the ground with no signs of the moltres Whisper around him.

Yuna: "... Gene? Where did they go?"

"Where'd they go?!" Widget sprang to his feet, looking around in a panic.

"Who cares!" Nikki approached Yuna, wincing with every step. "They abandoned the core! Get the kid here and let's blow this joint!"

"We can't leave this place with those things running amok!" Widget snarled. "I'm going after them." The miraivally's thrusters ignited. He sped out of the room.

I mean, you technically can, and it'd probably be better for the broader omniverse, but... yeah. I'm not convinced that Wyndon isn't going to be suffering from a minor case of massive property damage starting right about now.

"Oh, c'mon, seriously?!" Nikki ran after him. "No fair! I can't even fly!"

Yuna had to admit Nikki brought up a good point. Besides, if the two Whispers were really from their world, couldn't Leo drag them back with the rest of the team? Gulping, the drakloak approached the vault.

Her shadows swung her lower half back. Yelping, Yuna barely managed to stop herself from falling to the ground. But then she spotted flickers of distortion within the vault. She spun left before a sudden twister emerged from the ground near where she was floating.

Yuna: "Gah! Who's there?!"

"Iiiiii don't think the core's going to let you in," Reshiram said.

"I see that." Yuna backed further away. With both previous cores, they stopped pokémon with those weird crystals growing off them before going inside. "Maybe its... accessibility is related to those crystals? Like, we have to shatter them?"

She turned around. Cid leaned against a wall, rubbing his shut eyes and groaning.

"Cid, you've got to help!" Yuna begged. "Track down the birds. Where did they go?"

Cid: "Wait, what birds are we-?"
Yuna: "Shiva and Ifrit! Please tell me that you managed to pick them up before they just blipped out like that!"

The orbeetle's face scrunched up in concentration. "I just... lemme... hgggrrrgh." He squeezed his cheeks tightly. "They're out on the stadium's battlefield!"

Right. The battlefield. Yuna surveyed that place earlier as a precaution. She just had to think. Picture the striped green field with the weird white lines and poké balls painted onto the grass for some reason.

Yuna stuck her hands out. A jagged rift opened in front of her. Pink lasers rained down haphazardly on the other side. Flinching, the drakloak hovered through.

Yuna: "Okay, I'm beginning to understand why I'm hearing Devil May Cry music in the background right now."

"On your left!" Reshiram darted past her, shooting a Dragon Pulse to block a pink beam from Shiva.

Just what was that attack? It was way too big to be a Psybeam!

"Boring." The human was riding atop Shiva's back as she hovered over midfield. "Warp, then Freezing Glare."

Oh, so Betrayed Ash apparently has some connection to Ginnungagap given that he can casually order around Whispers... lovely.

He and Shiva vanished in a flash. Yuna's shadows pushed against her back. She turned around and found another of those pink beams heading right for her from the sidelines!

"Yuna!"

Over Reshiram's cry, Yuna dropped to the ground. She phased through the grass the moment her Quick Attack energy wore off and swam through the soil. Yuna had to trust Reshiram would offer enough of a distraction for her to do something. Anything.

But her own attacks were so weak. Unless I use the shadows...

Yuna swam through the ground, then emerged by the sidelines, swiping up at the air in front of her. A gray, spectral leg uppercut the distorted articuno. She was right in Reshiram's path. He had a clear shot to Blue Flare her!

... Except a lightning bolt zapped his rear. Yowling, Reshiram threw his wings against his rump. Shiva righted herself and swept another Freezing Glare right at a startled Yuna.

Ah yes, perfect timing to have the KH3 burn animation right about now. /s

The drakloak wasn't ready. She tried to will her shadows into some sort of shield, but the blast got to her first. Yuna pinwheeled back toward midfield, passing by Nikki wildly trying to strike Pikachu with poisonous globs only for him to easily flash step away and pepper Reshiram with pot shots.

An unseen force seized Yuna moments before she struck the ground. It yanked her toward Shiva and the human.

"Is it finally sinking in?" Butterfree Effect's masked head pooled over Shiva's. His arceus hairdo crackled ominously. "How out of your depth you are, puppet?"

And the Butterfree Effect has some connection to Ginnungagap as well. Duly noted.

Yuna couldn't even squirm. The psychic grip was too strong. Reshiram faded back into the Soul Dew. Yuna didn't even know what happened to Ifrit. Was he still around or had he made a break for the city?

"I told you there is no point in resisting me," Butterfree Effect continued through Shiva's beak. "If you had left the vault sealed, I could have claimed the plates within the core. Affirmed the fate of this world. Instead, you continued walking the path of chaos. You are truly no more than a puppet."

Ah yes, so we are getting a "Squaresoft Protagonist Makes Everything Worse" moment in this story. I mean, we kinda already had at least three in this story thus far, but if the Butterfree Effect isn't lying there... yeah, this one is going to completely dwarf them.

What were they talking about? They were the one who told Yuna about what could happen here in the first place!

"No more talking." The human shook his head. "It's boring. As boring as an opponent who can't fight back." He looked directly at Yuna.

"Get rid of her." Yuna's eyes widened. The world spun around her. Shiva must have teleported her high into the sky.

Yuna: "AAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Within seconds, Shiva's eyes brimmed with cold pink energy. Then, a terrible, icy pain surged through Yuna's ectoplasm. It wasn't truly an ice-type attack, yet it sure felt like one.

Air rushed all around a flailing Yuna. Shiva quickly grew farther and farther away. Was Yuna falling? Tumbling through the air?

She got her answer when her momentum screeched to a halt against a solid wall of frigid water. The night sky, stadium lights, and distant explosions blurred. Bubbles drifted past her vision when she tried to shout. Water flooded her inner ectoplasm.

Yuna: "... Ow."

Yuna tried to swim upward. She couldn't. Fierce wind currents were pushing her further down. Everything was getting darker. Darker. Darker.

She tried to go intangible. It didn't work. Yuna reached out to her Soul Dew. It wouldn't respond.

Her shadows, then?

... No. She couldn't feel them.

Yuna: "Am- Am I dying? I-I can't be dying! N-Not like this!"

Everything was pitch black. Fear took hold. Yuna didn't have organs, but there was a drowning analogue for ghosts. When their inner ectoplasm filled with so much water it choked their spirits and snuffed out their lives.

Yeah, I had a feeling about that description of things going dark there.

The current pushed her further into the depths. Shiva must have gotten corrupted by the flying-type plate. That was how she was forcing Yuna down. The drakloak couldn't overcome the river's intense churning. It dragged her deeper and deeper.

A heaviness weighed on her gut. Tugged at her tail and neck. It surrounded her head and swallowed up her face.

After a final, desperate wriggle... Yuna went still.

Well, that's definitely the grimmest note I've seen a chapter end on in a while. We'll see how on earth Yuna gets herself out of that one next time. If she gets out of that one. .-.

~Wings of Ruin: Shiva~
The Affirmer's flight took Him across worlds, linking these realms together. He saw those who were suffering. He vowed to ease their burdens. When He bound Space, Time, and the Elements of Mind with the Red Chain, the links drew the realms together into one. Thus began the Great Harmony.

Oh, so The Affirmer is Volo, huh? Though yeah, given the whole shtick the Butterfree Effect gave about the ideal state of affairs being everybody passing on to the Overworld, I should be a lot less surprised that "Assimilation Plot" would be its overall premise for an ideal.

~Beak of Ruin: Ifrit~
Like pestilence, the Renegade tailed the Affirmer throughout His journey. It took control of its counterparts. The Affirmer outmaneuvered it time and time again. Yet it did not give up the chase. Even at the dawn of the Great Harmony, the Renegade appeared to attack the Affirmer. And this aggression left enough lingering chaos to shatter the Great Harmony.

And thus why Yuna keeps being spoken of as a problem and a troublemaker by the Butterfree Effect.

Path of Valor Almanac

The chapter title is latin for "protect the world," in reference to Team Rocket's anime motto. Shiva is a member of the Trimutri holy trinity in Hinduism. Within the Hindu tradition of Shaivism, he is the Supreme Being, responsible for creating, protecting, and transforming the universe. In contrast, Ifrit is a demon associated with death and the underworld within Islamic culture. Quetzal is from the Aztec deity "Quetzalcoatl," related to the wind, sun, merchants, learning, arts, and crafts.

All three are recurring summons in the Final Fantasy franchise.

Oh, so the reason why you went with Quetzal(coatl) over Ramuh in spite of the latter being the more common as a thunder summon in the series was because you very specifically needed him and his partners to all be named after mythological entities while Ramuh from FF is murkier on that front. Or at least I think that that's the implication there.

Though boy was that a trip. I can see why you're shilling that inbound chapter so much, since after leaving off on a note like that... yeah, you more or less have to blow up something big plotwise considering just how hard and fast things went off the rails there. I'll admit that I was side-eyeing a bit at the decision to work in an Ash Betrayal angle into this story, but at least thus far it's been working well, since that portrayal is chilling, and works really well for showing other characters that the readers are familiar with similarly getting warped by dark powers into dangerous threats.

There's probably a couple parts in this chapter that could've been built out a bit more in terms of descriptions or more meta reminders of "oh right, that detail's a thing", but honestly, I was too busy having fun, snerking at gags, and picking my jaw off the floor at the end to really notice them. Which I suppose is a good enough sign that the chapter was well-written.

Good work @Ambyssin , and I'll be looking forward to seeing where this goes after your bump tomorrow. ^^

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 83: Inner Daemon​

On the Third of the Original One's Children
Despite my fervent investigations, I have failed to piece together the mystery of the so-called Renegade Pokémon. The legends surrounding it are few and far between. About the only conclusion I've reached is that it's a divine pokémon possibly related to Dialga, Palkia, and the Original One, Arceus.

There are vague, scattered allusions to a creature that lurks in the shadows. Those who cross its path seem unable to comprehend its form. There are no depictions of it. Even stranger is that at some point in the past it simply... vanished. As if it never really existed to begin with.

Those descended from the ancient Sinnoh people claim the second Hisuian hero befriended this legend, just as she befriended the Original One. Following that, there are no further records of its existence. Did it disappear entirely?

I know he was there. Because of the photos that changed in Grandmother's house. Was he involved with this hero? Did he choose to stay in that time?

Grandmother thinks I'm letting my research consume me. Just like his single-mindedness drove him away from Celestic Town. But we're not the same. I'm a scientist. Any risks I take will be thoroughly calculated.

I'll solve the mystery of this missing legendary pokémon. And then, humans and pokémon alike can reach even greater heights!

XxX​

The air was cold and harsh. It tore at Yuna's inner ectoplasm.

But it was dry.

Yuna's head shot up. Tan and dull brown swirled around her vision. This didn't make any sense. Wasn't she supposed to be underwater?

The drakloak rubbed her eyes. When she pulled her hands away, she found herself lying on a neglected stone floor. Signs of a struggle peppered the area. Scorches here. Chunks of ground missing there. Stone columns ended abruptly with their top halves destroyed. Had they once held up a roof? If they did, they'd become nothing but misshapen spears jutting toward the sky.

Yuna picked herself up and hovered forward. Red and purple swirled overhead. How did she get here? Was she dead? Like dead dead? What about everyone else?

Stairs led to more of the same broken stone floor. But now there were piles of rubble lined up on either side of her. Not pillars, that was for sure. Statues, maybe?

These were definitely ruins, then. But of what? Had she sunk into an underwater cavern?

The air at the other end of the destroyed hallway briefly contorted. Enough for Yuna to catch it. She tensed up, rubbing her hands along her belly. Did she dare appro—

Wait.

Yuna ran her hands along her belly once. Twice. A third time. The drakloak looked down.

The Soul Dew!

It was gone! Her chest was bare for the first time in almost two months. She looked left, then right, then back down the stairs.

Nothing. No twinkles or glimmers or anything to suggest it was here with her.

Maybe she really was dead, then? And she bonded with her Soul Dew, so perhaps she was inside it...

"Rayquaza!" Yuna called out.

Nothing.

She cupped her hands over her mouth. "Reshiram? Cresselia?"

Still nothing.

Yuna's tail undulated wildly. "Is anyone out there?!"

This time, when the air across from her rippled, tiny black globules dribbled out. They splattered against the stone floor like raindrops.

She recognized that inky darkness. Swallowing hard, Yuna floated forward. The closer she got, the more black blobs dripped onto the ground from thin air. A black puddle spread across the floor.

It covered half the raised end of the hall when Yuna reached it. She got about a meter away from its edge and went no further.

Those were her shadows. What else could they be? Had they claimed her instead of the Soul Dew? Is this what they saw while inside her?

Yuna wouldn't make any headway like this. Maybe they'd listen to words? "What do you want?" She looked around hesitantly but refrained from asking another question.

To show you the truth.

"Gah!" Yuna grabbed the sides of her head. "H-Hey! Don't do that!" Though she couldn't put "that" into words.

Do what, answer your question?

"That!" Yuna gestured at the puddle. "Some 'not telepathy but inside my head' thingy!" It was the best explanation she had.

The puddle rippled.

This is our only way to communicate.

Yuna flinched. This "voice" was strange. A part of Yuna told her it was supposed to be deeper, yet it wasn't. She couldn't even tell if it was male or female. Yuna was sorely tempted to turn away, knowing full well it wouldn't get her out of her situation.

But she was here. The shadows were "talking." If they were going to come to an understanding, it was now or never.

Hesitating at first, Yuna managed a shaky, "What do you want to show me?"

The puddle rippled faster and faster. Shadows congealed together. Yuna half expected some monstrous daemon to emerge... but what formed was small. Even smaller than her. Two legs, a bit of an oversized head, and two head... baubles?

... No, aura feelers.

"A riolu?" Yuna tilted her head. The inky riolu mirrored her gesture. "I was hoping for answers."

You do not recognize her? Then you must focus.

The puddle rippled even faster. All around Yuna, enormous trees painted themselves over the spear-like pillars. A dusty forest trail spilled out atop the stone floor. And the inky riolu darted about in a frenzy.

Yuna hovered back, uncertain whether to expect an attack. Riolu hopped, rolled, and slid. The drakloak had no idea why. "Am I missing something?"

Focus. See the whole picture.

Ectoplasm rippling again, Yuna squinted. Giant, fluid-filled arms swung wildly at Riolu. The faint, hulking outline they were attached to brought that one bewear teacher from the academy to mind.

Riolu's inky black form jumped off an arm and thrust her hands in the bewear silhouette's direction. It staggered briefly, but managed to grab Riolu with its right hand and slam her into the ground.

The forest scene flickered like a light at Cyril's outpost that needed changing. Riolu squirmed underneath the giant hand. Their featureless face didn't move, but Yuna swore she heard screams echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Bewear's silhouette faded in and out. There were two people behind it. One was a bigger riolu— lucario, then. But the other...

Butterfree Effect.

There was no mask this time, yet their face was featureless. Lucario tried to approach Bewear, but Butterfree Effect stopped it. When it whirled on Butterfree Effect, they produced a spherical orb that sucked Lucario up in a stream of light. Just like the Soul Dew did to the Sages.

Bewear slammed Riolu into the ground again. And again. Each time, Yuna heard screams from all directions. Painfully familiar screams that grew quieter with each blow.

The final time Bewear slammed Riolu down, she lay still. Butterfree Effect gestured forward. Bewear raised its arms up, then swung once more.

Everything dissolved away the moment Bewear's fists would've crushed Riolu to death. The destroyed hallway was restored. Inky black tendrils hoisted Riolu's battered form into the air.

Yuna stared at Riolu. And the longer she did, the more her ectoplasm quivered— no, tightened. Like her body wanted to collapse in on itself.

"Stop." The drakloak squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. "I don't— none of this helps me. I don't even know what this is!"

The black puddle bubbled.

Then what of your visceral reaction?

Yuna squeezed her hands together. "Because you showed me someone getting hurt! I... I..." She looked for anything else to stare at besides the puddle. "I don't want anyone to get hurt."

Her ectoplasm tightened again. Yuna's neck and torso twisted.

You are remembering.

The drakloak stiffened. "Please stop," she whispered.

We will not. You remembered the wish you made when you were at your lowest.

Yuna's torso tightened further. She was practically an ectoplasmic rectangle balancing precariously on a stick. "I don't want to do this anymore."

Black sludge rose out of the violently rippling puddle. Growing higher and higher until there was practically a hill of black slime casting a wide shadow over Yuna. Spectral wings emerged from either side of the beast. Pristine crimson spikes illuminated two tiny red dots poking through the cylindrical head of... whatever this was.

(Art by PhantomRadea)

That is not what you told us last time.

Her body finally shot into her rectangular head. Yuna drifted back, coaxing her torso out with shaky breaths.

This had to be the source of her shadows. And given the shadows reacted every time Butterfree Effect showed up...

"You're what they're addressing." Yuna pointed a trembling arm toward them. "You're Yaldabaoth."

The red dots flickered.

No, they're more like blinking eyes.

That is one of many names.

Yuna couldn't stop herself from shaking. "Well that's... too much of a mouthful. So, I'm calling you Chaos." Since Butterfree Effect kept insisting this thing was some sort of chaos magnet.

Do what you must.

A pang of guilt struck Yuna's chest. She quickly shoved it down, though. Why have sympathy for the shadows when they were causing such a gigantic headache?

Chaos' wing-spikes flashed. Within seconds, Yuna found herself floating where Chaos' blobby form was, looking across a brighter, sunnier version of the ruined hall. Butterfree Effect's silhouette was in front of her, hunched over with arms spread wide.

"Giratina, strike her down!"

There was another human silhouette. And as Yuna felt herself lunging forward, the silhouette stretched and squashed. Unraveled into a familiar dragapult with a fierce expression.

The illusion shattered. Yuna dropped from the air with a yelp, landing on the stone floor. "What? Mom?!" She picked her head up and rubbed her eyes. Was that supposed to be a vision? No, that wasn't possible. This was a mind game.

And that phrase Butterfree Effect used. Giratina. Was that... one of Chaos' other names? Their species, perhaps?

Her gut told her the latter, which scared her even more. Why would she have a gut feeling about that?

Chaos' ooze rippled. A slimy wing extended toward her.

Up?

"No!" Yuna was going to smack the wing when she realized how stupid that was with their size difference. Remaining on the ground, she scooted back. "Stop it! Stop showing me these things! I don't want to see them! They don't— they can't mean anything!"

Silence. Black drops dribbled into the puddle from Chaos' extended wing. Their red eyes dimmed. They folded the wing against their sludgy body. Chaos looked down guiltily.

There is no way to make this gentle.

Yuna looked at her tail. Anything was better than meeting Chaos' eyes. "Am I dead?"

No. We are protecting you.

"I see." Yuna grabbed her tail and brought it toward her torso. "Am I still drowning in the river?"

We are protecting you. But our powers are limited as they are. Time is fleeting.

Yuna didn't pick herself off the ground. So, it was shielding her now, but not when she needed it against Shiva's attack? The drakloak groaned. Was she going to give Chaos the benefit of the doubt?

Silence. None of Chaos' intrusive thoughts. They weren't pressing her, despite the claim they only had so much time.

She took a breath. Then another. Yuna had plenty of questions, but if time was truly an issue, she needed one that got to the heart of the matter.

"Why are we... together like this?"

Yuna looked up expectantly. Black slime dripped and trickled into the puddle beneath Chaos. It bothered her even though she'd been around plenty of the goodra line in her life. Chaos leaned forward. Blinked their tiny red eyes a few times.

We are together... because we are one.

Flashes of red light blinded Yuna.

She lay in the dirt. Bones broken. So much pain.

Air. She needed air. Breathe, damn it! She couldn't die like this! Not with so much to live for!

Her vision blurred. Air wasn't getting in. The pain— oh, God, the agony.

She was going to die. She wasn't strong enough. She'd failed.

A shadow was there. She tried to reach a mangled blue arm out. Nickie...

Yuna jerked upright with a sharp gasp, trembling from head to tail. "I said no more mind games," the drakloak squeaked, glaring at Chaos.

We have no choice. You must understand the truth.

Yuna's ectoplasm pulsated. "I don't— this doesn't make sense. I'm not a riolu. I'm a drakloak!" Her gaze fell to her twitching tail. "I've nev— I'm not a riolu."

You were when you made your wish.

Chaos extended their goopy left wing. Their wing spikes glistened with ethereal light.

A new silhouette padded toward her. Pointy ears. A little tuft of hair. Six fluffy tails.

She sat beside her. Wrapping an arm over an icepix's shuddering form.

"We'll fix this, Nickie," she promised. "I can't imagine what it feels like. But you've worked with me despite that pain." She extended her paw toward Nickie. "I wish I could be that strong."

Yuna smacked her cheeks. Glared at Chaos once again, but they only tilted their head slightly. They didn't do that? She returned her gaze to the icepix silhouette. It stretched and pulled itself apart into something much more familiar. A specter that drew a visceral snarl from Yuna.

Xeromus.

You wished to protect those you treasured most.

The silhouette squashed back into an icepix. Riolu appeared at her side. Their snouts brushed together. Yuna's head pounded once again. Her ectoplasm quivered.

This is... all a trick. I— what— why—

You wished for a second chance.

Chaos plucked Riolu off the ground as Icepix poofed out of existence. Black and red light swirled around Riolu.

We heard your dying pleas. Too much of your soul had faded from its mortal coil. So, we gave you ours to fill the void.

She raced through the dark sky. Headed for the vortex over the tower. Temporal Tower.

She still had time. She could still stop it, right?

The scent of blood drifted over her.

Nickie and Nero. Others too, like a latias and a zoroark. Unmoving. Covered in gashes.

"NO!"

The lucario, volcanic arcanine, and spiritomb standing opposite the bodies looked right at her. Then they looked back.

Butterfree Effect turned. The crimson glow of the chain swirling around behind them cast an eerie shadow across the tower.

"You cannot stop me this time!"

Screams of pain filled her ears. Six bodies were wrapped in the Red Chain. Five had red wheels that matched the dimming golden one around the belly of the one screaming loudest: Arceus.

"I am the only one worthy of wielding the power of the legends themselves! Now witness the dawn of a new world! A perfect world free of all suffering!"

With a furious roar, she pried apart the air itself. She dove through the reverse's distortion, lunging to tear apart the Red Chain.

Yuna violently lurched backward, forcing the vision away.

"ENOUGH!" she pleaded, jerking her head back and forth. She hunched over, tail shriveling up into her torso.

"I'm Yuna." Her voice was so tiny. "I don't— that stuff is—" The drakloak shuddered. "Your memories and mine are different."

The spirit never forgets. We are one. Now and forever. That was your wish.

"That's not my spirit!" Yuna looked for a rock — hell, even a pebble — to throw at Chaos. "And it's not... it's not..." She kept stumbling over her words until her voice trailed off.

"Continuing down this path will lead you to discover several horrible truths. And without that tenacity... the weight of those truths will crush you."

The drakloak lay there in silence. Taking shuddering breaths and blinking small tears from her eyes. She wasn't sure how long the silence lingered as she repeated Vegna's words in her head. Yuna didn't even care to think about why Vegna knew to tell her something like this.

Everything about this was horrible. She thought the flashbacks with Chiron had prepared her for this, but she was dead wrong.

How deep did this go? How many memories did Chaos have? Was she... nothing but a tiny, insignificant blip to them? Doomed to be swallowed up into an endless memory abyss?

Yuna scraped her hands across the stone floor. She wanted this to end so, so badly. To wake up back in Aeon. Before the stupid treaty. Before Eternatus. And before this whole dimensional cataclysm.

Yet without even thinking, she whispered, "Help me understand."

Chaos slowly raised their right wing. The spikes glistened. Faint red light traced circles and triangles in the air. A familiar pattern. One Yuna watched Leo produce in every anomaly core. Then Chaos struck the pattern with their wing. It slowly rotated until it was upside down to how Yuna remembered.

Reverse.

The drakloak blinked slowly. "Reverse what?"

The reverse. A realm on the opposite side. We are the guardian of the reverse.

Picking herself up, Yuna stared blankly at the upside-down sigil. "That..." Blank stare turned to scowl. "That has to be the single most unhelpful explanation. And that's really saying something given all of this!" She gestured around.

Chaos' goopy body melted somewhat into the puddle.

You were not this... difficult last time.

"Because apparently I was dying!" Yuna snarled, rubbing her hands back and forth along the floor. "I was... dying..." She looked down, blinking slowly. The thoughts of icy river water suffocating her ectoplasm filled her head.

"I... am dying."

Fighting back tears, Yuna forced herself to look at the rune Chaos had drawn. More ripples ran along their puddle, up to Chaos' bulky head. They grabbed the red sigil with their right wing and squeezed it into a red orb. Then they cracked it open like an egg for cooking.

Home has two sides to it.

Chaos lifted one half of the orb up.

Aeon and Radiance dwell in the reverse world. A realm that should not bear life, much less countless civilizations.

Yuna rubbed her eyes. "That can't be right. Because—"

Eyes flashing, Chaos lifted the other half of the orb up.

The Qliphoth is the regular world. It is where all life should reside, be it humans, pokémon, or something else entirely.

Chaos brought the two halves close together, yet they never touched.

Both sides are linked. However, they are not meant to interact directly with one another.

They touched the halves together. Tiny red sparks shot out in all directions. Chaos' eyes dimmed slightly.

Eternatus' act of absorbing planets... is an attempt at restoring balance to itself. To the universe.

Yuna sat there, repeating the statement to herself. The earlier heaviness hadn't left her. And this was another weight on the pile. "But the Qliphoth... is some mix of people born within and those from home. And those people can't return outside because they're dead."

Incorrect assumptions from those who did not witness the dawn of this universe. Since the beginning, Eternatus has returned life to the regular world, where it rightfully belongs. Those you thought dead have merely attuned their souls to the regular world. And without the energy you call Malice, their spirits cannot withstand the reverse world's energy. Thus, they erode into Whispers.

But her allies had gone back and forth between Eternatus and the reverse world. "That can't be right," Yuna mumbled. "Like, why would the reverse world be so much bigger? To where Eternatus could get sealed with the Needles?"

The difference in size is a result of the universe's broken creation process. And our allies have always had protection against corrosion. From us. From the Creator. Or from other blessings.

Other blessings? Yuna squeezed her tail tighter. Much as she wanted to press that point, she feared she didn't have the time.

Still, this flew in the face of everything Yuna thought she understood. Then again, Widget mentioned a video message Nova left behind for Gene. One that claimed Eternatus was necessary for the universe to function properly. Something the emperor echoed... and Widget believed while he served the deoxys.

She shifted uneasily on the stone floor. "If this is all true, then..."

Destroying Eternatus is tantamount to destroying the universe. And the reverse world will die with it.

Chaos brought the two halves it was holding fully together. There were sparks for a few seconds, which gave way to distorted tendrils that stitched themselves through the orbs.

Aeon's patron — the dragon of light — forced a permanent union between regular and reverse. This is why the planet is falling apart. We must sever this union.

"... By pulling all the Needles." Yuna grimaced. "Except Necrozma wants to pull them all to destroy Eternatus. If we break the union and strand him in the reverse world, then Eternatus will be safe, right?"

Chaos squeezed the orb and it faded into red mist.

The husk can travel between regular and reverse, just as we do. It still endangers us all.

Right. All the rift making. Yuna looked at her hands. At least now... she could try and link this back to what was familiar. "That power... I have it because I'm Chiron. You were a part of me then, too, weren't you?"

Silence. Chaos somewhat melted into the puddle again, which told Yuna the answer was somewhere between "no" and "it's complicated."

A tremor ran across the ground. Yuna braced herself against the floor. Was Chaos' protection from the river failing?

"I have to know," Yuna said, even if part of her screamed to just end this conversation.

Chaos straightened up. Inky blobs peeled themselves off Chaos' goopy body.

Many giratina are violently protective toward the reverse world. We once struggled to control our instincts, to the point of attacking the Creator. For that, we were branded the Renegade. And, like many of our kind, the Creator sealed most of our power within the reverse world.

We were shunned. Isolated. An all too familiar fate.

The blobs squished themselves together into a copy of the Butterfree Effect.

One day, we met a human. Lost and confused. He claimed he was torn away from his time.

The copy turned to Chaos and extended a hand.

He paid attention to us. He wanted to see us reach our full potential. We were... happy to have someone acknowledge us. So, we followed his plan. We tore a rift in the sky. Our siblings, Time and Space, blamed one another and quarreled. The human wanted us to work together to stop them. To prove our combined worth to the Creator.

Another human silhouette rose from the puddle and stood in opposition to Butterfree Effect. The one that briefly turned into Yiazmat when Yuna was charging at it in an earlier vision.

But our creator instead called upon a different human. She and her partners stopped the fight before we could. This enraged the human we trusted. He used our gift to him to summon us. Demanded we kill her. But we saw the good in her heart. And her partners stood valiantly against us.

The human continued to demand we kill her. He betrayed our trust. So, we fled. The human branded us a traitor. We were alone once again.

Chaos flicked their right wing. Butterfree Effect disappeared, leaving the girl. She turned to Chaos and tilted her head.

The girl found us. Comforted us. She taught us how to work with a team. How to protect without lashing out. We made up with our siblings and the Creator.

They slowly lowered their head and shook it.

But the human that betrayed us returned. Determined to surpass all of us, including the Creator. We sensed he had breached the boundary between worlds. With the girl's blessing, we gave chase.

The girl's silhouette collapsed. Small black blobs floated in the air between Yuna and Chaos.

We followed him to other worlds. Each time, we joined with that realm's giratina to try and stop him. Each time, he slipped away. Over and over. Until the human reached a world inhabited only by pokémon.

The black blobs squished themselves together. Riolu landed on the edge of the puddle.

Though we searched, we could not find the human until the moment we met you... and heard your dying wish.

The ground trembled again. This was... a lot to process. If she and Chaos were really the same spirit, did that make this her past? Did she have several pasts... all spent trying and failing to catch Butterfree Effect?

Yuna pushed herself into the air. "How does this tie back to Chiron?"

We saw it for ourselves, remember? The human forged a new world. We attacked the human. Disrupted his new world's creation. The result... was a backwards, incomplete world. With life split between the regular and reverse.

There was nothing we could do to fix it. Our power — the power of the Renegade — was taken from us after we finished disrupting this universe's creation.

Chaos extended their right wing. Several black globs dribbled down. A new human rose from the edge of the puddle. Ran inky hands through shaggy, unkempt hair. Yuna heard nothing, but the way the human was gesturing and stomping around, they were clearly angry. Punching the air. Knocking things off invisible furniture.

They tossed a black blob on the ground in front of Yuna. It vaguely resembled one of those handheld gaming device thingies she'd seen Cyril carry around on occasion.

The human suddenly jerked backwards. Black tendrils pried themselves free and sucked the human up. The black slime swirled around until it resembled a silhouette of Bahamut.

The new, broken world drew in an isolated soul so full of resentment and anger toward everything around him. Despite all our training, this stranger's violent temperament... overpowered our will. He seized our power over the reverse world. In effect, the dragon of light became the Renegade Pokémon of the newly-made universe.

Yuna frowned. Something was off about that. It sounded so... vague compared to everything else Chaos told her. And their tone. Yuna still had trouble parsing it, but she had another gut feeling.

They're... uncertain?

Chaos didn't appear bothered. They watched Bahamut's silhouette fly around, lashing out at the air with his wings and tail. Yuna followed the silhouette, too. The ringing in her head was back. Maybe she was rushing to conclusions about this part of Chaos' explanation?

Then Bahamut was... like her. A past life cut short. But instead of a dying wish... his wrath twisted him into the thing Chaos used to be before that human girl helped them?

"So the reason he kept attacking the planets he visited..." Frowning, the drakloak crossed her arms. "And the reason he wants to destroy Eternatus above everything... is because he thinks he's protecting the reverse world."

Chaos nodded slowly.

He embodies our kind far more than we do. His irrational drive to claim as much power as possible to strike down Eternatus... is built on the foundation of a violent desire to protect his domain.

They caught Bahamut with their right wing, absorbing the black slime.

However, thanks to Eternatus wounding him, he lost the power to control the reverse world. We escaped. And reunited.

That had to refer to the Darkest Day. Bahamut's light... must have been how he did all this crazy stuff in the reverse world. And if that power was supposed to belong to Yuna... then it was no wonder she bonded with the Soul Dew when Chiron didn't. That was her power all along!

But then... what did that mean for her relation to Chiron? It certainly didn't sound like Chaos had an answer for her.

Yuna looked down at her tail. "Mom said she found me sealed in a crystal." Did that mean Chaos searched for her until she hatched? "Wait, what about how sick I was as a kid?"

Chaos lowered their head slightly.

"Don't tell me..."

Your illness was a result of our reunion. You remained sick while our broken soul healed. Even though you recovered, we remained dormant until recently. Recuperating from our time within the dragon of light.

It took a moment, but Yuna recalled the strange temple inside Eternatus. The fight with Runerigus and the shadowy wings that came to her in a time of need...

The ground shook again. Chaos' inky puddle rippled faster.

We are out of time.

Relief and dread battled it out in Yuna's head. She still had more questions! How was she supposed to try and free herself from drowning with this weighing on her conscience?!

We must fully combine. You must shed your drakloak guise. We shall become one in mind, body, and spirit. Then we can fully wield the power of distortion. The power you call your "shadows."

Chaos clapped their wings together. Two cards appeared in front of their wing spikes. One with an orange and yellow sun, the other bearing a blue and purple crescent moon. Each had a mixture of letters on them. "XVIII" for the moon card and "XIX" for the sun card.

We will also allow you to put these to use. They've lingered deep inside your soul all this time.

Yuna stared at the cards. Chaos' demands played on loop in her head. After several seconds, she shriveled up.

"No," she instinctively mumbled. She couldn't agree to that. Not if it meant getting battered by the tsunami of Chaos' memories... or past selves.

And certainly not if it meant Yuna would fade away. She couldn't leave the others! Especially not Noctum and Nikki.

The icepix's soft tails brushing against her side. A tingle down her spine.

You speak nonsense. You already fear transforming into Chiron. But that shall not happen. Instead, we will hold memories of our time as Drakloak Yuna.

"That's not good enough!" Yuna firmly squeezed her arms against her side. "I'm... I'm not ready! I can't—" She shook her head. "I can't disappear! Whether that's becoming you or Chiron or something else!

"The past doesn't matter! I'm me! I'm Yuna! We have to find another way!"

The ground rumbled again. Purple fissures traced across the floor, barely skirting Chaos' puddle.

We are out of time. There is no other way. We must combine.

"I said no!" Yuna surprised herself with her intensity. "This... this is still my life—"

We cannot stand up against Zodiark like this.

Zodiark? Was that... Butterfree Effect's real name? Or their name back when they were the human Chaos was chasing after?

It didn't matter. Yuna had made up her mind. "I understand what you're saying, but I can't go. Not like this."

The drakloak curled her hands up. "I refuse... to merge."

Was it selfish? Maybe. But Yuna needed time to come to grips with everything. She couldn't disappear after learning all of this.

The ground shuddered again.

"Give me... a bit more power," the drakloak said. "Enough to fight the Whispers." She looked down. Guilt and concern wrestled in her head.

Very well.

What?

Yuna glanced at Chaos. They were halfway sunken into their puddle.

"You're okay with this?"

We remain bound by your wish. We shall not hurt you.

Yuna bit her lower lip to keep from making a snide remark. "All right." She took a calming breath. "Then let's... work together. In parallel. Not as one." Her tail rippled. "Okay?"

We shall assist, but it is only a matter of time until you yield to the inevitable.

Chaos' head sank into the puddle. It rippled faster and faster.

Yuna doubled over in pain. Her chest... it was on fire! Was the Soul Dew doing something to her real body?

The burning got worse and worse. Yuna screamed. Jagged, amber crystal burst from her chest ectoplasm.

The puddle rose from the ground like a large wave heading for the shore.

... That shore being Yuna.

"What are you doing?" Her new chest crystal spread light across her body. "Stop! Stop! I said no merging! STOP!"

BISHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!

The black wave crashed over her, flooding her world in darkness.

XxX​

Gene's tail lashed at the air. They had numbers on the Whispers and this was still a problem?

He Phantom Warped just south of midfield, avoiding a wall of shadowfire. The shadowy mewtwo already learned the hard way those flames were dark-type. For some stupid reason.

"What are you waiting for? Hit him!" he growled. Flames gathered in his right hand. Gene hurled the Fire Blast, figuring that bug-shaped crystal on Ifrit's head had to symbolize "fire gud."

Black flames swirled around midfield. Ifrit's dark whirlwind knocked aside the five prongs of Gene's Fire Blast. Quetzal retreated toward Gene.

"I'm trying!" the orange zapdos squawked.

"No you're not!" Gene had another Fire Blast ready and hurled it at the dark moltres. He glared at Quetzal, who formed a spinning air cone around his beak and charged toward midfield.

Ifrit folded his wings, dropping to the ground. The Fire Blast sailed overhead. He threw up his wings, blunting some of Quetzal's Drill Peck. But Ifrit still skidded across the scorched ground.

"You're pulling your punches!" Gene's Malice Crystal sparked. "Don't try to deny it! You still see your friend and not some mindless murder bird who wants to gouge your eyes out!"

"Th-that's—" Quetzal jumped high enough to avoid a furious Air Slash barrage that sliced up midfield's ruined grass. "Ifrit doesn't resort to gouging eyes! That's barbaric!"

Gene swapped fire for lightning. He pointed his right hand downfield and let the sparks fly. Ifrit rolled out of the way.

"You want to do the 'I know you're in there' schtick? Then do it!" Gene pursued Ifrit. The black moltres couldn't gather up enough shadowfire to strike. Instead, Gene broadsided Ifrit with his spoon. Ifrit skipped back across the ground, toward the northern end of the field.

"Did you really have to hit him that hard?" Quetzal said. His feathers puffed out when Gene leveled the spoon in his direction.

"Hey, uh, not to interject or anything." Koraidon's voice carried through Gene's X-transceiver. He glanced up. In the nosebleed section of the eastern stands, Jade was fleeing an Air Slash bombardment from Shiva. The weird stoic human remained atop the psychic articuno's back.

"How much longer do you think you'll be? These Team Rocket people have stolen a lot of pokémon with their, err, giant meowth machine. I think they might fly the coop soon."

Gene gnashed his teeth. Damn it. Yuna vanished five minutes ago and everything since then had spiraled out of control.

"I'm handling it," the shadowy mewtwo said. "Just gimme a minute or two." He concentrated on the Malice Crystal in his shoulder, drawing in as much of the energy as he could.

"This is no way to treat a lady!" Jade cawed, trying to outfly a furious tornado spiraling through the stands, flinging seating all around. "Cece! Undisappear yourself and heeeeeeeeelp!"

"Your friend is gone," the trainer on Shiva's back said. "They were boring. As are you. Nothing but dodges and quips. Do you even have a reason to be here?"

Jade turned around, stunned. Gene took the opportunity to fire a small Shadow Ball at Shiva. It provided a temporary distraction, with the masked articuno stopping to snuff the ectoplasm out with more pink eye lasers.

The salugia didn't press her opening, though. Gene was ready to chew her out like he did to Quetzal when a thunderous boom split the air.

Red and purple energy streaming from his Malice Crystal into his torso, Gene shot up high above midfield. "Tell me the big robot didn't just do something awful!" he cried.

"The robot didn't make that sound," Koraidon said. "Something emerged from the river. I think it's Yuna!"

Shiva turned toward Gene. "What?" The trainer finally sounded something other than disinterested.

Gene was ready to take advantage of the opening when a jagged purple rift split the air underneath Shiva open. There was a roar, followed by a spectral wing slashing Shiva from below. An off-pitch warble escaped the masked articuno's beak as she buckled in midair from the strike. The trainer visibly struggled to maintain his grip.

"Impossible," he said.

Shiva swept pink eye lasers beneath her. However, the spectral wing vanished. A dragapult appeared over Shiva's head. She punched the air furiously and large, gray, ectoplasmic legs pummeled the unsuspecting articuno, knocking her into the stands, then swatting her toward the northern part of the ruined battlefield. The trainer lost his grip and was soon in freefall toward the uneven ground.

"Someone catch him!" Gene shouted, still a bit stunned at what he was seeing.

"On it!"

An orange streak surged across the burnt, torn-up grass. Quetzal abruptly stopped in the perfect spot to catch the trainer.

Gene spotted Ifrit preparing to hit Quetzal from behind. The shadowy mewtwo had all this energy charged up. With Shiva occupied, he had no qualms about changing targets.

Gene cupped his hands in front of him. Focusing on that hateful energy burning inside his chest, he pushed it along his arms... then unleashed the devastating red and purple beam. It swept across the ground, torching the remaining grass away and leaving a trail of black ooze behind.

"Holy hell!"

Nikki barely managed to escape to midfield from the beam, carrying the unconscious pikachu that had given her problems before under her shoulder. She stared dumbly at Gene's attack.

It was tough controlling the beam. But the thing was large enough to swallow the squawking moltres up. Shattered crystal fragments tumbled across the scorched field.

Gene's arms were on fire. He thought they'd melt right off his shoulders! Gene barely managed to cut the beam off. Black vapor rose off his arms, which he rapidly shook out.

"He's down!"

Running up the field, Nikki tossed Pikachu next to Ifrit, whose head crystal had shattered. The two foes lay side by side in an unconscious heap.

That's one. Gene turned. So, what about the other?

Shiva flew around the eastern stands, frantically shooting pink beams from her eyes. All the while, the dragapult weaved through the beams, blasting dreepy-shaped bolts straight into Shiva's face. Shrieking, the masked articuno whipped up a furious Hurricane.

(Art by Adam)

"Not this time! Drilpa ozongon!"

Dragapult— no, Yuna clapped her hands together. The jagged, amber crystal in her chest crackled with the same static as the rifts they conjured.

Mega Rayquaza torpedoed his way through the Hurricane, snuffing it out like it was nothing but a stiff breeze. His Dragon Ascent collided with Shiva. Before she could crash through the stands, another shadowy wing caught her by the balloon-shaped head crystals and dragged her through the air toward her downed allies.

"Now flock off, Feather Face!"

The wing squeezed the psychic articuno like an oversized stress ball. Her head crystal shattered. Shiva's body lurched. Static streamed out of her, heading roughly in the direction of where Gene recalled the vault was.

Though part of it briefly congealed into something resembling a face. A human face.

"Welcome back, Yaldabaoth."

The rest of the static went away. Yuna flew after it, looking over her shoulder at the others.

"Yuna?" Jade descended from the nosebleed section, an uncertain look on her face. "You evolved? But what's with your chest? Where's the Soul Dew?"

She turned away from Jade and tapped the side of her head. "Whoever has Leo, get him ready to seal the anomaly core. I'm coming to get him."

"H-Hey, wait!" Jade flew toward her. "What should we do about all of this?" She gestured around her.

But the dragapult didn't respond. She opened a rift behind her, flew into it, and sealed it up.

XxX​

Path of Valor Almanac
"Drilpa ozongon" is "great winds" in Enochian.

Chaos is the mythological void within the area of cosmogony. Ancient Greek myths consider Chaos a primordial deity or a void state existing before the universe's creation. Christian theology depicts Chaos as an abyss formed when God separated heaven and earth during the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis.

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 84: Lustrous Sheen​

Rough scales grazed Noctum's arms, telling him he'd gotten Valkyrie. He yanked her through the rift, but not before searing pain shot across his arms. Yowling, the black charizard fell on his back, with a dazed Valkyrie flopping onto his armored belly.

Up on the rooftop, giant dragon wings swirled around in a blue-purple vortex. A few panicking dragons on the ground fled from near the building, pointing and shouting. Debris rained down from the rooftop.

From his cramped confines by the child's side, Noctum saw a dome of multicolored, prismatic light erupt from Time. It blotted out the sky, rift and all.

"What the—" Noctum slid back, blinking rapidly and wincing. Nicks and scrapes covered his arms down to his claws. "That's gotta be a Dynaforce attack, right?" And was it making him see things?

"The dragon one," Cyril said before unseen hands grabbed Noctum and pulled him to his feet. "That's your king, right?"

Noctum's violet flame rippled uneasily. "That's what the queen's saying." He glanced to his right, where the dragapult directed some dragons to form up around her. She struggled to keep a straight face. "But it sounds like... he got hit by Malice or something."

"Nah. It's Halvus."

Valkyrie got to her feet, groaning. "Halvwho?"

"One of the Paradigm." The cosmic zoroark spotted three Eternatus Gunners halfway between them and Halvus taking aim. He slung a Shadow Ball to his left, growling when they successfully scattered. Seifer and Biff raced in from Cyril's left, downing them before they got their attacks off.

"Halvus is some kind of munitions expert. But he's also lazy. Rarely gets involved in things directly. Don't know why the emperor would send him after us."

Noctum saw Seifer running toward the side of the League building. "What do you think you're doing?!" the keldeo cried. "Stop! There could be innocent people inside!"

"Aww, how cute! The rebel is trying to look like a hero!" An Eternatus Bombardier appeared from around the building's corner. Lightning crackled in its cannons. "But we evacuated everyone! Besides, we can rebuild it! We have the technology!"

The massive duraludon laughed and slammed his right hand against the League Headquarters. With a terrified whinny, Seifer galloped away.

"Look out!" Noctum again went for the rift option... but the energy fizzled out as quickly as it materialized. "What?! No, it worked before!"

Noctum flew around the center of the black and purple rift, right arm raised. Time glared back from across the rift. Noctum raised his arm, but no energy formed. "This is your fault!"

"Don't blame me for your failures!" Time snarled back.

"Seifer!" Cyril vaulted over the now-disoriented black charizard, lobbing a Shadow Ball with two hands like a baccer ball. It dampened enough of the boasting Bombardier's dual Thunders for Seifer to escape them and the rubble that poured over the scorched ground seconds later.

"Thanks!" The keldeo reached the trio, panting heavily. Noctum stared blankly at him. Why was he seeing faint outlines of metallic claws on Seifer's hooves?!

Cyril put his hands on his hips. "Now who's being the reckless dummy?"

Seifer's face reddened. Valkyrie got between the two. "Keep it in your fur. We've got bigger problems here!" She jerked her head behind her.

"All this running. So tiring, don't you think?" Halvus' voice was surprisingly higher-pitched than Calcifer's, despite the giant size. "Why don't you relax? Let me sweep your troubles away!"

His eyes flickered purple. Blue-violet wind ripped up the grass around them. "Run!" Valkyrie jetted to her left. It was faster for Noctum to fly backwards, so he had to separate from the other three. Like before, giant blue-violet dragon wings spun around inside the vortex. Even though Noctum avoided the blow, fatigue gripped him. He folded his wings in and stumbled across the grass.

"Now!"

Noctum scarcely had time to look up before electrified rocks battered him from above. The black charizard staggered back with each strike, before a lightning bolt struck him square in the gut. He fell to his back. Sparks jumped around his armor plate. The world spun around him.

The tachyons pummeled Noctum's right shoulder. Roaring in pain, he floated back. Threw his left arm over his pink shoulder gem. "You'll pay for that!"

"Try it!" Time reared up on their hind legs, temporal energy gathering once more in their maw.

"—ver me, damn it!"

Blurry flashes around Noctum caught his attention. Scaly arms grabbed his left shoulder and fuzzy ones yanked his right, hoisting him to his feet. Then the juiciness of an oran berry filled Noctum's mouth. The black charizard forced himself to chew before he could choke on it.

Blinking away the last fuzziness from his vision, Noctum saw Seifer and Biff zigzagging toward Halvus by ground and air, respectively. Aeon dragons backed them up from the far right, shooting Cosmic Blessing's rainbow waves at the Eternatus Troopers.

"Something's wrong." Noctum rubbed his head. "That daemon's attack..."

"It's Halvus' specialty," Cyril growled, running yellow claws through his starcloud mane. "He saps your energy. Makes it harder to use whatever your last technique was in a battle. I call it Dyna Depletion."

Valkyrie frowned. "It's just Spite, then?"

"If Spite hurt like a bitch."

The mega garchomp's snout wrinkled in disgust. "Lovely. What the hell do we do about it?"

"Personally?" Cyril glanced over his shoulder. "I'd say keep your distance."

"Sheesh!" Halvus swatted the ground. Seifer barely managed to leap over his giant duraludon arm and sling an Aura Sphere at the middle of his head. Halvus took a step back from the blow. "All the nervous energy in the world can't help you idiots. You're working harder, not smarter."

Noctum shifted uneasily. "I can't fight from this far." And Calcifer was still in there. He had to be. "What am I supposed to do? I won't give up on the king."

"No one's giving up on him," Cyril cut in. "We gotta reevaluate our approach."

"By doing what?" Noctum could only watch Seifer and the others hopping around like frenzied spoink for so long. He noticed Biff swooping beneath a Rock Blast flurry and uppercutting an Eternatus Gunner. It pinwheeled toward Halvus. The giant duraludon spat a burst of metal at it, destroying it instantly.

"That's it!" the black charizard said. "We don't approach directly. We hit 'em with his flunkies. Like Iron Jugulis."

A growl escaped Valkyrie's snout. "Great." The garchomp hopped forward, then shot a Dragon Pulse ahead at an Eternatus Gunner. It burst apart. "Hmph. Did the emperor send the Troopers made of tissue paper or something?"

Shrugging, Cyril strolled away from them. "You're bright. Bet you'll come up with something."

Noctum was sorely tempted to talk back to the cosmic zoroark, but he saw Halvus gearing up for another attack. The black charizard flew into the air. Rather than a Dragon Pulse, he spewed some Dragonbreath at an Eternatus Bombardier. It held up its blasters to shield itself, but that gave Noctum the opening to swoop in. He swiped it with Metal Claws.

"Gah!" The Bombardier tumbled through the air, striking Halvus' long, building-like torso.

"Gnrk!" Halvus rested his left arm against the somewhat destroyed League building. "Nah, you ain't taking my load off, rebel scum! Troopers, fall back!"

The Gunners and Bombardiers taking aim stopped and looked at Halvus. "Are you sure?" one Gunner asked.

Blue-violet winds swirled to Halvus' right, around Seifer, Biff, and several of the Troopers. They hastily flew away, mechanical arms and tentacles flailing.

Noctum kept his distance, biting his lip. So much for his bright idea. Maybe they really did learn from Iron Jugulis.

"Anyone else got anything?" Valkyrie charged across the uneven ground. "Because I'm about to start ripping this place up with Earthquakes."

Seifer's tail frazzled. He jumped toward Biff. The buzzwole grabbed him and shot skyward. True to her word, Valkyrie slammed her scythe-like arms onto the ground. Fissures raced toward the corner of the building.

Halvus' right foot sank into one of the gaps. His growl reverberated through the area. "All that effort for so very little!"

The giant duraludon's eyes sparked pink. As his left leg also sank into the ground, he unleashed another Dyna Depletion. Noctum tried to throw open a rift and get to Valkyrie, but it fizzled out like before. Neither Biff nor Cyril could get there, either. The mega garchomp dove into the fissures her Earthquake made. Noctum's purple tail flame flickered in surprise.

"Attack!"

Yiazmat unleashed a flurry of Dragon Darts from Noctum's far left, over by the rift. Goodra and Noivern flanking her added Dragon Pulses. Seifer fired an Aura Sphere from the tip of his prosthetic horn. Noctum added his own Dragon Pulse.

"Waste of effort!" Halvus flicked his right hand. Giant metal spikes erupted from the crevices Valkyrie's Earthquakes carved. A few punctured the League building, flinging more rubble around. More disappointing, however, was when the spikes blocked the team's combined attacks.

Seconds later, a roar rang out. Another metal spike burst from the ground, knocking Valkyrie back. The mega garchomp rolled to a stop. Her mega evolution vanished in an orange flash, leaving the large gash along her left side all too visible to Noctum.

The human stared Time down. Their most ferocious attack charged in their mouth.

She gripped Noctum's ball tightly. Could he do this? His previous clashes with Time had gone poorly for him...

What was Noctum doing? He had to fight through these stupid mind games!

"Valkyrie!" The black charizard dove down from the air.

"So much energy wasted." Halvus' laughter rumbled through the area. "I'm telling ya, relax. Don't you think it's time you had yourselves a break?"

Noctum landed beside the garchomp. Jeez that wound was bleeding. She needed orans right away. Or a healer. "Heeey! Help!"

Bag, bag, where was her— there!

He lunged for it, flopping over her in the process.

"Grrraaaarrrgh!"

Valkyrie's arms dug into Noctum's sides. "Sorry, sorry! I just gotta grab the— got 'em!"

Noctum had an oran in each hand. All he had to do was feed them to her.

"Get out of there!" Cyril cried. "You're sitting ducklett!"

He looked up and saw Halvus conjuring more blue-violet wind. Another Dyna Depletion. Noctum had to lift Valkyrie up and get her away. But even without the mega evolution, she was heavy. Biff was still carrying Seifer, so the buzzwole was out. The best he could do was throw himself over the garchomp and hope to guard her that way.

Except instead of the attack, there were a couple of loud caws, followed by metallic thuds. Warm light washed over Noctum. Valkyrie shoved him off her. Much of her large gash was healed. But how?

"Do forgive the discourtesy of my fashionably late arrival."

Valkyrie shoved Noctum further off, giving him a clear view of Vegna. Gold mist seeped through cracks running between the dusknoir's fingers. Vegna didn't acknowledge him any further, pivoting and waving his right hand.

"Slice! Burn!"

"Hey, Tin Can, how's about I introduce you to Can and Opener? Ha ha haaaaah!"

Noctum lumbered to his feet. Near the building, Griffon darted around Halvus, swiping at the giant duraldon's trapped legs with his talons. Flames struck Halvus from behind every time he tried to strike Griffon, disrupting his rhythm. Talonflame's Flare Blitzing form crashed into Halvus' right arm, then darted away from a retaliatory swipe.

"Thanks for the save," Noctum said. It didn't look like Vegna's birds were doing much other than annoying Halvus, but it was giving everyone else room to pepper him with equally tiny attacks.

"Give me my husband back!" Yiazmat roared from over by the rift. Instead of Dragon Darts, rainbow bursts of Cosmic Blessings emerged from her horns.

"Don't you have a giant dragon of your own to summon?" Valkyrie growled. She was still a bit dazed and slow to get up.

"I can't summon Zekrom and heal you with Morning Sun." Vegna's right hand trembled until the gold fissures sealed themselves. "Pray forgive the inconvenience of my frail, crumbling body."

Noctum frowned. "Why does a dusknoir even have Morning Sun?"

Vegna turned away from them. "A story for another day. Do you want to strike down this daemon or not?" He drifted higher into the air, making small hand gestures that translated to Griffon and Talonflame circling up around one another.

"Right." The black charizard winced. "All these strikes and he's still standing."

"It's almost as if he's giant and tanky." Valkyrie looked down at herself. "And my mega's gone." She snorted out blue-purple embers. "I can still Earthquake, though." The garchomp held her arms at her side. "Everyone get clear!"

A quick flap of his wings was all Noctum needed. Valkyrie ran forward, feinting right, then darting left in case Halvus tried to intercept her. Yiazmat directed her dragon troops even closer to the rift, aiming Cosmic Blessings at Halvus' face to keep him distracted.

"C'mon, dear! You can't let him control you like this!" she pleaded.

"Shouting. Attacking. Wasteful, wasteful, wasteful!" Halvus braced his left arm against the half-destroyed building. "I'll make all of you relax!"

Blue-violet winds stirred. This blue-violet vortex covered half the field between the rift and the building! And Valkyrie was charging right into it! The garchomp saw it, but the ground was too torn apart for her to dive underneath like before.

She hurled his ball forward. Noctum had one shot— one chance to protect them from Time's wrath!

Noctum concentrated on the Malice Crystal in his gut. Sure, his energy was depleted. But it wasn't that far. Just one rift. One rift. He could do it. He had to do it!

He hit the stone ground of the temple and braced himself. Spacial Rend... he needed as strong a Spacial Rend as he could muster! Human temple for the Creator be damned!

His belly burned. A sudden power surge swelled through him. With a mighty roar, Noctum clawed at the air. He pried a rift open behind Valkyrie, then yanked her back. But the attack would carry through the rift if he left it open. So, the black charizard dove through it.

The Roar of Time raced right toward him. Noctum raised his arms, then thrust them forward.

"Noctum, no! Don't be an idiot!" Valkyrie cried.

He shut the rift just as the giant dragon wings erupted from what was left of the ground. Arms crossed, Noctum threw up a Protect shield. He doubted it could deflect a whole Dynaforce attack, but at least only his Protect power would get depleted.

His claws slashed through the blue beam. Shimmering rifts collided with tachyons.

"What the—"

Where was the pain? There should've been dragon energy slicing through Noctum. But all he could feel was that burning from his belly getting hotter and hotter and hotter.

The humans scattered with startled cries. An explosion engulfed Noctum and Time. Broken pieces of the temple's roof and stone pillars careened down the sides of the sky-piercing mountain.

Noctum thrashed his head back and forth. The burning was getting worse with every second! Like an invisible force stabbing him in the stomach over and over again. Noctum wanted to double over but forced himself to hang tough.

Anything to protect her. Anything to save Calcifer.

"I... must... proteeeeeeeeect!"

Noctum floated in a black void. Where were his arms and legs? Why couldn't he feel anything?

... Ah, wait, there! A small mote of light!

He got closer. It was... a tail flame? From a charmander?

There were shouts outside of the Dyna Depletion. Was someone saying something about absorption?

The charmander was thin. Frail. Its tail flame tiny, yet vibrant against the backdrop of the black void. It looked up at Noctum and smiled.

He recognized that smile... because it was his smile.

Charmander turned and walked away. Noctum followed, trying to call out to it.

Noctum snapped out of the vision to find his Protect's blue glow absent. Noctum was standing there, arms crossed, watching the Dyna Depletion funnel into his belly. Cracks spread along his armor until it shattered, metal pieces dropping by his feet.

"Wh... at..."

He was back in the void. Charmander was walking faster. There was pink light in the distance. Getting closer and closer.

Charmander walked up to the light. It was... an orb. Different shades of pink swirled around inside it. The orb pushed and pulled the pink light around it like waves lapping against a shoreline.

Every push and pull had a noise. Lub-dup. Lub-dup.

Noctum sank into the torn ground. His knees were down in the dirt. The burning in his stomach was at a fever pitch.

The Dyna Depletion faded away. Halvus yelled something Noctum couldn't make out.

Charmander turned to Noctum and smiled. "I found it."

Noctum somehow found his voice. "Found what?"

"Our lustrous heart."

Charmander gave Noctum one last serene smile before dissolving into the orb... which slammed into Noctum's belly.

The burning in the pit of his stomach erupted! Noctum arched backwards with a frenzied roar. His Malice Crystal melted into his gut. Blue scales painted over his tan ones as the charizard shot forward. Violet flames crackled in the corners of his vision. Had he mega evolved?

Noctum sliced apart Draco Meteors from the heavens, giving the human time to hurl balms at Time's Creator-esque torso.

It didn't matter! It was time to put an end to this!

Noctum raced toward Halvus' foot. Purple, starry Dragon Claws were at the ready. Noctum drove them into Halvus' leg.

"Waaaaaarrrgggh! Cut it out! Chill!" Halvus raised his arms up to squash Noctum like a bug.

But Noctum concentrated on that strange power swirling through him. Halvus froze in place. Pink, shimmering lines crisscrossed the giant duraludon's body. Horror set in on Halvus' face as Noctum yanked his claws out and the lines shattered the very air— no space surrounding Halvus.

A pained roar escaped Halvus before distorted energy poured out of his mouth and the wound in his leg.

"Y... ou! Re... b..." He was shrinking down, taking more chunks of the wrecked building with him. His voice was deepening, too! Had Noctum done it?

"I wi... ll remember..."

What looked like a small card drifted out of Calcifer's back and dissolved into the air. Calcifer staggered toward Noctum. He shakily held his right arm out. "Thank you."

He fell forward, head resting by Noctum's feet. "Vegna! Get over here!" Noctum said, waving both hands since he had no idea where the dusknoir went off to.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your horns on!" Griffon cawed. The corviknight landed beside him. "V's got it covered in spades. But ain't you gonna turn off your mega before you go cuckoo for Choccy Puffs?"

"Huh?" Noctum blinked, then glanced at his jagged-looking wing. "Uh, right. Lemme just..."

He took a calming breath. Then another. But he didn't feel any different. Noctum checked his wing again. Still jagged.

"Uhh..."

"And your flame. It's all galactic!" Griffon leaned over. He glanced at Noctum's belly. "Maybe your belly ate your crystal and now you're stuck as a mega?" The corviknight hopped back. "You ain't feeling all murdery, right?"

(Art by Honey_llemon)

"Of course not!" Noctum's now-starry tail flame flickered rapidly. "I don't— That is—"

Realization set in. Those visions weren't from Halvus' attacks at all. They were from deep inside. Because Noctum was... he was...

"Aw, shit." Griffon rolled his eyes. "He's totally about to pass out, ain't he?"

The last thing the cosmic charizard heard before his head struck the ground was the corviknight cawing, "See! Told ya!"

XxX​

Green and light blue this time. Complimentary enough colors, but boy were they obnoxiously bright. Not that Wyndon Stadium's lights were dark by comparison, but the switch from nighttime to an unbearably bright anomaly core threw Yuna off.

As did the small white snowflakes falling all around her.

... No, that wasn't right. The dragapult reached her right hand out and caught one.

"A feather?" Yuna examined it in her hand. It was as soft as any altaria's wings. "Okay. Leo, where'd you go?"

"Over here, Mom!"

Yuna pivoted right. The cosmic arceus stood atop a bundle of feathers vaguely resembling a flying heracross. It wasn't alone, either. Other bugs made of feathers drifted around it. A couple of pinsir here. Some ribombee and cutiefly there.

"God, this is weird."

She kept looking right, until she found a familiar braviary silhouette walking along a spiraling centiskorch.

... Also made of feathers. Because of course.

"Hmm." Alder stroked his chin. "These cores are spawning out of Ginnungagap. And Ginnungagap is the mystery dungeon between worlds. Perhaps it's best to think of the anomalies as mystery dungeons after all." He hopped into the air, gliding after Leo. "Since distortion spreads out of each core, affecting the dimension around it. Expanding the dungeon, in a manner of speaking."

Yuna blinked slowly. "Uhh... okay?" It wasn't like that changed anything about the current situation, though.

"Congratulations on your evolution, by the way!" Alder's psychic feathers shimmered. Yuna wondered if that was the projection showing his happiness.

"Oh, right. Thanks, I guess." Yuna glanced at her feet — God, that was going to take some getting used to — then flew off to follow Leo. "It just sorta happened."

After a second, she looked back at her feet. Namely, the gold-amber claws on them. It was enough to snap her out of the autopilot she'd been in since shooting out of the river.

This wasn't right. Dragapult didn't have claws like this. And why were there similarly-colored rings around her tail?!

The amber crystal in her chest sparked with light. Yuna stared aghast at it, like it was going to suck the life out of her.

Everything came rushing back. The ruined temple. Chaos, that titanic daemon. Apparently a giratina? Or maybe multiple giratina all mashed together?

Then there were the visions— no, memories. A whole other life she lived. She sounded confident and determined back then! What had happened to her? And that icepix...

Were we... together?

Yuna shook her head. Change the subject, now.

"So, does your magic dimensional lore book have any explanation for why there are gonna be two plates here instead of one?"

Alder's pink feathers stuck up straight. "Two in one core?" He looked around. "Hmm. That would explain the look of things, I suppose."

"Bugs and birds! Bugs and birds!" Leo chirped, happily hopping across feathered dustox and beautifly. Two pillars of light shimmered in the distance. Undoubtedly the two plates.

... Wait, what was that golden glimmer between the two of them?

Alder sighed. "Truthfully, I'm not sure what that indicates. Perhaps the anomalies are being drawn toward one another? If there's a plate in each one and the plates belong to POV-2020, then it's pos— hey, wait for me!"

Yuna flew over a blue and green abyss. She was much faster than before, easily passing Leo while he jumped between feathered platforms. The dragapult reached a giant frosmoth made of feathers without issue. Though closer inspection showed it was a giant frosmoth made of tiny, feathery snom.

Maybe Yuna should have counted her blessings two Whispers and Zodiark's projection were the worst things to have leaked out of this anomaly core. Could you just imagine if this thing turned people into feathers? A shiver ran up her ectoplasm.

The two plates floated in front of her. Blue feathers surrounded one. Ethereal cutiefly flew around the other. Yuna cautiously flew to the other side. Gold light spilled over her body. Her inner shadows tried to force her away from the plates.

I should've asked about that.

Yuna could berate herself later. First, the text on the plates. Then the weird gold light behind her. Yuna went for the light blue plate first.

The being poured the remains of its power into stone and buried it deep.

Well, that gave her little to go off. Was that saying these plates were supposed to be buried underground? Shaking her head, Yuna turned to the other plate.

Where all creation was born, that is the being's place of origin.

That one sent a fresh chill down to Yuna's tail. Because given what Chaos had told her... wouldn't the "place of origin" be that tower from her past memories? Where she had clashed with Zodiark in the past? Was that somehow Leo's true home?

Come to think of it, Chaos did sound a lot less... certain when they talked about attacking the Red Chain and losing their powers to Bahamut. Were they still hiding something from Yuna?

"Ta-daah!"

Leo's golden wheel sparkled as he landed next to Yuna. "So, Mom, what do I do? Eat one first? Eat 'em both?"

Yuna had no idea how to answer. With a shrug, she gave a, "Follow your heart."

"Okay!" The cosmic arceus stood up straight. His wheel flickered. Then both plates were hastily pulled toward him like pieces of meat grabbed by the burly arms of a famished kommo-o. Sky blue and lime green lines rippled across Leo's starcloud fur.

His wheel flashed. Feathers coated his right foreleg, while chitin crawled up his left.

For a moment, one of Xeromus' chain-covered forelegs superimposed itself over Leo's. Yuna abruptly shook her head and turned away from him.

"Those are taken care of, so let's see what—"

She cut herself off the moment she saw a familiar gold cylinder impaling the feathery frosmoth. A green and white crystal eye stared back at her.

"No." Yuna held her arms up and waved them in front of her face. "I'm hallucinating. That's not real. It's not a Needle in this anomaly core."

"Dungeon core!" called Alder. "And I'd say that's a Needle!"

Leo blipped in between Yuna and the Needle. Even though she floated in the air, Leo was almost at eye level with her. Which spooked her enough to send her new legs shooting up into her torso.

... Clearly, some habits died hard even after evolving.

"Is this the part where you pull an Aunt Nikki and flip the Needle off?" The cosmic arceus lifted a forehoof. "I can totally join you if you do." His golden hoof shimmered and chitinous claws replaced it, courtesy of his new plate.

Yuna fought not to have her torso suck up her much longer tail, too. Why was Leo's voice deeper? And why the enthusiasm for acting like Nikki?

Book pages fwipped from behind Yuna. "Interesting. It appears... reclaiming his plates lets Leo age?" Alder mused. "I'll have to go over the archives carefully to see if there are any records of that."

"Pssht. Sure." Leo strutted past Yuna. "You do that. I'm gonna fix this thing." He tapped Yuna on the shoulder. "That means you've gotta yank it out, Mom. Since I've gotta send everyone back home."

The dragapult's mind was still racing. Leo's aging and the Needle's presence wrestling for her undivided attention. And the revelations brought by Chaos lurked in the back, waiting to strike. She definitely couldn't hide her link with them anymore. Reshiram would never shut up if she even tried.

... And it affects them, too.

"C'mon, Mom! Standing here's getting boring."

But you loved the feathery bug platforms just minutes ago.

She couldn't help but wonder if Yiazmat felt this way when Yuna stopped playing with all her favorite childhood toys and instead wanted to be left on her own.

Sighing, Yuna approached the Needle. Behind it, the familiar circles and triangles Leo had made with the previous cores traced themselves through the air.

Yuna forced the grappling thoughts back, focusing on what memory this Needle would give her. And which Sage she was about to meet.

XxX​

Chiron truly did not understand the point of "adventuring."

Perhaps she would have gotten more out of this experience if she had legs. Or didn't float everywhere she went.

But, no, she was a lunala. Hovering beside a steep mountain trail. Watching with a bored expression as Shaymin leapt from jagged spire to rocky crag, gliding around with his tiny antler-ear-wing things.

"Remind me why we're here."

Shaymin glanced down at her, smirking. She hastily continued, "And don't you dare say 'adventuring.'" Chiron pointed an accusatory right wing-claw.

"Harsh." Shaymin wrinkled his snout. "You should be grateful I brought you along. Isn't this view bodacious?"

Chiron's right eye twitched. She had seen plenty of mountaintops in her time. This one was no different. "Yup. Tons of dirt and rocks and no trees because we're past the tree line already." The lunala folded her wings. "And only clouds below us because it's overcast."

Chuckling, Shaymin leapt up a few more spires. "Look, Moonbat Dudette, it's boring if I go right wherever Baha Blast tells me to. Terrible job. Nothing about the day to be grateful for. Y'feel me?"

Chiron did not feel him. She silently hovered up the side of the mountain, keeping her wings wrapped over her torso. "You still haven't answered my question."

Shaymin rolled his eyes. "A'ight. Chillax. I'm fetching a little star piece that fell from the sky."

"A star piece?" Chiron quirked a brow.

"Baha Blast thinks it's too small to be a meteorite." Shaymin hopped up two more rocky outcroppings. And there was something glistening several meters above him. "So, I'm here to snag it. A classic Shaymin mountain climbing adventure!"

He resumed leaping and gliding over rocky spires until he reached the twinkling part of the mountaintop.

Shaking her head, Chiron followed. The lunala still wasn't sure what Shaymin meant. "So, you think dawdling on an assignment is a good thing? What if there was something actually dangerous?"

"Then Baha Blast would send another Sage." Shaymin lazily waved a foreleg. "I'm not the action dude. I'm the adventure dude."

Chiron wondered if it was truly worth pressing Shaymin on that point. "I think... we're going to have to agree to disagree," she lazily gestured to him with her right wing, "on whatever you call this."

Shaymin poked around where the light was. His forepaws glowed green. He dug into the rock with them. "Heh. Gratitude is all about taking in what life has to offer. Everyone wants to, nrrgh, worry about the future and stuff." The light grew brighter. Shaymin scooped something with a forepaw. "But how can you look to the future if you don't appreciate what the present has to offer?"

He turned around, clutching some sort of shiny fragment in his mouth. "Gawt duh staw peas!"

The lunala mulled over Shaymin's words. Echoes of conversations with a lucario. togekiss, or roserade played back in her head. Always emphasizing working hard now for a better tomorrow.

Maybe he has a point?

Shaymin managed to glide down to a patch of rocks near her. He'd placed the glistening shard in his small bag. "Ready to head back?"

Chiron nodded slowly. "I'm assuming you want to take the scenic route."

"Heh. Fast learner."

Winking, Shaymin leaped from his perch, gliding along the mountain trail. Chuckling, Chiron hovered after him.

Maybe it wasn't a total waste of a day after all.

XxX​

Roaring, Necrozma staggered back through the gemstone cavern. Shadows swirled around his humanoid form. He threw his crystalline hands over his head. Necrozma froze the moment his crystal tendrils brushed against the cavern wall.

He knew this feeling well by now. It hadn't bothered him the first time. Or even the second. Now, though, he knew something was wrong.

Someone was taking his power from him. Necrozma doubted it was the rebellious spirit. No way it could keep its feeble form together anymore.

Which just left the one he'd sensed traces of amidst the planetary rubble. The one Mewtwo stopped him from getting to.

Necrozma's tendrils scraped against the gemstones in the rock wall.

"Chiron," he hissed. "That power is mine. And I will reclaim it."

It didn't matter what Necrozma had to do. This was the only way forward. Might made right.

He slowly started forward. Just a bit more rest... and he'd be able to open his next portal. Then Necrozma could give Earth another visit.

XxX

~Il Paradigma, No. XVI: Halvus, the Tower~
A mighty fragment that forged fearsome strongholds and weapons to keep the peace within the Benefactor. His work was always effective. A great spike in his presence and power followed Matriarch's disappearance. But as that upheaval subsided, so too did his presence within the Benefactor. Paradox's work reduced the need for his powers over time. His behavior changed, favoring whatever yielded the best result with the least effort.

XxX​

Path of Valor Almanac
In demonology, Halphas (sometimes listed as "Malthus") is an earl of the underworld within the Ars Goetia and Lesser Key of Solomon. He is typically depicted as a stock dove with a hoarse voice. Amongst his powers, Halphas can create weapons and ammunition to stock towers with.

The Tower is the sixteenth of the major arcana. In the upright position, it symbolizes distress, indignance, calamity, deception, and ruin. In the reversed position, it symbolizes abstinence, carelessness, apathy, and distraction.

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 85: Distant Tails​

OS Discrepancy Petition #94862048
PETITIONER: [Redacted]

CATEGORY: Other
SUBCATEGORY: Not Applicable
COMMENT: Look, I don't know which category this goes under. Just read the description!
DIMENSION: POV-2020
LOCATION: Not Applicable

DOES THIS PERTAIN TO SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALS (Y/N)?
Yes

HOW MANY INDIVIDUALS ARE INVOLVED?
One

WHAT AURAL STATUSES APPLY TO THE INDIVIDUAL(S)?
Unsure/decline to answer

ARE YOU SEEKING TO OPEN AN INVESTIGATION?
Yes

PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DISCREPANCY. INCLUDE REASONS FOR SEEKING TO OPEN AN INVESTIGATION IF YOU ANSWERED "YES" TO THE ABOVE.
I was going to a group session and there was a new member. A necrozma with an aura of mostly shadows augmented by a secondary light source. He called himself "Bahamut" and referred to a few details we found while investigating POV-2020. I didn't want to pry as to the exact circumstances of why he was in this group, but I'm thinking he's some sort of copy.

Whether he's a copy or the real deal doesn't matter, though. Someone was somehow able to get something out of POV-2020 and I'm betting it's after the dimension was sealed off given some of the stuff this guy was saying. And I shouldn't have to tell you guys why that's bad. The quarantine's coming undone! We need, like, a bunch of people on this ASAP!

PETITION STATUS: Closed. Not eligible for appeal.
REVIEWER RESPONSE: We are already aware of the situation. Senior Overseers checked Ginnungagap and found no vulnerabilities in the seal.
ADDENDUM: The petitioner has been placed under probation for trying to circumvent this case's final status by repeatedly refiling this petition as new discrepancies.
ADDENDUM #2: One millicycle following the above addendum, minute vulnerabilities were discovered on POV-2020's seal. The petitioner is off probation. See Incident Report POV-2020-10 or personnel file "Void Bahamut" for more details.
ADDENDUM #3: Personnel file "Void Bahamut" was renamed to "Tama" following the subject's requested name change.

XxX​

The stadium's torn up ground shook every few seconds. A result of the giant robot continuing to stomp around outside. Gene kept his eyes fixed on the meowth head, weighing his options.

Yuna had gone off to get the kid and seal the anomaly. That meant everyone would return home soon, right? He couldn't let those Rockets walk off with scores of pokémon. Yet that metal hull looked quite sturdy. And if Gene didn't aim his attacks precisely, he could injure the captured pokémon or break captured poké balls.

"Jade. You still have eyes in the sky?" Gene asked. He wasn't trying to sense the salugia's aura. "Robot still causing problems for people?"

"I don't think so?" Jade replied. She's flown somewhere outside the stadium. "It's walking around a plaza in front of the stadium. No one's there. Maybe they're taking a victory lap?"

Gene's yellow-tipped tail lashed back and forth in irritation. He drifted closer to the ground. Quetzal paced nervously between Ifrit and Shiva's unconscious forms. The orange zapdos locked eyes with Gene.

"They'll wake up, right?" Quetzal glanced at the birds. "They're breathing, so they have to be okay. Just because they didn't turn back to normal doesn't mean there's a problem." He stuck a bulky leg up. "I didn't turn back to normal."

"You mean back to electric and flying?"

Quetzal shot the snickering toxtricity behind him a dirty look. He turned back to Gene. "You have to know something about this, don't you?" His feathers puffed out. "What about the buzzwole? He got corrupted by a fighting-type core."

"And I seem to recall it took a few days before he woke up," Nikki countered. Tiny sparks jumped off her mohawk. "Meanwhile, the kid's coming to." She jerked her head in the direction of the young trainer who'd been on Shiva's back earlier. His red and white pokébase cap was torn, as was his blue vest and the white shirt underneath.

Gene hastily Phantom Warped over, practically flinging Nikki aside with a burst of levitation.

"The he— hrrrmmmph!"

A quick bit of ESP silenced Nikki. The kid was bound to freak, but better for an actual psychic like Gene to talk with him. Try and smooth stuff over.

As long as that robot doesn't fly the coop.

The boy's eyes opened. "What?" He blinked slowly. "Ugh. So tired." He slowly sat up, running a hand through his black hair. "Pikachu? Did we make it to..."

He met Gene's gaze and his voice trailed off. The shadowy mewtwo opted for telepathy. "Hello there. I need you to remain calm. You've been in an accident."

Gene expected panicked screams, but instead got a tilt of the boy's head. "Mewtwo?" he said, raising a brow. "What happened to you? Your color's all weird." He eyed the Malice Crystal. "And that doesn't look healthy!" His concerned expression intensified. "And what about all the pokémon you said you're protecting?"

Oh, wonderful. This dimension had a mewtwo. Gene decided against grappling with those implications. But he didn't feel as remorseful about ripping the proverbial bandage off.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not the mewtwo you know. Name's Gene. Here from another universe. Can I get a name?"

"Yeah." The boy slowly got to his feet. "The name's Ash Ketchum. From—" He reached up to adjust his hat only to cut himself off. His expression darkened as his fingers grazed the torn fabric. "Pallet Town, I guess."

"You guess?" Now it was Gene's turn to raise a brow.

Ash tipped the brim of his cap down so it obscured his face. "Something happened. My friends and family... turned against me. Took all of my pokémon away, saying I didn't deserve them. Only one who stood by me was Pikachu." He lifted his cap brim. "Ah! Pikachu!" Ash cupped his hands over his mouth. "Piiikachuuuuu!"

"Relax, he's fine."

Gene's Malice Crystal sparked as Nikki walked up, carrying Pikachu by the tail. "Out cold. But fine," she said.

"Oh no!" Ash ran right past Gene. "Pikachu, what happened to you?"

"Brainwashed. Same as you." Nikki made a cuckoo sign. Gene immediately glared at her and pulled Pikachu away with a telekinetic yank.

"Here." Gene handed Pikachu over to Ash, who cradled him in his arms. "You seem remarkably calm for someone who just saw a pokémon talking like a human." He paused. "And casually claim you were brainwashed."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Ash shuddered. "And I know a talking meowth."

"Right. Team Rocket." Gene resisted the urge to turn around and look for the robot.

"Wait, they're here?" Ash almost took on a fighting stance before remembering he was holding Pikachu. "Don't tell me they're up to something! I—" He stopped and glanced down at Pikachu. "—don't have a way to stop them." His shoulders sagged.

Gene held up a hand. "One step at a time, kid. Let's go back to Pallet for a second. What do you actually remember?"

Ash frowned and looked away. The shadowy mewtwo rolled his eyes. "We can do this the easy way or the 'powerful psychic sifts through my thoughts' way. I'm pretty sure you'd prefer the former."

There was an awkward silence. Then Ash stepped back. "That's more like Mewtwo," he mumbled. He fixed his gaze on Pikachu. "I don't want to remember it. They were all just... so angry with me. And I don't even understand why! Calling me an idiot and a fool and stuff."

Tail twitching, Gene nodded slowly. "And did anything else seem off about them. Like, say, facial expressions?"

Ash's face scrunched up in thought. "Uhh, I don't really know." He lightly kicked at the dirt under his sneakers. "All that stuff they said piled up so quickly I just shut down. I felt so empty." Ash then held up Pikachu. "Pikachu shocked them all and managed to get me away. And it felt like... like he knew what would be able to help me. So, I followed him." He looked around. "And now I'm here."

It was hardly concrete. But from that alone, Gene had a sneaking suspicion that the mysterious voice that warned Yuna about the kid being in the vault in the first place was behind this.

"Okay." Gene clasped his hands together in front of his head. "So, like, I get you think all your friends and family hate you or whatever. But there are definitely people who care about you." Now the shadowy mewtwo allowed himself to turn around. "Those Team Rocket doofuses were worried about you. They agreed to work together with my team so we could rescue you."

Ash's eyes widened. "They did what?!"

"Oi, pick up the pace!"

Gene glanced at Nikki, whose legs and waist were fading away. The three birds were also mostly gone.

Shit. "Okay, look." Giving up on telepathy, Gene floated into the air. "I don't have time to give you a 'ra ra sis boom ba' pep talk, kid. You got hurt. Two options for that." Gene raised one finger. "You can let it drag you down and become some depressed loner no one actually wants to be around." He then punched his right hand with his left. "Or you can 'fight' like hell and get to the bottom of it.

"It's up to you." Gene turned around. His legs were disappearing. "As for me... I've got a 'partnership' to break."

The shadowy mewtwo charged through the air. To his relief, the robot was still there... but it was heading into the water.

One shot. He had to make it count.

"We got a buncha pokémon! We got a buncha pokémon!"

... Wait. Why did Gene have to shoot? What if he just... ripped whatever was holding the captured pokémon out of the damn machine?

But would that work?

His waist was fading. Gene was out of time. He thrust his arms in front of him, concentrating on his ESP as much as he could.

"We got a buncha pok—"

"EEP! Jessie! The hull!" James screamed.

Gene didn't care that those idiots were still using their megaphones. Something heavy tugged against his psionic sense.

"Rrrrgh. Our deal's... off!"

He mentally yanked with all his might. The robot's back shattered as a stack of metal cages came flying out, landing in the grass by the riverbed.

Team Rocket's microphones amplified their screams as the giant puncture in the hull caused sparks and explosive bursts to race all along the meowth robot.

Right before Gene faded out of the dimension completely, the head exploded. The Rockets and their wobbuffet careened through the air. Gene somehow managed to hear one final cry from them.

"We're blasting off agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!"

XxX​

"Please stand by for a message from Grand Emperor Paradox!"

Noctum awoke to an obnoxiously cheerful news bulletin music blaring out of the speakers surrounding Cyril's tower of computer monitors. Someone laid him down atop a large crate, giving him a perfect view of the top left computer monitor. It showed the Eterna Empire sigil before quickly cutting to footage of where Noctum and the others had just been.

Indigo Plateau was a mess of torn up ground and rubble from the building, but a combination of assorted ground-type 'mons and Eternatus Troopers were working quite quickly to clean things up.

Everything came rushing back at once. The Trooper assault, with the king's forced transformation into Halvus. The devastating Dyna Depletion attacks. Noctum throwing himself into one. The strange visions and that searing pain from his Malice Crystal...

Noctum glanced at his belly. It was still blue. His wings were still jagged and his tail flame was a starcloud like Cyril's mane and Leo's pelt.

Why? The mega charizard kept hearing that one phrase over and over in his head.

Lustrous heart. Lustrous. Lustrous...

"As some of you are not doubt aware," Paradox began, snapping Noctum's attention back to the monitor, "another one of those dreadful rifts opened up on Earth's beloved Indigo Plateau."

The deoxys then walked in front of the footage. Noctum's starcloud mouth flames rippled. "W-Wait, he's there?!"

From his spot beside the monitors, Cyril rolled his eyes. "It's a greenscreen, dumbass."

Seifer's prosthetic horn poked his right hip. "Ow!" The cosmic zoroark's black fur flickered red. "What?"

"They don't have greenscreens back in Aeon," Noctum mumbled, looking down dejectedly.

"Thanks to the strong work of my Eternatus Troopers and support from Paradigm Lieutenant Halvus, the rift has been successfully dealt with!" Paradox declared, tentacles coiling into arms as he applauded footage of the hulking duraludon they had to battle. He then faded out so the footage could zoom in on the building.

"It's already halfway rebuilt?!" Noctum's jaw slackened. "What kind of devilry is this?"

He was immediately shushed by Cyril and a few skorps seated behind some of the keyboards.

"Unfortunately, there was some collateral property damage during the process," Paradox continued. "But not to worry. As you can see, repairs are well underway. The Indigo League should be good as new by tomorrow."

The deoxys reappeared on screen. "It's exactly as I told you all. This whole silly little rift situation is entirely under control. Thanks to me, your beloved grand emperor!" Paradox slowly bowed. "That will be all for now. Have a pleasant day."

A new male voice followed the end of Paradox's bulletin. "We now return you to a new episode of All My Stakataka."

Two of the skorps clapped their mutant incineroar hands together excitedly, only for their moods to deflate when Cyril pressed a button and shut the monitor off.

Sighing, he ran yellow claws through his starcloud mane. "Well, that's just peachy." He lazily walked across the hanger floor.

Noctum slowly sat up. "What do you mean?"

"He means the emperor took our hard work and spun it to make himself look like the hero," Valkyrie spat. The garchomp sat on a metal crate to Noctum's left, watching as a few helioptile and croconaw tended to some of the Aeon soldiers injured fighting Halvus.

"Oh." Noctum tapped his claws together nervously. "Can't we, um, send our own message with the truth?" He looked expectantly at Cyril. "Like when you hacked the blimps in Eterna City!"

Cyril froze. He scratched his right ear. "Dude, the emperor had video footage to back it up. And we bailed before the rift vanished, remember?"

"What about a big, fancy illusion?" Noctum offered. Surely, there was something they could do to compete with this evil greenscreen.

The cosmic zoroark pinched his brow. "Ugh. No." He held up his right hand, which disappeared. "Just because I can illusion enough of an invisibility dome to hide a few of us doesn't mean I can conjure up some elaborate scene to make people think Paradox used a deep fake." Cyril dispelled the illusion around his hand. "I'm not that strong. I can just... actually fight like a pokémon now."

Noctum's shoulders sagged. "So, what, we stand around and take our licks?" He might've personally had more concerning things to worry about, but he welcomed the distraction. Noctum looked around the hangar. "I can't be the only one who thinks that sucks, right?"

"Tch. Amateur."

The mega charizard's cosmic tail flame shrank. Wincing, Noctum glanced at Valkyrie. "What now?"

"So we can't compete with his propaganda machine." Valkyrie waved dismissively. Curiously, she continued staring at the floor. "Whatever. Let the emperor think he's all big and successful. We're still dismantling the Paradigm. This keeps us under the radar."

Noctum supposed that was true. But weren't they also trying to expand their ranks? Wouldn't it help if they could show people in the empire that their leader might be vulnerable?

Metallic hoofbeats interrupted Noctum's train of thought. Seifer stopped beside him. "I think... talking strategy ought to wait until everyone's together." He glanced over his shoulder. "And, perhaps, rested up."

"Ah!" Noctum's tail flame expanded. "The king and queen!" He tried to drop from his perch, but a wave of vertigo stopped him. Noctum braced himself against the edge of the crate. "Where did—"

"Your queen took your king off to a private room the moment we returned." Seifer pointed to the hanger's exit with a forehoof. "Baraz showed up to help them along, too."

"And Yuna and the others aren't back yet," Cyril added, tapping a foot impatiently.

"Oh," Noctum mumbled. So that was what Seifer meant when he suggested waiting.

"Huh. Speak of the devil."

Noctum hastily turned left at Valkyrie's comment. An array of blue lights peppered the area in front of the hangar's large ship door. Valkyrie abruptly hopped off her seat, silently walking toward Noctum's crate.

"We're back, bitches!"

Nikki was first to step out of the light, stretching her arms up. "A bit of an annoyance, but nothing we couldn't—"

"Commander!"

An orange blur whizzed over to the keldeo, who whinnied in surprise when he saw two unconscious birds on Quetzal's back. Noctum didn't recognize them.

Seifer's prosthetic horn flickered. "Wait, Quetzal, are these who I think they are?"

"Ifrit and Shiva, sir." Quetzal adjusted them on his back. "They were corrupted and turned into Phantoms."

"They're actually Whispers!" Gene and Nikki heckled simultaneously.

"Ugh, whatever!" Quetzal was practically trotting in place. "We have to get them somewhere to rest." He looked around at some of the dragons. "Somewhere, uh, better than here?"

Cyril walked over, scratching his ear. "Just head into the hall and take a couple of rights. You'll find a special infirmary."

"Thanks!" The orange zapdos zipped away. Cyril's cosmic hair rippled from the wind Quetzal's momentum kicked up. He fiddled with locks of hair.

"All right. Anything else?"

"Wait, where'd Mom and Dad go?"

Noctum turned left. Had Yuna's voice gotten a bit deeper?

A dragapult floated beside a larger Leo. But her tail. And that weird gem in her chest...

Noctum's eyes widened. Why was that gem... familiar?

"P-Princess?"

"What?" Yuna raised a brow, then looked down at her torso. "Oh, right. Yeah, this happened."

"All that and spades, apparently." Nikki clapped Yuna's back.

She squeaked, then frowned at the toxtricity. "Seriously?"

"You're gonna complain about a congratulatory back pat?" Nikki snickered. "Guess you've got thin skin." She paused. "Or no skin."

Yuna rolled her eyes. Noctum wasn't waiting any longer. Despite the vertigo, he was at the dragapult's side in an instant. "Are you okay? How are you feeling?" He looked her over. This nagging familiarity brought back everything that happened to him. "Should I get your mother?"

"I should be asking you that." Yuna scrutinized his appearance. She had the same concerned expression as him. God, his head was hurting. Noctum took it as a sign to give her a bit of space.

"Look, we had to deal with a couple of the Whispers," Yuna slowly continued. "And I evolved. We got the plates." She gestured to Leo, who stuck a foreleg and hind leg out. Some sort of pose, Noctum figured. "There were two this time, though. And a Needle, to boot."

"Wait, what?" Gene decided to sit on the same stack of crates Valkyrie used before. "Two plates and a Needle?"

"Yeeeessss?" Yuna's tail rippled. "Didn't I just say that?"

"Yeah, yeah." Gene's tail twitched in irritation. He crossed his right leg over his left, then swapped. "Yo, Kora!"

"Hmm?" Koraidon turned around from the far corner of the room, where he was gathering up monks.

"Got an explanation for this?" Gene gestured at Yuna.

"Ah, apologies." Koraidon bowed slowly. "I'm making sure everyone got back okay. What was it you said?"

Gene facepalmed. "Oi, Widget. You were on crowd control, too. Gimme a machine headcount."

Widget's eyes flickered blue, then yellow, then purple. "Everyone's present and accounted for. Including Cid." He blinked several times, then shook his head. "Ugh, at least ask politely next time. I don't like having to run that part of my processor anymore."

Yuna cleared her throat. "Alder already offered a possibility. That plates and Needles are getting drawn toward one another. Which might be why things stabilized for a time before." She wiggled her right arm up and down. "They're, like, migrating to each other."

"Aww, snap! That oughta make it tough for Necrozma to— awk!"

In the front corner, Vegna grabbed Griffon's beak and forced it shut. The corviknight disappeared into the dusknoir in a stream of black smoke. "There's more you're not telling us, isn't there, Yunavresca?"

Yuna's gold-ringed tail crinkled up. She did her best to straighten it out. "I, uh—" Yuna fidgeted nervously. "Yeah." She took a shaky breath. "There's a lot to share. And it's, um, best that everyone's here for it."

Nikki crossed her arms. "Define 'everyone.' We got most of the squad here." The toxtricity gestured at the hangar.

"Quetzal," Yuna said. "And Igneous and Scarlett."

"What about Pillow Prince?"

"Shimmer too," Yuna said. "And I don't see Artemis, Baraz, or Alder." She glanced at Noctum. "And no one's told me what happened to Mom and Dad..."

Her eyes darted between his cosmic tail flame and the ones at the sides of his mouth. "... Or you, apparently. Your Malice Crystal is gone. And you're mega?"

"Think he absorbed it."

Noctum tensed at a scaly arm on his right shoulder. Valkyrie had gotten the jump on him again.

"Calcifer was hit by some strange blast," the garchomp explained. "It corrupted him like other Paradigm daemons we've seen. So, we had to fight him." She glanced at Noctum. "Your butler buddy... saved me from a blast that could've torn me to shreds."

He blinked in surprise. So, she was acknowledging it? Noctum figured she was too prideful. Though it sounds like it's bugging her...

"We were able to beat the daemon, but your father's unconscious." Noctum scanned the hangar and noticed Biff off to the right... lying on his back, bench pressing one of the metal crates. And a few hakamo-o sitting on top of it. "It might be like Buzzwole. He'll need time before he wakes up."

Noctum offered her a nervous smile. It must have been good enough, since Yuna's worried expression faded slightly.

"All right." The dragapult rubbed her ectoplasmic temples. "Let's get everyone else here. Then we can talk."

She looked around the room and gulped. "We can... talk."

Noctum went to drape a wing over her, but stopped. Yuna was almost double his size now. The gesture looked silly. And Yuna knew that, judging by the confused look she gave him.

"I'll, uh, help you gather them up!" Noctum offered, laughing nervously.

"Okay." She glanced at Nikki and Gene. "Keep everyone occupied for a bit, okay."

"Oh, sure." Gene rolled his eyes. "We'll play canasta or something." He waved his right arm dismissively.

With a flap of his wings, Noctum followed Yuna. Lots of things were changing quickly. It left a sinking feeling in his newly-healed gut.

... And what the heck's canasta?!

XxX​

"We're definitely close."

Ninetales' soft, white legs brushed against tall grass as he padded his way forward. The rising sun cast a soothing orange-yellow glow over the Wild Area. The chirps of assorted birds sounded in the distance. But there wasn't much activity in this particular patch of the sprawling plains.

"Mmm. There aren't any pokémon nearby. Suppose people randomly crashing out of the sky would send them running off."

Plodding along beside Ninetales, a pyroar with a gray mane yawned loudly. "Why am I here, exactly?"

Ninetales froze mid-step. "Uhh..."

"They're not a threat." Pyroar paused beside Ninetales to fix his stern gaze on him.

"I know, but I thought some company would be nice!" Ninetales' tails wagged asynchronously.

Pyroar snorted gray fire at his feet. Ninetales jumped back with a yip. "H-Hey, c'mon!"

"I wanted a vacation," Pyroar grumbled, shambling forward. "Deserved one, you ungrateful—"

Flinching, Ninetales quickened his pace. "I'm aware. I was there, too!"

"For all of five minutes."

Another flinch. Ninetales almost tripped over a rock hidden by the tall grass. "Yeah, well that was enough to save your hide for a bit, wasn't it?"

Pyroar's expression only hardened. "Your quarry lies ahead."

"Right." Ninetales shuffled forward, trying to imagine Pyroar training his unamused look elsewhere. It was fine. He was just being his usual self.

"... Had it in da palm of our hands."

"I told you two we should've flown the coop."

"You? Puh-lease! You wanted us ta head for da city and try to snag a bigger haul!"

"WOOOBBBBBAAAFFFEET!"

"Hey! Don't side with them!"

Ninetales chuckled. Yup, definitely who he was looking for. Swishing his hair behind him, the fox hopped through the remainder of the tall grass and popped out on the other side.

"Hello!" he telepathically chirped. And, yep, these three Rockets looked exactly like what he was expecting.

"Aaaaah!" James backed up against a large boulder. "Jessie, make the psychics go away!"

Jessie was on her feet, glaring at James. "That's no psychic-type, you dolt!"

"What's an Alolan ninetales doing all da way over in Galar?" Meowth wondered.

"M-Maybe he wants to join Team Rocket?" James laughed nervously.

Ninetales had to cut in fast, or he'd be stuck listening to their babbling for a while. And he could feel Pyroar's glare on the back of his head.

"Sorry. Not interested," he said. "But I did catch a glimpse of what happened in Wyndon." Ninetales pivoted to his left. "I'm actually after the person who made your, uh, twerp friend disappear."

"Friend?!" Meowth unsheathed his claws. "What an insult! I oughta turn dat pelt into a fancy coat for da boss!"

"You're welcome to try!" Ninetales winked at Meowth, who stumbled over to James. "Except I can't stay all that long. Basically, I'm asking if you guys might be willing to help me out later. With the guy who caused your problems."

The three Rockets looked at one another. And Ninetales got a strong sense they were going to shoot him down, so he quickly tried to save face. "Aaaand I fully intend to make it worth your while! Scout's honor!"

That only made them more skeptical.

"What could a ninetales possibly have to offer us?" Jessie wondered.

At that, Ninetales stuck his forepaw out. Concentrating, he drew on a well of light deep down. He nudged it along his forehead, until it took shape into a familiar Z-Crystal. Ninetales rolled it over to them.

"How's that for starters?"

The Rockets looked down at the crystal, then up at Ninetales. "Dis some kinda magic trick?" Meowth wondered.

Ninetales nudged the crystal closer, gesturing for Meowth to pick it up. Meowth's whiskers twitched the moment he touched the Z-Crystal. There was a tiny spark of gray embers running along his arm.

"You're welcome to use it," Ninetales said. "Or not. Gave one to your twerp buddy, too. Just in case." He winked at them.

That seemed like as good a place as any to leave things off. Ninetales turned to bound back into the tall grass.

"Hey, wait!" James called. "When are you even going to call us? And whatever for?"

Ninetales' ears swiveled in thought. "Oh, that?" He stepped toward the tall grass. "When the time's right... you'll know."

He hopped into the tall grass. The grass fluttered against him as he ran. It didn't take him long to reach Pyroar. "See? Didn't take too long." Ninetales' tails wagged. "And we're good to go."

Pyroar's face remained stern. He crouched down slightly, pressing a forepaw into the dirt. Motes of gray light spread out from his forepaw.

Ninetales braced himself. Within seconds, the tall grass and cool Galarian morning air fell away, replaced by the sharp blues and purples and fierce, rippling winds of Ginnungagap.

Four luminescent gray wings burst from Pyroar's back. Gray crystals tore away at his body until, with a powerful flap of his four wings, the grayscale necrozma that emerged flew off into the depths of the mystery dungeon between worlds.

With a brilliant ripple of golden light, Ninetales, too, shed his body for one that matched his counterpart. His gold light surged through the swirling blues and purples, passing strangely shaped crystal chunks. And rocky islands with barren trees that grew upside down. A few had glass light bulbs sprouting from their branches instead of leaves.

The gold necrozma got a bit ahead and looked back. "C'mon, Bah—"

"Tama."

"Right." Head tendrils shriveling, he continued forward. Ever since he learned about Tama — an anomalous copy of Bahamut another Overseer accidentally created from the real one's empty shell — he tried to spend time with the guy. There was friction, but he had the patience for it.

Though it seemed his hopes that Tama would be more amicable with him following their time apart were unfounded.

"St-still, you could at least, y'know, say something instead of looking so dour."

"What's your plan, Shane?" Tama flapped his gray wings. "I'll look as dour as I want until you give me more than a 'trust me, bro.'"

Shane nearly stopped mid-flight, which would've been bad, since he had to roll right to avoid splatting against a donut-shaped island. Or was it a malasada-shaped one?

"Whoa, whoa. Who told you I had a plan?" Shane's golden tail crinkled. "I have an idea. A train of thought!"

He glanced back at Tama, whose mismatched gray eyes were narrowing. "That's worse."

"I-I'm not good with plans," Shane squeaked. The squeaks echoed through Ginnungagap. Distorted eighth and sixteenth notes spawned on a distant island, then broke apart into clusters of ethereal chatot that flew off in all directions. "There's no guarantee this goes anywhere, but I'm holding out hope." A mix of green and orange spread over his eyes. "I don't need to tell you about the power of hope, do I?"

Tama looked offended at the notion. He flew faster, closing the gap with Shane. "How many citations are you racking up for this? Last I heard, you weren't to meddle with that world anymore."

Shane's golden glow dimmed. "I don't—" He flew faster. "It's not meddling. I'm trying to be proactive. They're working hard on the inside. Only seems right to lend a discrete hand from outside."

"Doubt they see it that way." Tama passed him, snorting. "I think it's something else."

"Like what?" Shane flew faster, then banked left. He passed by several small islands with tiny ripples. Means of entering other worlds.

Tama didn't respond, though. He continued ahead silently. "Where is it, again?"

Shane frowned. This guy was supposed to give straight answers. Why the evasiveness? "A few more down," he said, flying further ahead so he could locate the origin point for his little pocket.

After passing a few more of the small islands, Shane made it to one haphazardly littered with shrubbery. Bushes of vulpix and ninetales tails. Shane felt Tama's disapproval crawling along his ethereal back, but shrugged it off. He approached the small, distorted ripple and pressed an upper wing to it. A golden ring of light spread out, like water rippling after a pebble was dropped in it.

A familiar checkerboard portal formed. Shane turned aside and gestured to it with an upper wing. Tama simply flew past silently. Sighing, Shane followed the gray necrozma inside a dark, circular room.

"Will you give me an answer now?" he wondered, watching Tama curl up in the middle of the room in an almost serpent-like fashion. Tama gazed up. There was no ceiling. Only a seemingly endless sea of stars stretching overhead.

"Fine." Tama folded up his lower wings. "It's attachment."

Shane landed on the ground. He tucked his wings in and concentrated, shrinking down. And down. Tama grew steadily larger as Shane's golden form shrank to a much more... silvally shape. Yet still a mix of light and crystals.

"I was kinda hoping there was more to it," Shane said, golden talons clicking against the crystal floor. He strode toward Tama. Gold light melded with gray.

"There is." Tama slowly slid onto his side. "But I'm tired."

Squawking, Shane almost lost his footing and faceplanted. "S-Seriously?!"

"You pulled me away from my vacation," Tama huffed. He rolled onto his back, crossing one gray crystalline leg over another and resting his head against his upper wings.

It wasn't funny. And much as Shane wanted to say that, that would just play into Tama's hands. Wings. Whatever.

"Should I get you a beach towel? Maybe one of those drinks with the funny umbrellas?"

"That'd be a start," Tama scoffed.

"Please." Shane rolled his rainbow eyes. "We both know you don't eat or drink."

"You shouldn't, either." Tama tapped a lower wing against one of his chest spikes. Each clink echoed through the room. "Surely you've heard about your reputation, no?"

Shane's head crest shrank a bit. "Maybe?"

"The almighty idiot." Tama held up his other lower wing... and popped it from its joint. "Who always seems to break things." The gray necrozma's wing reattached on its own. "Before fixing them in a way more senior Overseers would never consider."

He shook his head. "The one who sees the trees but not the forest. The god who thinks like a mortal. Who, despite it being a shrinking fraction of his whole life, still keeps the memories of his days in Horizon freshest in his mind."

Tama slowly rolled onto his side again. "An immense amount of power... yet always reluctant to use it."

There was some slight resentment behind Tama's words. Shane pawed nervously at the ground. "Well, yeah. I mean... y'know... 'with great power comes great responsibility' and all that."

Tama's gray eyes swirled with disapproval. "Ah, yes, your favorite line you ripped from some comic."

"Cuz it's a good line." Shane laughed nervously. His gaze fell to a jagged reflection in one of the crystal walls. "Where are you going with this?"

"You want to fix this because you still haven't let go." Tama practically slithered across the ground, curling around the smaller silvcrozma. "You see POV-2020 as a second chance of sorts. To fix lingering shadows of regret." Bits of dark shadows bubbled within his gray body. "Small, but enough for someone who zeroes in on the little things."

Shane's cheek bolts turned slowly in his sockets. Was that really it? Or was Tama looking for the most negative reason? "Maybe I just want to help them so a lot of people don't get hurt."

Yeah, that sounded right. Shane straightened up a bit. "It's not about me. And, like, they're still the ones at the front of this. If I can help them from the sidelines, then that's good enough."

He blinked slowly. "... I think. Never did learn sports metaphors."

Tama's grayscale eyes stitched themselves into vaguely humanoid proportions so he could roll them. "If you insist." He uncurled from around Shane and began to float away.

"Wait, you're already leaving?"

"I want to find that beach again."

Shane flinched. "Right." His cheek bolts flickered like dying light bulbs. "You're not, y'know, going to tell anyone about this, are you?"

Tama stared at the exit. "... Against my better judgment."

"Good. I can work with that."

"Fine." Tama held an upper wing up. Gray light rippled. Another wormhole appeared. Ginnungagap's blue and purple swirls peeked in from the other side. Tama glanced back at Shane. "I will say one thing, though."

The silvcrozma tilted his golden head. "And that is?"

"You're off the mark on one key assumption."

Tama was about to fly through the portal, but Shane couldn't leave it at that. "Wait! What's that supposed to mean?"

The question hung in the air for several seconds. Tama practically curled an upper wing against the wormhole's outer ring like it was a railing. He sighed.

"Bahamut and I are not versions of the friend you couldn't save. We never were." Tama shook his head.

"As loathe as I am to admit it... we're alternate versions of you."

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Heya, this review was a bit different since I wound up putting it together in pieces onna-plane and throughout the day afterwards, but I figured it was about time to start up the next chapter of PoV I haven't read yet, which IIRC is the big happening with Yuna and that inner demiurge of hers coming to the fore.

Anyhow, let's see that big fireworks show that'd you'd been building up to in…

Chapter 83

Spoiler

On the Third of the Original One's Children
Despite my fervent investigations, I have failed to piece together the mystery of the so-called Renegade Pokémon. The legends surrounding it are few and far between. About the only conclusion I've reached is that it's a divine pokémon possibly related to Dialga, Palkia, and the Original One, Arceus.

I mean, I already knew about it going in, but if there was any doubt that this was going to be the chapter where Yaldabaoth took center stage...

There are vague, scattered allusions to a creature that lurks in the shadows. Those who cross its path seem unable to comprehend its form. There are no depictions of it. Even stranger is that at some point in the past it simply... vanished. As if it never really existed to begin with.

Huh. I wonder if this was written before or after the formation of POV-2020 as a universe. Since if after, it implies that a lot of those seemingly absent legendaries in it are a bit less truly gone than presumed.

Those descended from the ancient Sinnoh people claim the second Hisuian hero befriended this legend, just as she befriended the Original One. Following that, there are no further records of its existence. Did it disappear entirely?

I can't tell if that's meant to be the PLA protagonist or Cynthia. Currently leaning to the former, even if that beggars the question of who was the first hero.

I know he was there. Because of the photos that changed in Grandmother's house. Was he involved with this hero? Did he choose to stay in that time?

Grandmother thinks I'm letting my research consume me. Just like his single-mindedness drove him away from Celestic Town. But we're not the same. I'm a scientist. Any risks I take will be thoroughly calculated.

What next, did Alt!Cynthia throw in a "Ridiculous, it's perfectly safe!" before the ultra-cursed moment of truth toying around with powers beyond her comprehension? Since yeah, this feels like some major tempting of fate here.

I'll solve the mystery of this missing legendary pokémon. And then, humans and pokémon alike can reach even greater heights!

Yeah, I suppose that I should go ahead and keep the link to that song from XB2 handy if and when we ever get to see the moment of this "mystery" being solved, since boy is this familiar.

The air was cold and harsh. It tore at Yuna's inner ectoplasm.

But it was dry.

Oh, well that's some ominous background music there.

Yuna's head shot up. Tan and dull brown swirled around her vision. This didn't make any sense. Wasn't she supposed to be underwater?

Yuna: "... Maybe I Phantom Warped? Since Noctum was able to use that to get in and out of Eternatus at will, right?" ^^;

The drakloak rubbed her eyes. When she pulled her hands away, she found herself lying on a neglected stone floor. Signs of a struggle peppered the area. Scorches here. Chunks of ground missing there. Stone columns ended abruptly with their top halves destroyed. Had they once held up a roof? If they did, they'd become nothing but misshapen spears jutting toward the sky.

Oh, so she's at Spear Pillar. Whether in the flesh or in some sort of near-death vision.

Yuna picked herself up and hovered forward. Red and purple swirled overhead. How did she get here? Was she dead? Like dead dead? What about everyone else?

Stairs led to more of the same broken stone floor. But now there were piles of rubble lined up on either side of her. Not pillars, that was for sure. Statues, maybe?

These were definitely ruins, then. But of what? Had she sunk into an underwater cavern?

I mean, you're either seeing a vision, or else you've gotten yeeted back into time, Yuna. My money's personally on the former since it feels like we'd been seeing that a decent amount prior to this chapter.

The air at the other end of the destroyed hallway briefly contorted. Enough for Yuna to catch it. She tensed up, rubbing her hands along her belly. Did she dare appro—

Wait.

Yuna ran her hands along her belly once. Twice. A third time. The drakloak looked down.

The Soul Dew!

It was gone! Her chest was bare for the first time in almost two months. She looked left, then right, then back down the stairs.

Yeah, she's having a vision, since I doubt you were just going to let her get away with being free from that thing this easily.

Nothing. No twinkles or glimmers or anything to suggest it was here with her.

Maybe she really was dead, then? And she bonded with her Soul Dew, so perhaps she was inside it...

"Rayquaza!" Yuna called out.

Nothing.

She cupped her hands over her mouth. "Reshiram? Cresselia?"

Still nothing.

Yuna: "I'm... I'm not actually dead, am I?"

Yuna's tail undulated wildly. "Is anyone out there?!"

Yeah, she's going to regret asking this in like five seconds, isn't she?

This time, when the air across from her rippled, tiny black globules dribbled out. They splattered against the stone floor like raindrops.

She recognized that inky darkness. Swallowing hard, Yuna floated forward. The closer she got, the more black blobs dripped onto the ground from thin air. A black puddle spread across the floor.

It covered half the raised end of the hall when Yuna reached it. She got about a meter away from its edge and went no further.

Those were her shadows. What else could they be? Had they claimed her instead of the Soul Dew? Is this what they saw while inside her?

Ah yes, hello, Yaldabaoth.

Yuna wouldn't make any headway like this. Maybe they'd listen to words? "What do you want?" She looked around hesitantly but refrained from asking another question.

To show you the truth.

Oh, so Yaldabaoth is a distinct entity from Yuna. Duly noted, then.

"Gah!" Yuna grabbed the sides of her head. "H-Hey! Don't do that!" Though she couldn't put "that" into words.

Do what, answer your question?

"That!" Yuna gestured at the puddle. "Some 'not telepathy but inside my head' thingy!" It was the best explanation she had.

The puddle rippled.

This is our only way to communicate.

Yuna: "Wonderful. As if I haven't already had enough problems with voices in my head in the last 80-plus chapters." >_>;

Yuna flinched. This "voice" was strange. A part of Yuna told her it was supposed to be deeper, yet it wasn't. She couldn't even tell if it was male or female. Yuna was sorely tempted to turn away, knowing full well it wouldn't get her out of her situation.

But she was here. The shadows were "talking." If they were going to come to an understanding, it was now or never.

Hesitating at first, Yuna managed a shaky, "What do you want to show me?"

A very biased telling of events for how things got to this point. Or at least I'm pretty sure that's where this is going

The puddle rippled faster and faster. Shadows congealed together. Yuna half expected some monstrous daemon to emerge... but what formed was small. Even smaller than her. Two legs, a bit of an oversized head, and two head... baubles?

... No, aura feelers.

"A riolu?" Yuna tilted her head. The inky riolu mirrored her gesture. "I was hoping for answers."

You do not recognize her? Then you must focus.

Oh, hello, Tessa. Though wait, is this going to be Yuna's equivalent to Igneous and Nikki's visions from that GL AU, or...?

The puddle rippled even faster. All around Yuna, enormous trees painted themselves over the spear-like pillars. A dusty forest trail spilled out atop the stone floor. And the inky riolu darted about in a frenzy.

Yuna hovered back, uncertain whether to expect an attack. Riolu hopped, rolled, and slid. The drakloak had no idea why. "Am I missing something?"

Focus. See the whole picture.

Ectoplasm rippling again, Yuna squinted. Giant, fluid-filled arms swung wildly at Riolu. The faint, hulking outline they were attached to brought that one bewear teacher from the academy to mind.

Oh, well I recognize that moment from the past. It's certainly been a while, but I see you've been planning towards this moment for a long time.

Riolu's inky black form jumped off an arm and thrust her hands in the bewear silhouette's direction. It staggered briefly, but managed to grab Riolu with its right hand and slam her into the ground.

The forest scene flickered like a light at Cyril's outpost that needed changing. Riolu squirmed underneath the giant hand. Their featureless face didn't move, but Yuna swore she heard screams echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once.

That one had to have left a mark, especially considering what happened to Shane when he went through this in GL.

Bewear's silhouette faded in and out. There were two people behind it. One was a bigger riolu— lucario, then. But the other...

Butterfree Effect.

There was no mask this time, yet their face was featureless. Lucario tried to approach Bewear, but Butterfree Effect stopped it. When it whirled on Butterfree Effect, they produced a spherical orb that sucked Lucario up in a stream of light. Just like the Soul Dew did to the Sages.

Oh, so the Butterfree Effect can wield Pokéballs. I didn't expect that one given that it was some sort of reality-warping entity, but duly noted then.

Bewear slammed Riolu into the ground again. And again. Each time, Yuna heard screams from all directions. Painfully familiar screams that grew quieter with each blow.

Wait, implying that those were her screams? As in Yuna's? .-.

The final time Bewear slammed Riolu down, she lay still. Butterfree Effect gestured forward. Bewear raised its arms up, then swung once more.

Everything dissolved away the moment Bewear's fists would've crushed Riolu to death. The destroyed hallway was restored. Inky black tendrils hoisted Riolu's battered form into the air.

Yuna stared at Riolu. And the longer she did, the more her ectoplasm quivered— no, tightened. Like her body wanted to collapse in on itself.

"Stop." The drakloak squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. "I don't— none of this helps me. I don't even know what this is!"

Yaldabaoth(?): "Oh no, from that reaction, I believe that you do. Or at least a part of you does."

The black puddle bubbled.

Then what of your visceral reaction?

Yuna squeezed her hands together. "Because you showed me someone getting hurt! I... I..." She looked for anything else to stare at besides the puddle. "I don't want anyone to get hurt."

Yaldabaoth(?):

Yuna: "Look, I literally don't recognize the 'mon! How on earth could there be a deeper connection?" o_o;

Her ectoplasm tightened again. Yuna's neck and torso twisted.

You are remembering.

The drakloak stiffened. "Please stop," she whispered.

We will not. You remembered the wish you made when you were at your lowest.

Yuna: "No, no, that isn't necessary! I'm perfectly fine remaining blissfully ignorant!"

That is not what you told us last time.

Oh hey, the Xenoblade music's back in this story. A nice and ominous one this time around, I see.

Her body finally shot into her rectangular head. Yuna drifted back, coaxing her torso out with shaky breaths.

This had to be the source of her shadows. And given the shadows reacted every time Butterfree Effect showed up...

"You're what they're addressing." Yuna pointed a trembling arm toward them. "You're Yaldabaoth."

Yaldabaoth: "I mean, it was only obvious from the giant Giratina shadow, but yes."

The red dots flickered.

No, they're more like blinking eyes.

That is one of many names.

Wait, just how many names does Giratina / Yaldabaoth have in this story?

Yuna couldn't stop herself from shaking. "Well that's... too much of a mouthful. So, I'm calling you Chaos." Since Butterfree Effect kept insisting this thing was some sort of chaos magnet.

Do what you must.

Whelp, that makes 3 and counting. Though I'm guessing that we'll be seeing this particular name a lot more from this point on.

A pang of guilt struck Yuna's chest. She quickly shoved it down, though. Why have sympathy for the shadows when they were causing such a gigantic headache?

Chaos' wing-spikes flashed. Within seconds, Yuna found herself floating where Chaos' blobby form was, looking across a brighter, sunnier version of the ruined hall. Butterfree Effect's silhouette was in front of her, hunched over with arms spread wide.

"Giratina, strike her down!"

Ah yes, only good things could've come from this moment, I'm sure.

There was another human silhouette. And as Yuna felt herself lunging forward, the silhouette stretched and squashed. Unraveled into a familiar dragapult with a fierce expression.

The illusion shattered. Yuna dropped from the air with a yelp, landing on the stone floor. "What? Mom?!" She picked her head up and rubbed her eyes. Was that supposed to be a vision? No, that wasn't possible. This was a mind game.

And that phrase Butterfree Effect used. Giratina. Was that... one of Chaos' other names? Their species, perhaps?

I can't tell whether that's something that actually happened in the past, or if Yaldy is just messing with Yuna right now.

Her gut told her the latter, which scared her even more. Why would she have a gut feeling about that?

I mean, you have been serving as a living vessel for them, Yuna. It's only natural you'd get a leg up on knowing the ins and outs of a Giratina.

Chaos' ooze rippled. A slimy wing extended toward her.

Up?

"No!" Yuna was going to smack the wing when she realized how stupid that was with their size difference. Remaining on the ground, she scooted back. "Stop it! Stop showing me these things! I don't want to see them! They don't— they can't mean anything!"

Yaldabaoth:

Yuna: "... I just want to reiterate that I was perfectly happy not knowing any of this."

Silence. Black drops dribbled into the puddle from Chaos' extended wing. Their red eyes dimmed. They folded the wing against their sludgy body. Chaos looked down guiltily.

There is no way to make this gentle.

Yuna looked at her tail. Anything was better than meeting Chaos' eyes. "Am I dead?"

No. We are protecting you.

Is this going to be like that whole "only mostly dead" moment from HoC all over again? Since I can see that "yeah, you should be dead, but we're bailing you out" moment there.

"I see." Yuna grabbed her tail and brought it toward her torso. "Am I still drowning in the river?"

We are protecting you. But our powers are limited as they are. Time is fleeting.

Yuna: "... So I am still drowning in the river right now... fantastic." >_<;

Yuna didn't pick herself off the ground. So, it was shielding her now, but not when she needed it against Shiva's attack? The drakloak groaned. Was she going to give Chaos the benefit of the doubt?

Silence. None of Chaos' intrusive thoughts. They weren't pressing her, despite the claim they only had so much time.

She took a breath. Then another. Yuna had plenty of questions, but if time was truly an issue, she needed one that got to the heart of the matter.

"Why are we... together like this?"

Damn, not beating around the bush at all there.

Yuna looked up expectantly. Black slime dripped and trickled into the puddle beneath Chaos. It bothered her even though she'd been around plenty of the goodra line in her life. Chaos leaned forward. Blinked their tiny red eyes a few times.

We are together... because we are one.

Perhaps I spoke a bit too soon about these two being distinct entities from each other.

Flashes of red light blinded Yuna.

She lay in the dirt. Bones broken. So much pain.

Air. She needed air. Breathe, damn it! She couldn't die like this! Not with so much to live for!

Her vision blurred. Air wasn't getting in. The pain— oh, God, the agony.

Wait, so is this Tessa(?)'s PoV again? Implying that she / Yuna / Giratina are all one and the same?

She was going to die. She wasn't strong enough. She'd failed.

A shadow was there. She tried to reach a mangled blue arm out. Nickie...

Whelp, I'll just go ahead and take that as a confirmation. Though I'm guessing that once upon a time Tessa and Giratina weren't the same entity as each other.

Yuna jerked upright with a sharp gasp, trembling from head to tail. "I said no more mind games," the drakloak squeaked, glaring at Chaos.

We have no choice. You must understand the truth.

Yuna's ectoplasm pulsated. "I don't— this doesn't make sense. I'm not a riolu. I'm a drakloak!" Her gaze fell to her twitching tail. "I've nev— I'm not a riolu."

Well, not in this life, anyways. Since the past few chapters have been building up to the idea that Team Bastion is Alt-Team Radiance sometime after a turn or twenty of the reincarnation cycle.

You were when you made your wish.

Chaos extended their goopy left wing. Their wing spikes glistened with ethereal light.

A new silhouette padded toward her. Pointy ears. A little tuft of hair. Six fluffy tails.

She sat beside her. Wrapping an arm over an icepix's shuddering form.

"We'll fix this, Nickie," she promised. "I can't imagine what it feels like. But you've worked with me despite that pain." She extended her paw toward Nickie. "I wish I could be that strong."

Yuna: "... I have so many questions right now. But first off: How? And why?"

Yuna smacked her cheeks. Glared at Chaos once again, but they only tilted their head slightly. They didn't do that? She returned her gaze to the icepix silhouette. It stretched and pulled itself apart into something much more familiar. A specter that drew a visceral snarl from Yuna.

Xeromus.

You wished to protect those you treasured most.

Oh hey, I think I've seen a version of this movie before:

Since just going and cutting a deal with a demiurge for the chance to save your friends from unavoidable doom would have no possible way of having serious adverse effects down the road, right?

The silhouette squashed back into an icepix. Riolu appeared at her side. Their snouts brushed together. Yuna's head pounded once again. Her ectoplasm quivered.

This is... all a trick. I— what— why—

You wished for a second chance.

Yeeeeeah, I'm really strongly side-eying Yaldabaoth right about now. Since just the name is bad news in mythology, so I don't believe for a second that any "second chance" it provided wouldn't have serious strings attached.

Chaos plucked Riolu off the ground as Icepix poofed out of existence. Black and red light swirled around Riolu.

We heard your dying pleas. Too much of your soul had faded from its mortal coil. So, we gave you ours to fill the void.

Waaaaaait, so if Yaldabaoth is an alt of GL's Giratina, does that mean that it also had that dippy personality that would cheerily go on about "Pal-Pal" back in the day?

She raced through the dark sky. Headed for the vortex over the tower. Temporal Tower.

She still had time. She could still stop it, right?

The scent of blood drifted over her.

Nickie and Nero. Others too, like a latias and a zoroark. Unmoving. Covered in gashes.

"NO!"

Oh, so POV-2020 is indeed the product of a BAD END to GL. Or at least a BAD END to a GL AU. I do wonder if the casual mention of "Nero" is coming a bit suddenly for readers here, since while I know what it's referring to, it would mean exactly nothing to anyone who didn't read GL up to like its last 5 chapters.

The lucario, volcanic arcanine, and spiritomb standing opposite the bodies looked right at her. Then they looked back.

Butterfree Effect turned. The crimson glow of the chain swirling around behind them cast an eerie shadow across the tower.

"You cannot stop me this time!"

I can't tell if Butterfree Effect is meant to be Prisma after getting her human body back or if that's Alt-Cynthia having a normal one. Though 'You cannot stop me this time'? Implying that Butterfree Effect tried and failed to do this experiment or whatever this is at least once before this flashback?

Screams of pain filled her ears. Six bodies were wrapped in the Red Chain. Five had red wheels that matched the dimming golden one around the belly of the one screaming loudest: Arceus.

"I am the only one worthy of wielding the power of the legends themselves! Now witness the dawn of a new world! A perfect world free of all suffering!"

Ah yes, there's a song for this moment:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbTf3moH72s

With a furious roar, she pried apart the air itself. She dove through the reverse's distortion, lunging to tear apart the Red Chain.

Yuna violently lurched backward, forcing the vision away.

"ENOUGH!" she pleaded, jerking her head back and forth. She hunched over, tail shriveling up into her torso.

Oooor we could tee up the music from 4 chapters earlier in XB2 from when Jin literally disarmed a man. Which is an absolutely terrible omen for where the overall mood in this scene is going to go in about 30 seconds.

"I'm Yuna." Her voice was so tiny. "I don't— that stuff is—" The drakloak shuddered. "Your memories and mine are different."

The spirit never forgets. We are one. Now and forever. That was your wish.

Yuna: "... Okay, so wishing for things while you're on death's doorstep is apparently a really bad idea. Duly noted." ._.;

"That's not my spirit!" Yuna looked for a rock — hell, even a pebble — to throw at Chaos. "And it's not... it's not..." She kept stumbling over her words until her voice trailed off.

"Continuing down this path will lead you to discover several horrible truths. And without that tenacity... the weight of those truths will crush you."

You know, it really is a bit of a small wonder that Yuna hasn't had a psychotic break by this point in the story, since she's found out about a lot of things that are kinda worldview-breaking over the course of PoV.

The drakloak lay there in silence. Taking shuddering breaths and blinking small tears from her eyes. She wasn't sure how long the silence lingered as she repeated Vegna's words in her head. Yuna didn't even care to think about why Vegna knew to tell her something like this.

Everything about this was horrible. She thought the flashbacks with Chiron had prepared her for this, but she was dead wrong.

How deep did this go? How many memories did Chaos have? Was she... nothing but a tiny, insignificant blip to them? Doomed to be swallowed up into an endless memory abyss?

Yaldabaoth: "I mean... do you want the truthful answer? Or the one that will make you feel better-"
Yuna: "Oh my god..."

Yuna scraped her hands across the stone floor. She wanted this to end so, so badly. To wake up back in Aeon. Before the stupid treaty. Before Eternatus. And before this whole dimensional cataclysm.

... Someone's going to offer her a chance to do exactly that at some point in the story, huh? Since I can see that "I can't do this anymore, I want out" mood there.

Yet without even thinking, she whispered, "Help me understand."

Chaos slowly raised their right wing. The spikes glistened. Faint red light traced circles and triangles in the air. A familiar pattern. One Yuna watched Leo produce in every anomaly core. Then Chaos struck the pattern with their wing. It slowly rotated until it was upside down to how Yuna remembered.

Reverse.

Oh, so Giratina can also summon a Creation Sigil. Duly noted.

The drakloak blinked slowly. "Reverse what?"

The reverse. A realm on the opposite side. We are the guardian of the reverse.

I mean, they're not wrong there.

Picking herself up, Yuna stared blankly at the upside-down sigil. "That..." Blank stare turned to scowl. "That has to be the single most unhelpful explanation. And that's really saying something given all of this!" She gestured around.

Chaos' goopy body melted somewhat into the puddle.

You were not this... difficult last time.

Yuna: "Look, I just want to be normal, okay?! Or at least as normal as a princess of a dragon kingdom can be!"

"Because apparently I was dying!" Yuna snarled, rubbing her hands back and forth along the floor. "I was... dying..." She looked down, blinking slowly. The thoughts of icy river water suffocating her ectoplasm filled her head.

"I... am dying."

Yaldabaoth: "But not quite yet thanks to my intervention. Look, can you stop making this hard so we can move this along right now?"

Fighting back tears, Yuna forced herself to look at the rune Chaos had drawn. More ripples ran along their puddle, up to Chaos' bulky head. They grabbed the red sigil with their right wing and squeezed it into a red orb. Then they cracked it open like an egg for cooking.

Home has two sides to it.

Chaos lifted one half of the orb up.

Aeon and Radiance dwell in the reverse world. A realm that should not bear life, much less countless civilizations.

Oh. Oh. That... would explain a few things about why POV-2020 is so abnormal when its Distortion World is the one that has all the actual life while its normal one is presumably now barren. It'd also explain a few things about why it's so unstable since this is literally the opposite of how things are supposed to be in a Pokéworld.

... Unless we're going to be doing a Terra and Gaia shtick from FF9 all over again. I suppose that that's also in the realm of possibility.

Yuna rubbed her eyes. "That can't be right. Because—"

Eyes flashing, Chaos lifted the other half of the orb up.

The Qliphoth is the regular world. It is where all life should reside, be it humans, pokémon, or something else entirely.

Aaaaaand there it is. Though I see that the normal world is a bit less barren in POV-2020 than I thought.

Chaos brought the two halves close together, yet they never touched.

Both sides are linked. However, they are not meant to interact directly with one another.

They touched the halves together. Tiny red sparks shot out in all directions. Chaos' eyes dimmed slightly.

Eternatus' act of absorbing planets... is an attempt at restoring balance to itself. To the universe.

Yuna: "Wait- But- This entire time, we've been trying to stop that..." ._.

Yuna sat there, repeating the statement to herself. The earlier heaviness hadn't left her. And this was another weight on the pile. "But the Qliphoth... is some mix of people born within and those from home. And those people can't return outside because they're dead."

Incorrect assumptions from those who did not witness the dawn of this universe. Since the beginning, Eternatus has returned life to the regular world, where it rightfully belongs. Those you thought dead have merely attuned their souls to the regular world. And without the energy you call Malice, their spirits cannot withstand the reverse world's energy. Thus, they erode into Whispers.

Ah yes, time for the existential crisis in 3... 2...

But her allies had gone back and forth between Eternatus and the reverse world. "That can't be right," Yuna mumbled. "Like, why would the reverse world be so much bigger? To where Eternatus could get sealed with the Needles?"

The difference in size is a result of the universe's broken creation process. And our allies have always had protection against corrosion. From us. From the Creator. Or from other blessings.

Other blessings? Yuna squeezed her tail tighter. Much as she wanted to press that point, she feared she didn't have the time.

Can't tell whether or not that's a sign that POV-2020 also has Necrozma clawprints on its creation process or else if some other third party got involved in its creation at the moment of truth.

Still, this flew in the face of everything Yuna thought she understood. Then again, Widget mentioned a video message Nova left behind for Gene. One that claimed Eternatus was necessary for the universe to function properly. Something the emperor echoed... and Widget believed while he served the deoxys.

She shifted uneasily on the stone floor. "If this is all true, then..."

Destroying Eternatus is tantamount to destroying the universe. And the reverse world will die with it.

I mean, there's the whole "I'll tear it all down!" option, but... yeah, probably not a decision to make glibly, and I seriously doubt Yuna would be in the right headspace to make it at the moment.

Chaos brought the two halves it was holding fully together. There were sparks for a few seconds, which gave way to distorted tendrils that stitched themselves through the orbs.

Aeon's patron — the dragon of light — forced a permanent union between regular and reverse. This is why the planet is falling apart. We must sever this union.

Oh, so there really were Necrozma claws all over the creation of POV-2020. I should be less surprised, really. Though I can see why you keep making Xenoblade comparisons, since this problem is more or less the same underlying problem in XB3, except with the "two worlds that were never meant to come together" staying jammed together as opposed to colliding with each other is the main driver of the setting's existential problems.

"... By pulling all the Needles." Yuna grimaced. "Except Necrozma wants to pull them all to destroy Eternatus. If we break the union and strand him in the reverse world, then Eternatus will be safe, right?"

Oh hey, I see Bahamut's been dipping his claws into shades of that one Xeno-series character archetype, since "love of my life is dead, nothing matters anymore, just end it all" is very familiar to anyone who's gotten a couple titles under their belt.

Right. All the rift making. Yuna looked at her hands. At least now... she could try and link this back to what was familiar. "That power... I have it because I'm Chiron. You were a part of me then, too, weren't you?"

Silence. Chaos somewhat melted into the puddle again, which told Yuna the answer was somewhere between "no" and "it's complicated."

Yuna: "Oh for crying out loud, just how messed-up and convoluted is my backstory anyways? What on earth am I?"

A tremor ran across the ground. Yuna braced herself against the floor. Was Chaos' protection from the river failing?

"I have to know," Yuna said, even if part of her screamed to just end this conversation.

Chaos straightened up. Inky blobs peeled themselves off Chaos' goopy body.

Many giratina are violently protective toward the reverse world. We once struggled to control our instincts, to the point of attacking the Creator. For that, we were branded the Renegade. And, like many of our kind, the Creator sealed most of our power within the reverse world.

We were shunned. Isolated. An all too familiar fate.

Yuna: "Aaaand where does the Qliphoth moon bat come into all of this? Also, can we hurry this up before I drown in the river already?" .-.

The blobs squished themselves together into a copy of the Butterfree Effect.

One day, we met a human. Lost and confused. He claimed he was torn away from his time.

The copy turned to Chaos and extended a hand.

He paid attention to us. He wanted to see us reach our full potential. We were... happy to have someone acknowledge us. So, we followed his plan. We tore a rift in the sky. Our siblings, Time and Space, blamed one another and quarreled. The human wanted us to work together to stop them. To prove our combined worth to the Creator.

Oh, so Butterfree Effect is Volo. That would explain why he kept making sporadic appearances and the emphasis on not being stopped this time.

Another human silhouette rose from the puddle and stood in opposition to Butterfree Effect. The one that briefly turned into Yiazmat when Yuna was charging at it in an earlier vision.

But our creator instead called upon a different human. She and her partners stopped the fight before we could. This enraged the human we trusted. He used our gift to him to summon us. Demanded we kill her. But we saw the good in her heart. And her partners stood valiantly against us.

The human continued to demand we kill her. He betrayed our trust. So, we fled. The human branded us a traitor. We were alone once again.

Wait... does Volo actually do this in PLA? Since this feels pretty plausible for a villainous breakdown moment.

Chaos flicked their right wing. Butterfree Effect disappeared, leaving the girl. She turned to Chaos and tilted her head.

The girl found us. Comforted us. She taught us how to work with a team. How to protect without lashing out. We made up with our siblings and the Creator.

They slowly lowered their head and shook it.

But the human that betrayed us returned. Determined to surpass all of us, including the Creator. We sensed he had breached the boundary between worlds. With the girl's blessing, we gave chase.

Thus why Volo went and crashed the party in Alt-GL. I have to wonder at what point in the story you decided to roll that into things, or if the broad strokes of this always existed from the beginning, and you just decided to give it a PLA-themed skin from 2022 onwards.

The girl's silhouette collapsed. Small black blobs floated in the air between Yuna and Chaos.

We followed him to other worlds. Each time, we joined with that realm's giratina to try and stop him. Each time, he slipped away. Over and over. Until the human reached a world inhabited only by pokémon.

Oh, so the "this time" from that one line of dialogue was significant. Though boy, how many bites at the apple did Volo go for here? .-.

The black blobs squished themselves together. Riolu landed on the edge of the puddle.

Though we searched, we could not find the human until the moment we met you... and heard your dying wish.

That now makes me wonder if there are other GL AUs out there that got derailed by multiversal outsiders barging in. Unless if that one AU that the HoC crossover was set in is floating around there somewhere in PoV's omniverse for us to get a look at in the future.

The ground trembled again. This was... a lot to process. If she and Chaos were really the same spirit, did that make this her past? Did she have several pasts... all spent trying and failing to catch Butterfree Effect?

Since... yeah. The scope of Operation Stop Blondie was already outright mentioned as involving more universes than Yaldabaoth could be bothered to count, so...

Yuna pushed herself into the air. "How does this tie back to Chiron?"

We saw it for ourselves, remember? The human forged a new world. We attacked the human. Disrupted his new world's creation. The result... was a backwards, incomplete world. With life split between the regular and reverse.

There was nothing we could do to fix it. Our power — the power of the Renegade — was taken from us after we finished disrupting this universe's creation.

FF13-2 music, huh? That one is certainly different, though I'm guessing that this power wound up in Chiron's hands somehow.

Chaos extended their right wing. Several black globs dribbled down. A new human rose from the edge of the puddle. Ran inky hands through shaggy, unkempt hair. Yuna heard nothing, but the way the human was gesturing and stomping around, they were clearly angry. Punching the air. Knocking things off invisible furniture.

They tossed a black blob on the ground in front of Yuna. It vaguely resembled one of those handheld gaming device thingies she'd seen Cyril carry around on occasion.

The human suddenly jerked backwards. Black tendrils pried themselves free and sucked the human up. The black slime swirled around until it resembled a silhouette of Bahamut.

Wait. Is that...

?! I mean, obviously an AU, but still.

The new, broken world drew in an isolated soul so full of resentment and anger toward everything around him. Despite all our training, this stranger's violent temperament... overpowered our will. He seized our power over the reverse world. In effect, the dragon of light became the Renegade Pokémon of the newly-made universe.

I mean, if Alt-GL's Nicky was the well-adjusted one between her and Shane... I suppose that would require the other to fill the role of the unhinged figure lashing out at the world, so...

Yuna frowned. Something was off about that. It sounded so... vague compared to everything else Chaos told her. And their tone. Yuna still had trouble parsing it, but she had another gut feeling.

Can't tell if this is a sore spot for Yaldy or if they just legit don't know about Bahamut's backstory.

They're... uncertain?

Chaos didn't appear bothered. They watched Bahamut's silhouette fly around, lashing out at the air with his wings and tail. Yuna followed the silhouette, too. The ringing in her head was back. Maybe she was rushing to conclusions about this part of Chaos' explanation?

Then Bahamut was... like her. A past life cut short. But instead of a dying wish... his wrath twisted him into the thing Chaos used to be before that human girl helped them?

... I just realized, but does this mean that Bahamut's power is going to wind up going to Nikki somehow later in the story? Since if that theory of who he used to be is right, that's the direct thematic flip of what happened between

and Nicky towards the end of GL.

"So the reason he kept attacking the planets he visited..." Frowning, the drakloak crossed her arms. "And the reason he wants to destroy Eternatus above everything... is because he thinks he's protecting the reverse world."

Chaos nodded slowly.

He embodies our kind far more than we do. His irrational drive to claim as much power as possible to strike down Eternatus... is built on the foundation of a violent desire to protect his domain.

So in a slightly paraphrased nutshell:

: "This world is MINE! It's not yours, it's mine. You are nothing. It only belongs to ME!"

Complete with the toxic possessive complex thrown in for the ride.

They caught Bahamut with their right wing, absorbing the black slime.

However, thanks to Eternatus wounding him, he lost the power to control the reverse world. We escaped. And reunited.

Well, that would explain why Bahamut had a normal one about Eternatus to the point of de facto committing suicide in the pursuit of greater power to destroy it.

That had to refer to the Darkest Day. Bahamut's light... must have been how he did all this crazy stuff in the reverse world. And if that power was supposed to belong to Yuna... then it was no wonder she bonded with the Soul Dew when Chiron didn't. That was her power all along!

But then... what did that mean for her relation to Chiron? It certainly didn't sound like Chaos had an answer for her.

I mean, given that Bahamut strongly implied that Chiron had some of "his" power and he wants it back...

Yuna looked down at her tail. "Mom said she found me sealed in a crystal." Did that mean Chaos searched for her until she hatched? "Wait, what about how sick I was as a kid?"

Chaos lowered their head slightly.

"Don't tell me..."

Your illness was a result of our reunion. You remained sick while our broken soul healed. Even though you recovered, we remained dormant until recently. Recuperating from our time within the dragon of light.

Wait. 'Within the dragon of light'? Implying that Bahamut's dynamic was basically a reprise of

's where he was functionally like 3 different entities blendered together, just with a lot more Giratina thrown into the mix?

It took a moment, but Yuna recalled the strange temple inside Eternatus. The fight with Runerigus and the shadowy wings that came to her in a time of need...

The ground shook again. Chaos' inky puddle rippled faster.

We are out of time.

Ah yes, more ominous XB music has entered the chat. Though... yeah, I suppose that it's time to worry about getting Yuna out of that river she's drowning in, huh?

Relief and dread battled it out in Yuna's head. She still had more questions! How was she supposed to try and free herself from drowning with this weighing on her conscience?!

We must fully combine. You must shed your drakloak guise. We shall become one in mind, body, and spirit. Then we can fully wield the power of distortion. The power you call your "shadows."

Though I suppose this is why you've gone on for a few years about why Yuna needed to be a Dreepy for your plot to work, since... yeah. There's not exactly a deep pool of candidates that would mesh well for fusing with an eldritch ghost dragon.

Chaos clapped their wings together. Two cards appeared in front of their wing spikes. One with an orange and yellow sun, the other bearing a blue and purple crescent moon. Each had a mixture of letters on them. "XVIII" for the moon card and "XIX" for the sun card.

We will also allow you to put these to use. They've lingered deep inside your soul all this time.

Wait, wait, wait. So Yuna can also do Persona-esque arcana antics now? I mean, I suppose that would explain the emphasis on arcana motifs for Paradigm and the P3 music you sometimes lean on in your story's scenes. I do wonder if this is something that should have been built up more, but eh. Even under the story's own dynamics, these two are a bit tight on time.

Yuna stared at the cards. Chaos' demands played on loop in her head. After several seconds, she shriveled up.

"No," she instinctively mumbled. She couldn't agree to that. Not if it meant getting battered by the tsunami of Chaos' memories... or past selves.

And certainly not if it meant Yuna would fade away. She couldn't leave the others! Especially not Noctum and Nikki.

Yaldabaoth: "I'm sorry. What?"

The icepix's soft tails brushing against her side. A tingle down her spine.

You speak nonsense. You already fear transforming into Chiron. But that shall not happen. Instead, we will hold memories of our time as Drakloak Yuna.

"That's not good enough!" Yuna firmly squeezed her arms against her side. "I'm... I'm not ready! I can't—" She shook her head. "I can't disappear! Whether that's becoming you or Chiron or something else!

Yaldabaoth: "Did you not hear my spiel earlier about how we're literally one and the same?"

Yuna: "Look, my personality isn't like yours, okay?! I don't want to give it up!" O_O;

"The past doesn't matter! I'm me! I'm Yuna! We have to find another way!"

The ground rumbled again. Purple fissures traced across the floor, barely skirting Chaos' puddle.

We are out of time. There is no other way. We must combine.

Yeeeeeah, this is going to result in a hostile takeover, isn't it?

"I said no!" Yuna surprised herself with her intensity. "This... this is still my life—"

We cannot stand up against Zodiark like this.

Zodiark? Was that... Butterfree Effect's real name? Or their name back when they were the human Chaos was chasing after?

Oh, so that's who Zodiark is. Duly noted there.

It didn't matter. Yuna had made up her mind. "I understand what you're saying, but I can't go. Not like this."

The drakloak curled her hands up. "I refuse... to merge."

Was it selfish? Maybe. But Yuna needed time to come to grips with everything. She couldn't disappear after learning all of this.

I mean, yeah. It'd honestly be kinda sad to not have Yuna's personality around in this story in some capacity even if she did go full Giratina.

The ground shuddered again.

"Give me... a bit more power," the drakloak said. "Enough to fight the Whispers." She looked down. Guilt and concern wrestled in her head.

Very well.

What?

Yuna: "Wait, you're just... agreeing to this? Just like that?"

Yuna glanced at Chaos. They were halfway sunken into their puddle.

"You're okay with this?"

We remain bound by your wish. We shall not hurt you.

Huh. That's significantly more benevolent than I was expecting. Maybe. Even if this is ultimately a can-kick since I'm not convinced that this isn't going to wind up coming up again in the future under direr circumstances.

Yuna bit her lower lip to keep from making a snide remark. "All right." She took a calming breath. "Then let's... work together. In parallel. Not as one." Her tail rippled. "Okay?"

We shall assist, but it is only a matter of time until you yield to the inevitable.

Yeah, I figured there.

Chaos' head sank into the puddle. It rippled faster and faster.

Yuna doubled over in pain. Her chest... it was on fire! Was the Soul Dew doing something to her real body?

The burning got worse and worse. Yuna screamed. Jagged, amber crystal burst from her chest ectoplasm.

Wait, 'amber crystal'? Is that meant to be that yellow stuff on Giratina, or...?

The puddle rose from the ground like a large wave heading for the shore.

... That shore being Yuna.

"What are you doing?" Her new chest crystal spread light across her body. "Stop! Stop! I said no merging! STOP!"

BISHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!

The black wave crashed over her, flooding her world in darkness.

Wow, well that was certainly a dick move there.

Gene's tail lashed at the air. They had numbers on the Whispers and this was still a problem?

Ah yes, things are going well™️ at the moment with background music like that.

He Phantom Warped just south of midfield, avoiding a wall of shadowfire. The shadowy mewtwo already learned the hard way those flames were dark-type. For some stupid reason.

Yeah, bring it up with Game Freak doing something different for the Galar DLC there.

"What are you waiting for? Hit him!" he growled. Flames gathered in his right hand. Gene hurled the Fire Blast, figuring that bug-shaped crystal on Ifrit's head had to symbolize "fire gud."

Oh, so the Tera Jewels reappear in this story. Though Bug-type G-Moltres? Is that really a common strategy in the metagame these days?

Black flames swirled around midfield. Ifrit's dark whirlwind knocked aside the five prongs of Gene's Fire Blast. Quetzal retreated toward Gene.

"I'm trying!" the orange zapdos squawked.

"No you're not!" Gene had another Fire Blast ready and hurled it at the dark moltres. He glared at Quetzal, who formed a spinning air cone around his beak and charged toward midfield.

I actually wonder, but considering how the Prologue trio were forcibly mutated into Galarian forms, does that mean that they can still use their original attacks or have those been sealed?

Ifrit folded his wings, dropping to the ground. The Fire Blast sailed overhead. He threw up his wings, blunting some of Quetzal's Drill Peck. But Ifrit still skidded across the scorched ground.

"You're pulling your punches!" Gene's Malice Crystal sparked. "Don't try to deny it! You still see your friend and not some mindless murder bird who wants to gouge your eyes out!"

Um. Gene. Isn't the idea to knock some sense into those two without killing them? Though that doesn't bode well for how he dealt with turned allies in the past.

"Th-that's—" Quetzal jumped high enough to avoid a furious Air Slash barrage that sliced up midfield's ruined grass. "Ifrit doesn't resort to gouging eyes! That's barbaric!"

Gene: "Yes, yes, that's great aside from the fact that that isn't Ifrit right now! So come up with a workaround fast, then!"

Gene swapped fire for lightning. He pointed his right hand downfield and let the sparks fly. Ifrit rolled out of the way.

"You want to do the 'I know you're in there' schtick? Then do it!" Gene pursued Ifrit. The black moltres couldn't gather up enough shadowfire to strike. Instead, Gene broadsided Ifrit with his spoon. Ifrit skipped back across the ground, toward the northern end of the field.

"Did you really have to hit him that hard?" Quetzal said. His feathers puffed out when Gene leveled the spoon in his direction.

Gene: "I mean, I'd like to not be maimed or die horribly, so... yes?"

"Hey, uh, not to interject or anything." Koraidon's voice carried through Gene's X-transceiver. He glanced up. In the nosebleed section of the eastern stands, Jade was fleeing an Air Slash bombardment from Shiva. The weird stoic human remained atop the psychic articuno's back.

"How much longer do you think you'll be? These Team Rocket people have stolen a lot of pokémon with their, err, giant meowth machine. I think they might fly the coop soon."

Quetzal: "Gene, I thought you said that those three were supposed to be incompetent comedic relief villains." .^.
Gene: "Look, I don't keep track on the quirks of every universe out there, okay? And it won't be that hard to blip over and delete that metal hunk of junk!" >_>;

Gene gnashed his teeth. Damn it. Yuna vanished five minutes ago and everything since then had spiraled out of control.

Yeeeeeah, that kinda has been a trend for the last couple missions from the Resistance, just saying.

"I'm handling it," the shadowy mewtwo said. "Just gimme a minute or two." He concentrated on the Malice Crystal in his shoulder, drawing in as much of the energy as he could.

"This is no way to treat a lady!" Jade cawed, trying to outfly a furious tornado spiraling through the stands, flinging seating all around. "Cece! Undisappear yourself and heeeeeeeeelp!"

Cecil: "I would, but Yuna's kinda making glub glub noises right now, so it's kinda hard to do much of anything for undisappearing." .-.

"Your friend is gone," the trainer on Shiva's back said. "They were boring. As are you. Nothing but dodges and quips. Do you even have a reason to be here?"

Damn, Betrayed Ash is ice cold there. Though I suppose that it's not unexpected for the broader subgenre.

Jade turned around, stunned. Gene took the opportunity to fire a small Shadow Ball at Shiva. It provided a temporary distraction, with the masked articuno stopping to snuff the ectoplasm out with more pink eye lasers.

The salugia didn't press her opening, though. Gene was ready to chew her out like he did to Quetzal when a thunderous boom split the air.

Red and purple energy streaming from his Malice Crystal into his torso, Gene shot up high above midfield. "Tell me the big robot didn't just do something awful!" he cried.

"The robot didn't make that sound," Koraidon said. "Something emerged from the river. I think it's Yuna!"

Ah yes, so we get the first official usage of Devil Trigger in this story. You've been waiting for this moment, haven't you?

Shiva turned toward Gene. "What?" The trainer finally sounded something other than disinterested.

Gene was ready to take advantage of the opening when a jagged purple rift split the air underneath Shiva open. There was a roar, followed by a spectral wing slashing Shiva from below. An off-pitch warble escaped the masked articuno's beak as she buckled in midair from the strike. The trainer visibly struggled to maintain his grip.

"Impossible," he said.

Gene: "I mean, don't you hear the DMC5 music in the background? This is happening whether or not you want it to, bedhead."

Shiva swept pink eye lasers beneath her. However, the spectral wing vanished. A dragapult appeared over Shiva's head. She punched the air furiously and large, gray, ectoplasmic legs pummeled the unsuspecting articuno, knocking her into the stands, then swatting her toward the northern part of the ruined battlefield. The trainer lost his grip and was soon in freefall toward the uneven ground.

Ah yes, I see that Yuna's taken things up a few notches. Even if I wonder if this will really be her final form for this story.

"Someone catch him!" Gene shouted, still a bit stunned at what he was seeing.

"On it!"

An orange streak surged across the burnt, torn-up grass. Quetzal abruptly stopped in the perfect spot to catch the trainer.

Gene: "Well, that should make these other two a bit less annoying to fight at least... talk about a timely save there."

Gene spotted Ifrit preparing to hit Quetzal from behind. The shadowy mewtwo had all this energy charged up. With Shiva occupied, he had no qualms about changing targets.

Gene cupped his hands in front of him. Focusing on that hateful energy burning inside his chest, he pushed it along his arms... then unleashed the devastating red and purple beam. It swept across the ground, torching the remaining grass away and leaving a trail of black ooze behind.

Wait, he can do that? .-.

"Holy hell!"

Nikki barely managed to escape to midfield from the beam, carrying the unconscious pikachu that had given her problems before under her shoulder. She stared dumbly at Gene's attack.

It was tough controlling the beam. But the thing was large enough to swallow the squawking moltres up. Shattered crystal fragments tumbled across the scorched field.

Wow, that battle certainly started turning around fast given that Betrayed Ash is now out at least 3 members of the team.

Gene's arms were on fire. He thought they'd melt right off his shoulders! Gene barely managed to cut the beam off. Black vapor rose off his arms, which he rapidly shook out.

"He's down!"

Running up the field, Nikki tossed Pikachu next to Ifrit, whose head crystal had shattered. The two foes lay side by side in an unconscious heap.

Pikachu: "I call hax." @.@

That's one. Gene turned. So, what about the other?

Shiva flew around the eastern stands, frantically shooting pink beams from her eyes. All the while, the dragapult weaved through the beams, blasting dreepy-shaped bolts straight into Shiva's face. Shrieking, the masked articuno whipped up a furious Hurricane.

>dat art

I see the grand tradition of the main fem character in the story getting an unnaturally influenced final evolution with telltale visual markers holds true in PoV, too. I suppose that it's fitting if Yuna really is Tessa and Giratina duct-taped together.

"Not this time! Drilpa ozongon!"

Aha, I see that you're getting in on the hovertext game yourself. Though Enochian, huh? I suppose that it jibes well with the occult vibes that some things in this story have had thus far, even if I wonder what the specific rationale for this over Hindi like for the rest of the Whisper-related stuff is.

Dragapult— no, Yuna clapped her hands together. The jagged, amber crystal in her chest crackled with the same static as the rifts they conjured.

Hon, that's a Gresious Orb. I can see that shape in that artwork as clear as day.

Mega Rayquaza torpedoed his way through the Hurricane, snuffing it out like it was nothing but a stiff breeze. His Dragon Ascent collided with Shiva. Before she could crash through the stands, another shadowy wing caught her by the balloon-shaped head crystals and dragged her through the air toward her downed allies.

"Now flock off, Feather Face!"

Ah yes, I remember that line from Bayo 1, which a casual Google reveals apparently was also a thing in DMC, so it fits both ways with the choice of BGM.

The wing squeezed the psychic articuno like an oversized stress ball. Her head crystal shattered. Shiva's body lurched. Static streamed out of her, heading roughly in the direction of where Gene recalled the vault was.

Though part of it briefly congealed into something resembling a face. A human face.

"Welcome back, Yaldabaoth."

Yuna: "Wait. Did- Did he want me to do this? Was this something he planned for?!"

The rest of the static went away. Yuna flew after it, looking over her shoulder at the others.

"Yuna?" Jade descended from the nosebleed section, an uncertain look on her face. "You evolved? But what's with your chest? Where's the Soul Dew?"

She turned away from Jade and tapped the side of her head. "Whoever has Leo, get him ready to seal the anomaly core. I'm coming to get him."

Okay, so I'm just realizing that the Soul Dew in this story is an embodiment of a vessel that has the power of the Renegade / keeper of the Reverse World for POV-2020. Bahamut is the acting holder of that power in this world, thus why it looked like a Necrozmium Z up until the point in this story, while Yaldabaoth is the rightful owner of that power, hence its makeover into a Gresious Orb lookalike. Cute attention to detail there.

"H-Hey, wait!" Jade flew toward her. "What should we do about all of this?" She gestured around her.

But the dragapult didn't respond. She opened a rift behind her, flew into it, and sealed it up.

Jade: "Well. Uh... that was easy. I think?"

Path of Valor Almanac
"Drilpa ozongon" is "great winds" in Enochian.

Chaos is the mythological void within the area of cosmogony. Ancient Greek myths consider Chaos a primordial deity or a void state existing before the universe's creation. Christian theology depicts Chaos as an abyss formed when God separated heaven and earth during the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis.

Oh, so Yaldy's alt-name that Yuna gave it wasn't drawn out of a hat. Duly noted, and I suppose that is a fitting parallel to the Reverse/Distortion World from the Pokémon franchise.

Alright, made it to the end and am honestly still trying to piece together what on earth just happened since... uh... there was a lot, and I get the distinct feeling that the full implications of everything that went down haven't fully sunk in yet. I mean, I suppose things had been building towards it more and more explicitly, but I suppose that this was the chapter where things went to the hilt about this being a GL sequel, and there's a lot of fanservice for people who've been following your writings for a while. There's also a lot of implications and "did that really just happen" that went down that will be interesting to see how they're followed up on. It almost feels like it's too much to cram into one plot, but hey, I suppose you've already proven me wrong on that front before in the past.

My one complaint about this chapter is that it kinda felt like there might have been a bit too much dumped on Yuna and the reader all at once, since there were like 5 or 6 separate major reveals that all went down in that one dialogue scene. I also thought that some of the GL-nodding stuff, while really neat to see from the perspective of someone who's read that story, would've gone hugely over the head of anyone coming into this story without having at least a passing knowledge of things. Especially the cold namedrop of "Nero" with zero mention or allusion to his species, since even people who haven't made it to the literal end of GL will be out of the loop on that one.

But altogether, I thought that it was a fun chapter @Ambyssin , even if it feels like we've just hit the tip of the iceberg for how things are going to change from this point on along with Yuna's new powerup. But I suppose that's a story for the next couple of chapters.

Hope the feedback was fun to follow along with, and I'll be looking forward to catching up in full sometime soon.

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 86: Past Revelations​

After considerable effort, I've finished my preliminary analysis of the Space Globe artifact I discovered on my most recent expedition up Mount Coronet. The results are simply astounding!

According to my calculations, the space core has a near-bottomless supply of energy at its disposal. Initial testing suggests this energy is capable of warping space and time around it. The display brought to mind stories from Celestic Town dealing with Dialga and Palkia. At first, I was tempted to dismiss the fact that the Space Globe matches depictions of the Original One's torso as a coincidence, but now I'm certain there's more to it.

It's still too early to draw any concrete conclusions, but I believe this is exactly what I've been looking for. With the Space Globe's power, I can build a device that will solve every remaining mystery of our world. I can bring humans and pokémon closer together and guide us all toward a shining future where dreams come true.

As such, I've dubbed these energy reserves the "Dreamweaver." There are some other signals I must follow up on, so expect additional reports.

XxX​

Yuna found herself waiting longer than intended to spill the beans. Just when it seemed like everyone invited would gather, Gene floated the idea of taking it somewhere less cramped. That way there was at least some extra time for people to rest. So, the dragapult had to wait until Guzzie closed the restaurant.

... It was an annoying wait. One made worse by Reshiram continually prodding at her mind, as she expected. Fortunately, Yuna had a much easier time keeping him out of her subconscious than she did before.

Eventually, the restaurant shuttered for the night. People trickled in. Gene levitated aside some tables and chairs to give Yuna a "spot of prime real estate" to talk.

And talk she did. Yuna described as much as she could think of. Zodiark and the Butterfree Effect. Getting blasted into that river in Wyndon. The strange temple-like place she woke up in. And, of course, what Yaldabaoth had to say about all of this.

If the silence that followed was anything to go by, Yuna perhaps went a bit overboard with the information dump. The silence unnerved her enough that when a loud thud and the scratching of metal against metal came from the other side of the room, Yuna jolted. Her tail shriveled and she reflexively tucked her arms over her new core.

"Sorry." Guzzie held his four pincered arms up, along with his tail. "Guzzie was making snacks. Didn't realize you moved everything around." He gently placed four trays down by a table of skorps, sliggoo, and baxcalibur.

"Here. Meat and veggie-lover nachos." The guzzlord slowly backed away until he reached the kitchen doors. They creaked shut behind him.

Fortunately, that awkward performance was enough to get someone talking.

"Lemme get this straight," Nikki said, hand raised as she lounged on two chairs, squishing a skorp who tried to claim the seat her legs dangled off as his own. "So this place." The toxtricity pointed at the floor. "The Eterna Empire or whatever... it's the real world?"

Yuna nodded.

"And where we live," Nikki pointed to herself, then Yuna, then waved behind her, "is some kind of opposite land?"

"That's... pretty much how I interpreted reverse world," Yuna responded, tapping her claws together.

Nikki frowned. "So, Eternatus schlorping up worlds is actually an attempt at restoring balance to the universe?"

"I think so."

"But Bahamut doesn't like that." Nikki swung her legs off the other chair. The skorp on the chair's back hopped off it before it fell back on the floor. "And wants to destroy it?"

"Uhh..." Yuna rubbed her shoulder.

"Even though doing so would destroy the universe because of that dumb balance garbage?"

After a bit of hesitation, Yuna circled back to the first part of the toxtricity's claim. "It's more like he was the reverse world's guardian and was violently protective of it."

"To-may-to, to-mah-to." Nikki waved Yuna off, crossing one leg over another. "Cuz it sounds like the only reason that happened is he took your power. Because you're actually, like, some big shadow daemon thingy that controls the reverse world."

"I suppose that's one way of putting it." Yuna slowly landed on a chair, draping her arms and torso over the back of it.

"And your inner daemon actually knew the thing that's causing all the anomalies." Nikki's mohawk frazzled. "Then chased it across worlds until you clashed in some place with only pokémon. The end result being..." Her voice trailed off and she gestured all around her. A small neon hamburger bolted to one of the pillars flickered before the bulbs died and it went dark. "... All this shit."

There was only one thing missing. "I think there's a chance some of us lived in that world before." Yuna squeezed the back of the chair. "And because we wanted to stop Zodiark so badly, we ended up here with new lives."

"Wow!" Griffon fluttered his metal wings from atop an arcade cabinet behind Nikki's table. "I'm impressed you followed it all."

"Kiss my ass, emo skarmory!" Nikki's mohawk erupted with sparks. "I know how to pay attention to important shit!" She leaned forward in her chair, scowling. "Which is why something about this doesn't make sense."

The dragonair curled on the pink cushion next to her coiled up tight. "And that is?" Scarlett wondered.

"Why now?"

Silence. Perhaps Nikki was letting it hang in the air. Or collecting her thoughts further.

Sure enough, the toxtricity continued, "The universe has been around plenty long." She pointed across the room, where Gene leaned against the bar and Cyril sat at a barstool quietly sipping some luminescent blue beverage. "Long enough for these two to have outlived us several times over." Nikki crossed her arms and squinted. "So, why is this all happening now? If there's reincarnation or whatever... why didn't anyone come back at the beginning?"

Nikki stood up and looked around the room. "I can't be the only one thinking this, right? Why let all this shit build up when someone could've offed Zodiark early?"

Some murmurs followed, mainly from assorted skorps and dragons. But golden embers drew Yuna's attention back toward the arcade cabinet. Vegna had Bahamut's journal out, flipping through pages. From his right shoulder, Talonflame leaned his beak toward the book every so often.

"I see the past, present, and future existing all at once before me." Vegna dropped the book on the table in front of him. The thwap made Jade's tail flaps curl. Bits of pink smoke rose from her tail.

"Ah-ha. Sorry." The salugia laughed nervously.

Ignoring her, Vegna placed his right index finger squarely on the center of whatever page he'd opened to.

"Zodiark is mentioned in the journal," he declared.

Heads quickly turned toward the back left corner of the restaurant. "That so?" Jaeger scratched his right ear. "Y' thinking that we're missing something, then?"

"Indeed." Vegna put a stronger emphasis on that last syllable. He tapped the tome repeatedly with his index finger. "It's written here. The Matriarch program was part of Eternatus' core. It sounds as though Matriarch was sealing off Zodiark." The dusknoir flipped a page. "Bahamut describes a moment where he saw a human with a hairstyle like Leo's, who quickly shattered into countless pieces that vanished on the spot."

Widget shifted in place nervously on his cushion in the center of the room. His starcloud swirled around his neck. "Does that mean Leo and his plates are actually the pieces of Zodiark?"

Yuna picked her head up a bit. Zodiark had mentioned wanting to take the plates for themselves back in Wyndon. But how could they do that if they were only a projection? Maybe from bonding with the anomaly long enough?

"I think it's the opposite, actually." Alder was quick to raise a wing. A pink glow spread over his white, feathery afro. "Leo represents the rightful creator of this universe. Zodiark sounds more like the one who caused an errant creation process. So, by giving Leo the plates, we keep them away from Zodiark."

A couple of tables over, Igneous cleared his throat. He'd leaned back enough to prop his chair against the table, with only its hind legs on the ground. "And the Red Chain fragments? They could be part of this, too."

"Already ate the ones we had."

Igneous almost fell off his chair trying to turn and locate Leo. Yuna pointed up to where the cosmic arceus stood on the ceiling. Something the dragapult was choosing not to think too hard about.

"Ate them?" Igneous sputtered.

"Absorbed them. Ate them." Leo shrugged. "Sigurd gave me his and I took the one we recharged with the big collider. Makes more sense than leaving them out in the open."

Several people murmured their agreement. Beside Igneous, however, Shimmer kneaded his hooves against his cushion "Is there, um, any way to get them out?" he wondered.

Leo looked down from the ceiling. "Probably. But I don't see a reason to." He squinted. The gems in his wheel flickered. "Unless you're saying you want one. Which is hella sus, b-t-dubs."

Yuna almost sputtered, both at Leo's accusation and the bizarre lingo that came with it. She hadn't taught him any of that. And judging by the looks her mother, Noctum, and a few other dragons gave her, they also wondered what was up.

"Err, no, just a strategy concern." Shimmer's fluffy tails puffed out. There were even more eyes on him than on Leo and Yuna. The ponytales looked ready to bolt from the room.

"He's asking because there's a chance his mother has one of the fragments," Igneous said. Shimmer went wide-eyed. "So, yeah, it is something we ought to know. Because we might need those fragments to counter hers."

Right. That whole business with Isola possibly being some Red Chain-powered body snatcher. Yuna caught Vegna's eye flickering blue with Zekrom's lightning. He recalled the tome with a flick of his wrist and backed up against the arcade machine.

"Tch. That's all well and good." Nikki swung her legs off her chair and stood up. "But I'm still stuck on where I was before."

"Oh, brother." Griffon spread out his wings. "I thought you were good. You need us to say it slower or something, toots?"

Nikki's response was to silently raise an electrified fist. Vegna grabbed the corviknight's outstretched wing. Griffon disappeared into Vegna's body. "Continue, Nicolette."

"Uhh, yeah." Nikki hesitantly lowered her fist. Still creeped out by Vegna, Yuna figured. "So, like, Necrozma. Wants to destroy Eternatus and stuff." The toxtricity jammed her hands into her pockets. "What the hell does pulling Needles have to do with that? He can already cross over inside Eternatus. So, why doesn't he just make a break for the damn core?"

Silence greeted Nikki again. Yuna had to admit it was a good question. One she didn't have a solid answer for. She glanced at Vegna, who was looking out the glass wall toward the arena.

"Necrozma wants to have as much power at his disposal as possible," the dusknoir said. "The Needles represent Sages who hold portions of his light. He wants it back."

"Not to mention... if yanking the Needles severs the connection between Eternatus and the reverse world, he'd want to do that," Sigurd proposed, moving his wheelchair slightly forward from the edge of the bar. "Even if he lost this mysterious Renegade power, he might still have instincts driving him to protect the reverse world."

That was pretty much Yuna's take on it. She nodded at Sigurd who, satisfied, moved his chair back against the side of the bar.

"It's kinda hard to get a read on him," Yuna said. "But he's a Whisper, so I doubt anything he's doing is really going to make sense."

After a few seconds of Nikki squinting at Yuna, she took her hands out of her pockets and flopped back in her chair. "Well, shit." The toxtricity draped her right arm over the back of the chair. "I got nothing else." She slumped over to her left, practically draping herself across the table. The skorp from earlier barely skittered out of the way in time. "Gonna... need to chew on it for a bit."

Gene popped out of a Phantom Warp in the middle of the room. "Might be best for everyone." His yellow-tipped tail lazily drifted back and forth. "We can keep tossing around questions until we're blue in the face." Gene shook his head. "But Princess laid all the cards out as she knows 'em. Everyone oughta call it a night. Capiche?"

Not a single soul objected to the shadowy mewtwo. "Great." He landed atop the mechanical tauros in the middle of the room. "Then you're all dismissed. Good work. Pats on the back. G'night, sleep tight, and all that happy nonsense."

And the resistance's intrepid leader was the first to fly out of the room.

XxX​

After everyone broke away from the restaurant, Yuna expected people to come over and pester her with more questions. When that didn't happen, she settled for returning to her room. Yuna lay on her back. Her cot didn't fit her anymore as a dragapult, forcing her to tuck in her legs and curl her tail up just to fit.

She studied the metal ceiling. Her eyes jumped between dents and small rusted streaks. Anything to pass the time.

"You did the right thing telling them," Reshiram said. His presence tickled the back of Yuna's mind.

It was too much, Yuna responded, though she couldn't imagine how one would explain all of this gradually. Still, didn't make her feel any less guilty. Yuna traced a claw over the cot's rough blanket. If it overwhelmed me, it's bound to have overwhelmed all of them. She tilted her head by the door. Think they're avoiding me?

"I think it's too soon to jump to conclusions," Reshiram said. "Like Gene said. Everyone needs time to process this."

Yuna wondered how much time they'd have. Would new anomalies spring up or did sealing the last one give the resistance another reprieve?

"Just do whaaaaaaaaaat I do. Sleep it off," Cresselia said.

Except it wasn't really time to sleep. Yuna forced Cresselia and Reshiram out of her mind. She rubbed her eyes. There were tiny stars in the corners of her vision. Yuna rubbed again. No good. Was she getting floaters? Baraz dealt with those, but he said that was because he was old. Was the stress aging her?

"... ckie..."

Yuna sat up. She propped her triangular head against the wall. "Someone there?" Yuna called, watching the door.

More stars danced around the edge of her vision. She rubbed her eyes again. And when she opened them, the bare room had hazy silhouettes against an even hazier brown floor. Though blurry, she recognized one: an icy vulpix.

As things grew more solid, Yuna realized Icepix was standing in front of a mirror. She gazed at her reflection, flicking random tails and producing icy mist.

When Icepix sighed, the brown floor and walls came into focus, painting over Yuna's bedroom. Her cot melted into a doorway and her ectoplasmic body shrank down and sprouted blue and black fur.

"Nickie?"

The icepix jolted. Her tails poofed out, sprinkling cold mist that fogged up against the mirror.

"Oh." Nickie shifted nervously. "Hey, Tessa. Sorry, I was... lost in thought, I guess."

Tessa sighed. "I figured." She stepped into the room. The luminous orbs bathed her in dim orange. A couple of months into her guild time and she still wasn't used to these custom nighttime orbs Magearna made for people to use in the evenings.

"That obvious, huh?" Nickie was trying to brush the frost off the mirror with her tails, but that only smudged up the mirror.

"Well, you didn't touch your dinner." Tessa jogged over to some wooden shelves on her left, grabbed an old cloth, and headed to the mirror. "I had a hunch." The riolu wiped the mirror with the cloth.

"Ah." Nickie's ears folded. "Guess I didn't have much of an appetite. Did Nero end up eating my portion?"

"Yeah. Think he slipped into a food coma." Tessa laughed. Nickie joined her, though her laughter was clearly forced.

"What's bothering you?" Tessa tossed the cloth onto the floor. "Is it about what Mom and Dad told us? That stuff about checking the Worldcore to see if you're—"

"What if a faller doesn't want to leave?"

Nickie spoke so quickly Tessa needed a moment to parse the icepix's question. She opened and closed her mouth several times. All Tessa managed was a, "Huh?"

Nickie stepped back, her tails curling. "What if... a faller would rather stay here?"

Tessa stared blankly. Nickie shuffled back further.

"Your paren— I mean, the guildmasters said fallers can be dangerous because they can make dungeons unstable. Or cause dungeons to form."

She rubbed her forelegs together. "So, say the Worldcore decides I'm not supposed to be here. I'd have to go home, right?"

"That's what I've always thought," Tessa said, rubbing the back of her head. "It sure sounds like fallers go back home. The only people who've stayed behind are some heroes the Voice of Life summoned." Her aura feelers crinkled. "At least, that's how it's gone in the stories of the old heroes."

As she rambled, Nickie inched closer to the mirror again. She gazed at her reflection.

"Wait." Tessa gave Nickie space to stand in front of the mirror. The icepix's words were finally sinking in. "You really don't want to go home? E-Even though you remember your life?" Her aura feelers throbbed. "Don't you miss being human?"

Nickie winced. But why? It wasn't that surprising a question, was it?

"Of course there's stuff I miss," Nickie said. She hadn't taken her eyes off her reflection. "I miss television. And video games." Nickie shook her head. "I miss not being covered in a fur coat the whole time. Or smelling way too much stuff. And having hands with freaking thumbs!

"... God, I miss thumbs."

She let out a tired laugh that turned into more of a bark. "Oh, and I could do without this shitty screechy voice, too."

Tessa fidgeted with her paws. "Then why—"

Nickie silently stared at her reflection. She reached a foreleg out and put her forepaw against its reflection on the mirror. "Because, even that stuff couldn't make it feel right."

"Huh?"

Silence followed. Nickie looked between Tessa and her reflection. She hung her head.

"Never mind. You wouldn't understand."

Tessa's aura feelers crinkled. Those glimmers in the corners of Nickie's eyes. Tears?

"Then explain." Tessa was at the icepix's side in an instant. "You're my partner, Nickie." She paused. "I'd... rather not have you leave, either. If I can understand, then maybe—"

"I don't know!"

Nickie shrank back, as if her own cry frightened her. She slid onto her belly. "I'm not sure... how I can explain it to you."

Oh. Well, Tessa didn't want to leave Nickie hanging like this. She sat down opposite Nickie, placing her paws on her crossed legs.

"Try me," the riolu said.

Nickie stared blankly at her. She blinked silently. "I—" Nickie stopped herself, then took a steady breath. "Okay. I'll try."

After a few deep breaths, Nickie said, "It never felt right. My old human body." She kneaded the stone floor with her paws. "Like, uh... your parents are both lucario, right?"

Tessa nodded slowly.

"Okay." Nickie looked a bit less uncertain. "Imagine one of your parents was, I dunno, a blaziken instead." She reached her left forepaw out. "And you hatched a torchic instead of a riolu. But, like, deep down you don't think that's right. You feel like you're supposed to be a riolu, not a torchic."

She looked at Tessa. "What would you do?"

"What would... I do?" Tessa couldn't help parroting the question. It sounded like Nickie was talking about some weird situation where someone's soul felt their body didn't match. In which case, Tessa imagined that would be pretty upsetting. Though it was hard for her to get into that mindset.

"Well, um, I guess I'd... try to change it?"

Nickie smiled somberly. Had Tessa given the right answer, then?

"My human body..." The icepix trailed off. She swallowed hard. "What if I told you that, as a human, I'm a guy?"

Tessa stiffened. What was that supposed to mean? Crazy things happened to fallers that got dragged across worlds, so a gender swap wouldn't be out of the question.

But hang on. With what Nickie was saying...

"You, um, didn't like that, did you?"

Nickie's smile was less somber. "I was trying to change it. Humans have ways to do that where I'm from." She laughed nervously. "It's not as easy as tossing an orb on the ground, though. It takes time. I was working with... some humans who deal with this kind of stuff. And my mom was helping, too. Because I wouldn't have made much progress otherwise."

Tessa couldn't help but raise a brow. This happened enough to humans to where there were jobs about this?

"It was small changes," Nickie continued, brushing a forepaw back and forth on the ground. Back and forth. Back and forth. "At school, mostly." She laughed nervously again. "Wearing different clothes. Having people call me Nickie instead of Nick or Nicholas."

"And that... made you happy?"

"It helped," Nickie said. "At school, anyway. Most folks were understanding." Her fur bristled. "But at home... I couldn't do that stuff. Not around my dad, at least. So, I hid all that stuff. I'd be Nickie at school but Nick around family." She shook her head. "And it was exhausting. But I thought if I could keep it up for a bit longer... I'd be able to make it to the biggest steps. The ones that'd really help me feel better."

Tessa's aura feelers throbbed again. If Nickie was a girl here, then... did that mean she'd made it?

But wait, Nickie's smile had faded. Her ears folded.

"Did something happen?" Tessa scooched closer.

Nickie nodded. She squeezed her eyes shut. Took shaky breaths. "There was this guy." Her tails crinkled. "My neighbor, Shane. We were in a lot of the same classes and we'd been close friends for a long time. But I was drifting apart from him. Especially when I made these changes."

Despite her tension, Nickie smiled. "I was spending a lot of time around our school's theater. With other folks I'd met in drama and music classes. I really liked them... and they helped me out a ton."

Tessa nodded slowly. "And Shane?"

"He, uh... seemed uncomfortable for a lot of that time," Nickie said. Her smile faded again. "When I thought I'd made it to the biggest steps, I ended up telling him. And he... he..."

The icepix hung her head. Tessa reached out toward her, only to freeze when Nickie whispered the rest of her thought.

"... He ratted me out to my dad."

Just the way Nickie said it made Tessa's heart skip a beat. It was bad. She was sure of it. And the riolu didn't want to press Nickie if it would only hurt her.

She scooched closer. "Nickie..."

"Dad had a temper. I always knew that." Nickie shuddered. "But I'd... I'd never seen him so angry." Her fur stood on end. "And that was when he was talking to my mom. He... didn't fly off the handle at me. But he put his foot down. Said that as long as I was part of his family, I had to follow his rules. And that meant stopping everything I was doing."

Tessa was sorely tempted to ask if Nickie left, but her gut told her that was a bad idea. She settled on a gentler, "What happened after that?"

"I had to stop the medicine I'd been on before," Nickie whispered. "And my dad spoke with my school. Made them change the classes I was in." She lay her head on her forelegs. "It just... I felt worse and worse as the days and weeks went on."

"I'm sorry." Tessa didn't know why she blurted that out. She wasn't there. And the riolu was still trying to wrap her head around parts of the explanation. Still, she scooched beside the icepix. Put her paw on Nickie's shoulder.

"That's why I don't want to go back," Nickie whimpered. "Even though there's annoying stuff about being a vulpix." She turned a tearful gaze on Tessa. "Hearing my voice. A-And everyone saying I'm a girl and calling me Nickie. It's..."

Nickie leaned her head into Tessa's belly. "It's what I wanted. For my human self, at least. And just the thought of losing it..."

Tessa stiffened. She didn't take her paw off Nickie's shoulder. "Um, maybe we can talk to the Voice of Life or curry favor with a powerful enough legend? Then we could... send you home with that fixed." If there were good things about being human, then the best thing was to find a middle ground, right?

But Nickie rubbed her face against Tessa's belly. "I think... I'm better off here." The icepix sat back up. "I didn't want to say anything, though. You guys have been great to me. Figured, I dunno, I'd be spitting on your generosity. Make all that investigative work for naught. And not to mention the whole thing about fallers. I'm not looking to put y'all in danger!"

She sighed and shook her head. "I guess... something about how sure and confident you are made me think I have to go back home."

Tessa sat there silently. Judging by the guilty look on Nickie's face, that was all of it.

The riolu let her paw slide down to the floor. "I see."

Nickie flinched. Tessa's aura feelers tensed from the icepix's panic. She had to keep talking quickly before Nickie got the wrong idea.

"I had no idea." Tessa sat up a bit straighter. "It's, uh, kinda relieving to hear?" Her aura feelers curled up. "Which is, uh... dang, there's probably a better way of saying that."

Guilt and elation wrestled in her head while her aura sense told her she was confusing Nickie. "I, uh, know I put on a confident face. But the truth is I get nervous, too." Tessa's shoulders sagged. "About being able to pull off our jobs. Impress the guild." She swallowed hard. "My parents."

"Seriously? They love you."

"Yeah. That's why... I don't want to let them down."

Without even thinking, Tessa leaned her head against Nikki's shoulder. The icepix's fur bristled but she didn't pull away.

"Tessa, what are you—"

"I wish I could be that strong."

"Huh?"

"Sorry." Tessa fidgeted nervously. "It's just... hearing about that stuff from the human world... that was all I could think about. If it were me... I think I'd have given up at some point. But you pressed on. Even through those struggles. That's," she took a steady breath, "stronger than any single Force Palm or Aura Sphere."

"S-Seriously?" Nickie's fur prickled, though there was a hint of eagerness in her voice.

Tessa laughed. "Would you believe me if I said I've been hoping you'd be able to stay?"

"Whaaaaaaaat?" Now it was Nickie's turn to laugh. "You're joshing me, right?"

The riolu finally realized where her head was and lifted it back up. "Isn't Josh a name?" she squeaked.

Oh, great, her aura feelers were throbbing. Giving away her embarrassment. Lovely.

"Yeah. And it also means joking." Nickie laughed louder. "You really want me sticking around?"

Tessa managed to get her feelers under control. "I mean... yeah? You're fun." She smiled at Nickie. "You're funny, too. It's... nice being around you."

Nickie blinked. "There are plenty of folks around here."

"I know." Tessa shifted on the floor. "But you're my partner. And that's something special. At least, it is to me."

Nickie stared blankly at her. "Y'mean 'partner' like 'teammate,' right?" Her tails puffed out. "Cuz that, uh, can mean something a lot different to us humans."

Tessa laughed nervously. Her aura feelers were twitching again. "I know. It's the same for us pokémon." She smiled at the icepix. "Besides, the fact that you did show up here as a girl... maybe we're wrong?"

"Hmm?"

"Maybe you're not a faller. Maybe you were brought here for a reason?"

Silence. Tessa held her breath. Then she heard fwips. Nickie's tails brushing against the floor.

"Well, that's..." Nickie glanced at the mirror, then at Tessa. "Huh. Hadn't thought about that."

She scooted left. Her side brushed against Tessa's. "Maybe we should visit the Worldcore, then."

"And after that?" Tessa wondered, her gaze trailing to the floor. To her paw beside Nickie's.

"I'm not thinking that far ahead yet."

"... Yo."

Yuna nodded slowly. "That's fair, Nickie. Tomorrow's another day." The dragapult tapped her chin. "Maybe we'll look for a low-key job or two to take."

"The hell are you talking about, Princess?"

The icepix brushed her foreleg against her snout, but ended up putting it on Yuna's thigh instead of the floor. "I think that's a great idea. Maybe we can hit the spa after? My fur's getting kinda matted."

"I was thinking the same thing. The room's full of vulpix fur." Yuna laughed and rubbed the icepix's back. "You're my partner for a reason."

"Snap out of it, Princess!"

A harsh electric guitar chord shattered the icepix and revealed Nikki standing in the doorway with one hand resting on her gills.

"GAH!"

Yuna abruptly jerked back, smacking her triangular head against the wall. Ectoplasm rippling, she blinked the stars from her vision.

"N-Nikki? Hi. When did, um, you get here?"

"Couple of minutes ago." The toxtricity kicked the door shut with her leg.

"Can I, um, help you?" Yuna's tail crinkled.

"I dunno." Nikki stared Yuna down. "You gonna lay there looking like a feral deerling in the headlights or you gonna tell me why you're talking about jobs and vulpix fur?"

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 87: Present Misgivings​

It's disappointing my gut feeling about POV-2020 was right. I'm miffed that my bosses wouldn't believe me. I've been at this a while now. I like to think I've got a good eye for these things.

But I guess I've also jumped the gun too many times for their liking. Maybe there was a better way to go about this than spamming the same report repeatedly.

They've ordered me to keep my nose out of this, of course. But I can't sit still. Whether we all like it or not, I'm involved in this. I was practically the first domino that fell over in this ridiculous conga line.

... Yeah, still not good with metaphors.

XxX​

Yuna's ectoplasm shriveled. The dragapult instinctively grabbed her rough gray blanket and dragged it up past her amber core.

She was mumbling to herself— no, to a memory. And Nikki heard it.

Sure, the whole "reincarnated souls" thing got brought up at the meeting. However, Yuna never went into specifics. She wasn't sure how to broach the subject with Nikki. But it looked like she wouldn't get the chance to think it over.

Reshiram stirred in the back of her head. No doubt encouraging honesty. Yuna kept him at bay. Her gaze remained fixed on Nikki as the toxtricity leaned against the wall opposite Yuna's cot.

"Not a fan of the silent treatment, Princess," she said. Sparks jumped off her mane and fizzled away before hitting the shag carpet on the floor.

"I know." Yuna forced herself to sit up. It was much more awkward with such a bulky tail. She had to phase it through the cot, which practically defeated the bed's purpose in the first place. "I'm having trouble collecting my thoughts."

"Then I'll make it easy." Nikki sounded more tired than upset. "You think I'm one of 'em, don't you?" She shut her eyes and tucked her chin against her chest. "These reincarnated souls or whatever."

Yuna nodded.

Nikki's face scrunched up. Yuna considered saying something, but the toxtricity beat her to the punch.

"Did we know each other? Is that what you were spacing out over?"

"I think so." Yuna blinked, then hastily added, "F-For the first question, really."

That only furrowed Nikki's brow further. "Great. Cool."

Yuna couldn't peg Nikki's tone. And she was avoiding Yuna's gaze. Tapping her right foot on the carpet repeatedly. Even her expression was... muddled. Was she upset? Annoyed? Sad?

"So, who am I talking to?"

"Huh?" Yuna straightened up. What kind of question was that?

"You heard me." Nikki bit her lip. "Are you really Princess? Or Yalwhatever?"

Hadn't Yuna already explained it? She traced her hand around her core. "I'm using Giratina's power. But it's still me. I couldn't... let go like that."

"Then why are you dwelling on this past stuff so much?"

Nikki finally met Yuna's gaze. And the dragapult had nothing for her. She was simply lying in her bed when that memory came to her. Had Giratina foisted it onto her? It couldn't have been random chance...

Yuna had to come up with something. Nikki was still staring her down.

"I dunno... maybe there's something in the past that can help us here?" she mumbled.

"Like what?" Nikki leaned against the wall again. "What was so important from back then it got you hallucinating or whatever?"

So Nikki did want to know. Yuna pushed her covers down and leaned against the wall behind the cot.

She told the toxtricity what she saw. The icepix's confession about being a human. And the circumstances of her human life.

At first, Nikki didn't say anything. Then, to Yuna's surprise, her yellow mohawk shrank. "You've gotta be shitting me," she mumbled, looking like the dragapult had slapped her across the face.

"Um..." Yuna stiffened.

"It's not real." Nikki held up her right hand. "That was just some... mind game someone was playing with you. Zodiark, maybe." Her left hand squeezed her leather jacket pocket. "No way it's real."

"Sounds like denial to me."

Damn it, she'd let Reshiram in. Yuna shoved him out of her mind. "Why do you think that? It'd be a pretty strange dream for me to have."

"It's not real!"

Nikki swung her right arm. Her fist slammed against the metal wall. Hissing, she grabbed her right hand with her left and pressed it against her chest gills. The toxtricity kept mumbling, "Not real."

"Nikki." Yuna inched forward on the bed. Her tail was still mostly phased through it, but the end of it did poke out from under the bed. Yuna quickly realized it looked like she was coaxing Nikki toward her with her tail and hastily pulled it underneath.

"Is something wrong?" Yuna wondered. She recalled what Tessa said to Nickie when the icepix seemed unsure of herself. "You can tell me. I don't... want to see you upset."

After a few seconds of silence, Nikki's loud sigh filled the room. A metallic scraping followed from Nikki's waist spikes and the metal wall. She slid down to a seated position on the floor.

"This doesn't leave the room, okay?"

"Okay." Yuna pushed herself off the wall and leaned over. The dragapult winged it earlier, but was that memory actually important to the present?

"I didn't hatch in Blightsmuth, y'know," Nikki said, wrapping her arms around her legs and leaning forward so her chin was on her knees. "Don't really remember anything before it. Hell, I don't remember being a toxel. Shredder's the one who looked after me and Scarlett when we were growing up."

She glanced at the door, as if she expected the dragonair to open it. But it remained still. And Nikki's mohawk was still missing.

"Then how'd you end up in Blightsmuth?"

"Hospital," Nikki said.

The dragapult raised a brow. "Huh?"

"There used to be a small town near Blightsmuth." Nikki remained still. "More upscale and stuff, but still under Shredder's jurisdiction because it was closer to Blightsmuth than anywhere else."

After a heavy breath, the toxtricity said, "I got left at a hospital there. By my parents."

It took a moment, but Yuna eventually caught on. She gripped the edge of her bed. "Hang on. Then your parents—"

"Citadark," Nikki flatly replied. "Apparently they left me at the hospital with some kinda nasty illness."

Yuna tensed up. "Wait, but I—"

Nikki held up a hand to cut her off. "Not the same thing. I got sick... because my parents forced me to evolve into a toxtricity too young. Way too young."

"Forced?" Yuna didn't think anyone could force a 'mon to evolve.

"They used, like, steroids and pills and stuff," Nikki growled. "And they're what made me sick." She stretched out her legs, then braced her arms at her sides. "What no one's sure of is if I was born male or my parents did something else on top of all the meds. Cuz everything was so out of whack."

Yuna's eyes widened in realization. "Would that—"

"I didn't want to be a guy," Nikki said. "Most folks around Blightsmuth were nice enough about it. But the doctors wouldn't let me use a transfer orb until they get all the hormone stuff under control. It took years."

She shuddered. "Everything felt wrong. And not because I evolved so fast."

Nikki curled her fingers, grabbing and tugging on the carpet's shag threads. "That's why I can't believe what you saw. I won't. I—" She opened her eyes. "That'd mean... the same thing happened to me in two different lives!"

Yuna winced. No wonder Nikki could comfort her after her mother said she was adopted. She'd gone through something even worse!

"I can't—" Sucking in a sharp breath, Nikki curled her legs up again. "I refuse... to believe... it'd happen twice."

Yuna wasn't sure whether to go to Nikki's side or give her space. Tessa went to Nickie's side in her memory, but the icepix's attitude was different than the toxtricity's. This must be why she's always had a chip on her shoulder. Even after we ditched school.

"I'm sorry," was what Yuna went with. She also settled for a middle ground of scooching halfway across the floor. It put her near Nikki, but not right next to her. "I never could've imagined."

"Of course you couldn't." Nikki flicked her left wrist dismissively. "I don't make a habit of telling people. Because it's... in the past."

She tensed up. "Even if... what you say is true... it's the distant past. It doesn't matter. I'm—" Nikki's mohawk slowly crackled to life. "I'm Toxtricity Nikki, damn it! Not some vulpix or a dude or any of that shit!"

Silence. Nikki stretched her legs out again. Her arms flopped to her sides. She stared at her feet.

Yuna's gut told her to inch closer, so she did. Nikki didn't push her away. Yuna scooted closer. Again, Nikki didn't move.

"Are you mad?" the dragapult whispered.

"Yeah."

"Mad at me?"

"Dunno." Nikki glanced at Yuna.

"Would you rather I keep quiet?"

"For a bit."

So, Yuna pulled up to Nikki's side and awkwardly sat with her back against the wall. The room was silent save for the gentle hum of the long, slender lights on the ceiling. They stared at Yuna's cot with its crumpled gray blanket and worn white bedsheet torn at its edges.

Then Nikki lifted her right arm... and gently strummed her chest gills. The notes sounded... softer than what Yuna was used to. Almost like a different instrument. She wasn't sure whether to ask about it.

After several seconds, however, Yuna's curiosity got the better of her. "What is this?"

"Piano tune Scarlett and I first heard in some trashy movie we liked," Nikki said. She continued to strum away, looking at the bed. "'Claire de Lunatone.' It's a... gentle melody. Not my style. But Scarlett had a record of it. She'd play it when I was upset."

Yuna offered Nikki a small smile. Knocks at the door stopped the dragapult from saying anything, however. She glanced at Nikki, who stopped strumming.

"It's your room." The toxtricity put her hands on the floor by her hips. "Not gonna stop you from answering it."

"It's open," Yuna called. The door creaked open and a familiar dragonair poked her head in.

"Hey. Thought I heard Claire de Lunatone in here," Scarlett said. "Everything okay?"

"Not really," was Nikki's response. "But it is what it is."

Frowning, Scarlett slithered inside. "Having trouble with all of this? I know my head's spinning."

"I wasn't sure how much to say," Yuna mumbled. She tried to cover her core with her hands but it was too big. "So, I just kinda threw it all out there."

"No kidding."

Igneous' voice startled Yuna. She sat up straighter as the grovlazzle walked in.

"Seriously?" Nikki leaned forward, squinting at Igneous. And a ponytales was hovering in the doorway, unsure whether to enter. Yuna reluctantly waved Shimmer in. He awkwardly shuffled to Igneous' side in the opposite corner of the room.

"What, you three some sort of package deal now?" Nikki pointed between them. "Been spending an awful lot of time together lately."

Shimmer's face reddened. He tried to turn toward the wall, but Igneous nudged Shimmer with his right leg. Shimmer jolted stiff.

"We were talking," Igneous said, arms crossed. "About everything Yuna said."

He and Scarlett exchanged a look. Yuna had a sinking feeling about it, but Nikki beat her to the punch.

"Don't tell me... you guys have been having visions like Princess?"

"Yeah. I see... a different life." Igneous held up his hands, turning them over and back. Over and back. "An icy vulpix and a riolu. They call themselves Nickie and Tessa. And..." He put his hands against the wall. "I'm there, too. As a volcarona." Fiery embers crackled behind his back.

There was a white flash. Then Yuna found a volcarona in Igneous' place. Orange wings buzzed. Embers crackled around him.

"We knew each other, then." Yuna's voice cracked.

"I'm not the only one." Igneous tucked his head down but cracked an eye open at Scarlett. "Am I?"

The dragonair bit her lip. "Been having weird dreams since Venish. None of them made sense." Her wings slowly caressed her neck bauble, which flickered pink. "I thought I was Starlene — or, well, a latias — in them. And I also saw an ice vulpix named Nickie. She was asking me for help to stop an evil human."

"You've gotta be shitting me!" Nikki's mohawk sparked. The carpet fibers underneath her prickled from the static. With a startled squeak, Yuna scooted left.

"I'm not," Scarlett said, looking down at her tail.

"And you?" The toxtricity pointed at Shimmer.

"Nothing." The ponytales shook his head.

"Great. I'm on the outside looking in with Pillow Prince." Nikki rapped her right fist against the carpet.

"Gee, thanks." Shimmer's ears folded against his head.

"Suck it up." Nikki slouched forward. "You're not the one hearing three people say had the same crummy thing happen to you in two different lifetimes."

Shimmer gave her a blank look but said nothing. Yuna was also at a loss. Of the group, Nikki was the most active Team Bastion member who hadn't gotten any wild powers or crazy transformation. Even that lightning guitar was a standard Dynaforce technique. Any toxtricity could pull it off with the proper training, according to Cid.

"We don't have to talk about this anymore if you don't want to," Yuna mumbled.

"It's wild." Sighing, Nikki straightened up. "We knew each other in these past lives. And now we're... together again?" Her laugh turned to a snort. "Do you have any idea how much shit had to happen for all of us to end up here in the first place?"

"The spirit never forgets."

Yuna winced at Igneous' words. The grovlazzle's leaves crinkled. "Xeromus said that to me before I had my first vision. And then the cloud daemon he summoned gave me more of them." He crossed his arms. "I've kept having them since Tulpise. And now it has me wondering if there's a deeper meaning to all of us being together like this. Like our spirits were... drawn to one another because of the past."

"Like fate?" Scarlett raised a brow.

The dragonair's question sent a chill down Yuna's ectoplasm. A silhouette of Zodiark's masked face flickered all around her.

"In the end, you cannot stray from the path of chaos."

"Listen to you guys." Nikki thumping the wall between her and Yuna jolted the dragapult to attention. "You sound like freaking Zodiark. And that pisses me off."

She glanced at Yuna. "I need to know it's you, Princess. Not Yalwhatever." Nikki looked around the room. "All of you have to stop with this 'past lives' shit and focus on the present. Because if you're telling the truth, we failed to stop Zodiark back then.

"And if you get too wrapped up in the past, then none of us are gonna have a future."

The toxtricity's words hung in the air. It was a good point. If Yaldabaoth kept failing to catch and stop Zodiark across multiple worlds, then what good did any of their memories do for Yuna? Provide her with a long list of mistakes to avoid?

"We're not giving up on the present," Igneous insisted. "But we might need to understand the past better to succeed this time."

Which was more or less what Yuna said before. Still, there had to be something she could offer Nikki to assuage the toxtricity's fears.

Yuna leaned over and put her hand on Nikki's left shoulder. "I won't get stuck in the past. If I had, I would've let the shadows take control."

Nikki focused on Yuna's hand. Her mohawk rippled as fast as static on one of Cyril's monitors.

"Giratina... came to me because I had a wish." Yuna recalled the black, inky giratina silhouette rising from that stone floor. "A wish to be stronger, because I couldn't help the people I cared about."

She paused. Nikki must've read between the lines because Yuna swore her mohawk turned pink for a second.

"But it's... hard." Yuna's ectoplasm quivered. "The visions I've seen... that riolu sounded so confident. So sure of everything." A melancholic chuckle escaped her lips. "Almost like you."

Nikki frowned. "I don't think we got body-swapped, Princess."

"Right." Yuna managed to avoid stammering. "It's more that... Tessa became part of Giratina. Because it was the only way she could see her wish through." The dragapult shakily smiled at Nikki. "But me? Yaldabaoth terrifies me." She laughed nervously. "I can't do the same thing."

She expected Igneous' bewildered look. Yuna took her hand off Nikki's shoulder. "Uh, I mean, I can draw on their power. But I don't... think I know the full extent of what these chaos powers can do. And I'm not sure I want to find out."

Igneous must not have liked that. He conjured that weird red honedge in his hand. "You may not get a choice in that," the grovlazzle said. "If chaos energy is needed to stop the emperor or Zodiark—"

"The hell?" Nikki stood up. "There you go, sounding like our enemies again." She frowned at Scarlett and Shimmer. "One of you please talk sense into Twiggy."

"It's okay, Nikki."

The toxtricity glanced at Yuna, who rose up beside her. "Maybe it's the wrong decision. But this is my decision. Like you said, I don't want the past dictating the present. If that happens..." Her shoulders sagged. "Well, I feel like that's just proving Zodiark's point. That none of this really matters."

Igneous glanced at the sword. Then at the others. Scarlett tilted her head at him. Yuna couldn't quite see her face, but Shimmer's bewilderment and Igneous' pained expression painted enough of a picture.

Sighing, the grovlazzle dispelled the blade. "God, my head hurts." Now it was his turn to slump down onto the floor, rubbing his right head with his right hand. "What am I even supposed to do at a time like this?"

Yuna doubted Gene's suggestion to call it a night would work. Nobody looked tired.

Scarlett slithered between the two of them.

"Spicy secrets."

The two guys beside her exchanged incredulous looks. Yuna tilted her triangular head. "Huh?"

She was even more surprised when recognition spread over Nikki's face. "You still remember that?" The toxtricity scratched her head. "Shit, how long's it been?"

"A while." Scarlett's wings folded back against her head. "But I can't think of a better time for it."

Shimmer raised a forehoof. "What does that mean?"

"It's a Blightsmuth thing," Nikki said. "If folks were heated with other, they'd either battle it out or go for spicy secrets."

"I take it that isn't a food..." Shimmer's tails curled up.

"Everyone says a stupid or embarrassing secret they keep," Scarlett explained, slithering toward the door to face Igneous and Shimmer. "It reminds us that we're not so different."

"We all make mistakes and shit," Nikki added, pantomiming a puppet with her right hand. "Fine. You go first then, Twiggy." The toxtricity slowly spun around and plopped herself down on Yuna's cot.

"Me?" Igneous' head leaf caught fire. "It's your game. You go first."

"Whatever." Nikki leaned over, resting her chin on her clasped hands. Then she abruptly sat up straight. "A'ight. The first time I ever tried to make out with someone... I sneezed right in her face.

Still floating in the middle of the room, Yuna put her hands over her mouth to stop stifling her urge to giggle.

"Wait, is that why folks back home were calling you 'Snotty' for a couple of weeks?" Scarlett draped her upper half over the edge of Yuna's cot. "I thought you had a cold or something!"

"Nope. And Tina wouldn't speak to me for a month after that." Nikki sighed and flopped on her side on the bed. "All right, Princess, you go."

"M-Me?" Yuna's ectoplasm shriveled. Some sort of personal secret? Wasn't all the Giratina stuff a big enough thing?

"Uhh..." The dragapult tapped her golden claws together. "Even though I'm twenty, I really miss getting shot out of Mom's horns."

She got strange looks, but didn't expect a whinny from Shimmer. "I'm... sorry?" The ponytales' horn flickered.

"Dragapult shoot their dreepy out of their horns." Yuna pointed to hers. "It's really fun! You go super fast! I think I was supposed to outgrow it, but I never did... even though I haven't gotten shot in a very long time."

"Damn. That's hardcore."

As Nikki laughed, Yuna pointed to Shimmer. "I think it's only fair you go next. Royal courtesy and all."

Flinching, Shimmer shuffled out of the corner. He looked slightly less uncomfortable than he was during the heavier talk the group was having.

"I've got... a lotta secrets. And skeletons." Shimmer tapped a forehoof on the ground.

"Don't kill the mood," Nikki heckled. Yuna turned and frowned at her. She projected a tiny electric halo over her head.

"Okay, you guys know that old Radiant Guard medical show?" Shimmer asked.

"R-Gash?" Igneous said.

"Yep." Shimmer clicked his tongue. "The way I realized I liked guys is because I had the biggest crush on Hawlucha Pierce." His horn glistened brightly. "I kept a signed, wall-sized poster of him in my dorm at Horizon."

"Shut up!" Scarlett gasped. The dragonair uncoiled so her head was by Shimmer's. "I love Pierce!"

The ponytales' expression brightened. "Really?"

"Yeah, he was the best!" Scarlett's tiny wings fluttered with excitement. "And the actor's a classy guy, too."

Even Nikki managed a chuckle, despite her dislike of Shimmer. A grin had replaced her earlier dour expression. She caught Yuna's gaze. Her mohawk turned pink again and she looked away, whistling to herself. Likewise, Yuna folded her arms over her now glowing core.

"All right, Iggy," Shimmer said.

"Eh, not sure if I should really confess this, but what the hell." Igneous stood up. "So, my stepsister Becca—"

"I thought I recognized one of those salazzle," Shimmer cut in.

"Yeah." Igneous was struggling to keep up his stoic expression. "I used to go to nightclubs in her Holowear outfits."

Nikki burst out laughing at that. The bed jostled from the toxtricity kicking it repeatedly.

Igneous' tails ignited. "What's so funny?"

"Pics or it didn't happen!" Nikki scoffed.

The grovlazzle's brow twitched. "Fine. I'll do you one better."

He hopped to this feet and produced a small ring.

"Wait, why do you have a holowear ring now?" Scarlett wondered.

"Swiped it off Becca to sneak around Scale City the other week." Igneous slipped the ring around one of his claws. It flickered blue, then in a flash of white light, a black dress with golden trimmings wrapped around Igneous torso. He held his hands up like he had an invisible dance partner.

(Art by honey_llemon)

"Believe me now?"

Nikki laughed so hard her eyes watered. "You never pegged me as the kind of guy who'd ever get in touch with his feminine side!" The toxtricity rolled onto her stomach and smiled sweetly at Igneous.

"Says the one in the heavy leather jacket," Igneous countered. The ring flashed with light and the outfit disappeared.

"W-Well, I think it's cool," Shimmer said.

"Yeah! We need more twink grovyle in this world!"

"Starlene!" Scarlett squeaked, covering her glowing neck bauble with her wings.

Even if she didn't understand the joke, Yuna found herself laughing with the others. The last of her worries from the earlier conversation faded. Washed away by a silly game started by friends she was happy to have at her side.

XxX​

Gene rarely walked. His feet were not structured with walking in mind. Only floating. Sometimes it was worth it, though. If for no other reason than to prepare for circumstances where levitation wasn't possible.

He'd been walking through the outpost halls, stopping by rooms to see if he sensed anything off. Things were quiet.

... Save for the cosmic silvally walking beside him.

"You're really not thinking about it? At all?" Widget wondered. His gold talons clicked against the metal with every step.

"What's there to think about?" Shrugging, Gene headed for a door to the staircase. He opened it the old-fashioned way, then took the stairs down two or three at a time.

"What if it applies to you, too?" Widget climbed down faster. Gene figured he had to. Four legs would get tangled on stairs otherwise.

Widget paused halfway toward the second floor. "Wouldn't you want to know about your past life?"

Gene rolled his eyes. What a stupid question. "Why? So I can bum myself out if that life turned out better than what I have now?"

Widget opened his beak, then said nothing.

Got him. Gene walked by, tapping his right temple. "I got a decent enough gig here. Why jelly my jam by throwing some dumb reincarnation nonsense into it?"

He rounded another bend in the stairs. Widget's starcloud swirled in confusion. His head crest fanned out and he dashed to catch up. "What's that even mean?"

"It means don't worry about it." Gene flicked his wrist dismissively. "You're basically a machine—"

"Biosynthetic." Widget reached Gene's side and scampered past him.

"Pfft." Gene stopped mid-step and held his hand up. "Remember what you looked like before Leo gave you a starry paint job? Nothing biologic about that." He continued up. "You were a machine. So, that whole reincarnation talk doesn't apply to you."

It should've relieved Widget, but the slow rotation of his cheek bolts and the drooping of the fish tail told Gene he was off the mark. The shadowy mewtwo pinched his brow. "What?"

"What if that's not true?" Widget said. "What if the whole reason Leo could break me out of the emperor's programming is because there was always a soul inside."

"Are you having dreams about some other life?" Gene wondered.

Widget shook his head.

"Then there's your answer." Gene flicked his wrist. The door at the bottom of the stairs opened up. He strode across the metallic hallway, resting his hands behind his head. "You've got absolutely nothing to worry—"

Why was there music coming from someone's room? Gene had the restaurant jukebox memorized, and this wasn't one of the tracks.

He continued forward. The music was from Yuna's room. And it sounded nothing like what a bunch of technologically inept dragons could create. Too many retro synths.

"Hot drinks reeeaaaly get you going! Warms you uuuup, when you feel you're slowiiiing!"

"Is that... Starlene?" Widget marched up to the door. "What kind of song is that?"

"Weavies, we always serve it right away! Add a smile and have a nice daaaaay~"

Gene stared blankly at the door. Widget's starcloud ruff swirled around his neck. "Should I knock? I think someone's having a nervous breakdown in there."

"Seriously?!" Igneous' cry cut the music off.

"What's the matter, Twiggy?" Nikki's laughter drifted into the hallway next.

"That was you two?!"

"What part of 'we got our start doing terrible corporate jingles and shit' didn't register, dumbass?"

"I worked at a Weavies and they used that song!" Igneous sounded mortified. "Had some poor schlubs lip syncing along to make a training music video!"

"Gene?" Widget hissed in a whisper.

"Leave 'em be." The shadowy mewtwo turned around, waving dismissively.

"A-Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Let the kids have their fun." Gene headed back toward the staircase.

"Kids?" Widget trotted after him. "They're at least young adults... I think?"

"Ha!" Gene threw his hands behind his head. "Far as I'm concerned, you're all a bunch of dumb kids compared to me."

He opened the stairway door up and stood against it. "So, you coming upstairs or not?"

"Well, my room's on the third floor." The cosmic silvally approached the door. "But what about you? You sleep down here."

"I'm heading to the restaurant." Gene stepped into the stairwell. "Unova's Goofiest Home Movies starts in five. You're welcome to join. Or not. You wanna wallow in existential dread, be my guest."

By the time the shadowy mewtwo floated into the air, Widget's sighs echoed through the stairwell. Gene looked down and saw him walking up the stairs, mumbling about humans and video cameras.

XxX​

Path of Valor Almanac
The lyrics briefly alluded to at the end of the second scene are part of a 1980s training video used by Wendy's. Search "Hot Drinks" on YouTube to see it in all its glory.

For the record, this is all BarbarousKing's fault. He used a SNES-ported version of the song in his latest Kaizo Mario ROM hack.

 

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 88: Somebody to Lean On​

TO: Grand Emperor Paradox
FROM: Cassius
SUBJECT: Update from Radiance

I looked into the situation at this "Tulpise" place. The best conclusion I can draw is that there were other interlopers who are responsible for distortion swallowing up the city. Unfortunately, none of the Medici 'mon I sent to attack the place laid eyes on them. At the very least, it doesn't seem like they're resistance members.

There is some good news, though. I think the political climate in Radiance is shifting. I already mentioned how that charizard CEO was tossed into prison for high treason. But the tabloids here are reporting that the dusknoir inquisitor known as the Grim Reaper has vanished. Furthermore, Calyrex seems to be taking our instructions to heart and working with Radiance's crown prince to undermine the current queen. While the news still trumpets her, the Medicis think public opinion toward Isola has dipped.

Do you have someone lined up to step into the Paradigm as the Lovers? If not, my recommendation is you expedite the process. I'm going to be meeting with the Medici's leader, Don Giuseppe. He claims to have an idea about how they could cause further discord for the kingdom.

XxX​

The newly-made infirmaries were simply larger outpost suites hastily converted into open rooms with several beds and a handful of cabinets on wheels. They were full of medical supplies, some of which Seifer recognized and others he didn't.

Shiva and Ifrit's slumbering forms occupied the two beds in the back right corner. Disheveled sheets on several other cots told him people had been here. No sign of Calcifer, though. Yiazmat must've taken him somewhere else to rest.

Quetzal paced across the middle of the room, watching Cid. The orbeetle's spots gently pulsated with pink energy. A gardevoir and lucario stood by watching. Healers on loan from the monks.

"Well?" Quetzal lifted his stubby orange wings. "Anything?"

Sighing, Cid backed away from the beds. "They seem fine physically. Though I'm no doctor." He looked at Lucario, who nodded.

"What about up here?" Quetzal tried to gesture to his head, but the orange zapdos quickly gave up. And here Seifer thought Quetzal had gotten used to the short wings and large legs.

"I don't think I sensed anything." Cid scratched the side of his head. "Then again, the same was true for Buzzwole."

Quetzal resumed pacing. "So, in the end, we just have to hope they wake up?" His feathers bristled, generating orange sparks. "There's got to be something else we can try."

"Perhaps a purifying incense?" Gardevoir tapped her chin in thought. "I'd have to check if we have enough supplies for that."

"Yes, please do." Quetzal nodded at her. Gardevoir waved at Lucario and the two headed for a door on Seifer's left. Another room, probably.

By the time the healers were through the door, Quetzal had trudged to the keldeo's side. "If only we could get them to wake up quicker. Then we might be able to get some answers."

Seifer's tail bristled. "Erm." He shifted uncomfortably. "Maybe we shouldn't jump straight into questioning them?"

"But Commander—"

"Seifer." He paused, looking down. "Please stick with Seifer." He didn't want to admit how uncomfortable his old title was making him out loud.

Luckily, Quetzal acknowledged his request. "Right. Seifer." The orange zapdos walked in place. "Don't you want to get to the bottom of everything? I might not remember much of what happened, but surely they will."

"Perhaps." Seifer turned away from the other two birds. "But I think they should have the time to rest up before we pepper them with questions."

Quetzal stepped in front of him. "We're in a predicament here, though. Anything—"

"Stop." Seifer raised a forehoof and pressed it against Quetzal's side. "This isn't like the Radiant Guard. We're in a much different situation. I know you want answers. Everyone wants answers." He sighed. "But this calls for patience."

"Right." Quetzal shifted his weight from one foot to another. "Sorry, sir."

Seifer squinted.

"Uhh, I m-mean sorry?" Quetzal stiffened. "A plain ol' sorry." He backed away. "Nothing hierarchical about it."

After a few more seconds, Seifer's expression eased up. He headed for the door. "I'm heading out. If you want to stay here, you're more than welcome."

"Oh, wait, there is one thing!"

Seifer stopped beside the cots closest to the door. "Yes?"

"It's about Gene." Quetzal's feathers puffed out slightly. "I saw Gene use this weird attack against Ifrit."

A weird attack? That hardly gave Seifer anything to go off. "Weird in what way?"

He didn't get an immediate response, so he turned to find Quetzal's head tilted in thought. "How can I describe it?" The orange zapdos tapped a talon against the gray carpet. "It was a big beam. But it was a mix of purple, black, and red."

"Like a... Dark Pulse?" Seifer wondered. Quetzal's description didn't sound that wild.

"No. I've seen enough Dark Pulses to know that definitely wasn't one," Quetzal huffed. "I'm not sure what type it was." His beak crinkled a bit. "Or if it even was a type."

Now it sure sounded like Quetzal was talking crazy. "Every attack needs a type," Seifer said.

"I know that." Quetzal looked offended. "But this beam, it..." His voice trailed off. Was he struggling to find the words? "Just feeling the heat from the beam filled my chest with this... this suffocating dread. I think it made me more panicked than I already was." His eyes darted around nervously. "It was almost like... like something was trying to pull my insides out of me!"

"That so?" Seifer's brow furrowed. Hadn't they called Gene out for some... disturbing behavior back on Planet Bogdan?

He blinked a few times. "That crystal in his shoulder is full of Malice, isn't it? Perhaps the attack was Malice-based?"

Quetzal stiffened. "That could be it."

Frankly, Seifer found these different energy types too confusing. "I'd rather let the others figure it out. If he's not turning the attack on us, then it's not my problem."

He imagined Quetzal would protest that, but Seifer was too tired to hear him out any further. Especially when he wasn't part of the Wyndon team. The keldeo headed for the door and nudged it open. "I'll keep them in my thoughts." He pointed a hoof back toward where the articuno and moltres slept. Then he stepped through the door, took a right, and walked down the metal hallway.

Thankfully, Quetzal didn't call out for him. So it was easy for Seifer to push that nagging guilt out of his head.

XxX​

"... Just so confusing. Like, was it wrong of me to step away like that?"

Seifer lay on a red couch. Orange sunlight drifted over him from a window. All artificial, of course. But the light was still nice against his freshly showered pelt.

"Eh. You're fine."

Cyril's voice carried through an open door from the corner of the room beside the couch. Seifer watched the yellow light for signs the cosmic zoroark was coming, but found nothing. Whatever he was doing in that kitchenette, he was really into it.

"Are you just saying that because we're together?" Seifer crossed one forehoof over the other.

A laugh came from the kitchenette. "Sheesh. Someone's determined to make himself the bad guy in this situation."

"I'm being serious." Seifer frowned, though it wasn't like Cyril could see that.

"Of course you are." A blobby shadow finally blotted out the yellow light. "And here I thought I'd established myself a straight shooter."

Seifer opened his mouth, then Cyril added, "Well, straight when it comes to telling people stuff."

The keldeo shut his mouth. He covered his head with his forelegs, groaning.

"Sorry. Couldn't help it."

Footsteps grew louder. Seifer picked his head up and saw Cyril approaching with a plate in one hand and a bowl of berries in the other. Steam wafted off the former, but the cosmic zoroark set the latter down beside Seifer. Then he sat on the other side of the couch.

"Ah, finally. Dinner." Cyril grabbed the spoon on the edge of the plate with his left hand.

"Is that... curry?" Seifer's nostrils twitched.

"Oh, did you want some?" Cyril twirled the spoon around in his yellow claws. "I make it spicy, so I figured you wouldn't be interested."

He was right. "It's not that." Seifer shook his head. "More that you, uh, never struck me as the type for curry."

"Wasn't aware curry had a type." Cyril ate a spoonful of his dinner.

"When did you develop a taste for it?" Seifer wondered.

"When I was taking jobs for the—"

Cyril stopped himself. Seifer raised a brow. The cosmic zoroark looked between Seifer and his meal, then shoved a spoonful in his mouth. "Point taken."

Between more bites of curry, Cyril said, "But, seriously, does what happened with Quetzal bother you that much?"

Nodding, Seifer reached for one of the berries in the bowl. He took a few bites, then properly responded, "It wasn't right. I should've done more for him, but instead I excused myself. Simply because I was tired."

Cyril fiddled with the spoon still in his mouth. "And that's bad because?"

"Because, even if we're not in the Radiant Guard anymore, people should support their teammates when they're hurting." Seifer decided to let that statement hang in the air and reached for another berry. He figured Cyril would chew on that for a while.

Instead, the cosmic zoroark ate more of the curry, then tapped his spoon against his plate. "Eh. I guess." His ears swiveled. "At the same time, though, if you're not in the headspace for it, how good a job can you really do supporting someone?"

The keldeo's mouthful of berry nearly went down the wrong pipe. He swallowed hard, straightening up his neck. "E-Excuse me?"

"You gotta take care of yourself before taking care of others," Cyril continued. He pointed the spoon at Seifer. "Whether it's stuff like this... or in the heat of battle."

Seifer frowned. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, should I have put on my serious face?" Cyril swallowed another spoonful of curry. Then his expression hardened. "How's this?"

(Art by Raph)

"It's n-not funny." Seifer shuffled back a bit on the couch.

"It's kinda funny." Cyril chuckled.

Seifer's cheeks flushed as a grin tried fighting its way onto his face. He let the cosmic zoroark mess with him again.

To his surprise, Cyril sighed as he took another spoonful of curry. "Nah, I get it. Maybe it's some of my cynicism bubbling up." He eyed the curry, then ate the spoonful. "But I figured, now that we've been in this situation for a little while, it was sinking in for you."

"What was sinking in?" Seifer raised a brow.

"That anything goes when you're fighting with your back against the wall."

Cyril silently polished off his plate, then set it on a small table next to the couch. All the while, Seifer tried and failed to piece together a proper response. There were a lot of layers to unpack. Was Cyril talking about the different sides of the conflict? The resources they had compared to the resistance? Or just the sheer scope that came with a looming dimensional cataclysm?

"I'm losing you, aren't I?" Cyril held his hands up. "The point I'm trying to make is that this fight isn't like anything you did in the Radiant Guard. It's unpredictable. Constantly shifting." He put his hands together and spun them around one another. "Yes, it's important that we try and help each other out. But when things are in flux like this, there's no shame in keeping yourself safe so you can live to fight another day."

That explanation hardly satisfied Seifer. "You're right. You do sound cynical."

Ears flattening, Cyril turned away slightly. "Figures." His mane dimmed. "Just answer me one thing."

"Okay."

He glanced at the keldeo. "When you were in the Radiant Guard, did you ever face down an extended conflict?"

Seifer stiffened. "Are you talking about a war?"

"Not necessarily." Cyril eyed Seifer. "I mean, I'm pretty sure the war between Aeon and Radiance had gone cold by the time you'd joined the Guard's ranks"

He guessed right. Seifer nodded slowly. "Then what do you mean by extended conflict?"

"Something that stretches beyond a single battle," Cyril said, waving his right arm around. "Cuz, like, if all you ever did was fight one-off battles with Phantoms or raid yakuza hideouts, then you've never had to deal with prolonged fighting." His mane dimmed again. "And the toll it can take on you up here." He tapped his forehead with a yellow claw.

"I—"

Seifer stopped. His gaze fell to the shaggy blue carpet on the floor. Had he done anything beyond what Cyril described? Couldn't some of the yakuza clans count? But if that was the case, they'd have launched counterattacks against us. Which never happened. It was always the Guard launching small, coordinated strikes. And they weren't even the ones responsible for gathering the intel. That usually fell to Stoutland Yard.

"All this stuff about honor and virtue..." Cyril slowly twirled his right hand in a circle, until he draped his right arm over the couch cushion. "It's coming from your parents, isn't it? Making sure you'd be the perfect little soldier, just like they were."

That look in Cyril's eyes went right through Seifer. He'd read the keldeo again. Heck, his parents had warned him about zoroark. Hard to interrogate because the tricksters knew how to get under people's skin. Find their vulnerable spots and pounce.

A hand on his shoulder nearly made Seifer jump. The berry bowl wobbled, but Cyril stopped it with his left hand. Seifer looked at Cyril's right hand on his shoulder. His cheeks flushed.

"I, uh—" He squeezed his eyes shut. "Sorry. It's always, um, surprising. That you can guess what's going on so easily."

Cyril gently squeezed Seifer's shoulder. "You can talk about it, y'know."

"I know. It's just—" Seifer stopped. He followed the right arm back toward Cyril's torso and the puffy, stellar chest fluff. Seifer could've stared at it for hours. But he forced himself to squeeze his eyes shut. "All this fessing up and stuff. Makes it feel more like you're my therapist and not my boyfriend."

Seifer wasn't expecting a squeak. He poked an eye open. Cyril actually looked flummoxed. He grabbed an iapapa berry and shoved it in his mouth... only to promptly turn and spit it onto his plate. "Blech!" He rubbed his snout. "Iapapa? What was I thinking? That shit wasn't even ripe yet."

"Not a fan?"

Cyril set the bowl down. "Hardly." He ran a yellow claw across his even yellower tongue. Seifer wondered if he should quip about berries coating his tongue enough to make it stop glowing in the dark.

Instead, he seized on the zoroark's bizarre reaction. "I actually got a rise out of you for once."

"Yeah." Cyril leaned back on the couch. He took a few deep breaths. "Wasn't expecting something like that, but maybe you have a point." Cyril crossed his right leg over his left. "All right. I'll even out the scales a bit."

Seifer straightened his posture on the couch. What did Cyril mean by that? "You, um, want me to be your therapist?"

The instant Seifer finished, Cyril leaned over and flicked the keldeo's prosthetic horn. "H-Hey!" Seifer did his best to stay poised. "What else am I meant to take from 'even out the scales?'"

"That I'd say something super personal to you." Chuckling, Cyril shook his head. "Unless you want me to grab a clip-on tie and fake glasses for you." He leaned over. "Is Doctor Seifer entering the building?"

Oh, stars, his horn was flickering, wasn't it? Seifer swallowed hard. "Just go with what you meant from the start, please."

"I was joshing you." Cyril playfully nudged Seifer's side. The smirk left his face as he leaned over. "Y'know that stuff Yuna said about other lives? Think it applies to me, too."

Seifer pushed himself off his belly. Sitting on this couch was awkward with four legs, but he managed it well enough to scooch beside the cosmic zoroark. "Don't tell me you've had visions."

"Dreams, actually." Cyril rubbedthe gems in his legs. "Occasionally. Since Leo gave me some of his power."

Then there was a chance it was just Leo's stuff Cyril was seeing, right? Except the look on Cyril's face said otherwise. Hesitantly, Seifer asked, "What are they like?"

"I'm a zoroark." Cyril's whole body flashed blue. His old, dark-type zoroark disguise took its place, complete with his pink accessories littered with white hearts. "Live in some cave lit up by glimmering crystals. I go forage for treasures in a nearby mystery dungeon, then sell 'em to some traveling kecleon merchant. And there's this midnight lycanroc who I end up the rebound for after a dusk lycanroc turns him down."

He shrugged. "It's a pretty ho-hum life."

Seifer played the explanation back in his head while scrutinizing Cyril's illusion. "You don't think... you turning into a zoroark was, like, fate or something, do you?"

Cyril shrugged again.

"A-And did you, um, accessorize like that in your dreams?"

"Yep."

Seifer's tail bristled. "Then the bandana and leggings—"

"Thigh-highs."

The keldeo blanked. "Err, yes, they're leggings that go up to your th—"

Cyril pressed a yellow claw to Seifer's snout. "No, they're called thigh-highs."

Seifer rolled his eyes. Such a trivial detail to split hairs over. "Whatever. Point is... you got them for yourself here, too, didn't you?"

"I did." Cyril tiptoed his claws up Seifer's snout. "Did you want me to start wearing them again? I thought the starry markings and leg gems were a nice replacement."

This time Seifer "fought" back, lightly whacking Cyril's left leg. The illusion faded. "I'm serious, Cyril," Seifer said. "Aren't you a little concerned about the similarities? What if all your past memories come flooding in and overwhelm you?"

The cosmic zoroark responded with a long sigh. "That's what I was asking myself when we were all together listening to Yuna." He leaned back, looking across the room. "I'm conflicted, Seif."

Seif? Why did that give the keldeo beautifly in his stomach?

"I have powers." Cyril snapped his yellow claws. A few tiny embers dissolved around them. "I can fight again, after ages of sitting on the sidelines fiddling with machines." He tilted his head left, smiling at Seifer. "I fought with you. And, yeah, it was scary staring down Halvus up close. But being there with you... made me feel more alive than I can remember."

Now Seifer definitely had beautifly in his stomach. Yet part of him knew Cyril was putting on a brave face. "There's more to it, right?" he whispered.

"It's great. But I fear there's a price." Cyril held his hands up and turned them over. "Exactly what you said. Those memories are going to come racing back, aren't they? And then what'll happen? How do I stay grounded? Reconcile past from present?"

His ears folded. "How do I stop myself from degrading into a Whisper?"

Seifer's eyes slowly widened. Cyril had mentioned concerns about eroding. Back when they'd first met, if Seifer remembered correctly. "I see." He scooted closer. "I didn't realize."

"I didn't tell you." Cyril slouched forward.

For once, Seifer was the one with the verbal opening. "Y'know, you could've mentioned that before." He leaned forward. "Looks like you've got as much reason to lean on me as I do to lean on you."

"Heh." Cyril rubbed the bridge of his snout. "Suppose so." He turned slightly, eyeing the keldeo. "You wanted to have me for support." Cyril twirled a lock of his hair. "I thought I could keep that stuff buried down and be your big, strong supportive shoulder." A dry laugh followed. "And I'm the one who hinted that these things are a two-way street. Pretty pathetic, huh?"

"It's kind of relieving, in a way," Seifer admitted, earning a quirked brow from Cyril. "W-Well, y'know..." He shifted in place, laughing nervously. "From a reliability standpoint." He gestured out with his left foreleg. Not that there was anything worth pointing at beyond an old EV screen and a bunch of electronic boxes on the shelves underneath.

"It tells me that we've both got things to help each other work on," Seifer continued. "Because that's what partners do. Right?"

After a few seconds, a fluffy arm draped over Seifer's shoulder. "Look at you." Cyril leaned over, tickling Seifer's chin with a yellow claw. "Sounding all wise and philosophical." He grinned at the keldeo. "I knew I made a good choice with you."

Seifer shrank to his belly and covered his head with his forelegs.

"All right. Enough of the doom and gloom."

There was a creak, followed by the cushions next to Seifer puffing up slightly. He pulled his forelegs away to find Cyril walking across the room, arching his back. The cosmic zoroark swung open a small metal door, revealing shelves stocked with small plastic containers.

"What are you doing?" Seifer slid back up into a sitting position.

Cyril bent over — unnaturally, clearly trying to fluster the keldeo — and grabbed three of the covers. He pivoted, leaning against the doorframe, and dangled the cases for Seifer to see.

"Movie night!" Cyril walked toward the shelves full of electronics. "I said I'd show you Space Wars, So, we're watching Space Wars." He knelt down by one of the metal boxes. "The good ones, at least. Like I said, the other six are trash. But if you ever want to get shitfaced and laugh at 'em, maybe I can be tempted."

Seifer was so transfixed on the "movie night" part, the rest of the cosmic zoroark's rambling went right over his head. So, he nodded along dumbly.

"Whatever you say."

XxX​

Sticky hovered around the giant glass tank. He went from eyeing the readouts on the monitor to looking at the bars and lines fluctuating on his tablet. The naganadel leaned over and tapped the glass. The gray ooze inside wriggled.

"Well, Sticky?"

He finished his lap around the tank, staring at his tablet. "There's definitely some magnetic resonance. Not enough to reproduce what was on Iron Enforcer's recording. But it's progress compared to the previous weeks."

"What did I tell you?"

Wincing, Sticky looked up to see a sylveon sauntering in front of Paradox. He had no idea why the deoxys didn't just smite that imbecile on the spot. Or, if he didn't want to dirty his tentacles, give Iron Enforcer the order. No, instead the type: full sat in the corner, plugged into a charging station.

"That the little meltan creatures could combine into a titan," Paradox said. His tentacles twisted into arms he folded behind his back. "Two weeks of testing and we've yet to verify these claims, Whatsyourface."

"Xander, Your Excellency." The sylveon bowed, extending his ribbons. "And I told you they could. I didn't say how." He gestured to Sticky. "But you heard your secretary—"

"Executive assistant," Sticky interjected. He wanted so badly to smear Xander's face with toxins from his large needle. But the emperor must've brought him down for a reason.

"Right, right." Xander waved him off with two ribbons. "Point is, my intel was primo. I told you tipping off that overgrown vegetable would get you assets... and it did!" He pointed a ribbon at the tank. "Sure, it may take some time. But while we have them like this, why not try adding your own little spin on it? Make 'em even better than what they were in the recording?"

Sticky was ready to jump in when he noticed the curious gleam in Paradox's eyes. "You think the titan can be improved?" Paradox wondered.

"I'm sure you can come up with something." Xander's eyes sparkled and his stubby tail wagged.

Paradox blipped right past Xander, appearing at Sticky's side. The naganadel stiffened. "Sir?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, boy." Paradox flicked his right hand dismissively. "I know a brown-nosing clout chaser when I see one. A real useful asset would take initiative." He put his hand on Sticky's back. "Even, perhaps, take quite the risk."

The deoxys leaned over and pointed to the recharging Iron Enforcer unit. "In case it's not clear, if I catch even the slightest whiff of deception from your new toy..." His right hand uncoiled. Paradox traced a tentacle across Sticky's neck. "... I'll build a fireplace in my office just to mount your head over it."

Sticky swallowed hard. "Understood, sir." But there was nothing to fear. Iron Enforcer was purely a machine. Maybe that gave it less potential than W1-DG3T had, but in return, it would show steadfast loyalty to the emperor.

"Good. Now, where was I?" Paradox recoiled his right tentacles into an arm. "Ah, yes. Our clout chaser."

He teleported into the middle of the charcoal gray lab. "I do appreciate a good kiss-up." Paradox's gem flickered. A pink glow surrounded Xander, who shrank back slightly. "And stringing the outsiders' prince along so you'd get a taste of real political power? That kind of initiative deserves proper credit. Don't you think, Sticky?"

No. The sylveon threw himself at Paradox first out of any of his classmates. If things somehow took a turn in the ongoing conflict, Xander would be first to jump ship. Sticky was sure of it. The guy was a certified, grade A coward only loyal to himself.

Paradox cleared his throat. Sticky stiffened. "Of course, sir."

"Proper credit?" Xander stood up straight. "Like, what? Will I get my own Eternatus Troopers to command or something?"

"No. I have a much better idea." The deoxys teleported to a shut metal panel in the gray wall. He lowered his head toward a red circle.

[Retinal scan confirmed,] an electronic voice declared. [Welcome back, Grand Emperor Paradox.]

"Oh, good, you already updated my title in the systems," Paradox said, opening the panel to reveal two racks meant for holding syringes. They were empty, save for one teeming with glowing silver fluid.

Xander wilted the moment he saw the large needle attached to the syringe. "U-Um, I already had all my shots, y'know..."

Sticky recognized the syringe immediately. When had the emperor moved it here from the Harvester? "S-Sir, you're giving him the Lovers?"

"I am." Paradox teleported in front of Xander. "See, one of my Paradigm lieutenants retired a while back. The first to ever do so. But like any good leader, your humble grand emperor granted his request." The deoxys pantomimed wiping a tear. "Try as I might, however, I simply could not find a worthy replacement. That is... until now."

The realization set in for the sylveon. That hideous stubby tail of his wagged again. "Moi, a lieutenant for you? Oh, I couldn't think of anything better!"

He tapped a ribbon to his chin. "Well, maybe I could, but they're not the types of things for polite conversation."

"Sir, do I really need to be here for this?" Sticky focused squarely on his tablet as he cycled through security cam feeds and tried not to think about what he was hearing.

"You do for this part." Paradox snapped his fingers and Sticky floated at attention. "If you accept this power, Sylveon, then you're hereby assigned to investigate one of the spots where these strange needle-like structures from the outside appeared." The deoxys shook his head. "The ones we had a read on have vanished suddenly and one of my army's targets was in pursuit of them. So, you have to get to the bottom of it."

"Perfect. Nobody gets to a bottom quite like me." Xander winked.

Sticky looked down at his tablet again. Oh, what he wouldn't give to "accidentally" turn on Iron Enforcer and set it to "maim."

Paradox rolled his eyes. "Quaint. Now, while you do this, you're free to curry favor and clout with the public to your liking. Just as long as you follow my orders and, of course, sing the praises of my benevolent, iron-fisted regime." He levitated the needle and syringe beside Xander. "Do we have a deal?"

The sylveon nodded enthusiastically.

"Good." Paradox's eyes sparked and he plunged the needle into Xander's left flank.

Xander's screams were even more shrill, screechy, and pathetic than Sticky could've imagined. And they kept going as the plunger pushed all the silver fluid from the syringe into Xander's left hind thigh.

"There we are." Paradox turned away and his ESP withdrew the needle. "You'll likely need a day or two to get acclimated to this. Sticky will show you to—"

A dull thud echoed through the lab the moment Xander passed out. Blood oozed from the puncture site.

Paradox sighed and shook his head. "Sticky, take him to his new quarters."

"Me?" Why couldn't the emperor just teleport him there? It would be much faster.

The deoxys glared at Sticky as if he'd read the naganadel's thoughts. Sighing, Sticky floated over to the unconscious sylveon. He went to pick Xander up when a better idea came to mind.

Sticky pointed his large needle at Xander and launched a stream of paint. It splattered over Xander, before hardening to a rubbery consistency. Sticky dipped his large needle into the edge of the goo before floating forward. His makeshift net dragged Xander's limp form behind him.

"Careful, Sticky. We don't want to damage our merchandise," Paradox called.

The naganadel pause. "Sir, you do realize he's going to betray us the moment someone makes him a better offer, right?"

Paradox blipped over to Sticky's side. "Oh, I'm counting on it."

Sticky tensed. "S-Sir?"

"Relax, Sticky." Paradox put his hand on Sticky's shoulder. "Remember, your grand emperor is always one step ahead."

He gestured to the door, then teleported away. Sticky stared into the empty, dimly lit hallway. He floated out of the lab, hoping Paradox wasn't just blowing smoke.

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Heya, it's been a long while since I last kept tabs on this story, and I saw that it was up for Review Tag offsite, so that sounded like as good an excuse as any to try and stop falling behind.

Last time, we got a pretty big dose of explosive revelations regarding Yuna and the origins of the setting at large, so let’s see how that dust has been shaking out afterwards:

Chapter 84

Spoiler

Rough scales grazed Noctum's arms, telling him he'd gotten Valkyrie. He yanked her through the rift, but not before searing pain shot across his arms. Yowling, the black charizard fell on his back, with a dazed Valkyrie flopping onto his armored belly.

Ah yes, I'm war flashbacking to those Organization XIII fights already from the music.

Up on the rooftop, giant dragon wings swirled around in a blue-purple vortex. A few panicking dragons on the ground fled from near the building, pointing and shouting. Debris rained down from the rooftop.

I mean, at least it's still going better than the whole Rem Canyon expedition in GL... for now, anyways.

From his cramped confines by the child's side, Noctum saw a dome of multicolored, prismatic light erupt from Time. It blotted out the sky, rift and all.

"What the—" Noctum slid back, blinking rapidly and wincing. Nicks and scrapes covered his arms down to his claws. "That's gotta be a Dynaforce attack, right?" And was it making him see things?

Wait, wut @ that italic text. Is that from Bahamut's journal, or...?

"The dragon one," Cyril said before unseen hands grabbed Noctum and pulled him to his feet. "That's your king, right?"

Noctum's violet flame rippled uneasily. "That's what the queen's saying." He glanced to his right, where the dragapult directed some dragons to form up around her. She struggled to keep a straight face. "But it sounds like... he got hit by Malice or something."

"Nah. It's Halvus."

Noctum: "Wait, it's who now-?"

Also, that's certainly a fitting Arcana for this operative given that he's borrowing Calcifer's body for this moment.

Valkyrie got to her feet, groaning. "Halvwho?"

"One of the Paradigm." The cosmic zoroark spotted three Eternatus Gunners halfway between them and Halvus taking aim. He slung a Shadow Ball to his left, growling when they successfully scattered. Seifer and Biff raced in from Cyril's left, downing them before they got their attacks off.

Valkyrie: "Fantastic. Like we didn't have enough problems already." >_>;

"Halvus is some kind of munitions expert. But he's also lazy. Rarely gets involved in things directly. Don't know why the emperor would send him after us."

Oh, so he's basically Xigbar from KH2. Since between the music and the description of his fighting style...

Noctum saw Seifer running toward the side of the League building. "What do you think you're doing?!" the keldeo cried. "Stop! There could be innocent people inside!"

"Aww, how cute! The rebel is trying to look like a hero!" An Eternatus Bombardier appeared from around the building's corner. Lightning crackled in its cannons. "But we evacuated everyone! Besides, we can rebuild it! We have the technology!"

Cue mech getting deleted into scrap in 3... 2...

The massive duraludon laughed and slammed his right hand against the League Headquarters. With a terrified whinny, Seifer galloped away.

Seifer: "Cyril? I don't suppose that you happened to work on a shrink ray in your spare time, did you?"

"Look out!" Noctum again went for the rift option... but the energy fizzled out as quickly as it materialized. "What?! No, it worked before!"

Noctum flew around the center of the black and purple rift, right arm raised. Time glared back from across the rift. Noctum raised his arm, but no energy formed. "This is your fault!"

"Don't blame me for your failures!" Time snarled back.

Oh, so the italictext is visions of a past life. Or at least I'm pretty sure that's where this is going given the explicit mention of 'Time' there.

"Seifer!" Cyril vaulted over the now-disoriented black charizard, lobbing a Shadow Ball with two hands like a baccer ball. It dampened enough of the boasting Bombardier's dual Thunders for Seifer to escape them and the rubble that poured over the scorched ground seconds later.

"Thanks!" The keldeo reached the trio, panting heavily. Noctum stared blankly at him. Why was he seeing faint outlines of metallic claws on Seifer's hooves?!

I'm... admittedly not fully sure what's going on with Seifer myself given that Keldeo don't learn Metal Claw. Unless if this is whoever Seifer used to be as a Pokémon leaking through.

Cyril put his hands on his hips. "Now who's being the reckless dummy?"

Seifer's face reddened. Valkyrie got between the two. "Keep it in your fur. We've got bigger problems here!" She jerked her head behind her.

Oh, so that's the analogue to "pants" for that idiom in this setting. Though I'm a bit surprised to hear that Valkyrie is so familiar with it when she doesn't have fur. I presume she picked that one up via cultural osmosis.

"All this running. So tiring, don't you think?" Halvus' voice was surprisingly higher-pitched than Calcifer's, despite the giant size. "Why don't you relax? Let me sweep your troubles away!"

His eyes flickered purple. Blue-violet wind ripped up the grass around them. "Run!" Valkyrie jetted to her left. It was faster for Noctum to fly backwards, so he had to separate from the other three. Like before, giant blue-violet dragon wings spun around inside the vortex. Even though Noctum avoided the blow, fatigue gripped him. He folded his wings in and stumbled across the grass.

Looks like I might have to update my read as to who Halvus is modeled after, since that's certainly different from Xigbar there.

"Now!"

Noctum scarcely had time to look up before electrified rocks battered him from above. The black charizard staggered back with each strike, before a lightning bolt struck him square in the gut. He fell to his back. Sparks jumped around his armor plate. The world spun around him.

Noctum: "... Ow." X_X

The tachyons pummeled Noctum's right shoulder. Roaring in pain, he floated back. Threw his left arm over his pink shoulder gem. "You'll pay for that!"

"Try it!" Time reared up on their hind legs, temporal energy gathering once more in their maw.

... Wait, so Noctum used to be Palkia? Or am I reading too much into things? .-.

"—ver me, damn it!"

Blurry flashes around Noctum caught his attention. Scaly arms grabbed his left shoulder and fuzzy ones yanked his right, hoisting him to his feet. Then the juiciness of an oran berry filled Noctum's mouth. The black charizard forced himself to chew before he could choke on it.

Noctum: "We really should get around to figuring out a way of topically applying those."

Valkyrie: "Look, worry about the field medicine later, Zardy! We've got a much bigger dragon to fry right now!" >_>;

Blinking away the last fuzziness from his vision, Noctum saw Seifer and Biff zigzagging toward Halvus by ground and air, respectively. Aeon dragons backed them up from the far right, shooting Cosmic Blessing's rainbow waves at the Eternatus Troopers.

"Something's wrong." Noctum rubbed his head. "That daemon's attack..."

"It's Halvus' specialty," Cyril growled, running yellow claws through his starcloud mane. "He saps your energy. Makes it harder to use whatever your last technique was in a battle. I call it Dyna Depletion."

Oh, well that's a nasty side-effect there. So basically, beating Halvus requires going big or going home.

Valkyrie frowned. "It's just Spite, then?"

"If Spite hurt like a bitch."

Or it could be that. I actually completely forgot about Spite for a moment.

The mega garchomp's snout wrinkled in disgust. "Lovely. What the hell do we do about it?"

"Personally?" Cyril glanced over his shoulder. "I'd say keep your distance."

Noctum: "Wait, but you have a pizza truck that can amplify attacks, and-!"

Cyril: "And it's obviously not here since I didn't think we'd need it right now." >_>;

"Sheesh!" Halvus swatted the ground. Seifer barely managed to leap over his giant duraludon arm and sling an Aura Sphere at the middle of his head. Halvus took a step back from the blow. "All the nervous energy in the world can't help you idiots. You're working harder, not smarter."

Noctum shifted uneasily. "I can't fight from this far." And Calcifer was still in there. He had to be. "What am I supposed to do? I won't give up on the king."

Whale on him harder and hope he gets better after ejecting that unwelcome guest hitching a ride? Worked fine for Mario for multiple RPG bosses.

"No one's giving up on him," Cyril cut in. "We gotta reevaluate our approach."

"By doing what?" Noctum could only watch Seifer and the others hopping around like frenzied spoink for so long. He noticed Biff swooping beneath a Rock Blast flurry and uppercutting an Eternatus Gunner. It pinwheeled toward Halvus. The giant duraludon spat a burst of metal at it, destroying it instantly.

"That's it!" the black charizard said. "We don't approach directly. We hit 'em with his flunkies. Like Iron Jugulis."

Clever, but I'm not convinced that the story's just going to let you get away with that tactic twice without a hitch, Noctum.

A growl escaped Valkyrie's snout. "Great." The garchomp hopped forward, then shot a Dragon Pulse ahead at an Eternatus Gunner. It burst apart. "Hmph. Did the emperor send the Troopers made of tissue paper or something?"

No, that's just about the level of durability of mooks in this story since they haven't been particularly threatening as individual encounters for like 60 chapters.

Shrugging, Cyril strolled away from them. "You're bright. Bet you'll come up with something."

Noctum was sorely tempted to talk back to the cosmic zoroark, but he saw Halvus gearing up for another attack. The black charizard flew into the air. Rather than a Dragon Pulse, he spewed some Dragonbreath at an Eternatus Bombardier. It held up its blasters to shield itself, but that gave Noctum the opening to swoop in. He swiped it with Metal Claws.

"Gah!" The Bombardier tumbled through the air, striking Halvus' long, building-like torso.

Noctum: "Oooh, that one's gotta hurt."
Valkyrie: "Yeah, but the Bombadier or Halvus?"

"Gnrk!" Halvus rested his left arm against the somewhat destroyed League building. "Nah, you ain't taking my load off, rebel scum! Troopers, fall back!"

The Gunners and Bombardiers taking aim stopped and looked at Halvus. "Are you sure?" one Gunner asked.

Blue-violet winds swirled to Halvus' right, around Seifer, Biff, and several of the Troopers. They hastily flew away, mechanical arms and tentacles flailing.

Valkyrie: "Er... yeah, pretty sure that's a sign we need a Plan B right now."

Noctum kept his distance, biting his lip. So much for his bright idea. Maybe they really did learn from Iron Jugulis.

I mean, they do have electronic surveillance and video files, so you'd think that they'd be able to adapt to new tactics. Though I had a feeling that there was going to be a rugpull when they straight-up tried to reuse a tactic from an earlier boss fight.

"Anyone else got anything?" Valkyrie charged across the uneven ground. "Because I'm about to start ripping this place up with Earthquakes."

Seifer's tail frazzled. He jumped toward Biff. The buzzwole grabbed him and shot skyward. True to her word, Valkyrie slammed her scythe-like arms onto the ground. Fissures raced toward the corner of the building.

Halvus' right foot sank into one of the gaps. His growl reverberated through the area. "All that effort for so very little!"

Valkyrie: "... Okay, make that a sign that we need a Plan C!"

The giant duraludon's eyes sparked pink. As his left leg also sank into the ground, he unleashed another Dyna Depletion. Noctum tried to throw open a rift and get to Valkyrie, but it fizzled out like before. Neither Biff nor Cyril could get there, either. The mega garchomp dove into the fissures her Earthquake made. Noctum's purple tail flame flickered in surprise.

Wait, she can just evade Halvus' attacks like that?

"Attack!"

Yiazmat unleashed a flurry of Dragon Darts from Noctum's far left, over by the rift. Goodra and Noivern flanking her added Dragon Pulses. Seifer fired an Aura Sphere from the tip of his prosthetic horn. Noctum added his own Dragon Pulse.

"Waste of effort!"

Halvus flicked his right hand. Giant metal spikes erupted from the crevices Valkyrie's Earthquakes carved. A few punctured the League building, flinging more rubble around. More disappointing, however, was when the spikes blocked the team's combined attacks.

Damn. Didn't even land a single scratch on him there. Though I personally feel that Halvus' line works better separated from the rest of the following paragraph.

Seconds later, a roar rang out. Another metal spike burst from the ground, knocking Valkyrie back. The mega garchomp rolled to a stop. Her mega evolution vanished in an orange flash, leaving the large gash along her left side all too visible to Noctum.

Valkyrie: "Ow."

Noctum: "Val!"

The human stared Time down. Their most ferocious attack charged in their mouth.

She gripped Noctum's ball tightly. Could he do this? His previous clashes with Time had gone poorly for him...

I can't tell if this is meant to be the PLA protag again, or someone totally different in these visions of battling Dialga somewhere in the past of the omniverse.

What was Noctum doing? He had to fight through these stupid mind games!

Narrator: "They were not stupid mind games."

"Valkyrie!" The black charizard dove down from the air.

Yeah, I figured that'd roughly be Noctum's reaction.

"So much energy wasted." Halvus' laughter rumbled through the area. "I'm telling ya, relax. Don't you think it's time you had yourselves a break?"

Noctum: "I... really, really don't like where this is going right now." O.O

Noctum landed beside the garchomp. Jeez that wound was bleeding. She needed orans right away. Or a healer. "Heeey! Help!"

Bag, bag, where was her— there!

He lunged for it, flopping over her in the process.

"Grrraaaarrrgh!"

Valkyrie's arms dug into Noctum's sides. "Sorry, sorry! I just gotta grab the— got 'em!"

I wonder if this is where that one crotch shot moment you teased winds up coming into play. Like it's kind of the worst imaginable time to be dishing out that sort of pain, but I'm not convinced that Val's just going to tolerate this sort of invasion of her personal space.

Noctum had an oran in each hand. All he had to do was feed them to her.

"Get out of there!" Cyril cried. "You're sitting ducklett!"

Noctum: "You can try and cover me with a Protect, you know!"

Cyril: "Noctum, I'm not a miracle worker here! Just get out of there!"

He looked up and saw Halvus conjuring more blue-violet wind. Another Dyna Depletion. Noctum had to lift Valkyrie up and get her away. But even without the mega evolution, she was heavy. Biff was still carrying Seifer, so the buzzwole was out. The best he could do was throw himself over the garchomp and hope to guard her that way.

Except instead of the attack, there were a couple of loud caws, followed by metallic thuds. Warm light washed over Noctum. Valkyrie shoved him off her. Much of her large gash was healed. But how?

Oh hello, Vegna. Though neat DMC5 BGM is neat.

"Do forgive the discourtesy of my fashionably late arrival."

Valkyrie shoved Noctum further off, giving him a clear view of Vegna. Gold mist seeped through cracks running between the dusknoir's fingers. Vegna didn't acknowledge him any further, pivoting and waving his right hand.

"Slice! Burn!"

"Hey, Tin Can, how's about I introduce you to Can and Opener? Ha ha haaaaah!"

Noctum: "Well, that was more than a little unhinged there." .-.
Vegna: "Look, can you not complain about the way I come in and save you from certain doom right now?" >;

Noctum lumbered to his feet. Near the building, Griffon darted around Halvus, swiping at the giant duraldon's trapped legs with his talons. Flames struck Halvus from behind every time he tried to strike Griffon, disrupting his rhythm. Talonflame's Flare Blitzing form crashed into Halvus' right arm, then darted away from a retaliatory swipe.

"Thanks for the save," Noctum said. It didn't look like Vegna's birds were doing much other than annoying Halvus, but it was giving everyone else room to pepper him with equally tiny attacks.

Noctum: "Just saying, this would've been a really nice time to have the pizza-" >_>;
Cyril: "Noctum, it's not making an appearance in this battle, okay? Just focus on finding a solution with what we do have on hand right now!"

"Give me my husband back!" Yiazmat roared from over by the rift. Instead of Dragon Darts, rainbow bursts of Cosmic Blessings emerged from her horns.

"Don't you have a giant dragon of your own to summon?" Valkyrie growled. She was still a bit dazed and slow to get up.

"I can't summon Zekrom and heal you with Morning Sun." Vegna's right hand trembled until the gold fissures sealed themselves. "Pray forgive the inconvenience of my frail, crumbling body."

Oh, well that isn't a good omen for how long Vegna's going to be around in this story. Though I wonder if he used to be able to do just that back in the day.

Noctum frowned. "Why does a dusknoir even have Morning Sun?"

Vegna turned away from them. "A story for another day. Do you want to strike down this daemon or not?" He drifted higher into the air, making small hand gestures that translated to Griffon and Talonflame circling up around one another.

... Wait, is POV-2020's analogue to Selene chilling in Vegna's soul collection? Since that highlighting of Morning Sun felt really deliberate there, and it is Espeon's signiature move...

"Right." The black charizard winced. "All these strikes and he's still standing."

"It's almost as if he's giant and tanky." Valkyrie looked down at herself. "And my mega's gone." She snorted out blue-purple embers. "I can still Earthquake, though." The garchomp held her arms at her side. "Everyone get clear!"

Noctum: "Valkyrie, wait! I don't think the others can hear-!"

A quick flap of his wings was all Noctum needed. Valkyrie ran forward, feinting right, then darting left in case Halvus tried to intercept her. Yiazmat directed her dragon troops even closer to the rift, aiming Cosmic Blessings at Halvus' face to keep him distracted.

"C'mon, dear! You can't let him control you like this!" she pleaded.

"Shouting. Attacking. Wasteful, wasteful, wasteful!" Halvus braced his left arm against the half-destroyed building. "I'll make all of you relax!"

... The thought just suddenly crossed my mind that Yiazmat is effectively this story's Queen Brahne, and I remember what happened to the original one in FFIX when she was put up against an opponent way, way out of her league...

Blue-violet winds stirred. This blue-violet vortex covered half the field between the rift and the building! And Valkyrie was charging right into it! The garchomp saw it, but the ground was too torn apart for her to dive underneath like before.

>Loki music for the background track

Okay, so who's the genderswapped counterpart on the field here?

She hurled his ball forward. Noctum had one shot— one chance to protect them from Time's wrath!

Noctum concentrated on the Malice Crystal in his gut. Sure, his energy was depleted. But it wasn't that far. Just one rift. One rift. He could do it. He had to do it!

He hit the stone ground of the temple and braced himself. Spacial Rend... he needed as strong a Spacial Rend as he could muster! Human temple for the Creator be damned!

Oh, so: A: Noctum really is either a reincarnation or a vessel to Palkia B: We are indeed flashing back to the PLA protagonist. In this case, she chose to catch Palkia and was forced into dealing with Dialga as the Origin Forme fight

I suppose that this makes Noctum's past usages of Phantom Warp take on a different light, since if those flashbacks are implying what I think they are... it really ought to have been second nature to him once he got that ability.

His belly burned. A sudden power surge swelled through him. With a mighty roar, Noctum clawed at the air. He pried a rift open behind Valkyrie, then yanked her back. But the attack would carry through the rift if he left it open. So, the black charizard dove through it.

The Roar of Time raced right toward him. Noctum raised his arms, then thrust them forward.

"Noctum, no! Don't be an idiot!" Valkyrie cried.

Too late.

Noctum: "Valkyrie, I'm not just leaving you like this!"

He shut the rift just as the giant dragon wings erupted from what was left of the ground. Arms crossed, Noctum threw up a Protect shield. He doubted it could deflect a whole Dynaforce attack, but at least only his Protect power would get depleted.

His claws slashed through the blue beam. Shimmering rifts collided with tachyons.

"What the—"

Where was the pain? There should've been dragon energy slicing through Noctum. But all he could feel was that burning from his belly getting hotter and hotter and hotter.

Oh right, Noctum can MegaEvo too even if he's been weirdly out of it for this fight. Guess it's time for him to bust that out right about now.

The humans scattered with startled cries. An explosion engulfed Noctum and Time. Broken pieces of the temple's roof and stone pillars careened down the sides of the sky-piercing mountain.

Noctum thrashed his head back and forth. The burning was getting worse with every second! Like an invisible force stabbing him in the stomach over and over again. Noctum wanted to double over but forced himself to hang tough.

Anything to protect her. Anything to save Calcifer.

Huh, so Noctum / Palkia appears to be haunted by some sort of "greatest failure"-type event in the past. Duly noted, even if I wonder what on earth that event was.

"I... must... proteeeeeeeeect!"

Noctum floated in a black void. Where were his arms and legs? Why couldn't he feel anything?

... Ah, wait, there! A small mote of light!

I clearly have been playing too much XB3 lately, since the mention of a ‘mote of light’ instantly made me think of the ones from that game.

He got closer. It was... a tail flame? From a charmander?

There were shouts outside of the Dyna Depletion. Was someone saying something about absorption?

The charmander was thin. Frail. Its tail flame tiny, yet vibrant against the backdrop of the black void. It looked up at Noctum and smiled.

He recognized that smile... because it was his smile.

Charmander turned and walked away. Noctum followed, trying to call out to it.

That actually makes me wonder what Palkia's mythology-inspired name is, since I'm getting the distinct suspicion that Noctum has a similar relationship with Palkia as Yuna does with Yaldabaoth/Chaos.

Noctum snapped out of the vision to find his Protect's blue glow absent. Noctum was standing there, arms crossed, watching the Dyna Depletion funnel into his belly. Cracks spread along his armor until it shattered, metal pieces dropping by his feet.

"Wh... at..."

He was back in the void. Charmander was walking faster. There was pink light in the distance. Getting closer and closer.

Ah yes, hello Wave Existence Palkia. This vision's vibe is definitely very familiar right now.

Charmander walked up to the light. It was... an orb. Different shades of pink swirled around inside it. The orb pushed and pulled the pink light around it like waves lapping against a shoreline.

Every push and pull had a noise. Lub-dup. Lub-dup.

I can't tell if this is a metaphorical vision, or else if this actually happened sometime in Noctum's past. Whether earlier in life or in another one entirely.

Noctum sank into the torn ground. His knees were down in the dirt. The burning in his stomach was at a fever pitch.

The Dyna Depletion faded away. Halvus yelled something Noctum couldn't make out.

Charmander turned to Noctum and smiled. "I found it."

Noctum somehow found his voice. "Found what?"

"Our lustrous heart."

Whelp, that confirms the relationship theory. Even if it raises the question of just who is linked to Dialga/Time as the missing link we don't know about.

Charmander gave Noctum one last serene smile before dissolving into the orb... which slammed into Noctum's belly.

Noctum: "Wait! I didn't ask for-!" O_O;

The burning in the pit of his stomach erupted! Noctum arched backwards with a frenzied roar. His Malice Crystal melted into his gut. Blue scales painted over his tan ones as the charizard shot forward. Violet flames crackled in the corners of his vision. Had he mega evolved?

Noctum sliced apart Draco Meteors from the heavens, giving the human time to hurl balms at Time's Creator-esque torso.

And there it is. I see we're just getting the entire cosmic gang back together, huh?

It didn't matter! It was time to put an end to this!

Noctum raced toward Halvus' foot. Purple, starry Dragon Claws were at the ready. Noctum drove them into Halvus' leg.

"Waaaaaarrrgggh! Cut it out! Chill!" Halvus raised his arms up to squash Noctum like a bug.

But Noctum concentrated on that strange power swirling through him. Halvus froze in place. Pink, shimmering lines crisscrossed the giant duraludon's body. Horror set in on Halvus' face as Noctum yanked his claws out and the lines shattered the very air— no space surrounding Halvus.

Valkyrie: "Zardy?! When the hell were you able to do that?!"

Noctum: "I don't know, but I'm not complaining here!"

A pained roar escaped Halvus before distorted energy poured out of his mouth and the wound in his leg.

"Y... ou! Re... b..." He was shrinking down, taking more chunks of the wrecked building with him. His voice was deepening, too! Had Noctum done it?

"I wi... ll remember..."

Noctum: "Whew, thank goodness that battle's over."

- Beat moment -
Noctum: "Oh no, Your Majesty! Say something to me!"

What looked like a small card drifted out of Calcifer's back and dissolved into the air. Calcifer staggered toward Noctum. He shakily held his right arm out. "Thank you."

Oh, so the Mario strategy did pan out in this case.

He fell forward, head resting by Noctum's feet. "Vegna! Get over here!" Noctum said, waving both hands since he had no idea where the dusknoir went off to.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your horns on!" Griffon cawed. The corviknight landed beside him. "V's got it covered in spades. But ain't you gonna turn off your mega before you go cuckoo for Choccy Puffs?"

>Choccy Puffs

Ah yes, our bland-name product here. Though wait, what Pokémon name is that one based off of?

"Huh?" Noctum blinked, then glanced at his jagged-looking wing. "Uh, right. Lemme just..."

He took a calming breath. Then another. But he didn't feel any different. Noctum checked his wing again. Still jagged.

"Uhh..."

"And your flame. It's all galactic!" Griffon leaned over. He glanced at Noctum's belly. "Maybe your belly ate your crystal and now you're stuck as a mega?" The corviknight hopped back. "You ain't feeling all murdery, right?"

Oh, so Noctum's just going to be like this from now on, huh? Though neat embedded art is neat.

"Of course not!" Noctum's now-starry tail flame flickered rapidly. "I don't— That is—"

Realization set in. Those visions weren't from Halvus' attacks at all. They were from deep inside. Because Noctum was... he was...

"Aw, shit." Griffon rolled his eyes. "He's totally about to pass out, ain't he?"

The last thing the cosmic charizard heard before his head struck the ground was the corviknight cawing, "See! Told ya!"

Noctum:

Griffon: "Just saying, I'd have thought that you'd be over the moon over being able to permanently have Dragon-typing and not react like this." -v-;

Green and light blue this time. Complimentary enough colors, but boy were they obnoxiously bright. Not that Wyndon Stadium's lights were dark by comparison, but the switch from nighttime to an unbearably bright anomaly core threw Yuna off.

As did the small white snowflakes falling all around her.

Resident Evil music, huh? That one was definitely unexpected for this fic.

... No, that wasn't right. The dragapult reached her right hand out and caught one.

"A feather?" Yuna examined it in her hand. It was as soft as any altaria's wings. "Okay. Leo, where'd you go?"

"Over here, Mom!"

Yuna pivoted right. The cosmic arceus stood atop a bundle of feathers vaguely resembling a flying heracross. It wasn't alone, either. Other bugs made of feathers drifted around it. A couple of pinsir here. Some ribombee and cutiefly there.

Oh, so that's where Yuna rifted off to last chapter. I suppose it makes sense that she wouldn't want to delay this at all given the multiversal stakes, though at first I thought she was going back to help the others.

"God, this is weird."

She kept looking right, until she found a familiar braviary silhouette walking along a spiraling centiskorch.

... Also made of feathers. Because of course.

Yuna: "... Wait, but isn't this supposed to be a Bug-type space? Why on earth are there feathers here, anyways?" ._.;

"Hmm." Alder stroked his chin. "These cores are spawning out of Ginnungagap. And Ginnungagap is the mystery dungeon between worlds. Perhaps it's best to think of the anomalies as mystery dungeons after all." He hopped into the air, gliding after Leo. "Since distortion spreads out of each core, affecting the dimension around it. Expanding the dungeon, in a manner of speaking."

Yuna blinked slowly. "Uhh... okay?" It wasn't like that changed anything about the current situation, though.

Oh, so the anomalies are getting tied in to the Mystery Dungeons that we know from earlier in the story. I wonder if that means that any will get retrofitted into having connections to anomalies from here on out.

"Congratulations on your evolution, by the way!" Alder's psychic feathers shimmered. Yuna wondered if that was the projection showing his happiness.

"Oh, right. Thanks, I guess." Yuna glanced at her feet — God, that was going to take some getting used to — then flew off to follow Leo. "It just sorta happened."

After a second, she looked back at her feet. Namely, the gold-amber claws on them. It was enough to snap her out of the autopilot she'd been in since shooting out of the river.

This wasn't right. Dragapult didn't have claws like this. And why were there similarly-colored rings around her tail?!

Because you're a Tessa incarnation, and having an off-spec final evolution is literally the most Tessa thing imaginable.

The amber crystal in her chest sparked with light. Yuna stared aghast at it, like it was going to suck the life out of her.

Everything came rushing back. The ruined temple. Chaos, that titanic daemon. Apparently a giratina? Or maybe multiple giratina all mashed together?

Then there were the visions— no, memories. A whole other life she lived. She sounded confident and determined back then! What had happened to her? And that icepix...

Were we... together?

Narrator:

Yuna: "That was a rhetorical question!" >.<

Yuna shook her head. Change the subject, now.

"So, does your magic dimensional lore book have any explanation for why there are gonna be two plates here instead of one?"

Alder's pink feathers stuck up straight. "Two in one core?" He looked around. "Hmm. That would explain the look of things, I suppose."

Oh, so that's why the feathers were there. And to answer your question, Yuna, because it does something different and helps speed the meta plot up a bit?

"Bugs and birds! Bugs and birds!" Leo chirped, happily hopping across feathered dustox and beautifly. Two pillars of light shimmered in the distance. Undoubtedly the two plates.

... Wait, what was that golden glimmer between the two of them?

Alder sighed. "Truthfully, I'm not sure what that indicates. Perhaps the anomalies are being drawn toward one another? If there's a plate in each one and the plates belong to POV-2020, then it's pos— hey, wait for me!"

That's... a really ominous possibility that I hadn't considered there. Guess it's not just Vegna who's running out of time at the moment. .-.

Yuna flew over a blue and green abyss. She was much faster than before, easily passing Leo while he jumped between feathered platforms. The dragapult reached a giant frosmoth made of feathers without issue. Though closer inspection showed it was a giant frosmoth made of tiny, feathery snom.

Maybe Yuna should have counted her blessings two Whispers and Zodiark's projection were the worst things to have leaked out of this anomaly core. Could you just imagine if this thing turned people into feathers? A shiver ran up her ectoplasm.

I should be a lot less surprised that that character with Bayonetta vibes is getting icked out by feathers and angel aesthetics, really.

The two plates floated in front of her. Blue feathers surrounded one. Ethereal cutiefly flew around the other. Yuna cautiously flew to the other side. Gold light spilled over her body. Her inner shadows tried to force her away from the plates.

I should've asked about that.

I take it that Yaldy didn't have the best of relations with Arceus before POV-2020 was created from that sort of reaction to the plates.

Yuna could berate herself later. First, the text on the plates. Then the weird gold light behind her. Yuna went for the light blue plate first.

The being poured the remains of its power into stone and buried it deep.

Well, that gave her little to go off. Was that saying these plates were supposed to be buried underground? Shaking her head, Yuna turned to the other plate.

Where all creation was born, that is the being's place of origin.

That one sent a fresh chill down to Yuna's tail. Because given what Chaos had told her... wouldn't the "place of origin" be that tower from her past memories? Where she had clashed with Zodiark in the past? Was that somehow Leo's true home?

There's technically an alternative potential candidate considering how hard this story leans on PLA in its backstory, but we'll get there when we get there, I suppose.

Come to think of it, Chaos did sound a lot less... certain when they talked about attacking the Red Chain and losing their powers to Bahamut. Were they still hiding something from Yuna?

Narrator:

Yuna: "Thanks. I feel so comforted by knowing this right now." >_>;

"Ta-daah!"

Leo's golden wheel sparkled as he landed next to Yuna. "So, Mom, what do I do? Eat one first? Eat 'em both?"

Yuna had no idea how to answer. With a shrug, she gave a, "Follow your heart."

Leo:

"Okay!" The cosmic arceus stood up straight. His wheel flickered. Then both plates were hastily pulled toward him like pieces of meat grabbed by the burly arms of a famished kommo-o. Sky blue and lime green lines rippled across Leo's starcloud fur.

Do I want to know how Yuna is able to make this comparison here? Like I knew that life in the Aeon Kingdom was harsh, but I didn't think it was that harsh.

His wheel flashed. Feathers coated his right foreleg, while chitin crawled up his left.

For a moment, one of Xeromus' chain-covered forelegs superimposed itself over Leo's. Yuna abruptly shook her head and turned away from him.

Oh, well that's totally normal and not ominous at all there.

"Those are taken care of, so let's see what—" She cut herself off the moment she saw a familiar gold cylinder impaling the feathery frosmoth. A green and white crystal eye stared back at her. "No." Yuna held her arms up and waved them in front of her face. "I'm hallucinating. That's not real. It's not a Needle in this anomaly core."

I mean, the story already conveniently provided two McGuffins for you in one place here. What's a third?
[*][10:59 PM]

"Dungeon core!" called Alder. "And I'd say that's a Needle!"

Leo blipped in between Yuna and the Needle. Even though she floated in the air, Leo was almost at eye level with her. Which spooked her enough to send her new legs shooting up into her torso.

... Clearly, some habits died hard even after evolving.

Oh, so Yuna still stress boomerangs even as a Dragapult. Duly noted.

"Is this the part where you pull an Aunt Nikki and flip the Needle off?" The cosmic arceus lifted a forehoof. "I can totally join you if you do." His golden hoof shimmered and chitinous claws replaced it, courtesy of his new plate.

Yuna: "... That one's going to give me nightmares for a while. Seriously, why on earth is that even a power?"

Yuna fought not to have her torso suck up her much longer tail, too. Why was Leo's voice deeper? And why the enthusiasm for acting like Nikki?

Ah yes, he's going through puberty. I mean, I should've seen it coming from the way he was described as literally growing with each plate he picked up, but it's kinda neat how you've tied Leo regaining his abilities as Arceus to the process of him maturing.

Book pages fwipped from behind Yuna. "Interesting. It appears... reclaiming his plates lets Leo age?" Alder mused. "I'll have to go over the archives carefully to see if there are any records of that."

And yeah, story just going and confirming my suspicions there.

"Pssht. Sure." Leo strutted past Yuna. "You do that. I'm gonna fix this thing." He tapped Yuna on the shoulder. "That means you've gotta yank it out, Mom. Since I've gotta send everyone back home."

Yeeeeeah, Teenage!Leo is going to wind up causing some problems later on in the story, I can already tell.

The dragapult's mind was still racing. Leo's aging and the Needle's presence wrestling for her undivided attention. And the revelations brought by Chaos lurked in the back, waiting to strike. She definitely couldn't hide her link with them anymore. Reshiram would never shut up if she even tried.

... And it affects them, too.

Yuna: "Oh yay me. Like my relationship with my friend circle wasn't already hanging like a thread even before this whole 'Chaos powers' thing happened."

"C'mon, Mom! Standing here's getting boring."

But you loved the feathery bug platforms just minutes ago.

Teenage phases be like that, Yuna

She couldn't help but wonder if Yiazmat felt this way when Yuna stopped playing with all her favorite childhood toys and instead wanted to be left on her own.

Sighing, Yuna approached the Needle. Behind it, the familiar circles and triangles Leo had made with the previous cores traced themselves through the air.

Yuna forced the grappling thoughts back, focusing on what memory this Needle would give her. And which Sage she was about to meet.

Yuna: "Note to self, apologize to mom for if I ever put her through something like that." >_>;

Chiron truly did not understand the point of "adventuring."

Perhaps she would have gotten more out of this experience if she had legs. Or didn't float everywhere she went.

But, no, she was a lunala. Hovering beside a steep mountain trail. Watching with a bored expression as Shaymin leapt from jagged spire to rocky crag, gliding around with his tiny antler-ear-wing things.

Oh. Oh. So "Shaymin the Wanderer" wasn't just a bunch of made-up stories in-setting.

"Remind me why we're here."

Shaymin glanced down at her, smirking. She hastily continued, "And don't you dare say 'adventuring.'" Chiron pointed an accusatory right wing-claw.

Shaymin: "To listen to some banging endgame area music? And also to go adventuring."

"Harsh." Shaymin wrinkled his snout. "You should be grateful I brought you along. Isn't this view bodacious?"

Chiron's right eye twitched. She had seen plenty of mountaintops in her time. This one was no different. "Yup. Tons of dirt and rocks and no trees because we're past the tree line already." The lunala folded her wings. "And only clouds below us because it's overcast."

Chiron: "We really had to go all the way out here to see this?"

Chuckling, Shaymin leapt up a few more spires. "Look, Moonbat Dudette, it's boring if I go right wherever Baha Blast tells me to. Terrible job. Nothing about the day to be grateful for. Y'feel me?"

Wasn't expecting the 'surfer dude' accent. Though I wonder if Shaymin in Etherium was the archetype for Exploration Teams, since going off into the boonies per the request of a client is very 'Exploration Team' in nature.

Chiron did not feel him. She silently hovered up the side of the mountain, keeping her wings wrapped over her torso. "You still haven't answered my question."

Shaymin rolled his eyes. "A'ight. Chillax. I'm fetching a little star piece that fell from the sky."

Ah yes, so we're going to see a bit of how Chiron somehow got swept up into Yuna and Yaldy's thing that they've got going on together.

"A star piece?" Chiron quirked a brow.

"Baha Blast thinks it's too small to be a meteorite." Shaymin hopped up two more rocky outcroppings. And there was something glistening several meters above him. "So, I'm here to snag it. A classic Shaymin mountain climbing adventure!"

Chiron: "Can you stop calling my husband that?" >:|
Shaymin:

He resumed leaping and gliding over rocky spires until he reached the twinkling part of the mountaintop.

Shaking her head, Chiron followed. The lunala still wasn't sure what Shaymin meant. "So, you think dawdling on an assignment is a good thing? What if there was something actually dangerous?"

"Then Baha Blast would send another Sage." Shaymin lazily waved a foreleg. "I'm not the action dude. I'm the adventure dude."

Whelp, I'll take the under on this guy hacking his way through hostile encounters per MD metaseries standards. I take it that means no Koppa analogue for him, either?

Chiron wondered if it was truly worth pressing Shaymin on that point. "I think... we're going to have to agree to disagree," she lazily gestured to him with her right wing, "on whatever you call this."

Shaymin poked around where the light was. His forepaws glowed green. He dug into the rock with them. "Heh. Gratitude is all about taking in what life has to offer. Everyone wants to, nrrgh, worry about the future and stuff." The light grew brighter. Shaymin scooped something with a forepaw. "But how can you look to the future if you don't appreciate what the present has to offer?"

Right, Shaymin canonically has a thing about 'gratitude'. It would make sense that his attribute as a Sage would've been related, too.

He turned around, clutching some sort of shiny fragment in his mouth. "Gawt duh staw peas!"

The lunala mulled over Shaymin's words. Echoes of conversations with a lucario. togekiss, or roserade played back in her head. Always emphasizing working hard now for a better tomorrow.

Maybe he has a point?

Oh, so Chiron also had visions of her precarnations, too. Or at least I think that's what this moment is implying here.

Shaymin managed to glide down to a patch of rocks near her. He'd placed the glistening shard in his small bag. "Ready to head back?"

Chiron nodded slowly. "I'm assuming you want to take the scenic route."

"Heh. Fast learner."

Winking, Shaymin leaped from his perch, gliding along the mountain trail. Chuckling, Chiron hovered after him.

Maybe it wasn't a total waste of a day after all.

Well, that was definitely different from what I was expecting for a scene direction, though we at least definitely confirmed that Chiron did indeed have a link to Yaldy herself back in the day given that she had visions of Tessa herself.

Roaring, Necrozma staggered back through the gemstone cavern. Shadows swirled around his humanoid form. He threw his crystalline hands over his head. Necrozma froze the moment his crystal tendrils brushed against the cavern wall.

Oh, well. That music totally isn't ominous and worrisome at all. Though I suppose that it's only fitting that the crystal-like character would have music drawn from the subseries of FF games with the title meaning 'the tale of the new crystals'.

He knew this feeling well by now. It hadn't bothered him the first time. Or even the second. Now, though, he knew something was wrong.

Someone was taking his power from him. Necrozma doubted it was the rebellious spirit. No way it could keep its feeble form together anymore.

Somehow, I doubt that this is going to be resolved by him doing a Chiron-themed cover of 'Peaches' and letting things slide.

Which just left the one he'd sensed traces of amidst the planetary rubble. The one Mewtwo stopped him from getting to.

Necrozma's tendrils scraped against the gemstones in the rock wall. "Chiron," he hissed. "That power is mine. And I will reclaim it."

I take it that old flame of love has been dead and buried for a while now by the whole "turning into an undead" thing given that there was a lot less unhinged "Why would you do this to me?" action from what from Bahamut's perspective would be betrayal by his wife than I would've expected.

It didn't matter what Necrozma had to do. This was the only way forward. Might made right.

He slowly started forward. Just a bit more rest... and he'd be able to open his next portal. Then Necrozma could give Earth another visit.

Wait, but why? What on earth is left there for him? Unless he means RL!Earth akin to how Necky had a stopover to New York and caused a bit of death and destruction during GL's climax.

~Il Paradigma, No. XVI: Halvus, the Tower~
A mighty fragment that forged fearsome strongholds and weapons to keep the peace within the Benefactor. His work was always effective. A great spike in his presence and power followed Matriarch's disappearance. But as that upheaval subsided, so too did his presence within the Benefactor. Paradox's work reduced the need for his powers over time. His behavior changed, favoring whatever yielded the best result with the least effort.

Part of me wonders if this battle text would've been more effective had Halvus not been disposed of outright in this chapter. Since it's definitely informative, but feels a little anticlimatic seeing it come after his role in the story is over. Probably. Maybe.

Path of Valor Almanac
In demonology, Halphas (sometimes listed as "Malthus") is an earl of the underworld within the Ars Goetia and Lesser Key of Solomon. He is typically depicted as a stock dove with a hoarse voice. Amongst his powers, Halphas can create weapons and ammunition to stock towers with.

Ah, so the name did come from somewhere. Though I'm starting to understand why NoE rolled 'Amalthus' for the localization name of the XB2 character, since A: It wouldn't be the first time Monolith drew a name from demonology in the series, B: He has some visual and character motifs that fit decently well with this background.

The Tower is the sixteenth of the major arcana. In the upright position, it symbolizes distress, indignance, calamity, deception, and ruin. In the reversed position, it symbolizes abstinence, carelessness, apathy, and distraction.

Aha, which Halvus kinda embodied in both respects from what we saw of him. Not sure when you made a decision to lean on tarot motifs in this story, but you're certainly wearing them well.

Alright, made it to the end of things. A lot of stuff came down the pipe this chapter, including things I wasn't expecting at all (e.x. the reveal about Noctum's background) that in retrospect, I suppose had things pointing towards them for a long time. I'm not fully sure what secret sauce you're using to keep these reveals up your sleeve, but I'm impressed at how this story is able to consistently surprise me. The characterization was also fun, even if I kinda wish we got to see a bit more of Halvus before his number was up.

My one complaint about this chapter is that it feels like its a bit too packed with stuff happening all at once, which while it was lampshaded in a pretty funny fashion with the anomaly scene, makes me wonder if the individual plot threads and reveals in this chapter would've had more of an impact if they were spread out over two chapters instead of being all jammed into one.

But eh, I suppose that's just a matter of differences in authorial style. Since "controlled chaos with a hefty dash of improvisation" has always been your style with this story, and thus far you've been wearing it well. This chapter included.

Hope the feedback was fun to take in @Ambyssin , and I'll be looking forward to catching up a bit more sometime in the future.

 

[FennecWitch]

Hi! I’m here for your V-Wheel Review Exchange.

Now, PoV is a fic I have read… a lot, multiple times over. So for this review I’m going to try and review the latest chapter, Chapter 88.

Spoiler: Line by line review

Furthermore, Calyrex seems to be taking our instructions to heart

I can’t remember if this has already been revealed but I’ve had a lingering suspicion since Demerzel first showed up that he was working with the Paradigm to some degree. So good to have confirmation on that.

Do you have someone lined up to step into the Paradigm as the Lovers?

I’m very curious as to who this will be. My first thought is Xander since I don’t remember what’s happened to him specifically since being captured. But we’ll see.

"Uhh, I m-mean sorry?" Quetzal stiffened. "A plain ol' sorry." He backed away. "Nothing hierarchical about it."

Your dialogue is always really strong. It’s comedic enough to make me smile, without turning the scene overtly comedic. And it’s not so comedic as to be unrealistic, either.

A weird attack? That hardly gave Seifer anything to go off. "Weird in what way?"

I’m unsure if the first part of the line here is necessary. The dialogue kind of already establishes that point and the repetition of ‘weird’ three times in two lines is kind of strange to me. Really small nitpick, though.

"It was almost like... like something was trying to pull my insides out of me!"

I really like this description here.

Thankfully, Quetzal didn't call out for him. So it was easy for Seifer to push that nagging guilt out of his head.

Oof. Good ending line, though. Closes out the scene while still providing information on Seifer’s feelings.

Not gonna grab out a specific quote but I really like how this scene between Cyril and Seifer is established. There’s a lot of nice setting details, and some banter that demonstrates the closeness of these characters. The music adds to it a lot as well.

Cyril twirled the spoon around in his yellow claws.

This is a fun character detail as well as being a physical action instead of a dialogue tag. Good line.

"I make it spicy, so I figured you wouldn't be interested."

He was right.

Cyril continuing to just have accurate reads on Seifer is really funny to me.

Oh this art is so cute. And fits pretty well with the picture in my head from the description above, so nice work on the description.

His mane dimmed.

Cyril’s mane being able to do this is a really nice added body language option and not one I would’ve thought of. Overall, there’s a lot of nice body language in this scene.

Seifer wondered if he should quip about berries coating his tongue enough to make it stop glowing in the dark.

Aw, that’s cute. Love seeing how Seifer’s grown as a character.

"Y'know that stuff Yuna said about other lives? Think it applies to me, too."

*pulls out notepad and red string board*

That was a joke but then I remembered there is actually art of Cyril with a conspiracy board :P

"I'm a zoroark." Cyril's whole body flashed blue. His old, dark-type zoroark disguise took its place, complete with his pink accessories littered with white hearts. "Live in some cave lit up by glimmering crystals. I go forage for treasures in a nearby mystery dungeon, then sell 'em to some traveling kecleon merchant. And there's this midnight lycanroc who I end up the rebound for after a dusk lycanroc turns him down."

Okay cool I got this one correct! Kind of an easy guess to make but I’m still happy. Also yeah there wouldn’t be Gallian in this universe, would there, so they’d never have met rip

Seif? Why did that give the keldeo beautifly in his stomach?

Aw, that’s cute

There was a creak, followed by the cushions next to Seifer puffing up slightly.

Nice realistic detail. Not something I’d necessarily have thought to write but it works.

Seifer was so transfixed on the "movie night" part, the rest of the cosmic zoroark's rambling went right over his head. So, he nodded along dumbly.

They’re so cute I love them.

Wincing, Sticky looked up to see a sylveon sauntering in front of Paradox.

You know, if I hadn’t been writing a review for this chapter, I wouldn’t have been thinking about Xander but it’s nice that I somehow managed to predict he’d come up again just from the opening. Which, really, means it’s a good opening topic.

"In case it's not clear, if I catch even the slightest whiff of deception from your new toy..." His right hand uncoiled. Paradox traced a tentacle across Sticky's neck. "... I'll build a fireplace in my office just to mount your head over it."

Nice villain line!

"S-Sir, you're giving him the Lovers?"

I’m really happy that my first instinct was correct! I guess Xander being the only character I could think of that’d work for this makes him being the character who works for this makes sense.

…That was a sentence.

Anyway, it means the story is cohesive and makes sense that I was able to predict this from the opening!

Oh, what he wouldn't give to "accidentally" turn on Iron Enforcer and set it to "maim."

I love Sticky absolutely hating this it’s so fun.

The naganadel pause. "Sir, you do realize he's going to betray us the moment someone makes him a better offer, right?"

Paradox blipped over to Sticky's side. "Oh, I'm counting on it."

Incredibly curious to see what Paradox’s plan is. (Also missing a ‘d’ in ‘paused’)

And that’s the chapter! I wasn’t actually intending to go line by line, but I had fun doing so.
The opening scene was a good exploration of Seifer’s feelings about his past role as Commander of the Radiant Guard, and positioning him alongside three of his former subordinates gives a great opportunity to explore this. I’m excited to see where this thread goes.

Cyril and Seifer’s scene was very nice and fluffy and I loved it. They’re very cute together and you do a great job of making them believably seem in love. I enjoy them starting to talk through their issues with each other and I look forward to seeing their relationship develop.

And the final scene is very interesting. I’m glad to see the return of Xander, mostly because it will provide some good conflict for Shimmer going forward. Very interested in what Paradox’s plan is here.

Overall, another great chapter!

 

[Arukona]

Hello, @Ambyssin! It's been quite a while since I last had a gander at Path of Valor, but now that there's a Review Tag up for grabs over at United, now's the time to swoop in, gain some more progress and be closer on the road towards catching up to the end, as I have fallen behind a little bit since last time I read.

But hey, as is the saying, better late than never, so let's hop right back into it, where we appear to be entering the Pokémon equivalent of the capital city next door to my country.

So let's see how the gang ends up here, and just how Wyndon is different in this fic's interpretation...

Chapter 79

I would make a remark of how surprising it is to be typing chapter numbers this high in a review on here, but I have reviewed Hands of Creation numerous times, so I'm not that phased by high chapter numbers on reviews.

So we open with tracking Necrozma only to find he's a wanderer in the midst. And he also struggles to make portals...Good to hear he has a handicap, otherwise if he showed up with the kind of power he had against Gene a few chapters earlier, then the gang would be finished.

Yuna figured that, given the talk around the outpost, the keldeo hung around Cyril for different reasons.

Our resident princess is rather sharp. But then again, this feels like something any passerby would be able to figure out before long.

How fitting that the prince of ice is rather cold around his teammates. Maybe he needs some time to warm up to them, so to speak.

Nice to see Leo coming along with his skills. Here's hoping he'll be an able combatant before long.

Indigo Plateau, eh? Interesting...I wonder if we'll be encountering a certain Full Restore-spamming, underleveled Dragonite-wielding Champion.

Yuna looked toward the aurora on the horizon. Who names a plateau after a color?

Humans, of course. Many a time have humans named their rivers, mountains, plateaux and so on after colours, in both video games and irl (see for instance Mont Blanc, Cape Verde, and the Black Mountains). And we have two whole regions in the Pokémon world where they decided to name most of their places after uncommon colours.

Ah, no wonder Gene's terse about the Pokémon League - after all, he was forced to take part in that system under Giovanni.

"We'll break into Teams Bastion and Bureau based on what they find. Bastion'll head in the rift with Yuna and Leo. Bureau will stay behind to ward off any Troopers that drop by."

I'm a bit confused by how that first sentence is worded - I would think something like, "We'll break in with Teams Bastion and Bureau and see what they find." Just my two cents there.

Yuna put Cyril's disguise collar on Leo, turning him into a dreepy again. He floated onto Yuna's head. The drakloak buckled briefly. Deeeefinitely heavier than before.

By the looks of it, this solution isn't gonna work long-term. Is Leo gonna have to split into two when Yuna evolves into a Dragapult?

Indigo Plateau wasn't indigo.

We've been lied to this whole time!

"Indigo Plateau my ass." Nikki rested her hands behind her head. "More like 'False Advertising Plateau.'"

Yeah, you said it, Nikki.

'My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.'

Oh my god, to see that old meme in here.

Ah, so the gang gets to Wyndon from here. I see, I see.

He knelt down and pecked Seifer's cheek. Seifer's face reddened.

Gay with a capital G.

A cold night in Wyndon...That would make sense a capital city with a snowfield just outside it. (Inaccurate as hell to the English countryside, 0/10, unfaithful adaptation.)

"Isn't it lovely? The power of science is amazing!"

I see Koraidon has become that one NPC at the beginning of every Pokémon game. But if so, you're in the wrong place, mate - Postwick's further south.

"It sounds... like they're crowning a monarch!" Seifer frowned. "Which wouldn't just be a festivity, it'd be a historical event! Do you have any idea how many people attended Isola's coronation?"

A big event...In other words, the perfect backdrop for the enemy side to launch subterfuge tactics with.

"Would you believe me if I told you the crowd wasn't there before?" Laughing nervously, Koralizar scratched his head.

Huh, so this event just happened in the last few minutes, then? Something very suspicious going on here, I see....

"Undaaaaaaawmground."

Looks like we're going sewer-diving, or at least Yuna is. Now I'm reminded of that one part in Professor Layton and the Lost Future, where the titular hatted protagonist made use of sewers as a passage across a fictional London equivalent in order to get into an enemy base.

A response from Valkyrie wasn't isn't what Yuna expected.

Slight correction here.

To her relief, the sewer remained empty.

Okay, not quite like Lost Future, where scientists used the sewers as a passage to their work in a research facility.

Yuna didn't stop to take in its sights other than how shiny its white floor was.

The cleaners clearly work hard in this place.

Looks like the police problems remain. Where's an in-universe of Tobias Gregson (or if we're continuing the Layton parallels, Inspector Chelmey) who can be reasoned with and allow Yuna passage to what she needs?

Squealing, Yuna righted herself... and found a familiar purple figure standing in front of her.

"You're early, Yaldabaoth."

Oh no, he's back. Time for more philosophy lessons from Shadow Volo next chapter.

Macro Cosmos already folded in the wake of their CEO deciding to unleash Eternatus.

Huh, so this is a post-Sword/Shield setting? No Chairman Rose to muck up our party's plans, I see.

I guess if I had to list anything that actually sets this one apart, it'd be that it's a good deal foggier than other Wyndons.

I mean, as it's long as it's not outright smog, given London's nefarious history with that, enough to earn it the nickname 'The Big Smoke' back in the day. I wouldn't be surprised if Wyndon would have a similar implied history of dealing with smong back in a more industrial time. (On that note, there's a plot bunny for my ideas bin.)

Quick internet search suggests they average about fifty to sixty days of sunlight a year. Which ain't going to jive well with my inner light dragon.

Welcome to the sort of climate I live in, Bahamut.

Not a tea guy, but the biscuits are a solid seven out of ten.

Well, if there's one thing they can nail, it's the biscuits. Can't go wrong with those. On average, British biscuits are very nice indeed.

Conclusion

And that'll be that for this review. Nice little intermediate chapter, this one, with some buildup towards the next conflict, which from things I've heard in the pipeline are going to be a very interesting couple of chapters. I'll look forward to reading those when I get around to them. (Which should hopefully be soon, now that I don't have a HoC-sized hole burning up my reading list anymore.)

Good stuff, and I look forward to seeing where the plot goes next.