The clear, blue sky taunted his blurry, tear-warped vision. Claws dug into the dirt. A little voice echoed in his mind.
“Hey, Ra, listen. I’m really sorry you’re feeling lonely, and I get it. Can’t you just meditate for a while longer?”
Oh, hello new name. Just filing you away mentally for the future since I'm sure you'll come up again soon enough.
Meditate. It’s what she always asked for. And for what? For what purpose? He was already strong enough. There was no point… “I have been meditating for centuries, Star. Please… I just… I just need somebody to talk to.”
“What about your spirits?”
Wow, Star, just wow.
Ra shook his head, rubbing at one of the giant scales that covered his arms. “It’s not the same… it’s… it’s like I’m…”
“Okay, okay,” she said delicately. “I’ll think of something, Ra. Just for you.”
I'm guessing that Ra is that Kommo-o character that I've heard about from HoC's cast, since 'giant scales that covered his arms' definitely sounds very Kommo-o.
Lightning shattered the sky.
Thunder deafened all of Nightshade Forest’s inhabitants. Wild Pokémon fled in all directions, all but one. The lightning struck the ground around this lone feral, the strongest of Nightshade. The one that he had been watching grow since it was just a little, talented hatchling. It kicked up dead leaves and splintered wood with each bolt that redirected her.
“Ra! STOP!” Star cried, her misty form clutching onto his arm.
The 'he' threw me a bit there. Since originally, I thought this was Star's perspective, though is this Ra...? Or Hecto?
“Your words are MEANINGLESS!” Ra roared back, shoving her away. He slammed his scaly arms against his chest, causing another thunderous boom; at the same time, the sky shattered, sending bolt after bolt into the ground. Rain covered the Kommo-o’s scales. Electricity danced at the end of his tail and sparks flew across every large plate of his body.
I'll take that as a sign that that's Ra's perspective, then.
Though wait, wait, wait. Is this implying that Star is capable of yoinking Guardians' Guardian status and giving it away to others? Since the
current Electric Guardian is certainly quite different in the present day.
Though yeah,
no kidding Star had bad feelings about going back to this place.
He vanished into electricity, surging upward and into the sky. The inky darkness gave way to white, blinding bolts.
From above, disembodied and one with the clouds, the Electric Guardian watched the scattering forms of the forest. The fire grew where he wanted. The ferals fled. The rescuers went in for the weakling stragglers. It was all just a dance of struggle. A dance he had long since overcome—an existence that he wanted nothing more than to abandon.
Hey,
wait just a minute there. Is that Owen from back in-
- Goes back and scans the first scene of SE1 -
Oh, so we're seeing
that moment again, just from the perspective of the guy who started the storm and started the forest fire.
Memories echoed in his mind. They were words that cut him more than any claw.
“Hey, Ra! Look at that little lady, eh? She’s a little uggo, but I think she’s your type. Eh? Eh?”
Ra wasn’t sure what ‘uggo’ meant. Apparently, Star found someone of his ‘type.’ What exactly did that mean? Another Dragon-Fighter?
Oh boy, Star getting into matchmaking. I can already imagine just how much of an utter disaster
that turned out to be.
“You understand why I am skeptical.”
“Ugh, just go in the clouds. Check it out. I bet you’ll like what you see.”
Ra humored her, looking below—an Aggron? That was his type? That wasn’t anything like a Dragon! But… now that she mentioned it, there was something more. What was it? Ra looked closer. “Star… her aura…” For some reason, it felt like he had seen her for so long already.
Bring it up with Iris, Ra, since the lack of Dragon-typing or even Dragon Egg Group presence sure didn't stop
her from rocking one on her champion team.
“See, I knew you’d like her! Now go warm her icy heart.”
Oh, so that's who the Ice Guardian is/was, huh?
The world trembled. A Charmander struggled through the rain with a Bulbasaur over his shoulder, meeting with a Delphox and his team. After an exchange, they separated, the Salazzle of that team advancing with the Charmander.
Ah yes, there's the part where we bluntly reveal that we're seeing SE1 from another perspective to the readers, since boy is
that familiar.
Where was the feral? He sent another bolt of lightning down. He ignored Star’s protests and watched his home burn.
Though I suppose 'dragon loses snaps and peaces his home in a rage'
is something we've seen in PokéAni canonically.
“Ouch!” Aggron put her claw in her mouth as if it would help. “You sparked me! How rude—are you not able to control your Electricity at all?!”
Ra shrugged indifferently. “I warned you. You should have been more careful.”
Boy, did Star pick a winner there for an Electric Guardian.
Even if I'm a bit curious how Ra wound up passing the torch on to Enet, since I doubt he did that willingly.
Frost surrounded the plants near her. “Insolence! What kind of potential mate do you consider yourself?!”
The ice did not make Ra flinch, even as it crawled over his scales. “A very strong one.”
The ice stopped. Aggron glared at him, crossing her arms. “Incredible.”
Ra: "Girls find that romantic, right, Star?" ^^;
Star:
Ra: "... Is that a sign I should move onto the battle?" ^^;
Oh, and who was that? Yes, yes. He saw someone. But what was it? It was too difficult to tell from this far up. Should he come closer? No. He saw it now. He saw the little flame on his tail. That flame seemed to appear out of nowhere. Charmander! Another one! He seemed to be helping with a Jolteon after he’d caught up with the Salazzle-Charmander duo. Yet his aura was quite strange. Their auras—both of theirs—felt suppressed, but in different ways.
Wait, he can
feel tha-
Ra: "I'm
Mystic, remember?"
Where was that feral? There she is. Yes, keep coming. Closer, closer. She was just what Star deserved.
Maybe I was a bit quick to presume that Ra didn't transfer his Guardianship willfully, since it sure feels an awful lot like he's making an attempt to deliberately spite her.
They nearly had the Jolteon awake. They were too close to Ra, though. If they got too far into the forest, they would certainly find him. And then what? Star might even get a proper minion out of them. That wouldn’t do.
Static formed in the clouds, ready to shoot down and into the trees. This time, he wouldn’t miss. The Charmander. That same Charmander that carried the Bulbasaur to safety. That light in his eyes. How irritating to see. He’d snuff out his aura first.
Though I take it that Ra is basically a villain protagonist for this scene here, since... uh... yeah. This definitely reads very 'villain' in terms of thought process.
Ra took aim. A bolt of lightning went straight for the little thing—but, midway through, it diverted and gravitated for the Jolteon instead. The Salazzle was fried right through her back. Perhaps Jolteon attracted the electricity. How inconvenient.
Oh boy, this is
that moment from SE1. Though it makes me wonder if Ra also caused any of the moments that happened later in it.
His power was fading—he had to land to recover. He took a few fleeting seconds to check on the feral. Closer, closer. She was still going blindly in the right direction, right to him.
Ra landed back in the forest with a rough grunt. “Perfect.”
Ra:
View attachment 21268
“Ra, stop this!” Star bumped weakly against him; she felt like a breeze. “Why?! What did I do?! I’m just trying to—”
“You know what you did.”
“I don’t!” Star said. Her tiny, transparent hands grabbed the Kommo-o’s giant scale on his left shoulder. “Please! Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it! Okay? I’ll fix it! I can, I promise!”
View attachment 21270
Both at Star not knowing what set Ra off here unless if it's a whole Kyubey-esque "literally cannot comprehend why someone would be mad about things" deal, and her being able to make things up afterwards.
Ra stared at Star, glaring a hole through her head. Thunder boomed above—whether that was from a latent surge of his power or the natural momentum of the weather, he did not know or care. The rain drowned out the sound, splashing over his shoulders and dripping down his forehead. He could barely hear Star. The rain, too, passed through her body, only briefly slowed by her presence.
I did a brief double-take at the rain kicking in since for a moment I didn't realize that was natural. Since just saying, Kommo-o
can learn Rain Dance via TM as of this gen.
“Please, Ra,” Star said. “You know I can’t read your mind from here. Is this about Step?”
Ra and the Aggron sat next to each other at the edge of the forest in a rare moment of serenity. The Hunters seemed to have calmed their activities lately, and he sensed no odd auras in Nightshade Forest. The sunlight was welcome.
Oh, so that's the name of the Aggron that Star set him up with. Or at least, I'm pretty sure that that's the implication there.
“I have to comment, Ra,” she said, “For someone who follows Mew, you’re quite Arceus-like.”
Ra squinted at her. “And that means?”
That you're
literally wielding power of his that Star yoinked from him. Since I
remember the stuff he said when he approached Owen to try and get his power back from him.
“Hmm…” She crossed her arms, making a deep, metallic boom when they hit one another. “Why do you like Her more than Him?”
Ra twisted his face into one of concentration and uncertainty. “That’s… a difficult question, Step.”
I kinda wonder if these back and forth moments would've been worth giving a bit more insight into what Ra remembered of the moment beyond just dialogue, but I assume that was a deliberate stylistic choice.
Step’s frozen face expressed her skepticism through her eyes. “Oh? More difficult than ‘Do you love me?’”
Ra looked to the ground instantly.
... Wait, I'm
just realizing. But Step was the Ice Guardian, but still had a conception of Pokémon preferring Arceus to Star? As in Arceus
wasn't (fully) depowered at the time this flashback happened?
If Step’s metallic face was capable of smirking, Ra was sure she would have. Instead, he felt it in her voice. “Indeed,” she said. “You said I should be more direct. I am granting that wish.”
Ra taunted Step with his own smirk. “Hmph. How silly. That’s an easy one to answer.”
“Oh?”
I'm guessing that Step was no longer around at the time that this all happened, which would certainly explain a thing or two about how Ra is having a normal one right now.
Ra reached out and grabbed Star’s tiny, transparent body by the chest. His massive claws easily wrapped around her. He pulled her close, staring into her eyes with a gaze so piercing, he was certain it was giving her a headache.
“Your incessant need to fix things,” he said, “is itself what must be fixed.”
I mean, he's not
wrong there. Even if 'fix' probably is probably in a very Star-centric definition.
He slammed Star’s body into the ground. She cried out in surprise when his claws pierced her gut, cleaving through her ethereal form like pudding. With another swipe, the Kommo-o sliced her aura in half. She evaporated away, returning to Ra as nothing but a blue ember.
WAIT. WHAT. Implying that Star is, or at least
was once just a spirit?
He didn’t spend too long relishing the feeling of finally making Star disappear, if only for a few seconds. Every moment counted. Ra closed his eyes, ready to become the clouds for the last time. He could feel his power fading. Everything that kept him alive… fading. It wouldn’t be long now. A sick smirk spread across Ra’s face.
It was time for someone more appropriate to take on Guardianship.
Oh, so he
did pass on his Guardianship willfully. Though somehow I doubt this is the last that we've heard of Ra in spite of him being on borrowed time at the moment.
With another crackle, electrical arcs danced over his scales. He shot into the clouds. She was coming right into his abode. He had to act fast. The two Charmander, meanwhile, were running toward the Nightshade Forest Dungeon. Now, why would they bother with that? They must have been trying to save the doomed in there.
Ra: "Oh for crying out loud... how did they not take the hint after I fried that Salazzle friend of theirs?"
He felt the smallest ounce of hope that those two would be successful. Two Charmander, saving those that got trapped in the Dungeon? They may survive the fire, but those trapped would burn. But maybe, just maybe… Ra grunted, shoving the thoughts away.
Huh. Feels a bit strange that he'd just go and raze his home while being hopeful someone would be able to contain his damage. I'll be keeping an eye on Ra and how he ticks here, since I'll admit that I wasn't expecting that.
Ra fell to the ground one last time and spread his arms wide. Five blue embers shot out in all directions, manifesting themselves into similarly crackling spirits.
“Bring her here!” Ra shouted.
They all nodded and bolted into the shadows. Ra watched them for a few seconds, listening to the thunder boom. He closed his eyes again, ignoring Star’s pleas to stop. It was too late for that. His power was already waning, and he was surely attracting the Hunters here at the same time.
Which, if I was right about Deca, uh... yeah, that was already quite successful on his part.
Step twirled on her feet with newfound grace. She wasn’t an Aggron, but instead a fellow Kommo-o. Star had apparently taught her the technique, based off of those strange Orbs invented in a faraway city. While the transformation was temporary, it was long, and it would last for what they wanted.
Oh, so Transfer Orbs exist in HoC's setting. Duly noted. Though that makes me wonder if we're going to see Owen/other Mystics similarly pull species-shifting antics down the pipe.
“Ra… Are you sure?”
Ra nodded. “I’ve never felt so sure about something in my life.”
Step raised a paw to her chin in concern. “Star warned—"
“Star has been wrong before,” Ra said quickly. “About a lot of things, apparently. So, I am sure. There is no need to concern yourself with a dead god’s warning.”
Well, that would explain a few things about why Star was completely unbothered with tricking Owen into killing himself to become the Grass Guardian. Though
boy there's a lot of implications behind that one, and I'm beginning to understand why you brought up the whole 'A spirit in the flesh' thing from last chapter.
She stared at Ra, sighing. “Very well. If you’re so sure… we shall try, just once.”
“Twice.”
Step widened her eyes and then smirked. Ra liked her smile in this form. “Twice? How eager. Am I that desirable?”
“I want two.”
Yeah, I figured these two would wind up going there. Though IIRC,
Sugar and Spice are those kids Ra winds up having from this moment, even if I'm not sure
how they made such a big species jump if so.
“Ra, did your Dragon culture never teach you how to speak to a lady?”
Ra pondered this. He realized his error. “I would like to have two, please, Lady Step.”
Lmao. Somehow I doubt that's what Step was expecting there. Even if there's something cute about how awkward and blunt the two are towards each other, since clearly Star wasn't
fully off on them being a good fit.
Step’s expression did not change. “You… are hopeless.” Yet she approached him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Their muzzles touched, and shortly after they were cheek to cheek, chest to chest, tails entwined.
Okay, so
where did this all go horribly wrong afterwards? Since I can already tell from the way Ra is having a normal one that it absolutely did.
“She’s coming,” Ra said. “It’s time… it’s time, it’s time…”
Despite how long he’d thought about this moment, his heart still pounded. Something primal, he imagined. Self-preservation. A Dragon’s pride to live through any struggle. But he was past that. He had ascended into being Star’s little demigod long ago. But now, after conjuring a single freak storm, he felt mortal again.
It was wonderful.
I think that the paragraph here works better splitting the dialogue and narration off from each other. Though wait, is that 'demigod' how Ra parses Guardianship? Or did Star stick him with something more?
And now, he was ready to take full advantage of his mortality. A charge formed in the skies above him and the world flashed. Lightning struck him: straight through his spine and into the ground. He collapsed instantly, and his vision and hearing were gone completely. But he could still feel. He felt the pain of the electricity rocketing through him, the charred scales and flesh of his mortal body, the tense muscles spasming.
He grunted and convulsed—somehow, his hearing returned, though not his sight. Or perhaps it was simply too dark to see. And his own breathing was raspy. He tasted something metallic. Something was partly missing in his mouth. What was it? Oh, it was probably his tongue. He must have bitten it when he had been struck. No matter. He was still alive, and that was irritating.
View attachment 21271
Though does this count on suicide ideation on Ra's part, since he reads as if he's very, very done with still living right now.
Even with his ringing ears, Star’s pleading was the loudest of all. He refused to listen. He couldn’t believe how durable his mortal body was. Could he stand?
He knew physical pain. He knew all sorts of physical pain in his long life. But in his isolation, the few mental wounds he sustained cut deeper than any battle. His immortal body healed from those.
Regrets lasted much longer.
Okay, yeah, this totally counts as suicide ideation.
“This way!” Ra shouted.
“Pops!”
“Daddy!”
Ra scooped the two Jangmo-o just in time to evade an incoming blast of Fairy energy. The explosion grazed him and boiled his aura, but he refused to stumble. He ran faster, his two daughters fixated on something behind him. Step, the Aggron, was still holding them off. He didn’t even get a look at what it had been, only the blast that had rendered his tail nothing but a numb lump that dragged behind him.
Yeeeeeah, I'm heavily taking the under on us seeing them live past the next thousand words.
Step roared, slamming her tail on the ground, as a flurry of ice obscured everything around her. Something else screeched; the mutant fell in a frozen heap, but two more took its place, and Step had to retreat.
Ra couldn’t shout for her. They’d know his location. His kids were still too weak to fight back. They could only thank the stars that it wasn’t an actual Hunter that had found them and only a rogue squad of mutants. But even if they killed them, they’d somehow find out about their presence; they’d have to relocate yet again.
So mutants were already around all the way back then, huh? Just filing
that one away for future reference, since that means that Owen is
old, old given that I'm pretty sure the story has implied that he's a progenitor to mutants in the setting.
“Mom…” Cent said, shivering. “Is she okay?”
Ra rubbed the back of Cent’s head and tapped the great scale on her forehead. “Your mother is too strong to fall to them,” he lied. He then set them down.
Hm. Might have gotten that deet through the grapevine about Sugar and Spice wrong unless they picked up their mother's Transfer Orb antics, since
that's certainly a new name there.
Kana knew immediately. “Dad, wait—”
'Cent' and 'Kana', huh? I wonder what the stories behind
their names is.
“Stay here,” Ra said. “Don’t move.”
“Wait!” Cent shouted.
“Shh.”
“We want to fight, too!”
I'm going a bit back and forth as to whether these flashback moments would've worked better with added details beyond just disembodied dialogue. Though given how long these flashback sequences are while Ra's remaining lifespan is in literal seconds, I kinda wonder if they'd have worked better as hard scene cuts from the present day to emphasize that they're not tied to the current flow of events.
The fire in their eyes made him proud. He’d have to do something to comply with their requests, but now was not the time.
“You’re too weak.” It stung for Ra to say that, and he knew it’d hurt them even more, but it was true. “Stay here.”
They watched helplessly, but they obeyed, and Ra ran through the forest just in time to see Step’s icy arm shatter into pieces.
The Kommo-o was still alive. He slowly stood up, trembling, as his claws dug into the dirt. That Mystic power was almost completely gone. All that was left was the residual power of his spirits. They were persisting enough to guide the wild Pokémon his way. But if he was alive when she arrived, the whole plan would be pointless. He’d have nothing to give her.
There was something in his chest. He realized only seconds later that it was his heart, struggling to beat. But it would last too long. His Dragon pride refused to let him die, even now.
“Cursed power… even as a mortal, I’m too strong for myself…” he wheezed. “No matter… I only need… to…” He raised his right hand up, claws clenching. “Star,” he said, barely able to hear her begging cries. “This is for you.”
I'm surprised that he wasn't freaking out more in the narration about the possibility that everything that he was doing here potentially being for nothing. Though 'too strong for myself', huh? Just filing
that one away since I can tell that has something to do with what made Ra ultimately give up on Guardianship and life in general.
His claws lit up with blue, dragon fire. For just one second, he hesitated, his mind envisioning those long, indigo flames carving into him. But that was all he spared for himself. He took one last breath.
Pretty sure that this is leading up to the Dragon equivalent of seppuku. Which... uh... feels like quite the way to go there.
Ra: "
Correction. I need to die
faster than that, so I'm leaning more towards tearing my own throat out." >_>;
“It’s my turn.” Step glared at Ra, her one hand squeezed tight. The other one was nothing but a slowly regenerating, icy nub.
At least she wasn’t totally armless by now, but those attacks by the mutants had harmed her so badly that not even Orans could heal them properly. It had been a moon.
You sure that's not some sort of special Guardian-hunting ability of theirs there, Ra? Since that feels like above and beyond just 'hurting worse than normal'. .-.
“Nonsense, Step,” Ra said. “I will hunt. I know a patch of berries, too. You can rest with—”
Just mentally filing it away that hunting ferals is or at least was a thing in-setting.
“It’s my turn,” Step said, slamming her tail on the ground. Cent and Kana flinched, neither one wanting to interfere, yet they watched from the side in their little, dark cavern of leaves and twisted Dungeon walls.
“W-we’ll be fine. There’s still some food left,” Cent said. “You guys don’t need to eat anyway! We’ll… um…”
Step was already walking away, leaving Ra no choice but to stay behind with them. He could only pray to Star that she would return safely.
Don't make me bust the LA Noire reaction image again, Ra.
The crestfallen faces of his daughters haunted him. Cooped up in the cave without a chance to leave; the spirits helped teach them how to live normally, and perhaps one day they would be able to, but…
They were still hiding from the mutants and the Hunters. They were too weak to fight back, but he could see the Dragon fire within their hearts.
I'm
assuming that that's figurative speech in nature, but considering some of the stuff in this setting, I suppose that I shouldn't pre-emptively rule out literal dragonfire being in dragons' hearts in this story.
“Cent,” Ra said. “Kana.”
They looked up, helpless.
“If you want to fight with us,” he said, “we need to train.”
At first, they were confused, but then their eyes lit up. Ra’s expression mirrored theirs.
Ah yes, only good things™ came from this, I'm sure.
Claws plunged into his chest.
“GHHAAAAAAAAUUUU—”
Ra couldn’t scream after half of a second. The pain was immeasurable. He forgot what it was like to feel that mortal sort of pain. As a Guardian, he always dulled it. No such luxury blessed him this time.
Well, not
quite seppuku since he'd have needed to aim lower for that, but yeah. That'll kill him nice and fast if he hits some major arteries.
That meant it was working.
Ra pulled his claws out, convulsing. His mouth tasted nothing but metal. It was too dark to tell what he had pulled out, but it felt very important. He tossed it aside. He wanted to go again. He wasn’t dead yet. Had to keep going. Star’s voice had fallen silent. In fact, everything was silent. It was odd. That pounding in his ears had been so persistent seconds ago.
Ra: "In retrospect, I should've gone for the carotid artery, since I
really could've gone for dying being a
bit less painful than this."
In that last, fleeting moment, Ra felt something new and warm—no, hot—inside his chest. And it was one of the few things that lit up the stormy night. He recognized that cursed glow. The dim, yellow glow, like his soul—but it was anything but. If anything, it had been his soul’s prison. The Electric Orb. It had returned, no longer finding any use in its host.
With the very last of his strength, Ra brought his hand into his chest and pulled it out; blood fell away from its smooth surface easily. He gave it a weak toss forward—it was all he could manage—and fell backward with a smile on his face.
I can already tell that this will not be the last time that we see a Guardian physically parted from their Orb in this story.
Cent lay crumpled on the ground with labored breathing and an open wound on her side. The little Dragon tried to move, but one of her legs was bent at an odd angle.
Ra watched with cold indifference. “You’re still weak. Try harder. Stand.” He cleaned the blood off of his claws with a flick.
... Ra killed his kids in the middle of a training accident from not holding back his powers enough, didn't he?
Step—her arm was fully healed, now—watched with an open mouth. She shook her head, stepping toward him. “Ra, you’re going too hard on them!”
Kana stood trembling next to Cent. She nuzzled her side desperately, but she only whimpered in reply. She stared up at Ra. “Dad! Stop! Cent’s bleeding!”
“Pops… it hurts,” Cent said weakly.
Ra: "Nonsense! Your mother and I both went through this training ourselves! It
will strengthen you!"
Ra narrowed his eyes. This was the way that his kind trained. Nothing more, nothing less. He wasn’t going to break from tradition. They were Dragons. Such injuries were trivial. They had asked to become stronger; they had been showing so much progress already! It had simply been time to increase the difficulty.
This was
normal for Ra's culture?
He could sense it in their auras; the light of evolution would bless them today.
“I shall not repeat myself.”
Cent gasped for air.
Ra shook his head. They had to evolve; it would surely give them the edge they needed against the Hunters. Otherwise, they would have to stay behind again.
Uh... yeah, there are worse possibilities lurking around, Ra. You're just a bit blinded to them at the moment.
Ra raised his arm to scratch his cheek, wondering if a break was warranted anyway.
“Ra, love, STOP!” She grabbed Ra’s arm, holding him firmly.
Ra stared at Step, baffled, and then looked at his two daughters. Barely, his eyes softened. But what burned into his memory the most was her cold glare. He’d never forget it.
Ra: "Step? Why are you looking at me like that? You're scaring me..."
First, there was pain. Then, numbness. And after a while, he wasn’t sure what he was feeling. His mind wasn’t working as it should have. With so little blood, he was starting to hallucinate. Strange figures filled his unseeing eyes. He thought he saw Star with her arms outstretched, golden wings waiting to greet him. But he knew those were hallucinations. They weren’t really Star. Because he knew Star. She was not going to greet him with such a smile.
... Wait, is that implying that Star was not the only Mew floating around in this story? Like I dunno how much
the whole Overseer angle comes crashing into the main plot down the road, but
that would certainly be one way of making it happen if so.
And then that, too, faded to black. For a few fleeting, precious moments, Ra didn’t think. He was only there, or perhaps not there, with his final, vague thought being that he had succeeded. And then, like being disturbed from a great slumber, he opened his eyes.
Ra: "... If that's not the Aura Sea I'm seeing right now,
so help me..." >_>;
“Bother me, will you?” Ra mumbled to the world. He lifted his arm. He felt weak all over. Every movement felt like a chore and—in a brief moment of panic—he thought he was alive again. He felt his chest—it was intact, but it felt unreal at the same time. And then he looked down.
It was his body, still bleeding a bit, though most of it had drained away or pooled in the great hole he had left behind. His body spasmed a few times, flexing the claws. The tail twitched randomly. One arm even made an odd motion toward the chest, pressing down. Ra smirked. Even when he was dead, he still persisted. Or perhaps it was some quirk of the body that he did not understand. There was no point in learning; he was dead, after all. Instead, he looked at his fading claws. Yes. Without a body, his aura was rapidly dissolving. His time was fleeting. But he had to persist. He wanted to see it happen. He had to.
... He's still around as a spirit in the present day, isn't he?
And so, the bodiless aura waited. He was sure that his solid spirits would be fading soon, too, now that their source of power was gone.
There she was. Ahh, it was wonderful to see her up close. He never had the opportunity. It was ironic he had to be dead to see her, but that didn’t matter. The Electric Orb glowed faintly a few paces away from his body. He saw the fading spirits chasing her down.
Wait, is that
Star he's talking about there, or...?
Ra stood in the small den that they called their home. Yet another new one, because they had to keep changing locations to throw off the Hunters, just in case. A humble burrow in Nightshade, lit only by Mystic power. Step was opposite to him, by the entrance. Behind her, where Ra could not see but could only sense, were Cent and Kana.
Ra gulped. “I’m… sorry.”
Oh, so Step bailed and took the kiddos with her, huh?
Step’s intense glare didn’t let up. “She’s never going to fight again, Ra. You traumatized her. They aren’t like you.”
Wait, as in Ra straight up
crippled her? Or that Cent had a bike dragon moment where she was mentally debilitated from wanting to fight again?
“I’m sorry.”
Step shook her head. “You cannot forget about mortals, Ra. This Guardian business… your silly Dragon traditions… you’ve lost touch with how reality is for them. They aren’t like us, Ra. They aren’t. We are from another era. We need to acknowledge that.”
I'll say given how Step's dialogue about Arceus and Mew implies that she has an awareness of what he was like
before losing all his powers.
“I’m… I’m sorry.” His voice trembled. There was nothing more that he knew to say. What more was there to say?
Step sighed. She turned around. “Ra… I need to go. They can’t see you right now.”
Kana peeked in from the side to look at him. Ra made eye contact. She quickly flinched and hid away.
Ra:
Step: "Sure would've been nice if that occurred to you
sooner, but whatever, we're
leaving now." >_>;
Ra stared at her metal back. “Please… Step…”
“No, Ra.”
“Please…”
Step’s head lowered but she didn’t turn around. “I’ll… visit.”
Yeah, one way or another, she totally didn't visit. I can already tell.
Zoroark were such clever creatures. They made illusions that could fool entire populations, should they become skilled enough. Quite a few precautions were needed just to not be fooled by one. This particular Zoroark was the most talented of all of Nightshade Forest, able to shift whole clearings into her personal darkness.
Ohai, Enet.
But she was also feral. And that was perfect for Star. A well-deserved Guardian indeed. The five spirits were closing in, wise to her illusions. No matter how talented she was, she was still feral, following instincts and easy patterns. He and his spirits knew her habits like the back of their claws.
Wait, so what
are the implications of what Pokémon a spirit is bonded to and the impact it has on them anyways?
Dead claws! Ra felt another swell of spiteful joy at the thought. But he had little time to celebrate again; she was finally here. The spirits drew her straight into the middle of the clearing, and she was running toward the Orb. Her eyes flashed with interest, and by some intense curiosity, she went right to it and picked it up.
She promptly collapsed, tumbling into the dirt. Ra blinked. He thought it would be a lot harder to coax the feral to touch the thing. Still, that made the rest of their job all the easier.
Oh, so dying upon grabbing an Elemental Orb is just a universal experience for Guardians. I should be a lot less surprised, really. Even if it makes me wonder just
how many of them got duped into their roles like this.
“Ra!” one of his spirits said. “You did it?!”
“Yes!” Ra grinned. “I am finally finished. You may return to the Orb if you wish… but…” He stared at his claws. “But I believe I am ready to leave.”
“Shouldn’t we help her to the Core?” asked one spirit. “What’s there to help?”
“Star will try to stop her.”
“And leave the Orb exposed?”
“There is no telling.”
I get that Ra is quite literally fading away and that we're not exactly going to see these spirits again for a long while if ever, but I kinda wonder if there should've been a bit more detail than this to help visualize what was going on, especially if any of the spirits had definitive forms / would be conjured by Enet later on.
Ra growled, thoughtful. Yes. She might try that. “Very well.”
Which is a
terrible sign for where things are going to wind up going with Enet in the near future, since if Star never
wanted her to be the Electric Guardian in the first place and she has a thing for trying to 'fix' mistakes...
And while his aura was barely able to hold its form, he floated to the orb and plunged his cloudy arm into it. The rest of him followed.
“Pops?”
Ra jolted out of his meditation. His head swiveled around until he saw the Hakamo-o. His chest rose and he eagerly stepped toward her.
“Kana! Oh—hello, Kana. How is your mother?”
... Given how Cent didn't bother showing up, I take it that she's either traumatized or crippled at the time this flashback was happening. Maybe both.
He looked to the right for the berries that he’d been saving for when they visited, but then realized, just by the look, that they were rotten. It had been so long… He hoped that Kana didn’t notice. But he followed her eyes. She glanced at it, but then looked away. How polite of her, ignoring it for his sake. How embarrassing. He should have remembered to replenish it. It was polite to give mortals food, right?
Kana shifted awkwardly. “Mom’s the same as always… Can’t visit her as much since it’s so cold, but… The occasional Heart mission goes to that part of the world, and I always grab it.”
Just filing it away mentally that the Thousand Hearts have been around for a long,
long time in this setting, since this entire SE was
ages ago and Ra's flashback is ages ago relative to
then.
Ra nodded, clasping his claws together in thought. He nervously picked at his claws, hesitant to ask the next question. So, he substituted it with another. “You’ve become so strong, Kana,” he said. “And Cent, how’s she doing with her hospital work?”
Well then. Guess she really
did never battle again after that whole episode getting trained by Ra.
“Good,” Kana replied simply, though she did smile.
“That’s good, that’s good.” His throat felt dry. “Will… they be visiting soon?”
I'm guessing the short answer was 'no' and the long answer was 'nooooooooooo' to that one.
Ra gasped for air that he did not need. He stared into the black heavens. There was no light from that starless sky, but he could still see his arms. They weren’t lit by any Mystic glow. The ground itself was aglow with sparks of white electricity coursing through damp, puffy clouds, somehow solid enough to walk on.
He knew that clouds did not normally operate this way. Yet by Star’s whimsical magic, they behaved as such in this place—the Electric Realm, Thundercloud Temple. Another surge of electricity danced harmlessly past him, lighting up his massive, plate-sized scales from below.
Huh. It did not occur to me that Star would have an Electric affinity. Though considering how she
taught Step to be able to form-shift... I can't tell if that's a sign that she was not originally Mew or not.
He watched the surge move across the clouds and toward a great cluster in the center of a lumpy, gray field. White sparks coursed through the strange structure like blood, revealing its building-like architecture. It had five spires—four corners and a tall center—connected at the bottom by walls that formed a square. The Core was in the center of the lower floors.
Uva/Naranja Academy, is that you? /s
“Ra!” a spirit called.
The ex-Guardian—the very thought thrilled him—spun around, grinning. But it wavered when he saw the huge, shelled Pokémon’s urgent look.
“What?” Ra asked the Turtonator. His shell was an electric blue with sparks dancing across the edges. “We have to help the Zoroark! Star’s trying to stop her!”
“Oh, perfect,” Ra hissed.
Ra: "In retrospect, I should've seen this coming from Star, really."
The Turtonator struggled to keep up, but Ra understood that he’d just have to race ahead. As a reflex, he tried to sink into the clouds as electricity. Then the reality hit him—as he was no longer a Guardian, he could no longer Electrify. He was a foreign entity in this Orb, just like Zoroark. He had to go on foot.
“Why can’t you Electrify?” Ra shouted back to Turtonator.
“Star’s aura is disrupting it, or something,” he said. “Keep trying! It’ll distract her!”
Wait, she can
do that? Though that now makes me morbidly curious about what happened to the
last Grass Guardian, since I sincerely doubt that it just went unclaimed for literal centuries/millennia since Star originally fashioned those Orbs.
“Ngh, so she truly intends to kill her, just to keep her from becoming the new Guardian?” Ra said. “Doesn’t she realize that if the Orb is unguarded, anybody could get it? I at least gave her the charity of picking the forest’s strongest feral.”
Ah yes, the part where if Star tricking Owen into killing himself to become the Grass Guardian didn't already drive it home that that Mew was bad news,
this certainly will.
Turtonator puffed a few times, his entire shell wobbling with each step. He struggled over the soft clouds, tripping over himself. “Ungh—go on ahead, Ra! You’re much faster! You—”
Ra wasn’t even listening. He just kept running.
“Y-yes, well… don’t worry about me or anything…”
I mean, that
is in character for Ra from what we've seen of him, yes. Especially with how cavalier he was about everyone's lives with that forest he just torched in order to flush Enet out.
Ra heard someone stumble toward his hidden abode. He sensed her aura before and used little pulses of electricity to guide her closer. But she was so slow… and her aura, so weak. He stood up with concern when he realized her pace was at half the speed it usually was.
“Cent… what happened? You look so different!”
Indeed, half of the Kommo-o’s scales were missing. Large plates, gone. What remained looked faded and ready to fall like autumn leaves.
Can't tell if she got mauled in battle or if she's just about to die of old age.
“What’re you talking about? It’s called aging, Dad. You should try it some time. Actually, no. Don’t. It’s pretty rough.” She shifted her weight uncertainly. “I guess you were right after all, though. A Dragon that doesn’t fight wastes away faster.”
Wait, wait, wait. That's a
thing in-setting? Though what
is the reason behind that happening? And I wonder if it also affects other types of Pokémon like Fighting-types as well.
That one tore his heart in half. “Cent, you know that’s not true,” he said. During all her visits, he’d said so many times how strong Cent was—stronger than he’d ever be—for her tireless efforts at healing other Pokémon. She’d even helped Kana when her missions with the Hearts went awry.
“Well,” Cent said, looking off. “I just wish I wasn’t weak.”
Ah yes, so she internalized that message Ra gave during the training incident. Good jorb, Ra.
From halves to quarters. “Don’t be silly,” Ra said, easing her onto a seat. It had been specially made—extra soft—just for when they visited. It was supposed to be easy on stiff joints.
She complied, though not without a creaky groan. When Ra pulled away, his palms felt dusty. After inspecting them…
“But your scales… They’re falling away!”
“I, uh, look, I’m getting it checked, alright? Don’t worry about it.”
That's
probably not a good sign for how much longer Cent lived after that point, even if this didn't exactly sound like a natural condition.
Up close, Thundercloud Temple towered over Ra. The door’s entrance alone was as thick as his body and went across seven of his full arm spans. The entrance also rippled with distorted light—within, it was going to be the Orb’s Dungeon. But it was nothing he wasn’t familiar with. Without stopping, Ra went straight into the temple. The moment he did, the doorway behind him snapped into a wall. Clouds shifted and softened in some places and materialized and hardened in others instantly. His entire surroundings had changed.
I wonder if this still looks the same after Enet took over the Electric Guardianship, or if it's changed considerably since then.
And Ra stopped. “…No,” he said. “What is this? What happened? What—”
The ground below him swelled. Solid clouds liquefied into some strange, cold mush, electricity coursing through his body. He jumped away, body trembling on its own from the surge. He wasn’t an Electric Guardian anymore—and as much as he liked that, it meant he would be vulnerable. He didn’t have time to acclimate to its atmosphere. He was just a normal Kommo-o spirit. He had to be careful. He wasn’t sure what happened to unacclimated spirits that perished within an Orb. Normally, Electric spirits returned to the Core to recover. But he wasn’t Electric yet. Where would he go?
I'd say 'the Aura Sea', but considering how you're basically still around entirely through the power of spite and unfinished business, maybe you'd just linger as a ghost.
Still, it was too late to turn back. He was within the Dungeon. The only way through now was the Core. But what happened to it?
Thundercloud Temple used to be a blessed Dungeon, like all the others in the world, physical or spiritual. Benevolent Mystic energy coursed through it, providing useful boons to travelers such as blessed berries and trinkets. Even in the Orb, such things existed within Dungeons to assist in safe travel. It also helped to stabilize the Dungeon’s architecture in and of itself. Hallways and rooms, connected to one another, leading from one segment to the next.
'Blessed Dungeon', huh? Though Mystery Dungeons have, or at least
had Mystic energy coursing through them? Makes me wonder how on earth they were created originally.
But now?
Ra saw the wall behind him collapse, revealing another room. In it, a great fissure in the clouds revealed a black void below. Ra did not want to imagine the fate of someone who fell into it.
Well then, that's quite the change that Star made to this place.
He sank partly into the ground. The clouds below him softened. He had to move before his fate to the void became a reality. He spun around and ran, realizing that the Zoroark must be in here somewhere, too.
Thundercloud Temple was a single-segment Dungeon. Apparently, that was how the spiritual Dungeons operated. Intuitively, the Core was near the middle. He looked up. Could the Core be above? Or is it on the first floor? Where were the stairs? The Temple had stairs leading up and down in a multi-floor labyrinth. The path was never the same. He often went into it to clear his head, as the monotony of walking combined with the thought of remembering his path helped distract him from his troubles.
Okay, but
why would one want to make Mystery Dungeons inside the Orbs in the first place anyways? Though the thought is idly occurring to me that since Anam almost certainly has one of them in his own Orb, that these places are at least partially the source of those 'blessed' items that were mentioned in passing in prior chapters.
The ground shook again. He just needed a sign. He closed his eyes, but then realized he had no means of sensing aura anymore. It was as if a part of his vision was forever lost. How was he dead, and yet still felt mortal?
I'm
pretty sure the answer to this one is basically this quote from Chapter 8-ish:
“It means, in the real world, your body is kinda… not alive. But it’s being sustained on a basic level by the power of the Orb you touched—for a while, at least.”
Since I could've
sworn that Owen felt pain during his first trip into the Grass Orb.
Ra didn’t know what to think of his new surroundings. It was a miracle that he was able to navigate his way to the mountain at all. Waypoints were such a strange, disorienting technology.
That actually makes me wonder what on earth history books in this setting
look like, since it sounds like Kilo Village has basically been in stasis for a while considering how Waypoints were already around back whenever this flashback within a flashback chapter was occurring.
An Aggron glared at him. “You shouldn’t have come to Kilo Village, Ra.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “Love… why would—"
Ra jumped. “L-love? You called me…?”
Another moment where IMO it might have been worth getting into Ra's head a bit more had it not been for the deliberate meta framing choice. Though I feel like this is a
really ominous sign for what became of Step since we've heard exactly
nothing about the Ice Guardian in the present day. Much less her ever being present in Kilo Village.
Step answered Ra with a long silence. She avoided his eyes, glaring at the walls of the hospital. “A slip of the tongue.”
Ra deflated, looking at the opposite wall. “…I just wanted to see her.”
“And risk your life?” Step asked, glancing out the window as if she’d see a Hunter right there. None came.
Cent's dying in this flashback right now, huh?
“Her life is worth more.”
Step grunted, gently knocking her fist against the wall. It left a fist-shaped dent. She quietly scooted her body so it’d block anybody from seeing it.
Wait, she could do that from a
gentle knock? Or is that """gentle""" by Mystic standards?
Step sighed slowly, her breath whistling past her metallic jaws. “…You… foolish idiot. You… foolish…”
“You came, too, you know.”
“I detest our similarities.”
So is that a sign that you two still love each other on some level?
Despite everything, Ra gathered enough courage to touch her shoulder. She didn’t resist, so he squeezed a little so it would register against her steel hide.
“Enough,” Step said, jerking away. “Ra, we… can’t be together. Two auras together are too easy for the mutants to detect.”
Okay, so how did we get from
here to flipping out on Star and committing spite suicide, anyways?
He knew that. He didn’t want to care anymore. If the mutants got them, so be it—it felt like he’d known Step for far longer than the decades they’d spent. It felt more like they had known each other for lifetimes, ages! To forcibly split themselves apart—he could see how bitter it was turning her. How desperate and broken their spirits were becoming.
It's
prooobably a bit late now given that this story's done beyond some extras set to drop SOON™, but I kinda wonder if it'd have been more impactful to actually get to
see the process of Step and Ra turning bitter and increasingly unhinged play out in some of these flashbacks. Though I suppose something as simple as working in their thought processes more might've helped smooth that over a bit more since as it stands, this is a bit informed attribute outside of what we saw of Ra in the present day.
“Please,” Ra said.
Step’s claws left little dents in her own arms. “Star was wrong to unite us.”
This sounds like blame-shifting, just saying.
After some wandering, being careful to avoid the voids in the clouds and the ground that looked questionably soft, he saw his first sign of life. A Manectric dashed past him, skidding to a stop. His paws tossed up hazy vapor.
“Ra!” he said.
“Where is the Zoroark?”
“Further in—or further out? I don’t know—the temple, it keeps shuffling. It’s in total chaos!”
Whelp, time to see what on earth
that looks like in a little bit, since I can already tell we're going to get a good view of that.
“Why?!”
“I think Star revoked all of the blessings. It’s not a blessed Dungeon anymore—it’s—it’s just pure chaos! I don’t think it’s even an untamed Dungeon. I think it’s cursed, not blessed! I—”
She can
do that? Just mentally filing it away that Star is really,
really powerful by spirit standards, since this goes
waaaaaay beyond what we've seen any other spirit do in-story even with Star's foreshadowing that some spirits are strong enough to be effectively indistinguishable from living Pokémon.
And yeah, I see that we're just going and throwing any pretense of Star being sympathetic into a woodchipper in live-time here.
The clouds between them shot up, straight through Manectric’s abdomen. It was so quick and violent that it went straight through him, and his front half was separated from his back half. Cyan embers poured from his body.
He gasped in surprise, but then stared up at Ra. “I last saw her running that way!” He pointed his paw to Ra’s left. “Star’s trying to kill her!” And that was all he could say. The embers overtook him and his body evaporated. The remaining puff of existence flew at high speeds further into the Dungeon.
That... was intended for Ra, wasn't it?
Though I suppose that on the positive side, we at least know that Star
failed at killing Enet? Even if that makes me wonder if the whole Illusion spam portion of the last chapter's ending was
because Enet sensed Star's presence and remembered her from this moment.
He had to follow it—his spirit was being drawn to the Core. If he followed Manectric, he could at least get closer—at least until he was too far to see. Ra sprinted as fast as he could, tripping over softer lumps on the ground.
Bolts of electricity surged through his legs with every step. He wasn’t sure how he was able to keep walking through it, but perhaps some residual part of his Electric past helped him through the pain. He saw another aura ember move past him and used that as another lead, jumping over a forming fissure before it became too wide to cross. [ ]
“The Dungeon is falling apart,” Ra muttered. He looked back. “No. It’s already fallen. Now, it’s just… shifting…”
I kinda wonder if Ra's realization here should've been a bit more of a process than what it was in the present version of the text, since something about this feels a bit abrupt and 'informed attribute'.
He heard a yelp and knew immediately who it was—the feral. He finally made it. And he saw someone else there, too—an unmistakable, pink figure flying across the distorted halls. The walls parted ways for her easily, and Ra suspected Manectric’s theories were correct. Star had cursed the Dungeon, all to prevent Zoroark from getting to the Core.
“STAR!” Ra shouted.
The Mew jumped. “R-Ra?!”
Star: "Oh,
hi Ra, fancy seeing
you here now. Shouldn't you be on your way to the Aura Sea or something?"
Ra slammed his fists against his chest. The reverberations weakened his stance—he knew that he’d be more vulnerable to her—but he was going to do it anyway. He was dead. What more did he have to lose? He slammed his fists against his scales again, sending dragon-enhanced, sonic waves straight for Star.
She shrieked and covered her ears. Ra didn’t stop. He readied another Clanging Scales strike, knowing that this would be the best way to slow her down.
That actually makes me wonder if you can just no-sell this by a set of earplugs/noise-cancelling headphones given that Clanging Scales is mechanically a sound-based move.
It did not last. A Psychic blast twisted the air around him and he couldn’t dodge in time. He roared when the ground was taken from his feet, spun all the way around until he was on his side. He was lucky that most of the attack had missed, or his spirit would have been torn apart.
Star floated up and flew away.
“How dare you… run away…” Ra staggered up and slammed his fists against his scales again, sending another wave of sound toward Star. It hit right where he wanted and she shrieked, faltering where she stood.
Isn't 'running away from inconvenient issues' just another day ending in 'y' for Star? It's just a bit more literal than normal here.
She turned her tiny head around with wide, angry eyes. The Dungeon walls collapsed around them, becoming nothing more than clouds and fog as the entire floor shifted and shuffled. Ra weakly jumped to a part of the ground that felt solid, even while electricity danced around every part of the cloudy floor. But he didn’t step wisely. He sank through the ground instantly and saw a glimpse of the void below.
For just a moment, Ra felt fear.
Ra:
“Hey, Ra.”
Ra was lying in the middle of the clearing in total silence. He could only hear Star’s voice, but he knew she was somewhere inside his Orb.
“Star.”
“So… I figure you heard the news.”
Ra’s claws strangled the air. Despite this, he spoke calmly. “With life comes death. It means nothing to me.”
“Well… okay.”
Ra grunted. “It’s just fine. I’ll be fine.”
“Mhm. Sure. So, anyway, Hecto spotted her along the aura sea… so… if you want, I can—"
“No,” Ra said, no matter how much it pained him to say it. “Send her to Step, first.”
Boy that must've gotten weird to have your dead kids chilling out with you in your Orb. Though it makes me wonder if Step wasn't the only Guardian out there to have some family members they outlived chilling in their spirit collection.
“You can always just visit her in her realm…”
Considering how bitter and unhinged Ra has been throughout the entirety of the present day, I suspect that this isn't true anymore. Though this is going to turn out that Star rolled a new Ice Guardian and it poofed Cent and Kana's spirits, isn't it? Since
that would sure explain a few things about Ra having a normal one in the present day.
But Ra knew he couldn’t. He couldn’t face her again. He understood, now, why she visited so rarely. It had nothing to do with their two auras being too much for the mutants to detect. That attack was a fluke and he had overreacted. He had played it over and over in his head for decades. And only once or twice did such an encounter happen again. All that harsh training, all that senseless bloodshed of his own daughters, for nothing.
He did not adapt. His Dragon pride, his Fighting spirit—it was too much for her, and he was too foolish to not compromise for her sake, and for their kids’ sake. This was his punishment.
Which you clearly did not take
too many lessons from given your thought process in the 'present day', but I digress.
“Grab him!”
A huge hand grabbed Ra by the arm, stopping his fall. The edge of his tail and the large scales attached to them grazed the blackness below. It evaporated instantly. He jerked his tail up and stared at his savior—an Electivire. The hulking Pokémon smirked and pulled him out of the pit. Just then, a Zebstrika and Vikavolt crackled past them, tackling Star simultaneously.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” Star shouted. “Do you realize that if she takes the Core, you’ll all—”
Oh, so they
will poof out of existence upon there being a new Guardian. Maybe. Okay, yeah,
I can already tell that the cause of Ra snapping and having a normal one is going to be something along the lines of Star replacing Step as the Ice Guardian with someone else.
Twin Thunders struck Star; her scream was deafened by the boom.
Ra stared dumbly at the display. He only broke his gaze when he heard a crowd of shouts behind him. That’s when he realized—his Clanging Scales were so loud that they drew all of the spirits his way. They were all coming to him—all of them.
Huh. They sure are loyal ones there. I wonder if that's normal for spirits, or if that's just the nature of the spirits that Ra deliberately collected back in the day.
Electivire held Ra by the shoulders, shaking the sense back into him. “Find Zoroark. Bring her to the Core.”
“But you’ll—”
“Go!” Electivire threw Ra into the air with a single thrust. Something held the Kommo-o in place after that.
“What—?” He looked back to see a southern Raichu, balanced on her own tail for levitation, holding her tiny paws toward him.
“Get her, Ra!” the southern Raichu said.
Ra: "Yes, yes, that's what I'm
trying to-!" >.<
He accelerated rapidly over Star and the others. Star glared and held her paw up. Ra felt something squeezing at the inside of his chest, but only for an instant. Seconds later, an Electrode slammed into Star’s back, held in place by a Heliolisk.
“Run! NOW!” Electrode said and then shut his eyes tight.
Oh, so Star can do that "psychic heart squish" party trick that pops up in the AKIRA manga. Even if I'm surprised that would work on a spirit.
“Nooo, no, NO!” Star said, but Electrode’s body was already a bright white. He exploded, evaporating the spirits nearest to Star, but not Star herself. Ra knew this only because of the pink sphere that enveloped her, protecting her from the blast, though she still couldn’t see through the smoke.
He smashed through one of the cloudy walls and flew over another void. He tried to get some sort of leverage, but he was helpless in the air. He saw another creature ahead, flying over the fissure. Its ugly face was a relief.
The Eelektross wrapped around him and pulled him over the fissure with what momentum he had, finally letting go when they reached solid ground.
Boy, you're sure opinionated about your helpers there, Ra. Probably a good thing that that Eelektross there didn't pick up on that thought process.
“The Core is just ahead. Zoroark is nearby. See her? There!” He pointed a claw toward a black blur rushing past the collapsing halls to their right. “I don’t know how she did it, but she made it through the Dungeon. She’s a smart feral, that’s for sure.”
Ra nodded. “Thank you,” he said. “Stop Star for me.”
“You got it.”
Which is probably more accurately "stall her for five seconds" given how all the past spirits' attempts at stopping her have been going.
Near the Core, the ground felt a lot more stable. Perhaps even the shifting portions of this cursed Dungeon was unable to split apart the Core’s general area. He sighed in relief, realizing this, and focused entirely on chasing after Zoroark.
A few spirits were still trailing her. It seemed like she was trying to flee but inadvertently wound up going straight to the Core as they wanted. All she had to do was grab it. They’d force the Core to accept her if they had to, even if Star wasn’t going to allow it. That was easy enough. They just needed time.
Wait, how
does forcing a Core to accept a Guardian work, anyways? Since that's
possible?
He heard it again. Shuffling. Weak, slow shuffling, from a fading aura. “Dad…”
He rushed to the entrance. “Kana… How did you make it here?”
“Not sure myself, heh…”
Her voice was softer than ever. Shaking, even. Her scales were faded, and a few had come off in small patches that never quite grew back. It wasn’t as fast as Cent. No, this was simply age. It happened to the best mortal—death claimed them all in time. All except for Ra.
Ah yes, let's tee up the theme song in the background:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6ZHxpbUk94
“Please, sit down. Don’t strain yourself,” Ra said softly. He helped her to the wall, where she gratefully sank down, breathing heavily to recover.
“I just wanted to see you. You know, in person. Before I… can’t make the trip anymore, heh. You wouldn’t understand.” Kana rubbed the back of her head. Her arm trembled when it did. It always trembled—it had been that way for three years, now.
“Kana…”
Kana shook her head. “Pops… I don’t remember where Mom lives.”
Oh. Kana had some analogue to Alzheimer's in her twilight years of life. Since these are both consistent symptomatically to it.
He remembered how she had gotten lost before. She had wandered all the way to Nightshade as if it was an old part of her memory coming back, forgetting everything else. Ra had asked Kana about her mate—he had died long ago, too—and Kana didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Can you write down where she lives?” Kana asked. “So I don’t forget.”
I'll take that as a sign that Kana didn't take a dragon for a mate given that she outlived him by a long margin.
The Core’s chamber of Thundercloud Temple was as it always had been. Clouds formed a great dome within the center of the building. Jittering strings sizzled across the fluffy interior, all converging toward the center, where lightning whipped at everything nearby.
He remembered touching this Core long ago. He never knew what happened to the last Guardian. Or was he the first? He had been one for so long, he wouldn’t doubt if that was the case. This world felt so young.
Wait, so that confirms that Star
has gone through multiple Guardians for some elements? Though re: "young world", I know enough to know that that's certainly accurate, though it makes me wonder just how young
is young since we know that at minimum, it's been 475 years since ADAM moved into the digs the story found him in.
Zoroark entered the chamber. She spun back upon realizing that she was trapped. Ra caught up with the two Pokémon that had chased her inside. First, he looked to the left at a Pachirisu. Then, he looked to the right at an Electric Typhlosion, lightning erupting where flames usually rose.
Huh. I'm a little surprised that we're only just now seeing electrified non-electric mons inside the Orb given how those felt pretty common in the Grass Orb.
“Good work,” Ra grunted. “Now we just need to keep her inside this chamber.”
Zoroark hissed at the three of them.
“H-how do we do that?” Pachirisu asked. “We can’t attack her! If we kill her here—”
“Her spirit is strong,” Ra said. “Don’t think she will fall so easily.” He held his arms forward and upward, ready for anything she had for them.
Um... I'm beginning to think that Enet's ascension to Electric Guardianship wasn't exactly consensual there.
“Stay behind,” Ra said. “Keep an eye out for Star. I will test Zoroark’s strength myself.”
“D-don’t you die, either,” Pachirisu said. “You aren’t tied to the Core!”
“I will be fine.”
Narrator: "He will not be fine."
Suddenly, countless blue embers flew over Ra and Zoroark’s heads, entering the Core like embers from an exploding fire in reverse. Ra knew that this meant Star just finished dispatching all of the spirits in the Electric Orb. She’d be coming here soon, perhaps even teleporting right inside. Wait. Why hadn’t she done that before?
... Can't tell if that's a sign that she was physically unable to for some reason, or else if Ra is getting played here.
Was it the chaotic Dungeon? Was that the cause? Why? Did she make it that way herself? No… Perhaps not. Perhaps Ra himself had done it when he died.
Perhaps this realm was in chaos because of his own spirit’s state upon death.
See above, really. Since this
does feel a bit suspicious given that Star was
explicitly mentioned as having had the power to change the Dungeon's properties, so you'd think that her TPing in would be child's play.
But the reason no longer mattered.
“Zoroark!” Ra shouted, pointing at her. “I challenge you to a—”
Something sharp sliced right through Ra’s back. He roared and stumbled forward, staring at the Zoroark before him. The illusion evaporated. He spun around and swung his arm at the true Zoroark, miraculously connecting.
Ah yes, opening with a sneak attack. I see that Enet hasn't changed after all these years.
She responded by crunching down on his scaly arm, breaking through one of the plates. He, in kind, responded by slamming her against the ground, pinning her down. He didn’t have to hurt her too badly. Just keep her steady. He stared up at the Core, too bright to look at directly. He brought his arm up, ran three paces, and slammed Zoroark against the bright light. Electricity and heat surged through them both. She shrieked and flailed, trying to push Ra as far away as she could, but even though her spirit was strong, Ra’s was stronger.
Yeah, I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be consensual.
Hands began to emerge from the core—countless paws, tendrils, and limbs wrapping around Enet’s body, digging into her fur and into her spiritual flesh. She screamed, breaking away from it with one final jolt. Ra reached out one last time, but Enet snapped down on his arm instantly—and that was the last his spirit could handle. She crunched straight through it, blue fire pouring out of the wound. He staggered back, clutching at the arm. It didn’t hurt—nothing hurt anymore—but he felt his body evaporating. He felt… fleeting.
I kinda wonder if the whole "spirit gives out" moment should've been played in a bit more detail such that we saw it happen more from Ra's perspective, since something about this feels a bit "informed attribute" in execution.
No. Not yet. He wasn’t done yet. He focused, and his arm returned to normal. The blue embers faded away, sealed back inside.
The Core glowed brightly. Two embers rushed past him and into it. That only meant—
“Nice try.”
Ra suddenly couldn’t feel his lower body. He fell forward, flat on his face, and used his arms to roll onto his back. He saw his lower half still standing, spewing blue fire. It evaporated in seconds, revealing Star at the entrance, her paw still glowing from the aftereffect of a Psycho Cut. How could she use such a technique? Oh, of course. She wasn’t just a Mew. She was the Mew—designer of all techniques.
Oh,
hello, Star. Though yeah, I suppose it checks out that Mew as species progenitor would also be a move progenitor. Though I'm just going to file it away mentally that there's apparently other Mew beyond Star, just lesser versions given the distinction between 'a Mew' and '
the Mew' that Ra makes.
Ra knew he was outmatched, but that didn’t matter.
“It’s too late, Star,” Ra said, using his left hand to point at the Core. “It’s too much to stop, now. They already touched her.”
Star’s tiny paws trembled, clenched like fists. Ra just laughed. Sliced in half, lying helplessly on the ground before his Creator. Ra never felt so free.
I feel like you're going to wind up regretting this in about five seconds, Ra. Since Star
absolutely vibes as being the spiteful and vindictive type.
Zoroark hissed at Ra, rushing toward Star. The Mew flinched but then realized that she was hiding behind her for safety.
“What will you do, Star?” Ra asked. “Will you kill her? Your own child?”
“Don’t use that line on me,” Star hissed. “Practically everybody’s my child!”
Wait, wait, wait.
What? As in Enet is a
recent child of Star's?
“And look at how you treat them,” Ra said, holding his chest mockingly. “I’m so hurt, mother.”
“Oh, like you’re one to talk,” Star said. “As if you can tell me you never beat up your kids.”
Ra’s smile was obliterated.
Yeah, you kinda walked straight into that one, Ra.
Star looked down at Zoroark. The feral looked up at Mew with wide, ignorant eyes. She pointed at Ra commandingly.
Star raised her paw. Pure fighting energy collected at the tip—a Focus Blast. At the same time, countless white filaments of light emerged from her back like wings.
Oh, so
Star can also do the 'angel wing' thing that Ra saw in his dying vision.
And yeah, I suppose that's a sign that Star being a part of the broader team in the present day won't be lasting for much longer, since
boy is the story openly screaming that she's very bad news right now.
“One that you tricked into coming here,” Star said, but the energy in her paw flickered.
Zoroark stared at Star for a while longer, clearly not realizing that Star intended to destroy her.
“And then what?” Ra said. “The Orb has nobody. A Hunter will get it. Then what? I did you a favor. I gave you a strong replacement.”
Oooookay, now I
know that there was a Grass Guardian before Owen who bit it shortly before his mind-wipe between the prologue and first chapter. Since if Star
needs those Orbs to be held by somebody lest they get stolen and can't do the job herself...
“She’s hardly strong,” Star shouted. “She can’t even talk! What good is that?!” She winced. “I’ll just have to find someone else. I’ll draw in a new hero. I’ll make them a Guardian instead, and we can start from scratch. Easy.”
That actually makes me morbidly curious as to how the AU where Star got her way, killed off Enet, and duped Owen into killing himself to become an Electromander about 500 or however many years this is prior to the present day would've played out.
Ra laughed weakly. “But didn’t you forget, Star?” he said, pointing at her. “It’s already too late.”
The Core flashed. Countless wads of electricity and light exploded out from the chamber, surrounding Star from all sides. Zoroark screamed and ran away, but one of the beams of light latched onto her, piercing her through her back. She wailed and tried to slice it off, but it was already a part of her soul. It dragged her to the Core, even as her claws dug into the clouds. She shook her whole body, flailing.
“STOP!” Star roared.
Ra:
Star: "You used that reaction image
once already! And don't you get it, Ra?! You're ruining everything!"
Electric spirits solidified around her. Countless Pokémon. Ra knew the name of every single one. He knew their Electric spirits, and he knew the bodies they used to be long before. Some never abandoned it completely. He saw the Electric Typhlosion again, blasting Star with balls of white sparks. He saw a Luxray—long ago, he had been a Nidoking, but had since chosen a different form to take, after so many centuries of being dead.
All of them barraged Star, attack after attack. Her tendrils of light exploded out, piercing through some of the spirits. The air spun with every Psychic blast. Blue embers poured back into the Core, only to be replaced by new spirits ready to fight.
Just waiting for the title drop at this point, since I can already feel Ra's smug contentment radiating through the text right now.
Zoroark was pinned against the Core by her own link to it. She was sinking, still screaming. Limbs of spirits in the Core grabbed onto her, stroking her fur. Whispers of calm. But she didn’t understand their language. Finally, the light enveloped her completely, and the Core briefly—absorbed into Zoroark, the new Electric Guardian.
“Good,” Ra said, closing his eyes.
Zoroark fell to the ground with a thud, unconscious.
“And now what… Star?” Ra said.
A gigantic spite move that's due to come in about 5 seconds? Since yeah, I
highly doubt that Star just took getting her wishes flouted like this laying down.
The world trembled as if heaving a sigh at new stability. Zoroark’s wild heart, while terrified and confused, was not in pain like Ra’s was. And, indeed, the Kommo-o could sense Thundercloud Temple slowly ease its way back into stability.
Star stopped fighting the spirits to glare at Ra through the many bodies that blocked her view. The spirits, too, stopped, knowing that their part of the job was over.
One final Psychic blast eliminated them, leaving only Ra behind. The rest watched from the new Core that grew in the old one’s place. At this point, only his upper chest, arms, neck, and head remained.
Ra, I get that you're done with life and want to die, but I feel like you should be a lot more worried right now, just saying.
“I’ll just… kill her now,” Star said. “She’s… she’s asleep. She won’t even know it.”
“And what then?” Ra asked.
“I already told you.”
“No, Star,” Ra said. “You’re just telling yourself that. You’re just upset that I’m leaving… that I’m finally free.”
Kinda feel like this moment should've have a bit more expansion in terms of portrayed body language/reaction, even if it
does make me wonder why Star never finished off Enet if she has the power to just go and kill off Guardians.
“It isn’t like that, Ra,” Star said. “I’m just trying to help!”
“Oh, and what a wonderful help you’ve been!” Ra said, waving his right arm. “Centuries of isolation and suffering for all! Yes! A fantastic existence!” He let his arm drop. “My lovely Step was right to abandon you.”
“Just like she abandoned you,” Star said.
Thundercloud Temple was silenced.
Boy, Ra sure has a talent for walking right into these moments. I can't tell whether or not this is intentional parallelism between the two here, even if I'm a little surprised at how it didn't occur
at all to Star that extended isolation would make the Guardians start to break down given that IRL the UN considers
15 days of consecutive solitary confinement to be a form of torture.
“…I’m sorry,” Star said, lowering her head. “That… that was uncalled for.”
“It’s just like you, though,” Ra said, but he couldn’t hide the tremble in his voice. He steadied himself. “Doing something you think would be good right now… not realizing the consequences later. For a Psychic, you have surprisingly little foresight.”
Ra, this is the
definition of throwing stones from glass houses, just saying.
Ra grunted, realizing that his arms were too weak to hold him up. They were evaporating. Now all he could do was stare at Star with what little strength he had left. He wondered what would happen to him afterward. Still, after everything, he wondered if the peace of oblivion would be preferential. Was that his destination?
“Star, if you kill this feral,” Ra said, “you’re no better than Arceus. Remember that.”
Star flinched. The temple let out a final sigh.
I'm surprised that apparently
worked on her. Though I feel like that should make me a lot more worried about what
is like in this story if
Star getting compared to him is enough to repulse her to the point of backing down.
“I have one more thing that I want to ask you, Star,” Ra said, knowing that he’d won. “Something that… you never answered. That you always evade when I ask. The memory is so… faded. But seeing as I’m about to go… I want you to answer for me. Finally, you can be honest. Why I can’t remember. Why this person… is so faded from my mind… and yet… feels so important. Perhaps as important as Step. Yet by what I imagine is a Divine Decree… I am not allowed to remember.”
Star said nothing, but he had her attention.
“Where,” Ra said, “is Yveltal?”
In Prayers Unheard, maybe? Since that is supposed to be set in a realm of the dead and shares a setting, so...
Based on how Star didn’t react, Ra knew she was expecting this question. His vision was fading. He felt oddly tired. His mission complete, he actually felt rested. At some point, his eyes had closed, ready for an eternal nap.
Ah, so he's finally at peace. In his own messed-up sort of way.
“Ra,” Star said.
One last annoyance, he figured. He opened his eyes and glared at Star. “What? Will you answer?”
Star looked down, flicking her tail. Ra sensed that this bothered her more than it should have, but had no time to ask why. She finally answered, “…I can’t.”
Ra snorted. “Of course.” And with that, his spirit evaporated completely.
I'm half-expecting it to turn out that Star
knew what became of Yveltal all along as one final knife twist.
Ra stood in Thundercloud Temple. Only moments ago, his heart had been filled with more joy than he’d ever felt in decades. Both of his daughters had returned to him, and they looked as youthful as ever. In their prime, even, like a proud Dragon should.
Cent shook her head. “Like, Pops, my mate is waiting for me across the aura sea. I can’t stay. I just came here because… I know you can’t really follow.”
Ra shook his head in disbelief. Then, he turned to the other daughter. “Kana…”
But she, too, shook her head. “Dad, I… I can’t just stay here forever. The other spirits might be happy, but I don’t want to lose myself here. I have to go.”
Oh hey, I think we have our motivation behind why Ra wound up snapping. Though it gives me some strong shades of
Lao from XBX. The only thing missing for a full parallel would be
if he just wasn't able to properly kill himself in spite of everything he did.
Both his daughters turned away. They couldn’t bear to look at him, but Ra just wanted to see their eyes one last time.
“Mom already said bye,” Kana said. “She’s glad that we can move on. But, Dad…”
“Please… there has to be some way,” Ra said. “What—what about your children? My grandchildren? Can’t—can’t I see them?”
Yuuuuuuup, feeling pretty good about that prediction there.
But Ra knew the answer. He was never allowed to see them—not him, nor Step. And he shouldn’t. They shouldn’t know about this Guardian conspiracy. They should live normal lives. They should never know he existed…
Cent sighed tiredly. Ra thought, for a moment, that they would actually stay. But then she said the one thing he didn’t want to hear—the same words that he’d heard so many decades ago. The empty promise.
“We’ll visit.”
Small verb tense error there.
Where was this?
Ra recognized it, vaguely. He couldn’t move. He lacked a body to move. All around Ra was a great, endless expanse of darkness, populated only by the gentle glow of countless auras, all moving in one direction toward a great, dim light.
The aura sea, Ra realized. So… that’s where we go. Even if a spirit dies… we still can’t rest. We go right here. We all go… right here.
Oh.
Well then. Maybe we
are getting a full Lao parallel after all.
The faint glow of the outer spirit world beckoned him. He let the flow take him, for he knew his daughters would be waiting.
But then the flow changed, just for him. He bumped past a few spirits, falling through their fire. He heard their thoughts. Terrified thoughts, confused thoughts. One was whimpering that it still burned. The other one was nothing but a series of hisses and growls.
Oh. These are the spirits of the Pokémon that died in the forest fire, aren't they?
A great, gray figure stood above the sea, staring at Ra with his one eye.
“Hello, Ra,” the Dusknoir greeted.
Hecto…
“I am fortunate to find you in the sea. Star warned me that you would flow here soon.”
Yeah, just saying, I can already tell that this is building up to a massive spite move in the end.
Then perhaps I should have stopped thinking.
“Perhaps, yes,” Hecto said, “if your desire was to evade my eye.”
Hecto held out his massive hand, grasping Ra’s flickering soul within it.
Where are you going to take me, then?
“Star requested I send you somewhere specific,” Hecto said. “The typical afterlife is not a location suited for one such as yourself.”
Yeah, I
knew it.
This was the second time that Ra felt fear that night. That fear was snuffed out by spite and anger. So that’s how it is? he said. Such a place truly exists after all? When Hecto did not reply, Ra continued to speak. Know that she’ll never be happy with what she’s done to me. I’ll never give her the satisfaction that I’ll suffer. I’ll take whatever eternity you give me, and I’ll take it with nothing but eternal hate. When I’m free, I will do more than kill her, Hecto. I’ll do everything in my power to ruin her, the same way she did to us. To all Guardians. To this whole world. The world you claim to watch over. You are a blight. You and that despicable Creator.
I feel like this moment would work better if Ra's pre-hell/Voidlands/whatever rant was broken up into distinct paragraphs that interleaved his direct thoughts with his thought process.
Though should I start a betting pool of Ra learning to body surf between hosts and giving a "'Yes, we shall destroy god.'" speech at some point? Since just saying, he feels like he's well on his way to doing just that right now.
Still, Hecto said nothing.
I should have sided with Arceus and the Divine Dragons.
Just filing
that one away, since it implies that the Timespace Trio is still out there somewhere. And boy Step
was onto something about Ra vibing as being an Arceus follower.
Hecto’s one eye did not blink, but Ra was out of words to say. The Dusknoir turned, pointing Ra toward some black void in the sea.
“Farewell, Ra.”
Hecto pressed his hand forward. Ra flew through the sea, far, far away from the flow of the many spirits that made their transitions into the next world. He was away, now.
Ra cursed Star all throughout the void.
Hecto:
Ra stood outside of his den, walking deep into the clearing. The once clear sky darkened with lumpy clouds. The world roared. “You did this to me.”
“No—Ra, that’s not what happened!” Star said. “I wasn’t trying to—"
“You… RUINED my life!”
And now she's also ruined your afterlife, so yeah. Way to pick a winner there, Ra.
“I—I had no choice! I was just trying to help! I—"
Ra shook his head. “I’m done.”
“D-done? R-Ra! Wait! What are you doing?”
Ra held his arms out. The lightning crackled along his scales and between his claws. “The forest will burn… and with the last of my power… I’ll lay the Orb bare.”
I'm surprised that we didn't get a clearer look/stronger hint as to what the inciting incident that finally pushed Ra over the edge was. Though I suppose that must be spoiler central from the way that the plot is dancing around it so hard.
“Gnnkk—!” Ra gasped his first breath. A horrible coldness pierced his throat. He struggled to his feet. All he could see was a gray darkness. Hard snow and heavy winds slammed against his scales, freezing him to the bones. A single step was too much.
Ah yes, hell as a frozen wasteland. Gives me vibes of Erebus from Knightfall's stories, and it's certainly up there for "places a dragon would hate to be in".
“S-so this is my eternity, is it… S-Star…” Ra looked at the black sky. He wandered through the snow even as his scales became coated in a thick layer of ice. His limbs froze in place any time he decided to stop. Every step chipped away at the ice layered upon his cold form. “I will… for all of my existence… devote every second… to…”
He collapsed. The snow billowed over him, covering his body. His spirit wanted nothing more than to move, but his energy was gone. Everything was fading again. Step… Kana… Cent, Ra thought. I’m… sorry.
It all faded…
Whelp, so much for ever seeing
him again short of someone deciding to crack open cold storage.
“I found him!”
Ra’s eyes shot open.
“Oops. I think he’s frozen already.”
“Don’t just stare at him—help out, Sis!”
... Might have jumped the gun a bit there, since I'll admit that I didn't expect that one.
“R-right, sorry. MOM! We found Dad!”
Icy hands wrapped around both of his arms.
“Okay, one, two—three!”
They lifted him up. By some miracle, he could still see. Tears froze painfully against his eyes. He couldn’t speak.
Ra: "
Step? H-How are you-?"
Two Kommo-o tilted their heads at him. They were see-through, like glass. Closer inspection indicated that it wasn’t glass—it was ice, like living sculptures.
“I think he’s out of it,” said the left one.
“Where is he?” a booming voice called.
Ra knew the voice, but he also knew the sound of her heavy, slow steps. He saw an Aggron in the same style as his daughters, see-through and glimmering in the dark. Her steps pierced through many feet of snow without effort. Her solid eyes softened upon seeing the helpless, frozen Dragon.
Oh, well, scratch that about frozen-over hell, it's just Step's realm in the Spirit World... I
think.
“Unbelievable,” Step said, putting a hand to her forehead, making a dull tok noise. “Star told me that I should be expecting you. I didn’t think she meant it like this.”
“St… ar…”
“Yes, Star,” Step said, crossing her arms irritably. “I thought she meant you were going to try to visit at the same time as Kana and Cent.” When Ra didn’t reply, she went on. “This is more than a visit, I imagine.”
Yeah, this is more 'permanently cohabitate until you start losing yourself'. Though I wonder if this
still counts as a spite move given that Ra fundamentally wanted to die, and I'm pretty sure he's being denied the possibility of passing on at the moment.
“Uh, Mom, I think he’s an icicle,” Kana said.
Cent tapped her claws on Ra’s cheek. Solid. “Yeah, he’s frozen.”
Step sighed, this time using both of her hands to cover her face. “What a fool… what a mess…” She groaned. “You’re helpless without me.”
The statue of Ra did not reply.
'helpless', or '
hopeless' there? Since the nuance changes slightly depending on the word choice.
“Come. Let’s take him to the Core so he can acclimate.” Step turned around, walking through the snow of the Ice Realm.
Kana took the front, while Cent took the rear, making sure they didn’t accidentally break some part of their father’s frozen spirit along the way. He was so stiff that it actually was much like transporting a statue.
Wait, what
would've happened had they broke off a part of Ra before he got acclimated to the Ice Realm, anyways?
“Mom?” Cent said. “I guess we can visit a little more often, but… are you gonna talk to Dad more, now?”
“I doubt I have a choice,” Step replied.
“Yeah, but,” Kana interrupted, “we mean more like… are you two… gonna be together again?”
Step: "Once again, I doubt I have a choice given that he's
stuck here now."
“Again,” Step said, “it is not like I have a choice.”
Yeah, I figured.
“But you do,” Cent said. “You can just tell him to go. But… you aren’t.”
Step pressed on without a change in expression. “We’ll talk,” she said. “If he chooses, I will allow him to… stay. Perhaps… it is time we reconnected.” She looked down. “After all, there is… nothing separating us now, is there?”
The mortal coil? ^^;
Step: "Yes, but that gets... weird for Mystics like us, so that doesn't count." >_>;
Step looked back at Ra’s desperate expression, frozen in time. She sighed. “You look disgusting when you’re weak,” the Ice Guardian said. “When you attach to my Core, I expect you to be stronger. Like you used to be.”
Don't make me break out Bubsy again, Step.
They climbed a small hill and slid down. Snow collected over Ra’s eyes, blinding him. He only heard the howl of the wind and the sound of her voice. But that was enough.
“Star came here only moments ago to tell me about your arrival,” Step said. “I’ve never seen her so shaken.”
Despite being unable to see, Ra could feel her smile.
“I liked that.”
Oh, so they really
are like each other in the end.
