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Chapter 183 – Pure Water
“Owen’s down!”
A tearful Mew, half-burned by something more than fire, floated unevenly toward the crew that had set up the Purification Circle. Zena’s heart leaped in her chest. There was no way…
“He’s WHAT?” Jerry shouted from two quartets of the Circle away.
“He didn’t get caught in that—that blast, did he?!” Hakk said. “What was that? I’ve never seen anything like it!” He rubbed his arms uncomfortably. “Still burns…”
“He did, but he survived that,” Star said, trembling visibly now that she was closer. “Emily blasted him when he was weakened. He’s ripped up, but—but he’s surviving. His aura’s stable, and Emily’s coming this way, so—so, uh, so what now?”
“Without Owen, how’re we supposed to complete the Circle thing?” Jerry snarled.
Migami had split into their components. Mispy was tending to their collective wounds. Several others were already in their spots, tending to their part of the Circle. By now, visible lines connected each quartet as they channeled their energy, and if everyone got into formation in the great field they’d found, it would look just like Orre’s setup.
By Zena’s estimates, Emily would have to land in the middle of the Circle, which was a good fifty feet in diameter. Not a small target, but also uncomfortably close for someone with Emily’s presence.
“Even if we get all nine foursomes in,” Star whispered, “how are we supposed to do the final pulse? Owen had to do that. He had the… the thing, with grabbing aura threads, right?”
Zena found enough sense to perk up. “Not just him,” she said. “I know how to do it, or, another way. A workaround. You just need to channel that power into me, and… then I aim it at Emily. I’m not part of the Circle—I was a coordinator, too.”
It was getting darker again. The hole in the sky the explosion had given off was closing. Emily drew near; they had moments. Zena scanned the crowd and spotted Tanneth, who looked paler than ever.
“Tanneth, are you okay?” Zena called.
The Vaporeon jumped in surprise. “Y-yeah!” she called. She lacked her usual smile. “She’s just close. Closer than I’ve felt in a long time…”
Zena could understand the nervousness. But right now, they had a job to do. They were down a leader. It was up to Zena to pick up what Owen left behind.
“Get into positions, everyone!” Zena shouted. “Everyone not in the Circle, rally with me! We’re going to have to guide Emily ourselves. And remember—no matter how strong you are, how confident you think you can multitask… you cannot break the Circle anymore. No fighting if you’re channeling energy!”
Which would seriously eat at almost all their firepower. But they still had a few. Aster was not part of any Circle—he, as Star’s ‘son,’ would be their warding figurehead.
In the seventh group, Diyem called over, “Doesn’t it seem like a major oversight that some of our strongest have been reduced to purification batteries?! …And why am I part of this? I’m literally a Shadow Pokémon!”
“You have light in you,” Zena said. “That’s… what Owen said, at least. And… that your power could help subdue Emily’s perfect darkness.”
Diyem grunted. That seemed to be enough for now, and they couldn’t do any thinking to rearrange the Circle at this point.
Angelo cried out, “Eep! She’s here!”
Over the horizon, a purple-bodied Lugia roared and divebombed toward the Circle—directly to Tanneth. They had less than ten seconds to react.
“Aster!” Zena shouted.
“Yup!” And in an instant, the Mewtwo blipped and zipped into the fray, opening with a flying kick into Emily’s gut.
“Ah! Aster, be careful!” Star cried. “Emily might—”
“It’s okay!” Aster zipped away, easily dodging one of Emily’s swipes. “I’m coated in Psychic armor! Dialga taught me!”
Zena sighed and turned to the others. “Aster will buy us time. Get the Poké Balls ready! Everyone! Charge the Circle!”
Quickly, Zena got the ten empty capsules. She would be the one to throw them. Owen had more experience, but she had seen them in use, and everyone else was busy.
Maybe if she used her water to propel the ball forward, she’d have an easier time throwing it. Mystic power would also help…
“She’s close!” Jerry called over the gale-force winds. He had to fold his wings down to not get carried away. “Gah…!”
That was as good a time as any. Zena grabbed a ball with her ribbons, lobbed it forward, and fired at it with a Hydro Pump. The propulsion kept the ball in place at the end, landing directly on Emily’s chest.
Despite everything, she was still a Pokémon.
The ball snapped open and siphoned Emily inside.
“Yaaay!” Aster pumped his fists in the air. “We did it! We saved Kilo!”
“Hang on, kid!” Jerry called.
Mhynt interjected, “Quickly! Get the Circle prepared!”
“Where’s Owen?”
Zena scanned the horizons. No Owen. Not even his flame.
The ball wiggled once. Then, it abruptly snapped open, and with it came a blast of Shadow that struck Aster while he wasn’t expecting it. He spun through the air, screaming, with several cuts that broke through his armor.
“Aster!” Star cried.
“Zena!” Mhynt shouted. “Another! Quickly!”
“R-right!”
And so, Zena repeated the process. She grabbed the second ball and tossed it toward Emily.
This time, they locked eyes. Zena flinched, but not enough to stop her Hydro Pump the same way. Emily opened her mouth—another blast, this time for Zena.
But then, flashing lights rained down on Emily, spearing her through the wings and gut. It was enough for her to stagger and stare back with scorn.
“Ah! Barky!” Star cried.
“Sorry for being late,” Barky stated. “I had to verify Owen’s safety.”
A silver barrier kept the rain from pelting him; he glowed like the sun that had been blotted out.
But Zena struck first. Another clean hit. Emily disappeared into the capsule. She concentrated on the ball, envisioning some invisible force keeping it closed, even from a distance. Her ribbons clenched. Others in the Circle could only focus on their aura, though the brief quiet helped them recover.
The battle wiggled once.
A flame of black and white caught Zena’s attention. “Mu?”
“’S it safe?” Mu called.
The capsule wiggled twice…
“No, Mu! Not yet!” Zena shouted.
The ball snapped open just as Mu jumped into the aether again, vanishing.
Zena had been so focused on Mu that she didn’t see the incoming Shadow Aeroblast until its whistling winds were a split-second from her. She moved to raise her ribbons, but that was when the blast twisted her through the air, cutting through her scales. She wailed—several called out to her—and came to a staggered stop next to Mhynt, Diyem, Hakk, and Leph’s Circle. She saw Leph make a gesture as if to heal her—
“No!” Zena hissed, tasting metal in her words. “Focus… on the Circle!”
“Zena!” Tanneth called—she might have been calling for a while.
Behind Tanneth, Emily was closing in fast, roaring. She seemed to be deliberately avoiding getting too close to the Circle, though, but a single Aeroblast would change that. The damage she’d do…
Aster swooped in and grabbed Tanneth by her neck fins.
“Sorry!” Aster said. He was covered in lacerations from the last attack, but held her close, smudging blood over the Vaporeon. They vanished.
Emily whirled around, instinctually sensing where Tanneth had gone. Zena had seen a flash of light cut through the darkness. Aster hadn’t Teleported far. He must have known they needed to keep Emily in the circle.
The beast’s one-track mind at least got the heat off of Zena. The Milotic nervously sighed, everything stinging, even in the intensifying, corrosive rain. They couldn’t last in this for long. The Ultra Balls… where did they go?
Scattered to the wind. Zena only had one left. Anything else and… she’d have to search for them in the dirt and grime.
Half-desperate, Zena also glanced around the blackening, muddy sand for glimmers of those capsules. That’s when she realized the texture of the ground, as she shifted her weight, had… changed.
“What’s happening to the floor?” Zena said.
Various in the nearest quartets looked down.
Jerry roared in disgust. “NO!”
“What? Don’t just shout, what?!” Mhynt snapped.
“It’s… it’s lookin’ like her insides!” Jerry said.
Zena gulped. She thought she’d seen a glimmer of a capsule and grabbed at it—but it was lodged in the ground. After a few moments, she realized that she’d been pulling at a lump of flesh that the sand had transfigured into.
“How do you know what those look like?” called Leo on one knee, still keeping his hands up and pointing at Brandon nearby.
“Don’t ask.” Jerry stared at Mhynt. “Her Dungeon-ness is spreading. For the love of the gods here, stop her before the whole WORLD becomes Emily!”
“Gods, it’s all… corrupting,” Zena whispered. “Emily!”
She pulled her ribbon back, ready to fire.
No reply. Emily stomped after Aster, who kept disappearing and reappearing. He could keep that up for a time, but at the rate of the rainfall, that time was dwindling.
Lightning flashed, dazzling Zena’s senses. She could barely see more than ten feet in front of her, but relied on Emily’s massive silhouette and the ambient glow of the fifty-foot Circle.
It was colder than the ocean’s depths even in the darkest winter night. What surprised Zena was how her body didn’t shiver, nor did the coldness numb her. No, this was a deeper cold, one her body couldn’t understand, but her aura, her spirit, did. It was freezing her spirit.
“Come on,” Zena whispered. “My power still has to work. Just a little longer…!”
Once more, she tossed the Ultra Ball, knowing it would be the last one she’d have. She fired a Hydro Pump again, smashing into the ball and propelling it faster, whistling through the air…
Contact. Emily’s light spiraled into the capsule and it snapped shut. One shake.
“Okay… okay.” Aster knelt, setting Tanneth down. “I just, I just need a breath…”
Second shake. For a moment, the air was warmer, that oppressive darkness letting up from Zena’s lungs.
“Get ready!” Mhynt announced again. “Zena, can you carry the Circle’s power like Owen did?”
Third shake.
“Y-yes. I’m ready!” Zena said. “Everyone, get into—”
A crack formed on the ball, spewing black fumes.
“NO!”
And then it split open—the last ball Zena had a hope of getting in time—sending whips of Shadow winds into the ground. The cold sting of bits of rock cut through Zena’s scales before a curtain of that same dark gale obscured everything else.
At first, all Zena did was scream and shield herself with a feeble wall of water. Then came the slices through her body, each one a knife of icy obsidian. Eventually, the pain was too much and she fell into one of the many ditches that the gales had made, cold dirt muffling the world around her.
With little strength to move, Zena remained there, recuperating, quietly calling on her spirits to revitalize her. But that was all.
It all faded…
<><><>
“Sorry, Tanneth,” Aster whispered. He reached for the Vaporeon. “W-we have to get away. Regroup, try again… I—I think we ran out of chances.”
Tanneth’s little heart couldn’t take it. The icy darkness cut through her natural resistance to cold. It was like her bones had turned to ice; every movement she made was an agonizing swim through needles.
How did it come to this? Staring down who was supposed to be her mate of a thousand years, now little more than the darkened half of the same soul. There was no victory in any of this. No hope, no safety, just doom one way or the other.
Her vision was blurry through tears or rain, maybe even sheer fatigue. She didn’t know which. But she thought back to warmer times, desperate for any kind of comfort, as Aster Teleported her this way and that within the storm.
“I—I can’t go anywhere if everyone’s in a Circle. She’ll kill them…” Aster panted. “Wh-what do we do?!” he called out. “Where’s Zena?! Where’s Owen?!”
If Tanneth heard things right, the Ultra Balls were a bust and the Circle still wasn’t ready. They still needed to stun Emily, and…
Tanneth’s breathing got faster. She just wanted things to go back to normal. That was so far away. How long had it been since she was able to cuddle up to Emily under a clear, moonlit sky? How long since she was able to rescue Pokémon lost at sea, assure them of their safety, look at their thankful faces as they were brought to shore…
Was all of that for nothing? She and Emily were the same person. What was their relationship? It was all going to amount to memories. A daydream.
But… she was still important. In fact, Emily was more important. Owen said that Shadows locked away the past… and turned Pokémon into monsters without those memories. Only Tanneth had those memories now. And… did that, in itself, have meaning?
What if…
“Tanneth!”
Finally, Aster’s voice snapped the Vaporeon back to the present. “What?”
“Do you know of ANY weakness Emily might have?”
Lightning struck again. Emily was closing in. Ten seconds; she could feel it.
Emily had no weaknesses. She was invincible. That was what the corruption had done to her even before the Shadows took hold when she’d become an immortal Dungeon.
But it wasn’t Emily they were fighting…
“I do,” Tanneth said.
“What?! Why didn’t you tell us?!”
“Because I just—I just realized it!”
Another flash. Tanneth was on the opposite side of the Circle, now next to Trina and the clones of Team Alloy. They looked awful—holding their pose dutifully, frustrated at their inability to fight back against their invincible foe…
“I need you to Teleport to the very center of the Circle,” Tanneth said. “And leave me there!”
“WHAT?”
“Take me to the center of the Circle… and GO! And then… and then get everyone ready! Okay?!”
“Ready for that?”
“I’m going to stun Emily with… a special technique!”
Aster looked at Trina.
“Just agree,” Trina grunted. “We… we can’t hold this much longer. It’s now or never. Wake Zena up! We need her for the Purification!”
“O-okay.” Aster picked Tanneth up again.
Yes. She understood now. Maybe she always knew… and was putting it off, hoping they would find another way.
Well. They were out of options. This had been an inevitable outcome.
Once Emily was close enough again, white light engulfed Tanneth’s vision one last time. He set her down and the cold, Shadow-tinged mud and sand greeted her. Just like the island where she’d nearly been eaten before
“What’s the special technique?” Aster asked.
“S-something the others taught me. Just get Zena!” Tanneth hastily commanded.
“O-okay! Okay!” Aster vanished… leaving Tanneth behind. All alone.
Lightning flashed again. She didn’t need the light to feel Emily’s presence looming over her.
She envisioned warmer days by the ocean. The salty spray of every wave. The gentle rumble of Emily snoozing.
The fleshy sand and mud rumbled, pulling Tanneth an inch into the ground. She closed her eyes and breathed. Emily’s great wing hovered over Tanneth’s body. The wing tore open, revealing a mouth…
“Please wake up,” she whispered. “Emily… if you can hear me… pleas—”
Unceremoniously, the Shadow Lugia claimed her.
<><><>
It was so much colder, yet not nearly as oppressive as Tanneth had envisioned. She was weightless, as if adrift beneath the ocean without a moon or stars. She was surprised to be conscious. When she looked at her paws, they glowed faintly. Weird.
The ocean currents tickled her cheek and triggered her fins’ senses. Something was coming.
“Why?”
Tanneth’s ears flicked. Emily’s voice was so warm, even now.
“Why’d you do it?” Emily whispered.
Her body was mostly purple, but there were faint hints of her pristine, silver glory. She was fighting.
“It was the last trick,” Tanneth replied with a sad smile. “Couldn’t stop you any other way.”
“But now… now you’re…”
Tanneth looked at her paws. Now that she saw Emily, she also realized that her own limbs were see-through. Getting fainter. She was dissolving into an ocean.
And as she did, Emily’s body got faintly lighter.
“It’s… it was going to happen eventually,” Tanneth said. “I was running and running… afraid that the next time I woke up, I’d be staring at you, only it wasn’t you. Just a Shadow parading around in your body. I didn’t realize until now that… I shouldn’t have been running forever. I wasn’t living. I was just… afraid. Prolonging the time until this moment. We don’t need that. I had to wait… for the time to face my fate.”
“But it didn’t have to!” Emily said again. “What if we… we found another way? What if we could be separated forever?!”
“A soul’s a soul,” Tanneth said with a giggle. “We… we were never separate. We just didn’t know it. I’ll… I feel so silly to talk about it like this, knowing in a few seconds, it’s all…”
Even now, Tanneth struggled to keep her body together. She couldn’t tell her digits apart. She must have been speaking with her mind.
“Please, don’t… I’m gonna miss you,” Emily begged. Tanneth knew she was trying to will this to stop.
“I’m gonna miss being us, too,” Tanneth said, drifting closer to Emily until they embraced. She was cold, but getting warmer. The ocean’s void around them felt smaller, but they defied that darkness even then. “But they need us right now. We can’t run away…”
“Need us?”
Tanneth nodded. She could see parts of herself becoming part of the ocean, seeping into Emily’s scales. Every second that passed, Emily’s body brightened, though it did not completely get rid of the darkness. Tanneth feared she’d be lost for good if those outside didn't purify her.
She needed to have faith in them. This had to be enough time…
“I was just the ocean’s guardian,” Emily whispered. “I was isolated, Tanneth… I don’t know them at all. What… what can I do?”
“It’s okay. Because… you’ll get my memories. And I’ll get yours.”
“Yours?”
“Yeah. I met so many people after I was rescued, Emily…”
She couldn’t see anymore. All she could do was hear Emily and feel the coldness creeping in. The more she thought about everyone trying to help, though—their hopeful faces that she could still view in her mind’s eye—the warmer she felt.
“Can you… can you tell me about them? Please. Don’t go…”
She couldn’t smile anymore. Her whole body had become a blue cloud adrift in the sea.
“Okay,” Tanneth replied. “Well… let’s start with the people who organized to save us all. And a place called Kilo Village. . .”
<><><>
Strong hands roughly plucked Zena from the mud.
“Oh! She’s alive!”
“Hello, Aster,” Zena grunted. Everything hurt. She was afraid to coil any of her muscles. The most she tried was curling her ribbons.
“Emily’s stopped! Tanneth did some final trick!”
The Milotic’s eyes shot wide. “What?!”
“Yeah! So, hurry! The Circle’s almost charged!”
He set Zena down. The lightning still flashed; the horrid, soul-rotting rain continued to pour. Some of the Circle were on one knee, pouring the last of their power into maintaining this strange ritual.
In the center of the circle, the Shadow Lugia was stuck in a pose as if she’d just grabbed something. Horror gripped Zena’s chest. Tanneth’s final trick was…
“Zena,” Mhynt said from her nearby quartet.
Right. Now wasn’t the time for grief. It was time to make use of Tanneth’s sacrifice.
“Mhynt. Your type trumps mine,” Zena said. “For this to work, I need you to perform some double-duty, okay? Maintain your Circle, but offset that power to me, like a drain. On my mark. Okay?”
Mhynt nodded and shifted her weight. The others in her four—Diyem, Hakk, and Leph—nodded in tandem.
“One last push!” Zena called. “Heighten your auras now! Five seconds is all I need!”
That was the hope. Five seconds was all they could afford.
It started with Mhynt’s group. Adjacent, ten feet away, Anam’s group lit up, as did Jerry’s on the other side. Then the rest of the Circle got the signal, raising their auras for one final output.
Thunder boomed in the air. Emily was stirring again, standing straight.
“NOW!” Zena cried.
“Ngh—!” At first, Mhynt held both palms toward Leph’s back, who had been channeling the Rock element. Now, she moved one palm and pointed it at Zena.
Instantly, the swell of all her friends poured into Zena in an overwhelming deluge of warmth. Nothing that would bolster her attacks, and yet it held so much hope. She’d never felt this before. When she breathed, she saw everyone else’s chests rise at the same time—or was she following theirs? She couldn’t tell. It was all the same.
She felt the familiar hope of Anam, his overflowing compassion for all blighted by Shadows, and the will to save Emily from that fate. From Anam’s mind, she saw faces of Pokémon she didn’t recognize, yet knew them as old friends of Anam, still waiting to be saved somewhere in the void.
She caught the regrets smothered with the hope of Manny doing what he’d failed to accomplish before. Zena didn’t understand why he felt that way, but at that moment, she understood him all the same. She felt Mhynt’s hopes, nearest to her, to save Emily and wipe out one more fragment of darkness, taking them one step closer to defeating Alexander.
Even Diyem had a glimmer of hope and defiance toward his own piece, viewing it as an old shame to be corrected.
And so many more, rushing through her mind all at once. Past and present. Was this Owen’s old power? Seeing… the histories of everyone. The connection between Pokémon…
In that moment, Zena understood why this Circle was needed. The light of their pasts and their present hopes for the future… it was the antithesis of Dark Matter’s nihilism.
She didn’t need her Mystic power for this. This came from the heart.
A Hydro Pump coalesced as a sphere of crystal-clear water in front of her eyes. It naturally glowed against the dark and lit the area around her like a beacon. She saw Emily clearly, staring at her. The Lugia’s body trembled, but she raised her wings and left herself completely open. Trust. A single, fleeting glimmer of trust—Tanneth’s final throes from within.
The Circle dimmed as the last of its power channeled into Zena’s back. This was the power’s apex.
The sphere funneled into a bright, aqua-silver beam that cleaved through the darkness and spread over her body. Emily’s gaze shot upward and her mouth opened for a wail, yet no sound game. Purple washed away from her body like trivial grime, revealing a sky-blue body underneath. Even where the water did not touch, darkness shriveled up and evaporated, the last to go near her throat. Emily’s body glowed with more and more of the Circle’s energy, except for that one dark splotch. Zena felt the suspicions of the others in the Circle course through her. She wasn’t acting for herself anymore. This was the will of every person watching the ritual.
She stopped her onslaught and watched. Lightning flashed. From Emily’s throat, an outline of some dark cloud emerged, somewhere between solid and gas.
The Circle’s will was unanimous. Zena fired the rest of her onslaught on the thing and it hit the core, splashing against its form. Solid after all.
A screech cut through the remainder of the thunder’s rumble and the ringing in her ears. Just as quickly, the scream stopped. The wraith evaporated. Diyem winced and shook his head, earning a concerned glance from those in his quartet. He only shook his head, muttering something about ‘one down.’
It was over. It took everyone’s energy, probably half of their effective aura matter, and casualties across the board… But they’d made it. Zena could only hope their true losses—Shadowed spirits—were minimized. Perhaps even zero, if Zena dared to hope for that.
Emily fell on her back, immobile. Mispy slid forward and focused, as did a few other aura readers in the Circle… It was clear. To be sure, Celebi—who nearly fell several times in midair along the way—flew over and pressed a tiny hand on Emily’s side. Several seconds passed and nothing happened.
Gradually, the clouds parted, blinding them again with sunlight. Zena couldn’t believe it was only noon here. The warmth of the sun helped her shed that accrued cold, dark feeling the black rain had seeped into her. The ground was a tar-like mess, as if a thousand fires had coated the fields in ash. But at least Zena could see the lush grass and white sands in small patches now that light had returned.
“…Yeah. Yeah, I think we did it,” Celebi finally reported. “Oh, thank goodness. I don’t think I could’ve gone on for much longer…”
Distantly, Zena spotted Phol and many injured guards hobbling or sprinting over to them. They all looked tired, some worse than others.
“Where’s Xerneas?”
“Here.” Xerneas took two steps before collapsing to a knee. “Ngh… I’m… I apologize. But revivals must come later. My energy is… not enough.”
Yveltal brought a wing beneath Xerneas and helped him stand.
“Not only did the rain sap our strength,” Yveltal said, “but that blast…”
“Ugh, my body’s still burning from it,” Hakk said, rubbing his arms. “I can’t… get it off. This is the worst sunburn I’ve ever had.”
“Sunburn…” Star echoed this, floating just above Zena’s head. “Oh, no…”
“What?” Zena asked.
Star’s eyes were grave as she looked at Hakk, then at the mortal Hearts.
“Phol. Do you also feel a… burning?”
“Is that what that is?” Phol said. “I’ll be honest, Star, I don’t know what ‘burning’ feels like. But it’s stinging if that’s what you mean. On the part of my body that faced the blast.”
Star’s expression was graver still. “I… I think I can help with that. I just need everyone here, and, uh… oh, man, that’s tricky. Guess we can brute force it with some of the Hands…”
“Star, what happened with that blast? What was it?” Zena asked. “I feel better now, but it looks like mortals are having lingering effects. They look sick.”
“It’s… complicated.”
But now that the adrenaline of everything had worn off, Zena noticed something else. It was subtle, but… it felt as if more than just the people and the land had been altered by this. That divine, second sun… Did it disrupt something about the world itself?
But she couldn’t articulate it. She turned away, narrowing her eyes.
“I feel it, too.”
Heads turned to Leph, who stepped a few inches above the ground while surveying the land. “There’s a strange energy in the grass and the air. I’m afraid that if it remains as-is, that sickness might sweep across all of Kilo. Owen prevented the worst of the blast, but its aftereffects…”
Barky, looking much worse for wear, tried to stand tall next to Leph. “I recognize it. We can fix this with some effort right now.”
“Actually… may I?” Leph asked, her eyes not leaving the horizon.
“What?” Barky asked. Zena was surprised that his tone didn’t sound hostile.
“What’s up, Leph?” Star added.
Aster blipped onto Leph’s back and leaned over her shoulders. “You have a weird feeling again?” Aster asked. “I feel it, too. But you always know how to do things better than me!”
“Mm.” Leph turned to fully face Barky. “…F… Father. May I borrow one of the Hands?”
Barky was taken aback, flinching visibly at the request. “I… yes. Very well,” he said. “Just the one?”
“Yes. Please.” Leph bowed.
A beat of silence. Then, Barky nodded and produced a single filament of light from his back, allowing it to drift toward Leph. It magnetized to her wheel—startling Barky—and siphoned into one of the gemstones like a noodle. Barky winced and floated back a few inches on reflex, a spatter of white light erupting where the filament had been torn away. The wound closed soon enough.
“You couldn’t do that before,” he murmured. “You… must have grown stronger, Leph.”
“Or the world has grown weaker,” Leph replied as that single filament reemerged from her back, shining brightly. First came a gentle pulse of silver that washed over the ground, climbing up everyone’s feet. Hakk covered his eyes with one set of claws, tensed, and then relaxed.
“Whoa,” Hakk whispered.
Jerry stretched his wings and sighed. “Burn’s gone.”
“The life in the ground is also… improved,” Xerneas reported. “And the air…”
The strange, fleshy corruption of the ground had also, mercifully, reverted. A Dungeon had not formed. But… the disruption to the world itself was still there. Leph hadn’t fixed that. What changed? It wasn’t immediate, but… Well. At least the air and the people were healed.
Sensing that Leph would handle the strange plague in the air, Zena carefully crossed the muddy sand to where Emily was still flat on her back. Her eyes were open; she glanced at Zena, so she was awake. Good start.
“Emily?” Zena asked. “Are you…”
Emily nodded. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Don’t be,” Zena said. “You couldn’t have seen this coming. And… how’s… Tanneth?”
Emily winced, bringing a wing to her chest. Her great fingers squeezed as if trying to grasp her heart.
Now that Zena was closer, against the noon sun, Emily’s scales were closer to the sky’s color than their former silver sheen.
“We’re okay,” Emily said. “But… we won’t see each other again.”
“I see.” Zena nodded. “It’s okay, both of you. Many others can help you through that, alright? Do you know what I mean? Others who’d gone through the same thing.”
Emily nodded. “I know,” she said. “I know from… the half who’s Tanneth.”
“Good. That’s a good start,” Zena whispered, gently placing a ribbon on her shoulder. “Would you like to stay here a while longer?”
“Hey.” Gahi had appeared next to her with a Teleport. “She alright?”
“I’d like… s-some company,” Emily said.
“Oh.” Gahi glanced at Zena. “Eh. Alrigh’. I’ll stay ‘ere I guess.”
Trina was slithering over as well, along with Har, Lygo, Ax, and Ani.
“Any healing?” Ani called, raising several vines.
“I think we’re all fine here,” Zena called back. “Thank you, Ani.”
“Hey, uh… I know we’re glad to be victorious and all,” Har said, raising a claw, “but aren’t we forgetting someone?”
A beat of silence. Then, several feet away, Star cursed. “Owen!”
