Radiant Void

[Fusion]

Scrafty flashed a grin and nodded. "You don't gotta tell me twice. Take care of yourself, First-Blade." They grabbed hold of Puddle and flared their aura. "If anyone needs a ride up, just say the word. Or don't! Hardly any of us can even fly, it's not like I couldn't tell who needed a hand."

After escorting anyone who wanted and would let them up to the hole leaving Maple, Scrafty and Puddle shot off themselves to the outside. "I bet we're gonna walk into another all-out brawl!"

"I'm starting to miss Vix..." Puddle sighed, holding on. Hopefully Scrafty was wrong and the tree squad didn't need any actual help. Yet... something was telling Puddle that was far from the case.

 

[Chibi Pika]

A heavy fog hung over Starr's mind as the first shreds of consciousness slowly returned to her. The only thing in her memory was a sea of thick, stifling anger, and she was drowning in it. She couldn't quite feel her body--just a dull, painful mass vaguely in the shape of an Incineroar. What might have been her chest felt hollow and empty, with torn, ragged, edges. Maybe it really was. Maybe she was just dead.

But as the seconds crawled by, her senses slowly started coming back into focus. She could feel the dirt under her body, hear the voices of others nearby. Her limbs felt like logs; thick, dead, too heavy to move. Slowly, her claws flexed, too weak to pierce the ground. But it felt real.

A voice was saying her name, but the idea of responding was too exhausting to even think about. Doing anything at all was too exhausting to think about. She tried to ignore it, but it wouldn't stop. Wouldn't go away. Why wouldn't it leave. Why didn't anyone ever leave.

It took all the effort in her body to pry her eyelids apart, just a crack. Her vision swam. A vague, soupy mess of color slowly condensed into something blue and black, with bands of gold. A Luxray. Brisa...

Brisa.

Starr's eyes snapped open fully. Brisa was there, beat half to hell, looking like she could collapse any second.

Her breath caught in her chest and her blood turned to ice. In her mind's eye was the memory of looking down on Brisa from a hundred feet in the air, and the afterimage felt like a knife plunging through her heart. The things she'd said, the things she'd thought, that powerful unrelenting, nauseating need to make Brisa suffer, because she had to know, had to see the truth--

"Oh god," Starr choked. "Oh god, oh fuck, Brisa, I..."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Starr was beaten. Hurting. Hardly able to get words out. But she had survived, gods damnit, she'd survived.

"I know," said Brisa, crouching low to speak to Starr at eye level, to be closer to her. "It's okay. I'm okay."

Every part of her hurt. Her eyes threatened to shut. Her muscles burned. Her whiskers stung. Her ears rang. Her heart bled, and bled, and bled. But Starr was herself again, and she cared, and she wasn't dead, and so Brisa could only be okay. That was all she needed to know.

"I'm here."

 

[Namohysip]

Blade smiled at them. "You have time. Stay here and recover; I don't think you'll be much help on the surface right now." He looked at Maple next. "You stay put, all right?"

"I'm... sorry..."

"No need to apologize to yourself. Save it for the others." Blade nodded firmly.

Wishkeeper drifted through the portal to report back to the others on what was happening. He remarked occasionally about how the portal between the Voidlands and Cibus was abnormally long, and wondered what exactly the purpose was of the tunnel between. These portals did not typically have a travel distance...

"...Everyone," Wishkeeper suddenly said after one of his reports, "There appears to be a bright light coming from... the left side of the portal between Cibus and the Voidlands."

Wishkeeper was saying this from between both realms, pointing somewhere far-off.

"...It's Joule. What."

 

[Fusion]

Turns out the tree situation wasn't all that exciting, for Scrafty's taste, so they came back down. They were quite visibly disappointed, all they were doing up there was running from the tree and all that fun stuff. It didn't even look like that Blacklight Mewtwo guy was around.

Fortunately, some sort of excitement remained in Maple's hell. Well... possibly, from the sound of it. "Joule? How'd he get in here... I wasn't even sure you guys told him about this little fight."

Puddle was less than pleased to hear about Joule's incoming arrival. It hid itself in it's core, which Scrafty absentmindedly grabbed onto.

 

[Namohysip]

Joule flew right past Wishkeeper and toward the Cibus exit, and he only sighed and drifted back into the Voidlands. "I don't care. He seems well. Perhaps he wants to give Maple a morale boost."

"Ah, hello, Owen!" Joule called from the portal. "I trust things are going well!" He did not wait for a response, and was already sticking his head out of the portal.

 

[Chibi Pika]

"I know," said Brisa, crouching low to speak to Starr at eye level, to be closer to her. "It's okay. I'm okay."

"I'm here."

Brisa was... here.

Why. Why was she still here.

Bruised, bloodied, broken, but still standing. Starr felt the burning need to do something, anything, and found herself automatically reaching for the Shadows that she knew had the power to heal... and then she froze, trembling. Just thinking about the Shadows made her feel utterly sick. So she didn't. Selfish. Won't even endure a bit of discomfort to ease her pain.

"You shouldn't be here," she finally managed, her voice raw and raspy.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

She put a paw out to touch Starr's shoulder, to say I'm here, really here, and I ain't leaving. An odd impulse crossed her mind to heal her, but she didn't have that power. Maybe it wasn't in her nature. Instead, she drew closer to Starr, not looking away, not flinching from the absolute dread on Starr's face.

"Dunno what the fuck you're talkin' about," murmured Brisa. "There ain't a place else I oughta be."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Brisa's words felt like a hand plunging into her chest, squeezing her heart. Why. Why couldn't she just be scared. Or angry. Why wouldn't she leave. Why did people always stay with her, even when she hurt them. It didn't make any sense.

"Why does anyone think I'm worth anything," she said is a low voice, staring brokenly downward. "Why do you think I'm worth anything. People keep... giving me second chances when all I do is hurt them." Bars, cells, lightning, pleading, crying. "What do I have to do for you to see it?"

Don't let me hurt you. You deserve better than that.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Starr..."

Brisa's cheeks tensed at the prickling feeling in her eyes that warned of tears. Gods, the pain in Starr's voice. Had it really been this bad, all this time, since before they'd even made things right between them? Hell, when Brisa had expressed practically that very sentiment...

Goddamnit, Starr... how many people am I gonna hurt before you'll tell me I'm a fuckin' menace? Don't you see? That's what I am.

Had Starr taken it to heart? Decided that, no, Brisa wasn't the menace, but herself? She'd been so insistent that she was so much worse than Brisa, that she was intentionally cruel...

"Still think I'm better than you?"

And what had Brisa done with her own feelings? Oh, gods.

"I'm sick of hurtin' people, but it's all I'm capable of," she hissed. "I am a violent animal. You have to put me down."

Brisa struggled to keep breath in her lungs. They'd hit Starr hard enough to kill her, were it not for the parasite's influence. She'd seemed so strong, but that first strike had been enough...

Brisa’s Titanic Bolt Strike dealt a CRITICAL 13933 damage to Starr! It’s Ultra Effective!

It was like Starr hadn't defended herself at all. Like she'd meant for them to hit her that hard. To hurt her. Even as she'd said those – terrible, hurtful – things, had she wanted them to . . . destroy her? To... To punish her?

No.

Never.

It ain't right.

You deserve love too.

Brisa took Starr's shoulder in one paw, gripping hard enough to hurt, and turned her face up with the other. Nothing else existed, for a moment, not even her own body or the pain it felt.

How could she get Starr to understand what she was worth, after what had just happened?

"I don't give a shit about anyone but myself."

It wasn't true.

Brisa knew the truth.

"Starr..." she said, voice cracked out of all composure before she'd even started. "I know you're hurtin'. I know. But listen. You're not ruined. You're not hopeless. You've been carryin' all this hurt inside you I didn't even realise, and it's ten kinds of incredible to me that you're still tryin' to do right by other people. You're still treatin' folks like they matter. You t-treat . . . me . . . like I m-matter. Maybe y'don't believe it makes a difference. But it makes the only difference."

She held eye contact even as her chest hammered and her breathing faltered.

"No matter the cruel thoughts you struggle with... Starr, you keep choosin' to be decent, and that ain't a lie, it's brave and it's good and you're brave and you're good. I think that's amazing. I fuckin' admire you for it. I do."

She probably looked a mess. She was definitely crying. It didn't matter.

"You're a good person, Starr. And if you can't believe that, then I'll keep believin' for you."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr was silent for the longest time, staring up at Brisa's tear-streaked face. Several times she tried to open her mouth, tried to protest. Tried to look away. But she couldn't. All the the walls she'd tried to put up had crumbled.

You t-treat . . . me . . . like I m-matter.

Of course you fucking matter.

There were a thousand different things she wanted to say. But the words wouldn't come. So she did the only thing she knew how to do and threw her arms around Brisa, pulling the Luxray into a bone-crushing hug.

"You moron," she said, giving a half-hearted chuckle as she held tight and never wanted to let go.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"M-moron, huh?" said Brisa, laughing through her tears. "Maybe so, but I ain't wrong."

She returned Starr's hug, pulling herself close, and shuddered with relief. Elsewhere in the void, there was light, sound, movement, urgency. They'd get to that. First, they could have this. It was gonna be okay.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Ah, hello, Owen! I trust things are going well!

Luz spun, as did her head. Things just kept getting wilder!

"Look, y'all, let's take Blade's advice serious and get outta here. C'mon!"

She glanced back at Eternatus Blade, perplexed, but then went about hurrying bruised and exhausted teammates to the portal.

 

[Flyg0n]

Koa was still reeling. At least they were all ok. It was the only thought he could cling to.

Just when he'd thought things on this world couldn't get any more confusing...

"How did you get here?" he demanded, eyeing Joule in confusion even as he headed for the portal.

Man, he was ready to go home.

 

[Cresselia92]

So, there were both a Sir Blade and a Miss Blade now. Two different entities that shared the same body, or two halves do the same soul that shared the same body?

Deities are so bizarre…

“Welp! It seems things are slowly starting to get back to normal after going crazy so hard, huh?” said Petram, wagging his tails and smirking. “We even had the chance to take down a Starrzilla! Wasn’t that badass?!”

“That… is not the term I would describe that occurrence. ‘Frightening’ would be far more appropriate.”

“Ah, yes. Because we are our worst enemies, aren’t we? Or something like that? Petram tilted his head. “Perhaps we should hold back on our training a bit. Otherwise, we might become too powerful and end up being a threat to ourselves. And then, we would need to become even more powerful to be able to take ourselves down, and…” The shade groaned. “Okay, my head’s spinning now…”

Icetales chuckled in amusement, even if the noise he made was distorted by the cosmic gusts still swirling around his neck. However, his expression deflated visibly when his gaze went on some distant souls that were still trapped in some golden chains. He saw someone managing to free themselves, but what about the others?

“Sir Blade,” he said, approaching the Hydreigon. “What dost thou have in mind to help those souls?” He motioned toward the still-trapped entities. “We cannot leave them like that, can we?”

“Oh! Oh! I can fly!” Petram focused on his energy, and soon enough he was hovering freely around the area. “I could try to bite into some chains. Would that help?”

 

[Namohysip]

"I do not think that is something to worry about." Hydreigon Blade floated a little higher and gestured toward them. "While you are gone... I am going to help them! It might take some time... but one by one, I'm going to free them. It's my responsibility as Telum's Voice, after all... Which means you should help me when you can, too." He nodded at Maple. "Part of you may be Eternatus, and another part may be Dark Matter, but it is still your responsibility as Voice to protect Telum."

"Protect... Y-yes, that..."

Wishkeeper drifted closer. "She isn't very articulate, is she? This isn't... like the Maple we know."

"That's because it isn't," Blade said, sighing. "It's... something more primal. Something within her. Ohh, it's all so hard to explain... but, here in the Voidlands, 'Maple's' very spirit is... shattered. I'm sorting through the memories as we speak, but I'm only her past. I believe what you see in front of you is... parts of her present, corrupted from whatever that thing is." He gestured to the sealed parasite. "If I had to guess... The creature before you now--the other me--is some combination of my instincts as a Voice, and the essences of Dark Matter and Eternatus that had embedded themselves into me. Perhaps... I am them, too. How frightening... Would that make me a Voice of Darkness, like your leader?"

"Diyem isn't a Voice," Wishkeeper said.

"Oh?" Blade tilted his head. "That's odd. Then why can he take on such a form?"

"...His... Abyssal God form, as he calls it?"

"It's certainly nothing like any Dark Matters I know," Blade pointed out. But then, he shrugged. "I suppose it isn't important. Ah, but you should go when things are safer... I think Joule is performing some astral projection to help you all get safely home. So bold of him! Goodness, I wish I had a physical body. I'd love to wrap him in my arms and... ah! Where are my manners? You're still here."

"...Did... he just tell us to hurry up and leave?" Wishkeeper murmured.

 

[Fusion]

"...I already said he didn't need to tell me twice so I'm honestly pretty miffed he did," Scrafty scoffed. It's not like it was their fault shit wasn't happening anywhere so they came back to hell. Maybe next time, when there's a world-threatening evil, that evil should actually be fucking threatening. "Whatever, it was about time I made an exit anyway. With pre-Maple bursting at the thought of Joule, and the two brolic cats having a post-beatdown coitus, I feel like hell just went up a few age ratings."

Puddle didn't understand half of what Scrafty said, and felt it did not want to. So it nodded its head in agreement. "Just get us the heaven outta here."

"Uh- I see what you did there!" Scrafty laughed, floating off. "If I didn't have to scoop you up with a spoon I'd have blown you to heaven for that."

"You just copied my fuckin' joke."

"No, I made the fucking joke, you made a damned pun."

They argued all the way until they left, it was the easiest way to distract themselves from... everything else.

 

[Namohysip]

"Take care, everyone," said Hydreigon Blade. "I trust all will go well! And I shall see you soon in the surface when my living self regains proper thought."

Slowly, the team departed, bidding farewell to the two Blades. All was calm. Wishkeeper helped Dave bring the Parasite out next, and Diyem briefly warned the others to beware of any inert or rampaging Mewtwo in the Voidlands while they waited to be summoned.

"...What?"

Don't worry about it.

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