Sharpedo Bluff

[Persephone]

“Sort of. My mom was one of the few outsiders in the town, and the people never really forgave me for that. Then some property of mine got stolen and I had to go get it back.”

All of that was true, more or less.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

That was... vague. Celeste began to worry he was pressing a subject Cuicatl didn’t want to talk about.

“Ah. Is this a nice break from all that, then? Heh, it hadn’t occurred to me that this could be an improvement for some of us.”

 

[Persephone]

“Oh, absolutely! I’m a lot stronger now and have fewer things to worry about. Sure, the world’s ending and that sucks, but so was mine. And I can actually make a difference here!”

She paused and lowered her head as she mulled whether to even say the logical conclusion. Maybe she was already overstaying her welcome in a world that wasn’t meant for people like her.

She was used to that at this point.”

“I’m not sure I want to leave. The few people back home who care about me will be confused for a bit, but they’ll move on in a year or two.”

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Huh. Cuicatl’s world was ending? She seemed to think of the end of her world as some normal affair.

“Ah... There’s some people here I don’t want to leave behind, but... I don’t want to leave Salac, err, my sister on her own. I don’t think I could stand the thought of never seeing her again, anyways. Things will be much calmer back home, at least.”

 

[Persephone]

Right. Family.

“I’m raising a tyrunt hatchling. She’s...” Not quite a daughter. Not quite a sister. Partner? That feels a little dismissive. “She sees me as her mother. I’d feel bad leaving her alone. Sure, she has a dad, but he’s kicked her and I’m not sure if he’d do worse when I’m gone.”

“But I like this place,” she says. What she doesn’t say is ‘And I’ll stay because I’m a selfish monster masquerading as a person.’

 

[Shiny Phantump]

“Oh.”

Celeste normally considered himself pretty good at understanding what people meant based on what they said, but that was a whole knot to untangle. She said Tyrunt saw her as a mother, which was a wordy way of working avoiding saying that Tyrunt was her daughter. Why? Tyrunt had a father... Was that her father-of-shell, or Cuicatl’s mate? Cuicatl seemed to have no affection for the father figure, so probably not that latter. Could he be neither? Just someone Tyrunt thought of as her father in the same way she thought of Cuicatl as her mother? Plus the matter of the kick. That might be the easiest angle of questioning.

“You worry he’ll... do worse?”

 

[Persephone]

Cuicatl didn’t feel like spilling her entire life story to a near-stranger. So the real answer, that her mom had died and her dad changed for the worse because of it, would remain unspoken for now.

“Probably not. She’s a tyrunt, he’s a human: she gives better than she gets.”

“Sorry for putting this all on you out of nowhere. I’ll leave you to your stars.”

Cuicatl rose to all fours and walked away from the sound of the water.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Ah, so the dad was a human. That cleared things up... somewhat. So-

Ah! Cuicatl was leaving. That made, what, the third time this had happened? Was he really that bad at conversations?

“W-Wait. One last thing.” He didn’t actually have one last thing to say, but he felt like he should have one last thing to say. Something to stop the conversation from ending on this note. Time to think quickly.

“W-Whatever you choose... I hope it makes you happy. E-Even if that means leaving Tyrunt. You don’t have to leave behind a place that makes you happy for someone else.”

Was that a good thing to say? He wasn’t sure. Hopefully, if nothing else, it didn’t make things worse.

 

[Persephone]

“Thank you.”

It was a lovely idea. But it still couldn’t absolve her. And if it could, she wouldn’t deserve it.

Cuicatl walked away to brood alone.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

<><><><><>

 

[Ambyssin]

As it happened, Bahamut was first to reach the bluff. He lay down on his side, waiting for Maple to show up.

 

[Namohysip]

It didn't take long for Owen to appear next, looking down with a hint of shame. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't expect that Hidden Land tour to become an interrogation. I got a read for how powerful she really is, and... froze up. She could've beaten us all several times over with one strike... Sorry. I'm not used to being so weak." Or maybe he was and this was just a painful reminder of it.

A light thud indicated Maple's arrival; in her hands were several jars, though the way she was handling them, they didn't seem related to her reason for arriving. Each one contained a Shade. "Bahamut, Owen," Maple greeted, and Owen already clammed up.

 

[Ambyssin]

"Well now... I wasn't expecting the little one to be joining us." Bahamut sighed and shook his head. "I was going to ask you a question about the weird stones we've all been carrying around, but it seems that there are other matters at hand."

He crossed his upper wings. "Let us cut to the chase, then." Bahamut gestured to Owen. "The little one told me that you asked a small contingent of the team about our boss and their answers were... dodgier than a Minimize-spamming muk." Purple and red expanded in his eyes. "So, allow me to tell you the honest truth. Yes, our boss is some variant of Dark Matter from some unknown land. Our team was assembled by complete happenstance. We all answered vague SOS signals he sent because he was too paranoid to enter any of our worlds and recruit people directly. He did not even tell of his true nature at first.

"The reason why so many of them say they are so trusting toward him is because your actions have roused their suspicions to a much higher degree. After all, you are physically present here. Our boss is not." He looked at Owen. "This, too, is because he is too paranoid of what would happen if he set foot in this world. And perhaps these bodies he made for us have heightened our paranoia. But I do find it odd how much power you have at your disposal and how you have dodged questions asked by both teammates and denizens of this planet."

Bahamut bowed to Maple. "I apologize on behalf of my teammates for their lack of transparency. But it would be a grave mistake to take us to task because of who are boss is. After all... we can attack Darkwhite and her ilk. For all of your power, however, you cannot lay a finger on her. Thus, if you truly have Cibus' best interests at heart, we need to work together. More transparency, fewer secrets. This is bigger than any of us."

 

[Namohysip]

Maple had the same expression that Owen had recognized from before, and he had a feeling that no matter what Bahamut wanted to say, or what he got across, the damage had already been done from the group that Maple had already summoned to interrogate. It simply wasn't fair. But hopefully at least some small part of this could be their saving grace.

"That's interesting," Maple said, apparently focusing on one aspect of what Bahamut said. "Paranoia, more instilled within you due to your origins, the means of being summoned. That is possible."

"S-so... so you aren't going to kill us?" Owen asked.

"I am not," Maple replied. "My reasoning for bringing you there was fulfilled. I wanted to see how you would behave when away from Dark Matter's influence, and then pressed. I got what I wanted."

"But... but you hate Dark Matter."

"I do."

"Then..."

"Perhaps, if I had my way, I might have fought you, or pressed more aggressively. I do not know." Maple smiled again, though she looked at neither of them directly, and in fact her eyes were closed. "I cannot kill you. I am under direct and specific orders from Arceus to not harm any of you."

 

[Ambyssin]

"... fascinating." Oh, if Bahamut could just hear Maple tell that to Dave. His head would probably explode. It would at least be good for some amusement.

"Anyway, about this stone." He levitated up his useless lump. "It's been... acting strangely? I'm not sure how to phrase it... but it feels like it's siphoning away my radiance somehow."

 

[Namohysip]

Maple's smile shifted to a pensive, neutral expression. "Excuse me?" she asked.

"Oh, that's right," Owen said. "A little while ago, I explained to Bahamut, you know, what was going on with the Shades and these stones, and we kinda got curious, and... Well, now he has a heavy one, like mine."

"I see. And have you been feeling tired at all, Owen? Or anything else?"

"No. I've been fine. And my Shade is really happy in there!"

"Bahamut..." Maple stepped a little closer, inspecting his light. Now that she had a closer look, it seemed like it was indeed depleting, if only slightly... "How closely have you been touching that lump since then?" she asked.

 

[Ambyssin]

"I have this bag." Bahamut lifted up the sad, sorry excuse for a satchel. It was covered in off-colored patches and looked as if it had been trampled on. "As I don't really have much of a solid body, I hang it from one of my chest spikes. Why, is that a problem? Is this stone actually some sort of alien explosive?"

He extended a wing-claw toward the stone and tapped it. Suddenly, he went as rigid as a metal fence post.

 

[Namohysip]

Maple frowned when Bahamut spoke, a few small pieces of the puzzle apparently sliding together in her head. There was something familiar about these Shades that she could not quite place for a while, and Bahamut's description was something that concerned her. How did that fit together?

It siphoned Radiance?

But it did not seem to do that specifically with herself...

Unless--

"Bahamut, WAIT--"

Too late. The moment Bahamut touched the stone directly, it was as if it was glued to him. A black hole sliding against a sun; the energy spiraled out of Bahamut and into the stone in a gravity well that only affected the two of them, ripping away his light in an instant like ribs slow-cooked for hours and hours. Gold turned black; his glorious form whittled away to a dying husk.

Owen and Maple both cried out for vastly different reasons. Maple's was surprisingly anguished, rushing toward him.

 

[Ambyssin]

Bahamut wasn't generally one for screaming, but this sensation was unlike anything he'd ever felt before. The stone had pressed itself firmly in the center of his core and an audible sizzle rose up, like a freshly-cracked egg dropped onto a skillet. Though rigid, Bahamut tried to grab the stone with his arms. "Get— nrrraaaagh!"

The burning only grew worse and worse.

 

[Namohysip]

Owen, who had been closer, was already trying to yank the thing from Bahamut's core, but he wasn't strong enough. It was like a magnet. It was only when Maple joined Owen that they were able to break it free of him, but so much damage had already been done.

The stone rolled away from Bahamut, shimmering and gleaming, and planted itself firmly in the ground. It scorched the dirt before it actually cooled off, but the Shade inside seemed to be worried. It did not feel Bahamut's pain, but it knew Bahamut was in pain, and that was bad.

"Bahamut," Owen said. "Are--what happened?"

"Bahamut, can you hear me?" Maple said immediately, her voice firm not for Bahamut's sake but because she was trying to keep calm. Owen had never seen her like this before; her mind seemed to be somewhere else, even as she was actively trying to diagnose whatever had happened to the dragon of light.