The air was too thin. Most of Team Spectrum had fallen unconscious due to the strain alone, but Maple and several others came in swiftly to pull them all out. A headcount, followed by another for good measure, and by some miracle they were able to bring everyone back.
Green gave Dave one last thanks before looking at Ionys, who had gone totally silent, staring ahead with a stunned expression. Occasionally, attempts to talk to Ionys got grunts in reply, and sometimes he'd try to resist whatever Diyem tried when carrying him along, but they were feeble. He asked, occasionally, where Adne had gone. Diyem replied that she was never there, and Ionys would stare in disbelief. He'd ask again, and later, he seemed to believe it.
It was then that Green was ready. Biting his cheek, thoughtful, he said, "Yellow and Blue are already in there. Maybe they're helping. Shit... guess I outlived myself anyway." He looked at Ionys, waiting until their eyes met. "Look at you," he murmured. "Look what's happened..."
"I was... just..."
Green sighed. He wondered if he should wait--wait to face his team again, one last time, in case Ionys wouldn't recover. But gentle assurances from the others suggested that it would only make it harder, and that perhaps he would still help himself after all. But, most concerning was the fact that Green's body was losing its stability. No matter how well Diyem protected Green, he was
old for a Substitute, not to mention battered from the shockwaves. He might not even last the walk home.
So, sighing and deciding to take it with a prepared mind, Green nodded. "Right," he said. Dave, barely conscious, could see this. Green made sure of it. "Hey," he said. "Gonna be honest. I don't think I'd've made it without you. Without all of you. And... gah, fuck. I don't do this kinda shit. But, if this is the last time I get to say it... Thanks. Alright? There. I'm... yeah. That's all." He turned away. "Thanks for saving Cibus." He squeezed his claws, hesitated, held a breath... and disappeared.
Ionys jolted, then went limp. They stopped walking toward the portal to inspect him. Even Diyem held some hope, wincing as Shadows leaked from his jaws.
Those tired eyes opened. There was a hint of madness in them, still. A confused delirium that didn't quite go away, didn't leave his system yet... Perhaps would not leave for a long time. But Diyem saw something cognizant in those eyes, and he asked,
"Where is Adne?"
And the Zoroark's expression tensed. He wanted to say something, but then turned his head away, not bothering to fight against Diyem's hold. "Gone."
"Mm." Diyem continued through the portal.
"Good answer."
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Days 207 ~ 221 - Renewal
The following days for all of Team Spectrum, no matter how well they'd done in the battle, were a blur. At best, they were bedridden for at least a full week. At worst, they were almost completely comatose, alive only due to the energy that Diyem continued to passively channel through them. Their spirits drifted in the Voidlands, where several of Diyem's servants helped ease their stay until their eventual reawakening. They were surprisingly effective pillows, and Toast had become somewhat of a retirement home pet while the team was in varying degrees of helplessness.
Their Void Eternas lived in Cibus on their own or paid visits to them now and then as they came to, and then ebbed away. Each day, Team Spectrum was a little more energized. It was a slow, positive trend. Cal in particular only left Owen's side to bring him food or help him stay clean and comfortable. It was humbling... but Owen decided to be a little more helpless than he actually was. He had a feeling that Cal wanted this, at least for a little while.
During their blurry bedridden days, faded memories would return to them of what had happened, and what was reported to them from Diyem.
Pop's control over the Legends had been masterful despite how long it had been since he'd done such a feat. Entire oceans were quelled; whole land barriers erected; skies and seas flattened or normalized. Wild Pokemon, all innately aware of the danger presented to them, housed and rescued even their natural prey in a universal truce of nature. And while not zero, casualties had been lowered by several orders of magnitude from its potential.
Destiny Village and several other seaside towns had been completely flooded over; further ruined by the water's recession as the moon was shifted back to its proper place--though now with a new and noticeably crater visible from Cibus. Notably, the Water Continent had been particularly devastated from these floods, and massive restorations efforts were already underway in a worldwide recovery effort that truly put the spirit of Cibus' nature at the front.
If there had been any celebrations over Team Spectrum's victory, they were not around to see it, too busy recovering in their homes, which were respectfully being left alone--lest they face some divine smite from the various Legends guarding them. Kyurem in particular was oddly devout in guarding Rocky Road...
Diyem did not allude to much, though based on various hints from his disdainful remarks, he has been avoiding Pansit in particular like the plague. Cibus was a world of power and talent; despite the catastrophe that had affected the entire planet, the Legends, gods, Pokemon, and heroes worked together to repair the worst of civilized damage in a matter of a few tireless days.
Countless belongings have been lost, perhaps forever. And despite the near-perfect efforts of Cibus to save one another, there were inevitably casualties that were immeasurably high. Buffet was gone from Cibus for a time, entirely dedicated to sorting out and guiding the influx of new spirits across the aether. He seemed somber, appealing to Arceus if there would be a way to restore those who had been lost to such a supernatural calamity.
However, Arceus sadly did not have that kind of power just yet, still recovering from his great miracle that had created the second Cibus. It had only been a few decades prior, due to the Omen of Time. Accepting this, Buffet and countless others dedicated themselves to easing those who survived to continue forward for the sake of the fallen.
It was a sobering reminder to the heroes of Cibus, all of which had survived. No matter how strong they were, they were still singular, and could not defend the weak from lethal disaster.
Still, the number of civilized Pokemon that had fallen was manageable. What concerned the world in the immediate days following were the effects on the ecosystem. Whole landscapes changed due to the earthquakes and floods; rivers disappeared, and new lakes formed. Paradise, in the Mist Continent, had been turned into a swamp. It was the first time that Nanab saw Pine cry.
But this was where Cibus had shined the brightest. Filled with Hope, a strange and renewed vigor seemed to flow through all Pokemon. Flood waters were drained; local Ground Pokemon irrigated the lands and flattened the soil; Grass Pokemon restored the forests during the day, and were then warmed and reinvigorated by the warmth of Fires and the spectral lights of Ghosts at night. Pokemon attuned to the night found more Pokemon trapped or in need of rescue day by day, even in the darkest and most remote areas. The body count had somehow gone
down as more missing Pokemon, presumed dead, were instead found in some lucky alcove.
Countless stories like these echoed all across Cibus, which only further amplified morale to do more for one another. By the time Team Spectrum was awake again, Cibus had managed to restore most of its basic civilizations. There were still remnants of ruin, of course. A repairing building, or a displaced boulder here and there. They were of a lower priority, or perhaps they wanted to keep it there as a reminder.
Cibus was saved. It would recover. And, despite it all, it would grow to be even stronger than before because of it.
<><><>
Are any of you awake? Good. Here are your daily updates...
When Team Spectrum had recovered a bit more, they were cognizant enough to listen to Diyem give them updates telepathically. They were in no shape to be out and about, much less doing anything strenuous. But the fact that Diyem had not called upon them to return to their home worlds, despite the fact that Cibus appeared to be unambiguously saved, had not gone unnoticed by the savvier of the group.
Indeed, their work was not done. During their dormancy, several discoveries had been made...
The first was that The Eternal Blacklight had given off significant energy signatures from their battle. The final parasite died around the same time its host had been sealed away and into the other realm, and Pop had a feeling that even if they tried attacking it, it wouldn't have truly destroyed it so easily. Combining it with testimonies from various people on Cibus, they were able to piece together its exact nature.
The Eternal Blacklight was an entity whose spiritual base was the Eternatus that had appeared in Telum. However, the origin of its power went far deeper. Giovanni, in his quest for power, had chased down this Eternatus across the cosmos until happening upon it. Eternatus had gone far off its usual course and sensed the Tree of Life--a great energy source--and used it to recover its strength and hide from its pursuer. Eternatus' size was nothing compared to a whole planet, and yet its energy-absorbing nature made detection by normal means impossible.
But at the same time, it had run into Dark Matter, who petrified it instantly. There, it seemed to mingle with Dark Matter's energy, twisting and changing from the malice inherent to its spirit. At the same time, Giovanni tracked it down and sent Mewtwo after it; the strange aura of the planet instantly transformed him--and his pursuers--into Pokemon, which had wound up being a significant inconvenience for a time. But when Giovanni's Mewtwo--who was starting to say whole, neutral sentences on occasion, but little else--made contact with Dark Matter, Mewtwo's empty shell of a spirit had become the perfect housing place for Dark Matter's twisted power.
Sword's memories filled the gap from there. Maple--as Blade, still a Hydreigon--appealed to the sealed Eternatus to help, and it did. But from there, only more chaos ensued; a clash of energies from absorbed Legends and Eternatus itself had reacted not with Dark Matter, but to Maple, triggering an apocalyptic chain reaction. A superpowered Voice of Life completely and utterly overtook the very reality it was meant to protect--and Maple because a sentient universe without even realizing it.
The method to undo this process was, while long, not impossible. In the coming decades, Maple planned to make arrangements for just that... But that also meant they would likely not be able to travel far. She seemed unsure. The many spirits inside of her seemed eager to help in other ways, it it was all up in the air. She did not yet know what she should do.
Maple's interaction with Eien, however, had triggered the slain Eternatus' reawakening within Maple. Resonance with another Dark Eternatus was enough to break loose the spirits that were most prominent during Telum's end. Silver, Red, Giovanni, Shield, Sword... They were all freed, along with their Pokemon. Giovanni, perhaps by chance, or perhaps by the power of his own twisted spirit, had gained the power of the stars; Silver, perhaps due to how closely bound his spirit was to his father, was also transformed. Sword, the one who had fought Dark Matter directly, had also been reawakened to her true self, only to be corrupted moments later by Blacklight Mewtwo.
The Eternal Blacklight was running on the instinct to feed off of more power, just as Eternatus did. Only now, its power came from malice and pain and strife. Fragments of its spirit had implanted themselves in Mewtwo and others, and like a virus, he spread to other victims. Some fragments died in the process of infecting others, creating a new consciousness in its place--this gave birth to the false S'more and Xernatus. Others influenced their hosts from within, giving rise to Soda, Blacklight Mewtwo, and potentially even Owen, had they not rescued him so quickly. The Shades, too, had been a product of infection on Joule, who had rejected it outright, only to go berserk and shatter himself in the same way.
But this led to a new problem: The Eternal Blacklight was still alive. In a last-ditch effort to seal it away, Arceus ejected it from the very fabric of reality... but it did not die in that empty space. Instead, it had created a new one in this Null World.
Null Worlds... Bean explained them. In the Overseers' model of all interconnected realities, Null Worlds are places where nothing existed, and therefore anything could exist. There, spirits of Creation were the most powerful, as they--such as Pop--were able to freely alter the fabric of reality as they saw fit. Some spirits were born Creators; others learned it over time. But The Eternal Blacklight was a dangerous Creator; there was no telling, over time, what sort of new reality it would spawn, and what troubles it would grant to other worlds should it burst like a festering wound.
While Cibus was safe, it may not be in the coming millennia. Overseers, perhaps, could take care of it... but Team Spectrum felt, for most of them, dutiful, and Diyem was not at all surprised. He, too, knew that they had to fight it...
It was their final mission: To go into The Eternal Blacklight's newborn realm and defeat it utterly, or save it from its own fate. However, in order to do either, they had to first overpower its domain... And that required strength and power. Their bodies were not yet at their peak; there was still room to grow. So, at the apex of their forms, they would go.
And until then, they would train their bodies and minds for all of its tricks and influences...
So that is why it became a very,
very curious event when, only shortly after most of Team Spectrum had regained the ability to walk and perhaps run, Diyem called those with the strength to do so to follow him on an excursion to the
Grass Continent...
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