First came the rumble of thunder high above, slithering through the thick, dark clouds like a Dunsparce digging through soil. Then came the rain. A few stray drops that became a torrential downpour only seconds after, sheet after sheet of black rain pelting the usually dry and lifeless expanse north of lake Valor.

And all throughout, the two young trainers stood an arm's length from each other, their eyes locked, an eerie silence shared between them even amidst the deafening sound of rain and lighting.

Cyrus did not understand. It was the first time they'd seen each other in days. Each busy with their respective tasks, it was only hours ago they'd been able to connect through phone. Cynthia cheerfully informed him that she'd obtained the eight and last badge. He'd told her he had important news to report as well, his voice filled with an anxious excitement she'd never heard on him. They'd agreed to meet on these barren plains west of Veilstone to talk before heading toward Lily of the Valley island. It should have been a momentous occasion. The wheels were now in motion. Cynthia was on the verge of becoming the Champion, and with Cyrus' new possible allies in tow, it would only be a matter of time before the war was over.

But when he relayed the news, no smile formed on his friend's face. Instead, a dark discomfort seeped into her expression, and the already stormy grey of her eyes gave the crackling clouds above a run for their money.

He finished talking, and Cynthia didn't respond for a few long seconds. Only the pitter-patter of the rain could be heard.

"You…" Her words came one after the other, fearfully. "You got in contact with… the lake siblings."

"Only with Azelf," Cyrus replied, confused at her reaction. "It was a challenge to get it to hear me out. They don't call it the hermit of the siblings for nothing, but… but I got through to it! Truly! Azelf isn't as different as the other two you've told me stories of, it was just a bit more reserved. It still cares a lot for humanity, even if it doesn't want to admit it."

"And… you convinced it to act in our behalf?" asked Cynthia, gulping. "Did you… bond with it?"

Cyrus paused at that. "I… no, not yet. I didn't bring that up; I was aware there must be a reason why Azelf hasn't bonded with anyone since Nyss. But I could tell it was considering it. Those days we spent together talking… I mean, you know I'm not very knowledgeable about these things, but I can tell we truly connected. Azelf is… I don't think anyone's ever understood me so thoroughly, human or otherwise. So…"

Realizing he was rambling, he took a quick moment to breathe in and gather his thoughts. This wasn't how he'd thought this talk would go at all.

"It… agreed to help us. And to convince the other two to do the same," he summarized. There was a small pause before he spoke again. "Why do you look so… I–isn't that a good thing?"

There was a long, awkward silence. Cynthia seemed like she couldn't decide between looking at him or looking away, so she stared at the corner of his face instead. Debating whether to speak her mind or just keep going, even with Cyrus' addition to the plan.

In the end, her pride won out.

"Do you really think this is their war to fight?"

Cyrus blinked. "What?"

"The lake siblings. The idea of using them to fight a war we… as humans, started… are you really okay with something like that?" Cyrus could tell Cynthia was holding back her words, a hint of disgust crossing her expression. "If we stooped so low, what would stop Kanto from doing the same? Forcing the Winged Mirages to do their bidding?"

"W-what are you talking about? I'm not forcing Azelf to do anything." His tone started getting more heated. "And… they are doing the same. What about those rumors we heard about that failed experiment in Cinnabar? And what do you even mean by 'stooped so low'? You're talking like this is some competition, like you want to win the war just for Kanto to lose, not to end the war itself."

"Of course that's not what I meant," Cynthia hurried to defend herself. "But I… I have my pride as a Sinnohan too! I wish to end this war by my own hand, not to be bailed out by some deity!"

"And what's the difference!?" Cyrus demanded. It was so rare for him to raise his voice that Cynthia looked stunned for a moment. "Who cares how we end it? As long as no more people die… wasn't that the whole point of this!?"

A short silence followed his words. The two young trainers who'd been through so much together looked at each other as though they were complete strangers now. No… it was as though they'd just seen a part of the other previously kept hidden. Seen something they'd never wanted to see.

"Do you have no dignity? Would you truly do anything, no matter how debased, to end this war?"

Cyrus laughed, incredulously. He seriously couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Seriously… what on earth are you talking about?" he shook his head. "Do you really have your head so far up your own ass that you'd rather people die than end this war in any way other than the one you selfishly desire? Is being a hero… is doing everything by yourself that important to you?"

The grey of Cynthia's eyes flashed ominously. Her lower lip trembled with anger.

"This is a human war. This horror is one we brought upon ourselves," she said curtly. "It's up to us to clean up our own messes."

"Speak for yourself!" Cyrus yelled, balling his fist. "I didn't do anything! Neither did most of the people who've died so far just to satisfy the greed of the rich bastards controlling everything from the shadows! This isn't a matter of pride or dignity; it's about people and Pokemon coming together to stop what they started!"

Cynthia chuckled dryly. "Yeah? How's that gone for you so far?"

"Kh…!"

"Is that what you'd have us do from now on?" she asked. "Whenever problems come rushing in, you'd have legendary Pokemon solving all our problems for us? That'd be no different from the old theocracies. And look at how they ended up."

"Do… do you really have so little faith in us? In the people you're claiming to love so much?"

That one seemed to hurt. Cynthia squinted as though she'd been punched in the gut, and it took her a moment to come up with an answer.

"I… understand what must be done. What steps I and I alone must take in order to cleanse Sinnoh from the rot eating away at my people's Spirit." She looked down, closing her eyes. "They do not know what they're doing. I will take on their burden, as is my duty, and save them from the bonfire they've built for themselves. I understand it's not their fault, but they can't be trusted to–"

Cynthia never got to finish that sentence, because just then Cyrus took a step forward and punched her in the face with all the strength he had.

"GHK!"

The impact reverberated throughout the entire forest. Cynthia was face-down on the cold ground before she realized what had happened. Slowly, hand shaking, she brought her fingers to her cheek, and winced at the sudden pain of the touch. Realization finally dawned on her. Holding herself up with one hand, she looked over her shoulder at the man standing in front of her.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

And what she saw in his expression hurt more than any punch could.

"W…wh…Cyrus?"

"…I was right about you."

To say he looked disgusted would've been putting it lightly. It was the kind of expression that couldn't have been described with a single word. Hurt. Furious. Betrayed. But most of all, bitter.

Cyrus pulled his fist back, knuckles starting to bruise, as he'd never punched anyone before. He didn't seem to mind the pain, though. He just looked down at Cynthia and let out a dry, bitter laugh.

"What the hell do you know about those you're taking responsibility for?" he asked. "You chastised me for lecturing all those people, but you're even worse than me. At least I engaged them honestly. At least I tried talking to them instead of just looking down on them like they're Mareep who can't think for themselves! Ha… do you really think you're any better than them? Than anyone? You're just as arrogant and self-absorbed, the only difference is that you've got power to match your ego!"

"I-"

"That day, when we had that talk about Murkrow and Honchkrow… I should've realized then. There was a voice in my head telling me… but I ignored it. I thought maybe there was more to you… but no. You're about as deep as a puddle." He spat those words like poison, like daggers stabbing right into Cynthia's chest. "It was all hidden in your fancy words and platitudes, but in the end the truth's always been there. You're a narcissist. You don't care about anyone but yourself."

"W-that's not…"

There was a sharp sound, followed by a flash of light. Cynthia slid back, pushing herself up to her feet in a flash, her hand hovering over her Pokeballs. But when the light vanished, the Pokemon Cyrus called didn't rush to attack her. As she blinked through the momentary blindness, she saw his Honchkrow appear before him, flapping his enormous black wings behind him.

Cyrus looked back to his partner, and a deep expression of regret formed on his face. That look, more than the one before, felt like someone stabbing into Cynthia's chest.

She'd been the one to convince him to evolve him, after all.

"Cyrus, I… I'm…"

But she couldn't bring herself to say it. She couldn't say she was sorry because, deep down, she knew she wasn't. Part of her wanted to fight, to yell back. But something about the sheer sadness in her friend's face just then… it disarmed her completely. It made the roaring fire inside her chest go out like it was just a lit match in a rainstorm.

"…It wasn't all bad."

"Huh?"

He looked back at her, and for a moment that anger disappeared, replaced with longing.

"If it weren't for you, I'd have never come this far. I wouldn't have realized my own potential. You were right… I'm capable of so much more than I thought. Thanks to Azelf, I know realize that."

"You… you don't have to…" Cynthia gulped, pressing her fist against her chest. "Cyrus, we can talk about this–"

"No, we can't," he cut her off. "Because there's no time to waste. So go, fight the League, become the Champion and waste your time preparing the perfect stage for your debut as the hero that will save Sinnoh. Play out your little fantasy. I'll be doing something actually useful in the meantime."

There was a sudden gust of wind, and as she stumbled back, covering her face, Cynthia saw Cyrus' Pokemon close his talons around his shoulders, lifting him up.

"C-Cyrus, wait! I…!

But by the time she stood up and reached for him, Cyrus and his Pokemon were too high to reach.

----------------------------------------

Seven minutes before the Moonless Night.

Mint woke up from a dream she could've sworn was a memory, had she not been sure it had never happened.

Well… had it? She groaned and rubbed her face against the pillow as her eyes reluctantly opened, about a dozen different kinds of pain welcoming her good day. Or… no, probably good afternoon, judging by the little light filtering through the dusty blinds of the door window separating her room from the balcony.

For just a moment she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. It wasn't there this time. Not that she expected it to be. It was only a trick of the mind after all, most likely her brain trying to tell her to get a date already, by having her constantly dream about it, and…

It was the weirdest thing. Sometimes, right after waking up when only half of her brain worked, she could swear she smelled the faintest scent of another person in her sheets. A phenomenon that persisted even after she'd changed them a few times. It was a subtle, floral smell, always the same. And she wasn't sure why she knew this, but it was a girl's.

No, you do know.

Mint frowned at the empty other side of the bed. Yeah, that dream just now… there had been someone there, hadn't it? A girl she didn't remember ever seeing before, spending the night with her in this bed. Tall and pale, ashen hair tied back into a ponytail, face peppered with freckles. Eyes like a forest during the harshest winter. Missing an arm…

That was an odd detail for her brain to include if the girl didn't really exist. So either she was getting prophetic visions of her future soulmate –which would be worrying, considering how evil the girl looked– or her subconscious was trying to tell her something. Probably to stop being attracted to sketchy goth girls.

Yeah, good luck with that.

She shook the thought off like she did every day and, with a groan, threw the blankets to the side and shambled up to her feet, letting out a yawn so big she looked like a Swalot for a moment. After a moment of standing there in a daze, marveling at just how many bones in her body could hurt at the same time without making the pain dull, she let out a sigh and grabbed the phone from the table next to the bed, squinting at the little numbers on the screen.

19:05

Yep, that seemed about right.

She'd joked before about her sleep schedule being fucked beyond repair, but after last night it was better to refer to it as sleep chaos theory instead.

When those meteors of light had fallen on Oreburgh two weeks ago and almost killed Roark, and when the Gym had been subsequently closed for the time being, she figured she'd get to take it easy for a while, finally having only one job to worry about, while still reaping the pay from both.

Instead, her second boss quickly caught wind of her situation and started ever so unsubtly to nudge her to do more and more overtime because she was simply 'so good at being a manager' and 'really exemplified the dignity with which their workers should aim to conduct themselves'. As if 'the company' weren't the shittiest convenience store chain to ever grace Sinnoh, so trashy even 2 a.m. stoners were hesitant to visit.

And it had all culminated yesterday with a horrifying 16-hour shift that had started with her dragging her ankles through unplowed snow all the way to the store and had ended with the kind of numbing boredom that watching paint dry could only hope to achieve. She'd only had four customers during that whole 16-hour stretch, and the rest was just standing still behind the counter, waiting. She was not allowed to sit or to read a book during shifts, a policy she couldn't quite ignore as the only security camera was pointing at her, unsurprisingly enough. Luckily it only recorded video, not audio, so she was free to slip in her small earbuds and listen to music all she wanted. Had it not been for that, she was confident she would have lost her mind and gone off to kill someone out of sheer boredom.

All in all it was the most soul-crushing day of her life, a sentence she seemed to repeat more and more every month that passed. Such were the wonders of retail-working.

Every inch of her body, her feet especially, complained all the way to the kitchen as she made herself a cup of coffee and did her best not to burst into tears, which was very brave of her, she believed. As she took a careful sip, she sneaked a glance outside through the window, and the cup froze near her lips.

Huh… that's odd.

She'd heard of regional storms before, but were… uh… football stadium-sized storms a thing? They had to be. If Aurora Borealis was a thing then anything was likely. After all, that was the only explanation as to why there were dark, ominous clouds hovering right above the peak of Mt. Coronet, flashing with what almost seemed like dark lighting.

"Uh… hm."

Someone screamed down below at ground level, and suddenly her question was answered. No, this was not normal. Mint put the coffee down, no longer needing the wake-up energy, and hurried toward the window trying her best not to freak the fuck out. Screams were heard all over. Windows could be heard opening around her. Nervous muttering and chattering. She heard someone praying.

She opened the window and squinted up at the distant shape of Mt. Coronet's peak in the distance, barely a speck in the horizon. There were no clouds hiding it, strangely enough. Even then, it was hard making it out I the darkness. All but the faintest sliver of sunlight had banished, bathing the outline of the mountain with a pale glow that was getting weaker and weaker, only instants from disappearing. And that storm… no, it wasn't just one.

Two swirling… cloud banks? They flashed atop Mt. Coronet's peak ominously, one a deep blue, the other a vibrant pink.

Mint gulped. Had she …missed something? A solar eclipse or something? She hadn't seen the news in days; there was no internet in the store after all, and she pretty much collapsed on the bed as soon as she got back. Was something supposed to happen today?

As soon as she had that thought, it happened. Another dark shape appeared atop the two flashing storms, so wide all-encompassing she had trouble seeing where it began and where it ended. A cloak of pure darkness, blacking out the heavens.

"What th–"

The sky shattered like an eggshell, and a wave of nothingness fell upon Mt. Coronet. Mint couldn't scream, because just then she remembered.

She remembered the girl that'd been haunting her dreams, so clearly and vividly she couldn't believe she'd ever forgotten her.