CHAPTER 311 - THE TYRANT OF CORONET

There came a time when a Pokemon was so powerful that even I, a girl who couldn't help but constantly create scenarios in her head about how to potentially fight back in case she was attacked, just gave up. I'd reached an understanding that none of it even mattered. No ideas came up in my mind— it was just blank. An empty acceptance that if Rhyperior decided Maylene and I were dead, we would be so, and it was so, terribly chilling. A cold fear that I could feel through the frigid temperatures that had me hugging myself for warmth as we traveled through the spire-filled cavern that seemingly stretched onto eternity.

Each step the titan took ground stone against stone on his back and joints, and shook the earth further than it already was. It made it difficult to follow him and keep my steps steady, but whenever I almost slipped, Maylene or my Pokemon were here to keep me standing. Claydol and Sunshine were at our side, and Maylene couldn't stop stealing glances at me and at Rhyperior's back. I'd recalled Princess and swapped the dragon in to combat the cold, and even he knew not to provoke Rhyperior. Swallowing, I closed my eyes and focused. The mountain was dying, so I was certain— no, not certain, but I figured the rock type wouldn't attack us. Still, I wanted to make sure there was no ill will toward us to see how to best approach this.

When I opened my eyes, Rhyperior was dull and emptied. Gouged of everything that had once added up to make him and leaving only wisps of what had once been. It came as no surprise that he thought so little of us that he had not even directed anything our way. No anger, killing intent, or general enmity, but instead a sprinkling of annoyance and impatience that I would have missed had I not concentrated. This Rhyperior— he wasn't like Justin. His emotions hadn't been put under a limiter that could be broken.

He just felt less, which I supposed might be normal after living for so long, given that he had witnessed more than I could fathom. I was only wondering how in the world this momentous day was barely even moving the needle. I shot Maylene a look, offered her a tight nod, and her shoulders loosened a little bit. We were all too shaken to speak, too scared to induce a reaction out of Rhyperior. All that was audible in between the shaking of the earth was the soft, drawn-out hiss out of the oxygen mask every time I took a breath.

It took a bit for me to gather my courage—

"Where are you taking us?" Maylene asked.

Rhyperior's head turned her way, and he eyed us behind him before stopping suddenly. We also did, not wanting to get hit by the swaying of his surprisingly nimble tail. I'd wanted to grab her arm and shake her, but it was too late. It was best to act like we knew what we were doing.

"Is it to the next layer?" she continued, though I didn't miss the trembling in her voice on the back half of that sentence, nor the tiny beat of hesitation. "You know why we're here, right? I mean, I hope so." She patted me on the back a little too strongly for my taste. "My friend Grace needs to get to the summit. She can fix this. All of this."

Friend. She was throwing that word around all too easily after what I'd done to her, but it might have been easier to sell to Rhyperior.

Rhyperior answered with a short grunt that reverberated deep in my lungs and chest. This time, he called her speck and told her that he was already doing this. He commanded us not to speak again and continued on his way. Maylene sighed in relief next to me when I translated it for it, but I couldn't help but wrap my hand around Sweetheart's Pokeball and clench my teeth until my jaw hurt. It appeared like Rhyperior didn't remember me, or maybe he hadn't even seen me back then, having been too focused on killing that Tyranitar. Now that I had the experience to accurately gauge the rock type's strength, it was easy to deduce that Sweetheart's mother had been terrifyingly strong.

She had wounded Rhyperior, after all, even if she'd lost, in the end. She had opened up a fissure deep enough to lead us to a lower level of the mountain and closed it up above us.

Part of me, one Maylene would call rational, wanted to let it go. The fate of world was on the line, after all, and Rhyperior wanted nothing more but to lead us to the next floor to take us closer to Spear Pillar. Even if I released Sweetheart here and it came to a fight, she would just lose and we risked getting killed. No… maybe I would be safe, but… my eyes wandered toward Maylene. She always walked slightly ahead of me so she could take an attack or push me behind her should one come and Claydol couldn't react. Did he have any reason to keep her alive?

I'd gone through multiple changes of heart regarding Sweetheart's mother. At first, between Solaceon and Hearthome where she'd first told me about wanting revenge, I had pushed back against it. Then I'd gotten lost in the pleasure violence and torment could bring after getting my first taste of it against Harry Rodriguez, and while I had not explicitly told her she would one day kill the one who had taken her mother away from her, I'd grown more open to the idea even knowing we most likely wouldn't be ready until the end of the year.

Now?

Well, it wasn't sunshine, roses and forgiveness. I had eschewed violence, grown to become a better person and learned to give people second chances because I had gotten one. It was not like we had any chance, anyway, but if I got out of this layer without a semblance of answers for my daughter, then I did not think I would ever forgive myself, nor would she forgive me.

But not now. Not so suddenly, or I risked angering Rhyperior more than we could handle.

We passed by a colony of blue Shellos and Gastrodon who eyed us suspiciously. Most of all, however, they eyed Rhyperior with something that could only mean fear. The young ones retreated into the small puddles of water which were barely deep enough to cover them or slid behind one of the many pillars stretching high into the sky. The adults were all smaller than I remembered their species being and made themselves larger. Colors undulated on their backs, which must have been a threat display, and the water from their puddles began to foam at the surface and whip around, cracking the stone near them. It wasn't just Rhyperior, even if he was by far and beyond the strongest wild Pokemon I'd ever seen. The Pokemon here were powerful, especially the ones who had stayed behind.

The water was starting to freeze at the edges of the ponds. We'd walked along frozen ones before, but they were probably keeping this one in a liquid state.

I had it. The cold!

"Rhyperior, may I speak?" The weight of who knew how many years settled on me when he looked my way again. "It's about the temperature." Given that he kept going, circling around a stone spire the size of my apartment building, I continued. "There's a plan afoot, but if it keeps going down this fast, it's possible we won't be able to make it. We might freeze to death even with my Turtonator here. The cold already seeps past his heat and Claydol can't contain it with barriers because—"

Rhyperior growled, which was a rattled deep within his throat, saying that he could do nothing to help us with the cold.

"Oh, I know that. Do you know about the Hoarfrost?" I asked.

The rock type's eyes narrowed, and the urge to crush me underfoot passed as quick as it had come. I saw it quite literally flash in his heart, brighter than anything I'd seen from him, along with the effort to smother it like candlelight between two fingers. I wiped the build-up of cold sweat on my palms on my climbing gear and listened.

Regice apparently had many names throughout Coronet, but ice types revered it as Hoarfrost for the beautiful crystals it left on everything it froze. Something in between frost and ice, the kind of crystals you'd see hanging off trees when the temperature and humidity were just right. Rhyperior told us he'd seen the effects of its waking many, many times, though he had never seen Regice himself. He didn't say it, but I figured the power disparity was just too much for him to take that risk, given that he seemed to speak of the Legend with nothing but disdain.

But at least he was talking. I had a foot in the door.

Most Rhyhorn and Rhydon I'd seen were quite… well, not smart, but Rhyperior was quite well-spoken, if a bit blunt and rough around the edges. I didn't know if that was an effect of the evolution or how long he'd been living.

"So you—" I stopped and bit my lip, waiting to see if he'd react. He did not. "So the Hoarfrost— Regice— has woken up before, and the League came to stop it?" We reached a small gulf in the ground, a ravine at least twenty feet long from which more pillars grew, but Rhyperior just waved an arm and reshaped the stone into a bridge in an instant. It was something Princess would have been able to do, but with none of the finesse. Just chunks of stones he crushed at a distance until they fit together like the pieces of a puzzle while telling us that occasionally, before the League or most humans dared to step foot in the depths of Coronet, Pokemon would either band together and lay Regice to rest, or let it run its course until it returned back to its slumber.

We all walked in a file, ignoring the sound of the rushing water below. All of these puddles and tiny lakes had to come from somewhere. I could tell Maylene was feeling left out, but the conversation couldn't die now.

"If I may ask, does that mean you traveled between layers to escape from the cold?"

First, silence.

Then, Rhyperior slammed a fist against a pillar of stone and collapsed it next to us with a roar that was so loud it hurt. Dust, grit and shards of rocks billowed out in a cloud of death and Cass barely got our shield up in time, covering both me and Maylene. Flames surged out of Sunshine's snout, but another stone went flying through the thickened dust and slammed into his chest. He rolled off the cliff, but his Pokeball snapped up and recalled him. I hadn't known when I'd grabbed it, but it was already back on my belt by the time I realized what I'd been doing.

Maylene stood in-between Rhyperior and I, but it didn't matter.

Insolence, speck, Rhyperior growled from within the dust. He sounded more like a dragon than not.

"If I offended you, I'm sorry—"

There was a gust of wind, and the dust condensed into stones that clattered to the ground around Rhyperior. He had just taken down a pillar the size of a skyscraper, but did not even look a little bit winded. In fact, it was the opposite. Emotions flared around him like a bonfire.

I recommend releasing the rest of the Court immediately, Cassianus said with a hint of panic. We can possibly buy time for you to run, and repositioning us with Pokeballs might spare all of our lives.

"Agreed!" Maylene yelled.

"If he wanted us dead, we'd be dead," I whispered. There was little fear in me, or maybe I'd just masked it successfully. I believed deep in my heart that he did not want us dead, but there was also a calm settling within my veins that was difficult to explain. Straightening my back, I spoke again, "I'm sorry for the question. May we keep going?"

Maylene hissed and clenched my wrist. "Are you insane?"

Rhyperior squinted.

Then he nodded and walked past us.

"Can you tell me what the hell is going on?" Maylene asked, slightly angry. She let go of my wrist, not wanting to hurt me while she clenched it.

I would also like to know. It isn't like you to keep us in the dark, Cass muttered.

"Rhydon are very temperamental," I whispered. "I've seen many in the wild and trained a decent bit with Lauren's, so I figured their evolution was similar. Or maybe worse."

Given how his emotions usually were, a flare-up would end up having consequences that were much worse. Bad enough, and he might not realize he had killed us until it was too late.

Ideally, we would have gotten another guide. Many Hoothoot and other flying types made their homes in the spires, which was where that Noctowl must have come from, and there were Pokemon everywhere, even if they were fewer in number now that most of them had had time to run away and evacuate.

They were all too scared of Rhyperior to approach, and I doubted the ground type would accept it anyway.

We kept going, and I found it wise not to release Sunshine again. It'd be best to let him cool off for a while so he didn't let his nerves get the better of him. Warmth from him still lingered in the air thanks to Claydol's diligence.

In a way, I found this odd. Everywhere else, Pokemon were either working together or ignoring each other. A sort of truce while Coronet was at risk. Rhyperior seemed to be eyed with the same ire and fear he would be in normal circumstances, even now.

It seemed a little lonely, but this reputation had been built far before now, and I couldn't forget nor forgive what he'd done.

After ten minutes or so, Rhyperior spoke up again.

He asked about my Larvitar.

My stomach twisted itself into knots, and it took all of my willpower to keep a straight face. Maylene just frowned, confused, but she stayed quiet. Even if she had understood, she hadn't known that it was this particular Rhyperior who had gotten us stuck in Coronet— hell, I didn't even know if she knew it was a Rhyperior at all. Back then, Gym Leaders hadn't read everything there was to know about us, and that side of the mountain was under Gardenia's purview.

Not as sharp-tongued as before, are you, speck? the rock type asked with a deep, grinding laugh.

I clenched a fist. "S—so you remember."

Damn it, the cold was getting to me again.

A veil of regret passed over Rhyperior— and at first, I thought it was at the thought of killing my daughter's mother, but that would have been too human of him. He was a Pokemon. A Pokemon who was thousands of years old, or possibly more. No, he allowed the sadness to take hold of him and grunted that memories were not where he was the strongest, yet he remembered this one. One always forgot, after too long. Faces. Names. Locations. Things he enjoyed.

Not fighting, though. Never fighting. That was who he was.

There was something else he remembered, though he did not remember the exact date. He allowed a beat to pass as we began to walk downhill, where the spires were bent almost like rubber despite the fact that they were still stone. Some bent down and reached the ground again, forming large arches. I remember, Rhyperior said. I remember the last time Coronet nearly perished like it was yesterday, he finished with an uncomfortable shift in his arms.

"Whu—" the words were wrong, but I couldn't speak right. Noctowl had been correct.

Rhyperior had been a Rhydon, then, but he had served as a guide all the same. He had been running away from Coronet, and so he was the first Pokemon our ancestors had come across in the layer below this one. Seeing them had… triggered something in him. Hope, maybe? He didn't say either way, and I wasn't going to ask, but he had opted to guide them after Atreus, my predecessor, had graciously asked with a revering bow.

They'd had to beat him to earn that, and even back then, he had been strong. Stronger than all of them put together by a wide margin, according to him. Yet he had not gone far enough to truly injure them, and so they had been allowed to beat him. The way he recalled the events was interesting. Rhyperior did not boast, nor did he embellish. He simply laid out the facts in as few words as he could.

"People back in the day had weaker Pokemon because they didn't have potions or Ditto cells to really push their training as far as we do now," Maylene whispered in my ear. After recovering from the shock of his reveal, I'd been relaying everything Rhyperior was saying to her through chattering teeth. "Training came with a real risk if they pushed too hard, and they also had fewer Pokemon in general."

My only reply was a nod, because my thoughts were somewhere else.

"They we—were all together?" I asked Rhyperior. "Weren't their—"

Hadn't their stories been different? Three winding paths, leading up to the summit by the end?

Rhyperior shrugged, his plated stone grinding against his neck. There were words of our ascendence passing through the mountain, one he had apparently beaten out of an Onix that routinely traveled between the third and fourth layers. I allowed the displeasure to pass, though my throat tightened enough to make it difficult to breathe. He noted that it was different, this time, in many ways. That we were after hundreds of people, an organized force, rather than a single man taken by madness and a dream. Mesprit had told me about Cynthia's ancestor, though I knew little of him and could only pass the information along to her. She hadn't reacted beyond widening her eyes a smidge and thanking me.

All of that to say, Rhyperior figured he knew how I, or specifically, the shard of emotion worked. For the first time, he called me a manipulative trickster instead of speck, and said that if I'd wanted to ask about his battle with Tyranitar, I should have just come out and said it. It was not the question that had offended him, for I now understood he was not a creature who let pride get the better of him, but he wanted people to actually say what they wanted instead of playing a game of smoke and mirrors.

The ground was unsteady beneath my feet at the end of his sentence, but at least we knew why he'd freaked out. What had Atreus done to him in the little time they'd been together? How long was that, even? A day at most? My throat felt dry and cold, and I was desperate to find an excuse— a reason for his actions.

"Have you seen anyone come through this way yet?" I asked. "Another shard?"

Rhyperior shook his head, saying that he would have known if one had. He had made this layer his turf for the last few months, though he'd been planning on going up to the sixth before this entire ordeal began.

"And you won't test me by fighting?"

Rhyperior shook his head, saying that there would be no point. Those words surprised me, but wouldn't any person change, after thousands of years? He might have found a test of strength necessary in the past, but no longer.

But that was not why I'd started this conversation. I wanted to give Sweetheart closure.

"I'll just come out and say it, then." I wrung my hands tightly through my gloves in an effort to warm them up. "I caught Lar—Larvitar, and she's now a Tyranitar. Why did you kill her mo—mother."

Because she infringed upon my territory, the answer came. Cold. Unfeeling. Like a bucket of ice water had been dropped on my head.

There had been no grand reasons, no angle for forgiveness. It had just been a territorial dispute where Sweetheart's mother had climbed down the mountain to get to a safer place while she grew up.

How dare he take so much away from her for nothing?

How dare he?

It took everything I had not to curse him out. The rage that followed was tempered, partly thanks to Cass' warnings, but had Rhyperior been beatable, I feared what I would have done. Would I have thrown everything to the wind and just attacked? The fact that I didn't know didn't bode well.

Let it out, Rhyperior said with his face turned my way. It was unmoving and expressionless.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I bit down on my lip until I tasted metal. Don't let his provocation get to you.

Maylene frowned. "Grace? What's wrong?"

"Couldn't you just have let them pass without chasing them to the first layer?" I was quiet, at first, but my voice was deliberate enough not to shake from the cold. "She was running away from you. You could have let her go. She had a kid right in front of you, and you still did it. I don't care how old, or how strong you are, that's fucked and you deserve to feel fucking lonely because everything in here fears you," I loudly spat. "What even is your territory? You wander the entire damn mountain without a single care for who you hurt. Pokemon fear you everywhere!"

I expected another outburst.

He kept walking instead. His answer, as smooth as polished stone, was that he had not come to lead us to debate, but to get us to the summit instead. He was glad I was being straight with him anyway, because tricks of the mind were what he despised the most. To him, talking, talking, and talking always had a layer of subterfuge hidden beneath unless it came from the heart.

"I cannot leave this place without giving my daughter her closure."

He asked what that closure was, exactly.

"A good look at you," I said. "And you'll let her."

And why is that, speck?

"Because I'm not leaving this place as long as she isn't ready to leave." I smiled, all teeth and wide enough to hurt my cheeks. "I'll hold your home hostage if I have to. I've gone the furthest, have I not? I'll let the Hoarfrost freeze you and all of us to death while my Pokemon are safe in their balls. I'll let the world end if that comes to pass and you're too tough to freeze."

Maylene scoffed.

She thought I was bluffing. That I wasn't going to throw it all away for this, because it made no sense. I was not, and I would.

Rhyperior stopped, turned and loomed over me.

I was either a being forged by conviction, or I was no one at all, and Rhyperior let respect show within him for the first time.

I hated that.

—

"You weren't kidding?"

We were huddled next to Turtonator who had graciously blessed us with his heat again and I greedily downed half of the water that remained in my canteen before passing the rest to Maylene. She hovered it above her mouth and finished the remaining liquid. We'd run out of water a while ago, and while she could resist a lot, Maylene ate and drank more than the average person, meaning we'd had to refill the canteen and boil water to make sure it was safe to drink. It still tasted a little earthy, but it would do. Rhyperior had been willing to allow us a break even if he looked exasperated. I quickly put my oxygen mask back on and took a deep breath.

There was a curious phenomenon happening above us. It was raining while in a cave. Of course, I knew rain was just the condensation of clouds into liquid, but seeing it happen in a closed environment was a little trippy. The rain might be why all these spires were eroded some while others— newer ones— were smooth to the touch, like the one we were leaning against, at the moment. Seeing the droplets drip down Claydol's barrier and hearing the patter was soothing

"No. I know you'll be mad, but you're free to leave if you want." My gloves slipped off my bandaged hands, and I actually touched my face for the first time in hours. "Another layer up and even you'll struggle with the oxygen anyway. I'm sure you'll find your way down quickly once you're separated from me."

She crossed her legs and her eye twitched. "First of all, are you crazy—"

"I am perfectly sane."

"No, because you're throwing the entire world in fucking jeopardy!" she yelled. "Can't this wait? Can't you just wait?"

"I'm sorry, but I cannot."

"And it feels like you just want me out of your hair. You keep trying to get me to leave, and it—" she chewed on her words for a few seconds, then groaned and shoved my canteen back in my arms. "You're an awful friend!"

I placed the canteen back in my bag and patted the last of the dust clinging to my pants and stomach. "He's not listening in, you can just drop it." I touched the spot where the stone had hit Sunshine and blew a raspberry. It was dented, but Rhyperior had clearly held back, or the stone would probably be lodged inside of him right now. "Do you think we'll have to use a potion on that?"

Turtonator shook his head, though I didn't miss the glare he shot the rock type.

"What is wrong with you?"

I eyed Maylene. "What? The potion? He—"

"You're fucking stupid for an empath," she told me. "Do you think I'd just… fake that? Fake calling you a friend after spending two days in this hell hole?"

"I don't look at people's emotions if I can help it—"

"Then be smarter about it," she interrupted. "See, I think your plan sucks, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and hope it works because everything you've done has worked so far and your Tyranitar deserves to know what's going on. A week ago, I would have been screaming at you and calling you names."

I avoided her piercing gaze. It was easier, with the mask. "I hurt you really badly, Maylene."

"Yeah. So if you want to 'atone' so badly, do what I say and stop having your little pity party, okay?" She offered me a hand. "We're friends, got it?"

I flimsily shook it. "Got it."

"Come on. Put more grip into it."

"I can't, or it'll hurt." I nudged my chin at my bandages. "It's better, but it's still healing."

"Oh. Right, sorry, I… yeah, sorry. I was making a shitty joke." She rubbed the back of her head. "So how are you going to get your Tyranitar closure?"

"Oh, no matter what I do, I won't be able to stop her from attacking at first sight, but that might be what she needs. To throw herself against an impenetrable wall and she sees how strong she'll need to be. How strong her mother was to fight back for so long."

Arceus, it'd be nice if I could just throw Rhyperior at whatever came to get me, but no matter how powerful one was, they'd have to listen to what Coronet was telling them.

She nodded. "How long?"

"Hours, according to the few times Sweetie talked to me about it. Her mom didn't let her get hurt once, but since she had to protect someone, she was on the backfoot the entire time, and since she was weaker to begin with…"

"Ah."

It would have been difficult to fight back against a foe such as Rhyperior. It wasn't as easy to place his story as it had been the others, but then again, maybe there was no solid structure there. Knowing this would have made pushing and prodding at weaknesses easier, but the facts I had to work with was that he was thousands of years old, possibly older, and that he had spent his entire life fighting for survival. What is a fighter's biggest weakness that isn't a bigger stick? Conversation and understanding were out. There was no way I was ever changing the ways of a being that old, either, and an apology would ring empty…

A fight after all, then?

Ideas ruminated in my mind until it was time to walk again.

—

It took another four hours to reach the chasm leading to the next layer. Longer than Rhyperior had expected.

This one was loud, howling like a hurricane with winds so strong we could barely approach it without being swept off our feet. It was wider, sharper, angrier, too. The endless yell of a dying creature far too large and godly for us to ever hope to comprehend. The cold had gotten worse, much worse. I was confident I would freeze to death within ten minutes without Sunshine here with me, and I constantly had to keep my body moving so I didn't go numb everywhere. Maylene was terrified, and how couldn't she be? Regice was completely out of our control, and we didn't even know where it was. Our fate was in different hands and there was nothing we could do about it.

"Thank you for leading us here so quickly," I said, bowing my head slightly. "I'm sure it would have been much slower without a guide of your caliber. Yet," A beat passed, and a loud hiss from my mask somehow resonated through the strong winds, "something remains, as we discussed."

It was easy to speak through the cold when there was a fire burning within my heart.

An assumption had been made by Rhyperior through no fault of my own.

No, that was a lie. I had… not engineered this. I was not good enough of a manipulator for that, but I had allowed it to happen. Rhyperior believed that we had something in store to stop Regice. Possibly, that could be freeing one of the Lake Guardians from their chains and allowing them to seal the Hoarfrost again and saving Coronet in one fell swoop. Either way, since he had never seen or fought Regice himself, there was a brittle spot I'd found in his endless plates of stone. He was a fighter, yes, but not one who sought glory before all else. Not one who lusted for battle to strive to get further.

He hadn't denied running away each time Regice had been allowed to run rampant. He'd run away the first time Coronet had been dying despite being so strong already.

He was not one to seek meteoric rise, but an individual who had picked his battles until he was so strong no one would be able to stop him anymore. And why not? He had the long-lived lifespan of most rock types on his side. And so, Rhyperior was an ancient tree who had slowly spread his roots deep within the earth, his bark had grown so strong and his branches reached so tall that nothing but the sharpest of axes could hope to cut him down and kill him permanently. It was the slow build up of thousands of years, each step meticulous until he no longer had to care.

Rhyperior was scared to die. More scared than I was. How long had it been, since he had been in actual danger? He was also outcast. It was lonely, at the top. He had no one to tell him about the intricacies of Regice or how the Legend even behaved— not that I knew either. I just didn't need to.

I'd been wrong. Once, he might have been a cautious fighter, but now he was more of a tyrant.

"Like the shards before me, I will release my daughter and allow her to set her eyes on you and you will test her," I said. "You will not hurt her more than necessary. You are allowed to defend yourself, but should you wound her beyond what is appropriate, I will recall her and the rest of my Pokemon and sit here until I am frozen. I trust that you understand and know your limits, given what you did to my Turtonator before. I apologize for that again, by the way."

Sunshine did not protest, despite how unpleased he was at the thought of me dying. He knew this was a ploy despite the fact that I meant it, and scolding me could wait until we were out of this blasted mountain. We'd briefly discussed it earlier when it had grown too cold to travel without him. Claydol hovered silently, their arms close to their body.

Rhyperior grunted and said that I could just will the mountain to have me leave.

Could I?

It was best to act like I did know. "Yes, but I'd want to see the look in your eye as what you fear the most happens to you. I'll die first, and maybe Regice will be stopped, or maybe you'll just run away, but I'll see it, still, because eventually the world ends. You've seen how this is. How far behind we are, and how we aren't united under one story— one goal. Things are going worse this time around, and you know it."

The rock type's eye twitched, and rage pooled inside of them, ready to be unleashed. It was not. The thought of death kept him calm, as I'd wanted it to. There'd been a nonchalance to my word he couldn't fathom, yet he knew was true because it was as blunt as he'd wanted it to be.

"Call me petty," I huffed. "But it is what it is. There are no redeeming qualities to you. No reasons I have found for you to have made yourself into a being so ruthless that even now, Pokemon everywhere fear for their lives around you. Maybe I'm lacking context, but you are not owed my cooperation and you need me more than I do you."

He was not Zoroark, nor was he Mathilda. He was something else entirely, and he had murdered for less than nothing.

That had been obscuring the truth, however. I did still seek to figure him out, not for forgiveness, but to understand.

"Are we clear?"

He nodded, but wasn't happy about it. The fear of him was still there, but the desire to get my daughter what she deserved and needed was stronger.

"Thank you. I mean it. A few minutes, and we'll be on our way."

"I hope you know what you're doing," Maylene whispered.

"First, I'll have to talk to her. Cass, raise a wall, please."

They molded a wall of earth between our group and Rhyperior, and I released Sweetheart next to us. She eyed her surroundings until she was distracted by me and let out an affectionate growl. I raised a hand, and she lowered her head to allow herself to get petted on the cheek while spouting about how cool my mask made me look.

"I missed you. We've been doing well," I said with a saddened smile hidden behind my mask. "How are you feeling? Still not hungry, I hope?"

The dark type shook her head, and her tail swayed, grinding against the stones of the cave. She answered no, but she did complain about how cold it was before her eyes widened and she demanded Sunshine to create more heat.

"Yes, yes, it's cold, but he's doing his best," I answered for him. "It has a way of ignoring heat— or smothering it, I don't know which is more likely, but Sweetie, we have to talk. This is important, and I want to apologize for only telling you this now." I paused and took a step back. "Your… your mother's killer is here."

She stared blankly at me.

"Rhyperior. He's here."

The wall went down, and the ground returned to its previous state. A stretch of rock going downhill until it reached the stairway up, and then upward, where Rhyperior had settled down. I figured he wouldn't try to just walk off, and he hadn't. Instead, he stood there, one of his hands pointed her way with a stone already loaded into the hole in his palm.

Sweetheart shut her eyes, and her breath quivered.

"Let it all out, if you want. You can hit him. He won't fight back and it won't hurt him, but it's all I can offer you right now and I made sure he was telling the truth," I said. "He's strong beyond our means, Sweetheart, but sometimes we lose. But," a pause, "you might get some answers."

She turned toward him, and grains of sand started to swirl around her. Why? she asked him again. Why did you kill my first mother?

Because I could, he said.

The ground fissured beneath her feet.

—

Her first mother's killer stood before her.

Everything she had ever wanted, everything she had wished to turn herself into, every hour, minute, second she had trained was to see him dead, yet it was an eerie calm that settled over her as Sweetheart slammed a foot on the ground and attempted to collapse it beneath Rhyperior. She could sense it clear as day, now. The shifting of the earth beneath her, each tiny movement she could push and pull, prod until it formed into whatever she wanted, yet when the fissure reached halfway, she met a wall. The fissure wouldn't go further, no matter how much she screamed.

The calm snapped like a twig— a year's worth of restraint met the inevitable spark that was her mother's killer, and the earth itself yelled with her, a sound so deep and raw that it seemed to come from the world itself—

Until it stopped, and the only scream that remained was hers.

Rhyperior's influence spread far within Coronet. Her mom would say that he had a story behind him— something that helped him dominate all others and bring the ground to heel under his command, but she didn't care. She abandoned her plan to bury him under the weight of his sins and started running down the hill as Rhyperior shot out rock after rock at her. The first one, she flinched at. She couldn't help herself from picturing her first mother being hit by these stones and them going through her like she was nothing.

It didn't do the same to her, yet she felt it deep within her chest and she was actually knocked back. The stone hadn't shattered against her like it should have. It stayed intact and seemed to have so much force… nevertheless, she kept going. Something shifted within Sweetheart, and her vents opened. Grains of darkened sands began to surround her, and she became invisible. To her, color had disappeared and sounds were muffled, like she was the only person in the entire world.

He could still aim at her. Two, three, four stones, each larger and more painful than the last, each bending and curving to reach her within the sandstorm despite the fact that she should have been impossible to spot or hear.

She snarled and raised an arm. Jagged rocks burst from the ground, each as large as her, and she sent them barreling toward her sworn enemy. Immediately, she tried to rattle the ground beneath Rhyperior's feet to disturb him, but nothing worked. It stayed solid, and the Stone Edges turned to dust before they could make it to Rhyperior. Frustrated, the Sandstorm ended in a single moment, and Tyranitar posed a question.

Why did you do it?

Rhyperior looked at her, his face unshifting like the facade of a mountain. Tiny specks of stone from her own attack swirled around him. Because I could.

Liar! she roared. More sand exploded out of her legs and she propelled herself to move faster. This time, the stone forming within Rhyperior's hand was truly massive. It coalesced faster than she could blink, forming from the ambient stone, dust, and shredded rocks he had pulled from the ground. Sweetheart gathered nothing, yet everything from her mouth and blasted the boulder mid-air with a Dark Pulse, allowing her to slam into Rhyperior at full force once it exploded.

He did not move. He towered over her and did not even budge. Her claws ripped into his shoulder, but she could only chip where she wanted to crush and dismantle. She blasted his face with more darkness and hurt him the most she ever had, yet it wasn't enough. She would need to fight him like this for a week to hope to actually beat him, and that was only if he did not fight back.

The answer couldn't be that unsatisfying. There had to be meaning to it, or…

Or it was all worthless.

She hit again and again.

Worthless.

She hit the same spot until her fist broke through his shoulder, and stone from the rest of his body instantly shifted to the wound.

Worthless.

Surrounding water burst through the thick sheet of ice, surged to their location and slammed behind Rhyperior's back. It crawled up his massive frame and clumsily, slowly, she tried to drown him like Budbud would do. Rhyperior slammed her away, and his arm arched toward her with a brilliant glow. She expected it to slam into her, but it didn't. Instead, he missed her by a smidge on purpose, but she still felt the force from the attack and she was knocked a few feet away.

Worthless.

She tried more. None of it was enough. She felt her family's eyes bear through her back. Sunsun, her mother, Cassie— watching her fail even more than she had ever expected. She had been warned. She knew she couldn't win, and yet she had hoped that maybe.

Just maybe.

So it was meaningless, then, Tyranitar asked with tired breaths. Worthless.

No, he said. There was a purpose to it.

"If you mean the territory excuse, you can shove it." Sweetheart turned toward Grace, who was standing far away with her arms crossed. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking with that mask on. She didn't like it. "I fear that you've been telling half-truths without meaning to."

You accuse me of playing word games? Rhyperior threatened. I thought you of all people would know better.

For a moment, Sweetheart considered striking while he was distracted, but her mother raised an arm, and she settled despite the images of her tearing Rhyperior's neck open. Mom always told her to picture violence instead of actually committing it.

"I do not. There is a difference between not understanding what someone wants out of a fight and purposefully misleading them," she said. There was a moment of silence, only accompanied by the hiss of her mask. "I trust you're familiar with the concept of giving meaning to one's death?"

What good is meaning? When one is dead, one is dead. Gone and returned deep below Coronet, where they were first formed, Rhyperior countered. There is no difference between the kinds of death one might have. It is all the same.

"A fair outlook on life, even if I vehemently disagree," Grace said. "I know you don't care, but we don't all work like that. There is a difference when someone dies because of a coincidence, and not. I would know, and I strive to kill the ones responsible." Sweetheart imagined her face darkening behind her breathing mask. A thinly veiled threat of a horrifying death. "Here is what I believed happened, Rhyperior."

"Tyranitar does accidentally step into your territory while traveling down Coronet, because it is ever-shifting," she began, "and she also does try to escape at the sight of you, because you are the tyrant of this place. One who has slowly, carefully risen and who is now pulling the ladder up behind him."

Stop speaking in riddles, Rhyperior growled. Each word was accompanied by a shudder below ground.

"Ordinarily, I get the feeling that you would have allowed a Pokemon like her to run. Maybe chase her a little bit, but not to the first layer. When she started fighting back, however, you realized she was actually hurting you, and hurting you good." She adjusted her gloves and kept going. "Now, you can navigate Coronet rather well, but it's a big place, and who knew when you'd see her again? A year? Five? Ten? And who knew, if within that time frame, she would not start to pose an actual danger to your life you've taken such good care of?"

Rhyperior took a silent step forward. You really are just like him. You talk too much. Your ego is too big. That gets you killed.

Sweetheart blinked. Like who?

"Maybe." She shrugged. "I was willing to gamble it all for my daughter, and you knew I spoke the truth."

Unfortunately. Then, a beat. I could kill your companion.

Maylene did not react, and neither did Grace.

"Then I'll do everything in my power to end this place. She's a friend."

The ground type stood perfectly still.

"Tell her yourself, then," she said. "Please."

Fine. I killed your mother because she threatened to destroy the order of this mountain. I had seen her only once before, but she was growing too quickly.

"As a tyrant does, he kills anyone before they can become a threat to his order. He smothers them in their cribs before they can reach their true potential, he plucks them from the vine before they can ever hope to ripen, and he'll keep going as long as he lives," Grace said. "There you have it."

Pathetic, Sunsun growled. A small trail of fire coursed out of his snout.

One does not live as long as I have without precautions, Rhyperior deadpanned.

That isn't a life worth living at all, Sunsun said.

"Well, he's no dragon," she sighed. "Sweetie?"

She'd been thinking of one thing amidst the sadness of reliving her loss all over again and the relief from finally understanding why, now that she wasn't just a confused baby running for her life. She even ignored Rhyperior, noting the speed of her growth.

Her first mother had been the coolest Tyranitar to ever live.

—

It could have only gone one way.

Her breaths were ragged by the end of it. She had used everything in her arsenal, every trick and technique she had learned this past year, and nothing had worked. The dream she had of standing over Rhyperior's deceased body, of cracking him open like an egg, was just that. A dream. Sweetheart stood still, her body sagging with every breath, and Rhyperior simply stared, the cracks and chips in his armor already in the process of healing. There were no tears, nor was there an outburst at what she lacked. I slowly made my way toward her with Claydol reshaping and flattening the ground as I needed it to be.

"Do you see how strong your mother was?" My steps reverberated amidst the cave. Nearly all of the wildlife had left, not wanting to be involved in the fight, but some still remained. A single Gligar hanging from a spire of stone. A Shellos who had braved separating from her herd and had followed us all the way here. A group of Hoothoot with their faces barely visible in the dim lighting, standing at the side of the pillar. "And did you see the gap that still remains?"

Tyranitar growled as I stepped next to her and placed a hand on her back. There were no gaps in her armor— nowhere the stone had managed to penetrate. Rhyperior had been holding back, but it was still a mark of pride for her to still be standing so pristine.

"I'm sorry I couldn't figure out a better way. I had to find— the shape of it. This must be unsatisfying for you."

The rock type side-eyed me and allowed herself to sag. She sat on the ground and put a hand behind my back. I let myself be guided by her touch, and she placed me on top of her lap. Even with how gently she was handling me, it was difficult not to notice her sharp claws and her hold that could crush stone should she need to. Her body warmth bled through her stony skin.

The hug was silent, but silence could convey as much as a thousand words. It was many things. Grieving, an attempt to let go, a conveyance of love, gratefulness for telling her about this and trusting her to keep control, for allowing her to know the reason behind everything—

Rhyperior was leaving.

Part of me had considered he might have snapped and collapsed the ceiling on us, or buried us under who knew how much stone, but the risk had been worth it. Admittedly, I had hung bringing the world the ruin over his head for my daughter, so there wasn't much left to be said. We watched him waddle on away from the chasm and disappear behind a pillar, and our spectators who had come in hopes of seeing him humbled left as well. I had most likely disappointed them.

He would probably run off and try to leave Coronet now that he'd brought us here.

My legs nearly gave way from under me, and I allowed fear to seep into my being again. The next breath was shaky, as were my fingers, and goosebumps traveled up and down my arms.

"I can't believe you threatened that thing with the end of the world…" Maylene trailed off. Her voice was midway between angry and impressed. "And I can't believe it worked."

"He was nice about it," I muttered. "I think part of him wanted to see what I was made of."

The cold was getting to me again. If Craig, Aaron and Flint did not end Regice within the next twelve hours or so, we would freeze to death or be forced to try to leave as Rhyperior had hinted at, but a seed of doubt had been sprouting in my mind. At the core of my very being, what I craved was to come face to face with Saturn.

No. No, that was the wrong way to look at it. I had thrown Coronet under the bus to get Sweetheart closure. I had worked against its very existence and been selfish by threatening to allow it to die, and I had no Lake Guardians with me to smooth things over like Team Galactic did.

Would the mountain even let us leave? Would Pokemon be less inclined to cooperate?

I licked my lips. Nothing in this world ever came for free. This cost me. It might cost Maylene most of all... damn it.

One step forward, who knew how many steps back. The repercussions wouldn't be felt for a while yet, but either way, it was time to ascend.