CHAPTER 315 - DANSE MACABRE

With Clara came more fighting, and each group of Galactic grunts was tougher to deal with than the last. Larger, more robust, more adaptable, and most importantly, willing to use Coronet favoring them as a way to stay hidden and harass them with hit-and-run tactics. Maeve's team were on their last legs, and they'd used all of their potions to keep them from fainting, yet they could no longer fight. Even Starmie had been hit by numerous dark and electric type moves that had the water type dangerously weak. Luckily, the cold from Regice was largely gone, now. It had left slowly, at first, and then exponentially.

Despite how much Maeve had insisted on keeping Cecilia's Pokemon healthy, the next group of grunts they'd come across, the Unovan would have to deal with.

Clara seemed to be gripped by a mental anguish that only grew each time a group of grunts were dealt with. Perhaps she was getting second thoughts about betraying her cause. Her fellow Galactic members certainly didn't seem to pay her collaboration any mind, or at least none that Cecilia had noticed. The most they afforded her was a single look with wide eyes, but no words had ever been exchanged. If there had been, Cecilia doubted Clara would have had the courage to respond to their accusations regardless.

"We… should be close to the pathway to the final layer," Clara mumbled under her breath. "The forest gets kind of dense around here, but trust me, okay?"

Cecilia raised an eyebrow. "What? I didn't say anything."

Clara simply responded with an 'eek' and flinched away from her, and the grunt's hand brushed against one of the tall, thick trees that littered this layer. Even after seeing the same thing over and over for the last Arceus knew how many hours, none of the wonder was lost to them. The drums of the bristling tree leaves had Cecilia feeling more and more uncomfortable, as of late, and this one had her repulsed.

"I apologize if I frightened you." Relief at last allowed her to breathe easily again. Maeve just stared straight ahead, and Slowking kept track of their surroundings. "Like I said, you won't get hurt. You've been helpful."

"As long as I can…" she trailed off. "Legendaries," she ended with a sigh. "I— there's nothing left waiting for me. They might— they might fry my brain."

Cecilia's hand hovered over her Pokeballs until Slowking shook his head at her. Right. She's harmless. "Galactic will be dealt with, so they won't have any reason to. I'm sure they'll repeal the law again sooner rather than later."

"I had— I had second thoughts before Mars picked me up. I wanted to leave because I missed my parents," Clara meekly said. "But I was scared…"

Ah, scared of getting her memories extracted by a League psychic. Ironic, that a policy made to intimidate and make Galactic feel cornered might have contributed to making their members feel stuck where they were. Cynthia was a smart woman. She must have known this would happen, but Cecilia supposed she had gambled that the information they would get out of the grunts would be worth it if she could prevent them from enacting their final plan.

Of course, they were all in Coronet now, so it had not.

"None of it matters." Her tone was harried and defeated. "I'll have to deal with it, I guess. I wanted to help people and work on dreams— Sorry. I'm rambling and annoying. Sorry."

Cecilia perked up. "They do plenty of dream research in—"

"Unova! Yes, I know I— wait, I shouldn't interrupt you."

The conversation reached its natural endpoint there. Cecilia knew she could have extended it some, but Clara kept stopping herself from speaking her mind and she was too tired keep speaking anyway. When they reached a denser part of the woods and began to hear the familiar howl signifying the staircase up.

"Clara," Maeve began. "You seem to have had a good relationship with your parent, and I'll ignore the fact that you were willing to kill them with all of these plans to destroy the world." She gestured around herself.

"And create a new one where you'd all be happy," she reprimanded hastily. "S—sorry. But even you would have been brought back, and we would have made a world without strife or conflict."

Maeve scoffed. "Oh, did Cyrus tell you that?"

"He… did."

"Well I'm sure he's very trustworthy." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, what pushed you to join?"

"I, um." The grunt scratched the side of her arm and looked away. "Nothing was going right for me, I guess. I couldn't catch a fucking break, and everything was collapsing around me. I— I was failing all of my college classes and my parents had to remortgage their house to keep me going, but I failed again and… I couldn't get out of bed…" There were tears in the corner of her eyes. "I don't know. I wanted something to look forward to. To be good enough to study dreams. Then I was approached by a recruiter and she gave me hope again. She met with me so many times and kept believing in me."

There was nothing left to be said. An apology almost left Cecilia's lips, but she bit down on it and kept it in. The next layer was close, now.

The trees were denser than they'd ever been, save for a narrow path that led straight to the chasm up.

In front of it stood Commander Jupiter and her entire team, crouching with a lazy look in her eye. While her grunts had looked tired, her face looked bright and her hair was still done. Slaking was lying down and slowly scratching its belly while Delcatty lounged on top of its massive arm. Girafarig, who was standing at attention, tilted its head at Cecilia and the others while its tail snapped and shook at the sight of them. Tangrowth stopped throwing a softball up and down with a vine and let it fall onto the earth with a soft thud while Stantler barely seemed to notice them at all. Skuntank, meanwhile, was clawing at the ground and eager to get into a fight.

I couldn't even feel her, Slowking said with a vocal gasp. He instantly summoned a barrier in front of them, in case Jupiter attacked. Delcatty jumped off Slaking and hit Girafarig with her tail, creating a barrier of their own.

"Well, well, well. Look at what the Meowth dragged in," It drawled. Its voice alone was enough to make Cecilia's nose wrinkle. The Commander rose to its feet and patted down its behind. "Clara, too?" The grunt flinched and hid behind Slowking. "You go, girl! I wasn't sure if you had the guts to actually leave or not after I gave you some support."

Maeve clicked her tongue. "You expected her to betray you?"

"I thought it was a possibility. It doesn't really matter, though. You would have made your way here anyway eventually. It was worth the entertainment."

"Don't engage with it," Cecilia said. "That's how it gets in your head."

She analyzed the Commander for a few seconds, but it didn't actually unleash its Pokemon onto them. Strangely, all it did was watch with an annoying smirk that had Cecilia want to break something.

Ten seconds passed. They felt like an eternity.

Cecilia took a deep breath, a malformed hiss through her mask. "Go, Maeve."

Maeve's hands dropped to her side. "Excuse me—"

"Barriers aren't going to work well against her team, so even if you used Starmie you'd just be putting him in danger," she calmly explained. She'd expected to be overtaken by uncontrollable rage that would have made her see red. Made her fists clench and shake to the point of pain. Made her bite down on her tongue not to scream. Instead, there was only cold. "I have a plan. Go and rest. You've brought me far enough and you'll only get in the way."

"Wh—what about me?" Clara asked with a quivering voice. "I—"

"Go with her." There was no hesitation; a promise was a promise. "You've earned it. Without me here to keep you tethered to Coronet, you should have an easy trip down with Maeve so long as you wish to stay with her."

The grunt nodded with a meek squeak of appreciation, made herself small and scooted over to Maeve, who spared Cecilia one last look before leaving without a word. They had never been the closest of friends, had they? Nevertheless, their time together in Coronet had forged a bond, and Cecilia found herself thinking that she would make an excellent ACE Trainer. The Unovan lowered her hood and ran her grimy gloved hands through her hair, which was nearly unmoving in the stale air of the sixth layer, and Slowking took a deep breath. She could still hear Maeve and Clara's steps as she released the rest of her team around her. Lehmhart appeared on one knee and slowly got up as his insides hummed with machinery, yet his huge size did not manage to even come close to towering over the golden trees. Talonflame took to the air, and finally, air whipped around Cecilia as the flying type kept herself afloat. Scizor and Toxicroak had already bled into the golden woods, and Hydreigon was foaming at the mouth to get himself acquainted with Jupiter.

All appeared golden under this place's light, including the Commander's Pokemon and the monster itself.

"Gee, already? I let your friends escape, didn't I? You can't even afford me a single conversation?" The Commander placed her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. "Why don't we talk for like, two minutes before we start killing each other? Murder's murder, but we can be civil about it, can't we?"

Cecilia scanned her surroundings, not bothering to answer. Buying a few minutes for her to get into the correct mindset for this battle wouldn't hurt, and Slowking was still scanning the surroundings to see if any grunts would ambush them during the fight. The environment wasn't in anyone's favor, but she figured Scizor and Toxicroak would navigate the forest well if they needed to while the largest Pokemon would be able to stay in the central corridor. Talonflame wasn't as good at narrow turns as she'd once been, but so long as she controlled her speed…

"Talk." The words were harsh out of her mouth. Deep set and more of a growl than actual words.

The creature beamed, and the quirk of her lip made Cecilia nauseous. So human. So fucking human, like a woman she'd smile at as a thank you after she held a door for her, and yet she was not. "Cecilia Obel, right?" She crouched and poked a finger into the silver sand, and her Slaking sighed at her. "You know, I look at you and I see… hm, I see a fascinating child."

Cecilia had gathered as much information as she could out of ACE Trainers and Clara. Her team had a rigid structure that was never broken. First were the supportive Pokemon, Stantler, Girafarig and Delcatty. These always, always hung back and worked to help keep Jupiter and the rest of her team alive, whether that be Girafarig's psychic powers, Stantler's quick Hypnosis, or Delcatty's… healing. She still hadn't figured out what that was, but it sure as hell wasn't Wish. Her other three Pokemon— Tangrowth, Slaking and Skuntank, were juggernauts who used overwhelming power to their advantage. They could easily tear through the toughest of barriers with a rudimental understanding of darkness (or in Slaking's case, just muscle) and were capable of overpowering any of her own Pokemon save for Golurk and perhaps Hydreigon.

"What do you see?" Cecilia asked with a frown. Keep her talking.

"Well, it's not just you, it's all of your little group, but it's the first time I actually look at one of you," it said with an infuriating nonchalance. "It's your eyes, I think. I see 'em through the mask thanks to this obnoxious lighting." It gestured above itself in annoyance. "There's no innocence left, and I find that interesting, you know? This entire year," it crossed its arms, "We've pushed and prodded at Sinnoh and the world itself, and to finally see the consequences of that one someone's face is… it's fucking exhilarating," it finished with a shy smile. "It's a little bit of a dream of mine, so thanks."

Die.

Die, die, die, die, die. There was fire in her throat, scorching and wanting to tear its way out of her mouth; the desperation to tell her to die, but there was none of the power behind it. Cecilia delved deep into her reserves and found them lacking. Two to three hours left. There was no way that battle was going to last this long, not when Jupiter was a quick and ruthless fighter.

"The road you walked to get here must have been hard, but you aren't broken. I'm a little obsessed with the human condition, you see? I like figuring out what makes people tick. For example, I like I said, I kind of figured Clara would defect," Jupiter explained. "I wanted to see if she'd actually do it despite the danger and her dream just… disappearing, and she did." Its eyes looked at the golden light above her. "She threw it all away for a chance to live an extra few hours, or maybe days."

"Well," the monster stood up, stretched, and sand fell back from the fist onto the ground, "that was it from me. Anything you want to say before we throw hands and figure out who gets out of this alive?"

You engineered the death of over ten thousand people.

You killed one of my best friends. One of the kindest, most innocent souls I had ever met, even after his condition.

There came no response or no signal. Cecilia jumped atop Zolst's back, but her hold was awkward. Her gloves nearly slipped from his neck scales, and she had to clasp a hand around one of his wings to steady herself while the dragon took flight. Her Pokemon below had already scattered, and a thin invisible floor formed below Slowking to allow him to follow her into the skies. With how tall the trees were, hiding above the foliage would have hurt her more than helped, so they decided to stay low where they could observe Jupiter and its Pokemon's movements. As predicted, Tangrowth, Skuntank and Slaking had burst forward, leaving behind them trails of silver sand which flew everywhere because of Talonflame's Tailwind she'd thrown out to slow them down.

Skuntank was the fastest of the three, reaching Golurk in a blur of purple with extended claws wreathed in a swirling darkness that was difficult to stare away from. It cut across Lehmhart's leg and left three huge gashes oozing with void, but did not bother to stop to continue attacking him. Instead, Skuntank kept going, dashing in between the thick trees of the golden woods.

It knows. It knew where Toxicroak and Scizor were despite the fact that they'd hidden, and it was looking for one or both of them. Cecilia warned them with a scream that rippled in her throat. Talonflame waved one of her wings to launch a set of feathers, sharpened with steel and wreathing with blue fire. The first few buried themselves into the sand right behind Skuntank, and the soil smothered the flames like a candle between a wet towel, but the rest were propelled up by a sudden gust of wind and stabbed into the poison type's back. Cecilia could only see Skuntank slow enough for Toxicroak to narrowly bend back to dodge the coming Slash before it exploded with a noxious poison that she could taste in her throat, but they disappeared into the forest before long.

It was Slaking, she worried about. Heat scorched her hands when Hydreigon gathered a Dragon Pulse in his throat to fire at the normal type, and Slowking raised an arm next to them. It was difficult to see, but with each wave of his hand, he was firing an invisible disk at both Tangrowth and Slaking. The latter growled when the first gouged out his gut, but the wound instantly closed when Delcatty sang, and the next, Slaking either hit out of the way by pure chance or Girafarig blocked with its own barriers. Zolst's Dragon Pulse met a similar fate, though some of it did break through and singed the edge of the normal type's skin.

Again, though, the burns afforded to Slaking's skin were simply healed.

Golurk stomped a foot, and an Earthquake rippled across the earth, yet it did not shatter, nor split. It only shook, and the ground itself stayed intact. Slaking leaped, its arm windmilled in the air, and it grabbed onto one of the trees to quickly change directions toward Golurk to avoid another wave of feathers from Talonflame. The ghost type was more agile than he had once been, and he was ready. His fists went up and music screeched out of him, accompanied with purple flames leaking out of every crevice, every hole, every nook and cranny of his skin. There was no start to the song. It began already at its climax, and Slaking clenched its teeth as it landed a glowing punch onto Lehmhart, shattering a hastily put-together barrier that Slowking had put up—

A shockwave ran through Cecilia and sent more dirt flying into her face and hair. The air flew out of her lungs, forcefully expelled like something had punched her in the gut, and it felt like her entire body had been hit by a collective slap. Yet, she looked. Having brought his arms into a protective guard, Lehmhart's legs buckled under the weight of Slaking's strike, and his arm bent, and yet he still stood. Here he was, guardian of a tower for centuries and now having taken on the role of guardian of this team. Before the normal type could land, Golurk punched him in the gut in one smooth motion and sent him flying back, but a…

Barrier was accurate, but this one bent like a mattress, and it caught Slaking before it could land on the ground and bounced him back at Lehmhart immediately, courtesy of Stantler. Stantler's the one who can affect texture, then, but Girafarig remains the main muscle behind them. Slowking slowed him down some, but multiple things worked against him. First was Slaking's weight and momentum. Second, Girafarig joined in on the fray and he couldn't win against two psychics or psychic-adjacent Pokemon. A thicket of vines wrapped around Lehmhart's leg, allowing Tangrowth to pull to make him trip, and Slaking landed one of those glowing punches right in the ground type's face.

The second strike was nothing like the first. Slaking's hit sent Lehmhart tumbling back like a ragdoll, and instead of ripping through trees, they stopped him dead in his fall as if they were an inviolable part of the environment. His body slumped against the bark, but he summoned a flurry of Shadow Balls all over his body that buried themselves behind Tangrowth's vine-filled body, forcing the grass type to hide behind one of the trees while Hydreigon screamed out another Dragon Pulse to block Slaking's path.

It did not work. Again, it prioritized attack over safety and it wildly threw itself into the blast to rid itself of what it no doubt saw as the biggest threat, spraying spittle with every roar, yet Golurk managed to temporarily stop it with a Bulldoze, specialized to slow rather than hurt. Hydreigon growled in annoyance at the sight of a battle he could not join fully.

"Soon," she whispered in Zolst's ear. Her riding on his back meant that he couldn't unleash his full power, but a torrent of unordered darkness left his three mouths and penetrated deep into the sand until it reached Jupiter's feet. It was Stantler that stopped the attack this time, with a particular gray, almost too dim to notice light that dissolved the Dark Pulse before it could reach them. Cecilia knew that move all too well, given that it was a staple of Slowking's arsenal. Disable, but to what extent could Stantler use it? When she whispered to Zolst to attempt to channel more darkness, she realized it had been cut off entirely. There would be no more Crunch, nor would there be any dark type moves.

She looked back to Lehmhart, whose shifting of the ground had forced Slaking to jump again. The ghost type lifted one of his arms, and smoke and purple light diffused from a section near his elbow. The forearm burst forward, a rocket-propelled fist shining with the familiar glow of Hammer Arm— Slaking's face twisted in surprise and horror, and the fist penetrated through the glass-like shields afforded to him by Girafarig. Fire— blue fire from Talonflame wrapped around it like a glove as the flying type swooped from somewhere Cecilia hadn't been looking, and more wind propelled the fist to greater speeds until the air itself twisted, morphed, got out of its way like a living being cowering under another's might.

Even in fight such as this one, Cecilia could not help but admire the power her team had at its disposal.

The impact shattered something, she wasn't sure what. Slaking's chest went concave, and blood spurted from his eyes and open mouth, teeth were chipped and shattered, and after the blood came the bile. Once again, a squishy barrier caught Slaking before it could hit the ground, but this time the side of his arm hit one of the trees and the bark scraped bits of his skin off.

Golden. It was all golden like ichor, soaking and trailing down the silver dirt.

"Now!" she yelled. She pushed herself off Hydreigon and clumsily landed on Slowking's platform just in time for the dragon to set itself loose as a draconic force swarmed around every inch of his scales.

Cecilia had worked out this battle. She had played it in her mind over and over again, peeling away at layer and layer of plans of action in case one or the other didn't work. The most obvious one had been to target the support Pokemon giving the others so much help. It was subtle, but she could see how it affected the entire fight, and the fact that three of Jupiter's were overpowering her was saying a lot about their strength. Toxicroak and Scizor were weaving in and out, hiding behind trees to escape from Skuntank's wrath, but the poison type was faster than them, and more agile. It easily kept up with both of them and the poison it released with every flex of its sinuous muscle corroded Scizor's metallic shell.

Toxicroak was better off, but she was weaker. Her hits did not carry as much weight, and now there was a Tangrowth to contend with. The grass type hadn't moved from its spot and was still using too many vines to count to counter the coming threat that was Hydreigon. They shied away from Zolst's draconic coat like terrified children, and those that did make it, he burned or destroyed with the snapping bites of his hands—

But the point was, not only were Tangrowth's vines far more powerful in their consistency, they could stretch further than Angel's, and the grass type had snaked them under the soil. Energy Balls and gusts of grass— of Leaf Storms formed at the tips of these bundled-up vines and forced Toxicroak on the defensive. Her hands moved faster than Cecilia could see, and she took refuge in Skuntank's poisonous cloud that would be harmless to her, but Tangrowth's vines began to glow and regenerate, following her into the mist without a moment's hesitation. In an effort to catch Toxicroak up to her teammates, Cecilia had not diversified her tactics enough, and that made her predictable. She fought like what someone would expect a Toxicroak to fight, and that was even more of an issue given that Jupiter's fellow Commander owned one.

They were buying time. That was all she could ask for.

A roar made her turn back toward Hydreigon, who bore the full weight of his power into Slaking's continuously regenerating hide, and she allowed a toothy grin to split her face when even Jupiter seemed surprised at the fact that her Slaking could possibly be matched in strength by something other than a Golurk. It screamed as one of the heads tore into his shoulder and the other two aimed for its neck, but it was strong enough to keep them both at bay, even with the continuously flashing Scary Faces that Cecilia thanked the Legendaries she wasn't in front of. Common strategy ingrained into every ACE's mind would dictate to target the psychic first, especially when one— well, not a psychic, but a psychic adjacent— could heal with only its voice.

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

So what if, Cecilia had asked herself, she overpowered the healing instead? Now back on his feet and his fist having flown back into its socket, Lehmhart broke into a jog, took one, two, three treps toward Slaking—

"Oh man, you really are something. I think I'll remember this one for a long time," Jupiter lazily drawled between Slaking's pained grunts. "Skuntank, get back here."

Cecilia's eye twitched. She heard the poison type running before she even saw it, and when she did, Skuntank danced in-between the trees in and out of view before jumping on thick steps of vines Tangrowth had set up that could somehow support its weight—

Toward her. Not to save Slaking.

Of course. She was fighting a monster, how could she have—

Slowking flinched. My lady—

It happened so quickly. A brisk rise an altitude to dodge Skuntank at first, but it simply used the trees as support— jumping on their smooth, vertical surface— to get up to their level quicker and launched poisonous air ahead of itself as it gathered a Night Slash within its claws. Slowking waved a hand, sucking up all the noxious fumes in tight psychic bubbles, but stopping Skuntank itself was another matter entirely. Six spheres of water materialized around her and all converged into six single points faster than she could blink. Six Water Cutters. Six opportunities to take out Skuntank before it could reach them.

It did not stop even when one of the water jets poked out its right eye, nor when another carved a line in its flank. The momentum from its jumps was too much, and pain, Cecilia finally understood, was not a limiting factor.

Cecilia felt a force tug behind her and was thrown back.

Back.

She was falling. Shit! She tumbled uncontrollably through the air, unable to even see what was happening in the battle beyond a few flashes which were hard to recognize given that everything but dark type moves was golden. A scream rippled through her throat, growing louder the closer she got to the ground. There was a thump, and a deep-set pain in her ribs and stomach when something— Scizor. Scizor had jumped to catch her. His exoskeleton was coarse and brittle, but he could still move just as fast as before. Scizor suddenly twisted his body with a pained grunt, shutting his eyes as Cecilia tumbled onto the dirt.

He must have gotten hit, was her thought when she finally came to a stop.

Everything hurt so bad. Raising herself with her two arms had her feeling like her entire body was broken. Each breath she drew through her mask was as if someone had fucking stabbed her in the ribs. Her face— her face felt wet and warm. She was lightheaded… why? She ignored the fighting all around her and brought a hand to her mask, finding it torn in the middle, and she scrambled through her League-issued backpack to find a new one as Slowking landed fifteen feet in front of her with a loud thud, his form bleeding. Countless claw marks had ripped through his stomach, face and shell.

That sinking feeling in her stomach, that everything was collapsing? Cecilia ignored it and swapped masks before she could…

The inside of her other mask was wet with gold. Her own blood, she understood. Her hands were full of it, too. That was why her face felt wet. Cecilia touched it and hissed in agony when every nerve in her face told her not to touch the gash in her face. Blood was pouring over her right eye and making it difficult to see, but she put on the new mask regardless, stood up for the first time in twenty seconds with shaking knees, and she took a quivering, pained breath as Talonflame landed beside her with a worried squawk.

A calm settled over her. Not a soothing one, but a cold fury that felt like ice in her very veins.

Scizor and Toxicroak were still acting as a team and had moved to target Tangrowth, who wielded masses of vines like heavy clubs that they struggled to cut through now that it had regathered them to its body. Occasionally, Scizor would fire off beams of Bug Blast in hopes of overwhelming Jupiter's protective cocoon, but overwhelming three minds of that level wouldn't be something brute force was capable of. She… it was difficult through the golden light and her bleeding right eye, but she could tell Tangrowth had been hurt some and it wasn't healing anywhere as fast. Delcatty was prioritizing Slaking at all costs.

Slaking appeared to have recovered from that massive Hammer Arm, though it was slowed and tired. It was an impressive specimen that somehow worked beyond the constraint of Truant, so she doubted injuries would have it reconsider, especially when all of Delcatty's attention was on him. It traded blows with Lehmhart, going toe-to-toe with the ground type in terms of strength and was faster to move. Faster to reach his vulnerable joints, faster to block incoming strikes, or dodge them, in the case of Hammer Arm.

That was the good news.

"Help Lehmhart," she told Talonflame. Her voice was hoarse and more tired than her mind was.

Talonflame listened and took to the skies with a force that had Cecilia stumble to the side.

It seemed like her plan had failed. Cecilia realized she'd been overconfident and consumed by the desire to kill and remove the threat that was Jupiter to the point of blindness.

Hydreigon was foaming at the mouth and had resettled their attention on Skuntank, whose attacks seemed to grow weaker under his gaze. It was how, she assumed, he had survived the tussle with Slaking. She'd done the same thing in the battle with Crasher Wake, so she was glad to see their hits weakening under the pressure of his Draconic Aegis. Occasionally, Skuntank would try to dash in toward her or Slowking, but one of Hydreigon's mouths would snap shut around one of its legs or throat, keeping it there until it managed to slip out using poisonous fumes. The dragon's mouths were deteriorating, and fast. She didn't know if he'd even be able to close them in a minute, let alone thirty seconds.

Slowking was slowly getting up, but she doubted he would have the power to do anything else. She recalled him as bloodied hands marked his Pokeball and released him next to her so he wouldn't have to walk. He was imperative to her victory now that she'd realized the first plan wasn't going to work and she was in no position to execute the second, as was Golurk, which was why Talonflame had gone to help. The bird dashed in and out of the fight, expertly dodging the stray hits that Girafarig tried to sneak in with blasts of concentrated psychic energy— colors that blurred with different shades of gold that she assumed should have been a rainbow.

"I'm surprised you're still standing. Most would have given up already, I mean, you're in an awful position here."

Cecilia blinked. It took a bit for the words to register in her mind. To see something like this monster still talk while their Pokemon were fighting for their lives. More silver dirt sprayed all across her stomach and legs as Slaking barely dodged a punch from Golurk and pulled him in by his arm, using his own momentum against him. The normal type lead him into a vicious punch in the gut that shook the earth and her very bones.

She tried to open her mouth— not to respond to Jupiter, but to talk to Slowking, whose form was hunched over and breathing harshly in an attempt to recover from what Skuntank had unleashed upon him— but just opening her mouth hurt, as if it had been wired shut. It felt like rusted hinges creaking painfully with each attempt to speak, swallow or breathe through it, and every single time, she tasted blood in her mouth. It was metallic and almost sweet. Ignore it. You're stronger than a little pain.

"We're doing the song," she whispered.

N—no, Slowking bumbled. I'm not in a state to protect—

Her voice was smooth as Johtohan silk the second time. "We're doing the song," she repeated, and just so calmly, too. Almost too calm. She supposed she was resigning to her fate. "Face it, Slowking, we're losing. Our strongest position was right at the beginning of the fight, and I squandered it."

Scizor clamped down on the tight, packet of vines wrapping around his throat and barely managed to escape with a blast of concentrated light that tore through the appendages, but she could see the distress in his eyes, even when she could barely see out of her right one because of all the blood. It was that look he made when he faced an opponent stronger than he was, and he just couldn't comprehend it. It was anathema to his very being, and so instead, he raged and cut across Tangrowth's flank with an X-Scissor on the way to Jupiter's protective bubble. He slid back behind a tree to hide from that concentrated psychic blast and then glided across the ground to reach his target, but a vine from Tangrowth clasped onto his leg and had him trip face-first into the dirt before squeezing.

She heard something break, and it was hard not to picture an industrial shredder crushing scrap metal at the sight of Scizor's leg being crushed before Toxicroak managed to break him out with a Cross Poison. He could barely even limp from then on and started hovering instead, which strained his stamina even more considering his weight and how fast heat would build up within his body. Toxicroak spat, and large amount of sludge melted the protective layer of vines around Tangrowth, yet they were slower to dissolve than normal and those that did regrew at a rapid pace.

Slaking was more agile than Lehmhart, even if the golem had grown leaps and bounds in that department, and he had found his groove. The normal type seemed to speed up and grow stronger the longer the fight went on, and Delcatty didn't only heal him, now. He seemed to speed up and grow stronger at certain tunes of her voice, and she could almost see it reach him. Golurk did land some hits, and with each impact came the crescendo of a tune, yet he was hit five times as much due to his larger size. Talonflame spun around, high above Jupiter, and a twisting, flaming tornado took hold that neatly dissolved due to Stantler's interference. The normal type hadn't done much this fight and hadn't even used Hypnosis, but she was starting to understand that he might have specialized in Disable and Hypnosis and only those two. Did it matter how weak it was offensively if Slaking, Tangrowth and Skuntank could do the work of a full team of six on their own?

Wait.

The sound. Just like Lehmhart, Delcatty was possibly working with sound, here.

"One last attempt." Cecilia groaned and shut her eyes tightly. God, it hurt. "Do you think sound is key to Delcatty's healing and… other abilities?"

The water type held onto his side, yet he sent a flurry of transparent discs to aid Hydreigon, and they managed to hamper Skuntank some, but just like he'd said, they were far too weak to do anything but distract at best, and the dark type was excellent at ignoring pain. Better than Slaking or Tangrowth. Still, the fact that he'd been rendered so weak after a few hits was proof that she was outmatched in her domain of expertise— power.

Instead of fighting fire with she should have tried this from the very beginning.

"Save your energy," she rasped, followed by a few coughs. She wished she still had a few potions remaining, but taking down so many grunts on the way up had taken its toll on her supplies.

I could try, but again… I'm not sure sound is the whole of it. I've watched— a few tired breaths interrupted his thoughts. He sat down and closed his eyes to use Slack Off, but Skuntank's wounds seemed to fester, still. Arceus damn it! I've studied them during the fight, and there's a psychic component to the move. I've read this in a book, but it resembles Heal Pulse the most, combined with sound and changed to reflect the user. It's grown far beyond that now, but the concept should be similar.

Studied was a… word, considering the fight had barely lasted four minutes at best, but she trusted his judgment.

"But we may weaken it."

He shrugged. It's three against one, he said, looking at Girafarig, Stantler and Delcatty. And I'm not at one hundred percent. He laughed and blood leaked out of the claw-shaped wound on his chest with each heave. Far from it, in fact. I'm bleeding like a Lechonk—

"Try."

Slowking shut his eyes. In-between the battling, in-between Hydreigon blasting Dragon Pulses at Skuntank with his broken jaws, Slaking ripping off one of Golurk's arm and using it as a stick to hit him with, Talonflame slashing Tangrowth with air sharpened like blades, Scizor keeping his distance as best he could due to his limp and Toxicroak stabbing the grass type with a poisoned blade extended twenty inches long, the air itself quivered before going still like it originally was. Jupiter's form blurred, as did her Pokemon, and their voices suddenly grew distant.

Cecilia looked at Slaking and noticed that his healing had slowed. That, in combination with the fact that Delcatty probably was tiring, could have been enough at the start of the battle.

Now?

The fight had tilted in his favor long ago. Cecilia screamed at Talonflame, ignoring the burning agony on her face as her face twisted in horror and Slaking hit the ghost type under his armpit and knocked his remaining arm out of its artificial socket. Lehmhart tried a kick next, but Slaking rolled on the ground and pulled on his ankle. The golem fell back and Talonflame submerged Slaking in a bubble of air that she struggled in for two seconds before he bellowed and simply broke out of. If only she still had access to her fire… damn it, damn it!

It didn't matter. She'd made a mistake at the beginning of the fight, and her Pokemon would pay for it.

Slowking looked at her with what she could only describe as pure horror as a realization settled deep within him. Already, his large barrier which he had wrapped around Jupiter's like a bubble was failing. They were poking holes within it, and like he'd said, he was one mind against three. Hell, maybe— maybe it wouldn't have worked in the first place. It would have only left them one opening to exploit and potentially take down one of the heavy hitters, but none of it had been guaranteed.

They were going to have to use the song.

Run away—

"If I split off, she'll send one of her Pokemon to hunt me down," she sighed. The strength went out of her legs, and they wobbled again until she leaned against a tree. The beat of the drum no longer made her uncomfortable. She felt like she could stare at one of the small ponds now and no longer feel the urge to touch or drink it. "And I won't let you die alone here like some coward, buying what, an extra minute without Hydreigon here, since I'd have to fly away? We don't have time to argue. Tell him."

Slaking's fur and skin were soaked in golden blood and covered in open, festering wounds and bruises, yet he advanced toward Golurk anyway while he crawled away with his remaining two feet. Cecilia calmly told Toxicroak to buy her time and give up on Tangrowth, which she did. Despite his size, Slaking was as fast, if not faster than her, so she could barely get in a good hit when she got closer to him, but the goal was to delay. So she played dirty. She sprayed the normal type's ankles with poison that tore away the skin and sinew, and she used the pain as an opening to use Low Kick. The hit barely even made Slaking stumble, but at least it did stumble before it could retaliate. The place Toxicroak had just been was crushed by his huge palm, leaving a massive imprint that would have crushed every single one of her bones.

He'd tried to squash her like a bug, but that let Talonflame slice across his back with a Steel Wing that Delcatty healed, yet slower. She could see it clearly now. The sagging breaths, the tiredness in her voice every time she sang, yet Cecilia knew they could not outlast her. The fight had barely lasted six minutes, if even that, but they'd thrown so much at each other that it was as if it had been thirty.

There was a reason she hadn't directed her Pokemon to help Golurk, however. This entire fight, she'd been standing on the edge of a skyscraper, a foot suspended in the air. The entire battle had hung upon the thinnest of margins, with each Pokemon doing their part to hold their betters at bay. Now free from having to handle two Pokemon, Tangrowth came to Skuntank's aid and began turning the tide against Hydreigon, using the same ledges of vines he had used to let the poison type reach the skies above. Unable to close his teeth anymore, Zolst was left with his heads as bludgeons, aided by the power of Dragon Rush, yet despite his blows finally putting a dent in Skuntank thanks to Delcatty focusing all of its efforts on Slaking, the dragon could only go tit for tat with his enemy, even in the air. Its claws could tear through scales and its poison broke his focus each time Skuntank drew nearby, melting through more of his skin. Instead of landing back on the ground, Skuntank used the trees and Tangrowth's vines to stay in the air while the grass type dueled Scizor on the ground, slow and still limping.

It took some convincing, mostly by saying you might live, Slowking finally said. But he's ready.

Lehmhart was looking at her now. His face had turned to the side as he lay his back against a tree and the rune on his chest, hands and shoulders flickered on and off, along with his eyes. He was utterly unmoving, like he wasn't even alive. A still under the golden glow emanating from Arceus' throne, his legs half buried in silver sands. His massive body, made of stone and clay, seemed almost melded with the rough bark, creating an eerie tableau against the backdrop of the forest.

It was like the many paintings she'd seen in her childhood. Too depressing to be painted by Burgh, but it'd fit well in one of Castelia's art exhibits.

A smaller, better contained shield materialized around her, thick and multi-layered. Slowking had to forgo his previous barrier to make it work, but it had basically been entirely dissolved anyway. All of her training with Lehmhart had been for this moment, for this instant. His obsession with song was the only reason they'd even managed to get to learning this move these past few months.

The origins of Perish Song could be traced back to old Ecruteak in Johto. It was one of their clans— the one who now presided over the entire city— who had discovered that spirits could be directed to doom someone to their deaths through song, and due to the threat of mutually assured destruction and the mass deaths of any conquerers, they had been the last city conquered by a unified Johto League. Today, knowledge about the move was closely guarded by Ecruteak, though there had been many replicas made throughout the world, none as potent as theirs.

Hers was one of the same. A copy that could be circumvented or stopped, however, that was if an equally powerful ghost was here to counter it for people unable to retreat into the safety of a Pokeball, where they would have to stay for hours before it was safe to be let out again.

Jupiter had no ghosts to pull from.

A haunting melody began to emanate from Golurk's form, echoing through the stillness of the forest like a mournful lament. Her perception of it was muffled, but the fact that she could still hear it was… Cecilia's throat tightened, and she licked the blood off her lips. the fighting stopped as soon as the first note hit. For Cece's team, it was because none of them other than Golurk and Slowking had known the Perish Song was coming, and for Jupiter's it probably because they couldn't believe what they were hearing. As soon as the sweet whisper of Lehmhart's song made it to a living being's ears, they would know, at that moment, that they were doomed.

The monster's eyes were wide, as was her mouth, but Cecilia found no pleasure in finally extracting a strong reaction from her. Not when she was throwing it all away. Cece's eyes watered, though she chased away thoughts of Grace, dreams and her friends.

"Get that Golurk!" Jupiter screamed with a muffled voice.

Some of them listened.

Skuntank, for one, immediately rushed toward the golem's hunched form, but Scizor used the last of his stamina to throw his entire weight into the poison type's side. Unable to walk, he'd had to beat his wings so quickly that he caught on fire and the metal that was his exoskeleton melded together into a horrifying mess. Still, the steel type fired off a Flash Cannon directly into the side of Skuntank's face, but the force from the concentrated light didn't stop it until Scizor aimed for a leg instead. Tangrowth was another one who helped her, but Talonflame had suddenly regained access to her fire and had engulfed the grass type in a tornado of scorching blue flames, keeping it trapped and burning any vines before they could even reach Lehmhart. Instead of healing, Delcatty finally moved, but it was engaged by Toxicroak before it could even get halfway, and the normal type was no fighter. Toxicroak dominated her from the moment their bout began, even when exhausted, stabbing and poisoning her with every jab of her fists while she easily dodged the meager strikes of its tail and head.

As the melancholic melody washed over her, Cecilia felt a chill run down her spine, and she could see purple lights, furious and raging, desperate to get through Slowking's thick barrier. They gave her wordless screams and those that did make it through accompanied by the sound entered her body.

That was when the pain began. As if her body's viscera were being squeezed with an iron grip with every single heartbeat. She moaned in agony, and her head bumped into the soft earth as she fell over with her first Pokeball in hand. Slowking and her team were the same, but they held strong. Pokemon were better with pain than humans were. Hydreigon was the first one she recalled. The dragon had been about to attack Golurk out of fury for even daring to use this move when she was still in the vicinity to hear, and it was not like she'd need him any longer. Slaking, Stantler and Girafarig were no longer fighting. The psychic had recalled both itself and Stantler into their Pokeballs and Slaking was currently threatening Jupiter with a menacing look as he loomed over the Commander, who had fallen back against the ground.

They were throwing it under the bus. The bond wasn't there, it never had been in the first place. It was all so transactional.

They had around… a minute left for the end of the song. Then it would be three minutes to their deaths.

It was not just physical agony that Cecilia endured. No, the pain reached deeper, burrowing into the very core of her being. It was a soul-rending torment, an anguish so profound that it felt as though her very essence was being torn asunder, yet Champion by happenstance she might have been, she was not Willpower for nothing. As soon as Toxicroak rid herself of Delcatty with a Brick Break to the neck, Cecilia recalled her before she could even turn around. Then, Scizor when she feared he would die to Skuntank, who could barely even move any longer, and finally, Talonflame when Tangrowth's vines had all been burned and all that remained was the grass type's dark body.

Cecilia quickly spoke, ignoring the fire in her lungs. The colors from the world were fading. "Is it…"

She gagged and— the vomit surged upwards, hitting the inside of her mask with a grotesque splatter. The sound was muffled, a distressing squelch as the expelled mess smeared against the clear visor, obscuring her vision with a vile, viscous film. The smell was mute and fainted, yet it still had her nearly throw off the mask by reflex.

"Is it… ready?" she slowly spoke, clearer this time.

Slowking looked at her, his eyes wet. Affirmative.

"I'll see you later," she said.

I… I'll hold you to that.

The psychic disappeared into his Pokeball.

Yet his barrier remained. Just like they'd practiced and done against Crasher Wake.

Jupiter was also lying on the ground, paler than it…

Paler than she already was. She coughed a mouthful of blood onto the silver dirt, yet what used to be golden to Cecilia's eyes was now a monochrome gray. The light out of the Commander's eyes, as dull as it had been, was fading, as were her irises, and Slaking was nowhere to be seen. With all of her remaining strength, Cecilia pushed herself back into a sitting position and allowed Lehmhart to finish his song. If she could not die standing, then she would do so sitting.

She still heard it in her head when he was done. The spirits clawing at Slowking's barrier disappeared, and it slowly dissolved. She did not recall Lehmhart. Not just because he was immune to his music, but because she did not want to die alone.

"I can't fucking believe it," Jupiter forced out through clenched teeth. "I can't fucking— I can't— that you'd throw your own life away to get me."

Cecilia would have laughed ten minutes ago. "Well," she said. "It's not the first time I've flirted with death."

And that was not a good thing. She hugged her knees, which hurt when squeezing against her ribs, and pictured Grace despite her best efforts. I'm sorry, my love. There was no other way. Even if Jupiter hadn't blocked the way to the next layer, Cecilia wasn't sure she'd been in a state of mind sound enough to attempt to run away, but as she'd told Slowking, Jupiter would have just caught up if she rode on Hydreigon's back and Lehmhart took too long to enter his flying mode for it to work.

"I was so close," Jupiter bitterly said. "So fucking close. I had front-row seats to—"

"Aren't you going to recall your Pokemon?"

They were all too tired or broken to move, yet save for Delcatty, they were still conscious.

"No. They should have helped me convince Slaking that he should have fought for a while longer—" She gripped her uniform where her heart was and coughed up some more blood. It slid down the side of her mouth and onto the dirt. "Fuck… this is really happening, isn't it? I can't see colors… I can't smell or feel anything."

"Yes. Are you scared?"

"Scared? This is like… that one time I decided to become a criminal and I couldn't see The Holy Knight III in theaters except this time I can't even pirate it on a shitty screen. I'm having serious FOMO over here, damn it all."

Cecilia blinked, though it was more out of habit than a need to. "You're treating this like a movie," she realized.

"I wanted to see if I could make Arceus feel something. Anything." she said, each word slow and deliberate. "If he intervenes, it means that he cares. If he doesn't, well, who knows? I wanted to study it."

"You disgust me."

Jupiter closed her eyes. "I like you, though. You've got guts."

"You're not—" she bit down on her tongue to fight through whatever was ransacking her body, "—a serious person. You're just not. You're a bad caricature. Even Mars is more human than you are."

That.

That had her frown and open her suddenly bleary white eyes one last time, and yet.

And yet she stayed silent.

The remaining minute and a half was passed in silence, over the course of which, Jupiter writhed and convulsed in pain until she stopped moving entirely. Cecilia was taken by similar pain, and she could feel her heartbeat weakening with each pulse. She could see Lehmhart's finger from his disconnected arm subtly moving.

"At least…" Jupiter croaked. "There'll be no more Monday mornings."

A few seconds later, Cecilia's heart stopped beating. Her eyes closed, and she died.

Thump.

Thump. Thump.

Thump.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Heart. Its steady rhythm had slowed, but it refused to yield to death. She found herself aware of the contraction and relaxation of the heart muscle and the blood struggling to reach her extremities. The sensing of each closing and opening valve.

Lungs. Struggling to fill with air, their delicate tissues burned with the strain of each labored breath, yet as they pushed against her broken ribs, she could feel each individual sac and bronchial tube fill with oxygen, and with her exhale came their emptying of waste and carbon dioxide.

Liver. The quiet industry of cells she did not know the name of churned, though at a lethargic pace. The metabolization of nutrients, the neutralization of toxins, and the elimination of waste. Then there was the sensation of storage, as her liver dutifully hoarded essential nutrients for future use.

Nerves. The delicate branches of small tendrils transmitting signals from her brain to every corner of her body and back again. She could almost feel the synapses sparking to life, like tiny fireworks igniting within her nervous system, yet a lot of these were numb and fried.

So many more. She was aware. Aware of how fragile she truly was, yet she was barely clinging onto life and felt too weak to even get one of her Pokemon out. Lehmhart tried to crawl toward her with his two legs, but he was clumsy and slow. Slowking's barrier had worked— barely, and it looked like Lehmhart had done something to save her, too, yet she feared this would leave her…

Twisted.

There was something else.

Something she'd lost due to her death, despite only having been gone for a few moments.

She could not see it, not exactly, but she could feel its weight. The vast majority of her Shard, slowly dissolving next to where her head was lying. The chunk had slipped out of her mind while she'd been dead, and she could no longer get it back. It was leaving her grasp like sand slipping through her fingers. Had Chase been nearby, she was certain he would have been able to claim it for himself.

Was this it, then?

Shard no longer, or maybe barely qualifying as one? When she tried to draw onto the well that was the power afforded by Azelf, she found it truly vacant. It would never be replenished again.

Her face might have been caked with blood and vomit, and she might have been something barely even human any longer, but the girl laughed, because for the first time in half a year, she did not only feel like she had contained herself,

She felt free once more.