Sol’s POV

  Steam exploded out into the chamber alongside a shockwave as frozen fist met molten tendril. The magma shifted in color to an angry black as the knockoff Tito’s hand sublimated into the air, a pale vapor pouring out from the stub that had been its arm. The obsidian tip fell to the ground and shattered, yet the magma behind it didn’t stop as the glowing red ball of rage glided along the stone floor. Blue spears rose up in front of the fake, barely slowing Emilie down long enough to let the hulking ice golem retreat backwards.

  God, Sol wasn’t sure if calling that thing Emilie right now would be correct as she hunkered down over Lea’s unconscious body. Steam rolled across her fur, and a looming sense of panic seeped into her veins.

  Sol didn’t miss this feeling. It was something she had grown so used to, yet in this situation, the dread felt like a knife pressing against her’s and everyone else's throats. Who exactly was the danger here? Was Emilie ramming a lava javelin through Hariyama’s chest a good thing or a bad thing?

  ...bad thing. God, it was like a fucking specter had her spine in a vice grip. Every strand of fur stood at attention as her heartbeat reached zeniths she had never previously thought possible, until finally, her eyes drooped as she buckled under the weight of her own curse. A haunting scream pushed through her mind, the steam shifting around her, clearing the way to visions of a not-so-distant future.

  Massive hands of dripping lava prying open a dome of ice, seas of magma surging through the chamber, sweeping up everything in its wake, scores of people and Pokémon alike sinking into the sea of death, a massive eruption devastating the island, clouds of poisonous fog and ash sweeping across the sea–

  For all that is holy what the fuck did you unleash, you stupid little psychic!

  A black aura pushed out from her horn as she put every bit of power she could muster into this Night Slash, her eyes crazed and shaking as she twisted her head and fired. Magma spread wide in the open air as the blade of darkness cleaved through with ease, steam pushing out from stone as it landed.

  Okay, good. Emilie, the orb, whatever it was, was still using psychic powers to manipulate the lava. She could work with this.

  She could not work with her strongest attack dissolving on contact with the glowing red demon child without even chipping her shiny new armor.

  That was, how? How the–

  The demon was looking at her now.

  The world slowed down to a crawl. Sol’s entire body locked up as her knowledge of what was to come should she fail here warred with her flight or fight response. Every hair stood on end. Every muscle tensed. Run. She should run. She needed to–

  The spell broke as a fist larger than the psychic swept down low, slamming into Emilie’s side and throwing her across the room, steam enveloping her as ice formed and thawed instantly.

  Ice Hariyama nodded once at her before jumping after Emilie, his fist glowing blue as he sailed through the air.

  She sucked in deep breath after deep breath as she sunk down to the ground. Calm down. The ice golem was probably on their side now, that had to be enough, right? At least, she hoped it was on their side. That was probably the closest she was going to get on a confirmation of a truce. She’d take it, though. Now she just needed to get Lea someplace safer–

  A psychic barrier shattered beneath Hariyama’s fist, and she was forced to the ground as the loudest sound she’d ever heard assaulted her ears, followed by a constant high-pitched ringing that silenced the ensuing explosion. Stone, ice, and magma slammed harmlessly against a wall of ice that had formed in front of her. Steam billowed around the structure as she uselessly spoke out into the chaos.

  She couldn’t hear herself talk.

  What the hell was that?

  One second the Hariyama was above Emilie, the next, this.

  How?

  It wouldn’t be so bad if she could at least see what the hell was going on. The ice surrounding them had expanded, becoming black and shiny as the lava rapidly cooled against its opaque surface. The ringing persisted as she backed away, her foot gently nudging against Lea’s coat. Out of the edges of her periphery, an explosion of white light pulled her gaze away from the action as her father floated closer.

  Muffled moans were all she could make out, like he was trying to talk through a pillow with a windstorm in the background. Still though, it was slowly improving. Her hearing wasn’t a complete wash, thankfully.

  “...alright?” Ah, a word she could understand.

  “Peachy.” The word came out panicked and strained. “A little shell shocked, though. Guessing the bang woke you up?”

  Dad nodded before looking down at Lea. “I’m guessing we’re losing?”

  Sol felt a broken laugh leave her lips. “Oh, God. I wish it was just that. This is so much worse than losing.” She sucked in a few ragged breaths to try and calm down the jackhammer in her chest. “Status update. We have a truce with the scary ice golems, primarily because Emilie absorbed the artifact Lea found and completely lost her mind. We need to stop her before she burns us all alive and sinks Dewford into a molten grave.”

  Duskull leaned back at the high-pitched end to her rant. “Ah, so we’ve left pear-shaped and hit the topographical dimensions of a tesseract inverted through an oran macaroon.”

  “Would you be serious! Last time I felt anything close to this you fucking died!” Sol screamed.

  The ghost type winced before floating closer. “I am. I’m sorry.”

  She shook her head before turning back to the barrier. “Whatever, just... pay attention, I guess. Avoid making direct eye contact.” Assuming there was even a fight still going on. It had been silent since... whatever the hell that was. Not that she could hear in the direct aftermath. A gnawing worry prickled at the back of her mind as she bit her lip.

  She was worried Emilie was hurt.

  Protecting Lea through this madness was all well and good, but... explaining what had happened with Apollo was already going to be painful, and adding Emilie on top of that...

  Cracks formed in the black barrier, and she tensed her hind legs and started to focus, letting energy build up in her horn. She didn’t have the luxury of being picky here. The wall shattered above them as the ice Hariyama was thrown into the frozen dome behind them, the body slamming so hard into the structure that it sunk into the wall with half its chest melted.

  Tendrils rose up from the shadows and diverted the falling ice and obsidian away from them. “Nightshades.” Dad answered her unasked question. “Very versatile. Eyes forward.”

  She winced before tearing her gaze away from the ice golem half buried in a wall they had previously thought unbreakable. Glowing red and orange hands of molten earth were visible through the steamy haze that had settled over the battlefield. She walked forward, a soft pant pushing past her lips as she squinted to get a better look through the clearing mists. It took her a second to realize that the steam was billowing out from a small hole in the ground, cracks splaying out from the shattered ice and stone.

  She snapped her jaw shut and swallowed as an armored hand pushed out from the crater, small cracks running up her arm. The thing pushing through got shot through the ground. Sol wasn’t entirely sure how hearty Emilie usually was, but from the light ribbing she picked up on, she was kind of a glass cannon.

  Ice spears lanced up from the Brawly lookalike’s shadow, slamming against Emilie’s armor and shattering. A small tilt of the head, barely a flex of motion for warning, and the lava under Emilie’s command moved. The hands jerked, contorting like puppets on strings as they sailed through the air, their fingers congealing into a ball as the fists lost form, easily slamming through multiple walls of ice that rose up from the ground as they sailed toward their target.

  Another wave of shadow ripped through the chamber, cleaving the balls of fire in two and sending them off course. She hadn’t even realized she was doing it; it was just... reflex.

  The air around Emilie seemed to explode as steam was sent rushing through the chamber, hot air singeing her fur. Pain radiated through her cheeks as her skin screamed at the rough treatment, but she persisted, refusing to back down from her spot between Lea and the demon that wore Emilie’s skin.

  She did wince at the hateful expression it sent her way, though.

  That was a warning. A warning that meant nothing because she knew what this thing wanted to do!

  Why were they getting a warning?

  “Emilie?” Sol shouted.

  A head tilt.

  Progress, maybe. If Emilie was still aware, maybe... “Emilie, I need you to listen, the orb, you need to get rid of it. Please, just–”

  Emilie disappeared. Teleport. She could still Teleport, of course she could, why the fuck wouldn’t she–

  Sol’s thoughts were cut short as a hideous noise assaulted her ears, like gears grinding against a chalkboard with about three times the volume. She wanted to press her paws against her ears, but instinct instead turned her head towards the noise, a glowing purple orb already forming in her mouth as she turned her head upwards and fired a Shadow Ball.

  The purple miasma dissolved in the air before it could ever hope to meet its target, a pale white mist overpowering the weak attack with minimal effort. Emilie didn’t even turn around to acknowledge them, her eyes focused on the malformed remains of the false Hariyama. Her glowing red arms dissolved the misshaped mess into the miasma that permeated the air. The jewels that were left behind sunk down into the structure beneath, and ice glowed an angry, orange and red.

  A low, guttural growl sounded out from above them as Emilie focused, her arms becoming brighter as she dug her tiny little fingers into the frozen wall. The growl shifted to a scream as fire poured off her hands in waves, expanding the indentations and sending a cascade of very sharp, pointy, painful looking ice down towards them.

  “Lea!” she shouted, her eyes wide as she darted forward, grabbed the girl’s hood, and jumped backwards, putting as much power into her legs as she could to get away. Shadow tendrils shot up from the ground beneath them, helping her move her trainer away from danger as her father floated after her.

  The barrier, something that had once looked beautiful, started to bubble and twist, its shape sagging underneath Emilie’s weight as the structure completely dissolved, a faint yellow light glimmering in the air as the jewels floated listlessly in the air, but beyond that...

  An empty throne with seven dots carved into it, some fancy dot-based writing on the back wall, and some bones.

  That was it?

  Where the fuck was everyone!?

  Emilie surged forward and slammed her fist into the empty throne, shattering the offending object before bringing her foot down on the biggest slab of what was left, fire pushing off her limbs in waves as she threw what seemed to amount to a tantrum.

  She knew now that this thing wasn’t Emilie, not really. The psychic would sooner die than put Lea in harm's way like that. But... God, whatever had control of her was acting like her, now.

  Still, this wasn’t what she saw. Was what she saw wrong, then? No, she would make it wrong, but the threat was still there, still niggling at the back of her skull.

  That niggling turned to a massive headache as symbols started dancing around in her head. Dots danced in front of her view as her mind somehow pieced together a message from the madness.

  ‘What you have seen shall not come to pass.’ The Brawly lookalike stepped in front of her. ‘The shadow will swallow the light on this day. Fate shall not have its due.’

  “Now’s not the time for cryptic ass hints,” she hissed, her head throbbing.

  The damn copy just smirked at her before darting forward, four blue tendrils pushing out from its shadow.

  Emilie stopped her thrashing and turned to once again glare in their general direction. A red barrier formed around her as the copycat drew closer, but no contact came. The clone had reached past her, ignoring her completely as the ice subsumed the yellow crystals still floating in the air.

  The barrier vanished as another snarl left the demon’s lips, her arms reaching up and shattering two of the tendrils before charging the replica. The ground beneath her rose as she brought her fist forward, swinging through open air as the air crackled and burned. A blaze poured forth from her fist and slammed into the wall behind them, exploding across the back section of the chamber.

  Sol briefly felt an overwhelming sense of relief as the exit melted open.

  That joy quickly shifted to dread as the stone itself melted under the intense heat, turning the entire hallway into a deathtrap.

  She glanced nervously towards her still unconscious trainer before looking at her father.

  The father she had just gotten back.

  Brawly had morphed and twisted into something new. A giant, hulking, ice abomination that kept shifting into something she didn’t quite recognize. She briefly wondered if this was Tiki, before crouching down as the heat became even more unbearable.

  Emilie had lifted her hands up, and the fresh molten earth she had just created surged forward, wrapping around her in a ball before swelling outward, shifting in shape to resemble something she had only seen on murals on Lea’s weird talking computer.

  She remembered Emilie showing it to her after their talk on the beach, which felt like an eternity ago.

  “Groudon...” They were screwed.

  “You know what that thing’s supposed to be?” Dad asked.

  She turned and frowned before glancing back at Lea, her face grim. What could they even do? She had half hoped that golem would assume its true form, but all seven crystals were present and it hadn’t.

  For whatever reason, it seemed like it couldn’t.

  This thing it had transformed into had all seven gems glowing in its skull in the same cross pattern the big guy outside had, and it couldn’t push past the lava construct. Four punches had only served to harden the shell of the creature as it glided through the chamber, slamming its claws into the frozen golem’s stomach.

  “Dad... I want you to use your nightshades to get Lea out of here.” Her voice sounded a lot braver than she felt.

  Duskull leaned back as though he had just been struck. “Come again?”

  Sol chuckled. “I... I can’t lose you again. Either of you, honestly. I think Regice bought his own press a bit too much.” She winced as obsidian claws ripped the ice golem in half, their tips glowing a malevolent red as it threw the creature across the chamber. Ice rose up from below only to crack and shatter as the beast opened its mouth and spewed out a fresh wave of fire. “I’ll... Lea’s too big for me to move well. You'd be a better escort out. I’ll stall–”

  “If you think, for one second, that I would even entertain the idea of leaving you here to fight that monster, you’ve gone infinitely more insane under Lea’s mentorship than I realized.” The blue ember floating behind the mask glowed red. “I–”

  “You’re not the strongest thing on the island anymore, dad.” Sol kept her eyes locked on the creature as Ice Tiki pulled itself back together away from the inferno. “This... this isn’t a fight we can win, and you’re wasting time. GO!” She crouched down, her horn glowing black. “Get her somewhere safe! I’ll fucking haunt your ass and you two can put my head back together after I make the change.” She stared pleadingly. Wishful thinking, really. Getting off this island honestly felt like an impossibility at this point. Still, though... a part of her refused to give up hope. “Please, you can’t have much left in the tank... Don’t make me watch you die again...”

  The entire chamber shook as Emilie’s construct slammed a claw into the golem’s face, sending a single yellow gem flying towards the bones she had spied earlier.

  Duskull floated, frozen in place, before sagging, his body seeming to shrink as he stared listlessly at his daughter. “I understand.” He turned away from Sol and took in Lea’s unconscious body. “I hate it, probably as much as you hated me after I died, but I understand. Just promise me...” His voice broke. “Give that body snatcher hell.”

  Hopeless, but... “I’ll do my best.”

  He nodded, and Sol turned around, squared her shoulders, and jumped directly into the maw of hell to let loose the largest Night Slash she had ever fired, its arc extending up to the ceiling and growing in width as it glided along the room, carving a path through the stone before rending into the false idol. Black plates of lava glass and molten earth strained against the shadows before getting shoved backwards, a gash forming in its chest.

  Tiki’s clone darted forward, its fist pulled back as it capitalized on the opening, only for it to be warded away as a wall of fire surrounded the Groudon construct.

  Sol jumped next to the bones, looking desperately for the gem that had been knocked off earlier. Those things were a power boost for these constructs, and she wanted this thing to be as badass as possible. She needed to find it while that thing was on the defensive.

  It was resting on the damn skeleton’s ribcage, oh, gross. Lord only knew how long these things had been down here for. At least the clothes were still around, she wouldn’t have to touch it. Kind of impressive they’d survived this long, and the crown–

  This was Persephone.

  She... she was sniffing around a new friend’s old corpse.

  Just grab the damn gem and throw it at the stupid golem.

  The second her teeth touched the gemstone, the thing came to life. Ice spread out from the little trinket and wrapped around her chest before inching up towards the crown atop Persephone’s head. As though on a mission, it dug into the single white gem that adorned the front of the circlet and pulled, breaking the fragile relic in two as it pulled back its prize.

  Sol pulled away from the skeleton as soon as the ice let her, and she sucked in a sharp breath as the pseudo necklace formed completely around her neck, the gemstone resting at the center off her chest.

  “What...?” Before she could question it further, a brilliant, shining light illuminated the whole room, blinding her as the stone on her chest quickly became hot.

  Normal POV

  My body felt heavy.

  It was more than just aches and pains. The dull throb of my muscles screamed at me with the slightest attempt at movement. I could barely even open my eyes and the things I could see through my half-lidded gaze were blurry at best. My bones ached. A searing pain was pulsing through my ankle.

  Everything hurt, and despite being out of it for who knows how long, I couldn’t even muster up the energy to move my damn arms.

  Still, I wanted to look around. The fact that I was still lying on rocks and dirt meant we were still in the cave. I was warm, though. In fact, it felt like I was boiling inside my jacket. Fighting against the growing desire to pass out again, I forced my eyes open.

  A blinding orange light forced them to close again. As spots danced across my vision, my headache worsened. What on earth was that? Carefully, I squinted and breathed a sigh of relief as my eyes slowly started to adjust. What had once been blinding settled into a faint glow, and the blurry shapes started to become clearer.

  Duskull and Sol.

  Were... were they the only two unfrozen? How had I managed to not get frozen? How long have I been out for?

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  I opened my mouth, but for the life of me I couldn’t make a sound. My throat was dry and I quickly found my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth. Snapping my jaw shut, I instead focused on craning my neck up a bit to take in the rest of the room.

  Legends above, they couldn’t have at least put me on my back? Being face down in the dirt really fucking suck–

  What the hell was I looking at?

  ‘Things stronger than you could ever possibly imagine.’ A weight rested on my shoulders as the words appeared in my mind.

  Though familiar, I couldn’t quite place the voice. It was soft, warm, kind even, where...? ‘Who are you?’

  Sol jumped away from me after barking something at Duskull, the skeleghost nodding, turning to me, and freezing, his eye shifting in color to a bright, vibrant purple.

  'No time for that, unfortunately. God, I really wish there was.’ There was a pause. The voice was stronger now, more defined. ‘That spitfire of yours, the fancy Kirlia... she bit off way more than she could chew.’

  My eyes locked onto the hulking black and red goliath as Sol slammed a beam of dark energy into it. ‘That’s–’

  ‘She’ll die if this keeps up.’

  I stopped and felt my entire body go cold.

  ‘A lot of people will. That orb you grabbed… it’s far more dangerous than you could ever imagine.’ The presence squeezed my shoulders. ‘I know you’re exhausted beyond reason, but–’

  ‘What can I do to help?’ I asked, glancing nervously at Duskull.

  A chuckle echoed in my mind. ‘I’m surprised you’re so willing to listen to the unknown voice in your head.’

  I froze. It was weird, but... for some reason I knew that I could trust it. It didn’t feel foreign. In fact, as weird as it was... she felt like this presence was familiar. ‘I trust you.’

  I felt a weight sag down against my back.

  ‘Good, that’s... we’re going to need to trust each other for this to end in anything other than tragedy. You’re a strong girl, and brave. So... so incredibly brave.’ The voice broke slightly towards the end of the statement. ‘I know you’ve gone through a lot in here, but we’re still not done yet. Your Absol’s already marched herself off into battle, but to pull through, she needs more... she needs you.’

  ‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I can barely move.’ I strained my overtaxed muscles and winced as they failed to even push me up from the ground, my head falling back against the hot stone floor.

  ‘I’ve noticed, and what I’m asking from you is an incredibly tall order, believe me.’ A pulse of heat surrounded my wrist as warmth pushed out from my core. ‘But you won’t be doing it alone.’

  Duskull floated listlessly forward, leaving my vision. A small chill ran up my spine, followed by a wave of energy. Spectral hands seemed to wrap themselves around my being and urged me up, helping me to my feet as I shoved myself off the ground.

  ‘Any reason Duskull is three shades away from starring in a Romero movie right now?’ I asked.

  ‘A quirk of the line. Duskull can attune themselves to spirits far more effectively than most Ghost Pokémon. I bore my soul and offered to help,’ he said.

  I frowned. ‘But–’

  ‘I’m sorry, but we need to hurry.’ The words were punctuated by a massive wall of fire rising up from the ground. ‘Even with me and the other ghost helping, you won’t have a lot of time.’

  ‘Time for what?’ I mentally shouted. ‘I don’t even know what I’m doing!’

  ‘You’ll figure it out.’ A sense of mirth pushed through my body. ‘I think it’ll be fairly obvious in a second, but I don’t want you to psych yourself out.’

  A loud crash pulled me out of the mental conversation, and I spied ice starting to form around Sol.

  ‘Close your eyes and focus.’

  I snapped my mouth shut at the authoritative tone. There was fuck all else I could do here, so why not. ‘What the hell am I supposed to focus on then?’

  ‘I need you to keep a positive memory in your head of your Absol. It can be a moment of triumph, of joy, of catharsis, anything as long it has meaning to both you and her.’

  Uhh... we’d only known each other for a couple of weeks and most of that was spent at each other's throats, though...

  “We’ll all go down, together.”

  “...if you want, I can stay close. I hear fur can be quite calming.”

  “Hands off my trainer!”

  My eyes snapped open and the heat pouring off from my wrist started to burn.

  ‘Fantastic, now focus on that feeling and reach out to her. Let it be the bridge that pushes you both further,’ the voice urged.

  I tried to swallow, but my throat was dry. The world seemed to almost be spinning as I desperately tried to focus on Sol, my arm rising up on instinct as I faintly watched the ice settle on me in the form of a bracelet, a white gemstone emblazoned with a mega emblem shining brighter than any other light I had ever seen at the center with a single yellow stone floating above it.

  Oh.

  That’s what this was.

  What!?

  My eyes met hers, and we stopped, a brief moment of hesitation as my brain processed the scene, paralyzed. This...

  She nodded once, a grin pulling at her lips as her hair stood on end.

  ‘We got this.’ For the first time, I heard Sol’s voice. Her real, actual voice without Emilie playing translator. The deep undertone shocked me out of my daze, and I found myself smiling along with her.

  “Damn right we do!” I shouted before pulling my sleeve down and letting my keystone loose from my coat. The second it was free, a surge of energy pushed up from my core. “Let’s kick that stupid rock out of my best friend. Mega Evolve!”

  The light pushing out from my keystone grew brighter, temporarily blinding me before pushing out through the chamber and being absorbed into the stone on Sol’s chest. White light washed over her fur as she shifted and grew in size.

  Her fur pushed out in a wide arc around her neck, before flaring out to resemble something divine–wings that would look more at home on an angel than a dark type. Her face shifted as her entire frame seemed to move up, her legs extending in length and becoming more defined. A second horn pushed out from her head as the first grew in size, and her bangs extended down, well below her chin.

  Addrenline pulsed as my heart pounded in my chest, my body vibrating as the transformation took hold. Hell, she was as tall as me.

  ...why was I on my knees?

  I sucked in a deep, haggard breath of hot air and felt my lungs burn. Exhaustion washed over me, and I quickly found it hard to keep my eyes open. A dull ache pushed through my bones as a low thrum sounded between my ears. The world itself was going fuzzy.

  Then just as soon as it had started, it had stopped, like someone had turned off the faucet. I sucked in another sharp gasp of air, my lungs screaming at me in petulant agony.

  Had I been breathing through that at all?

  Faintly, I could feel a pair of phantom limbs holding me up, making sure I didn’t fall forward. ‘Easy now, you did great.’ The words sounded like they were right next to my ear. ‘Was worried for a second there. The initial transformation is the worst. The drain shouldn’t feel as bad now.’

  Drain?

  What drain? I didn’t feel anything. In fact, if I did, I was fairly confident I’d have faceplanted into the dirt already, spectral support be damned.

  Furthermore, the glow enveloping Sol still hadn’t faded, just shifted color, white light fading to blue. The heat pushing out from the bracelet on me slowly started to fade, only to quickly be replaced by a biting cold. My eyes snapped open and focused on the sensation, and I quickly remembered the way I felt going into work with Eve in winter.

  Exhausted, yet aware.

  A crystal armor had encased the dark type, shrouding her in something that would’ve looked perfectly at home in the halls beyond this chamber. The yellow gem that had been adorned above the mega stone before had migrated north, working as the centerpiece to a headdress that rested just above Sol’s eyes.

  “Sol?” I asked, half terrified as I took in the battered wall of ice that surrounded her. Multiple black crystals had dug into the barricade, a few pushing through it in its entirety.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she replied. ‘Better than fine, even. I feel incredible. Like I could do anything.’

  ‘Don’t get cocky,’ Duskull piped up from inside my head. Good, he wasn’t still a zombie ghost. ‘We’ve seen what Emilie can do with the orb’s power, it’s not something to be underestimated.’

  I swallowed down a bit of bile. The thought that I was pointing Sol’s new shiny form at my best friend made me want to hurl, but… we needed to at least knock her out or something.

  Sol winced. ‘I won’t. I just… let me enjoy the form, would you? I doubt I’ll ever get to rock something like this again.’

  Another loud crack, accompanied by a new fissure forming in what I assumed was a massively thick sheet of ice to still be standing, snapped her out of her thoughts. “Ready to take it for a spin then? Night Slash, full power. Sweep it wide and give this thing a surprise.’

  With a grin and a nod, dark energy radiated through Sol’s horns. A pulse pushed through the chamber, and as she spun, the attack pushed out from her head like a wave. Calling it a Night Slash didn’t even begin to do it justice.

  The wall buckled and shattered on contact, sending shards of obsidian and ice through the cave. The attack didn’t stop though as it sailed through the molten wasteland, sailing over less than solid earth, pushing through lava plumes and burning air, slamming into the hard shell surrounding my starter and sending it back a solid three feet before dispersing.

  A low growl pushed out from the beast as it shoved both arms forward, and the burning earth began to move.

  “Emilie, stop!” I shouted worthlessly as Sol jumped up, the ground beneath her freezing as she opened her mouth wide.

  Instead of the usual spectral energy I had come to expect, a ball of concentrated cold started to form in front of her maw, swelling massively in size before sweeping across the battlefield, instantly freezing everything in its wake and carving a path through the hellscape Emilie had created.

  Regice was apparently offering more than a nice outfit and helping hand, then.

  ‘Tried that, didn’t work!’ Sol shouted as she landed on the hardened obsidian floor, a wave of frost pushing out from her feet as she charged. ‘I don’t think Emilie’s even awake, Lea!’

  I snapped my mouth shut, mentally groaning as a mental probe was met with silence, and watched as Sol rammed into the giant construct, darkness pushing out from her head as she cut loose a Night Slash at point blank range.

  A loud boom rendered the world silent as the creature was forced back against the wall. The area Sol hit bore a new scar, but despite that, no major damage remained.

  What on earth was this thing made of?

  A massive black and red claw surged forward, throwing Sol backwards and cracking the armor that protected her.

  My eyes widened as I saw where she was going to land. “Sol!”

  The still-molten ground hardened instantly as she landed roughly, the obsidian almost catching her. A low whine pushed from her lips as she shoved herself up, breaking the glass as she moved.

  “Jump back now!” I shouted.

  Sol listened and moved without question as Emilie’s construct moved faster than it had any right to, cleaving through the ground and shattering what was left of Sol’s platform.

  Right at that moment, the fake Tiki descended upon the battlefield from on high, pushing out from a small patch of ice that had, somehow, survived this hellscape of fire and death, and slammed a giant, frozen fist into the beast’s back.

  Legends above, it felt nice having the stupid hax legendary Tauros shit on our side.

  A shockwave pushed out from the impact as ice enveloped the golem’s form, sending snow and soot through the room. Shielding my face, I squint through the chaos to see it rising in defiance of the assault, shattering its would be prison.

  How the hell did it take that on the chin and not go face-first into the ground?

  ‘Brute force doesn’t seem to be doing the trick.’ The other voice was back.

  ‘Can you reach out to her mind, Lea?’ Duskull asked. ‘Maybe—’

  ‘Walled off,’ I replied, watching Not Tiki hop away from danger. ‘I… maybe I could do it if I could see her? Emilie always harps on visualization being key in our lessons, and right now I’m having trouble even believing that thing is Emilie.’

  Especially when it chucked a geyser of lava at Sol like that.

  ‘So we need to at least break her out of that thing, then,’ the voice said. ‘Preferably in short order.’

  ‘...or we remove her ability to control it,’ Duskull suggested.

  I blinked twice before looking out across the field. “How the fuck do you suggest-”

  An unnerved feeling and pressure pushed through my head, like someone was pushing just at the surface of my mind. ‘I need to talk to Sol, can I–’

  I reached through my mind, found the little blob of shadows and practically forced him into the driver’s seat. The pressure faded, and a sense of gratitude washed over me as I mentally took a deep breath.

  Duskull instantly sagged slightly as he took control, a sharp shuddering breath leaving our lips as the full weight of how weak I was hit him like a truck. “How are you still conscious?”

  Legends above, hearing my voice and not being the one to say things was so fucking weird and sent about seven different nerves on end. Calm down, it’s just Duskull, he’s not going to hurt me, and even if he wanted to, you can throw his ass out. Just calm down.

  Duskull winced before looking down. ‘I’ll make this fast. Thanks.’ Duskull smiled using my mouth before looking across the cave. “Sol!”

  The dark type cast a brief glance my way before jumping away from the golem’s claws. ‘Little busy at the moment. Just give orders like you usually do if you have any ideas, alright?’

  Tiki’s clone surged forward, slamming an uppercut into the monster and shoving it back, ice forming and instantly shattering as it flew through the air.

  “Sol, this isn’t Lea, it’s your father, and I have an idea.” A sense of unease passed through the bond.

  Sol whipped her head around and glared. ‘What the hell are you doing in… nevermind. I’m open to ideas.’ She hopped backwards as fire pushed out through the chamber. A massive pulse of darkness surged outwards from her head and met it head-on, pushing through the attack and bouncing off the thick obsidian armor surrounding Emilie.

  Duskull paused for a moment, before nodding. “We’ve been working too small so far. The closest we’ve come to cracking that shell is when you fired a Night Slash at point-blank range. What we need is to saturate her in that dark energy. Cover the whole room with it, in fact.” A grin pulled at our lips.

  Sol stopped, before wincing as a black shard of glass grazed her side, chipping part of her armor and drawing a bit of blood. She hopped backwards and the biggest Shadow Ball I had ever seen launched out from her maw, the wails sending a light pain through my skull. ‘How the hell do you expect me to figure out Dark Terrain in the middle of a life or death battle!?’

  We winced. “You’ve had practice! I know you refreshed mine after I died, it’s not that much harder to set it up, promise.”

  I idly wondered if ghosts picked up traits from the person they were possessing. Duskull usually wasn’t usually this awkward.

  Sol hopped behind a wall of ice that rose up as yet another wave of heat pulsed through the chamber. Despite the brunt of it being sent upwards, I could still feel my skin sting as the air ratcheted up in temperature.

  “I know you’ve had problems this last week finding what drives you. Finding a purpose to put behind your attacks, but honey, I know you, and this… you’ve never been more ready. You’ve found a family, and friends, and… You’re strong. If your mother could see you now I think she’d weep with pride.” A small crack pushed through our voice, and I smiled at the warm feelings that pushed through our bond. “Seize your new purpose, hold it in your mind, and use it to push all your worries away.” We smiled at her. “We’re not going anywhere, you hear me?”

  Sol opened her mouth, snapped it shut, then growled and turned back towards the fight. ‘Legends above, you’re both so embarrassing.’ She glanced back towards me, before taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes. A faint black aura washed over her, from the bottoms of her feet to the tips of her wings.

  Wings that seemed to extend further up into the air. Black light started to spread through the room, casting a pale across the room.

  That seemed counterintuitive to what should happen, but honestly, pokemon moves didn’t always make sense. It didn’t look like much was changing though, and I half thought that this Duskull’s idea might have been a bust.

  Then things stopped moving.

  Lava that had been floating in the air fell to the ground, before freezing and hardening to a pale black obsidian. Fires smothered and died, black shards of shrapnel tumbled to the ground, and most importantly of all, the creature that Emilie had conjured up froze completely.

  It was like someone pressed the pause button in the middle of a boss battle.

  I smiled, for all of about five seconds. Then both of my spectral partners were banished from my mind, and I suddenly felt like I was about to pass out. I swayed from side to side before gritting my teeth, tensing my shoulders. I can’t… I needed to…

  A shuddering breath pulled me out of my spiraling and I glanced up at Sol. God, I felt like I was going to throw up.

  ‘Did I do it?’

  Before I even got the chance to answer, a ball of fire formed in front of the black statue, aimed directly at Sol.

  Who was standing directly in front of me.

  Sol turned and whipped her head around, letting an attack fly instinctively.

  The resulting Night Slash bathed the entire area in front of us in darkness, washing across the room and consuming everything in its wake, including the beam of fire that had been launched, and slamming into both Emilie’s statue and Tiki’s clone. Regice’s avatar was swept away, slammed into the wall across the room with a resounding thud. But Emilie…

  The obsidian shell held firm for half a second before cracking. The sickening sound made me wince slightly until finally, the whole thing shattered in explosion of fine, black dust, revealing the changed, battered Pokémon inside to me for the first time.

  My heart seized in my chest at the sight. She looked different, sure, but what really worried me was how banged up she looked. Cracks ran up and down her arms and legs, and while I was pretty sure that was armor, the fact that red light kept surging through those cracks was worrying. Sharp, rapid breaths were pushing out from her lips, each accompanied by a small cloud of steam. The skin that wasn’t covered by the armor looked cracked and dry.

  She floated down to the ground, and it started to sizzle beneath her feet.

  “Emilie, stop!” I shouted, my eyes pleading.

  For once, she did. Emilie locked eyes with me and froze, her irises a smoldering inferno of red and blue light that seemed at war. Her body was vibrating in place as she held my gaze.

  Biting back a shout at the intensity, I shakily took a step forward, my body protesting at the sudden movement.

  Then I took another.

  Each step felt like I was walking across glass, like my body might finally revolt and collapse.

  But I needed…

  Emilie needed help.

  “It’s… alright…” I rasped, my voice hoarse as I slowly marched across the cave. ‘I’m fine.’

  Emilie reared back as if struck, then recoiled back and started moving towards the back of the chamber.

  I stumbled slightly, only to feel something prop me up. Glancing down, I could faintly see the outline of someone. Someone I vaguely recognized.

  Someone I had only seen on the TV screen back home.

  ‘I’ve got you.’ The voice broke on the final word, and a warmth filled my chest. ‘You do what you need to do, kid. I’ll walk with you the rest of the way.’

  I smiled, before focusing on the gremlin in front of me and widening the mental connection, letting her see more of my thoughts and doing my best to help see hers. Chaotic ramblings and gibberish that I couldn’t understand kept flowing through, but I could get the gist. Horror, pain, guilt… it all washed over me in waves, accompanied by manic whispers that picked apart at my perception of the world.

  I shut them out and continued moving forward. ‘You worry too much.’

  With each word, the whispers started to quiet, each sound silenced as I closed the distance between us, blue slowly overtaking the red as her breathing continued to pick up in speed.

  ‘S-stay away.’ Emilie sounded so small. So scared. ‘I can’t—’

  I allowed myself to kneel down and pulled the empath into a hug. A brief wave of pain pushed through me as bare skin pressed up against hot metal, but I fought through it as I held my best friend in my arm, her skin rapidly cooling as I fought to keep her there.

  “I know you,” I whispered into her ear. “You’re one of the strongest Pokemon I know. In more ways than one.”

  The red light slowly started to fade as I pulled her away from me, staring into her still closed eyes. ‘You’re stronger than this, so show that fancy rock who’s boss.’

  The psychic froze in place, the red lights dimming as she fought against the impulses being forced on her. The whispers were reaching a fever pitch, and it was taking everything I had to not pass out from the headache, until suddenly…

  Silence.

  Blissful, peaceful quiet as a blinding red light appeared at the center of Emilie’s chestplate. The orb phased through her skin and armor as thought it wasn’t there, before floating listlessly in front of me, a faint blue glow surrounding the ball that still pushed out an unyielding amount of heat.

  Ice surged forwards, cracking the black obsidian stone before wrapping around the offending object and pulling it away. In that same instant of rapid movement, Emilie heaved a violent, shuddering cough and spat out a sickly wad of blood.

  “Emilie?” Silence greeted my reply as I watched my starter shudder, before falling into my arms, limp. I shook her once to no reply, then winced as a bitingly cold feeling pressed up against my shoulder.

  I turned, my eyes wild as I desperately traced along Emilie’s neck, looking for a pulse.

  Brawly’s fake stared back at me with a frown, his eyes listless and glassy as he reached down and grabbed my starter pokemon from me just as I found the erratic mess that was her heart. A faint smile pulled at his lips, then…

  Ice.

  Emilie was completely frozen in an instant, and despite how I should feel about that, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders.

  ‘Back off!’ Sol screamed, jumping forward and between me and the fake, her eyes glowing black.

  She had reverted back to her normal form during my walk at some point, and I could tell by the way her legs were shaking that we were in no shape to do much of anything.

  A small grin pulled at the ice sculpture’s face, but despite that, he kept his distance, instead offering something that I didn’t quite fully understand.

  He was holding his hand out to me.

  Sol’s growl slowly drifted off into a low hiss as we continued to stare at each other, neither one of us wanting to move.

  Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I grit my teeth in determination and leaned forward, doing my best to rise up on my own before buckling again and sighing.

  I reached out and took his hand, and the world faded to white.

  The cave transformed, falling away to pillars rising up from a big white empty that just seemed to never stop. Water poured down the walls in a waterfall, and the hand I was grasping shifted from cold and unyielding to soft and fleshy.

  I was staring directly into the eyes of the Dewford Gym Leader.

  “Nice fight,” Brawly said.

  Good lord I wanted to fucking beat the shit out of him, you don’t just say that after… after that!

  Legends above, why did I have to be practical. “Thanks. Where are we?”

  A low hum answered me before Brawly could get the chance, and I whipped around to see Regice, in all of its full-formed splendor, descend down from on high to take its place on the platform in front of us. Its eyes rapidly shifted between different symbols drawn in dots as the world started to slow down. In my brain, images started to form. Letters appeared in my head, each slowly spelling out words. It was the most broken, piecemeal form of communication I had ever experienced, but the longer it went, the more I understood, until finally, the images stopped. It was like… the damn thing just downloaded an alphabet into my damn brain.

  I stared directly at the ice golem as the yellow jewels adorning the golem lit up with purpose, spelling out its intent.

  ‘I think it’s time we talked.’

  Discord