Chapter 62: Adjust the Plating

During the time of harmony, the Matriarch wielded the power of the Universe. The power to shape fate itself.

When the Embodiment of Chaos destroyed the harmony, the Matriarch tried to preserve it. The salvaged remnants became the Benefactor.

But the Matriarch could not preserve the Universe. Its phenomenal power had shattered into numerous fragments flung to the deepest recesses of the cosmos.

~I Pilastri dell’Eternità

Under normal circumstances, Yuna would have found an orange glow comforting. It brought the magma pits near her parents’ castle to mind. Except she wasn’t in Aeon anymore. Or Radiance. Or even the Malie City place the anomaly had brought her to.

Instead, the drakloak floated above an orange cube staircase. There was orange distortion in the distance but she faintly saw strange, jagged crystals and fractal shards resembling her rifts. It reminded her a bit of Ginnungagap, but with an orange coat of paint lathered all over it.

“Mom!”

“Leo?” Yuna looked down the stairs. The cosmic arceus — somehow he lost his dreepy disguise — trotted up the stairs. Or through the air above the stairs.

“Mom, where are we?” Leo wondered, looking around. He caught up to Yuna and floated next to her. “It kind of reminds me of the little static ball where we met Mr. Alder, but it’s way too orange.”

Yuna followed Leo’s gaze out into the distance. “Huh. You’ve got a point.” Did that mean they were in the heart of the anomaly?

“Hang on.” The drakloak tapped her chin. “We beat Chernabog. Then this orange rectangle popped up when he disappeared.” She looked up. Nothing but orange static. “The rectangle shined a beam of light at the distortion over the volcano. And now I’m here.”

“Oh, you beat the bad guy?” Leo’s eyes sparkled. “Yay!” He then looked down. “Maybe the rectangle is what was calling me, then?”

“Huh?”

“Before I fwooshed over here,” Leo said, continuing up the stairs. “It felt like something was calling me up the volcano. So I flew up there and, well…” His voice trailed off and, starcloud tail swishing slowly back and forth. “Yeah. End of story.”

Yuna floated after him. If this was like back at the tar plant, then Leo could seal up the anomaly. It was what he was supposed to do, right? Even though Yuna had no idea what that would mean for them and the rest of the team. She was kind of stuck here, so she had no choice but to press on.

On and on, until the stairs gave way to a larger orange platform with fist-shaped crystals in its corners connected by ropes.

… No, wait, they were lines of tiny fists that looked like ropes.

And Chernabog had a fist-shaped crystal in his belt, Yuna recalled. Just what was that all about? Had the core of the anomaly… somehow embedded itself within that daemon?

“It’s here.” Leo pointed his right forehoof at the middle of the platform. “The thing that’s calling me.”

The orange rectangle floated there, a bit bigger than Yuna realized after seeing it from a distance earlier.

Leo was already walking toward it.

“Hang on!” Yuna shot in front of the cosmic arceus. “Let me, uh, take a look at it first, okay?”

“Okay.” Though Leo’s starclouds dimmed and he nervously shuffled in place. He really wanted that rectangle, but it didn’t sound like he knew why. And that concerned Yuna.

She slowly floated toward it. Closer. Closer.

It had a faint orange glow around it.

Closer. Closer.

The drakloak froze and tilted her head. Was something… written on the rectangle?

Yes, if Yuna squinted, she could make out a single sentence carved into the middle.

The rift is born of disorder on the other side of this world.

Yuna blinked once. Twice. Frowning, she read the sentence again, then a third time. There were a lot of rifts opening up. And according to Alder, Kora, and Vince, they were the big problem. And a very large one had carried them to another world entirely.

Eternatus was still inside her home. And events surrounding it had certainly caused more than enough disorder. Did that mean Eternatus was the other side of her world?

I’m overthinking this. Yuna was about to tell Leo it was okay when she looked down at her hands and fought the urge to recoil in front of him.

Her shadows were back, pooling in her ectoplasm, and they looked like they were trying to swim away from the rectangle. Yuna glanced at it, then slowly floated back. The shadows receded in response.

Another thing to file away for later.

There were too many of those. And if they were about to seal the rift, then later really meant soon. Yuna could only sit on this stuff for so long and if other anomalies were going to have these strange rectangles, the team needed to know.

“Okay, Leo.” The drakloak softened her expression. “Its all yours.”

She waited for a response, but didn’t get one. Leo was looking past the rectangle… at nothing but empty space. “Leo?” Yuna drifted into his line of sight.

“Huh? Oh!” The cosmic arceus straightened up. “Sorry. I got distracted.”

Yuna looked over her shoulder. The space behind the plate was still empty. “Distracted by what?”

“You don’t see them?” Leo looked disappointed.

“See who?”

“Them!” Leo stuck his right forehoof out. “The human Mr. Gene wanted to find and his pet doggy!”

“What?” Yuna turned around. No sign of Sigurd. Yet Leo didn’t seem like the type for pranks. Or imagining something that specific. “Is there something else I’m not seeing?”

“There are tiny little threads connecting them to the plate,” Leo said, his starclouds brightening up a bit.

“Plate?” Yuna raised a brow. “You mean that rectangle?”

Leo nodded. “It’s a plate.”

“That doesn’t sound right,” Yuna said. She doubted she could eat a meal off that rectangle if she tried.

“That’s what it told me, though,” Leo insisted, cheeks puffing.

He was losing Yuna. “You talked to it?”

“Sorta?”

This was getting them nowhere. “Okay, I believe you.” It was easier for the drakloak to go along with Leo. “Now go and take the plate so we can get out of here.”

At least, that was what Yuna hoped would happen. Though there was still that wriggling bit of doubt about what would happen to the others if they sealed off the anomaly. She told herself it would be okay as Leo trotted up to the plate and reached his right forehoof out to tap it.

The cosmic arceus lit up bright orange, then the plate dissolved into orange light that Leo’s wheel’s absorbed. “Hee hee, that tickles!”

Yuna tilted her head. That was it? I don’t know why, but I was expecting something flashier.

“Hey, Mom! Mom!” Leo hopped up and down excitedly. “Check this out! Huuuuurggaaaaaah!”

He briefly shimmered with orange light, then grew in size. Huge muscles bulged out of his legs and neck in a way that brought the giga machamp daemon to mind.

“I’m ready to tussle!” Leo said, his voice a few octaves deeper.

“That’s, um, nice, dear.” Yuna’s ectoplasm rippled. At least she was only uncomfortable because it looked ridiculous. “You can turn back, right?”

Nodding, Leo shrank back down to his normal size.

… No, wait, that wasn’t quite right. He was bigger than before. Not by much, but enough for Yuna to tell the difference. She wondered if she should say something.

“Oh, I think I grew a bit.” Leo looked himself over. “Growth spurt!” His starclouds flickered in excitement. “And, look, we’ve got new friends!”

“Hmm?” Yuna blinked a few times. A couple of hazy outlines had appeared in front of them. As they came into focus, Yuna also noticed a bunch of different sized circles appearing behind the figures. They didn’t feel as important at the moment, however.

(By https://twitter.com/Sky_Cloud69)

The first figure was a mishmash of a lycanroc. Body of a midday, face, tail, and hind legs of a dusk, and the arms and forehead of a midnight. All three forms mashed together. Another Malice-driven mutant, perhaps? That would mean Lycanroc was from Eternatus. Making the silver-haired person appearing next to them…

“Hi!” Leo wagged his starcloud tail. “Are you Mr. Sigurd Stone?”

While the hair and pale skin matched, Gene’s photo didn’t show any sort of tube — or was it a hose? — sticking out of the man’s neck. And instead of standing up, he was stuck in some sort of chair with wheels instead of legs.

“Who are you?” The man’s voice was too far too mechanical. Yuna realized it was because it didn’t come from him, but rather his chair.

“Your rescue team,” Leo chirped, apparently not the least bit bothered by this. “A funny lizard guy named Vince told us to find you.”

The man blinked slowly. A slow hiss echoed from the chair. “I do not know of any Vinces. Or ‘lizard guys,’ for that matter.” He turned his chair toward Lycanroc. “But I believe I know why you’re here.”

Lycanroc nodded.

“You’re looking to assemble the Red Chain.”

“Yep yep!” Leo hopped in place happily. “Wow, you must be a mind reader or something!”

Lycanroc clicked their tongue, eyeing Yuna intently, but said nothing.

“Not a mind reader,” Sigurd said. His mechanical voice simulated a chuckle. “However, since it seems we share a common purpose at this time, I’ll gladly assist you in any way I can.”

The rings behind him flashed with orange light. Sigurd turned his wheelchair around and looked at it, as did Lycanroc.

“Though it seems that any further conversation will have to wait.”

Leo’s starclouds flickered in unison with the rings. The cosmic arceus kicked off the ground and drifted toward the rings. His wheel shined brighter and brighter and the rings slowly rearranged themselves into… some sort of haphazard pattern. And Yuna had the vaguest sense she’d seen it somewhere before. She just couldn’t put her hand on it.

The rings gave one final flash of orange light, then everything around Yuna and the others slowly dissolved away.

Seifer looked up at the clear blue sky. The last distorted wormhole right over the volcano — the anomaly’s core, if he had to guess — dissolved away in a single pulse of golden light. He took a slow breath, pondering what this meant for him. The anomaly had led the team here. Now it was gone, but Seifer was still here. Was that it? Was he stuck here? Had the team not thought this through?

At times like these, the keldeo had to focus on work. Keep his mind focused. “It looks like the eruption’s stopped,” Seifer said, turning around to Molayne. “What happens now?”

“Now?” He hopped off Magnezone and rubbed the back of his head, sighing. “If it’s really cleared up, then we bring people back to shore.” Molayne started to reach for his radio when he froze. “Uh, are you okay?”

“Yes?” What a strange question. Unless Molayne saw through Seifer’s attempts to pretend everything was fine.

“Because you’re, uh, turning see through?” Molayne lifted his goggles up and rubbed his eyes.

“What?!”

The keldeo looked down… and found his hooves had disappeared! And the rest of his legs were fading away, too!

What was happening? Why didn’t this hurt? Was this because of the anomaly disappearing?

“I think I get it.” Molayne lowered his goggles. “Your time’s up here. You’re getting called home.”

Seifer sure hoped that was the case. Best to go with it.

“I suppose so.” He nodded slowly. “It was, uh, interesting working with you.”

“Likewise.”

Seifer’s torso was half gone now. Molayne rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, uh, I guess we made it through this volcanic eruption. So maybe…” He yawned loudly. “Maybe I’ll look into hanging up my badge… and giving that entrance exam another shot.”

His neck was disappearing now, but Seifer still managed a smile. “I think that’s a good idea.”

“Just promise me that you won’t give up either, okay?” Molayne said. “You’ll find your purpose back home. Something to fight for.”

Right before the keldeo faded away completely, he managed to get out an, “I promise.”

Yuna hit the dusty ground with a surprised squeak, then a grunt. “Oogh.” She rubbed her belly. “Rough landing.”

… Wait. Gene had landed the ship in the middle of the grass, hadn’t he? Where—

“Wow, look at all this dirt!” Jade kicked some up with her right foot, then blew the dust cloud ahead of her… toward familiar, rust-covered buildings.

“Chakran?” Yuna rubbed her eyes. “How did we get here?”

Panic briefly welled up in the drakloak’s gut. Jade wasn’t with them before. Leo sealed the anomaly, and then…

She looked around. It didn’t take Yuna long to realize that the ship was here. And everyone was accounted for, including Sigurd, Lycanroc, and the weird muscular bug. She fought the urge to grimace at the fluid running through its arms. She really hoped it wasn’t blood.

“What happened?” Widget shifted back from his flight form to the cosmic appearance Leo had given him. “One minute I’m flying after the kid. Next thing I know he disappears in a flash, then I disappear… and now we’re back here?”

“Yup!” Leo puffed his chest out. “I asked Mr. Anomaly nicely to send us back home and it listened!”

“Back… home?” Widget frowned. “You consider this home?”

Leo laughed nervously. “I didn’t mean for it to send us here here. But it did.” A beat passed, then his eyes sparkled. “Oh! Hey, Mom, can I introduce Widget to Mr. Alder and Mr. Kora? Huh? Huh? Can I?”

“Uh, sure?” Yuna didn’t see the harm. “Just, uh, make sure you knock first?”

“Okay!” Leo blipped to Widget’s side and nudged the cosmic type: full’s shoulder. “C’mon, big brother!”

Widget stumbled forward with a squawk. “P-Please don’t call me ‘big brother.'” He begrudgingly followed after the cosmic arceus, shaking his head.

Gene watched them go, tail swishing back and forth. “Am I losing it or did Boy Wonder have a growth spurt?”

“No, he… he did.” Yuna rubbed her shoulder.

“And what’s with these three?” Seifer jerked his head in the newcomers’ direction. “What did I miss while I was playing traffic cop?”

Gene turned around and his tail stiffened. “I, uh… can’t speak for the ‘mons, but I’m pretty sure he’s the guy we were looking for.” He pulled the photo of Sigurd out of his Malice Crystal. “Doesn’t look a thing like his photo, though.”

“Hardly surprising.” Sigurd’s machine hissed out previously compressed air. “You don’t look a thing like your wanted posters, rebel.”

“I see my reputation precedes me.” Gene bowed sarcastically. “Mewtwo Gene, at your service.” He straightened up. “Seriously, though. What’s with the portable hospital bed?”

Sigurd’s electronic voice attempted to mimic a laugh. “Well, that photo’s from before the ALS took away my ability to walk.” He paused. “And talk. And breathe.”

Yuna had no idea what Sigurd meant, but the mewtwo’s sudden dour expression gave her a clear enough picture.

“ALS?” Gene crossed his arms. “Didn’t they make a cure for that, like, eons ago?”

Another attempt at a mechanical laugh. “A cure made from the mewgenics program is no cure I want.” His wheelchair pivoted away from the others. “Who’s to say the replacement nerve grafts don’t turn patients into sleeper agents for the emperor?” Another hiss of compressed air. It must’ve been whatever was breathing for Sigurd. “I’d rather let nature take its course.”

Yuna’s Soul Dew shimmered, then a tiny Reshiram popped out. “Hold it!” He held his wings up, then realized how worthless the gesture was and folded them against his sides. “I thought everyone inside Eternatus was supposed to be dead. That’s why they can’t leave. They’d turn into Phantoms.” He looked around at the others. “Am I crazy? Did I have too much wax in my ear frills. Cuz, y’know, that’d be pretty weird since I’m a spirit.”

“A common misconception,” Sigurd said, his wheelchair turning toward them with several whirrs and clicks. “Most of those living in the Qliphoth are ordinary people. They’re born, have normal lifespans, and pass away. And when they do, their spirits become part of Eternatus itself.

“In the days before Paradox, the archbishops called this beautiful.” His wheelchair let out more compressed air. “But Paradox’s mewgenics program has broken the cycle. This delicate balance. Prolonging life and altering it in ways the average person would never think of… if they didn’t live in the empire to begin with.”

Gene’s brow furrowed. His tail twitched in irritation. “Wait a sec.” He tapped his right index finger against his left arm in thought. “So, the reason we’ve seen so many people living for so long—”

“Is the emperor,” Sigurd said. He nodded his head slightly, restricted by his breathing tube.

The shadowy mewtwo’s face scrunched up further. “Every person I’ve ever seen erode into a Phantom had enhancements of some sort… or lived waaaaay longer than the lifespans I remember learning about.”

“Because they got mewgenics treatments.” More compressed air released from Sigurd’s machine. “You hadn’t risen to infamy yet when the program rolled out to the public. And now… it’s so ingrained that no one can stop it.”

Yuna floated there silently, unsure what to make of any of that information. And here she thought she would need to recap what happened inside the anomaly’s core. I guess they’ll ask when they feel like it.

Except instead of Gene responding, Nikki yawned loudly, stretching her arms over her head while sparks crackled around her mohawk. “Aww, boo freaking hoo. Cry me a river.”

“Hey!” Jade squinted at the toxtricity. “Uncalled for.”

“Shut it, Bird Brain.”

“That’s my wife!” Reshiram huffed, his tiny tail crackling with little embers.

Nikki loomed over him, mohawk growing more jagged.

“Eep!” Reshiram shrank back. “N-Never mind. Insult away! Please don’t squish me!” He hastily retreated into Yuna’s Soul Dew.

“My hero,” Jade deadpanned.

“What are you doing, Nikki?” Yuna floated toward her. “This isn’t something to get angry ab—”

“Don’t.” Nikki held her hand up. Acidic sparks dribbled onto the ground from her fingers, hissing when they hit the dirt.

The drakloak frowned. What had gotten into Nikki? “Is something wrong?”

“No shit, dumbass!” Nikki’s mohawk flared. “Do I look all sunshine and rainbows to you?”

“I guess not.” Yuna squirmed uneasily. “But, um, it’s kinda hard to say much when you’re not, y’know, telling us what’s wrong?”

Nikki glared at Yuna, but Gene spoke up first. “She’s pissed I benched her.”

Yuna blinked. “What?”

“Pulled her away from fighting Chernabog,” Gene said, flicking his right wrist dismissively. “Which was the correct decision.”

“No it wasn’t!”

Nikki’s mohawk erupted like a miniature, yellow and purple replica of where the team had just been. A purple lightning guitar appeared in her right hand. “I could’ve helped!” She swung the guitar at the air. “I got a power boost from this place and its stupid whacky voodoo mountain!”

“You really want to die on this hill?” Gene’s eyes and malice crystal darkened. The mewtwo’s yellow tail crinkled in irritation. “Chernabog knew you were out of your element! He was exploiting it! As long as you were up there… we were all in danger!” He jabbed his thumb against his chest. “I made a judgment call. A necessary one.”

Gene lifted a few centimeters off the ground, glaring at Nikki. “You can throw whatever hissy fits you want, doesn’t change the fact that I’ve been fighting these idiots for decades. As long as we’re fighting together, you follow my lead. We clear?”

A tense silence followed. The two stared each other down. Nikki wouldn’t seriously try to hit Gene, right? He was psychic, she was poison. She’s not that stupid, Yuna told herself.

“… crystal.” Venom dripped from Nikki’s words.

Shoulders sagging, Yuna sighed in relief. Looks like the crisis was avert—

“Which brings me to you.”

Yuna stiffened. Nikki stared her down. Pointed the lightning guitar right at her.

“Nikki?” The drakloak’s body shrank toward her rectangular head.

“I poured my heart out to you the other day.” Nikki’s hand shook slightly. “We said we’d work together. And then you… you didn’t stick up for me!” She stomped her right foot down, mohawk getting more frazzled. “You let Boss Kitty treat me like garbage!”

Yuna stiffened. That was what she was upset over? “I— well, things were frantic up there. I didn’t realize—”

“Don’t give me that!” Nikki squeezed her eyes shut. Was she trying not to cry? “You watched it happen! I… I saw it…”

The lightning guitar dissolved away and the toxtricity looked down. “I saw it.”

Yuna didn’t know what to say. Was there even anything she could say to Nikki to make things better? She was really hurt, even though it all happened so quickly.

“I’m sorry?” It was the best Yuna could come up with on the spot.

“Thou hast to put some confidence behind thine words!” Rayquaza piped up.

Ah. Right. Yuna pulled her torso back out of her head. “I’m sorry, Nikki. Everything happened so fast and I sorta kinda… blanked?”

She let it hang in the air for a bit, however Nikki’s hurt expression didn’t ease up. “You blanked?” she growled. “That’s the best you’ve got?”

“Yes?”

Rayquaza nervously tittered. “Thou art sounding more uncertain by the sentence, Princess.”

“Seriously?” Nikki was getting angry again. “Just before that you said things were getting frantic! Now you’re saying you blanked?” She kicked up some dirt and grass at the drakloak. “Well, which is it, huh?”

“I… I blanked.” Yuna’s ectoplasm rippled. “Really. It’s… it’s happened other times. Against those Paradigm daemons.”

“Yeah, right.” Snorting, Nikki rolled her eyes. “If that was really the case, then why have you never brought it up before, huh? Don’t you think that’s something we deserve to know?”

She took a single step forward. Yuna drifted back, fidgeting nervously. “Well, um, that’s… that’s…”

The words were getting caught in Yuna’s throat. Nikki stepped closer. “If Boss Kitty can bench me for being a liability, then you deserve it for the same reason!” She pointed accusingly at Yuna. “That, and the stupid cosmic fluffball who thinks he’s your son.”

Yuna stiffened at that. She could feel the shadows bubbling up. “B-Because he is.”

“Puh-lease!” Another step. Then another. “You imprinted on him or whatever!” Nikki quickly whirled on Gene as if she expected some sort of retort. “Bite your tongue! I paid attention in psych class sometimes!”

Gene smirked in amusement. Nikki turned back to Yuna. “So, out with it, Princess!” Her mohawk crackled. “What’s the deal? Why are you blanking?”

Breathe. Yuna had to keep the shadows in check. “It’s… complicated.”

Nikki took one final step, sparks and venom pooling around her foot. “Tell me!”

She had to say it. Two simple words. Yuna just needed to get it over with. “Because… because…”

“Tell me, damn it!”

“Because I’m Chiron!”

“Hey, hey, Lieutenant! Got the all clear from the harbormaster to send in the next ships!”

“Thanks, Acerola.” Molayne put his radio back into its holster and leaned against a metal post.

Soon. It would all be over soon. He could go home and kick his feet up. Or maybe break out that acupressure pad…

“Excuse me, Officer. Any chance you could help a traveler out?”

Molayne stiffened. Telepathy was a thing he came across from time to time on the job, but why here? Why now? He looked around for some signs of a psychic pokémon or one of those famed psychic trainers he saw on television.

Instead, he got… an ice ninetales? With no trainer, to boot.

… No, that didn’t make any sense. Some ninetales could do illusory spirit voodoo or whatever, but they were fire ninetales. Icy ones stayed in Sinnoh for a reason. Places like Alola were too warm for them.

“Something wrong?” Icetales tilted his head, blinking soft blue eyes. “Do I have something on my face? Or maybe it’s the hair. I try to keep it brushed but I swear it has a mind of its own.” He flicked his mane over his right shoulder.

“No, it’s—” Molayne pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, if you’ve lost your trainer or something, I’m really going to have to recommend you head to the nearest police station. They’re better equipped to help.”

“Sorry.” Icetales shook his head. “I’m afraid you’re the only one who can help me.”

“Cryptic.” Molayne said, frowning. Something about Icetales struck him as… off. The longer he stared, the more he was convinced Icetales had some sort of… golden sheen about him. Molayne would have blamed the fatigue, but then his eyes trailed down to the rainbow bandana around his neck.

The rainbow bandana with an elongated, eight-pointed star. Like a compass.

Everything clicked quickly. “Oh no.” Molayne threw his hands up and stepped back. “Look, I don’t care how fluffy you are, I’m not interested in hearing the good word about the Blinding One. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ten years down the road. I’ve had enough of you Necrozma’s Witnesses. You just don’t know how to take ‘no’ for an answer!”

Icetales’ ears drooped. “Ah. Maybe I came on a bit too strong.” He pawed at the ground. “Telepathic ice ninetales is already out there. This isn’t making it better.”

Ya think?

Before Molayne could properly responde, Icetales approached him. He stuck his right forepaw out and planted it in front of Molayne. His paw flickered gold, then a cold gray.

Icetales stepped back, revealing a tiny diamond-shaped crystal.

Molayne blinked once. Twice. “Steelium-Z?” Last he checked, Necrozma’s Witnesses couldn’t conjure those out of thin air. “Fancy trick. I’ve already got one, though.”

“Not one like this.” Icetales nudged it toward Molayne with his snout. “Want to talk with you about the keldeo and salugia who helped you out.”

“Salugia?”

“What else do you call a lugia with a salazzle belly and tail flaps? I bet they could’ve bathed you in pheromones, too, if you’re into that sort of thing.”

Molayne cringed. Icetales stuck his tongue out playfully.

“Anyway, you’ve probably got a lot on your plate.” Icetales stepped further back. “When you’re ready to talk, use the crystal.”

Still skeptical, Molayne knelt down and picked the Steelium-Z up. It was warm like a freshly lit fireplace. “And just what do I use the crystal for? A Z-Move?”

But when he looked up, Icetales was gone. And in his place, a single piece of paper with the same eight-pointed star on it. Molayne slowly walked toward it and scooped it up.

Press the Z-crystal to your forehead and say the following out loud:

“Through darkest night and brightest day, our radiance will light the way.”