Chapter 70: Tenebrae Undae

The collider room was quiet and still. Only the gentle hum of idle machines and the sloshing of water through glass tubes greeted Yuna when she returned. There was no new Sage floating in front of her. Not even any evaporating light particles to suggest a Needle had been there to begin with.

“Where—” Yuna looked around. “Guys, where’s Cresselia?”

“You don’t know?” Widget frowned. “You nodded off for a second the moment you touched the Needle.”

The drakloak squeaked. “I did?”

Widget nodded.

“It was cute!” Leo chirped, having settled back on the silvally’s head. “You were sleeping but still floating. Sleepy-floaty!”

Yuna frowned. So, the Needle’s power got to her in the end, too? She wasn’t tired, though. And Cyril wasn’t nodding off anymore, either. Reshiram?

“I got this.”

Her Soul Dew sparkled. A ball of blue light jumped out and splattered on the ground, forming into Reshiram. He awkwardly cradled Cresselia in his wings. “Ta-dah?”

“Is she… sleeping?” Cyril said. “Even after all that?”

“Yep.” Reshiram poked Cresselia’s cheek with a claw. “Heeeeey, Cress. Wakey wakey! Eggs and bakey!”

“Mmmgggrgh.” Cresselia swatted the tip of Reshiram’s wing away. “Fiiiiive more miiiinuuuutesss.”

And she was asleep again seconds later.

“She’s always like this,” Reshiram said, laughing nervously. “Falling asleep and stuff. Heck, when other Sages would make her laugh, her levitation would fail her and she’d crumple up like tissue paper.”

Cyril squinted at him. “I’m sorry, what?”

“It’s the truth.” Reshiram shifted to avoid dropping Cresselia. “I’d raise a wing or something, but they’re a bit full.”

“No, I get that.” Cyril waved his arms. “But you mean to tell me one of your vaunted Sages… is narcoleptic?“

Reshiram stared blankly, then smiled dumbly. “I have no idea what that means, but it sounds sciencey and we’re in a science museum, so I bet it must be right!”

Yuna facepalmed. It sounded like Cyril thought Cresselia was sick. The kind of sickness that somehow stuck with her as a spirit, to boot. It was yet another reminder of just how wrong Aeon’s scriptures were. Bahamut didn’t put any thought into Sages if something like this could slip through the cracks.

“I realize it looks bad,” Rayquaza said. “But she is the Sage of Dreams. Who better to help than someone who’s constantly asleep?”

“You know what? No.” Yuna tapped the Soul Dew. A startled Reshiram disappeared back inside with Cresselia in tow. “I’m not entertaining this right now. The Needle’s out, but we’re still here. So, where’s the anomaly core? Leo?”

The drakloak looked around, trying to locate any sort of distorted vortex resembling what sat atop the last dimension’s volcano. This room was far smaller and blander than a volcanic peak, so unless the core was tiny, Yuna should’ve easily been able to see it.

“Hmm.” Straightening up on Widget’s crest, Leo pushed his fake dreepy horns with his hands. “Dunno. There might be something over there?” He pointed to the collider half on the far end of the room. “Way too fuzzy for me to tell, though.”

“Leo, you realize you’re pointing at the collider, right?” Widget tittered and shifted his weight uneasily.

“Of course.” Leo blew a raspberry at Widget. “I’m not a dummy. But the fuzziness is hugging Mr. Collider!”

A gentle hum filled the room, only to rapidly grow in volume. Tail crinkling, Yuna focused on the collider. It didn’t look any different than before. Was Liza trying something?

Cyril tilted his head up and belted out a, “Yo, Liza! We’ve taken out the pink’s source. Anything on your end?”

Rather than the X-transceivers picking Liza up, a loudspeaker system briefly squeaked. “Good news, everyone! I’ve finished piecing together the message from beeeeeyooooooond.”

“Was drawing out the last word to sound spooky really necessary?” Widget angrily muttered.

Cyril frowned. “Uh, that’s great, but what about—”

“Take a listen!”

The loudspeakers squeaked again. There was faint static in the background, followed by an older, exhausted voice.

“Agh, finally, a signal from the other side! I’ve got reception!”

“So, this is someone from Kalidron?” Reshiram said. “But who? I thought the other resistance members and the pirates were the only ones there. She sounds way too old to be a pirate.”

Yuna’s face scrunched up. This sounds familiar. I think… this was who I heard when I touched all those Needle fragments.

“Everyone, you have to listen to me!” the voice pleaded. “I know you have a collider there. And you need to shut it down now!“

The humming in the background steadily got louder as the voice spoke. Yuna saw a flicker of white light in the corner of her vision.

“The rifts damaged the collider. The damage set off a chain reaction that destroyed our whole planet!”

Another flicker of light. Then a third. Yuna turned and screamed.

“The collider! Why’s it turning on?!”

“Oh, sure, we had enough time to get people evacuated. But our whole operation — our way of life — is ruined! And when I was two days from retirement, to boot!”

“Liza? Liza, we have a problem!” Cyril shouted. The collider half behind the team also began to glow. The large metal cylinders slowly rotated.

“I’m begging you! Shut it down! Or you’ll be—”

As the transmission cut to garbled static, the room trembled. The moment the cylinders of the collider’s far half started moving, sparks of purple distortion leaped off of them. Jagged purple fragments flickered all around it.

“Ah! It’s just like the rifts littering the sky!” Widget said, head crest fanning out in alarm. Leo nearly tumbled off it.

“Hey, Mom, I found Mr. Anomaly’s core!” the cosmic arceus cheered. “And it’s sending someone to say hi to us.”

Yuna’s neck shriveled. “S-Sending someone?”

More purple ripples danced around the far collider half. They hung in the air like slowly splintering glass. And right in the middle of the proverbial web… was a growing ball of distortion.

“Even your puppet’s aghast reaction is predictable, Yaldabaoth.”

The purple fissures stopped expanding. The collider froze. As did Yuna’s teammates.

The whole room was at a standstill, save for the pulsating distortion in the collider’s chamber. It rippled once. Twice. A third time.

Yuna saw a head. No, a whole body. Humanoid like Liza or Cyril’s illusion, but shrouded in cracked, jagged purple shadows. As if someone had coated an Aeon temple’s stained glass murals in distortion.

She recognized the voice— or, rather, voices. The same chorus of thousands that interfered in the fight with Chernabog.

“Natus.” The drakloak’s ectoplasm quivered.

No, that wasn’t quite right. Her shadows pushed against her ectoplasm. They weren’t coalescing away from her, though. Instead, she fought not to swing her tail in Natus’ direction. Were the shadows reaching toward Natus? Or were they trying to lash out?

“I see.” They pivoted, revealing a mask that strongly resembled the wheel around Leo’s torso. And the figure had a purple, shadowy swirl atop their head… that looked just like Leo’s mane. “So, you’ve chosen to continue the path of reaping chaos while hiding beneath a veil of naivete. This, too, is as predicted.”

Neither Yuna nor her shadows were in the mood for cryptic riddles. “I don’t care what you think.”

“If that were true, you would be ignoring me,” they countered. Between their shadowy form and their distorted chorus of voices, Yuna couldn’t get a solid grip on this… thing. “But you cannot. So long as this remains your choice, we shall be inextricably linked.”

Trying to muster some Nikki-esque bravado, Yuna snorted. “No duh. If you’re making these anomalies, then of course I’m going to keep running into you.”

“You are welcome to think these are my creations.” Natus gestured to the pulsating core behind them. “The end result will be the same no matter how incorrect your assumptions are.”

Yuna tried reaching out to Reshiram, but got no response. “You climbed out of the anomaly core. What assumption was I supposed to make?”

“These blights… are but a symptom.” Natus glanced back at the rift. “Another suffering world that marches steadily toward stagnation. Toward oblivion.”

They’d said something similar to Yuna back in Malie, hadn’t they?

“You act as though you are a savior,” they continued. Static flickered around their mask. “When it’s your presence that has hastened this world’s demise.”

“What?” Yuna knew they were full of it. The team had come here to fix the anomaly.

“It is in your very nature to sow chaos,” they said, raising their right arm. “Unless you choose to abandon your plight, you will push every realm you enter closer to its destined end.”

“Which is?”

“Nothingness.” An empty void momentarily appeared within the center of their mask. “Such is the ultimate fate ascribed to all universes, no matter their age. Their origin. How perfect they may seem to observers and Overseers alike.”

Yuna was finished entertaining this freak. They were as warped as Xeromus. They had to be. This was all just a ploy to stop her from repairing the anomalies. Yes, she was sure of it.

“You can tell yourself whatever stupid platitudes you’d like,” the drakloak growled. Her shadows festered around her waist. “I’m doing what’s right. End of story.”

“What’s right?”

The figure looked at their outstretched hand. “How little you’ve changed, Yaldabaoth. You never could grasp the bigger picture.” They lowered their arm. “But your ill-fated endeavors will amount to nothing in the end. I will enshrine a new fate for this world, just as I will for all others.”

That, too, sounded an awful lot like something they said on Malie.

“If you’re not Natus, then who are you?”

They raised their right arm again. “I am the one who will affirm all phenomena.” They raised their left arm. “Across every universe. Every timeline. Until reality achieves perfection.” The figure clasped their distorted hands together and lowered them in front of their mask.

(Art by @HelloYellow17)

“I am the Butterfree Effect.”

Yuna’s shadows practically hissed and bubbled within her gut. They’d nearly overtaken the drakloak’s lower half. She couldn’t lose her resolve, though. She needed to stay in control, because she knew something bad was waiting for her the moment time unfroze.

“A nutcase, then. Glad we reached an understanding. Now leave, or I’ll make you leave.”

“Very well. This is, after all, only a projection.” They bowed slowly. “Please enjoy my parting gift, Yaldabaoth. If your resolve is truly as strong as you think, then our next meeting is already written into the stars.”

Butterfree Effect disappeared in a dim, distorted flicker.

The moment they did, alarms blared loudly throughout the room. Heavy metal sheets emerged from the floor, enveloping the glass dome ceiling.

The anomaly core grew larger and larger. Something new festered within its distorted static. A much larger, shaggier figure than the Butterfree Effect.

“The blue crystal on its head… Dame Suicune?!”

“Jaagoooh!”

No, it wasn’t Suicune. The Sage of Water had beautiful, flowing blue hair. This thing — this lizard with a neck full of twisted, knotted green and red hair and two whip-like tails lashing at the air — was a far cry from what Yuna knew from the Book of Aeon.

“It’s like that regidrago!” Widget cried as Not-Suicune roared again. Bright sunshine blotted out the metal barricade that finished forming overhead. “It’s gotta be a Phantom!”

“But why would a Phantom looking like Dame Suicune summon sunlight?” Rayquaza wondered. “Tis truly vexing!”

“Who cares?” Yuna shot toward Widget, arms wide open to grab a dumbstruck Leo. “We’ve got a serious problem here!”

“You’re telling me.” Cyril frantically tapped the side of his head, where his X-transceiver was hidden under his illusory blue hair. “Liza! Pick up, damn it! The collider’s charging up and we’re inside the chamber!”

“I see it! I see it! And am I hallucinating or did a green walking wake just burst out of my collider?!”

Liza’s voice came through overhead speakers, though the alarms nearly drowned her out.

“What the hell’s a walking wake?!” Cyril barked.

“Clearly that!” Widget took off running in the opposite direction from the others.

“Jaaagoooooh!” Walking Wake opened its maw and out came a burst of water as big as a Hydro Pump. Squealing, Yuna grabbed Leo and flew further toward the side of the room.

“Mom? It’s too warm.” Leo rubbed his fake dreepy head. “Look at all the steam the water made.”

Yuna didn’t have time to worry about steam. Or why a water attack was even that strong when harsh sunlight flooded the room.

The sense train had left the station, derailed, and was poised to take out a couple of cities en route to falling off a cliff. And she was practically driving it!

“Liza, you have to fix this now!” Cyril shouted, glancing between Yuna and the Phantom, who was currently exchanging claw swipes with Widget. “Quick, gimme the kid!”

“Huh, why?”

Cyril sprinted toward her. “Because your Sages make you way more useful on offense.”

Wouldn’t that mean you’re not fit to look after him? Yuna wondered, before reluctantly handing Leo over.

“Get back!” Widget’s cry preceded a burst of electricity that struck Walking Wake’s crystal headpiece and made its shaggy fur stand on end in a lousy jolteon impersonation.

“In the middle!” Reshiram cried. “There’s a waterspout in the middle of its headpiece. Like that fist crystal in Chernabog’s belt!”

Widget, now in flight mode, hovered in front of Yuna. “I could use a little backup if you’re done tossing your kid around like a frisbee!”

“Jaagoh! Punarjanm jaagoh!” Walking Wake screeched, before spewing more boiling water from its mouth. Widget shot skyward, his thrusters giving him enough lift to dodge with ease. Yuna hoped to phase into the floor, only to bonk against the solid metal. The deluge of searing water splattered over her. She writhed on the ground, hollering in pain.

“Hot! Too hot!” Not even Aeon’s volcanic springs compared to this. It hurt to even keep her eyes open and she couldn’t rub them, because her nubby hands were equally as on fire!

“Uh, gang?” Liza’s nervous laughter practically melted into the alarms. “We might have a slight problem. And by slight… I mean monumental.”

“What now?!” Cyril groaned.

“I can’t override the collider’s startup sequence. I’m completely locked out of the software!”

“Did you try—”

“Of course I damn well tried turning it off and turning it back on! Everything’s still frozen!”

Yuna struggled to blink her blurry vision away. Bright yellow and blue flashes lit up the room around her.

“Then try something else!” Cyril cried.

“I don’t have anything else! I told Dad we needed to upgrade to Devon OS 17.1, but did he listen? Nooooooo, of course not! Why would he? ‘Science doesn’t wait for software updates, and neither should we!'”

Amidst Liza’s increasingly frenetic laughter, Yuna’s head pounded. And not just from the pain of Walking Wake’s attack. Widget might have been holding his own, but the drakloak wasn’t some thick-scaled pokémon. She was small and ectoplasmic. Dragon-typing couldn’t save her here. She needed more firepower. Real firepower.

“Yuna, up!” Widget cried.

Vision still blurry, Yuna flew up. Scalding water doused the floor underneath her. A veil of steam shrouded the drakloak, obscuring her view of everyone else.

But maybe she could use that to her advantage? At least it would give Yuna a moment to consider her options.

“Yes, why listen to your chief engineer?” Liza continued. “It’s not like I have an engineering degree and a Ph.D. in physics or anything!”

“If you have time to whine you have time to come up with a solution!” Cyril snarled.

“I’m trying! But all I can do is barricade you guys further in to minimize any damage if the collider explodes!”

Reshiram could take advantage of the sun, but that would only make things even hotter and risk making the collider overheat quicker.

Oh! What about Rayquaza? His mega evolution’s fierce winds could put a damper on Walking Wake’s attacks for sure.

Yuna was about to call him when the last of the steam faded and she found herself staring down an oncoming Dragon Pulse. Meeping, Yuna rolled right in midair, then spat some dragonfire of her own.

Walking Wake let the blue-purple flames graze its hide, so it could focus on swiping at Widget with both of its tails. Widget ducked the first one, but got clipped by the second tail and fell to the ground. The silvally fired off his thrusters, scorching Walking Wake’s feet. It hopped back with a hiss and yowl.

“Yuna! C’mon, I need a hand here!” Widget cried, getting himself upright. “Summon a Sage and— what’s with the red glow?”

“Huh?”

The drakloak looked down and saw red pulsating in her ectoplasm, beneath the Soul Dew.

“The Red Chain fragment!” Reshiram squawked. “You stuck it in your ectoplasm when you got it from Noctum, remember?”

It couldn’t have been reactivating, though. The collider was still charging, wasn’t it?

“Warning: collider integrity at sixty-five percent! Coolant system offline! Beam refractor calibration offline! Emergency shutdown recommended!”

“The damn shutdown’s not working, you stupid computer!” Liza hissed. “Bob! Janet! Radio the League office! We need to evacuate the city ASAP!”

“Jaaagooooooh!” Walking Wake shrieked upon seeing Yuna’s pulsating torso and readied another gout of boiling water.

Yuna tried to call forth Rayquaza from the Soul Dew, but the Red Chain fragment’s glow overtook her. The collider room’s bright lights and suffocating heat gave way… to the dark purple hues and frigid emptiness of Kalidron’s debris field.

By now, others had started filing in toward the arena. Chief among them were Jade and Quetzal. Igneous thought the salugia more than large enough to hide his form from Vegna and allow him to safely approach.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I still don’t understand.” It was Seifer’s voice, but Jade’s large hips blocked Igneous’ view of the keldeo. Good. He’d be okay, then.

He did glimpse a flicker of gold light in front of Jade, though.

“Oooh, fancy trick.” Jade’s tail flaps fluttered in excitement. “What’s a book got to do with—”

A small burst of pink mist from Jade’s tail flaps forced Igneous to dive to his belly. Jade hopped back with a squawk, nearly stepping on the grovlazzle in the process.

“Th-that’s Bahamut’s symbol! Where did you— how did you— huh?!“

“The last page,” Vegna muttered. “Read… the last page…”

Igneous managed to hop back up to his feet while Jade levitated up the same book he had seen Vegna pull out back at the hospital. His weird necromancy artifact. So, it belonged to Bahamut, then? Was he the one who had “bathed it in sin?” That would match up with some of the things they had learned from Aquardah and the Sages.

“Entry 3507. This will be my final entry before I cast this collection of accursed memories into the abyss.”

“Shit, shit, shit, shit!“

Nikki frantically zigzagged across a giant slab of rock and metal, dodging Psycho Cut blades that exploded in pink bursts behind her. Noctum saw one heading directly in front of her and doubled back, conjuring a Protect. Even with the blue shield absorbing the blow, his limbs trembled, as if the force rattled his bones.

A fair distance away from them, Gene desperately hurled Shadow Balls at the Phantom, only to watch the shadows and crystals swallow his attacks like they were nothing but pebbles tossed into a pond.

“Pathetic,” the Phantom said. “You are nothing— no, less than nothing.“

“Tough talk for someone with the aim of an Eternatus Trooper!” Gene countered, Phantom Warping away from a barrage of glowing rocks. The shadowy mewtwo glanced at Noctum while the Power Gems sailed off into deep space. “Why are you still here? Get out of here!”

“I can’t! It’s not working!” Noctum tapped the earpiece for his X-transceiver. Garbled static greeted him. “Neither is this thing!”

“I can’t take it anymore. All the pain. All the suffering. All the losses. I lost Chiron. I lost Leo. I keep losing to Mewtwo.”

“Then get away!” Gene said, conjuring his spoon to grapple with an onslaught of crystal tendrils. He batted a couple away, the Phantom Warped left and drove the spoon into the Phantom’s amorphous form. It struck something, but the moment it did a jolt of blue lightning coursed up the spoon and violently shocked Gene, hurtling him back from the Phantom.

It turned toward the others once again. “Give me my power!” it snarled. “I know you’re hiding it!”

“S-Screw this shit!” Nikki waved her arms around frantically. “I need a lift!”

Green light pulsated over the Phantom. Noctum hastily dove down and scooped Nikki up while Valkyrie ran to the edge of the large planet chunk and leaped into the air.

“It shouldn’t be this way. But I am broken. Even more broken than before. I cannot possibly destroy Eternatus like this.”

“Fall!” The Phantom raised a crystal arm. A green wave rushed toward them.

“Up! Up!” Nikki tugged on Noctum’s neck.

“I know!” The black charizard flapped his wings as fast as possible. The wave came quickly, but Noctum was fast enough to get them over it. Having taken off before them, Valkyrie was already safely out of range, glancing over her shoulder.

“Green hexagons?” The garchomp frowned.

“That’s how Saint Zygarde attacks!” Noctum said. He kept flying away, worried what would happen if he looked at the Phantom. There was no way this could be Zygarde, right?

And yet, it spoke of Cresselia, one of the other Sages.

“Hey, asshole! Don’t turn a blind eye to me!”

Noctum kept pressing forward. Away from the Phantom. Away from whatever Gene was attempting to do to buy them more time.

“It’s the heartache. That awful longing for my family. That’s what’s holding me back. I’m sure of it. As long as this grief weighs me down, I will never win.”

Valkyrie kicked off another piece of rubble, gliding beside Noctum. “Didn’t Gene say something about a civilian out here? Do you think they’re still around?”

Noctum tried to scan the debris field again. Even with scattered lustrous ore fragments bathing the area in purple, he had nothing to go off.

“Maybe? But the X-transceivers aren’t working anyway.” The black charizard sighed. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do—”

“Oi, did you see that?”

Nikki’s stuck out right arm blocked part of Noctum’s vision. “Look, there’s a red light blinking!”

Noctum squinted. It was tough for him to make out in the purple glow, but there was something strobing in the distance.

“Maybe it’s the civilian ship?” Valkyrie managed to land on a diagonal piece of rubble and run up it.

“Maybe…” Noctum headed toward it, ignoring the echoing snarls and flashes of blue and purple light in the corner of his left eye.

There was red light flickering amid a bunch of metal shrapnel and lustrous ore chunks.

Flickering that, as Noctum got closer, illuminated a thin, ectoplasmic body. And a rectangular head.

“Yuna! It’s Yuna!” Noctum beat his wings harder. Even with all the previous exertion from the pirates and now this enraged Phantom, he had to keep digging deep. Yuna was in trouble!

“But how?” Nikki held on tightly to the black charizard. “There isn’t even lustrous ore next to her!”

“Look out!” Valkyrie cried.

Noctum glanced over his shoulder and saw green aura arrows streaking through the air, shredding through pieces of rubble and debris and lighting up the ruins with emerald explosions. And through it all, the Phantom drew closer, its shadows and crystals twisting upon one another.

“It was foolish of me to think it wouldn’t come to this. But I have to do it. I have to use that other necrozma’s technique.”

“I knew it! You have my power!” it roared. “Give it back to me!”

“The only thing… you’re getting… is an ass kicking!”

The Phantom shot more of its Thousand Arrows behind it, only for Gene to Phantom Warp in front of it and shoot a Shadow Ball right into its face.

… At least, Noctum thought it was the Phantom’s face. It was hard to say for certain. And Yuna needed his full attention, so he kept beating his wings. Harder. Faster. The drakloak got closer and closer.

“Huh? Noctum? Nikki?”

Oh, thank God. She was awake!

“Princess!” Noctum fought to hide the relief in his voice. Another distant explosion and loud snarl told Noctum he had to get to the point. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in the other dimension?”

“That’s the problem!” Yuna’s ectoplasm frazzled. “The collider we found in the other dimension started going haywire and it reactivated the Red Chain fragment and sent me here. I need to get back there! Cyril, Leo, and Widget are in danger!”

Nikki hopped off Noctum’s back and landed on a twisted coil of metal rods and screws. “Well, there are plenty of lustrous ore shards here. Just one little problem.”

A blue explosion thundered a hundred meters away.

“I had wanted to use it directly on Mewtwo, but I was never able to find an opening. So, no matter how much it hurts, I’ll use that so-called Guiding Light’s spirit severance blade on myself.”

“Don’t tell me… Paradox’s troops?” Yuna threw her hands over her mouth.

Noctum shook his head. “No. It’s a Phantom. And it knows about the Sages! It’s asking about Saint Cresselia!”

Gene’s pained screams somehow rattled around Noctum’s head. His purple tail flame rippled. “Gah, we don’t have time for this! There’s plenty of lustrous ore, right? We just strike it and get transported to wherever you were before!”

Another flash of light behind Noctum. Another snarl from the Phantom. Noctum didn’t dare look back this time.

“No, it’s not that simple!” Yuna’s head darted around. “Too far. Too far. We have to push one closer!” She gestured around her. “Right here!”

“What does it matter?” Nikki said. The toxtricity glanced over her shoulder. “Shit, incoming!” She leaped away from the bars seconds before a wave of green hexagons blew the metal wiring into spiky shrapnel that rained down on the quartet. Noctum quickly flew away with a hiss.

“It matters because the others are trapped in a small bunker with the overheating collider!” Yuna cried. “If we don’t line this up perfectly, we’ll be outside of it with no way in!”

“GIVE ME CRESSELIA!”

A rainbow beam carved through open space, blowing apart planet fragments in flashes of dazzling, yet distorted light.

“If I cast my spirit away, I can free myself from all the pain. All the burdens. My leftover body will be free to collect whatever vestiges of power are necessary to slay Eternatus for good.”

Noctum didn’t need any further convincing. “How do we move the ore?”

“I don’t know!” Yuna threw her hands up. “I feel like just touching it could send you through to the other dimension. But if you use an attack on—”

The drakloak’s eyes widened. “I’ve got it! Cresselia, wake up!“

Pink light burst out of her Soul Dew, revealing Saint Cresselia herself floating there… fast asleep. Her head was tucked against her chest and her nubby hands folded up in a picture of serene bliss. Noctum would’ve thought it adorable if their lives weren’t in complete danger.

“Wake up wake up wake up!” Yuna flapped her nubby hands around until black shadows lunged out of them and grabbed hold of Cresselia’s pink rings.

“Nnnnghhh… huh?”

Cresselia’s eyes shot open, glowing bright pink along with her rings.

“CRESSELIA!”

The Phantom’s roars grew closer. Noctum chanced a glance behind him to see Gene dart in front of a rainbow beam, using a conjured Protect. The force of the strike slammed him onto the uneven surface of a planet fragment.

“Stay out of my way!” the Phantom snarled, launching two crystal tendrils toward the shadowy mewtwo. Gene Phantom Warped backwards, but was still caught by the shockwaves from the tendrils colliding with the ground.

“Now, everyone!” Yuna cried. “Hit the ore! And be ready to strike what’s on the other side!”

The Phantom had summoned another green orb. It was preparing one of Saint Zygarde’s techniques!

“If you happen upon this journal by chance, know this: I did what needed to be done to rid this world of its most wretched daemon. That’s all that matters.”

Noctum shot toward Yuna at the same time as Valkyrie. He could feel the streaks of Thousand Arrows chasing him down from behind. His heart thundered in his chest as fear the Phantom’s attack would win out gripped him.

Then Nikki’s fist slammed into the top of the lustrous ore and the debris field vanished in a flash of white.

Widget sprinted away from Walking Wake, kicking on his thrusters at the last second to keep enough distance to dodge the scalding water. But every one of Walking Wake’s strikes made the room hotter. The steam was so thick. It was practically a jungle in the collider room. Widget was mechanical, sure, but this was getting to be too much for him.

The silvally couldn’t even find Cyril anymore. If he had to guess, the zoroark threw up an illusion to keep himself and Leo hidden. Which meant Widget was all on his own.

This wasn’t how this was supposed to shake out. But Yuna had vanished right before his eyes. What was he supposed to do about that?

His mind kept flashing back to the Seekerskorch cockpit. When the machine was under a constant barrage of powered-up attacks. He was helpless. He couldn’t do anything. And the emperor… didn’t send any help for him.

It was happening again. Widget was being abandoned in a pinch. He had no one he could turn to and, unlike last time, this enemy had no intent on showing him mercy.

And just when he thought that he was starting to figure himself out, too.

“Pun… jagoooh!” Walking Wake charged a Dragon Pulse in its mouth. It was holding the strike. Trying to anticipate where Widget would move.

The silvally leaned left. Then right. Then right again. None of the little feints could bait Walking Wake, however. Instead, it leaped skyward to try and close some of the distance and spat the blue-purple bolt at him.

Widget’s head crest crackled, and he retaliated with a Thunderbolt. It fortunately stalemated the Dragon Pulse, but the collision only served to amplify the steam. Bursts of hot air blew Widget and Walking Wake back in opposite directions. Yowling, Widget barely managed to roll left and avoid crashing right into one of the collider halves’ barrels.

“Collider integrity at forty percent! Particle release apparatus jammed!” the same mechanized voice from earlier droned on over the alarms. “Alert! Particle buildup at unstable levels! All personnel evacuate! Alert—”

Walking Wake slammed into the other collider half. And the bright lights and pink ripples momentarily flickered away.

“Ahh, I’ve got it!”

Widget had no idea where Cyril’s voice was coming from, but it was a small comfort in an otherwise frenzied moment. He seized on recovering faster than Walking Wake to arc more lightning toward the Phantom. The Thunderbolt struck the waterspout crystal atop its head, sending electricity coursing down to its tails.

[Helloooooo? Best friends, are you there? It is me, your best friend Jim!]

Walking Wake’s body briefly liquified. Loud hisses blotted out the collider’s whirring and the lights grew even dimmer than before. The cylinders even slowed a bit in their out of control rotation.

[Please do not die. I deleted all my sad noises when we became best friends, so I would not have the proper means to express my grief if I were to lose you all.]

“NOT NOW, JIM!” Cyril and Widget shouted in unison.

[… Oh, I really wish I had some sad noises right now.]

“Forget him! Focus on the Phantom!” Cyril continued. “That thing’s a giant water source! If you can keep liquefying it, we can flood the collider and shut it down by force!”

The silvally didn’t have a retort, namely because it sounded like the equivalent of just sticking an explosive inside each collider half and hoping for the best. But they were desperate. And he at least had Walking Wake pinned from the attack.

“Liza, you there?” Cyril called. “We need permission to flood the collider chambers with water!”

“Ha! Go ahead!” A desk slam sounded through the loudspeakers “If Dad’s not going to bother listening to me about software upgrades, then he can shove his regulations where the sun don’t shine! Anything goes in these pre-post-apocalyptic times! May as well run around the museum naked! Everyone’s already evacuated!”

“More lightning, Widget!” Cyril shouted.

Widget’s head crest fanned out. But a loud thud sounded before the silvally got the chance to launch the attack. He had to duck several metal shards before a piece of lustrous ore floated in front of him.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

A familiar toxtricity emerged from the fragment. Nikki summoned her lightning guitar and careened toward Walking Wake.

“You want a collider? I’ll show you a real damn collider!”

Nikki swung the guitar, slamming the electricity into Walking Wake’s head crystal… and shattering it!

“JAAAAGGGOOOOOOAAAAAAAGH!”

The sunlight abruptly disappeared from overhead, along with most of the steam. As Yuna, Noctum, and Valkyrie emerged from the lustrous ore behind Nikki, water streamed out of Walking Wake’s head, buffeting the collider half it was pinned against.

Widget dropped to the ground, blinking rapidly. “You… you found a way back,” he said, gazing up at Yuna.

“Yeah.” Though her voice trembled, the drakloak glanced down at Widget and nodded. “Sorry it took me so long to lend that hand. But at least I got a few extra ones to compensate?”

“Danger! Danger! Critical systems failure! Collider integrity at twenty percent!”

One collider half was taken care of. Reduced to little more than sparking, smoking cylinders that weren’t budging an inch. But the one behind Widget was still moving! And the silvally could see a practical grapevine’s worth of supercharged particles trapped within the chamber, jostling about and ready to burst!

“Guuuuuuys.” Widget backpedaled. “We need to cool down this half!”

“On it.”

Valkyrie dashed past Widget, dragging what was left of Walking Wake’s deteriorating body behind her. Grunting, the garchomp hurled Walking Wake’s headless form right into the collider chamber.

Then Noctum landed in front of them both and threw up a Protect shield. Walking Wake exploded into nothing but pure, ice-cold water. The collider chamber ground to a complete halt, but not before shooting small bursts of energy forward. Noctum maintained the shield, staggering back from each white aural dart until there was nothing left in the chamber but the pulsating distortion mass that Walking Wake had first emerged from.

The last of Widget’s remaining energy evaporated. His flight form melted away to his base cosmic form and he sank onto his belly. The silvally’s legs trembled.

It was close, but Yuna came back.

She didn’t leave him to rot like Paradox did. She found help and they were able to turn things around.

A team really did make all the difference.

“Oi, where’s the kid?” Though panting heavily, Valkyrie looked around the room. “He needs to… seal this thing. And send us back to the outpost.”

“Huh?” Widget didn’t even have the energy to look at Valkyrie.

“A Phantom attacked us in Kalidron’s ruins and Gene’s still there!” Valkyrie said. “If we can’t get him out of there… the Phantom’s going to kill him for sure!”

“We’re on it!” Yuna cried.

Two quick gusts of wind brushed against Widget’s hide. Then he flopped over on his side, exhaustion finally winning out and forcing him into blissful unconsciousness.

Path of Valor Almanac
“Tenebrae undae” is Latin that roughly translates to “dark waves” in English.

Madhis is derived from “samadhi,” an English translation from Sanskrit that usually means “concentration” or “unifying the mind.” In Buddhism, “right samadhi” is the last of the Noble Eightfold Path, centered on meditation to reach a state of mindfulness. If you’re an Ace Attorney fan, you’re familiar with a couple of characters’ whose shared surname is also derived from this concept (Nahyuta and Dhurke Sahdmadhi). Similarly, “jaago” is Hindi for “wake,” as in waking up or arousal. As opposed to the lesser used meaning of a trail of disturbed water. Considering the Butterfree Effect’s conversation with Yuna, it seems more concerned with waking something up, don’t you think?

Necrozma’s Paradigm rank refers to Death, number thirteen within the Major Arcana. The card symbolizes end, mortality, destruction, and corruption, which fit quite well with this particular character when you piece together their proper identity. And you should have more than enough clues to do that by now.