Chapter 78: Water-Type Under the Bridge

Entry 2201
The newcomer has spoken with a couple of Sages. They said it was just simple questions. About the world. About the Sages. About me. Apparently she ran away from her home.

Otherwise, she’s kept mostly to herself. Something about her aura feels familiar. Even the term “lunala” tickles the back of my head. And yet I’m not sure why.

I should try talking to her. Suicune and Reshiram both asked I use a gentle approach, though. Hence, I’ve left her to her own devices. How much longer do I do that for? They didn’t specify a timeframe for this “gentle” approach of theirs. It’s rather frustrating…

Days of stumbling across the Qliphoth half-blinded were finally behind Necrozma. He had started to fear the remaining Needles were gone. That his power was taken by the one he’d sensed fragments of his light within.

That infernal drakloak. Necrozma didn’t know what she thought she was doing. Why her aura had traces of his beloved. But he couldn’t find her. And Necrozma couldn’t get a lock on a single Needle.

… That finally changed. After slowly drifting from planet to planet within the Qliphoth, he found one composed of bare, labyrinthian tunnels. Dim crystal chunks lay in dirt walls. Twinkling between pillars of wood and metal.

He lumbered through the abandoned mine. Its purpose long past fulfilled, it was left to decay and disarray. The same thing that was happening to his home. That was why he needed his power back. To protect it— no, save it.

The light he sensed got brighter. Warmer. A beacon that drew him through the tunnels. Made every step a bit less painful.

Yet there was a problem: a soul. A single one he sensed by his power. Paradigm energy dwelled within it. A wretched daemon, sniffing around what was rightfully his. Had that so-called emperor ordered the soul to approach the Needle? Study it? Try to pull it?

Necrozma would show them. He would strike with unrelenting force to repel them. His crystal tendrils rippled. He silently wound up, then struck the ground underneath him. His crystal tendrils pulsed with psychic energy, keeping the walls and roof of the cavern rooted in place. There would be no collapsed tunnels here.

Instead, Thousand Waves rippled across the ground. Necrozma flew after it, to follow his surprise attack. The emerald energy carried forward, until the Needle’s glimmering blue gem shined ahead of him.

The Thousand Waves struck the armor-clad knight standing in front of it. He skidded across the orange, uneven ground. He struggled to maintain his grip on his incandescent blade.

Necrozma’s core flickered. The knight tried to raise his blade, but psychic blasts buffeted it, knocking it further back. Red dust and gravel kicked up all around him. This knight was clumsy and awkward. Unaccustomed to the Paradigm shard he held.

“Pathetic.” Necrozma’s tendrils rippled under his shadows. Concentrating a bit more, he realized the aura beneath the knight’s armor was familiar. However, it stirred no emotions. Only faint memories of prior weakness.

After a few seconds, Necrozma made the connection.

The knight was another of his past mistakes. He destroyed Mewtwo’s creator. Necrozma was sure of it. Yet here he was, clad in armor with a strange energy. Another case of Eternatus twisting the rules. Bending nature in ways it didn’t deserve to bend. Which was why Necrozma needed to destroy Eternatus.

The Paradigm was merely fragments of the Universe. The unfathomable power at the center of Eternatus’ existence. And the very thing that made it so difficult to destroy.

Another Universe fragment would be his. And the Needle this knight was foolish enough to protect would follow. This mistake would not escape. He wasn’t Mewtwo. He couldn’t teleport. Necrozma had him.

“You sought power through control of others.” Necrozma flicked his right hand. A blade of light appeared. “You were doomed to fail from the beginning. You never had power of your own, human.“

The knight shot Icicle Spears forward, as if to defy Necrozma. But they were tiny slivers, shredded into mist by a single swipe of his light blade. More sword-shaped Photon Geysers formed over the knight.

“I will show you real power!” Necrozma curled his crystal fingers. The swords descended.

… And landed in the ground, kicking up more red dust. Necrozma looked around, at the vessel-like rocks weaving all around him. Pulsating with orange fluid like a buzzwole’s arms.

He just had to concentrate and— there!

Necrozma fired a bevy of Thousand Arrows to his right. Several electronic shouts filled the air. The metallic remnants of those stupid Eternatus Troopers fell into a haphazard pile of scrap metal. Necrozma kept concentrating… but the knight’s aura was gone. Some speedy robot must have charged in to give him cover to flee.

“No matter.” His crystal tendrils carried him across the orange ground. A single Plasma Fist broke through columns of rock, revealing the Needle buried in the middle of other orange-fluid filled rocks.

Latios appeared in a puff of black smoke by what passed for Necrozma’s right shoulder. Glanced at him with empty blue eyes.

“This is what the world needs. I must have all the power.”

He reached toward it.

“Hello again, Suicune.”

The ocean gently lapped against the shore. Back and forth. Back and forth.

Chiron watched the sand darken with each wave, then brighten when the water pulled away. It was almost hypnotic, especially with the sun shining down on her.

“Everything okay?”

Chiron looked up. Suicune sat on the water, like it was nothing. She was well aware suicune were capable of that from the ones she’d encountered within Eternatus. But this was her first time seeing one under natural light. She never realized how beautiful the sparkling head crystal was. Her mane glistened, too. Blue hair flowed with the cool ocean breeze.

“Yeah. Sorry, just… thrown off a bit.” Chiron rubbed the right side of her head. She had to choose her words carefully. These Luminous Sages were still feeling her out and getting a sense for her intentions. “We didn’t have a lot of,” she gestured at the ocean with her wing, “this where I’m from.”

“Ah. Yeah, it’s really something, huh?” Suicune turned around, ribbons fluttering. Chiron resisted the urge to laugh. The butt ribbons ruined Suicune’s regal appearance, in her opinion. If this Bahamut fellow really did craft the Sages from light, he could’ve at least made some design alterations.

“So, uh, you used to be a different pokémon, right?” the lunala asked to distract herself. “Was the water a big part of your life before you took this job?”

Suicune nodded. “Would you believe me if I said I was a dreadnaw?”

Chiron blinked. Truthfully, no. She remained silent.

“Pfbt. That look on your face tells me everything.”

The lunala ducked her head under her left wing. How embarrassing. A few weeks outside the Qliphoth and she’d forgotten how to mask her facial expressions? Matriarch would—

… No. Stop. She left Eternatus for a reason. This didn’t matter.

Lifting her head, Chiron said, “It is a strange leap. I mean, I guess you’re still four-legged.”

“But dreadnaw isn’t a picture of beauty and grace.” Suicune pivoted to wink at Chiron.

“Is that what your, um, Sage title is?”

“The Sage of Grace, yes.” Suicune bobbed her head. She strode across the water. The small waves passed around her legs like they weren’t even an obstacle. “In its natural state, water is graceful. Always flowing. Drifting. Cascading.”

She flicked her right forepaw, kicking up some ocean spray that showered the sand in front of Chiron. The wet grains glistened even as they quickly dried up.

“Right.” Chiron stared at the drying sand. Suicune made sense, and yet the lunala was still confused. “But what does grace have to do with protecting the planet?”

Flummoxing, Suicune stumbled a bit. Which was enough to break her water-walking powers, as she fell forward with an audible splat. Chiron raised a brow at the Suicune-shaped imprint in the sand left behind when Suicune got back to her feet. And it was really hard not to laugh at the sand and silt caking Suicune’s face and hair.

“Was it something I said?” Chiron mused.

Suicune did her best to look unphased, shaking the silt off. “I honestly asked my teacher the same question.” She twisted her neck and a blue diamond on a chain swiveled out of her hair. It had that same eight-pointed star Chiron saw on the back of Bahamut’s head. Other Sages had different-colored gems with the same symbol and she wasn’t sure why.

“And I assume you got an answer?” Chiron said.

“Bahamut feels that if we carry ourselves with grace, we’re less likely to come to blows,” Suicune explained. Finished shaking off the sand, she walked onto the shore. A wave swept away half the trail of pawprints she left behind.

“I see.” Chiron folded her wings over her torso. “And not fighting is… important.”

“Yes.” Suicune glanced skyward. “More than anything, Bahamut wants this world to be as tranquil as possible. That’s why the Sages exist.”

Chiron frowned. She envisioned a togekiss in the back of her head.

“You must keep Eternatus as peaceful as possible. Fighting will only serve to draw the Renegade toward us and ruin everything.”

“Isn’t it our nature as pokémon to fight, though?” Chiron wondered, trying to shake the memory out of her mind.

“You mean, like, for sport?”

“At the very least.”

Suicune shrugged. “Bahamut doesn’t see it that way. He dreams of a world where battling isn’t necessary.”

Chiron looked down. Why would pokémon even have powers, then? It was completely at odds with Bahamut’s way of thinking.

“Something wrong?”

The lunala stiffened. “Hmm?” She shook her head. “I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“About your home?”

A single nod.

Suicune slowly slid onto her belly. “But you fled from there, right? Was battling that big of a deal?”

Chiron sighed. “In a manner of speaking.”

“Well, if the place made you so unhappy you had to leave, maybe you ought to give our way of thinking a try,” Suicune said. She traced a forepaw in a circle through the sand. “See if it’s really that strange or not.”

Chiron wasn’t sure it was that simple. Keeping a low profile was important, though. She wasn’t looking to upset Bahamut. Better to play along while she continued to feel things out.

Even if it did sound strange, Chiron doubted it was worse than remaining Archbishop.

“Gah!”

Yuna’s head shot up. The drakloak furiously rubbed her eyes, then pulled her hands away.

Damp? Why were her hands wet?

… Oh, she had dropped down onto a towel.

Right, I’d finished showering. Yuna looked over her shoulder. Steam faded from the glass shower door. Water droplets trickled down into the shower basin.

She wasn’t sure whether to count her blessings that she didn’t pass out while showering. The fact that the Phantom — they were calling it Necrozma, apparently — had another Needle was quite alarming. However, it wasn’t like Yuna could do anything about it right this second.

Sighing, the drakloak picked herself and her towel off the floor. She finished drying off and tossed the towel into a wicker basket sitting in the corner by chipped green ceramic tiles. Yuna floated toward the door and pushed it open.

Who to tell first? She doubted everyone was together at the moment. Yuna turned right and floated down the hall. Hopefully she wouldn’t get turned around trying to find her way back to the restaurant.

“Couldn’t you, y’know, just make a rift to it?” Reshiram pointed out.

“Tis true! Work smarter and not harder,” Rayquaza added.

“Right.” Yuna rubbed the front edge of her rectangular head. She was about to call forth a small rift when faint golden light appeared at the other end of the hall.

I think someone’s coming. Yuna straightened up a bit. Her ectoplasm shriveled the moment she realized the gold light came from a familiar dusknoir.

It was hard to read his single eye, but Yuna afforded herself a guess. “Looking for me?”

Vegna looked at his right arm. Golden embers trickled off of it, dissolving against the walls and floor. “Necrozma found another Needle.”

“Yeah.” Yuna’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t suppose you and Gene have come up with some way to stop him yet?”

Vegna turned away from her.

“I’m going to go with ‘no,'” Reshiram said.

Yuna floated toward him. “So, what now?”

The dusknoir continued down the hall, saying nothing.

“Okaaaay.” Yuna followed him. Maybe he was looking for somewhere private— okay, yeah, he literally just went into some random door on the left. Yuna stopped in the doorway. It was an empty room, save for a broom and a dustpan. Given the dust sprinkled on the floor, the room hadn’t served a purpose for quite a while.

“I have sought for a joy without pain, for a solid without fluctuation,” Vegna said, crossing his arms. His eye dimmed. “Why will you die, O Eternals? Why live in unquenchable burnings?”

“Huh?” Yuna tilted her head.

“He was fond of a particular poet from Earth,” Vegna explained. “Bahamut wrote most of the poems in his journal.”

“He’d recite stanzas from them to us all the time,” Reshiram said, nodding in the back of Yuna’s head.

“It was so boooraaaaaaawming.”

Yuna shoved Cresselia out of her mind before could yawn again. What did any of this have to do with stopping Necrozma? “Is poetry the key to beating him? Force him to remember things he liked?” Stopping him with the power of positive memories sounded like something right out of Shaymin the Wanderer’s Super Darkness Crisis.

“The best thing we can do against Necrozma is stall him.” Vegna tapped his right index finger against his left arm. “Stall and find Needles before him. His power is too great. Not even Mewtwo can stand up against him.”

That wasn’t what Yuna needed to hear. Vegna had basically given up before taking a solid crack at anything! “Then why go through all the trouble to find us?” The drakloak leaned against the doorway.

“I had to.” Vegna squeezed his arms. There was an uncertainty in the dusknoir’s voice Yuna hadn’t heard before. “And you didn’t let me finish,” he added, a bit more like his rigid self.

Yuna reluctantly gestured for him to continue.

“If we want to defeat Necrozma, we must reunite Phantom with soul.” Vegna held his hands up and squished them together.

“You can do that?” Yuna eyed Vegna skeptically. She heard about the necromancy thing, but if Bahamut severed his soul ages ago, it would be long gone.

“A soul cannot be erased.” Vegna turned and braced his left hand on the wall. “I would stake my necromancy title on that fact. Bahamut’s soul is still out there. Perhaps it passed to this ‘Overworld’ realm, but I strongly doubt it.”

“I bet he thinks pulling more Needles will force the soul out of wherever it’s hiding,” Reshiram said. Yuna decided to pass that theory along to Vegna, who nodded slowly.

“That’s my deduction.” He tapped his index finger against the wall. “Necrozma reacted violently to the Needles I pulled, after all.”

Makes sense.

“Hold it!” Reshiram’s fur puffed out in Yuna’s psyche. “He said Needles. Like more than one!”

Yuna blinked. “Hang on… Needles? I thought it was just Zekrom.”

Vegna pushed himself away from the wall. His hands flickered gold. Griffon and Talonflame touched down on the dusty floor, spreading their wings in unison.

“Lo! I unfold my darkness,” he declared. “And on this rock, place with strong hand the book of eternal brass, written in my solitude.”

Poetry was not what Yuna needed to connect the dots. The drakloak rubbed her forehead. “These two are sages? There’s no way. I mean, Talonflame’s a fer—”

Talonflame opened his wings and screeched.

“Aww, there, there.” Griffon draped a metallic wing over Talonflame. “She didn’t mean it.”

“Much like the blabbermouth half-lugia, these two were already corrupted.” Vegna gestured to Talonflame. “Victini, Sage of Victory.” He then pointed at Griffon, but the corviknight beat him to the punch.

“Raikou reporting in!” Griffon saluted with a wing. “Apparently. Don’t remember diddly squat about those days.”

Yuna’s eyes slowly widened. There’s no way…

“Hmm. I doth recall Sir Raikou having a mouth on him,” Rayquaza said. “Not in the same way Dame Lugia did, either. He would mouth off at Bahamut. She would crack jokes.”

“Can you prove that?” Yuna squeaked.

Griffon cawed with laughter. “What kind of hack d’ya take V for, huh? Proof’s in the journal-flavored pudding. My name shows up there.” The corviknight puffed out his chest. “I’m Baha-famous!”

“And we’re done here.” Vegna snapped his fingers. Both his birds vanished in flecks of golden light. “Satisfied?”

Now it was Yuna’s turn to brace herself, only she used the doorframe. “I guess so.”

What had they been talking about originally?

Right, a way to stop Necrozma. “So, there’s really no other way besides Needle hunting?” Yuna found that quite dangerous if it would bring them to further blows with Necrozma. “Couldn’t we just let him get the others and search for the soul?”

“The more he has, the stronger he will be, even after we strip his invincibility,” Vegna said. “He attacked you with the techniques of the Sages he acquired, did he not? You’re only worsening your odds by letting him get Needles.”

Yuna wasn’t sure how big a difference it could really make. “I mean… Bahamut was already strong enough to sink an entire island. What could a few extra Sages do for him?”

“More attacks for him to use, obviously.”

Silence followed. The two ghosts stared each other down.

“Forgive the discourtesy of my curt response.” Vegna leaned against the wall again. “It’s a risky situation no matter what. The journal suggests Bahamut was consumed by rage leading up to his death. Reviving him… could revitalize that anger and aggression.”

“As if what he did to Gene wasn’t aggressive?” Yuna countered. Vegna’s expression was too tough for the drakloak to read. She’d need the direct approach to get more out of him. “Is there something you’re not telling me?” Yuna did her best to look as tired as possible. “I’m sick of making decisions without having all the information.”

“I pulled the first Needle.” Vegna looked down at his right hand. Golden fissures enveloped most of it. He squeezed his hand shut. The cracks sealed themselves. “Every subsequent one has worsened the destabilizing. It’s getting harder and harder to keep my body together.”

Yuna saw where this was going. “This big idea of yours… you won’t be around to see it through to the end.”

A single nod.

“Figures.” Yuna rubbed her temples, torn between a couple of different responses. She could’ve told him it was easy for him to float there and throw out crazy ideas. Yuna didn’t like Vegna. It was hard to feel bad for the guy.

“I’m not expecting any pity,” Vegna said, as if he’d read her thoughts. “I made a lot of bad decisions in my youth.” He glanced at his right hand again. “It took time for the consequences to catch up to me, but I don’t intend to run from them.”

“A lot of decisions? What else besides the Needles?” Reshiram wondered.

“What do you mean by that?” Yuna asked Vegna.

“Using my new abilities for my own benefits,” the dusknoir replied. “A path that eventually led to me becoming an executioner for the Kingdom of Radiance.” He crossed his arms and bowed his head. “And, at first, I was more than happy to carry out that task. But as the years went on, a deep unease gripped me that only grew over time.”

“Unease?” Yuna tilted her head. “About?”

“Radiance’s royal family.” Vegna floated up to Yuna. “I’m hardly a pure soul. Yet at the time, I couldn’t shake the sense there was a dreadful rot at the center of the kingdom. So, I put in the effort to transition from working in the prison system to the courts.”

Yuna raised a brow. “All so you could conduct your own investigation?”

“Did Paper Boy not offer you a glimpse at the fruits of my labor?” Vegna shrugged. He looked ready to push Yuna aside, so the drakloak gave him the space to float out the door.

“So, what? You’ll do what you can to help, then leave us to clean up the rest of the mess?” Yuna said. She kept her distance, but still gave a disapproving look. After all, Vegna having Igneous take all that evidence to Sakaki hardly qualified as helping.

“I’m hardly thrilled about it, either.” Vegna’s shoulders sagged. Some of the golden cracks returned on his right arm. “But it cannot be avoided.”

They were talking in circles. Yuna couldn’t come up with anything else, other than, “Fine. Whatever. But when we find new dimensional anomalies, those take priority. So, if you want the Needles salvaged that badly, you’ll have to do a lot more to help.”

The dusknoir didn’t respond at first. He made an effort to hide his right arm. “There’s a ferocity about you I never saw when you were a dreepy.”

Yuna held tough at his attempts to unnerve her. “You didn’t see me much as a dreepy to begin with.”

“Valid point.” Vegna… chuckled? Yuna didn’t think he was capable of it. “Do not let it slip away. Because continuing down this path will lead you to discover several horrible truths. And without that tenacity… the weight of those truths will crush you.”

Vegna floated away before Yuna could press him on that. The drakloak tried flying after him, but Vegna was faster. She stopped by the door to a metal stairwell, watching Vegna float up through a gap in the middle of the stairs.

What did he mean by that? Did he have a premonition?

“I didn’t think necromancers doubled as fortune tellers,” Reshiram said. “But ‘horrible truths?'” He shuddered in Yuna’s mind. “Something about the way he phrased that doesn’t sit right with me.”

Yuna wasn’t sure if that meant Vegna lied… or something completely different. And the conversation tired her out enough to where she didn’t want to fall down that raboot hole.

“At the very least, thou shouldst inform thine allies of this latest Needle pulling.”

Right. Yuna slowly hovered up the stairs. That much, at least, was easy to do.

Crisp air brushed Igneous’ scales. Soft grass crunched under his feet. The grovlazzle trudged across the grassy hills surrounding Horizon Gardens, craning his head up to take in as much of the setting sun as he could.

Try as he might, he couldn’t get that forest out of his head. It was disturbingly familiar. So were the pokémon he saw in it. But why? Outside of one of them sharing a name with a certain toxtricity, he had nothing.

However, the forest remained a nagging unease. Its large trees and thick brush kept popping up in his mind. So, after giving a report on what happened in Tulpise, he asked someone to rift him over to Horizon Gardens. Igneous figured the empty grass fields could help clear his head a bit.

It wasn’t working as intended. Igneous kept seeing faint outlines of large trees. Or a specter of a riolu running in front of him, arms stuck out to the side.

Why? Igneous rubbed his head with his claws. Why won’t it stop? What had that cloud daemon done to him?

It had to be some sort of psychic trick. Maybe if Igneous went to Gene, the mewtwo would find something?

Igneous’ snout twitched. Fruity and sweet, but also bitter. Nearby wine? Was someone out picnicking? He had to make himself scarce. But when he turned to head down the hill and back toward Horizon Gardens, he noticed glistening white out of the corner of his eye.

The grovlazzle crept closer and spotted nine messy tails… and the white-furred ponyta— or ponytales they came from. Shimmer tossed an empty bottle over his left shoulder. It bounced along the grass and rolled to a stop by a couple other empty bottles.

Igneous didn’t get the chance to consider his next move, because Shimmer abruptly turned around. Recognition flashed in his eyes. Then he squinted. “Are you stalking me?”

“No.” Igneous held his hands up. After Tulpise, he didn’t want to deal with any more psychics poking at his mind or squishing him against the ground. “You were in Tulpise, right? So was I. I guess we both had the same idea.”

They silently stared each other down. Eventually, Shimmer gave a small huff. He pivoted back around, flicking disheveled white hair over his shoulder. “I’m not sharing.” Shimmer levitated another wine bottle up and yanked the cork off. The pop drew a wince from Igneous.

“Maybe you should slow down?” Igneous cautiously approached.

“Why? I’ve got Pastel Veil.” Shimmer rolled his eyes. He took a swig from the bottle.

“Right.” Igneous kept walking until he stood over Shimmer. “But I doubt your liver’s appreciating this.”

Shimmer paused in the midst of tilting the bottle. His eyes darted between the grovlazzle and his wine. Grunting, Shimmer set the bottle down. “What does it matter? I’m nothing but a failure.”

Somehow, Shimmer sounded more dour than he did back in the library. Igneous figured literally looking down on the ponytales didn’t help. He quickly sat down, bending his knees to lean against them. “Tulpise that rough, huh?” It was the most logical conclusion he could draw.

“Did you bring the materials I gave you to the Beacon or not?” Shimmer refused to meet Igneous’ gaze.

“I did. Then we went to Tulpise.” Visions of the forest flooded Igneous’ mind again. “We had,” he shuddered, “our own issues to deal with there.”

“Well, you must’ve had a better time with your ‘issues,'” Shimmer huffed. He levitated up the bottle again, ready to take a drink from it.

“Hard to say. My ‘issues’ got away,” Igneous admitted. And left a present in my head.

Frowning, Shimmer gulped down some of the wine. “Getting away is better than destroying your meltan titan and making off with all the meltan that formed it. Because that’s what happened to me.”

Igneous’ tails and head leaf briefly ignited. “Shit! Shit!” He turned around and swatted the grass where his tails were before it caught fire. The grovlazzle stiffened. “I, uh—”

“See?” Shimmer swallowed another mouthful of wine. “You think I screwed up, too.”

“I was surprised.” Igneous shifted his weight uneasily. “Didn’t know the meltan could… make a titan or anything.”

“And now Eternatus’ forces have it,” Shimmer said, ears folding. God, the self-loathing in his voice. It was… scarily familiar to Igneous. “I’m supposed to be stronger. To have the power to make things happen. And I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop that machine.”

Igneous wasn’t sure if he was meant to press for details. He settled on a reasonable approach. “You mean machines, right? There were two of them.”

To his surprise, Shimmer shook his head. “There was a third. It showed up out of nowhere. Struck Melmetal down in one attack.” The ponytales looked down. His eyes were full of fear. “It was going to kill me if that distortion hadn’t erupted out of nowhere and forced it to retreat.”

The grovlazzle wasn’t sure whether to talk about his role in causing that distortion. Everything surrounding Xeromus and the cloud daemon hurt to even think about. Instead, Igneous asked, “What did that machine look like?”

Shimmer shuddered. “Kind of like that lunatic helmet-wearing mutt they keep showing on the news.” He bit his lip and nervously dug his forehoof into the grass. “If you took the helmet off and made him really purple and red.”

Igneous sucked a sharp breath in. That sounded like Widget! But the silvally was still at the outpost. Had Paradox made another one?

“What’s with that look?” Shimmer frowned. “Don’t tell me you know about this?”

“N-No.” Igneous held his hands up. “It surprised me. That’s all.” He had to save face. “It sounds like a rough situation. I’m sure you tried your best.”

Shimmer sideyed Igneous. His nostrils briefly flared, but then he lowered his head. “Easy for you to say.” Shimmer glanced at the wine bottle. “You’re actually competent.”

Bingo. Igneous had an in. Though the grovlazzle weighed exactly how much he wanted to tell Shimmer. Bringing the Ryujin up was out of the question. Could he tiptoe around that? What if Shimmer’s power boost came with some sort of ESP lie detector?

No. Not even Gene’s that good.

He sighed. Igneous stretched his legs out. “I’m not.”

Shimmer looked unconvinced.

“I put up a good front.” Igneous looked down at his orange and yellow belly. “Well, I put up a good front before this.”

The ponytales slowly turned around. Igneous piqued his interest. Good. He could continue.

“My mother died from a poisoning several years ago,” Igneous said. He didn’t leave any time for that to linger. “A poisoning meant for my father. Because of an investigative piece the Beacon was working on.”

Shimmer frowned. “But he’s a nidoking.”

“The poison was seventy-five percent pure salazzle venom,” Igneous replied. In truth, he had no idea what the poison was. But it probably involved salazzle toxins. “My dad didn’t even tell me until Mom ended up in the hospital. I had to watch her slowly wither away.”

He rested his hands on his knees. “I thought I could avenge her. I was stupid enough to try and challenge the kingdom’s criminal underworld.”

Shimmer blinked. “You’re still here, though.”

“I lost an arm for it.” Igneous rubbed his right arm with his left. “Before these… mutations, I always had a prosthetic.” A damn good one, judging by the shock on Shimmer’s expression. “My garchomp bodyguard is the only reason I survived. But it caused everyone at the Beacon to lose faith in me. To doubt I’d make a good replacement for my father when he decided to retire.”

The grovlazzle guessed Shimmer’s next question before he could ask it. Holding up his right arm, he said, “No one in my family had anything to do with me attending Horizon. That was entirely me. I took Mom’s life insurance payout for myself and enrolled on my own.

“And, well, you might’ve heard claims I was involved with the problematic concert in Venish.” Igneous hunched over again. “So, clearly, I’m not as put together as you think.” He shook his head. “We’re both screw-ups.”

Silence followed. Though he didn’t meet Igneous’ gaze, Shimmer was contemplative. And he hadn’t picked up the wine bottle again. A part of Igneous wondered why he was spilling his heart to Shimmer of all people. But if this day had made anything clear, it was that the two had more in common than he realized.

“What do I do?”

Igneous tilted his head. “Hmm?”

“I just want to give up.” Shimmer pawed at the ground with a forehoof. “I don’t know a thing about battling competently or keeping people safe. A power boost is meaningless if you don’t know how to use it properly.” He hung his head shamefully. “Two of our classmates were inside those Iron Moths. Eternatus’ emperor… has brought them onto his side.”

The grovlazzle decided not to bring up that he knew that already.

“Don’t you get it? Do the math.” Shimmer squeezed his eyes shut. “If the emperor’s using our classmates against us, then that means…” He grimaced. “That means…”

Igneous recalled Artemis’ report from Operation Follow Me: Xander was the first to turn to Paradox’s side. He bowed his head. “Right. Your boyfriend.”

Shimmer laughed bitterly. “Yeah. Sure.” He shook his head.

“Is there a problem?” Igneous raised a brow.

“Yes.” Shimmer’s brow furrowed. His expression was painful. “Xander and I… we were a total screw-up of a couple.”

That was a bold claim to make out of the blue. Igneous could see Shimmer’s desire to explain himself, and held his tongue.

“There wasn’t love there. Only lust.” Shimmer waved his right foreleg dismissively. “Most of what we did was just… flaunt our status in public or get busy with one another. That’s not a relationship.” He sounded embarrassed… for himself. “That’s barely even ‘friends with benefits.'”

Igneous never did like the sylveon. Total prick, in his opinion. He wouldn’t be surprised if Xander craved the status and power that came with being the crown prince’s consort. “You guys have been together for a few years, though…”

“Yeah. And I hate that I’m just struggling with this now.” Shimmer smacked the ground with his left forehoof repeatedly. “But it’s all I can think of… now that I realize how much of an idiot I am. If I was smarter, maybe I’d have picked up signs earlier. But he was really good with—”

“Dooooon’t need the details.” Igneous waved his hands in front of his face. The grovlazzle already knew more than he wanted to. He’d seen copies of the harassment complaints lodged against Shimmer and Xander that Sakaki had gotten his hands on.

Shimmer blinked a few times. “Right. Yeah. Stupid of me.” He shrank back slightly. “Point is… this is beyond me. I should give up, but I’m stuck working with Demerzel.”

Did that have to be the case, though? If Yuna went through the trouble of gathering up new recruits, why couldn’t Igneous do the same thing?

“Then work with us instead.”

Shimmer’s tails poofed out. It was an amusing sight.

“I— that’s—” Shimmer’s eyes darted around. “Demerzel’s psychic powers are strong. He could track me directly to you guys. I think?”

“We have a strong psychic of our own,” Igneous claimed. He could’ve very well been setting himself up to get cursed out by Gene for offering up the mewtwo’s services without permission. But Igneous would take any extra leverage he could get.

“And I’m still Crown Prince,” Shimmer mumbled. “I have to… keep tabs on Mother.”

Igneous didn’t see the problem with his offer. “You’d have more resources if you worked with us.”

The conflict on Shimmer’s face was clear as day. Igneous wasn’t going to force him into anything. “You don’t have to decide right now. I’ll give you space if you want it.”

Before the grovlazzle could move away, Shimmer scooted to his side. “Don’t. Please.“

Igneous’ tails almost caught fire again. “Shimmer, what’re you—”

“Sorry.” The ponytales’ tails curled around his hips. “I just— this feels like the first time someone’s been genuinely nice to me. No ulterior motives or anything.”

Technically Igneous could counter that getting Shimmer into the resistance’s ranks was an ulterior motive. But it was more that Igneous empathized with Shimmer’s struggles. Kind of like Scarlett, huh? They’d all made bad decisions because they didn’t want people to see them as screw-ups.

Igneous shrugged. “I get it. This shit’s weighing down on all of us.”

Thoughts of Xeromus raced through his head. Igneous did his best not to flinch.

“Guess it helps to have people you can relate to.” The grovlazzle scooched right next to him. He misjudged his distance and bumped his side with Shimmer’s. They fixed their wide eyes on each other.

“My bad.” Igneous repositioned slightly. “Head’s still a bit cloudy.”

“Right.” Shimmer rubbed his forehooves together. “Same here.”

An awkward silence followed, until Shimmer whispered, “Would your, erm, team really be okay working with me?”

Igneous nodded. There was the whole Ryujin issue, but that was something he could address later. If Gene could uncouple Shimmer from Demerzel’s ESP, that would make things much easier.

“Then I guess,” Shimmer took a sharp breath, “we can give it a try.”

It was far from an enthusiastic embrace of Igneous’ idea. He opted for an equally muted response. “Nice.” He didn’t stand up. “We don’t have to leave this second, though.”

Shimmer offered a thankful nod. “Why did you come here, anyway?”

“To clear my head.” Igneous scratched it with his left hand. “Though this… didn’t exactly help.”

“Ah.” Shimmer looked guiltily. “Well, I guess… we can sit here in silence?”

Igneous raised a brow. “Like actual silence? Or ‘guzzling wine’ silence?”

The ponytales flinched. He glanced at the wine bottles. His horn sparked. They rolled up the hill. “I’ll recycle them properly,” Shimmer mumbled. “Promise.”

Tongue clicking, Igneous pivoted in the grass. “All right. Silence it is.” Except the grovlazzle lay on his back, resting his head against his hands. He looked out at the setting sun, trying to keep Xeromus’ words and the strange visions from seeping into his thoughts.

Igneous found the team a new ally. Sure, there might be some growing pains. But there was strength in numbers, right?

This is a good thing.

He hadn’t realized Shimmer lay down next to him until silky hair brushed against his side. Igneous didn’t move.

It’s a good thing, he told himself again. We can… help each other.