*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Ship Under Attack!

When they got to the final floor, it had hardly looked different from any of the squarish rooms at first, until they realised how the room looked more like a path and less like a bunch of boxes.

It eventually lead out into a circular area, where the trees and cliffs lined a circle around the duo, who wandered right to it, exposing them to what was to come.

A noise could be heard, and this time, it wasn’t just a figment of the imagination. A low hum filled the air, the thrum of something large, causing the trees to blow with the wind that the sound alone generated, let alone the two Pokemon who listened for its approach.

Eventually, something zoomed out from the shroud of leaves the trees bored, the forest apparently having another inhabitant. It looked like a large green dragonfly, with large red eyes that leered menace upon the two Pokemon it had spotted. Sanvu took himself to be ready to battle, but Pachuku was clutching his head, eyes shut, and appeared to be struggling something, his head thrashing.

“Pachuku?” Sanvu asked, as Pachuku opened one eye in Sanvu’s direction, who looked utterly terrified. Sanvu began to suspect something was really wrong; Pachuku hadn’t looked so terrified in a long time.

“You…” the predator hissed, looking directly at Sanvu. “Grass-type matter…. is needed for the human’s demise…”

“Wh-what?! Which human?” Sanvu blurted without thinking. He quickly realised what he’d done after the fact, but the large bug didn’t seem to catch on.

“I… don’t know. I just know there’s a human…” the bug hissed, rearing up. “And if I did, I certainly wouldn’t tell you!”

“Type energy is needed to feel true fear!” it squealed, zipping towards Sanvu at incredible speed.

It took all of a second for Sanvu to be knocked back by an electric jolt that he couldn’t place until the Yanmega jolted back, its movements more erratic, the trees around them blowing far less.

Pachuku stood in front of Sanvu on all fours, his cheeks sparking crazy hard, the bug dancing in the sky until it managed to shake off the paralysis by merely flapping its wings back to their usual beat.

“You won’t stop me…” it rasped, as it recovered quickly. “Grass-type matter… tastes so… good…”

“So you’re… behind all th-those…” Pachuku started, before shaking his head really hard, as if he was trying to force something out.

But this created an opening for the bug to swoop back down as Sanvu only narrowly avoided by rolling out of the way, since Pachuku was too dazed by something to actively defend a second time.

“We gonna have to fight?” Sanvu verified, heart pounding, but otherwise ready. Pachuku had recovered by the time Sanvu had made his next move.

*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Smorgs Battle

“Sanvu, no, don’t! He’s double-resistant to you-!”

Pachuku’s pleas fell on deaf ears, as Sanvu had launched a volley of leaves at the bug as it continued to swoop towards Sanvu, who only narrowly dodged about two swoops by using his vines to climb up to the trees to swing about before the bug moved again at a faster rate to aim right at the small Grass-type. Sanvu heard Pachuku use Discharge, a number of about 5 rays of volts aimed at the bug, several missing, but many hitting its wings enough for it to change course, and slam into Pachuku hard enough to send him into the base of the elevated cliffs.

It buzzed a strange sort of sound that had Sanvu slightly dizzy, before it increased in intensity, and Sanvu felt the most uncomfortable sensation grace his body. It were as if his very body were being ripped apart by the biggest bites the most annoying bugs in his life could muster, and it wasn’t even as if the bug was personally touching him; these were waves emanating from its wings, and his every fibre was reacting in flaring pain as a result.

It took a lot for him even to stand, when Pachuku zapped the bug again, this time good enough to cause it to falter for a moment. Pachuku had climbed the cliff he’d landed near to the tree, and was attempting to climb his way around to where Sanvu was. Unfortunately, their foe had the advantage of the control over the air.

Sanvu was uncomfortably lifted up by the bug, and he fumbled trying to let out his vines to free himself from being literally eaten by a giant dragonfly, when Pachuku attempted zapping Yanmega again, only for two of his rays to hit with the rest being too far out of range, his paws almost slipping on the tree he was currently travelling on.

It didn’t take long; the next move was that Yanmega threw Sanvu back into a tree to its right, zooming in that direction for more. Yanmega had thrown him somewhat near Pachuku’s destination, who was still making his way around. He didn’t have long; the Grass-type’s consciousness was slipping.

Yanmega dashed past, taking a morsel of Sanvu’s back as he did, and now instead of the pain of a million paper cuts, it was one big chomp instead.

To say it hurt is four letters too small for the amount of pain that swelled in Sanvu post-bite. He could barely remain conscious, Pachuku finally making it over, handing Sanvu an Oran Berry, as his consciousness was barely on the level of splitting, his back healing extremely quickly with the berry, but it still hurt like hell.

“Okay, if you’re going to fight, use items,” Pachuku chided him, “He’s double resistant to you, Bug and Flying. Let me handle damaging him, if only so we can get out of here,” he criticised, his cheeks sparking enough to paralyse the bug again as it made a dive, even if it was only temporary enough for the large Pokemon to shake itself out of it a moment or so later.

While that was happening, Sanvu looked inside the bag once the pain in his back was reduced to mild throbbing, seeing only a lot of seeds he didn’t entirely recognise, one of which was just a dull old seed, he figured that must’ve been used from the debilitating pain from a moment ago.

Pachuku was firing volt after volt of Discharge, and eventually, Yanmega wasn’t down, but it wasn’t quite as fast anymore, only using its speed to ram into Pachuku really hard instead of beating its wings. Sanvu thought he had seen some form of light; did it know Quick Attack?

Pachuku otherwise didn’t seem too worse for wear as Sanvu threw some sort of striped seed they’d found in the dungeon to the bug, and it staggered around uncomfortably. It was still ludicrously fast, but it was now zooming in all the wrong directions, allowing a now recovering Snivy to create some distance between himself and the drunken dragonfly by running to his right.

Pachuku still jumped between trees, and Sanvu figured one more attack wouldn’t hurt, so he churned his leaves again, vaulting them in Yanmega’s direction, before creating some more distance between the two so then he would be safe at least a little moment longer.

Eventually, it appeared to shake off the confusion, and it almost seemed like it was over, and they would lose with how fast it was flying towards them, but Pachuku vaulted off a branch using his own Quick Attack, and zapped Yanmega during free-fall, allowing it to hit the tree beside Sanvu to his right, as it slowly recovered, Pachuku ran up to the cliff where Sanvu in particular was standing above, shouting loudly.

“Sanvu! Use the Escape Orb! The really shiny one! We need to get out of here!” he cried.

Sanvu couldn’t find it in himself to disagree given how tired he was. He just wanted to go home at this point, alive, at the very least, given that Pachuku wasn’t entirely willing to cooperate, never mind the giant bug that threatened his very continued existence.

He had to roll out of the way of several more attacks as Pachuku continued to try and zap it from the ground, eventually finding the Orb that Pachuku presumably meant, with a glowing centre that shone, as if it were the light out of the dungeon’s tunnel.

He saw Yanmega make another leap with its jaws open and barely had time to react, practically shouting in his mind to get them out of there.

~~

*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – X-Nauts Attack

Both would have their pleas answered, as the Orb shone within seconds, fading them both out of the dungeon, confusing the Yanmega who ended up slamming into the tree where someone once had been, jaws locked into the bark, a much less satisfying meal for the large pest.

As it looked around trying to find where its prey had gone, all it could hear was a singular growl, from where, it couldn’t be certain.

“The step of preservation is complete… it’s time to move to evisceration…”

Yanmega hovered in the air in the same spot for a good few seconds, before departing the forest.

~~

*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Ishnail Theme

By the time they were back with Didra, both were extremely fatigued, and Sanvu could swear his back was still itchy where the bug had bitten him, though no visible mark was left.

They had explained to her, given her distrust for Sanvu and his weird visions, that they’d instead divulge what the Yanmega told them; that it was taking “Grass-type” energy for some unknown purpose. She seemed satisfied with that explanation, even though they would say little more.

“Right, I don’t need to hear more. You two did great, today,” she waved, smiling. “Now off you go, and rest. I can see you sustained pretty serious injury, don’t try and make this difficult in future, for your own sakes,” she criticised, the two leaving in relative silence.

The evening continued as they headed home, with neither of them saying much to each other until they were in front of Pachuku’s home.

“S-So…”

“What?” Sanvu asked, glaring in Pachuku’s direction. The squirrel sighed. Sanvu continued, watching from the corners of his eyes. “Clearly, I’m involved in this. You heard it, back there, right? About how the ‘human’s’ demise or something was necessary?”

“Exactly!” Pachuku shouted, “Look, as long as we’re together, we’ll solve this whole problem with the Dark Matter and the Amnesiacs and your whole missing memory. B-But… I don’t need you practically risking hurting yourself. We went way too far today,” Pachuku’s eyes were flaring.

“It didn’t even get that bad until the end,” Sanvu pointed out, “Which, okay, that sucked and it hurts, but do you see my point? I’m involved, somehow,” he gestured to himself. “So I need you to trust me, that I’m not crazy either.”

“So long as you know your own limits. There’s no coming back if you’re being stupid, you know,” Pachuku reprimanded, Sanvu sighing. He knew Pachuku was hiding something, it was obvious in the way he, after saying that sentence had started to go right back to paw-picking like he usually did when he was anxious, and wasn’t able to maintain eye contact.

Sanvu sighed, leaning against the tree that they called home. Pachuku both made perfect sense at times, and other times he was the most confusing squirrel he ever met. He supposed if he meant in relation to the battle, he probably could admit he was a bit hard-headed, maybe he could admit that.

“Fine, I’ll try to be a little more careful next time. But will you just tell me what’s wrong, next time?” Sanvu offered, Pachuku giving him a wide look.

“Okay, fine. Just…” he shied away again, which made Sanvu suspicious, before Pachuku spoke up again. “I don’t… want you hurt. I want us both safe, everyone safe.”

And that was where they sat, opting to not mention anything about it for the rest of the night.

~~

That night, after Sanvu and Pachuku had recovered enough to rest up; Pachuku had assured him that he’d essentially feel nothing by morning, since Pokemon heal pretty quickly, even from super-effective attacks like Bug Bite and Bug Buzz, which were apparently the moves Yanmega knew. Sanvu hardly understood why it hurt so much, until he was reminded of the fact bugs ate plants, so it made him feel a little guiltier for not listening to Pachuku earlier.

Sanvu spent the night contemplating how on this planet he had managed to obtain such a bizarre, extravagant ability. He recalled that Daniel said he was another human… was there a link there?

He did this in his head, since Pachuku for some reason; Sanvu suspected worry based on their earlier argument, didn’t want to talk about Dark Matter that much, presumably because he didn’t want Sanvu to be thinking of doing something stupid. Sanvu wanted to appreciate that Pachuku cared so much about him, but was also flabbergasted in his change in attitude.

Was he even aware of it? Sanvu wondered the same about himself, whether he was just crazy for even noticing it.

Sanvu thought back to when Yanmega appeared, and Pachuku appeared to have something in his head, shaking it out like he was slam dunk with some kind of berry in the face. He’d never had that reaction to any Pokemon before, not even when they’d fought other Pokemon in the past had he looked so afraid. He could hardly fathom the reason, unless Pachuku specifically hated Yanmega for some reason, but he couldn’t entirely be sure of that.

“You okay?” he’d ask Pachuku sometimes throughout the night, with Pachuku asking why he’d worry, and Sanvu would just respond with, “Worried about you,” “Just want you to be alright,” or “I saw you worried in the dungeon, just checking if you’re alright now,” all of which would elicit reactions from Pachuku that seemed to indicate he was perfectly fine. Sanvu would continue to add these worries to his mind’s internal twister, despite that Pachuku would barely twitch at all, and seemed to act like his usual cheerful self from earlier in the week.

It was a good thing they were both so tired… it made it extremely easy to fall to sleep.

*Music: Luigi’s Mansion 3 – 13F Fitness Center Track 4

Sanvu woke up in the same void he usually did. He picked himself up slowly, and while it took about a minute, there was no pressure, nor heatwave, like in other dreams. It was a little humid, but nothing debilitating, Sanvu could at the very least breathe.

He gazed to his left, where the tree was perched. The pattern he’d only seen as a small circle had now extended to reaching down to its roots, up to about halfway up what used to be shadow, before it petered off into shadowy arms reaching for the night sky.

“Is this… the Tree of Life?” Sanvu speculated aloud, staring at it. He walked up to it, touching it. He felt… bark. Nothing particularly felt strange about it. He peered up at it, watching it creep up. It was as if the colour itself was growing, creeping up what used to be the shadow in an eerie fashion.

“Is this all…” Sanvu started, before he heard booming voices reverberating across the landscape, forcing him to clutch his head at the sheer volume, alone.

“Operation… R…”

Sanvu listened carefully, because his dream began to waver at this point. It shifted, the landscape blurring for a couple of minutes, before settling back, giving him clarity within the dreamscape once more.

“O….”

Another shift, this one shorter, Sanvu was just sitting still, clutching his head. He could use his ears, provided he wouldn’t go insane from the reverberations that each individual letter appeared to create, with voices singing each letter like a chorus, or a cacophony. Sanvu would think that either counts as an apt description.

“T….”

More reverberations. Another twist of the landscape. More dizzying. Back to regular dream lucidity.

“S…”

This one was particularly poignant, creating a miniature tremor. Sanvu was sitting down, his hands plugged in his ears. Even with that, he couldn’t block out the noise, and he was forced onto his front, lying on his stomach, by the uncomfortable tremors that started for a second.

“Is this… Dark Matter?” Sanvu wondered idly, noting how even the light itself, how little there was, seemed completely fake. It all looked so real, it made him question if this was even a dream.

“Will… I even wake up..?”

After the tremor finished, Sanvu picked himself up, so he was at the very least sitting. Nothing appeared to change; the tree above him still glowed with that odd colour. For some reason, sitting near it seemed to provide him some solace; it felt peaceful, if only for a second.

For a moment, it was peaceful enough that Sanvu could stand, but then the world started swaying again. He felt some strange pressure, though it didn’t feel hot, just as if there was something rippling past his skin, pressing him to the floor.

He tried not to give in to the temptation to panic. Either Dark Matter knew of him or not, and he would just have to wait until he woke up or he didn’t. That was the only thing Sanvu could reassure himself of right now.

After a while, the pressure subsided, and was yet still the same, with not a single change in the environment. Sanvu opened his eyes, but didn’t pick himself up, lying flat on his stomach, watching the tree by scraping his head along the floor.

If this was where he met his end, it would be very fitting, he surmised. But that wasn’t what would happen.

He saw a flash in the sky, briefly, and it briefly blinded him, eventually blinking it out of his eyes. For a while, nothing happened, as he just laid there, breathing slowly, trying to make himself invisible. If he was, anyway, he couldn’t be sure what the voices thought or saw, whether they were Dark Matter, or its associates.

He listened in as the voices began to murmur something incomprehensible, before rising in volume.

“The human has escaped!”

“Escaped…?” Sanvu echoed, alongside the many voices that performed the same, though of his own volition. He found no motivation to put his hands to his ears to block the volume, instead opting to just lie perfectly still.

“Good. Let him escape,” a deep, dark voice boomed out. “It’s only a matter of time before it’s all over…”

Sanvu still couldn’t be entirely sure what they meant with that last sentence, as words from it became facsimilies with their own interpretation, as he tried to get himself up. He couldn’t just sit around and listen anymore.

He had a hunch that they meant that Daniel had escaped. So something about him and Dark Matter were inherently connected, since Daniel was no longer ‘here’ wherever ‘here’ was.

He stood up, attempting to begin walking. He walked for a very long time, trying to find out anything about this place, anything at all about himself, or what they meant. He couldn’t even be sure he would wake up, so at least he could find out all he could while he was here, right?

Eventually, he began to see stars in the blank, dark sky, but they would blink in and out of existence if he tried to look at them for too long. Why did that seem so… familiar?

“R… O… T… S…”

The letters echoed again, and yet Sanvu continued. He had to find out what this meant. He had to. Sitting around would mean nothing in the end.

As he did, he began to see things he couldn’t entirely comprehend. Images of Pokemon dotted the landscape, warping, changing around his eyes, harmlessly passing through. Eventually, he would even see something that resembled the landscape that he saw in Daniel’s visions in the distance, but acted like a rainbow anytime he got close; a projected image impossible to reach, sometimes shifting and changing so that he was never in the same place at once.

Sanvu wasn’t sure where exactly he was going, but anywhere was better than nowhere. He couldn’t exactly make sense of his surroundings after a while, eventually merely collapsing; the pressure of waking having forced itself onto him so suddenly that he just literally collapsed.

Where he would go next, was up to fate itself to decide.

~~