I Will Touch the Skies – A Pokemon Fanfiction

Chapter 315 – Danse Macabre

Chapter 315 – Danse Macabre

CHAPTER 315 - DANSE MACABRE

With Clara came more fighting, and each group of Galactic grunts was tougher to deal with than the last. Larger, more robust, more adaptable, and most importantly, willing to use Coronet favoring them as a way to stay hidden and harass them with hit-and-run tactics. Maeve's team were on their last legs, and they'd used all of their potions to keep them from fainting, yet they could no longer fight. Even Starmie had been hit by numerous dark and electric type moves that had the water type dangerously weak. Luckily, the cold from Regice was largely gone, now. It had left slowly, at first, and then exponentially.

Despite how much Maeve had insisted on keeping Cecilia's Pokemon healthy, the next group of grunts they'd come across, the Unovan would have to deal with.

Clara seemed to be gripped by a mental anguish that only grew each time a group of grunts were dealt with. Perhaps she was getting second thoughts about betraying her cause. Her fellow Galactic members certainly didn't seem to pay her collaboration any mind, or at least none that Cecilia had noticed. The most they afforded her was a single look with wide eyes, but no words had ever been exchanged. If there had been, Cecilia doubted Clara would have had the courage to respond to their accusations regardless.

"We... should be close to the pathway to the final layer," Clara mumbled under her breath. "The forest gets kind of dense around here, but trust me, okay?"

Cecilia raised an eyebrow. "What? I didn't say anything."

Clara simply responded with an 'eek' and flinched away from her, and the grunt's hand brushed against one of the tall, thick trees that littered this layer. Even after seeing the same thing over and over for the last Arceus knew how many hours, none of the wonder was lost to them. The drums of the bristling tree leaves had Cecilia feeling more and more uncomfortable, as of late, and this one had her repulsed.

"I apologize if I frightened you." Relief at last allowed her to breathe easily again. Maeve just stared straight ahead, and Slowking kept track of their surroundings. "Like I said, you won't get hurt. You've been helpful."

"As long as I can..." she trailed off. "Legendaries," she ended with a sigh. "I— there's nothing left waiting for me. They might— they might fry my brain."

Cecilia's hand hovered over her Pokeballs until Slowking shook his head at her. Right. She's harmless. "Galactic will be dealt with, so they won't have any reason to. I'm sure they'll repeal the law again sooner rather than later."

"I had— I had second thoughts before Mars picked me up. I wanted to leave because I missed my parents," Clara meekly said. "But I was scared..."

Ah, scared of getting her memories extracted by a League psychic. Ironic, that a policy made to intimidate and make Galactic feel cornered might have contributed to making their members feel stuck where they were. Cynthia was a smart woman. She must have known this would happen, but Cecilia supposed she had gambled that the information they would get out of the grunts would be worth it if she could prevent them from enacting their final plan.

Of course, they were all in Coronet now, so it had not.

"None of it matters." Her tone was harried and defeated. "I'll have to deal with it, I guess. I wanted to help people and work on dreams— Sorry. I'm rambling and annoying. Sorry."

Cecilia perked up. "They do plenty of dream research in—"

"Unova! Yes, I know I— wait, I shouldn't interrupt you."

The conversation reached its natural endpoint there. Cecilia knew she could have extended it some, but Clara kept stopping herself from speaking her mind and she was too tired keep speaking anyway. When they reached a denser part of the woods and began to hear the familiar howl signifying the staircase up.

"Clara," Maeve began. "You seem to have had a good relationship with your parent, and I'll ignore the fact that you were willing to kill them with all of these plans to destroy the world." She gestured around herself.

"And create a new one where you'd all be happy," she reprimanded hastily. "S—sorry. But even you would have been brought back, and we would have made a world without strife or conflict."

Maeve scoffed. "Oh, did Cyrus tell you that?"

"He... did."

"Well I'm sure he's very trustworthy." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, what pushed you to join?"ViiSiit for latest novels

"I, um." The grunt scratched the side of her arm and looked away. "Nothing was going right for me, I guess. I couldn't catch a fucking break, and everything was collapsing around me. I— I was failing all of my college classes and my parents had to remortgage their house to keep me going, but I failed again and... I couldn't get out of bed..." There were tears in the corner of her eyes. "I don't know. I wanted something to look forward to. To be good enough to study dreams. Then I was approached by a recruiter and she gave me hope again. She met with me so many times and kept believing in me."

There was nothing left to be said. An apology almost left Cecilia's lips, but she bit down on it and kept it in. The next layer was close, now.

The trees were denser than they'd ever been, save for a narrow path that led straight to the chasm up.

In front of it stood Commander Jupiter and her entire team, crouching with a lazy look in her eye. While her grunts had looked tired, her face looked bright and her hair was still done. Slaking was lying down and slowly scratching its belly while Delcatty lounged on top of its massive arm. Girafarig, who was standing at attention, tilted its head at Cecilia and the others while its tail snapped and shook at the sight of them. Tangrowth stopped throwing a softball up and down with a vine and let it fall onto the earth with a soft thud while Stantler barely seemed to notice them at all. Skuntank, meanwhile, was clawing at the ground and eager to get into a fight.

I couldn't even feel her, Slowking said with a vocal gasp. He instantly summoned a barrier in front of them, in case Jupiter attacked. Delcatty jumped off Slaking and hit Girafarig with her tail, creating a barrier of their own.

"Well, well, well. Look at what the Meowth dragged in," It drawled. Its voice alone was enough to make Cecilia's nose wrinkle. The Commander rose to its feet and patted down its behind. "Clara, too?" The grunt flinched and hid behind Slowking. "You go, girl! I wasn't sure if you had the guts to actually leave or not after I gave you some support."

Maeve clicked her tongue. "You expected her to betray you?"

"I thought it was a possibility. It doesn't really matter, though. You would have made your way here anyway eventually. It was worth the entertainment."

"Don't engage with it," Cecilia said. "That's how it gets in your head."

She analyzed the Commander for a few seconds, but it didn't actually unleash its Pokemon onto them. Strangely, all it did was watch with an annoying smirk that had Cecilia want to break something.

Ten seconds passed. They felt like an eternity.

Cecilia took a deep breath, a malformed hiss through her mask. "Go, Maeve."

Maeve's hands dropped to her side. "Excuse me—"

"Barriers aren't going to work well against her team, so even if you used Starmie you'd just be putting him in danger," she calmly explained. She'd expected to be overtaken by uncontrollable rage that would have made her see red. Made her fists clench and shake to the point of pain. Made her bite down on her tongue not to scream. Instead, there was only cold. "I have a plan. Go and rest. You've brought me far enough and you'll only get in the way."

"Wh—what about me?" Clara asked with a quivering voice. "I—"

"Go with her." There was no hesitation; a promise was a promise. "You've earned it. Without me here to keep you tethered to Coronet, you should have an easy trip down with Maeve so long as you wish to stay with her."

The grunt nodded with a meek squeak of appreciation, made herself small and scooted over to Maeve, who spared Cecilia one last look before leaving without a word. They had never been the closest of friends, had they? Nevertheless, their time together in Coronet had forged a bond, and Cecilia found herself thinking that she would make an excellent ACE Trainer. The Unovan lowered her hood and ran her grimy gloved hands through her hair, which was nearly unmoving in the stale air of the sixth layer, and Slowking took a deep breath. She could still hear Maeve and Clara's steps as she released the rest of her team around her. Lehmhart appeared on one knee and slowly got up as his insides hummed with machinery, yet his huge size did not manage to even come close to towering over the golden trees. Talonflame took to the air, and finally, air whipped around Cecilia as the flying type kept herself afloat. Scizor and Toxicroak had already bled into the golden woods, and Hydreigon was foaming at the mouth to get himself acquainted with Jupiter.

All appeared golden under this place's light, including the Commander's Pokemon and the monster itself.

"Gee, already? I let your friends escape, didn't I? You can't even afford me a single conversation?" The Commander placed her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. "Why don't we talk for like, two minutes before we start killing each other? Murder's murder, but we can be civil about it, can't we?"

Cecilia scanned her surroundings, not bothering to answer. Buying a few minutes for her to get into the correct mindset for this battle wouldn't hurt, and Slowking was still scanning the surroundings to see if any grunts would ambush them during the fight. The environment wasn't in anyone's favor, but she figured Scizor and Toxicroak would navigate the forest well if they needed to while the largest Pokemon would be able to stay in the central corridor. Talonflame wasn't as good at narrow turns as she'd once been, but so long as she controlled her speed...

"Talk." The words were harsh out of her mouth. Deep set and more of a growl than actual words.

The creature beamed, and the quirk of her lip made Cecilia nauseous. So human. So fucking human, like a woman she'd smile at as a thank you after she held a door for her, and yet she was not. "Cecilia Obel, right?" She crouched and poked a finger into the silver sand, and her Slaking sighed at her. "You know, I look at you and I see... hm, I see a fascinating child."

Cecilia had gathered as much information as she could out of ACE Trainers and Clara. Her team had a rigid structure that was never broken. First were the supportive Pokemon, Stantler, Girafarig and Delcatty. These always, always hung back and worked to help keep Jupiter and the rest of her team alive, whether that be Girafarig's psychic powers, Stantler's quick Hypnosis, or Delcatty's... healing. She still hadn't figured out what that was, but it sure as hell wasn't Wish. Her other three Pokemon— Tangrowth, Slaking and Skuntank, were juggernauts who used overwhelming power to their advantage. They could easily tear through the toughest of barriers with a rudimental understanding of darkness (or in Slaking's case, just muscle) and were capable of overpowering any of her own Pokemon save for Golurk and perhaps Hydreigon.

"What do you see?" Cecilia asked with a frown. Keep her talking.

"Well, it's not just you, it's all of your little group, but it's the first time I actually look at one of you," it said with an infuriating nonchalance. "It's your eyes, I think. I see 'em through the mask thanks to this obnoxious lighting." It gestured above itself in annoyance. "There's no innocence left, and I find that interesting, you know? This entire year," it crossed its arms, "We've pushed and prodded at Sinnoh and the world itself, and to finally see the consequences of that one someone's face is... it's fucking exhilarating," it finished with a shy smile. "It's a little bit of a dream of mine, so thanks."

Die.

Die, die, die, die, die. There was fire in her throat, scorching and wanting to tear its way out of her mouth; the desperation to tell her to die, but there was none of the power behind it. Cecilia delved deep into her reserves and found them lacking. Two to three hours left. There was no way that battle was going to last this long, not when Jupiter was a quick and ruthless fighter.

"The road you walked to get here must have been hard, but you aren't broken. I'm a little obsessed with the human condition, you see? I like figuring out what makes people tick. For example, I like I said, I kind of figured Clara would defect," Jupiter explained. "I wanted to see if she'd actually do it despite the danger and her dream just... disappearing, and she did." Its eyes looked at the golden light above her. "She threw it all away for a chance to live an extra few hours, or maybe days."

"Well," the monster stood up, stretched, and sand fell back from the fist onto the ground, "that was it from me. Anything you want to say before we throw hands and figure out who gets out of this alive?"

You engineered the death of over ten thousand people.

You killed one of my best friends. One of the kindest, most innocent souls I had ever met, even after his condition.

There came no response or no signal. Cecilia jumped atop Zolst's back, but her hold was awkward. Her gloves nearly slipped from his neck scales, and she had to clasp a hand around one of his wings to steady herself while the dragon took flight. Her Pokemon below had already scattered, and a thin invisible floor formed below Slowking to allow him to follow her into the skies. With how tall the trees were, hiding above the foliage would have hurt her more than helped, so they decided to stay low where they could observe Jupiter and its Pokemon's movements. As predicted, Tangrowth, Skuntank and Slaking had burst forward, leaving behind them trails of silver sand which flew everywhere because of Talonflame's Tailwind she'd thrown out to slow them down.

Skuntank was the fastest of the three, reaching Golurk in a blur of purple with extended claws wreathed in a swirling darkness that was difficult to stare away from. It cut across Lehmhart's leg and left three huge gashes oozing with void, but did not bother to stop to continue attacking him. Instead, Skuntank kept going, dashing in between the thick trees of the golden woods.

It knows. It knew where Toxicroak and Scizor were despite the fact that they'd hidden, and it was looking for one or both of them. Cecilia warned them with a scream that rippled in her throat. Talonflame waved one of her wings to launch a set of feathers, sharpened with steel and wreathing with blue fire. The first few buried themselves into the sand right behind Skuntank, and the soil smothered the flames like a candle between a wet towel, but the rest were propelled up by a sudden gust of wind and stabbed into the poison type's back. Cecilia could only see Skuntank slow enough for Toxicroak to narrowly bend back to dodge the coming Slash before it exploded with a noxious poison that she could taste in her throat, but they disappeared into the forest before long.

It was Slaking, she worried about. Heat scorched her hands when Hydreigon gathered a Dragon Pulse in his throat to fire at the normal type, and Slowking raised an arm next to them. It was difficult to see, but with each wave of his hand, he was firing an invisible disk at both Tangrowth and Slaking. The latter growled when the first gouged out his gut, but the wound instantly closed when Delcatty sang, and the next, Slaking either hit out of the way by pure chance or Girafarig blocked with its own barriers. Zolst's Dragon Pulse met a similar fate, though some of it did break through and singed the edge of the normal type's skin.

Again, though, the burns afforded to Slaking's skin were simply healed.

Golurk stomped a foot, and an Earthquake rippled across the earth, yet it did not shatter, nor split. It only shook, and the ground itself stayed intact. Slaking leaped, its arm windmilled in the air, and it grabbed onto one of the trees to quickly change directions toward Golurk to avoid another wave of feathers from Talonflame. The ghost type was more agile than he had once been, and he was ready. His fists went up and music screeched out of him, accompanied with purple flames leaking out of every crevice, every hole, every nook and cranny of his skin. There was no start to the song. It began already at its climax, and Slaking clenched its teeth as it landed a glowing punch onto Lehmhart, shattering a hastily put-together barrier that Slowking had put up—

A shockwave ran through Cecilia and sent more dirt flying into her face and hair. The air flew out of her lungs, forcefully expelled like something had punched her in the gut, and it felt like her entire body had been hit by a collective slap. Yet, she looked. Having brought his arms into a protective guard, Lehmhart's legs buckled under the weight of Slaking's strike, and his arm bent, and yet he still stood. Here he was, guardian of a tower for centuries and now having taken on the role of guardian of this team. Before the normal type could land, Golurk punched him in the gut in one smooth motion and sent him flying back, but a...

Barrier was accurate, but this one bent like a mattress, and it caught Slaking before it could land on the ground and bounced him back at Lehmhart immediately, courtesy of Stantler. Stantler's the one who can affect texture, then, but Girafarig remains the main muscle behind them. Slowking slowed him down some, but multiple things worked against him. First was Slaking's weight and momentum. Second, Girafarig joined in on the fray and he couldn't win against two psychics or psychic-adjacent Pokemon. A thicket of vines wrapped around Lehmhart's leg, allowing Tangrowth to pull to make him trip, and Slaking landed one of those glowing punches right in the ground type's face.

The second strike was nothing like the first. Slaking's hit sent Lehmhart tumbling back like a ragdoll, and instead of ripping through trees, they stopped him dead in his fall as if they were an inviolable part of the environment. His body slumped against the bark, but he summoned a flurry of Shadow Balls all over his body that buried themselves behind Tangrowth's vine-filled body, forcing the grass type to hide behind one of the trees while Hydreigon screamed out another Dragon Pulse to block Slaking's path.

It did not work. Again, it prioritized attack over safety and it wildly threw itself into the blast to rid itself of what it no doubt saw as the biggest threat, spraying spittle with every roar, yet Golurk managed to temporarily stop it with a Bulldoze, specialized to slow rather than hurt. Hydreigon growled in annoyance at the sight of a battle he could not join fully.

"Soon," she whispered in Zolst's ear. Her riding on his back meant that he couldn't unleash his full power, but a torrent of unordered darkness left his three mouths and penetrated deep into the sand until it reached Jupiter's feet. It was Stantler that stopped the attack this time, with a particular gray, almost too dim to notice light that dissolved the Dark Pulse before it could reach them. Cecilia knew that move all too well, given that it was a staple of Slowking's arsenal. Disable, but to what extent could Stantler use it? When she whispered to Zolst to attempt to channel more darkness, she realized it had been cut off entirely. There would be no more Crunch, nor would there be any dark type moves.

She looked back to Lehmhart, whose shifting of the ground had forced Slaking to jump again. The ghost type lifted one of his arms, and smoke and purple light diffused from a section near his elbow. The forearm burst forward, a rocket-propelled fist shining with the familiar glow of Hammer Arm— Slaking's face twisted in surprise and horror, and the fist penetrated through the glass-like shields afforded to him by Girafarig. Fire— blue fire from Talonflame wrapped around it like a glove as the flying type swooped from somewhere Cecilia hadn't been looking, and more wind propelled the fist to greater speeds until the air itself twisted, morphed, got out of its way like a living being cowering under another's might.

It took some convincing, mostly by saying you might live, Slowking finally said. But he's ready.

Lehmhart was looking at her now. His face had turned to the side as he lay his back against a tree and the rune on his chest, hands and shoulders flickered on and off, along with his eyes. He was utterly unmoving, like he wasn't even alive. A still under the golden glow emanating from Arceus' throne, his legs half buried in silver sands. His massive body, made of stone and clay, seemed almost melded with the rough bark, creating an eerie tableau against the backdrop of the forest.

It was like the many paintings she'd seen in her childhood. Too depressing to be painted by Burgh, but it'd fit well in one of Castelia's art exhibits.

A smaller, better contained shield materialized around her, thick and multi-layered. Slowking had to forgo his previous barrier to make it work, but it had basically been entirely dissolved anyway. All of her training with Lehmhart had been for this moment, for this instant. His obsession with song was the only reason they'd even managed to get to learning this move these past few months.

The origins of Perish Song could be traced back to old Ecruteak in Johto. It was one of their clans— the one who now presided over the entire city— who had discovered that spirits could be directed to doom someone to their deaths through song, and due to the threat of mutually assured destruction and the mass deaths of any conquerers, they had been the last city conquered by a unified Johto League. Today, knowledge about the move was closely guarded by Ecruteak, though there had been many replicas made throughout the world, none as potent as theirs.

Hers was one of the same. A copy that could be circumvented or stopped, however, that was if an equally powerful ghost was here to counter it for people unable to retreat into the safety of a Pokeball, where they would have to stay for hours before it was safe to be let out again.

Jupiter had no ghosts to pull from.

A haunting melody began to emanate from Golurk's form, echoing through the stillness of the forest like a mournful lament. Her perception of it was muffled, but the fact that she could still hear it was... Cecilia's throat tightened, and she licked the blood off her lips. the fighting stopped as soon as the first note hit. For Cece's team, it was because none of them other than Golurk and Slowking had known the Perish Song was coming, and for Jupiter's it probably because they couldn't believe what they were hearing. As soon as the sweet whisper of Lehmhart's song made it to a living being's ears, they would know, at that moment, that they were doomed.

The monster's eyes were wide, as was her mouth, but Cecilia found no pleasure in finally extracting a strong reaction from her. Not when she was throwing it all away. Cece's eyes watered, though she chased away thoughts of Grace, dreams and her friends.

"Get that Golurk!" Jupiter screamed with a muffled voice.

Some of them listened.

Skuntank, for one, immediately rushed toward the golem's hunched form, but Scizor used the last of his stamina to throw his entire weight into the poison type's side. Unable to walk, he'd had to beat his wings so quickly that he caught on fire and the metal that was his exoskeleton melded together into a horrifying mess. Still, the steel type fired off a Flash Cannon directly into the side of Skuntank's face, but the force from the concentrated light didn't stop it until Scizor aimed for a leg instead. Tangrowth was another one who helped her, but Talonflame had suddenly regained access to her fire and had engulfed the grass type in a tornado of scorching blue flames, keeping it trapped and burning any vines before they could even reach Lehmhart. Instead of healing, Delcatty finally moved, but it was engaged by Toxicroak before it could even get halfway, and the normal type was no fighter. Toxicroak dominated her from the moment their bout began, even when exhausted, stabbing and poisoning her with every jab of her fists while she easily dodged the meager strikes of its tail and head.

As the melancholic melody washed over her, Cecilia felt a chill run down her spine, and she could see purple lights, furious and raging, desperate to get through Slowking's thick barrier. They gave her wordless screams and those that did make it through accompanied by the sound entered her body.

That was when the pain began. As if her body's viscera were being squeezed with an iron grip with every single heartbeat. She moaned in agony, and her head bumped into the soft earth as she fell over with her first Pokeball in hand. Slowking and her team were the same, but they held strong. Pokemon were better with pain than humans were. Hydreigon was the first one she recalled. The dragon had been about to attack Golurk out of fury for even daring to use this move when she was still in the vicinity to hear, and it was not like she'd need him any longer. Slaking, Stantler and Girafarig were no longer fighting. The psychic had recalled both itself and Stantler into their Pokeballs and Slaking was currently threatening Jupiter with a menacing look as he loomed over the Commander, who had fallen back against the ground.

They were throwing it under the bus. The bond wasn't there, it never had been in the first place. It was all so transactional.

They had around... a minute left for the end of the song. Then it would be three minutes to their deaths.

It was not just physical agony that Cecilia endured. No, the pain reached deeper, burrowing into the very core of her being. It was a soul-rending torment, an anguish so profound that it felt as though her very essence was being torn asunder, yet Champion by happenstance she might have been, she was not Willpower for nothing. As soon as Toxicroak rid herself of Delcatty with a Brick Break to the neck, Cecilia recalled her before she could even turn around. Then, Scizor when she feared he would die to Skuntank, who could barely even move any longer, and finally, Talonflame when Tangrowth's vines had all been burned and all that remained was the grass type's dark body.

Cecilia quickly spoke, ignoring the fire in her lungs. The colors from the world were fading. "Is it..."

She gagged and— the vomit surged upwards, hitting the inside of her mask with a grotesque splatter. The sound was muffled, a distressing squelch as the expelled mess smeared against the clear visor, obscuring her vision with a vile, viscous film. The smell was mute and fainted, yet it still had her nearly throw off the mask by reflex.

"Is it... ready?" she slowly spoke, clearer this time.

Slowking looked at her, his eyes wet. Affirmative.

"I'll see you later," she said.

I... I'll hold you to that.

The psychic disappeared into his Pokeball.

Yet his barrier remained. Just like they'd practiced and done against Crasher Wake.

Jupiter was also lying on the ground, paler than it...

Paler than she already was. She coughed a mouthful of blood onto the silver dirt, yet what used to be golden to Cecilia's eyes was now a monochrome gray. The light out of the Commander's eyes, as dull as it had been, was fading, as were her irises, and Slaking was nowhere to be seen. With all of her remaining strength, Cecilia pushed herself back into a sitting position and allowed Lehmhart to finish his song. If she could not die standing, then she would do so sitting.

She still heard it in her head when he was done. The spirits clawing at Slowking's barrier disappeared, and it slowly dissolved. She did not recall Lehmhart. Not just because he was immune to his music, but because she did not want to die alone.

"I can't fucking believe it," Jupiter forced out through clenched teeth. "I can't fucking— I can't— that you'd throw your own life away to get me."

Cecilia would have laughed ten minutes ago. "Well," she said. "It's not the first time I've flirted with death."

And that was not a good thing. She hugged her knees, which hurt when squeezing against her ribs, and pictured Grace despite her best efforts. I'm sorry, my love. There was no other way. Even if Jupiter hadn't blocked the way to the next layer, Cecilia wasn't sure she'd been in a state of mind sound enough to attempt to run away, but as she'd told Slowking, Jupiter would have just caught up if she rode on Hydreigon's back and Lehmhart took too long to enter his flying mode for it to work.

"I was so close," Jupiter bitterly said. "So fucking close. I had front-row seats to—"

"Aren't you going to recall your Pokemon?"

They were all too tired or broken to move, yet save for Delcatty, they were still conscious.

"No. They should have helped me convince Slaking that he should have fought for a while longer—" She gripped her uniform where her heart was and coughed up some more blood. It slid down the side of her mouth and onto the dirt. "Fuck... this is really happening, isn't it? I can't see colors... I can't smell or feel anything."

"Yes. Are you scared?"

"Scared? This is like... that one time I decided to become a criminal and I couldn't see The Holy Knight III in theaters except this time I can't even pirate it on a shitty screen. I'm having serious FOMO over here, damn it all."

Cecilia blinked, though it was more out of habit than a need to. "You're treating this like a movie," she realized.

"I wanted to see if I could make Arceus feel something. Anything." she said, each word slow and deliberate. "If he intervenes, it means that he cares. If he doesn't, well, who knows? I wanted to study it."

"You disgust me."

Jupiter closed her eyes. "I like you, though. You've got guts."

"You're not—" she bit down on her tongue to fight through whatever was ransacking her body, "—a serious person. You're just not. You're a bad caricature. Even Mars is more human than you are."

That.

That had her frown and open her suddenly bleary white eyes one last time, and yet.

And yet she stayed silent.

The remaining minute and a half was passed in silence, over the course of which, Jupiter writhed and convulsed in pain until she stopped moving entirely. Cecilia was taken by similar pain, and she could feel her heartbeat weakening with each pulse. She could see Lehmhart's finger from his disconnected arm subtly moving.

"At least..." Jupiter croaked. "There'll be no more Monday mornings."

A few seconds later, Cecilia's heart stopped beating. Her eyes closed, and she died.

Thump.

Thump. Thump.

Thump.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Heart. Its steady rhythm had slowed, but it refused to yield to death. She found herself aware of the contraction and relaxation of the heart muscle and the blood struggling to reach her extremities. The sensing of each closing and opening valve.

Lungs. Struggling to fill with air, their delicate tissues burned with the strain of each labored breath, yet as they pushed against her broken ribs, she could feel each individual sac and bronchial tube fill with oxygen, and with her exhale came their emptying of waste and carbon dioxide.

Liver. The quiet industry of cells she did not know the name of churned, though at a lethargic pace. The metabolization of nutrients, the neutralization of toxins, and the elimination of waste. Then there was the sensation of storage, as her liver dutifully hoarded essential nutrients for future use.

Nerves. The delicate branches of small tendrils transmitting signals from her brain to every corner of her body and back again. She could almost feel the synapses sparking to life, like tiny fireworks igniting within her nervous system, yet a lot of these were numb and fried.

So many more. She was aware. Aware of how fragile she truly was, yet she was barely clinging onto life and felt too weak to even get one of her Pokemon out. Lehmhart tried to crawl toward her with his two legs, but he was clumsy and slow. Slowking's barrier had worked— barely, and it looked like Lehmhart had done something to save her, too, yet she feared this would leave her...

Twisted.

There was something else.

Something she'd lost due to her death, despite only having been gone for a few moments.

She could not see it, not exactly, but she could feel its weight. The vast majority of her Shard, slowly dissolving next to where her head was lying. The chunk had slipped out of her mind while she'd been dead, and she could no longer get it back. It was leaving her grasp like sand slipping through her fingers. Had Chase been nearby, she was certain he would have been able to claim it for himself.

Was this it, then?

Shard no longer, or maybe barely qualifying as one? When she tried to draw onto the well that was the power afforded by Azelf, she found it truly vacant. It would never be replenished again.

Her face might have been caked with blood and vomit, and she might have been something barely even human any longer, but the girl laughed, because for the first time in half a year, she did not only feel like she had contained herself,

She felt free once more.