Ambyssin
Winter can't come soon enough
@git-it: Yup! It all goes back to what Necrozma said about the power of human will. Speaking of which...
Again, thanks @Namohysip for beta reading!
Then, the ground rushed up to meet Shane. A bright, luminescent glow-filled his vision. Orange steam rose up from beneath him. He tried to fire Psychic rings at the ground… only to remember Necrozma had taken Psychic from him. A few seconds later, he hit the ground. The shockwave of pain was complemented by a geyser of orange slime erupting all around him. Having grimaced from the blow, Shane was unprepared for the ooze to rain down on him. Loud splurts echoed around the room as slime pelted his fur.
"Augh! Gross! What is this stuff?!"
Espy stood up, the slime reaching up to her belly. She was completely soaked. The goo weighed her ears and tail down, making it impossible for her to do anything but keep them folded. Her face paled. "It's between locks of my fur! Oh, gods, this is even worse than the time I fell in my own puke!"
Tessa turned her disgusted expression on Espy, though it was tough to make anything out with so much orange goop on her face. "I did not need to know that," she said, trying to brush slime off her fur to no avail. "Well, at least if we are in Necrozma's stomach, then we know he has no acids to melt us with." The thought brought her little comfort as she looked at her tail and the slime trails trickling off it.
"Hey now! Don't try and jinx us with that kind of talk." Silvally couldn't even fan his head crest out and his eyes were shut tight to stop slime from gunking them up. His steel memories had turned on by sheer instinct.
Shane finally managed to get his bearings and stand up. As per usual, his disheveled mane had fallen over his face. Luckily, the slime made it sticky enough that when Shane flipped his hair back, it stuck against his neck.
"Hey! Knock it off, Shane!" Tessa growled as orange flecks pelted her hip.
"S… sorry…" Shane's tails tried to fan out in alarm, but the ooze had stuck them together. He blinked the orange out of his vision… only to wish his mane was blinding him again. "Oh… oh gods…" His legs grew weak. Before he knew it, his rear splashed down and more slime pooled up around his torso. "This… this is…"
His teammates finally stopped worrying about their appearances and took in their surroundings. There were hexagonal grates strewn across the area, making each member of Team Radiance bitter that they happened to land in the one spot inside Necrozma with nothing to pass for a proper floor. The circular room was bordered by large, chitinous, horn-like structures protruding from the edges of the orange slime pool. They resembled curved dragon fangs.
"Ugh. His insides are a mishmash of all the sci-fi movies he dragged me to," Shane whimpered, struggling to pull himself onto one of the hexagonal platforms. Tessa offered her paw in assistance, but Shane slipped right through her grip and fell back into the slime. She pulled her paw back, opting instead to look at all the large, gooey cords making up the walls and ceiling.
"What are these things?" The slime weighed Tessa's aura feelers down too much for them to move. Not that it would've helped her, since the same pins and needles sense from when her aura reading was being jammed had made an unwelcome return.
"There are bright lights flashing in them. And they all have different colors," Espy observed. She spun around, mindful of falling back into the pool like Shane had.
"Guys, um… do you hear something?" Silvally crouched low to the ground. His cheek bolts rattled in their sockets. "Because I hear moaning. A lot of moaning."
Having finally gotten to dry land, Shane tried to clear his ears out. He tensed up. His ears couldn't twitch properly, but an unsettling chill ran down his spine. "Yeah. It sounds like…" He blinked slowly. "There are thousands of voices all around us and they're all in pain!"
Espy stood at the head of the group, facing the other side of the room. She was slouched over, whimpering softly. "Guys? I think I found where all these weird tubes are leading." Espy lifted a trembling forepaw. "They're going to Necrozma's core."
Her teammates turned around. Tessa immediately wished she hadn't. "That's his core? No… it looks nothing like the big prism he took from Zero. This is some kind of… some kind of sickly cocoon! Like what Volcarona had been trapped in back in the Volcanic Wastes."
Shane stared at the large, circular cocoon. It was a membranous sack dangling from the ceiling by six large, slimy cords bristling with flashes of light and pulsating like vessels. Multicolored lights shimmered in the center of the membranous structure. But so much fluid surrounded whatever lay at the center of the cocoon that there was no way anyone on Team Radiance could tell what it actually was.
"Okay." Espy gulped. "With the way our travels have gone, I can't be the only one who thinks we have to break open this disgusting thing, right?" Her teammates shook their heads. "Yeah. Great. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Or do both."
"Go AwAY!"
The cocoon trembled and the cords feeding it swelled as if they were about to burst. "Get back, guys! I don't like the look of that!" Shane whimpered, his tails now dragging against the floor. His teammates shuffled back toward him as cracks splintered through the cocoon's membranous sac.
"Oh, gods! Look at all the eyes." Tessa cringed. Bile rose up in the back of her throat.
Espy frowned. Just like Tessa said, the cocoon was now littered with an array of different-colored eyes, all swiveling around and glancing in random directions.
"Go AwaY!"
The distorted voice made Team Radiance wince. Even though Shane was sure no attacks were used, a crushing weight pressed on his shoulders and chest. It hurt to even take a breath. "G-Guys. We… we have to…" He doubled over, wheezing loudly. Shane struggled to get a good look at his teammates, but he could see they were having problems, too. Even Silvally struggled to keep his head held up.
"I hAte You! I HAte AlL oF yOU!"
Light flickered in the cocoon's blue and red eyes. A sigil formed in front of each of them: one blue teardrop and one red flame. The sigils shakily floated toward Team Radiance. Tessa brought her paws up, charging an Aura Sphere to fire. Then, the sigils erupted in flashes of light. A burst of water headed right for Espy, while a fireball careened toward Shane.
"Watch out, Shane!" Tessa hurled the Aura Sphere above her teammate's head. It stopped the fireball, but the resulting blast blew Shane across the floor. Tessa didn't get a chance to see if he was okay, however, as flames seared her from above. Thankfully, all the slime clinging to her fur acted as a natural buffer, shielding her from what should've been a serious blow.
"BuRn! BuRN! BUrN To AsHeS!"
Tessa looked up. More red-flame runes floated toward her. This time, they burst apart before they got anyway near her. A volley of fireballs rained down on her from above. There was no way Tessa could deflect all of them. She turned to flee for the slime pool, but a bright-white flash enveloped the fireballs and snuffed them out. Shane slid in front of her, most of the slime burnt off his fur.
"You get away from her, Necrozma! I know you're the one doing all of this!" Shane growled, frost gathering in his maw.
"StOP iT! StOP! StOoOoOP!"
The cocoon shuddered. Shane's ears folded from the onslaught of voices. It was even worse than listening to Necrozma. But he had to hang tough for his teammates. "We won't stop until you're gone! You don't get to hurt anyone anymore!" He spat an Ice Beam directly into the cocoon. A huge grin spread across his face as the membrane rippled like a plate of gelatin prodded by multiple forks.
"StOP HuRTiNG Me! Go AWAy!"
Three yellow lightning runes formed around the cocoon. Silvally lunged for them, ground memories active. He dove right through the ensuing lightning strikes and tore through one of the veins supplying the cocoon with brown, mud-covered talons. Silvally hit the ground and smiled at Espy, who grinned back at him. The warm moment was ruined however, when the severed vein drenched Silvally in red slime.
"Oh… oh no." Espy ran toward him, expecting something bad to happen. Silvally stood there, blinking at her. He tilted his head. Espy came to a stop. "You're… you're not hurt, are you?"
"No. But I might want to throw up when this is all over," Silvally said, shaking out his pelt and feathers.
Espy was about to say something, when the cocoon shrieked loudly. Blebs formed all around its membrane. The pustules popped, scattering golden fluid all around the cocoon that triggered a loud wave of hissing. Espy shrank back, tail crinkling. Overhead, star shaped runes drifted haphazardly around the cocoon.
"I HAtE YoU AlL! LeAVe Me ALoNE! DiE! DiE DiE DIE!"
The sigils burst open, creating four, blood-red eyes that spun around and distorted the air in the room. Shane shot an ice shard at the nearest eye, but it was shredded to bits inside a vortex. The air around the eyes darkened. Shane was promptly lifted off his feet. "Whoa! H-H-Hey! Not good! Not good!" He looked into a pair of miniature black holes determined to suck him up. "Someone help m—"
Tessa grabbed Shane by his tails and tugged. Shane hollered, briefly worrying Tessa would yank the tails out of their joints. All the while, the black holes kept spinning. Tessa dug her free paw spike into one of the metal grates and held on for dear life. Across from her, Silvally had pinned Espy to the ground, using the added weight from his steel memories to keep her safe.
"Enough of these stupid attacks, Necrozma! We won't let you kick us around like this!" Silvally snarled. He unleashed a Flash Cannon, trying to aim the gray beam at one of the other veins. To his relief, it managed to squeeze between the black holes and sever the remaining two veins on the left side of the cocoon. More red liquid sprayed across the ground. The cocoon shrieked as the remaining cords recoiled and sent it bouncing around the room.
Shane fell to the ground with a splat when the black holes disappeared. He blinked stars out of his vision, only to get struck by a pair of glowing symbols resembling miniature clusters of Unown. Shane tumbled across the ground, groaning. He was completely unaware of the other sigils that had burst out of more boils that appeared on the cocoon.
Tessa realized Shane was in danger. She ran toward him, using one paw to fire a Psychic ring. The pink blast broke two of the sigils apart. Silvally sliced the remaining glyphs apart with black, shadowy talons. Then he turned, energy blades glowing, and unleashed a black shockwave toward the lowest of the remaining veins.
"StOp! StOP ThiS! YoU… YoU AlL hATE mE! WhY DOeS EvERYoNE HAtE Me?!"
The cocoon's membrane briefly parted. Tufts of dragon fire kept the cocoon's cord safe from Silvally's Snarl. Espy, meanwhile, had snuck around to the back of the cocoon and rifled off a Psybeam. The cocoon couldn't summon anything to block the Psybeam fast enough. It sliced through one of the veins, which rewarded Espy with a neon-green slime shower for her troubles.
"This is misery incarnate!" Espy shouted, smacking a forepaw against the ground.
"Well, on the bright side, I think the color suits you well," Silvally said, wagging his tail and trying to offer Espy a cheerful grin. Espy responded with a look so chilling Silvally's fire memories switched on inadvertently.
"GiVe UP! GiVe UP! GiVe… GIvE GiVE GiVE GIgIGiGYARggH!"
Shane choked on the ice he was gathering to strike the cocoon. He had no idea what to make of what he was seeing or hearing. When they were battling Necrozma outside, it had sounded like Nicky was fighting for control with the void, but the cocoon's cries lacked the coherence of Necrozma's earlier rants. Had their Z-Moves reduced Necrozma to some sort of primal creature that could do nothing but lash out?
The thought made him shudder, but then Shane caught sight of the rainbow glimmer in the center of the cocoon again. It reminded him of what he had seen in one of Necrozma's nightmare prisons: golden light wrapped up in chains.
"Nicky!" The shout came before Shane even weighed his options. "Nicky, I know you're in there somewhere!"
Tessa blasted a fireball away with an Aura Sphere. "Shane, what are you doing?"
"Trying to see if there's any way to get through," Shane said. "Necrozma told me something when he had me captured. He said that human spirits possess something Pokémon lack: indominable wills."
"i dOn'T cArE CARe cArE! Go AwAY! ShUT uP! ShUT Up!"
Yellow-bolt runes burst apart. Lightning streaked toward Shane and Tessa. The latter tackled the former to the ground. Electricity grazed Tessa's back. She arced her neck up and cried out in pain. "Tes—" Shane wanted to ask if she was all right, but Tessa put a paw to his muzzle.
"I'm fine," she said through gritted teeth. "Keep… keep saying… what you were saying."
"U-Um… well…" Shane squirmed out from underneath Tessa, minding her chest spike. "Human wills are strong enough that, as long you have a fraction of the spirit around, the human's personality and all their memories will stick around." He got to his feet. "That's why I remained as Shane, even after I fused with Dark Matter. And that's why Necrozma hasn't been able to get rid of Nicky."
"Be QuIET! Go AWaY! DiE! I hATE yOu! HAtE HaTE HAyAeRG— gYaAh!"
Silvally slammed into the ground, bits of the last two veins supporting the cocoon wedged between his talons. Red and blue ooze dribbled down his sides. "It's… it's done." He turned around. "Now we can… huh?"
The cocoon's membrane had fallen away, revealing Necrozma's glowing, prism-shaped core in all of its splendor. After a few seconds of floating in place, however, the core dropped to the ground and melted into a puddle. Silvally hopped back, squawking in alarm. Electricity crackled around his cheek bolts. "I'm gonna shock it!" he said. But before he got the chance to launch any Thunderbolts, a sudden gust of air knocked him back into Shane and Tessa. The trio ended up collapsed on top of one another.
"Oof! G-Get off, big guy. You're, well, big!" Shane wheezed, smacking Silvally with a forepaw.
"I know! I know! Stop smacking my rear," Silvally growled, trying to shake the stars from his vision. Shane's eyes bugged out and his face reddened.
Espy managed to stay on her feet through the blast, but found herself frozen, watching the bubbling puddle. All of the fluid coalesced into a multicolored sphere that rose into the air. Its colors swirled around at complete random. It was making Espy dizzy staring at the core, so she looked away and smacked the ground with a forepaw. "This is unbelievable! We're still not done? What's it going to take to stop this guy?"
"NoThInG CaN StOP… GiVE uP. GiVE iN. OuT. alL ArOUnD. UPsIDe… GrrArGHT!"
The core's colors formed a circular pattern with a black spot in the middle. It spun around at high speeds. Espy's paws left the ground. "Hey! Hey, stop it! Guys, help!" she shouted, flailing at the air with her legs. She couldn't spin around to face the core and attack it.
Shane looked up to see the luminescent colors of the room distorting and spinning about. His tails fanned out in alarm, however, when an invisible force yanked him off the ground, too. He slowly spun around the room, unable to see what was going on.
"Hang on, you two! It's another black hole thingy!" Silvally cried, but choked on his own attack when the core even succeeded in hoisting him into the air. All of Team Radiance cried out in a panic as the black hole dragged them closer to the core itself.
"No… no! Get away! Get away!" Espy shrieked, before slimy tendrils wrapped her forelegs up and dragged her into the core. Her teammates all dropped to the ground with heavy thuds. The colors faded away from the core's slimy surface, revealing a purple, reptilian eye. Team Radiance saw Espy inside the pupillary slit.
"Espy!" Silvally's head crest fanned out. "We have to get her out of there!" He switched his steel memories on again and charged forward, a golden wheel surrounding his torso.
"NeVER. DiE! DrOWn iN YoUR SoRRoWS!"
Espy's muffled screams sounded within the eye. Small pink energy balls surrounded the core, then shot toward the rest of Team Radiance. Silvally was too far into his attack to shift his memories. Instead, he charged through the pink blasts, wincing with every step he took. Metal coated his forelegs.
"Back me up, guys!" Silvally shouted, lunging for the core. Shane and Tessa were too preoccupied trying not to get blasted, however. Enough energy pellets struck Silvally to force him back to the ground. His cheek bolts revved up so fast they let out trails of golden sparks. His irises flashed gold. "No… let her go, you cretin!" Another golden wheel surrounded Silvally.
"yOu dOn'T DeSErvE hEr. NoNE of You dEsErvE aNYThiNG exCEpT DeAtH!"
Large balls of silver energy gathered around the core. Silvally was ready to lunge for the core again, but the energy balls turned into giant silver lasers. Yowling, Silvally dropped to his belly and rolled away from one laser, but it ricocheted off the ground, careened toward the ceiling, bounced off, and headed right for him. Silvally met it with a Flash Cannon beam.
"This is ridiculous! Stop it, Nicky! What are you hoping to accomplish by doing this?" Shane cried, one of the lasers singing his right flank. "Come on, dude. I know you have to be tired of this. Look around you. Is this really what you want for yourself? To see so many people suffering like this?"
"Espy! Espy!" Silvally lunged for the core, only for it to float just out of range. Espy screamed in pain again. The core generated a pink shockwave. Silvally switched to his dark memories and the attack phased right through him.
"Give us our friend back!" Tessa cried, leaping over the shockwave and hurling an Aura Sphere at the core. It struck home and the core recoiled with a distorted wail. Silvally saw his opening and leaped up, shadows covering his talons. He slashed the core right through its pupil. Slime covered his talons, but he managed to tear the core open and grab Espy.
"NOoOoO! StOP taKInG WhaT'S MiNE!"
Loud squelching noises echoed through the room. Frowning, Silvally had to swat Espy out of the core. She dropped to the ground and bounced to a halt next to Shane. Black, scaly plaques dotted her torso, limbs, and tail. Espy trembled. Her forehead gem flickered like a luminous orb running low on power.
"Espy? Espy! Come on… stay with me!" Shane said, pressing his forepaws against her in a desperate attempt at channeling Morning Sun. His heart sank when nothing happened.
"Out of the way, Shane! I've still got an oran berry," Tessa said. Though a layer of slime covered her satchel, she pulled out the berry. Shane didn't even want to think about how sanitary it was. The situation was too desperate.
The core responded to this development with a loud shriek. "StOP iT! STop HElPInG EaCh oTheR! I HAtE You ALl!" It drifted back from the group while its colors reappeared. A green delta symbol appeared on the side facing Team Radiance. The top of the sphere erupted and a large, slimy Rayquaza head popped out. "WhEn WiLL yoU lEArN? NoTHiNG mAtTErS ExCEpT PoWeR! The PoWEr tO DeSTrOY EVeRYtHING!"
"Shane, I need you with me," Silvally said, fairy memories bathing him om a salmon glow. Ears sticking up, Shane left Tessa to tend to Espy. The core's new head launched a volley of dragonfire at Team Radiance. Silvally dug his talons into the grated floor. Golden light flickered in his cheek bolts. "Dazzling Gleam, Shane! Use Dazzling Gleam!"
"R-Right!" Shane drew up fairy energy and released a wall of white light. To his surprise, Silvally gathered up a ball of moonlight and tossed it into the Dazzling Gleam. The explosive burst of fairy energy destroyed all the dragonfire and struck the core, blasting it into the wall. Shane turned to Silvally with wide eyes. "What are you doing? That gold glow… you're not getting overcharged again, are you? You can't do that!" He looked back at Espy, who Tessa was helping get back up. "We can't lose you again."
Silvally fixed his gold-tinged eyes on Shane. The shimmering glow faded and they returned to a plain salmon color. "I'm fine this time. I mean it. Necrozma must've left the overcharge bit in… but I'm only using it in short bursts."
Shane bit his lip. He didn't want things going like they did in the Prism Wastelands, but this was also a battle they couldn't afford to lose. "If you say so." He turned back to the core, only to gasp as, rather than dragonfire, golden Draco Meteors streamed toward them. Shane broadened his stance to absorb as many as he could, only for Silvally to buck him into the air. Silvally caught Shane on his back and charged toward the core.
"What are you doing now?"
"Necrozma's mixing types… like Dragonite did. I'm sure of it!" Silvally said, veering left to dodge Draco Meteors. He skidded across the grated floor and shot another Moonblast into the core. Though it spat up Draco Meteors to deflect some of the Moonblast, it wasn't enough to snuff out the attack. The core shrank back, its colors bouncing around its surface like a grotesque lava lamp.
"No More. NO MoRE! StOP hURtINg mE! StOP iT!"
"The only one who can stop this is you, Nicky! We're trying our hardest, but we can only keep attacking for so long," Shane said, though he honestly wasn't sure how much he bought his own words. At this point, he was speaking before thinking.
"SToP LiFE. StOP liVInG!" the core screeched. Its Rayquaza head was gone. Now, the colors formed a silhouette of a Time Gear. The core rippled, then split itself into four smaller copies. One of them shrank back, while the other three floated higher into the air and molded themselves into copies of Darkrai.
"You have nothing left to fight for. Give in. The world of darkness is finally here," the clones said in unison. They raised their arms, gathering black shadows.
"Those are Dark Voids! Scatter!" Shane hollered, sprinting away from Silvally as black blobs rained down on the group from above. He didn't even want to think about why the distortion in Necrozma's voice had toned down so much. All he cared about was making sure he didn't fall asleep. He couldn't imagine what sort of horror that would mean if he was already inside Necrozma.
"There's too many blasts. We can't navigate this," Espy said, tail curled around her waist as she sniped an incoming Dark Void with a Psybeam.
"Well, what else can we do?" Tessa said, sweeping a Flash Cannon threw multiple Dark Void blobs before her paws burned. She then rubbed them together, wincing. "Um… follow me!" Tessa threw her arms up over her head and sprinted forward, trying to use the ground as an indicator for where the blasts would strike.
"Tessa, look out!" Espy cried.
Tessa looked up and saw one of the blobs expanding to catch her. She shrieked and pointed her paws up, but all she could muster was a few blue embers. Tessa braced herself to go under when the Dark Void popped open like a balloon. Silvally landed between her and Espy. "You two okay?" he said. Before they could answer, he shot another Moonblast up at the Darkrai clones.
The clones clustered together over the lingering part of Necrozma's core. The Time Gear symbol spun around and the clones gathered Dark Pulse energy in their hands. "Not this time!" Shane snarled, fairy dust surrounding his shoulders. He launched a Dazzling Gleam burst at them, burning away the shadows and forcing the copies back together.
"Fools. All of you… fools!" the core snarled.
"Please, Nicky! Whatever you're doing… keep it up! It's working!" Shane shouted, leaping back to dodge a bunch of Air Slash blades shot out from the core.
Tessa's aura feelers twitched. "What are you talking about?"
"The distortion in the voice… it's getting lower. We're getting through to him! We need to keep up the pressure," Shane said. His voice was strained, but his teammates could tell how sincerely he believed that.
"Okay." Tessa raised her paws and charged an Aura Sphere.
"I will make you all suffer!" The core floated back to dodge Shane's Ice Beam and Tessa's Aura Sphere. It pulsated and rippled, then split itself into four copies again.
"Oh great… now what's it doing?" Espy groaned. She shot a Shadow Ball at the nearest copy, but it hovered above the blast. Espy was ready to fire another one, only for the attack to falter and her eyes to widen when a familiar, glacial-blue color washed across all the copies. A red spot appeared in the center of each of them. "No…" She shrank back. "No! No!"
Tessa looked at Espy in confusion, only for her fur to stand an end. "H… hey. Did it just get colder in here?" She threw her paws up onto her shoulders.
Espy screamed and shrank down to her belly. Silvally was by her side in an instant. "Espy? Espy! What's wrong? Tell me! Please!"
She pointed a trembling forepaw up. "B… B… B… B… Bittercolds!" Silvally looked up and gasped. Four identical Bittercold clones floated overhead. Ice swirled around their pointed, frost-covered edges.
"Feel my hopelessness and despair!"
The clones floated down so they were level with Team Radiance. Their spikes shot out in different directions. Three jabbed Shane in his hips. The icy energy that coursed through his veins made him yowl and fall on his side, twitching in pain. Tessa sucked in her gut and arched her back. Her legs trembled as she tried to hold the delicate position and avoid the frozen thorns.
Espy was still in a state of shock, however. Silvally saw the spikes coming. He shifted his fire memories on and stood over her, heating his body up like he was going to use Flame Charge but not moving. Multiple spokes jabbed him from numerous angles. Silvally hollered in pain. His cheek bolts sparked. Espy saw golden embers flitter to the ground beside her. She tried to move, but unpleasant memories of the frigid temperatures of Glacier Palace kept her rooted to the ground.
Tessa looked at her teammates' conditions, even as the icy thorns retreated into the Bittercold copies. They all floated into new positions facing Espy and Silvally. Tessa gnashed her fangs. They intended to strike while her friends were most vulnerable. Tessa couldn't possibly stop all of them. She shot a Flash Cannon beam at one of the clones, knocking it back into the wall. It dropped to the floor with a clatter, but the remaining three clones extended their spokes.
Two jabbed Tessa's thighs, knocking her to the ground. All she could do was stare at the icy spear above her head, listening to Espy and Silvally's cries of pain. They brought her right back to the Prism Wastelands… when everything was going south against Zero. She remembered the look of helplessness on Espy's face and the resignation in Silvally's eyes as he planned to use Explosion. Her heart ached… and her stomach roiled.
Despite the cold, her insides burned. She couldn't lay there and watch her friends keep getting hurt. Reasoning with Necrozma might've thrown him off, but he still refused to let up. He had to be destroyed. Tessa glanced at her looplet. She focused on the anger bubbling up inside of her. It wasn't long before a familiar surge of energy flooded her system. Tessa sucked in a breath. She had to keep control. She couldn't let the anger to consume her.
Tessa thought of Silvally's smile… of their moment on the beach when he was still Null. She thought of the time Espy confided in her. And she thought back to the heart-to-hearts with Shane in Cosmic Cavern and Circadian Coast. Tessa arched her back up… then shredded the ice spike above her with newly-formed Metal Claws.
"Leave… my friends… alone!"
Seven different-colored ripples of light raced out from Tessa's body. She shot to her feet and shot out three Aura Spheres in rapid succession, not even noticing the rainbow lines running down her arms and legs. Each one struck a Bittercold clone and knocked them back into the wall. Tessa ran for Espy and Silvally without hesitation, her bizarre Mega Evolution's rainbow-colored aura dreadlocks trailing behind her.
Silvally lay collapsed on his side. Black blood oozed onto his fur. Espy lay next to him, tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I panicked. I did this to him!" She was about to smack her head against the floor when Tessa stopped her.
"You still have any healing items?" she asked.
"Um…" Espy flipped her grimy satchel open and managed to pull out half an oran berry.
"It's good enough. It'll do." Tessa took it and smushed it against Silvally's side.
Shane, meanwhile, was caught between the Bittercold clones merging back together and the rainbow aura shimmering around Tessa. He wanted to ask if she was feeling like herself, but trusted that the fact she was tending to Espy and Silvally meant she wasn't in a complete berserker state like last time.
"See, Nicky? My friends are willing to put everything on the line to stop all of this. And… and I am, too. That's why you have to keep fighting back!" Shane said. He spat an Ice Beam at the core. It rolled out of the way, then hopped into the air. The core bounced off the ceiling and looked to crush Shane from above. Shane jumped forward and rolled to a stop, but the core kept bouncing. It was going for his teammates.
"Guys, watch out!" Shane cried. He sent another Dazzling Gleam burst forward, but there was no way it would reach the core in time. Luckily, Silvally got back to his feet and met the core with a metallic headbutt. However, Shane's relief turned to panic when he realized Silvally had knocked the core back toward him. Shane dove to his right, narrowly avoiding the core striking the wall behind where he once stood and drifting up to the ceiling.
He staggered to his feet, breathing labored. "Come on, Nicky. We're doing everything we can." Shane looked at the core. A part of him thought it was useless to keep talking. It would only make Necrozma more upset and hurt his friends. However, he wasn't sure how much the team's attacks had damaged the core.
'We can't keep this up forever. We barely have anything to heal ourselves with.' Shane shot another Ice Beam at the core. It dodged the attack easily, but was unprepared for two corkscrewing, dragon-shaped energy beams to blast it against the wall. Tessa and Silvally nodded at one another, their mouths venting blue steam.
"We've had enough of all of this!" Tessa snarled, her paw spikes morphing into Metal Claws. "You've thrown everything at us and we're not down for the count. This fight's gone on long enough. Cut it out! Give us back our friends!"
I'm trying.
Shane's ears twitched. That wasn't the guttural, distorted growl he'd heard from the core. The voice was softer, lighter. He blinked a few names, not taking notice of the core squirming and pulsating. Hadn't he heard that voice not too long ago? Shane's eyes widened.
'That's the voice that called out to me when Necrozma had control of me!'
"Please… please keep fighting!" Shane shouted, gathering fairy energy in his eyes.
The veins and cords in the room darkened. Blue energy flashed inside of them. The core rearranged itself into a clone of Zekrom, with slime dripping from its limbs and a single purple eye in the center of its face. "You are fighting a battle you cannot win. No matter how much you cling to the ideals of regaining what you've lost, the truth is that your situation is truly hopeless." Zekrom raised its gooey arms. Bright-blue electricity surrounded it.
The Bolt Strike moved so quickly that Shane had no time to react. One moment he was standing. Then, next thing he knew, he was sprawled out on his back, legs and tails twitching. Zekrom circled up toward the ceiling. Shane's eyes widened at the realization he was about to be squished, but his limbs wouldn't respond at his attempts to stand back up.
He braced himself for the worst, but instead of a horrible crushing pain there was a furious shout and the rumbles of thunder. Shane poked an eye open to find Silvally in front of him, up on his hindlegs with his ground memories active. His dusty-brown forelegs pushed back against the Bolt Strike as his cheek bolts twitched and crackled in their sockets.
"You… won't… beat us," Silvally hissed. "I won't… give up… on anyone… who needs… my help!" With a furious shout, he shoved Zekrom back. Its Bolt Strike faded in time for a Dragon Pulse and burst of fairy dust to hit it from behind. Zekrom shuddered and coalesced back into the rainbow core. The room brightened up.
Please… make it stop.
Shane's head snapped up and he looked around the room, trying to pinpoint the source of the softer voice. "Nicky? Nicky! Don't listen to all the nonsense Necrozma's spewing. We can still salvage this. Even if it takes a miracle." Shane stumbled to his feet. "This world's no stranger to miracles. Give us an opening or something!"
"Pay attention, Shane!" Tessa snapped, pointing her paws up and firing Psychic rings in tandem with Espy. Right when it looked like they'd strike the core, it split half, splattering juices across the ground. A red and blue glow took over the room as the two halves of the core expanded into clones of Latios and Latias.
"There are no miracles left. Why cling to such empty dreams? Your desperation is filling you with sadness and rage," Latias said, voice as stoic and flat as Team Radiance had ever heard.
"Hope is meaningless. It is unrequited," Latios added. The clones flew apart from one another. Silvally looked back and forth and switched to his steel memories, but then the clones flew right at him. Their slimy wings turned gray. Silvally realized his mistake too late and the clones' Steel Wings swept his legs out from under him. He crashed against the ground with a loud grunt.
"You say that you can help everyone, but that's a lie," Latias said. "Your 'help' enables people to continue their poisonous behavior. All it does is make them think that you'll be able to solve all their problems."
Latios turned its monolithic eye on Espy. "Isn't that right?"
Espy's tail shot up the moment Latios flew toward her, wings glowing. Rather than try to run, however, she faced the clone down and fired a Shadow Ball at it. It scored a direct hit right in Latios' eye, sending it crashing to the ground.
"On your right, Espy!" Silvally cried, scrambling to his feet. Espy turned to see Latias charging up a Draco Meteor. She hastily fired a second Shadow Ball. Latias choked on its attack and dropped to the ground beside its partner. Espy approached both of them, ectoplasm trailing off her forehead gem.
"Want to know what I think? You may have a point. There are people out there who will take advantage of those who try to help them," Espy said, eyes narrowing. "But that isn't a reason to turn your back on them and leave them to flounder. It means you have to work with them to find a middle ground… or get someone else to step in and provide support, instead." She looked at Silvally. "If I had understood that, maybe I would still be friends with everyone in Paradise."
White light glistened in her forehead gem. "People can change. They can fix their mistakes. But you don't want to give them a chance to do that!" She fired a point-blank Dazzling Gleam. The clones smushed back together in the spherical core. It rolled across the ground, its colors swirling around in a frenzy.
I just want it all to stop…
"We're trying, Nicky!" Shane cried. He shot an Ice Beam at the core. It bounced up out of the way, leaving Shane gnashing his teeth. Another thought struck him as he stared the core down. Nicky wasn't the only spirit supposedly trapped inside Necrozma. He looked around the room at all the alien veins flashing with bright light.
"Everyone, please listen to me! You all have to try and fight Necrozma's grip on your spirits!" Shane said. "My friends are doing their best to destroy the core, but we need your help. Necrozma thinks that teamwork and relationships are meaningless. Show him that he's wrong! Work together!"
Shane's teammates stared at him blankly, but then the entire room shook. The veins above them pulsated. Spurts of goo shot out into the room. Behind them, small plumes of slime shot up from the floor. Shane's expression brightened. "That's perfect! Keep doing that, everyone!" he said.
Make it stop. I'm so tired. I want to rest.
Incensed by the development, the core shrieked once again. It pulsated and rippled, then split apart into multiple pieces that melted into puddles. Shane spewed ice breath at the nearest puddle, but it joined up with the other puddles and expanded into a giant orange ball. The temperature in the room spiked and an orange glow overtook the walls.
"That's a Fusion Flame! Run, Shane!" Silvally cried, channeling his water memories and attempting to put the attack out with a large wave. The fireball bounced back onto the floor, rebounded into the wall, and shot toward Espy, Silvally, and Tessa. They scattered in different directions. Tessa yelped as the fireball grazed her side. She rolled to a stop, clutching her smoldering right shoulder.
The fireball burst apart to reveal a copy of Incineroar. Orange slime dribbled off its belt and its lone eye stared Tessa down. "People may change, but history is always doomed to repeat itself. Life is finite for nearly all creatures. Your sins will be repeated by the next generation. And the generation after that. And the one after that." Incineroar raised a gooey hand and conjured a fireball. "It's inevitable. Eventually, someone will take things too far. Then, everything you worked for will be erased. Legacies are worthless. Destruction is the only solution to reality's imperfections."
Incineroar spun around, shooting orange fireballs to deflect bursts of water from Silvally and twin Dazzling Gleams from Espy and Shane. He jumped into the air, formed another large fireball, and shot toward Tessa. She cupped her paws together and thrust them forward, shooting out jets of aural fire. They struck Incineroar and brought him to a stalemate.
"Tessa!" Shane cried. He spat an Ice Beam at the fireball, only to watch it evaporate.
"I'll help her out," Silvally said, a golden wheel encasing his torso.
Tessa's aura dreadlocks fanned out. The glowing lines on her body shimmered with rainbow light. All the anger Tessa was trying to keep contained was trying to burst out of her. She stared at the flickering sigil on her right paw.
"You're the one… who's taking things… too far!" Snarling, Tessa tensed her arms and legs. More aura shot out of her paws. She pushed the fireball back far enough for Silvally to lunge for it. Water encased his talons and he drove them right into the fireball. Incineroar crashed into the ground near a doubled-over Tessa. She struggled to catch her breath.
"I get that… what happened to you… is nothing short of awful. But you don't… have the right… to judge every world… by the actions… of a few people." Tessa straightened up. Aura flickered in her paws. "Lasting change is possible. People just have to work together to make it happen. And that's what we're fighting for. To give everyone a chance to change. I won't let you take that away from us!" She hurled an Aura Sphere at Incineroar. It melted down into a puddle.
Tessa's eyes widened. She backpedaled. The puddle spread out toward her. Shane caught sight of this and shouted, "Jump off the wall!" Tessa hopped back, cringing as her feet connected with an oozing, pulsating vein. Nevertheless, she kicked off the wall and shot into the air.
But that seemed to be what the core was anticipating. The puddle bubbled. Silvally saw spikes form in it, ready to impale Tessa while she couldn't dodge. Silvally hardened his body into iron and lunged into the air. He knocked Tessa aside and the spikes jabbed against his belly with a series of clangs. Silvally landed and whirled around to attack, but the core was already back in the air.
I don't want to hurt you anymore.
Shane looked around at all the brightly-flashing veins. He couldn't keep repeating the same tired lines over and over again. His stamina was running dry and he imagined his teammates were struggling, too. There had to be a way to put an end to this.
"You cannot change the world. Your gods won't allow it. There will always be people who resist change. The ones who think and care only about themselves," the core said. "They cannot be stopped. They step on everyone around them until they're in control, then suffocate those who dare to disagree with them. And after that, they stab their loyal followers in the back." The core wriggled about. Slowly, its slimy membrane parted so a lone, violet eye stared at Shane. "You can disagree all you want, but I speak only the truth."
Shane shrank back, his tails curling against his waist. "I, well…"
"Need I remind you of what you really are?" the core hissed. More of its membrane split apart, until it was a slime cage housing the violet eye in its center. Gooey spikes poked out of the cage's exterior and its colors faded to black.
Espy shrank back, eyes wide. Tessa tensed up, biting her lower lip. Silvally crouched low to the ground, a growl rumbling in the back of his throat. Shane glanced at his teammates, then stared down the Dark Matter clone. "If you're trying to break my fighting spirit or something stupid like that… then I'm here to tell you it's not working," Shane said, his brow furrowing.
"Yes, I screwed up. A lot. In two separate lifetimes, apparently. If you asked anyone with half a brain… they'd tell you I don't deserve the amount of second chances I've gotten." He spat an Ice Beam at Dark Matter, but it hovered out of the way. Its eye flashed, then shot out six glowing orbs. Shane tensed up, ready to dodge them. However, instead of flying toward him, they hovered in the air. The energy balls grew bigger, until each one released a large energy beam.
"Hit the deck!" Espy yelped, diving to her belly as a beam swept overhead. Across from her, Tessa leaped over a separate energy beam, stumbling as she landed. Silvally was too large to avoid the lasers heading toward him. He instead shot a large bolt of lightning at the lower one, creating a gap to squeeze through.
"Be silent. All of you… be silent!" Dark Matter growled. "You're so annoying! Why don't you just accept your fates and die already?"
"Because it's not up to you!" Shane said. "Look, I was one of those people who did everything I could to oppose change. But I see how wrong that is, now!" He looked at his teammates. "And it's all because of them. My friends showed me what it means to be a better person. To confide in others… and let them confide in me. I understand what it's like to help someone, now. And I want to keep helping people. Starting with you… and returning all those spirits you stole!"
It's not fair…
Dark Matter responded by shooting out more energy balls. Shane saw an energy ball heading for him and leaped away from the ensuing laser. He shot an Ice Beam at Dark Matter and it struck the center of the eye. His teammates managed to weave through other lasers. Air Slash blades hit Dark Matter from behind. An Aura Sphere and a Shadow Ball struck it from the side. Slime splattered across the ground. The eye shook inside of its gooey cage.
Why didn't you help me?
"Because I was an idiot, okay?" Shane's tails drooped. "I know… no amount of apologizing can make up for the bad things I did. Just like no amount of apologizing can make up for the fact that I'm also Dark Matter." Shane looked down. "No one can change the past. And one person alone can't change the present. But that's why you have to surround yourself with people who support you. So you can lift each other up and make a brighter future… together!"
"There will be no future. None of you deserve one!" Dark Matter snarled, hovering out of the way of multiple sets of Psychic rings. "It doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter who you surround yourself with. There is no such thing as a perfect world! Better they all be erased than one person in one world be made to suffer!"
Stop shouting… please. I'm so tired of this.
"And what do you call what you're doing? Look at all the people you've made suffer with your actions!" Shane barked. "Even if we can undo the damage… the memories won't fade away!"
"All the more reason to make everything disappear." Dark Matter shot out a bunch of bright-white orbs. Enough to form an entire wall behind it. Tessa's eyes widened. If they fired off lasers, there'd be no way to escape them all. Not without jumping right into Dark Matter.
Shane tensed up, then noticed a glimmer coming from his looplet. He knew it wouldn't do any good to stop and think about if a Z-Move was even possible inside of Necrozma, so he focused on the looplet. His breath rushed out of him when the familiar warmth of channeled Z-Power spread down his limbs.
Silvally backed away with a yelp. "Careful, Shane! We're not exactly in a wide-open space, here."
An iceberg rose out from the floor. Shane glanced at Silvally and said, "I know. But I've got to try this. One way or another… we're putting an end to all of this!"
Dark Matter fired its wall of energy beams at the same time Shane unleashed his Z-Move. The giant ice beam struck the lasers and pushed them back. It made contact with Dark Matter, blowing apart its slime-covered exterior and exposing the purple eye in the center. With blue haze still filling the room and blocking his teammates' views of the trembling core, Shane leaped toward it with a loud holler. The eye widened. Black tendrils appeared around the core and wrapped Shane up the instant he contacted the core.
Espy dispelled the lingering mist. "Hey, where'd Shane go?" she asked, looking around the room in confusion.
Silvally's beak hung open. He stared at the core. Though it lacked a face and limbs, he swore it was convulsing in midair. The various color streaks crisscrossed one another. "I… I think he's…" Silvally pointed his beak at the core.
"What?!" Tessa's eyes bulged out. "We've got to get him out of there. Everyone… together!" She gathered her paws together to charge up an Aura Sphere when the core shrieked so loud that Tessa dropped to her knees and threw her paws over her ears. "Agh! M… make it… stop!"
Silvally's eyes twitched. He squeezed them shut and staggered back, bumping into an equally-frightened Espy. "S… Silv, what's going on? The whole room is shaking and flashing like Sunset Shoals during Primarina's concert!"
"I don't know! I… I…" Silvally hissed in pain, unable to do anything to stop his sonar-like ears from getting the full force of the core's screams.
Before Espy had the chance to respond, the entire floor flashed white. She looked down, tail stiffening. "What the—"
Another white flash ensued. Next thing Espy, Silvally, and Tessa knew, they were floating in midair. "H-Hey… what's the big idea?!" Tessa tried to look at the core, but the lack of gravity made it impossible for her to turn around. "Shane? Shane, can you hear me? What are you doing in there?"
As if to answer, white energy raced up the walls in successive ripples. Bright-white glows surrounded Espy, Silvally, and Tessa. They all exchanged surprised looks for a few seconds, before they shot up toward the ceiling, leaving Necrozma's innards behind in three streaks of bright white light.
Again, thanks @Namohysip for beta reading!
XxX
Chapter 98: Soul-Melding Genesis Supernova
Bright lights and colors streamed by Shane. The cries of his teammates echoed all around him, but he was falling too fast to say anything… or even see them. For a moment, he wondered if he was trapped inside another one of Necrozma's nightmare prisons.
Then, the ground rushed up to meet Shane. A bright, luminescent glow-filled his vision. Orange steam rose up from beneath him. He tried to fire Psychic rings at the ground… only to remember Necrozma had taken Psychic from him. A few seconds later, he hit the ground. The shockwave of pain was complemented by a geyser of orange slime erupting all around him. Having grimaced from the blow, Shane was unprepared for the ooze to rain down on him. Loud splurts echoed around the room as slime pelted his fur.
"Augh! Gross! What is this stuff?!"
Espy stood up, the slime reaching up to her belly. She was completely soaked. The goo weighed her ears and tail down, making it impossible for her to do anything but keep them folded. Her face paled. "It's between locks of my fur! Oh, gods, this is even worse than the time I fell in my own puke!"
Tessa turned her disgusted expression on Espy, though it was tough to make anything out with so much orange goop on her face. "I did not need to know that," she said, trying to brush slime off her fur to no avail. "Well, at least if we are in Necrozma's stomach, then we know he has no acids to melt us with." The thought brought her little comfort as she looked at her tail and the slime trails trickling off it.
"Hey now! Don't try and jinx us with that kind of talk." Silvally couldn't even fan his head crest out and his eyes were shut tight to stop slime from gunking them up. His steel memories had turned on by sheer instinct.
Shane finally managed to get his bearings and stand up. As per usual, his disheveled mane had fallen over his face. Luckily, the slime made it sticky enough that when Shane flipped his hair back, it stuck against his neck.
"Hey! Knock it off, Shane!" Tessa growled as orange flecks pelted her hip.
"S… sorry…" Shane's tails tried to fan out in alarm, but the ooze had stuck them together. He blinked the orange out of his vision… only to wish his mane was blinding him again. "Oh… oh gods…" His legs grew weak. Before he knew it, his rear splashed down and more slime pooled up around his torso. "This… this is…"
His teammates finally stopped worrying about their appearances and took in their surroundings. There were hexagonal grates strewn across the area, making each member of Team Radiance bitter that they happened to land in the one spot inside Necrozma with nothing to pass for a proper floor. The circular room was bordered by large, chitinous, horn-like structures protruding from the edges of the orange slime pool. They resembled curved dragon fangs.
"Ugh. His insides are a mishmash of all the sci-fi movies he dragged me to," Shane whimpered, struggling to pull himself onto one of the hexagonal platforms. Tessa offered her paw in assistance, but Shane slipped right through her grip and fell back into the slime. She pulled her paw back, opting instead to look at all the large, gooey cords making up the walls and ceiling.
"What are these things?" The slime weighed Tessa's aura feelers down too much for them to move. Not that it would've helped her, since the same pins and needles sense from when her aura reading was being jammed had made an unwelcome return.
"There are bright lights flashing in them. And they all have different colors," Espy observed. She spun around, mindful of falling back into the pool like Shane had.
"Guys, um… do you hear something?" Silvally crouched low to the ground. His cheek bolts rattled in their sockets. "Because I hear moaning. A lot of moaning."
Having finally gotten to dry land, Shane tried to clear his ears out. He tensed up. His ears couldn't twitch properly, but an unsettling chill ran down his spine. "Yeah. It sounds like…" He blinked slowly. "There are thousands of voices all around us and they're all in pain!"
Espy stood at the head of the group, facing the other side of the room. She was slouched over, whimpering softly. "Guys? I think I found where all these weird tubes are leading." Espy lifted a trembling forepaw. "They're going to Necrozma's core."
Her teammates turned around. Tessa immediately wished she hadn't. "That's his core? No… it looks nothing like the big prism he took from Zero. This is some kind of… some kind of sickly cocoon! Like what Volcarona had been trapped in back in the Volcanic Wastes."
Shane stared at the large, circular cocoon. It was a membranous sack dangling from the ceiling by six large, slimy cords bristling with flashes of light and pulsating like vessels. Multicolored lights shimmered in the center of the membranous structure. But so much fluid surrounded whatever lay at the center of the cocoon that there was no way anyone on Team Radiance could tell what it actually was.
"Okay." Espy gulped. "With the way our travels have gone, I can't be the only one who thinks we have to break open this disgusting thing, right?" Her teammates shook their heads. "Yeah. Great. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Or do both."
"Go AwAY!"
The cocoon trembled and the cords feeding it swelled as if they were about to burst. "Get back, guys! I don't like the look of that!" Shane whimpered, his tails now dragging against the floor. His teammates shuffled back toward him as cracks splintered through the cocoon's membranous sac.
"Oh, gods! Look at all the eyes." Tessa cringed. Bile rose up in the back of her throat.
Espy frowned. Just like Tessa said, the cocoon was now littered with an array of different-colored eyes, all swiveling around and glancing in random directions.
"Go AwaY!"
The distorted voice made Team Radiance wince. Even though Shane was sure no attacks were used, a crushing weight pressed on his shoulders and chest. It hurt to even take a breath. "G-Guys. We… we have to…" He doubled over, wheezing loudly. Shane struggled to get a good look at his teammates, but he could see they were having problems, too. Even Silvally struggled to keep his head held up.
"I hAte You! I HAte AlL oF yOU!"
Light flickered in the cocoon's blue and red eyes. A sigil formed in front of each of them: one blue teardrop and one red flame. The sigils shakily floated toward Team Radiance. Tessa brought her paws up, charging an Aura Sphere to fire. Then, the sigils erupted in flashes of light. A burst of water headed right for Espy, while a fireball careened toward Shane.
"Watch out, Shane!" Tessa hurled the Aura Sphere above her teammate's head. It stopped the fireball, but the resulting blast blew Shane across the floor. Tessa didn't get a chance to see if he was okay, however, as flames seared her from above. Thankfully, all the slime clinging to her fur acted as a natural buffer, shielding her from what should've been a serious blow.
"BuRn! BuRN! BUrN To AsHeS!"
Tessa looked up. More red-flame runes floated toward her. This time, they burst apart before they got anyway near her. A volley of fireballs rained down on her from above. There was no way Tessa could deflect all of them. She turned to flee for the slime pool, but a bright-white flash enveloped the fireballs and snuffed them out. Shane slid in front of her, most of the slime burnt off his fur.
"You get away from her, Necrozma! I know you're the one doing all of this!" Shane growled, frost gathering in his maw.
"StOP iT! StOP! StOoOoOP!"
The cocoon shuddered. Shane's ears folded from the onslaught of voices. It was even worse than listening to Necrozma. But he had to hang tough for his teammates. "We won't stop until you're gone! You don't get to hurt anyone anymore!" He spat an Ice Beam directly into the cocoon. A huge grin spread across his face as the membrane rippled like a plate of gelatin prodded by multiple forks.
"StOP HuRTiNG Me! Go AWAy!"
Three yellow lightning runes formed around the cocoon. Silvally lunged for them, ground memories active. He dove right through the ensuing lightning strikes and tore through one of the veins supplying the cocoon with brown, mud-covered talons. Silvally hit the ground and smiled at Espy, who grinned back at him. The warm moment was ruined however, when the severed vein drenched Silvally in red slime.
"Oh… oh no." Espy ran toward him, expecting something bad to happen. Silvally stood there, blinking at her. He tilted his head. Espy came to a stop. "You're… you're not hurt, are you?"
"No. But I might want to throw up when this is all over," Silvally said, shaking out his pelt and feathers.
Espy was about to say something, when the cocoon shrieked loudly. Blebs formed all around its membrane. The pustules popped, scattering golden fluid all around the cocoon that triggered a loud wave of hissing. Espy shrank back, tail crinkling. Overhead, star shaped runes drifted haphazardly around the cocoon.
"I HAtE YoU AlL! LeAVe Me ALoNE! DiE! DiE DiE DIE!"
The sigils burst open, creating four, blood-red eyes that spun around and distorted the air in the room. Shane shot an ice shard at the nearest eye, but it was shredded to bits inside a vortex. The air around the eyes darkened. Shane was promptly lifted off his feet. "Whoa! H-H-Hey! Not good! Not good!" He looked into a pair of miniature black holes determined to suck him up. "Someone help m—"
Tessa grabbed Shane by his tails and tugged. Shane hollered, briefly worrying Tessa would yank the tails out of their joints. All the while, the black holes kept spinning. Tessa dug her free paw spike into one of the metal grates and held on for dear life. Across from her, Silvally had pinned Espy to the ground, using the added weight from his steel memories to keep her safe.
"Enough of these stupid attacks, Necrozma! We won't let you kick us around like this!" Silvally snarled. He unleashed a Flash Cannon, trying to aim the gray beam at one of the other veins. To his relief, it managed to squeeze between the black holes and sever the remaining two veins on the left side of the cocoon. More red liquid sprayed across the ground. The cocoon shrieked as the remaining cords recoiled and sent it bouncing around the room.
Shane fell to the ground with a splat when the black holes disappeared. He blinked stars out of his vision, only to get struck by a pair of glowing symbols resembling miniature clusters of Unown. Shane tumbled across the ground, groaning. He was completely unaware of the other sigils that had burst out of more boils that appeared on the cocoon.
Tessa realized Shane was in danger. She ran toward him, using one paw to fire a Psychic ring. The pink blast broke two of the sigils apart. Silvally sliced the remaining glyphs apart with black, shadowy talons. Then he turned, energy blades glowing, and unleashed a black shockwave toward the lowest of the remaining veins.
"StOp! StOP ThiS! YoU… YoU AlL hATE mE! WhY DOeS EvERYoNE HAtE Me?!"
The cocoon's membrane briefly parted. Tufts of dragon fire kept the cocoon's cord safe from Silvally's Snarl. Espy, meanwhile, had snuck around to the back of the cocoon and rifled off a Psybeam. The cocoon couldn't summon anything to block the Psybeam fast enough. It sliced through one of the veins, which rewarded Espy with a neon-green slime shower for her troubles.
"This is misery incarnate!" Espy shouted, smacking a forepaw against the ground.
"Well, on the bright side, I think the color suits you well," Silvally said, wagging his tail and trying to offer Espy a cheerful grin. Espy responded with a look so chilling Silvally's fire memories switched on inadvertently.
"GiVe UP! GiVe UP! GiVe… GIvE GiVE GiVE GIgIGiGYARggH!"
Shane choked on the ice he was gathering to strike the cocoon. He had no idea what to make of what he was seeing or hearing. When they were battling Necrozma outside, it had sounded like Nicky was fighting for control with the void, but the cocoon's cries lacked the coherence of Necrozma's earlier rants. Had their Z-Moves reduced Necrozma to some sort of primal creature that could do nothing but lash out?
The thought made him shudder, but then Shane caught sight of the rainbow glimmer in the center of the cocoon again. It reminded him of what he had seen in one of Necrozma's nightmare prisons: golden light wrapped up in chains.
"Nicky!" The shout came before Shane even weighed his options. "Nicky, I know you're in there somewhere!"
Tessa blasted a fireball away with an Aura Sphere. "Shane, what are you doing?"
"Trying to see if there's any way to get through," Shane said. "Necrozma told me something when he had me captured. He said that human spirits possess something Pokémon lack: indominable wills."
"i dOn'T cArE CARe cArE! Go AwAY! ShUT uP! ShUT Up!"
Yellow-bolt runes burst apart. Lightning streaked toward Shane and Tessa. The latter tackled the former to the ground. Electricity grazed Tessa's back. She arced her neck up and cried out in pain. "Tes—" Shane wanted to ask if she was all right, but Tessa put a paw to his muzzle.
"I'm fine," she said through gritted teeth. "Keep… keep saying… what you were saying."
"U-Um… well…" Shane squirmed out from underneath Tessa, minding her chest spike. "Human wills are strong enough that, as long you have a fraction of the spirit around, the human's personality and all their memories will stick around." He got to his feet. "That's why I remained as Shane, even after I fused with Dark Matter. And that's why Necrozma hasn't been able to get rid of Nicky."
"Be QuIET! Go AWaY! DiE! I hATE yOu! HAtE HaTE HAyAeRG— gYaAh!"
Silvally slammed into the ground, bits of the last two veins supporting the cocoon wedged between his talons. Red and blue ooze dribbled down his sides. "It's… it's done." He turned around. "Now we can… huh?"
The cocoon's membrane had fallen away, revealing Necrozma's glowing, prism-shaped core in all of its splendor. After a few seconds of floating in place, however, the core dropped to the ground and melted into a puddle. Silvally hopped back, squawking in alarm. Electricity crackled around his cheek bolts. "I'm gonna shock it!" he said. But before he got the chance to launch any Thunderbolts, a sudden gust of air knocked him back into Shane and Tessa. The trio ended up collapsed on top of one another.
"Oof! G-Get off, big guy. You're, well, big!" Shane wheezed, smacking Silvally with a forepaw.
"I know! I know! Stop smacking my rear," Silvally growled, trying to shake the stars from his vision. Shane's eyes bugged out and his face reddened.
Espy managed to stay on her feet through the blast, but found herself frozen, watching the bubbling puddle. All of the fluid coalesced into a multicolored sphere that rose into the air. Its colors swirled around at complete random. It was making Espy dizzy staring at the core, so she looked away and smacked the ground with a forepaw. "This is unbelievable! We're still not done? What's it going to take to stop this guy?"
"NoThInG CaN StOP… GiVE uP. GiVE iN. OuT. alL ArOUnD. UPsIDe… GrrArGHT!"
The core's colors formed a circular pattern with a black spot in the middle. It spun around at high speeds. Espy's paws left the ground. "Hey! Hey, stop it! Guys, help!" she shouted, flailing at the air with her legs. She couldn't spin around to face the core and attack it.
Shane looked up to see the luminescent colors of the room distorting and spinning about. His tails fanned out in alarm, however, when an invisible force yanked him off the ground, too. He slowly spun around the room, unable to see what was going on.
"Hang on, you two! It's another black hole thingy!" Silvally cried, but choked on his own attack when the core even succeeded in hoisting him into the air. All of Team Radiance cried out in a panic as the black hole dragged them closer to the core itself.
"No… no! Get away! Get away!" Espy shrieked, before slimy tendrils wrapped her forelegs up and dragged her into the core. Her teammates all dropped to the ground with heavy thuds. The colors faded away from the core's slimy surface, revealing a purple, reptilian eye. Team Radiance saw Espy inside the pupillary slit.
"Espy!" Silvally's head crest fanned out. "We have to get her out of there!" He switched his steel memories on again and charged forward, a golden wheel surrounding his torso.
"NeVER. DiE! DrOWn iN YoUR SoRRoWS!"
Espy's muffled screams sounded within the eye. Small pink energy balls surrounded the core, then shot toward the rest of Team Radiance. Silvally was too far into his attack to shift his memories. Instead, he charged through the pink blasts, wincing with every step he took. Metal coated his forelegs.
"Back me up, guys!" Silvally shouted, lunging for the core. Shane and Tessa were too preoccupied trying not to get blasted, however. Enough energy pellets struck Silvally to force him back to the ground. His cheek bolts revved up so fast they let out trails of golden sparks. His irises flashed gold. "No… let her go, you cretin!" Another golden wheel surrounded Silvally.
"yOu dOn'T DeSErvE hEr. NoNE of You dEsErvE aNYThiNG exCEpT DeAtH!"
Large balls of silver energy gathered around the core. Silvally was ready to lunge for the core again, but the energy balls turned into giant silver lasers. Yowling, Silvally dropped to his belly and rolled away from one laser, but it ricocheted off the ground, careened toward the ceiling, bounced off, and headed right for him. Silvally met it with a Flash Cannon beam.
"This is ridiculous! Stop it, Nicky! What are you hoping to accomplish by doing this?" Shane cried, one of the lasers singing his right flank. "Come on, dude. I know you have to be tired of this. Look around you. Is this really what you want for yourself? To see so many people suffering like this?"
"Espy! Espy!" Silvally lunged for the core, only for it to float just out of range. Espy screamed in pain again. The core generated a pink shockwave. Silvally switched to his dark memories and the attack phased right through him.
"Give us our friend back!" Tessa cried, leaping over the shockwave and hurling an Aura Sphere at the core. It struck home and the core recoiled with a distorted wail. Silvally saw his opening and leaped up, shadows covering his talons. He slashed the core right through its pupil. Slime covered his talons, but he managed to tear the core open and grab Espy.
"NOoOoO! StOP taKInG WhaT'S MiNE!"
Loud squelching noises echoed through the room. Frowning, Silvally had to swat Espy out of the core. She dropped to the ground and bounced to a halt next to Shane. Black, scaly plaques dotted her torso, limbs, and tail. Espy trembled. Her forehead gem flickered like a luminous orb running low on power.
"Espy? Espy! Come on… stay with me!" Shane said, pressing his forepaws against her in a desperate attempt at channeling Morning Sun. His heart sank when nothing happened.
"Out of the way, Shane! I've still got an oran berry," Tessa said. Though a layer of slime covered her satchel, she pulled out the berry. Shane didn't even want to think about how sanitary it was. The situation was too desperate.
The core responded to this development with a loud shriek. "StOP iT! STop HElPInG EaCh oTheR! I HAtE You ALl!" It drifted back from the group while its colors reappeared. A green delta symbol appeared on the side facing Team Radiance. The top of the sphere erupted and a large, slimy Rayquaza head popped out. "WhEn WiLL yoU lEArN? NoTHiNG mAtTErS ExCEpT PoWeR! The PoWEr tO DeSTrOY EVeRYtHING!"
"Shane, I need you with me," Silvally said, fairy memories bathing him om a salmon glow. Ears sticking up, Shane left Tessa to tend to Espy. The core's new head launched a volley of dragonfire at Team Radiance. Silvally dug his talons into the grated floor. Golden light flickered in his cheek bolts. "Dazzling Gleam, Shane! Use Dazzling Gleam!"
"R-Right!" Shane drew up fairy energy and released a wall of white light. To his surprise, Silvally gathered up a ball of moonlight and tossed it into the Dazzling Gleam. The explosive burst of fairy energy destroyed all the dragonfire and struck the core, blasting it into the wall. Shane turned to Silvally with wide eyes. "What are you doing? That gold glow… you're not getting overcharged again, are you? You can't do that!" He looked back at Espy, who Tessa was helping get back up. "We can't lose you again."
Silvally fixed his gold-tinged eyes on Shane. The shimmering glow faded and they returned to a plain salmon color. "I'm fine this time. I mean it. Necrozma must've left the overcharge bit in… but I'm only using it in short bursts."
Shane bit his lip. He didn't want things going like they did in the Prism Wastelands, but this was also a battle they couldn't afford to lose. "If you say so." He turned back to the core, only to gasp as, rather than dragonfire, golden Draco Meteors streamed toward them. Shane broadened his stance to absorb as many as he could, only for Silvally to buck him into the air. Silvally caught Shane on his back and charged toward the core.
"What are you doing now?"
"Necrozma's mixing types… like Dragonite did. I'm sure of it!" Silvally said, veering left to dodge Draco Meteors. He skidded across the grated floor and shot another Moonblast into the core. Though it spat up Draco Meteors to deflect some of the Moonblast, it wasn't enough to snuff out the attack. The core shrank back, its colors bouncing around its surface like a grotesque lava lamp.
"No More. NO MoRE! StOP hURtINg mE! StOP iT!"
"The only one who can stop this is you, Nicky! We're trying our hardest, but we can only keep attacking for so long," Shane said, though he honestly wasn't sure how much he bought his own words. At this point, he was speaking before thinking.
"SToP LiFE. StOP liVInG!" the core screeched. Its Rayquaza head was gone. Now, the colors formed a silhouette of a Time Gear. The core rippled, then split itself into four smaller copies. One of them shrank back, while the other three floated higher into the air and molded themselves into copies of Darkrai.
"You have nothing left to fight for. Give in. The world of darkness is finally here," the clones said in unison. They raised their arms, gathering black shadows.
"Those are Dark Voids! Scatter!" Shane hollered, sprinting away from Silvally as black blobs rained down on the group from above. He didn't even want to think about why the distortion in Necrozma's voice had toned down so much. All he cared about was making sure he didn't fall asleep. He couldn't imagine what sort of horror that would mean if he was already inside Necrozma.
"There's too many blasts. We can't navigate this," Espy said, tail curled around her waist as she sniped an incoming Dark Void with a Psybeam.
"Well, what else can we do?" Tessa said, sweeping a Flash Cannon threw multiple Dark Void blobs before her paws burned. She then rubbed them together, wincing. "Um… follow me!" Tessa threw her arms up over her head and sprinted forward, trying to use the ground as an indicator for where the blasts would strike.
"Tessa, look out!" Espy cried.
Tessa looked up and saw one of the blobs expanding to catch her. She shrieked and pointed her paws up, but all she could muster was a few blue embers. Tessa braced herself to go under when the Dark Void popped open like a balloon. Silvally landed between her and Espy. "You two okay?" he said. Before they could answer, he shot another Moonblast up at the Darkrai clones.
The clones clustered together over the lingering part of Necrozma's core. The Time Gear symbol spun around and the clones gathered Dark Pulse energy in their hands. "Not this time!" Shane snarled, fairy dust surrounding his shoulders. He launched a Dazzling Gleam burst at them, burning away the shadows and forcing the copies back together.
"Fools. All of you… fools!" the core snarled.
"Please, Nicky! Whatever you're doing… keep it up! It's working!" Shane shouted, leaping back to dodge a bunch of Air Slash blades shot out from the core.
Tessa's aura feelers twitched. "What are you talking about?"
"The distortion in the voice… it's getting lower. We're getting through to him! We need to keep up the pressure," Shane said. His voice was strained, but his teammates could tell how sincerely he believed that.
"Okay." Tessa raised her paws and charged an Aura Sphere.
"I will make you all suffer!" The core floated back to dodge Shane's Ice Beam and Tessa's Aura Sphere. It pulsated and rippled, then split itself into four copies again.
"Oh great… now what's it doing?" Espy groaned. She shot a Shadow Ball at the nearest copy, but it hovered above the blast. Espy was ready to fire another one, only for the attack to falter and her eyes to widen when a familiar, glacial-blue color washed across all the copies. A red spot appeared in the center of each of them. "No…" She shrank back. "No! No!"
Tessa looked at Espy in confusion, only for her fur to stand an end. "H… hey. Did it just get colder in here?" She threw her paws up onto her shoulders.
Espy screamed and shrank down to her belly. Silvally was by her side in an instant. "Espy? Espy! What's wrong? Tell me! Please!"
She pointed a trembling forepaw up. "B… B… B… B… Bittercolds!" Silvally looked up and gasped. Four identical Bittercold clones floated overhead. Ice swirled around their pointed, frost-covered edges.
"Feel my hopelessness and despair!"
The clones floated down so they were level with Team Radiance. Their spikes shot out in different directions. Three jabbed Shane in his hips. The icy energy that coursed through his veins made him yowl and fall on his side, twitching in pain. Tessa sucked in her gut and arched her back. Her legs trembled as she tried to hold the delicate position and avoid the frozen thorns.
Espy was still in a state of shock, however. Silvally saw the spikes coming. He shifted his fire memories on and stood over her, heating his body up like he was going to use Flame Charge but not moving. Multiple spokes jabbed him from numerous angles. Silvally hollered in pain. His cheek bolts sparked. Espy saw golden embers flitter to the ground beside her. She tried to move, but unpleasant memories of the frigid temperatures of Glacier Palace kept her rooted to the ground.
Tessa looked at her teammates' conditions, even as the icy thorns retreated into the Bittercold copies. They all floated into new positions facing Espy and Silvally. Tessa gnashed her fangs. They intended to strike while her friends were most vulnerable. Tessa couldn't possibly stop all of them. She shot a Flash Cannon beam at one of the clones, knocking it back into the wall. It dropped to the floor with a clatter, but the remaining three clones extended their spokes.
Two jabbed Tessa's thighs, knocking her to the ground. All she could do was stare at the icy spear above her head, listening to Espy and Silvally's cries of pain. They brought her right back to the Prism Wastelands… when everything was going south against Zero. She remembered the look of helplessness on Espy's face and the resignation in Silvally's eyes as he planned to use Explosion. Her heart ached… and her stomach roiled.
Despite the cold, her insides burned. She couldn't lay there and watch her friends keep getting hurt. Reasoning with Necrozma might've thrown him off, but he still refused to let up. He had to be destroyed. Tessa glanced at her looplet. She focused on the anger bubbling up inside of her. It wasn't long before a familiar surge of energy flooded her system. Tessa sucked in a breath. She had to keep control. She couldn't let the anger to consume her.
Tessa thought of Silvally's smile… of their moment on the beach when he was still Null. She thought of the time Espy confided in her. And she thought back to the heart-to-hearts with Shane in Cosmic Cavern and Circadian Coast. Tessa arched her back up… then shredded the ice spike above her with newly-formed Metal Claws.
"Leave… my friends… alone!"
Seven different-colored ripples of light raced out from Tessa's body. She shot to her feet and shot out three Aura Spheres in rapid succession, not even noticing the rainbow lines running down her arms and legs. Each one struck a Bittercold clone and knocked them back into the wall. Tessa ran for Espy and Silvally without hesitation, her bizarre Mega Evolution's rainbow-colored aura dreadlocks trailing behind her.
Silvally lay collapsed on his side. Black blood oozed onto his fur. Espy lay next to him, tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I panicked. I did this to him!" She was about to smack her head against the floor when Tessa stopped her.
"You still have any healing items?" she asked.
"Um…" Espy flipped her grimy satchel open and managed to pull out half an oran berry.
"It's good enough. It'll do." Tessa took it and smushed it against Silvally's side.
Shane, meanwhile, was caught between the Bittercold clones merging back together and the rainbow aura shimmering around Tessa. He wanted to ask if she was feeling like herself, but trusted that the fact she was tending to Espy and Silvally meant she wasn't in a complete berserker state like last time.
"See, Nicky? My friends are willing to put everything on the line to stop all of this. And… and I am, too. That's why you have to keep fighting back!" Shane said. He spat an Ice Beam at the core. It rolled out of the way, then hopped into the air. The core bounced off the ceiling and looked to crush Shane from above. Shane jumped forward and rolled to a stop, but the core kept bouncing. It was going for his teammates.
"Guys, watch out!" Shane cried. He sent another Dazzling Gleam burst forward, but there was no way it would reach the core in time. Luckily, Silvally got back to his feet and met the core with a metallic headbutt. However, Shane's relief turned to panic when he realized Silvally had knocked the core back toward him. Shane dove to his right, narrowly avoiding the core striking the wall behind where he once stood and drifting up to the ceiling.
He staggered to his feet, breathing labored. "Come on, Nicky. We're doing everything we can." Shane looked at the core. A part of him thought it was useless to keep talking. It would only make Necrozma more upset and hurt his friends. However, he wasn't sure how much the team's attacks had damaged the core.
'We can't keep this up forever. We barely have anything to heal ourselves with.' Shane shot another Ice Beam at the core. It dodged the attack easily, but was unprepared for two corkscrewing, dragon-shaped energy beams to blast it against the wall. Tessa and Silvally nodded at one another, their mouths venting blue steam.
"We've had enough of all of this!" Tessa snarled, her paw spikes morphing into Metal Claws. "You've thrown everything at us and we're not down for the count. This fight's gone on long enough. Cut it out! Give us back our friends!"
I'm trying.
Shane's ears twitched. That wasn't the guttural, distorted growl he'd heard from the core. The voice was softer, lighter. He blinked a few names, not taking notice of the core squirming and pulsating. Hadn't he heard that voice not too long ago? Shane's eyes widened.
'That's the voice that called out to me when Necrozma had control of me!'
"Please… please keep fighting!" Shane shouted, gathering fairy energy in his eyes.
The veins and cords in the room darkened. Blue energy flashed inside of them. The core rearranged itself into a clone of Zekrom, with slime dripping from its limbs and a single purple eye in the center of its face. "You are fighting a battle you cannot win. No matter how much you cling to the ideals of regaining what you've lost, the truth is that your situation is truly hopeless." Zekrom raised its gooey arms. Bright-blue electricity surrounded it.
The Bolt Strike moved so quickly that Shane had no time to react. One moment he was standing. Then, next thing he knew, he was sprawled out on his back, legs and tails twitching. Zekrom circled up toward the ceiling. Shane's eyes widened at the realization he was about to be squished, but his limbs wouldn't respond at his attempts to stand back up.
He braced himself for the worst, but instead of a horrible crushing pain there was a furious shout and the rumbles of thunder. Shane poked an eye open to find Silvally in front of him, up on his hindlegs with his ground memories active. His dusty-brown forelegs pushed back against the Bolt Strike as his cheek bolts twitched and crackled in their sockets.
"You… won't… beat us," Silvally hissed. "I won't… give up… on anyone… who needs… my help!" With a furious shout, he shoved Zekrom back. Its Bolt Strike faded in time for a Dragon Pulse and burst of fairy dust to hit it from behind. Zekrom shuddered and coalesced back into the rainbow core. The room brightened up.
Please… make it stop.
Shane's head snapped up and he looked around the room, trying to pinpoint the source of the softer voice. "Nicky? Nicky! Don't listen to all the nonsense Necrozma's spewing. We can still salvage this. Even if it takes a miracle." Shane stumbled to his feet. "This world's no stranger to miracles. Give us an opening or something!"
"Pay attention, Shane!" Tessa snapped, pointing her paws up and firing Psychic rings in tandem with Espy. Right when it looked like they'd strike the core, it split half, splattering juices across the ground. A red and blue glow took over the room as the two halves of the core expanded into clones of Latios and Latias.
"There are no miracles left. Why cling to such empty dreams? Your desperation is filling you with sadness and rage," Latias said, voice as stoic and flat as Team Radiance had ever heard.
"Hope is meaningless. It is unrequited," Latios added. The clones flew apart from one another. Silvally looked back and forth and switched to his steel memories, but then the clones flew right at him. Their slimy wings turned gray. Silvally realized his mistake too late and the clones' Steel Wings swept his legs out from under him. He crashed against the ground with a loud grunt.
"You say that you can help everyone, but that's a lie," Latias said. "Your 'help' enables people to continue their poisonous behavior. All it does is make them think that you'll be able to solve all their problems."
Latios turned its monolithic eye on Espy. "Isn't that right?"
Espy's tail shot up the moment Latios flew toward her, wings glowing. Rather than try to run, however, she faced the clone down and fired a Shadow Ball at it. It scored a direct hit right in Latios' eye, sending it crashing to the ground.
"On your right, Espy!" Silvally cried, scrambling to his feet. Espy turned to see Latias charging up a Draco Meteor. She hastily fired a second Shadow Ball. Latias choked on its attack and dropped to the ground beside its partner. Espy approached both of them, ectoplasm trailing off her forehead gem.
"Want to know what I think? You may have a point. There are people out there who will take advantage of those who try to help them," Espy said, eyes narrowing. "But that isn't a reason to turn your back on them and leave them to flounder. It means you have to work with them to find a middle ground… or get someone else to step in and provide support, instead." She looked at Silvally. "If I had understood that, maybe I would still be friends with everyone in Paradise."
White light glistened in her forehead gem. "People can change. They can fix their mistakes. But you don't want to give them a chance to do that!" She fired a point-blank Dazzling Gleam. The clones smushed back together in the spherical core. It rolled across the ground, its colors swirling around in a frenzy.
I just want it all to stop…
"We're trying, Nicky!" Shane cried. He shot an Ice Beam at the core. It bounced up out of the way, leaving Shane gnashing his teeth. Another thought struck him as he stared the core down. Nicky wasn't the only spirit supposedly trapped inside Necrozma. He looked around the room at all the alien veins flashing with bright light.
"Everyone, please listen to me! You all have to try and fight Necrozma's grip on your spirits!" Shane said. "My friends are doing their best to destroy the core, but we need your help. Necrozma thinks that teamwork and relationships are meaningless. Show him that he's wrong! Work together!"
Shane's teammates stared at him blankly, but then the entire room shook. The veins above them pulsated. Spurts of goo shot out into the room. Behind them, small plumes of slime shot up from the floor. Shane's expression brightened. "That's perfect! Keep doing that, everyone!" he said.
Make it stop. I'm so tired. I want to rest.
Incensed by the development, the core shrieked once again. It pulsated and rippled, then split apart into multiple pieces that melted into puddles. Shane spewed ice breath at the nearest puddle, but it joined up with the other puddles and expanded into a giant orange ball. The temperature in the room spiked and an orange glow overtook the walls.
"That's a Fusion Flame! Run, Shane!" Silvally cried, channeling his water memories and attempting to put the attack out with a large wave. The fireball bounced back onto the floor, rebounded into the wall, and shot toward Espy, Silvally, and Tessa. They scattered in different directions. Tessa yelped as the fireball grazed her side. She rolled to a stop, clutching her smoldering right shoulder.
The fireball burst apart to reveal a copy of Incineroar. Orange slime dribbled off its belt and its lone eye stared Tessa down. "People may change, but history is always doomed to repeat itself. Life is finite for nearly all creatures. Your sins will be repeated by the next generation. And the generation after that. And the one after that." Incineroar raised a gooey hand and conjured a fireball. "It's inevitable. Eventually, someone will take things too far. Then, everything you worked for will be erased. Legacies are worthless. Destruction is the only solution to reality's imperfections."
Incineroar spun around, shooting orange fireballs to deflect bursts of water from Silvally and twin Dazzling Gleams from Espy and Shane. He jumped into the air, formed another large fireball, and shot toward Tessa. She cupped her paws together and thrust them forward, shooting out jets of aural fire. They struck Incineroar and brought him to a stalemate.
"Tessa!" Shane cried. He spat an Ice Beam at the fireball, only to watch it evaporate.
"I'll help her out," Silvally said, a golden wheel encasing his torso.
Tessa's aura dreadlocks fanned out. The glowing lines on her body shimmered with rainbow light. All the anger Tessa was trying to keep contained was trying to burst out of her. She stared at the flickering sigil on her right paw.
"You're the one… who's taking things… too far!" Snarling, Tessa tensed her arms and legs. More aura shot out of her paws. She pushed the fireball back far enough for Silvally to lunge for it. Water encased his talons and he drove them right into the fireball. Incineroar crashed into the ground near a doubled-over Tessa. She struggled to catch her breath.
"I get that… what happened to you… is nothing short of awful. But you don't… have the right… to judge every world… by the actions… of a few people." Tessa straightened up. Aura flickered in her paws. "Lasting change is possible. People just have to work together to make it happen. And that's what we're fighting for. To give everyone a chance to change. I won't let you take that away from us!" She hurled an Aura Sphere at Incineroar. It melted down into a puddle.
Tessa's eyes widened. She backpedaled. The puddle spread out toward her. Shane caught sight of this and shouted, "Jump off the wall!" Tessa hopped back, cringing as her feet connected with an oozing, pulsating vein. Nevertheless, she kicked off the wall and shot into the air.
But that seemed to be what the core was anticipating. The puddle bubbled. Silvally saw spikes form in it, ready to impale Tessa while she couldn't dodge. Silvally hardened his body into iron and lunged into the air. He knocked Tessa aside and the spikes jabbed against his belly with a series of clangs. Silvally landed and whirled around to attack, but the core was already back in the air.
I don't want to hurt you anymore.
Shane looked around at all the brightly-flashing veins. He couldn't keep repeating the same tired lines over and over again. His stamina was running dry and he imagined his teammates were struggling, too. There had to be a way to put an end to this.
"You cannot change the world. Your gods won't allow it. There will always be people who resist change. The ones who think and care only about themselves," the core said. "They cannot be stopped. They step on everyone around them until they're in control, then suffocate those who dare to disagree with them. And after that, they stab their loyal followers in the back." The core wriggled about. Slowly, its slimy membrane parted so a lone, violet eye stared at Shane. "You can disagree all you want, but I speak only the truth."
Shane shrank back, his tails curling against his waist. "I, well…"
"Need I remind you of what you really are?" the core hissed. More of its membrane split apart, until it was a slime cage housing the violet eye in its center. Gooey spikes poked out of the cage's exterior and its colors faded to black.
Espy shrank back, eyes wide. Tessa tensed up, biting her lower lip. Silvally crouched low to the ground, a growl rumbling in the back of his throat. Shane glanced at his teammates, then stared down the Dark Matter clone. "If you're trying to break my fighting spirit or something stupid like that… then I'm here to tell you it's not working," Shane said, his brow furrowing.
"Yes, I screwed up. A lot. In two separate lifetimes, apparently. If you asked anyone with half a brain… they'd tell you I don't deserve the amount of second chances I've gotten." He spat an Ice Beam at Dark Matter, but it hovered out of the way. Its eye flashed, then shot out six glowing orbs. Shane tensed up, ready to dodge them. However, instead of flying toward him, they hovered in the air. The energy balls grew bigger, until each one released a large energy beam.
"Hit the deck!" Espy yelped, diving to her belly as a beam swept overhead. Across from her, Tessa leaped over a separate energy beam, stumbling as she landed. Silvally was too large to avoid the lasers heading toward him. He instead shot a large bolt of lightning at the lower one, creating a gap to squeeze through.
"Be silent. All of you… be silent!" Dark Matter growled. "You're so annoying! Why don't you just accept your fates and die already?"
"Because it's not up to you!" Shane said. "Look, I was one of those people who did everything I could to oppose change. But I see how wrong that is, now!" He looked at his teammates. "And it's all because of them. My friends showed me what it means to be a better person. To confide in others… and let them confide in me. I understand what it's like to help someone, now. And I want to keep helping people. Starting with you… and returning all those spirits you stole!"
It's not fair…
Dark Matter responded by shooting out more energy balls. Shane saw an energy ball heading for him and leaped away from the ensuing laser. He shot an Ice Beam at Dark Matter and it struck the center of the eye. His teammates managed to weave through other lasers. Air Slash blades hit Dark Matter from behind. An Aura Sphere and a Shadow Ball struck it from the side. Slime splattered across the ground. The eye shook inside of its gooey cage.
Why didn't you help me?
"Because I was an idiot, okay?" Shane's tails drooped. "I know… no amount of apologizing can make up for the bad things I did. Just like no amount of apologizing can make up for the fact that I'm also Dark Matter." Shane looked down. "No one can change the past. And one person alone can't change the present. But that's why you have to surround yourself with people who support you. So you can lift each other up and make a brighter future… together!"
"There will be no future. None of you deserve one!" Dark Matter snarled, hovering out of the way of multiple sets of Psychic rings. "It doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter who you surround yourself with. There is no such thing as a perfect world! Better they all be erased than one person in one world be made to suffer!"
Stop shouting… please. I'm so tired of this.
"And what do you call what you're doing? Look at all the people you've made suffer with your actions!" Shane barked. "Even if we can undo the damage… the memories won't fade away!"
"All the more reason to make everything disappear." Dark Matter shot out a bunch of bright-white orbs. Enough to form an entire wall behind it. Tessa's eyes widened. If they fired off lasers, there'd be no way to escape them all. Not without jumping right into Dark Matter.
Shane tensed up, then noticed a glimmer coming from his looplet. He knew it wouldn't do any good to stop and think about if a Z-Move was even possible inside of Necrozma, so he focused on the looplet. His breath rushed out of him when the familiar warmth of channeled Z-Power spread down his limbs.
Silvally backed away with a yelp. "Careful, Shane! We're not exactly in a wide-open space, here."
An iceberg rose out from the floor. Shane glanced at Silvally and said, "I know. But I've got to try this. One way or another… we're putting an end to all of this!"
Dark Matter fired its wall of energy beams at the same time Shane unleashed his Z-Move. The giant ice beam struck the lasers and pushed them back. It made contact with Dark Matter, blowing apart its slime-covered exterior and exposing the purple eye in the center. With blue haze still filling the room and blocking his teammates' views of the trembling core, Shane leaped toward it with a loud holler. The eye widened. Black tendrils appeared around the core and wrapped Shane up the instant he contacted the core.
Espy dispelled the lingering mist. "Hey, where'd Shane go?" she asked, looking around the room in confusion.
Silvally's beak hung open. He stared at the core. Though it lacked a face and limbs, he swore it was convulsing in midair. The various color streaks crisscrossed one another. "I… I think he's…" Silvally pointed his beak at the core.
"What?!" Tessa's eyes bulged out. "We've got to get him out of there. Everyone… together!" She gathered her paws together to charge up an Aura Sphere when the core shrieked so loud that Tessa dropped to her knees and threw her paws over her ears. "Agh! M… make it… stop!"
Silvally's eyes twitched. He squeezed them shut and staggered back, bumping into an equally-frightened Espy. "S… Silv, what's going on? The whole room is shaking and flashing like Sunset Shoals during Primarina's concert!"
"I don't know! I… I…" Silvally hissed in pain, unable to do anything to stop his sonar-like ears from getting the full force of the core's screams.
Before Espy had the chance to respond, the entire floor flashed white. She looked down, tail stiffening. "What the—"
Another white flash ensued. Next thing Espy, Silvally, and Tessa knew, they were floating in midair. "H-Hey… what's the big idea?!" Tessa tried to look at the core, but the lack of gravity made it impossible for her to turn around. "Shane? Shane, can you hear me? What are you doing in there?"
As if to answer, white energy raced up the walls in successive ripples. Bright-white glows surrounded Espy, Silvally, and Tessa. They all exchanged surprised looks for a few seconds, before they shot up toward the ceiling, leaving Necrozma's innards behind in three streaks of bright white light.
XxX
Continued in next post.