• Our software update is now concluded. You will need to reset your password to log in. In order to do this, you will have to click "Log in" in the top right corner and then "Forgot your password?".
  • Forum moderator applications are now open! Click here for details.
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.

[Pokémon] The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova (T)

79
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 24, 2013
Part Eleven: The Point of no Return
Chapter Seventy-One: The Seven Sages
Diego suppressed a wince as the Sages entered the throneroom. He really had hoped it wouldn't come to this. After what N had just said, he knew he would have to do his duty to protect Team Plasma from its most powerful tool. His first task had always been to shape N into the person Team Plasma needed. So Diego had taught N how horrible humans were and how good pokémon. He had spun tales of N's 'heroic destiny' and even told the boy the ludicrous story that he was a pokémon born in human form. He had taught N all the 'heroic' values that had made him into the naïve idiot he was.
And now that naivete had turned him against Team Plasma. Diego knew his duty. He was with N in the first place to make sure he succeeded and to keep him on the right path. But if he would turn from that path after all, as he just had, Diego had to kill him immediately. The boy was far too dangerous to be left alive with Zekrom at his command. If N announced publicly he'd changed his mind, that would be a serious threat. It would probably split Team Plasma in two, and would encourage a lot of others to fight Plasma as well. Diego should've eliminated N the moment he made his change of heart clear.
But he hadn't. He had come to care a lot for N, and had told himself he would somehow fix it, that he would be able to talk N back into the plan. But now, that was clearly impossible.
"Ghetsis," said N happily, "I've got some great news: the war is over! Black has defeated Zekrom and taught me we were both right in a way. I was just about to come tell you."
Diego felt like laughing at the idiotic naivete of his pupil, but was almost frozen with worry for him. Black showed himself far smarter as his pokémon formed a defensive half circle around him and they slowly stepped back between the lakes. "N!" said Aqua. "Come here, they'll kill you!"
N laughed. "Don't be silly, Aqua, they're not-"
"Shut up, you good-for-nothing boy!" snapped Ghetsis. N looked as if he'd been slapped in the face. "That decision isn't yours to make. The war continues until Team Plasma rules all!"
"But..." stammered N. "B-but I'm your king!"
The Sages laughed, even Ghetsis. "King?" he grinned. "I'm sorry, your majesty, but a vote held among the Seven Sages elected me Emperor several years ago. And last time I checked, emperors outrank kings."
Diego tried to remind himself of Ghetsis' long friendship. Ghetsis had entrusted this task to him, and him alone. Following Ghetsis would lead to more power than he could imagine. N, meanwhile, was no more than a tool he had crafted himself. A defective tool that had to be thrown away.
N seemed unable to process the fact that he was no more than a figurehead. Yet he asked: "W-where did those pokémon come from?" he asked, pointing at the powerful pokémon the Sages now owned.
"From this very castle," explained Giallo, looking a bit like a talking orange between his fatness and his yellow robes. "You have-a lived here for most-a your life, but you've seen little of eet. Since we no longer needed the pokémon who've built this castle, they made-a excellent training fodder so we could obtain the most-a powerful pokémon on the planet. I've always wanted to own a Metagross."
N was clearly stupefied by the revelations. Diego felt a sudden spark of hate for his friend, using pokémon like that. He focussed to try and quench it, what concern of his were those pokémon after all? But it was hard to ignore. Ever since he had pretended to be Boreas' bloody brother, something of Zeph's had stuck inside Diego's mind. It had weakened him and made him think treacherous thoughts. "Typical Plasma hypocrisy," said Black. "So this is where those pokémon you 'liberated' went? Slave labour?! I didn't expect something that evil even from you!"
"Evil," spoke the creepily-thin Ryoku, "is just a word people use to plotect themselves from the strong. Those with power barely get to use it, because it would be 'evil' to do so. We live in a world where the mighty are allowed little in order to spare the weak. Yet the weak could have been mighty if only they'd had the ambition to grab power."
"Indeed," Ghetsis nodded. "This is why we came together and began Team Plasma in secret all those years ago. To allow all to unleash their full potential. Powerful pokémon and humans should be allowed to exercise that power, not live for the weak!"
"But..." stammered N. "But..." Ghetsis' talk about their ideals should've restored Diego's confidence... But it didn't. It only made him wonder if they weren't really just simply evil. There was something to be said for a world where all were equal. What if he said he agreed with N? He knew Ghetsis might actually listen to him, but would he abandon his plans? It seemed unlikely, especially as the other Sages wouldn't listen. Shocked at these treasonous thoughts, he tried to stamp them out.
"And this," continued Ghetsis, "is where you come in. Even with the seven of us, there was little we could do to change the world to be as we wished. We tried to capture Reshiram and Zekrom, but they responded to none of us. We were simply too unlike the ancient heroes who had created them out of Kyurem for them to consider us their masters. We needed a hero. We considered looking for one, but then realised we could make one. I conceived a son, and we had him grow up inside our secret hideout, under fully controlled conditions, getting taught to be exactly as we needed him to be. That would be you."
"B-but..." stammered N. "But you found me! My parents were pokémon, I am a pokémon in human form!"
"No," spoke Ghetsis. "I am your father."
"No!" cried N. "That's not true! That's impossible!"
"Of course it's true. A pokémon in human form, did you actually believe that? Diego did his job well. Until now, you've done the task I created you for admirably, and the nineteen years it took for you to grow up have been spent well anyway. We built this castle, the pokémon we have now, and we made a powerful Team Plasma with people everywhere to quickly grab power once you had Zekrom."
"So what's that frozen chicken supposed to be?" sneered Black.
"It's Kyurem," explained Ghetsis. "Or rather, what's left of it after the ancient heroes took Reshiram and Zekrom from it, leaving only traits neither of them desired. While you two were on Victory Road, I led an expedition to the Giant Chasm to capture it. The terrain was our main obstacle, really; Kyurem's remnants are weak, its strength all in Zekrom and Reshiram. It accepted me as its master quite easily."
"So why did you want it, then, if it was so weak?"
Ghetsis grinned chillingly. "You will see soon..."
Diego wondered what would happen if he refused to kill N, fought for his life, even. Black and his pokémon would likely join them. The four wild hangers-on N had picked up on Victory Road wouldn't do much, and would probably just flee, but Zekrom would definitely be able to take on several enemies. Diego saw it was slowly recovering, no longer unconscious and getting up as everyone had their attention on each other. But even Zekrom would never bring them victory. The Seven Sages were unbeatable together.
And it was a good thing they were, Diego reminded himself forcefully. He would join them in destroying their enemies after he had killed N. Zeph was turning him insane, shifting his loyalties.
"Diego..." said N at last. "He-he's not my father, is he? I'm a pokémon, right?"
Diego felt almost in pain with pity. "I'm sorry, N. He is."
"But you told me I am a pokémon... Just to make me hate humans?!"
Diego had never felt so horrible in his life. "I told you what I had to to make you into a hero who would want to liberate pokémon. And I succeeded in it. You have become a great and noble hero, my friend."
"Friend?!" snapped N. "You've lied to me all my life! You taught me only humans lie, but it's obvious you're the greatest liar of them all!"
"Listen to me, N, it was for a good cause!"
"What cause? Clearly not pokémon liberation!"
Diego decided he at least owed N the truth after all these years. Ghetsis had told him most of it anyway. "Pokémon liberation is part of it, but not in the way you thought. Pokémon will be truly equal to humans in our new world. But not all pokémon will be equal to each other, and not all humans will either. The world is a dangerous place, N. All the things I taught you about the cruelty of humans were true. Every living being is basically selfish, that's just how we evolved. You can call that evil, but it's simply how the world works. To deny that is dangerous, as it's denying reality. And it's not such a bad thing either: if everyone takes care of themselves, they all have someone who will always look out for them. But only if you let them. You can't force people to take care of others, that way you inhibit them, restrict their freedom. Everyone should have the freedom to use their power as they wish. This is Team Plasma's true goal, and it's even better than just pokémon liberation. Because everyone can be powerful, but most just don't take their chance, because they have no ambition.
In the past few months, as Team Plasma has taken over, a better order has begun to be put in place to replace the old chaos. You said before that trainers who really want their pokémon should still be allowed to keep them, and they can do so in our new world: by joining Team Plasma." Diego was beginning to get a dry mouth from talking so much, and in his mind Zeph protested against the principles he'd just laid out. "N, you are a powerful man. You are a good king of Team Plasma, so why don't you remain our king? Now you know what we truly fight for, and as a powerful person our new order will benefit you greatly."
N was silent, and Diego addressed Black and his pokémon. "I make you the same offer. We won't allow you to stand in our way, but you would be valuable allies."
"Never," said Black, and most of his pokémon agreed soon. Even the Houndoom said:
"As long as that bastard in the green bathrobe is still alive, I'll never stop fighting y'all."
"You can't really believe that..." said N, his eyes filled with betrayal. "You told me we would liberate all pokémon..."
"You explained Team Plasma very well, my friend," said Ghetsis. "But I'm afraid you wasted your breath. N is a freak without a human heart, and these have been our enemies for too long. It's time to deal with them, right now."
The Sages, and their entire teams turned towards Black, who was still between the small lakes, but Zekrom and N were suddenly in their way. "Leave him alone!" said N. "Enough people have died because of you. One more step, and Zekrom will fight you!"
Diego winced, knowing what Ghetsis' order would be. Please, N, no...
Ghetsis laughed. "You are nothing more than a tool, and now it's time to get rid of you. Diego, you know your orders."
Diego was in agonising doubt. N was his friend, but so was Ghetsis. He couldn't kill N, and he couldn't betray Ghetsis. He truly believed in the ideals he had just laid out, yet Zeph protested against him. He took a few steps so he stood behind N, though he didn't know what he would do there yet. He had to kill the human, but Zeph wanted him to stand with him instead.
Diego fought to keep the unwelcome sympathy and pity away, to kill N, but they were very strong. He remembered the happy time when he had been Zeph, day in day out, seeing the world through very different eyes as he pretended to be Boreas' brother. The reason he had been so good as a mole was that he had truly become Zeph in his mind. Only now, Zeph had stuck around for far longer than he had been needed. And now, Diego had decided. He couldn't kill N, no matter what. If that meant betraying Team Plasma, then so be it.
But then another memory came to him: he was back on Victory Road, as troubled by Zeph as he was now...

Past
As Diego looked at the huge icy precipice ahead, he saw a familiar-looking blue fox at its top. The Glaceon only reminded him more of his failure to kill Boreas and Aqua in Opelucid Gym. Some days it seemed as if Zeph was taking him over, which was preposterous because he'd been dead for two years. But the personality Diego had taken on while spying on Black had been all too real, and he might as well continue to call it Zeph.
He clenched his fists in annoyance at himself. He wished he had Boreas here so he could right his wrongs immediately. If only that Glaceon still looking at them from the top of the precipice was Boreas...
A grin suddenly spread over Diego's face. He could set his priorities straight here once and for all; test what he was really made of and whether Zeph was stronger than him. He waited a few minutes until they were at the base of the precipice, then said: "Hold on, I think there may be a path up there."
N stopped. "What, up on the precipice? Shouldn't we stick to the main pass?"
"Well, the path up there looked as if it was going straight in the League's direction. It could save us a lot of time. But I'll go check it to be sure; I wouldn't want to have us all climb up there only to have to climb back down again."
"Shouldn't I just send Zekrom to fly up instead?"
"No, you know how it spooks the wild pokémon; I wouldn't want to terrify them. Besides, I'm feeling like a bit of a climb. I'll be back soon."
With that, he began climbing the icy precipice. The stone and ice it was made of was freezing cold and hurt his paws, but he kept climbing. Zeph tried to stop him from what he was about to do, made him feel horrible for even considering it, but he climbed on. At last, he reached the top of the precipice and pulled himself up. The Glaceon was no longer here, but Diego could see its tracks in the snow. He quietly followed them, and soon caught up to it. It didn't hear his approach, and screamed when he suddenly pounced and grabbed it.
Zeph protested and the Glaceon struggled, so Diego punched the Glaceon in the face. It was as if he had punched out Zeph at the same time in his mind as well, as he was finally quiet. Diego grinned and roughed up the semi-conscious Glaceon's hair to make him look more like Boreas.
"P-please... Let me go..." it mumbled through bleeding lips.
Diego instead kicked him in the stomach. "So, Boreas, we meet again. And this time, I'm going to do what I should've done!"
The Glaceon moaned in pain. "I-I'm not this Boreas! Please, let me-"
Diego grabbed Boreas' right front paw with both paws and broke it, making the Glaceon scream in pain.

Diego grinned in satisfaction as he stood on top of the precipice again. Zeph was quiet at last, and better yet, Diego had finally proved to himself what he was truly made of by killing the Glaceon in cold blood. When the Glaceon had begged him for death after its lengthy torment and he had finally ended it by disembowelling it crudely with a sharp stone, he had truly forgotten it wasn't really Boreas. He carefully went over the precipice's edge and began climbing down.
Diego climbed back down with a mind that was finally clear of concern. Climbing over the freezing cold precipice was almost as tough to do downwards as upwards, but at least this time it was just physically heavy; he could handle that. After weeks of being troubled by his error in the Opelucid Gym, he could now finally relax. He knew it wouldn't be repeated. While he couldn't deny he felt rudimentary feelings of friendship towards N, and even Boreas, they wouldn't interfere with his service to his true friend, Ghetsis. He was sure of that now.
Friendship was a beautiful thing, Diego reflected. In fact, it was the very concrete Team Plasma was built with, but it was a massive weakness when felt towards an enemy. But now that he was finally sure he wouldn't submit to that weakness again, he could rest easily.
His muscles ached by the time he neared the ground; it was a relief to land on it safely. "Diego!" N called happily. "I was getting worried about you, what took you so long?"
Diego smiled. "I saw a path up there, just as I suspected. But I had to make sure it wasn't a dead end, and walked it for a bit, and a good thing I did, because if I hadn't done that, we'd be climbing up this precipice right now to walk the path... Only to find out after an hour it suddenly ends into a steep depth."
"Oh," N looked disappointed, "I guess we can't cut time off our journey that way, then?"
"No, I'm afraid not, we'll have to follow the normal pass. But I did see some... Inspiring views up there, and they gave me the strength to carry on."
N laughed. "Glad to hear it."
No, thought Diego as he smiled along friendlily, you wouldn't be if you had any idea of the truth.

Present
Diego felt strengthened by the memory as Zeph shrunk away in horror. He knew who he truly was and what he had to do. He grabbed N's head with both front paws, and in his mind he did the same to Zeph. He had one final spark of pity, then twisted the head with all his strength. A muted crack ended the lives of N and Zeph, and he never saw either of them again.

"Diego!" roared Aqua. "Murderer! Traito-"
Zekrom roared too as electricity arced over its body and darkness seemed to ooze out of it. Boreas jumped in shock as a huge lightning bolt shot towards him, but it bent off its path and hit Kyurem instead. More lightning bolts followed, but they all bent off their trajectory and hit Kyurem. Meanwhile Zekrom curled up into a large, floating ball of blackness covered in constant trails of electricity.
Then it exploded in a blindingly bright blast that rocked the castle on its foundations and should have destroyed the tower and killed everyone in it. But like the lightning bolts, the explosive release of energy entirely bent off and all of it hit Kyurem instead, wrapping it in a nova of light. When the light settled, a new pokémon had formed. Or perhaps it wasn't a new pokémon, but some kind of fusion of Kyurem and Zekrom: it shared many of the traits of either. Its rear legs and head looked like Kyurem's, but it was standing upright like Zekrom and dark-furred for a large part. Its tail turbine was thinner than Zekrom's and partially covered in grey scales. Its wings and front paws were muscular and covered in black scales on one side, and icy parts on the other side.
Black and his pokémon realised this bizarre turn of events provided the distraction they needed to run for their lives and bolted out the throneroom into the ferocious tempest outside, running down over the wall there as fast as they could. Boreas' mind burnt with questions about what had just happened, while his heart burnt with anger and betrayal. He had honestly thought Diego wasn't as bad as he'd thought, that the Zoroark might have compassion or the capability of friendship inside him. He had shaken his paw, more or less forgiving him even. Yet Diego had proved his heart to be blacker than Boreas had ever thought it could be by murdering N.
"I'll kill you for this, Diego," he muttered between clenched teeth as they ran past N's childhood room. "I swear I will."
"You'll have to get in line," said Aqua. Boreas noticed there were tears on her face. "N was my friend, dammit! And he was a good man, despite everything! Diego will pay..."
Boreas wanted to comfort Aqua, but a beam of intense energy shot right between them; a kind of beam Boreas remembered all too well, as it had cost him his kindest friend and the tip of his tail last time he saw it. He sprinted faster as he heard their enemies in hot pursuit behind them. He jumped around the corner, over a beam of some kind and down a staircase. They all ran down as fast as they could without falling from the stairs: Lucius even jumped and held on to Selene as she flew down.
Bronius' rock-types launched an avalanche of deadly boulders while Boreas and his friends were only halfway down the long stairs, so they risked running even faster.
Boreas' feet missed a step and landed awkwardly on the next, making him tumble and land on his back on the stairs. He scrambled on to escape the crushing wave of rock, but heard its roaring sound had almost reached him, and for a moment he was sure he would be caught in it. But the sound stopped as plants had grown from the stairs, curled around the boulders in mid-fall, and held them tightly now. Octa and Toxica were both standing still at the bottom of the stairs, faces clenched in focus.
Boreas got up and jumped the remaining steps, thanking Octa and Toxica as they joined him in running away from their enemies, who had come closer in the seconds that had passed. Boreas randomly threw an Ice Beam or two behind them as he heard their enemies round the corner. He heard a yelp of pain, but found he could run faster if he focussed solely on sprinting.
There was a lot of cover in this part of the Castle, allowing them to dodge the attacks made by their pursuers. They emerged outside again, sprinting down a descending wall and a courtyard through the storm, which allowed Boreas to use the winds to their advantage and their enemies' disadvantage, giving them some extra metres between them; though it wasn't much since Boreas' friends weren't nearly as proficient as him in making their way through the stormy winds.
Running through a long corridor, Boreas heard a terrifying sound: flame coming towards them. He instantly turned and extended each front paw for as mighty a pulse of cold as he could, but the blazing inferno still washed over him, only singing him and starting a fire on his shoulder instead of simply incinerating him. Yet he ran: he had no time to extinguish his shoulder right now and had to bite through the pain until Aqua extinguished it in passing.
They rushed through halls and corridors and sometimes the outside parts of the Castle back to the exit. They could only hope the Sages wouldn't pursue them in the League.
At last they entered the open-air courtyard where they'd first entered the Castle, emerging from the northern exit. The entrance to the bridge to the Champion's tower was just ahead in the south, but pokémon were there. They skidded to a halt, prepared for a fight, and breathed a sigh of relief when they saw they were the Elite Four's teams.
"Caitlin!" panted Black happily. "Marshal, Shauntal, Grimsley, am I glad to see you! With the five of us, we stand a chance against the Sages!"
The Elite Four didn't move to join Black, and Boreas closed his eyes in annoyance, hoping he was wrong in his suspicion. "Guys?" said Black.
"I'm sorry, Black," said Caitlin. "But we're not here to offer you aid, but them."
"What?!" snapped Black.
"Is that so hard to believe?" asked Ghetsis, behind them. The Seven Sages stood in the north entrance to the courtyard, which was wide enough to accommodate them all. There were two more entrances to the east and west, but with enemies before and behind them running for either of those would just get them caught. "Team Plasma's true goal is a noble one, whether you think so or not."
"They respect power," thundered Marshal, "and are more powerful even than you. You are a worthy opponent, and I wish this battle would be more even."
"How can you do this?!" snapped Black. "You were all about doing your duty to protect the Champion earlier, and now that I'm the Champion you'll just betray all trainers?!"
"I've been a psychic all my life," explained Caitlin, "so of course I've always been made to suppress my powers. Don't enter the minds of mundanes without their permission, don't even pick up any thought at all; always suppress your talent. But the Sages understand that because I have my power, I should get to use it. Suppressing my powers to protect others is wasting them."
"Besides," laughed Grimsley, "it's much more fun this way. Why stick with the losers?"
"And now," said Ghetsis, "it's time to end your rule, Champion, and let everyone know how you killed poor N in cold blood. Yet another tragic victim of selfish trainers."
They were surrounded by enemies. There was no way out, and no way to defeat them all. Black looked at his pokémon. "So this is how you want to do this?" he asked angrily. "Two of you for each of my pokémon?" Boreas and his friends formed a circle around Black, ready to fight. "Bring it on."
Ghetsis laughed malevolently. "Kill them."
"Can ya manage that?"
All were surprised by the heavily accented voice, and the Elite Four turned around to see a human who looked like an ageing cowboy and six powerful ground-types emerge from the castle's gate behind them. Ryoku was the first to regain his composure. "Gym Leader Clay," he said with a mocking bow that made his beard hang in a puddle of rain, "how nice of you to join us. Are you here to finarry join the winning side, or merely to die in a vain gesture of heroics?"
Clay pretended to think about it. "Well, Ah suppose it's the second. Except..."
At that moment, dozens of attacks hit the sages and their pokémon from the sides as a flood of pokémon of all types charged through the eastern and western gates of the courtyard, while more teams joined Clay too at the southern gate. "It ain't just me, Ah brought the entire resistance along for ye!"
All the Gym Leaders they had fought on their journey had joined the battle, but there were others too: Alder, Cheren, Bianca, and a number of trainers Boreas didn't know. He focussed on his enemies and began to shoot Ice Beams at Ryoku's Cradily, planning to at least get vengeance for Capella.
The chaos that erupted in the courtyard was far worse than the storm itself, but there was a clear tactical element to it. The Elite Four were the first to realise they were in a very poor position, stuck between two enemies, and therefore tried to make their way around and through Black's team so Boreas was forced to fight them instead. He dodged a Conkeldurr's thrown pillar, attacked a Bisharp, and was briefly locked into an icy mirror match against Froslass again.
The Sages were in trouble as well, outflanked in the middle of the courtyard. So it wasn't long until Ghetsis shouted: "RETREAT! Get out of the courtyard, regroup, and summon the grunts! We'll exterminate these pests right now!"
The Sages extended the same orders to their pokémon and slowly the enemy retreated, despite the resistance's attempts to keep them engaged. Soon all eleven teams fought in the northern entrance to the courtyard, a blinding crossfire of attacks flying to and fro. Many of these attacks hit the arching structure itself until after a moment it began to collapse right on top of the enemy. Between the darkness, the storm, and the dust created by the collapse, Boreas couldn't see if any enemies were crushed, but it sounded like a lot of them managed to retreat back into the corridors of the castle.
For now, there was no more enemy to fight, however. "Good work!" shouted Alder over the storm. "Now let's get out of here; it won't be long until they get back here through another way, and this time we won't be able to surprise them! We'll have to leave the League entirely; they won't rest until they get us now." He then turned to Black. "Are you alright? We were expecting something like this."
Boreas began to protest they couldn't run away, but Black quickly told Alder the rough details of all that had happened as they began evacuating everyone over the bridges. Finally, he asked: "D'you have any idea what Kyurem turned into?"
"I think I do," interrupted Iris, who had listened to the story. "Zekrom was once a part of Kyurem, and was only pulled away from it by the ancient hero. It's still only a part of a creature and can't exist without a hero to bond with; that's why all its energy was released in that explosion when N died. But because it was once a part of Kyurem, Kyurem somehow absorbed the energy of the explosion and added Zekrom to itself once again. It's still not complete without Reshiram, but closer to what it once was than it's been in a long time."
"What would happen to Kyurem," Boreas asked, an idea forming in his mind, "if Ghetsis were to die?"
With a little help from Black, Iris understood the question. "Well, basically what you just saw Zekrom do. Unless Kyurem, Reshiram, and Zekrom were united in a single being, they can never be a stable pokémon without their hero. Kyurem is closest to it, but in its normal state it's very weak, all its strength in Reshiram and Kyurem; so weak it's almost like a ghost. Ghetsis' dark mind must have appealed to it for him to control it. If he died, Kyurem couldn't hold Zekrom as a part of it without Reshiram, and it would become weak and ghost-like again, while Zekrom would turn into the Dark Stone. All in a huge release of energy that would obliterate anything nearby."
They were in the Champion's tower by now. "Then we have to go back! Stop!" shouted Boreas.
"What is it?" asked Black.
"We can't run away now, we can really hurt Plasma here. I think we can even capture their castle."
Alder had stopped too by now. "How, little Glaceon?"
"Well, by killing N, Diego did something we could never have done, but now Zekrom is controlled by Ghetsis, and I don't think anyone would have a serious problem killing him. We retrieve Reshiram as quickly as possible to combat Zekrom-Kyurem's mental influence, and then we fight Team Plasma in its own castle. Obviously we can't win by force of arms, but we could fight to distract them while some of us try to kill Ghetsis. It would not only leave them leaderless, but without the constant morale boost from Kyurekrom, while we would still have Reshiram. It might be enough to get them to surrender the castle, and even if they don't, a legendary being on our side, not theirs, would finally inspire people to fight against them."

Aqua tried to suppress her guilt as she sneaked down the stairs. It felt like she was betraying everyone, Boreas in particular, even though she knew leaving them was for their own good. Boreas was laying out his plan, and it was a good plan, or at least the best they had. But if she stayed and let herself be made part of it, she would only lower their chances of success. She had once again demonstrated in battle against N how unreliable she was. If she let Boreas count on her in this battle she would betray his trust and possibly make it all fail. She was helping him, really, by getting away. She was helping all the people hurt by Plasma by not getting involved in this. She should be very proud of all the people her decision had probably saved.
Of course, she knew that was complete bollocks. She was making excuses for her cowardice. But if she repeated them often enough to herself, she might start believing them.
"Going somewhere?" asked a voice.
Aqua turned around in shock. "Toxica! I-I was just..."
"Sneakin' off," Toxica finished her sentence. "Why?"
"Well, you saw what I did when I was up against Zekrom."
"Yeah, it turned you against us, but Boreas stopped you, and then you resisted it, fought it, and hurt it pretty bad. So why are you running away?"
"You've got it wrong: I turned against you. It wasn't as if it suddenly had me under mind control or something, it just strengthened something that was already there. And I should've resisted it, like you did, but I didn't. I've never been good at the whole loyalty thing, and I don't like humans. I don't like risking my life either."
"But-"
"If you summarise that, you can say I'm a disloyal coward who sympathises with the enemy. Do you think it's wise to count on someone like that in this battle?"
"Well, if it's you-"
"If I didn't leave, Boreas would count on me, you would count on me. And when I betray that trust, I might cause your deaths. That's why I have to leave."
"Listen up, Aqua," said Toxica firmly now that she had finally stopped talking, "I think that's just an excuse. Because like Boreas said, you're a better person than you think."
Aqua grimaced. "Boreas is many things, but not wise. To be honest, I think love has blinded him to my flaws."
"Well, I say it too! You would never consciously betray someone you love as much as Boreas, or friends like me or Selene. What is this really about, Aqua?"
Aqua sighed in resignation. "I'm terrified. This battle is going to be very serious. Have you seen what was running after us? That's forty-nine powerful pokémon, six of which are ludicrously strong and incredibly rare monstrosities. Then there's this Zekrom-Kyurem hybrid, which is likely to be even stronger than Zekrom was. There's twenty-four more powerful pokémon commanded by the Elite Four, and probably thousands commanded by grunts. We've got a hundred at best with the resistance at our side, and most of them are considerably less powerful than our enemies." Aqua shivered. "In a few hours, there will be a lot of dead pokémon in that castle, no matter who wins. And not just enemies, in fact I have a strong feeling we won't all come back if we join this. I don't want to be among all those dead."
Toxica squeezed her shoulder. "I don't want you to be among them either. I don't want to be among them myself; it scares me too. But that's why I'm trying to get you to reconsider. Imagine if I died, or Selene, or especially Boreas, while you weren't there. Wouldn't you blame yourself to the end of your days, thinking you could've prevented it?"
While Aqua thought, Alder ordered: "Let's get back into the Castle, we've got a plan! We'll keep them as busy as we can, while our new Champion goes after Ghetsis! Spread out over the eastern and western wings and try to outflank them, but make sure you don't get isolated!"
Toxica smiled and looked at her. "What's it going to be, Aqua? If I have to say goodbye, I wish you all the best, but I hope you reconsidered..."
 
79
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 24, 2013
Chapter Seventy-Two: Love and War
"So what eventually got you to change your mind?" Boreas asked as they waited for Black to return with Reshiram in the Champion's tower.
"You know, I'm not really sure," said Aqua ponderously. "I didn't want to let Diego get away with murdering N, I didn't want to leave you to fight without me, I wanted to give myself a chance to maybe prove Toxica and you right, and I know Team Plasma needs to be stopped. I don't know which one convinced me, really. Probably a bit of each. I'm glad I've got a friend like Toxica to get me back in any case." She smiled and patted Toxica on her shoulder with her tail.
"So am I," said Boreas, "though it would've felt safer not to have you part of this battle."
Aqua gave him a sceptical look.
"I know, I know," Boreas laughed, "you're probably more capable of staying alive in this thing than me, and you wouldn't turn back for my concerns anyway. I was just saying."
"Yeah, you're right there," chuckled Aqua. "Between the two of us, you're the one who needs his back watched. After all, you're always getting yourself into danger because you don't think ahead."
"Hey, that's not true," chuckled Boreas. "I do think ahead and don't need you to keep me out of trouble."
"It's true, alright. You're reckless and silly."
Boreas tried very hard to keep a straight face. "I'm not, which means you're just poking your pretty nose into my business."
"Fool."
"Busybody." Their lips softly touched, ignoring Octa's frustrated sigh.
Aqua winked. "I do think Octa's jealous."
"I am not!" Octa enunciated. "However, I am frustrated, for our friends and allies are dying in battle right now while we have to wait for Black to retrieve Reshiram before we can join them; despite this, your minds are occupied by your courtship."
"Octa, my dear fellow," said Boreas, "my mind can use a little distraction right now. Besides, this could be our last chance to kiss; we might die soon, so why not make the most of things now?"
Boreas thought he saw something on Toxica's face at this, but then Black entered with Reshiram and interrupted the conversation. Pride and courage filled them all, knowing the truth was on their side. Fortunately, Reshiram didn't seem dismayed by Black's unceremonial dismissal earlier. "Come on, guys," said Black. "Let's find Ghetsis, end this, and all come back in one piece. It shouldn't be too hard."
Stepping out onto the bridge to Team Plasma's castle, they were nearly blown off by the storm and instantly soaked by rain. "Forgot about the storm!" shouted Black against the wind. "Get on Reshiram's back, everyone, we're flying!"
As he crawled on Reshiram's back, Boreas felt empowered and proud by the sheer touch of its soft, almost fur-like feathers. He was for a moment fully convinced by the sheer righteousness of their cause and pitying those misguided deniers of the truth out there, before he reminded himself not to be fooled by Reshiram's crap. "I had no idea legendaries were this annoying..." he muttered.
They were soon all on the large dragon's back, holding on to the white feathers tightly. "Go, Reshiram," commanded Black. "Fly us to Kyurem!"
Reshiram spread its vast white wings and leapt into the stormy sky. Boreas held on tight as they soared over Team Plasma's castle. Little figures fought below them, in courtyards and on walls, their attacks little sparks of light in the deep dark tempest. Black shouted something at Reshiram, and they entered into a dive and swooped right over the fighting on a wall. Reshiram shone brightly with white light on the combatants, invigorating the resistance and breathing fire down on Team Plasma.
They were about to make another pass, but a bolt of lightning barely missed them, its thunderclap deafeningly loud. The stormwinds pulled hard on Reshiram and those it carried, making it clear the shorter they flew through the storm, the better.
"KYUREM IS IN THERE," thundered Reshiram as they flew for one of the lower buildings, almost invisible through the thick rain curtain.
"Put us down at its entrance!" As they approached the building, an open courtyard in front of it became visible. Tiny figures were fighting even this deep into the castle, but they momentarily scattered as Reshiram descended like a bright, fiery falling star. Several seconds before it touched down, Boreas jumped from its back, landing on a Koffing floating several metres lower and taking it out, instantly jumped on, taking down a Flaaffy as well. A buzzing noise alerted him and allowed him to block a Beedrill's attack before it landed and respond in kind, grabbing the insect, sending a pulse of cold through it, and throwing it onto the Bagon that attacked him as well. A final attack took both down.
Then his friends joined the battle as well. Their allies were on the other side of the courtyard; they were surrounded by enemies here. Most of them were just grunts, and their pokémon were relatively easy to handle, but Boreas recognised a purple-robed old man with long, greying-brown hair and a goatee. With a shudder he recalled his disgusting and nearly fatal trip into the stomach of Zinzolin's Seviper. At least that Glaceon-eating monster was dead now, but the sage brought six powerful poison-types and a huge Hydreigon to the field.
"Ah, our new Shampion 'as honoured us with a visit! 'Ydreigon, show 'im your power!"
The dark, three headed serpent-dragon roared and attacked Reshiram with powerful pulses of energy from two of the heads, while the third devoured a Plusle that was actually on its own side. Reshiram took flight, wounded by the attacks, and flew at Hydreigon, spitting fire. The serpent itself leapt into the air, dodging the flames, and collided with Reshiram, two of its heads biting at the other dragon's throat while the third spit a beam of energy right into its face.
But Boreas had no more time to watch the titanic struggle between dragons: Zinzolin's team had reached them. A Drapion's powerful punch knocked him right into a soft, horribly stinky trashmonster. The Garbodor spit a wave of slime over him, but he blunted the assault by freezing it, then rapidly dodged its fist coming down. With an attack, he froze its oozy flesh in several places. But before he could continue, he saw movement faster than lightning from the corner of his eye. As he turned to parry its attack, he already realised he was too late; the Crobat was just too fast.
A solid beam of water knocked the bat out of the air and made it bounce off Garbodor. Boreas quickly nodded his thanks to Aqua and finished the momentarily grounded bat with an Ice Beam. He turned at the sound of Garbodor blobbering towards him, oozing sludge at him, and defended himself by freezing its every attack. The trashmonster was faster than it looked and Boreas had a hard time freezing the disgusting liquids it threw at him away, but was just fast enough.
An electric attack struck Boreas from somewhere just as he was about to freeze down yet another blob of goo. His muscles spasmed from the shock and made him miss his counterattack. Horrid, burning sludge covered his upper body a moment later. The goo felt like it was dissolving his fur and skin, so he tried to scrape it off with his paws, but he was hit by more balls of sludge, fully covering him in the nasty stuff.
A big wave of water impacted him strongly and washed most of the noxious goo off instantly. He was swept away in the wave, which soon turned into a rapid whirlpool with Garbodor at its centre before it retreated and left Aqua standing next to him.
"Really, my love," she teased as she blasted Garbodor with a jet of water, "how many more times do you plan on having me rescue you?"
Boreas got up and suppressed the instinct to shake out his fur; it wouldn't matter in this deluge anyway. Instead he Ice Beamed Garbodor. "It's not as if I'm helpless, I just had a bit of bad luck! I don't need you to save me that often."
Aqua elegantly dodged the Garbodor's slimy bulk as it launched itself at her. "Sure you do," she chuckled, "you'd be helpless without me at your side."
Boreas laughed as he froze the ground beneath Garbodor, making it slip as it got up. "Maybe you're right; so I'd better make sure I keep you there." He suddenly had his best idea ever. "Let's get married."
Aqua turned right in the middle of a wave that was about to crash down on Garbodor, missing it instead. "WHAT?!"
Drapion saw its chance and jumped at Aqua, surrounded by slime. Boreas' mind lashed out with the stormwind, suddenly increasing a blast of wind to a tornado's strength and thereby launching Garbodor away and knocking Zinzolin's Weezing out of the air with it. "It's a tradition of human origin where you promise your eternal love for-"
"I know what it is!" said Aqua bewildered. "But in case you hadn't noticed, we're a little busy at the moment!"
They both had to run from a mighty ball of fire from the duel of the dragons, but stayed together. "Aqua," said Boreas as he parried a Vulpix's attack with one paw while carefully crystallising rain with the other into a beautiful flower made of ice, "this is likely our last chance. If I'm going to die today, this is one last thing I would like to have done. I love you," he said as he completed the flower and gave it to Aqua in one smooth motion, "will you marry me?"
Aqua looked at him with a wonderful expression of love and befuddlement, but had to jump out of the way of a Gurdurr's girder, then swept it away with a single wave. "Boreas, you're insane!" she laughed. "And I love you for it! Of course I'll marry you!"
It was one of the happiest moments of Boreas' life, to look into Aqua's happy, laughing face and know she truly wanted to be with him forever. He rolled out of the way of a Ledian's punch, making it hit a Kling instead and screech in pain before he knocked them both out with a single pulse of cold. "Wonderful!" he said as his tail briefly touched Aqua's.
"Yeah," she said with a twinkle in her eyes, "so, what exactly are we supposed to do?"
"Uhh..." Boreas realised he only had quite a vague idea of how a wedding was supposed to work; but he figured the details didn't matter as long as he and Aqua considered themselves married. "I think you're supposed to get a best man, to begin with."
Aqua nodded. "Right, let's get them, then!" They ran back to the rest of the team, which they'd gotten separated from, dodging a few attacks together while holding tails.
"Octa," said Boreas as he reached his friend, Ice Beaming the Drapion the Serperior was fighting in the face. "Will you be my best man? Aqua and I are getting married right now!"
"What the-" began Octa, using his enemy's cringe at Boreas' attack to stab it. "Of all the ludicrous ideas you've had, this has to be the worst! We're in a battle here!"
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"A yes, of course, my dear fellow!" Octa laughed.
"Toxica," asked Aqua, "will you be my best woman?"
"I'd be honoured," said Toxica, defeating Drapion with an Energy Ball, "but I don't think the bride is supposed to have a best woman too."
"Half the guests to the wedding aren't supposed to be trying to kill the other half and the wedding couple either, but we have to improvise here!" Aqua quickly soaked an attacking Numel.
"Then I'd love to be best woman," said Toxica. "This is wonderful!"
"Octa," said Boreas, "could you pull double duty and ask us the questions? I think you know them best!"
"Very well, my dear fellow." He scraped his throat. "Dearly beloved-" he parried a Pawniard's blade with his own. "And not so beloved, we are gathered here today to unite these two Eevees in matrimony! Boreas, do you-ack!" Weezing had emerged from under the unconscious Garbodor and was attacking them with dark clouds of smog. "Toxica and I can handle it, continue on your own!"
"Boreas," said Aqua, shooting a jet of water at an enemy behind Boreas' back, "do you take me to be your wife to love and cherish until death do us part?"
"I do!" said Boreas happily, Ice Beaming an approaching Sunflora down. "Aqua, do you take me to be your-" The two dragons, entangled in mighty combat, were about to crash down on them, so Boreas and Aqua ran away together, jumping over enemies and quickly dispatching a few. "-Husband, to love and cherish until death do us part, which I hope will be in more than a few minutes?"
"I do!" said Aqua, creating a rapid flow of water circling around them, keeping enemies away.
Boreas looked, but saw Octa was too far away. "Then I pronounce us husband and wife." he said with delight as he froze the wave.
Protected by the wall of ice, the battle's noise and chaos was at last gone for one moment. Aqua looked into Boreas' eyes with a happy smile. "You may now kiss the bride."
Boreas hugged Aqua tightly and kissed her, feeling his limitless love for this wonderful Vaporeon in every cell of his body. Their kiss seemed to last an eternity, so lost in their love were they, it even continued for another second when the wall of ice shattered all around them thanks to the fighting dragons. Then at last they separated and took down the enemies around them together. "C'mon, hubby," said Aqua with a smile. "Let's rejoin our best men."
"Good idea, I think the guests might be giving them trouble." They sprinted back to Octa and Toxica just in time to see them take down the Weezing. The two grass-types turned to them with happy expecting smiles.
"It's done," said Boreas joyfully, "we're married!"
"Congratulations, my dear fellow!" Octa grasped Boreas. "Now this is something I would never have expected: you getting wed before me."
They suddenly saw Sage Zinzolin running through the battlefield, pursued by Lucius and Selene, who had clearly defeated the sage's other pokémon. Octa extended his vines and made the robed human trip, then aimed his blade at the man's throat. "Sage Zinzolin, you have been defeated," declared Octa.
"Damn right he is," said Lucius. "Birdbrain and I took down the rest of his pokémon, and Hydreigon is getting its triple ass kicked by Reshiram. Kill him and let's get on with it."
Zinzolin breathed heavily with the blade at his throat, and said: "You may kill me, but you will lose zis battle and zis war nonetheless. It is inevitable. Victoire à la Plasma!"
Octa kept his blade on the Frenchman's throat for a moment, then withdrew it and slithered back a little. "I cannot kill him."
"Really?" asked Lucius after a moment. "That's good. Because I can!" He suddenly leapt onto Zinzolin, and Octa moved to stop him, but it was too late: Lucius bit at the sage's throat, and there was one final scream before he was silenced forever. Lucius got up, his mouth dripping with blood.
"How could you do that?!" roared Octa. "He was defeated, our prisoner! To kill him was an act of utter barbarity!"
"Get used to it!" snapped Lucius. "Remember, these bastards are our enemies, and they wouldn't hesitate to do the same to us. Remember what they did to Capella? This won't be the last of them whose blood I drink! We're here to kill another one of them in the first place, so quit whining!"
Though Boreas was rather shocked by the brutal execution, he couldn't really feel sad for Zinzolin's demise. "Come on," he said to stop Octa from arguing. "We've got to help Reshiram defeat that Hydreigon."
Reshiram was already winning on its own, however, the Hydreigon a lot more wounded. They were flying through the air above the battlefield, their intense beams flashing like the storm's lightning. Boreas shot an Ice Beam at Hydreigon's wings, and his friends joined him in attacking. It spit a great ball of fire down from one head; Boreas got the storm to blow them out of its path with intense force. They all landed painfully and in a heap, but at least they weren't incinerated. They wanted to help Reshiram fight Hydreigon some more, but the three-headed dragon saw its trainer was dead and rapidly dived away from its legendary enemy, flying rapidly over the battlefield. Reshiram was about to pursue it, but Black shouted: "Leave it, Reshiram! We have to go after Kyurem!"
Reshiram descended. "AS YOU COMMAND. THE TRUTH WILL ALWAYS WIN."
"And Lucius," Black scolded, "I don't want to see you kill anyone other than Ghetsis again! We take them as prisoners, understood?"
"Sure," lied Lucius.
Boreas became aware of an enemy attacking him and turned around instantly, but too late: the Nidorino had reached him. But instead of a painful impact, there was dark flash and then it was thrown aside by a cute Umbreon. "Boreas," she said, "it's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Febby!" Boreas blurted out in surprise. "It's great to see you again!" He saw now that White was greeting Black, and that she had her entire team with her. Boreas was momentarily annoyed with seeing Esper, before deciding it really was about time he stopped being so childish towards him. "I had no idea you were in the resistance!"
"Well, we've been with them only shortly," she giggled, "White didn't want to give us up when Team Plasma took over, so she eventually went to the Gym Leader for help, and he got us into the resistance. It's good not to have to hide all the time. Oh, and here's Esper!"
"Hi, dude," greeted Esper, "how are you?"
"I'm well," Boreas said kindly. "In fact, I just got married."
"You did?!" Febby blurted out with something between surprise, joy, and jealousy. "Who's the lucky girl?"
Boreas looked for his bride, and saw she was in trouble fighting a Scrafty that looked like Grimsley's. "Excuse me, just a moment." He rushed for them, firing Ice Beams that hurt and distracted the Scrafty enough for Aqua to strike back at it. While it wasn't defeated, it retreated behind other combatants, unwilling to fight the two of them. "Looks like I'm not the only one in this marriage that needs the occasional rescue," teased Boreas.
"Oh, shut up," laughed Aqua.
"Anyway," said Boreas, "I want to introduce you to Febby and Esper. Febby, this is Aqua, my wife." That sounded very good, thought Boreas.
"Hello, Febby," said Aqua with a mean little smile. "I've heard much about you from my husband."
"Did you?" said Febby, suddenly grumpy. "I heard little about you."
"Hardly surprising. I suppose the facts speak for themselves, don't they, my love?"
Boreas made eye contact with Esper and saw the Espeon felt as surprised and uncomfortable by the sudden hostility as Boreas. "Yes, yes, I suppose they do. Anyway, I think we should be paying more attention to the battle, and try to reach Ghetsis. But it was great to see you again, Febby."
Aqua and Boreas ran through enemy ranks to catch up to their friends, who were already in the entrance to the building where Ghetsis apparently was, fighting in a long corridor full of grunts and their pokémon. "What'd you do that for?" Boreas asked in annoyance as he sidestepped to dodge an attack.
"Do what?" Aqua asked with all the sweetness of an apple filled with razorblades. "I was just having a nice girl-to-girl chat with Febby."
Boreas snorted. "Sure, 'nice'. You were clearly trying to make her jealous."
"Well, perhaps," said Aqua with a sly smile. "After all, she was stupid enough to choose that Espeon instead of you."
Boreas chuckled. "That's no reason to childishly rub it in. Funny thing is, I had no idea she had even had any interest in me at all until just now."
"I'm not surprised she is, I married you after all. Would it have changed anything if you had known?"
"No," said Boreas, without even having to think about it. "I mean, Febby is a nice girl and all, but you..." he searched for the right words. "Well, I love you."
Aqua chuckled. "That's what I figured."

"Dammit, it was about time you two rejoined us!" snapped Toxica.
"Sorry," said Aqua, "we got a little caught up talking to an old friend of Boreas'."
The help of the two newly-wed Eevees was very welcome, as Black's team was getting swarmed with enemies in the corridor. Fortunately there was no rain inside, and each enemy on its own was quite weak. But with as many of them as there were in here, it was hard not to be overwhelmed. Toxica already had several wounds, but they were slowly making progress through the corridor thanks to Reshiram, which made many of its enemies flee, and easily defeated them otherwise.
As Toxica fought against one enemy after another, she noticed Boreas and Aqua were fighting closely together in concert, always covering each other, their attacks working together brilliantly. It warmed her heart to see her friends like this. To see them get married suddenly was a wonderful, though strange surprise in this massive battle. It also made her wonder if she shouldn't forgive Octa. She knew the Eevees had done this because the chances either of them wouldn't live to see tomorrow were large, and they were no better for Octa and her. Boreas' words "we might die soon, so why not make the most of things now?" had hit home. But of course, she was still quite mad at Octa for what he'd done. Dying broken up with him was not an appealing thought, but neither was forgiving him, even if she was pretty sure his regret nor his decision to leave his House were fake.
Lost in thought like this, Toxica was fighting pretty much on automatic pilot. It was bound to go wrong sooner or later, and of course it did. An Absol was faster than her and swept at her with the razor-sharp sickle on its head. She fell back with a cry of pain and a deep cut in her chest. Absol pounced her to finish it, but found its sickle crossed by a Leaf Blade. "That was most unwise of you."
To Toxica's great annoyance, Octa engaged the Absol and fought it, protecting her as she focussed on regenerating her wound. "Dammit, Octa, mind your own business, you nosy bastard! I can take care of myself!"
"I shan't," said Octa defiantly, "for you evidently do need my help."
"Piss off," she snapped as she got up again slowly. "I know you're just trying to impress me, but you can forget about it!"
Octa defeated the Absol. "What I did was to help you; I would have done the same for any of us, even Lucius."
"Codswallop!" snapped Toxica as their progress through the corridor went faster: it seemed White's pokémon were creating a distraction on the other end. "I know you still want to be with me, but it's over between us! I don't care that we might be about to die, or that you might've left your House for me, I'm done with you!"
She realised then she was sounding madder than Selene right now and forced herself to calm down and stop rambling. She was ashamed to have flipped out like that for so little reason. "I-I'm sorry, I-"
But they had finally reached the end of the army of pokémon in the corridor, the rest too occupied with fighting White. The grunts that commanded them had fled into rooms to the sides, so nothing stood between them and the hall where Ghetsis was. Reshiram rushed ahead and bashed the doors down, showing a grand, ornate hall. But Kyurem and the rest of Ghetsis' team still stood between them and the Sage.
 
79
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 24, 2013
Chapter Seventy-Three: The Tightening Noose
Ghetsis looked surprised to see them enter the huge hall. "If it isn't our new Champion. Good of you to have come and brought me Reshiram. It was about time poor Kyurem became a single pokémon again, wasn't it?"
"You'll pay for having N killed, monster," growled Aqua with a look of pure hate on her face.
Ghetsis looked at her with amusement. "N was the monster, you know. He was created and raised as nothing but a tool to get me Zekrom, and that was all there ever was to him. He was a freak without a human heart."
"You're one to talk about having a heart," said Black,"after using and then killing your own son like that!"
"You clearly haven't understood the philosophy of the Seven Sages-"
Black interrupted. "You'd better make that Six Sages. Zinzolin is dead."
Ghetsis seemed genuinely hurt for a moment before shaking it off with a shrug. "That's a pity, but no serious problem. You see, I'm about to kill you and reunite Kyurem fully, so I can do with one Sage less. I'll have a perfect pokémon for a perfect Emperor of Team Plasma, of Unova, of the world!" From beneath the huge mantle that was part of his robe, Ghetsis revealed a cane with the Team Plasma logo on it and banged it on the ground, snapping Kyurem to attention with the sound. "I am the most powerful Sage, and don't really need the help of my allies any more."
"And what would your so-called allies say," asked Black, "if they heard this?"
Ghetsis shrugged. "It's nothing they don't know. They would do the same if they were as brilliant, as wise, and as powerful as I am. As it is, they're content to bide their time and be my second-in-commands until they can replace me some day. Of course that day will never come, as I am perfection! And now, I've got four new Sages to replace poor Zinzolin anyway."
"There's only one problem with your plan:" said Black, "you'll be dead soon."
Ghetsis laughed. "What an incredibly predictable thing to say. Instead, you should thanks me: you got to be the sole audience member for one of my speeches. But fine, if you want to rush into things, then so be it. We both have seven pokémon, so at least you have some tiny chance against me." He banged his cane to the floor, and his team began to move. Other than Kyurem, there were an Escavalier, Spiritomb, Bouffalant, Seismitoad, Eelektross, and Kingdra. Ghetsis clearly had the tactical insight not to base his team on any one type, but instead on pokémon with very few weaknesses. But Boreas reminded himself this battle wasn't about taking out the enemy pokémon, but the enemy trainer. If someone could just kill Ghetsis, Kyurem would be gone too... Boreas quickly looked around the hall, taking anything that might be useful in. On each side of the room, there was a huge statue of a Lugia on a stone pedestal three metres high and almost five wide.
"An even fight," sneered Black, "are you scared yet?"
Ghetsis laughed. "You'll need at least another trainer on your side to make it even. Farewell, Black."
Ghetsis banged his cane again and the battle started in all its deadliness. Boreas instantly aimed a powerful attack for Ghetsis, but the man jumped behind the pedestal of the statue behind him.
Mighty attacks flew over Black's team aimed for him, so he quickly did the same, seeking cover behind the statue's huge pedestal. Reshiram and Kyurem collided with terrifying might in combat in the middle of the hall, fighting each other with devastating flames, lightning bolts, and ice.
Boreas tried to run around the enemy team in the hopes of reaching Ghetsis, but found his path suddenly blocked by a huge wave of water. He tried to freeze it before it reached him, but was too late: it crashed into him with nearly bonebreaking force. He was submerged in a maelstrom of water. The rapid, chaotic currents prevented him from freezing any of the water, since the water near him would be far away within a second, and turned him so suddenly his neck felt whiplashed soon. The currents never allowed him to surface at all, so he was rapidly running out of air.
He caught occasional glimpses of a large, dragon-like seahorse with a sharp snout in the maelstrom, a bright white ball of energy forming on its snout. Boreas tried to attack Kingdra, but the currents were so fast and unpredictable his attacks mostly missed, and the one time an Ice Beam did hit his enemy it seemed to be hurt little.
All of a sudden, the currents held Boreas in a single place, but before he could capitalise on it a bright white beam of energy enveloped most of his body. He felt like he was on fire, his every cell burning with pain. He weakened the beam with powerful pulses of cold through the water, but it still felt as if the beam was disintegrating him layer by layer. He was unable to resist screaming in agony and so lost the last air in his lungs. The terrible beam ended at last, so Boreas attacked back and froze the water near Kingdra, then struggled to reach the surface as his lungs were desperately begging for air by now. Kingdra was too occupied with getting away from the suddenly encroaching ice to keep up the drowning currents, so Boreas could finally ascend in the water. His muscles burned and he had a dreadful headache, not even to mention the pain the beam had inflicted, but he spent the last of his strength to reach the surface while suppressing his breathing reflex. His front paw finally touched delicious air: he was almost there.
But hope died as a current pulled him deep under again. In the shock of the moment, Boreas' breathing reflex got the better of him and he inhaled deeply, but instead of liberating air, water reached his lungs. It was like inhaling magma: his lungs were in agony from the water filling them, and he instinctively breathed in and out quickly, more agonising water filling his lungs as his vision slowly faded to black.
Though his mind had raced to find a way to save himself, he finally realised he was truly drowning to death, and decided he didn't want his life to end thinking only of the burning pain in his lungs and the terror of not being able to reach the surface. He focussed only on Aqua, picturing her face when she had agreed to marry him minutes ago. Thinking of her he felt his mind slowly go blank. In his dying moments his oxygen-deprived brain dreamt of her grabbing him, her sweet face full of fear for his life, and kissing him. The pain, the panic, and the all-consuming need for oxygen faded as death embraced him. At least it was a good dying dream, Boreas thought through a densely fogged mind.
But the dream continued as Aqua swam rapidly through the currents holding him, and shielded him from another beam with her own body, screeching in pain underwater as she was hit. Moments later, Boreas was thrown out of the water and landed hard on the ground, feeling utterly horrible. He coughed and vomited up floods of water and wheezed to get air, but his lungs were still almost full of the horrible stuff and the air he breathed barely offered any relief. Between coughs and wheezes he was still drowning on dry land.
He was lifted by two large human arms that pressed hard on his chest and held him facing downward. It hurt, but made him cough up far more water than before. Boreas was vaguely aware Black was running, holding him while the enemy's attacks flew him around the ears. Boreas' breathing became slightly more effective, slowly removing the pain and fog in his mind as they dived behind the cover of a statue.
Boreas had no idea how long he coughed up water while Black pressed on his chest, but he felt himself slowly recover. "Tha-Thank you..."
"Are you feeling better now, little buddy?" asked Black full of concern. "I thought I'd lost you there for a moment."
"Much- much better," gasped Boreas, "still- bloody awful."
Boreas tried to see how the battle was going, but hidden behind the pedestal he could only see the large blob of water he'd nearly drowned in: Aqua was still fighting Kingdra inside, but it was hard to see who was winning.
Suddenly an armoured insect with two sharp lance-arms, one of which was covered in blood, hopped around the corner. Boreas tried to get up to fight, but was still in no condition to do so, breaking out in a water-spewing coughing fit instead. "Don't worry, little buddy," said Black, pulling his knife, "I'll defend myself."
The Escavalier ignored Boreas as it lunged out at Black with its lances. The human fortunately dodged them and stabbed back, only for his knife to harmlessly bounce off the armour. Escavalier stabbed at him again, but Black dodged it.
A huge ball of fire from the battle of the legendaries hit the top of the Lugia statue and melted the stone there instantly, distracting Escavalier for a moment and allowing Black to put some distance between them. But followed and stabbed at him again: Black parried with his knife, but the powerful pokémon easily flung it from his hand. It stabbed with its other lance and pierced Black's leg all the way through.
Boreas got up, forcing himself past his weakness to go help his badly wounded trainer. He ran into Escavalier's back just as it was about to kill Black with another stab, making it miss. Boreas put a weak pulse of cold through his enemy. Escavalier wasn't hurt much and threw Boreas off, then turned around to finish Black. The human had tried to crawl away, but with his one leg pierced and bleeding heavily he was slower even than the armoured insect. Boreas tried to fight Escavalier again, but was felled by a dreadful coughing fit.
On the other side of the statue, Kyurem tried to hit Reshiram with an obliterating Hyper Beam, but missed. The beam hit the hall's roof instead, where a rain of boulders exploded from its impact as it knocked all the way through. One of the heavy rocks struck down Escavalier as it was about to strike, knocking it out, though its armour prevented it from being crushed completely.
Fortunately neither Black nor Boreas were hit, but the wound on Black's leg was bleeding badly. Boreas went over to him and softly breathed ice-cold air on the leg to slow the blood loss. "I'll be alright, little buddy," said Black with a cringe of pain. "Go help the others, they'll need you more than me right now."
Boreas nodded and, coughing up some more water, he walked around the statue cautiously. The first thing he noticed was how wounded Reshiram and Kyurem looked. Their titanic combat was still going on, massive fire and ice colliding every second, but they were covered in wounds and looking ready to fall. Instead of blood, their wounds oozed a strange gas that hung about them; white for Reshiram and black for Kyurem.
The next thing he noticed was that many of the other combatants were defeated by now; fortunately none looked dead. Aqua was now fighting Seismitoad in the big blob of water surrounding them, while Lucius spit fire at a Bouffalant charging him. With Ghetsis' remaining pokémon fighting his friends, Boreas quickly sneaked over the battlefield to the statue Ghetsis had hidden behind, planning to end this immediately. With heavy creaking and crashing, more parts of the ceiling came down, making a wide crack that let in rain and wind.
He walked around the pedestal's corner: there was Ghetsis, his robes partially torn by someone's attack, and all that stood between him and Boreas was a brown, bell-shaped stone. Boreas jumped around the corner and instantly Ice Beamed the Sage, but his attack never landed: a ghostly vortex of purple and green appeared around the stone and absorbed the beam. Boreas quickly tried to parry the Shadow Ball it fired back at him, but still found himself weakened by nearly drowning.
The other pokémon disappeared before Boreas' next attack hit, and then he was floating in a purple vortex. "We are Spiritomb," said dozens of whispering voices at once, "you are now one of us."
Terror struck Boreas as something was trying to enter his mind as they said this. "Y-you're just trying to scare me! The legends can't possibly be true!"
"Don't resist it, Boreas, it's not so bad to be Spiritomb," said Capella's kind voice.
Boreas nearly dropped his guard in shock and the entities closed in on his mind. But he realised what they were trying to do and immediately unleashed all his icy power into the centre of the vortex, creating a Blizzard inside it. A hundred and eight voices cried out in agony, and he was suddenly back in the hall, the Spiritomb before him was pulsating furiously. "That is for abusing Capella's memory!"
He fired an Ice Beam at the stone: it cracked and there were more cries as the vortex shrunk away. "And that is for Black!"
"We are Spiritomb... We share our pain." Boreas writhed in sudden agony as he felt his very life force drain away while the vortex grew again. "You cannot defeat us. You will join us."
Boreas fired a continuous Ice Beam into the vortex's centre, shrinking it as his life force drained away. "And that..." he growled, "is for Aqua!"
The Spiritomb finally disappeared entirely, reduced to just the stone. Boreas collapsed, less strength left in him than in a slice of white bread. But he knew he had to kill Ghetsis and tried to get back up.
"Not bad," said the robed human as he swung his cane and knocked Boreas out with a single hit to the head.

Blood dripped through Boreas' fur when he woke up again feeling like someone had run him over, but he instantly remembered what had happened. There was no Ghetsis behind the pedestal any more, though: only the stone of the defeated Spiritomb. He slowly got up and looked at the battlefield. To his horror, Reshiram lay defeated before Kyurem, and none of his friends were still fighting: they all lay on the ground either unconscious or barely able to move. Ghetsis stood behind Kyurem, laughing. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
Kyurem fired a Hyper Beam at the statue Black hid behind, shattering it in a huge explosion. This was too much for the heavily-damaged roof: it all came down. Ghetsis shouted a command and Kyurem used some kind of pulse that blasted Boreas away on its shockwave, along with the pieces of the collapsing roof, causing it to explode outwards instead. The hall was completely ruined and had no roof any more, but no-one was crushed by the debris. However, Black was completely defenceless against Kyurem now. He couldn't even flee with his pierced leg. Boreas rushed back as fast as his legs would carry him, which was unfortunately very slow. "Kyurem," shouted Ghetsis, "Fusion Bolt!"
Huge electric shocks hit Black, and he squirmed helplessly as he was electrocuted. The dragon kept on shocking him on and on. Boreas managed to break out in a run: his only chance was to take out Ghetsis before Kyurem killed Black. He jumped at Ghetsis, firing off an Ice Beam as he did.
Boreas and the Ice Beam hit Ghetsis, knocking him down to the ground, but just as Boreas was about to finish it, Kyurem's head turned and spit a beam of light at him that charred his fur and knocked him back, landing hard on the ground. The blackness encroached on him and his legs were barely responsive. Don't let him down now, dammit! I HAVE to keep going!
But as much as his mind wanted to, his body was spent. It was nothing short of a miracle he managed to remain awake, let alone move. "No... No..." he muttered weakly as he squirmed with a front paw in an attempt to rescue Black.
The human lay on the ground now, smoking and still convulsing several seconds after the shocks had stopped. "Kyurem..." said Ghetsis as he got up. Boreas cooled his body down a little: he might be able to manage a very weak Ice Beam and his brain blazed trying to think of a way to save Black with it. "Kill him."
There had to be something he could do, some idea that would stop Kyurem and Ghetsis right now... There had to! Electricity on Kyurem's body gathered at its snout in a fraction of a second as Boreas' half-conscious mind made overtime.
He had no idea. All he could do was look on, completely powerless, as a huge flash of lightning ended the life of his beloved trainer and friend. He wept bitter tears of rage as the fallen Reshiram's body immolated and glowed with light. It emanated huge spitfires that bent off their track and hit Kyurem instead as Reshiram curled up and became a floating white ball of fire and light. But just before it was about to explode, Kyurem emanated a big cloud of greyness that merged with the ball of white energy instead and mixed with it as it retook a physical shape.
Reshiram had become Kyurem-like. Its once pure white lower body was now covered in grey scales, and its head had become like Kyurem's empty face, but with Reshiram's white feathers on it as well.
"What is this?!" exclaimed Ghetsis. "They were supposed to become a single, complete Kyurem! How can they be two incomplete Kyurems?!"
Boreas didn't care at the moment, his mind in flames of hate for the evil monster that had murdered his trainer. He tried to drag himself to Ghetsis, even if all he could do was bite the man's ankles it would be better than nothing. But he was too weak.
"Hmm..." muttered Ghetsis. "Reshiram and Zekrom must have been apart for so long reuniting them has become very hard... So instead, a bit of Kyurem's spirit merged with each. But who am I to complain? Two Kyurems for the price of one!" he laughed and one by one returned the pokémon that were still out to their pokéballs. Boreas was still dragging himself towards Ghetsis, centimetre by centimetre, completely focussed on revenge. But he came nowhere close, as Ghetsis climbed on the black Kyurem's back and ordered them to ascend. The two Kyurems flew out of the ruined hall. Boreas' will gave out and he lost consciousness.

When Boreas woke up, he was under water again. After an initial moment of panic he realised he had clearly been breathing this water for a while, which meant it was Aqua Ring, and that meant Aqua was still alive and helping him recover. But even she couldn't help him recover from the horrible loss he had just suffered. He glumly let the veil of water restore his energy and lessen the pain of his wounds greatly.
When the veil disappeared, Boreas saw Toxica had taken Black's potions from his backpack and was helping the others recover in silence while Aqua did the same with her Aqua Ring. Boreas felt immensely alone. He slowly walked to Black's body. At least it didn't look nearly as gruesome as Capella's. The electricity had scorched him in a few places, and of course his leg was still badly wounded, but overall Black looked barely more than asleep now. Boreas touched his friend's head, and found it was ice cold like the storm itself. He wasn't used to others being that cold.
Just as Boreas felt the tears coming he felt a welcome presence next to him. He embraced Aqua tightly and cried on her shoulder. She rubbed his neck and back softly, trying to comfort him. "I'm so sorry..." she whispered. "I'm so sorry..."
Boreas' tears slowly stopped with Aqua comforting him, and his grief turned to fury slowly. He finally let go of Aqua and looked around. "Did any of you see where Ghetsis went?"
"I did," said Selene solemnly. "I could see the highest tower, the one with the throneroom, from where I lay. He flew there."
"Right," said Boreas, "then I'll follow and kill him."
"My dear fellow," said Octa kindly, "I share your need to avenge this most grievous loss... But we must rein in our righteous anger and think of the greater good. Ghetsis has all three parts of Kyurem now: his death will no longer change much, and therefore we can't win. We have to alert the resistance and help them retreat."
"Iris said the three dragons would have to become Kyurem again together for them to be a complete pokémon. For some reason, they've become two different Kyurems instead: therefore both are still missing a part of Kyurem and can't be stable without a... 'Hero'" he spat out the so very inappropriate word, "to bond with. We kill Ghetsis, and both of them do their exploding thing."
Octa nodded pensively. "That is a very good point, my dear fellow... But can we be sure of that? If you are mistaken, many more might die. And even if you're right, we couldn't defeat Ghetsis with Reshiram on our side; how shall we ever kill him now that all three dragons are his?"
Boreas sighed. "I don't know. You're right: the six of us can't defeat his team. But maybe some of us can distract them, while the others go after Ghetsis?"
"A distraction within a distraction..." mumbled Aqua.
"Enough talk!" snapped Lucius. "I'm not gonna let those bastards get away with killing two of my friends! I don't care what you guys do, I'm gonna kill them all, right now!"
They tried to reason with him, but he rushed out of the ruined hall. "He'll get himself killed like this instead, I'll stay with him!" said Selene, flying off after him.
"Dammit," cursed Boreas as he ran after the two dark-types. "We can't let ourselves be split up like this! Come on, we have to keep up with them!"

Boreas recoiled in terror as blazing heat blistered his skin and instinctively lashed out with wind to blow the heat away from him, which saved his fur from catching fire. He was clearly not going to be able to get past Rood as easily as most of the rest of the combatants.
He had followed Selene through the now abandoned, half-collapsed corridor and through the battlefield as fast as possible, but had slowly lost her anyway. Fortunately he knew where Lucius was likely heading: the tallest tower. All they had to do was go there, and they would hopefully run into their friends. Boreas had kept running, looking behind him to find he was completely alone only much later.
He didn't know where Aqua, Octa, and Toxica had lost him, if they'd followed him at all, but he'd realised the only place there was a good chance of them running into each other again was at the tallest tower. So he'd made his way through the battlefield alone, not interfering even when he saw the enemy's dragons easily destroy pokémon by pokémon. Even Hydreigon was still a threat: now that Sage Zinzolin was dead, it had gone rogue, slaughtering and sometimes devouring pokémon and humans from both sides with brutish glee. As he made his way through the battle, it became clear to him things were going poorly: they were badly outnumbered, and each of the six remaining Sages and the Elite Four was more powerful than as good as all the trainers from the resistance. Though most didn't know about Ghetsis killing Black and taking Reshiram yet, all could feel it. Boreas hadn't noticed it in his rage over Black's death before, but Ghetsis having all three dragons had an incredibly depressing effect on all the resistance, and invigorated the enemy. Many were scared and looked as if they were about to surrender or flee.
Despite that, a minor victory had been won in this part of the castle, as Elesa, White, and one other trainer had broken through the seemingly endless line of grunts. However, they had encountered Sage Rood and his fire-types leading half a dozen grunts in a maze of corridors, and Boreas had just run into their battle. It was on the only way to the tower, so he had no choice and had tried to get through the battlefield. But each attempt had been foiled, so it was easy to see he wasn't getting through without helping Elesa and White beat Rood. Since most of their team was busy fighting Salamence in a different corridor, that would be difficult.
After barely saving himself from being incinerated by Chandelure, he tried to blow it out of the air: to no avail, as the ghostly chandelier barely seemed to notice the wind. It blew a stream of fire at Boreas, but he handily parried it and responded with an Ice Beam, which had very little effect on the ghost-type. He dodged a powerful Flamethrower that made the floor sizzle after, and defended himself from multiple more fire-attacks.
He pushed himself against the wall and from this position fired an Ice Beam behind one of the decorative shields that hung on the wall, hitting the wire that kept it up there so it fell off, hitting Chandelure and crushing it to the ground. "Just like old times," he chuckled.
But he wasn't done yet: Chandelure was only brought down, not defeated yet. A scorching burst hit his front paws from under the heavy shield, setting them alight. Boreas jumped on top of the shield as he cursed with pain and extinguished his burning paws quickly. He brought the shield down on his trapped opponent several more times, then took a moment to inspect his paws. His fur was scorched and his skin quite sore and full of blisters, but he could continue.
He ran around the corridor's corner, where he found Febby duelling Ninetales on her own, badly hurt already and completely on the defensive. Boreas recalled he had found this Ninetales very attractive when he had first seen her, that it was the first time he'd had an interest in a girl in fact. Now all he could see was Febby, wounded by deep cuts and a very bad-looking burn on her side, defending against a constant stream of attacks from the Ninetales.
"Hey, you!" Boreas challenged the fire-type, cloaking himself in a fierce snowstorm that filled up the corridor around him. "Keep your paws off her!"
He sprinted at Ninetales like a comet with the raging Blizzard around. Ninetales turned her attention from the wounded Umbreon to the roaring tide of white about to crash into her and breathed a powerful Flamethrower into it: missing Boreas, who was using his Snow Cloak to conceal himself. He pounced the Ninetales, firing an Ice Beam while lashing out with the roaring storm that overwhelmed the other fox like a tsunami.
Ninetales was strong, throwing him off rapidly, but he just followed up with more of the Blizzard, the winds of it heavy with a painful rain of liquid air. Boreas easily dodged another powerful fire attack, completely in his element in the icy storm, and surprise Ice Beamed Ninetales from the side.
Ninetales breathed intense, bright white fire, but not at Boreas: the fire instead coalesced into a fierce, hovering orb of intense light and heat like the Sun. Boreas tried to hold on to his storm, but the powerful heatwave washed it away, quickly dispersing it through the wide corridors.
Ninetales blew a wave of flame onto Boreas. He defended himself, but his pulse of cold weakened the inferno only a little. There was a searing pain and he was thrown against the wall, ablaze with the fire. Using his own powers of cold he quickly doused himself, but he felt roasted.
"Impressive weather, little snowflake," said the Ninetales angrily. "But now it's time for you to melt!"
"Don't count me out yet!" With a flash of darkness, Febby collided with her, throwing her to the ground and lashing out at her with claws and teeth surrounded by dark energy. But after the initial surprise, Ninetales was still stronger and gained the upper hand, clawing at Febby with vicious claws until she bled heavily. As Boreas tried to fight again, Ninetales breathed fire right into Febby's face.
He roared in fury and tried to freeze Ninetales, but in the desert-like heat of the orb, his wounds made him quite weak. He tried to blow the orb away, but couldn't. Ninetales turned to him, getting off Febby. "Sorry about that," she said insincerely, "but this is what happens to all those who oppose us. Now for you..."
She breathed in to incinerate Boreas, and was blasted away by a huge, powerful beam of green light. "Thank you for all this light," said Octa casually. "'Tis quite rare this far north."
Boreas had no time to thank Octa: he rushed for Febby. "Febby! Come on, let's get you to White!"
"B-Boreas..." she mumbled. "It's too late..."
"No, it's not." Boreas chilled down her many deep cuts, slowing the blood loss from them. "C'mon, Octa, we have to get her help."
"Right you are, my dear fellow. And you as well, if I might add. I'm glad I found you at all." They began carrying her together.
"Where are Aqua and Toxica?"
"I don't know. Everyone was just running to catch up to each other, and I do believe we all got separated in the process..."
"Boreas..." muttered Febby. "Tell Esper I love him... And wish we had had more time together..."
It pained Boreas to see Febby like this, so he made sure they moved her extra fast. "Don't say things like that, Feb, you're not going to die today. You're going to have time enough to talk to tell Esper that yourself, because you're not going to die until you're really old."
"A-and, love Aqua... Forever... I hope you'll both live happily ever after together..."
Boreas felt tearful, hearing Febby so fatalistic; it made him realise even if they got her to White, she would likely not make it anyway: her wounds seemed far too severe for potions to be much help.
As they turned the corner, an infernal battle waited. Elesa, White, and what was left of their teams were in a fighting retreat against Salamence, Charizard, Camerupt, and Arcanine. White was wounded herself, bloodied and clutching one arm as if broken, but instantly came to Febby's aid, and then lifted her up with her one working arm as Rood's pokémon advanced on.
Boreas and Octa joined the battle, but it didn't seem to change much: Salamence was just too strong.
"Boreas!" Esper was fighting next to him. "What happened to Febby? Will she be alright?!"
Boreas genuinely felt sorry for him. "That Ninetales got her... I don't know if she'll be alright, she was very badly wounded. She-she said she loves you, and wishes you'd had more time together..."
"Oh no, oh no, oh no," said Esper panicky, "I don't know what I'd do without her, I couldn't live like that..."
They were driven out of one of the building's exits: this one led only to a large balcony looking out over the power portions of the castle. They were trapped. From their high vantage point, they could see the resistance losing everywhere. Many were closed in by far larger groups, others were already running away.
"Ahh," said Rood, as he emerged onto the balcony behind his pokémon. "Now dat's a view I wouldn't miss even for dis rain. Team Plasma's final victory is at hand, Gym Leader. It's such a shame to have to kill you all, but your interference is too dangerous to be allowed..."
With that, Rood's pokémon attacked. Charizard flew at them, about to spit fire, so Boreas blew it wildly off its course and made it hit Camerupt. Right at that moment, Arcanine pounced him, but found its claws parried by Octa's Leaf Blade. As Octa engaged the Arcanine, Boreas Ice Beamed the Charizard's wings as it came over again, causing it to crash on the balcony, where Boreas jumped on its back and began Ice Beaming the back of its skull.
But an impact of Charizard's heavy, flaming tail threw Boreas off the dragon's back and set his paw on fire again: he landed in a sideways roll that extinguished his paw, but then Charizard opened its maw and a huge inferno shot towards Boreas – and met with a bright green beam of light from Octa that dispersed the flames with its sheer energy before they reached Boreas.
Charizard roared in fury and spit fire at Octa instead, and Octa fired another energy beam: the fire and the beam met in the middle between them. Boreas saw Arcanine rushing for Octa, enveloped in flame, and made sure he got there first, enveloped in a snowstorm, taking both the brunt of the impact and hurting Arcanine almost as badly. It was on its feet first, however, and pounced Boreas in blind rage. Only for its throat to meet with Octa's blade instead.
"Thanks, my dear fellow," said Boreas in surprise, before chuckling as he realised Octa's idioms were finally beginning to rub off on him.
"No problem at all," Octa smiled. "After all, you-"
Boreas threw Octa aside and created a powerful pulse of cold, protecting both of them from the worst of Charizard's Flamethrower. Octa fired a Solarbeam at it, and it actually retreated. Boreas laughed, but Octa directed his attention to the left. "'Tis not over yet."
Salamence had defeated or killed most of White and Elesa's teams by now, only Esper and a Luxray still standing against it. Salamence turned its attention to Boreas and Octa as Charizard sat back and protected Rood instead. Boreas Ice Beamed the dragon, and it roared in pain and rampaged towards him, completely ignoring Luxray and Apollo attacking it, and even Octa getting in its path and stabbing into it was simply thrown out of the way with a single paw.
The metres-tall dragon rampaged towards Boreas, further attacks only making it angrier, and attacked him, thrusting its huge, sharply jawed head towards him. Boreas jumped out of the way just in time, but the impact next to him was like a meteor strike. Boreas was showered in shards of stone and thrown back, but Salamence wasn't even fazed by the incredible impact and tried to crush him with a claw. Boreas rolled away from yet another Earth-shaking impact by the mighty dragon, and ran back to the others.
Things were looking very bleak, as Salamence and Camerupt were together stronger than the rest of them, and the battle was going incredibly poorly for the rest of the resistance. But suddenly, down in the lower parts of the castle, a brilliant white-green light shone through the storm. The fighting stopped for a moment as all looked to see what this strange green Sun in the storm could be. Boreas squinted, and saw it wasn't a single source of light, but a whole cluster of them, shining brilliantly like green stars, and a single blue one.
Octa was teary-eyed with joy. "'Tis my family... The house of Equinox has come!"
 
79
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 24, 2013
Chapter Seventy-Four: Children of Equinox
Lord Publius Cornelius, leader of the house of Equinox, looked upon the battle, and the combatants looked back in surprise, momentarily pausing their fighting. Several pokémon and trainers of the resistance had been fleeing, but some of them took heart in the appearance of the house of Equinox and stopped, while others used the opportunity to escape. The resistance clearly wasn't doing very well. "Brittanicus, Livia," he said, "we split our forces in three, you two take the flanks; I shall take the centre. We attempt to outflank as many enemies as we can."
"Father," warned his son Gaius, "there are too many for us to achieve victory. Besides, remember why we are here: not to perish in a battle that has already been decided."
Publius did remember why they had come: the moment Gaius had returned with the news of Octa leaving their house, Publius had immediately left to convince his son to reconsider. Most of the family had joined him, of course: even Gaius had returned with them. None of them wanted to lose Octa. Aurora Invicta, now leader of the house of Quintillus, had joined them with a few of her kin. "I know," Publius raised his voice, addressing the almost four dozen of those with him. "Equinoctes, we came here to give aid to one of our own in undoing his error, but he requires aid of a different nature now! He is not the only one: all those who fight Team Plasma now depend upon us! 'Tis true, I'm afraid: they are losing this battle, which means they require the valour of Equinox even more! Do we turn back in dishonour, let Team Plasma go victorious, and leave those who fight for justice and freedom to die alone while our magnificent ancestors twist in their graves in shame?!"
Lord Publius held out his Leaf Blade and slowly charged up a Solarbeam, letting his entire body glow with it as a battlecry. Those he addressed began to do the same one by one. Even Gaius joined in and began organising a dozen of them as lord Publius continued. "Or do we fight?! We shall do battle, for Equinox and honour, no matter the odds! We shall fight those who oppose civilisation itself and bring honour worthy of our ancestry to ourselves! Fight now! Fear death nor darkness, for we are children of Equinox!" Lord Publius turned his attention to the flabbergasted enemies, who had regrouped in face of these forty Servines and Serperiors, all glowing brightly with sunlight by now. "FOR OCTA!!!"
They charged their foes, blade in hand, striking them down by all firing their Solarbeams before they clashed with the endless ranks of the enemy.

The light of the house of Equinox washing over their enemies down below like a wave of light was brilliant, like the Sun had risen in the middle of the dark storm. Realising they had all stopped fighting to watch the spectacle, Boreas snapped out of his reverie and climbed up on the back of Salamence's neck. As it noticed him and began bending its spine wildly to try and shake him off, he sent pulses of cold into its head and throat.
With Boreas keeping the dragon busy, Octa managed to stab it in the side, but was thrown away by a powerful claw immediately. Salamence was momentarily immobilised as it mentally repelled Esper, allowing Boreas to regain his grip on its neck and climb up further to its head, holding on to the spikes there. Esper staggered back at his contact with the powerful draconic mind, but Altaïr the Luxray quickly took his place and zapped the dragon. Boreas was slightly shocked too, but its resistant body had already absorbed most of the electricity.
Salamence roared and hit Altaïr with a white beam as Boreas Ice Beamed its thick skull from behind. He kept his attack up in the hopes of knocking Salamence out or killing it, but it began rocking its entire neck and head back and forth rapidly to get him off. He tried to hold on, but one paw was loosened, and then he didn't have enough grip any more and flew off, hurtling over the balcony's edge. He made the storm blow him back with a mighty gust and landed hard on the balcony.
His Ice Beams had had their effect, though: Salamence was dazed and dizzy with its brain cooled down, having much trouble fighting Octa, Esper, and Altaïr, as it kept missing them. Boreas rejoined the fight from a distance this time, making the storm into a haily blizzard that struck hardest at Salamence. It spit blazing fire to try and keep itself somewhat warm and was almost completely focussed on that. Octa hit it with an Energy Ball to the face, making it recoil, and then stabbed his blade deep into the dragon's exposed chest.
They panted in exhaustion and victorious exhilaration, until Altaïr said: "Where did Rood go?!"
They looked around, but saw Elesa had caught him personally as he ran away and had knocked him out. It was so easy to just overlook humans in battle. Boreas felt great relief until he remembered Febby. He and Esper rushed for White, who was still administering to her, using potions and stitching her wounds to try to stabilise her enough to return her to her pokéball. White looked sad and panicky, and Boreas felt the same.
"How-" stammered Esper. "How is she?"
White gave him a quick pat as she continued treating the gravely wounded Umbreon. "If I can just stabilise her, she'll be alright... You two can give me a hand..."
Boreas carefully slowed Febby's bleeding while Esper used his powers to check her mental condition. "She's almost gone," he said in horror, "she's in a deep coma... Please, you have to rescue her!"

Aqua and Toxica ran through the castle, looking for the others as they ran for the tallest tower. When Lucius, Selene, and Boreas had darted out of the ruined hall, they had all followed, but Aqua and Toxica had gotten caught up in the fighting and fallen too far behind. They had tried to shout to Octa, but he hadn't heard them in the howling winds of the tempest.
The pokémon they were fighting were mainly weak, but there were lots of them and they had slowly become overwhelmed. Then this mysterious green light had shone in the distance, and a lot of the enemies had relocated to a different part of the castle, which allowed the girls more breathing room and eventually let them slip through the enemy lines, leaving a path of beaten foes in their wake.
"D'you think I should forgive Octa?" Toxica suddenly blurted out.
Aqua was taken aback a little, as she'd been thinking about the battle, wondering how wise it was of her to run further into it instead of getting out while she still lived. "Uh- Well, I dunno, I-"
"I mean, he's left his house for me and all, so I think he really is serious that he's chosen me over it. And I know he loves me."
"Umm..." Aqua tried to think of an excuse not to have this conversation. "Well, don't you think this is a bit of a poor time to be having this conversation? We're in a battle here."
Toxica gave her a frowning, sarcastic look. "You just got married in battle, and my duty as best woman was basically keeping the guests off your back so you could actually kiss the groom, so don't accuse me of poor timing."
Aqua laughed. "I suppose you're right. Well, I don't think I can give you advice, because to be honest I don't know what you see in him. But if you really do like him for some reason, then maybe you should take the chance? But if he leaves you again, castrate him."
Toxica stared at her with a flabbergasted look, and Aqua met her gaze trying to keep a straight face. Then they both burst out with laughter so bad they had to stop running. "I-I'll keep that idea- in mihihind!" said Toxica through fits of laughter.
"Be sure to warn him first," Aqua laughed, "that way you'll be sure he really does want to get back together."
"Oh, hi, darling," played Toxica, "I've thought about it and want to date you again, and oh by the way, if you let me down I'll-" she trailed off into another fit of laughter.
Aqua was the first to recover. "In all seriousness, though," she said, wiping tears from her eyes, "you know him better than me. If you honestly think he's serious, then go ahead and forgive him."
As Toxica had laughed out too, they resumed their run through the castle. "Thanks. That's not much of an advice, though."
Aqua shrugged. "I know; but I can't really give any better than 'follow your heart'. You're looking at the wrong person for sage wisdoms, or just any advice better than what you could've thought of yourself."
"I guess... By the way, which way do we take?" asked Toxica, but the maze of corridors they were in eluded Aqua too.
"I dunno," she said. "I can faintly hear the wind in that direction, though, so that'll be a way out."
They decided to follow the faint sound of the wind Aqua heard, and eventually ended up on a large balcony with many dark burned spots. Aqua jumped with joy and ran faster when she saw her husband – it really felt good to think of him as that. She was planning to pounce-hug him, but she saw his grieving face as White returned a pokémon between them to its pokéball and broke to a halt, approaching him more gently. She sat down next to him and softly huddled against him. Boreas startled, then gently embraced her, crying slightly.
"It's... It's Febby, Aqua... She's-" his voice broke.
Aqua hugged and supported him, suddenly feeling rotten for acting nasty to the Umbreon earlier in her euphoria. After a while, Boreas let go of her, his grief gone and replaced with determination. "Come, my love," he said, "I've lost enough friends today. It's time we ended this."
Boreas' voice was calm, but full of a conviction harder than steel that inspired Aqua and dispelled her last considerations of flight. "Alright," she said as they stood up. "But we'll do it together. No running off this time."
"Indeed," said Octa, joining them. "The sacrifices made today shan't be in vain."
"Well?" said Toxica. "Let's go get them, then!"
"White," asked Elesa, "are your pokémon well enough to continue?"
White nodded. "Febby will remain in stasis in her pokéball, so if she has any hope of survival left she at least won't get any worse... Don't you think we should wait for Black, though?"
"I think something bad may have happened to Black, if his pokémon are here all alone without him."

Lucius lashed out at the grass-types with the blazing inferno around him, cursing under his breath at being so outnumbered. "Stupid crazy birdbrain, you were supposed to make sure those other idiots kept up with me!"
Selene sat on his shoulder and fired bolts of darkness and knife-sharp waves of air through his flames at their enemies. "Sorry, my telepathy doesn't work well in a crowd, so I had no idea that's what you wanted."
Lucius jumped into his own flames, throwing Selene off to fly for herself, as Cradily spit a barrage of rocks into their original position. Lucius punished it with a Flamethrower, but wished he could get closer to personally rip off its tentacles. "If it wasn't for your stupidity, we wouldn't be outnumbered seven-to-two now! Or I should say seven-to-one-and-a-half, since you've only got half a mind to begin with."
"Well, surely your obvious genius counts for seven, allowing us to outnumber them?" asked Selene as she nimbly dodged aerial attacks.
"Hey! Quit mocking me!"
Lucius had sprinted for the tower, his thirst for revenge speeding him up. He had no way of knowing the others had had stupid for breakfast and lost him. Maybe Aqua had finally shown her true colours and turned against them? Lucius didn't know, and didn't care; even when he had found himself taking the wrong turns and going to a different part of the castle, because he had seen Ryoku fighting there, his Garchomp obliterating pokémon with every attack. Of course he had tried to kill the thin Sage; one revenge was as good as the other. But he had found himself outnumbered and outmatched, even though these were only grass types. He was lucky Garchomp was busy with other enemies.
The circle of intense flames around them protected Lucius and Selene from their enemies, most of which had to get within physical range to attack, while allowing them to counterattack. The flames also made it so warm not that much rain fell on them.
"Anyway," boasted Lucius, "you're probably right. I can handle these idiots, with a little help from you. Fire beats grass any day."
"Not if you're trying to choose what to sow a football field with," said Selene, using a gust of wind to blow fire on Exeggutor. "Sowing a field with fire is a complete mess."
"Shut your beak, you crazy b- Oh crap!" The Garchomp leapt into the air and flew rapidly at them with its wing-like arms, straight through the fire.

"Diego, my spare mantle please."
Diego helped Ghetsis put on the long black cloak over his dark clothes, as the human's injured right arm prevented him from doing so himself. "Thank you," he said, looking at himself in the long mirror he'd had brought to the throne room. "A pity that Houndoom managed to get close enough to damage my robes, I rather liked them. But I don't suppose torn robes are very fitting for an Emperor's first address to his people."
"No," smiled Diego, "I suppose they aren't. So when will you make your address?"
Ghetsis walked over to the throne. "Once the battle is won and the resistance crushed. I'll tell the people of Unova all about them cowardly murdering N and how we made them pay for it, and how I will rule in N's name and all that."
Diego curiously felt no regret when Ghetsis mentioned N's death. It already felt like something that had happened to someone else. In a way it had. He had been in such mental turmoil, but his decision was made now. There was no turning back, as nothing could return N, and that made things so much easier. His loyalty was to his true friend, Ghetsis. After all, Ghetsis' arm and eye had been permanently wounded rescuing a young Zorua long ago. He had had nothing but loyalty for the human ever since he'd saved Diego's little sister at great personal peril, loyalty that soon grew into friendship.
Ghetsis looked at N's throne with disdain. "I know they wanted to make something impressive that would appeal to the boy and help him think he really was the king... But couldn't they have made this a little less overdone?"
Diego shrugged. "Don't you want an impressive throne to convey imperial power?"
"Power should speak for itself, not be shown off with ridiculous golden thrones. I don't imagine a golden chair sits well anyway."
Diego hadn't thought of that yet. "I guess not."
He was beginning to get a little sick of this talk of clothes and chairs, though; the battle raging outside intrigued him far more. He didn't want to be cooped up in here while their final victory was won. He wanted to personally kill some of the idiots who thought they could beat Team Plasma. Diego wondered why the resistance was even fighting at all, outnumbered as they were. Were they really so blind they couldn't see there was no way they could win? Most of all, he had unfinished business with Boreas and Aqua. He wanted to finally fix the mistake he'd made in Opelucid Gym, that he hadn't been able to right in front of N while wrecked with self-doubt. He wanted to see the light leave Boreas' eyes, to sever his last tie with "Zeph" and destroy a potentially dangerous enemy in one move.
"Are you sure you don't want to join the battle again?" he asked hopefully.
"I told you, my friend," said Ghetsis, "I've fought enough for one day, and I don't want my new imperial robes ruined as well. That's why I had Giallo take my team instead in the first place."
"I see," said Diego, trying to hide his disappointment.
"However," said Ghetsis with a smile, "I'll ask Giallo to send one of the Kyurems back here instead to be my personal bodyguard, so you can join the battle."
"Thank you!" Diego exclaimed happily.
"You're welcome, my friend. But be careful, please."

They walked through the empty parts of the castle behind enemy lines. The four members of Black's team were joined by White, her Braviary, and Esper. Elesa with Altaïr and her Zebstrika was also there: they had left some of their wounded pokémon behind to guard Rood, as they would only endanger themselves more in battle. Their journey to the tallest tower was quiet, as there were no enemies and the tension made them all go silent. Esper especially had changed a lot from the cheery and rather annoying Espeon he normally was.
The tower came closer, and Boreas now recognised where they were: on the path they had followed to the throneroom earlier. He knew after they left the tower they were in, they'd have to cross a big courtyard on the roof of a lower building, go through the building with N's childhood room, up an ascending path on a wall, and then they'd be there.
As Boreas - who walked in front of the troop - entered the courtyard he saw all of Ghetsis' team, and all of sage Giallo's steel-types in it. He jumped back before they saw him, bumping into Altaïr and Aqua. "We've got a problem. Giallo's there, and he's got Ghetsis' team too. There's the two Kyurems, Metagross, Steelix, and Kingdra, just to name a few."
"Piss," cursed Toxica. "At least I guess it means Ghetsis is defenceless if we can get to 'im."
"Other than his cane..." muttered Boreas, remembering the heavy knock on the head he'd received.
After some translation difficulty, Elesa said: "Well, we'll never get through here with all these pokémon guarding the way, so we should turn around and try to find another way to Ghetsis."
"I'm afraid that's not an option," said Octa, "for there were no branching corridors any more past this point, ergo this is the only way to the throneroom."
They contemplated what to do for a moment. "Then all we can do is fight them," decided Boreas. "We don't stand a chance against so many strong enemies, but we have to try and slip past. Anyone who can get behind the enemy makes their way to Ghetsis as fast as they can and kills him. Hopefully before anyone else dies..."
They paused for another moment, gathering their courage. They all realised those who couldn't slip past the enemy would probably not survive against so much power. "All those steel-types... Where is Lucius when you need him? Or any fire-type for that matter?" muttered Octa.
"I don't suppose you could just fly to the tower?" Aqua asked Braviary.
It shook its head. "Not in this storm, the winds are far more dangerous above the ground and make it impossible to fly. I'll try to fly through their line as quick as I can, though."
Boreas grabbed Aqua's paw and kissed her. "Good luck, my love. I'm glad I jumped off that boat last year."
Aqua smiled. "Me too. But don't think you're off the hook yet: I expect you to stay in one piece for the wedding night."
Boreas chuckled. "I'll try to survive if you do."
"Deal."
As they were almost ready to charge into the courtyard, Boreas overheard Toxica whisper to Octa: "I love you."
"I beg your pardon?"
"I said I love you," she repeated. "And I really appreciate what you did for me, leaving your house. I just needed a little more time. I guess now there's probably none left."
"Do not be so pessimistic," Octa said gently, "we may yet make it. You have certainly given me a reason to ensure our survival. We shall yet have our second chance."
They were all ready now. "Good luck, everyone," said Boreas. Then he ran into the courtyard, gathering the storm to him and freezing all the rain to envelop himself in a cloaking hailstorm while some of the others chose to attack the enemy from this distance. It seemed fortune was slightly in their favour, as the white Kyurem had disappeared from the ranks of their enemies and could be seen flying into the tower instead. Unfortunately that meant the chances of anyone making it through actually killing Ghetsis were much lower.
The enemy recovered from their surprise, most barely hurt with their tough metal armour, and counterattacked. Braviary was fried by a mighty bolt of lightning in mid-flight as it tried to pass Kyurem. Boreas managed to dodge another lightning bolt, hidden as he was in the snowstorm. It seemed like he might be able to slip through the enemy ranks until the gigantic Steelix slithered into his path. Boreas jumped into the air and created a powerful upwards gust at the same time, launching himself metres up as a colossal metal tail crashed where he had stood a moment ago.
High in the air, he found Braviary was right: the storm was much stronger and more dangerous here. It was a good thing too, as it blew him out of the way of Steelix's gargantuan jaws snapping at him; however, he put his paws to the side of the iron snake's head and froze them to the wet metal. Steelix tried to shake him off, and Boreas timed his letting go just right so he flipped through the air in a pretty arc and landed on the back of its head instead. Here he had easy access to the thinner armour of its neckjoint, where he began pumping pulses of cold into his behemothic enemy. Steelix screeched ear-piercingly and shook violently all over with pain.
With a speed belying its size Steelix jerked its body up violently, and Boreas didn't freeze himself to it. He was thrown high into the air, tumbling, while Steelix under him opened its titanic maw to catch him with. But Boreas wasn't scared, as everything was going according to plan. He stopped his wild tumbling with a gust of wind so his head pointed downwards to the gaping maw, exposing a fleshy throat and with it Steelix's greatest weak point. Boreas began by firing a few Ice Beams into it, then as it closed its mouth and cringed with pain he aimed some into its eyes for good measure.
Unfortunately the next stage of his plan didn't work out so well: he tried to create upward wind to slow his descent and land softly, but the air simply didn't want to do that. He thought quickly to find a way not to break most of his bones on impact, and luckily Ghetsis' charging Bouffalant volunteered to break his fall as it ran underneath to attack Altaïr. Boreas adjusted the winds to flip him back around with his feet down and to aim himself for the ungulate.
Bouffalant's fluffy head provided a surprisingly soft landing, though Bouffalant didn't find the falling Glaceon's impact to its skull remotely as harmless. It was knocked out almost instantly as Boreas bounced off and landed behind enemy lines with a roll. The wounded Steelix was busy losing to Aqua now, so Boreas knew it was time to proceed to Ghetsis.
His path was instantly blocked as an elephantine metal leg slamming down hard before him along with the entire tank-like creature it was a part of. He tried to defend himself, but a kick by a heavy metal leg knocked him down. The next moment Metagross was upon him, its crushing weight pressing down on his body, creaking his bones. He tried to release a pulse of cold into it, but it barely responded; he fired Ice Beams at its face, but it psychically blinked them out of existence before they hit. Metagross lifted up a solid steel leg and held it above his head, about to crush it like a grape despite Boreas' struggles. It didn't even flinch when a jet of water hit it from far away.
"An Equinox shall never stand alone! Attack!" cried a voice that sounded much like Octa's, distracting Metagross as it brought down its mighty leg, allowing Boreas to barely dodge it by pulling his head to the side. A blue Servine and six Serperiors, one of whom Boreas recognised as Gaius, had just joined the battle. Their leader looked a lot like Gaius too, except older and far more majestic. Another was almost immediately killed by a bright beam from Kyurem. The remaining snakes joined the battle, but unlike Metagross Boreas didn't stop to watch them: he used his enemy's distraction to fire Ice Beams at its eyes. Even in a creature where the eyes are made of metal, they tend to be a vulnerable spot, so the shock of being hit there made Metagross lift up its body in reflex. Boreas instantly rolled away from under it and jumped back to his feet. Metagross tried to Body Slam him with its entire metal mass, but he had jumped up on its head already.
Boreas froze his paws to his enemy, expecting it to try to throw him off, but instead he felt a mighty and alien mind invade his own. Neither will nor anger provided any defence against the sheer force the Metagross' robotic mind had. He was completely powerless, and soon his entire nervous system was on fire as Metagross overloaded it with tremendous amounts of energy. He was in agony and wouldn't last long under the mighty creature's attacks; but the pain stopped soon as Metagross' mind left. Boreas slowly opened his eyes, bright white sparks of pain still flashing in them, and saw Octa, Toxica, and the blue Servine were fighting Metagross, distracting it from killing Boreas. He fell off behind the steel-type and slowly got up. Though the grass-types were fighting three-on-one, they were still losing.
Boreas was about to attack Metagross from behind, but Octa made eye-contact with him, and he could tell clear enough what he wanted to say if it wouldn't alert Metagross Boreas was behind him: "Don't! Remember our mission, my dear fellow: you are behind the enemy, so go for Ghetsis, for we shan't win this battle either way as long as he lives."
Boreas gave Octa an almost pleading look: "But I can't leave you here!"
Octa's glance was inexorable. "Yes, you can. Besides, this was your idea. Now go."
Boreas nodded to his friend, both in agreement and as a goodbye. Octa nodded back. Boreas turned around and walked into the building behind the enemy, turning around one last time: he made brief eye-contact with Aqua and suddenly wanted to turn back. He had promised her they would do this together, after all.
Aqua looked at him, clearly saying something like "We are doing this together, as we'll provide a distraction. Go on, my love."
Boreas nodded and they exchanged a smile as goodbye. Boreas wished he didn't have to go, as he had the horrid feeling they wouldn't see each other again.

Octa felt great relief as Boreas turned around and left the battlefield. He had feared the Glaceon's emotional nature would get the best of him. "Father," he said as lord Publius too joined the fight against Metagross, "I am honoured by your presence, but-"
"Octa," snapped Lord Publius angrily as a psychic attack knocked Toxica away, "you should not have left our house!"
"But I did, father!" replied Octa as he dodged a crushing, heavy leg. "I have chosen Toxica, and there is nothing you can change about that!"
"Stupid boy!" scolded Lord Publius, making Oct feel like a young Snivy who had accidentally hurt his sister again. "I do not want to change that decision, don't you even remember our conversation on this?! I support you in your choice, and your gratitude is to leave our great house?! That is the decision I wish to change!"
"Father, despite your support our house still does not accept my choice; in fact the part of me that considers its traditions holy does not support it! There is an inherent conflict between our house's traditions and my love; therefore the only course of action is to separate them; to separate me from our house."
"Our traditions have changed in the past, and they shall change again. I would much rather change this tradition than lose my son."
"I know, but not all of us agree."
"Indeed we do not," said Gaius as he dodged a great bolt of lightning by Kyurem. "For it is wrong to doubt the wisdom of our illustrious fathers and replace it with lack of traditions that brings us ever closer to commoners. Now we shall breed with them?"
"You forget your place," said Lord Publius. "If Octa wishes to, then yes, he shall."
"No, father. You may be our leader, but I have at least as much support as you, particularly with this débâcle ongoing. And I say it does not happen; therefore it shan't."

Boreas walked through the building's long corridor. The sound of battle soon died away behind him. He passed N's childhood room and finally left the building on the other side. There was only the lightly ascending path over the wall left, but it was blocked by an unwelcome presence.
Diego looked as surprised to see him as Boreas was, but then he smiled maliciously and madly, like a hyaena at its prey. "Boreas, I didn't expect to run into you yet. I'm impressed you made it behind our lines, but why are you here?" Understanding dawned on the face Boreas hated so much. "Oh, I see. You're planning to kill Ghetsis to get rid of the Kyurems, right?"
Boreas tried not to react as Diego saw through his plan. If he warned Ghetsis he would surround himself with his team and make it impossible to kill him...
Diego smiled. "There's no point trying to hide it now. It's a bold plan, and explains why your entire resistance rushed into this battle, as it's the only way you stand a chance of victory. But it's not going to work."
"You won't stop me," growled Boreas.
"You've never stood a chance against me," growled Diego. "I'll give you one opportunity to turn back and live. But of course, we both know you won't take it. So, it's time I did what I should've done a long time ago."
"I was about to say the same thing," replied Boreas. "You've made your final victim."
"To the death, then."
 
79
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 24, 2013
Chapter Seventy-Five: To the Death
The storm raged around them as Boreas replied: "Yes. I swore I'd kill you when you hung me from the Ferris wheel by my tail, and I was an idiot to ever relent in that. You're evil through and through." He carefully took a step back, as he didn't want to fight so close to his much stronger enemy.
"You're indeed an idiot if you think I'm the one who'll end up dead here." Diego cautiously took a diagonal step forward.
Boreas realised Diego was trying to get into the building behind him to prevent having to fight in the storm, which was an advantage to Boreas, so he sidestepped and blocked Diego. "Am I?" asked Boreas, trying to buy some time. "I survived all our previous battles, you know."
Diego laughed unpleasantly as he took a step in the other direction, only to be blocked by Boreas again. "Only because I didn't want to kill you. In Nimbasa you weren't important, so I let you live out of simple kindness. In Icirrus, my plan was to infiltrate your team, not to kill you. And this morning, I let you live because N was there, and he had enough doubts already."
A ball of fire suddenly flashed in the corner of Boreas' eye, shooting towards him. In a reflex he ducked, even as he realised it was a mistake. Diego dived past him at the very same moment; Boreas quickly twisted around to have his face to the Zoroark, who was now much closer to the relative safety of the building. But they didn't fight yet: Diego was still too exposed and Boreas too close to his enemy to want to start. "So what about Opelucid?" Boreas cautiously walked backwards as he talked. "Why didn'tyou kill me there?"
Diego seemed uncomfortable with the question. He slowly walked backwards too: neither of them dared to turn their back on their enemy nor walk backwards faster, because if they tripped the other would win with barely a fight. "A mistake," he finally admitted. "I had spent so much time pretending to be Zeph I had become used to it, and in a moment of confusion felt compassion for you. But it won't happen again. I have dealt with that weakness by dealing with N. You'll get what Team Plasma's enemies deserve."
Boreas had actually suspected something like that. He gathered the storm to him, cloaking himself in hail and snow. "What you call weakness, others would call having a heart. You're bad to the bone, and deserve death."
Their duel began as Diego reached the building: Boreas fired several Ice Beams at him, content he was at a safe distance by now. However, darkness swallowed all of them with a wave of Diego's paw. Boreas had to dodge a dark beam, and then created a powerful icy wind to freeze Diego with. But the Zoroark retreated into the building. "I'll just go tell Giallo of your little plan so he can protect Ghetsis!"
Boreas cursed. It was obviously a trap, yet he couldn't just run off and kill Ghetsis: with white Kyurem protecting him, that'd take a lot of skill and guile; and he just wouldn't have the time if Giallo could arrive at any moment. He sprinted after Diego, cloaked tightly in icy winds to at least give him a chance to dodge the Zoroark's inevitable ambush. He sent the winds in ahead of him to curl around the perimeter of the door, where Diego was most likely hiding behind, waiting to break Boreas' skull. Then he sprinted inside, turning to the right immediately, gambling Diego was on that side.
He wasn't, though; and neither was he on the left. Realising where he was, Boreas rushed away just in time for the Zoroark's heavy foot to land on his shoulder instead of his head as he dropped from above. He was slammed hard to the ground, but as Diego went for the kill he rolled under him, dodging the Zoroark's foot trying to crush his head and Ice Beaming him in the crotch. As Diego howled in pain and folded double, Boreas grabbed him by the head and pumped a pulse of cold right through his brain. But then severe pain filled Boreas as a sharp kick broke at least one of his ribs and threw him clear of his nemesis.
Boreas managed to jump to his feet despite the agony in his side and rapidly took a few steps back, away from the enraged Zoroark. But Diego put out his hands and before Boreas could do more than be surprised, arcs of lightning hit him, his flesh feeling on fire wherever they hit. He screamed in pain and wished only for it to end. He had experienced many types of pain by now, but this sheer agony might just be the worst. It went on and on, and when the torment ended at last, Boreas' body and mind needed to recover. But there was no time, as he could hear Diego running towards him, planning to end his life. Boreas rolled onto his side and froze the ground before Diego, making him trip and fall on the back of his head. They were both left lying on the ground recovering.
"That... Always works," panted Boreas triumphantly. "But Zoroarks can't even learn electric attacks... How did you do that?!"
Rubbing the bleeding back of his head as he slowly got up, Diego said: "Electricity? Just because it looks like electricity doesn't mean it is."
No electricity, then. Boreas realised the lightning had only brought pain, but hadn't made his muscles spasm nor burnt him; maybe it was some kind of dark attack intended to cause agony to its victims. As Diego put out his arms again, Boreas instinctively froze his fur down to a reflective coat. When the strange lightning hit again, it was still agonising, but also reflected back to Diego, who quickly stopped as he screamed in his own lightning.
"Got anything better than fake lightning?" Boreas taunted.
"Yes," Diego grinned. "Real fire." He breathed a blazing ray of flames. Boreas dived into the room to his side to dodge the fire, and found himself in N's room. Boreas quickly cooled down the air in the large room full of toys and began forming a storm as he rushed for cover behind N's large, curtained bed. When Diego appeared in the door, Boreas threw a model train lying about, accelerating it with a strong icy gale to hit Diego like a comet. The Zoroark stood absolutely still when he saw the train speeding towards him, and knocked it to pieces with a perfectly timed chop of the arm just before he was hit.
"Come now, Boreas, aren't you too old to play with toys?" Diego mocked as he walked into the room. Boreas focused his small storm's full intensity on Diego now that he had no cover at all, using the full extent of his ice powers, which unleashed a huge cloud of mist that obscured the Zoroark for a few moments.
"Completely ignoring cover?" mocked Boreas as his view of Diego being pelleted by the rain of liquid air returned. "I thought you were smarter than this."
Diego tried to continue on, but was rapidly freezing in the intense Blizzard, stumbling to his knees. Boreas was rapidly getting exhausted, but unleashed all his anger in the Blizzard, relishing the chance to finally give payback to Diego. The Zoroark's eyes froze over, and much of his skin was showing severe signs of frostbite as he finally collapsed completely. Boreas panted victoriously.
Too easy, way too easy! Warned a voice in his head, and at that moment his saw something big move fast from the corner of his eye and dived under the bed, receiving only a kick like the impact of a heavy mallet on his thigh instead of being entirely grappled by the huge Zoroark.
"Guess what?!" Laughed the Zoroark triumphantly as Boreas scurried away under the bed despite being teary-eyed with pain from his leg and side now. "I am!"
Boreas weakly Ice Beamed Diego's foot, too exhausted by the Blizzard he'd wasted on an illusion to do much more right now. He knew the Zoroark would probably throw the bed over soon, which would give Boreas a few seconds to either fight or flee, as it was toobig and heavy even for Diego to do so easily. But he did no such thing; he just stood there as Boreas breathed rapidly to regain his stamina, racing his brain to try and think what devilish scheme Diego might be up to this time. He felt very warm with exhaustion and his breathing barely seemed to offer relief. In fact, as some time passed, both got worse and worse. That bastard set the bed on fire! He suddenly thought and moved to scurry out from under the bed on the side opposite of Diego's feet. However, he changed his mind and went towards Diego's feet instead, confident they were illusions and Diego was actually waiting on the other side to kill him the moment he emerged.
His suspicions both turned out to be right: the bed was ablaze and Diego was on the other side of it, standing atop one of the chairs so his real feet couldn't be seen before. Boreas blew the fire on the bed with a strong wind, igniting Diego's arm. He yelled in pain and surprise and rolled over the floor while Boreas quickly climbed on top of one of the tall bookcases, gave a strong push against the wall, and jumped off onto another one as it fell. Unfortunately Diego was too quick and wasn't crushed by the bookcase as Boreas intended. He jumped off the new bookcase to dodge the Flamethrower aimed for him that ignited it, and hit Diego in the throat with an Ice Beam.
The larger fox collapsed, choking and clutching his throat, and Boreas jumped onto him, planning to finish it. But there was a flash of darkness just before he landed, his entire body flared with pain, and then an impact like a meteor to his stomach punched him away; he landed hard, model train tracks digging into his back and feeling dreadfully nauseous. Diego and Boreas both got up slowly, hurt badly. The entire room was wrecked by now, and most of it was on fire.
"How appropriate for you to ruin this room," spat Boreas, "since it's where you ruined N's life with your brainwashing!"
Diego growled. "And what do you know about it? Nothing! I educated N to be our weapon, yes, but I always did so with kindness and friendship. N had everything he could ever wish for!"
"Except freedom!" snapped Boreas. "He was a sentient being, not a tool for you to use, no matter how many excuses you think you have!"
"N would never even have lived without us, have you considered that? He was born only because Ghetsis needed a 'hero'. Since Team Plasma gave him life, his service as our tool was just repayment. And he even failed at that task!"
"Every time I think there might be some good deep within you, you once again show me the monster I've sworn to kill far too many times."
"Enough talk! I will enjoy seeing the light leave your eyes, Boreas!"

Octa was beginning to realise everything depended on Boreas. When a few of his family had managed to break through and joined them against Giallo, he had had hope the might of Equinox might actually bring them victory, or allow others to get behind enemy lines as well. But after the enemy's surprise wore off, they became very deadly once again. They would have stood some chance against Ghetsis' and Giallo's normal teams, but Kyurem and Metagross were terribly powerful. He had already seen two distant relatives get instantly frozen to the bone and then shattered by Kyurem's sheer power. Octa and his father were now fighting Kyurem together, leaving Metagross to Aqua and Toxica.
It was as if they were no more than annoying insects to the legendary, their every attack a hindrance at best, while Kyurem's were utterly devastating to them. They fought for their lives and those of everyone else, but could do little more than keeping it busy.
Kyurem's claw came for Octa, wreathed in deadly cold energy as he stabbed it ineffectively in the leg, but Kyurem flinched as it was hit by a powerful Energy Ball and Octa managed to barely dodge the lethal attack. It wasn't his father who had saved him, however, but his sister Livia, who was fighting Scizor.
Octa decided to help her defeat it, as it seemed they could with the two of them. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, brother," she replied as she parried Scizor's great claw with her blade. "Glad I get a chance to talk to you. Do we have any plan here, or is this a heroically doomed battle?"
"I do hope it's the first," said Octa as he stabbed his blade through a small crack in the insect's armour; he had already explained the plan to their father, so he repeated it briefly to Livia as they fought Scizor together.
"I see," summarised Livia as she nimbly dodged an attack. "So all we've got to do is keep our opponents busy so your friend can kill Ghetsis, if he somehow makes it past this other Kyurem?"
"Indeed," said Octa. "I know 'tis unlikely, but it seems to be our best hope. Besides, my friend is sharper than most."
Octa saw their chance and wildly attacked Scizor time and again, forcing it to focus on him, which allowed Livia to take advantage of the cracks in its armour and stab her blade deep into it. "I do not doubt it; 'tis still unlikely, but fighting for a good cause at unlikely odds is the duty of any Equi- of any good person," she corrected herself.
Octa nodded. "Thanks. You do not oppose my decision then?" he asked as they slithered back to Kyurem, firing Energy Balls at it.
"Of course not, brother. I-" she had to dodge a huge Ice Beam, "-consider Toxica a friend, and could imagine no better choice for you to make. I do wish some pig-headed idiots wouldn't get all worked up about it, though. Once this is all over and we all have a chance to talk, I'll help you smooth things out."
Octa was about to thank her again, but something horrifying happened: Lord Publius was hit by a gigantic lightning bolt from Kyurem. They furiously attacked it and rushed over, but it was too late: their father had died instantly from the tremendous shock.
"No!" cried Octa. "Father, no, you can't die!"
He felt agonising loss fill him with despair and fury. Enraged, he stabbed at Kyurem again and again, until it polarised itself so he got such a bad shock on his next stab all his muscles spasmed and he launched himself backwards. As he hit the ground away from Kyurem, he was snapped out of his rage and heard his kin say: "Lord Publius Cornelius is dead!"
As soon as they heard it, most of the house turned to Gaius. "Gaius, what are your orders? What do we do?" they asked, panicky.
Gaius looked at the battlefield with eyes wide-open with shock, looking at his father's corpse and Kyurem killing yet another family member with a single attack. "The day is lost!" he shouted. "There is valour in continuing to fight to the bitter end, but we have a duty towards our House! We cannot throw away our lives that might serve better later! Retreat! Retreat!"

The two foxes continued their duel even as the fire spread from N's room and lit much of the building on fire. Boreas' Blizzards only seemed to make the problem worse, as the wind helped the fire spread and the liquid air they produced fuelled the flames greatly. Boreas would have liked to just flee outside, as the fire terrified him and made the air painful to breathe, but he couldn't risk Diego warning Giallo of his plan. He had no choice but to fight wherever Diego chose to. However, even Diego had been forced to flee the burning room by now, and the corridor was rapidly becoming an inferno as well. Boreas fled into another room.
The fire had already spread to this room, but it wasn't entirely ablaze yet. The air was painfully hot as much of the carpet and decorations were burning. There was a balcony with a door to a higher floor and stairs going there, and a long, huge table in the middle of the room that was smouldering already. Diego nimbly jumped through the fire surrounding him, avoiding combustion, and clumsily stumbled into the room as well. Boreas dug his teeth deep into the Zoroark's leg, channelling cold through his mouth, let go and rolled under his opponent to dodge the attack trying to punish him, and Ice Beamed him into the small of the back.
Diego was hurt but not defeated and swirled around angrily, throwing a bolt of darkness at Boreas, which he parried, before spewing more fire at him. Boreas yelped and rolled to extinguish his smouldering fur, and was sent flying by a kick that broke another of his ribs. Standing up quickly as he tried not to let the pain overwhelm him, he saw Diego's terrifying visage as he approached; his dark-furred face twisted with hate and the fires reflecting in his malicious purple eyes. They stood before each other for a moment, then Boreas did what he thought his enemy would least suspect: attack him physically. He pounced the far larger Zoroark and dug his claws deep into the other's chest. Diego yelped in surprise and pain as Boreas drew eight long red cuts in his black fur. He jumped off the very next moment, before he could be grabbed, and ran for the stairs.
An agonising dark bolt hit Boreas from behind and his legs gave way for a moment so he tripped onto the stairs face-down. He rolled over instantly as Diego now ran for him, and Ice Beamed the Zoroark's already bleeding leg. Diego cursed loudly and tripped too; unfortunately right on top of Boreas. Eighty kilos of Zoroark landed on top of him and dug the stairs into his back like blades, crushed the air out of his lungs, made his broken ribs burn even more, and his spine feel near-breaking.
They both tried to recover first and hit the other, but breathing was impossible with his heavy nemesis pressing on his ribcage, so all Boreas could do was cool his body down to hurt Diego. But the Zoroark put both hands to Boreas' throat, ignoring the severe frostbite he incurred in doing so, and squeezed with incredible force. Boreas couldn't breathe at all as his windpipe was crushed, even when Diego shifted his weight off his chest.
"I win again," said Diego with an evil smirk as Boreas tried futilely to unclench his hands. He couldn't die now, when his friends were counting on him! He didn't want the final thing he saw to be his own suffocating reflection in two malicious purple eyes.
His eyes...
Boreas stopped struggling against Diego's iron grip on his throat and instead went for his left eye, putting his claw into it. It felt oddly tomato-like as he touched it, pressed hard, and violently tore his claw across Diego's face. Diego screamed in agony as his destroyed eye released a splatter of blood and clutched at his bleeding face with both hands. Boreas drew a breath, restoring his own energy, and blew his enemy away with a violent pulse of cold.
Diego lay on the smouldering ground, screaming and clutching his face as Boreas panted through his crushed throat, working hard for each breath. He tried to get up, but his entire oxygen-starved body protested and barely responded to him; he was only half up by the time his infuriated foe, his face drenched in madness and blood, sprinted at him. "MY EYE! MY EYE! MY EYE!" He cried like a madman. "I'll personally kill all your friends for that, once I'm done with you!"
Boreas didn't have the energy to attack and fled up the stairs, dodging lightning, but his furious enemy followed him. As he neared the top of the stairs, a tremendous impact to the back of his shoulders sent him sprawling. He looked just in time to see Diego's fist coming before it hit his face. In that instant he realised he would need to use an attack, as he would black out anyway, and would be skinned alive if the furious Zoroark wasn't taken care of. He used all his energy for a powerful blast of wind, Diego's fist hit his face with a terrible impact that sent fragments of his teeth flying around in his mouth, and just before his consciousness left he saw the Zoroark falling backwards as the wind blew him away, off the stairs, and hitting the burning table three metres lower on his back. The already weakened table collapsed and Diego disappeared into the burning wreckage as Boreas blacked out.

Lucius dodged beams and tried to keep his footing against the shaking Earth as he fought with Garchomp. The great dragon was an incredibly tough opponent, and he and Selene were just being overwhelmed by it. Some resistance guys finally fighting Ryoku's other pokémon at least took them off Lucius' back, but it wouldn't be long before the dragon killed him if this went on.

Boreas stumbled through the corridors as fast as he could in his disoriented, concussed state, with his shoulders, face, and a leg hurting very badly. As he had woken up in utter pain and with the world spinning around him, he'd seen Diego rise from the burning rubble that was the table like a furious demon. Parts of his fur had burnt off and showed bad-looking burns under them and one of his arms bled and hung limply, but the Zoroark's one-eyed face was one of pure hate and determination. Boreas knew he could finally risk fleeing from his opponent and taking the battle outside, as there was no way now Diego would just let him walk off while he went and warned Giallo: he would obviously do nothing rather than murder Boreas in the most painful way possible.
But even standing was hard for Boreas, and he'd had to spit out many broken teeth, the salt flavour of blood constantly in his mouth. His face bled at least as badly as Diego's and the world wobbled like a ship in a storm as he made his way through the corridors of the building's upper floor, which weren't burning yet. He hallucinated strange glowing orbs floating past and heard a mumbling noise as he stumbled into a wall. He was very lucky Diego was badly wounded too by his fall on the burning table, slowing him down.
He stumbled through corridors and rooms, looking for an exit, the bloodthirsty Zoroark always in pursuit. At last Boreas found a window, opened it, and climbed through, ending up on the building's roof. The storm had free reign here, making its wet and loose roof tiles even more dangerous. The roof was pretty irregular, with some higher and some lower parts. The strong gale of fresh air at least partially cleared up his mind and made it spin a little less. He could see the great battle being fought far down, as well as the tallest tower. The clouds were dark and boiling, taking on all shades of black, dark blue, and purple. Low in the south, there were brighter and yellower spots, showing the Sun was in fact up.
But he had no time to admire the view as Diego was climbing out of the window too. Boreas added strength to a gust of wind and slammed the window shut hard, making Diego's hand go through its glass. His arm got cut by it, and some glass-shards remained stuck in it. Unfazed, Diego stepped onto the roof. Boreas tried to make him slip, but he kept on walking, keeping his balance. Boreas Ice Beamed him, and his only response was to quickly wave his paw and block it with a dark-attack. Boreas felt terrified; he had never known Diego to be this determined and quiet and hateful, and he knew he would pay dearly for the eye once the Zoroark reached him.
So he cooled the storm down, making it snow and hail, and gathered it to him, both cloaking him and preparing for a very powerful Blizzard. Diego did the same as he approached; the little light there was just died near him as both his paws were enveloped by ink-black darkness. Diego stopped when there was about five metres between them. "That hurt," he said simply, "very badly. But I'll make sure Aqua suffers at least ten times as much before I end her miserable, treacherous life too."
The storm around Boreas went faster and faster, like an icy tornado. "You evil git, what has she got to do with it?! She's not the one that hurt you!"
"True," said Diego. "But I will kill you quickly, as I can't wait to snuff you out. Her, on the other hand, I will have the time to have some fun with..." He grinned for the first time since Boreas had taken out his eye.
Boreas was disgusted and horrified. "To think I thought only this morning there might be more to you than pure evil..."
"I think I'll start with the eye. Except in her case, I'll remove it a lot more slowly. Starting with pulling out her eyelashes one by one. Then her eyelids. Only then will I take out her pretty black eye. Then the other one. Next, I'll break her paws. Slowly, of course, starting with each of her claws, and then-"
"Enough!" interrupted Boreas. "You can talk about your sick plans all you like, but it won't happen anyway. In a moment, you'll be dead."
"Wrong," said Diego, "but one of us will be anyway. Goodbye, Boreas."
Boreas made the storm lash out at Diego with all the cold he had in him as Diego threw the sheer darkness formed around his hands. The tremendous force of Diego's attack made it like attacking a wall with his storm to Boreas. He cringed and strained to make the icy hurricane blow harder towards his enemy, as the wave of black approached. He blindly fired a few Ice Beams into the massive clashing of energies, and from the other side the dark lightning responded, poorly aimed and missing him. Boreas had to remain focussed on giving his all as the battle turned to a clash of wills. The front where his Blizzard had collided with Diego's Dark Wave was a raging, crackling freakshow of energies that slowly moved away from him when he really tried his best, and towards him when he let his focus slip for even a moment.
Keeping it up was incredibly taxing, but Boreas had no other choice. If he stopped, Diego would win and he probably wouldn't survive being hit by the front. But this stalemate was clearly bad too; he felt his energy drain by the second. He very cautiously moved a step back, and the front instantly moved towards him. He strained hard and managed to stop the raging clash of energy about two metres in front of him. He felt with his rearmost paw that the roof ended right behind him: it suddenly dropped very steeply, almost vertically. He jumped back, despite the risk of falling to his death, began to fall down, grabbed a roof tile on the sheer face of the building, just below the edge he'd fallen over. The front flew over him, leaving the air smelling of ozone.
Boreas' handhold was slippery from the rain and he had to struggle not to fall until he remembered he was a Glaceon and simply froze his paws to it. He hung to the roof's side, waiting for Diego to either come look over the edge or turn about and leave. He could hear Diego's heavy footsteps come closer and got ready to blow him off the edge and make him fall to his death the moment he checked if Boreas had really fallen. The wind howled, rain pattered, and thunder roared, making it harder to hear the Zoroark's steps, but Boreas knew he would be close soon.
A heavy thud and accompanying pain shook Boreas' brain, made him yell out in pain and surprise, and made him involuntarily loosen his paws. He realised he was falling and quickly put his front paws to the roof tiles that were passing acceleratingly fast, freezing them to it. He hang almost three metres below the edge of the roof now, his rear legs dangling in mid-air as the side of the roof ended at navel-height, only a sheer depth beneath him.
There was a cold laughter and Diego looked over the edge, holding another roof tile in his hand. "How stupid do you think I am, Boreas? I knew it wouldn't be that easy."
Boreas' head was full of a ringing noise, and he felt blood dripping through his hair, but he remembered his plan: he made the storm suddenly blow from behind Diego. The Zoroark wasn't blown over, though.
"Really? I'm kneeled, you know, because I already knew you were going to do that. You've been getting predictable." He tossed the roof tile a little into the air and caught it again. "Leading to your death. Don't worry, I'll tell Aqua you loved her before I kill her." He threw the roof tile at Boreas, who had to make a very powerful wind to blow it off course before it hit him, tiring him further.
Boreas fired an Ice Beam at the one-eyed grin he hated so much, but Diego simply retracted his head for a moment, then threw another roof tile. "You know," he said, "I could just hit you with a Dark Pulse now, but somehow it's funnier this way. A tricky fellow like you killed by a brick to the head?"
"If it's a triumph of brute force and stupidity over brains you want," retorted Boreas, trying to reach the roof with his rear legs, as he couldn't climb with only his front legs: he needed both to keep himself hanging, "just you beating me in general would be a big one."
Boreas managed to get hit in the shoulder instead of the head by Diego's next projectile. "Big words from a small Glaceon," sneered Diego. "Especially one who is about to be nothing but a red smear fifty metres below. Or maybe I'll just leave you hanging here? You can't climb, so I'd give you the choice of death by hunger or falling."
"Don't count me out yet!" Boreas tore his paws loose at the same moment he created a great upward wind, making him fly up rapidly, Ice Beam and kick the flabbergasted Diego in the face. He froze the ground under him and made the wind he was carried by spiral around, dropping Boreas on the roof's edge and blowing Diego off, aided by the slippery ground.
But the Zoroark grabbed Boreas' tail and his great weight pull him over the edge as well. Boreas pressed all four paws to the side of the roof and froze them to it, and both his tail and paws nearly tore off from Diego's weight. The ice creaked and seemed to let him go a little more every moment, as did the skin of his paws, with felt like it was getting torn off. Diego dangled in the depths under him, holding his tail with both hands. "Let go of me!" Boreas yelled as he tried to hit the Zoroark with an Ice Beam; but it was impossible to aim in that direction.
Diego's hands slipped down a little on Boreas' tail, and he struggled to climb up. "Sure, I'll just heroically sacrifice myself for the one who just took out my eye!"
Boreas felt a big hand grab a hold of his hip and dig its claws in as Diego tried to climb up. But at that moment their combined weight was too much: Boreas' left front paw tore loose from the ice, and his other paws quickly followed. Everything accelerated upwards rapidly as they were suddenly weightless. Diego grabbed Boreas tighter, realising the Glaceon's command over the winds was his only salvation, while Boreas fought to unleash himself.
Boreas tried to put his paws to Diego's head to take him out with a pulse of cold while creating a powerful upwards wind to slow their fall, but Diego intercepted one of his paws and headbutted him hard in his broken ribs. He also spread out his legs, increasing his air resistance to make him fall slower, which caused him to end up on top. Realising Diego was planning to use him as a pillow to break his fall, Boreas made the wind spin them around so he was on top, before also hitting Diego in the chest with a pulse of cold.
They had reached the ground at the bottom of the building, which was a very steep slope. Diego hit the ground first making him slightly cushion Boreas' fall; he bounced off diagonally, spinning, and hit one of the small wooden sheds here, crashing through it and hitting the ground on his back.
The impact was strangely mostly painless, but completely knocked the air out of him and filled him with nausea and a severe sense of weakness. The pain was strangely very dull, like a very bad headache. Yet he felt drained and weak and nauseous. He looked down and saw a sharp metal spike, died red now, protrude from a bleeding hole in the right side of his chest.
"Oh, not good..." he groaned. He now realised the spike had impaled him all the way through the chest and was still stuck to the ground on the other end. It was about two centimetres thick and protruded fifteen centimetres from his chest, and as Boreas moved a very slight bit, the dull pain it caused him increased sharply. He was panting rapidly, each breath giving much less oxygen than normal. He considered lifting himself off the spike, but immediately realised its presence like a plug in his body was all that kept him from instantly bleeding out right now.
He looked around shed, which had collapsed from his fall. It seemed to have been a shed for storing tools for outside construction before Boreas' fall destroyed it; spikes of the same type that had impaled him were used to mount the storage boards inside it. Boreas grabbed the spike with both front paws and very cautiously tried to see if he could break it off under his body. There was no movement to it, and only a throb of nauseating pain as he tried. "Bugger."
While the spike's painful pressure inside the wound kept him from bleeding too much, he did realise he really had to get medical attention soon if he wanted to survive this. He carefully lifted his torso a centimetre, whimpering at the agony it caused, and directed a cold wind under him, hoping to make the part of the spike that was still attached to the ground brittle with cold so he could break it off.
After a minute of trying to free himself like this, his teeth clenched in pain, he saw Diego stumbling towards him. The Zoroark had clearly broken an arm, and possibly a leg as he walked very poorly, but laughed as he saw Boreas' predicament. "Bad luck, huh? I have half a mind to just leave you there. On the other hand... I want to kill you myself. So I'll just liberate you from that spike instead."
Boreas grabbed the spike himself, hoping he had made it brittle enough to break off, and gave it a strong yank. Tears of pain streamed through his fur and Diego approached, but the spike wouldn't break at first. Only when Diego was almost at him, there was a breaking noise, and Boreas could move again; enough to stand up anyway. Since Diego was so close by and surprised, Boreas froze a long, sharp point of ice to his left paw and slashed at his enemy, cutting a deep red cut into his already wounded leg. Every movement Boreas made hurt and made him lose more blood, but he was determined not to be killed by Diego, even if he wouldn't survive much past his archenemy. Diego managed to dodge his second slash and jumped back, but hadn't counted on the wounds to his legs and collapsed, falling onto his back.
Boreas tried to jump onto Diego to finish him, but hadn't counted on his injuries either. He cringed in mid-jump as the spike sent a terrible jolt of pain through his body and fell to the ground too. Diego got up. "You're much worse off than me," he said, "so just surrender and I'll give you a quick end."
Boreas rolled onto his side weakly and fired an Ice Beam at Diego. "Never! It's not as bad as it looks!"
Diego blocked his beam with a bolt of darkness. "You're right, silly me, being stabbed through the lung is quite alright; you've got a spare one after all, right?"
Boreas slowly got to his feet, panting rapidly and gritting his teeth against the pain. "Yeah, I do. And it's all I need to beat you."
Diego shrugged. "Fine with me. But you don't seem to realise all I need to do to win is wait until you've bled to death."
Diego limped away, his back actually turned to Boreas. Boreas saw his chance and Ice Beamed his neck, but Diego turned around and made his Ice Beam disappear at the very last moment. "So very predictable, Boreas," he taunted as he walked away again. Boreas walked after him, groaning in pain and exertion with every step. His right front paw was closest to the spike and consequently hurt the most to move; he switched to a limp instead, slowly following Diego on three legs. He had to wheeze as if he was running a marathon just to keep going at this snail's pace, and had absolutely no air left to fight with. Diego, on the other hand, though he was limping, was in far better condition and moved fast enough to easily keep ahead of Boreas. At one point, he even stopped to hit Boreas with the lightning again; though it didn't feel that awful compared to the spike through Boreas' chest now.
Boreas really considered not following Diego any more, but what else could he do? He still couldn't get to Ghetsis without beating Diego, so his only alternative was going back all the way to the pokécenter; but Diego was faster than him and would just kill him from behind. He was simply forced to play Diego's game, even though he felt weaker with every step as he left a red trail. Even cooling down his wounds to slow the bleeding wouldn't work, as his blood, unlike that of others, wouldn't flow slower as it got colder.
Boreas followed Diego back into the building they'd just fallen off, trailing him slowly up the stairs, and felt his life slowly leak away with his blood. He felt very cold, but in an unpleasant way, and his paws were starting to feel numb. Unfortunately the gaping hole in his chest only felt worse. They slowly ascended back to the floor Diego had set on fire, now mostly burnt out and ashy. Boreas walked through the carbonised corridor and left the building again for the path to the tallest tower on the ascending wall. Diego was waiting for him in the same place again, but this time he wasn't surprised. Boreas wanted to say something, but he needed air so badly he could only gasp and try to stay upright.
"Did you enjoy our little walk?" Diego asked with a cruel smile.
Boreas couldn't answer, gasping for air.
"I hope you did, because it was your last. You don't look like you have much time left in the first place, so I suppose I should put you out of your misery now." With his non-broken arm, Diego fired a beam of sheer darkness at Boreas.
Boreas parried with a pulse of cold. Diego looked mildly surprised Boreas still had some fight in him, and more so when Boreas parried another attack. Angrily, he tried a third time, to the same result as Boreas pushed himself to the limit to keep on fighting. "Why won't you die?!" he snapped.
Boreas wondered the same. It would be much easier to accept his defeat and let Diego put an end to the dreadful pain than to make it even worse by futilely fighting a far stronger enemy. "Several reasons, really," he said calmly. Then:
"Because I swore to be with Aqua until I die, and postponing that moment even a little is worth any amount of pain." Drawing strength from that thought, he managed to Ice Beam Diego in the shoulder to the surprise of them both. He parried the Dark Pulse Diego paid him back with, and Diego narrowly dodged his second Ice Beam, while he parried another lightning attack.
"Because I want to have many, many more arguments with Octa." Walking forward slowly to take him closer to Diego, he created a small snowy tornado around the Zoroark, sidestepped a beam, and riposted with an Ice Beam to Diego's bad leg.
"Because," he panted, fighting against the exhaustion and pain to keep going, "I don't want to give up the world to scum like you, and because I want to see places stranger than I ever imagined possible!" They rapidly exchanged beams, parrying and riposting as Boreas walked even closer.
"In short:" said Boreas finally as he looked down to Diego's bad leg for a moment, then instantly Ice Beamed his throat instead as the Zoroark protected his legs, "because I want to live!"
Diego gasped and choked as Boreas hit his throat and Boreas immediately followed up with a lengthier Ice Beam to the Zoroark's upper legs, and then his shoulder to disable his limbs. Then another to his throat. Diego fell on his back and Boreas jumped on top of him, pinning him down as long as the muscles in the his limbs were disabled with cold. He Ice Beamed Diego's neck again to make sure he was entirely powerless.
Diego tried to fight back, to escape, but found he could do absolutely nothing now, entirely paralysed from the neck down by his frozen nerves. Boreas saw the realisation that by the time he regained control of the rest of his body, he would be dead in his enemy's face. "That's impossible... How can you beat me?!" He trembled, took a deep breath, and calmly looked into Boreas' eyes. "Fine. Do it, then."
Boreas took a deep breath. He had won, at long last. Now was finally the time to pay Diego back for the hours he'd spent hanging by his tail from the Ferris wheel, for making Aqua join Team Plasma and trying to kill her, for the abuse of his brother's memory, and for brainwashing and killing N. He deserved to die, and freezing his brains with a continuous Ice Beam to the face really was far more merciful than he deserved. But it was what he was going to get.
So why did Boreas feel so untriumphant about it? This should be a happy moment, when he finally got rid of his greatest enemy, but it wasn't. Diego wasn't begging to be spared or trying to negotiate his surrender with Boreas; the calm look on Diego's face as he bravely faced death reminded him little of the cruel monstrosity who had done all those horrible things. It reminded him of his brother. Not his brother, he corrected himself; the Flareon he recalled Zeph as had never existed; was never more than an illusion. Yet he had many happy memories of him. He recalled the Flareon as his brother and friend. He had come here to kill Ghetsis, not whatever there might be left of that Flareon inside this horrid Zoroark.
"No," he said, standing up. "I'm done with you. You were once my brother, and I know there's some good of him left in you, deep down. I'm not here to extinguish that little hope you have, but for Ghetsis." He began to walk in the direction of the tower. "Leave Unova, right now. If I ever see you again I won't be so merciful."
Boreas hoped sincerely whatever had been in Diego's mind when he was playing Zeph would win out. He knew he would always hate the Zoroark, but maybe he could become a good person somewhere. Of course, it was far more likely he was getting up right now as his nerves thawed. He would right now be looking at Boreas slowly limping away and sneaking up on him, planning to attack and kill him from behind. Boreas walked on, then suddenly grabbed a rogue wind, spun around on the spot and made it rage rapidly around him.
Diego, who was indeed standing only a metre behind him now, was surprised entirely by the sudden wind hitting him and was blown against the fence on the side of the wall, which reached to his waist. For a moment he was between falling and standing, then he lost his balance and fell over the edge. "So very predictable, Diego," said Boreas.
The pain and exhaustion finally caught up to him and he collapsed on the spot.

Diego fell. He was furious the little runt had so completely predicted what he would do and surprised him, yet something in him knew it was no more than he deserved for betraying this chance he had been given. This time he fell much faster than last, without Boreas' power over air to slow him down, into a part of the battle. The ground came near so fast...
Right before he hit the ground, the Hydreigon fighting here jumped to its side. He landed on it, striking it down with the impact. It was a hard and painful landing, but he had escaped death. There was no time to feel triumphant, though, as Hydreigon's three heads roared angrily and one of its necks coiled around his wounded body.
"I'm Diego, a special emissary of Sage Ghetsis," commanded Diego. "You are to follow my orders. Fly me to the throneroom; Ghetsis' life is in danger and he has to be warned."
The Hydreigon's middle head roared angrily.
"I apologise for hitting you," said Diego, "but it saved my life. Now fly me to the throneroom; that's an order in name of Sage Ghetsis!"
It slowly smiled, showing its thousands of teeth, and licked its lips. Diego suddenly felt afraid. These kinds of pokémon were very proud and hard to train; it was a small miracle they followed the orders of the Sages at all. Now that Zinzolin was dead, it was very likely this Hydreigon was basically a wild pokémon again and wouldn't follow Ghetsis' orders if he was here personally.
"On the other hand," said Diego, showing no fear, "why don't you go back to fighting? I'll just walk."
He tried to escape from its grip but it only tightened its hold. It now looked at him with distinct hunger and opened its mouth wide, showing rows upon rows of dagger-sharp teeth and a hungry throat. Diego let his fury over having lost to Boreas flow through him, channelling it into his hand where it became dark lightning. But the fight had left him badly weakened and the mighty Hydreigon barely felt it.
As the thousands of teeth came closer, Diego finally realised he hadn't escaped death at all.
 
79
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 24, 2013
Chapter Seventy-Six: The Last Chance
Lucius bit the Garchomp's wing pressing hard against his throat, pinning him up against the wall about a metre off the ground. It was hard to bite through the rubbery scales, however, and Garchomp just ignored him drawing blood. As its thousands of teeth came closer and closer to bite off his head, Lucius really wished he could breathe fire into the dragon's face, but that was impossible as he couldn't breathe at all. No amount of struggling against the wing moved it.
A black flurry of feathers hit Garchomp in the face, surprising it so it stopped pressing on Lucius' throat for a moment. He fell down, drew a big breath, and exhaled flames all over Garchomp's lower body, but the dragon was barely harmed by his fire. Lucius growled: that stupid Selene was actually doing more damage than him, scratching around its head while it tried to catch her. Not wanting to be outdone by that airhead, Lucius dug his teeth, infused with dark energy, into Garchomp's tail.
The sharkdragon tried to shake him off, thrashing its tail about, but he hung onto it by his teeth. But when it stamped its feet on the ground and created mighty shockwave, he was knocked away and floored, along with half the other combatants.
As Lucius scrabbled back to his feet, Garchomp managed to catch Selene in its jaws, shook her around violently, and threw her away, a bloody little heap of bird. Lucius ignited in rage and furiously attacked Garchomp again and again, biting, scratching, and breathing fire while his anger took the form of copious amounts of darkness striking at his enemy. He relished every wound he inflicted, every drop of blood he spilled, and the clear pain he caused Garchomp. His sheer fury took it aback and made it take a while before he was finally hit by its heavy claw which rent his side. He still continued, like a living inferno of fury, until the ground itself rose up against him in a great earthquake and threw him several metres away, where he landed hard. Garchomp wasted no time and pounced at him to kill him.

As Octa's family rapidly retreated from the battle, leaving them with only a very few against the overwhelmingly powerful enemy, Aqua's instincts told her it would be a really great idea to follow them. The urge to do so was quite overwhelming in fact, even though she knew they had to buy Boreas time. But they had bought him so much already, and he was up against a Kyurem... Maybe he was dead already, and she could just flee?
She chewed herself out inwardly for such a thought. Boreas couldn't die; she'd kill him if he did. Yet her legs were about ready to run for her life as she tried to keep Lucario, Klinklang, and Escavalier at bay with a rapid vortex of water. Octa's sister Livia was the only one of the house of Equinox who hadn't retreated. "Sorry to state the obvious," she said to them, "but we really need them to get back here."
"Yeah," agreed Toxica. "Octa, can't you say anything to them? Tell 'em not to listen to Gaius or something?!"
"I'm sorry, my dear," said Octa, "but I doubt they'd listen to me over Gaius. I left our house, remember? Half of them consider me an apostate. However, my dear sister, you are still a part of the house. Couldn't you challenge Gaius?"
Livia tried to fight Kyurem from afar. "I may agree with you on most things, but I owe Gaius my allegiance as our new leader, Octa. I can't just challenge his authority directly like that!"
I'm going to die because these two nitwits can't take a stand against their own brother. Aqua sighed and dodged a swing of Escavalier's arm that nearly cut her in half. "Well, I'd happily challenge him, but they have no clue who I am, so they're hardly going to listen to me! Maybe I can get through to them if I kill him?"
Octa frowned. "Hilarious. Perhaps you would be so kind as to quit the poor attempts at humour and let me try and convince my sister?"
"Look," said Aqua, trying to keep calm, "we're all going to die, so I'm just trying to cope with it using humour."
"Well, you-"
"Hey, bunch of spineless cowards!" shouted Toxica. "I guess the house of Equinox's talk of honour and valour is just talk, no more!"
"Subtle," groaned Octa, defending against Eelektross and Spiritomb. The Serperiors actually came to a halt.
"How dare you insult the great and noble house of Equinox?!" asked Gaius lividly.
"The way I see it, it's not me insulting it, but you. Running away from a good fight just because your dad died? It's obvious the house of Equinox is nothing but a mewing bunch of cowardly hypocrites!"
"Who the hell do you think you are to insult us?"
Toxica laughed. "I'm Toxica."
"I know that."
"Just Toxica. Toxica of no bloody house; I don't even know who my parents are and am farther away from nobility than anyone you'll ever meet. Yet here I am, fighting on for a small chance of victory, when you muppets are running for the hills. And I'm not alone either: Aqua here is fighting just as hard and is also a very ordinary girl, and so is Esper, and Altaïr and the others here. But you guys just run off, despite all your talk of great heroic ancestors."
"How dare you?!"
Toxica's speech certainly had an effect, as the Serperiors talked amongst themselves, and two of them even rejoined the battle, taking a bit of pressure off everyone's shoulders. "She is right, Gaius," said Octa, "so please, give the order to rejoin the battle; don't force me to do something we'd both regret."
"I shan't. You are a traitor to our house and 'tis not becoming of our new leader to be ordered about by you."
"You're not their new leader yet, Gaius." Octa raised his voice so the others could hear him. "Equinoctes, hear me! Toxica is right; Gaius' orders to retreat were cowardly and mistaken, and I do not believe he is fit to be your leader. I urge all of you: stand with us! Let us fight for victory or death, as the great Equinox would have us do! The day is not lost, in fact if our valour can stand through this darkest hour, we can achieve great victory!"
"Do not listen to Octavianus. He is..." Gaius' voice trailed off as he realised the others had joined Octa, ignoring him fully.
"I'm sorry, brother," said Octa.

Boreas knew he had little time left. The only reason he wasn't dead yet was the same spike that had stabbed him all the way through the chest in the first place: it was like a plug in the wound, keeping most of the blood inside. But he was still losing an awful lot of it, much of his fur dyed red by now. He was terribly cold, especially in his paws, and had to pant rapidly to get enough air. He rose up very slowly on his terribly weak paws, clenching his teeth against the constantly worsening pain in his chest, but nearly blacked out from exertion and fell back to the ground.
Just lie there... The pain will soon go away... He felt so dreadfully tired. His approaching death felt like a sweet, restful sleep that his body craved for. Maybe he should just close his eyes...
He spread his eyes wide open. He couldn't die! He had just told Diego how much he wanted to live; to just throw away his life a minute after he fought so hard for it was the stupidest thing he could do. He would rest once he got to the pokécenter; rest for days in a row, but not for eternity! Holding on to the thought of Aqua's tearfully happy face as she'd see he was still alive, he forced himself upright. Panting, he managed to stand on four legs. A scarily large puddle of blood had collected where he'd lain by now, but he had to have enough left to get back. His head spun and his vision teetered with black spots, but he remained standing, wobbling in place. He took a step forwards; so far so good. He took another, but his knee just gave away and he fell to three legs. He slowly prodded himself back up. He had to keep going.
Except... Another thought gripped his weakly-beating heart like an iron claw. Maybe I shouldn't go on? Maybe I should turn around? I came here to kill Ghetsis, and I haven't done that yet.
What a silly thought. No-one could expect from him that he'd just throw away his life like that. Risking it, yes; he had no problem risking his life, but it was very different to throw it away. He slowly took another step away from the tower. If he didn't get to the pokécenter as fast as possible right now, he'd die. It was that simple. Someone else would have to finish it.
Who else is there? The very annoying thought that he was the only one who had made it past the enemy gnawed at him. Maybe someone else would break through too? But that was as ludicrous as thinking he'd survive if he went on to kill Ghetsis; the enemy were with far too many and were far too strong. The only reason Boreas had gotten through was luck. If he didn't kill Ghetsis, no-one would, and everyone who had died today would've died in vain. Black, Febby, and all the others.
He took another step. It didn't matter to the dead, after all. Killing Ghetsis and winning the battle, possibly the entire war, wouldn't bring them back. Only the living mattered; and he was still barely among them and intended to stay that way. He would just have to make his way back and tell his friends and anyone else who was still alive to retreat. He was planning to leave Unova with Aqua to see the rest of the world anyway. Who would ever blame him for not going on in this condition?
I would. It was true; he would never forgive himself if he had thrown away the last chance Unova had. If the entire continent continued to suffer because of him he could never forgive himself.
But he would be alive. And in time, he might get over it, journeying through far away places. It would be far easier to live with the guilt of the state he'd left distant Unova in than to die. Particularly since it wasn't actually as simple as just going into the tower and automatically killing Ghetsis; not in Boreas' current state, with white Kyurem guarding him. He would most likely just throw away his life in vain instead of at least doing it for a good reason.
And yet... He couldn't let Team Plasma win. He was the only person in the world who had a chance to make a difference, to finally beat them. Wasn't that worth his life? He knew Octa would say it was his duty to go on and kill Ghetsis, but Boreas didn't believe in that. He simply had a choice, and what he chose was his to live with or die from. But whichever way he chose, he had to do it now, or he'd bleed out on the spot and make neither choice.
Capella's face came back to him, at the very moment she realised she could only save him or herself. Capella had smiled in the knowledge of her approaching death, gladly died for her friend. He should be like Capella and make the right, heroic choice. But he also recalled her life had ended seconds later and what her corpse had looked like, and how she was now gone, completely unable to enjoy life any more.
He made his choice and continued on his way to the pokécenter, slowly dragging himself away from the tower. He couldn't make that sacrifice. He was not Capella, and he was not a hero. He was just a badly wounded Glaceon who wanted to live on with his new wife. He wasn't going to sacrifice himself just for a whole continent full of random people he didn't even know. They'd just have to take care of themselves.
That sounded like something Diego would say. Team Plasma didn't care that they were ruining the lives of millions of nameless others as long as it benefited them. And here Boreas was, doing the same thing. And he slowly began to actually imagine what people would have to go through for many more years if Team Plasma's rule was allowed to continue. It was easy enough to ignore them when he thought of them as a number, but they were real people; human and pokémon. He sighed, realising he couldn't abandon them to Team Plasma.
"Dammit," he sighed as he turned around. "I'm sorry, Aqua..."
Gritting his teeth against the pain and barely keeping himself up, he slowly, step for step, stumbled to the throneroom. He had to take the chance he might be able to kill Ghetsis, even though it meant accepting his death.

Garchomp moved towards Lucius for the kill. He tried to run, but was still lying on the ground and hurt by the earthquake. He tried to get up, but he was slow and the speedy dragon's maw was nearly at him.
A sudden beam of darkness from behind Lucius struck Garchomp and Selene landed in its face, more jumping than flying. Distracted, the dragon's heavy head struck the ground next to Lucius instead of the Houndoom himself, who managed to dodge. He grabbed his chance and sunk his teeth into Garchomp's suddenly exposed throat. Even here, the reptile's skin was very tough and hard to get through, but he quickly tasted its delicious salt blood.
A heavy claw threw Lucius and Selene back onto the ground, but Garchomp was badly wounded now, its blood leaking out of its bitten throat. Lucius roared in triumph even as he was in pain.
Garchomp's every breath gurgled and bubbled in its wounded throat. It looked at Lucius and Selene, spread its wings, and took flight, making up for its small wings by its speed. Ryoku shouted at it to return, but it ignored him and fled for its life. "Hell yeah!" Lucius roared triumphantly. "You'd better run!" He turned his attention to Selene, hiding his concern as he prodded her. "Hey birdbrain, you okay?"
Lucius helped her to her feet, worried about the big red stains in her black feathers. "Broke my wing," she said, "but I'll live."
"Right, then let's kill that sucker Ryoku and avenge Capella."
But there was one problem, Lucius discovered: they were now fully surrounded by the Sage's team, as most of the other combatants had fled.

Aqua laughed as her wave swept Ghetsis' Bouffalant off its feet and carried it along. It was like a river around her, and she could control every bit of the water like it was a part of her body. With Octa's family joining them again, things were a little less dire. They would still die if Boreas wouldn't succeed, but at least it wouldn't happen immediately. In fact if she didn't look at Metagross and Kyurem, things didn't seem too desperate.
Bouffalant was strong and fought against the current, clearly unwilling to submit, and Aqua would've continued attacking it if she hadn't glimpsed Metagross blasting away one of Octa's family members and leaving Toxica fighting it on her own. The mighty metal creature seemed ready to crush her at any moment, as she was completely busy dodging its powerful attacks: flashes of bright metallic light, psychic bursts, and physical attacks.
Aqua gave her all to the current to make Bouffalant wash far away in the hopes someone else would engage it, then raced for Metagross. Toxica screeched as a Flash Cannon attack hit her shoulder and threw her back. Metagross launched itself to crush Toxica, so Aqua rushed to save her in a rapid jet of water. She collided with her friend, shoved her out of the way, and just managed to evade the robot's heavy bulk coming down herself. But before she could turn around to fight it, a massive metal leg came down and shattered her thigh. The extreme pain had just begun to register when Metagross lifted another leg to crush her with.
A Solarbeam and an angry Vileplume hit Metagross as Toxica fought it. Aqua gathered water to her, as she could far more easily swim than walk with her broken leg, and rejoined the battle as well.
Suddenly both of them were caught in place as Metagross' eyes flashed and its powerful, mechanic mind assaulted theirs. Aqua tried to focus to hold it back, but it easily tore her defences to shreds and mercilessly continued its destructive path straight into her mind.

Boreas was dying. Every step he took was agony, and harder than the last. His body was almost entirely numb and cold as death, except for the wounds on his head and especially the one on his chest, which tormented him. Yet his resolve became stronger with every agonising step. If the last thing he was going to do with his life was killing Ghetsis, at least it was something worthwhile. The pain would at last be gone once he was done with this. He had accepted his fate.
He stumbled into the throneroom. Gravity seemed so much stronger, but he couldn't fall despite his dizziness, as he probably couldn't get himself up again if he did. Ghetsis was sitting on N's throne wearing a black suit and a long cloak, with the large white form of Kyurem passively standing next to the throne. While N had sat on the golden throne itself, Ghetsis had added some thick pillows to it. Boreas felt he should be feeling hate for the man who had begun this all, murdered Black, and now would lead to his own death. But he was out of hatred after his fight with Diego. He had to protect Unova from this man, that was all.
Kyurem approached menacingly when it saw him, but Ghetsis called it back. "What is this?" he said in surprise. "What happened to you, Glaceon?"
Boreas wondered if he should keep his purpose secret, remembering a pokémon master like Ghetsis could understand most of what a pokémon said. But he had a better idea. "My name... Is Boreas... I've come to kill you."
Ghetsis laughed. "Poor thing, you're in no condition to kill anyone, save for yourself. I'll call someone to have you taken to our doctors."
"No," said Boreas, choosing the few words he could get out among his ragged breathing wisely. "You are a dangerous, evil man... You have plunged... Unova into your cruel tyranny... If I have to die to kill you, then so be it." He spoke between rapid breaths.
Ghetsis smiled pityingly. "Why don't you just calm down? You're Black's Glaceon, right? The one who tried to attack me earlier as well. It was nothing personal what I did to your master, you know. I just needed Reshiram."
"Yes, you stole it. Very dishonest."
Ghetsis rolled his eyes. "How did you get that wounded anyway?"
"Diego," said Boreas.
"I see. And where is he now?"
"Dead." Boreas smiled triumphantly.
Ghetsis' arrogant façade broke and his smile disappeared. "What? You killed him?"
Boreas nodded.
"I see," he said icily. "You shouldn't have done that, you know. He was a loyal, useful ally and a good friend."
"He was an evil git and just a tool to do your dirty work," Boreas retorted.
"There's no point with me arguing with a pokémon that's nothing but a simple tool for an already dead man. Kyurem, kill it slowly."
Boreas knew he was in no condition to defend at all and clenched his teeth as the flames hit.

Octa found himself fighting Kyurem again, feeling frozen to the bone as its deathly cold enveloped him. Even the warm feeling of pride he'd had when his family had heeded his speech and stayed wasn't enough to stop its biting cold. Massive, icy claws hunted for him, and he knew it was only a matter of time before they'd catch him in the intense blizzard. But there was no-one here who stood a chance against Kyurem; Boreas was their only hope if he was still alive. It seemed unlikely he was, with how long it had been since he broke through; the Glaceon had probably fallen to the other Kyurem. But if he hadn't, Octa refused to see anyone else killed while they were buying him time; and the best way to prevent that right now was to engage Kyurem himself, even if it would most likely be his death.
Octa's skin was numb with cold and every one of his joints hurt to move, but he couldn't stop. If he stopped dodging and stabbing Kyurem for a second, he'd be dead and it'd move on to its next victim, and neither of those prospects appealed to him.
Things were going much better than could be expected when a single Serperior fought a Kyurem, really, even if he was slowly freezing. Dodge, slash, dodge, slash, dodge, slash. Slash after slash, Kyurem's legs became covered in cuts oozing a dark gas instead of blood. Octa half-expected it to continue like this until the cold made him too slow to evade his enemy's attacks, but it wasn't so: at one point the moment his blade touched Kyurem's leg a megavolt jumped through the blade into Octa.
He found himself lying on the ground a few metres away, every muscle feeling cramped and his body smoking after slightly while white spots danced in his eyes. They didn't hide the furious legendary about to maul him, though, nor the fact he had lost his Leaf Blade and certainly had no time to make a new one.
Kyurem was about to kill Octa when a bright Solarbeam hit it from the side. It looked around, more curious than hurt, and saw Gaius. Octa quickly bolted back upright and rushed for his Leaf Blade. They both engaged Kyurem again.
"Thank you," said Octa, "but why?"
"Because I have made a terrible mistake," said Gaius, moving faster than Octa as he hadn't been half-frozen yet. "Several, in fact. Our house joining you made me realise how right you were: flight was an act of cowardice. I may not be worthy to lead our house. I'm sorry brother. For everything I've said."
There was no more chance to talk, as Kyurem was enraged and they were in position for an attack. The bitter cold around the legendary intensified. Octa and Gaius raced to get away from the focal point of its Blizzard, but the cold was horrible and made even the worst Boreas had ever done feel like an oven. Octa's skin and eyes froze within seconds, which felt oddly like being on fire. He would have screamed if he could open his mouth. He could still move a little, but the crackling feeling made him worried his frozen skin was breaking into little pieces as he did so. But not half as worried as he was about the feeling of the cold cutting into his body like an icy blade. His bones felt frozen and his muscles responded sluggishly.
The very air froze down with a noise like sixty nails scraping on a blackboard. Though his sense of touch had thankfully disappeared after the burning pain of his skin freezing and his vision was vague and blurry through his frozen eyes, Octa still noticed the air depositing as a lethally cold hail. Then he was simply unable to move at all, too cold. His mind too was rapidly shutting down as ice-cold blood reached it.
The big, vague shape of Kyurem stepped towards him, casually passing by Gaius, who had suffered a similar fate to Octa's grief. He tried to think of anyone who might save them, but all the others were in almost as bad a position fighting the rest of the pokémon here. Kyurem put its large foot on top of him, about to crush him. Octa realised this was the end. He just hoped Toxica would survive.

Lucius breathed a sea of fire over the Ferrothorn about to crush Selene as she cut off branches of Shiftry with slashes of sharpened air. He saw Lilligant coming for him, but had no time to defend and received a long, deep cut in his side from its sharpened leafarm. His jaws found its other arm before it could cut his throat as well and he breathed fire right into its face. Using its tentacles, Cradily threw a barrage of rocks at both dark-types, who were hit several times.
Lilligant wasn't defeated yet and slashed at Lucius' feet. He cursed as he dropped to the ground and was instantly set upon by his badly burnt enemy. It no longer looked anywhere near cute with many of its petals carbonised and its face burned, showing its bare animal-like flesh in a mad, nightmarish fury. Two blade-like leafarms tried to stab him in the chest and throat so he grabbed them both tightly, while a smouldering facial petal wrapped around his maw to prevent him from using more fire. However, he slowly fought-back the razor-sharp leafarms, as he was stronger than his enemy.
That is, until myriads of roots sprung from its feet and crawled up along his body. They pierced his skin like a thousand needles as they kept growing and travelled up along his body, quickly wrapping him in a growing cocoon of the stuff. Wherever the roots pricked through his skin, they began draining him. The entered into the wounds he already had too, reopening them. The pain was terrible. His strength was rapidly drained and he began losing against the knife-like leaves. Yet Lilligant didn't kill him with them, though it easily could: it enjoyed draining him alive far too much, its roots reaching up to his shoulders by now and pain and weakness overwhelmed him as they began to grow over his head.

Boreas writhed to keep away from the small flames all around him. It was useless, as there was no escape from the tormenting fire, but he couldn't resist it. He did manage not to scream, though. It would only waste the tiny bit of air he had, and he had less and less from the exertion and inhaling smoke. The need for oxygen quickly became even more painful than either the spike through his right lung or the flames roasting him like hot coals. His mind and lung burned as he slowly blacked out and asphyxiated.
"Kyurem, give it a moment to catch its breath," ordered Ghetsis.
Boreas lay on the ground panting and recovering from the torture. He had to act quick now. "Reshiram," he said to Kyurem between rapid breaths, "remember me? I fought with Black, just like you."
Kyurem slightly turned its head as it looked at him.
"Remember, Black?" continued Boreas. "The 'hero' you came out of that rock for? Who 'fought for the truth', as you called it?"
"I REMEMBER."
"Good. Then do you also remember how he died? Kyurem killed him, ordered by Ghetsis!"
It was quiet. "I AM KYUREM."
"Then you-"
"Kyurem, continue," ordered Ghetsis.
Boreas couldn't suppress a whimper of pain as the horrible flames continued to dance around him and roast him with their terrible heat; though they never touched him and his fur didn't combust. He squirmed to stay away from them as much as he could, but it was still like being fried alive.
Ghetsis watched him, sitting on his throne in his dark suit, with a malevolent grin on his face. "Poor Glaceon," he said mockingly. "So much suffering. I'll be merciful and order Kyurem to make it end if you beg me for it."
Death sounded very appealing right now. Any end to the agony did. But he had to take Ghetsis with him, he had to convince Kyurem. He weathered the torment in silence, looking into Ghetsis' eyes defiantly. Again, he slowly and agonisingly suffocated until Ghetsis ordered Kyurem to stop. Boreas lay there, recovering a little.
"So you're a defiant one?" said Ghetsis. "Well, then I'll just continue this little exercise until you give up."
Boreas ignored him and turned to Kyurem, talking as fast as his breath would allow. "If you are Kyurem, then that means you're the one who killed Black. The hero who fought for truth."
"GHETSIS FIGHTS FOR TRUTH."
Boreas rolled his eyes. "Reshiram said the same about Black. But Black and Ghetsis were enemies; how can there be two conflicting truths?"
Boreas thought he detected a pause and uncertainty in Kyurem's voice. "GHETSIS FIGHTS FOR THE TRUTH."
"You keep saying that. Maybe you're right. But then, answer me this: what did Black fight for when Reshiram was with him? And what did Ghetsis, who he fought against, fight for? Does the truth change?"
Kyurem was quiet. Boreas barely dared hope he had put the legendary in doubt.
"Kyurem," ordered Ghetsis, "continue."
Kyurem didn't instantly move, lost in thought, so Boreas talked quick in the hopes of avoiding another round of torture. "Was Black wrong? But then, how could Reshiram consider him the hero? You fought for the truth with Black and you fought for the truth with Ghetsis, but they can't both be right!"
"Kyurem," ordered Ghetsis, sounding worried, "kill it, right now! It's lying to you."
Saying Ghetsis was the one lying to it was a bad idea; it would be Boreas' word against its master's, and Ghetsis would win that. "The problem is: there is no truth. No absolute truth at least."
Kyurem snapped to attention and looked angry. "THAT IS A LIE. I AM TRUTH."
"Reshiram claimed it was the truth. But you just said it yourself: you're Kyurem."
"I AM RESHIRAM."
"You claim to be truth, yet you change your mind all the time. If there is absolute truth, answer me this: are you Kyurem or Reshiram? Was Black right or is Ghetsis?"
Kyurem was quiet.
"You are not a personification of truth, as there's no such thing. What you are is a confused being with illusions of grandeur, created from the original Kyurem by people who thought in black-and-whites and threw away all doubt. But they were wrong to do so: there is no absolute truth, and doubt is precious. I'm certain of it," he added with a chuckle.
"Kyurem, it's lying, kill it!"
Boreas got to his feet, feeling recovered with his last energy now. Kyurem just stood there and stared, locked in inner conflict as it tried to conform this logic with its inner philosophy. "It won't kill me, Ghetsis. You've lost." He cooled his body down with his last energy to end Ghetsis' life with a continuous Ice Beam to the head. His wounds burned and he was so very tired and heavy, but he had to do this final thing. Then he could rest.
Ghetsis didn't even get up. In fact, he still smiled. "Have I? I admit, it's impressive you managed to talk Kyurem into this, but you haven't thought things through. If you kill me, all the energy in Kyurem will be released in a huge explosion. Even if you were healthy, you couldn't get away in time; as badly wounded as you are you won't even make it out of the throneroom before it happens. Kill me, and you'll kill yourself."
"I know," said Boreas, walking closer. He couldn't afford to miss, as he certainly wouldn't have energy for a second try. Ghetsis might hit him with his cane again given such a chance, too. "I accepted that I would die when I entered here."
There was a momentary crack of fear in Ghetsis' calm façade. "Brave. But you're not the only one who would die. Giallo's last report indicated he was fighting a bunch of pokémon. Some of which seem to be your late trainer's other possessions... A Serperior, a Vileplume, and a Vaporeon, among others. Were you good friends with them?" Boreas tried to keep his appearance neutral as a terrible fear came over him, but Ghetsis clearly saw through it and laughed. "Very good friends, clearly. Perhaps there's even a lover among them? They're fighting the other Kyurem right now, and if you kill me, they'll die in its explosion. Even if they're quite far away from it; these are legendaries and contain immense amounts of power. Kill me, and you kill them."
That was the one thing Boreas hadn't thought of yet. He was fully prepared to die and to go through any amount of pain, but he had hoped, almost expected, his friends to survive to see the results.
"We can do this differently," continued Ghetsis. "I don't want to die, and you don't want your friends to die. So let's make this deal: you surrender to me, and I order Giallo to stand down and have our pokémon fight only to defend themselves. Then we go down there together and you convince them to surrender as well. One of our medics takes a look at you, and then we put you all in a boat to anywhere outside of Unova you want. None of you dies and you all get to live out your lives in a place where you'll never see Team Plasma again."
Boreas knew he should just kill Ghetsis. He would help millions throw off Team Plasma and live in freedom if he did. Those millions were up against the lives of a few, and that would be an easy choice if it wasn't for the identity of those few. "How do I know I can trust you?" he asked to win time to think.
Ghetsis shrugged. "Because I've got no reason to lie. It will cost us as good as nothing to let you and anyone else you choose live and leave Unova. There's no point to me breaking my word."
Boreas felt Ghetsis was speaking the truth. And he couldn't refuse the deal. He couldn't live with the idea that he would kill Aqua. The freedom of millions easily lost against her life.

Kyurem's world was entirely focused on the horrible green snake. And now, at last, it had its revenge. It was about to crush the now-frozen Serperior underfoot when it saw something deeply disturbing through its telepathic bond with its other self in the throneroom: the life of the hero was threatened by a Glaceon! And Kyurem's other self wasn't doing anything about it for some reason.
Kyurem forgot its fury against the Serperior and spread out its wings wide, flying up to the throneroom at top speed to kill the Glaceon who threatened the hero.

Lucius was being drained by a thousand roots no matter how hard he fought against them, and was beginning to black out. His vision of Lilligant's terribly burnt visage slowly disappeared as roots began to grow over his eyes. But then a ball of ruffled feathers landed on it and drew its claws through the badly wounded face. Lilligant screeched, but Selene had jumped onto its legs and cut through its roots before it could retaliate.
The agony of the roots draining him ended instantly and many broke off quickly. As Lilligant had turned its attention to Selene, Lucius was free to move, shook off much of the dying roots, and bit its throat before it could get Selene.
His skin was still leakier than a colander and he felt terribly drained down. Selene wasn't much better off: fighting the other grass types had drawn a heavy toll on her and her feathers were more red than black by now. Ryoku's remaining pokémon still surrounded them and were about to attack as well, and Lucius realised this was the end. Even though they were both strong against grass-types, they stood no chance, outnumbered, surrounded, and wounded as badly as this. He looked into Selene's eyes, and saw she knew it too. She hopped onto his shoulder as he managed to partly get up.
"It's been fun," she said as Tangrowth spread out its huge mass of vines threateningly.
"Yeah." Lucius gave her feathers a gentle pet with one paw as Tangrowth's writhing forest of vines was nearly upon them. "Let's get this last one."
With their final strength, Lucius breathed a sea of fire and Selene slashed and cut through climbers, fighting together to the last as they disappeared into the mass of strangling and draining vines.

As Kyurem was about to crush Octa, it suddenly stopped mid-movement. Its head turned and looked up at the tower, and then it spread its wings and flew up, leaving him there. The cold air was rapidly blown away by the storm, which felt like a desert wind by comparison. As frozen air sublimated, rain that felt boiling hot fell on Octa's frozen skin and heated him up. He managed to get up and looked around in bewilderment, wondering what was going on. In the south, a large golden spot in the sky showed the Sun breaking through the clouds.

Kyurem flew up on massive wings, distracting Metagross for just the moment needed to break its devastating psychic attack. Aqua used her chance to blast it with her strongest Hydro Pump, using the copious rainwater to make it easier. Despite its massively heavy bulk, Metagross was pushed back by the attack. It braced itself against the ground with two legs and began to tilt over by the water's sheer pressure, giving Aqua an idea: she gathered water to her in a big wave and let it give the balancing Metagross the final push, flipping it over like a horseshoe crab on the beach.
Aqua was exhausted, but Metagross was stuck for the moment and Toxica used that handily: she jumped onto the meal spider's belly and sprouted roots, searching for any crack in the weaker armour here. Metagross had to let it happen while it worked to flip back the right way up: its legs slowly turned upside-down by their joints and then activated their powerful electromagnets to levitate by.
Toxica released her roots and jumped off her enemy and made thick grass grow rapidly under Metagross that knotted around its legs and pulled it back to the ground. Aqua created a big wave to wash over and submerge the steel colossus, staying behind herself instead of staying in the wave. With good reason: when Metagross was fully submerged, the electromagnets on its legs, at their most powerful as it tried to get loose from the grass knots, shortened out in the water, which conducted their powerful current right around Metagross and through the now-widened cracks in its belly-armour. The water fizzled and flashed and boiled as Metagross electrocuted itself.
Toxica and Aqua were left exhausted and wounded, but victorious. "Woah," said Toxica.
"Yeah," said Aqua.
"C'mon," said Toxica, running ahead, "we have to see if Octa's okay."

Ghetsis grinned without any fear. He clearly knew Boreas wouldn't sacrifice his friends and that he was in no serious danger. The freedom of the entire continent was simply no match for the lives of his cherished newly-wed wife and the best friend he'd had as good as his whole life. Living in some place faraway with them and trying to forget Unova didn't sound too bad.
But what would they think of this? They were both willing to wager their lives to make his plan work. They would probably be none too pleased that he had decided for them not to make that sacrifice. He hoped they would forgive him, but even if they never wanted anything to do with him and considered him a traitor, at least they'd be alive. That was good enough.
But they'd have to live with a strange kind of complicity in the defeat today. If it wasn't for them, Boreas would have killed Ghetsis and completed his plan. Because, come to think of it, it was his plan that had made the resistance fight this futile battle. Everyone who had died in the battle had eventually done so to give him this last chance for victory. Black, Febby, and all of the other dead whose bodies now lay here in the castle, possibly even Lucius and Selene, had died for his plan. If they hadn't fought this battle, if he hadn't pushed for his terrible idea, they would still be alive. The resistance would've fled the League and remained much stronger, still able to eventually beat Team Plasma by other means. But now, they were crushed. So many had died, and many more would die in the flight from the lost battle. The survivors would be few and completely powerless. If he didn't kill Ghetsis, they wouldn't just have died in vain, but they wouldn't have died at all if it wasn't for him. He would be just as responsible for their deaths as Team Plasma if he didn't do what he came to do. It wasn't just a choice between Unova and his friends.
"Well?" asked Ghetsis impatiently. "Have you decided yet, Glaceon?"
Thinking of it like that, his choice was clear. His death, Octa's death, even Aqua's death, were all acceptable. They had all been willing to wager their lives for his plan, and he owed it to everyone to finish what he had started.
"Yes," he said calmly, "I have."
Cooling his body down with his last energy, he shot an Ice Beam right between Ghetsis' eyes. The human's smug, sure expression changed to one of fear and surprise and he tried to get up, but Boreas kept up the Ice Beam and he fell back on the cushioned throne. Within seconds, Ghetsis stopped moving and blacked out. Boreas continued the Ice Beam to give him a soft death by cooling his brain down.
He ended the beam and felt an immense weight fall off his chest. Kyurem's body was already ablaze and still it stared apathetically as white and grey smoke oozed from it. Boreas looked at the throneroom's exit and considered running for it, but he knew he couldn't get away in time; he could barely walk at all. Instead, he laid down calmly, almost with happiness. This was the end of his life, he could do nothing about that, and he would rather spend it thinking one last time about the good things from that life that with a panicky, futile flight.
He had made the right choice, he knew, and it was great relief. Even though it would cost him his life and probably that of his friends, it was the right choice. He just hoped Lucius and Selene would make it, wherever they were. He chuckled, imagining Selene annoying Lucius while sitting on his shoulder and Lucius insulting Selene, quibbling with each other as always. They certainly had the strangest friendship Boreas had ever seen.
He reminded himself of the annoying, childish Oddish Toxica had been, too, and how irritated and jealous he'd been whenever Octa spent time with her instead of him. He giggled as he recalled her attempt to impress Octa by imitating his accent really poorly. She had grown into a good friend as they had both grown out of their childish quibbling, and into a very fun Vileplume to be with. He was glad she and Octa had made up before the end.
It was with a warm smile on his face that he recalled his time with Octa. He had been like both a father and a brother to the lonely little Eevee he had rescued, and though they could fight like beasts, he had never had a dearer friend. They had stared death in the eyes together so many times and seen all of Unova together. Octa had distracted Boreas from his grief by telling him stories of his own family, followed him into Team Plasma's base even when they were fighting, they had gotten drunk together to celebrate their victory over the Gym Leader, and played in the pokémon musical together. Octa had listened to him talk on and on about Aqua in the days when he first met her and prevented him from killing himself when his whole life had collapsed around him not much later. They had come to blows about Octa's refusal to act on his feelings for Toxica, yet ended up laughing together and had fought for each other's lives deep underground. Boreas had supported Octa when he was deeply ashamed about giving up and argued with him to stop that shame from making him do stupid things. Finally he imagined Octa as he had last seen him: fighting bravely to make Boreas' plan work and telling him to go on, no matter what. Every memory with Octa was in the end a happy one.
As Kyurem became a floating ball of grey, fire and ice, Boreas thought about Aqua. He had never known it was possible to love another person so much. Imagining her laugh or her eyes was enough to set him on fire inside. He laughed heartily as he recalled a foolish young Glaceon jumping off a boat to talk to a pretty girl. He recalled how his cheek had burned when she had given him a peck on it and how perfect the world had seemed after she had first truly kissed him. He had stayed the night with her to support her as she told him about her dark past and they had passionately reunited after their violent breakup. Her disbelieving look when he had asked her to marry him and her delight when she realised he was serious, and how they had improvised their wedding on the spot and kissed in the middle of the great battle. The joy he felt whenever he was with her was life itself.
He looked up at the ball of energy about to explode and realised it had been a good life. He couldn't have asked for a better one.
There was a bright flash of light.

Octa stared up in amazement. Kyurem hadn't killed him, for reasons best known to itself, and while he was incredibly cold, he was still alive against all odds. Kyurem flew upwards, to the tower, at top speed.
Suddenly, it roared and writhed in mid-flight, flying chaotically as lightning, visible in the murky storm even from this distance, danced over its dark body. Octa gasped. He could barely believe it, but Boreas had really succeeded! Kyurem seemed to go mad in mid-air as lightning, ice, black and grey energy, danced over its body and seemed to dissolve it. It lost its shape and stopped flying on, hovering in mid-air as it turned into a sphere of black and grey.
The Sun broke through the clouds with amazing timing. The rain-filled sky reflected the Sunlight brightly like a thousand drops of gold, as did the top of the tower and the floating ball of energy that was once Kyurem, all gleaming with painfully bright gold to their dark-adjusted eyes.
Kyurem exploded in an enormous flash of energy and light, and a second later an ear-piercing explosion and shockwave hit and threw everyone to the ground. Octa's heart erupted with triumph. "BOREAS!" he shouted, holding up his blade in a triumphant salute into the tower's direction. "He did it! He did it!"
Toxica flew into an embrace with him the moment she got up, cheering happily and inarticulately for their friend. She even pulled a laughing Aqua into the hug as well, and after a moment of hesitation Octa hugged her too. He had been wrong to suspect her of being a traitor after all.
They let go of each other. "Wonderful," said a smiling Aqua. "My clever Boreas has really done it..."
The tower exploded with an immense fireball, blowing up completely and raining rubble over the battlefield. Octa's heart, ablaze with triumph and pride, froze instantly. He could only stare at the collapse of what little was left of the tower, along with the wall leading to it. "No... No..." He saw the horrified, shocked looks on Aqua's and Toxica's faces, and felt a tear trickling down from his eye. He wanted to tell them Boreas might've gotten away in time, to try to convince himself of it, but he knew it wasn't true. He knew it in his mind, but mainly felt it in his heart. It was even worse than his father's death, which hadn't truly sunk in yet. Boreas was dead.
Even the sight of Ghetsis' pokémon fleeing despite Giallo telling them to get back, the fiercely bright Sun shining on his back, and the disappearance of the suppressing feeling of the two legendaries on Plasma's side couldn't dispel the horrible sense of loss he felt.
But there was no time to grief now. He raised his voice to address everyone left on their side: Aqua and Toxica, his house, Esper, and Altaïr, most of whom were just staring up at the collapsing tower in wonder. "Everyone!" he spoke. "My friends, my family! An incredibly brave Glaceon died to give us this last chance of victory! The enemy is in disarray; they've seen their commander killed and no longer have the Kyurems to bolster their morale! Even the Sun itself is on our side, shining in their eyes and on our backs! This is our chance! Fight now! Fight for victory!" he lowered his voice, talking only to Aqua and Toxica. "Fight for Boreas."
Aqua echoed him as she wrapped herself in a wave, golden with the bright Sunlight's reflection, and together they charged Giallo's remaining pokémon, who were confused and scared by the tower's collapse and had to look straight into the low Sun to even see their enemies. Toxica was barely behind them as her flower greedily took the sunlight in as she ran, barraging their enemy with Solarbeams as they charged. "For Boreas!"
All the others followed them too, charging the terrified and half-blinded enemy with the bright Sun in their back and a conviction they were going to win in their hearts.
 
79
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 24, 2013
Chapter Seventy-Seven: The Day that Changed the World
Victory.
It was almost impossible to believe, but they had utterly defeated Team Plasma's far more powerful forces. As the low Sun shone on the Pokémon League and Team Plasma's castle, there was no-one there who wasn't amazed by how the battle had turned out.
Victory.
Many had died. There wasn't a single person, human or pokémon, who hadn't lost someone. Trainers, pokémon, friends, family members. In all that death, Aqua didn't think it was possible anyone felt worse than her. Yet there was only one word for it.
Victory.
Team Plasma still held all of Unova in its grip, even now that its headquarters were captured, and the resistance was nicely cooped up here in the Pokémon League for them to destroy. Yet, it was a stunning, crushing victory. Ghetsis, Zinzolin, Ryoku, and Bronius were dead, while Gorm, Rood, and Giallo had been taken prisoner, along with lots of grunts. What exactly had happened to the Elite Four, no-one knew. There were multiple stories going around about them, the most common of which was that they'd switched sides again when the Kyurems exploded, and had then quickly fled the battle before anyone could hold them accountable for their actions. Where they had gone, no-one knew; only that they weren't among the prisoners or the dead.
The greatest change was perhaps that everyone could feel the Kyurems were gone. For eight long months, the legendary on Team Plasma's side had pressed hard on everyone's minds, discouraging its enemies, encouraging its allies, and convincing those on neither side to support Team Plasma, and now suddenly its influence was gone. Aqua saw it in her allies. They finally had hope again.
Hope had rekindled the moment they saw the tower blow up. Most had no idea Boreas was in there, and wouldn't have cared much if they'd known, but everyone knew Ghetsis was in that tower. With the influence of the Kyurems suddenly gone along with Ghetsis, their courage had soared, while the enemy was in panicky disarray without their leader. Up near the tower's base, Ghetsis' pokémon had fled and left Giallo with his remaining steel-types, all of whom were almost blinded by the bright, low Sun behind their enemies. In the glorious charge of hope and fury Octa had led, they had captured Giallo himself.
Everywhere in the castle, the same scenario had taken place. Fleeing members of the resistance had caught their courage again and returned to fight once more. With the added luck that the castle lay north of the League and therefore in most places the Sun's blinding light was to their advantage, team Plasma found itself in a much harder spot than before. Aqua and the others who had just taken Giallo prisoner had descended the castle to attack the enemy from behind: as much as they'd wanted to look for Boreas' body, they knew they had to press their advantage and honour his sacrifice by delivering their victory. Finally, somewhere in the western part of the castle, a grunt couldn't handle it any more and had been the first to flee. His fear had infected others, and soon a huge part of Plasma was routing. Apparently some had even switched sides in the midst of battle and joined the trainers against their former comrades.
Sage Ryoku, fighting in the eastern part of the castle, had declared himself Team Plasma's new leader and regained control over much of their forces for a while. The grunts in this part of the castle regrouped and fought well, and for a moment it had even seemed as if Plasma might win after all. But then the news had come that Ryoku was dead, and chaos had broken out in the enemy ranks. Even now, Aqua wasn't sure how Ryoku had died, but the important thing was that the enemy had routed, and the remaining Sage surrendered not long after.
Aqua tried to focus on the great victory and their new hope, like everyone else. She tried to share in the triumphant feeling that was going around. It was easy enough to pretend she was glad they'd won; she'd always been good at acting cheerful even when she felt bad. Even so, if she was honest, she would have rather had a defeat Boreas had survived than this victory without him. On some moments, she felt numb inside and didn't believe Boreas was dead at all, half-expecting him to stand just around any corner with a smug, mischievous grin on his face, asking her if she had really thought he was dead. But on other moments the horrible truth began to sink in. She would never see him again. She would have to live her life completely alone, and a black pit of despair opened before her. Her broken leg with its improvised cast didn't hurt remotely as badly as that knowledge.
She tried to cheer herself up: she wouldn't be completely alone. Toxica was still here for her, and even if she was no substitute for Boreas she was a good friend. But she was all Aqua had left; even Selene had disappeared. Her body hadn't been found yet, but with every second the chance she and Lucius had survived lowered.
Aqua had been unsure of what to do, overwhelmed with Boreas' death, and had so far just walked after Toxica a bit, and Toxica had been helping Octa find the rest of his family. They had many dead to mourn, among them Octa's father and his brother Marcus Aurelius, and were generally quiet and sombre, which fit well with Aqua's own mood.
Gaius was addressing the others on a large courtyard in the castle, and Aqua really couldn't bring up the attention to listen to him. Her thoughts went to Boreas instead every time. She'd never see his cheeky grin again. She'd never have to wonder if he had gone insane again, like when he had asked her to marry him in battle. She'd never share a laugh with him again.
Anger welled up in her. Idiot humans. Why had they drawn Boreas into their stupid conflict? If it wasn't for them, he would still be alive... But she knew that wasn't fair. This was just as much about pokémon than about humans. She sighed. If only he had been a little less heroic. She felt so horribly alone without him, she wanted to follow him. She knew they wouldn't be together that way... But at least she wouldn't have to go on without him.
She tried to distract herself from these thoughts by listening to Gaius. It seemed he was admitting he was an idiot to everyone, which she supposed was a good thing. He said he would refuse any nomination of him as the new leader of their house, which she also supposed was a good thing. She really found she couldn't care less about all this, though.
"Hey," whispered Toxica, "how are you holding up?"
"I've been better." Aqua was a bit startled at how bitter she sounded.
Toxica softly touched her shoulder. "I'm so sorry for you... You'll really feel better eventually, you know, even if it seems now that you'll never stop being sad. Time heals all wounds, even this one. Eventually, things turn out alright."
"Yes," said Aqua to stop Toxica's babbling, while she inwardly thought: ********. This will never be alright. There was no way a world without Boreas would ever be a happy place. And he wouldn't be coming back either, so the only way this would ever be alright would be if she could travel back in time and experience the blissful year she'd had with him again. Although she had wasted far too much of that time fighting with him and not being there. She should've cherished what little time they had together, stayed with him all the time. She would never get over her loss... And if somehow she did, if she eventually ended up feeling over him the way she had gotten over Lothario, wouldn't that be even worse? It seemed so terrible to just forget him like that. She couldn't imagine herself being so unfaithful she'd stop feeling horrible about it and maybe even love someone else...
She realised she was crying about him for the first time. So far she had kept her grief hidden inside, but now the tears ran through her fut. She quickly dried them and took on a neutral mask. She really didn't want to cry in front of Octa's even smugger relatives. She tried to pay attention to them instead. It seemed they were discussing who should be their new leader. Some names were mentioned, but no-one actually nominated anyone, and no-one no-one put themselves forth either.
Until Livia spoke up. "I nominate my brother, Octa!"
The word "What" was uttered by a lot of people. Octa among them. They all talked through each other. Someone pointed out he wasn't even a member of their house any more.
"Who cares?" said Livia. "Today we reached victory because of Octa and Toxica! Octa is braver and wiser than anyone else here, and Toxica is every bit as noble as any of us. I believe he would make a great Lord if we reinstated him, and would cause a fresh wind to blow into our house at last."
"Livia," said Octa, "I am very grateful for this, but I do not want this honour. I'm not even a part of the house any more."
"We need you, Octa," said Livia. "We need your fresh look on things, we need your bravery and your wisdom. We wouldn't have won today without you and Toxica. Who else wants Octa as our new leader?!"
There was a moment of silence as they thought about it, then agreeing voices spoke up. More and more of them. Soon, most of them were cheering for Octa, though a few were booing him.
"See?" said Livia. "We want you to be our leader. Will you let us down?"
Octa looked around unsurely and made eye-contact with Toxica, who nodded. "No," he said finally, "I shan't let down my house-"
"Long live Lord Octavianus the fifth!" cheered Livia, and many voices followed. "May his days be blessed."
All of them bowed for their new leader, who looked around in amazement. Toxica too made a bow, with a smile. "Congratulations, my lord," she teased.
"Please, I am honoured, but let me finish speaking," said Lord Octavianus. "I shan't let down my house, but I do not want this honour. I left the house not just to escape the judgement of others, but that of myself. If there is no other way I shall accept this honour, but I ask you to elect an even more suited candidate."
"There is no-one better suited!" Livia argued.
"Yes, there is, my dear sister: you."
"Me?!"
"Yes, you. Livia is far wiser and braver than me, and has the advantage of actually being a member of the house. I believe she, like me, is willing to let a new wind blow through our house, but she also has a healthy respect for our traditions. When the order to retreat was given, she was the only one who remained with me. If you are willing, have her as a leader instead."
After they considered it for a moment, there were many cheers, so Octa said: "Then I resign as our leader and nominate Livia as my successor."
Livia squinted. "Don't think you're rid of it that easily. I want your help and your advice. Yours, and Toxica's. I will accept only if you promise you'll help me."
Octa and Toxica both agreed.
"Very well, then I accept."
Now it was Octa's turn to start a cheer. "Long live Lady Livia the seventh! May her days be blessed."
There was much cheering again, this time with much less booing mixed in. Livia was about to begin giving some kind of speech when Octa quietly said to her:
"I'm sorry, my dear sister, but I have to leave for now. It is time I honoured the hero who has truly brought us this victory. I shall go find his body, that we might bury him with the greatest honour."
Lady Livia nodded. "I understand. Go quickly; I have to think of something to say to them."
Octa retreated quietly amidst the cheers, and Aqua followed him. "I'm coming with you," she said.
"I do not think it would be wise," said Octa sadly. "Boreas' remains are likely to be gravely maimed after that explosion... I don't think he would want you to see him like that. Go to the pokécenter and have yourself healed, that you may remember him as he was in life, rather than in death."
Aqua rolled her eyes. "No, Octa, I'm coming with you. I want to see his corpse, no matter how badly mangled. Or I'll torment myself with the idea that he could still somehow be alive until the end of my days. Besides, I owe him at least this much."
Octa nodded. "Alright, I understand."

Aqua clambered through the grim rubble that filled a courtyard. She and Octa had been searching for quite a while. First they had searched in the ruins of the tower itself, but they had only found the Light Stone and the twisted remains of N's golden throne and Ghetsis there; no Boreas. This was not all too unusual, as the explosion had scattered debris of the tower over a large area and Boreas was presumably among it. It just meant a larger area to search. Aqua and Octa drew comfort from each other while searching, even though they said as good as nothing to each other. They had never really gotten along, but right now their love for Boreas bound them.
"I wonder if he suffered much..." said Aqua finally as they combed through the rubble in the courtyard bit by bit.
"I doubt it..." said Octa. "The explosion would've killed him before he even felt the pain. I'm sure his death was quite painless..."
They passed one of the large, ornamental shields that hung on the walls everywhere; it was blackened and dented in from the explosion. They nearly passed it by when Aqua suddenly noticed it was lying on top of something. She felt ice-cold. "Octa..." she said, pointing.
A single, badly burnt, broken hindpaw and a burnt tail which missed its tip stuck out from under the shield. Aqua suddenly couldn't hold her tears in and wailed loudly. The true extent of her loss only now hit her. Boreas was gone forever, only this burnt piece of meat left of him.
Octa bowed his head solemnly. "Farewell Boreas, brilliant and brave,
a Glaceon too good to be stuck in a grave..."
A very small giggle almost made it through Aqua's tears; how like Octa to think up an epitaph for him on the spot. She wanted to say something, anything, but was too torn up with grief and tears to do so. Octa softly embraced her, and they cried together. After a moment, he let go.
"Why don't you go back?" he proposed tearfully. "You have seen his body... But you needn't see all of it. I shall take it back myself."
But Aqua couldn't leave from Boreas' side. She shook her head firmly.
"I see," said Octa kindly. "You should do this the way that feels best to you... Help me move the shield off of him..."
They slowly moved the heavy, charred piece of steel off of Boreas, expecting to see something resembling meat that's been left on the grill far too long below. But instead they found Boreas protected from the heat of the explosion by the shield, his body still intact. The end of his paw and tail were only burned because they had stuck out from under the shield. The rest of his fur was still blue and unburned.
However, a metal spike had stabbed right through his chest, which was died red with blood. He had many smaller wounds too, including a bad-looking over on his head, and much of his body was bruised. Lying below him were the remnants of several large pillows; they had been partially burned and ruptured by the impact and were flat now. Despite his many wounds, Boreas' face looked peaceful; there even was a small smile around his lips. Seeing him looking more or less intact, Aqua's heart made a jump of joy, and she held her own breath as Octa rushed to listen to Boreas'. But far too much time passed. Octa shook his head sadly and got up, and Aqua sank into despair again.
"Clever to the very end..." said Octa, indicating the protective shell of the shield and pillows Boreas was encased himself in. "The explosion's shock was still too great to survive, however..."
Or he died of his wounds while we were wasting time fighting and listening to Gaius talk... added Aqua in her thoughts, which made her feel even more horrible. She wondered how he'd received those wounds in the first place... And how he had managed to win from Kyurem. But most of all, she wondered if he would still have been alive if they'd been here earlier.
"I-I wonder what his final moments were like..." said Aqua, crying slightly. "He looks so peaceful..."

Past
Boreas looked up at the ball of energy about to explode and realised it had been a good life. He couldn't have asked for a better one.
There was a bright flash of light. It came from outside, and a moment later there was a huge, thundering noise and the tower shook. Boreas wondered if it was the other Kyurem exploding; this one would do the same any second now, and he was at peace with that. However, looking up at it, he saw something else: behind it hung one of the large, ornamental Team Plasma shields. He had an idea, incredibly enough, and got up, cringing against the pain. He was at peace if he would die now, and knew it almost certainly wouldn't work, but the small chance of staying alive was worth not lying down and spending his final moments in a somewhat pleasant way. He would probably still die, but at least his body might be preserved better and still be recognisable, which might help Aqua move on if she was still alive.
He pulled Ghetsis' body off the throne, grabbed the two large pillows, and dragged them over to the wall. He fired an Ice Beam behind the shield, snap-freezing the wire that held it up, so the shield fell down. Knowing he had only seconds, he put the pillows behind him, up against the wall, and drew the shield up in front of him, hiding behind it entirely and freezing himself to it and the pillows. The shield would absorb most of the blast and he might be thrown clear of the explosion as it destroyed the tower instead of being crushed against an unbreaking wall. Maybe he would even survive the impact on the ground if he landed on his back, where the pillows would offer some protection. It was a huge long-shot, but there was little harm done with it.
If he didn't make it, it had still been a good life. A moment when he and Aqua had laughed about something until they cried came to mind. He couldn't eve recall what they had been laughing at, but it was a happy memory.
There was a blindingly bright light, a terrible impact, searing heat, and then nothing.

Present
Aqua felt overwhelmed with sorrow. She really would have to face this life alone. She just couldn't think of anything that would ever make her happy again. Crying loudly, she embraced Boreas' lifeless body, sobbing on his cold shoulder, her ear in his neck. "What will I ever do without you?" she cried. "I can't live like that..."
Of course, he remained silent. As he always would. Aqua grieved, now softly, still holding him. If she let him go, it would somehow make it even more irreversible, and she just couldn't face that right now.
Very faintly, on the edge of her hearing, she imagined hearing an incredibly weak thump in his neck. Why did she torture herself like this? The more she had these kinds of thoughts, the worse the truth hurt. She was all alone in the world.
But she perceived another thump, and another quickly after. She held her breath and pressed her large, sensitive ear even closer to his neck. It took almost three seconds, but there was another weak thump; and it wasn't her own heartbeat, as it was much louder and faster. Boreas' was incredibly weak and irregular and seemed like it could just stop at any moment, but it was there!
"By the depths!" Aqua instantly sat up and formed an Aqua Ring around Boreas. She had to keep him alive as long as she could, and this would give him some energy to survive a little longer. "He's alive! Octa, go get anyone with medical skills, right now!"
"Aqua..." said Octa, in terribly sad voice. The smug git clearly thought she was crazy.
"NOW!" she shouted. "His heart's still beating, but won't be for much longer, so GO!"
"I'm sorry... But 'tis-"
"No, it's not my imagination, I really heard his heart beat! My ears are a lot bigger than yours, so trust me, please!"
"I shall." Octa at least wasted no more time, giving her the benefit of the doubt and racing off.
Aqua was left alone with a near-dead Boreas, working hard to make the healing veil of water as strong as possible. It was obviously nowhere near enough to save him, but it might just be enough to keep him alive for an extra minute or so needed to reach a nurse. It had to be. "You're going to be alright, Boreas," said Aqua. "Really, you are. Your heart is going to keep beating until the nurse comes and rescues you, do you hear me? You're not going to leave me behind, you'll stay with me. You're going to wake up and give me that charming little smile of yours." She rambled on like this, trying to convince herself it would somehow help.

Boreas woke up. That was strange. Opening his eyes in wonder, he found himself in a comfortable bed in the pokécenter. He was alive! He could barely believe it. An annoying pain in his chest let him know for certain: he really was alive. He took a deep breath, finding it incredibly enjoyable to have two working lungs again.
"Good morning."
Boreas startled and looked for the voice's source. An attractive Umbreon lay in the next bed in the room. "Febby?!" he said joyously. "You're alive?!"
She smiled. "Don't sound so surprised, I'm not the one going around blowing up legendary pokémon while he's in the room with them."
Boreas began to laugh, but felt the laughter die in his throat as he realised Aqua, Octa, and Toxica had probably not been as lucky as Febby and him. "Yeah... I knew you might survive, but your chances didn't seem good."
Febby shrugged. "Seems lady Luck was on both our sides. Anyway, I shouldn't be wasting your time when the others are ageing ten years every second with worry." She shouted: "He's awake!"
Boreas tried to quench the hope that rose in him, fearing disappointment. "What... Who?"
Febby just smiled and winked and pointed to the door.
Boreas turned to look, but at that moment a heavy weight fell on top of him and before he knew what was happening he was being passionately kissed by a pair of blue lips. His heart was overflowing with joy: Aqua was alive too! As their lips parted, Aqua and Boreas laughed and babbled incoherently, too happy to pay attention to what they or the other were saying, interspersing with more kisses. Finally, Boreas' chest began putting a bit of a dampener on his joy. "My love, I'm so glad you're alright... But I don't think I'm quite recovered yet. Could you get off me?"
Aqua rolled off of him with a mirthful laugh and put her front paws around him. "As long as I still get to hold you."
"Well, then perhaps you now have time to notice us too?"
Octa and Toxica were standing next to his bed too. He said their names in sheer joy and big grins appeared on their faces. The next moment he was hugged from three sides and trying his best to hug back with only two arms. "Wonderful to see you again! What happened? How did you all survive Kyurem exploding?" He had never been so happy.
"My dear fellow," laughed Octa, "Kyurem began flying to the throneroom moments before it began exploding. It must've known the danger to its master when a hero like you approached!"
Boreas chuckled and blushed. "Don't call me that."
"But you are," laughed Aqua as she nuzzled him, "and if you ever do something that heroic again and survive it, I'll kill you."
Laughing and celebrating with his friends, Boreas suddenly realised they weren't all there. "Where is Lucius?" he asked with sudden fear. "Where is Selene?"
Octa sighed. "Well, I'm afraid they're-"
"Right here, pup," said Lucius, coming through the door with Selene on his shoulder.
"-alive as well." Octa rolled his eyes theatrically.
"You finally woke up," said Selene. "It was about time, that was a really long nap."
"He was-" began Lucius, "oh, never mind."
Boreas greeted them warmly, happy in the knowledge so many of them had made it. If only Black hadn't died... "This is so wonderful," he said. "I have so many questions for you all! Lucius, Selene, where were you?!"
Selene said: "We were going to the tower, but got l-"
Lucius interrupted. "Figured you guys'd have Ghetsis under control and decided to go after that bastard Ryoku instead."
"We did?" said Selene. "Of course, I remember now. We looked for Ryoku."
Lucius grinned. "Found him too, we did. He was beating a bunch of guys, but we came in, chased off him Garchomp, and killed a bunch of his grass-types. It was easy, really. But then we were surprised by his Tangrowth..."

Past
Lucius fought against a thousand vines. They pulled Selene away from him and wound around him. He had burnt a great many to a cinder already, but Tangrowth had a seemingly endless supply of the things. They had quickly wound around his neck and each of his limbs, choking him to death despite his struggles. They pulled hard on his limbs, making it feel like they were going to tear off. He fought hard but couldn't breathe and quickly began to black out.
But then, the vines writhed and let him go as they were suddenly on fire. Lucius was too weakened to do much and fell on the ground. Tangrowth took a few steps back and he was out of the mass of vines, able to see what was going on: Tangrowth was on fire. It was fighting a Charmeleon that had seemingly come out of completely nowhere. It wasn't the only thing that had suddenly appeared: more pokémon and their trainers were fighting Ryoku now as well.
Lucius looked for Selene, and crawled to her when he saw her lie about as well. She was still breathing. "Hey, birdbrain, d'you know what the hell's going on?"
Selene looked around in bewilderment. "No, except- don't you see something unusual?"
"No."
"Precisely. What you don't see is the tower, which is gone."
Lucius looked at where it should be and saw nothing. "Gone?!" he laughed. "Mew's splanch, I guess Ghetsis was in it too! That's why all these idiots came back to fight, and why those grunts are fleeing!"
"Yeah," laughed Selene, "I guess the glove's on the other foot now, hmm?"
"You said it. C'mon, let's get them." Lucius tried to get up, but fell down again, nearly asphyxiated as he was and with his legs still poorly bled through. "In a moment. I think these guys have things under control right now."
Selene agreed. "Yeah, I don't think we should be stealing their glory."
At first, things seemed to go their way. But Ryoku barked orders both to his pokémon and to fleeing grunts, and Plasma's disarrayed forces got more organised again and struck back against the trainers. They were soon starting to get driven back, past Lucius and Selene. Lucius began to get up to fight with them, but he felt a wing on his paw. "Let's play dead for a while," said Selene.
"No," grunted Lucius.
"C'mon, it'll be fun."
"What's wrong with you? This is no time to be goofing off."
"Just play dead; trust me."
"Hmpf, fine," grumbled Lucius as he lay down. "Can't believe I'm following your advice, I must be just as mad..."
"Quiet, here they come."
The trainers and their pokémon rapidly retreated past the Houndoom and the Honchkrow, some of them fleeing, some still fighting the enemy. Team Plasma's pokémon passed them by too.
Ryoku was ordering several grunts about now that they had pushed the resistance back. "Tell everyone you find that I'm taking over command of Team Plasma, and order them to stand their ground and stop fleeing; those who don't will be considered traitors. Remind them we outnumber the enemy."
Lucius growled angrily, hearing Capella's murderer organise Team Plasma. If he was allowed to continue, Plasma could still win, as they did indeed outnumber the resistance; they were just losing because they were panicked without their leader. Now this jerk was going to take Ghetsis' place? Lucius so wished he could get to Ryoku to avenge Capella and prevent the battle from turning again in a single move, but of course that was impossible with Team Plasma's pokémon between him and...
Actually, he realised there was nothing between him and Ryoku: the pokémon had all passed by him and Selene, thinking they were dead. He looked at Selene, astonished she'd actually had a plan and done something smart.
She chuckled and nodded. "Well, go get him, then."
Lucius grinned meanly and got up, approaching the skeleton-like Sage ordering grunts to spread the word that he was their new leader. Lucius surrounded himself with a big ring of dark fire as one of the grunts pointed to him and made Ryoku turn around in fear and call for backup. But it was too late for him.
"This is for Capella, you son of a *****."

Present
Boreas felt slightly put off by the obvious glee in Lucius' voice as he retold how he had killed Ryoku. He supposed he shouldn't judge, as he had killed Ghetsis himself; but he couldn't imagine himself telling about killing Ghetsis with such joy. In fact, he now noticed he felt a little guilty about the killing itself. The memory of Ghetsis' fear as Boreas froze him to death was one that filled him with odd regret.
"Are you alright, my love?" asked Aqua. Boreas noticed Lucius had stopped talking and they were all looking at him.
As he looked at his friends, all alive and well, he felt happiness dispel his regret and realised this wasn't the time to feel bad; they had won, and except for Black they had all survived it. He smiled. "I'm going to be just fine."
They all talked much more about all that had happened to them and told him about their parts in the great battle as Boreas ate a breakfast. Boreas too told his friends about how he had duelled Diego to within a hair's breadth of death, how tempted he had been to give up, and how he had gone on and killed Ghetsis. The others told him much more, and they all talked mirthfully, glad to still be together. At first Boreas kept up with their stories but after a while the words of the others went into his one ear, and out again the other. They slowly turned into a background noise.

Boreas woke up with a sleeping Aqua's arms around him and his friends gone. He felt a little ashamed that he'd apparently fallen asleep while they were talking, but they'd probably understand. After all, he had quite a number of wounds to recover from. He was glad Aqua had stayed with him and hugged her back gently. She stirred a little and mumbled softly, half-opening an eye.
"Shh," he said softly, "go back to sleep, my love."
"Hmm..." she mumbled half-asleep, sounding worried. "Boreas, stay with me..."
"Of course," he whispered, "I'll stay with you always."
She cuddled him a little tighter and smiled beautifully in her sleep. "...Good..."
Closing his eyes again, Boreas whispered: "We'll be together forever."

25 January of that year was a date well remembered by the history books as the day the Plasma War's outcome was decided. A dark, violent, bloody day, yet also the day of the great victory; a day of great sorrow when hope died along with its heroes, and great joy as unexpected other heroes rekindled it from its ashes. A day of death, but also of life.
The resistance had many dead to mourn, and Black was probably the greatest loss. The new Champion had been a beacon of hope to them all, but his loss was felt strongest by his pokémon and his friends Cheren, Bianca, and White. He was buried by them in a small ceremony on the edge of the mountain pass with the Light Stone. Three of the Gym Leaders hadn't made it either, and many more lives were to be mourned.
Yet their victory was great. They had captured Team Plasma's headquarters and their entire leadership. The first thing that was done after the battle was to truly liberate the thousands of pokémon found in the depths of the Castle, who had been used to build it, to power it, and some were trained to fight for Team Plasma. Many of these pokémon decided to join them, and many of them found a friendly new trainer who had lost pokémon in the battle. Some of them even found their old trainers, who had thought them lost forever.
Unova was still ruled by Team Plasma, but they were in disarray without the Sages. At the same time, the disappearance of the influence of the legendaries made many of their supporters turn away from them, and the crushing defeat Team Plasma had suffered at the League showed everyone they were not invincible.
With the Sages dead or captured, many Team Plasma members with higher functions declared themselves to be the new Sages. In fact, several of them did so in each city. How many self-proclaimed Sages there were a few weeks after the battle of the League, no-one could say, but there were at least fifty of them. Ironically, thanks to the information captured with the castle, the resistance knew far more about Team Plasma than any of these new Sages did. The only thing all of them saw eye to eye on was that the resistance had to be destroyed, and a day after the battle of the League, the trainline with Opelucid was cut off as Plasma intended to hunger the resistance out, trapped as they were now in their distant stronghold in the middle of the wintry Black Mountains.
Fortunately, there were several months worth of supplies at the League, but even so the connection had to be restored. A plan was hatched to send a small force south through Victory Road to Opelucid in order to restore the train again. To their surprise, Boreas and his friends found themselves volunteering for a second trip through a wintrous Victory Road, and Cheren, Bianca and their pokémon went with them. The journey was hard, but this time they knew the way and didn't get lost. Since spring was approaching the landscape got less barren near the end. On a lovely day in April, they once again saw the rough, but pretty landscape of Route 10. Boreas found he could easily joke with Aqua about his stupidity the last time they had been here now.
After a journey through the wild canyons, dense forests, and flowering fields of Route 10, they came upon Opelucid. Team Plasma's rule had weakened significantly over the past three months; most of the people who had proclaimed themselves the new Sages were dead by now, usually assassinated by their peers as Team Plasma had fallen to infighting and split into many different groups all calling themselves Team Plasma. The populace of Unova no longer supported them and protests and resistance were common, held back only by the fear of retaliation.
When Boreas and his friends found Opelucid so tired of its incompetent, quibbling Team Plasma taskmasters, they began work to organise a revolt. The northern train station, where passengers and goods had once regularly gone back and forth to the League, was under heavy guard despite all Team Plasma's troubles. While fomenting an uprising, they also worked to play out the different factions of Team Plasma in the city against each other.
On the final day of April, their plan came to fruition. A conflict between three factions of Team Plasma escalated an hour before the uprising started. Team Plasma found themselves not only fighting each other, but also having a full-scale revolution on their hands, and were forced to draw most of their guard away from the northern station. This allowed Boreas and his friends to defeat the remaining guards and send a single train north to the League; at that point it didn't matter if Team Plasma reconquered the station, as the train could be powered from the League just as well, and even if they sabotaged the tracks, the rest of the resistance - returning in the train - would just stop the train a few kilometres before the city and walk the rest of the way.
With the city rising up against them and the resistance on their way, most of Team Plasma fled Opelucid. When the train arrived the resistance was welcomed as liberators into an already free city. The celebrations lasted many days.
With Opelucid liberated, the resistance could finally get out of their besieged Pokémon League. The Gym Leaders decided to return to their own cities in secret to help them throw Team Plasma off, just like Opelucid. Some of the others decided to stay in Opelucid, some to defend it and some because they were tired of fighting, while some spread out over Unova to help the Gym Leaders reclaim the cities, or to help the smaller towns throw off Team Plasma. There was fear for a while that Opelucid would be directly attacked by Team Plasma, as many of the new Sages said they would do so, but in the end all the various splinters of Team Plasma were far too busy with their internal power struggle and keeping some amount of order to commit to such an attack, even though there was less infighting between them now that they had all been frightened by the liberation of Opelucid.
It was now for the first time that Boreas and his friends had to split up. Octa and Toxica had given Livia their word they would help and she called on them to help her take back their home, which had been confiscated by Team Plasma after the house of Equinox had come to the resistance's aid. Lucius and Selene went with Cheren to liberate the capital while Boreas and Aqua decided to go to Nuvema Town with Bianca, as there was no Gym Leader there to organise the liberation.
It was the first time Boreas had seen Nuvema Town since his brother had showed it to him on the day his family had died. He recalled it far happier and more carefree; now there were now no pokémon at all in the town and most people stayed fearfully inside. Team Plasma had a heavy presence here, but the population was too small to be of much help against them. With Bianca and professor Juniper they tried to find a way to chase Team Plasma from the town, but their progress was slow. For a while, the task seemed impossible; Unova was so big, most of it could still be in Plasma's hands ten years from now.
But then hopeful news came, as Nacrene and Nimbasa had liberated themselves. It strengthened everyone's hope, but a true solution to their problems didn't appear until Octa arrived in Nuvema, about half his house with him. With their help, Team Plasma could finally be removed from Nuvema.

Boreas found himself staring at the forested edge of town. It was evening on a day in early June with strong wind and variable weather. Yet the occasional shower hadn't put a dampener on the town's celebrations; it had only been yesterday that Sage Pete had been forced to lay down his command over the city, after all. Bianca and professor Juniper were hard at work to get people used to the idea of being friends with pokémon again, and were going to teach them how to handle pokémon well. Boreas, Aqua, and Octa would move on tomorrow, going to Castelia to help Lucius and Selene. But for now, they could relax and enjoy themselves at the celebrations.
And Boreas kept looking at the forest. He had done so a lot during the month he had been here, always wondering if he'd still know the way, and what his family's old burrow would be like now, but he'd always been too busy to act on such curiosity. But now was the perfect time.
"Aqua, Octa," he said, "will you excuse me for a while? I need to see something."
Octa raised an eyebrow. "What do you need to see, my dear fellow?"
"Home," said Boreas.
"I understand," nodded Aqua. "I'll go with you, if you want."
"So shall I, my dear fellow."
Boreas smiled. "Thanks. It would be nice to have you there too."
They walked to the town's edge. Boreas looked for the house he had stolen a sausage from, but almost didn't recognise it. "Looks so much smaller," he laughed as he finally saw it. He could now easily have climbed through the window by himself to steal sausage if he wanted.
Feeling like a little Eevee again, Boreas ran up the grassy slope to the shrubs at the edge of the forest. He had to be quick, of course, as the humans would turn him into cheese and eat him if they saw him, he recalled with a chuckle. The origins of the tasty yellow stuff from a picnic basket their mother had once stolen from a bunch of humans had been a frequently debated topic among him and his brothers.
The shrubs hadn't shrunk, oddly enough; they had been allowed to run rampant in the past two years and grown huge, and would still easily let him hide himself. He looked back to the celebrating town basking in the evening Sun. "Look," he said with a wink to a laughing Aqua and Octa, "a herd of humans."
He led them on through the forest. He could still easily recall the way, though he felt like a giant and went about as fast walking as he could've run as an Eevee, so he proceeded quickly. Left at this tree, a little right at that tree, and over this small hill...
Was a beautiful patch of flowers. There was no sign remaining of the massacre that had occurred here so long ago. The small hillock was overgrown with gorgeous flowers of many colours that enjoyed the summery heat. The burrow was still there, modified heavily and showing the signs of several species of pokémon inhabiting it at different times. It didn't smell like anyone lived there right now, but something clearly had last spring.
Octa and Aqua stood next to him. "It's beautiful," said Aqua.
"Indeed," said Octa. "To think this is where we first met each other..."
Boreas nodded. He almost wanted to ask Octa to go stand where he had stood then, but he didn't; he figured it might bring back bad memories, as it hadn't been a joyful moment. He smiled happily at both Octa and Aqua, glad to have come back to this place and seen it once more. "Come," he said, "let's get back to the party."
 
79
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 24, 2013
Chapter Seventy-Eight: Selene, Lucius, Toxica, Octa, Aqua, and Boreas
A gentle spring breeze whispered through the tall grass of Route 7 and the Sun shone down warmly on a generously decked table full of delicacies. At the table sat six pokémon, close friends of each other. The meal they were sharing was a very special one; not just because it celebrated the end of the Plasma war, but because it was the final one they'd share. Tomorrow an end would come to their team after three years of hardships and joy, fights and friendship. Each one of them had saved the life of each of the others at least a dozen times, and felt like killing that person at least as often.
As Boreas looked around at his friends, he realised the good times easily outweighed the bad ones. He had a special bond with each of these five pokémon, and to think they would part tomorrow felt unreal. It was sad to part, yet they were all happy with where they were going next.
Boreas smiled and lifted his glass. "To our new League Champion, and to the newest members of his team."
Five glasses tipped against his and they all took a sip. "Hear, hear," said Selene, "but Iwho is this new Champion? I didn't hear anything about a new Champion."
"He's talking about Cheren, birdbrain," said Lucius. "And he's gonna be the new Champion, 'cause we're gonna make him Champion."
"Oh, right," said Selene.
"It's stupid we have to go through Victory Road again, though," grumbled Lucius, "we did that twice last year, why do we have to go again?"
"Well, those are the rules," said Octa. "One isn't allowed to challenge the League unless one arrived there by Victory Road."
"Yeah, yeah."
"On the positive side," said Selene, "we've been getting really familiar with Victory Road this way; I can't wait to meet some of my favourite rocks again!"
"Guess at least one of us'll be having fun."
"It's not as if it'll be as bad as the last two times for you either," Boreas pointed out, "since it'll be spring this time, instead of autumn or winter. I hear the Black Mountains' climate is relatively temperate in spring."
"Yeah," Aqua chimed in, "average temperatures only fifty degrees below freezing instead of a hundred. Positively tropical. If you're a Glaceon, at least."
Boreas laughed. "It's not that cold on Victory Road, you know."
"It sure felt like it," said Aqua. "And I should know about cold; I'm married to a Glaceon after all."
"Don't be so silly," chuckled Boreas, "it's not as if I ever expose you to cold, knowing how sensitive you are to it."
"I am not!" said Aqua in an overdone way. "Just because I don't have some kind of Glaceon-superfur that keeps all the cold out..."
"Sure you are," said Boreas, cooling a paw down to below freezing and poking her stomach with it, eliciting a loud squeal. "See?"
Aqua laughed nervously as she recoiled. "That's not fair, I'll get you for that!" She lunged at him and tried to tickle him, but was interrupted by Octa scraping his throat loudly.
"I do apologise if my having dinner interrupts your canoodling."
Boreas and Aqua broke it off and blushed sheepishly. "Sorry," said Boreas, "got a little distracted."
"Oh no, please don't let me interrupt you," spoke Octa snidely, "continue acting like animals all you like."
Toxica giggled. "You're not jealous of them, are you?"
"Of course he is," Lucius joined in with a grin, "after all, it's his anniversary."
"Oh yeah," laughed Toxica, "it's the third anniversary of you and Boreas' first meeting, darling. Hope you didn't forget to get a present for him."
Boreas and Aqua laughed along with them. "Yeah, Octa," teased Boreas, "I hope you didn't forget or thought just this dinner would be enough."
Octa struggled hard to keep a straight face and couldn't quite manage it. "Oh, do be quiet, you dreadful barbarians. I long for the day I shall be in civilised company again. Which just so happens to be tomorrow."
"Don't count your blessings yet." Toxica nudged Octa. "I'll be back in a week or two, and you haven't managed to civilise me yet."
Octa laughed heartily. "Ah, the horrors I exposed myself to when I consented to be given to a trainer. How shall I ever escape the barbarity I was immersed in?"
"I don't know," chuckled Toxica, sipping her glass, "but marrying a barbarian was probably not the best way to go about it."
Octa looked pensive. "Hmm, that might have been my mistake, yes..."
Octa and Toxica had wed on a beautiful day in October, soon after Castelia had been liberated. Team Plasma's hold on the capital had been strong, as all its factions agreed Castelia had to stay in their hands at all costs, actually working together for a change. When Boreas, Aqua, and Octa had joined Toxica, Lucius, and Selene there to help defeat Team Plasma the day after the victory in Nuvema Town, another four difficult months had started. Even as other cities threw off Team Plasma's yoke, their grip on Castelia remained tight, realising holding the capital was their final chance to win the war.
By the time the resistance had finally prevailed, Boreas was exhausted and tired of fighting and wanted nothing more than some peaceful rest. So when Octa had asked Boreas to be his best man, Boreas had expected his friends' wedding to be a welcome repose after the hard work. Little had he known that fighting Team Plasma was easy compared to fighting Octa's family. The entire thing was meticulously planned out, and absolutely everyone, living or dead, had gotten involved in some way. Boreas and Selene, as best man and maid of honour, had automatically been forced to join in on this circus of planning, to the great amusement of Aqua and Lucius who instead used the time to relax.
Still, the wedding itself had been utterly wonderful and made it all worth it, though Boreas had often felt like killing Octa and/or his entire family in the weeks leading up to it. Octa had surprised Boreas with how passionate he had kissed Toxica when Livia had proclaimed them husband and wife; Boreas just didn't know him to get that emotional.
After the wedding, it had been time to fight Team Plasma again, as usual, but without Castelia, its remnants had been chanceless. They had lost city after city, until by the end of the year only Lacunosa and Striaton were left, and a few days later Striaton was Team Plasma's final stronghold. The final splinter of Team Plasma in this city had proven surprisingly hard to vanquish, but on 26 February a free Unova could finally celebrate the end of the war. It had been quite a small war in terms of life lost and destruction wrought, yet its impact was enormous. There were far fewer trainers now, but there was something different about them too other than their dwindled numbers that Boreas couldn't put a finger on until Aqua pointed it out to him.
In a sense, N's dream had come true as the remaining trainers looked on their pokémon differently. It made sense, in a way: with the threat of death from Team Plasma and Zekrom's influence on the minds of all, most trainers had released their pokémon. The only ones that didn't were those who cared about their pokémon a great deal and were willing to fight for them and to risk all; and Team Plasma members. Since the second group was mostly behind bars these days, the remaining trainers were exactly those who treated their pokémon very well and realised they were more than just weapons or tools. To add to that, these had all gone through very difficult times with their pokémon and fought hard for them, which only increased their bond. Of course, with Team Plasma gone, the number of trainers was once again slowly increasing. Boreas hoped the example the current trainers set would be enough to avoid a return to the more mixed bag of trainers there used to be.
Boreas was snapped out of his thoughts by Lucius talking to him. "You know, pup, you're pretty good in a fight. Why don't you reconsider leaving and join us on Cheren's team instead? I'm sure he'll gladly replace some of the other losers there with you."
Boreas had actually considered that briefly, but it didn't really appeal to him. While he had gotten along decently with Cheren while they were in Castelia and it had been nice to have a trainer in charge of the team again, Cheren wasn't Black. He didn't like him that much. But more importantly, he felt it was time to move on. He had become quite restless lately, and looked forward a lot to seeing more of the world. "No thanks, Lucius. Been there, done that."
"Sure, but that's no reason not to do it again; it's a challenge after all. Plus, this time, when Cheren is Champion, he'll actually get to keep the title instead of, y'know, dying a few hours later. So we'll have to defend the title against challengers."
"Yes, sounds terribly exciting," scoffed Boreas, "waiting around in a single place for challengers to come to us and probably beat them easily. And it gets even better, because for half the year they won't come at all since Victory Road is too dangerous in winter. Sounds great."
"There's more to it than that! Champions get to fight in the world championship, and they have all kinds of other duties and tasks."
Toxica giggled. "You're not saying you'll miss Boreas, right?"
Lucius sniffed. "Miss him? Me? I just think he would make a good asset to Cheren's team. The same goes for the rest of you, by the way; I'm sure Cheren could be convinced to have you on his team."
"No, thanks," said Octa. "While it is an intriguing possibility, I wish to be with my family for now. I promised to, after all."
"You've seen what this place is like, Lucius," said Toxica. "They really need me. Besides, I'd rather not have my honeymoon on Victory Road like Boreas and Aqua. I'll be happy just to settle down with Octa."
It was quiet for a moment as Aqua slowly realised Lucius looked at her. "What, me?" she blurted out in surprise. "You want me to join Cheren's team?"
"W-well, not you in particular..." grumbled Lucius.
Aqua raised an eyebrow. "Me in general? Just any of all those Aquas I represent?"
"No, what I meant was... Just, anyone in the team, including you. Because you're all good fighters. And you're pretty okay, I guess."
Aqua smiled, genuinely surprised. "Was that a compliment I heard? What have you done with the real Lucius?" She chuckled as Lucius struggled for words. "Thanks. But no, I have no interest in the Pokémon League."
"Don't worry," said Selene, "you'll still have me."
"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm afraid of."
A content silence fell about the table. They had all finished eating a while ago, but none of them saw any reason to get up already, enjoying the evening and each others' company.
"Aqua, Boreas," asked Toxica, "do you know where you'll go yet?"
Boreas looked at Aqua. She shrugged. "Not a clue," grinned Boreas. "Isn't that wonderful?"
"Well, if you say so," said Octa. "It sounds quite dreadful to me."
Boreas chuckled. "Where's your sense of adventure, Octa?"
"I don't know, my dear fellow, but it's quite satisfied after all the adventure we've been through."
Boreas shrugged. "Not mine. We haven't been to a new place in over a year, just revisiting cities we've been through to get rid of Team Plasma. I'm just about dying to see new places."
"I don't think I shall ever understand you, my dear fellow. But it does not matter, whether I understand you or not, I have never had such a good friend before. I shall miss you, my dear fellow. All of you, for that matter." He scraped his throat and lifted his glass. "Here's to friendship. May ours last a lifetime." Six glasses met.

The early morning Sun shone upon the roofs of Crimson Village, demonstrating the source of the village's name. Six pokémon walked slowly through the nearly empty streets. Even knowing someone was waiting for them, they were in no hurry, as they were about to part.
Boreas walked in silence, even though part of him wanted to use these final minutes to talk as much as he could to Lucius and Selene. But it was as if he had said everything he needed to say. He just wished they could all stay together... But it was alright this way. They had spent three great years with each other, and now it was time to move on, as they each wanted to do different things. Soon there would be only memories left of their team, and it would be enough.
As they reached the village's small train station, they saw Cheren and his four remaining pokémon waiting for them. Far away, a train's sound could be heard. "Ah, there you are," said Cheren, "just in time. Are you ready to go?"
Lucius turned around to look at his friends, and Boreas' heart suddenly ached with the knowledge that this really was the end. "C'mon, birdbrain, get on my shoulder. It's time to go."
Selene hopped down from Aqua's shoulder and embraced her with her wings. While they said goodbye, Boreas felt he had to say something to Lucius. "Well, I guess this is goodbye."
"Yeah," said Lucius. "I guess so. Or it could be your last chance to change your mind."
Boreas shook his head.
Lucius shrugged. "Figured as much. It's a shame, it'd have been a blast."
"Yeah," said Boreas, "I guess it would." He was surprised to find tears stinging behind his eyes. He had barely realised how attached he had become to Lucius. He was an annoying jerk and never missed a chance to make a sour remark, but Boreas would truly miss those remarks and how they occasionally made him laugh. He was about to say something when Selene's claws gripped his shoulder and Lucius went to say goodbye to Octa.
"No more playing on Ferris wheels, alright?" said Selene. "It's all fun and games until you end up hanging from one by your tail without Selene there to help you."
"Alright, I'll be careful." Boreas grinned, petting Selene's feathers. "Thanks for making my world a little stranger every day."
Selene gave him an undignified look.
"Alright," he laughed, "a lot stranger."
"That's better," she grinned.
"Never stop doing the same to Lucius, okay? It really annoys him, in a good way."
Selene looked ignorant. "I don't know what you mean."
"Sure, sure," said Boreas.
"But," Selene continued with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, "if I ever figure it out, I'll follow your advice."
Boreas grinned. "Good."
Selene hopped onto Lucius' shoulder. "I'm all ready to go!"
"Then what are we waiting for?" chuckled Lucius. He turned to Boreas one last time and gave one of his rare smiles. "Have fun out there, pup."
"Good luck to both of you." They stood in front of each other for a moment, and then Lucius and Boreas moved forward and hugged each other briefly. Selene, sitting on Lucius' shoulder, gave Boreas' ear a friendly nibble. They released each other, and Lucius nodded to all of them. "See you around, guys."
He turned and walked to Cheren, who was quite impatiently waiting at the train by now. Selene waved at them with her wing as they boarded the train.

Four pokémon sat at the station, talking merrily. They had to wait an hour for the train to Driftveil, but they didn't mind, as it allowed them some more time together. When the train came, Octa would take Boreas and Aqua to Driftveil, while Toxica would stay behind to take the next train to Opelucid; she was going to travel Route 10 too, as far as the gates of Victory Road to spend some more time with her friend Selene. But since Cheren wouldn't leave Opelucid rightaway, she had chosen to spend a final hour with Aqua and Boreas as well. They were reminiscing together, and Toxica just finished an embarrassing story about Boreas.
"So," said Aqua slyly, "you were jealous of Toxica, hmm? Funny how you forgot to mention that to me when you told me all about your past..."
Boreas blushed. "Well, I did tell you she annoyed me. I just didn't go into endless details about the reasons..."
"I wonder what else he didn't tell you," giggled Toxica. "Did he say anything about Febby?"
"Not at first, no. He told me about her later, though."
"What about the time he got drunk and kissed me?"
"What?"
"I never-"
"I beg your pardon?"
Toxica burst out in laughter. "Just kidding, just kidding. You should've seen all your faces!"
Boreas had to laugh too now. "Poor Octa, getting stuck with you forever."
Toxica stuck out her tongue. "Poor Aqua, getting stuck with you forever."
"I'm not sure which of us is to be pitied more..." said Octa.
"Well," said Toxica, "you would never have been stuck with me if it wasn't for Boreas."
"I was barely involved," said Boreas. "I just gave Octa a little push in the right direction."
"As well as a few punches in the right direction..." grumbled Octa.
"Well," giggled Boreas, "you needed them, so I gave them. Not just because I'm your friend, but also because I had promised Capella. Well, I didn't promise to punch you, that was my own input."
"I wonder," said Toxica, "what Capella would think of us if she was here now."
Boreas thought of his old friend and her kind smile and eyes that told you you could trust her with anything. Always kind and altruistic, and she had always been there when you needed her. "She'd be happy for us, I think. She'd be delighted you and Octa got together, and that we finally beat Team Plasma. And of course that we're all still alive against all odds."
A glad silence fell. "I wonder with whom she'd have gone..." said Octa.
"Maybe she'd have gone off on her own?" wondered Toxica. "Back to her old home in the river in Nacrene, perhaps."
The train could be heard approaching in the distance. Boreas felt a stab of emotion, knowing it was time to say goodbye to Toxica. "Remember when we first met?" said Boreas.
"How could I forget?" said Toxica with a smile. "You wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible, if I remember correctly. Looks like you got your wish at last."
Boreas smiled too, though tears stung sharply. "Yeah. Took me almost three years, but I finally did it."
"You did," she said, her voice breaking, "you must be very h-happy."
Feeling his own tears break through as well, Boreas hugged Toxica tightly. "O-only happy we became such good friends. You're like a sister to me, Toxica: we're very different and argue and annoy each other a lot, but it doesn't change anything about how much I like you."
"Th-thanks, brother," grinned Toxica, letting him go and drying her tears. "I hope you'll have an awesome time, wherever you're going."
As the train reached the station, Toxica said another heartfelt goodbye to Aqua. Boreas found himself crying again as he boarded the train. It was bizarre how attached he'd become to the bratty little Oddish. Boarding the train too, Octa kissed her. "I'll see you in a few weeks, darling."
Toxica nodded and waved her goodbye to them as the doors closed. Boreas and Aqua sprinted to a coupé and looked out of the window to see Toxica running along with the train, waving at them. They waved back until she finally began falling behind and disappeared from their view.

Three pokémon sat in the train and watched landscapes scroll by rapidly as they chatted about everything and nothing. Boreas knew the hardest goodbye of them all was yet to come, but didn't let it bother him. It was barely imaginable, really, that he would soon leave Octa. Rather, he used their final hours together to their fullest. They laughed and talked and talked. Aqua mostly stayed outside of the conversation, understanding their need to spend some final time together.
They talked much about Black and laughed at the memories of how bad he had been at understanding them at first. The number of times he'd managed to correctly interpret his pokémon before Victory Road could be counted on one paw. Yet they also remembered how much he had cared for them and how brave he had been. It was easy to underestimate Black as a teammember, but he had been at least as important as any of the pokémon. When Boreas' life had fallen apart in Chargestone Cave, coincidentally underneath the hills they were passing over, Black had been all he had left.
From Black the conversation turned to other things, from the adventures they'd had together to astrophysics. They discussed Cheren's odds of becoming the new Champion, things Octa and Livia were hoping to change, and much more. Boreas realised most of his happiest moments with Octa had been spent like this, talking about all kinds of things and enjoying his friend's enormous knowledge and wit. Those that weren't spent making up after bickering like an old couple, at least.
Slowly, yet way too fast for Boreas' tastes, the train came to Driftveil. It pulled into the city's old station, and together they got off, heading through the familiar city to the docks.

"Was it difficult to convince them to give you a boat as a token of gratitude?"
Boreas sighed. "'Difficult' doesn't even begin to describe it. It was difficult to make it clear I wanted a boat, and I hadn't even got to the convincing part yet. You know how hard it is to make humans understand you."
Octa nodded. "It is. So how did you do it?"
Boreas shrugged. "Well, I decided to convince Alder, since he knows well what happened in Plasma's Castle, and can actually understand pokémon. Well, he understood me after a few tries, at least. Then he took some more convincing, but finally he talked to other people, and eventually I got my boat. I guess some people along the line must've looked at him really weird when he told them he wanted to give a boat to some pokémon."
"And that instructor looked at him really weird too when he was teaching us to use the thing," recalled Aqua. "Pretty sure she thought it was a joke."
"It's not that surprising," said Octa. "It's one of your sillier ideas, my dear fellow. Were you perchance unaware of the existence of ferries and planes? 'Tis not uncommon to have pokémon travel onboard those, you know; you don't need your own boat to travel."
"True," said Boreas, "but it's a lot more fun when we can pick where we go ourselves. And we can get to places ferries don't go."
"Like where?"
Boreas shrugged. "I'll know when I get there. There's that lost continent inhabited entirely by pokémon, for example..."
"That's just a myth, my dear fellow."
"Probably."
They had reached the water now at a familiar-looking small pier on the river. Boreas was flooded by memories and blushed a little. "Look, my love, that's where we first kissed..." He pointed to the water next to the pier.
"I remember," giggled Aqua, "I was expecting you to kiss me at some point all day, and had been looking forward to it quite a bit."
"Well, I was really nervous... You had me completely enchanted by then, and I was terrified of messing it up. You might've given me more signs you wanted me to kiss you."
Aqua burst out into laughter. "Because I really was incredibly subtle about fancying you, you're right."
"Alright," laughed Boreas, "I guess you gave me a fair few signs."
"Fair few? I practically had giant red neon letters "I FANCY YOU" around my head. I'm almost embarrassed thinking back to it and how strongly I was coming on to you. The long loneliness got me a little funny in the head, I think."
"Well, to be fair you've stayed a little funny in the head ever since I've known you."
As they walked by the river's shore, they saw a small blue ship lying ahead. It had a single mast and two sails, which were currently under wraps, as well as an engine. It was small enough to controlled by two, yet large enough to comfortably house those two for long periods of time in its cabin.
"You both are," said Octa kindly, "which is why I believe you'll be together for as long as you live."
"Octa," said Boreas, "what got you feeling so prophetic all of a sudden?"
"The fact that it's become time to say farewell to my best friend."
"Well, it's-"
Octa continued. "My dear Boreas; Aqua. You shall only have each other to rely on for now, therefore heed well my words. Be patient with each other. Always let there be love, not anger between you. Let the other be your all and take care of them before yourself, and you should be alright. When you fight anyway, never give up, but stay at work to repair your relationship. Never forget the love you carry for them.
My dear fellow, you have one of the finest minds I have ever had the pleasure of encountering, and as long as you use it, you can get out of any problem. Aqua, it has admittedly been a mixed bag, knowing you. I used to suspect you of treason, to think you were a bad influence on Boreas, an annoyance, and a bad person. However, I have since discovered I was mistaken."
Aqua smiled. "Thank you."
"You are, in fact, a good person and a great influence on Boreas. Moreover, I have eventually come to think of you as a friend. Will you accept my apologies for my behaviour in earlier days?"
Aqua embraced Octa. "Of course. I had almost forgotten it by now."
"Thank you. Then I shall simply wish you nothing but happiness eternal."
Aqua nodded and let go of him. "Thanks. Take good care of Toxica, alright? She'll enjoy being with your family for a while, but eventually she'll want to leave."
Octa nodded. "I know. So, admittedly, shall I. We do not intend to help Lady Livia forever, nor shall she need our help forever."
Octa and Aqua nodded to each other as a final greeting, then Octa turned to Boreas. Aqua left, saying: "Take all the time you need; I'll get the ship ready."
Octa and Boreas were left looking at each other. Bores suddenly realised this really was the last time he would see Octa in a long time and he couldn't stop the tears. There was no-one in the world he knew as well or as long as Octa, not even Aqua. He could barely remember not knowing him. "O-Octa..." he said. "I-I think maybe I don't want-"
Octa grasped him and resolutely cut him off. "No, you do. I have seen you look forward to this for more than a year, my dear fellow. Do not let the difficulty of parting stop you from doing the right thing. You didn't let it stop you in Team Plasma's castle, and you shouldn't let it today. The world awaits you and your bride, my dear, dear Boreas, and I know you shall have an utterly wonderful time there, even without me. All good things come to an end, my dear fellow, even this friendship."
Boreas nodded; he knew Octa was right. "You're right, Octa. As always."
Octa smiled even as tears rolled over his cheeks too. "And don't you forget it. My dear fellow, what more can one say on an occasion such as this? 'Tis very sad to lose you, yet I'm glad you'll finally get to do what you truly like to do. I hope you shall see things beyond your wildest dreams, which I know are pretty wild."
"T-thank you. I hope you'll cherish the time you spend with your family... And then live happily ever after with Toxica. You've deserved it after all you did for me."
Octa gave an uncharacteristic sign of modesty as he tried to brush off the compliment.
"No, really," insisted Boreas. "I won't even get into the life-saving; you've basically educated me all by yourself, and you've always been there for me. I know you'll get the happiness you deserve. You and Toxica will be happy together for a long, long time, and you'll have lots of cute little... sprouts together. Parts of your family will object, of course, but in the end it'll just help them see it's a new time now."
"Thank you, my dear fellow. I hope you're right. I would say something similar to you... But I know what you and Aqua think of children, therefore I know you shall be happy with just the two of you instead. With that... I-I believe 'tis time to say farewell."
"Y-you're wrong, my friend. It's time to say goodbye."
Octa's face cheered up greatly. "It is?"
Boreas laughed and hugged Octa tightly, holding on to him. "Of course it is. You didn't think I would leave a friend as dear to me as you behind forever, did you? We'll meet again."
"You're right, my dear, dear fellow," said Octa softly as they embraced, "we will meet again, though I do not yet know where or when. Be warned, though, that I shall want to hear your every adventure to its tiniest detail that day."
"Of course. And the same warning goes to you." He let go of Octa and looked him straight into the eyes. "Goodbye, Octa. I've never had a friend better than you."
"Until we meet again, my dear fellow. May your heart be full of joy and your eyes full of wonder."
They nodded to each other a final time before Boreas slowly turned around and jumped into the boat. Aqua embraced him softly, seeing his eyes were wet with tears, and he got behind the mainsail she had unfurled. They sailed south, to the river's mouth and the sea. After a while Boreas looked back and saw the distant figure of Octa smile his goodbye. He smiled back as the Serperior disappeared behind a bend in the river.
Boreas looked at Aqua. Octa was right; now that the goodbyes were over with he realised this was going to be great fun. "Now," he said with a happy smile, "let's see if we will find something wonderful... Or if something wonderful will find us."












The End.
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
I already commented in dA, but I feel like posting here as well.

This is a very wonderful story, and I thank you for giving us a very nice ride.
It had very wonderful characters, and I grew really attached to them.
Sad to see this fic finally reached an end, but it was a wonderful journey. :3

Thank you~
 
Back
Top