Finale

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"What are we waiting on?" growls Minerva, jumping up and down on the bed.

I've managed to steal four days back from her, but I knew from the look in the team's eyes after practice last night that this would be the day we went for it, so to speak. We've dallied enough to grind, since I know firsthand that Champions and former Champions tend to be a weak area for us. I don't want a repeat of Lance. Arceus please, don't let this be a repeat of Lance.

We all dreamed together again, and this time, the six of us stood at the bottom of Mount Silver, side by side. I don't remember expressions or even an action or word shared between us. We just sat there, staring up with conviction, a single golden bond holding all of us together. I could feel their heartbeat, their breath, and their silence. The world paused for us. It was waiting on our next move.

I didn't even realize that Ethan was absent for several minutes.

"Can we go?" asks Minerva.

"Why do you always insist on doing this?" I say. "I know this is exciting, or whatever, but these are our lives we're putting on the line. We need to take time, calm down, compose ourselves. This isn't a game."

"I know it's not a game." she says, sitting down. "I'm hustling because I'm scared, Ashley. I'm scared because if I stop running or turn around to see what's chasing me, it'll devour me and everyone I care about alive." Minerva whispers. "Doesn't that scare you?"

I stroke her head. "I'm getting up."

Her usual brashness returns to her face. "Good."

The gym is one of the most if not the most lavish I've ever seen, coming close to some of the Elite Four rooms in terms of decor. It kind of resembles the type of place I imagine teenagers hang out, with dim lighting and strange panelling with arrows across the floor, but there's also a foreboding air to it. The trainers standing around are all in Ace gear. They're seasoned battlers all, not the usual aides or volunteers you see at most gyms, and they look grim as they face me.

Many of the trainers are female, including two that the gym leader has his arms around. Blue looks up when he sees me open the door (potentially because it lights up the whole room) and smiles. "Well, well. Hey, leave this one alone, will you guys? I've been itching to battle her all week."

The other trainers step out of the way. All the arrows on the floor turn off, only to flash back on. They're all facing towards Blue now. I take a step and feel the glare of the lights on me. I narrow my eyes and keep walking. Ethan, Reginae, Hycanith, Minerva, Ten, and Fang all step by me, side by side, even though we're so far apart in size. I can feel the anticipation rising in their throats. My heart feels like it's rising out of my chest and its movements are so erratic that I'm surprised I'm not having some kind of cardiac arrest. It stops, then accelerates, then, once I put my first foot up onto the step that leads onto the battlefield, it stops again.

It'll be over in a few hours. No matter what happens, it will all be over in a few hours. Reginae reminds us.

That's the problem. The battle is nothing. I'm worried about the aftermath. replies Fang.

"Calm, guys. Calm and collected." I say, taking the final step. A field of shimmering, clean glass gleams below us. Our own faces are reflected back at us, and I can see the nervous expressions of each team member.

On one side is Blue, hands in his jacket. He pulls them out to reveal his six Poke Balls wedged between his fingers. It's a gesture novices usually make to look cool or threatening, but like everything ridiculous about him, he pulls it off.

"Let's not waste time standing around." Blue tells me, placing his Poke Balls back in his pockets and bringing back out a singular orb, tapping it out to full size. "Go, Benedict!"

An Exeggutor comes out, all three heads smiling down at me.

"I'm about to fry some eggs," Minerva says, licking her lips.

The Exeggutor doesn't seem in any hurry to move, so we make the first attack. Minerva's mouth opens to reveal bright white flame, which spreads out into a star as she exhales, spiralling across the battlefield.

The Exeggutor barely bats one of its six eyes. The fire glows with a pink tint and hurtles downwards. The impact disperses across the glass and disappears.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" Blue asks.

Minerva lets out an angry cry, teeth flaring with fire, and she jumps through the air just for the Psychic attack to catch her and swing her like a ragdoll down into the glass. A razor-edged storm of leaves flies from the Exeggutor's canopy and slice her fur, shearing a few locks of fur from her tails. Minerva leans down as she rides out the storm.

As soon as the leaves show any sign of subsiding, she jerks her head up and breathes a Fire Blast into the onslaught. Most of the leaves sizzle to dark crisps, throwing ashes across her face, but a good number of now-flaming leaves hit her across the face.

A good chunk of her mane gives way, only to burn when it touches the ground. The fur begins to exude smoke, covering the area. The room is slammed with uneasy silence (save for Blue's coughing) before telltale lights show through the thick gray cover. Minerva's heart rate picks up - she's landed a hit.

Through the smog, the Exeggutor trembles and falls like any other tree, its leaves flailing like arms as it crashes to the ground. Minerva shudders above it. She's limping and as her smoke clears, it becomes obvious several of the leaves from the Leaf Storm are still embedded in her back leg.

"I didn't know you could do that," I say.

"I've been... practicing." she tells me with a soft smile. She tries to stumble back to the group, but when she puts her leg down, she yelps with pain.

"Minerva, back!" I yell.

"But-" she protests, but it's a weak whimper.

Blue, on the other side of the field, is watching my every move with amusement. He smiles, "Oh, don't take it so personally. You've been a lot more fun than my last few challengers. Time to take it up a notch. You're up, Rufus!"

A proud Arcanine jumps onto the field, snarling. Its lustrous mane rivals Minerva's, and beneath the thick fur it glistens with strength. Minerva returns to my side, hurt, where I begin to pluck out leaves and spray her wounds. "Hyacinth!" I yell. "Do your best."

The Marowak nods, readying herself. She's pitifully small in comparison with the monstrous beast, and the Arcanine lets her know it. It growls again, deep and low, but Hyacinth responds by swinging her bone around and hitting it across the face.

Rufus does not take kindly to this. He bounds forwards, cloaked in flame, and Hyacinth barely skids out of the way. As soon as he's sure he's missed, his ears perk and he turns again, with Hyacinth sliding around him like an acrobat. She twirls her weapon around both arms, looking for openings, and as soon as the Arcanine stops moving it receives another clout to the side of the head. These only serve to infuriate it further, even though the Pokedex claims the health bar is going down. The Arcanine spits out a tooth, its bloodied lower lip curled into a hateful snarl, and the air grows tense.

A beam of purple light shoots through the room, illuminating every tile on the floor. It hits Hyacinth right in the chest. The Marowak gasps, a dry noise that rattles her skull, and before she can get to her feet the Arcanine barrels into her with a full-force Flare Blitz. Hyacinth does not call out but the clatter of her legs and hands against the floor as she struggles to get up from beneath the vicious predator are just as distressing. The heat in the room is oppressive as the Arcanine bites her side, prompting another round of struggle, but then her movements begin to slow.

"Hyacinth! Come out!" I yell, withdrawing her from Rufus's grasp. The Arcanine's nostrils flare as it sees me withdraw his opponent. He bares his teeth, the missing tooth prominent in his angry frown.

Two down. This can't be good.

"Ethan, this is on you." I say, though my head's still spinning. Both of these battles should have been easy match ups yet we're struggling like we tried to take on Pokemon with advantages against us. Ethan, when he's released, looks back at the meager party of three now resting on the sidelines and his eyes grow uneasy.

Are they okay?

They will be. I say, then add, Turn around.

Rufus barrels through the air and Ethan needs only rear up and slam his giant hand down onto the Arcanine to stop him. The Arcanine bites one of his fingers, and Ethan draws his hand back, but his balance is awful. Rufus sees this and aims to throw him over, going straight for the neck. Fortunately, a well-timed Hydro Pump is enough to shut him down, and when the blast hits him right in the face the Arcanine goes down and doesn't get up again.

"Now this is the main event." Blue says. From the expression on his face, you would have guessed he'd won some kind of lottery instead of lost a battle. "Champ, come out!"

As expected from the uncreative name, a Machamp takes the field, flexing its four arms. There isn't a place on its blue body that isn't covered in raw bulk. It demonstrates this by flexing as hard as it can, striking a heroic pose with all four biceps pumped.

"I told you we were going to wrestle." Blue smiles.

"Psychic!" I yell.

"ThunderPunch." Blue replies.

Ethan's eyes glow and the psychic hold takes effect around the Machamp. It tries to move one of its grotesquely muscled arms forwards but can't. Infuriated, it tries to move any one of its six limbs but the movements come out as short jerks rather than attacks.

Ethan is struggling to keep the grip up.

"You need to do something with that!" I yell. "Throw him somewhere."

Ethan looks back to me but in doing so breaks the hold. The Machamp saunters right up to him and lands a punch across his chest. I feel the impact of the hit enter my chest, feel it seethe up my backbone, and my first thought is Ethan can't handle this for long.

We're in trouble now.

The Lugia, eager to prove me long, lifts the Machamp up and throws him against the wall. The Machamp peels itself off, dusting its arms off with its other arms, and walks back onto the field. Ethan throws him again, and the Machamp comes back no slower. Several more throws yield the same result. The Machamp cracks its knuckles, eyes still set on the prize, and its large yellow mouth widens into a smirk.

"Stone Edge." Blue says.

The Machamp raises one arm and a volley of sharp stones rise behind it. It takes a few in its hands, others float in midair, and as it throws the ones it's been holding the entire armada flies at Ethan's neck. Ethan gags up a Hydro Pump, spraying the projectiles down, but there are far too many for him to handle. Several score direct hits and one slams, pointed edge facing forwards, right into his neck area.

Blood pours down Ethan's throat and static fills my ears. The Pokedex claims that he's no lower than yellow health but the sight I see before me says otherwise. The static picks up, a panicked crescendo, and I can hear a hundred cries for help through the gray noise. One of Ethan's hands gives out and the Machamp begins walking back towards him at a slow, grim pace to finish the job.

"Ethan, come back." I say. The Lugia doesn't respond in words. His pupils dilate and his breath is raspy as it used to be, pre-Red.

"Ashley, you need to switch!" Reginae warns me.

"You don't say." I reply. "I'm working on it, alright?"

The Machamp is advancing still.

I throw the Master Ball out onto the field and Ethan clicks back in. The Machamp meets Reginae on the field instead of Ethan and is in for a big surprise- a Petal Dance straight to the chest. Reginae's attacks are able to target every point on the bulked-up Fighting-type, and despite its incredible resilience it relents, bowing down to the floor before fainting clean away.

Reginae stares down, discomforted, but Blue has no intention of letting us rest. A Rhydon enters the field and starts rotating its horn.

"Megahorn, Rhydon!" calls Blue.

Super-effective, 120 base power, and Bug-type. My lucky day.

I flash to Reginae, giving us both enough power to move out of the way as the Rhydon spins through the air like a far more graceful Pokemon, its horn seething with white energy. The Rhydon can't stop as fast as Rufus could, nor are we giving it the opportunity. Reginae guides me through the motions of Petal Dance, and with our combined power, we up the power until we can barely feel anything. I wouldn't qualify Reginae's Petal Dance as a 'dance' so much as a series of waving motions, like rocking back and forth in a storm at sea, but we swing until we're fatigued.

Blue's Rhydon never gets through to us. When the petals clear, it's lying face-down halfway across the field from us.

I return to myself, my head burning with pain, and Reginae tries to steady himself. Even his big, clunky feet can barely hold him up. "There we go," Reginae manages to mumble. "There we go."

"Guess it's on you, Ace." says Blue, throwing out a Pidgeot. Its crest is one of the longest I've ever seen, its beak is razor sharp, and its gold eyes leer down at Reginae with intent to destroy.

"I can't fight that." Reginae says.

"You won't have to." Ten says, taking to the skies. Reginae returns to my side only to promptly collapse on the sidelines.

Suffice it to say, I don't see many air battles, but this one is enough to give me my fill for life. Ace and Ten clash in midair, talon to talon, and circle like the whole sky's above them. As the fighting grows more frantic, Ten's wings catch fire at the tips and his primaries look like they're burning as the arc of rainbow fire blazes around him.

Ace slices through the air and Ten dodges effortlessly, spinning into a fiery corkscrew. His agility is astounding.

"What the hell do you feed your Noctowl?!" asks Blue.

"I'm on a steady diet of trauma and the tears of my enemies," replies Ten, unhelpfully.

I tell Blue, "To be honest, pancakes, but I'm really not sure that's what's doing this."

"No shit," Blue replies, with emphasis on the last word as his Pidgeot falls out of the sky.

Ten dives after him, ready to go for the finish, but it's not necessary. The Pidgeot doesn't get up from the last attack, lying with wings spread on the ground. Its chest rises and falls, a steady motion, but its burned feathers are still smoking.

Though both parties know the battle's over, Ace gets in one last, long blow across Ten's chest. The Noctowl lets out a wild, wounded chirp unbecoming of him as Ace draws away.

Blue and I both bring our bird Pokemon back.

"I'll admit that you have me backed into a bit of a corner here," Blue says. "But here in Kanto, we have a saying: 'It's not over until it's over.' Drago, come on out!"

With its head high enough to reach the ceiling, a Gyarados manifests, huge fins glittering with dew and its massive, curled body bursting with familiar strength. The eyes are the ones I see in my nightmares, the ones that took Lilly from me, the eyes of Pisces, dark and disapproving.

Reginae steps forwards, fatigue clearing from his head. "Alright," he says, the slurred quality ebbing from his voice as he tries to stand upright. "I got this."

No you don't.

Reginae's Petal Dance is nowhere near as impressive as before, but it's enough to draw the Gyarados's attention. The water snake lifts its head and its pupils dilate to slits, though it waits for the command before attacking. The last of the petals sputter out, falling to the floor, and Reginae takes a step back. He's already prepping AncientPower, his eyes glowing with a soft and arcane light, but the Gyarados needs no such preparation.

"Ice Fang." Blue says.

It turns a circle and plunges straight down, massive fangs closing in around Reginae's front right leg. The crunch pierces skin and flesh and Reginae cries with pain. Dizzying agony hits the side of my skull like taking Hyacinth's bone to the face.

In the aftermath, blood and ice congeal into one mess against the glass. Reginae's leg is stuck still, immobile, and as I watch in horror, the blue numbness begins to work its way up the Meganium's body. He's being frozen solid.

"We need an Electric-type." I say, releasing Minerva, Ten, and Hyacinth for support. Despite their type disadvantages, we'll need them if anything else goes wrong. "Reginae can't counter this."

"We don't have any Electric-types!" Minerva yelps.

"I'll do it. I'm the only one with enough health left and enough Defense to tank its attacks." Fang says. "In the meantime, heal the others up."

"Fang, you can't do this. It's too risky." Minerva insists.

"Hey, you know a thing or two about risks, don't you?" Fang says, trying to force a laugh even though his ears are back and his tail trembles between his legs in fear.

"Fine, fine." Minerva turns to me, "But if anything happens, you bring him out."

I give her a thumbs up.

"Gyarados, Return!" Blue says.

With relentless speed, the Gyarados crashes into Fang, who doesn't even have enough time to get out of the way. Fang steps back up, ears perking, and jumps over the Gyarados's next attempt at impact, but the third hit gets him all the same. Fang falls back, skidding against glass, and his rings glow gold.

The Last Resort stars, against all odds or reason, fling through the air, and hit the Gyarados on its uppermost coils. They leave long, visible gashes, and Fang smirks despite his condition. "Heh."

He's cut off by the Gyarados attacking him again, this time with Ice Fang, and he just wriggles out of its mouth before his tail is crushed beneath its jaws. The Gyarados seems ambivalent to Fang's attempts to pry himself out of its mouth, but he kicks the roof of the water serpent's mouth and falls to the ground. His eyes are pained as he looks back to me, and I see several of my Pokemon tense.

"No more playing around. Gyarados, Waterfall!"

The Gyarados curves in the way Pisces used to, its body sleek and shining as it turns in the air. Fang's ears fall back to his sides, terrified, and my hand scrambles for the Poke Ball a second too late.

A blast of flames sizzles out in the air, hitting the Waterfall attack and wiping a sheen of water straight off the Gyarados, and then Minerva races under the Gyarados and kicks Fang out of the way. Fang falls silent and unconscious off to the side, and Minerva, looking as confident as ever, shoots another Fire Blast straight up into the Gyarados's face.

The water and fire collide as their two bodies do, and the air floods with steam. Through the commotion, I hear a single, sick thud. The Gyarados is withdrawn from the field in a streak of red, its bulk so large that the action illuminates the fog. The crimson haze in the air reveals a dark silhouette lying near the impact sight. All the mirrors reflect blood back at me as I run forwards to her side. The fang marks through her stomach are Lilly's, then Rose's. They're the obvious marks of a-

The Pokedex dings with everything I already know. Critical hit.

"Damnit," I sniff, holding her in my arms. I pull Minerva's limp body up onto my lap, feeling the blood run rivers down my jeans. "Damnit, this can't be happening..."

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