FSE

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Darkness succeeded the purple light. I felt so, so alone. There in the darkness there was nothing to help me, no one to save me. Just the vision of Axe in my mind, and that wasn't any sort of comfort. It just hurt to think about.

I don't know just how long I floated in nothingness, maybe it was forever. I didn't want to think, but unfortunately, that's the one thing I couldn't stop doing. I thought about where I was, where I was going, where Celebi was taking me. I thought about each one of my guildmates, how injured they looked, how they still stood up after being trashed and torn apart by the devil herself. 'Olivia will heal them, I'm sure they'll recover. The town will be kept safe. Everyone will be fine. Everyone will be...'

My chest ached, deeper than any wound I've ever sustained in this land. 'Everyone knows. They know. They know I lied.' I had kept it hidden for months, hiding everything from them, the Pokemon that have gone out of their way to help me more than I can ever say. I had thought it would be relieving, that I would finally be free from the guilt and shame once I told them. But no, the self-hatred and sheer disgust I had for myself didn't cease. It remained. And it hurt. And no one was coming to save me.

Light came to my eyes, it reminded me of aurora. Beautiful swathes of green and purple lights scattering about the sky. My hooves touched... something. Something solid. I didn't crash into anything but nor was I set upon my feet. The floor, if you could call it that, was cold. I laid upon it, no desire to stand. Just content to sit in silence and cry.

The ragged breath of someone else came to my ears, reminding me that I wasn't alone here. I didn't come to be alone. I came with that devil. I closed my eyes and bit my tongue. I wasn't about to let her know. I wasn't about to let her see me crying, vulnerable. I wasn't going to give that demon the validation of seeing me weakened and weary. Beaten. Soft.

"Damn pests! I spent too much power on them. Pathetic, useless, insignificant specks." I felt another tremor of anger in me, to hear my personal tormentor speak of my guild like that. I wanted to stand and turn and face her. Stare her down and dare her to speak of my guild like that again. I did no such thing however. But the tears did stop.

"Hey, Ronny!" Her sing-songy voice came back. I suppressed a shudder. "Did you enjoy the trip? You should really be thanking me for bringing you here. Very few get the chance." I didn't respond. I wasn't going to interact with her. She wasn't in front of me. Nothing was in front of me. Just lights and open space. "Oh, Roooooonnnny!! You aren't ignoring me, are you? I'd be rather angry if you don't thank me for not vaporizing you as we came here." The bell-like voice of hers, it gripped my heart. And that fear forced me to speak.

"Sorry... Celebi. I just felt so dizzy." My voice was hoarse.

"Ah, well. That's probably normal, everyone besides me probably couldn't handle coming here with no side effects."

"And... where are we?" I said, getting back to my feet. The floor felt like nothing I've ever stood on, but as I looked down and saw a hazy reflection looking back at me, it reminded me of glass.

"Oh, do you like it, Ronny? This is my own personal hideaway. It exists outside of time. I call it Time Betwixt Time. Catchy, right?" The peppy tone, pretending that we're friends, it really rubbed me the wrong way. It almost made me wish she'd start degrading me again. Like she had for months previously. At least that was familiar.

"It's... quite nice." I forced myself to say, anything to avoid incurring her wrath. To get what I came here for as soon as possible. My path home. She flew in front of me, the tiny pixie that had been the cause of all of my frustration for the past year. Her eyes were bright but I could see the exhaustion in her face.

"Oh, Ronny, you know flattery works on me. If you ask nicely, in that sweet way, you know I'd let you stay with me." Even now, she knew exactly how to set me off. How to get deep under my skin and rack her verbal claws against every one of my buttons. How I hated her. But I kept my face neutral, there was nothing to be gained by letting my true feelings show. Not when what I wanted was so close at hand.

"Thank you for the offer, Celebi. But I really just want to go home." She chuckled and did little loops in the air, sparkly little trails fluttered and fell off her wings.

"You idiot! Like I'd even let you stay if you begged me. Imagine me sharing with you. A weak, timid thing. You'd throw off my entire mood every time I looked at you."

"Sorry." I said through clenched teeth. She flew off in a direction and without any landmark, and without any will to resist, I trailed after her. The glasslike floor clinked as I stepped along it.

"Though, if you wanted to stay maybe a little while, perhaps I could stomach your presence a bit. What do you say about that?"

'Seriously, you wretch! Why would anyone want to suffer in your presence for a moment?'

I didn't say it again. Trying to maintain my calm mask of indifference, beneath which I was boiling with rage. My head pounded against my skull, thousands of aches made themselves known along my body. I couldn't even hold my head up.

"You better not be ignoring me again, Ron? That would make me quite angry." Her voice turned cold, the peppy tone souring into one that almost made me trip.

"I- no, I just was trying to figure out how I return home from here." I looked up at her. She hovered a couple of feet above me. Staring down from the bottom of her eyes, those cold, emotionless eyes. The eyes that haunted my nightmares. I quickly looked back to the glass. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you. I just- I just really would like to return to my own world."

"What was I thinking? You really are pathetic, who'd want to be around you?"

"Yes, I'm pathetic." I said on autopilot. My mind dissociated from my body. A reflex. To just let it be and go passive. There's nothing else I could do. If I could hold on, hold out just a little more I could be free of her forever. Free of this body too. My claws clacked more on the ground, where we were walking I had no clue.

The scene never changed. We never came nearer or farther from anything. A void with only two Pokemon, ethereal lights, and floors of glass.

We walked in silence for some time. Each step hurt. My vine bandages quickly started shriveling and cracking off, they did that once Olivia was too far away to sustain them with her power. Yet another frustrating, undeniable, inescapable source of evidence that I'm leagues away from anyone I've ever known. Human or Pokemon.

"Legends above, you really could stand to be happier, you know? I am graciously about to send you home." Celebi said after some time.

"Sorry. Thank you."

She sighed. "To answer your question. I pulled you from another time, so to send you back I had to pull you out of our time. Actually, this is where you first entered my world. So that would make this the second time you've been here. Not that you'd remember."

'So this is where you kidnapped me and threw me to the wolves? Smashing..' I thought.

"I see." I said instead. She stopped floating in midair. I stopped walking, relieved to sit on my haunches and rest for a moment.

"You know, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing, staying here forever?" She tilted her head to the side, I couldn't hold my tongue anymore. If this devil was going to tease me then she could suffer my irritation.

"Celebi, please! You made me a deal. I stop the crisis, you send me home! I held up my end of our bargain. Send me home already!" I realized a little too slowly that I just demanded something from her. My mind spun trying to think of a way to curb my tone and spin it in a better way. I felt the psychic waves, the rolling vibes of emotion that burned off of her. All of it hostile, and all of it directed at me. It was too late.

I cowered back, trying to look as small as possible. My eyes clenched shut, teeth gritted. I heard clinking glass as she walked towards me, not floating anymore.

"Oh, my sweet, sweet Ronny," she paused between words, accenting the silence with another burst of her aura, the tempest of animosity swirled around me. It choked the air, each breath I made hurt, lungs struggling against the remainder of vine bandages and the pressure of her rage. "You didn't just tell me what to do, did you?"

"No, no, no. I was- was just reminding you of our deal. I wasn't trying to tell you what to do. I just, you agreed you would send me home. Please, I did-" My neck clamped shut. Psychic fingers gripped my bag that hanged over my shoulder. Its tough fibers bit under my armor and collapsed about my throat. My lungs fought for breath, I scratched at air, trying to remove the blockage.

My eyes spread wide in panic, the only thing in my vision was her, in her full demonic visage. She stood inches from me, eyes vibrating in uncontained emotion. My legs slipped on the glass as I tried to retreat from her. But I wasn't moving and even if I could, I wasn't getting away from her. Not here in some hell she rules over. I tried to heave, air stopping short as my heart and chest began burning in panic. She held me there, it couldn't have been more than a minute, but in a place without time, what does a minute even mean?

I was scared, I felt my mind scream and writhe. Telling me to fight, to struggle, to battle, to live.

And just like that it was over. Cold air passed in and out of me, my lungs screamed at me. My chest injury flared, I couldn't stop shaking.

"I'll ask you again, Ronny," She whispered into my ear. Like little bells being blown by a soft breeze. "Did you just tell me what to do?" I gulped between my frantic breaths. Of all times, of all moments where I wanted to lie. Of all circumstances where I did lie. Of all consequences of lying, dying was not one that I wanted to risk. I nodded, not trusting my voice.

"Say it!" She spat at me.

"Yes.." It was hardly more than a whisper.

"Louder!" She screamed at me.

"Yes."

"Yes what?!"

"Yes, I told you what to do. I'm sorry, I'll never do it again. I swear! I swear!" I was hyperventilating. My eyes wildly flicked everywhere, I finally realized why I was so scared. We were here in flesh, not just in dreams. In my dreams- nightmares, I usually wake up and she is gone. I wake up and Axe is there. I wake up and he holds me close. I wake up and Axe tells me "It's okay, those Frackin' dreams can't hurt you here." And I believe him.

I am awake now, she is here now, I'm alone now, it's not going to be okay. Here my nightmares are real.

"You're right. You won't do it again. You aren't going to bother me again. You aren't ever going to address me like that again. And do you know why, Ronny?"

"Be- be- because you're graciously going to allow me to go home?" I offered, still clinging to the barest threads that I'm getting out of this alive.

"Oh, no, Ronny. You couldn't be more wrong. You see, while I am going to dutifully follow through on my end of the bargain, that's not why you aren't going to never defy me again. Now, ask me why?"

I was shivering now. My armor softly clanking on the floor. "Wh- why?"

"Because you are going to make a vow to me. Right here, right now. To me, your queen. Your glorious goddess. And if you break it..." She smiled, "you'll die."

I don't know how I could be any more scared of her, how after a year of abuse and psychological torture, after kidnapping and extorting me, after teasing my own death and the destruction of an entire world of Pokemon for months; yet, here we were.

"Okay! Okay! I'll do it! I'll do it! I'll do whatever you say. Anything, please, don't hurt me." The tears were back, how I still had any was a mystery. I prostrated myself, bowing before her. Complicant. Compliant. Servile.

Sometimes, I wonder what I was like back as a human. What my personality was like. Who I was. Try as I might, I could never remember. That's just my existence. 'Would human me have acted like this? Would human me have been so pathetic?' I asked the void, the space between nothing and no one. There was no reply, no one would have heard me.

"Good wittle Wonny!" She cooed at me, like an infant. "You know I'd never hurt you, not unless you did something stupid like tell me what to do. Act like you're superior to me or something, cause we both know, Ronny." Celebi leaned in close, her vile smell returned to my nose. "You're nothing, less than insignificant to me. You can't even begin to try and compare."

"Right, I'm nothing." The witch laughed like bells.

"What a good little thing you are, you're not a Pokemon or even a human. I think you're just a thing."

"Just a thing." I was back to autopiloting agreement, it was better than any alternative choice I could have made. While she degrades me and strokes her own ego, I wasn't being choked. Or worse.

"So here's the vow, are you ready?"

"Yes, Celebi." The world of lights and nothing just blurred into hazy shapes. I had no will to focus anymore.

"I, Ron," She started.

"I, ...Ron," I thought about how that wasn't even my name. I had no idea what my name was. That was just the name I was given in this world.

"Vow to never resist Celebi again."

"Vow to never resist Celebi again." 'Like I ever could.'

"I am just a weak pathetic creature, unfit to be anything."

"I am just... a weak, pathetic creature. I- I'm unfit to be anything." 'Neither human nor Pokemon.'

"And it's only by the grace and will of my queen, Celebi, that I can exist at all." I repeated the phrase. 'No, you bitch! You're the single, sole reason I'm here!' My inner dialogue screamed, only to be immediately shut out by the stifling power of fear.

"No one cares about me."

"No one cares about... me." That one hurt to say, I knew that was just a lie. My internal conscience was so completely dysfunctional that I don't even know how I feel about lying anymore. But that line only made me think about my guild, my friends, and Axe. The Pokemon that named me Ron. My thoughts turned to how they treated me, how they took me in after I was stolen away and sent to this world. How I only made it anywhere because of their help. I just, I just wanted them to be here now.

'Axe! Boss! Everyone, anyone! Please come save me!'

'No one is coming to save you, weak one.'

That voice wasn't my own. That thought wasn't my own. But it was in my head. It sounded without noise, without voice. It just was.

'Who? What? Who are you?!' I demanded from that mysterious presence. Outside, my limited consciousness dutifully parroted the standard insults from the shedevil.

'All I am at the present is an observer, nothing more, nothing less. A watcher over the battle that is yet to be waged.'

'Please, whoever you are, save me! I can't! I can't do it! I can't fight her.'

'I have yet to see you attempt any such actions.'

'What?!'

'All I've seen of you, weak one, is to lie upon your flank and bow to the whims of this vitriolic pixie.'

'What would you have me do?! I can't beat her! I can't even stand up to her! I am weak, just like she said. Just like I said!' It hurt admitting, some stubborn latent pride or self-preservation that hadn't been squashed out yet making itself known.

'The weak only continue to be so. That is, till they choose to be otherwise.'

'What is that supposed to mean?' The voice stopped answering. I finally refocused on what was happening with Celebi.

"And Celebi is the prettiest Pokemon of all, she rivals even the grace of Gardevior, the beauty of Milotic, and the power of Alakazam."

"And... Celebi is the prettiest Pokemon of all, she's the most graceful and beautiful and strongest."

"Hmph, that's not the correct line, Ron! Pahh, whatever, I'm bored of this." She flew off into the air. I finally chanced standing up. What the voice said was still in my thoughts. It had me rooted in place. I glanced down at the mirrorlike floor. The face that stared back at me, it looked pitiful.

A hollow shell, sunken eyes, ghost white armor, pale, grim. It made me angry. I hated looking at this face, this wasn't my face. It was a mask that was stitched onto me. I had no idea what it was supposed to be. A rescuer, a liar, a Lairon, a human? All failed to explain what I was viewing. Whatever it was, it wasn't me. Just a puppet that everyone perceives. A punching bag of fate. A lonely miserable soul.

"You're weak..."

'The weak remain so...' That's what that voice told me.

"Until you choose to not be..." I said to the reflection, there was a twitch in its eyes, the blue irises. Could it really be that simple? That seemed so moronically easy. If I could have simply decided that I was strong, wouldn't that have saved all my days and nights of agony. Just decide to be strong, just decide to not be weak, just decide to stand up. Just stand up and fight. No matter if you've been knocked down. No matter how tired you are.

'Just like Axe, just like all of them.'

No, they're strong. I'm not. I'm nothing compared to them. They're heroes. I can't even save myself. I turned away from the reflection. Celebi was emitting that purple neon again, it flowed down her arms and buzzed like arcing currents through her wings. In front of her, space was trilling. The sound of windchimes, bells, and pleasant wind. The aurora wobbled as I looked on.

It reminded me of how Palkia sent us home from Molten Mantle, after we beat Necrozma. A shimmering portal of light ripped apart the void. Celebi stumbled in what I figured was exhaustion. Terrifyingly powerful or not, everyone has their limits.

Her backlit form turned towards me, neon light still sprinkled around her. The trails of her power zapping through her small body. Her eyes still glowed brightly, and the shadow she cast extended yards beyond her.

"Well, here it is, Ronny boy! Your," she panted and shook her head, "your reward. This will take you home. Back to whatever existence you came from. Sayonara and all that. It's been fun but you really annoy me and I don't want you here anymore. So get going."

I looked upon the portal, my one goal. The one thing I've been chasing. I now stood upon it. The world I wanted to return to. My home. My humanity. I found myself unable to step forward.

"Hello! Earth to Ron! Your ticket home is here! You can thank me and get the hell going now!" I didn't move. I didn't know why. I felt so strange, like this was just a dream. Like any moment now, it would all be over and I'd wake up back to my normal life. Which was odd since I was about to do that now. But, what was that life?

"Celebi?" I asked.

"What is it now?" She answered, her voice was heavy with exasperation.

"Do you know who I was? Do you know what I'm going back to?"

"Ugh! Are you serious?! Why do you care? You can figure all that out when you go through the portal. Just go already!" She pointed forward, into the unknown.

"I'm aware, I just wondered, perhaps, if you were willing to tell me anything."

"Ron," She stomped towards me, "I don't care. And even if I did know something about you, why do you think I'd remember anything? You don't matter, remember."

"Right..."

"Bah, you're ridiculous! I don't know why I considered letting you stay with me." Her voice was shaky and she was panting slightly. I suppose it took a lot of power to accomplish whatever she did. "Well, why aren't you moving? After all your annoying whining and crying to go home, you're just standing there."

"It's just..." Just what? For all my time spent thinking and obsessing and planning. Battling for this prize. I had joined a guild, traveled this world, saved the planet. I had made so many memories, so many moments sprang up. And most of them had a member of the guild. And all of them had Axe.

"Would going through there, would that cause me to give up all my memories of this world?"

"I don't know Ron, and I don't care! I don't care, I don't care, I don't care!!" She screamed. I flinched a little. "I don't care, and neither should you! Who cares about anything that you did here? Who cares about those pests? Who cares about that town? Who cares about any of that?" She was mocking my guild again, I felt my remaining claws scratch the surface of the floor. Irritation and frustration leading back to rage.

"I do." I whispered, more like hissed.

"Excuse me?" her voice turned to that cold monotone. It made me scowl at the ground, but I wasn't going to run away again. And I wasn't going to let her talk about my friends that way.

"I care about that town, I care about that guild, I care."

"And, why do you think what you care about matters?" I struggled to breathe, I couldn't look her in the face but I didn't back down. Even as my limbs tensed and urged me to flee.

"Celebi, you can't tell me what I can and can't care about. I care about them, that's all."

"So you're saying I'm wrong?" I wasn't, but of course she wouldn't have understood if I even tried to explain it. I was already back on thin ice with her. Her aura beginning to pop with emotion.

"No, I'm saying I care about them. That's it." I kept my voice level, just trying to keep it together, keep her from getting madder. I'd have rather taken on one of the deities of Space or Time again than sit her as she glowered at me, mouth in a snarl.

"So you're saying I'm wrong that you shouldn't care about them?"

"I'm saying I care about them. That's all. It has nothing to do with you."

"Pa, ha, fwa." She started sputtering, little specks of spit and saliva hit my face. "Nothing. NOTHING!!" I braced myself. "It has everything to do with me!! EVERYTHING!! Everything only exists because I, not you, I, I, I ALLOW IT TO! I decide what matters! I decide what to care about! ONLY ME! ME! ME! ME!!!!" She started jumping up and down. Stomping on the ground. Her aura was wild, not like her targeted rage.

Psychic types all have this aura, a space where their consciousness and perception extends past their physical forms. And it's within this space they can execute their occult powers. Objects, minds, bodies, matter. They sense it all. And others can sense it. But like any Pokemon with eyeballs, they can't focus on everything at once. Like now, Celebi was just mad. Angry that a lowly, little, insignificant Lairon decided to defy her. Soon though, it will come my way. I steeled myself for the brewing storm.

It never came, she just heaved and doubled over. Her eyes open wide and pupils constricted to needlepoints. She looked out of control, feral. I took sinister, shameless joy at watching her writhe. But I kept my face stoic, serene.

A minute passed where the only sound from her was the sieving of air passing through her clenched teeth. Psychic tendrils and even rouge sparks of neon light shot from her. And suddenly, she was laughing. Psychopathic, unhinged, deranged, disturbed laughs. They rose and fell in pitch as she lost her sanity, I wondered if she was ever sane to begin with.

"Oh, oh, oh Ronny! I learned something. Maybe you're right. Maybe it has nothing to do with me. Maybe it has everything to do with you. Maybe you do care about those... Pokemon." She said the word as if it was poison in her mouth, the concept of respecting others anathema to her worldview. "But since it has everything to do with you, I want to know what you think about this."

She turned my way, any semblance of humanity, or whatever the Pokemon equivalent was, was void in her. Just like the void of space we currently resided. The portal continued to flicker and shine.

"Even if you care about them, why, oh why, would you EVER, for a second, for a moment, that after everything you've done, everything you admitted to, every little, itty, bitty, teeny, tiny mistake you've revealed to them," My gut tied into knots, the storm is coming for me. "Think they still care about you?"

If there was a contest, a universal tournament, to find who has the best way to gut me, verbally eviscerate me. Well, there'd be no contest. There'd only be a singular contestant. Her words gripped my heart, clamping it down, my vision swooned. I felt so immediately unwell. I tried, I tried to not let her know, let her spout whatever she wants, but she knows me too well. I know her all too well too. My empty stomach almost wretched, through whatever amount of will power still there in my bones I held the bile down.

She still smiled, she saw me crack, the tiniest fissure in my armor. She pressed her blade deeper in.

"Cause they don't, do they? How could they? How could they care about you? The 'Chosen One' who lied to them for months, tricked them, deceived them. Care all you want, Ronny boy, cause no one will ever care about you again."

Seconds passed in the Time Betwixt Time.

"You're right..."

More seconds passed.

"You're right." A little louder.

"Hmph." Celebi grunted. "Glad to see you finally understand. A thing like you doesn't matter and if you ever did, you certainly don't now. You should in fact be begging to lose your memories of this world. A worthless ball of slime like you can't even handle a little teasing, you'd get back and fall apart at the first sign of anything. Legends above, though, how I wish you'll spend every waking moment ridden with guilt. 'Chosen One?' How utterly childish, pretending like you're worth more than spit."

"You're right." Footsteps headed for the portal. An argument could be made that if passing through once took away memories, The second time also would as well. And without memories, there would be no guilt. And there would be peace at last.

'Please just let them forget me too, let them live happy knowing they're almighty, righteous warriors. That's all I wish. That's all I want.'

'What a pathetic want, altruistic perhaps, yet fundamentally devoid of id.' The other voice commented. Again in my head, again without sound.

'Maybe I have finally fractured, perhaps I'm finally at the ends of my wits. Even my inner monologue insults me. Perhaps I truly am contemptible through and through.' I wryly thought.

'You are as you choose to be, weak one.'

'Just shut up!' I bit back. A voiceless rumble of laughter bit at me.

'A spark of rebellion. Finally!'

'Rebellion?' There's no rebellion, this is resignation. I paddled towards the portal, just wholly fed up with this world. All of its problems, all of its issues, I'm going home now. This world can rot for all I care.

Purple light, an ever expanding bright void pressed in front of me. It was no different than the one behind and around me. Voids within voids, nothingness within nothingness. I passed alongside Celebi. She did not turn to watch me go, why would she? She's made it abundantly clear how she thinks of me, how unfortunate that this was the one individual here at my send off. Beggars can't be choosers, I suppose.

"Good. Now that that's out of the way, I can go back to that town. I still have that promise to keep."

My front paw halted mid air. 'Promise? What promise? Is she talking about Tie Town?' I didn't move.

"Those pathetic ingrates, how dare they face me? I'm going to show them a lesson they'll never forget, and never remember too." She laughed like bells, and the sound clanged against my shell. My eyes went wide.

"What!?" I turned to face her. Her back was to me. Twin wings halted from where she hovered above the ground.

"Oh, you're still here. I thought you'd be gone by now." A lack of emotion, a lack of care, a lack of any empathy came across in her words. She was responding just to respond, clearly unconcerned with what she said.

"What did you mean about Tie Town!? What are you going to do there?"

She sighed, "I'm really sick of this conversation, Ron. Who cares? You are going home, go home."

"Please, I-"

"GOOO HOME!!!" Her waves seared my face like hot wind. "What am I going to do? What am I going to do?! I'm going to do whatever I want, Ron! What I promised I'd do! That rat!" Her snarl shook her shoulders. "He lied to me, I said I'd kill him and he lied to me. So I'm going to do just that."

'Pat! No!' I ran back, away from my prize. Away from my world. "Wait, Celebi, please! He, he was only trying to save me. He didn't mean to lie to you. Please don't blame him, it was all my fault. He only lied for me!" I bowed before her back, blazing eyes reflected across the glassy floor. The Lairon there looked desperate, I felt worse. It fogged up with breath as I waited for her reply.

"And you know who cares, Ron? Not me. That bug deserves to be squashed, they all deserve to be squashed. They attacked me! Me! Their goddess! I'm not going to stop with that rat, oh no. I'm going to go back and find them all. One by one. I'm going to beat them, break them. They won't even have the chance to regret fighting me."

"Please, Celebi, don't-"

"DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!" She spun towards me, spittle and froth at the corners of her mouth. "I'VE TOLD YOU! TIME AND TIME AGAIN! NEVER TELL ME WHAT TO DO!"

"DON'T HURT THEM!!" I yelled back at her, I stood to my full height. Still feet away from her, but it made me feel stronger. "You, you proved you were the strongest already, didn't you? You beat them. You don't need to do anything else. Whatever they did, whatever you said, it doesn't matter. You showed them! They don't need to die!"

It was more words in protest than I had ever spoken aloud to her. I never felt more sure than I did there, before the beast herself, screaming in protest at the devil. I didn't have the time to ponder why now, of all times.

'Don't let them die because of me...' I pleaded wordlessly to whatever Deities known or unknown may be listening.

Rumbles of laughter resounded in his head. 'Yes...., now that is a desire.'

"It matters because I say it matters, you! They had a chance, they had multiple chances. I was lenient, I was benevolent. And those dirt crawling scums," She shook her head violently. "They lied to me, they attacked me! They don't deserve to live! I'm going to enjoy taking them apart, limb from limb."

My lungs hurt, my chest hurt, my jaw hurt. My body hurt from all the rage that flooded my system. Fear didn't extinguish it this time. She threatened them, she was going to go hurt them. And with her strength, she was certain to win again. And there wasn't anything I could do.

"No!" I roared. "I refuse. I refuse!"

'YES!'

"You refuse what, Thing? Choose your next words carefully. I may just start with you." It was the same old threat. My life, it didn't matter. Who cares what happens to me? I was a liar, a pathetic worm, a miserable ball of steel and flesh. I don't matter. But they did, everyone of them, every single member of my guild. My friends.

I grit my teeth, snarling as I did. "You listen to me, Celebi. I refuse to let you harm them anymore! You hear me! You stay away from them!"

She unleashed a Psycho Cut at me. It hardly registered as it sparked off my armor. She looked so inhuman, even her form fizzled as her aura warped the space around her. A creature from my nightmares made flesh. A monster.

"I've had enough of you. I'm going to just kill you now."

Enough of me? Is that what she just said?! She's done nothing but hound me for a year, spending moment after moment in my mind. Tormenting me at every possible chance, bearing fault for everything that has ensued to me since coming here, threatening every single Pokemon that was near and dear to me in this world. Breaking me into piece after piece until I couldn't stand up. And she's had enough of me? It was comical. I wanted to laugh at the absurdity.

I was the one through putting up with her, I was the one beyond done. I wasn't going to stand idly by anymore.

"No. You've got it all wrong, Celebi." I responded as I shrugged off her attack. Settling into my battle stance. "I'm the one that's fed up here! I'm done listening to you! The next things I want to hear from you are cries of pain as you beg me for mercy!"

Her image still shook, rancorous and wrathful waves sailed past me, but I held her gaze. For the first time ever.

'YESSSSSSSS!!!!!'