FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Death... Death is beyond our comprehension. The more we begin to understand the complete end of everything we define as existing, the more we realize just how unspeakably horrifying it is. Even so, it is the unavoidable fate that awaits all living things, without any exceptions. Our only hope of survival lies in our ability not to think about it, to appreciate life for what it is and to not needlessly wallow in sorrow over our already decided demise.

This was a peace of mind that Mew came to long as she saw the line of maimed corpses and razed ground heading directly into a city.

She had been out flying this cloudy afternoon for no particular reason, when she had suddenly come across a group of dead Pokémon. They had been scattered around what seemed to be a long line of dead grass, stretching in both directions as far as she could see. Following the line in the direction to her right, she had wondered if she was heading towards or away from the origin point. The fresher corpses of both Pokémon and humans she had come across while following the trail told her that it was the latter, as it now led her into a newly destroyed human settlement.

The city was in ruins, crumbled buildings lying among slaughtered people and Pokémon randomly strewn about. The foul stench of blood and gore lay heavy in the air as Mew used her psychic abilities to disable her sense of smell, keeping herself from vomiting.

Children and adults alike, there was no discrimination. What had once been living creatures were now all but slabs of meat, waiting to rot into nothingness and sink into the earth. The cruelty of whatever was responsible for this knew no bounds, Mew being unable to tell which death had been the most agonizing. A Sandslash with a slit throat and bloodied claws caught her eye, because next to his corpse lay two headless Sandshrew. While pinning this whole disaster on the deceased Sandslash would ease her mind quite a bit, she thought that he must have simply been driven to madness from witnessing the hellish scene.

Mew felt her sanity tearing with every passing moment, and decided to keep on moving. Imagining a single passing would be enough to keep her awake at night; actually seeing so many innocent torn to bits was something far beyond what her mind could handle. She quickly blocked it out and followed the trail of destruction once more, out of the city. Despite being so in love with this world and always seeing the good in everything and everyone, she could not help but feel as if her innocence would never again return.

"Oh no..." she whispered to herself, seeing the trail of destruction leading directly through a forest, the outskirts of which now were riddled with pieces of Pokémon. Silently she prayed that there would even be a single flicker of life still present, for if she would find a survivor she would no longer care for her long kept secrecy and safety.

She would show herself. Anything to keep her from being alone in this hell!

But all she felt was nothingness. Whatever this menace was, it was effective and left no one alive within a radius of hundreds of feet. She had come across Pokémon of every type, size and strength, all dead and frighteningly often mutilated. Neither she nor Mewtwo would be able to cause such extreme carnage so quickly, and if this monster was more powerful than him, even she would not be able to stop it.

It could destroy the world.

No... It WAS destroying the world. This was the apocalypse.

She flew over the forest, sparing herself the horrific sights inside while still being able to follow whatever caused it due to a clear path of withering trees. Whoever was responsible for all this had eradicated all life nearby, but had apparently not considered the surrounding flora as sentient despite technically possessing life. This meant that it was not completely mindless, and the thought brought a shiver to her form - What if this was the cause of someone she already knew? Only one Pokémon would have the potential to be this powerful and mercilessly evil...

Her train of thoughts abruptly ended as something she never thought she would feel again came upon her - The sensation of life. A few miles ahead, she sensed the aura of several humans and Pokémon. She increased her speed and moved as quickly as possible, noticing that the auras were rapidly vanishing one by one. In the midst of the chaos she knew they must be experiencing, there was a faint flicker of a terrifyingly powerful aura, going on and off at an irregular and quick pace.

The long distance took her barely a minute to cover, her determination to rescue them from this nightmare making her move at a speed like never before. Whatever was causing this was not slacking, either - Already the multitude of auras had disappeared, leaving only three more. A scream of agony resounded through the air and hit her ears, as she finally laid eyes upon the source of the auras she had felt.

One was a Lucario, bleeding severely and standing on his knees. He was in bad shape, the spikes usually found on their hands and chest gone and replaced by heavy scar tissue. The other was a Medicham, now in four pieces and scattering herself over the bloodstained area, a permanent expression of terror formed upon her cleaved face. The third one was the origin of the extremely powerful aura Mew had sensed earlier, and she knew without a shred of a doubt that it was cause of this whole situation.

It looked human. It had a human arm, a human head, a human torso and human legs. However, likening this perversion of nature any further to anything remotely definable as "human" would be an insult. Its skin was bubbling, red and irritated, seemingly infected by hundreds of diseases. Just being in the vicinity of it made Mew fear that she would be infected by a quarter of them and die on the spot. While one arm was that of a human, the other one was nothing but two tentacles flailing about restlessly, like the severed tail of a lizard. Two large ears seemed to be sticking out of the sides of its head, but upon closer inspection she noticed it was actually a pair of cancerous tumors, constantly pulsing.

Its face was covered with what looked like a green platter, sown into its skin and nailed into its cranium. The only thing visible of the actual creature underneath was its eyes, as large holes had been cut out for them. They were of the darkest black Mew had ever witnessed, the nightly skies seeming like a sunny day in comparison. The eyes were empty enough to only be comparable to black holes, so non-existent that it nearby objects ran the risk of being sucked in and turned into oblivion.

"No! Stop!" Mew shrieked, making the Lucario turn his head towards her in surprise. The monster did not pay her any notice as it slowly moved towards the Lucario, almost slithering in the way it walked.

"I said..." Mew growled as she unleashed her most powerful Psychic attack upon the creature, "STOP!"

However, the monster was no longer where she had aimed, having completely vanished from her sight. A painful cry struck her ears as she turned her head, seeing the monster now having impaled the Lucario with its two tentacles. Mew shot a speedy Aura Sphere as a reflex, but the monster easily deflected with its human hand, not even turning its head towards her as it was completely focused on the Lucario in front of it.

The Lucario coughed, the sharp tendrils writhing around in his wounds, and Mew could tell that he was quickly dying. He would soon be beyond even her help, while Mew could do nothing but helplessly watch as his life trickled away. His blood splashed over Deoxys, the red liquid sinking into its cancerous flesh and leaving no trace behind.

Mew started to panic as she had never felt so weak before, covering herself in a barrier so strong that the very air around it evaporated into nothingness, creating a miniature vacuum effect. She then zoomed toward the humanoid at a speed comparable to that of light, putting all her power into the attack that had once made even Mewtwo stagger from sheer force.

The monster quickly moved itself backwards from the Lucario, not even turning its head to face her. She was still in full control and turned to the left so that she would still be able to hit it, but suddenly noticed that it had completely vanished once more. Making a swift U-turn, she saw the monster now coming directly towards her, and braced herself for the impact.

Then, the monster was suddenly flying beside her, swinging its tendrils in her direction. Panicking, Mew swerved to the side, only to have it stay right next to her in perfect coordination, as if it were slowing itself down to match her speed. One of the tendrils grazed her face, making her lose all control and unleash her most powerful shockwave, the grass beneath them ripping from the ground and scattering in all directions.

The monster did not even flinch. Instead, it used its own shockwave in response, sending Mew flying against her will for the first time in her life. The power of it even made the Lucario's body fall down and roll over like a ragdoll, despite now being almost twenty feet away from them. As the last flicker of the Lucario's life faded, so did Mew's hope. It was over. As she had feared, this monster was strong beyond her wildest imaginations, faster than anything she could measure up to and utterly ruthless. She would become another one of its prey, before the rest of the world would follow. The fact that everything she knew and loved was coming to such a tragic end was enough to make her eyes tear up, even though she felt like she had already become emotionally dead from what she had seen on this day to end all days.

In her despair, she did not notice a pathetically weak aura coming up from behind her. A human man was approaching them, stopping himself as he gazed upon the destruction. He was in his 30's, carrying a strong build and unusually hairy arms. His clothing was ragged and torn, wearing common jeans and a brown cloak to cover himself, and he had a backpack which slid off him as he stood stunned in surprise.

"What... On... Earth..." he stammered to himself in disbelief, making Mew visibly twitch as she turned around.

"Human! Flee!" Mew suddenly cried out, looking down at the human as she instinctively floated up into the air for protection.

"Whoa! What the..." the human exclaimed as he looked up and saw Mew, "... Is that... Mew!?"

"Human, you must escape!" Mew yelled loudly while snapping her vision back and forth between the human and the monster, "You will die!"

"You can talk!?" the human shouted out in shock before turning his head towards the creepy humanoid not far away, "Wait, what the hell is that thing!?"

Reaching behind his cloak, he quickly pulled out a small technological appliance, which he pointed towards the monster. The small machine beeped lightly, before giving off a metallic voice:

Deoxys

"... Aw come on, you've got a name for it!" the human cried out as he started rattling his Pokedex in frustration, "Give me something helpful, here!"

Mew was about to say something, but had no time as Deoxys suddenly flew towards them. She raised her most powerful barrier, bracing herself as a mental image of it having no effect and her getting impaled by the sharp tentacles passed through her mind. Instead, Deoxys used its human hand to punch through the barrier with the force of a comet, shattering it with a loud boom as Mew was thrown back.

"Mew!" the human shouted in surprise, "No way, how strong is that thing!?"

"... Run..." Mew said weakly, her mind was still scrambled after the strong impact, "I will... Distract him..."

"Distract!?" the human exclaimed with a panicked tone, "If you can't stop him, who can!?"

"... No one..." Mew continued with utter despair in her voice, "I fear... Human, this is the end of the world..."

The human flinched, hearing these words. He was about to interject, but had to stop himself as he looked at the area around them once more. Terror filled him as he saw pieces of flesh in varying colors of skin lay about, completely unrecognizable from the people and Pokémon they had once belonged to. The once dimmed clouds in the sky had turned hellishly black, as if heaven itself had been corrupted by this unspeakable display. In the middle of it all stood Deoxys, about to murder the purest Pokémon in all existence, seeing her as nothing more than a slab of meat to be chopped up and discarded.

The end of the world...

"... Bullshit..." the human muttered to himself while gritting his teeth, before clenching his fists and raising his voice, "I'm Ethan, the goddamn champion of the world! That thing's gonna be sorry it ran into me!"

"I cannot look after you, human!" Mew shouted and completely ignored his bravado, "Leave, or this monster will kill you!"

The two of them looked at Deoxys, whose attention was still solely with Mew. Ethan gasped as he saw a faint yellow spark form beneath the monster's abdomen, recognizing it from the time he had been defeated by Red's Pikachu.

"Mew, look out!" Ethan burst out, "It... It's using Thunderbolt!"

Mew tried to ignore him to keep focused on the battle, but as the words passed through her head, a memory of the charred corpses of a family of Pidgey she had come across earlier crossed her mind as she instinctively tore up the ground beneath with her psychic powers. Manipulating the free floating soil into a circle covering both her and Ethan, lightning suddenly struck as Deoxys exploded into a ball of thunder, gigantic sparks flying in every direction.

Ethan fell back in shock, the bright light seeping through tiny holes in their shield powerful enough to make his corneas burn. Not even Red's Pikachu had been able to do that. The attack stopped as their shield of earth crumbled, Mew breathing out in relief as Ethan noticed a corpse as far as fifteen feet away having turned into charcoal.

"Awawa..." he stammered, "That was a big fucking Thunderbolt..."

"Are you alright!?" Mew asked with concern, amazed to see the human still in one piece. From her experience, humans were not the most durable of creatures, what she had witnessed this day reinforcing that.

"Yeah..." Ethan said as he rose to his feet and rubbed his eyes, "A barrier made out of ground? I've never seen anything like it..."

He looked at Deoxys, trying to make sense out of what it was. All he knew that if it were to touch him, he would probably come down with enough diseases to make him explode into a cloud of germs. Rubbing his eyes once more, he noticed that the area around Deoxys was a lot brighter than before, making it glow in a green light. Keeping his sight fixed upon the unfamiliar fiend, he once more gained a hunch of what was happening.

"Watch out, it's charging up a Solar Beam!" Ethan yelled before pointing up to the sky where the dark clouds had inexplicably separated, "The sun! Cover up the sun!"

Mew followed his finger before quickly clasping her hands together, remembering the technique Celebi had forced her to learn. The air around her hands suddenly began to turn denser, until it became a thick smoke visible to the naked eyes. The smoke quickly rose and spread, covering the sky as Deoxys stopped glowing, but still did not even bother looking up.

"You did it!" Ethan burst out in surprise, this display making the exciting feeling of directing a Pokémon battle return to him after having been absent for so long, "That totally stopped him!"

"Yes!" Mew replied while sounding even more surprised than Ethan, "How did you know what move it was using?"

"The outer skin turned brighter, meaning that it was absorbing light..." Ethan explained as he involuntarily started thinking of his very first Pokémon, "... I've countered that move a thousand times before!"

Ethan shook lightly, the sensation of once more being a Pokémon trainer overwhelming him. The feeling that had vanished and remained dormant for so long came back, as he felt like he was fighting his first gym leader all over again. Somewhere between directing the most powerful Pokémon of his life and fighting the most powerful enemy he had ever faced, his spirit had awoken.

"... Mew, let me guide you!" Ethan suddenly said, looking up at Mew who was busy observing Deoxys carefully, "I'm Ethan, the best trainer there has ever been! Follow my directions, and we've got a chance of winning!"

"Are you certain it will help!?" Mew shouted to him, her eyes never leaving Deoxys. It was just standing there, staring at her and seemingly unable to comprehend why she was not yet dead. She knew that if she were to even blink just when the monster decided to attack, her eyes might never open again.

"What is there to lose!?" Ethan yelled back at her, their depressing situation somehow being repelled by his indomitable fighting spirit.

Mew already felt sick to the stomach, but the thought of adding herself to a trainer's collection made the feeling worse. Even so, by working together they had managed to completely repel two of the monster's attacks, and if there was even the slightest possibility of them winning, there was nothing she would not do... Even if it meant going against everything she believed in.

"... Fine!" Mew said loudly while mentally bracing herself for the Pokeball that was sure to follow, "But it will make no difference! This monster is too fast, even for me!"

"In that case..." Ethan responded, wondering why the small legendary was cringing so badly with each word he said, "Mew, legend has it you can use every move there is, is that true?"

"Yes!" Mew responded, going with a simple answer as this would be the worst time possible to go into too much detail, "Every element! Now, please-"

"Then..." Ethan whispered before stopping, not being able to withhold a dramatic pause despite being in such a dangerous situation, "Use Trick Room!"

Mew turned back and looked at him, suddenly realizing that he was not going to capture her, but simply help her out as an ally. This came as an utter shock to her, having known nothing but trainers rabidly trying to catch her at even the slightest hint of her presence. Scanning his body with her superhuman senses, she noticed that this so-called trainer was not even carrying any Pokeballs with him, the only piece of technology on him being the small machine that had given a name to Deoxys.

Figuring out what this meant would have to wait until a better time, and she now felt more confident about teaming up with the human beneath her. But even so, what he had just said...

"... What is that?" Mew asked, looking bewildered.

"T... Trick Room!" Ethan repeated as his momentum disappeared and the wind was taken out of him, "You know! Speed altering! Psychic! The room where trickery is plentiful and had by all!"

"I have never heard of it before!" Mew replied with a worried tone, cursing at herself for not studying trainer terminology more thoroughly.

"Oh shit!" Ethan shouted while pulling out the Pokedex. His swift fingers had already brought up the menu for recorded attacks by the time the automatic lighting activated.

"C-Create a large fermionic field and, uh..." Ethan read the instructions out loud while realizing that if Mew did not know what a Trick Room was, she would definitively not be able to make any sense out of this, "... Fluctuate the gravitational constant inside of it!"

Much to his surprise, Mew quickly closed her eyes and started focusing intently. A purple translucent box appeared between them and Deoxys, growing at a very high pace. Ethan flinched as the wall of purple consumed him, a very peculiar yet quite familiar sensation passing through him. Deoxys simply stood still, making no attempt at dodging as the seemingly harmless box overtook him as well. By the time Mew was done the box had reached preposterously large dimensions, taller than a skyscraper and wider than an arena.

"... THAT you understood!?" Ethan burst out with annoyance before being taken back by the sheer power of Mew's psychic abilities, "Whoa, what a gigantic trick room... My Misdreavus wouldn't even be able to make one half this size..."

"Brilliant!" Mew exclaimed happily, more impressed by his idea than her own actions, "Ethan, you are a genius! I never would have imagined something like this!"

"Well, I didn't exactly invent it..." Ethan chuckled as he scratched the back of his head, "Be careful though, only his speed is affected! Now, beat his ass with a Zen headbutt!"

"A... What?" Mew tried repeating, quickly forgetting what he had even said.

"I don't know," Ethan growled hopelessly while throwing his hands up into the sky, "Surround yourself in energy and tackle him, or something!"

While removing the distance between her and Deoxys was the last thing Mew wanted to do, her energy tackles were both fast and powerful and would be the perfect course of action, had this monster not been so absurdly powerful. She decided to put her trust into Ethan, and formed a mighty barrier around her as she zoomed towards the monster, not noticing any difference in her own speed.

The Trick Room's effects made itself apparent when Deoxys started moving out of the way, only to feel himself tugged in every direction at once. From his vision, Mew was lagging around the area, making him unable to tell where she actually was. She was about to strike him when he calmly moved to the side in the last second with the same speed she was using, her attack barely grazing him. Mew felt hope return as she made a sharp U-turn, Deoxys trying to follow her like the last time but being unable to move faster than her, getting outrun by Mew's higher velocity. She struck his human arm as she passed by, quickly moving back to where Ethan was before Deoxys had the time to counterattack.

"You've got him!" Ethan exclaimed excitedly while pumping his fist in the air, "Way to go, Mew!"

"Ethan! Beware!" Mew shouted as Deoxys suddenly came towards them. He was moving at a more reasonable speed this time, which led to Mew unleashing a powerful Psychic attack against him. Deoxys was forced to make a long backflip to avoid the attack, so agile that it made Ethan gasp out loud.

"Oh, what the hell!?" Ethan burst out in shock, "He's still THIS fast, despite being in a Trick Room!?"

"Ethan!" Mew said to him while feeling like she could finally finish this, simply not knowing how to go about it, "Please, snap out of it!"

"Huh? Oh, yeah!" Ethan exclaimed before shaking his head, "Hit him with an attack that cannot miss! He won't have the time to counterattack!"

Mew's first impulse was to use the Aura Sphere, but remembered how easily Deoxys had reflected it earlier. Instead, she cupped her hands several times, and each time she opened them there was a round object made out of steel that had not been there before. She felt that making seven of them would be enough, forcing a magnetic field upon her new creations which hovered around her like tiny balloons.

Sending them flying in the monster's direction, he tried dodging to the side as the balls easily followed him, guided by Mew's psychic abilities as well as the magnetic field homing in on the metallic plate covering his face. Mew suddenly pushed the balls forward, making them speed up and attach themselves to the monster's face. The instant the seventh one connect with him, they all exploded in a cloud of white smoke, the blast radius making the ground tremble.

"Magnet Bomb..." Ethan said slowly with eyes wide open, "Holy shit, you managed to make seven of them!?"

Mew could still sense Deoxys aura underneath the smoke and knew that he was still alive, but her other senses told her that something very peculiar was happening beyond the veil.

As the smoke cleared, they could see that there was a whole lot less of Deoxys around. He had become thinner, the red infected skin on his body mostly having been replaced by a black armor of unknown material. His double tentacles and human arm had been replaced by slender appendages, looking like the tentacles but were seemingly more firm. The metal plate covering his face was still intact, but his head had been elongated to twice the original size by a massive tumor, looking like a large, malignant hat.

"What..." Mew whispered while looking back at Ethan, pleading for answers, "What has happened to him?"

"... Ludicrous..." Ethan whispered to himself while trying to comprehend what had just happened, "Did he just restructure his entire body...?"

In an instant, Deoxys had closed the distance between himself and Mew, making her raise a barrier in the last moment before one of the tentacles came crashing down upon it, almost shattering it right away. The other tentacle followed, as Deoxys kept himself floating beside her and began pounding her barrier with amazing speed and strength.

"I-Impossible! He made himself faster!? But..." Ethan stammered in utter shock as he saw Mew pointlessly trying to move away from the monster's continued onslaught, "... Mew! Don't give up hope! He's faster, but his body looks more fragile! Try that attack ag-"

"He has become too fast even for that! Something else!" Mew shouted in a very fast voice as she quickly moved back, Deoxys coming upon her once more and smashing his powerful tentacles against her barrier. Each blow felt like one of Mewtwo's vicious Psystrikes, and she knew she would not last long at this rate.

"Give me a moment!" Ethan shouted, trying to collect his thoughts and keep himself from panicking at the same time. He knew that Deoxys could not have made himself faster in a Trick Room, as it equalized the speed of everyone within it. No matter how fast, inside the Trick Room there was a limit to one's speed, which had been reached by these two powerful Pokémon long before.

Instead, he knew it was all in the monster's body switch... While its speed had not increased, this body was more suited for swift movements, letting it land a hit and dodge attacks more easily. Ethan dared not think of what would happen if Deoxys left the Trick Room while in this state - They would both be dead before they could even react.

"Ethan!" Mew cried out, a particularly powerful blow piercing her barrier and making her narrowly avoid being run through by the monster's left tentacle.

"GIVE ME A FUCKING MOMENT, GODDAMN IT!" Ethan burst out at her, feeling frustrated as he thought as hard as he could without coming up with a plan.

"Have it, then!" Mew shouted back angrily before deciding to attack Deoxys on her own. Tearing several tufts of grass from the ground while heating up the air around them with her psychic abilities, she sent off a burst of fire at Deoxys. The monster dodged the attack by a long shot as it headed towards her once more, striking her barrier once as she flew back.

"... I've got it!" Ethan suddenly yelled with clarity, "He's only aiming for you since he's got a one track mind! There's no way he'll attack me!"

"What are you..." Mew started, but ended up too surprised to continue as Ethan suddenly ran in front of her with arms outstretched.

"Hey! Deoxys!" Ethan shouted with his determination soaring, "You can't even see me, can you!?"

Despite not being directly between Mew and Deoxys, the monster turned its head slightly and looked at him for the first time. Ethan gazed into the empty abyss of the monster's eyes, as the abyss also gazed into him.

"HUMAN" a voice as hollow as space and equally encompassing filled Ethan's mind, engulfing his being. His brain started running haywire as he lost his balance and fell to the ground, his senses dimmed and his consciousness somewhere else.

"Ethan!" a weak noise came from somewhere, "Are you OK!?"

Blood was running out of Ethan's ears as he slowly began to regain himself from the depths of the monster's soul, recalling how to breathe after what seemed like an eternity of choking.

"OK...?" Ethan repeated as he struggled got up to his feet and covered his bloodied ears, "I... I once took a Horn Drill to the chest in the Safari Zone... This is NOTHING!"

"YOU FOOL! Never do that again!" Mew screamed at him, making him lose his previous confidence and take a step back in surprise. Seeing him bleeding led to her remembering that no matter how powerless she was in front of Deoxys, a human would be nothing more than a speck of dust. The corpses of the dead surrounding them would serve as a constant reminder from this point on.

"Uh..." Ethan mumbled in embarrassment, completely forgetting the pounding headache was now feeling, "I-I just thought he wouldn't notice me..."

"Stay back," Mew continued with a calmer voice but a more worried expression, "I need you. You are more valuable in a passive role."

"... Suits me..." Ethan muttered in response, wiping some of the blood away from his ears. She would have to protect him more carefully... But what could she do when she was barely keeping herself alive?

Noticing that the monster had stopped its attacks and was just standing there, Mew tried to figure out if it was preparing its next move or simply catching its breath. This seemed like something Ethan would be able to figure out more easily, but he was too shook up at the moment to contribute.

"What is this thing, anyway?" Ethan muttered while clutching his pained forehead in an attempt to focus, "Why's it doing this?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, it seems to be nothing more than a mindless beast," Mew said with disdain, her mentality that even the most thorough evil had some good in it pretty much shattered at this point, "Nothing with even a shred of conscience could stomach the atrocities he has committed."

"I wonder..." Ethan continued as his vision began to improve, "If it's a mindless beast, why's it not constantly attacking us in a berserk rage and letting us talk?"

"You... Surely you do not think it has a conscience?" Mew asked him with surprise, amazed that he would even consider such a thing in a battlefield riddled by the monster's prey, "That we can converse with it?"

"Well, my gut says no..." Ethan said with a faint snicker as he held a hand up to his aching chest, "... My scrambled, disoriented gut that got damaged when last I tried sparking a conversation with that thing."

They both stared at Deoxys, who was simply staring into space, seemingly having given up on his rampage altogether.

"... Maybe..." Mew whispered slowly, "... I think it is trying to comprehend why we are not yet dead."

"... No..." Ethan whispered back and started trembling for reason unknown, "... Look... It's doing something, all right..."

They both focused so intently on Deoxys that they failed to notice that the purple box around them was becoming more and more transparent. As silently as it had appeared, the Trick Room had now disappeared, the two of them not even noticing that anything was happening before it was too late.

"... H-Holy shit, the Trick Room's gone!" Ethan stammered frightfully as he looked around them.

"... No!" Mew burst out, seeing that he was right and cursing herself for not having been more attentive.

"We're dead!" Ethan screamed in pure terror as hopelessness washed over him, his heart pounding louder and faster than ever before. Deoxys finally turned his head towards Mew again, making her visibly flinch as she was expecting the attack to kill her before she could even feel it.

However, as the seconds passed, they realized that Deoxys had returned to standing completely still once more. Its body shook slightly as if it was in pain, even though telling the emotions of this mysterious creature was more or less impossible.

"... H-Hey..." Ethan said with a shaky voice, "... He's not killing us..."

"... Or moving..." Mew said with a sigh of relief before realizing that currently they had absolutely no chance of winning, "Quick! We need another plan, before he attacks!"

"Alright, a plan! A plan..." Ethan repeated to himself while forcing his brain to work overtime, their poor odds mocking him and making him wonder if there was even a slight possibility of them coming out of this nightmare alive, "... Uh, can we expect any reinforcements on your end?"

"Most likely not, no one has been left alive for miles..." Mew whispered while seeking auras, shuddering to think of just how many of her friends had come across this unstoppable monster.

"Damn it..." Ethan grumbled with regret, "If I'd only brought my own Pokémon... No, it wouldn't have made a difference, he's just too strong..."

Their conversation was interrupted as Deoxys' tentacles suddenly retracted into his body, visibly crawling around underneath his skin. Ethan felt sick to his stomach and Mew winced as the rumblings underneath his skin grew larger and more violent, seemingly expanding the body of the monster right before their eyes.

A red bubbling liquid started seeping through cracks in the black armor protecting his torso, pouring over him and covering Deoxys in a membrane of sorts. They could hardly believe it as the liquid around him turned solid, creating layer after layer of new flesh and finally making his torso look like a ball. Two pieces from where his shoulders once were then broke off from the ball, creating a new set of thick, flat arms.

"This is not transformation... He is actually rebuilding his body to make it stronger!" Mew exclaimed with a worried tone, trying to distinguish exactly what manner of material composed the body of this monster.

"Such a bulky body..." Ethan mumbled, wondering why it would bother with that instead of just rushing in and killing them, "If I were to guess, I'd say his speed has been lowered, but his defense and possibly attack must've gotten stronger."

"... In that case, it shall be his undoing," Mew said with a hint of confidence, knowing that she knew several attacks that completely ignored defense. Even so, she remembered how easily Deoxys had deflected her Aura Sphere earlier, and decided that she would try to land a critical hit no matter what.

"Mew..." Ethan interrupted her train of thoughts with his own as he noticed that Deoxys once more had yet to simply move forward and kill them, "... Going out on a limb here, but since he's not moving, I think he's going to use Mirror Coat or Counter."

"Pardon?" Mew asked curiously.

"It's... It's really annoying, but he'll put up a barrier that either reflects physical attacks or special attacks," Ethan muttered while scratching the back of his head, still thinking this to be much more preferable to dealing with the blinding speed of Deoxys' earlier form, "It's impossible to tell which one he's charged up before striking. Physical or special, you've got a 50-50 chance of hitting him!"

Mew thought to herself, remembering a very long time ago when uncle Giratina had used a similar strategy against her, in order to show her just how superior his abilities were and how strong she could become if she decided to stay with him instead of running off to explore the world.

She responded the same as back then, firing an Ice Beam from her left hand while slashing her right hand at Deoxys, forming a Psycho Cut. The two attacks roared towards Deoxys and collided with him simultaneously, covering him in ice while making a large gash appear over his thick torso.

"Physical AND Special!? Nice one, Mew!" Ethan yelled while smiling and giving both thumbs up. His celebration was short lived as the skin on Deoxys upper body bubbled, covering up the gash and making the ice around him melt away, the monster looking completely indifferent as he stared at them intently.

"That's some pretty impressive defense, all right..." Ethan groaned before perking up, "Still, this is a perfect chance to figure out his weakness! Try something else!"

Mew nodded and struck Deoxys with a Shadow Claw with her right hand while making him burst into flames with her left one. Once more, Deoxys' outer shell simply reformed itself, he himself remaining immobile.

"He's not even reflecting them... Has he given up, or something?" Ethan said out loud while scratching the back of his head, "Healing takes energy, he's definitively going to lose at this rate."

However, a nagging feeling was in the back of his mind as he saw Mew commence with another barrage of powerful attacks, Deoxys not even bothering to dodge or reflect them. He scratched harder, thinking it was a persistent bug in his hair or something of similar nature, but found nothing. Looking very closely at Deoxys, he saw that the monster's usually red skin had gained the slightest tint of white, making him wonder if it was because he was taking damage.

He came to realize that his confidence had clouded his intuition when Deoxys suddenly started turning more and more white, glowing brightly under the darkened skies.

"H-He wasn't using Mirror Coat at all!" Ethan stammered as he stumbled backwards, "He was using Bide! Mew, RUN!"

A blinding light filled the area as Deoxys unleashed his stored powers, the ground beneath him ripping into bits from the sheer power and forming a massive crater. Mew was already holding on to Ethan and fleeing while raising the most powerful barrier of her life when the blast radius came upon them, striking like a million bolts of thunder. In a last ditch effort, Mew shot Ethan ahead of her with all her psychic power, making him outrun the brunt of the Bide as she herself became covered in the force of destruction.

Her barrier shattered as the impact struck her entire body, making her bones creak and threatened to collapse her entire skeleton. Enduring pain that was unlike anything she had felt before, she used telekinesis to keep her body in one piece, her inner workings remaining intact but her outer flesh rending. In the end the pain made her consciousness fade as she passed out, faintly dreaming of a better time and place in her life.

"Ahh..." Ethan groaned, lying down with his ears ringing and his entire body aching. He had flown far away and tumbled around on the ground, and was still feeling dizzy from it. He tried getting up only to notice the small legendary lying on his knees, seemingly resting.

He lightly tapped her head, and immediately panicked when he was given no response. With her many abilities she was a hundred times more powerful than him, but physically he had a feeling that she was much weaker. If she had been hit by that previous attack...

"Hey, Mew!" he said with fear apparent in his voice, "Wake up!"

"... Ooohh..." Mew responded groggily as she stirred, "... I feel... Pained..."

"No time for that!" Ethan shouted, resisting the urge to slap the drowsy legendary back to sense, "He's coming!"

Far away, Deoxys was approaching them slowly, looking quite different from before. At first, he seemed to have reverted to its original form, his body having lost the powerful build of his last form. However, the black armor from the speed form had returned, the slimy skin covering his torso having repositioned itself.

The most noticeable feature of this new form was four tentacles almost as long as his entire body, sticking out his arms should have been with two on each side. Unlike the previous tentacles this creature had sported, these looked far stronger and if possible even more flexible, going from sharp poles to wiggly spaghetti in a manner of seconds.

"He's changed forms again..." Ethan gulped loudly, "... Twice as many tentacles as before? I do NOT want to know what he's planning to do with those..."

"The others..." Mew whispered sadly while remembering the passing of the Lucario she had seen firsthand, "They were penetrated to death."

"Oh hell, are you serious!?" Ethan exclaimed in terror as he involuntarily clenched his nether regions, "Get up, Mew! Fight, for the love of god!"

Mew groaned as she floated off Ethan, never having been forced to deal with pain on such a tremendous scale before. Had this been a regular battle, she would probably just have let the trainer capture her at this point. However, knowing that the fate of the world was at stake, she knew that as long as her mind was still functional this battle would not be ending.

"Damn it! This is all my fault..." Ethan muttered to himself in anger, "All the high level trainers always used Counter and Mirror Coat, I completely forgot about Bide..."

"... Ethan," Mew responded while trying to help Ethan recover his hope, but noticed that she herself had very little left to share, "Do not surrender... I need your help a little longer."

"Almost makes me wish I hadn't asked Arceus to-" Ethan started, but was interrupted as Mew suddenly came back to life.

"Arceus...?" she repeated slowly before raising her voice, "Arceus!? You have met Arceus!?"

"What, even you're impressed?" Ethan said while forcing a snicker, "... It's a long story, but I asked him to erase all my memories regarding Pokémon."

"Wh-What!?" Mew burst out in surprise and confusion, "Why would you-"

"Later! For now, let's focus on the battle!" Ethan interrupted her before noticing Mew's midair posture wavering slightly compared to when he had first met her, "Hey, you look hurt, how're you holding up?"

"It matters not. One tentacle on each side was enough to break my strongest barrier, while two tentacles easily pierced it," she explained with disdain, her mind still burning with questions regarding his previous statement, "With those four tentacles... I will die for sure if he comes near, no matter what."

"A ranged attack... A fast attack... A powerful attack..." Ethan spoke to himself as a thought suddenly hit him, "... Mew, can you use the Aura Sphere?"

"Yes, but it had no effect on him earlier," Mew said with a depressing tone, "He just deflected it with his hand."

"... What hand?" Ethan asked with confusion, looking at Deoxys' multiple tentacles.

Mew blinked, her eyes suddenly brimming with intelligence. Thinking through her plan one last time, she launched an Aura Sphere towards Deoxys. The monster no longer had a human arm with a flat palm, and was forced to dodge to the side to avoid the attack. However, he had grown much slower than before, and was struck right on the chest by the Aura Sphere the size of a coconut, passing through him while leaving a bluish burning residue.

"A-A Critical hit!?" Ethan gasped in surprise, "Wo-hoo! Damn, he's gotten slow!"

Deoxys responded by firing an Aura Sphere of his own towards Mew. This Aura Sphere was four times as large as hers, and Mew just narrowly avoided it by flying under it.

"Mirror Coat!?" Ethan burst out in shock.

"No! That was his attack!" Mew responded quickly before catching her breath and resuming her heart's beating, "The size of that Aura Sphere... If it had hit me..."

"The first form was balanced... The second form was designed for speed... The third form meant for defense..." Ethan counted up on his fingers before pointing the middle one at Deoxys, "... Yeah, this one's got sky-high attack power, for sure."

"Any way of lowering his attack?" Mew asked, hoping for another Trick Room-like solution to their problems.

"... Well..." Ethan mumbled to himself before shrugging, "... I suppose you could try growling cutely at him, or something..."

"This means his other stats are lower than before!" Mew shouted while ignoring Ethan's response, "There must be a way to counter that!"

"... Of course! Just-" Ethan started, but was interrupted as Deoxys suddenly raised his four tentacles threateningly. Mew saw her life flash before her eyes as Deoxys threw them in front of himself, but instead of attacking her shoved them into the ground. Both Mew and Ethan remained quiet and stared, as the monster did not make another move.

"He's attacking from below," Ethan pointed out.

"Obviously," Mew nodded in agreement, wondering if she should pick up Ethan and fly high to avoid the approaching attack.

"This is your chance, Mew!" Ethan said with fists clenched as he was unable to deduct the true nature of Deoxys' attack, "Hit him with your strongest Psychic, while he's charging up!"

"I have a better idea," Mew said as a plan suddenly hit her. Remembering her days in working with tectonics when she and Celebi would make the mountain they lived on impossible to scale, she analyzed the ground structure and noticed that Deoxys had chosen a very poor spot to put his tentacles underground. She knew she did not have much time, and used her intellect to its full extent as she discovered the location for the main driving force, calculated the Earth's rotation and measured the effects of gravity upon their current location.

Ethan hoped Mew was not lying as a mighty earthquake started shaking the ground. He fell on his stomach and held on for his dear life, feeling like he was going to be thrown off the planet by the rumblings while wondering why Deoxys would use a ground-based attack against a hovering Pokémon. The answer was given as a hole in the ground cracked open and a pillar of lava erupted from it, shooting straight up into the sky while spraying drops of lava around it.

"H-He's u-using E-Eruption o-or s-s-someth-thing!" Ethan exclaimed with his voice shaking as badly as the ground, never having seen the attack used at such a large magnitude and knowing he would not be able to dodge the oncoming droplets with the earth's constant movement, "H-He m-melted d-down th-the b-bedr-rock, th-there's a m-molten p-pot of l-lava r-right b-beneath u-us! M-Mew, wh-why're y-you j-just ha-hanging th-there g-god-damn i-it!?"

"Just a minute..." she whispered in response, more pillars of lava bursting out of the ground and threating to roast them both at any moment. The area was heating up quickly, and noxious fumes were spreading around as Deoxys seemed completely unfazed by the nightmarish ordeal, enough to send even the mightiest warriors panicking.

"... There!" Mew suddenly exclaimed while swiftly putting her hands together.

In response to this seemingly simple movement, the planet Earth shook. Even Deoxys' powerful earthquake was like a small trembling in the wake of what seemed like Terra deciding to move itself a few feet towards Venus.

Using the natural force of plate tectonics, she had forced the continent they were standing on to move in order to fill up the newly made cavern in the ground. The earthquake and spewing lava instantly stopped, being pushed much deeper underground while leaving both Mew and Ethan in safety, the trainer breathing out loud as he enjoyed the sensation of immovable soil beneath him.

Deoxys did not have to bother pulling his arms out of the ground, the tentacles that had once been there now completely pulverized by the very planet he was attempting to destroy. Mew now became certain that he could neither think nor feel, the monster simply looking at them without even acknowledging the loss of his two most important limbs.

"Mew! Look!" Ethan exclaimed while pointing excitedly at the unfazed monster, "His arms are gone! He's just a torso!"

"I know," Mew replied bluntly before feeling hope return.

"We... We did it!" Ethan cheered loudly, "We can just leave this thing to die from loss of blood!"

Mew was inclined to agree with him, even though she did not see anything seeping out of Deoxys' massive wounds. She was still relieved to see the monster that had killed so many innocent people and Pokémon finally getting to experience what it was like to be beyond all recovery. However, her inner celebrations were interrupted when she suddenly sensed Deoxys already powerful aura spike, making her shudder as he glowed in white.

"Hyper Beam!" Ethan shouted to her confidently, "Dodge to the side, and then counterattack when he recovers from it!"

Hyper Beam... The term echoed in Mew's mind as she could not help but smile to herself, knowing her response to Ethan would have to wait. With ample time to prepare for the attack, Mew soared high up into the sky and then stopped herself to get ready to dive down and counterattack.

The Hyper Beam had been the decisive move in the first battle between her and Mewtwo, where she had taunted her prideful clone into matching powers in a beam struggle. Both of them knowing Mewtwo had the superior raw power, she simple dodged the Hyper Beam and moved in close, where Mewtwo was recovering from exhaustion as she put him into a non-lethal stasis and won the fight. The time that brains surpassed brawn would soon repeat itself as she saw Deoxys starting his firing sequence.

The beam was twice as big as the one Mewtwo had used, utterly massive in every dimension and larger than a skyscraper. Raising a barrier in panic she was able to move to the edge of the beam before being struck, getting thrown out of it by the sheer force as her brains rattled from the impact.

Breathing heavily in surprise at how close she came to being completely evaporated, she saw her chance and immediately rushed down towards Deoxys, who was bending over. He would be too slow to dodge her, too rigid to defend and too armless to counter. If he were to try countering in any other way, she would be able to see it coming and dodge it in the last second and still have her attack hit him.

This time, the stasis effect would not be non-lethal, but instead designed to implode every particle of this monster. She summoned up her energy she moved towards Deoxys, still crouched over and making no attempt at moving away.

This was it.

However, Deoxys thought otherwise. He suddenly slammed his upper body into the ground beneath them. Mew thought of this as an attempt at suicide, before feeling a powerful shockwave hitting her from below. Caught completely off guard by the direction of the attack, she flew up into the air and past Deoxys, uncontrollably spinning around.

"MEW! DODGE!" Ethan yelled as loudly as he could, seeing what Deoxys was planning. Mew peered through her dizziness to try to see what was happening, and sensing the aura of the monster beneath her skyrocketing there was no mistaking it. She yelped in terror as she swiftly moved in a direction, praying that it was not directly away from the monster as it fired off yet another Hyper Beam.

She was not as lucky, this time. Although she managed to avoid the brunt of the beam, her tail was still running haywire from the spinning and accidently got caught up in the beam. She cried out in pain as the tip of the tail, which was normally slightly thicker than the rest, quickly scaled off from the rest and left a dripping mess of blood.

Mew was unable to focus through all the pain, and started healing her tail as quickly as she could by moving around tissue to cover up the wound. It was a thin and weak layer of skin, but at least it stopped the searing pain.

"Two Hyper Beams and a Giga Impact, all at once!?" Ethan shouted angrily from below while raising his middle finger in fury, "That's cheating, you fuck!"

"What kind of energy does this monster possess...?" Mew wondered with disdain as she lowered herself to the ground, eyeing the unfazed Deoxys.

"He must have strong special attack as well as physical strength..." Ethan muttered while shrugging with a confident expression, "Not that that last one matters any more, eh? The moment he lost his arms, we won."

Deoxys suddenly looked at him again, making Ethan hide his face under his hands in fear that the encompassing voice would possess him once more. Instead, Deoxys kept his stare on him in silence, as Mew saw something crawling around beneath the monster's skin.

"I think he is changing again," Mew pointed out, wondering what would come out next, "If he uses the speed form..."

"Don't worry," Ethan said and peered between his fingers, "No arms. As long as there are no arms-"

Suddenly, like popping out of a bubble, several new appendages protruded out where Deoxys' tentacles had once been. It did not take long for them to take form, becoming solid as both Ethan and Mew gazed upon Deoxys' new set of tentacles. Furthermore, Mew could sense that Deoxys' aura had not grown faint in the least, showing he was still at full strength despite all their efforts.

"A... A complete... Recovery...?" Ethan stammered with both shock and hopelessness, "That's... That's just not fair..."

Deoxys did not stop there, letting the skin on his body drain into the black armor, instantly reverting to the form he used when he had displayed ungodly speed while inside the Trick Room. Only this time, there was no Trick Room, and he would be able to kill them both in an instant.

"Oh, no..." Ethan whispered sadly, finally realizing that they never even had a chance to begin with, "It's... It's hopeless..."

"Yes..." Mew whispered in return, her greatest fears coming to fruition when she understood the fate that awaited the world. With more luck than they could ever expect again they had still not been able to make a dent in the monster, and so not even if every legendary attacked at once would it make a difference. He was too fast... Too strong... Too merciless...

"I'm sorry, Mew..." Ethan apologized while looking at her, thinking of how absurd this seemingly normal day had turned out to be, "... At the very least, it had been an honor to meet you."

"You too..." Mew responded slowly, wishing that they had met during an earlier point in her life so they could have been friends for real instead of just in combat. She sighed at her own hypocrisy for a moment, realizing that there under any other circumstances she would have avoided Ethan like the plague in fear of being captured. Regret filled her as she thought over her life, thinking that if she had known how soon it all would end she would have taken more risks and probably had a more exciting life as a result.

"... Running is our only hope..." Ethan said with a hint of hope in his voice, "If we run in different directions... One of us might make it."

"... What? No!" Mew burst out with a devastated expression, "We must not escape!"

"Why?" Ethan growled at her, the stress getting to him, "Come on, we did our best, let's run and maybe we can take this monster on another day!"

"There is nowhere left to run!" Mew shouted back in response, "If this monster is not stopped right here and now, he will destroy this entire planet!"

"So, what then!?" Ethan kept yelling with anger, "We're just gonna stand here and let him kill us!?"

"I would GLADLY give my life if it means slowing down this beast for even a second!" Mew exclaimed with a loud voice, hiding her own anxieties, "Preserving the life of everyone remaining in this world for even a second is worth far more than my existence!"

Ethan gasped, taken aback by her words. He had simply come along and found her and Deoxys fighting, wanting to lend a hand against the monster like a true hero.

A naïve hero. Mew had always known what was at stake here, and had been more than willing to give her life right from the start. The thought of dying had never even crossed Ethan's mind, as he had seen this fight as nothing more than a large scale Pokémon battle. He did not require use of his trainer's experience to tell that he had already lost this fight, and soon he would be dead, with the entire population of the world following not long after.

Still, was this truly the end? Was this, as people would say, "it?" The devastation that had led him to this place did not lie. It had been the work of a mindless monster, which now had turned out to be too powerful for even the strongest Pokémon teamed up with the best trainer to handle.

The best trainer... That was him, was it not? Sure, he had been defeated once or twice in the past, and a whole decade had passed since his true glory days, but there was no challenge he had yet to accept or conquer. Had he not been complaining about a lack of new challenges, not long ago? Now, when faced with the greatest and most important one of all, would he miss his chance by cowering pathetically in fear? Would he back down like a craven coward?

No.

"... Mew..." Ethan muttered menacingly while rubbing his irritated eyes, "What is your single most powerful attack, in terms of damage?"

"... It will not work..." Mew whispered, thinking back to better times when she and Celebi used to compete over who could most easily reduce a mountain to rubbles, "Even if in the previous form, he would be too fast."

"If he were still, could you hit him with it from here?" Ethan continued while stretching his arms and legs, making sure they had not taken excessive damage.

"Yes, but..." Mew said with a questioning voice, "... What are you thinking?"

"I've got a plan," Ethan replied before cracking his neck, "Charge up the attack, get ready to launch in approximately 20 seconds."

"Charging it to maximum power will take at least 30, I fear..." Mew responded with a worried tone.

"Better start charging, then..." Ethan said with a dissonant smile, "You'll know when to fire."

Ethan then nodded confidently, making Mew calm down a bit as she started charging up her attack. She thought it would be best not to question his plan, for if it could get them out of this situation she would be willing to pay any price.

She immediately regretted this line of thinking as she saw Ethan strutting towards Deoxys. He felt himself growing more fearful the nearer he came to the brutal monster, wondering if it was still too late to put his idea of running away into action. However, rehearsing what he was about to say in his mind, he knew that he would not want to trade the glory of the approaching minute for anything else in life.

"DEOXYS!" Ethan shouted loudly, hardly five feet away from the implacable beast.

"I am Ethan, the greatest trainer of all time!" he continued shouting while pointing at Deoxys, "Every enemy, I've defeated! Every Pokémon, I've been able to handle! Even if only for a moment, I commanded the mighty Arceus himself!"

Deoxys' tentacles twitched, as Mew gulped loudly.

"There is no Pokémon in this world I cannot control!" Ethan yelled confidently before suddenly running towards Deoxys with arms outstretched, "THAT INCLUDES YOU!"

Deoxys did not even bother to move out of the way as he rammed his two tentacles right through Ethan, making them protrude from his back like slithering snakes.

"ETHAN!" Mew gave off a shrill scream, not realizing that this was his plan along and hesitating with her attack.

"DO IT!" Ethan shouted, the tentacles wriggling around inside his body and widening the holes while damaging the rest of his inner organs. With the last of his strength he latched on to Deoxys, surprised to find that the monster that had given them so much trouble was even lighter than he was. He saw his blood pouring down his body and become swallowed up by Deoxys, who stared at him with the empty eyes that did not seem quite as bad this time around.

"Hah... What a glorious end...!" Ethan whispered weakly before one of the tentacles smashed against his left lung from the inside, making it rupture as he gave of a painful wheeze of blood. He could faintly recognize a loud noise crashing from behind him while staring into the inhuman face of his assailant, which all of a sudden became brightly lit, allowing him to see what was beyond the mask. In his last moment, Ethan started at Deoxys who stared back at him, a strange familiarity sparking between them.

Raw, untarnished psychic force as bright as the sun and in the shape of a fiery beam suddenly came upon Ethan and Deoxys, Mew putting all her powers into the attack. Deoxys tried to throw Ethan away from him as to remove all encumberment before trying to escape the beam, but could not shake Ethan's tight grip. Even in death he held on, Deoxys becoming locked in by the incomparable power of Mew's beam attack.

Had he been in possession of a mouth, he would have screamed. Instead he twisted around in pure agony as piece by piece his body separated, flying back in the stream for a few seconds before evaporating into nothingness.

Mew still kept the beam firing, feeling her energy wane and knowing that she would not be able to keep on fighting after this should it fail. Several seconds after there was no aura but her own in the vicinity, she calmed herself down. The beam trickled away as the huge fluctuation in power made her lose control of her levitation for a moment, and fell down to the ground.

"... Ow..." she groaned at this pathetic display, before instantly lifting her head to see what had happened.

Deoxys was no more. The spot where he had been standing had become a vertical crater reaching miles behind, a remnant from her attack. Her heart jumped in joy, before quickly sinking as she saw a human-sized lump of coal lying next to where the beam had passed by.

She moved closer, fearing the worst as she examined the piece of charcoal, seeing that it was faintly in the shape of a human. Ethan had been within the beam for barely a second, but had still been hurt so badly.

He had died... By her hand.

"Ethan..." Mew whispered sadly, feeling more depressed than ever before, "No..."

The fact that the world had been saved now seemed like a minor footnote as she gazed upon Ethan's corroded corpse. It had been a companionship forged in the fires of battle, but for their short period of time together he had been the greatest human she had ever met, having never taken such interest to another being before. Realizing that he had given his life to save hers, it made her feel like she had lost her most dearest of friends.

"You... You were too good for this fate... You were the only human I have ever..." Mew said while crying faintly, before throwing her hands to her face in an action of defiance, "... No... No! It cannot end like this! There has to be a way...!"

Desperately she scanned his body for any signs of life, failing to feel his heart beating, his blood moving or his lungs breathing. However, much to her surprise, she noticed faint sparks moving around in Ethan's brain.

"But that means... Th-The conversion theory!" she exclaimed with hope as she thought back to one of her many past experiments, "There is still a chance! His body is destroyed, but that means nothing if I can make him a new one!"

She knew that the brain usually survives a short while longer than the actual body, and became utterly delighted by her discovery.

"I will make it just like his old one, but stronger! Faster!" she giggled, barely able to keep herself from laughing out of joy, "He will thank me for it! He has to! And then he can tell me all about what it is like being human, and I can share with him all the sights of the universe! Everything will turn out fine, after all!"

Giddy with herself, she noticed that the brain activity was rapidly diminishing, shutting itself down for one last time.

"... No time to make a new body, his brain will die..." Mew whispered to herself, relieved as she actually had no idea of how to create a new body from scratch, "I have to... Use another one..."

Looking around the area, she saw that she had a large surplus of fresh corpses to pick from. She felt like a kid in a candy store as she soared around and looked at the carnage, barely containing herself with laughter as she saw an Arbok which had seemingly imploded and turned completely red instead of purple. Silly Arbok, dressing up at a time like this!

None of the bodies where in a well enough condition where they could support a new mind. Mew sighed in disappointment before laying her eyes upon the Lucario that she had seen die when she first arrived, far away from the position where the battle had first started. Luckily, it was relatively unharmed apart from the gaping hole in its chest. She wondered if she could manage to heal the wound, lightly giggling to herself at the thought. It's not like she could screw up fixing a patient who was already dead, right?

The healing process went surprisingly well, as she used the surrounding tissue to seal up the hole and reform vital arteries. She gazed over her masterpiece for a moment before moving the body of the Lucario next to that of Ethan. Compared to the state all the other corpses around them were in, the two of them practically looked still alive!

"There you go! Perfect!" she told Ethan with a smile as she prepared herself for the operation, "Worry not! This will have you back to life in no time! I have done this many times before!"

Scanning Ethan's brain structure, she forcibly used her psychic powers to reform that of the Lucario to liken it. Then she started with the transfer, but was having a hard time with it, noticing an awful amount of internal bleeding hindering her progress.

"O-Of course, i-it..." she stammered weakly while losing her focus, "... It never worked... B-But... I-In theory..."

The walls of joy within her mind set up for protection finally broke down, sorrow flooding in and threatening to rip her apart inside.

She already knew it was not going to work.

"... Please... It has to work..." she pleaded with herself, losing her breath for unknown reasons. Her heart pounded with frightening power, making her feel like the rushing blood was tearing up the inner walls of her arteries.

"He's dead," the nearby corpse of a Nidorino spoke sternly.

"No... Only temporarily..." she continued while trying to keep her mind on the transfer, completely losing herself in the procedure. She got rid of some of the skin blocking her way to Ethan's brain, not exactly sure of what to do at this point to restore life to someone already dead.

"He's gone, forever..." another dead Pokémon whispered in her ears, its body mutilated to the point where she had no idea what manner of creature it once was.

"Only I can do this... I cannot let hesitation stop my hand...!" she said nervously as she accidentally struck a vascular in Ethan's brain, spraying her with his blood.

"He's gone. He's dead. You killed him! Your weakness led to his death!" various corpses all started shouting in unison, covering her in blood and guilt as she felt her mind on the verge of snapping.

"I..." Mew stuttered, unable to even speak as she felt the transfer was having no effect, only helping to bring the dead to life in her own mind.

"We're gone. We're dead. You killed us... Your weakness led to our deaths..." the corpses around her started silencing down, returning to their original state of immobility.

"... No..." Mew whispered while shaking her head in an attempt to regain clarity, "I... I am losing my sanity... I cannot..."

She turned her vision downwards, looking down at herself. She was covered in blood, sitting by the now visibly bleeding brain of Ethan and the badly patched up body of a Lucario, neither fit to sustain anything at this point.

"... Wh-What am I doing...?" she stammered to herself as her tears began to appear in the corner of her eyes, "Why... Why...!?"

She moved back away from the corpses in terror, frightened of what she had done. She could not help but start crying as the memories of this horrible day came upon her, her cries growing in intensity with each passing moment. There, among the bodies of the innocent, she wept for several minutes, overtaken by sorrow and anguish unlike any she had ever felt before, tears she did not even know she had rolling down her cheeks in streams.

"Oh, Ethan..." Mew said with a shaky voice when she had finally calmed down, her face wet with salty water, "... Forgive me for making a mockery out of your bravery... Your sacrifice... I will honor it, instead..."

She respectfully bowed to his body, before quickly stopping herself, not wanting to add to her already dubious behavior. All her life she had thought herself immune to the effects of insanity, but now she feared any little thing might put her over the edge.

Luckily, what came next turned out to be a source of relief. Her heart filled with an inexplicable joy as she felt several auras closing in on her position, that of both humans and Pokémon. The humans riding on a couple of very fast Pokémon, no doubt, as she felt pride in having been the one to protect these lives and allowed them to continue.

The source of relief quickly turned into one of worry, as her logic finally spoke up and told her that the arriving humans would probably try to capture her, or worse, think this massacre was her doing. She was covered in enough different blood types to cover the need of any Pokecenter, after all.

She looked down at the sad state of Ethan's body, no longer recognizable as something human from all the damage, her own incessant experimenting not having made things any better. She felt she no longer had the right to touch him, and could not even bear to look at him anymore.

Next to him lay the body of the Lucario, dead but in perfect condition after she had healed his wound. Despite the healing also having been part of her madness, she felt the Lucario to be a better symbol of what she had done this day, and faintly in the back of her mind there remained hope that at least he would come back to life. Shaking her head as she was once more overcome by shameful feelings, she could not help but pick him up with her telekinetic powers before flying off into the dusk, away from the approaching humans and Pokémon that were about to find out that Deoxys was no more.

Sun. Wind. Clouds.

Grass. Flowers. Trees.

People. Pokémon.

The world had never looked this beautiful before. She gazed at its magnificence; feeling like every little piece of it was her own child. Coming to the understanding that this serene landscape and the hellish scene far behind her were of the same world, she dared not even imagine what would have happened if they had failed and the destruction had spread, permanently ending the beauty of this planet. Many had died... But they had given their lives for a good cause. The world would continue existing thanks to their bravery, making them kings in their own right. Their deaths had not been in vain... On the contrary, their deaths had possibly been the most important and valuable since the dawning of time.

Suddenly, the lifeless body of the Lucario hanging beside her in midair seemed out of place with her newly acquired thoughts. Her mind once more filling with shame, she started flying lower. They were in the middle of the field of grass and flowers, and she felt that there was no other aura nearby. Finding a nice spot on a miniature hill, she moved close to the ground.

"I... I cannot do this," she told herself sternly, fighting off the insanity with fierce determination despite feeling so bad inside. She lay down the Lucario on the ground, knowing that she would have to get rid of the body somehow if she were to regain her sanity.

She remembered an old human ritual that she had seen before many times. She had always scoffed at it, but that was back in a time when she was not as familiar with death as she was now. It had never been meant to give closure to the dead - It was meant to give closure to the living.

Using her psychic powers she burrowed a small hole in the ground, carefully placing Lucario's body within it. She covered up the hole once more, and stared at the newly dug patch of soil.

Something was missing.

Looking around, she saw a fairly large rock not far away. She picked it up with her telekinesis and started cutting away from it, until the rock was given the shape of a symbol. The symbol stood for "Bravery", which she had once seen a picture of in one of her books. Smiling to herself, she shove the rock into the ground where the Lucario was lying peacefully, before closing her eyes putting her hands together in a praying motion.

"Earth," Mew whispered respectfully and recalled the process of the human ritual, "This Pokémon fought hard to protect you. Please, take care of him."

Paying her last respects, she sensed another aura coming up behind her. Spinning around and staring far ahead, she saw that it was but an Ivysaur, possibly just out for an evening walk. With one final look at the grave she had created, she flew high up into the sky, once more vanishing into obscurity to hide from the very people and Pokémon she had just saved.

They would never know of what she had done, but she did not mind.

Their joy was gratitude enough.