FSE

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Another drink, another nap. Lulled to sleep by the sound of his own stomach growling, Lucario was finding the routine a bit tiresome, but still considered it preferable to facing the reality that hated him so. What was reality, anyway? His worries were not tangible, only fragments of his imagination that he himself had created. A few bottles of beer and they were gone, vanished into whatever place they had spawned from and should probably have stayed in.

While not exactly in possession of a license, Lucario was swiftly finding out that drinking and sleeping was another dangerous combination. His dreams would turn more and more surreal, while still bring so vivid that after waking up he could barely tell if something had actually taken place. Was Mew really dead? Did Darkrai even exist? Was Zerobi a real person, or just an imaginary friend?

"Ahh! What do you think you're doing with my liver!?" a voice sounded in Lucario's ears. A voice he did not recognize, yet something about it was so familiar it almost sounded like it had come out of his own mouth.

As it turns out, it did. Although the entire world was currently a dancing blur of colors, before him he could see a literal reflection of himself. A Lucario like him, with no spikes and no lack of yellow chest hair. Thinking someone had dragged a mirror into his resting place to make him realize what a slob he had become, Lucario realized the other Lucario was standing upright in a fashion that looked surprisingly comfortable, a posture he himself had never used. Staring into his own face staring back at him was an unusual feeling, but with his higher brain functions on extended leave due to sleep and alcohol, Lucario had no intention of questioning the situation at hand.

"It's mine now," Lucario replied cockily to the Pokémon whose body he now inhabits, waving around his right arm in a boastful manner. Cyon looked at it almost enviously before turning his gaze back to Lucario's face.

"That doesn't give you the right to ruin it like this!" Cyon pointed out while stomping his foot into the unusually colorful soil, "I already dealt with one trainer to keep my body intact, so don't think I won't treat you the same, Ethan!"

"So, what're you gonna do about it?" Lucario taunted with a quiet snicker, wondering how it would feel to get punched by his own hand.

"Guess I could remind you that you're in the precious body I left behind," Cyon growled while tapping his chest, most likely around the spot where Deoxys had dealt the finishing blow, "Remember how Mew fixed it up for you? You owe it to her to take good care of it!"

Lucario's face drooped. Even in this kind of nonsense scenario he was mercilessly reminded of his greatest failure. If he could not forget about it after drinking himself into mindless oblivion, would he ever be free?

"Hey..." Lucario muttered while laying down his head on the crate, "... I'm done. You can take your body back now."

While Lucario stared off to the side, Cyon appeared before him. The spikeless Lucario had never moved, but simply changed location in a blink.

"... I can't," Cyon answered hesitantly, "I don't even exist anymore. I'm probably just a hallucination brought about by your overconsumption of alcohol."

"Then stop whining, damn it!" Lucario shouted and slammed down his fist. He knew he had fallen far, but he was not about to take any lip or mockery from non-existent phantoms. For a hallucination, Cyon was showing a surprising amount of interest, inspecting Lucario from every angle with an inquisitive look.

"I don't like you..." he said after a few moments, "... But I hate watching you kill yourself even more. Don't forget that you have things left to do."

"No kidding. Plenty of friends left to see die for my sake," Lucario replied before finally noticing that the dream he currently drifted in had been heartless enough to separate him from his precious beer, "I'm saying, it'd be better if that didn't happen."

"Fine..." Cyon said while shrugging and lowering his head, "Just... One thing."

The dead Lucario fastened a vicious stare into the dead Human. This being an encounter deep inside his own mind, Lucario knew exactly what Cyon was referring to.

"... Rukario..." Lucario muttered with disdain, "What, settle down...? Raise a family...?"

"Absolutely not! She's much too good for a dreg like you," Cyon said sharply while pointing at Lucario, "But... I don't want her to suffer anymore. Tell her what happened to me, so that she can move on with her life."

Lucario began flailing his hand around, needing a drink badly and trying to make the bottle reappear. Explaining his past as a human was one thing. Explaining that he was currently talking with the ghost of Rukario's boyfriend inside his head was another. The inevitable stink of alcohol on his breath was sure to make his ridiculous story seem all the more plausible, he thought. Had it been Zerobi or someone, he might at least have given it a try. However, Rukario had suffered enough by his hands. He kept thinking of the time he had punched her in the face for no good reason, and that she not unlike Mew had given everything just to save his unworthy hide. Just the notion of seeing her again filled him with despair.

"... Do I have to...?" Lucario whispered with a frown, "... I'm feeling guilty enough as it is..."

"Then help her out, and maybe some of it will go away," Cyon said while dunking him in the back, expertly avoiding every single invisible scar with his huge hands, "Come on. I'm dead, otherwise I'd do it."

Annoyed by the incessant chatter of the bothersome ghost, Lucario reluctantly nodded and sighed.

"I've died too, you know," he mumbled and wished he could remember his final day as a human.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Cyon chuckled with recognition. Lucario found himself smiling for some reason as he leaned back.

"Mmm... But I got a few interesting encounters out of it," Lucario said to the imagination of the Pokémon whose body he now inhabits. He was thinking of all the crazy things he had experienced after leaving the shackles of his old body. There had been a lot of pain and little fun, but somehow he looked back at everything with a sense of nostalgia. If he was given the choice to go back and prevent it all from happening, he would find himself stumped on how to proceed.

As addled as he was, Lucario suddenly realized this was a great opportunity to find out a thing or two from Cyon.

"So... Mind telling me what this is?" Lucario asked while running a hand through the hair on his chest, feeling the rigid surface of scar tissue.

"No refunds," Cyon answered sheepishly, thinking Ethan really ungrateful to be complaining about a body he stole.

"I don't want refunds, I want explanations," Lucario continued with a sneer as memories of No Man's Land entered his mind, "And that big guy, Connor... He called me by your name. Tell me what that's about."

Cyon shrugged.

"How should I know?" he said with a mocking expression, "I'm just a figment of your imagination."

Lucario grunted and shook his head. Turns out Cyon was completely useless, and the dream had long since stepped over the boundaries of what was too confusing for his taste. He'd had enough. Without hands designed for pinching, he opted for biting down on his lower lip, watching with immediate satisfaction as Cyon was pulled away from him. Drunk or not, no one was hijacking his mind while he was still in charge.

"But if you really want answers..." a voice echoed in his head, "... I bet Rukario knows."

Unfitting colors and light-headedness vanished as Lucario woke up. The world was just as dreary as he remembered, sitting alone with a few crates, an empty bottle of beer and a decently sized mirror.

Is it OK for me to continue being me?