Chapter Text
A horrid buzzing sound tore through Uzume’s dream in an instant. She woke with a start, and without even opening her eyes, reached over and slapped the clock until it shut up. She felt around for the switch on the side and turned the alarm off for good, then turned away from the sunlight that filtered in through her curtain. Mesprit grumbled from the edge of her pillow, but the complaint quickly fell back into a snore.
Stupid. You accidentally turned your clock back on. It’s spring break, idiot. You don’t even have school for another week.
Flocks of Starly chirped somewhere outside her window in the fleeting minutes that followed. Uzume wove in and out of consciousness, caught between some half-formed dream and the comfort of her bed. It was unclear whether the occasional tap on her window was part of the phantasm, and frankly she couldn’t bring herself to care for the first three times it happened.
By the fourth time, Uzume was curious enough to crack open her eyes.
“Hey! Uzumeeee!” Karao’s voice came from outside. Wait. That wasn’t part of her dream, after all?
With a belabored yawn, she crawled out of her sheets and flicked the lock open. As soon as she pushed the glass pane upwards, Uzume was met with a scoff.
“Really, dude?” Karao said. She was dressed up for more than just a day out on the town, complete with a pair of sunglasses uselessly placed over her hairline and denim coat with the sleeves rolled back. “Did- Uzume, did you just get up? Right now?”
Out on the lawn beside Karao, Ikane crossed her arms. Her oversized sunhat followed with the tilt of her head. “See? I told you she would sleep in. She almost slept in on your birthday, too.”
“What are you talking about?” Uzume groaned, shielding her blurry eyes from the light. “It’s spring break, isn’t it? How is this sleeping in? I’m allowed to sleep however long I want.”
Karao smacked her own forehead. “Are you listening to yourself? It’s spring break! And what did we spend the last two months planning for, hm?”
She mouthed the words back to Karao, only to stop midway through with a gasp. Uzume didn’t even bother to close the window as she dove over her bed. An avalanche of plush dolls and covers fell in her wake, taking Mesprit along with them. The fairy yelped in confusion and was promptly smothered by a falling blanket.
Uzume rushed through her typical morning and she plunged back into her room in mere minutes. Her brush was caught on a knot in her hair and was left to hang there while she figured out what she hadn’t already packed away. The taste of mint was still a bit too fresh in her mouth. She did rinse, right? Yeah, definitely.
The mound of covers on the ground started to shift. Mesprit emerged from the pile with a stretch, glaring bleary-eyed at Uzume. “Huh? What’s going on? I don’t sense any natural disasters happening.”
“You didn’t wake me up!” she shouted back. “I turned off the clock! We’re late!”
“Late? Late for..?” Mesprit’s eyes wandered over to the bags they’d both packed the night before and choked. “We’re late!”
‘Birds of a feather, I suppose,’ Uxie chided into their heads.
Azelf projected a huff. ‘See? Aren’t you lucky I had us leave early? I knew this would happen.’
“Shut up!” Mesprit responded out loud, grabbing one of the bags in her arms and lifting the disproportionate weight up towards the window. Uzume grabbed the other two, somehow managed to slip her coat on with both straps over her shoulders, and rushed out of the room in the opposite direction. Was she forgetting anything? Were these really all the bags?
Uzume’s mother peeked out from around the corner of the kitchen. “Oh? I thought you’d left already.”
“I slept in!”
“Well do you have-”
“Yeah I definitely got the phone!” she patted her back pocket, where the ugly brick of technology very tangibly sat.
“Then have a safe time, dear! I-”
“I love you too I’m super late they’re already waiting out front bye!”
Blinding sunlight. There was a particularly shiny blue SUV parked out on the edge of the sidewalk. Ikane’s sunhat poked out of the back window before the rest of her face did. Alongside the vehicle, Karao took the opportunity to do some stretches before they had to drive all the way to Sunyshore. The back of the van was already open, where an invisible form had just chucked a bag on top of the others already inside.
Karao rose to her feet. “What’s up, sleepyhead? Enjoy your beauty nap?”
Sprawling forests and rolling hills. Flickering spots of sunlight beneath the shadows of trees. The southern highway stretched on, the vehicle’s hum mimicking the bated excitement between them. Or most of them, since Tenni was still asleep and probably never actually woke up in the first place this morning. Everyone else was certainly feeling it, though. Even Reginauld was driving a bit more aggressively.
The windows were open. A steady gust blasted through the SUV and whipped at Uzume’s hair. If you knew how to look, you could see shimmering forms fly alongside the vehicle. Three blurs in the glimmer of sunlight, twisting and dancing overhead at what would’ve been a taxing speed to almost any other pokemon. The lake guardians weren’t particularly fazed by it at all. Uzume could even pick out which blur was Mesprit by the way it flew ahead and slowed back down as if playing a game of tag with the car.
“Oh my goooood,” Karao moaned from the front seat, slamming her head back into the rest. “This drive takes forever!”
“It’s really not that bad,” said Ikane, leaning against the window with a distant stare. “I mean, at least we’re in here and not my dad’s truck.”
Uzume sighed. “You got that right. I can barely stand twenty minutes in that cramped thing. Speaking of which, I still think it’s crazy how he let you go on this trip at all. Especially ever since--you know--the last time we all tried to leave town on our own. Didn’t he ground you for two months?”
“One and a half,” she corrected. “He felt bad about it. Guess I got lucky this time, too.”
“I mean, you weren’t to blame in the first place! Can’t fault someone for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, right?” Karao said.
Reginauld cleared his throat. “The man has enough to worry about, surely. It must have taken a lot of strength and trust for him to let you go overseas, even if just for a week.”
‘More than you realize,’ said Mesprit.
“Hey hey!” Karao shouted. “Knock all that weird sentimental crap off right now! We ain’t that much farther!”
Indeed, they weren’t. Within a few minutes, the overhead signs that told of Sunyshore’s approach had only a single digit of miles written beneath its name. The forests were driven back on the southern side of the road and replaced by a view of the sapphire ocean. More buildings started to appear along the coast. There were even one or two ships near the brink of the horizon, reduced to tiny specks in the distance.
The actual bulk of Sunyshore came into view before long. The wide highway did the best it could to accommodate the traffic that flowed in and out of the tourist-rich city, but the tall cliff that flanked the road certainly strangled the flow. The verticality didn’t improve as they entered the city proper, briefly slipping through a tunnel and emerging nearby even more sheer faces of rock.
Dozens of buildings stood on the sides of these sharp hills. Raised roads spanned the perimeters of cliffs where they could, and rows of dark-blue solar panels jut out off the rocks where they couldn’t. There were entire webs of power lines spidering above them, occasionally mirrored by drooping arcs of buntings. The highway itself tried to follow the lowest point between the hills, eventually coming out along the oceanside and splintering off inland a few dozen more times. There were even rocky outcroppings in the sea that were connected to the mainland by large bridges.
Then came the port. Unlike all the shipping containers and freighters that came into Veilstone, there were a huge amount of recreational ships parked out in the docks. The south and southeastern sides of the city seemed to be dedicated to the tinier boats, but the north belonged to the behemoths. Massive vessels were already visible out in the water, but these ones were sleek and shining. Form over function.
As their view was filled by huge waterside facilities at the edge of the city, Uzume felt her heartbeat practically slam into her chest. These particular docks were most known for the ferries that carried people up to the Pokemon League during challenges. They weren’t here for anything like that, though. Instead, they maneuvered through a parking lot filled with pedestrians and found a spot nearby the seaside. Farther down the pier was a huge cruise liner, gleaming in the sunlight.
Karao stuck her head out the window and shouted for joy. “Ah, there it is! Finally!”
“That one’s ours?!” Ikane gasped, squinting out the shade of her hat. “Oh geez, I thought you were kidding.”
Uzume couldn’t take it anymore. Before the engine was even off, she was already starting to undo her seatbelt. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s hurry!”
‘There’s still fifty-six minutes and thirty seconds until the ship is meant to depart. There’s no need to rush,’ Uxie said. They were too busy piling out of the SUV and running around back to fetch their bags to respond. How could they just take their time now when they were already here?!
‘Who cares?’ Mesprit shot back, a slight shimmering appearing over their heads and shooting towards the boat. ‘Just look at that! Humans build such crazy things, don’t they?! Don’t you wanna just see it right now?!’
Azelf hummed in approval. ‘The integrity of these kinds of ships is admirable, I’ll give them that. Mankind has certainly come far in their quest to fend off Kyogre’s wrath.’
“I hate to disappoint you, Azelf, but I checked the weather. It’s clear all the way from here to Ferrum for pretty much the next week.” Ikane shot a shrug up towards the open sky. “No awful storms for us, thank goodness.”
Reginauld made sure the three of them had their tickets and bid them farewell. Good thing, too, because Karao nearly would’ve forgotten hers with how quickly she started to move towards the ship. Tenni barely stirred when he was recalled into his ball. Once that was all settled, though, there was nothing but the boarding process before they made it to pure luxury.
_____
Two clashing blows reverberated throughout the arena. The Mienfoo dipped away before the Drilbur could land a follow-up strike, their claws hitting nothing but air. They committed too much to the blow and stumbled forward, where Tenni could move in and land two punches in quick succession before he twisted into a kick, knocking his opponent out of the green-blue duality of the ring. The crowd seated in the floating stands exploded into applause. Even Ikane was getting into it, as much as she tried to hide it.
Karao pumped her arms in the air and soaked it all in. Tenni simply huffed and returned to stance, balancing on one leg with a ferocious look on his face. Two opponents down. A salt-tinged breeze rushed over the second deck while the referee’s projected voice boomed. The next challenger stepped up onto the raised platform. It was some old guy with a greyed hairline that was receding in fear of their hideous alolan shirt. He sent out a Kadabra, and the next bout started with the horn.
This fight wasn’t nearly as one-sided as the last. Tenni closed the distance in a few bounds, but the Kadabra lifted themselves away and over the Mienfoo’s head. They didn’t need to trade blows with Tenni if they just kept their distance. The few strikes that nearly connected were telekinetically tossed away with the distant flick of a spoon. On Karao’s command, Tenni feinted and flanked to rear up for a jumping kick, but was caught mid-air by the Kadabra’s psychic power. He flailed a moment, yelped, and was promptly tossed out of the arena.
The crowd was cheering, alright, but they hadn’t noticed when Karao rolled up her sleeves and started forward. In the heat of the moment, she couldn’t quite hear her friends shouting her down as she walked up to the Kadabra and took a fighting stance, yelling that she was the next opponent after Tenni. Karao had somehow managed to overpower the Kadabra into a chokehold before the referee finally broke up the fight.
Needless to say, they were on their way out.
“Really?” was the first thing Ikane said as they left the sunlight for the cool interior of the ship.
“Really what?!” Karao let her arms fall to her sides. “I don’t see what was so out of line about that! Tenni’s out, I’m in, the fight starts! It’s really not that complicated. And for the record, I was definitely about to win.”
Mesprit audibly chuckled. `Karao, that Kadabra had no idea what to do at all. You’re just not supposed to attack the trainers themselves! That’s common sense! What do you think you would’ve done in their situation?’
‘That goes without saying,’ said Uxie.
“But I would’ve won, right? Even if it was fighting back?”
‘Depends,’ Azelf replied. ‘How good do you think you are at resisting mental attacks? Could you still land a solid blow with your faculties impaired?’
She pumped her arm. “Wanna try me and find out? Come on, just zap my head a little bit! I bet I can take it just fine!”
The three girls and a very tired Mienfoo strolled down the crystal-laden corridor. The gallery opened up alongside a wall of massive windows that reached up as far as the ceiling. Uzume suddenly had to catch Karao, nearly tripping over herself with a grunt. She shook her head clear and glared upwards towards the glistening silver-white architecture.
“Hey! I said a little bit! I didn’t mean blast my consciousness three feet out of my body and rubber-band it back in!”
Ikane hummed. “You deserved that for sure.”
“Are you o-?” Uzume started to ask, but Karao had already stumbled to her feet and brushed herself off. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re okay. So what are you going to do for the next two days now that you’re banned from the arena?”
“What, are you serious?” she scoffed. “We’re on a cruise ship, dude! The Lapras De Magnifique or whatever the hell it’s called. What is there not to do on a cruise ship?!”
“Battle, apparently,” Ikane said.
“Well they’ve got gyms and stuff! We can still get our workout just fine! I didn’t keep my grades up all year just to drink expensive smoothies and lie around! Tenni, what do you say about figuring out which-”
But the Mienfoo wasn’t walking alongside them anymore. He had stopped following them a ways back, his nose pressed into the glass of a poffin bar. The baker didn’t really take notice, as they were too busy switching pans into different ovens behind a frivolous display of every poffin imaginable.
“Ha! Well isn’t that a miracle?” Uzume said. “You know he was dragging his feet ten seconds ago. All that fatigue mysteriously disappears right when he smells a bunch of sweets, huh?”
‘Oooh, you’d perk right up too if you could smell what I’m smelling.’ Somehow Uzume just knew Mesprit was pressed up against that case right beside Tenni.
Karao scoffed and reached into her back pocket at the same time. “Of course you just wanted food, you little fatty. Fine, fine! You won two fights, you might as well have a treat.”
Not that Tenni was the only one that got something. In fact, now that they were all in front of the case, the temptation was much too great. After grabbing a few for Tenni, plenty for themselves, and even more for the lake guardians that lurked around them, they had cleaned out an embarrassing amount of the pastries. Mesprit was right--the smell definitely was irresistible.
On their way back to their room, they piled into a glass tube and rode down with mixed feelings of vertigo and awe. There wasn’t a dull corner to turn around here, even below deck where people just went to sleep. Uzume still found it strange how there were elevators on a boat, though.
Their room wasn’t even the fanciest one here. Luxurious, absolutely, but they didn’t have 3 beds in the ridiculous crazy rooms near the top, and Karao’s parents were being “frugal” apparently. It was still better than any hotel Uzume had stayed at before. She jumped backwards onto her bed and sighed, the heat of the sun still partially trapped in her clothes.
As soon as that door shut, the three lake guardians immediately materialized. Mesprit and Tenni joined forces to swarm around Karao, who was unfortunate enough to be holding the bag of sweets. Uxie stole Ikane’s pillow while she herself was busy rummaging through her bag. Azelf meanwhile just glanced out the window at the sea from halfway behind the silk curtains.
“Wait your turns! Hold on, you freaks! At least one of you is as old as time itself and should start acting like it!”
After the ravenous horde was served their share, Karao drew up a bushel of napkins and passed on the bag onto Uzume, who set aside her own and was promptly ignored in the face of the pamphlet that Ikane had buried her face into.
“Are you still trying to memorize the schedule of that thing?” Uzume said. “You know we all have the same pamphlet, we’re not gonna lose it. We’re relaxing!”
Ikane grumbled. “I’m not good at vacations. I can’t relax unless I know for sure what we’re doing.”
“Oh whatever!” Karao managed to say with a full mouth, then spoke on after a gulp. “It’s not even that complicated. Two days on a cruise, three in Ferrum to check out Neos City, then two more as we catch a cruise on the way back. That’s all of spring break accounted for.”
“Psh. Not even close.” Only now did Ikane think to reach up and take the bag of sweets, but dove right back into the pamphlet a moment later. “It’s the annual Ferrum League tech expo this weekend. Apart from the actual tournaments, it’s essentially the biggest event of the year. Most of the stuff in those showcases end up being implemented in the actual League system several years later. It’s the cutting edge of a lot of fields.”
Karao gave a hum. “It sounds like a lot of nerd stuff.”
“Really?” Uxie said. “I thought you would be a little more interested in what’s being shown. Your style of battling has always reminded me of the way trainers conduct themselves in Ferrum.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t interested! I just said it was nerd stuff! You know the reason Tenni’s my only pokemon is because my parents won’t let me register for a real license until I finish high school. Otherwise I’d already be out there, getting ready to stomp Maylene into the ground. The one-on-one type deal’s a bit too rich for me, personally.”
“Ferrum’s gladiatorial league style stems from ancient traditions that took place in a country that once existed in the same place a couple thousand of years ago.” Azelf sniffed and shot a glance towards the poffins. “Though human ingenuity took it to another level. That’s something me and Uxie will actually agree upon.”
“Uxie and I,” his brother corrected without even hesitating. “And yes. The Battle AR systems that the Ferrum League utilizes is technology that borders on fiction at this point. The synchronicity between trainer and pokemon shrinks from a football field across to mere mental millimeters. The threshold it nearly crosses is extremely similar to the process of becoming a Scarlet Guardian, actually.”
Ikane’s eyes lit up. Apparently the pamphlet wasn’t that interesting anymore. “Is it? Ah, I suppose it might be! Though, I think psychically resonating with your pokemon as a trainer is maybe a little less...physical than our transformation.”
After savoring all she could of a triple chocolate fudge bite, Uzume reluctantly swallowed so she could speak. “So what would happen if we put one of those AR things while we were transformed?”
Uxie shrugged. “I’m not sure. Probably not much, since we would already be harmonized without the device’s help, and I’m not certain it would even work on a pokemon that’s fused into another being. That’s quite the fringe case.”
“You know what-!” Mesprit nearly choked on her poffin. “You know what I bet we could do with one? I bet we could make guardians out of people that we didn’t choose! Like I could probably go into Ikane and it’d be stable enough to make a Verity!”
“Is it…” Ikane looked down at herself. “Is it not stable already? Couldn’t you already do that?”
“Nope!” answered Mesprit. “You were all individually chosen for a reason! It isn’t really about how used to it you are. Uzume isn’t Valor enough to fuse with Azelf, and you’re not Verity enough to fuse with me. We’d just pop back out if we tried.”
Karao didn’t even bother to clear her mouth of the blukberry poffin she’d chomped into. “So you tried that with older Guardians, right? Have the three of you ever tried to all pile into the same person before?”
The air went electric all of a sudden. Uzume could just barely tell that something was wrong. Mesprit’s smile twitched and her tails went rigid for the shortest of seconds. Uxie’s head dipped ever so slightly closer towards the floor. Azelf had disconnected from the conversation entirely and turned back to the window.
“...Not really,” Mesprit finally answered after a pause. “If we can only make Guardians out of certain people, what sense does it make to try that kind of thing? Obviously it wouldn’t work.”
With a groan, Karao kicked her feet against the side of the bed. “Aw, lame. I bet it’d be ridiculously cool if it actually worked. What would you even call a triple Guardian like that, anyway?”
“Scarlet Eternity,” Uxie answered.
“Uxie!” shouted Mesprit, an irritated shockwave traveling down her tails.
“What? I simply answered a question. That is what you would call a Scarlet Guardian consisting of all three of us.”
Ikane leaned back over her covers and hummed. “Yeah, but you also pulled that name out of thin air without even hesitating. Why choose that? It seems like you’ve already thought it through before.”
“I mean, when you live for as long as we have, you just kinda fill in the gaps of stuff like that over time!” Mesprit drifted over them, a forced chuckle in her throat. “It’s just what we came up with, you know!”
Azelf clicked his tongue. “Mesprit, come on. Give it a rest already. We already stopped the disaster these guys were made for. No use in keeping it a secret now.”
A few too many expectant glances landed on Mesprit. The fairy sputtered for a few moments, then sighed and let her tails go limp. “Fine! I lied, okay? Something does happen if you put all three of us in one body! But it’s not good at all and you should never, ever do it!”
Having already forgotten the half-eaten poffin in her hand, Ikane looked straight at Uxie. “And why’s that? How come you never told us about it? It’s not like we’d be able to do such a thing without all of your consents, anyway.
The yellow fairy stirred and sat up against the backboard. “Because Mesprit doesn’t like for it to be considered an option in the first place. It is technically possible to form a Scarlet Guardian with the three of us at once, granted the vessel is able to...withstand the transformation. And there hasn’t been a vessel yet that’s been able to withstand the consequences.”
“It’s only happened twice,” Azelf spoke up, still glaring out at the ocean. “Once to a Valor, and once to a Verity. The Valor didn’t even survive leaving the transformation. The Verity lived, but her ego and spirit were shattered, erasing her memories and changing her as a person permanently. It’s a last-ditch option for a reason. One we almost needed to use on Solisano.”
“But we didn’t!” Mesprit yelled. “And I will personally make sure we never have to again!”
Uxie turned his gazeless attention towards Ikane. “You know of the myth surrounding us, correct? That we were all born from the same egg?”
“Well obviously. That’s why you’re siblings, isn’t it?”
“That is not by design. We are three because that is the lowest stable state that beings such as ourselves can take form. The creature we were meant to be simply couldn’t reliably exist as one. However, when all three of us are gathered inside of a single spiritual vessel, that catalyst takes place once more, and for the briefest of moments this entity can take form. As stated, this isotopic reaction does not end well for the vessel in question.”
“So don’t do it!” Mesprit concluded with a huff, then immediately took a much larger bite of a poffin than was necessary.
After a short silence, Karao just shrugged. “I mean, sure. I guess. I’m not really in the market of dying or becoming someone else, anyway.”
“Umm!” Uzume stood up and dusted the crumbs from her clothes. “Maybe we should finish up here and head out? We haven’t even tried the pools yet, and if we don’t get there soon they’re gonna be full. And by they I mean the hot tubs that I want in on.”
“Hey! You’re right!” Karao pulled her own backpack out from underneath the bed and yanked the zippers open. “Don’t have to wait thirty minutes if you barely ate anything!”
As Ikane took a thoughtful bite of her poffin and stared off into the distance, she gave a hum and swallowed. “I don’t think that’s how it works, but sure. I wouldn’t mind soaking up a bit of sun after all that. We still have a couple days before we hit Ferrum, anyway.”
_____
...
Forward.
Johnny jerked forward as he was told. Or did he hear his own thoughts this time? Would the clouds ever part far enough that he could tell?
Move.
Another push nearly collided with a different pedestrian. He received a mean look that turned to pity before he passed and his raised hood obscured their expression. Johnny had seen himself in a mirror. He knew what he looked like. Emaciated. Clammy. Dead. The kind of person he had become was written all over his face. Maybe he’d look a little more normal after he finally got another hit? Maybe they’d start ignoring him again?
An electric jolt crashed through his head. Wincing at the pain, he stumbled off to the side of the street, his hand automatically reaching into his front pocket at the smooth mass within. Something seized him and made him swerve out of traffic while several horns blared. It didn’t let go for another block. Johnny grabbed at his temples as soon as his faculties were his own.
Dipping into a nearby alley, he grabbed the lavender orb in his pocket in one sudden motion and prepared to throw it. He knew it wouldn’t work. His arm immediately locked up as a purple glow seeped into the fringes of his vision. Joints popped. Muscles overcompensated. The Thing pulled him back under its control and replaced itself into the pocket.
You will not.
Johnny’s diaphragm froze. He struggled to budge an inch, unable to take a single breath for almost a full minute. His head was swimming by the time the Thing allowed him to gasp again, at which point he coughed and gagged and crashed his shoulder against the brick wall. He collapsed against the cold stone and shuddered. Instead of his sweatshirt, he reached for the object in his jeans pocket and popped open the container of pills in a rush. One down the throat, then two. Take that, you fucker.
A momentary abatement. But at what cost?
“Shut the hell up.”
Weakling.
He braced himself against the wall and fought to a stand. It wouldn’t take more than a few minutes for the haze to roll in. The Thing couldn’t punch through it nearly as well as when he was sober. Or close to sober. Shit, his supply was running low, too.
Even then, he couldn’t even make it over the crosswalk without his eyes catching on something involuntarily. A banner hung between two streetlights. Something about the tech exposition in a couple days. The tech exposition. The tech exposition.
A quick strike to his own head gave Johnny enough control to finish at least crossing the street. Fuck the expo. He didn’t care about it at all. None of that shit mattered to him in the slightest. Battling was a waste of time.
Still, he snapped back to reality with his eyes glued to that banner. He wasn’t the one doing the staring. The weight in his front pocket was so heavy. So, so heavy. The voice, though distant and muffled now, never disappeared.
Do not mistake this for freedom. You are not free. I have already relieved you of choice, and soon, that will not matter to you anymore.