Archive of Our Own ^beta

As they looked at Rune, sadly standing there as the world she had tried so hard to make and then to save collapsed around her, they couldn't get that idea out of their mind.

It wasn't fair that Xara and Jean had gotten screwed over by Blakeory Sr's favoritism of Saki, it wasn't fair they started petrifying people to prove... Something... It wasn't fair that Risa had died, or that Rune had gotten thrown into the machine and left Huey alone, and it sure as Giratina wasn't fucking fair that Risa and Rune were both going to die, this time for good, because the Puppet Master had gone crazy.

And all that this was, in the end. It was the world's unfairness screwing people over one last time. People who didn't deserve it.

But what could they do about it?

All of a sudden, they had an idea.

It was stupid. They'd never done anything like this before. As far as they knew, nobody had done anything like this before.

Except Crescent. And she'd done it by accident.

They smiled.

But what was there to lose?

They were the Interceptor.

They had been brought here to make fate change.

It was supposed to be impossible to survive a lava bath.

It was crazy to think that somebody could create an amalgamation of souls by accident.

They were an amalgamation of souls that had survived a lava bath, getting blown to bits in the heart of a mountain turned volcano, and disintegrated by a Legendary Pokemon.

Crazy and impossible was something that applied to other people, not them.

"Rune?"

The young woman blinked as she looked at them, hand held out.

"Handshake for the road?"

Rune seemed to think it over, shrugged, and reached out.

And there was a flash of light.

"...let me get this straight." Damien looked as though he was having a large number of conflicting emotions running through him, as he sat up in the apartments where Reina had been living for a while, and where an impromptu meeting had begun.

In front of him, Huey looked excited.

Well, really, everybody did, but Huey in particular looked excited.

"After defeating the Puppet Master, you somehow absorbed the souls of Rune and Risa Raider into your body... and given your status as the Interceptor, and... your..."

"The whole thing where they're a soul hotel?" Venam added.

"...yes... that... you've now added them into the list of people sleeping in your body, as I understand it."

"When you put it that way, it sounds like a bunch of schoolkids are all having sex inside them."

Erin's deadpan observation left everybody there briefly sputtering.

"So. Anyways - how exactly should we handle this?" Alexandra asked, once everyone had finished being flustered.

Everyone looked at the interceptor and Aelita.

As one, they looked at each other.

And as one again, they shrugged.

And as one, one last time, they spoke as one.

""I have no idea.""