Chapter Text
“I know this thing is, like, a killer of entire civilizations,” Brendan brought up carefully, “but are you sure we can’t be a little closer to The Village?”
They were currently situated in the canyon right outside the Ground Baronage where Ellen usually found herself partaking in activities that her family typically wasn’t all too happy about. Though nowadays it has less to do with disapproval and more to do with her overall safety. She gets it but she also thinks they might be going a bit overkill; the worst that’s happened so far is the missing leg.
Regardless, she and Brendan were here now. After she was done finishing up the minute details of her final plan, she called the first pokebuddy she saw in her contacts and asked for emotional (and potentially physical) support for her plan. She just so happened to land on Brendan who, after giving a brief explanation to Calem as to what was going on, made his way over to The Village as soon as possible. He and Calem were generally aware of the stress she felt when it came to her journey in Galar, so they swore that whenever she found ways to lessen it, they would jump at the first chance to help her achieve those plans.
And boy what a plan it was. In her left hand currently were two Friend Balls. One had many scratches and places where paint was chipped off, the sign of a worn down pokeball opened many times since it first was used. The other was in pristine condition; never opened, never even poked, but stared at many times where it sat on many of Ellen’s shelves, not helping the slowly growing sensation of guilt eating at her chest.
She wondered what Xerneas would say to her about this. Most likely would show signs of disappointment, though, maybe it would secretly approve due to Eternatus being one of the few dragons it (probably) couldn’t decimate by breathing on it. She found mystical deer beings tended to be petty like that.
“-en? You still alive in there?” It suddenly registered in her ears that Brendan was speaking to her. His hand was even waving slightly in front of her face, meaning she had to have been staring at the Friend Balls for enough time for Brendan to get concerned. Whoops.
Shaking herself out of her fog, she carefully picked Clementine’s pokeball out of her grasp (simultaneously placing Eternatus into one of her pockets) before making it larger and letting the pokemon out. The bright white light quickly went away to reveal Clementine looking around excitedly, her arms held straight out behind her as if being even slightly closer to the potential thing would make her spot it faster. When she realized such a thing was not in the vicinity, she turned around and stared at Ellen confusedly.
“Poyo?” she said, bringing one of her hands to touch her chin. Well, the chin of the Wellspring Mask she was currently wearing, and that reminded Ellen of something she still needed to do.
Ellen walked forward, taking out the Cornerstone Mask from her bag and gently reaching for the Wellspring Mask still on Clementine’s face. “Okay, so, I’m asking a lot of you, so feel free to tap out whenever you want for whatever reason,” she began as she replaced the latter mask with the former, “but I need your help. You seem to have a knack for showing Poison-types some business when they need it, and it just so happens that I have had a very angry and very lonely Poison-type in my possession since before I met you. I was kind of hoping you could help me out with it and see if you could… reason with it?”
She didn’t want to outright say be its friend, as the high likelihood of this going south would be mean to both Eternatus and Clementine. Ellen felt guilty about throwing her at yet another raging Poison-type considering her history, but taking into the fact that Clementine knew what it was like to be “othered” and could potentially sympathize made the overall picture muddier. However, would trauma (understandably) get in the way of that sympathy? And then there was Eternatus itself, who would probably not appreciate being suddenly woken up yet again to be a random human’s test subject. And while pokeballs aren’t abusive and have been found to be quite calming for pokemon, is it really fair to leave Eternatus essentially in a coma because that option was theoretically the “best” for everyone involved-
The guilt Ellen was feeling had multiple layers to it and it sucked really badly, okay? She was trying her best here.
Whatever conflicting emotions Ellen was going through were either hidden well or went completely over Clementine’s head as the ogre proceeded to slide her mask slightly off her face to show off her giant grin and salute, “Poyo! Po-po-poyo!”
Ellen could practically hear leave it to me, boss! as if Clementine learned some form of human language. With a grin, Ellen patted Clementine on the head as she stood up and let the pokemon run off to stand a noticeable distance away. Whether Clementine picked on the implied size of Eternatus or was just being over-the-top, Ellen appreciated it regardless.
A hand was suddenly on her shoulder, making her slightly jump before realizing it was just Brendan checking in, “You’re absolutely sure you want to do this? I’ll be behind you no matter what choice you make, you know. So would everyone else.”
It was what her father said to her just a few hours before. I trust you. Implicitly. After going so long in life believing she deserved the bare minimum, of thinking it was fair that people thought of her as a monster, it was sometimes shocking just how big a community she had behind her, who fought for her when she wouldn’t. Didn’t Eternatus deserve that chance, too?
Ellen gave Brendan a determined look, “I’m absolutely sure.”
Besides, she was reminded of Brendan’s Swampert and Magcargo, ready to help at a moment’s notice. Luke sitting snugly in her back pocket with Kiirus just a flute away also reassured her that this was possible. She wasn’t being thrown off her feet in the middle of a Champion Battle nor forced to come up with a solution to prevent the world’s literal end in the middle of said potential end. She had contingencies and she had control.
This was her playground, and whatever pokemon she wanted invited to it was going to show up whether they liked it or not.
With a deep breath, she grabbed Eternatus back from her pocket and winded her arm behind her head. Before she could release the breath, she pressed the button and threw it like any other pokeball she has had in her possession. As the light began to form and dissipate, she took a step back to be touching shoulders with Brendan for comfort.
Despite the hours of going back and forth with herself, despite the months of research and guilt and unsureness of how to handle this, Eternatus took less time than it took to blink twice to come out from its pokeball.
It was quiet as it looked around, almost adorably so. It hovered back and forth as it examined its environment. Ellen and Brendan tensed as it seemingly noticed Clementine, but gave her no real amount of attention. That was when it turned around and looked directly at them.
Time froze. Ellen could feel sweat dripping down her back. She was pretty sure she heard Brendan make a cartoonishly loud gulp.
Eternatus roared.
The whole canyon shook and trembled violently. Ellen noticed Brendan desperately grip the beanie on his head to prevent it from flying away out of the corner of her eye. The two trainers had barely begun to process Eternatus’ reaction when it started rushing at them like a torpedo. Its lack of size allowed it to be much faster than it used to be, and oh Arceus, neither she nor Brendan would reach their pokemon in time to bring them out. Fuck, she should have just listened to the old reports people made, now Brendan was going-
To be fine. As right before Eternatus reached them to plow them into the rocks below, it suddenly crashed into the ground like a pancake. It was as if a Magnezone was watching from the shadows and used Gravity to save them. Blinking, Ellen looked around Eternatus to see that, yes, a pokemon did save them, but it wasn’t any random wild one.
Clementine was standing perfectly still with one arm extended outward, a vine held in her hand. The vine was also wrapped around Eternatus’ tail. She didn’t quite have a gleeful expression on her face, but there was enough of a smile there that reminded Ellen that browbeating her targets into submission was something Clementine could do in her sleep.
Shaking itself off, Eternatus began to levitate once more, glaring at the humans briefly before turning around to aim its anger at what it now knew to be the much more deserving target. The vine on its tail slowly slithered back to Clementine, as if she was being pedantic on purpose as if she was daring the dragon to challenge her. Ellen flinched as Eternatus shot forward again, pausing just a few feet in front of Clementine. A giant gust of wind erupted around her due to Eternatus’ sudden stop, disheveling the dust and pebbles at her feet, the force still managing to slightly shake the entire canyon despite being allocated to one spot.
All the while the giddy expression Clementine wore never wavered.
Ellen watched Brendan take a few steps forward with his hand out in front of him, ready to step in as soon as it looked like the confrontation was getting dirty. Part of Ellen’s lack of response was shock and fear, yes, but deep down there was something else. Deep down she saw something familiar. She recognized this Clementine as the one from the story Kieran’s Grandfather told her, but still different. No all-encompassing rage, no last-ditch effort of an injured and weakened ‘Mon trying desperately to fight for some form of closure; just a calm, calculated train of thought hidden behind every action. As if the terrified Clementine she met that day during the festival and the Clementine from the story had become one.
If Eternatus had eyebrows, Ellen was sure they would be heavily scrunched in anger.
Eternatus began to roar again, but before the canyon could begin to vibrate, Clementine pulled out her cudgel and whacked it right on its face.
Nose? Snout? Whatever it was, she was aiming for between its eyes so its head could whip to the side from the sheer force of the hit.
It quickly turned back and reared itself as if it were going to roar again, or maybe even attack, but Clementine simply smacked it again in the exact same spot before it could even make a peep. For a third time, it tried the same thing, and when it warranted the same response, then it tried to slowly turn its head. Clementine could still see that it was plotting something, though, so she peacefully waited until they were face-to-face once more, even giving Eternatus a meager second to think she wasn’t going to do it again before proving that she, like many living creatures, was not above lying to get what she wanted.
After the fourth smack, Eternatus kept its face mostly toward the ground as it glanced up at Clementine.
Any fear or worry Ellen and Brendan felt was replaced with complete and utter befuddlement.
“Po! Po-po-poyo!” Clementine began to practically bark at Eternatus, shaking her cudgel up and down while it was pointed toward the sky like it was an oversized maraca. “Poyo poyo! Poyo-yo-po!”
Brendan stepped back to be in equal distance with Ellen while running a hand through his hair under his beanie, “Well, I can’t help but feel like I’m watching some poor cashier get yelled at for accidentally scanning too many things. Do you think Eternatus even has a manager she can talk to?”
Ellen smacked him on the shoulder, but the snort she failed to hide was more than enough for Brendan anyway.
Clementine would continue to chastise Eternatus for another few minutes or so, the noises blending together for the humans before they heard Eternatus whimper.
Whimper.
Ellen honest to god thought she was going to need to step in for Eternatus’ sake.
But then Clementine let out a huff before putting her cudgel away and readjusting the Cornerstone Mask on the side of her face as it did get jostled during the one-sided scuffle. When she finished putting herself back together, she gave Eternatus an expression that was filled with nothing but care and concern for the other Legendary. She took a step forward and placed one hand on Eternatus’ face where she kept hitting it and another just off to the side where Eternatus’ face began to slope. “Poyo-yo, yo-poyo? Poyo poyo po.” She then finished off her point by moving the first hand to lay symmetrically to the other so her forehead could lay on Eternatus’ face instead, “Poyo.”
Ellen could feel a grin tug at the corners of her lips at the sight. As if it were magic, Eternatus’ tail lowered itself to lay on the ground as it tilted its head to be at a more perpendicular angle, essentially giving Clementine more surface area to touch with her head. Ellen sensed as her hand went up to grip Brendan’s shoulder in a similar way he did to her earlier.
She was so focused on the sight in front of her that she wasn’t sure what expression Brendan was making as he spoke, “Was this how you were expecting this to go?”
“POYO! Po-poyo!” Clementine suddenly yelled out, releasing Eternatus to stand in a let’s go on an adventure pose with one of her arms pointing in a random direction. Following that was her racing in said direction in her familiar gallop with her arms wiggling behind her as she took each step. What was not familiar to anyone in that scenario was Eternatus starting to hover and slowly follow behind her.
The two humans watched the Legendaries as they flitted around the canyon, Clementine doing cartwheels and random jumps off large rocks while Eternatus sometimes performed aileron and barrel rolls when there was enough space between them to do so. At one point, Clementine almost tripped and fell over during a cartwheel, but Eternatus was quick to place its head in the spot where she was about to tumble to catch her, her hands gently grabbing its face to restabilize herself.
Clementine let out a happy squeal. “Poyo po!” You didn’t need to know Clementine personally to understand that she just let out a very big thank you to her new friend.
“I think…” Ellen began softly, as if speaking any louder would disrupt the scene in front of her. “I think I severely underestimated what was about to happen. I think that it was okay that I did that, too.”
Brendan tilted his head as he watched the Legendaires continue to frolic, “You know what? I don’t disagree one bit.”
The sun was setting in the distance, marking the end of an interesting chapter. When it came back up, a much more interesting one was going to begin. Just another marked page in Ellen’s fantastical life, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
