Chapter Text
Kali didn’t even realise her feet had started to move until her body connected with Kieran in an attempt to push him from the coming attack.
She was, to be perfectly frank, a little bit embarrassed that her becoming Ogerpon’s partner sent Kieran into his villain arc. She almost didn’t believe it until she saw Kieran bully that poor kid out of the league club. His eyes looked gaunt and tired, however he did hold himself with a confidence that he’d never had before, at least as far as Kali knew him.
Even when Carmine told her how he was pushing himself too hard and how he was forcing this strict regime on the other members of the League club, even then she felt sympathy for Kieran. Perhaps out of guilt of the fact she had inadvertently caused this.
But that guilt soon faded when Kieran refused to talk this out. Kali tried, she really did, to mend their friendship without the battle, a small shot at diplomacy every time after defeating a member of the Elite Four, but Kieran shut her down each time.
“I’ll see you on the battle court. We’ll settle this when I show you how strong I've gotten and I'll defeat you finally.”
That guilt turned quickly to frustration and then soon anger.
“Fine, he wants a fight, I'll give him a fight.”
It was mostly spite that fueled her training of pokemon, getting her team all up to level 100, even dear Ogerpon and Miriadon.
A small part of her, a part lurking in the beating of her heart, told her that this was not going to make things with Kieran better. While she had been tempted to listen, tempted to try one more time, her head told the heart something different.
“She’s tried to talk to the kid and it’s clear that this is what it’s gonna take to get through to him. Besides, the sucker has been ruling from his throne with an iron fist. If anyone can knock him down a peg, it’s gonna have to be us.”
She tried to ignore the small sweet taste of self righteous justice beating Kieran would offer but the thought of the idea still lingered on her tongue…until she actually won.
The sweet taste morphed to sour as she saw Kieran clutching at his head, gasping for breath and stumbling around.
Arceus, for a second in Kali’s eyes, Kieran reverted back to the shy boy she met in Kitakami.
The bitter taste of reality traveled from the back of her throat to settling in her stomach as a stone of guilt, returning with an everpresent vengeance.
Maybe that’s why she was doing this.
Maybe it was simply now with his broken master ball, the overwhelming danger and the dawning realization that he was just a kid, caused her to take his place for the shot.
Everything happened faster than she could blink, perhaps that was a good thing, leaving no room for regret.
There was the shine of Terapargos’s attack, the screams of her name and the flash of purple that was Miriadon partially shielding her as the attack hit and blinded her.
Crystals rose up around Kali and Miraidon, its tail hitting her face as it thrashed to try and escape. Kali also tried to bang on the crystal, only to start feeling like the energy of the crystals were pulsing under her skin, shredding muscles and electrifying her veins. She screamed, a blood curdling and ear piercing sound as her chokes on the disgusting taste of the bile and blood in her throat.
“CARMINE!!! Ms. BRIAR!!!! HELP!!! HELP ME, PLEASE IT HURTS!!!”
Miraidon also let out a metallic scream and though it might be the rushing adrenaline clouding her brain, it sounded like for a moment she could understand it.
She tried hard to squint and see through the crystal and through the welling of tears in her eyes. Her pounding on the glass now only stained the crystal a deep maroon, she could hardly even tell if anyone was there anymore.
“PLEASE!!! Please, anyone! Kieran!”
Her body was shaking; maybe it was the pain, maybe it was the primal instinct to survive but either way the crystals weren’t budging or cracking.
Kali’s last hit on the crystal was weak, the buzzing energy of it marring underneath her skin with a pulsing wave. Miraidon had also stopped thrashing, letting out a small warbling whimper.
Miraidon’s lights were dim and its voice sounded damaged, like a corrupted audio file. Kali was covered in blood, vomit, small cuts and burns. The skin on her knuckles were broken and her hands were shaking. The two curled into each other, a small act of solace before the inevitable pain of death came.
Then the worst happened.
The two screamed in sync as a sudden pain rushed through both of them, like something was tearing the two apart. Stretching both of them to their limit before they snapped like rubber bands.
Kali cried and screamed as cold metal touched the internal depths of her body. How cold metal stings against the heat of her organs, the hum of an engine aligning with the beat with her heart and the buzz of electricity that makes its home in the back of her throat.
Miraidon roared and thrashed as it felt itself become weaker, smaller…Alive. Its gears tangle and wrap in tandem with veins, its parts change as it collides with the human body and the heart beating sounds louder than the electricity that powered it ever had.
One final scream…or roar as the crystals finally fall to reveal a smoking, crackling body; human in a sense but so much more. It twitches slightly, breathes heavily and makes its home on the cold stone of the cavern.