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mooshymello · 1 month

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nothing at all

･:･.☽˚｡･✧:･

*Warning for spice and dangerous amounts of domestic g/t fluff ;)*

Word count: 3.5k

It wasn’t fair. The universe must have been feeling especially cruel when it decided to drop Ezran into Tova’s life, because there was no way anyone should have this much power over her.

And yet here she was, absolutely bowled over by something stupid as him handing her a pen.

Well, she’d give herself credit, it was a little more than the pen.

It was late. Tova was sitting on the tiny table that folded out from the giant table Ezran sat on, looking over a mess of paperwork for different properties. Nothing could go unaccounted for. After all, this was it, the dream she’d clutched to her chest like a life preserver, the life she’d fought tooth and nail for. This was her flower shop.

It had to be perfect. Tova wanted it too long for it not to be.

Truthfully, the flower shop was only half of the business. The other half was the magic plants shop. She bought a mirrorstone, an enchanted stone that would create a duplicate of the building she could place in any magic city. Many magic markets had empty lots between buildings, as if someone had cut a slice from the block, ready to be refilled with a new business. All Tova had to do was pay rent for the lot and place the mirrorstone in a doorway of the flower shop, creating a portal to its magic twin. She had a few lots in Ogendale in mind.

Everything was going smoothly except for one tiny, itty bitty thing: deciphering property laws was actually fucking impossible.

So much fine print and conditions…If this were a magic building, she could challenge the owner to a duel and win it, but according to Ezran’s dad, dueling wasn’t “a legal way” to acquire property.

“How’s it going?” Ezran asked.

“Meh?” She shoved a clump of documents toward him. “We can afford the one by the bowling alley, but who goes by the bowling alley for flowers?” She held up another equally disastrous cluster of pages. “The one on main street would be a great spot, it already has a cooler and everything, but it's pricey. I mean, I could ask my parents for a loan, but-”

“Nope.”

Tova barked out a laugh. “Woah, I didn’t know you liked them so much.”

“I’m sorry, I just don’t like the idea of them controlling any part of your dream. They spent your whole life crushing it.”

“I know. I agree.”

“And I know they changed or whatever, but they’re still so judgy. I can’t ask them for directions without them staring into my soul. Like I’m a bug or something. You know, like-” He squinted and pursed his lips at her.

“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about, dear. It’s not like I spent my entire childhood being terrified of The Look”, Tova said, dropping her expression into a perfect replica of said Look (It was more of an unimpressed glare down the nose than a squint, with the upper lip curled up a little to the left).

Ezran shivered. “How do you do that?”

“TaChauer family magic, baby. Don’t give me a reason to use it on you.” She wiggled her fingers at him, cackling evilly.

He rolled his eyes, smiling slightly.

“But okay, no parents. They’re my last last resort, after giving a fae my firstborn. Hm. I wonder if Jamie was serious about that offer..”

“Jamie wants nothing to do with kids, you’d have to pay him to take it. And you are not trading our firstborn.”

“Boo, you’re boring.”

“And you’re crazy.”

Ezran sighed and leaned across the big table, closing 20 feet of distance between them in seconds, to peck her on the forehead. No matter how long they’d been together, her mind always went blank the second he kissed her. Her thoughts just sort of melted when the all-encompassing warmth of his lips.

He picked up her coffee cup on the way to the kitchen. She marveled at how tiny it was between his fingers. He stood, her heart skipping as he loomed dozens of feet above her, impossibly big and never terrifying, his footfalls shaking through her as he disappeared around the corner. Funny as it was, she forgot he was a giant sometimes, until his tiniest movements gave her that particular thrill.

The faucet hissed to life. Tova would never understand why he didn’t just use magic to do the dishes. Old habits from his normal life, she supposed. At the sound, her familiar Lil Dacey emerged from under the table, trotting after Ezran into the kitchen. She’d grown to the size of a small dragon, probably because Ez wouldn’t stop feeding her.

As if to prove Tova’s point, she shoved her snout into the back of his knee, almost knocking him over, and gave him puppy eyes, whimpering pathetically. Ezran reached for the jar of treats on the counter, stopping to meet Tova’s eyes and pout.

“Look at her. She’s starving, Tova.”

Tova eyed the familiar’s pudgy belly and arched a brow. But now both of them were giving her puppy eyes. So Tova huffed and shook her head, but turned the other way as Dacey gobbled up the treat from his fingers. Spoiled little thing.

She turned back to the table, where the paperwork waited. She chewed on her cheek, tapping her wand on the side of the table while she read. Paper stars started popping from her wand, a tick she’d never been able to shake since graduating, until eventually, the paper stars blanketed the paperwork, making it impossible to see anything.

Tova groaned, hiding her face in her hands and sliding down onto the table. She could hear her brain grinding in her skull.

“I can’t even read this. I feel like a stupid,” Tova groaned.

“Maybe you feel like a stupid because it's 3 AM and your brain is mush. You can’t figure stuff out with mush brains.”

Tova puckered her lips, hiding her face behind a papers.

“Tovanni.”

“Ezran.” She sat up, wagging her pen at him accusingly. “Actually, don’t you have an early shift at the facility tomorrow? You shouldn’t be up either,”

“Yeah, but I have this girlfriend who’s, like, insanely stubborn. And I’d feel like a jerk if I let her stay up alone.”

Her playfulness deflated into guilt. Sacrificing her sleep wasn’t supposed to come at the cost of his. Working at the creature care facility, as much as he loved it, tired him out. He really didn’t need to start the day tired.

Tova made grabby hands at him. Ezran sighed. He turned the sink off and dragged a chair from the other side of the big table, bringing it behind her. He folded his arms around her and gave her a sleepy smile when she kissed his cheek.

“Ten more minutes,” she promised.

“Mmhm.” He laid his head down. “Ten more minutes. And if you don’t come with me after that, I’ll just have to kidnap you.”

Tova chuckled and leaned back on his cheek while she worked. Ezran would chime in every so often, small tips from watching his dad run the facility, but he didn’t understand the business side too well either. It made her feel better that she wasn’t the only confused one.

Then it happened.

Tova let herself nod off for a second, lulled by the steady rhythm of his fingers stroking her hair, and her grip loosened on her pen. It landed with a clatter that made both of them flinch awake.

She rubbed the crust from her eyes. Tova reached down to grab the pen only to realize it had rolled off both her smaller table and the big table, now dozens of feet below. A retrieval spell would do the trick, but Tova’s brain was so foggy she was afraid she’d mess up the spell and turn the floor into pens. Again.

“Can you get that please?”

“But you dropped it,” he yawned.

“Only because you’re too comfortable and I fell asleep. So technically it’s your fault.”

Ezran shook his head but obliged her. He tried reaching for the pen too, but it had rolled under the table, so he got up. Tova didn’t notice how warm he was until he swept all the heat away.

She hugged her arms and refocused on the papers. Her extra ten minutes hadn’t done much good. Her brain only managed to blurt out a few gibberish notes on a coffee-stained napkin. Tova brushed the paper stars away and started organizing the documents for tomorrow.

In the middle of sorting, one paper slipped out. She absentmindedly slipped it on top of the pile, doing a double take. This one was a picture. It was a concept for the flower shop, a very simple square building with vines on the walls, shelves of flowers in front of a glass storefront. Ezran titled it “Tova’s Plants and Things” on the bottom, and Tova had replicated it in the cursive sign hanging above the door. They’d drawn the picture when she first decided to open the shop.

Simple as it was, the drawing was enough to set her imagination alight, like flowers bursting out from between endless black rows of legal text.

She could see it now. Sandwiched between plain storefronts, a spot of color like a jewel catching rainbows in the sun. Caroline jessamines and blue morning glories climbing the walls, an arch of jasmine at the door-no, white wisteria.

Ezran would help her set up the trellises, the wood enchanted to prevent the flowers from becoming overgrown, and she’d probably spend the whole day ranting about all her ideas. He wouldn’t tell her to shut up because he never did. He always just nodded and gave her the sweetest look, like she was an angel, like she was the most precious thing in the universe, and sometimes that was enough to make her shut up anyway.

It was the same look he gave her when he returned with her pen, albeit dulled by exhaustion. He didn’t fully stand, staying on his knee and offering it to her. “Are you ready?”

It was such a stupid thing to get worked up about. A pen.

But it wasn’t the pen.

It was the fact that she used that pen to draw the concept with him, to draw the climbing vines that were going to be yellow and blue because they reminded her of his favorite scarf. It was the pen that cemented the name “Tova’s Plants and Things” for her shop because he hand-crafted her a sign for their first Christmas together. It was remembering being awake with him at 3AM 100 years ago, whispering about the things they’d do after graduation, when Tova was sure the shop would stay a dream and Ezran was sure he’d come buy her flowers every week, and it was being awake with him again at 3AM, just because he didn’t want her to do it alone.

It was the realization that he’d become so deeply entwined with her life that she could pick any aspect of it and find him there.

So Tova laughed. To herself, because he would never understand how impossible that was to her. This was their flower shop. His, and hers, and theirs. The thought sent warmth surging through her, until she felt like she’d burst into stardust. All she wanted was to wrap him up in that feeling, make him feel as breathless and adored as he made her feel.

Actually, she probably could. Or at least something close to it.

An idea popped into her head and Tova smirked, plucking the pen from his fingers. She scribbled “hey can I kiss you :)” on the back of the concept drawing. She put it on the big table and slid it toward him with her foot, keeping it far from the edge of the table.

He squinted at the note(she wrote it extra small so he’d have to get closer)and gave it a bemused smile. “Uh, sure…?”

By then, Tova had already taken the opportunity to take her wand out and run her hand over his. Tova whispered a shrinking spell and tapped her wand on his nose. There was a distortion, the way heat wavers in the air. She felt magic simmer in her blood, seeping through her hand and crackled over Ezran’s skin like static electricity.

One second, Ezran was peering down at her with wide-eyed confusion, the next, a glittery cloud poofed around them and he was leaning on her human-sized table, swaying unsteadily. Tova slipped her hand into his and waited for him to regain his balance with a giddy smile.

“What was-” He closed his eyes and swallowed thickly. “What was that?”

“That was you saying I could kiss you.” Tova ran her fingers up his arm and curled them around his face, rolling onto her toes to whisper in his ear. “So I’m kissing you. Is that okay?”

“Okay.” He let out a breathy laugh, melting into her touch. His hands snaked around her waist and he touched his forehead to hers. “Weirdo.”

Tova giggled. She tilted his head down and pressed her lips to his. Her eyes fluttered shut. His lips were impossibly soft as they captured hers. They tasted sweet and warm, like hot cocoa, because he refused to drink coffee past 3 PM. She was torn between wanting to cherish them or absolutely ruin them.

His hands found their way into her hair, pulling her closer. His touch set fizzling poppers off in her belly, made her blood all sparkly and tingly as it rushed to her face. God, she was addicted to him. The moment he kissed her she couldn’t think straight.

Which was probably why she forgot the shrinking spell left him woozy and made the mistake of leaning into him. He wobbled backwards, futilely trying to regain his balance, but by the time Tova pulled away he was already falling. Seeing as he was tangled in her hair, that meant he took Tova down with him. She broke the kiss off with a yelp, narrowly avoiding smashing their teeth together by ducking her face into his chest as they crashed onto the ground.

Ezran hissed, rubbing the back of his head. “Ow.”

“Sorry, sorry sorry,” she blurted.

She recited a quick healing spell and brought her wand to his temples. Their eyes met. Tova was suddenly aware of their position, going red and looking away. So much for being romantic.

He tried to choke back laughter, followed by Tova giggling into his collarbone, ending with both of them bursting into laughter. They stayed there for a minute, simply enjoying being a mess on the table.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Tova propped herself up on his chest, tracing the scar on his face. “Wow Ez. I can’t believe you’re still falling for me after all these years.”

“You’re gross.”

“You love it.”

He rolled his eyes again, but didn’t disagree. He hugged her close, kissing her forehead and burying his face in her hair. “You’re extra mushy today. What’s up?”

She turned her face into the crook of his neck. “Nothing. I just missed you.”

“Missed me? I’ve been here the whole time.”

“Exactly, and I haven’t paid any attention to you at all.”

A devilish smile bloomed across her face. Tova skimmed her hands over his chest and up his arms, linking both his hands in hers. She knew it drove him crazy when they held hands at this size. But she could do one better. In one smooth motion, she shifted her knees to straddle him, positioning herself above him. She hooked her thumb under the scarf on his wrist, taking both his hands and pinning them above his head.

She trailed a line of slow kisses up the side of his neck. He shivered. Any time he tried to kiss her back, she pushed him back down, teasing her teeth along his delicate skin. She smiled at the little noises he made when she laid gentle kisses on the marks, the way his pulse sped beneath her lips and his hands tightened in hers. Pulling back, she surveyed her work with a satisfied hum.

Ezran was going to have to actually use his scarf after this.

“T-Tova?”

She lowered herself so their chests were touching, her hair curtaining his flushed face. “Don’t you think you deserve a little attention, baby?”

“Um…” His wide eyes flickered to her mouth. He bit his lip and turned his burning face away. “...fuck.”

Tova puffed a breath through her nose, amused. She ran her thumb along his jawline and made him look at her as she ghosted his lips, tilting her head and parting hers just a bit. Tempting him. With a butterfly’s touch, she ran her hands down his sides, reveling in the shivers that followed her fingertips, and she snuck the tip of her thumb under his waistband.

Just to be cruel, she slid her hips down, the heat of him pressing on her inner thigh. The intoxicating heat of his moan bloomed across her lips.

“Needy, needy, needy~” She laughed, an equally breathless sound. “But stars, I want you so bad.”

She waited. Her heart was thudding in her chest. Her stomach was somersaulting. The only sound between them was heavy, expectant breathing. Right when he started to shift impatiently, inching closer, she reeled back, planting a chaste kiss on his nose.

“Okay,” she said.

“Okay?”

Tova let go of his hands and lifted herself up on her knees so she wasn’t touching him. Almost immediately, the air wavered, and glittery clouds burst around them. When she opened her eyes she was kneeling on his stomach, and he was his normal size, splayed on his back across the big table.

He stared at the ceiling, taking a moment to readjust to his new perspective. Once he did, he peered down at her, bewilderment swirling in his eyes.

“...what?”

“I said I wanted to kiss you. You have been kissed.” She flopped onto her side and folded her hands under her head. “Bedtime!”

Ezran looked at her like he was waiting for the punchline. She refused to look at him. Tova was fighting to hold back laughter.

“You asshat,” he said when he realized she wasn’t taking it back.

The walls of his hands rushed into her peripherals. He scooped her off his stomach, scooting off the table. He turned off the lights and marched towards the bedroom, keeping her close to his chest. She could hear his heart thundering against her back.

“This is a really aggressive way to go to bed. I thought we were supposed to sleep now,” she said, feigning innocence.

“We were before you jumped me like that.”

Ezran gently put her down on the pillow. He set his arms on either side of her, brushing her hair from her face and running his thumb along her jaw. The intensity of his eyes made her stomach flip.

“You’re crazy if you think I’m letting you get away with that, Tovanni.”

“Maybe I’m-”

He immediately cut her off with a kiss. She sucked in a breath, her back arching in surprise. He slid a finger behind her, pressing her closer to his lips. She hummed, feeling her whole body turn to mush in his hands. Her hands made a beeline for his face.

And then he stopped. He pulled his hand away and folded his arms in front of her, watching her pant.

“What was-”

He kissed her again, this time pressing her into the pillow. She was literally breathless. He had her lightheaded, seeing stars. The second Tova reached to hold his face, he cut it off.

Tova gave him a questioning look. “What are you do-”

Another kiss, his hands cupped behind her and entwined in her hair. She moaned and tried leaning into it only for him to pull his hand back, dropping her back onto the pillow.

Tova narrowed her eyes at him. She knew what he was doing. Either she stopped being sassy and got no kisses, or kept being sassy and got half a kiss, which was worse because as much as Tova liked teasing, she hated getting teased. This was payback.

The worst thing was that it was working. Tova tried holding out, too. She tried not to think about how perfect his lips were, and how they were right there. Instead, she crossed her arms and stared at him. Right in the eye. Right in his big, beautiful bitter coffee eyes, all softened with affection for her, even though she was a mess, and bright with smug amusement because she could see herself cracking in their reflection. Those eyes.

He leaned forward, his curls tumbling onto her shoulders, lips brushing her reddened face. “Tovaaa~”

No. She refused. Because there was no way she was that fucking clingy.

Except she absolutely was and he knew it and it absolutely was not fair.

“Ez,” she finally whined, exasperated.

He grinned, cupping her in his hands. He peppered her face with kisses, like he was trying to connect a constellation on her freckles, until Tova was breathless and flushed, and both of them were laughing their asses off.

The exhaustion hit them not too long after and they settled down. Tova slid off the pillow, crawling over to his hands. They curled around her, bringing her to his chest.

“Tova?”

Tova hummed, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt.

He curled up, bundling her closer. His voice was thick with sleep, rolling through her like an ocean wave. “I love you.”

Tova doubted he could see the way she looked at him in the dark. Ezran was the first person to ever say he loved her. She’d never told him that. She thought about it every time he said it. It was more pathetic than it sounded, she'd had people who cared, but none who were so open about it. She never doubted it with him.

Maybe that was the part that made her tear up.

She wiped her eyes, smiling into his shirt. “I love you too, dork.”

#ez and tova #g/t #g/t fluff #size shifting #size shifter #g/t writing #mello writes #ezran #tova #g/t romance #sorry this is supremely cheesy and mushy #they make me very soft i adore them deeply you don't underSTAND

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teshamerkel · 1 year

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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

[Chapter 45]

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Nia, Tobias and Samir are trapped in the tunnels beneath Asra with two dangerous outlaws. Can they defeat them and escape?

The earth is crumbling beneath Nia’s feet, and she struggles to stay upright despite the solid press of Samir against her side. She sees the floor open up beneath Tobias, and he falls into the blackness without a sound.

Her stomach drops with him. “Tobias!”

She pushes away from Samir—to what? To dive after her partner? But the ground finally cracks apart beneath Nia’s feet as well.

She falls with a breathless shriek. For a beat, weightlessness. Then the ground slams into her all at once, rocky and uneven, knocking the breath out of her. She keeps her eyes squeezed shut as she rolls deeper and deeper, the satchel alternating between cushioning her movements and slapping her in the face.

It’s not until she finally slows to a stop, skin blossoming with painful new bruises, that everything starts to register. That Pokemon—a steelix?—attacked them. Tobias fell. She fell too.

She pushes herself up with a groan, looking around. She’s in a long tunnel similar to the caverns above. The glowing crystals down here seem less gentle, more a blaring red than a cozy rose tone. Mirrorstone still lines the walls in patches, and Nia can tell by her reflection that she looks as roughed up as she feels from that fall.

She’s also entirely alone.

Nia inhales, sharp, and staggers to her feet, looking one way and then the other. “Tobias? Samir?”

No luck, and no sign of either of them. Is it possible the steelix manipulated where they would fall to separate them? Nia glances up, but the earth above her has closed up once again, a few faint cracks and uneven slabs of rock the only sign of its shifting.

A distant, faint vibration makes Nia jump. Fear rolls through her gut, and she stumbles in a random direction. She doesn’t know where she’s going but she feels like a sitting duck here, dropped in the middle of a maze of tunnels that their enemy dug himself. Running feels like a hopeless effort, but what else is there to do? Her best bet right now is to move, to try and find Tobias and Samir and get out of here to find some help.

She knew they shouldn’t have come down here on their own. But she didn’t want to disappoint Tobias because she’s a stupid, stupid people-pleaser and now they’re all in danger. She hasn’t been this angry at her partner in a long while. Probably not since Afon’s Cap.

She swipes tears from her eyes as she jogs down tunnel after tunnel. Her reflection follows her in bits and pieces out of the corner of her eye.

She hits a fork in the road, and glances frantically between the two paths. Which one will lead her back up to the surface? Will either one lead her to her companions? They look exactly the same, identical tunnels of packed dirt walls and cracked patches of crystal.

“C’mon, c’mon!” She whines, bouncing in place. “Make a decision!”

The rumbling in the earth had drifted away a minute ago, but that doesn’t mean the steelix won’t be back soon. Or that he isn’t currently chasing down Tobias or Samir.

Nia goes right on impulse. For a moment she thinks she sees movement out of the corner of her eye that doesn’t match her own, and hopes that it’s Tobias or Samir. But when she looks, it’s nothing. Just her own reflection and the low light playing tricks on her frazzled mind.

Nia slows to a stop at another fork in the road, her fear sharpening to frustration. She feels like a rat in a maze, running around until her eventual demise. Is there even an exit? What if there isn’t?

Nia thinks of the way they usually escape mystery dungeons—which this underground labyrinth probably isn’t, even if she’s bad at telling—and suddenly recalls their rescue badges. She digs through their satchel, pulling out her own badge as well as Tobias’ and clutching them in her hands like lifelines.

But slowly, her mind catches up to her relief.

Even if she did send out a signal to the psychics at the guild to teleport her to safety, Tobias’ badge is with her (stupid, stupid, stupid—why don’t they wear them?!), and she doesn’t have a guarantee that Samir would think to use theirs. She can’t risk just leaving the two of them down here alone.

Besides, the psychics could only teleport her and Tobias so far away from the Lexym guild for their journey. They probably have a limited radius that they can pick them up from, too, and Nia is sure they’re outside of that range. Even the nearest guild, where Samir came from, is likely too far away to pick up their signal out here in the desert. Asra is a small, secluded town, with little authority to help protect it.

A perfect target, really.

With a frustrated little growl, Nia throws her badge down. It bounces with a metallic ping before stopping, wobbling in the dirt as it settles. Very unsatisfying, really.

Nia wipes at her eyes, then bends to pick the badge up. She brushes it off almost apologetically before tucking it away into her satchel again.

She looks up, intent on continuing forward, only to come face-to-face with Giratina.

Nia yelps, falling onto her tail and scrambling back. Giratina stares down at her from bits and pieces of reflected stone, the titan a fractured mosaic of red and black and gold.

Nia holds her breath, heart slamming in her chest as she stares back. She expects Giratina to react in some way. Maybe try to reach through the stone, or beckon her closer. Heck, she half-expects him try bashing through the barrier between their worlds, probably bringing the caves down on all of them in the process.

But no. Giratina just…waits, body and wings swaying behind him against the backdrop of whatever strange void he lives in. His glowing red eyes are as cold as distant satellites, giving no hint as to what he’s thinking.

She imagines this is what it feels like to be a cornered mouse, staring into the eyes of a hungry cat. Except he still hasn't done anything. Is he just playing with her? Or can he physically not do anything? She supposes that might confirm what they’d thought—that Giratina can’t actually touch her unless she makes contact with the reflection too.

Slowly, Nia gathers her shaking legs beneath herself, body still poised to run. Or fight. She doesn’t look away from Giratina.

Giratina nods, once. Approving. Then jerks his head to the right tunnel and slithers through the reflections like a snake through water, down the wall of the tunnel and away from her.

Stunned, Nia blinks after him.

After a moment, the titan slides back into view in front of her, head crest lowered in distinct irritation. Nia's a bit distracted by the fact that his head is larger than her whole body. Giratina jerks his chin to the right again. Insistent.

It suddenly dawns on Nia what Giratina is doing. She barks a hysterical laugh. Maybe there’s a gas leak down here.

“Are you telling me to follow you?”

Giratina gives her a nod, like this is a completely normal thing to be happening.

“And why in the world would I do that?!” Nia asks, throwing her arms up. “Will warned me about you! Plus, all you’ve done is stalk me and try to yank me into your world when I was taking a bath!”

Giratina gives her a flat, unamused look. Well, good—she’s not exactly in a good mood herself.

Nia shakes her head. “Nope, nuh-uh. If anything you’re probably leading me right into a death trap. Not happening.”

Before she can say anything else, the earth around her shakes, a bit harder than before. Nia has to crouch to keep her footing, glancing over her shoulder. She's dreading the thought of seeing that steelix’s terrible face rushing up behind her.

When she looks forward again, Giratina is still glaring down at her, clearly frustrated despite how inflexible his face plates are. His centipede-like legs are moving in an impatient wave down his body. It’s as mesmerizing as it is unsettling. Nia grimaces and takes a step back.

She has to make a decision, here and now. Does she take the advice of an eldritch horror monster who literally every scary story in this world has warned her about, or—

Okay, yeah, this one’s obvious.

Nia marches down the left tunnel. Giratina flickers into being in the reflections at her side, body taking up the whole length of the tunnel. He glares at her silently.

Nia sticks her tongue out at him. He feels a lot less scary when she knows he can’t touch her.

The tunnels rumble distantly with more movement, and Nia picks up her pace a bit. Unfortunately, she still doesn’t know where she’s going. She doesn’t come across another fork in the road over the next few minutes, but the rumbling grows slightly closer and more powerful before dying away again.

Nia wonders how many tunnels there are down here beneath the town, heavy with stale air and danger. If they've made the foundations of the land unstable. If the steelix uses too many ground moves he could probably level the whole town, not to mention bury all of them alive.

She really hopes her friends are all right.

The path has been curving for a little while, but Nia's having trouble figuring out if it’s going up or down. Logic says she wants to go up to get closer to the surface, but…

The distant rumbling of the steelix grows more prominent.

Nia speeds up, glancing over her shoulder. She can't do much else, other than hope that the steelix will change direction and the shaking will die down again.

Instead, the rumbling grows stronger second by second, shaking the ground under her feet and making her stagger. She hears a low, distant roar.

He’s coming this way.

Nia takes off, sprinting and hoping for a fork in the path or—she doesn’t know. A miracle.

She didn’t really see the steelix in motion before, but knowing how large he is, seeing the tunnels he’s dug, knowing how effortlessly he’s been destroying the town above…

She knows she’s done for if she’s caught by him down here. He’s in his element.

Nia feels numb with panic, panting as she runs and runs down the neverending cave. Giratina speeds through the reflections at her side, but for the first time since appearing he isn’t staring her down. He’s looking intently ahead as he spirals through reflections with ease.

The shaking grows stronger, and Nia's steps start to stumble as she tries to run and finds that she can’t keep her footing. She falls into the wall with a gasp. She squints against the almost painful shaking as the steelix grows ever closer.

Giratina catches her eye. He’s flaring his spidery wings out in the mirrorstone a few yards ahead of her. Once he sees her looking, he gestures his head down with urgency, towards a large chunk of glowing red stone.

Nia doesn’t know what he’s suggesting, but right now the banished legendary seems a lot less threatening than the steelix literally about to flatten her into the dirt. She scrambles for the spot Giratina pointed out, crawling through the increasingly powerful jerking of the earth.

When she reaches the crystal, gripping its warm, smooth surface, she’s surprised to see a sizable dip in the cave wall behind it. It's small, just a natural crevice in the dirt. But still…

It looks just big enough for Nia to squeeze into. She hurries to do so, yanking her satchel in with her after it gets caught on the gemstones. Her knees are jammed into her chest and her head is ducked at an uncomfortable angle, breaths puffing hot and humid into her chest.

The shaking gets louder and stronger, and she feels her brain rattle around in her head. She wonders with a pang of terror if Giratina lured her back here to get smashed like a bug under a rock.

Then, with all the force and sound of a subway train, the steelix rushes past her hiding spot. He’s a blur of silver segments, just visible through a gap in the gemstones. One second, two, and then his long body is burrowing down the tunnel and away. The shaking slowly recedes.

Nia gives it a minute. At least until the shaking is nearly gone. Then the space feels too tight, too cramped, like she’ll be crushed if she doesn’t get out. She thrashes and finally manages to squeeze an arm out of the cubby. The rest of her body follows, and she collapses onto the tunnel floor on her back. The dirt under her is smooth and packed, almost hot with the speed in which the steelix moved through.

She would’ve been dead if she’d been caught up in that.

The thought sends a fresh bolt of panic through her. She looks up, still trying to catch her breath, only to see Giratina staring back down at her from the mirrorstone in the ceiling.

“You saved me,” she rasps, somewhere between a statement and a question.

Giratina nods. Then he gestures towards the direction they came from.

For the first time, Nia considers the possibility that Giratina might genuinely be trying to help. But why? Will was very clear that the banished legendary was not to be trusted. And it’s not like he has a stellar reputation even outside of Will’s words. He tried to yank her into the distortion world, for God’s sake!

…But he did just save her life. So he at least wants her alive, for whatever reason. Maybe a nefarious plan where he later steals her soul to destroy the world or something. Chances are he isn’t working with these goons who are only in it for the money, so that means he might actually be leading her to safety.

“This is such a bad idea,” she murmurs, still shaky as she sits up. Giratina flickers out of view only to reappear in the wall, closer to eye level.

Nia raises her voice just loud enough to be heard. “O-Okay. Okay. You’ve got my attention. Um…thank you.”

Giratina makes an insistent gesture with his tail for her to turn around and go back the way they came.

Nia gets to her feet, brushing dirt off her fur, and takes a deep breath. “All right. Lead the way.”

Giratina wastes no time, silently slipping away in a blur of muted color. Nia breaks into a run to follow him back the way they came, the satchel bouncing along with each stride.

Giratina leads her through tunnel after tunnel, clearly reluctant to pause and let her catch her breath or stretch out the painful stitch in her side. When he does finally slow to a stop, Nia takes the break gratefully, gasping for air as she rests her hands on her knees.

“W-What is it?”

Giratina doesn’t answer her, looking off into the distance and narrowing his eyes, as if hearing something. Then he flickers out of sight entirely.

Nia yelps. “Giratina?”

Nothing. She’s alone again.

She looks around uneasily, suddenly back on-guard. Was he leading her into a trap? She knows she shouldn’t trust him but she doesn’t exactly have a lot of options right now. Should she go back the way she came? Keep moving forward?

Nia bites her lip. Then, almost hearing Tobias scolding her for trusting too easily, she tentatively continues forward in the direction Giratina had been leading her. She jogs lightly, trying to keep her ears open and her body ready.

To her relief, while she occasionally feels and hears the steelix roaming around, he doesn't comes barreling her way again.

Still, she slows to a stop when she hears something new and out of place. A faint tap-tap, tap-tap. Like a gallop. The steps sound too sharp to be Eddy or Tobias’ softer feet, more like…hooves?

Samir!

Nia runs forward again. She bounds around the next corner and sure enough, nearly slams right into the skiddo.

“Samir!” She cries, thrilled to see at least one of her friends unharmed.

The grass type is clearly relieved to see her too, posture relaxing even as they pant hard to catch their breath. Giratina flickers back into sight beside both of them. Samir jumps, but otherwise looks a little too familiar with the presence for this to be the first time they’ve ran into one another.

Nia blinks, looking between the two. “Was he…guiding you too?” That would explain why he disappeared on her.

Samir nods, looking warily at the legendary. Giratina stares down at the both of them, impassive.

Huh. Another point for Giratina not being a total jerk, then. Good to know.

Another rumble sounds off in the distance, and everyone tenses, looking down the tunnels. When the vibrations settle, Giratina catches their attention with a jerk of his head, gesturing back the way Samir had come from.

“Can you lead us to Tobias?” Nia asks.

Giratina nods, then zips away. Nia and Samir exchange a look and follow as fast as their legs can carry them, since they don’t really have the time to mistrust Giratina right now.

Nia can’t tell the tunnels apart at all, so all she can do is follow and hope Giratina is leading them in the right direction. They all look the same to her: rosy red light like a warning sign and flashes of reflections set into rocky walls and soil. She thinks there might be a slight incline to the path now, making the burn in her legs more pronounced, but she can’t be sure. All she knows is the constant rhythm of her panting breaths, the pain in her lungs, the tingling exhaustion in her legs, and the sound of her and Samir’s footfalls.

Finally, she hears a distant sound. She can’t pinpoint what it is right away, but it isn’t the rumble of the steelix. It almost sounds like…battling. The faint noise of attacks being used.

Nia’s heart jumps hopefully. She follows the sound to the tunnel’s end, where it opens up to the same large cavern where they first saw Eddy with the steelix. Inside, a familiar flash of fire catches her eye immediately.

Tobias is fighting Eddy, barely dodging the otter's weapon: a shell acting like a hilt for a short blade of bright blue water. Tobias is breathing hard, clearly scuffed up. Blood runs down his leg where the wound he’d gotten on the way to Asra has been reopened, but he’s still keeping Eddy on his toes. Considering the charmander is fighting an older, more experienced water type all on his own, he’s doing considerably well.

Still, Tobias' fierce expression and tense shoulders drop when he glances their way, clearly relieved to see them too.

Eddy looks much less pleased. He spits blood into the dirt, lip curling to bare sharp teeth. “You’re kidding me. He didn’t get either of you? That useless lump of steel—“

Tobias cuts him off by smacking him in the face with his tail. He follows up with a one-two swipe of metallic claws.

Samir bounds into action, beelining for Eddy. They swing their head forward as they run, launching razor-sharp leaves at the water type. Eddy flinches and hisses as they hit their mark.

Nia follows right behind. As physically tired as she is, she’s glad she hasn’t used much aura today. She draws on that energy, forming an aura staff between her paws. She slips behind Eddy and sweeps her weapon low to catch his feet. He stumbles but doesn’t go down, sending a spare water attack behind him that nips Nia’s side and sends her skittering back.

Tobias takes the distraction, lunging forward to slash at Eddy again with his claws. The otter grunts with pain, but kicks Tobias away.

Samir shoots forward to take the charmander’s place, lowering their head to tackle the water type directly in the gut. Nia hears the wind whoosh from Eddy’s lungs. The otter doubles over, the bright blue water around his shell falling to the dirt with a splash.

Nia takes the opening. She hauls her staff back like a baseball bat before slamming the otter in the back. Eddy staggers forward from the blow.

Tobias jumps in next, knocking the otter’s shell from his grasp and slamming him with his tail on the backstep.

Samir finishes it, locking their legs and launching a volley of razor leaves at Eddy. The water type covers his face, trying to stand his ground as they rip at his skin. But as soon as the bright green glow of the attack fades, Eddy falls onto his front and lies still.

For a moment, the three of them stare down at their opponent, attack stances still in place.

When Eddy still doesn’t move, Tobias finally inches forward. He uses a foot to roll the otter over. Eddy groans, still alive but clearly down for the count.

Nia relaxes, and shares a triumphant grin with Tobias and Samir.

It’s Giratina, flickering into view on the far wall and flaring his wings to catch her attention, that makes Nia take notice of the slight vibrations under her feet.

Right. They’re not done here yet.

The now-familiar shaking of the earth picks up as the steelix approaches, making all of them crouch to stay on their feet. Tobias in particular looks pained by the motion. They don't have the time to make a run for it, Nia knows. Not if the steelix is this close.

Nia takes a deep breath and tries to reign in her fear. They’re together again, and they already defeated Eddy. The steelix is a terrifying foe, but together they should be able to figure something out.

She looks to the tunnel her and Samir arrived from, hoping that the steelix won’t appear from underground or something. Luckily, she catches a distant glimpse of silver as the steelix rounds the far bend, metal flashing in the warm glow of the crystals.

Unluckily, the steelix barreling towards them looks furious, segments churning as he charges forward with the speed of a semi. He ducks his head as he enters the cavern, and Nia suddenly realizes that he’s not slowing down. They won’t be fast enough to dodge that. Tobias especially. They're going to be smashed like bugs on a windshield.

She feels like she’s back in Ghatha, watching that wreckage come hurtling down to bury her and Junie. She has the distant feeling she's looking death in the face, and something in her desperately wants to cower in terror.

But her aura saved them last time, right?

Nia shoves herself in front of Tobias and Samir. She braces her feet and grits her teeth and hopes that her self-preservation instincts will be enough to trigger—

Blue filters across her vision. Just quick enough for the steelix to crash headfirst into her shield like a train against a mountain.

Nia’s shield breaks. She cries out as a horrible pain lances through her head, vision spotting and quickly going black. Her legs buckle beneath her, and she barely registers a pair of warm arms catching her.

It feels like an instant later that Nia starts to regain consciousness. She catches flashes of sensation as she comes back to herself, trying to work through the cotton-like pain stuffed inside her skull. Tobias’ muffled voice is saying something near her, tone sharp and worried. The leafy scent of Samir has drifted away. The earth jolts in short, harsh movements, like a giant is wrestling nearby.

Nia tries to pry her eyes open, squinting against the rosy light. The ringing pain in her skull has died down, and clearer sound starts to filter back in. Tobias, yelling something. The angry snarls of the steelix. The crumbling and cracking of stone and earth. Samir’s quick hoofsteps.

Nia finally looks up. She’s been shuffled back to sit against the cave wall. Tobias is running defense from a few paces in front of her while he and Samir battle against the steelix.

Samir is using nimble leaps to weave over and under the steelix’s flailing weapon of a tail. Occasionally they even leap off the side of the cave or the steelix itself, sure-footed and nimble as they shoot off razor leaf attacks between strides.

Tobias has stayed closer by, probably in case the steelix tried to take her out while she was incapacitated. He yells distracting insults at the steelix, occasionally shooting bursts of flame that make the giant flinch.

Both types of attacks seem to be dealing heavy damage to the steelix. Tobias’ fire even makes the serpent’s metallic hide glow like molten metal when he lands a direct hit. The outlaw is definitely a steel type Pokemon, but what else could he be? Rock? Ground, maybe?

Either way, fighting type moves would be super-effective if Nia could just use them.

Nia grits her teeth and rises to wobbly feet. She has to help. Even if she can’t use many moves, she still can’t let them handle this guy alone. He’s twenty times their size and willing to kill. If he gets in one good hit they’re done for.

While she steadies her spotty vision, Nia scans the walls for a sign of Giratina. Surely he wouldn’t abandon them now, right? Even if he can’t do anything, surely he’d stick around to see their fates?

She realizes then that most of the mirrorstone in this cavern—the largest chunks at least—have been cracked by the steelix’s rampage. Nia thinks she sees fragmented glimpses of black and gold and gray flitting between stones, but it’s hard to tell what Giratina is doing or thinking.

Nia’s attention jumps back to the fight as the steelix lunges for Tobias, snapping blocky jaws down with enough force to crush a car. Tobias barely steps back in time. He lashes out with his claws in retaliation and scratches the steelix right below the eye.

Nia doesn’t expect the weak move to do much, but the steelix roars, clearly pained, as he rears back. Tobias falters, clearly as confused as she feels. It’s not until the steelix’s face tilts down again, his left eye squeezed shut and furrowed with pain, that Nia thinks she understands.

The steelix’s scar. The long, deep furrow cutting through his face like a canyon must be more vulnerable than the rest of his steely hide.

“His scar!” Nia calls, still trying to gather herself enough to push away from the wall and help. “I think it’s a weak point!”

Tobias and Samir look back at her, clearly surprised that she’s up. But then Samir nods, shooting off another razor leaf attack to get the steelix’s attention. Tobias follows them now that Nia is conscious, attacking the opposite side with his fire to keep the beast busy.

Nia takes a deep breath and stumbles away from the wall. She needs to get in there and help somehow. She can feel her aura settling again, even if it’s nearly depleted after using protect. The ache in her skull has died down, at least.

Nia staggers forward, pulling her hands apart to form her aura into a staff. She manages to get it nearly full-sized, solid and thrumming with quiet energy. Good.

While the steelix is distracted, Nia runs forward and hauls her staff back in a batter’s swing, then slams her aura into the steelix’s side with all her strength.

Her aura splinters out of existence beneath her palms. The steelix doesn’t even seem to notice her, too busy chasing down Samir and Tobias.

Nia steps back, heart dropping. That did nothing. She should’ve guessed as much—a normal type move like that, without any fighting type energy behind it? No way that would even leave a scratch on a metallic tank like this.

She’s useless in this fight.

Nia steps back and looks around, desperate to help.

She’s watching at just the right time to see Samir slip. The skiddo is bouncing off the wall to give themself some height, when a chunk of stone gives way under their hoof. Nia sees their eyes widen. Sees the sudden loss of grace as they scramble to catch themselves.

She also sees the steelix notice, a nasty grin spreading across his face. He turns, heavy tail swinging around like a wrecking ball, and slams it into Samir. The hit sends the little goat flying across the cavern.

Samir hits the far wall hard enough to send cracks webbing outward, then drops lifelessly to the dirt. They don’t get back up again, and Nia can’t tell if they’re still breathing from this far away. She stares at them, willing them to get back up. To be okay. She feels numb, suddenly, caught between terror and nausea and—

"Nia!" Tobias yells.

She snaps to attention, just in time to drop and flatten herself to the ground. The steelix’s tail swings by right overhead, a wind buffeting her from the momentum.

Shaking, Nia sits up. She looks to Tobias, only to see the charmander trying to inch his way around the cavern to Samir. He’s still dodging and attacking, but he keeps glancing towards the downed skiddo.

The steelix roars and slams his tail into the earth, but Nia can tell that this motion is different than before. She senses something—move energy, maybe. The dirt fissures in a line, shooting under Tobias’ feet like lightning. It continues past him and up the wall of the cavern.

A sickening crack is the only warning before the wall behind Tobias shifts and buckles. A wave of rock and dirt slides down quick as an avalanche. Nia sees Tobias go pale. Then the wave swallows him whole, burying him alive in a mountain of earth.

“Tobias!” Nia shrieks.

Before she can even think—can even doubt or hope or grieve or try to help either of her friends—the steelix turns to her. He’s not smiling, but there’s something satisfied in his expression that feels even worse. Like he’s an exterminator wiping out pesky vermin.

And Nia, with nothing but normal type energy to her name, is left alone to fight him.

Terror and grief makes her stumble back. Her attack earlier did nothing, and she’s sure that a quick attack would be equally unhelpful. She can feel her chest squeeze with panic.

Her teary gaze flicks to the nearest wall, to Giratina scattered and broken in abstract bits, but the legendary seems equally frazzled, moving in erratic movements. He almost looks like he’s trying to ram his way through the reflections, to no avail.

Somehow, that only makes her feel worse.

The steelix lunges for her, and Nia dives under his head to dodge. Panicked, she finds her aura and pumps it into her paw, lashing up with a desperate, sloppy punch mimicking Val’s power-packed moves.

(Wait—mimic?)

But her move bounces harmlessly off the steelix’s hard coat, and her fist blooms with a painful bruise from the hit. Nia bites back a cry and scrabbles out from under the steelix before she’s smushed.

Mimic. Right! She’s been trying to learn mimic. If she could just use one of Tobias’ fire type moves, or Samir’s razor leaf, she might have a chance.

The steelix swings his tail at her, gouging a furrow into the dirt. She nearly trips running out of the way. Then, panting, Nia scrambles over to Samir. The goat is still unnervingly still, but when Nia gets closer she can see the faint rise and fall of their side.

Oh, thank God.

Nia couldn’t figure out how to use mimic on a good day, let alone in the heat of a life-threatening battle. She hasn't even really asked Val how to do it yet, but it’s the only thing she can think of. She’s desperate.

Nia puts her hand on Samir’s leafy mane, where his razor leaf attack seemed to come from. Then, with no better idea of how she could even go about “borrowing” a move, she shoots her aura down her arm until it brushes against Samir’s.

Samir’s aura is…silver. She doesn’t try to look, really, but it flashes into her mind before she thinks to look away. Their soul is silver like steel, ironically. Solid and unyielding. Silver like a mirror, reflective and quiet. Silver like a sword and shield, sharp but protective, hard and seemingly cold. But steel makes tools, steel means safety and strength and durability and—

Focus, Nia! You’re not here to read Samir’s soul. You’re here to grab the last move they used, their razor leaf attack.

…Except Nia has no idea how to do that. Does it even have anything to do with the skiddo’s aura? Surely it does since aura is the basis for move energy, but how can she mold her own aura to match it? How can she even single out an attack from who Samir is, from the lifeblood running through them?

Nia realizes with a pang that she can’t. She simply doesn’t know how. And her instincts as a riolu are apparently not enough to learn on the spot.

Nia’s eyes snap open, breath catching as she sees the steelix’s tail bearing down on them again. Nia loops her arms around Samir’s body and lunges as far as possible.

The steelix’s tail slams down not a foot away from both of them, making their bodies jump off the ground. The attack leaves an indent like a trench in the dirt, and Nia’s heart jumps into her throat.

She needs to move this fight away from here. Samir and Tobias are unconscious, and the steelix is after her now. Her partners are in the line of fire as long as the fight continues in this cavern.

Nia shoves away from Samir and bolts for the nearest opening, the one leading down into the tunnel system. She hears the steelix let out a booming laugh far behind her. She’s confused until she realizes he must think she’s trying to run.

For the first time since this fight started, she feels angry rather than afraid. He thinks this is funny? Thinks it’s hilarious to bury her partner alive and slam Samir into the wall like a doll? Thinks it's funny to hurt them, terrorize them, endanger the whole town?

It feels easier to think, suddenly, with her terror sharpening to fury. She understands why Tobias chooses anger now, instead of losing himself to despair. It feels more like she's in control. Like she can use this fire under her skin.

The rumble of the steelix following her into the tunnels makes her stumble. She picks herself up and runs harder, gasping for breath. Giratina flickers into view at her side, whole again.

When Nia reaches the first fork in the path, she hesitates. She just—she needs a second to breathe. To think. She needs a plan. Her lungs are on fire and she tastes metal in her mouth. Her emotions are a frayed knot of fear and grief and anger. But that doesn’t mean anything to the creature trying to kill her.

The shaking of the earth grows stronger, almost shaking her off her feet. On a whim, Nia staggers down the right path and around the bend until she can hunker down against the wall.

All she’s working with at this point is luck. Hoping that by pure chance, the steelix won’t pick this path. That’s what their lives are depending on.

Luckily, some kind of deity must decide that her fortune has been bad enough today, because she feels and hears the steelix rumble down the left path, his movements slowly fading away.

Nia breathes out a shuddery breath, sliding down the wall to the ground. That stroke of luck bought her a minute, maybe, before he turns around. She has to think.

She has to get them all out of here, but even if she turns around now, grabs Samir, and manages to haul the two of them up the ladder and to safety before the steelix can stop her (which is unlikely), she’s not just going to leave Tobias down here, buried under a mountain of rubble.

Giratina flickers into view across the tunnel. Nia looks up at him as she slows her breathing, knowing her emotions are clear as day on her face.

Giratina looks irritated.

And Nia feels angry in return.

“What?!” She hisses, careful to keep her voice down. “You have some great idea?! It’s a little hard to feel optimistic when I have no way to fight that thing!”

Giratina’s eyes narrow, moving around as if trying to think of something. Finally, they settle on the satchel still looped over her shoulder.

Nia, teetering violently between despair and fury, rips it off and throws it down. She yanks it open and turns it over so their meager collection of items spill out.

“There’s nothing here!" She says, voice breaking. She swallows hard and gestures at the mess. “What? What’s going to miraculously beat him for us? Berries? Half a flask of water? Badges that won’t even work? Blast seeds?“

Nia pauses, panting, and stares at the unassuming little yellow seeds sitting on the ground. The ones they’d gotten as a reward from their last client.

“Blast seeds,” she breathes.

With something like hope blossoming in her chest, Nia stuffs the rest of their items back into the satchel and pulls it back over her shoulder. Then, delicately, as if handling precious jewels, she scoops the little seeds into her hands. There are only three of them, small and unassuming. But she recalls Tobias’ words about them.

If she ate one, it would give her a short burst of flames to attack with, even without any move energy. And that would hurt even the steelix, right?

But there are only three. And even if they’re strong, what if they’re still not strong enough? Tobias’ flames clearly hurt the steelix earlier, left his hard hide soft as molten metal. But she needs a surefire way to take him down for good. A weak point, maybe—

A weak point exactly like that scar of his.

Nia laughs a wet, weak laugh, and wipes at her eyes. A plan is unfolding in her mind, and she can only desperately hope she can pull it off.

The steelix’s rumbling had faded away, but it’s starting to strengthen again as he returns. Nia gives Giratina a nod of thanks before hurrying back to the main cavern where Tobias, Samir, and Eddy are lying unconscious.

When she arrives, none of them have moved. That’s worrying on its own, but Nia doesn’t have time to fret over them, not until the steelix is dealt with.

Nia puts two of the blast seeds back in the satchel. The third she clutches in her paw, before moving to stand off to the side of the cave entrance.

Then, she waits.

The steelix rumbles back to the fork in the path, his cursing audible even from where she is. She hears him check out the other cave, but he doesn’t go far before turning around. He moves closer and closer to where she is, the ground shaking under her feet while she clings to the wall for stability.

Nia holds the blast seed up to her mouth. As soon as that giant silver face emerges from the cavern, she takes a note from Tobias' book and shouts, “Hey, ugly!”

The steelix’s head swings around to look at her.

Nia cracks the blast seed between her teeth, swallowing.

And immediately she feels an unfamiliar flare of energy erupt in her stomach, hot and powerful. It pushes up into her throat and out through her mouth and—

The explosive blast of fire nearly blinds her. But the pained roar of the steelix tells her she hit her target head-on.

A great thrashing follows. She feels more than sees the steelix’s tail swing dangerously close to her head as he roars with pain. Coughing up smoke and an unfamiliar sense of heat in her airways, Nia stumbles away from the blast zone. She blinks hard, squinting, until she can see the steelix writhing on the ground, churning up the dirt. The left side of his face is glowing white-hot with lingering heat.

Nia feels a thrill of victory, but hurriedly pulls out the second blast seed. Without giving the steelix time to recover, she runs straight at his face and cracks the second blast seed between her teeth.

He must hear her coming, because he pulls away just in time, dodging the majority of the seed’s explosion as he twists upright. Wavering, but once again stories above her head.

Nia curses, biting back a stab of panic. Only one seed left. She can’t afford to mess up with this one, and since he’s upright again, she’s going to need some leverage to use it.

Nia picks up a nearby rock loosened by the hubbub and launches it at his side. It pings uselessly against his armored body, but catches his attention. He squints down at her, clearly still blinking the explosions out of his vision and battling the pain.

Nia sticks her tongue out at him, then turns tail and sprints for the first cave, where the rope ladder leading outside hangs.

The steelix follows, slamming into walls in his dazed state and making it even harder for her to stay on her feet. She stumbles, but manages to stay ahead of him until she hits the cave. The bottom of the rope ladder is just visible in the little alcove off to the side. Nia ducks inside and jumps onto the rope ladder just in time.

The steelix slams into the wall separating the little space from the main cavern. The vertical tunnel around her shakes, and dirt powders her fur like snow.

Nia climbs higher, up and up as the steelix batters the wall with mindless fury. He must think she’s trying to escape. The rope ladder swings slightly under the onslaught. The wall behind her cracks ominously under the steelix’s weight.

Finally, Nia thinks she’s high enough. She turns around, facing the wall and the steelix behind it. She rummages in her satchel until she finds the last blast seed, then places it between her teeth.

The steelix is still roaring, slamming into the wall of the alcove over and over again. Nia clings to the rope ladder, locking her arms and praying this will work.

Finally, the layer of rock between the two of them begins to crack and crumble. It falls away in noisy chunks that plummet to the ground far below. The steelix’s face becomes visible, right at her level. He tears away the last chunk of rock between them, looking like a frenzied animal after its prey. Once she’s in sight, mere feet away from his giant maw, he goes for her.

And Nia swallows the blast seed.

Like the two times before, the seed immediately erupts. Flames explode in a cloud of biting heat. The steelix’s agonized roar only barely registers over the ringing in her ears. She remembers to close her eyes this time.

When she opens them, her heart skips a beat. The steelix is still upright. Rearing back with his face a molten hue, clearly hurting, but not unconscious.

One more final push. That’s all she needs. The heat should’ve softened the metal a bit, so—

Nia snaps her arm out and summons a staff of aura, feeling her reserves run low. Then, she pushes off the back wall of the alcove and leaps. For an instant, she feels like she’s flying. It’d be enjoyable if she weren’t flinging herself directly at the mouth of a monster.

Then she swings her aura staff up, and brings it down with all the strength left in her body.

The makeshift weapon hits true. It meets the softened split of the steelix’s scar with a crack like a gunshot. Nia isn’t sure if the sound is from the force of the blow, from the steelix’s shell splitting open further, or from her aura snapping to pieces in her hands.

Whatever it is, it seems to be enough.

The steelix doesn’t roar, or cry out, or rear back. Instead, he drops. Nia, who had landed on his head, struggles to hang on to the metal surface as the huge Pokemon topples. When he hits the ground, the earth itself shakes, throwing up a plume of dirt and dust that has Nia hacking.

An unnerving quiet falls over the cavern. The only sounds are her panting breaths, the quiet settling of dirt and earth, and the heavy puffs of the steelix passed out like a derailed train below her.

Giratina flickers into view off to the side, looking solemn as ever. He meets her eyes, then flicks his head back the way they came, to the other cavern.

She feels a cocktail of emotions building in her chest, but tries to stuff them away. At least for now. Relief and exhaustion make her limbs feel like jelly, but she’s not done yet. She has to get to her friends.

Nia slides down the hulking mass of the steelix. She staggers through the cavern, still coughing up smoke. She feels like her throat has first degree burns.

Finally, she finally makes it back to the cavern where Tobias, Samir, and Eddy lie knocked out.

She’s relieved to see Samir is waking up, dragging themself into a sitting position. They’re grimacing, one eye squeezed shut with pain, but they look coordinated enough.

“Samir!” She gasps, hurrying to their side.

The skiddo jumps, looking first at her, then around the cavern. Their anxious expression melts into confusion.

“The steelix is down,” Nia says, kneeling at the skiddo’s side and peering into their eyes to see if they have a concussion or anything. She doesn’t even know what she’s supposed to be looking for. “How do you feel?”

Samir blinks at her, clearly bewildered by the easy dismissal. Their gaze flicks over Nia’s shoulder, as if not quite believing her.

“I’ll tell you later,” she says, too tired to deal with this right now. “Seriously, are you okay? You got thrown into a wall and I thought…”

Samir must hear the way her throat closes up, because they finally soften and focus on Nia’s questions. Hesitantly, they nod. Their eyes flick down Nia’s form as they tilt their head with a furrowed brow.

“I-I think I’m okay?” Nia answers. She stumbles back to her feet, helping Samir up after. “But we need to find Tobias.”

Samir’s eyes widen. The skiddo went down first so they’re probably wanting to know what exactly happened, but Nia doesn’t have time to explain. Now that her adrenaline is fading, the fear is returning tenfold.

She really, really hopes Tobias is okay.

“This way,” she says, hurrying as fast as she can to the mountain of earth and rock that buried the charmander. The closer she gets, the more her distant panic surfaces.

This is…a huge mountain of dirt and rock. And while she saw Tobias get buried, she’d been too focused on his face to notice where exactly he would end up by the end of it. But she needs to get him out of there. What if he’s seriously hurt? What if he’s—

Fear spiking, Nia kneels in the dirt at a random spot and starts digging with her hands. She was hoping it would be easy to move, but the rocks and chunks of earth make it painful and clunky to handle, and the clay-like soil sticks everything together.

Nia feels her eyes sting with tears. She digs harder. Faster. Samir tugs on her satchel, but she doesn’t stop to look at them.

She doesn’t know where Tobias is. What if he dies because she can’t find him? What if he’s suffocating?

Her eyes blur with tears as she chokes. Desperately, Nia looks up at the nearest cave wall to find Giratina. The titan is still there, fragmented and a bit hard to see in the broken chunks of mirrorstone. He shakes his head. Nia isn’t sure if that means that he didn’t see where Tobias ended up either, or—

Samir is tugging at Nia’s satchel with their teeth again, hard enough to disrupt her work.

She finally turns to them, snapping, “What?!”

Samir looks concerned, but their gaze darts nervously to where Eddy is lying on the ground across the cave. They jerk their head towards the tunnel leading out of here.

Nia shoves the goat away, panic making her movements and words sharper than usual. “I’m not leaving him down here! W-What if he’s suffocating?!”

The thought only makes everything worse, and Nia’s breath hitches with a sob as she gets up, skittering around the cave-in, pawing small handfuls of rubble free before moving again to a new spot. Where is he? Where is he?!

Samir doesn’t argue again. Just staggers over to her side and starts trying to dig with their own hooves. After only a few seconds they stop, looking over at her with clear conflicted feelings.

She knows. She knows. It’s going to be impossible to find the charmander in this mess since neither of them know exactly where Tobias is. But she can’t just leave him down here! What if he dies because they take too long to get help digging him out? What if Eddy or the steelix wake up and find him first? What if the whole tunnel system caves in?

Nia is crying openly now. She ignores the pain of rocks and dirt straining and scraping at her desperate hands. She can hardly see in front of her through her tears, and swipes a frustrated, dirty arm across her face.

She can’t let Tobias die here. He’s her partner! Her friend! She can’t just let him go!

A small flash from her chest startles her and Samir alike. Nia sniffles, looking down at herself. She’s not surprised to find her body outlined with blue, the tired remnants of her aura manifesting with her rising emotions. Another spark flashes off her body.

Frustrated, she takes a moment to ball her fists against her temples and shriek into her inner arms. She supposedly has this great power, this ability to use her energy like no other species of Pokemon, and still she’s useless when people really need her.

Would one of her moves help if she could actually use them? She feels as powerless as she did in that fire in Ghatha. Or in the fight against the seviper. Or when she was grabbed by Giratina. When she was first transported to this world, scared out of her wits. When her and Tobias were trying to find that tropius calf, trying to see an enemy ambushing them from beneath the earth and Nia had tried and failed to—

Nia’s breath catches, tears and snot and grief making her cough. But wait, wait. That time in the cave dungeon, she’d tried something with her aura. Tried to find that burrowing enemy by sending out a pulse of her aura, like radar.

She didn’t even get close to succeeding then. And she hasn’t tried anything like it since. Her attempt at using mimic earlier was a total failure. But…

What other option does she have?

Nia’s aura flares, making her flinch as it pulses through her like a rush of energy. Nearby pebbles rattle and roll away. Distantly, she registers Samir stepping back out of the corner of her eye.

This is dangerous. She can’t control this yet. She could make the rock slide worse, could unsettle the precarious stability of the earth. They could all be buried alive.

But if she does nothing, Tobias could die. And it’s worth the risk if it might save him.

“Samir, step back,” Nia whispers, widening the arms she has braced against the dirt and rock. She hears the skiddo follow her order without complaint, scrabbling away.

Then, Nia takes a deep, shuddering breath. Tries to imagine her aura coursing through her body. Tries to remember what Val told her, long ago, about casting her aura out not as a solid stream, but as a veil. A wave.

Her first attempt erupts from her hands with an earth-rumbling burst. Nia flinches, gritting her teeth. Too strong. Too much, all at once.

She tries to slow the flow of her aura, less like a faucet full-blast, and more like barely nudging it on. Lets her aura trickle out at a much smaller, much steadier pace.

Like this, it’s easier to control how the aura disperses. She can hold the contents of that gentle flow, then scatter it like water drops from cupped hands. Like a fine mist, rather than a stream.

She tries it. The energy disperses, and for a moment Nia fears nothing has happened. Did she still not get it right? Val said she should be able to sense any aura hers bumps into.

Could Tobias already be..?

Nia whimpers and tries the technique again, struggling to keep her emotions from getting out of control. She can’t let them get out of control. She has to do this. She has to help Tobias!

She just…she just wants him to be safe.

The second try is better than the first one. Less a net with gaping holes in it and more a…pulse. A wave, gently passing through the earth beneath her.

For an instant, there’s nothing.

Then, a new color flashes in her mind, there and gone in an instant. Red. Not the bright blood red of Xander or their scarves, but a deep, maroon red.

Nia’s breath catches.

“Tobias..?” She murmurs. Desperately, she sends out another pulse. The second time her aura brushes against another’s makes her choke out a sob.

There’s life there. And despite the fact that Nia has never seen Tobias’ aura before, despite the fact that she’s trying not to look too deeply into it, she knows it’s him. She can feel it’s him, almost as clearly as she knows her own soul.

And he’s still alive.

Nia sends another pulse of aura into the earth, hands shaking. Then another. Tries to pinpoint with her aura exactly where he is in this mess of rubble. It’s hard, when she isn’t familiar navigating this disconnected part of herself. But after a few more times, it starts to make sense. It’s like…sonar. Like a radar. Like a beacon.

“I found him,” she says, breathless. Her heart pounds in her ears. Her eyes snap open, blue still outlining the edges of her vision, and she slides clumsily down from the top of the rubble.

Samir trots to her side, wide-eyed but looking to her for direction. Nia hurries to the edge of the debris, biting her lip and sending another pulse of aura into the pile. She swallows down a cry when she “sees” that same flash of red, only a few feet forward.

“Here,” she says, getting to work. “Just ahead!”

Samir nods, then immediately joins her in digging. After a minute or two, Nia’s bloodied hands have made a sizeable dent in the earth. Samir has adjusted their strategy to start moving the discarded dirt further away, and they stabilize the gap Nia is creating. Nia wants to use her aura and blast the rubble away, or ask Samir to use one of their own attacks, but she knows they risk hurting Tobias if they do.

Still, it seems like it takes forever to dig deeper and deeper into the loose rock and earth. Nia sends the occasional pulse of aura out to make sure they’re still on the right track.

Finally, Nia pulls away a small slab of rock to reveal a dusty orange arm.

“Tobias!” She gasps, fresh tears flooding her eyes. She frantically digs more, using her aura to help fling away the larger chunks.

Once they uncover half of Tobias’ body, Samir helps to drag him free completely, trying to be mindful of any injuries.

The charmander's face is bruised and slack, eyes closed, but his tail flame is like a breath of fresh air. Small, but bright.

Nia gathers him into her lap, hugging his warm body close. She knew he was her friend, she knew she cared about him, but she didn’t realize how much the thought of losing him hurt until she nearly did.

“Gh…Nia?”

The throaty whisper makes Nia pull back, looking down at Tobias through a blurry watercolor of tears.

He squints up at her, wincing and lifting a hand to his head. “What happened? Feels like I got hit by a mountain.”

“More or less,” Nia says, voice aiming for joking but coming out strangled.

Tobias blinks up at her, frowning, probably about to ask more questions, but Nia can’t resist. She leans down and wraps him up in another tight hug, crying into his dusty scarf.

“N-Nia! Hey!”

“Are you okay?” She asks.

“I think so? What—“

That’s all Nia needed to hear. She ignores Tobias weak protests and flailing limbs, hugging him tighter. After a few moments, he seems to give in, grumbling something and letting his arms fall heavily around her back.

Samir is the one to interrupt the emotional reunion. They tug at Nia’s scarf, tied around her bicep. When she looks up, wiping at her eyes, the goat gives her an apologetic but nervous look, glancing once again at Eddy. The otter Pokemon is still knocked out for now, but Nia heard him groan earlier. He could wake up at any moment, and none of them are in any condition to fight.

“R-Right. We need to get out of here and grab Calder.”

Samir nods, helping Nia to her feet. Then they lean into Tobias’ other side to force the charmander to use them as a crutch.

“‘M up, I’m up,” Tobias grumbles half-heartedly. Nia can tell he’s exhausted by how little he protests their help.

“Let’s go,” she says, looping his free arm over her shoulder.

Slowly, the three of them hobble past Eddy, back through the tunnel and into the first cave with the rope ladder. Both Tobias and Samir stop sharply when they see the downed steelix surrounded by rubble.

“How..?” Tobias chokes. She feels him turn his head to look at her. “Did you—“

“Later,” Nia insists, too on-edge to feel flustered.

When they finally make it to the ladder, Nia has to spend a full minute convincing Samir to go first. She knows they’re the slowest climber, that’s why she wants them to go first! She doesn’t want to have to worry about accidentally leaving them behind.

The skiddo looks bitter at that, but finally acquiesces when Nia gives them a pleading look and reminds them that it’s really not a good time to be arguing.

Nia sends Tobias up between them, to give the charmander someone to follow but to allow her to try to catch him if he slips. She can tell that almost starts another argument, but Samir, thank God, starts climbing and Nia puts on her I’m Serious About This face so Tobias finally starts climbing himself. Slower than Nia would like, but it’ll have to do. Nia shoots nervous glances over her shoulder at the steelix and towards the tunnel where Eddy lies unconscious.

When Tobias’ tail flame is high up in the tunnel, he calls down, “Nia!”

“Coming!” She whisper-yells back, finally scrambling after the two of them. Her tense muscles are sore and heavy with exhaustion, but she doesn’t think she’s ever climbed so fast in her life, leftover terror giving her energy.

She catches up to Tobias just as Samir is hauling him over the edge and into the surface cave of the old mine. When she’s out too, Nia takes a moment to catch her breath. Tobias looks seconds away from passing out, and Nia is tempted to let him, but…

Samir tap-taps in the dirt. They jerk their head towards the mouth of the tunnel, in the direction of Asra. Their brown eyes are tired and sympathetic, but unyielding.

“I know, I know,” Nia groans, pushing herself to her feet. Tobias hisses a weak protest when she drags him up too, slinging his arm over her shoulders again.

Slowly, the three of them trudge back to the opening of the cave. Nia sees the dim gray light of early morning, dawn just starting to touch the horizon, and tears flood her eyes again. The cold desert breeze brushing against her face is the sweetest air she’s ever tasted.

When they step outside, Nia can see the vague mass of Fort Asra in the distance, and she wants to cry for another reason entirely. It’s so, so far. She’s not sure they can actually make it.

A quiet sound behind Nia makes her instincts jolt. She sees Samir tense at the same time, ears swiveling back.

Nia spins, Tobias stumbling without her support. But she’s just in time to put up a weak screen of aura, a poor imitation of her earlier protect.

Bright blue slices of water hammer against her shield, cracking it. Nia grunts and stumbles back from the blow. Tobias catches her, nearly falling himself. Samir steps in front of both of them.

Eddy is at the mouth of the cave, leaning heavily against the wall. He sneers at them with bared, bloody teeth and wild eyes. If they were at full strength, Nia is sure they would be able to handle him as easily as they did earlier. But after that Steelix..?

Nia can barely get her legs under her again. She and Tobias are holding each other up like a wobbly tower of cards. Samir’s legs are visibly trembling with fatigue.

Eddy snarls, lunging forward with his shells drawn. Nia tenses, and she sees Samir do the same.

A familiar jet of water shoots past her shoulder, slamming into Eddy and sniping him out of the air.

Nia blinks, then whips her head around to see none other than Calder rushing up to them. Behind the inteleon, Nia is even more surprised to see Takeo and Granite hauling themselves up the rocks.

“Calder?” She asks, bewildered. She must be hallucinating.

But the inteleon runs past them without a word, tackling Eddy to the dirt and pinning him easily. The dewott snarls but can barely put up a fight.

A light touch to Nia’s back makes her jump, but when she looks it’s just Granite, reaching out with his trunk to get her attention. The donphan scans her and then Tobias with serious eyes.

“You three all right?”

Tobias snorts weakly into her neck, clearly thinking a sarcastic retort but too fatigued to verbalize it.

“Tired,” Nia manages.

Granite nods. “I’m guessing ol’ Ed here was up to no good to have you three looking like that?”

“Caused the quakes,” Tobias says, words half-slurred as he struggles to stay conscious.

Takeo, who had crouched in front of Samir to check them over, matches Granite’s surprised expression. The two of them openly stare at the charmander.

“Eddy can’t use ground moves,” Granite finally says, dumbfounded.

“He's working with an, um…a steelix,” Nia says, struggling to recall the species. “He’s knocked out, but he’s still down there.”

Calder, with Eddy’s unconscious body tucked under his arm like an unruly toddler, steps back over to them. He frowns. “There’s someone else involved?”

Nia waits a beat, before realizing that Tobias is legitimately passing out as they speak and Samir is almost there as well, swaying on their hooves. Not to mention mute.

She rubs at her eyes. “There’s a tunnel leading under the mines. Beneath the mine cart. Leads to a tunnel system. A steelix was causing the quakes. Eddy was making it rain so much to increase the damage.”

Nia can see all the adults taking that in with furrowed brows. Calder’s grip on Eddy grows tighter. Takeo narrows his eyes and glances at the otter with a dark expression. Granite curses under his breath, steadying Tobias when he starts to to tilt.

Finally, Calder nods, handing Eddy off to Takeo. The spidops wordlessly gets to work bundling the smaller Pokemon up with…silk? He skillfully twines it around and around the otter with his long arms weaving like a loom. Nia watches the motion as if in a trance, blinking sluggishly.

“Should we call for backup as soon as we get back?” Granite gruffs.

Calder nods again. “Yes. Send Lara and Cody for sure. We need a sleep powder and a heavy hitter to make sure we can keep the steelix controlled until authorities arrive. Send Jay to the guild. He’ll need to grab some psychics to take these two in.”

Nia barely registers the words of the three Asra ‘mon as she fights to stay standing. Tobias is leaning more and more heavily into her as he slowly slides to the ground. She eventually gives up and goes with him, sitting down in the dirt.

She must start to doze, because she’s woken up by Tobias’ weight being shifted off her shoulder. She looks up, bleary-eyed, to find Takeo securing the unconscious charmander to Granite’s broad back with some of that same silk. A string shot attack, maybe? Samir is already tied down as well, their head up as they fight to stay awake. Their eyes are lidded with exhaustion.

“Wh’re we going?” Nia mumbles.

Takeo effortlessly scoops Nia up to hold her in his arms. She doesn’t have it in her to feel embarrassed about being carried like a child. At least she’s not swaddled up in a cocoon and strapped to the bug type’s back like Eddy is.

“Taking you kids back to town,” Takeo grunts, starting to carefully pick his way down the rocks. Granite follows with a clumsy slide that sends pebbles raining down after him.

Nia blinks up at the slowly-brightening sky framing Takeo’s chin. The air is still cool with night air, but the dawn is turning from gray to blue, clear and lovely.

Her eyes slide to the side, until she catches a glimpse of orange and green atop Granite’s gray back.

“Are they gonna be okay?” She asks.

Takeo hums. “They should be fine. You kids are tough, and smarter than we gave you credit for. Dumber, too.”

Nia huffs something like a laugh as she closes her eyes. She can’t really argue with that.

#pmd #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon #giratina #pmd seekers of soul #tesha draws #tesha writes

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