//------------------------------// // For The Sake Of The Future // Story: Celestia's Rocket Adventures // by Snake Staff //------------------------------// “TEAM ROCKET!” cried Celestia as her exhausted wings beat as frantically as they could. The first thing she had seen, upon finally forcing her way out from between Gyarados’ jaws, had been the heart-stopping sight of them vanished, a beam of pure dark energy consuming the space where they had stood. For the second time in what couldn’t have been more than half an hour, it had seemed certain that her newfound friends were dead. And once again it seemed someone smiled upon them, because the very next second that same beam had been reflected back and sent its creator packing. The panting, saliva-covered alicorn landed before her teammates, taking a deep breath. “Celestia!” James looked up from where he had his arms wrapped around his teammates and a motionless Wobbuffet. “Thank heavens you’re alright! Come here!” he beckoned. The princess nodded, a pained smile on her face. “I-” “What does it take to do away with you people?!” came a far less welcome voice from the opposite side of the room. In spite of the bone-deep weariness she felt, Celestia whirled around in an instant, spreading her wings protectively over her friends. As the smoke from Yveltal’s sudden ejection cleared away, a vast shape could be seen rising from the ground. Gyarados towered over its trainer, enveloping Lysandre defensively, placing itself between him and harm just as the alicorn did for Team Rocket. For his part, what expression could be read on his visor-ed face was… unhappy, to say the least. “How many times do I have to get rid of you before it sticks?!” Team Flare’s leader tightened his fists. “Stuff a sock in it, ya crazy old coot!” Meowth yelled back, paw curled into a fist. “You and your stupid plan are done here, so just come all quiet-like and we won’t hurt ya too bad!” “Maybe you won’t…” Jessie muttered, recalling the limp Wobbuffet in her arms. “Done, am I?” Lysandre reached down towards his waist. “We’ll see about that!” Team Flare’s leader pulled yet another small, black orb from his belt before tossing it into the air. The exhausted alicorn was too far away to even think about seizing it with Psychic before it burst open. Team Rocket recoiled and Celestia grimaced as the same blue and black deerlike Pokémon from the broadcast materialized in front of Gyarados. Visibly battered and more than a little unsteady, it nonetheless pawed the ground aggressively, dead eyes fixed firmly on its enemies. “Didn’t you see my broadcast?” the red-haired man smirked. “Yveltal and Xerneas are with me. And if I’m not mistaken, you seem to be down to the poor little princess there.” “Yeah well you’re plan’s already down da drain!” Meowth yelled over at him. “Your contraption dere just got vaporized and ya got no one left upstairs in dat control room!” “Even if you beat us here, you’ve got nothing left!” James added. “You’re through!” “Through? What if I told you that the weapon has already absorbed more than enough energy for a full-powered shot? Even one on a fault line can crack a continent in two.” Lysandre clenched his gauntleted fist as Team Rocket blanched. “The way I see it, I’m going to eliminate you here and now, destroy Kanto, and I’ll figure out the rest from there.” There was more than a touch of mania in his voice. “How does that sound?” “Like it won’t be happening,” Celestia whispered, right before hurling herself at him. There was only one chance now, and the alicorn knew it. Destroy the man’s equipment and whatever Dark Balls he was carrying before she fell, ending any hope of him being able to carry out his insane plan before Gyarados doubtless tore her apart in revenge. She only hoped her friends would be able to get away while he did. The moment she felt in range, Celestia’s exhausted eyes shone with the golden light of Psychic, and a corresponding aura took immediate shape around Lysandre. He barely had time to flinch as the princess put all the energy she had into raw telekinetic pressure on his gauntlet, backpack, visor, and the dark orbs around his waist. Cracks started to appear… and then quick as a flash a mountain of blue and black scales appeared between them. A second later and a shimmering turquoise bubble cut her mental energy off from her target altogether. “No…” Celestia managed to whisper. She didn’t have any time to let it sink in, because Xerneas was already in full gallop. The massive deerlike Pokémon’s multicolored antlers were a furious red and yellow, swung like a mammoth cudgel backed by a ferocious charge. The comparatively miniscule alicorn never stood a chance. Xerneas’ Megahorn impacted with a thunderclap, flinging Celestia right back the way she had come with all the force of a runaway freight train. One of the outcroppings of rock from the floor was unfortunate enough to be in her path. The collision shattered the spike altogether, spraying dust and fragments of stone in all directions. “Celestia, no!” James cried out as Team Rocket shielded their eyes against the incoming storm, sharp bits of rock cutting into their clothes and skin. “Celestia yes,” Lysandre grinned as the lingering dust cleared enough to reveal a faded white alicorn lying sprawled out on the broken ground, rainbow mane stilled, eye twitching, and expression contorted into one of mute agony. Half crying, half screaming incoherently, James, followed immediately by Jessie and Meowth, raced to the princess’ side. With the sun shining down on them through the hole in the opposite wall, they crowded around her. Xerneas made to charge a second time but froze immediately upon a gesture from Lysandre. “Gyarados deserves the final blow,” he said to the Legendary, the protective sphere around him dissolving away. Jessie, meanwhile, had her hand on Celestia’s back. “Come on,” she whispered quietly. “You can do this.” “Y-You got dis,” Meowth said shakily from where he knelt, trying halfheartedly to prop up Celestia’s limp head. James for his part seemed too distraught to say anything coherent, simply gritting his teeth against welling tears while tearing frantically through his pockets as if he might find something to save them. He tossed out his wallet, a pair of extremely rare mint condition bottlecaps in traveling cases, a rainbow gemstone, and an old receipt, but not a single healing item. No potions, no herbs, not even a half-smushed berry. Celestia looked up at him with the one eye not covered by her lifeless mane, her light purple meeting his green. Her expression in that moment was almost… apologetic. She gently closed it, allowing a tear of her own to roll down her battered and filthy cheek hair. “As much as I would like to repay you in full for all that you’ve cost me,” Lysandre’s voice cut in, hard-edged and laced with barely repressed bitterness, “I have no further time for any of you mongrels.” He nodded at Gyarados. “Eliminate them, starting with the alien pest.” “Now wait just a minute dere!” Meowth yelled back at him. The white cat Pokémon leapt atop the nearest standing rock, unsheathing his claws and assuming a battle stance. “Dat lady is part a Team Rocket, so if ya wanna get ta her den ya gotta go through-” “Hydro Pump,” Lysandre interrupted. Gyarados lunged forward and released a pressurized torrent of water thrice Meowth’s height from his open jaws. The attack covered the distance between the two Pokémon in a heartbeat, blasting the feline straight back all the way back to the same wall Yveltal had put him against mere moments before. This time the deluge of cold blue pinned him there for several seconds, pressing him roughly into unyielding steel before letting up. Meowth flopped to the floor with a wet smack and lay still. “Meowth!” Jessie and James shouted simultaneously, both with hands stretched out as if to grab him. “Now that the peanut gallery has kindly quieted down, it’s time to do the honors,” Team Flare’s leader continued with barely a pause. “Hyper Beam.” A brilliant sphere of white-gold coalesced in his serpent’s jaws, outshining even the incoming sunlight in the dim underground chamber. James and Jessie heaved the heavy form of the princess as best they could with what strength they had remaining. With all the speed adrenaline could gift them, they ran. Gyarados fired. The incandescent beam of energy struck the ground right at Team Rocket’s heels, detonating immediately. The fiery shockwave pitched all three of them, and anything that happened to be in the vicinity, violently into the air. Jessie, who had been at the rear, had it the worst of them. She went sailing overhead until she hit a wall, then simply slid limply down it to lie in a heap at its base. James and Celestia, shielded a little by her misfortune, only made it about three quarters of the way to the same wall, coming to rest several yards apart at the very edge of the sunlight. Smoking bits of twisted steel, electronics, and earth rained down on them while a thick black column rose from the new crater in the already tortured floor. “What good does flight do?” Lysandre remarked while Gyarados took a necessary moment to recharge. “Just accept your fate with whatever modicum of grace your miserable kind is capable of.” “Nnnrrrrrrrgh…” James moaned, attempting to force himself to his knees, only to fall back onto his face when his left leg gave out. “I-It can’t… can’t end l-like this…” “It can and it is,” Lysandre said harshly, arms folded across his chest and a stern expression on the parts of his face that were visible. “I refuse to waste any more time with scum like Team Rocket.” “C-Come on…” unable for the moment to even crawl properly, James resorted to simply dragging himself across the ground towards Celestia. Her limp face could barely crack an eye at him. “You h-have to g-get up… urrrgh…” he winced against the fresh jolt of pain. “You c-can’t let him… win…” “There’s no ‘let’ involved here,” the red-haired man replied. “You lose. I win.” “Please…” James managed with tears in his eyes, straining to pull himself forward a few more inches. “You… you can do this…” He tried to get even closer to the prone white alicorn but could find the strength to do little more than feebly grab onto a handful of smoking debris in one gloved hand. “Get… up! Our world… needs you! We… need you! I…” he moaned again with tears trickling down his cheeks, one hand outstretched with the other still wrapped around the hot gravel. “I need you! Celestia, please!” No one was as surprised as he was when his fist started glowing. James started and all but jumped backwards when a scintillating blaze of rainbow burst from between the clenched fingers of his right hand. Uncurling them a fraction, he found a perfectly spherical gemstone amidst the blackened stone and steel, hot to the touch but as undamaged as the night it had survived the forest fire. It shone like a lantern amidst the half gloom, clearly visible to all. “…What?” Lysandre breathed, taking a handful of steps backwards, one arm unconsciously flung out as if to protect himself. Above him, Gyarados was staring with wide eyes, momentarily transfixed. Even Jessie and Meowth, semiconscious at best, seemed affected when the light touched them. Xerneas alone seemed unmoved. James’ incredulity at what was in his hand lasted only an instant, and then his eyes were locked on what was directly ahead of him. Celestia’s limp form was gone. Where it had been was a spherical cocoon of churning rainbow, rising slowly from the ground. He had a mere handful of heartbeats to stare blankly at it, his mind point-blank refusing to process what was happening, before it just shattered. The creature that emerged was beautiful… breathtaking… and utterly alien. Her pure white coat now positively burned the eye to look upon directly, emitting such light as to turn the darkness of the central chamber into a cloudless noonday. Her visibly enlarged body sprouted no less than six seraphic wings, and though they beat not once she floated easily in the air. Golden scales ringed her neck like a choker and decorated her face in elegant curves, highlighting a head with four pupil-less eyes shimmering in every color of the rainbow. The fires that blazed in place of her tail and mane were… almost cool, by comparison with her coat at any rate. They were a cheerful yellow and orange, swaying and writhing back and forth, pleasing to the eye. Almost hypnotically so, even. A careful observer could have speculated that to stare into them too long might be to stare forever. All in all, it was probably for the best that the heat rolling off of her visibly distorted the air in her vicinity, partially obscuring her silhouette. “Impossible,” came the sound of Lysandre’s voice, breaking whatever spell had been keeping the chamber silently mesmerized. “Impossible!” His gauntleted hand clutched tightly at nothing. “Mega Evolution is beyond most real Pokémon! Some alien interloper can’t just achieve it with a Key Stone and a pathetic plea! What on earth are you?!” “I am the dawn and a new day begun,” a regal-sounding female voice boomed into the minds of everyone present. “I bring you your end, your setting sun.” “You… you can talk?!” James was surprised by the sudden strength in his own voice, the waves of sheer vigor that seemed to accompany just hearing those words. “In this form, apparently,” the same voice said much more quietly inside of his head. “Neat, huh?” In spite of everything, James couldn’t help but smile a little at the sheer absurdity of it. He forced himself back to his feet with less struggle than he anticipated, the strange surge of vitality helping him along the way. He noticed when he did that even Lysandre seemed to be standing straighter and more easily than before and wondered just what exactly he had just done. “How many ridiculous curveballs does the universe plan to throw at me?!” Lysandre snarled. “How many times must I prove that I am right and that I will not be stopped?!” “Maybe you should learn to take a hint,” the telepathic voice suggested. “I will not be delayed any longer by a child’s toy reciting poetry!” he half-screamed back, pointing directly at the blazing alicorn. “Gyarados, douse that thing’s flame in your Hydro Pump!” Whatever unofficial pause the battle may have had ended right that moment. The blue and black sea serpent, still far and away the largest and bulkiest Pokémon present, reared back and opened its jaws wide for another torrent of briny water. “Maybe I’m crazy but it seems like you’ve got a theme going on!” James pointed right back. “So, use Flamethrower!” Celestia didn’t open her mouth. Instead the alicorn’s four shimmering eyes widened, and the very tips of all six of her wings suddenly caught fire. She gently flapped them forward but once, and suddenly all six flames leapt eagerly forward, combining and fusing into a virtual tornado of blazing golden destruction. The column of fire met the column of water midway across the chamber, colliding with a thunderous clap. Scalding clouds of steam hissed as they were projected in all directions, the humidity of the room rising with each passing second. The two attacks struggled with one another, pushing back and forth as both Pokémon exerted effort, but to Gyarados’ visible astonishment the water was failing to extinguish the fire. “Go Xerneas, Moonblast now!” Lysandre’s barked command spurred the long-immobile Legendary back into action. Rapidly forming a pink and white orb between its antlers, it took quick aim and let loose against the distracted Celestia. She had precious little chance to react before it struck home, flinging her upwards and backwards, hitting the wall just above the broken observation level window several stories up. “No matter how much you’d like to posture as an avenging angel, you’re still just an alien freak in the end,” Lysandre smiled grimly, which only widened as the light emanating from Celestia seemed to visibly dim outside of the sunbeam. “Don’t like the shadows, hmm? Gyarados, Xerneas, seize the sunlight and blast her! Hydro Pump and Moonblast!” “Celestia, are you alright?!” James called up even while backing off frantically from the advancing giants. “Rather tired, actually,” came the mental voice again. “But at least there’s good news from up here. I think.” “Deal with it later, dodge and use Psychic!” Celestia darted downwards far faster than her nonexistent wingbeats should have allowed. A pink sphere and a jet of water struck the wall where she had just been, doing little but further ruining the already devastated chamber. As she all but fell straight down, Gyarados unleashed more water, while a new sphere formed in between Xerneas’ horns. At the last possible second the alicorn jerked her head sharply to the right, and a corresponding force shoved the surprised deer’s own head rightwards just enough. Moonblast struck Gyarados in his bulky flank. Lysandre’s Pokémon roared in pain as the sudden strike sent it sprawling, scales smoking and eyes screwed up tightly. “That’s the way to play!” James cheered. “Now use Steel Wing!” Lysandre gritted his teeth. “Megahorn.” Celestia, descending from on high very much like an avenging angel whatever Lysandre would say, had three of her wings suddenly alight with silver, feathers sharpening until they more resembled knives. Xerneas in turn bounded forwards eagerly, multicolored horns giving way once more to simple red and yellow. One plummeted, the other leapt. The two struck one another dead center and seemed to freeze in place for a moment as both strained against each other. Then there was a deafening bang, and both sides were thrust away. Xerneas hit the ground on its back, crushing some more rubble beneath it. The smaller, lighter Celestia went flying backwards into the wall for the second time, this time smacking unpleasantly into it and sliding down onto the floor. “Please…” said the voice in James’ head, with a notable tenor of strain this time. “Don’t have me do that again. This form gives me some added stamina but it’s not unlimited.” “Right, er… sorry,” James scratched the back of his head awkwardly, then noticed that it wasn’t just Celestia but also Jessie and Meowth that seemed to be picking themselves up. “Quickly, while she’s down!” Lysandre yelled from behind him. “Gyarados, hit her with Hydro Pump!” “Use Protect!” Gyarados shook himself free from the last of the pain and fired off another blast without hesitating. In turn, Celestia folded her wings over her face and was enveloped in an energy bubble, which caught the gushing flow before a drop of it could touch the princess. Behind the serpent, though, the black and blue deer regained its hooves, shaking its head several times as it did. “Alright Celestia, let’s finish these punks off!” James yelled over at her. “Give them a taste of your Hyper Voice!” “Gyarados, use Protect. Xerneas, you use Geomancy.” As the incoming tide of salt water slackened and fell away, Celestia’s turquoise shield vanished into nothingness. Already braced and ready, she lost no time in launching herself smoothly back into the air, soaring high above her twin opponents before opening her mouth for the first time since her transformation. The fact that she had no visible teeth – and in fact that the interior of her narrowed mouth appeared to be nothing but a black void utterly without light – did nothing to make her appearance less unnerving. Still, when she screamed like a banshee, the same sonic shockwaves as before emerged. Gyarados had already shielded himself by the time the attack struck, riding it out safely in another cocoon of turquoise energy. By contrast, Xerneas simply stood there and took it without flinching, at least at first. Its horns lit up first rainbow and then a bright green even while it endured the earsplitting attack, and identically colored green energy seemed to flow from the earth beneath its hooves into its body. “What’s…” the familiar sound of Jessie’s voice from behind caught James’ attention. “What’s going on here?” she groaned. “I remember hitting a wall, then the next thing I know there’s a voice in my head and miss princess over there has eight wings and two heads or something.” “Funny, I got da same story over here,” Meowth moaned as he slowly made his way over to where James was taking what cover he could. “So, what gives?” “Are you guys alright?” James managed, over the sound of Hyper Voice continuing in the background. “Of course we’re not alright, dummy,” Meowth feebly kicked him in the shin, straining water out of his fur at the same time. “No one’s alright.” “Meowth is right, now spill the beans,” Jessie added. “Well, I was crawling on the floor, then I grabbed this thing,” James showed them the rainbow gem still firmly gripped in his hand. “And then Celestia turned into that thing,” he nodded over at her. “So it sounds like either somebody’s lookin’ out for us, or we’re just dat amazin’,” Meowth observed. There was a pause. “We’re just that amazing,” all three agreed. Meanwhile, the Hyper Voice was at last reaching its finale. Even with a vastly expanded lung capacity there was only so long an alicorn could scream for, and Celestia had reached her limit. Below, Gyarados stood unharmed and strong, but beside it Xerneas was looking distinctly shaky, adjusting its balance several times just in the space of a few seconds. “Now’s the time!” Lysandre called. “Gyarados, Aqua Tail!” “Dodge it,” James countered. Gyarados tensed and leapt immediately into the air, the sheer strength of the tail it used for a springboard propelling it easily to the alicorn’s height. Its swiped for her with a water-encrusted tail, but she dodged almost nonchalantly, not even having to beat her wings to achieve near-perfect agility. “Moonblast now!” Celestia had barely had time to hear the words before an energy sphere struck her directly from below with far more kinetic energy than the previous one. She went soaring straight up like a rocket ship, becoming little more than a glowing dot by the time she hit the ceiling a multitude of stories above. “Ow,” came the voice. “Xerneas looks a lot quicker on the draw this time,” James winced. “You think?!” The Legendary Pokémon reared up, kicking out its two front legs into the air, and fired off one Moonblast after another. The sheer speed of it was astonishing – where previously it had taken a handful of seconds to generate each blast, this time it seemed that it could conjure them every other second without pausing. It stumbled somewhat as it put down again to four hooves, but just kept firing with that aggressively mindless tenacity that characterized victims of Dark Ball technology. Celestia sped through the air in a circle high above it, outside of even Gyarados’ leaping range, relying on the tiniest delay it took Moonblast to reach her height to stay ahead of the constant stream of explosions wracking the poor walls around her. “Any ideas?” James frowned for a second. “Erm… drop, then use Psychic?” “He’s not going to fall for that same trick again.” “I didn’t mean to pull Xerneas into Gyarados’ way, I-” “Oh, I get it.” “Are you reading my mind or something?” James clutched his skull. “Of course I am.” “Since when can you do that?!” “Since a few minutes ago, please keep up.” With that, Celestia abruptly plummeted towards the ground at considerably more than her terminal velocity. The move was so sudden and unexpected that Xerneas had to take a moment to adjust its aim. In that moment, the uncountable bits of debris cluttering the floor around it came to an abrupt life, lunging for its head in their dozens and hundreds. Most were small, minor irritants that could do little more than get in its eyes and foul its aim. But even a Legendary will fall on its face when the ground it is standing on is suddenly yanked out from under it. The alicorn’s descent stopped almost instantly when she flared out her wings. She opened her void-like mouth again, only to be blindsided by a blue, watery tail as big as she herself was. Gyarados could leap even higher than it had before and had picked a fine time to demonstrate. Celestia was piledrivered into the floor by over half a ton of muscle and scales with a briny liquid coating. “Finish her, now!” Lysandre commanded. “Crunch!” “Disarming Voice!” James screamed. Gyarados reared back, and then lunged in with snapping fangs, only to be met with pink heart-shaped waves of energy when the princess sweetly sang part of her favorite love song. The sea serpent reeled under the onslaught, lost its balance, and fell over backwards. Celestia took the opportunity to try and extricate herself from the impact crater that she was half buried in. “Don’t let her keep escaping! Giga Impact!” Xerneas, now looking very unstable and still partially blinded from all the dirt in its eyes, still had no hesitation about obeying. It charged the immobilized alicorn with radiant red antlers, leaping easily over the prone form of Gyarados as it did so. “Hyper Voice, now!” Xerneas leapt, only to be met with sonic shockwaves before it could land its final blow. Without anything to anchor itself on, the Legendary Pokémon was simply tossed through the air. It hit the ground hard and kept going, before finally ramming the wall with the side of its skull. Weakly, the deer attempted to resume its hooves, before something gave out about halfway up. It twitched, then crumpled to the ground and lay still. “YES!” James cheered. “In your face!” Jessie taunted. Meowth blew Lysandre a raspberry. “We’ll see who’s laughing when this is all done,” Team Flare’s leader muttered under his breath, holding out a Dark Ball to retrieve the unconscious Pokémon. “Gyarados, this has gone on far too long! Hydro Pump!” “Show him the fiery Team Rocket spirit! Flamethrower!” Gyarados, freshly upright again, took the opportunity to rear back release another cascade of high-pressure water from its massive jaws. Celestia, still not entirely free of her impact crater, returned fire with another combination inferno generated from all six of her wings. Once again the twin streams of fire and water met in the center. But this time, Celestia was wedged in the ground and out of the sunlight. More scalding steam belched forth from the point of contact, but the golden flame was quickly drowned out by the tide of salt water. The raw physical force of the torrent rapidly filled up her small crater, built up the pressure, and then launched the alicorn skywards in a burst of steam. Celestia bounced once, twice, and then three times against the floor before finally coming to rest right near Team Rocket. Clouds of hot steam were roiling off of her body, the shimmering aura of heat distortion that concealed some of her figure was all but gone, and her flames were guttering low. “Celestia,” James took a step forward, one hand raised, “are you-” “Stay back!” the voice in his head suddenly barked, and he flinched. “You’ll burn if you touch me!” With three of her four rainbow eyes closed, the princess was slowly forcing her way back onto her hooves, her altered body shuddering at the effort. “What are you waiting for?!” Lysandre shouted up at Gyarados. “Finish her off!” For his part, the titanic sea serpent was also panting, bent down and visibly battered from the heavy fighting. Bits of broken scale rained down his sides as he glanced briefly down at his trainer, then back to his enemy. “I don’t think I have… more than one good hit left in me.” Celestia’s voice admitted to James. “I don’t think that thing does either,” James replied. “Then we just have to make this next shot count.” “Right.” Gyarados lunged, firing another jet of water as it did. Celestia banked hard to the side, taking off just as fast as she could force her weary body to do so. Hydro Pump tore up the floor where she had been standing and forced Team Rocket to scatter, but that was all. Gyarados ignored them completely, massive head rotating to track the alicorn as she soared in circles around the chamber, rising higher and higher with each one. “She’s going for the sunlight,” Lysandre hissed. “Gyarados, stop her with your…” Lysandre looked up and allowed his voice to trail off. At that moment he realized what James and Celestia already had: his Pokémon was too exhausted, and too slow, to be able to block off the entire massive hole where Yveltal had been expelled. It could not fly, nor did it have the strength to simply keep blasting away at her forever. “Very well,” he looked at Team Rocket with a tight expression on his face. “You want a fight? We’ll give you one.” Celestia halted, hovering before the hole with six wings spread as widely as possible, as if to catch each precious drop of sunlight. Below, Gyarados reared up to its full, towering height, flared its back fins, and roared up a challenge. “Gyarados,” Lysandre commanded. “Use Hyper Beam!” “Celestia,” James extended his hand. “Use Solar Beam!” Golden light appeared simultaneously in seven places: a small orb in the midst of the serpent’s jaws, and a speck at the very tip of each of the alicorn’s wings. Solar energy, caught bit by bit on Celestia’s wings, flowed upwards in a thin but steady stream towards the tip of her horn. The sphere building in Gyarados’ mouth grew in size, rapidly exceeding that of a human head. Celestia’s horn seemed to change from blinding white to golden as the attack enveloped it completely. They fired. Twin sunbursts met exactly equidistant to them both. If the room had been brightly lit up before between the sun and the light roiling off of Celestia, then now it was blindingly so. Two beams of nearly identical golden light clashed together to form the nucleus of a star, growing larger and larger with each passing second. Those without a visor had to throw up their arms to protect their faces against the glare. “Gyarados, you can do this!” Lysandre cried out to his Pokémon. “Our friendship is stronger than this band of petty thieves!” The ever-growing star seemed to flare in response, forcing its way a few feet back up towards the alicorn. “The crazy man may be with his sea slug, but your friends are with you!” James called to Celestia. “And the way I see it there’s three of us and only one of him!” “James is right for once!” Jessie added. “Thrice the Team Rocket means thrice the gooey friendship mush, so kick that thing’s butt!” “Ya don’t need no soppy encouragement from me, just win!” Meowth yelled. It was hard to tell if their words were having much effect on the contest. The burning golden sphere continued to waver back and forth, first towards one side and then the other, as both Celestia and Gyarados threw their whole being without reserve into this final push. Being on the sidelines, hearts on all sides were pounding, clenched palms were slick with sweat. Staring up at the blinding light of what seemed little less than a proto-star, no one could remember feeling more tense. To helplessly watch as their fate was decided right in front of their eyes… “Oh, stuff that,” James muttered. “Huh?” Jessie looked at him, still shielding her eyes. “If Lysandre hasn’t played fair,” James reached down to the ground, scooping something up, “then why should we?” With that, he turned and threw a rock at Gyarados’ head. It was a fine, sharp specimen of stone, around two inches across and freshly cut from its millennia old home in the ground. It soared through the air in a neat arc, aimed right for the sea serpent’s massive eye, utterly locked in concentration on the attack in front of it. Unfortunately, the blazing light that filled the room left all eyes straining and threw off James’ aim. The projectile struck blue scales a few inches below its target. Fortunately, something coming so close still triggered the primeval reflex to blink, costing Gyarados some of his concentration for a fraction of a second. A fraction of a second was all it took. The small sun, the combined energies of Solar Beam and Hyper Beam, raced suddenly back down towards Gyarados. The titan snapped back almost immediately, eyes refocusing on the contest ahead of it. But it was already too late. The little star was just a few feet from its face. It struggled, pushing back with all its might, dredging up every happy memory it had from the day that a little boy had found a lowly Magikarp lying helpless on the beach to the present, but to no avail. Right when the combined attack was inches from its face, it rumbled something that sounded like an apology. There was a crack, followed by a boom, and a dazzling flash that left everyone in the room momentarily struck blind. A shockwave swept all present from their feet, even as it kicked up a massive dust storm and shattered glass multiple stories above. A heavy thud resounded as something massive smashed into something metal, tearing into it. Seconds passed. Eyes cleared. Dust settled. Blinking away watery eyes and lingering spots, Team Rocket looked around. Gyarados lay in a limp heap at the base of the opposite wall, a dent more than a foot deep driven into the steel behind him. The blue sea serpent had lost much of its bulk, becoming serpentine once more as its Mega Evolution energy deserted it. For another moment, all was stillness and silence, save for the ragged breathing of those who remained. “Whaugh!” Lysandre let out an incoherent scream from where he half-stood. “No No No NO NO NO NO NO!” His teeth clenched to the point of cracking, he doubled over with his head clutched in his hands. “Not after all my years of work! Not after everything I’ve sacrificed! This can’t… this can’t be happening!” “It can… and it is.” Celestia’s voice boomed out inside all of their minds. From where she was perched, leaning heavily on the side of the hole for support, the alicorn princess looked down on the red-haired man, alien eyes and expressionless mouth making her impossible to read. “Lysandre, it’s over. You lose.” “No…” he breathed. “No…” “For the sake of whatever good you might once have had, and whatever might be left within you, I implore you,” the stern voice continued. “Come with us willingly. Accept whatever justice Kalos chooses to carry out. If you accept punishment and atonement willingly, perhaps we may yet save whatever is left of you.” “I… I….” Lysandre seemed to flinch, as if looking at something only he could see for the first time. “The power’s gone!” He looked up towards the observation level. “Someone has been draining the power out of the ultimate weapon!” “Like I said: you lose.” Without warning, Lysandre’s gauntleted right hand shot up and clenched hard into a fist. There came a brief rumble, and the ceiling overhead flared briefly with white light. “So, the ultimate weapon is a flower that bloomed to no avail…” Lysandre paused, as the implications of what he had just done began to dawn on all present. “Just like me… But this ends here!” He threw his arms wide. “There was just enough left over for a single pinprick shot.” “What on earth did you just do you psychotic wacko?!” Jessie yelled at him. “I directed the final dregs of power into a single shot aimed right at our location,” he laughed mirthlessly. “We will all perish here in the ruins of my dream!” “Selfish and spiteful to the bitter end,” the alicorn’s voice sounded… a little sad? “So be it.” An invisible wave of power blasted Lysandre from his feet. Thrown prone onto the hard floor, there was little he could do to stop Jessie, James, and Meowth from dogpiling him. “Get off of me you idiots!” he yelled at them. “It’s already too late! I couldn’t stop it now even if I wanted to, attacking me now will get you nothing!” “Shut up already!” Meowth yelled right back, immediately before clawing him in the face. “We’re through wid’ you!” “He’s right,” James said as he resumed his feet. “It’s time for a trademark Team Rocket great escape!” “And if this idiot wants to stay then let him,” Jessie nodded, then kicked Lysandre in the shin for good measure. “Right,” all three nodded. Leaving Team Flare’s leader lying on his back, clutching a scratched face, and with a throbbing shin, Team Rocket broke and ran for the exit. Not so long afterwards, in the ruined shell that had been the ultimate weapon’s heart, a shattered wreck of a man stared blankly up. A maelstrom of emotion surged through his mind in his last few moments, a contradictory morass of rage, guilt, sadness, fear, shame, hate, and a truly inexplicable sense of relief. Lysandre wouldn’t have known what to make of it all if he had had days to puzzle it out. He had no such thing. “Th-This is it,” He turned to his oldest, dearest friend in their final moments. When he cast aside the cracked visor to look at Gyarados with his own eyes, Lysandre found that he could barely make him out through his increasingly blurry vision. “We… we failed. No…” he sniffed. “I failed. I-I’m sorry…” Pressing his head up against the familiar blue scales, the broken man felt the tears flow freely down his cheeks. “I’m sorry I did this to you.” From Gyarados’ limp form came a low rumble. For once in his life Lysandre couldn’t tell what it meant. His weakened knees at last gave out, and Team Flare’s leader slumped back against the bulk of his most loyal Pokémon. He stared blearily up at the rapidly brightening light, resting his hands across his lap as his doom came to claim him. His last thought was to wonder where all his Poke Balls had gone.