Archive of Our Own ^beta

Sezim opened her eyes, and she saw.

Past, future, they were nothing but different points on a line. All she had to do was move along that line. The golden plains before her flickered and blurred, changing between yellow and green and brown, as the blue sky steadily dimmed, stained crimson by flames. The Xatu saw the steppe grow and flourish and wither and die. She heard the flames crackle and murmur as they devoured the dried up grass.

“No,” Sezim murmured to herself. “That’s too far.”

But she couldn't go back. The sky grew darker. The fire burned brighter. A suffocating heat smothered her as a winged, grotesque beast writhed in the smoke clouds high above, spitting fire everywhere. None of this was real, it was only a glimpse into the future, but she still couldn't stop the fear building beneath her heart. A wildfire would rage across the continent and raze it to the ground, leaving it as nothing more than a remnant of what it had once been. And that beast would cause it.

A faint blur soared through the flames, eventually sharpening into a beige bird with a red and yellow crest. It was flying towards her, riding the currents of air rising from the heat. Curious: she’d never seen that Pokemon before in her visions.

Wait…no, that bird was real.

“You in there?” someone said.

She knew that voice. It was…who was it? The name was on the tip of her tongue, and yet she couldn't quite figure it out.

“Hey, Earth to Sezim! Wake up!”

The Xatu blinked, and the sky was blue again. The smoke and fire: gone. When faced with reality, her heartbeat slowed and her breathing steadied. The bird—a Pidgeot—was right up in her face, their eyes narrowed in concern.

“I’m here,” she said, a little shakily. “I’m back.”

The Pidgeot let out a sigh, slumping in relief. Their body began to shimmer; it melted into a puddle and reformed into a shapeless purple blob. It was Ditto, her partner, and they didn't look very happy.

“Didn’t you say you’d search from a good vantage point?” they asked. “I don't see how staring at that”—they jabbed a tendril at the sun—“helps you look for them.”

Sezim looked away with a sigh. “I thought the visions would help me figure out where the thief went.”

“Did they show you anything useful?”

“No. I just saw that fire again,” she said.

“Shoot…you figure out what it means yet?”

She shook her head. ”What about you? Did you see anything?”

“No sign of the thief yet,” Ditto said. “But I did spot a forest—or at least something that used to be a forest—not too far from here. Maybe they’re hiding there.”

“Seems like a good place to look.” 

“Yep. And I think it wouldn't hurt to look a bit faster. No offense, but you're walking kinda slow. And all this stopping for your visions isn’t helping, especially if you keep seeing the same thing. Everyone back home is counting on us to get that food back, you know.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know. You’ve told me before.”

“This is our chance to earn their support!”

“I know.”

“Just think how happy everyone will be when we stroll back into town with everything that was stolen!” A proud grin spread across their face as they stared blankly at the distance. “We’ll be the heroes of Arman.”

“Mhm.”

“Heroes!”

“Yep.”

“They’ll love us!”

“I’m sure they will,” she said, a hint of annoyance creeping into her voice. “But we can't be heroes if we don't do our jobs. Now let’s go.”

“Alright, alright.” Ditto slipped down to the ground, their face scrunched up. After a few seconds of concentration, their body morphed and distorted, contorting into a quadrupedal, orange and black beast with thick yellow stripes lining its body. Ditto, now boasting the body of an Arcanine, struck a pose that made their sleek fur shine in the sun. “Hop on!”

Despite their best attempts to look welcoming, Sezim still hesitated to approach them. Ditto positively towered over her in this body, and an uncomfortable heat emanated from their fur. She shuddered. “Why did you have to turn into a fire type?”

“Come on, man! You gotta admit this form looks cool!”

“You look like you’ll start a wildfire,” she said with a huff.

“Oh, quit your bellyaching and climb aboard. We’ll reach the forest before you know it!”

Sezim let out a sigh, but didn’t argue further. As she approached Ditto, she couldn’t keep herself from trembling. The prospect of getting close enough to ride a fire type terrified her—all it would take was an untimely sneeze to start an uncontrollable blaze—but Ditto was right about them traveling too slowly. And she didn’t know how to fly yet, so that wasn’t an option either. She would just have to try her best to deal with her phobia. The top of her head only reached their neck, so climbing onto their back would be an ordeal. After backing up a few steps, she ran towards Ditto and leapt as high as she could, flapping her wings madly in an attempt to gain some height. She slammed into their side and scrambled up, her talons digging into their fur.

Ditto flinched away from her. “Hey, careful!”

Their movements only made it harder to climb on, but the Xatu eventually managed it after half a minute. Once she was on their back she lay down on her stomach, her wings wrapped around the top of their neck. Their fur was horribly hot, but she tried not to show any discomfort. “I’m ready now,” she said.

“Then hold on tight!”

Ditto took off and began to sprint across the golden plains. The wind whistled past them, forcing Sezim to squint and lower herself as much as possible so that she wouldn't get blown off. The satchel and looplet she wore shook and swung wildly—her satchel slipped off and almost blew away, but she snatched it and pulled it back on. At the speed they were going, the grass and hills around her were nothing more than faint yellow blurs beneath a bright blue sky as Ditto bounded forward, their new fur blowing back in the wind. The ride was bumpy and uncomfortable, but it was admittedly much faster than it would’ve been had they chosen to keep walking. She swallowed down the nausea building in her throat and shut her eyes, trying to keep her panic at bay.

“Don’t sneeze,” she muttered under her breath. “Don’t sneeze, don’t sneeze, don’t sneeze…”

After what felt like hours but was probably just a few minutes, Ditto came to a halt. “Here we are! We made it!”

She opened her eyes and spotted a withered, gnarled forest cropping up out of the plains, stretching for miles to the left and right. All of the trees and bushes were wizened and grey, completely lifeless, and the nearby grass was dry and brown. Shriveled branches and leaves littered the ground, which was devoid of any bushes or flowers. She had never seen real flowers before, only the phantom plants that grew in her visions.

She hopped off from Ditto’s back and stared into the forest, searching for any signs of life while Ditto shifted and contorted back into their original form. Once Ditto was done, they slid over to where she stood and said, “I know things haven’t been great lately, but I didn’t think whole forests were dying like this.”

They moved to get closer to the ruined forest, but Sezim stopped them. “Wait,” she said. “Look closely. Did you see it?”

“See what?”

“The trees changed. Every time you blink, the forest looks a little different.”

Ditto blinked several times, then hummed in acknowledgment. “So this is a Mystery Dungeon.”

She was quiet for a moment, then she murmured, “I wonder what this place looked like before everything died.”

“Well, there was a whole lot more greenery!” A fond smile spread across Ditto’s face as their focus turned inward, to past memories. “Just a few years ago, there were leaves on every tree, flowers popping up everywhere, and berry bushes growing on their own! And the crop fields back home? They were overflowing with food.”

“I’d love to see that,” she said wistfully. “It sounds beautiful. And tasty.”

“Oh, yeah.” Ditto continued staring at the dead forest; as they did so, Sezim looked into her satchel to check that everything was still there. Water flask, check. Escape Orb, check. The pair of Oran berries they’d managed to grow, check. A single Reviver seed, check. The Confuse Wand, check. Everything was in its place. There was no food besides the Oran berries, but that wasn’t anything new: there was rarely enough to eat in this world, and the little food they had brought along had run out yesterday.

In her looplet lay a single Satiated emera. The green crystal was covered in hairline cracks, held together only by a glass coating and a Sableye’s enchantment. Normally emeras shattered when leaving Mystery Dungeons, but Sableye had found a way to preserve their structure and effects in any location. Unfortunately, even though the emera kept the Xatu from feeling the effects of hunger, it couldn’t replace the strength she’d lost to malnutrition.

But there was nothing to be gained by focusing on what she didn’t have. Sezim turned to Ditto and gestured towards the Mystery Dungeon. “Shall we, then?”

On the count of three, the two stepped forward into the forest remnants at the same time so that they wouldn't get separated. A sudden chill washed over her. When she turned around, the golden plains they’d just been standing on were no longer there. Grey, withered trees and dead bushes now surrounded the two on all sides, keeping them from seeing more than a few metres in front of them. There was no live undergrowth in these woods; instead, crinkly leaves and twigs covered the floor like a carpet. In the span of a single second, the Mystery Dungeon had already warped around them and transported them to a completely different place.

“That didn’t take long,” Sezim said.

“It never really does,” said Ditto, who was transforming again—this time into a huge, hulking Pangoro with arms wider than the tree trunks all around them.

Sezim frowned at their new body. “We might not have enough food back at home for you if you keep transforming.”

“Oh, I’ll manage,” Ditto said with a grin. Their voice was now gruff and gravelly, like wheels rattling on a bumpy road. “And besides, that Satiated emera of yours will help.”

“If you say so.”

“What do you want to name this place?”

She squinted at the non sequitur. “Huh?”

“Every Mystery Dungeon needs a name! None of the records back home mentioned anything about a Mystery Dungeon in these plains, so I’m betting this place hasn’t been discovered yet. And that means it doesn’t have an official name.” Ditto began to saunter through the forest, clearly enjoying their new body. They scooped up Sezim as they passed by and placed her on their shoulder. “Damn, it feels good to have arms!”

“Can’t say I’m not jealous.” She looked at her wings, which were less than ideal for gripping and holding things. She lifted the looplet off of her neck and passed it to Ditto. “Here, take this. You can wear it on your new wrist.”

Ditto slipped the looplet on with a “Don't mind if I do!” A hollow pit suddenly appeared in Sezim’s stomach, but as the weight of hunger seeped into her bones and muscles, Ditto stood a little taller and walked a bit faster. They traveled in an amiable quiet after that, each on the lookout for any signs of nearby Pokemon. Sezim looked left and right and all around while the sun peeked down at her through the gaps in the canopy. The pale light was soft and comforting, like a fluffy blanket on a cold winter night; it illuminated the dead forest and made it seem…almost alive again. It had been alive at some point, right? If she looked for long enough, she could…

She could…

The forest morphed around her: it grew leaves and flowers and grass; it shriveled up as the greenery turned brown; it burned up to naught but soot and cinders. Ditto flickered and blurred before vanishing entirely, leaving Sezim floating on air. Her surroundings changed themselves with the whimsy of a child trying on their parent’s clothes. It was captivating, beautiful, terrible.

“Sezim!”

She flinched, and the world became clear again. “Huh?”

“You’re doing it again.”

“Oh…” The Xatu rubbed her eyes, trying to scrub the afterimages out of them; every time she blinked, the sight of a green, flourishing forest burned itself into her retinas. But this place…it wasn’t alive anymore. It hadn't been for years.

Stay awake, she told herself. She hadn't meant to start a vision, but staying in the present was difficult at times. If she lost focus, keeping herself from seeing the past or future could be as tough as trying to stay on her feet in the middle of an earthquake.

The wind from the plains was gone, leaving this forest still as a corpse. As they continued walking over the next half-hour, neither saw so much as a single strand of fur in the forest. The whole place was totally lifeless: the grass that lay scattered among the undergrowth was dead and yellow, and not a single wild fruit or berry could be seen among the barren branches and thickets. The sun could only reach them in thin shafts of light that sneaked through the holes in the dark canopy and illuminated the dead leaves. The undergrowth was dry and light—perfect conditions for a wildfire. She shuddered as the memory of her vision came to mind. Maybe this was where the foreseen fire would start. Or maybe she was overthinking it. It would be prudent to concentrate on finding the thief, but the image of the burning plains and the beast kept branding itself into her thoughts. And the hunger constantly gnawing in her abdomen wasn’t helping, either.

“You never answered the question,” Ditto eventually said.

Sezim blinked, their statement dragging her out of her thoughts and back to reality. “What question?”  

“Did you forget already?” Their Pangoro body had a perpetually annoyed expression, but they didn’t sound particularly upset. “Okay, I’ll ask again. What do you wanna name this Mystery Dungeon?”

“Hm… I’m not sure.” She squinted as she thought. She wasn’t particularly invested in naming this place, but the conversation was a nice distraction from her thoughts. “This whole place has an abandoned, ancient feeling to it. Maybe we can call it Forsaken…something?”

Ditto snapped with their free paw. “Forsaken Forest!”

“That’s a bit on the nose, don’t you think?”

“Pfft, as if,” they said with a snort. “Besides, you’re one to talk. You don't even have a nose!”

She rolled her eyes. Having a nose sounded…odd, to say the least, considering how her current body had a beak instead.

“Do humans have noses?” Ditto asked.

“Beats me,” she said with a shrug. “I don't remember what it’s like to be human.”

“Then how do you know you used to be one?”

She shrugged again. “I just…do. It’s something I’ve always known somehow, same as my name. I know it sounds ridiculous…”

“Yeah, it does.” They rubbed their nose thoughtfully. “But let’s say you really were a human at some point. Do you miss being one?”

“I can't miss what I’ve never known. But…I do wish I was better at being a Xatu. It wouldn’t hurt to know how to fly.”

“If you practiced more often, you’d know how to by now.”

“Mm.”

As they walked, she kept an eye out for emeras, those odd crystals that granted powers within Mystery Dungeons, in an attempt to distract herself. Unfortunately, emeras were few and far between these days. One could go through an entire Mystery Dungeon without coming across a single one. But Ditto had an eye for these sorts of things—she had faith they would find one eventually.

“Check it out,” Ditto said.

And there it is, Sezim thought. She followed their pointing to a glittering, rainbow-colored crystal peeking out from a clump of dead grass. “I see it,” she said, sliding off of their shoulder and landing quietly on the ground. “What kind of emera is this?”

“It’s an Awakening.” Ditto knelt down and picked it up. The crystal boasted all sorts of colors—blue, green, yellow, red, and many more—and it shone in all the colors of the rainbow. They continued, “This thing can make a Pokemon stronger than they’ve ever been before, but only for a little while. We should hold on to it. Might come in handy.”

They passed the emera to Sezim, who dropped it into her bag. “What's the catch?” she asked.

“They’re supposed to be really dangerous for the user. Apparently—”

They fell silent. She waited for them to continue, but a third, unknown voice became noticeable over the rustling of bare branches in the wind. It seemed that voice was why Ditto had stopped talking. The two listened intently. For a moment all was quiet, but soon the blustering wind brought fragments of a distant conversation: at a guess, Sezim would say there were two, maybe three voices talking. Where there were voices, there were Pokemon—and they might know where the thief had gone.

Or they could be the thief.

The two exchanged glances, then they hurried towards the conversation as quickly and quietly as possible. Time was of the essence when trying to find something in a Mystery Dungeon. If they took too long, the whole forest would shift and take them somewhere else, far away from the voices.

In the body of a Pangoro, Ditto’s movements were clumsy and rushed; they kept tripping over exposed roots and fallen branches. But a sudden wind picked up as they ran, so between the tree branches rattling and the fallen leaves rustling, the racket that Ditto and Sezim made was only one among many. Ditto’s looplet fell to the ground after a particularly bad stumble, so Sezim scooped it up in her wings and kept moving, pushing through dead bushes and weaving around pale trees stripped of their bark. The further they went, the louder the voices got—and they didn’t sound particularly friendly. The Xatu managed to catch a few phrases here and there about money and food, or lack thereof.

Through a dark, wilting thicket, she spotted a clearing in which three Pokemon stood and conversed with each other. She immediately crouched down as low as possible to avoid being seen; the brown bushes and branches on the edge of the forest provided enough cover to keep them hidden. The wind died down, leaving the forest silent save for the conversation they were eavesdropping on. Ditto tip-toed over to where she crouched and knelt down next to her.

“Look,” she whispered.

Ditto peeked through a gap in the thicket. “I see them.”

The Xatu looked through another gap in an attempt to size up the situation and see what was going on. It was safest to avoid assuming any of the Pokemon in a Mystery Dungeon were friendly, lest she get into an unwanted battle. One of the Pokemon in the clearing was bipedal, their body pink and green with long, black fur on their head. The second one was a blue crustacean who had a gargantuan right pincer; the thing was bigger than the rest of their body. The third one looked to be a large lizard with massive wings, talons sharp enough to tear through steel, and—

Sezim inhaled sharply, her heart dropping to her stomach. A fire. On the end of the third Pokemon’s tail. It could burn up the whole forest—no, the whole continent. “No,” she whispered, the memory of her vision flashing through her thoughts. “No, no, no…”

Ditto showed no signs of having noticed her fear. Instead, they seemed single-mindedly focused on what the three Pokemon were saying. Logically, Sezim knew that she should follow their lead. But emotionally speaking, she wanted nothing more than to run away as fast as possible. Her heart hammered at her chest like it was trying to escape, and she couldn’t stop fidgeting with the looplet. Fire was hot. It was dangerous. It could kill her in a matter of seconds.

Focus, she told herself. She shut her eyes and exhaled slowly in an attempt to slow her heartbeat and center herself. Once it didn’t feel like the world was ending, she opened her eyes and took a second look at the clearing before them. It was naught but barren dirt, dry and dusty; not even the yellow grass from the plains grew in here. As her gaze moved past the Pokemon, she spotted something: a lumpy canvas sack. It was open, and spilling out of it were a doll, several books, and a whole motherlode of food. She spotted loaves of bread, potatoes, turnips, onions, and other foodstuffs; all of the crops were things they grew back at Arman. There was nowhere else to get those crops, since Arman was the only village on the steppe.

“It's all here, plus a few extras,” the pink and green Pokemon was saying.

“A doll?” the crustacean said incredulously. “That wasn’t necessary, Morgrem. We told you before: the more things you steal, the more likely it is they’ll notice.”

“Don't worry, Clauncher. They won’t notice a thing!” Morgrem—the pink and green one—spread his arms out wide and grinned. “I just took a little from one house, a little from another, and they’re none the wiser.”

Had the circumstances been a little less stressful, Sezim would have laughed at his confidence. To her side, Ditto let out a low growl.

“And the medicine?” said the lizard.

“Couldn’t…quite get my hands on it,” Morgrem said. “Sorry, Charizard. I did manage to snag that doll, though!”

Charizard sighed. He was facing away from them, but his ire was apparent from the way his long neck drooped, and the fire on his tail—it was only growing brighter.

Ditto scoffed. In an undertone, they said, “We found our thief. I get stealing food, but what in the world do they need with books and a doll?”

Sezim swallowed and tried to steady her breathing—it was like the air was forcing itself into her lungs. “I-I…um, don’t know.” Then, more confidently: “We should keep listening to what they’re saying. Might answer our questions.”

“What’s there to listen to?” they whispered incredulously. “They stole our stuff, we're here to get it back. Let's go!”

“Wait—” she started, but they were already uprooting the thicket, spraying dirt and dust everywhere. They tossed the dead plant aside and sauntered into the clearing. The racket drew the attention of all three Pokemon, who stared at them in stunned silence.

Ditto took a moment to marvel at their paws, then used them to point at the sack. “I believe you have something that doesn’t belong to you!”

Clauncher was first to find her voice. “You’re mistaken.”

“Oh, no I’m not!” Ditto wagged a digit reproachfully. “That doll looks awfully familiar. It’s Happiny’s. And those books? They belong to Lycanroc. You paid my village a visit, didn’t you?”

Morgrem’s eyes flitted between them and the surrounding forest, and his gaze passed over Sezim’s hiding spot more than a few times. She fought the urge to turn tail and run. She couldn’t flee, not now.

Charizard exhaled slowly, smoke pluming from his nostrils. “Everything in that sack belongs to us.”

“Yeah, I totally believe that,” Ditto said, their voice dripping with sarcasm. “Why don't you tell me you’re the Original One, too?”

As they spoke, Sezim put on the looplet around her neck slowly, so that it wouldn’t make any noise. The strength of its Satiated emera poured into her entire body and numbed the gnawing sensation in her stomach.

“You should turn around and leave,” Charizard was saying, his tone low and dangerous. “Or else we might end up doing something we’ll regret.”

“I’ll leave once you hand that sack over!” Ditto snapped.

The Xatu had seen this song and dance before: voices were being raised now, which meant the situation was building up to a fight. Battling had never been the former human's forte—her control over wind was limited, and her psychic abilities were unreliable at best—but she could compensate with the right tools and a little ingenuity. She reached into her bag and pulled out the Confuse Wand. Her heartbeat roared in her ears; her gaze was affixed onto Charizard’s flame and she couldn’t get herself to look elsewhere. She inhaled slowly. Exhaled. The voices in the clearing were getting louder, now shouting at each other, but she couldn't quite make out what they were saying. That…didn't quite add up. She had been able to understand them just a few seconds ago.

Sezim finally tore her focus away from the flame and saw Morgrem diving at Ditto, his claws glinting in the weak sunlight.

Time’s up.

She swung her wand at Morgrem. A choppy, disjointed bolt of lime-green light darted towards him and burst against his forehead, knocking him flat onto his back. The clearing grew still and silent. Clauncher trained her massive, cannon-like pincer on Ditto as Charizard slowly moved towards the thicket. Towards her.

She swung the wand again, this time sending the bolt at Charizard, and darted out of the thicket towards the canvas sack that lay on the other end of the clearing. A high-pitched whistle cut through the air as Clauncher’s pincer let loose a shot of pressurized water at Ditto. They lifted their arms and the shot burst against them, forcing them back a few steps. Morgrem had found his footing again and was stumbling around, waving his hands in a futile effort to get his bearings. The Confuse Wand had taken effect, then.

A roar came from behind Sezim. She turned to find Charizard no worse for wear, flying towards her with his fangs bared, smoke pouring from his mouth. The wand hadn't affected him. She dove to one side and he rocketed past, his claws mere centimetres from her chest. He pivoted in the air and made another dive for her, but Ditto leapt before her and struck the ground with enough force to shake the earth beneath them.

Hairline cracks broke out all across the clearing. The world trembled as an artificial Earthquake built up, and then chunks of dirt flew into the air and kicked up a huge cloud of dust that covered the clearing. The seismic force knocked Sezim onto her back. A war cry escaped Ditto as they charged head-on into the dust in the general direction of Charizard. Sezim stood up and followed them, sticking close as spurts of pure darkness and whistling shots of compressed water flew through the cloud around her. Dust got into her eyes and beak; she squinted and covered her beak with her free wing to keep from inhaling too much of it.

They didn't get far before something slammed into Ditto’s side and knocked them down. Not much was visible of their assailant besides a large, winged silhouette with a small flame on the end of its tail. It was Charizard. She swung her wand at him, but he had already taken off and flown out of reach. The wasted wand charge zig-zagged away into the sky.

With all the attacks flying around her, standing still was a death sentence. She’d lost track of Ditto in the chaos, so she picked a direction at random and ran. Eventually the Xatu broke out of the cloud on the other side of the clearing, the sack lying just a few metres away. She scooped the food and books back into it and tied the opening shut.

Another whistling noise came from behind her. She ducked on instinct. A shot of boiling water flew right above her head, dislodging a few feathers, and crashed into a nearby tree, which cracked from the impact. Sezim turned and spotted Clauncher, whose pincer was steaming.

“You should walk away,” Clauncher said. She looked tired.

Sezim didn’t reply; she only swung her wand at her. Clauncher skittered to one side, the blast flying past her, and retaliated with another water shot that flew by the Xatu’s head. Sezim launched bolt after bolt of Confuse rays at her, but none of them landed. And all the while, Clauncher was retaliating with her own shots—they flew by Sezim as she bobbed and weaved, some coming close enough to graze her feathers. Eventually one of them would hit. This wasn't sustainable. Sezim needed to try something new.

As the next water shot came for her, she ducked under it and sprinted towards Clauncher, whose eyes widened. She hadn't expected something like that, then. Sezim closed the distance and swung her wing, summoning a piercing blade of wind that crashed against Clauncher, knocking her off balance. Sezim kept attacking at close range as Clauncher stumbled away, finally on the back foot.

But the element of surprise didn’t last long, and Clauncher found enough courage to fire again. At point-blank range she couldn't miss.

The water shot hit Sezim in the shoulder and knocked her onto her back; a sharp, pulsing pain shot through her torso and right wing—probably a broken bone. Clauncher’s pincer started to vibrate in preparation for another shot, but before she could fire Ditto burst out of the dust, snatched her with one burly paw, and threw her into the dust cloud.

A dark shadow passed over them all: Charizard, preparing for another dive. Ditto squared their shoulders and raised their chin, their body morphing once again—this time, they took the form of a massive bird with glossy feathers and a crimson crest on the top of its head. A Pidgeot. Ditto, now capable of flight, clumsily lifted off of the ground to engage Charizard in aerial combat.

Sezim spared them no further attention: even though her foes were momentarily occupied, she still had to retrieve the stolen goods and prepare to get out. She struggled to her feet, her left wing holding her wand and her right wing hanging limply. If she could get a hold of the sack and reach Ditto, she could use her Escape Orb and get them out of this mess.

She rushed to where she’d last seen the sack—and screeched to a halt. Morgrem stood in the way, his gaze unfocused and his movements unsteady as he hunched over and clutched his head. He hadn’t noticed her yet; if she could just sneak around him, she might be able to—

A familiar whistling. She stumbled to the left and another water shot blew past her. Morgrem turned to where the sound had come from and shouted, “Don’t worry, Clauncher! I got you!” With that, he unleashed a dazzling gleam of pink light from his eyes…four metres to Sezim’s left.

Clauncher looked at him with an air of concern and fear in equal measures. “What…did you do to him?” Without waiting for an answer, she launched yet another sphere of pressurized water at the Xatu, who dove to the right and hit the ground hard on her injured side. An all-consuming pain coursed through Sezim's torso, to the point where it felt as though her entire upper body were crushed in a vice. Knives tumbled around in her chest as she struggled to her feet. She couldn't move her right wing.

Morgrem let out a cry of frustration, and let loose an orb of darkness that exploded against a pale, dead tree branch, snapping it clean from the trunk. It nearly fell on top of Sezim, but she stumbled out of its way in the nick of time. In her efforts at evading the branch, her attention had been forced away from Clauncher. A water shot hit the Xatu in her injured wing. Then another. Her right wing screamed in pain as she fell onto her stomach, and everything became curiously quiet. Slowly, excruciatingly, she struggled back to her feet. High above the clearing, a Pidgeot and Charizard were darting through the air and diving onto each other, each collision leaving one of them a little worse for wear. Clauncher was saying something to Morgrem and shaking his shoulder to no effect.

She lowered her pincer from his shoulder and turned slowly to Sezim. The Xatu tried to stand tall, but her right wing hanged useless at her side and her legs wouldn’t stop shaking.

Clauncher, her face blank, launched a barrage of water shots at Sezim. The Xatu couldn't avoid them this time.

As they struck her again and again, the world fell to pieces around her. A wall of pain crashed into her. Her vision was fragmented, her hearing scattered. The sounds of Charizard and Ditto fighting in the sky seemed to come from above her, then from below, and back again. She couldn’t stand up. Someone was talking, but she couldn't make out the words. She didn’t know if Ditto was beating Charizard, or if they were hopelessly outclassed in a body not their own. The sun shone into her eyes, and the sky began to repaint itself blue and pink and orange, days flying by in a matter of seconds. The past and future were revealing themselves to her, and she was powerless to stop it.

But no matter how badly she was injured, the fight wasn't over yet. If she was conscious, she could keep going. Her breath came in ragged gasps that clawed at her chest and lungs, but with every inhale her vision became a little less muddy.

She looked up. The forest was lush and green. Clauncher was nowhere to be seen. Sezim’s heartbeat sped up, every pump of blood sending an electric shock through her body. Reaching into her bag, she felt around for any last tricks. The Oran berries were no good—she didn't have time to eat them. The Reviver Seed was worthless while she was still conscious. The Escape Orb was always an option, but she refused to abandon Ditto.

Then, she found the Awakening emera.

Ditto had said that the emera was powerful but dangerous. Part of her shrank away from using it because of that, but her perception was shattered and she couldn’t bring herself back to the present. Whatever danger it posed, using the emera was a risk Sezim was willing to take. She pulled out the emera and fit it into her looplet. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then a blinding light shone out from the emera, and she felt the light pour into her. No, she was the light, radiant as the sun.

As the Xatu rose to her feet, she felt none of the pain that had plagued her mere seconds ago. It had been replaced with an odd numbness that permeated her body, as though her nerve endings had been burned off. Standing was easy again, and she could move her injured wing freely. The sensation was exhilarating, but a little frightening. She felt…somehow wrong.

The forest died around her, trees losing their leaves and grass shriveling up. She was awake again, and the sun posed no threat anymore. Clauncher reappeared—she was saying something to Morgrem, who didn't seem to hear her. The Xatu stepped towards them, crushing leaves beneath her feet. Clauncher started at the noise and turned to her. She backed away, her pincers shaking, while Morgrem stumbled around impotently, as useless as a hatchling taking its first steps. The Xatu felt the urge to do break, to injure, to destroy those who stood in her path. How dare they stand against her? Their insolence must be punished.

A little voice somewhere deep in her heart told her that these thoughts were unusually dangerous, that she’d never felt this need to kill before.

She ignored it.

She spread her wings out wide, and flapped them once. A huge gust of wind blew her foes across the clearing. The gale whipped up the clearing’s dust into another cloud, obscuring Morgrem and Clauncher within it. She moved to pursue them, only for a desperate cry to rend the air. The Xatu looked up at the sky and found a Pidgeot plummeting head-first, Charizard diving after them with his wings held close to its body. The Pidgeot—no, it was Ditto, how could she have forgotten that?—crash landed right in front of her, breathing heavily, its feathers visibly singed. A furious roar sounded off from above them. Charizard was going to reach them in a matter of seconds, but she wasn’t afraid, not with the strength that the Awakening was giving her.

The Xatu flapped her wings again, creating another gale that crashed into Charizard and blew him back into the sky. He righted himself in a matter of seconds and immediately began another dive.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got this,” she told Ditto. Ordinarily she found no joy in battling, but just the thought of taking Charizard down was enough to draw out an excited laugh, reminiscent of a child opening a gift. In her mind’s eye she already saw her foe lying helpless before her, completely and utterly defeated. He was approaching her at a speed that was probably impressive, but to her it seemed sluggish and lethargic.

What a wonderful thing this emera is, she thought. After chuckling to herself, she sent one more gust up into the air. Charizard rolled to one side and dodged it. Seemed he was already figuring out how to beat her. Perfect: she wanted a challenge.

Laughing in joy, the Xatu used her newfound power to twist the air around her into razor-sharp blades of wind that she launched up at Charizard. As her onslaught drew near, Charizard twisted to one side, then another, maneuvering between the wind blades with the grace of a dancer. It was beautiful.

So beautiful, in fact, that the Xatu was unprepared when his claws raked across her chest and tore the looplet off of her neck. It fell to the ground, taking the Awakening with it.

Lucidity poured over Sezim like a frigid river, reminding her of the reality of her situation: this was a rescue mission, and she was in grave danger. Without the Awakening to dull her senses, the pain in her chest returned in full force, drawing out a strangled cry. Her right wing was ruined and numb from overexertion, and her left wing was only barely functional.

Before she could gather herself, Charizard grabbed her neck with one hand and forced her to the ground. “Who do you think you are?” he hissed, his breath as hot as a furnace. “You upstart explorers think you can just waltz in and walk all over us?”

Sezim didn’t reply. She couldn’t: he was squeezing her neck hard enough to choke. Everything hurt—her chest, her wings, the back of her head. The urge to run resurfaced, stronger than it ever had before, but that wasn't an option. Not anymore.

As badly as the fight had gone, she still had one final idea. Terrible though the Awakening was, it could grant strength beyond one’s wildest imagination. And if it made a warrior out of a Pokemon as weak as her, then it would make a god out of anyone else. The looplet lay to her left, within reach of her functional wing. She grabbed it and threw it to where Ditto lay, hoping against hope that they would take the hint. Taken aback, Charizard could only watch it fly through the air.

For a moment, everything was silent: the wind was still; the dust floated in place; the dead trees’ branches ceased their rattling.

Then a brilliant golden light shone across the entire clearing, brighter than the sun. A cold, blustering wind blew over Sezim and forced the dust away. Charizard could only gasp before a red and yellow blur rammed into him and sent him flying. Sezim lifted her head and saw Ditto, who held the looplet in one talon—their body had changed again. At first she thought they had transformed, but she quickly realized that they still resembled Pidgeot, only their wings were larger, their feathers more colorful, their stance prouder. Had she changed in the same way when she’d worn the Awakening?

Charizard was on his back and trying to get up. Ditto rocketed to him, stomped on his neck, and used their beak to tear at him once, twice, three times—their face was warped by a feral rage that didn’t fit on their normally jovial face. Charizard was down, possibly for good, but Ditto didn't stop.

“Ditto!” Sezim called out, trying and failing to stand up.

They still didn't stop.

“Ditto! That’s enough!”

Ditto paused, their beak mere centimetres away from Charizard’s chest. Little drops of blood stained their face. They looked down at the looplet, their expression unreadable. They readied their beak again, but this time they used it to tear the Awakening emera free from the looplet. Slowly, they shrunk down to their original, shapeless form, the looplet and emera clutched in a pair of purple tendrils. Their body bore no traces of the cuts, burns, and blood that had adorned it just seconds ago, but she knew better than to assume that the absence of visible injuries meant they were healed. They stood there in silence, staring into space as the dust cleared. Clauncher and Morgrem lay in the center of the clearing and Charizard was crumpled on the edge of the forest; all three seemed to be unconscious.

The Xatu finally found her footing and stumbled towards Ditto. “Are you hurt?” she called out.

Her voice seemed to bring Ditto back to reality. They turned to her and put on a smile that was too bright, too cheerful. “I’m fine,” they said. “What about you?”

“Er…” Sezim tried and failed to move her injured wing. “I’ll live.”

Ditto reached into her bag, dropped off the looplet and Awakening emera, and pulled out both of their remaining Oran berries. They held one out to her; when she refused, they shrugged and began to eat the other one, their eyes dull despite the grin they wore. Sezim staggered across the clearing, past the bandits, and reached the sack that contained the stolen food, books, and doll. She tied it shut, hauled it over her good shoulder, and hurried back to Ditto. She didn’t know how long the thieves would stay unconscious, but she wasn’t eager to stick around and find out.

“This isn’t over,” growled a hoarse, ragged voice.

Sezim whirled around to find Charizard struggling to his feet, his scales stained with blood and soot. With every exhale, puffs of smoke spewed from his mouth. Once he was standing, he flared his wings and bared his fangs. He was—he was coming for her. Step after agonizing step, he was forcing his way towards her. She stumbled back and tripped over a fallen branch, landing roughly on her back. She caught a glimpse of the sun shining high above the clearing, and suddenly the clearing morphed around her: the ground became stained black with ash and embers; the puffy white clouds in the sky darkened into smoke clouds; the trees around her crackled and popped, the water within their branches boiling and evaporating from the heat. And in the middle of it all stood a winged silhouette, a fire burning on the end of its tail.

A voice cut through the darkness, forcing her out of the vision and back to reality: “Stand down.” It was Ditto who had spoken; they now stood between her and Charizard. Any signs of their previous discomfort were gone, replaced by bravado.

Charizard leered at the bulging canvas sack. “Do you know how long my family has gone hungry? Ever since the woods died, we’ve been starving while you civilized Pokemon sit in your towns and hoard all the food to yourselves!”

“Hoard?!” Ditto scoffed. “We barely have enough to feed ourselves with! And besides, why in the world would we give charity to a bunch of thieves like you?”

“You forced us to resort to stealing,” Charizard spat, his breathing heavy and labored. “We came to you before, remember? After our forest died, we begged you for scraps. You turned us away and left us to starve. We had children with us.”

“You’re seriously pulling the children card?” Ditto laughed incredulously. “And you say you paid us a visit? I’ve never seen you before in my life. You talk as though you’re some downtrodden hero, but we all know what you really are: a bandit.”

“Is that what you think?” Charizard said, his voice low and dangerous. The fire on his tail burned a little brighter.

“It's the truth.”

Provoking a fire type was a terrible idea, especially given that the forest was dead and dry—the perfect kindling. She opened her bag and began rummaging inside for the Escape Orb. “This argument is getting us nowhere,” she shouted, but no one seemed to hear her. “Ditto! We need to—”

“Then you leave me no choice!” Charizard roared, smoke pouring out of his mouth and nostrils. A terrible heat emanated from him, so strong that Sezim could feel it from the other end of the clearing. “If you think I’m a bandit, then that’s what I’ll be! By the time I’m through with you two, you’ll never stop me again!”  

With his final words, he threw his head back as a crimson flame shot out of his mouth, the fire on his tail burning brighter than ever before. The fire flew into the air and writhed before the blue sky, shooting out through the hole in the canopy. Sezim’s throat closed up and her face tingled; she could do nothing but stare helplessly at the creature before her. Ditto tried to transform, their body glowing and shimmering, but instead of changing shape they only let out a wheezing gasp: their strength was spent. Their body lost what little shape it had as they collapsed into a flat purple puddle.

Sezim wanted to run. She wanted to run far away from this forest and never come back. But she couldn’t stand up, no matter how many times she tried to, either because her feet had gone numb or because she couldn't keep her legs from shaking and trembling and Charizard was approaching them and he kept breathing fire and this panic was getting her nowhere and she needed to pull herself together now now now NOW—

She wrapped her injured wing around Ditto and the canvas sack as best as she could. With her good wing, she snatched the Escape Orb out of her bag. Another wave of heat washed over her as smoke filled the air, making it hard to breathe. She met Charizard’s eyes. He was incensed, fangs bared, wings spread wide—he was flying towards them. Sezim threw the orb at the ground. It shattered on impact, and something pulled at the Xatu’s stomach like a rope tied around her abdomen. She tightened her grip on Ditto, even as thorns of pain shot through her wing and chest and her beak felt like it was melting. Her vision faded to darkness and the world around her grew silent. Was this the Escape Orb taking effect, or was she falling unconscious?

After a few seconds the air stopped smelling like smoke, and a fierce, cold wind whistled past. She wasn’t passing out, then. And as she realized that, the golden plains from earlier took shape around her. She let go of Ditto and forced herself to her feet, then looked at the looplet in her bag: the Awakening emera was shattered, reduced to tiny shards of all colors, but the Satiated emera was still intact.

She turned to face the Mystery Dungeon. The dead forest showed no signs of the fire that Charizard had shot out; it seemed they were a good distance away from him for now. But if he were to give chase, if he were to attack their home…

These thoughts would get her nowhere. Ditto was unconscious. They needed her help. She tore off her satchel with her good wing, dropped it onto the ground, and searched it for the one Reviver Seed she had. The base of her left wing wouldn’t stop throbbing, but if she held her breath and kept that wing almost completely still, it was bearable. Once she found the Reviver Seed, she inserted it into Ditto’s mouth and waited for them to wake up. Through their translucent body, the seed could be seen slowly dissolving. They still showed no physical signs of the injuries they'd had as a Pidgeot, but she knew better than to assume that returning to their original form would instantly heal them. Even without visible cuts and burns, they still felt pain. They just hid it better than most. With a heavy sigh, Sezim sat down on the dying grass—or at least she tried to. She ended up falling onto her rear end, the jolt from hitting the ground shooting another wave of pain through her injured wing.

As she waited, Sezim gazed up at the sun again. Given that they had just run into a fire type, it was worth reviewing her visions to see if he was the one she foresaw. The sun shone proudly; its searing light burned into her eyes as she looked, and for a moment her resolve failed her. She jerked her head away, blinking the spots out of her vision as she stared stubbornly at the ground.

What if Charizard really was the beast in her visions? They’d had a hard enough time stopping him just now; how in the world would they keep him from burning the continent to a crisp? It was impossible. A small, selfish part of Sezim wished to bury her head in the sand, to hide in ignorance and pretend that Charizard was nothing more than an irrelevant thief. Another, louder part told her that she needed to know. It was her duty. She had to check, for Ditto’s sake if nothing else.

With that decided, the Xatu tilted her head back and glared at the sun. Immediately the sky grew dark with soot, the golden plains burned all around her, and the terrible stench of smoke filled the air once more. A winged silhouette writhed among the dark clouds and spewed crimson flames everywhere. But what else did that silhouette have besides wings? It took her a minute or two, but as she stubbornly stared at the creature she eventually made out claws and fangs and a pair of horns on its head, and…a fire on the end of its long, thin tail. It was only barely visible between the flames and smoke, but she saw it nonetheless.

It was Charizard.

Her heart sunk, though the dread carried a sense of relief: she finally knew who she was seeing. What else could she find out? Maybe there were clues on the ground as well, not just in the sky. For the first time, she took a close look at her surroundings. She looked to be in…what was once a village. The golden grass was gone, reduced to ash and dust, and the houses were reduced to scattered boards and wooden beams. Strange objects lay among the rubble: they were black, crooked, things that emitted a horrid stench. She looked down at the closest one and spotted…a beak. A few scattered feathers that were green…the same color as hers. Nausea overwhelmed her as she realized what those things were. She closed her eyes—she couldn’t bear to look further.

“Sezim?”

A familiar voice dragged her back to reality. She cracked an eye open: the sky was turning blue and the fires were dying, and she grew vaguely aware of a pulling sensation on her abdomen. It was Ditto tugging on her feathers.

“You good?” they asked. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”

It took her a moment to remember how to speak. Logically, she’d known the stakes: letting her vision come to pass would cause injury and death to many Pokemon. But to see it happen up close… “I’m fine,” she eventually forced out. “But, Ditto, in m-my vision—”

She cut herself off when she realized what condition Ditto was in: they were visibly trembling, their eyes dull, their breathing shaky.

Despite all that, they asked, “What’s in your vision?”

She swallowed, then shook her head to clear it. “…I’ll tell you later. First of all, you need to eat this.” She reached into her bag and held out the last Oran Berry to them.

“Are you sure you don’t need it?” they asked, already taking it. “That wing looks pretty busted up.”

“I’m fine. Eat.”

And so they did. Between bites they occasionally flinched, a tendril darting to some part of their body: the front, the top, the back. They were clearly trying not to show their pain too much, but she noticed all the same. She didn’t know how to bring it up, though, and after everything that had happened she lacked the energy to acknowledge problems she couldn't do anything about. It wasn't like they had any more Oran Berries. If the one they did have wasn't enough to relieve their pain, they’d just have to tough it out until they made it back to Arman. So she sat in silence as Ditto ate, and she kept an eye on the forest for any signs of Charizard and his group coming after them. None ever came, but she didn’t let herself relax.

Eventually, Ditto finished their berry with a contented sigh. They tugged on Sezim’s feathers to get her attention and asked, “What were you gonna say about your vision?”

She opened her beak. Closed it. Every time she blinked, an increasing amount of burns appeared on their body. That wasn’t right: Ditto had been fine just seconds ago, so there was no way they could be injured now. She rubbed her eyes until their burns went away, and once she was sure her vision was clear, she said, “It’s Charizard.”

“Huh? What does he—” Their eyes widened in understanding. “Oh.”

“We could’ve stopped him once and for all back there, but…” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t strong enough. If I’d managed to beat him, then maybe…”

“Don’t beat yourself up,” they said placatingly. “We did the best we could.”

She stared at them in disbelief. “He’s probably burning up that forest as we speak!”

Ditto scoffed. “We don’t have to worry about that. The Mystery Dungeons can take care of themselves; my bet is this forest will isolate the fire and let it burn itself out. We’ll be fine as long as he doesn’t burn anything outside a Mystery Dungeon.”

“Oh…” She deflated a bit. “Then…why do you think he would start a fire outside a Mystery Dungeon?” 

“Well, assuming there aren’t any other Charizards you’re foreseeing, I don't think he’ll just burn everything down for no reason. He’s stolen from us before, and I’m pretty sure he’ll try it again. He seems pretty damn desperate.”

“Hm…if he does, he might try a more forceful approach this time instead of sneaking around in the middle of the night. That might be when he starts the fire.”

“Exactly.” Ditto nodded grimly. “We should get back to Arman and patch ourselves up.”

“And warn everyone there,” Sezim added. “The future isn’t set in stone. We still have a chance to save our home. Are you in any condition to transport us?”

“Um…yeah, I think so. Lemme try…” They closed their eyes and took a deep breath. Their gelatinous body quivered and shook for several seconds, and it almost seemed to her like they would fail—but as they let out a grunt of exertion, their purple body grew in size and sprouted four legs as a full coat of orange fur covered them from head to tail. The cuts and gashes from their fight with Charizard reappeared, but now shifted around on their new body.

“You’re a lifesaver,” she said with a sigh of relief. She tried to put on a smile the way Ditto did, but it was hard with a beak instead of a mouth. After Charizard, a friendly Arcanine didn’t seem all that frightening: the heat was uncomfortable, sure, but at least they weren't actively trying to kill her. “Let's move. We can’t afford to stick around, or else they might find us here.”

The Xatu tried to lift up the sack onto their back—only for a shock of pain to rampage through her ribs. She let out a cry and dropped the sack, then crumpled in on herself and fell to a sitting position, clutching at her chest with her uninjured wing. It hurt too much to move. The dry grass and white clouds became oddly blurry, to the point where she couldn’t make out any details. The golden steppe started to…regrow itself, fresh green grass cropping up here and there.

“No,” she murmured. “Not now.”

“You alright?” Ditto said. A wet, hot snout pressed against her shoulder.

She pushed it away. “I’m fine. Get the sack onto your back.”

Ditto hesitated for a moment, then stepped away from her. Over the next few seconds, the pain faded to a dull ache that spread throughout her chest and right wing; moving her left wing caused the ache to intensify, and she couldn’t move her right wing at all, but it wasn’t as bad anymore. As her vision cleared up, the steppe died again. Dimly, she became aware of Ditto kneeling down and lifting the sack with their teeth. Eventually they approached her again and they lowered themself to a lying position on their stomach. After a few attempts, she managed to claw her way onto their back and lie down in front of the sack.

“All set?” Ditto said.

“Go,” Sezim muttered.

The trip back to Arman went a lot faster than their search for the thieves, mostly due to Ditto’s transformation: the body of an Arcanine allowed them to run at extraordinary speeds. It was also due to this transformation that the trip back was horribly painful for Sezim. Every bounding step shook her just enough to jostle her injured wing, which caused a shock to course through her chest and shoulder. Ditto tried their hardest to keep from moving too roughly, but there was only so much they could do as they sped across the plains, found the river leading home, and followed it west. Eventually she sank into a haze that wasn’t quite unconscious but wasn't awake either, from which she was only roused by a shrill voice shouting, “They’re back!”

Sezim looked up to spot a small, round, pink thing sprinting towards them on stubby legs. It was Happiny. Behind her stood a small cluster of dilapidated houses and farms that cropped up out of the golden plains. The sun had just set a few minutes ago, so the sky was steadily darkening as a few scattered stars began to twinkle. Happiny leaped up and hugged Ditto—or at least she tried to. Her tiny arms weren't much good for holding anything, so she only bounced off of their face and fell back to the ground. Undeterred, she scrambled to her feet and spoke rapidly, words tumbling out of her mouth like a waterfall.

“Where’d you go? What’s it like outside the village? Did you see anyone scary? Did you find our stuff?”

“I went to a forest, it’s beautiful out there, no one can scare me, and yes,” Ditto said smoothly. They dropped the sack and rummaged around inside it, eventually pulling out the Substitute doll from earlier. “Here, we got something for you.”

Happiny snatched the doll from their grasp. “You found her!” She hopped up and down in excitement. “And really?! Nobody can scare you?!”

“Nope, nobody at all.” They threw the sack back onto their back, then lifted their chin and put on a cocky grin. Sezim rolled her eyes at their bravado, but didn't comment.

Arman hadn't changed much in the two days they’d been gone: nobody was outside besides Happiny, the houses were still in varying states of disrepair, and the crop fields were nearly barren, dotted with yellow sprouts and dried up plants. It was apparently the middle of harvest season, but their farms looked as barren as a tundra in the dead of winter. And judging by the chipped stones and rotting planks that made up the houses, nobody had managed to make any repairs yet. Sezim huffed a little sigh and lowered her head again while Happiny continued to ask questions at a blistering rate.

“How’d your partner get hurt? Did you fight anyone? Who’d you fight? Why were you fighting?”

“We were fighting the guys who took our stuff,” Ditto replied. “That’s how my partner got hurt.”

“Woah…I’ve never been in a fight before!” Happiny shouted, her eyes as wide as saucers. “What’s it like? Mama says it's scary.”

“Pfft. It’s not that bad, especially if you’ve got someone to watch your back. Isn't that right, Sezim?” Ditto turned their head to shoot her a smile.

Sezim grunted in response. The burial grounds that stood atop a nearby hill had caught her attention. It held more graves than it had when they’d left, just a few days ago. That would mean that the village had even more empty houses and mourners than it used to. She didn't bring it up, though: no point in ruining the child's good mood.

Ditto turned back to Happiny and asked, “Is your mom at home? We’re a little banged up, so some medical help would be great.”

“Um…” Happiny came to a halt, frowning and kicking little clumps of dirt. “I don’t know. My mom’s been really busy for a long time now. It feels like half the village needs her help.”

“We won't be long,” Ditto said. “Just patch us up and send us on our way.”

“Well…okay. I’ll ask her. Come on, let’s go!” With that, she hurried through the village towards one house in particular—it had two stories, a double door, and it was a lot wider than the other homes, mostly due to it doubling as the local hospital. As Ditto followed her, a little voice kept whispering to Sezim about how vulnerable the village really was: their houses were made mostly of wood, which made them perfect targets for Charizard’s fire, and there were no real fighters to defend the village besides Ditto and maybe her, depending on how well her injuries healed. How in the world were they supposed to stop the bandits? When they would come to attack, the village would be outnumbered and outmatched, and their only home would most likely be destroyed.

No, she didn't know that for sure. The houses still stood. There was still a chance for her to change the future. She did her best to shake the doubts out of her mind as they approached Blissey’s house. The windows were foggy and cracked, the planks were rotting in places, and the roof had a couple of holes in it. Despite the home's poor condition, Happiny giggled with excitement as she sprinted to her front door, threw it open, and ran inside.

“Come on, guys!” she shouted from within. “My mom’s been waiting for you ever since you left! Get in here and say hello!”

Sezim and Ditto exchanged bemused looks, then Ditto knelt down so that Sezim could slide off of their back. She landed with a thump that sent a jolt through her spine, but after a few seconds she could stand up straight and walk without too much trouble as long as she kept her upper body still. The two followed Happiny’s lead through the front door and found a deserted foyer, though several voices could be heard from a doorway to the right. A lonely rug lay atop the floorboards, and motes of dust floated in the stale air. They followed the voices through the doorway, down a dark corridor lined with unlit lanterns, and into a living room that had been repurposed for what looked like a triage center. The walls were lined with quilts occupied by several Pokemon of all shapes and sizes, each of them afflicted with some sort of illness or injury. An old Pangoro with arms that wouldn’t stop trembling. A Leavanny whose leaves were wilted and brown. A Stufful with a wet, hacking cough. Some of the patients hadn’t been here the last time Sezim had visited, four days ago.  

Leavanny was first to notice them: “Well, look who it is. Made it back alive, did you?”

Ditto grinned in response as they passed by; the other patients gave cheers and congratulations. While Ditto basked in the attention, Sezim shrank a bit under the weight of everyone’s gaze. She’d only been staying at the village for two weeks, so she wasn't exactly familiar with everyone here.

At the other end of the room stood Happiny clutching the doll tightly, chattering away at a pair of Pokemon: one looked to be a larger version of her—it was her mother, Blissey; the other was a juvenile bird with beige feathers and a red crest. Pidgeotto. As the two approached, Blissey met Ditto's eyes and smiled.

“You made it,” she said.

“You didn’t doubt us, did you?” Ditto teased. They dropped the sack onto the floor and shifted back to their original form. “But even if you did, it’s okay. I was kinda doubting us back there too.”

“Oh, give yourself a little credit. I knew you’d get this done. You’ve never failed a job before,” she said. Her gaze fell on Sezim. “Although it looks like you two got a bit more roughed up than usual this time.”

“Ditto wasn’t scared!” Happiny blurted out. “They told me they fought a bunch of thieves and it’s nice to have someone watch your back and—”

“Okay, Happiny,” Pidgeotto cut in. “We get the picture. Quit rambling.”

“Now, now. Be nice to your sister,” Blissey said, giving him a placating smile. “Can you do me a favor?”

He shot Happiny one last glare, then asked, “What is it?”

“Can you return the items in that bag to their owners?”

“The food, too?”

“No,” she said. “I need you to ask the farmers if they’d be okay with giving that food to the patients here. They need it to get better.”

“And if they say no?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” she said.

Pidgeotto squinted at her for a moment. Then, with a flap of his wings Pidgeotto took flight as easily as a fish to water; he picked up the sack with his talons and said, “I’ll leave the food in the kitchen.” With that, he soared out of the room, and after a huge ruckus from down the hall, he could be seen through the window flying in the sky. A pang of jealousy hit Sezim; if only she could fly like that.

“Now…what do you say I patch you two up, free of charge?” Blissey said. “In addition to your usual payment, of course.”

“That’d be nice,” Sezim said as Ditto let out a sigh of relief.

“You’re the best, Blissey,” Ditto said. “Tell you the truth, I was kinda scared you wouldn’t help us out. A certain someone says you’re very busy.”

“I’m someone!” Happiny chimed in.

Blissey shook her head and chuckled, though she had a wistful air about her. “Yes, things have been tight lately. But I’ll make some room for you two, at least for tonight.”

“You’re the best, Blissey,” Ditto said.

“I know. Come, this way,” Blissey said. And then to Happiny: “Why don’t you check in on Leavanny?”

As Blissey looked for unoccupied beds, Happiny rushed over to Leavanny’s side. Leavanny didn’t look to be in a bad mood, per se, but he brightened up considerably when he spotted Happiny running towards him. Once she reached his bed, she started rattling off the things that Ditto had told her about their mission into the Forsaken Forest.

“Looks like she’s getting the hang of being a healer, huh?” Ditto said.

Blissey hummed in approval, patting her empty egg pouch. “Yes, she is. I always told her that morale is the most important thing for a patient. It's a lot harder to heal if you don’t think you’ll ever get better.” They finally reached a pair of empty beds at the very back of the room, in a dusty corner bathed in moonlight from a small crack in the ceiling. “You two go ahead and rest here. I’d give you an egg if I had one, but…well, I’ll be back in a minute with your money, something for that wing, and an Oran berry.”

With that, Blissey hurried down the hall into another room on the right. Sezim climbed into one of the beds, keeping her wing as still as possible; Ditto was already on the other, melting down into a purple puddle as they let out a sigh of relief. Lying down felt…surprisingly nice, especially on straw as soft as this. She could stay here for days just staring up at the ceiling. The moon shone through a crack between the boards. It was good the sun had set: she wouldn’t want to trigger another vision.

Right, the vision.

The Xatu’s heart grew heavy—she wanted nothing more than to sleep for the next week, but her work wasn't done yet. In fact, it had barely even started. Dreading the tasks waiting for her didn’t do anything to help, but it certainly felt good. Blissey was approaching with an Oran berry, a money pouch, and a roll of bandages; Sezim let herself dread to her heart’s content as she approached, and once the healer arrived she forced herself to make eye contact.

“There’s something you should know,” she told Blissey.

“Let me guess,” Blissey said, placing the pouch on Ditto’s bed. “It’s about your visions?”

“Yeah. I know who’ll start the fire. It’s a Charizard. He’s one of the thieves we were looking for; we’re not sure why, exactly, he’ll start a fire, but odds are he’ll try to steal from us again. We think that’s when it’ll happen.”

Blissey nodded. “I’ll spread the word…right after I patch you two up. Now…” She examined Sezim’s wing with narrowed eyes. Without warning, she grabbed the wing with both hands and shifted it with clinical precision, drawing a yelp from Sezim. “There, the bones are set. Keep that wing pressed to your body, that's it.” Blissey grabbed the bandage roll and began wrapping it around Sezim’s torso and wing, keeping her wing immobile. Once that was done, she said, “I’ve seen a Charizard once before. He came here a week ago with a couple of other Pokemon.”

“Morgrem and Clauncher,” Sezim said.

“Yes, those were the ones. They asked us for food and medicine, but we refused.” Blissey let out a sigh and hopped onto Ditto’s bed. “They weren’t happy to hear that.”

“They must have arrived when Sezim and I were finding that lost Stufful,” Ditto said, scowling. “I’m sorry, we should have been there to help.”

Blissey gave them a wan smile. “Oh, don't be silly, dear. You couldn't have known. And besides, they didn’t hurt anyone. They were just…very insistent that we give them even a scrap of food.”

“Did you?” Ditto asked.

“No. Nobody wanted to give food to a bunch of strangers,” Blissey said with another sigh.

“But…you guys took me in when I first arrived in this world,” Sezim said. “Do you remember, Ditto?”

Ditto chuckled. “Yeah, ‘course I remember—it was only a couple weeks ago. You were passed out in the middle of the steppe and I dragged you back here.”

“Exactly.” Sezim turned to Blissey. “The people here helped me. Why didn't you want to help Charizard?”

“It’s one thing for the local hero to show up with a psychic in tow,” Blissey said, giving them both a significant look, “especially when that psychic helps out as much as you have. It’s another thing entirely for a bunch of strangers to show up and demand our food when we’re struggling to feed ourselves.”

While Sezim thought on that, Blissey picked up the Oran berry and broke it into two halves, spilling a little juice on the floorboards. She handed each of them a half, saying, “Sorry I don’t have more to give. Things have been tight lately, though the food you brought back should help.”

The three sat in silence for a few seconds as Sezim took small bites of her berry piece. Ditto had lifted their berry piece above them with a pair of tendrils; they were currently breaking it apart into smaller bits and dropping them into their mouth. They didn’t bother chewing; instead, the berry bits could be seen dissolving in their body. As the aches and pains around her body faded away, Sezim thought about her visions and what Charizard had said: he seemed like the type to rob, not destroy, but it wasn’t impossible that he could lose control of his fire if sufficiently angered. Eventually, she said, “They were stronger than I expected.”

Ditto groaned and spread themself out wider. “You can say that again. Don’t tell Happiny, but I was thinking they would beat us towards the end of our battle.”

“They would have if it weren't for the Awakening emera.” Sezim shifted slightly, not used to having her wing pinned to her body.

Ditto didn’t reply, but their body tensed up at the mention of the Awakening. The shards of the emera were still in her satchel, inert and useless. The question of how to stop Charizard lurked in the back of her mind, but a solution was slowly coming to her. If Sableye repaired it the way she’d repaired the Satiated emera, if Sezim used it to strengthen herself…

“We’ll just have to pull it together and prepare as best as we can,” Blissey said, and Sezim realized that they’d been talking the entire time she’d been thinking. Blissey’s gaze fell to the floor as she continued, “If only Pidgeot were still here. He’d teach those thugs a lesson.”

“Should we evacuate?” Sezim asked.

“And go where?” Blissey’s smile faltered, flakes of sorrow revealing themselves. “The closest town is a week away on foot. Nobody in here will be able to make the trip.”

“Not that they’d want to,” Ditto said. Then, to the general room: “We aren’t ditching our home, right, guys?!”

The Pokemon gave a general murmur of assent.

“And how many of you have been in a fight before?” Sezim asked them.

Silence. How did they expect to defend their home if they didn’t know how to fight? She held back an incredulous scoff.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Ditto said. “None of you will have to go anywhere. We’ll handle this.”

It sounded like nothing more than a pipe dream to Sezim, but Blissey seemed to take them at their word: with a more genuine smile, she said, “I believe in you. Now, I’ve got a few things to take care of. If you need anything else, just holler. We’ll be here.”

Sezim started, “And don’t forget—”

”I know. I’ll tell Pidgeotto to spread the word about Charizard.” Blissey nodded to them both, then made for the door, picking up Happiny on the way. The kid waved goodbye to Leavanny, and then they were gone. In their absence, the room fell silent and still. Most of the Pokemon here were sleeping, while the ones who weren’t didn’t seem too eager to make conversation. Minutes passed in silence as the Xatu sat there, unsure what to do with herself. She’d spent weeks seeing the catastrophe coming, and now that she knew who would cause it, she was actually sort of lost. Should she rest? Should she train? Maybe she should run through Arman, screaming about what was to come.

No, that would just make everyone panic.

Sezim looked over at Ditto, whose eyes were blissfully shut. They lay as a wide, thin circle, their breaths deep and steady. It was good they were finally resting: they’d put themself through the wringer these last couple of days, what with all the traveling and fighting and transforming they’d done. She really wanted to follow their lead. It would be lovely to lie down and sleep, if only for an hour. The Xatu looked up at the night sky through the hole in the roof. None of the stars were familiar to her, but they were beautiful nonetheless; simply gazing at those little twinkling lights was enough to ease the tension in her neck. The bandages chafed at her chest and her injured wing ached dully, reminding her of the cost of overexertion. The best thing for her to do would be to sleep.

However, her own needs weren’t a priority. Sezim didn’t know how much time she had before Charizard would come—maybe a day, or two if she’s lucky. Maybe he’d come tonight. If she spent her time lazing around and doing nothing, then her vision would come true and the village would be destroyed. Innocent people would die. It was her duty to do everything in her power to keep that from happening.

When they’d fought the bandits, they’d only won thanks to the Awakening. She reached into her bag and pulled out the looplet. The Satiated emera lodged within it was covered in hairline cracks, but a glass coating and Sableye’s enchantment allowed it to persist outside of Mystery Dungeons. If she took the shards of the Awakening to Sableye, maybe she could repair it the way she’d repaired the Satiated emera. And with the Awakening, maybe they’d stand a chance.

The Xatu slipped out of bed and made for the door, quietly so as to not wake Ditto. A few Pokemon glanced at her as she left, but paid her no further mind. As she crept through the hallway, the sounds of Blissey and Happiny speaking drifted from an open door at the end of the hall. They didn't seem to notice her footsteps. Slowly, ever so slowly, Sezim opened the front door and slipped out into the night.

Sableye lived not far from the village, in a small cave dug into the bottom of a hill spotted with dry, yellow shrubs. As Sezim trudged through the plains towards the hill, a brisk wind blew by and sent the grass swaying to and fro, like an ocean’s waves beneath the twinkling stars. Sezim had never seen an ocean before, but Ditto had told her about it once. The endless water had sounded both beautiful and unattainable, something she could want but never truly understand, not without seeing it for herself. Just like a field of flowers, or a lush forest—relics of times long past, things she would never get to witness except for in her visions.

Even though the sun let her see the future and past, Sezim had always preferred night over day: when the sun set and the stars came out, it was like a cloud of smoke lifted from her mind. She didn’t have to constantly focus on staying in the present, which meant she could finally relax and let herself just…experience everything around her: the cold autumn wind; the silhouettes of the mountains at the edge of the horizon; the whispering of the grass as it rustled and shook. It was a similar clarity to the one that the Awakening had given her, only without the bloodlust. She didn’t have to worry about losing herself in the passage of time.

Soon, the flat plains gave way to a cluster of hills, each twice as tall as Sezim. In one of these hills sat a gnarled, wooden front door. Sableye’s cave was better maintained than most of the village, though most of that was due to its “walls” being nothing more than dirt and hard stone. Sezim approached the door and knocked once, loudly.

A few seconds of silence.

“Go away,” said a creaky, gravelly voice from within.

“We’ve been through this before, Sableye,” Sezim said. “You and I both know how this conversation will end.”

A second of silence. “You again, human?” Sableye said, spitting the last word like a curse. “What is it this time? Have you brought another worthless rock for me to repair?”

“No, I bring something more interesting. I know how much you like a challenge.” Sezim paused, fiddling with her bandages. 

A scoff came from behind the door. “You’ve stopped. Bluffing again?”

“Just seeing if you’re interested. Have you ever heard of an Awakening?”

More silence. “I’ve seen them before. But ever since the world began to die, they've been few and far between—like all emeras.”

“I have the shards of one.”

“Liar.”

“No, it’s true. Ditto and I found one in a Mystery Dungeon east from here. It was…” Sezim paused to swallow, nausea building in the back of her throat. “It was unpleasant to use, but it made us stronger than we’d ever been before.”

“Hm.” Footsteps approached the other side of the door, and then it swung open to reveal Sableye. She stood bent and crooked, her purple body hard like stone, and her claws and teeth were equally sharp, made of pale blue crystals. Both her eyes were damaged, hairline cracks running all across the surface, and her gaze was unfocused and vague.

“No need to stare at me like that,” Sableye said. Then, eyeing Sezim’s bandages: “It seems you’ve seen better days as well.”

“Our crops were stolen by a Charizard, a Morgrem, and a Clauncher. Ditto and I managed to retrieve the crops, but we believe the thieves will raid the village soon,” Sezim said. “I need—”

“You need me to repair the Awakening so you and your friend can fight off the thieves,” Sableye cut her off.

“Well, not just the Awakening. I actually…need you to fix our looplet too.”

Sableye scoffed, shaking her head. “Do you even know what that emera can do?”

“I know it makes the wearer stronger than they usually are. But when I used it, I felt…” She railed off, unsure how to describe the sensation of wanting to cave someone’s skull in.

“You felt an insatiable bloodlust,” Sableye finished for her. “I’ve seen what an Awakening can do to a Pokemon. If they use it for long enough, they’ll be robbed of their sentience, reduced to a mindless beast until the emera shatters.”

With her one usable wing, Sezim clumsily dropped her bag onto the ground and fished out the emera shards and broken looplet to show Sableye. “Can you repair them?”

“Can I? Yes.” Sableye made no move to take the shards. Instead, she shook her head and let out a long, tired sigh, her crystal eyes glowing a faint blue. “But I don’t think I should.”

“If you don’t, Arman could be destroyed. If that happens, our homes and farms will be gone—everyone you know will starve.”

"What do I care? Your village has never done anything for me. I have no use for your bread and houses; the only food I need is the crystals buried beneath the earth.” Sableye chuckled sardonically. “Besides, you’ve got loads of neighbors. I’m sure that if you throw enough bodies at that Charizard, he’ll eventually get tired and leave.”

Everyone Sezim knew was at risk of dying to a preventable disaster, and yet Sableye treated the whole thing like a minor inconvenience. The sounds of the night faded, replaced by a low roaring in Sezim’s head. “How can you say such a thing?” she snapped. “You must know that if Charizard attacks us, you won't be safe either. I’ve seen what he’ll do to us!”

“Oh really? What will he do? Will he come and scare the poor little birdie?” Sableye asked, her voice dripping with mock concern.

“He’ll start a fire that can't be stopped! He’ll burn everything down—your home, my home, all of the plains that surround us. He’ll…” The image of a beast writing in the smoke clouds burned itself into her retinas. She shakily raised a wing and rubbed at her eyes to no avail. Her heart hammered at her ribs, each beat sending a wave of pain through her chest.

Sableye’s expression didn’t change, but her cracked eyes glowed a little brighter. She sighed again, turning away to look at her cave’s interior. Sezim spotted several large crystals jutting out from the stone ground behind Sableye, crystals of all colors—blue, red, green, orange, and all of them glowing to illuminate the interior. A table and chair stood near the left wall, while a bed of straw sat further back near the end of the cave. The table was covered in emeras of all colors and sizes, and also a locket. The locket was closed, but a small bit of paper peeked out through the seam.

“I’ve lived alone almost my whole life,” Sableye eventually said. “And I’ve been through worse disasters than a fire.”

“Maybe you have. But I’m not asking you to help yourself survive. I need to make sure the innocent will survive. The infirm. Besides…” Sezim gestured at the table, at the amulet. “I don’t think you’ve always been alone.”

“What’s it to you?”

“If you fix that Awakening, you’ll be responsible for saving the village. You’ll be a hero, and the villagers will gladly accept you as one of their own.”

“I told you already, I don’t need your companionship!” Sableye snapped, glaring at her through glossy, cracked eyes. “And have you ever thought about what would happen if that Charizard got a hold of your precious emera?”

“I…” Sezim trailed off, her gaze falling to the floor. “No, I haven't. But I’m willing to take that risk if it gives me the chance to stop the fire in my visions.”

“Come up with something else,” Sableye said shortly. “Give your food to the bandits. Then they’ll go away.”

“And we'll starve.”

“Then share with them.”

“We can't, there isn’t enough to go around.”

“Then convince Charizard to leave without taking your food.”

Sezim shook her head. “He’s past that point. He made that perfectly clear the last time we saw him. He nearly burnt us to a crisp.”

Sableye stared into space, her gaze unfocused and her fractured eyes dull. After a few long seconds, she eventually said, “You’ve really made a mess of things.”

“…Yes,” Sezim murmured.

“Do you truly believe you need this emera to stop him?”

“Yes,” Sezim said again, more resolutely this time. “The two of us only won last time because of it.”

“And you didn’t lose your minds.”

“We…” The Xatu refrained from mentioning how Ditto kept attacking after Charizard was down. “We didn’t.”

Sableye let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll fix it, and your looplet too. The usual rates for both. But! Once you’re done with the Awakening, you’ll give it back to me. My emeras never break, no matter how long you wear them. If you lose that Awakening and someone else picks it up…”

She didn’t finish her warning. She didn’t need to: Sezim’s imagination did the work for her. The Xatu gave her the emera shards and looplet, and said, “Thank you. You won't regret this.”

“I know I won’t.” Sableye turned to Sezim, her eyes glinting in the crystals’ colorful light. “After all, it’s your neck on the chopping block. Not mine. Even if the fire comes to pass, I’ll survive.”

“Maybe you will.” Sezim opened the front door and looked at the village off in the distance. “I just wish everyone else could say the same.”

Sableye scoffed. “You worry too much about them, especially considering you’ve only been in this world for a couple of weeks.”

“It’s called caring, Sableye.” Sezim turned back to her. “You should try it sometime.”

Sableye stepped towards her, and for a moment Sezim thought she’d changed her mind.

But then Sableye pushed her out into the night and slammed the door in her face.

The trip back to the hospital was uneventful, save for the occasional shout of joy that rang out through the night’s silence. A winged silhouette stood out against the full moon: it was Pidgeotto, who was still flying around and delivering the stolen items to their owners. When Sezim arrived it was an hour or two after midnight, and she had enough time to get a few hours of sleep before Ditto woke her up the next morning. After a cursory review, Blissey deemed them both healthy enough to be discharged and go home—though that might have been because she needed the beds. As the two exited the hospital, they spotted four or five different Pokemon waiting in the foyer, sitting on the floor or leaning against the walls. Most of them were coughing, hacking up mucus lodged in their windpipes. Sezim didn’t know much, what with her memory loss, but she did know how infections diseases spread, so neither she nor Ditto lingered in that building for long.

Outside, the two saw the villagers hard at work, but they weren’t farming or running their shops like they usually did: Cacnea and Ferrothorn were filling vessels with water from the river and well; Lycanroc was helping people pack their things to prepare for evacuating if necessary; Bewear was erecting wooden spikes around the village, though they wouldn't be much use against a foe who could fly. And Pidgeotto was still flying, though now he was darting to each and every house and warning the inhabitants. Between the villagers’ preparations and Sableye repairing the Awakening, Sezim should feel reassured. She should be confident. She was taking a path that would save her home, and yet anxiety still twisted her stomach.

The sky held that faded blue light that came just before sunrise, and the golden grass whispered in the gentle wind. Clouds of dust danced through the cool morning air, which lacked even a speck of humidity. Conditions were perfect for a wildfire.

The Xatu moved to pick up a nearby bucket and carry it to the river, only for Ditto to lay a tendril on her outstretched wing. “Can we stop by my place first?” they said. “I need to…pick up some stuff.”

Sezim squinted at them. “Your house is empty. There’s nothing to pick up.”

“Oh. Uh, in that case, can we, um…”

They trailed off, staring blankly into space. Sezim put the bucket back, tilting her head.

“You alright?” she said.

Their eyes widened. “Yeah! Yeah. Of course I’m alright,” they blurted out. After a moment, they continued, “But…I want to go home for a bit. Just for a few minutes.”

“…Okay.”

None of the homes in Arman were especially fancy, but Ditto’s house was in especially poor condition due to neither of them spending much time actually living in it. The wooden walls were rotting, the windows were clouded, and the thatch roof looked like it would blow away if someone so much as sneezed on it. The Oran bush growing next to the gnarled front door was withered and yellow.

Ditto slid up and inspected its dried up leaves. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding. I thought I asked Leavanny to water this!”

“He’s in the hospital,” Sezim reminded them.

“Oh,” they said. “Still, he could’ve asked someone to do it.”

“It’s not the end of the world,” she said in a placating tone. “We can try to grow another bush; we have the seeds for it.”

Ditto sighed. “Yeah…it’s just that we’ll have to wait at least a a few weeks for it to start bearing fruit again, and I’m pretty sure the one in charge of the berry farm hasn’t been having much luck with her harvests either. So there’s nowhere for us to get Orans from.”

“It would be nice to have one of those Kecleon merchants here, no?”

Ditto scoffed. “As if they’d ever come to a backwater dump like this.” They slid to the door, opened it, and entered. Sezim followed, wrinkling her nose at the dusty stink inside. The house had two rooms: one for living/eating, and one for sleeping. The furniture was sparse; the living room had a small kitchen in the corner, a table, and a couple of chairs, while a pair of beds and a desk occupied the bedroom. It was spartan, but it was home. Sezim moved through the house and drew the curtains over every window: she wasn’t in the mood for a vision at the moment, and blocking the sun was the easiest way to keep them away. Meanwhile, Ditto slid to the middle of the living room and melted into a puddle again with a long, deep sigh.

“How much time do you think we have?” they said to the ceiling.

The house fell into darkness as Sezim shut the door, the only lights being a few sunbeams shining through the gaps in the curtains and casting scattered spotlights onto the floorboards. “Before he comes? A day. Maybe less. He could already be on his way,” she said. “Which is why we should be helping everyone get ready, not wasting time lazing around.”

“Yeah…” Despite their agreement, they made no move to get up. “Can you pass me the looplet? I could use the Satiated emera right now.”

“The looplet broke in the battle. I gave it to Sableye so she could repair it.”

They groaned. “Shoot. I’m starving.”

“Sorry.”

After a sigh, they asked, “Do you think you can use your future-seeing thing to figure out who’ll be with Charizard?”

“I told you before, I can’t control what I see,” she said with a hint of annoyance. “And it’s obvious who’ll be with him: Morgrem and Clauncher.”

“Maybe he has other allies.”

“Maybe. But we won’t know until they show up.”

Several seconds passed in silence. Then a minute. It got to the point where Sezim was about to leave, only for Ditto to ask, “Can't you use your future-seeing power to tell when he’ll come?”

She shook her head. “The sky’s covered in smoke in my visions, so I can’t tell what time of day it is.”

“Can you at least look at what happens before the fire?” they snapped, solidifying their body back to its usual state. “Maybe we can get a little information that way.”

“I can’t control my visions,” she said, taking care to enunciate each word.

They groaned, shooting her a glare. “What's the point of your powers if you can’t control them?!”

The Xatu looked at them for a long moment, and eventually they broke eye contact. Quietly, she said, “What’s with you? This isn’t really about my visions, is it?”

“I just…” They exhaled shakily. Seconds passed in silence as their body trembled, only to eventually grow still. “It's nothing.”

“No, it's not nothing.”

Ditto stared at the ceiling, unmoving, and let out a long sigh. Haltingly, they murmured, “I can't stop thinking about how it felt. To use that Awakening emera. It was like…a voice was screaming in my head. Telling me to destroy everything around me.”

“That’s the side effect. The Awakening makes you strong, but it gives you an insatiable bloodlust,” Sezim said, echoing Sableye’s warning.

“It…” Ditto trailed off. “It turned me into a…a monster.”

“No,” she said immediately. “You weren't a monster.”

“Charizard was d-down,” they stammered, their voice breaking. “I won, but I didn’t stop hurting him. I couldn’t.”

Sezim stood dumbly, raising her uninjured wing as though she could somehow wave away their emotional state and get back to work. She didn't know what to do here. She was used to rescuing people from physical problems, not emotional ones. If Ditto had been lost in the woods or injured or drowning, she would’ve dived in and bailed them out without hesitation. But this…

“You're not a monster,” she said again, sitting down next to them on the dusty floorboards.

They didn’t answer.

“Really. You're not.”

Still nothing.

Unsure of what else to do, she fiddled with her bandages and sat in silence, listening to their trembling breaths. She wanted nothing more than to do something, to take the steps needed to prevent the foreseen catastrophe. The more time she spent sitting here, the less time she’d have to prepare. She had almost worked up the courage to suggest that they start reviewing their supplies when Ditto spoke again.

“How are we going to stop him?”

They met her eyes, their body unusually watery and transparent. Was this how they cried? Sezim hesitated, unsure of how to answer. Ditto needed…something, though she wasn’t sure what. She didn’t know how to help them emotionally, but she knew how to help with practical problems. They needed a plan to stop Charizard, and to make a plan they needed to share information with each other. And there was no point putting this off, not when it was something so important.

“I have to tell you something,” she said. “Something you won’t like.”

“…What is it?”

“I asked Sableye to fix the Awakening.”

They gasped, their body suddenly congealing into its normal state. “Why?!”

“Because—” She stopped herself from saying Because we need it. “…Because I didn’t know what else to do. I don't know how else we can stand a chance against Charizard.”

“No…there has to be another way.” Their breathing slowly steadied; furrowing their brow, they moved to a position that resembled upright. “I…I can't use that emera again.”

“You don’t have to,” she said. “I will.”

“But what about the other villagers? Blissey, Leavanny, Pangoro! They can fight with us!”

“No, they can’t. A lot of them are sick or injured, and everyone who isn’t has probably never been in a fight before. They’ll be liabilities—”

“You don’t know that!” they cut her off. “There’s safety in numbers. We don’t need that damn emera!”

She exhaled slowly, looking up at the ceiling. “I’m not saying you have to use it. I’m not saying anyone has to use it. But I’d much rather have it than not.”

“What if Charizard gets ahold of it?” they demanded.

“Sableye asked the same thing.” She met their eyes. “We’ll just have to keep him away. Neither of us is strong enough to face him without it. We found that out yesterday.”

They held her gaze for several seconds, their eyes blazing with a mixture of outrage and disbelief. “I can’t believe this,” they muttered. “I can't believe you. How could you do something so stupid?”

“It's not stupid, I—”

“That thing is too dangerous to exist! If Charizard gets his hands on it he’ll tear us to pieces.”

“Ditto—”

“What if his cronies get ahold of it? What will you do then? Did you ever stop to think—”

“I did it because I can't let everyone die!”

Ditto fell silent at her outburst, their anger melting away as their eyes narrowed. “…What?”

She covered her face with her good wing. The images of the burnt, crooked, blackened things—not bodies she couldn’t think of them like that—were branded into her vision. Something was building up in her chest and she couldn’t bear to look at Ditto. “After the fight in the woods,” she murmured, “I looked at the sun, and it showed me… If I don’t stop him, Charizard will… They'll all…”

Sezim’s throat closed up. The silence that followed stretched for several seconds. Eventually, Ditto murmured, “No.” Then, more resolutely: “No. There’s gotta be another way. I…I can think of something. Maybe if we…”

They trailed off. Clearly, they didn’t know what else to do. She stood up and hurried out the door without looking at them. As she stepped out into the chilly autumn morning, her good wing wouldn’t stop trembling. She needed to steel herself for what was to come. There was no way she’d be able to defend the village if she couldn't even keep herself from shaking. She had to be brave.

But she was scared, and she couldn't convince herself not to be.

The sun rose through the sky and cast its light onto the dying earth. The eastern edge of the golden plains gave way to a deep forest of pine trees, and then came a stark mountain range that held no grass or trees, only black stone with snow covering the distant peaks. Between the mountains and valleys stood a single dormant volcano; it hadn’t erupted in centuries, but the magma building beneath could still heat the water beneath the surface, forming geysers, mudpots, and the occasional hot spring. Charizard soared through the range, weaving between peaks; he knew the place by heart, down to the location of each stone, so he knew exactly where he needed to go. His thoughts were clouded with hunger, but he didn't touch the bag he carried. The food it contained wasn't for him.

Charmander slept close to the hot spring he had left her at, her flaming tail safely tucked away from the water. The heat was good for children of fire types, especially those who were sick and hungry. As he flew to her, the cold wind passing over his wings, she didn’t stir or open her eyes. Terror strangled his heart for a moment—was she gone?—but as he touched down, he saw the way her shoulders rose and fell with each breath.

Her brothers and mother were all sleeping beneath the earth. He would do anything to spare her that fate.

His efforts at foraging in the woods and fields beyond the mountains had yielded nothing but scraps—rotten berries, mushy nuts, and a few seeds all clumped together in his bag. He opened it up and took out one of the berries that wasn’t quite as ruined as the rest, and pressed it to Charmander’s nose where she could smell it.

“Charmander,” he said. “I have something for you.”

The child made no move to eat it. She didn't even wake up. Charizard’s heart grew heavy as he looked down at her. She was all skin and bone, her scales dull and flaking. She needed to eat something, but…

He sighed and lay down next to her, covering her with one wing to keep her warm. Gently, he pried open her mouth and dripped some juice from the berry into it. Solid food was out of the question for now; it wouldn't do for her to choke. But if—no, when she woke up, he would be there for her with a feast ready. All he had to do was get to Arman, get their food, and get out. It was a simple plan, easy to execute. There was no point in trying to negotiate with them, not when they’d shown no inclination towards helping anyone who wasn't in their little village. Such tribalism was selfish; it was what had killed so many of the Pokemon who refused to shackle themselves to civilization. His heart burned with outrage—while the “civilized” people sat in their houses and grew fat, everyone else starved. They couldn’t even spare a single doll for his little one; no, they had to keep that too.

Charizard leaned closer, listening intently for Charmander’s breathing. “I’ll do what needs to be done,” he whispered to her. “All for you.”

For a few hours, the two slept in something resembling peace. Then, a familiar voice woke Charizard up.

“How is she feeling?”

He opened her eyes to find Clauncher looking at them. Her face never betrayed much emotion, but her eyes were narrowed in something resembling concern. Behind her the sun shone high above in a clear blue sky. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud to be seen. Morgrem sat on a rock nearby, his eyes dull with exhaustion.

“She hasn’t woken up yet,” Charizard said.

Clauncher tapped her pincers thoughtfully. “When was she last conscious?”

“…A few days ago.”

Morgrem and Clauncher exchanged a significant look. With a grunt, Morgrem stood up and stretched his arms out. “Then we don't have much time,” he said. “We’ll need to hit them tonight.”

“They’ll be ready for you,” Clauncher said. “You won't be able to sneak past them like you did before. I hate to say it, but I don't think we’ll be able to steal from that village again.”

“Then we’ll find another village, one willing to help us,” Morgrem said.

“The closest town aside from Arman is a long trip from here, maybe a week’s travel. How will we get there without starving?”

Charizard retracted his wings with a twinge of regret at leaving Charmander exposed to the elements, then stood up and squared his shoulders. “We’ll raid Arman,” he said, baring his fangs. “We’ll take everything they have and fly away to a better place.”

Clauncher and Morgrem stood in silence, their faces unreadable. Eventually, they both nodded.

“We’ll need a plan,” Clauncher said.

The next several hours in Arman went by in hurried preparation. Buckets and bowls were filled with water from the river, as was a small canoe that Leavanny had from days long past. It was decided that the villagers would stay indoors when the thieves came: though it would be nice to have reinforcements, none of them had any real experience in battle. Getting civilians involved in a life-and-death fight was asking for unnecessary casualties. Regardless, a few Pokemon practiced their battling techniques, controlling wind and fire and earth. Others only sat and waited for the inevitable. Pidgeotto was done flying and now sat on top of the hospital’s roof, Blissey was arguing with Torterra (a local farmer) about food distribution, and Leavanny was stubbornly trying to perform a Leaf Blade with his yellow, wilted leaves.

Ditto, however, was nowhere to be seen—they hadn’t left their house since their argument. Part of Sezim regretted her previous outburst: their concerns about the Awakening were valid, even if she couldn’t see any alternatives. But between her worries and her fears, there was barely any room in her mind for regret.

Eventually, the work dried up. The vessels were full. The villagers were informed. The few defenses they’d scrounged up—namely the wooden spikes and a few trenches dug here and there—were in place, even if they wouldn’t be any good against a flying foe. All that was left to do was to wait.

Sezim wasn’t good at waiting. Her heart pounded at her ribs, her good wing shook like a tree branch in the wind, and her breaths were short and uneven. She needed something to do, a distraction. For lack of any better ideas, she decided to climb a nearby hill and scan the plains for anyone approaching the village. As she looked upon the golden steppe, the cold wind whistled a piercing song and blew into her face, forcing her to squint. The sky was clear; not a single cloud blocked the sun’s rays, and the edges of her vision started to blur. The dried up grass flourished, turning lush and green as—

Sezim slapped herself. Focus, she told herself, and the plains around her died once again. But even as she tried to stay present, the distant sounds of Pokemon talking and running and building and breaking melted away, leaving nothing but silence in their place. Her vision remained unaffected, however, so she stood on the hill and gazed out for several hours, keeping watch as the golden grass swayed in the wind like waves. There weren’t any signs of travelers, but she didn't let herself relax as the sun crossed the sky. Noon came and went, and her stomach gnawed in hunger. Between hunger and stress, she was as tense as a drawn bowstring by the time the sun began to set.

So when someone tapped her shoulder, she let out a shriek and leaped a solid three feet into the air.

“Whoa,” said Sableye, who had approached while she wasn't looking. “No point in panicking, I’m not going to eat you.” She carried something, a looplet and a crystal—no, an emera. The Awakening. Its surface wasn’t a clean rainbow gradient anymore; rather, its colors were disjointed and contrasting, as though someone had glued a bunch of differently colored rocks together to form one large crystal.

Sableye held out the Awakening and looplet. “Take them.”

Sezim did so, her heart still pounding. The looplet looked like it had never broken in the first place, while Awakening pulsed gently in her grasp like a tiny heart, like it was alive. The Satiated emera was still in the looplet, and its gentle warmth numbed the pain in her stomach.

“My payment,” Sableye said, making it an order.

“Right.” Sezim pulled a money pouch out of her bag and handed it to her. “What do you need this money for, anyways? I thought you don't like civilization.”

“I still have to buy tools for my repairs. It also doesn’t hurt that the gold is shiny.” Sableye hefted the pouch to feel its weight, then opened it to see the coins inside. Once satisfied, she shut it and asked, “What were you looking for?”

“The thieves.”

“Of course,” Sableye said with a scoff. “Who else would it be?”

Sezim shrugged. She expected Sableye to leave now that she had her money, but she just stood there next to her. Sezim asked, “Do you need something else?”

“Oh, no. I’m just thinking.”

“About what?”

“None of your business.”

“Then you should go before they arrive.” With that said, Sezim turned back to the plains. Half a minute passed in silence before Sableye spoke again.

“Logistics.”

Sezim shot her a look. “What?”

“I’m thinking about logistics,” Sableye said slowly, like she was speaking to an exceptionally stupid child. “Specifically, food distribution. That contagion that’s killing the crops, is it just happening here?”

“…I don’t think so. From what I’ve heard, it's happening everywhere on the continent.”

“So your little village probably isn’t the only place dealing with thieves,” Sableye said thoughtfully. “If there isn’t enough to go around, someone has to go hungry. And nobody wants to draw the short straw, which means some resort to stealing.”

Sezim sighed. “Where are you going with this? I’m trying to keep a lookout here, and you're distracting me.”

“Did Charizard mention any friends? Family? Children, perhaps?”

“I…” When Sezim thought back to that battle, all she remembered of Charizard were his fangs, his talons, the flames he spat at them. “I don’t know. Why do you ask?”

“Everyone has something they need to protect. Some only protect themselves. Others, a dear friend. Or a lover. Or a child. Any Pokemon worth a damn would go to great lengths to keep their loved ones safe, and that love can move mountains.” A hint of sentimentality showed itself in the way Sableye stared at her hands. “It can freeze the ocean. Stop the wind. Some Pokemon would burn down the world just to give their special one another day to live.”

“So?”

Sableye chuckled sardonically. “Do you not see my point here? You would do well to think of why Charizard fights. If you cannot match his conviction, you’ll never stand a chance.”

Sezim stood silently for a while, processing what Sableye had said. The Xatu had no memories of a family or of love; she didn’t understand why one would go to such lengths for the sake of another Pokemon.

Or…maybe she did. She looked at the Awakening and looplet again, then closed her wing over them. “He is a threat to the only home I have,” she said resolutely. “I’ve seen him destroy everything I hold dear over and over again. There’s no way I’ll let him do it for real.”

“Hm.” Sableye opened her mouth as though she wanted to say more, only to shut it and turn to leave. “Good luck with your monster,” she said to the grass. “Don’t screw this up.”

She left, and Sezim was alone with her thoughts again. Seconds turned into minutes that turned into hours, during which she stared at the empty plains.

Eventually the sun set; now the pale moon glowed high above, and countless stars decorated the night sky. She wondered what the villagers were doing, what Ditto was doing. It was probably best to go back and help them prepare; she turned to move down the hill, only for something to catch her eye. A pink ball of light flew into the sky and burst into tiny sparks that glittered like stars. Who was capable of such fireworks? A Fairy or Psychic type—Blissey, maybe. Or…Morgrem. Which would mean…

She turned back to the plains. In the distance, a single orange flame lit up the night sky.

“No,” Sezim murmured. She threw on the looplet around her neck, then turned and bolted towards the village. She had thought she was ready, but all she could think about was the suffocating heat all around her, the stench of smoke filling the air. “They’re coming!” she shouted as she ran. “They’re coming!”

With every hurried step, her broken wing ached more and more. The village streets were pitch black, lit only by the lamps and candles shining out from windows and open doors, and completely deserted. Ditto. She needed to find them and get ready for the thieves. As the Xatu sprinted through the village shouting her warnings, a few Pokemon peeked out through the windows. Some drew their curtains closed; others locked their doors. Only Leavanny was outside, sitting on the porch of his house. Sezim didn’t bother asking him why he wasn’t at the hospital, instead saying, “Where's Ditto?”

“Not sure, but I can help—”

“No,” she cut him off. “Get inside.”

She rushed through the village with no clear destination in mind, only searching for her partner. All the while, the faint orange glow in the sky shone brighter as the sound of flapping wings grew louder. Somehow she found herself in front of the hospital—its doors were open, and Blissey’s furious shouts broke through the night’s silence. Sezim drew her Confuse Wand out from her bag as quietly as possible, then crept through the open doors.

Through the foyer, she saw Morgrem with his back against the wall, a pair of lumpy sacks clutched in his arms. Trapping him was Blissey, whose teeth were bared in fury.

“Why did you come back?” Blissey demanded. “Couldn’t you just leave us alone?”

Morgrem raised his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “We had no choice. You should’ve helped us when you had the chance.”

A furious cry escaped Blissey. “Do you think we enjoyed—”

“That’s enough,” Sezim cut her off, approaching and laying a wing on her shoulder. With her wand, she pointed at the distant flame—though it was approaching far too quickly. “Look.”

Blissey’s fury melted away when she spotted it, replaced by panic. “That’s…”

“I told you he'd come,” Sezim said, turning to watch Morgrem so that he wouldn’t try anything. She tried her hardest to wear a mask of tranquility and calm, though her organs felt like they were being scrambled and disassembled one by one. Winds buffeted her from behind, growing stronger every second. A gasp escaped Blissey as the ground shook, and Sezim’s heart sank. Trying her best not to tremble, she turned and stepped outside to find Charizard leering at her, his claws glinting in the light from the windows. Dust kicked up from his landing and settled around him slowly like a cloud of smoke.

“You really messed up now,” Morgrem said smugly. Neither Blissey nor Sezim paid him any mind.

“Do you have what we need?” Charizard asked him quietly.

Morgrem nodded, lifting the bags for him to see. Judging by their sizes, he’d already hit the farmers on the edge of the village and was coming to the hospital to rob them too—medicine maybe, or bandages.

Charizard approached them, only for Sezim to launch a charge from her Confuse Wand at him. It exploded against his chest in a burst of light and forced him off balance, but it didn't affect him further: his eyes were sharp, his steps steady.

“Leave,” she ordered, trying to sound confident. “Now.”

He looked down at her with contempt. “Let me pass.”

“No.”

Charizard exhaled harshly, hot air running over her. The flame on his tail burned bright in the darkness. “I don’t have time for this.” Spurts of flame shot from his nostrils as he rushed forward, his talons slashing at her—

A black and white blur pushed her out of the way and blocked the attack. It was a Pangoro—no, it was Ditto, and they struck Charizard in the chest, knocking him back a few metres. Sezim tried to say something to them, only to realize she didn’t know what to say. Should she apologize? Thank them? Ask what they meant by another way?

“Took you long enough!” they shouted at Charizard. They pounded a fist against their chest, wearing a confident grin. Any traces of their previous fear were either buried or gone. “I spy a Morgrem and a Charizard, but where’s your pincer-wielding friend?”

“I’m right here,” said a voice behind Charizard, and a pair of whistling water shots flew towards Ditto. Sezim pulled them out of the way just in time and fired her Confuse Wand at Clauncher, who ducked under the wand’s charge.  A commotion fired up behind Sezim—she whirled around and spotted Blissey raising a rose-colored barrier to block a gleam of pink light from Morgrem, who then dropped the bags and clawed right through the shield. Sezim fired her wand at Morgrem before he could reach Blissey, and he stumbled away, barely avoiding the blast. His eyes went wide in fear.

Sezim exhaled, making eye contact with him. She raised her wand, and he bolted into the hospital and climbed out through a window. He was scared of the wand, then.

“Come on!” Ditto roared. Sezim turned back and spotted them charging towards Clauncher. Charizard had taken flight and was—he was spitting flames at them. Some of the fire hit Ditto, while others missed and set afire the grass, the walls, the roofs.

Shit.

“Oh, of all the stupid things to—” Sezim cut herself off and rushed towards the nearest water bucket, only to find Leavanny already there. He gave her a reassuring grin, then picked up the bucket and threw its contents onto one of the fires.

“We’ll take damage control!” he shouted.

“What do you mean, we?” Sezim demanded.

The door next to him opened and the real Pangoro hobbled out. Bewear exited the next house over. One by one, the doors opened to reveal the villagers all armed with the bowls, buckets, and any other vessels they could fill with water. High above, Pidgeotto darted from one roof to the other, putting out the fires with a bucket he clutched in his talons.

“Go!” Leavanny shouted, and she went.

Ditto covered their face as they took hits from both Clauncher and Charizard, shots of water and fire, and a few houses were beginning to burn even as the villagers rushed to put everything out. As Sezim ran towards Ditto, she pulled out her wand and fired it at Clauncher, only to miss in her haste. Then someone tackled her from behind, and pain enveloped her injured wing. It was Morgrem. His claws came for her throat, but she swung her wing to summon the wind and knock him off. She stumbled to her feet, pointed her wand at him, and—

And nothing happened.

Morgrem gave a crooked, yellow grin. “Looks like your toy’s all out of juice,” he said, and came for her.

The Awakening was in her bag. This time, she didn’t hesitate to put it on. The light, the clarity, the radiant joy—it all came to her once more, and the battle that had previously terrified her now seemed like nothing more than a game. Why had she ever been frightened? What was there to be scared of, when she had such power at her command? With a flick of her wing she conjured up a gust that sent Morgrem flying into the air. He hit the ground hard and didn’t get back up.

She turned and looked over her shoulder to find Ditto still under fire, but they weren’t even trying to guard against the attacks anymore. Instead they had lowered their arms and were now staring up at Charizard. As they took blow after blow, their body began to shimmer, shedding its fur in exchange for scales and sprouting wings and horns. They were no longer a Pangoro. Instead, they had taken the form of Charizard.

“Oh,” she said out loud. “So that's what you thought of.”

Part of the Xatu reveled at their transformation—finally, Ditto could face their foes in air combat without having to deal with the frailty of being a Pidgeot! Instead of fragile feathers and a puny beak, they had durable scales and sharp fangs. Charizard was a powerful foe, so it only made sense to copy his body. It was brilliant! Ditto took off from the ground, flapping their wings clumsily, and surged towards Charizard.

Clauncher was still firing at them, so the Xatu swung her wing and summoned another wind; it threw Clauncher into a wall, and the Xatu paid her no mind after that. Even as she took joy in new power—hers and Ditto’s both—something in the back of her mind kept worrying about Ditto’s transformation. Maybe it was the way they flew clumsily, writhing in the air as they tried to master their newfound strength.

The Xatu wanted nothing more than to join the fight, but she couldn’t fly with her wing broken, and using the winds, tempting as it was, risked hurting Ditto. The voices of the nearby villagers came from somewhere far away; she couldn’t really make out the words. Whatever, they didn’t matter. She stood and watched as the two Charizards battled in the sky, clawing at each other and spitting spurts of fire every now and then. She couldn’t tell which was the real one and which was Ditto; there were no visible features to distinguish them from each other.

One of them gained the upper hand, sending the other plummeting to the ground. It crash landed right in front of her, breathing heavily, its scales visibly singed. The other one was going to land in a matter of seconds, but she didn’t feel any sense of urgency.

“What's my name?” she asked the Charizard on the ground.

It lifted its head to look at her, incredulity written all over its face. “You gotta be kidding, Sezim. What kind of question is that?” Ditto said in a ragged voice.

“I had to confirm your identity,” the Xatu said casually.

Their gaze fell to her looplet. “You…you’re really using it.”

“I have to,” she said. It was obvious. Without the Awakening she was weak and useless, incapable of protecting anyone. That emera gave her strength she’d never have gotten on her own, so why did Ditto look upon her with disdain? And why did their transformation frighten her so much? Fear had no place in her heart, not now.

A furious shriek sounded off from above: the real Charizard was almost upon them. She reached out at him with her wing, and the air bent to her will—Charizard came to a halt midair, his momentum vanishing. With a flick of her wing, she sent him flying away. He recovered quickly, righting himself and spitting more fire at her. As the villagers scrambled to put out the fires, scurrying to and fro, the flapping of wings sounded off behind her: it was Ditto, taking flight once again.

“I’ll lure him away from the village. Less risk of collateral damage that way,” they said to her. Then, to Charizard: “You call that a battle? A rock would put up more of a fight than you!”

Ditto rose towards him, continuing to shout taunts, and Charizard roared at them in response, and their battle was like a dance among the stars. They clashed and struck at each other, they rose and dove, and they steadily moved away from the village. The Xatu didn’t want them to go. She wanted to keep fighting, she wanted to kill, to destroy everything that stood against her. She needed a foe whose blood she could spill. Pokemon ran all around her, hurrying from house to house. They could work. She needed to make the most of this power, this wonderful, incandescent—

Wait.

“This…is what you warned me about, isn’t it?” the Xatu murmured, even as she struggled to remember who had warned her. She reached up and pulled at the Awakening, though her chest ached at doing so—stop it stop it stop. The emera couldn’t shatter, but it could come loose from the looplet. She tore it free—tore a piece of her heart out—and dropped it into her bag, and Sezim saw clearly again. Morgrem and Clauncher were out of the fight, likely unconscious (she couldn’t bear to think of the alternative), and Charizard was occupied with Ditto. The two were battling in earnest now, darting this way and that as they collided into each other again and again. Brief spurts of flame exploded into the darkness and vanished in seconds. Sezim was breathing hard—hyperventilating—and she couldn’t stop, not when she kept thinking about what her vision had shown her. Smoke clouds smothering the sky. A wildfire consuming the steppe. She wished she could fly; maybe then she could get up there and help Ditto, help protect the only home she had. Firing her Confuse Wand wasn’t an option anymore, and without the Awakening, she couldn’t control the winds well enough to use at such a long range.

So she ran towards them as fast as she could. Her broken wing was aching in earnest now, each step shaking it just enough to hurt, but she didn’t slow down. She couldn't, not when her partner needed help. One of the Charizards—Ditto, probably—flew much slower than the other. Their movements were haphazard and clumsy, and the fires they spat were weak and fleeting. They were outclassed in an unfamiliar body, a body that struck fear in her heart—but why? She didn't understand, and she had neither the time nor the mental clarity to think it through.

Sezim followed the fight out of the village and into the surrounding steppe. The short grass crunched beneath her talons as she ran, her bag bouncing on her shoulder. Ditto fought valiantly, but Charizard still had years of experience over them. He outmaneuvered them at every turn, dodging their strikes and fighting back with the ferocity of a beast. In a matter of seconds he clawed them once, twice, thrice, and sent them back to the ground. Ditto rose once more, only for Charizard to send them down again. They landed hard, sending a plume of dust into the air. They weren’t moving. Charizard was diving at them and they—

They weren’t moving.

She screamed wordlessly. She ran to where they had fallen, fumbling with the Awakening, trying and failing to insert it into the looplet because she had to protect them, she had to save them, she was supposed to fucking keep them safe but all she had done was make things worse. She finally shoved the Awakening into the looplet, felt its light, and sent one wind blade after another at Charizard. None of them made him so much as flinch. She flapped her wing once, twice, thrice, and pushed him back into the air with a whirlwind. Instead of diving at Ditto again, like she'd expected, he turned on her and the rush of air over claws was all she could hear.

Pain erupted all across her chest, from her shoulder blade to the base of her leg. She fell onto her stomach with a gasp. Her bandages fell away, torn and useless, and the night’s cold wind tormented her open flesh. The looplet and Awakening fell to the ground. Without its strength she couldn’t stand up. She stared emptily at the dark horizon, faded grass and oddly blurry stars mixing together into a dark swirl.

Stars, not smoke. Maybe…maybe she was on the right track after all.

“You turned us away,” Charizard said from somewhere far away. “We needed your help and you turned us away, and now…”

The sound of labored breathing broke the night's silence, every exhale expelling spurts of flame into the air. Sezim couldn’t let herself think about what that was building up to. She had to do something. She couldn’t move. She had to. Her body screamed as an excruciating shock of pure pain tore through her, but she was standing up, getting on her feet and looking down at a Charizard who was covered in cuts and bruises; some scales were completely missing, the pink flesh beneath left exposed to the elements. Something in the back of her mind told her that was Ditto, and she believed it. So then the real Charizard was…

The Xatu turned around and found him standing mere inches from her. His expression was unreadable in the darkness.

“Why do you try so hard to stop me?” he asked, his voice weak from exhaustion.

“Because I see what you’ll become,” she whispered.

“And what is that?”

“A monster.”

Seconds passed in silence. He sighed, then raised his claws. She knew what was coming but she couldn’t move out of the way.

Then, light. Pure and blinding. The same light that she had seen from the Awakening, only this time she wasn't the one who’d caused it. It drove away the black night and replaced it with a bright, shimmering aura surrounding—surrounding Ditto. Their body was stronger, their wings and horns larger than they’d been before, and the fire on their tail burned brighter than ever. They flew to Charizard and tackled him, grabbing his wings and pushing him to the ground and spitting fire, so much fire, and Sezim finally understood why their transformation had frightened her.

Ditto raised both hands, their talons shining in the night, only to freeze suddenly. Charizard was beaten. He wouldn’t be getting back up again. As Sezim approached, an odd mixture of relief and panic swirled in the back of her throat.

“Sezim,” Ditto said without looking at her. Their whole body was shaking badly, arms and neck and wings. “I…”

“Hey,” she said, trying and failing to keep her voice from shaking as she reached for their looplet. It wouldn’t do to frighten them now; she needed to keep them still. “You're okay—”

Her strength failed her. She stumbled and fell to the ground. She was tired, so tired. Her eyes wouldn’t stay open. But Ditto, they still wore the Awakening. She couldn’t let herself sleep, not yet.

Slowly, the Xatu forced herself to her feet as her entire body screamed in protest. Through her unfocused vision, she could barely make out a winged figure with a burning flame on the end of its tail. The figure turned to her. “I-I can’t stop,” Ditto stammered, their tone begging. “I just wanted to s-save you, but now I…” Their hands trembled as they stood, paralyzed by the urges the Awakening was imparting on them. She took one step towards them. Then another. Her legs and back were numb now—either from exhaustion or shock, she wasn’t sure and she really didn’t care. Simply staying on her feet took all of her strength.

“I can't—” Ditto retched, their body curling in on itself. Their breaths came in rapid, uneven gasps.

“Stay with me,” she whispered, managing another step. She lifted her wing, stretching it out in an attempt to reach them. From the light on their tail she could barely make out their eyes, which were flitting back and forth in their sockets. Their head twitched wildly and they clawed at the looplet, trying and failing to extract the Awakening.

Sezim finally reached them. She pushed their hands away from the looplet and got a hold of the Awakening—

They swiped at her with their razor-sharp talons and only barely missed. She stumbled back. An anguished cry tore through their throat, a mixture of feral rage and fear. With the cry came flames. Smoke. A suffocating heat. The grass around them ignited and burned in seconds, spreading far too quickly. It surrounded them like a perverted shield. They screamed again and again, clutching at their head, and with every scream came another stream of crimson flame, hot enough to melt steel.

“Stop!” Sezim shrieked as the fire plumed all around her. “Stop it!”

Her heart beat quickly and frantically, to the point where it was all she could hear. She was hyperventilating again. She tried to slow her breathing and got nothing but a fit of coughing for her efforts; the smoke cloud was thickening by the second, to the point where she could only barely make out Ditto’s silhouette.

She dove at it. It vanished. Wind buffeted her from above. She looked up, and what she found was not the night sky twinkling with stars. The heavens were dim, covered in smoke, and a terrible beast writhed in the darkness and spit crimson flames everywhere.

The Awakening…it wouldn't ever shatter. Sezim stood there in the fire, her shoulders slumped, her wings limp, and stared up at Ditto. She coughed out a laugh, for she didn’t know what else to do. Everything she’d done had only made things worse. The one in her visions—it had never been Charizard. The Awakening wasn't a tool to save her home; it was a weapon capable of untold destruction. This world would have been better off without her.

Even as her partner shrieked in the sky, spewing flames all around them, she felt cold. It was a relentless chill that ran down her torso. Strange…but it didn’t matter. Somewhere deep in her heart, guilt was tearing her insides apart, boiling her organs in acidic self-loathing and screaming at her to close her eyes, give up, and die.

I can't rest yet.

She stepped towards Ditto, even though there was no chance of her reaching them. She reached out for them, hoping against hope for a miracle.

The Xatu lost a moment. Her vision darkened at the edges as the ground slipped away from her. Consciousness slipped out of reach. Maybe it would be okay if she just…stayed like that for a little bit. Yeah. Just a short break, then she’d be ready to go. That would be okay, right?

I can’t rest yet.

When she could see again, there was only a dark sky framed by burning grass. She was on her back now, staring up at a blurry silhouette. She didn’t remember lying down. The other senses returned in stages, gradually giving her more information to work with. Her wings and back felt frozen, like they were submerged in a frigid river, and a terrible chill dripped from her chest into her stomach, and there wasn’t enough air to breathe with, and multiple Pokemon were screaming about something.

I can't rest yet.

There was something she had to do, but it was getting hard to remember what it was. Where were the stars? Why wasn't she in bed? She was exhausted…all she wanted to do was rest. Slowly, the tension in her neck and back melted away, and she finally let herself relax. The crackling of the fire, the dark clouds, the stench of smoke—they all faded to nothing.

Sezim closed her eyes.