- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Looking forward to seeing Echo cry in joy at the sudden army invading the caverns she protected her entire live and making sure making sure that every last child of hers is taken care of.
Hyphen (Pokemon Emerald)
Coshiua
An Autistic Kyogre~!
- Location
- The Ocean
Echo will be kindly, but firmly guided to a place where she can sit down and rest after her long ordeal and, after she wakes up refreshed and has eaten some good food, will meet with the village elders to talk about how to best help her charges. There may or may not be some crying involved, and hugs. Or at least that's something I could see happen after the initial shock and confusion wears off.
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
I know she feels seriously, genuinely terrible about it, but my immediate envisioning of this was Astra looking away guiltily, tracing circles on the ground with one foot, going "Nothin'... just sorta felt like it..." 🥺 A like, caught with one's hand in the cookie jar type expression. ^^;
I hadn't lingered on that, but- er. Yeah.
Sorry Astra. Moving right along...
When you get older and haven't evolved again yet, it's time to start adding on those accessories to set yourself apart from the pack! And by accessories I of course mean ✨battle scars✨! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
(It's nice to have something to envision beyond just, a bunch of indistinguishable old Kirlia; I appreciate the detail.)
"And this," she continued, "is called a Powerpoint presentation."
Neither could I. That was some excellent rhetoric on Astra's part; hard to say anything against it really.
Short chapter (for you), but I appreciate the direction this is going. Empathy Pokemon indeed.
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I wonder if that instant intervention opens the door to Astra showing her family to her friends relatively soon. The village will try their best to act unseen, but I can't help but think something will be felt at some point during. That is a lot of psychic power being used in one place, and a lot of activity from pokemons that normally shouldn't be there.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
Great update, these sort of "community getting together to help those in need" always get me invested.
I'm really interested to see how the these two communities react to the implications of each others existence - there might be more "aware" pokemon hubs out there. And some of them might also need help. And Astra can't cover the whole world by herself.
So how are they going to react to this possibility? Are they going to send out more members to act as trainers to cover more ground? Are they going to leverage Astras connection to Stone by asking him for weird favors (like, a moratorium on capturing abra/ralts line Pokemon)?
There's a lot of ways this can go snd I'm looking forward to seeing what they do.
I'm really interested to see how the these two communities react to the implications of each others existence - there might be more "aware" pokemon hubs out there. And some of them might also need help. And Astra can't cover the whole world by herself.
So how are they going to react to this possibility? Are they going to send out more members to act as trainers to cover more ground? Are they going to leverage Astras connection to Stone by asking him for weird favors (like, a moratorium on capturing abra/ralts line Pokemon)?
There's a lot of ways this can go snd I'm looking forward to seeing what they do.
Hyphen 42 - Succor
New
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Hyphen 42
Succor
The easiest part of fulfilling Astra's promise had been rallying the villagers into going along with her and her grandfather's plan. The hardest part was actually organizing and executing it all; there were a dozen hands working at making enough Pecha stew to fill the bellies of two hundred and fifty Abra while curing them of a lifetime of poisoning, while the rest of the village were slowly being sifted through to see who was most qualified to make the initial trip—though nearly everyone would be waiting for when they returned.
The most annoying part, as Astra was finding out, was fielding an endless parade of questions from anyone who didn't have much else to do.
"No," Astra sighed from her seat on the edge of the plaza's platform, giving the grass weaver an annoyed look. "I really don't know how the humans made this. I told you that it was made from something called 'cotton,' and I don't know what that is either."
"But how did you even get it then?" another weaver asked, his face twisted in confusion. "Wouldn't they have had to measure your proportions and craft it with the material? Surely you must have seen it!"
"I just bought it from a store!" Astra exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "It was just hanging there with thousands of other dresses, pre-made. I didn't have to get measured, I just had to go to get one that already fit me."
This provoked a wave of disbelief and confusion amongst the dozens of Kirlia crowding the plaza below her. A lot of concepts, Astra was finding, were proving to be much less credulous than Echo's whole colony. Such as, tangentially, the concept of money. She'd had trouble too, of course, but it was surprisingly difficult to get the idea of a commonly valued barter interim...thing to take hold.
"What's a store?" a third Kirlia called. Astra groaned; the crowd below had been rotating in and out for a long while now and she'd already answered that question four times.
"Any other questions?" she asked in turn, to the previous Kirlia's squawking indignation.
"What was the prettiest thing you've seen?" a fourth Kirla asked, her hair twisted into tight braids.
Astra brightened up, then hummed, thinking. That was a new one; she hadn't really thought about it before. The Lord of Steel alongside other parts of Echo's home had been beautiful, but the circumstances made them hauntingly so. Petalburg's cityscape that first night she'd spent with May in that hotel had been incredible too, but if she had to pick a true winner...
"Atop a tall human structure by the sea," Astra began, washing the backdrop of the stage with a remembered image of Rustboro. "I looked out across the ocean and saw both it and the nearby city bathed in the fires of dusk. I could see the colors wash everything into a deep orange and red, and it all looked so small from up there. It really was something special," she said, smiling at her own projected memory. May had made it...weird by recklessly balancing atop the nearby railing right afterward, but in the moment it was absolutely serene and gorgeous.
The crowd gasped in delight, chattering to themselves excitedly as Astra gazed fondly at the image. She knew that she could have depicted May and Brendan staring out at those same waters beside her if she willed it, but she wasn't willing to have that conversation yet, much less in public. Still, the sight felt incomplete without them. She hoped they'd been able to get out of Granite Cave by now.
"Ooh, ooh!" one of the Kirlia excitedly blurted. "What was the worst thing?"
A hush fell over the group, and by her eyes slowly widening with regret, the speaker had realized immediately that she'd made a huge mistake.
Astra stared at her. "Did you hear me a bit ago when I said I'd given a child a funeral?" she asked, voice cold.
The Kirlia shrank in on herself, grimacing at the hostile stares the others were directing her way. "I'm so sorry, I should go," she rushed out, hurriedly backing out of the crowd and fleeing away to...Astra didn't care.
She was getting sick of questions by now anyway.
Pulling herself up, she stretched for a moment, then dismissed her audience and walked away—much to their disappointment, even if they understood why. She trod over to her grandfather with a sigh, peering at the collection of Kirlia that had gathered to facilitate the teleport. Nearby, Pecha soup was being poured into two hollowed-out halves of a boulder; it had been specially rush-ordered from the stoneshapers at the beginning of all this, since no container in the village would be able to carry enough stew for the hundreds of mouths that were waiting. Once they were both reasonably full, a barrier would close off the openings and they would be levitated together, the orb being sealed shut with tree resin.
"Tiring of all the attention so soon?" her grandfather prodded, looking at her with a gentle smile at her approach. "I have experienced that all too well across many seasons."
"Maybe I wouldn't be if it wasn't the same thing over and over again," Astra huffed, coming to a stop. "I expected the questions, just not the repetition. It's infuriating."
"The life of an Elder is never a calm one," he commiserated, shaking his head. "Once word of my skills in painting were sufficiently spread, I never knew a day's peace without someone bothering me to create a mural in their homes or upon their coat."
"I guess."
They stood there in peace, watching the last few pots empty into the soup container and the last of the chosen Kirlia line up for the journey. Astra blinked, then furrowed her brow.
"You phrased that funny," she said, peering at her grandfather, who merely tilted his head in amused curiosity. Astra suspected he knew exactly what she was going to say next. "I'm not an Elder."
He hummed. "Not all would agree with you."
Astra stared at him incredulously. "What do you—how in the world am I an Elder!? My hair isn't nearly as faded, and I don't have anywhere near enough experience!"
"Troublesome precedents," her grandfather agreed, eyes twinkling, "but neither are applicable, I feel. Astra, tell me, what exactly makes someone an Elder in the first place? There were only fourteen of us, yet there are Kirlia in the village with hair whiter than any of ours."
Astra hesitated. "Well, I know you're the best in the village at painting and weird Psychic tricks; that's why our home looks so good and why I learned my illusion so fast. Uh, your friend oversees all the big Ricochet games as well as pyre ceremonies, that one oversees the parentless hatchling enclave, those three do woodworking in entirely different ways, those two do the same with stone, the one who nearly got their eye bitten out looks after the guards—"
"Yes, we all do tend to have our skills," her grandfather confirmed. "But there are a great many Kirlia in the village, each who can practice anything we can do to varying extents. Why do you know who these Kirlia are?"
Astra...didn't really know? The knowledge had always been there, absorbed from the background murmurs of the villagers. The Elders were just the ones who did those things.
Her grandfather smiled when she said as such. "That is exactly it, dear girl. Elders exist not only when you master some skill or two, but when everybody can point to you as someone who has done so, and can further be relied upon to look after the village as a whole in such matters.
"It just so happens that this trust is usually only built up over a lifetime of performing excellently," he concluded, gazing at her expectantly.
Astra remained confused. Alright, maybe having pale hair and a wrinkled coat wasn't really a requirement, but... "Still, that leaves me without your level of experience and trust."
He chuckled, pulling her in for a side-hug. "My dear girl, have you forgotten what happened mere moments ago? What you set in motion once you returned? There has not been a single person since the Ancestor to have as much first-hand experience with humanity as you do. There is not a single Kirlia here who does not know your name or what you have been doing. You rallied the whole village into supporting this scheme of ours.
"Were we to give ourselves fancy titles like humanity's Champion…in much the same way that I am an Elder of Art, that my friend is an Elder of Ceremony, that she is an Elder of Childcare—differing from the rest of us only by senescence, Astra, you are in all but recognition the Elder of Humanity."
The statement was impossible. Inconceivable. Her? An Elder? She'd barely become a Kirlia!
Yet when she looked around, Astra couldn't deny her grandfather's words. The whole of the village was abuzz with her revelations and requests, and what felt like hundreds of Kirlia had sought her out in this brief time to ask her about anything and everything she knew or had seen.
"I'm...an Elder?" Astra questioned, faintly. "I...what does that mean for me?"
Her grandfather chuckled. "Nothing more than continuing to do what you are already doing and have done. And you aren't, not really," he explained, winking at her. "It is merely the opinion of an old man that you share the same traits all Elders have. I doubt many Kirlia would start calling you one today, even if we pointed this all out; the expectation of being elderly is strong. But I have no doubt that you will be recognized quicker than any other."
"So this was all just a big tease, then? Nothing's changed?" Astra groaned, rubbing a hand against her face.
"Of course things have changed!" her grandfather exclaimed. "Just because the other villagers aren't calling you an Elder does not mean you aren't being treated like one."
Astra slumped, exasperation and resignation warring for prominence on her face. Well, at least it wasn't 'official' yet; the title didn't really appeal to her. It felt wrong, almost...insulting? Elders were supposed to be wrinkled and sedentary and most importantly, their hair was faded! She liked her hair being so vibrant! It just didn't fit.
"Well, I'm glad nobody will call me that," she sighed, repeating the thought aloud. She looked at the troupe of Kirlia on-stage, a mental head-count revealing a full twenty-five Psychics ready and waiting. "How close are we to leaving?"
"We should be ready in just a few moments," her grandfather observed, peering at the soup boulder. They'd successfully brought the two sloshing halves together and were coating the fissure. He started towards it, waving Astra toward the gathering Kirlia. "You should go meet with your travelling companions before the time comes."
The troupe welcomed Astra into their circle with grins and stalwart cheer. She was handed a flask of concentrated Leppa, half of which she immediately downed. The buzz of overflowing Psychic energy flowed through her head, and she met the gaze of her cohort with the same determination they all shared.
"We're supposed to boost you for a grand teleport, we've been told," one Kirlia said. "Not sure how that works, but we're all deft hands at using Psychic power in one form or another; I'm sure we'll get it down quick."
"Some of us will be encircling the...stew...boulder...that," another Kirlia gave up, pointing to the stew boulder thing. "It should come with us once we cocoon it with enough power."
"Right, that's good." Astra nodded. "It'll be a long teleport; I've never travelled nearly so far that way. The longest was when I came back from Littleroot, but it was a lot closer and my grandpa did all the work."
"Aye, but it's a trip worth making, yeah?" a third Kirlia said, grinning. "The stars'll weep before we let those hatchlings starve in the dark any longer. Ain't that right lads!"
A rousing cheer went up amongst the troupe. Astra smiled, emboldened by their support.
"Thank you all," she said, giving them a flare of gratitude. "I'll do my best to get us there safely. I'm counting on you to support me. Tonight we're going to end a long, endless tragedy and save our cousins! Echo and her Abra have spent forty cycles of the seasons in the lonely dark for help, and we will be the burning fire that answers that call!"
Astra's voice had risen, changing from a show of gratitude to an impromptu speech. She was shouting now, every sentence ending with a rousing bellow from her troupe.
"We do this for family!" she shouted, burning resolution and watery joy filling her eyes as her Kirlia shouted in turn. "We do this for hope! We do this so no more children will be carried away into the shadows!
"Now," Astra asked, her voice booming across the whole plaza. "Are you ready to tear down their long dark and at last grant our cousins the starlight they've been denied!?"
A roaring call went up, every Kirlia raising their fists as one. Behind her the plaza erupted, at least a thousand Kirlia cheering her on at once. In the distance, Astra could even feel her Pokemon with the Guard, the buzz of their support audible even from the stage.
She let out a breath, nodding to her group. "Right," she declared. "Let's do this."
"Don't get too excited," her grandfather's voice rang out, cutting through the near-tangible cloud of determination: "The sealant hasn't dried enough; you'll be waiting a while longer!"
There was a pause as Astra and the troupe stared at each other. They slumped as one, a great sigh of mild humiliation settling over them all. Astra pretended to not hear a multitude of chuckles from the Kirlia still watching them in the plaza. Stupid crappy damp sealant; she bet humans had something five times as strong that could dry instantly. Stupid humans, grumble mumble—
Nevertheless, when it was finally ready she and her companions lined up on stage. Two Kirlia grabbed hold of Astra's forearms from behind, and four Kirlia grabbed onto theirs. Each of the villagers held on tight to those in front, and the ones encircling the food held hands and pressed up against it while yet more Kirlia wrapped arms around their torsos. They all began to shine with Psychic power, the bright-dark purple coating the boulder entirely and shining across the entire troupe like a sparkling cloud.
At the front, Astra looked out across the plaza. A cacophony of cheering Kirlia greeted her, all wishing her a safe departure.
The Elders came forward as the power continued to flow between the troupe, inspecting them with exhausted eyes. The Matron stepped up, tiredly staring Astra down.
"I've gotten many volunteers for my part in this," she said, blinking away some fatigue. "We will all be awaiting your swift return." She hesitated, then her gaze softened, just a little. "I still have my objections to your greater endeavor, but helping children has ever been my duty. Thank you for finding them before they faded. Be safe, won't you?"
"The journey is set to begin," her grandfather's friend said. "You have a troupe of the best Kirlia we could muster. It all depends on you, Astra. We have no doubt you will rise to the challenge."
Then her grandfather walked forth, resting a hand atop her head. "You've made me so proud, my girl," he said. "I taught you the best I could and you have surpassed every expectation I had by unimaginable degrees."
"Are you sure you won't come?" Astra asked. "This is sort of your specialty, after all."
"As my specialty, I can also say that I am a bit too old to make such a lengthy journey," he replied, shaking his head. "Severe psychic fatigue inflicts me with much harsher penalties than just a migraine, and I cannot process Leppa quite as well as I used to. It's not a bad thing to let you all go alone; considering how soon the world is going to expand, we need Kirlia with experience teleporting long distances now more than ever. Besides," he added, "this is your moment, not mine."
He rubbed her head for a moment more, and they smiled at each other. "Come back safely, won't you?"
Astra smiled. "Of course I will," she said, shining with power. "I still need to tell you more stories, after all."
Her grandfather nodded, smiling back—and for a moment, stared at something only he could see. Then he retreated, returning to the line of Elders.
Astra nodded to them all. She turned her smile toward the cheering crowd, and then looked up at the shining stars above—and for a moment, she swore she saw one flash across the sky, a line so thin as to be invisible.
She closed her eyes. Breathed in, then out.
Power surged, the might of twenty-five Kirlia swirling with her own, subordinate to her will.
She thought of a great cavern. A cliff overseeing a long dead beast. Rocks pointing down from the ceiling, dripping water onto mirrored spikes below.
An old woman, tired and worn down and in deep despair. But not broken. Not yet.
Not ever.
Astra pushed. A line of thought shone bright in the intersection of her mind's eye and reality. It raced out of the village. It traced a path through a city, a beach, and off a dock. It made a bridge across the ocean, passed by a roaring island, and went down, down, into an abyss.
It found its mark.
Astra stepped forward, light flared—
There was a crack—
And then there was nothing at all.
It only took a second. But the second stretched into an eternity.
It was like swimming through mud. Each scoop forward drained just a bit more energy.
One Kirlia's worth of power vanished in an instant. Then two. Each one pushing together in unison; drained equally, but spent all the same.
Astra pushed and clawed and tore through the membrane of something she had no name for. It had given way to her many times before—but distance changed the fragile glass to molten sand.
They were moving, though none could see it. The space between was and will be twisted and warped, their force commanding it to curl in on itself, shrinking the length until it was none.
The power of ten, gone. Fifteen.
Astra moved on, relentlessly.
The second ticked by.
...
Astra heard something.
A fraction of an instant. Barely enough to register anything at all.
In that space between. At a place she should not see.
In the corner of her eyes, through clouded glass, Astra saw.
There was a figure in the darkness.
They were facing away, sitting on the edge of nothing and looking up at something.
The second stretched on, impossibly.
Perception lingering regardless of causality.
The figure did not move.
But they made a sound.
And in that infinitesimal moment.
Astra listened.
There were breaths being drawn, but none were her own.
A warbling tone emerged: space itself, crying out in a wavelength not meant to be heard.
And then...a woman's voice. A song.
No spoken words. Just a singular melody, repeating eternally.
Emotions sprouting where they could not exist.
Anguish, fury, sorrow, betrayal, longing.
Fragile matter buckled, the power of twenty spent and gone.
The melody continued. It played, over and over. It would play until the end of it all.
It was a song of mourning. Of retribution. Of pain and resentment eternal.
Of ending. Of antithesis.
Of oblivion.
It sounded so...
Sad.
The eternal moment passed.
Twenty-four.
Twenty-five.
And then, Astra's own.
Over the water, down the cave. Into the den of the fallen beast.
Space fractured, bent, and tore open.
And with a calamitous crack—
They arrived—
They collapsed.
Cries of pain rang out as Astra and her troupe suddenly felt knives dicing their way through their heads. Psychic fatigue on a grand scale, punishing them for their hubris.
Scrabbling to open her flask, she nearly choked as she took manic swigs of the Leppa concentrate within. A chill so hard it felt like a burn swept through her horns, and suddenly she could think again.
"Did—did anyone else hear that!?" she gasped, her voice mimicking the sharp sting of new air in her lungs. "I thought I heard—singing."
A wave of confused and exhausted negatives were the only responses she received. Regaining her composure, Astra sat up and looked for her cohorts.
What met her eyes was, thankfully, her intended destination: a cavern covered in moss, blue light once again pervading her vision. Frantic pops met her ears as she gazed down at the familiar sight of the colossal Lord of Steel. Beside her, the villagers had arrived safely, sipping from their own flasks as they gazed around in amazement. The soup-boulder had also arrived unbroken, to her relief—and looking at it now, she felt amazement and pride at the sheer mass they'd been able to drag along.
She almost hadn't made it, but…she had! She—they'd made it. They were back in the Granite Caves! Those pops must have been Abra fleeing their sudden appearance.
Grinning wide, she fully turned to her troupe and spread out her arms, the brief fragment of song already consigned to the depths of memory.
"Welcome to the Granite Caves, everybody!"
Her words stirred a great furor as the assembled Kirlia cheered, clapping each other on the back. Some even began pirouetting around in celebration, others instead choosing to gather at the edge of the cliff, gasping in awe at the titanic Aggron below and pointing out features like his broken horn and the rust in excited gasps.
"We've done it!" one exclaimed, boggling at the cavern before turning to Astra. "This is where we needed to be, yeah?" she asked, lighting up even further at the younger Kirlia's nod. "By the stars, I had my doubts but you really pulled us through!"
Suddenly, congratulations poured out, washing over Astra and leaving her a blushing mess. She scowled playfully, brushing off yet another pat on the back.
"Alright," she said, the embarrassed near-whisper transitioning into a more authoritative volume as the excited villagers failed to stop. "Alright, enough of that! We came here for a reason! This is only the first step; we've got plenty more to do, people!"
"Aye, where's this Echo you were talkin' about?" a Kirlia asked, peering through the blue gloom. "Doesn't she live here?"
"She does," Astra confirmed, grinning even wider when she felt a far-off flare of familiar power. "And she's right here."
Crack.
[I will ▒░▒▓ you asunder!] an absolutely incandescent Kadabra roared, twin spheres of Psychic annihilation springing to life on her hands, already rearing back to throw—
"Hi Echo!" Astra cheered, waving.
Echo paused, her expression morphing from protective fury to confusion, then slack-jawed incomprehension.
[Astra...?] she asked, blinking what must have been sleep crust from her eyes. She met Astra's gaze, then slowly turned to the group of other Kirlia standing all around the clifftop. Her Psychic spheres slowly dissipated as her arms dropped. [Wh...what? You—what!?]
"Well after we parted ways, I had an enlightening conversation with the Champion, and then decided to head home. Then, after I told them about everything, I came back to get something I'd left behind," Astra quickly explained—perhaps too quickly; she continued at a more comprehensible pace. "I brought some guests from my village this time. To help. I hope you don't mind?" A beat of silence. "Guys," she said, turning to her troupe. "This is Echo."
Echo made a strangled noise, stuck between disbelief and exasperation. She pointed at all the Kirlia suddenly inhabiting her home, most of whom were waving at her or chorusing some manner of greeting, and made gasping, choked noises as she looked from one to the next to the next, her whiskers and tail twitching with the force of each jerking movement. Astra stepped forward, smiling as Echo's eyes began to shine wetly, the realization of what was in front of her finally sinking in.
[You—What—▒░▒ only been one sleep!] she cried. Astra just stepped forward, hugging the Kadabra closely.
"I made a promise," Astra said, smiling gently as she squeezed the elderly Kadabra. "And nothing—not the ocean, humanity, or even a star falling on my head—could stop me from keeping it."
Her shoulders were getting wet now, but Astra found she didn't much care. The two-dozen Kirlia behind them politely waited as joyful sobs filled the air, busying themselves with checking the soup's container for damage or poking at the scintillating moss.
[Th-thank you,] Echo managed, sniffing a bit as she pulled herself together. [Never thought...hoped, yes, but pattern of sadness hard to break. Even in wildest hopes would not happen so soon.]
"I work pretty fast, huh?" Astra said, grinning cheekily. Then she winced as the Kadabra somewhat gently chopped her on the head.
[Stop that,] Echo chided, amusement glimmering through watery eyes. [Not funny first time.]
Astra laughed regardless; if Echo was feeling well enough to chastise her drastic understatements, then she must be feeling better.
"Alright, alright," she said, rubbing her head with a smile. "Come on, then!" Astra grabbed Echo's arm, tugging her toward her troupe. "We came all this way; you should meet everybody!"
Echo started to grin, following along for a moment before suddenly freezing up and looking at the array of Kirlia before her in clear anxiety. Astra paused, her own expression turning to confusion. Why had she...?
[Been so long...] Echo murmured, looking down shamefacedly. [And...so many...]
After a moment of thought, Astra's eyes widened in realization. Aside from her, these Kirlia were the first people that Echo would be talking to in over forty years. Not only that, but there were more of them here than there had ever been Kadabra in the cave. She had stage fright, of a sort. Astra grimaced; not the best introduction, but they would simply have to manage.
"Maybe we can hold off on the introductions for a while, or at least do them one at a time?" she asked. Echo hesitated before nodding, and Astra gave her shoulder a comforting pat before turning to address the group.
"Hey, we're skipping the introductions for now," she said, knowing full well they'd all heard their conversation. "We've got a gift to dish out anyway, and the sooner that's done, the better."
"Aye, sounds good," one Kirlia said, patting the rock. "It held together fine, but the trip strained the resin. It'll start leaking in a bit, so either we get moving or we unload it here."
[Gift?] Echo asked, peering around Astra. She frowned. [Big rock?]
"It's not just a big rock," Astra said, grinning. "It's a big hollowed-out boulder, completely full of warm Pecha berry stew. Enough for every single Abra to have a bowl."
Echo gasped, eyes widening. Astra leaned in. "And in case you didn't know," she whispered, as if conveying a great secret. "Pecha berries cure poison."
Echo stood still for a moment, then practically—literally teleported right next to the boulder, frantically prodding at it and startling the starlight out of the Kirlia around her. She poked the sealant curiously, then looked around, wide-eyed.
[▒░▒▓▒░▒▓! Must take to waking creche—no. Sleeping Creche ▒░▒▓ start, not asleep ▒░▒▓ yet. Wake them, then—move boulder? No, bring younglings here,] she muttered to herself rapidly. [Then waking creche—▒░▒▓▒ extra bowls...]
Then she paused, attention snapping toward the nearest villager. [You!]
"Me?" the Kirlia replied, taken aback.
[What say? Unload? Make soup ready down there!] Echo demanded, pointing to the center of the clearing down below, next to the Lord of Steel. [Can fit hatchlings in this cave. Will get bowls, then call. Prepare!]
Then she vanished with a violent crack.
SIlence. Everybody slowly turned toward Astra.
"That was...fervent," Astra said, shrugging lightly, "but after all that I've told you, can you really blame her for getting excited at a cure for all the poison her hatchlings have been eating—in the form of some actually good food?"
No, they really couldn't.
"Right," Astra continued, clapping her hands and looking toward the stew boulder. "Let's get this down to ground level and separate the halves. I don't want us to teleport more than we have to, so just levitate it and follow me."
Descending the staircase carved into the cavern walls, they settled the boulder right at the belly of the Lord of Steel. Astra watched her troupe in amusement as cries of 'It's so big!' 'It's all metal!' and other such statements filled the air as they approached. Separating the boulder turned out to be a bit of tricky barrier-work, but they managed to slip two flat planes in before the stew had time to fall out, then set the halves upright on their flattened bottoms.
Then they collectively waited for Echo to return, but after a minute it became clear that they would have a bit of time—and so, Astra started showing everyone around the few places she knew.
"They carved all of this?" one Kirlia asked, peering at the drawings etched into the Lord of Steel. Astra had conjured a small light, so she could finally see for herself the etchings the colony had made in stark detail.
"Yeah, they're all over the place," she confirmed, smiling at the drawing of a Mawile chasing some Pokemon she didn't know of away from a trio of Abra. Was that a 'Dark One' Echo had mentioned? May had said something about drop kicking a creepy thing; had she met one? And then kicked it? Hah. "They continue into the tunnels and other Creches as well."
"Creches?" another Kirlia questioned, tracing a hand across what looked like a poor rendition of a Barrage game. "What are those?"
"Other caverns where big groups of Abra live. There are five of them," Astra answered, leading them to the river.
They all looked up at the waterfall, gasping and pointing in awe. The village's river didn't have any drops like this, so none of them had seen the like before. Astra's light had even cast a small rainbow onto the spray at the base.
"I'm not sure where it comes from," she said. "My best guess is either some sort of spring or it's ocean water getting purified somehow."
The group nodded, and one enterprising Kirlia bent down to take a sip of the river water.
"Hm," he said, considering. "Tastes weird. Like dirt and rocks."
"Any salt?"
"Not that I can tell."
"What did these Kadabra do for fun?" another Kirlia asked, growing tired of the falling water. "They don't look like they'd be any good at dancing, and there's only so much stone to carve. No trees to hop on or dirt to grow plants with. I can't imagine what I'd do with myself if I didn't have my garden."
Crack.
[Played games of mind,] Echo answered, multiple towering stacks of bowls hovering around her head. [Have puzzles in Creche if want. Contests of Psychic prowess also. But first: bowls are all dirty!] she exclaimed, carefully dumping hundreds of bowls at the river's edge. Most of them were caked in dust, though a single stack was simply coated in the dried remnants of stew instead.
[Not use so many at once in long time!] Echo exclaimed, lifting ten bowls out of the pile and dumping them in the river, whereupon the water around them began violently churning. She looked at the troupe impatiently. [Help clean! Dust easier than old soup, be grateful!]
Astra and the others looked at each other. She shrugged, picking up a couple bowls and walking to the river. She hadn't expected dishwashing to be on the list of tasks they'd have to get done, but with her, Echo, and twenty five other Kirlia, it was bound to pass by quickly. "Well?" she asked, glancing back. "What are you waiting for? We don't have all night."
Judging by the grumbled protests and defeated sighs, being among the first other Kirlia to ever leave the village only to wind up doing menial chores hadn't been what they'd been imagining, either.
Astra gently lifted the bowl from the basin, a soft sweet aroma wafting from the stew contained within. She turned, looking to see Echo ushering a single lethargic Abra forward, apprehension rolling off the former like the ocean tide. Behind her, a crowd of fifty sleepy Abra were torn between warily staring down the two-dozen Kirlia waiting behind the hollowed boulder halves, and staring at the warm stew itself with gurgling bellies.
[Will cure poison, yes?] Echo asked again as she approached, glancing worriedly between her Abra and the bowl Astra held. [So much in body... Can handle?]
"Orans can close scrapes and cuts in moments, and I've personally eaten Leppa berries to relieve Psychic fatigue," Astra said, smiling reassuringly. "Pecha cures poison. It will help them, I promise."
She knelt down, looking at the pallid Abra face-to-face. "Hey there," she said, keeping her smile soft and approachable. "You haven't been feeling well for a long time, haven't you? Drink this." She held out the bowl, the pink broth's sweet aroma filling the space between them. "It will make you feel a lot better, and it's tasty too!"
The Abra had already started reaching for the bowl before she'd finished, and Astra was all too happy to let him take it. Everyone in the cavern stared as the hatchling took a tentative sniff of the soup, and then a small sip.
Sharp gasps erupted around the cavern as the Abra's shocked delight billowed into the air like puffy clouds. He began to drink it as fast as he possibly could, stray drops dripping messily onto the cavern floor. As he did so, the dull grey shadows coating his body seemed to melt away, leaving pristine brown and yellow chitin shining brightly in the azure mossglow. He even sat up straighter, as if a weight had suddenly been lifted from his shoulders.
The Abra whined as his bowl finally ran empty. He looked around wildly, the thin lines of his eyes widening to their fullest extent, as though he was seeing his surroundings properly for the first time. He leapt onto his feet, a sudden burst of physical energy urging him to dance around, stomping the ground and whooping in the simple joy of having had the best meal of his life.
Astra's smile was so big it felt like her face would tear in half. The poison seeping into the weak, decaying Abra's body was gone, and what was left was, for the first time in a long while, an energetic young hatchling.
They had saved a child from a long, prolonged decline into the dark.
She sniffed, wiping a budding tear from her eyes, and looked up to see a veritable fountain pouring down Echo's whiskers. She'd reached down to grab the Abra—who'd started to move toward the stew in hopes of seconds—and clutched him tightly, caught between awe, joy, and a painful, overwhelming relief.
[He is alive,] she gasped, shuddering. [My {Blood of my blood}. Oh, ▒░▒▓▒░▒▓ ▒░▒▓▒░. Darkness take me, he is alive.]
[Thank you,] she sniffed, turning to look at Astra through a river of tears. [You have ▒░▒▓▒ my younglings. I—I don't—How could ever repay? Ah, my {Blood of my blood}...!]
"Hey now," Astra murmured, placing a hand on the overwrought Kadabra's pauldron. "Repayment? Don't be silly, Grandma." She winked, wiping away a few tears of her own. "All of you are our family. Of course we would help.
"And don't celebrate too soon," she added, sweeping a hand out to indicate the extremely curious Abra, all of whom were obviously yearning for a bowl of their own. "We've still got a lot of Abra to feed, and four more Creches to wake up, yeah?"
[Right.] Echo sniffed, releasing the now-energetic Abra and gently nudging him away. [Right. You!] she ordered, turning to the assembled Kirlia. They jerked to attention, most having been caught up in the emotion of the moment. [Each grab two bowls; go feed hatchlings! Everyone gets bowl!] she announced to the room at large.
The Abra chittered excitedly amongst themselves as Astra's troupe somewhat clumsily began to fill their bowls and distribute them amongst the hatchlings. Whatever hesitation they may have felt toward the foreign Kirlia were swept away by the need to grab the bowls from their hands, and soon the sounds of slurping and euphoric exclamations of "Abra!" filled the cavern, more and more of the poisoned children visibly brightening up as the pollution was cleansed from their flesh.
Astra wiped at her eyes, shaking her head to clear the overflowing joy for but a moment. She turned to Echo, who was staring at the proceedings as the fantastic dream that it was. "Shall we go fetch the other Abra?" she asked, prodding the Kadabra. "We're pretty sure we have enough for all five Creches."
[Mm.] Echo hummed, blinking slowly as she returned to awareness. She reached up to touch at her whiskers, then grimaced and Psychically wrung out the tears that had soaked in. [All five?] she asked, turning to Astra. [Was only grabbing Waking Creche next. Why all five?]
"The stew might lose potency as time goes on," Astra said. It was incredibly unlikely—she would have expected that to happen well after it went cold and moldy—but it was best to not take any risks. "It's best we get them fed and cured as soon as possible. Besides," she added, shrugging. "we actually need you to gather all of the Abra here anyway."
[Hm?] Echo peered at Astra quizzically. [Need all Abra here? Why?]
"What, you think we came here just to drop off some soup?" Astra asked in turn, smiling. "That's not a permanent solution. Listen, we'll talk about it after we've fed everyone, okay? Trust me on this."
Echo looked at her, then nodded. [Have saved younglings. Of course,] she said. [Will return with Waking Creche, then will wake up other three. Sleep pattern damaged, but will not let younglings remain hurt any longer.]
She vanished with a crack, and Astra grinned as she turned to organize her troupe back into soup-serving duty. Time to work a miracle.
The next stretch of time rushed by in a blur: Echo would drop off a creche-worth of increasingly sleepy and confused Abra, and then Astra and the other Kirlia would fumble around until each one had a bowl and shone with returned color and enthusiasm. The cured Abra had begun to make something of a racket, chattering to each other with much more vigor than Astra had ever seen from her first visit.
The cavern grew ever more crowded as Echo gathered her Abra, and by the fifth and final mass teleport all two hundred and fiftyish Abra had made the entirety of the Lord of Steel's lair into something of a cacophonic playground—or, well, as close to cacophony as Abra could accomplish. Even healed they weren't exactly sprinting anywhere, but their newfound vitality seemed to awaken a desire to use it as much as they were able while the experience was new.
And considering how many of them were poking, prodding, and teleporting on top of her troupe, they were certainly suffering from success.
Though as she sat on a flattened stalagmite chair, Astra thought that 'suffering' was probably the wrong word for this; she smiled as a couple Abra that had come to her prodded at her dress and hair. She gently waved them off when they made to reach for her horns, giggling at their disappointed whines.
"Now now," she chided, doing her best to impersonate her grandfather's lecturing tone. "My horns aren't for touching!"
[Very curious!] Echo noted from beside her, gently pelting her own, much bigger crowd with Psychic pellets of varying shapes and colors. Astra could spot a few Abra trying to copy her, only for their efforts to fizzle out. [Has been long time since could do this.]
"I'm glad you got to do it again," she replied as she scooted closer and pulled the Kadabra into another hug. The elder sniffed wetly, but it seemed her capacity to cry in delirious joy had been thoroughly exceeded.
[Cannot express happiness enough,] Echo choked out, unable to keep her eyes from darting every which way to watch her Abra play with each other and the visiting Kirlia. [Do not know what next. Kirlia stay? Go back? Bring more stew? Unknown. Have saved us all. Cannot think of way to show gratitude.]
Ah, perfect. "I could think of one thing," Astra mused, tone playful as she softly pushed away the Abra that had started to climb up her back.
[Hm?] Echo asked, both surprised and seemingly delighted to have some way to pay back the village's kindness. [Of course! What is? Cannot do much, but will put all power into!]
The sheer gratitude was starting to sting a bit, now. Closing her eyes, Astra took a deep breath, releasing it slowly.
Then she looked at Echo, and nodded toward her troupe.
"When we go back to the village," Astra said, "I want all of you to come with us."
A moment of quiet. Echo stared at her, blinking in confusion. Then what she had said seemed to register, and the Kadabra's face flashed through surprise, shock, uncertainty, before finally settling on offended incomprehension.
[Go to Village? What?] she asked, her voice growing louder as she stood from her seat. [You mean leave cave? No! Never! This is home! What stupid got into head?]
"The kind of stupid that can tell that my village can't just teleport things over here constantly," Astra said calmly, rising to meet Echo. She placed a hand on the shorter Kadabra's pauldron, her smile shrinking in melancholy. "And we can't stay here, either. I was only here for a few hours, but I could tell that I wouldn't do well if I had to live without the wind, the trees, the light of the sun, and especially the night sky.
"But even more than that," she continued, looking around the cavern. "These caves were your home. And they can be again, in the future. But right now, they're just...rotting away. So were you, and all of your Abra. After forty years...don't you deserve to experience something else? Something new?"
Echo's face twisted, emotional turmoil leaking out of her like a frustrated, bewildered miasma. [What mean isn't home? All Abra live here since start! All Kadabra work to improve!] she refused, gesturing wildly around the cavern. [Carved floors and walls for beds! Made steam room, mushroom farm, spread moss across creches! Etched history into all could reach! All we are, in here! Is home! Always be home!]
She shook her head, then cast a pleading look at Astra. [Maybe not all Kirlia like cave, but if so many, then some must! Maybe find them, they can stay! Can—]
"But then it wouldn't really be your home, would it?" Astra asked, softly. She looked at Echo, pondering a different future. "If we found enough Kirlia who would like to live here to actually keep it livable, then this place would just become part of the village. Things here would be changed to more suit their needs, and not just yours or the Abra. Sure, it wouldn't be fast, but without more Kadabra to counterbalance them…these caves would start to lose part of what makes them yours."
She gave Echo a wry grin. "On top of that, teleporting supplies over is still unacceptably difficult, and we don't have anything that could grow down here to bypass that." She gestured to the boulder. "This one meal for all of your Abra cost us a month's worth of Leppa berry extract, and nearly drained all twenty-six of us dry. If we wanted to stop feeding Zubat to your Abra, we'd have to make that trip, what, three times a day? Maybe twice? These are the best teleporters we could gather, but crossing the ocean so often would burn them out fast. Any other group with less skilled teleporters would need more Kirlia, and they might do it wrong. It's just too hard.
"Even if we did, your Abra are all so energetic now—I can't imagine how hard it would be to stop them from teleporting off into random parts of the cave," Astra continued, looking down at the hatchling prodding at a loose bit of her dress. They were feeling at the material, chitinous hands curiously exploring the foreign texture. "I know it was already happening before, and I know that Humans have been capturing them, but no human has ever come near the village, and there are thousands of Kirlia to help watch over them.
"Not to mention—!" Astra began again—
[Enough!]
—only for a frustrated shout to cut her off. Echo was breathing heavily, eyes closed and hands in a death grip on the stalagmite's edge. Astra winced. Had she pushed too hard? She'd spent so long thinking up her arguments back home—agh, she'd gotten too excited and started rambling!
[Enough,] Echo repeated, slumping forward. Her eyes opened, a forlorn gaze sweeping across the horde of joyous, nigh-frolicking Abra.
[Village better than Cave. Understand. But is home,] she stressed, looking back at Astra. [Want to fix, not run away! If leave, then...]
"You'll be back one day," Astra said, gently grasping one of Echo's claws with her hand. "Did you forget what I'm doing? Once I become Champion, I'll be able to decide how all of Hoenn treats Pokemon. That means they will leave my VIllage alone, but I can also get them to finally reverse what they've done here."
Echo stared at her, eyes wide. [Remember now. Control all of land like Hariyama controlled Makuhita. Can fix cave? Certain?] she asked, a glint of hope and...vindictiveness sparkling in her voice. [Make Humans tribute many things in apology?]
"If not, then I'll turn the entire region upside-down until they do," Astra said. "Echo, you know how good I am at keeping my promises, right?" she asked, receiving an amused huff in return. "Well, here's another: once I become Champion, I will make sure your home comes back to life again."
Echo was still, her eyes turning once more to the renewed crowd of hatchlings. She turned to look up at the Lord of Steel, the glowing moss covering the Aggron's hide and eye socket shimmering in undulating waves. She breathed deeply and let loose a long sigh, turning to Astra as she did.
[Have kept promise,] she said, melancholy coloring her tone a rainy hue. [Cannot let younglings return to before. Will believe keep new promise.] She hesitated, struggling to form her next words.
[Will go,] Echo relented, giving Astra a sad smile. [{Lord of Steel} will wait for return. But will be taking things with!] she argued, huffing as she stood. [If cannot stay in cave, will bring some of cave to village!]
"Of course!" Astra agreed, jumping to her feet. She gave Echo another big hug, the amused Kadabra returning it wholeheartedly. "I'm so glad you said yes! I'm sure you'll have a great time in the village!"
[Maybe,] Echo said, shrugging. Then a chorus of cheering rang out, and both her and Astra turned to see the other Kirlia celebrating her acceptance.
"Maybe nothing!" one shouted, grinning as two Abra clung to her outstretched arm. "I guarantee it'll be amazing! Stars, when's the last time you even went outside? What's the last flower you smelled? You should visit my garden; I've got a dozen different types, and only two are berry bushes!"
"The breeze here is so cold!" another complained, but he was still smiling as a dozen Abra chased after a small glowing rock he was moving around. "I'll show you my favorite clearing; the air is warm and you can hear the whole forest rustle in the breeze. The grass is tall enough to get lost in; it's great!"
"Nah lads, what she needs is a good campfire roast by the river!" another decreed. "She's only been eatin' Zubat for forty summers! We need to get her a fried Magikarp, pronto!"
Astra just laughed as more and more Kirlia chimed in with their ideas, Echo looking shocked at their sudden outbursts and bemused at their offers.
"There'll be plenty to do once we get there!" she said, grinning. "But first we have to get there!" Then the grin faded a bit, and she smiled at Echo awkwardly. "And this is the part of the plan I'm not certain of. I had an idea that could make the evacuation a lot easier, but..."
Echo tilted her head, squinting at her. [What is idea?] she asked, cautiously.
Astra felt nerves eat away at her expression. "Well, last time I was here, I noticed that you and the Abra had a much easier time teleporting than even my grandpa, and he's the best in the village. We were able to come here because all of my troupe combined our power and skills so I could lead the way back here, so I was thinking…every Kirlia could take about ten or so Abra, and use that same method to help teleport back to the village...?"
Echo stared at her. [Cannot tell if very smart or head cracked on rock.]
Well that wasn't a complete rejection. "So it could work?" Astra checked.
The Kadabra thought for a moment, then looked out at the Abra and Kirlia.
[If teleport so shoddy, younglings maybe try to help make better?] she guessed, then hesitated. [Hard idea to give. But...no danger. If fail, younglings just stop. Could try.]
Astra brightened up. Her idea could work! "And each Kirlia could help carry back whatever you wanted to bring with!"" she added.
[Yes,] Echo agreed, still looking nervous. She sighed, then looked around. [Will need to find things to bring.]
"Alright, the plan is on!" Astra cheered, turning to her troupe. "Now who wants to go first?"
A dozen competing cries rang out in chorus, and Astra gave Echo a big smile. Echo tried to return it, though her apprehension still left it rather diminished.
It was time to save her cousins.
"Are we all ready?" Astra asked, looking the male Kirlia up and down.
"As good as I'll ever be!" he replied, surrounded by ten fidgeting, tightly-packed Abra and as many stone puzzles as they could collectively hold on to. Echo walked around their circle, gently instructing each Abra on what they were going to do, though whether they understood was still up in the air. Behind them both, the rest of Astra's troupe looked on in focused curiosity, even as they corralled the remaining Abra horde.
[Will have to do,] Echo said, returning to Astra's side. [Have told to help teleport, and that teleport will lead to very confusing place. Assured safety and told to stay calm, unsure if will. Told would be more soup; now eager.]
Astra nodded. "Right. All that's left to do is give it a go." She patted the other Kirlia on the shoulder, giving him a resolute stare. "You know what to do. Get them home safe, alright?"
He just grinned. "Of course! My cinders'll be thrown into the river before I fail!"
[Weave teleport slowly,] Echo advised. [Younglings will help form.]
"Got it." The Kirlia nodded.
Astra nodded back, then stepped away, both her and Echo giving the group a wide berth.
He closed his eyes, a whorl of Psychic energy coating the whole group. As the familiar shape of a teleport technique was formed, the Abra collectively looked toward him, tilting their heads in a grand wave of confusion and...offense?
As one, they reached out and tore the teleport apart, rearranging it in a pattern Astra had no hope of comprehending. The Kirlia's eyes shot open, mouth gaping.
"What kind of insane teleport pattern is thi—"
The whole group flashed bright-dark purple.
Crack.
And then they were gone.
Echo cried out in distress, reaching out to where they had once been even as excited cheers rose up from the crowd behind them. She stared at the empty space, then slumped. Astra laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.
[Cannot sense,] she explained, looking torn. [All gone. Little thought: maybe not work. Not know where are is...hard.]
"They'll be back at my village, safe and sound," Astra assured, holding the Kadabra close. "You'll see them again soon."
Echo stared at the spot for a moment more, then sighed. [Fate is cast. Will believe.]
She turned to the crowd, ushering another group of Abra forth. [Let us continue.]
Another Kirlia stepped up, and was soon surrounded by the Abra and numerous trinkets and carved toys. They focused—and again the teleport was re-woven, the group vanishing in a crack.
Soon, they were leaving in rapid succession. Each mini-troupe carried mementos of the Granite Caves; puzzle balls, carved stone figures, samples of both types of mushroom Echo grew—with stern instructions to be very careful with the tannish ones, which were presumably the ones that gave the Kadabra visions—an entire absurdly polished Barrage slab, quite a lot of blue moss at one Kirlia's request, and various other things.
Among them was an incredibly stressed Mawile, who'd been sound asleep inside the Lord of Steel and woken up very agitated.
[Calm, {🕈︎□︎❒︎❒︎♓︎■︎♋︎}, calm.] Echo stressed, holding the shaking Mawile close, gently rubbing her scalp. [Going to new place. Maybe exciting? Will be confusing, but must follow younglings. Come, have Aron shell. There we go.]
"Maw!" she complained, nervously eyeing the few remaining Kirlia with extreme distrust. She held onto a curved, organically-shaped shred of iron, taking nibbles of it as she was handed to the next leaving villager. A great deal of spare Aron-metal scraps were distributed amongst the Abra as the Kirlia struggled to hold the squirming Mawile, both of them very much not wanting to be near the other.
"Why did I have to carry the giant toothy death trap!?" she bemoaned. "She's so heavy!"
This had been the wrong thing to say, as {🕈︎□︎❒︎❒︎♓︎■︎♋︎} abruptly switched from deep anxiety to pure outrage. She began trying to claw at the Kirlia's face, and continued to screech at her even as they left.
The most interesting thing Echo had brought out, however, was the giant pile of red crystals she had pulled out from under her soup pot. Astra and the dregs of her troupe peered at them curiously.
"You know, I never asked you about these," Astra noted, picking one up. Something shaped like a single tongue of fire was frozen inside the crystal, and it seemed to flicker and shine in the dim mosslight. Well, not just mosslight; the stones were collectively giving off a great warm orange glow, illuminating the cavern far more than the moss ever did. "You were cooking your stew on this, right? What are they?"
[Fire stone,] Echo answered simply. [Hold essence of fire energy. If poke at right, can release; give off heat.]
She focused on the stone in Astra's hand, and something flickered within it. Soon Astra felt the crystal grow pleasantly warm in her hands, as though the crystal had been left at the perfect distance from a campfire to then be plucked away and ward off the cold in one's palm.
[Effect grows more when have more,] Echo said, shrugging. [Used to boil water. Stew, steam room, very handy! Many strange rocks in cave. Some shiny, some have strange energy.] Her face darkened. [Some very not good. Give feeling of stagnation. Not like; throw all find into river.]
"Huh," Astra said, looking down at the stone. She'd never heard anything about these from her friends or in Roxanne's class. Did the humans know about them? Surely they would, right? Hm.
The firestones were distributed to the following two groups, and at last there were a mere twelve Abra remaining, with only Astra and another Kirlia left.
Echo reappeared from her home, bringing with her a tattered cloth sack and her giant cauldron. The last Kirlia stared at her.
"...What's with the big pot?" he asked.
[All Kadabra have cooked and eaten from cauldron!] Echo proclaimed, sniffing. [Has been tainted by Zubat, but underneath is history of all meals! Will continue to use always.]
The Kirlia considered that, then shrugged. "Yeah, fair enough. My great granddad scavenged a big black metal pan that we still use like that. Sis'll probably get it though," he grumbled. "Right, hand it over. Last few Abra are mine, yeah?"
"Yeah," Astra confirmed as Echo placed the cauldron in the midst of the remaining Abra. "We'll be going together, so don't wait up."
Echo stayed silent, merely watching the final group. The Kirlia nodded.
"I'm off, then," he said, focusing his power. "I'm sure we've got a big party going by now, so I'll see you there!"
Then with a flash, the last Abra within the Granite Caves vanished, and Astra and Echo were all alone.
"Well," Astra said, turning to the Kadabra. "Looks like it's our turn. Figured you would be even better at teleportation than the Abra, so we should be fine by ourselves."
Echo nodded, slowly. [Yes. More power, control. If had spoon...but have done without for long time. Can do this.]
She looked down to the sack she carried, filled with the most stable decrepit trinkets and crafts her long-lost family had created so long ago. Then up at the Lord of Steel, to the waterfall beyond, the solemn path of her eyes curving across the entirety of the great cavern.
Gently, she set the sack down and turned to Astra.
[If do this,] she said, a faraway look in her eyes. [Then one final thing to do.]
"Yeah?" Astra asked, frowning. What was this?
[Cannot protect home from {Invaders} if gone. So must close all tunnels.]
Astra took a moment to process that. Her eyes widened. "Wait, you're going to—!?"
[{Invaders} will never have home, even if gone!] Echo announced, grim determination upon her face. [Will be fixed later, as was promised. Will not leave regret behind. Home will stay home. Not wholly {Invader}, not wholly {Blood of my Soul}, must be of {Blood of my Blood}.]
"But—" Astra started, only to be cut off by the crack of teleportation as Echo left the cavern.
She stood there, eyes wide, looking around in confused dread.
Then the caverns shook. The grinding sound of collapsing rock bellowed through the air, a series of distant roars pouring over the gigantic Aggron's resting place as though the earth were crying out in pain. Gouts of dust flew through the air as the distant calamity's remnants found their way inside, and it was only after a dozen consecutive impacts, massive and distinctly concerning, that the cavern system began to calm, though innumerable smaller aftershocks were still rattling her feet.
Echo reappeared with a soft pop, looking blankly into nothing.
Silence, but for the distant repercussions of collapsing tunnels.
[Had to be done,] she said as the fading vibrations dwindled to nothing. [Having open tunnels important for...do not remember. But now all ways to all Creches are closed. Lord of Steel will never be found.]
Astra didn't really know what to say to all of this. She was just happy the entire cave system hadn't come down on her head.
"...You have some scary psychic power, you know that?" she eventually asked, and Echo huffed in amusement.
[Was precision, not power. Knew where to hit rock is all,] she dismissed.
Astra chuckled nervously. "Of course," she said, watching Echo pick up her sack. "You ready to go?"
She nodded, and held out her hand. [Bring me to younglings; show me wondrous village of yours.]
The nervousness was forced away. "Of course," Astra agreed, grasping the Kadabra's hand with her own. "Come on, Grandma; it's not your home, but I hope you can treat it like a home."
They smiled at each other, and under the watchful eye of the Lord of Steel, Psychic power blared into existence for what would be the last time for quite a while.
[Hm,] Echo huffed as Astra prepared the teleport. [Was right; your teleport very bad. How even use?] she asked, wiping the technique away and substituting her own. Astra went cross-eyed just looking at it. [There. Maybe learn something; stop being terrible.]
"Oh fuck off," Astra laughed.
And then she thought of home.
Crack
Silence.
There was a miniscule creaking sound, as if a bit of metal was settling into a better resting spot.
The glowing moss undulated, shifting colors between blue, white, and black, until it all seemed to calm, in a way. Slowing, slowing...until all faded into a glowing darkness.
And then nothing else.
They travelled through the space between, a fraction of a blink of the eye, with naught to accost them.
And a fraction of a second after they left, they arrived.
Astra was summarily met by a faceful of inexplicable, hastily cobbled-together wooden barricade shining brightly with Psychic energy.
"Eh!?" she exclaimed, stepping back. What in the world was this!? The floor was the same as the stage she envisioned, so unless something bizarre had happened they'd gotten to the right place. But if that was the case, then why was there suddenly a wall here!?
To her side, Echo was similarly nonplussed.
"Astra!"
Astra perked up, whirling around to see her grandfather waiting with several of the other Elders in this...weirdly closed-off portion of the stage. He grinned broadly, his fellows freely radiating auras of extreme satisfaction.
"Grandpa!" Astra exclaimed, rushing forward excitedly. "We made it back!"
"That you did, my girl," he answered, receiving her hug as they drew together. "Well done!"
Astra pulled him closer, basking in the moment, before stepping away with a grin of her own.
"Did everyone else make it?" she asked, looking around. Besides the other Elders—who had stepped back, ceding the floor to her grandfather—she could only see a trio of Kirlia maintaining whatever they were doing with the barricade. "And what's with the wall?"
"Yes, they all made it," he chuckled. "As for the wall, after the first group came through we rather quickly discovered that we would be well served making a quiet area for the Abra to arrive in instead of greeting them with a few hundred Kirlia at once. It was a little chaotic until we made the barricade, but everyone seems acclimated now." His eyes flicked past her, amusement coloring his tone. "Well, I think we still have one more visitor to meet before we take it down, yes?"
Astra's eyes widened. "Oh, right!" she yelped, rushing back over to Echo. The Kadabra had hunched in on herself, fidgeting with her bag and peering around furtively between glances at the gathered Elders. She jumped at Astra's call, though some of her apprehension dimmed as she drew near.
"Echo!" Astra called, grabbing her arm in excitement and waving toward the others. "Echo, this is my grandpa and a few of the other Elders! Everyone," she continued, turning back to the assembled fraction of village leaders, "this is Echo, Kadabra and caretaker of the Granite Cave Abra!"
"Hello, Echo," Astra's grandfather said, smiling gently as he drew near. "I've only heard a bit about you and your plight, but I am glad my granddaughter managed to find you. She practically demanded that we come to your aid immediately, and we were all too happy to oblige. Your ability to endure for so long under such harsh conditions is as admirable as it is tragic, and you and your kin are welcome to stay in our village until your home can be restored."
Echo blinked rapidly, seemingly lost for words as her expression shifted from uncertainty into embarrassment—and wait, was she...blushing? Ash in her face, grandpa could you not—before settling on gratitude and a sort of unexpected confusion.
[Greeting,] she said, then paused as everyone aside from Astra jerked back at her words. [...What wrong?] Echo asked, even more confused than before.
"Oh, right," Astra said, flushing. "I uh, never told them about how you talked, I think. They aren't used to it," she explained, Echo catching on immediately.
[Ah,] Echo said with a grimace. [Am...sorry. Talk short is...hard. Still sound bad.]
"No, no," Astra's grandfather assuaged, shaking his head. "I should be the one to apologize. I did not expect it, yes, but our reactions are not your fault. Do not be ashamed of your voice; now that I've heard it, I think it sounds rather lovely!"
"Oh by the stars," Astra quietly griped, gripping her hair as Echo turned red again. "My sleep-deprived rambling wasn't supposed to be a prophecy!"
[Okay,] Echo said, looking away in embarrassment. She gazed around the stage, taking in the grand wooden construct before looking up and peering at the dense canopy overhead—there wasn't really any decent view of the sky from here while that wall was still up. The Kadabra cast about for something else to say, looking increasingly anxious as the silence trickled on. She peered over at the other Elders, frowning. [Who them?]
They took this as their cue to introduce themselves, and soon Echo was bombarded with greetings and well-wishes from a few of the less decorated Elders, though the Charred and the Scarred merely gave her nods. The Matron and her grandfather's friend weren't here, Astra noted. While still ecstatic by her success, she was starting to get concerned with the growing look of befuddlement on Echo's face following each introduction.
"Is there something wrong, Echo?" Astra asked, tilting her head. The Kadabra looked at her, baffled.
[What is thing keep calling me?] she asked. ['Echo'? Why?]
There was a significant silence. All heads turned to Astra, who was rather poleaxed by the question.
"It's...your name?" she ventured, uncertainly. "Isn't it? 'Last Echo' in full?"
[What!?] Echo(?) blurted out, eyes wide. [No! What give idea? I—ah. Hm.]
She paused, frowning. [Clarity. Not understand long speech. Would not understand name. Approximation. Can see now. Made guess on idea.]
Oh. Right, Echo's name hadn't been 'Echo', that was just the feeling Astra had gotten when she had heard the collage of concepts and imagery that had been her actual name. But why had this only come up now? Astra hummed, thinking back to their previous conversations.
"I'm almost certain I've called you that before," she said. "Why didn't you correct me then?"
[Not hear it, or not know was using for me. Distracted?] The Kadabra shrugged. [Unsure. Useful imitation, but is not name.]
"We don't typically have human names either," Astra's grandfather interjected. "We simply use our mental signatures—something akin to the sound of our voice," he explained when he saw her confusion. "I gave Astra here the first human name in a very long time, and only seventeen days ago at that; though quite a few Ralts and Kirlia are following in her footsteps. Do you have a more accurate name we might call you by?"
The Kadabra—paused. Thought, for a moment.
[Think...need one thing before can say,] she slowly replied. [Where are younglings?]
"Right behind that wall," her grandfather replied, nodding to the barricade. "We thought we'd keep it up so you wouldn't be bombarded with everything, same as your children."
"It would be a simple matter to remove it," one of the Elders spoke up—one of the wood crafters, Astra thought. "We've been keeping the whole stage inside a quiet zone; that'll vanish once the barricade does. You prepared for some noise?"
"Please say yes," one of the Kirlia maintaining the barrier chimed in, sounding strained. "I'm nearly at my limit here."
"Oh shush, it's good practice!" another Elder shouted, glaring at him. The Kadabra watched the byplay in patient amusement, then turned back to the Woodcrafter.
[Am ready,] she said. [Show me.]
Astra walked up to E—to the Kadabra, smiling at her as the Woodcrafter turned to the Kirlia powering the wall. No words were exchanged, only a glowing pulse of reassurance and anticipation. The two looked to each other and nodded, a faint smile upon both their faces.
Together, they moved to the middle of the platform, and watched as the glow around the barricade flickered, brightened, and then—it all vanished.
A thundering roar met their ears, lights blinding them as the plaza in its full glory came rushing back into existence.
And what Astra saw could only be described as wonderfully giddy mayhem.
The plaza was swarming with Kirlia and Ralts, each and every one holding or playing with a bright, excited Abra. A few floated through the air, directed by their Kirlia's telekinesis in a mockery of flight, while some were simply being gently thrown into the air, only to be caught immediately afterward. Dozens were playing some kind of teleport-tag with a large gang of Ralts, each Abra flashing somewhere else just as they were about to be caught.
Great pots of soup lined the edges, from where dozens and dozens of new bowls were served fresh and hot to the last few groups that had left the caverns. Great displays of psychokinetic lights ballooned across the air as illusionists plied their craft to a brand new audience. Astra could even spot Grovyle giving a few of the Abra rides on his back, though where the rest of her team had gone off wasn't as immediately apparent.
But above them all, hanging in a cloudless night sky, the moon and stars shone brilliantly; the light of the bonfires not nearly bright enough to compete with the heavens' silvery glow.
Astra could barely contain herself at the sight, tears pooling in her eyes. She turned to the Kadabra, who continued to gaze ahead in awe and disbelief.
"They're safe now," she said, quietly. "We did it. You survived all this time, and now they can have their lives back. This can be your home, now. For as long as you want." She squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. "And even when you go back, you will never be lonely again."
[Oh,] the Kadabra said. She walked forward, coming to a rest at the edge of the arena. The crowd began to notice, and soon a huge roar swept through the clearing, over a thousand villagers cheering in unison at the sight of her.
[Oh,] she repeated, tail and whiskers twitching. She looked at all of her Abra, each single one now exuding more liveliness and joy than she'd likely have ever expected them to experience at all. [Is...all happy. All fed. Warm. Bright. Alive.]
[Long vigil...finally over,] she whispered, looking up at the stars. Tears ran freely down her face, sparkling in the light. [{👎︎♏︎◻︎⧫︎♒︎ 💣︎♏︎❍︎□︎❒︎⍓︎}. Wish could show. Found freedom. Found future.]
Astra looked on as she basked in the glow of the village—her hope. The fires and moonlight shining brilliantly on her chitin—very brilliantly, actually.
Wait.
Astra's eyes widened, and nearly the whole village fell into a stunned silence.
She was glowing.
And then she was consumed by light.
She'd lost her tail, Astra distantly noticed as the brilliance receded. The new, almost Kirlia-height being stood on thickened legs, kneecaps newly covered by brown chitin. Her head looked skyward; sleeker, with cheekbones extended half as far as her ear-horns. Bushy whiskers now twice their previous length twitched minutely, and all her joints—all much thinner and resembling balls in sockets—twisted as she brought her arm up, her wrist now covered in the same brown chitin as her knee.
And gripped in her three-digit hand, shining brilliantly in the starlight, was a small silver spoon—and a word Astra had heard twice now settled to the top of her mind as context put it in its place.
The Alakazam tilted her head, staring at the dining implement.
Then, briefly, it began to glow.
A gentle waft of utter, ruinous power flooded the plaza, the reverberations of a vast, deep ocean revealing itself for but a moment, before it passed as so much a sea breeze.
[Huh,] she said, then paused.
"Oh," she said, her voice suddenly crystal clear, with none of the previous hesitance or foreign Psychic noise as before. "Now I remember. How funny."
She turned, levelling a joyous, cheeky grin at Astra and the other Elders, all of whom were struck utterly dumb by the sudden transformation.
"Hello, Astra," she said. "I don't quite think my previous name fits me anymore. It will take some time for me to discover myself in my native tongue—" she raised her spoon again, gleefully flexing a metaphysical ocean once again. "—but I am very much looking forward to it."
"However, you do deserve something to call me by, so..."
The Alakazam hummed in thought as the village watched on.
"A new name for one reborn anew," she mused, thoughtfully. "Anew...reversed, a harder sound—ah, I like the sound of that!
"Rena," the Alakazam said, nodding to herself. "You may call me Rena."
Rena smiled. "It is absolutely wonderful to meet you all."
Seems like the world is falling down.
Nothing to do but to pick yourself up and keep trying.
Lend a hand to your fellows. You can't save everyone, but you can save someone.
Talk to me on Discord! Update my TvTrope Page! I don't even drink Kofi! More of a hot chocolate guy. But usually just water.
Thanks as usual to my editors Fuzzy, Cat, Slain, and Irony.
In my original plan, this and the last two chapters were plotted as a single one. Hah.
I could have cut this one in half but like hell am I leaving us in the granite caves again.
You have no comprehension of how sad I am that 'Answer' doesn't fit as the title of this chapter number.
Next time, the dawn of a new day and one hefty debrief.
See you later, and tell me what you think!
Succor
The easiest part of fulfilling Astra's promise had been rallying the villagers into going along with her and her grandfather's plan. The hardest part was actually organizing and executing it all; there were a dozen hands working at making enough Pecha stew to fill the bellies of two hundred and fifty Abra while curing them of a lifetime of poisoning, while the rest of the village were slowly being sifted through to see who was most qualified to make the initial trip—though nearly everyone would be waiting for when they returned.
The most annoying part, as Astra was finding out, was fielding an endless parade of questions from anyone who didn't have much else to do.
"No," Astra sighed from her seat on the edge of the plaza's platform, giving the grass weaver an annoyed look. "I really don't know how the humans made this. I told you that it was made from something called 'cotton,' and I don't know what that is either."
"But how did you even get it then?" another weaver asked, his face twisted in confusion. "Wouldn't they have had to measure your proportions and craft it with the material? Surely you must have seen it!"
"I just bought it from a store!" Astra exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "It was just hanging there with thousands of other dresses, pre-made. I didn't have to get measured, I just had to go to get one that already fit me."
This provoked a wave of disbelief and confusion amongst the dozens of Kirlia crowding the plaza below her. A lot of concepts, Astra was finding, were proving to be much less credulous than Echo's whole colony. Such as, tangentially, the concept of money. She'd had trouble too, of course, but it was surprisingly difficult to get the idea of a commonly valued barter interim...thing to take hold.
"What's a store?" a third Kirlia called. Astra groaned; the crowd below had been rotating in and out for a long while now and she'd already answered that question four times.
"Any other questions?" she asked in turn, to the previous Kirlia's squawking indignation.
"What was the prettiest thing you've seen?" a fourth Kirla asked, her hair twisted into tight braids.
Astra brightened up, then hummed, thinking. That was a new one; she hadn't really thought about it before. The Lord of Steel alongside other parts of Echo's home had been beautiful, but the circumstances made them hauntingly so. Petalburg's cityscape that first night she'd spent with May in that hotel had been incredible too, but if she had to pick a true winner...
"Atop a tall human structure by the sea," Astra began, washing the backdrop of the stage with a remembered image of Rustboro. "I looked out across the ocean and saw both it and the nearby city bathed in the fires of dusk. I could see the colors wash everything into a deep orange and red, and it all looked so small from up there. It really was something special," she said, smiling at her own projected memory. May had made it...weird by recklessly balancing atop the nearby railing right afterward, but in the moment it was absolutely serene and gorgeous.
The crowd gasped in delight, chattering to themselves excitedly as Astra gazed fondly at the image. She knew that she could have depicted May and Brendan staring out at those same waters beside her if she willed it, but she wasn't willing to have that conversation yet, much less in public. Still, the sight felt incomplete without them. She hoped they'd been able to get out of Granite Cave by now.
"Ooh, ooh!" one of the Kirlia excitedly blurted. "What was the worst thing?"
A hush fell over the group, and by her eyes slowly widening with regret, the speaker had realized immediately that she'd made a huge mistake.
Astra stared at her. "Did you hear me a bit ago when I said I'd given a child a funeral?" she asked, voice cold.
The Kirlia shrank in on herself, grimacing at the hostile stares the others were directing her way. "I'm so sorry, I should go," she rushed out, hurriedly backing out of the crowd and fleeing away to...Astra didn't care.
She was getting sick of questions by now anyway.
Pulling herself up, she stretched for a moment, then dismissed her audience and walked away—much to their disappointment, even if they understood why. She trod over to her grandfather with a sigh, peering at the collection of Kirlia that had gathered to facilitate the teleport. Nearby, Pecha soup was being poured into two hollowed-out halves of a boulder; it had been specially rush-ordered from the stoneshapers at the beginning of all this, since no container in the village would be able to carry enough stew for the hundreds of mouths that were waiting. Once they were both reasonably full, a barrier would close off the openings and they would be levitated together, the orb being sealed shut with tree resin.
"Tiring of all the attention so soon?" her grandfather prodded, looking at her with a gentle smile at her approach. "I have experienced that all too well across many seasons."
"Maybe I wouldn't be if it wasn't the same thing over and over again," Astra huffed, coming to a stop. "I expected the questions, just not the repetition. It's infuriating."
"The life of an Elder is never a calm one," he commiserated, shaking his head. "Once word of my skills in painting were sufficiently spread, I never knew a day's peace without someone bothering me to create a mural in their homes or upon their coat."
"I guess."
They stood there in peace, watching the last few pots empty into the soup container and the last of the chosen Kirlia line up for the journey. Astra blinked, then furrowed her brow.
"You phrased that funny," she said, peering at her grandfather, who merely tilted his head in amused curiosity. Astra suspected he knew exactly what she was going to say next. "I'm not an Elder."
He hummed. "Not all would agree with you."
Astra stared at him incredulously. "What do you—how in the world am I an Elder!? My hair isn't nearly as faded, and I don't have anywhere near enough experience!"
"Troublesome precedents," her grandfather agreed, eyes twinkling, "but neither are applicable, I feel. Astra, tell me, what exactly makes someone an Elder in the first place? There were only fourteen of us, yet there are Kirlia in the village with hair whiter than any of ours."
Astra hesitated. "Well, I know you're the best in the village at painting and weird Psychic tricks; that's why our home looks so good and why I learned my illusion so fast. Uh, your friend oversees all the big Ricochet games as well as pyre ceremonies, that one oversees the parentless hatchling enclave, those three do woodworking in entirely different ways, those two do the same with stone, the one who nearly got their eye bitten out looks after the guards—"
"Yes, we all do tend to have our skills," her grandfather confirmed. "But there are a great many Kirlia in the village, each who can practice anything we can do to varying extents. Why do you know who these Kirlia are?"
Astra...didn't really know? The knowledge had always been there, absorbed from the background murmurs of the villagers. The Elders were just the ones who did those things.
Her grandfather smiled when she said as such. "That is exactly it, dear girl. Elders exist not only when you master some skill or two, but when everybody can point to you as someone who has done so, and can further be relied upon to look after the village as a whole in such matters.
"It just so happens that this trust is usually only built up over a lifetime of performing excellently," he concluded, gazing at her expectantly.
Astra remained confused. Alright, maybe having pale hair and a wrinkled coat wasn't really a requirement, but... "Still, that leaves me without your level of experience and trust."
He chuckled, pulling her in for a side-hug. "My dear girl, have you forgotten what happened mere moments ago? What you set in motion once you returned? There has not been a single person since the Ancestor to have as much first-hand experience with humanity as you do. There is not a single Kirlia here who does not know your name or what you have been doing. You rallied the whole village into supporting this scheme of ours.
"Were we to give ourselves fancy titles like humanity's Champion…in much the same way that I am an Elder of Art, that my friend is an Elder of Ceremony, that she is an Elder of Childcare—differing from the rest of us only by senescence, Astra, you are in all but recognition the Elder of Humanity."
The statement was impossible. Inconceivable. Her? An Elder? She'd barely become a Kirlia!
Yet when she looked around, Astra couldn't deny her grandfather's words. The whole of the village was abuzz with her revelations and requests, and what felt like hundreds of Kirlia had sought her out in this brief time to ask her about anything and everything she knew or had seen.
"I'm...an Elder?" Astra questioned, faintly. "I...what does that mean for me?"
Her grandfather chuckled. "Nothing more than continuing to do what you are already doing and have done. And you aren't, not really," he explained, winking at her. "It is merely the opinion of an old man that you share the same traits all Elders have. I doubt many Kirlia would start calling you one today, even if we pointed this all out; the expectation of being elderly is strong. But I have no doubt that you will be recognized quicker than any other."
"So this was all just a big tease, then? Nothing's changed?" Astra groaned, rubbing a hand against her face.
"Of course things have changed!" her grandfather exclaimed. "Just because the other villagers aren't calling you an Elder does not mean you aren't being treated like one."
Astra slumped, exasperation and resignation warring for prominence on her face. Well, at least it wasn't 'official' yet; the title didn't really appeal to her. It felt wrong, almost...insulting? Elders were supposed to be wrinkled and sedentary and most importantly, their hair was faded! She liked her hair being so vibrant! It just didn't fit.
"Well, I'm glad nobody will call me that," she sighed, repeating the thought aloud. She looked at the troupe of Kirlia on-stage, a mental head-count revealing a full twenty-five Psychics ready and waiting. "How close are we to leaving?"
"We should be ready in just a few moments," her grandfather observed, peering at the soup boulder. They'd successfully brought the two sloshing halves together and were coating the fissure. He started towards it, waving Astra toward the gathering Kirlia. "You should go meet with your travelling companions before the time comes."
The troupe welcomed Astra into their circle with grins and stalwart cheer. She was handed a flask of concentrated Leppa, half of which she immediately downed. The buzz of overflowing Psychic energy flowed through her head, and she met the gaze of her cohort with the same determination they all shared.
"We're supposed to boost you for a grand teleport, we've been told," one Kirlia said. "Not sure how that works, but we're all deft hands at using Psychic power in one form or another; I'm sure we'll get it down quick."
"Some of us will be encircling the...stew...boulder...that," another Kirlia gave up, pointing to the stew boulder thing. "It should come with us once we cocoon it with enough power."
"Right, that's good." Astra nodded. "It'll be a long teleport; I've never travelled nearly so far that way. The longest was when I came back from Littleroot, but it was a lot closer and my grandpa did all the work."
"Aye, but it's a trip worth making, yeah?" a third Kirlia said, grinning. "The stars'll weep before we let those hatchlings starve in the dark any longer. Ain't that right lads!"
A rousing cheer went up amongst the troupe. Astra smiled, emboldened by their support.
"Thank you all," she said, giving them a flare of gratitude. "I'll do my best to get us there safely. I'm counting on you to support me. Tonight we're going to end a long, endless tragedy and save our cousins! Echo and her Abra have spent forty cycles of the seasons in the lonely dark for help, and we will be the burning fire that answers that call!"
Astra's voice had risen, changing from a show of gratitude to an impromptu speech. She was shouting now, every sentence ending with a rousing bellow from her troupe.
"We do this for family!" she shouted, burning resolution and watery joy filling her eyes as her Kirlia shouted in turn. "We do this for hope! We do this so no more children will be carried away into the shadows!
"Now," Astra asked, her voice booming across the whole plaza. "Are you ready to tear down their long dark and at last grant our cousins the starlight they've been denied!?"
A roaring call went up, every Kirlia raising their fists as one. Behind her the plaza erupted, at least a thousand Kirlia cheering her on at once. In the distance, Astra could even feel her Pokemon with the Guard, the buzz of their support audible even from the stage.
She let out a breath, nodding to her group. "Right," she declared. "Let's do this."
"Don't get too excited," her grandfather's voice rang out, cutting through the near-tangible cloud of determination: "The sealant hasn't dried enough; you'll be waiting a while longer!"
There was a pause as Astra and the troupe stared at each other. They slumped as one, a great sigh of mild humiliation settling over them all. Astra pretended to not hear a multitude of chuckles from the Kirlia still watching them in the plaza. Stupid crappy damp sealant; she bet humans had something five times as strong that could dry instantly. Stupid humans, grumble mumble—
Nevertheless, when it was finally ready she and her companions lined up on stage. Two Kirlia grabbed hold of Astra's forearms from behind, and four Kirlia grabbed onto theirs. Each of the villagers held on tight to those in front, and the ones encircling the food held hands and pressed up against it while yet more Kirlia wrapped arms around their torsos. They all began to shine with Psychic power, the bright-dark purple coating the boulder entirely and shining across the entire troupe like a sparkling cloud.
At the front, Astra looked out across the plaza. A cacophony of cheering Kirlia greeted her, all wishing her a safe departure.
The Elders came forward as the power continued to flow between the troupe, inspecting them with exhausted eyes. The Matron stepped up, tiredly staring Astra down.
"I've gotten many volunteers for my part in this," she said, blinking away some fatigue. "We will all be awaiting your swift return." She hesitated, then her gaze softened, just a little. "I still have my objections to your greater endeavor, but helping children has ever been my duty. Thank you for finding them before they faded. Be safe, won't you?"
"The journey is set to begin," her grandfather's friend said. "You have a troupe of the best Kirlia we could muster. It all depends on you, Astra. We have no doubt you will rise to the challenge."
Then her grandfather walked forth, resting a hand atop her head. "You've made me so proud, my girl," he said. "I taught you the best I could and you have surpassed every expectation I had by unimaginable degrees."
"Are you sure you won't come?" Astra asked. "This is sort of your specialty, after all."
"As my specialty, I can also say that I am a bit too old to make such a lengthy journey," he replied, shaking his head. "Severe psychic fatigue inflicts me with much harsher penalties than just a migraine, and I cannot process Leppa quite as well as I used to. It's not a bad thing to let you all go alone; considering how soon the world is going to expand, we need Kirlia with experience teleporting long distances now more than ever. Besides," he added, "this is your moment, not mine."
He rubbed her head for a moment more, and they smiled at each other. "Come back safely, won't you?"
Astra smiled. "Of course I will," she said, shining with power. "I still need to tell you more stories, after all."
Her grandfather nodded, smiling back—and for a moment, stared at something only he could see. Then he retreated, returning to the line of Elders.
Astra nodded to them all. She turned her smile toward the cheering crowd, and then looked up at the shining stars above—and for a moment, she swore she saw one flash across the sky, a line so thin as to be invisible.
She closed her eyes. Breathed in, then out.
Power surged, the might of twenty-five Kirlia swirling with her own, subordinate to her will.
She thought of a great cavern. A cliff overseeing a long dead beast. Rocks pointing down from the ceiling, dripping water onto mirrored spikes below.
An old woman, tired and worn down and in deep despair. But not broken. Not yet.
Not ever.
Astra pushed. A line of thought shone bright in the intersection of her mind's eye and reality. It raced out of the village. It traced a path through a city, a beach, and off a dock. It made a bridge across the ocean, passed by a roaring island, and went down, down, into an abyss.
It found its mark.
Astra stepped forward, light flared—
There was a crack—
And then there was nothing at all.
It only took a second. But the second stretched into an eternity.
It was like swimming through mud. Each scoop forward drained just a bit more energy.
One Kirlia's worth of power vanished in an instant. Then two. Each one pushing together in unison; drained equally, but spent all the same.
Astra pushed and clawed and tore through the membrane of something she had no name for. It had given way to her many times before—but distance changed the fragile glass to molten sand.
They were moving, though none could see it. The space between was and will be twisted and warped, their force commanding it to curl in on itself, shrinking the length until it was none.
The power of ten, gone. Fifteen.
Astra moved on, relentlessly.
The second ticked by.
...
Astra heard something.
A fraction of an instant. Barely enough to register anything at all.
In that space between. At a place she should not see.
In the corner of her eyes, through clouded glass, Astra saw.
There was a figure in the darkness.
They were facing away, sitting on the edge of nothing and looking up at something.
The second stretched on, impossibly.
Perception lingering regardless of causality.
The figure did not move.
But they made a sound.
And in that infinitesimal moment.
Astra listened.
There were breaths being drawn, but none were her own.
A warbling tone emerged: space itself, crying out in a wavelength not meant to be heard.
And then...a woman's voice. A song.
No spoken words. Just a singular melody, repeating eternally.
Emotions sprouting where they could not exist.
Anguish, fury, sorrow, betrayal, longing.
Fragile matter buckled, the power of twenty spent and gone.
The melody continued. It played, over and over. It would play until the end of it all.
It was a song of mourning. Of retribution. Of pain and resentment eternal.
Of ending. Of antithesis.
Of oblivion.
It sounded so...
Sad.
Begone.
The eternal moment passed.
Twenty-four.
Twenty-five.
And then, Astra's own.
Over the water, down the cave. Into the den of the fallen beast.
Space fractured, bent, and tore open.
And with a calamitous crack—
They arrived—
They collapsed.
Cries of pain rang out as Astra and her troupe suddenly felt knives dicing their way through their heads. Psychic fatigue on a grand scale, punishing them for their hubris.
Scrabbling to open her flask, she nearly choked as she took manic swigs of the Leppa concentrate within. A chill so hard it felt like a burn swept through her horns, and suddenly she could think again.
"Did—did anyone else hear that!?" she gasped, her voice mimicking the sharp sting of new air in her lungs. "I thought I heard—singing."
A wave of confused and exhausted negatives were the only responses she received. Regaining her composure, Astra sat up and looked for her cohorts.
What met her eyes was, thankfully, her intended destination: a cavern covered in moss, blue light once again pervading her vision. Frantic pops met her ears as she gazed down at the familiar sight of the colossal Lord of Steel. Beside her, the villagers had arrived safely, sipping from their own flasks as they gazed around in amazement. The soup-boulder had also arrived unbroken, to her relief—and looking at it now, she felt amazement and pride at the sheer mass they'd been able to drag along.
She almost hadn't made it, but…she had! She—they'd made it. They were back in the Granite Caves! Those pops must have been Abra fleeing their sudden appearance.
Grinning wide, she fully turned to her troupe and spread out her arms, the brief fragment of song already consigned to the depths of memory.
"Welcome to the Granite Caves, everybody!"
Her words stirred a great furor as the assembled Kirlia cheered, clapping each other on the back. Some even began pirouetting around in celebration, others instead choosing to gather at the edge of the cliff, gasping in awe at the titanic Aggron below and pointing out features like his broken horn and the rust in excited gasps.
"We've done it!" one exclaimed, boggling at the cavern before turning to Astra. "This is where we needed to be, yeah?" she asked, lighting up even further at the younger Kirlia's nod. "By the stars, I had my doubts but you really pulled us through!"
Suddenly, congratulations poured out, washing over Astra and leaving her a blushing mess. She scowled playfully, brushing off yet another pat on the back.
"Alright," she said, the embarrassed near-whisper transitioning into a more authoritative volume as the excited villagers failed to stop. "Alright, enough of that! We came here for a reason! This is only the first step; we've got plenty more to do, people!"
"Aye, where's this Echo you were talkin' about?" a Kirlia asked, peering through the blue gloom. "Doesn't she live here?"
"She does," Astra confirmed, grinning even wider when she felt a far-off flare of familiar power. "And she's right here."
Crack.
[I will ▒░▒▓ you asunder!] an absolutely incandescent Kadabra roared, twin spheres of Psychic annihilation springing to life on her hands, already rearing back to throw—
"Hi Echo!" Astra cheered, waving.
Echo paused, her expression morphing from protective fury to confusion, then slack-jawed incomprehension.
[Astra...?] she asked, blinking what must have been sleep crust from her eyes. She met Astra's gaze, then slowly turned to the group of other Kirlia standing all around the clifftop. Her Psychic spheres slowly dissipated as her arms dropped. [Wh...what? You—what!?]
"Well after we parted ways, I had an enlightening conversation with the Champion, and then decided to head home. Then, after I told them about everything, I came back to get something I'd left behind," Astra quickly explained—perhaps too quickly; she continued at a more comprehensible pace. "I brought some guests from my village this time. To help. I hope you don't mind?" A beat of silence. "Guys," she said, turning to her troupe. "This is Echo."
Echo made a strangled noise, stuck between disbelief and exasperation. She pointed at all the Kirlia suddenly inhabiting her home, most of whom were waving at her or chorusing some manner of greeting, and made gasping, choked noises as she looked from one to the next to the next, her whiskers and tail twitching with the force of each jerking movement. Astra stepped forward, smiling as Echo's eyes began to shine wetly, the realization of what was in front of her finally sinking in.
[You—What—▒░▒ only been one sleep!] she cried. Astra just stepped forward, hugging the Kadabra closely.
"I made a promise," Astra said, smiling gently as she squeezed the elderly Kadabra. "And nothing—not the ocean, humanity, or even a star falling on my head—could stop me from keeping it."
Her shoulders were getting wet now, but Astra found she didn't much care. The two-dozen Kirlia behind them politely waited as joyful sobs filled the air, busying themselves with checking the soup's container for damage or poking at the scintillating moss.
[Th-thank you,] Echo managed, sniffing a bit as she pulled herself together. [Never thought...hoped, yes, but pattern of sadness hard to break. Even in wildest hopes would not happen so soon.]
"I work pretty fast, huh?" Astra said, grinning cheekily. Then she winced as the Kadabra somewhat gently chopped her on the head.
[Stop that,] Echo chided, amusement glimmering through watery eyes. [Not funny first time.]
Astra laughed regardless; if Echo was feeling well enough to chastise her drastic understatements, then she must be feeling better.
"Alright, alright," she said, rubbing her head with a smile. "Come on, then!" Astra grabbed Echo's arm, tugging her toward her troupe. "We came all this way; you should meet everybody!"
Echo started to grin, following along for a moment before suddenly freezing up and looking at the array of Kirlia before her in clear anxiety. Astra paused, her own expression turning to confusion. Why had she...?
[Been so long...] Echo murmured, looking down shamefacedly. [And...so many...]
After a moment of thought, Astra's eyes widened in realization. Aside from her, these Kirlia were the first people that Echo would be talking to in over forty years. Not only that, but there were more of them here than there had ever been Kadabra in the cave. She had stage fright, of a sort. Astra grimaced; not the best introduction, but they would simply have to manage.
"Maybe we can hold off on the introductions for a while, or at least do them one at a time?" she asked. Echo hesitated before nodding, and Astra gave her shoulder a comforting pat before turning to address the group.
"Hey, we're skipping the introductions for now," she said, knowing full well they'd all heard their conversation. "We've got a gift to dish out anyway, and the sooner that's done, the better."
"Aye, sounds good," one Kirlia said, patting the rock. "It held together fine, but the trip strained the resin. It'll start leaking in a bit, so either we get moving or we unload it here."
[Gift?] Echo asked, peering around Astra. She frowned. [Big rock?]
"It's not just a big rock," Astra said, grinning. "It's a big hollowed-out boulder, completely full of warm Pecha berry stew. Enough for every single Abra to have a bowl."
Echo gasped, eyes widening. Astra leaned in. "And in case you didn't know," she whispered, as if conveying a great secret. "Pecha berries cure poison."
Echo stood still for a moment, then practically—literally teleported right next to the boulder, frantically prodding at it and startling the starlight out of the Kirlia around her. She poked the sealant curiously, then looked around, wide-eyed.
[▒░▒▓▒░▒▓! Must take to waking creche—no. Sleeping Creche ▒░▒▓ start, not asleep ▒░▒▓ yet. Wake them, then—move boulder? No, bring younglings here,] she muttered to herself rapidly. [Then waking creche—▒░▒▓▒ extra bowls...]
Then she paused, attention snapping toward the nearest villager. [You!]
"Me?" the Kirlia replied, taken aback.
[What say? Unload? Make soup ready down there!] Echo demanded, pointing to the center of the clearing down below, next to the Lord of Steel. [Can fit hatchlings in this cave. Will get bowls, then call. Prepare!]
Then she vanished with a violent crack.
SIlence. Everybody slowly turned toward Astra.
"That was...fervent," Astra said, shrugging lightly, "but after all that I've told you, can you really blame her for getting excited at a cure for all the poison her hatchlings have been eating—in the form of some actually good food?"
No, they really couldn't.
"Right," Astra continued, clapping her hands and looking toward the stew boulder. "Let's get this down to ground level and separate the halves. I don't want us to teleport more than we have to, so just levitate it and follow me."
Descending the staircase carved into the cavern walls, they settled the boulder right at the belly of the Lord of Steel. Astra watched her troupe in amusement as cries of 'It's so big!' 'It's all metal!' and other such statements filled the air as they approached. Separating the boulder turned out to be a bit of tricky barrier-work, but they managed to slip two flat planes in before the stew had time to fall out, then set the halves upright on their flattened bottoms.
Then they collectively waited for Echo to return, but after a minute it became clear that they would have a bit of time—and so, Astra started showing everyone around the few places she knew.
"They carved all of this?" one Kirlia asked, peering at the drawings etched into the Lord of Steel. Astra had conjured a small light, so she could finally see for herself the etchings the colony had made in stark detail.
"Yeah, they're all over the place," she confirmed, smiling at the drawing of a Mawile chasing some Pokemon she didn't know of away from a trio of Abra. Was that a 'Dark One' Echo had mentioned? May had said something about drop kicking a creepy thing; had she met one? And then kicked it? Hah. "They continue into the tunnels and other Creches as well."
"Creches?" another Kirlia questioned, tracing a hand across what looked like a poor rendition of a Barrage game. "What are those?"
"Other caverns where big groups of Abra live. There are five of them," Astra answered, leading them to the river.
They all looked up at the waterfall, gasping and pointing in awe. The village's river didn't have any drops like this, so none of them had seen the like before. Astra's light had even cast a small rainbow onto the spray at the base.
"I'm not sure where it comes from," she said. "My best guess is either some sort of spring or it's ocean water getting purified somehow."
The group nodded, and one enterprising Kirlia bent down to take a sip of the river water.
"Hm," he said, considering. "Tastes weird. Like dirt and rocks."
"Any salt?"
"Not that I can tell."
"What did these Kadabra do for fun?" another Kirlia asked, growing tired of the falling water. "They don't look like they'd be any good at dancing, and there's only so much stone to carve. No trees to hop on or dirt to grow plants with. I can't imagine what I'd do with myself if I didn't have my garden."
Crack.
[Played games of mind,] Echo answered, multiple towering stacks of bowls hovering around her head. [Have puzzles in Creche if want. Contests of Psychic prowess also. But first: bowls are all dirty!] she exclaimed, carefully dumping hundreds of bowls at the river's edge. Most of them were caked in dust, though a single stack was simply coated in the dried remnants of stew instead.
[Not use so many at once in long time!] Echo exclaimed, lifting ten bowls out of the pile and dumping them in the river, whereupon the water around them began violently churning. She looked at the troupe impatiently. [Help clean! Dust easier than old soup, be grateful!]
Astra and the others looked at each other. She shrugged, picking up a couple bowls and walking to the river. She hadn't expected dishwashing to be on the list of tasks they'd have to get done, but with her, Echo, and twenty five other Kirlia, it was bound to pass by quickly. "Well?" she asked, glancing back. "What are you waiting for? We don't have all night."
Judging by the grumbled protests and defeated sighs, being among the first other Kirlia to ever leave the village only to wind up doing menial chores hadn't been what they'd been imagining, either.
Astra gently lifted the bowl from the basin, a soft sweet aroma wafting from the stew contained within. She turned, looking to see Echo ushering a single lethargic Abra forward, apprehension rolling off the former like the ocean tide. Behind her, a crowd of fifty sleepy Abra were torn between warily staring down the two-dozen Kirlia waiting behind the hollowed boulder halves, and staring at the warm stew itself with gurgling bellies.
[Will cure poison, yes?] Echo asked again as she approached, glancing worriedly between her Abra and the bowl Astra held. [So much in body... Can handle?]
"Orans can close scrapes and cuts in moments, and I've personally eaten Leppa berries to relieve Psychic fatigue," Astra said, smiling reassuringly. "Pecha cures poison. It will help them, I promise."
She knelt down, looking at the pallid Abra face-to-face. "Hey there," she said, keeping her smile soft and approachable. "You haven't been feeling well for a long time, haven't you? Drink this." She held out the bowl, the pink broth's sweet aroma filling the space between them. "It will make you feel a lot better, and it's tasty too!"
The Abra had already started reaching for the bowl before she'd finished, and Astra was all too happy to let him take it. Everyone in the cavern stared as the hatchling took a tentative sniff of the soup, and then a small sip.
Sharp gasps erupted around the cavern as the Abra's shocked delight billowed into the air like puffy clouds. He began to drink it as fast as he possibly could, stray drops dripping messily onto the cavern floor. As he did so, the dull grey shadows coating his body seemed to melt away, leaving pristine brown and yellow chitin shining brightly in the azure mossglow. He even sat up straighter, as if a weight had suddenly been lifted from his shoulders.
The Abra whined as his bowl finally ran empty. He looked around wildly, the thin lines of his eyes widening to their fullest extent, as though he was seeing his surroundings properly for the first time. He leapt onto his feet, a sudden burst of physical energy urging him to dance around, stomping the ground and whooping in the simple joy of having had the best meal of his life.
Astra's smile was so big it felt like her face would tear in half. The poison seeping into the weak, decaying Abra's body was gone, and what was left was, for the first time in a long while, an energetic young hatchling.
They had saved a child from a long, prolonged decline into the dark.
She sniffed, wiping a budding tear from her eyes, and looked up to see a veritable fountain pouring down Echo's whiskers. She'd reached down to grab the Abra—who'd started to move toward the stew in hopes of seconds—and clutched him tightly, caught between awe, joy, and a painful, overwhelming relief.
[He is alive,] she gasped, shuddering. [My {Blood of my blood}. Oh, ▒░▒▓▒░▒▓ ▒░▒▓▒░. Darkness take me, he is alive.]
[Thank you,] she sniffed, turning to look at Astra through a river of tears. [You have ▒░▒▓▒ my younglings. I—I don't—How could ever repay? Ah, my {Blood of my blood}...!]
"Hey now," Astra murmured, placing a hand on the overwrought Kadabra's pauldron. "Repayment? Don't be silly, Grandma." She winked, wiping away a few tears of her own. "All of you are our family. Of course we would help.
"And don't celebrate too soon," she added, sweeping a hand out to indicate the extremely curious Abra, all of whom were obviously yearning for a bowl of their own. "We've still got a lot of Abra to feed, and four more Creches to wake up, yeah?"
[Right.] Echo sniffed, releasing the now-energetic Abra and gently nudging him away. [Right. You!] she ordered, turning to the assembled Kirlia. They jerked to attention, most having been caught up in the emotion of the moment. [Each grab two bowls; go feed hatchlings! Everyone gets bowl!] she announced to the room at large.
The Abra chittered excitedly amongst themselves as Astra's troupe somewhat clumsily began to fill their bowls and distribute them amongst the hatchlings. Whatever hesitation they may have felt toward the foreign Kirlia were swept away by the need to grab the bowls from their hands, and soon the sounds of slurping and euphoric exclamations of "Abra!" filled the cavern, more and more of the poisoned children visibly brightening up as the pollution was cleansed from their flesh.
Astra wiped at her eyes, shaking her head to clear the overflowing joy for but a moment. She turned to Echo, who was staring at the proceedings as the fantastic dream that it was. "Shall we go fetch the other Abra?" she asked, prodding the Kadabra. "We're pretty sure we have enough for all five Creches."
[Mm.] Echo hummed, blinking slowly as she returned to awareness. She reached up to touch at her whiskers, then grimaced and Psychically wrung out the tears that had soaked in. [All five?] she asked, turning to Astra. [Was only grabbing Waking Creche next. Why all five?]
"The stew might lose potency as time goes on," Astra said. It was incredibly unlikely—she would have expected that to happen well after it went cold and moldy—but it was best to not take any risks. "It's best we get them fed and cured as soon as possible. Besides," she added, shrugging. "we actually need you to gather all of the Abra here anyway."
[Hm?] Echo peered at Astra quizzically. [Need all Abra here? Why?]
"What, you think we came here just to drop off some soup?" Astra asked in turn, smiling. "That's not a permanent solution. Listen, we'll talk about it after we've fed everyone, okay? Trust me on this."
Echo looked at her, then nodded. [Have saved younglings. Of course,] she said. [Will return with Waking Creche, then will wake up other three. Sleep pattern damaged, but will not let younglings remain hurt any longer.]
She vanished with a crack, and Astra grinned as she turned to organize her troupe back into soup-serving duty. Time to work a miracle.
The next stretch of time rushed by in a blur: Echo would drop off a creche-worth of increasingly sleepy and confused Abra, and then Astra and the other Kirlia would fumble around until each one had a bowl and shone with returned color and enthusiasm. The cured Abra had begun to make something of a racket, chattering to each other with much more vigor than Astra had ever seen from her first visit.
The cavern grew ever more crowded as Echo gathered her Abra, and by the fifth and final mass teleport all two hundred and fiftyish Abra had made the entirety of the Lord of Steel's lair into something of a cacophonic playground—or, well, as close to cacophony as Abra could accomplish. Even healed they weren't exactly sprinting anywhere, but their newfound vitality seemed to awaken a desire to use it as much as they were able while the experience was new.
And considering how many of them were poking, prodding, and teleporting on top of her troupe, they were certainly suffering from success.
Though as she sat on a flattened stalagmite chair, Astra thought that 'suffering' was probably the wrong word for this; she smiled as a couple Abra that had come to her prodded at her dress and hair. She gently waved them off when they made to reach for her horns, giggling at their disappointed whines.
"Now now," she chided, doing her best to impersonate her grandfather's lecturing tone. "My horns aren't for touching!"
[Very curious!] Echo noted from beside her, gently pelting her own, much bigger crowd with Psychic pellets of varying shapes and colors. Astra could spot a few Abra trying to copy her, only for their efforts to fizzle out. [Has been long time since could do this.]
"I'm glad you got to do it again," she replied as she scooted closer and pulled the Kadabra into another hug. The elder sniffed wetly, but it seemed her capacity to cry in delirious joy had been thoroughly exceeded.
[Cannot express happiness enough,] Echo choked out, unable to keep her eyes from darting every which way to watch her Abra play with each other and the visiting Kirlia. [Do not know what next. Kirlia stay? Go back? Bring more stew? Unknown. Have saved us all. Cannot think of way to show gratitude.]
Ah, perfect. "I could think of one thing," Astra mused, tone playful as she softly pushed away the Abra that had started to climb up her back.
[Hm?] Echo asked, both surprised and seemingly delighted to have some way to pay back the village's kindness. [Of course! What is? Cannot do much, but will put all power into!]
The sheer gratitude was starting to sting a bit, now. Closing her eyes, Astra took a deep breath, releasing it slowly.
Then she looked at Echo, and nodded toward her troupe.
"When we go back to the village," Astra said, "I want all of you to come with us."
A moment of quiet. Echo stared at her, blinking in confusion. Then what she had said seemed to register, and the Kadabra's face flashed through surprise, shock, uncertainty, before finally settling on offended incomprehension.
[Go to Village? What?] she asked, her voice growing louder as she stood from her seat. [You mean leave cave? No! Never! This is home! What stupid got into head?]
"The kind of stupid that can tell that my village can't just teleport things over here constantly," Astra said calmly, rising to meet Echo. She placed a hand on the shorter Kadabra's pauldron, her smile shrinking in melancholy. "And we can't stay here, either. I was only here for a few hours, but I could tell that I wouldn't do well if I had to live without the wind, the trees, the light of the sun, and especially the night sky.
"But even more than that," she continued, looking around the cavern. "These caves were your home. And they can be again, in the future. But right now, they're just...rotting away. So were you, and all of your Abra. After forty years...don't you deserve to experience something else? Something new?"
Echo's face twisted, emotional turmoil leaking out of her like a frustrated, bewildered miasma. [What mean isn't home? All Abra live here since start! All Kadabra work to improve!] she refused, gesturing wildly around the cavern. [Carved floors and walls for beds! Made steam room, mushroom farm, spread moss across creches! Etched history into all could reach! All we are, in here! Is home! Always be home!]
She shook her head, then cast a pleading look at Astra. [Maybe not all Kirlia like cave, but if so many, then some must! Maybe find them, they can stay! Can—]
"But then it wouldn't really be your home, would it?" Astra asked, softly. She looked at Echo, pondering a different future. "If we found enough Kirlia who would like to live here to actually keep it livable, then this place would just become part of the village. Things here would be changed to more suit their needs, and not just yours or the Abra. Sure, it wouldn't be fast, but without more Kadabra to counterbalance them…these caves would start to lose part of what makes them yours."
She gave Echo a wry grin. "On top of that, teleporting supplies over is still unacceptably difficult, and we don't have anything that could grow down here to bypass that." She gestured to the boulder. "This one meal for all of your Abra cost us a month's worth of Leppa berry extract, and nearly drained all twenty-six of us dry. If we wanted to stop feeding Zubat to your Abra, we'd have to make that trip, what, three times a day? Maybe twice? These are the best teleporters we could gather, but crossing the ocean so often would burn them out fast. Any other group with less skilled teleporters would need more Kirlia, and they might do it wrong. It's just too hard.
"Even if we did, your Abra are all so energetic now—I can't imagine how hard it would be to stop them from teleporting off into random parts of the cave," Astra continued, looking down at the hatchling prodding at a loose bit of her dress. They were feeling at the material, chitinous hands curiously exploring the foreign texture. "I know it was already happening before, and I know that Humans have been capturing them, but no human has ever come near the village, and there are thousands of Kirlia to help watch over them.
"Not to mention—!" Astra began again—
[Enough!]
—only for a frustrated shout to cut her off. Echo was breathing heavily, eyes closed and hands in a death grip on the stalagmite's edge. Astra winced. Had she pushed too hard? She'd spent so long thinking up her arguments back home—agh, she'd gotten too excited and started rambling!
[Enough,] Echo repeated, slumping forward. Her eyes opened, a forlorn gaze sweeping across the horde of joyous, nigh-frolicking Abra.
[Village better than Cave. Understand. But is home,] she stressed, looking back at Astra. [Want to fix, not run away! If leave, then...]
"You'll be back one day," Astra said, gently grasping one of Echo's claws with her hand. "Did you forget what I'm doing? Once I become Champion, I'll be able to decide how all of Hoenn treats Pokemon. That means they will leave my VIllage alone, but I can also get them to finally reverse what they've done here."
Echo stared at her, eyes wide. [Remember now. Control all of land like Hariyama controlled Makuhita. Can fix cave? Certain?] she asked, a glint of hope and...vindictiveness sparkling in her voice. [Make Humans tribute many things in apology?]
"If not, then I'll turn the entire region upside-down until they do," Astra said. "Echo, you know how good I am at keeping my promises, right?" she asked, receiving an amused huff in return. "Well, here's another: once I become Champion, I will make sure your home comes back to life again."
Echo was still, her eyes turning once more to the renewed crowd of hatchlings. She turned to look up at the Lord of Steel, the glowing moss covering the Aggron's hide and eye socket shimmering in undulating waves. She breathed deeply and let loose a long sigh, turning to Astra as she did.
[Have kept promise,] she said, melancholy coloring her tone a rainy hue. [Cannot let younglings return to before. Will believe keep new promise.] She hesitated, struggling to form her next words.
[Will go,] Echo relented, giving Astra a sad smile. [{Lord of Steel} will wait for return. But will be taking things with!] she argued, huffing as she stood. [If cannot stay in cave, will bring some of cave to village!]
"Of course!" Astra agreed, jumping to her feet. She gave Echo another big hug, the amused Kadabra returning it wholeheartedly. "I'm so glad you said yes! I'm sure you'll have a great time in the village!"
[Maybe,] Echo said, shrugging. Then a chorus of cheering rang out, and both her and Astra turned to see the other Kirlia celebrating her acceptance.
"Maybe nothing!" one shouted, grinning as two Abra clung to her outstretched arm. "I guarantee it'll be amazing! Stars, when's the last time you even went outside? What's the last flower you smelled? You should visit my garden; I've got a dozen different types, and only two are berry bushes!"
"The breeze here is so cold!" another complained, but he was still smiling as a dozen Abra chased after a small glowing rock he was moving around. "I'll show you my favorite clearing; the air is warm and you can hear the whole forest rustle in the breeze. The grass is tall enough to get lost in; it's great!"
"Nah lads, what she needs is a good campfire roast by the river!" another decreed. "She's only been eatin' Zubat for forty summers! We need to get her a fried Magikarp, pronto!"
Astra just laughed as more and more Kirlia chimed in with their ideas, Echo looking shocked at their sudden outbursts and bemused at their offers.
"There'll be plenty to do once we get there!" she said, grinning. "But first we have to get there!" Then the grin faded a bit, and she smiled at Echo awkwardly. "And this is the part of the plan I'm not certain of. I had an idea that could make the evacuation a lot easier, but..."
Echo tilted her head, squinting at her. [What is idea?] she asked, cautiously.
Astra felt nerves eat away at her expression. "Well, last time I was here, I noticed that you and the Abra had a much easier time teleporting than even my grandpa, and he's the best in the village. We were able to come here because all of my troupe combined our power and skills so I could lead the way back here, so I was thinking…every Kirlia could take about ten or so Abra, and use that same method to help teleport back to the village...?"
Echo stared at her. [Cannot tell if very smart or head cracked on rock.]
Well that wasn't a complete rejection. "So it could work?" Astra checked.
The Kadabra thought for a moment, then looked out at the Abra and Kirlia.
[If teleport so shoddy, younglings maybe try to help make better?] she guessed, then hesitated. [Hard idea to give. But...no danger. If fail, younglings just stop. Could try.]
Astra brightened up. Her idea could work! "And each Kirlia could help carry back whatever you wanted to bring with!"" she added.
[Yes,] Echo agreed, still looking nervous. She sighed, then looked around. [Will need to find things to bring.]
"Alright, the plan is on!" Astra cheered, turning to her troupe. "Now who wants to go first?"
A dozen competing cries rang out in chorus, and Astra gave Echo a big smile. Echo tried to return it, though her apprehension still left it rather diminished.
It was time to save her cousins.
"Are we all ready?" Astra asked, looking the male Kirlia up and down.
"As good as I'll ever be!" he replied, surrounded by ten fidgeting, tightly-packed Abra and as many stone puzzles as they could collectively hold on to. Echo walked around their circle, gently instructing each Abra on what they were going to do, though whether they understood was still up in the air. Behind them both, the rest of Astra's troupe looked on in focused curiosity, even as they corralled the remaining Abra horde.
[Will have to do,] Echo said, returning to Astra's side. [Have told to help teleport, and that teleport will lead to very confusing place. Assured safety and told to stay calm, unsure if will. Told would be more soup; now eager.]
Astra nodded. "Right. All that's left to do is give it a go." She patted the other Kirlia on the shoulder, giving him a resolute stare. "You know what to do. Get them home safe, alright?"
He just grinned. "Of course! My cinders'll be thrown into the river before I fail!"
[Weave teleport slowly,] Echo advised. [Younglings will help form.]
"Got it." The Kirlia nodded.
Astra nodded back, then stepped away, both her and Echo giving the group a wide berth.
He closed his eyes, a whorl of Psychic energy coating the whole group. As the familiar shape of a teleport technique was formed, the Abra collectively looked toward him, tilting their heads in a grand wave of confusion and...offense?
As one, they reached out and tore the teleport apart, rearranging it in a pattern Astra had no hope of comprehending. The Kirlia's eyes shot open, mouth gaping.
"What kind of insane teleport pattern is thi—"
The whole group flashed bright-dark purple.
Crack.
And then they were gone.
Echo cried out in distress, reaching out to where they had once been even as excited cheers rose up from the crowd behind them. She stared at the empty space, then slumped. Astra laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.
[Cannot sense,] she explained, looking torn. [All gone. Little thought: maybe not work. Not know where are is...hard.]
"They'll be back at my village, safe and sound," Astra assured, holding the Kadabra close. "You'll see them again soon."
Echo stared at the spot for a moment more, then sighed. [Fate is cast. Will believe.]
She turned to the crowd, ushering another group of Abra forth. [Let us continue.]
Another Kirlia stepped up, and was soon surrounded by the Abra and numerous trinkets and carved toys. They focused—and again the teleport was re-woven, the group vanishing in a crack.
Soon, they were leaving in rapid succession. Each mini-troupe carried mementos of the Granite Caves; puzzle balls, carved stone figures, samples of both types of mushroom Echo grew—with stern instructions to be very careful with the tannish ones, which were presumably the ones that gave the Kadabra visions—an entire absurdly polished Barrage slab, quite a lot of blue moss at one Kirlia's request, and various other things.
Among them was an incredibly stressed Mawile, who'd been sound asleep inside the Lord of Steel and woken up very agitated.
[Calm, {🕈︎□︎❒︎❒︎♓︎■︎♋︎}, calm.] Echo stressed, holding the shaking Mawile close, gently rubbing her scalp. [Going to new place. Maybe exciting? Will be confusing, but must follow younglings. Come, have Aron shell. There we go.]
"Maw!" she complained, nervously eyeing the few remaining Kirlia with extreme distrust. She held onto a curved, organically-shaped shred of iron, taking nibbles of it as she was handed to the next leaving villager. A great deal of spare Aron-metal scraps were distributed amongst the Abra as the Kirlia struggled to hold the squirming Mawile, both of them very much not wanting to be near the other.
"Why did I have to carry the giant toothy death trap!?" she bemoaned. "She's so heavy!"
This had been the wrong thing to say, as {🕈︎□︎❒︎❒︎♓︎■︎♋︎} abruptly switched from deep anxiety to pure outrage. She began trying to claw at the Kirlia's face, and continued to screech at her even as they left.
The most interesting thing Echo had brought out, however, was the giant pile of red crystals she had pulled out from under her soup pot. Astra and the dregs of her troupe peered at them curiously.
"You know, I never asked you about these," Astra noted, picking one up. Something shaped like a single tongue of fire was frozen inside the crystal, and it seemed to flicker and shine in the dim mosslight. Well, not just mosslight; the stones were collectively giving off a great warm orange glow, illuminating the cavern far more than the moss ever did. "You were cooking your stew on this, right? What are they?"
[Fire stone,] Echo answered simply. [Hold essence of fire energy. If poke at right, can release; give off heat.]
She focused on the stone in Astra's hand, and something flickered within it. Soon Astra felt the crystal grow pleasantly warm in her hands, as though the crystal had been left at the perfect distance from a campfire to then be plucked away and ward off the cold in one's palm.
[Effect grows more when have more,] Echo said, shrugging. [Used to boil water. Stew, steam room, very handy! Many strange rocks in cave. Some shiny, some have strange energy.] Her face darkened. [Some very not good. Give feeling of stagnation. Not like; throw all find into river.]
"Huh," Astra said, looking down at the stone. She'd never heard anything about these from her friends or in Roxanne's class. Did the humans know about them? Surely they would, right? Hm.
The firestones were distributed to the following two groups, and at last there were a mere twelve Abra remaining, with only Astra and another Kirlia left.
Echo reappeared from her home, bringing with her a tattered cloth sack and her giant cauldron. The last Kirlia stared at her.
"...What's with the big pot?" he asked.
[All Kadabra have cooked and eaten from cauldron!] Echo proclaimed, sniffing. [Has been tainted by Zubat, but underneath is history of all meals! Will continue to use always.]
The Kirlia considered that, then shrugged. "Yeah, fair enough. My great granddad scavenged a big black metal pan that we still use like that. Sis'll probably get it though," he grumbled. "Right, hand it over. Last few Abra are mine, yeah?"
"Yeah," Astra confirmed as Echo placed the cauldron in the midst of the remaining Abra. "We'll be going together, so don't wait up."
Echo stayed silent, merely watching the final group. The Kirlia nodded.
"I'm off, then," he said, focusing his power. "I'm sure we've got a big party going by now, so I'll see you there!"
Then with a flash, the last Abra within the Granite Caves vanished, and Astra and Echo were all alone.
"Well," Astra said, turning to the Kadabra. "Looks like it's our turn. Figured you would be even better at teleportation than the Abra, so we should be fine by ourselves."
Echo nodded, slowly. [Yes. More power, control. If had spoon...but have done without for long time. Can do this.]
She looked down to the sack she carried, filled with the most stable decrepit trinkets and crafts her long-lost family had created so long ago. Then up at the Lord of Steel, to the waterfall beyond, the solemn path of her eyes curving across the entirety of the great cavern.
Gently, she set the sack down and turned to Astra.
[If do this,] she said, a faraway look in her eyes. [Then one final thing to do.]
"Yeah?" Astra asked, frowning. What was this?
[Cannot protect home from {Invaders} if gone. So must close all tunnels.]
Astra took a moment to process that. Her eyes widened. "Wait, you're going to—!?"
[{Invaders} will never have home, even if gone!] Echo announced, grim determination upon her face. [Will be fixed later, as was promised. Will not leave regret behind. Home will stay home. Not wholly {Invader}, not wholly {Blood of my Soul}, must be of {Blood of my Blood}.]
"But—" Astra started, only to be cut off by the crack of teleportation as Echo left the cavern.
She stood there, eyes wide, looking around in confused dread.
Then the caverns shook. The grinding sound of collapsing rock bellowed through the air, a series of distant roars pouring over the gigantic Aggron's resting place as though the earth were crying out in pain. Gouts of dust flew through the air as the distant calamity's remnants found their way inside, and it was only after a dozen consecutive impacts, massive and distinctly concerning, that the cavern system began to calm, though innumerable smaller aftershocks were still rattling her feet.
Echo reappeared with a soft pop, looking blankly into nothing.
Silence, but for the distant repercussions of collapsing tunnels.
[Had to be done,] she said as the fading vibrations dwindled to nothing. [Having open tunnels important for...do not remember. But now all ways to all Creches are closed. Lord of Steel will never be found.]
Astra didn't really know what to say to all of this. She was just happy the entire cave system hadn't come down on her head.
"...You have some scary psychic power, you know that?" she eventually asked, and Echo huffed in amusement.
[Was precision, not power. Knew where to hit rock is all,] she dismissed.
Astra chuckled nervously. "Of course," she said, watching Echo pick up her sack. "You ready to go?"
She nodded, and held out her hand. [Bring me to younglings; show me wondrous village of yours.]
The nervousness was forced away. "Of course," Astra agreed, grasping the Kadabra's hand with her own. "Come on, Grandma; it's not your home, but I hope you can treat it like a home."
They smiled at each other, and under the watchful eye of the Lord of Steel, Psychic power blared into existence for what would be the last time for quite a while.
[Hm,] Echo huffed as Astra prepared the teleport. [Was right; your teleport very bad. How even use?] she asked, wiping the technique away and substituting her own. Astra went cross-eyed just looking at it. [There. Maybe learn something; stop being terrible.]
"Oh fuck off," Astra laughed.
And then she thought of home.
Crack
Silence.
There was a miniscule creaking sound, as if a bit of metal was settling into a better resting spot.
The glowing moss undulated, shifting colors between blue, white, and black, until it all seemed to calm, in a way. Slowing, slowing...until all faded into a glowing darkness.
And then nothing else.
They travelled through the space between, a fraction of a blink of the eye, with naught to accost them.
And a fraction of a second after they left, they arrived.
Astra was summarily met by a faceful of inexplicable, hastily cobbled-together wooden barricade shining brightly with Psychic energy.
"Eh!?" she exclaimed, stepping back. What in the world was this!? The floor was the same as the stage she envisioned, so unless something bizarre had happened they'd gotten to the right place. But if that was the case, then why was there suddenly a wall here!?
To her side, Echo was similarly nonplussed.
"Astra!"
Astra perked up, whirling around to see her grandfather waiting with several of the other Elders in this...weirdly closed-off portion of the stage. He grinned broadly, his fellows freely radiating auras of extreme satisfaction.
"Grandpa!" Astra exclaimed, rushing forward excitedly. "We made it back!"
"That you did, my girl," he answered, receiving her hug as they drew together. "Well done!"
Astra pulled him closer, basking in the moment, before stepping away with a grin of her own.
"Did everyone else make it?" she asked, looking around. Besides the other Elders—who had stepped back, ceding the floor to her grandfather—she could only see a trio of Kirlia maintaining whatever they were doing with the barricade. "And what's with the wall?"
"Yes, they all made it," he chuckled. "As for the wall, after the first group came through we rather quickly discovered that we would be well served making a quiet area for the Abra to arrive in instead of greeting them with a few hundred Kirlia at once. It was a little chaotic until we made the barricade, but everyone seems acclimated now." His eyes flicked past her, amusement coloring his tone. "Well, I think we still have one more visitor to meet before we take it down, yes?"
Astra's eyes widened. "Oh, right!" she yelped, rushing back over to Echo. The Kadabra had hunched in on herself, fidgeting with her bag and peering around furtively between glances at the gathered Elders. She jumped at Astra's call, though some of her apprehension dimmed as she drew near.
"Echo!" Astra called, grabbing her arm in excitement and waving toward the others. "Echo, this is my grandpa and a few of the other Elders! Everyone," she continued, turning back to the assembled fraction of village leaders, "this is Echo, Kadabra and caretaker of the Granite Cave Abra!"
"Hello, Echo," Astra's grandfather said, smiling gently as he drew near. "I've only heard a bit about you and your plight, but I am glad my granddaughter managed to find you. She practically demanded that we come to your aid immediately, and we were all too happy to oblige. Your ability to endure for so long under such harsh conditions is as admirable as it is tragic, and you and your kin are welcome to stay in our village until your home can be restored."
Echo blinked rapidly, seemingly lost for words as her expression shifted from uncertainty into embarrassment—and wait, was she...blushing? Ash in her face, grandpa could you not—before settling on gratitude and a sort of unexpected confusion.
[Greeting,] she said, then paused as everyone aside from Astra jerked back at her words. [...What wrong?] Echo asked, even more confused than before.
"Oh, right," Astra said, flushing. "I uh, never told them about how you talked, I think. They aren't used to it," she explained, Echo catching on immediately.
[Ah,] Echo said with a grimace. [Am...sorry. Talk short is...hard. Still sound bad.]
"No, no," Astra's grandfather assuaged, shaking his head. "I should be the one to apologize. I did not expect it, yes, but our reactions are not your fault. Do not be ashamed of your voice; now that I've heard it, I think it sounds rather lovely!"
"Oh by the stars," Astra quietly griped, gripping her hair as Echo turned red again. "My sleep-deprived rambling wasn't supposed to be a prophecy!"
[Okay,] Echo said, looking away in embarrassment. She gazed around the stage, taking in the grand wooden construct before looking up and peering at the dense canopy overhead—there wasn't really any decent view of the sky from here while that wall was still up. The Kadabra cast about for something else to say, looking increasingly anxious as the silence trickled on. She peered over at the other Elders, frowning. [Who them?]
They took this as their cue to introduce themselves, and soon Echo was bombarded with greetings and well-wishes from a few of the less decorated Elders, though the Charred and the Scarred merely gave her nods. The Matron and her grandfather's friend weren't here, Astra noted. While still ecstatic by her success, she was starting to get concerned with the growing look of befuddlement on Echo's face following each introduction.
"Is there something wrong, Echo?" Astra asked, tilting her head. The Kadabra looked at her, baffled.
[What is thing keep calling me?] she asked. ['Echo'? Why?]
There was a significant silence. All heads turned to Astra, who was rather poleaxed by the question.
"It's...your name?" she ventured, uncertainly. "Isn't it? 'Last Echo' in full?"
[What!?] Echo(?) blurted out, eyes wide. [No! What give idea? I—ah. Hm.]
She paused, frowning. [Clarity. Not understand long speech. Would not understand name. Approximation. Can see now. Made guess on idea.]
Oh. Right, Echo's name hadn't been 'Echo', that was just the feeling Astra had gotten when she had heard the collage of concepts and imagery that had been her actual name. But why had this only come up now? Astra hummed, thinking back to their previous conversations.
"I'm almost certain I've called you that before," she said. "Why didn't you correct me then?"
[Not hear it, or not know was using for me. Distracted?] The Kadabra shrugged. [Unsure. Useful imitation, but is not name.]
"We don't typically have human names either," Astra's grandfather interjected. "We simply use our mental signatures—something akin to the sound of our voice," he explained when he saw her confusion. "I gave Astra here the first human name in a very long time, and only seventeen days ago at that; though quite a few Ralts and Kirlia are following in her footsteps. Do you have a more accurate name we might call you by?"
The Kadabra—paused. Thought, for a moment.
[Think...need one thing before can say,] she slowly replied. [Where are younglings?]
"Right behind that wall," her grandfather replied, nodding to the barricade. "We thought we'd keep it up so you wouldn't be bombarded with everything, same as your children."
"It would be a simple matter to remove it," one of the Elders spoke up—one of the wood crafters, Astra thought. "We've been keeping the whole stage inside a quiet zone; that'll vanish once the barricade does. You prepared for some noise?"
"Please say yes," one of the Kirlia maintaining the barrier chimed in, sounding strained. "I'm nearly at my limit here."
"Oh shush, it's good practice!" another Elder shouted, glaring at him. The Kadabra watched the byplay in patient amusement, then turned back to the Woodcrafter.
[Am ready,] she said. [Show me.]
Astra walked up to E—to the Kadabra, smiling at her as the Woodcrafter turned to the Kirlia powering the wall. No words were exchanged, only a glowing pulse of reassurance and anticipation. The two looked to each other and nodded, a faint smile upon both their faces.
Together, they moved to the middle of the platform, and watched as the glow around the barricade flickered, brightened, and then—it all vanished.
A thundering roar met their ears, lights blinding them as the plaza in its full glory came rushing back into existence.
And what Astra saw could only be described as wonderfully giddy mayhem.
The plaza was swarming with Kirlia and Ralts, each and every one holding or playing with a bright, excited Abra. A few floated through the air, directed by their Kirlia's telekinesis in a mockery of flight, while some were simply being gently thrown into the air, only to be caught immediately afterward. Dozens were playing some kind of teleport-tag with a large gang of Ralts, each Abra flashing somewhere else just as they were about to be caught.
Great pots of soup lined the edges, from where dozens and dozens of new bowls were served fresh and hot to the last few groups that had left the caverns. Great displays of psychokinetic lights ballooned across the air as illusionists plied their craft to a brand new audience. Astra could even spot Grovyle giving a few of the Abra rides on his back, though where the rest of her team had gone off wasn't as immediately apparent.
But above them all, hanging in a cloudless night sky, the moon and stars shone brilliantly; the light of the bonfires not nearly bright enough to compete with the heavens' silvery glow.
Astra could barely contain herself at the sight, tears pooling in her eyes. She turned to the Kadabra, who continued to gaze ahead in awe and disbelief.
"They're safe now," she said, quietly. "We did it. You survived all this time, and now they can have their lives back. This can be your home, now. For as long as you want." She squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. "And even when you go back, you will never be lonely again."
[Oh,] the Kadabra said. She walked forward, coming to a rest at the edge of the arena. The crowd began to notice, and soon a huge roar swept through the clearing, over a thousand villagers cheering in unison at the sight of her.
[Oh,] she repeated, tail and whiskers twitching. She looked at all of her Abra, each single one now exuding more liveliness and joy than she'd likely have ever expected them to experience at all. [Is...all happy. All fed. Warm. Bright. Alive.]
[Long vigil...finally over,] she whispered, looking up at the stars. Tears ran freely down her face, sparkling in the light. [{👎︎♏︎◻︎⧫︎♒︎ 💣︎♏︎❍︎□︎❒︎⍓︎}. Wish could show. Found freedom. Found future.]
Astra looked on as she basked in the glow of the village—her hope. The fires and moonlight shining brilliantly on her chitin—very brilliantly, actually.
Wait.
Astra's eyes widened, and nearly the whole village fell into a stunned silence.
She was glowing.
...Oh.
[Finally found...something new,] she whispered.And then she was consumed by light.
She'd lost her tail, Astra distantly noticed as the brilliance receded. The new, almost Kirlia-height being stood on thickened legs, kneecaps newly covered by brown chitin. Her head looked skyward; sleeker, with cheekbones extended half as far as her ear-horns. Bushy whiskers now twice their previous length twitched minutely, and all her joints—all much thinner and resembling balls in sockets—twisted as she brought her arm up, her wrist now covered in the same brown chitin as her knee.
And gripped in her three-digit hand, shining brilliantly in the starlight, was a small silver spoon—and a word Astra had heard twice now settled to the top of her mind as context put it in its place.
The Alakazam tilted her head, staring at the dining implement.
Then, briefly, it began to glow.
A gentle waft of utter, ruinous power flooded the plaza, the reverberations of a vast, deep ocean revealing itself for but a moment, before it passed as so much a sea breeze.
[Huh,] she said, then paused.
"Oh," she said, her voice suddenly crystal clear, with none of the previous hesitance or foreign Psychic noise as before. "Now I remember. How funny."
She turned, levelling a joyous, cheeky grin at Astra and the other Elders, all of whom were struck utterly dumb by the sudden transformation.
"Hello, Astra," she said. "I don't quite think my previous name fits me anymore. It will take some time for me to discover myself in my native tongue—" she raised her spoon again, gleefully flexing a metaphysical ocean once again. "—but I am very much looking forward to it."
"However, you do deserve something to call me by, so..."
The Alakazam hummed in thought as the village watched on.
"A new name for one reborn anew," she mused, thoughtfully. "Anew...reversed, a harder sound—ah, I like the sound of that!
"Rena," the Alakazam said, nodding to herself. "You may call me Rena."
Rena smiled. "It is absolutely wonderful to meet you all."
Seems like the world is falling down.
Nothing to do but to pick yourself up and keep trying.
Lend a hand to your fellows. You can't save everyone, but you can save someone.
Talk to me on Discord! Update my TvTrope Page! I don't even drink Kofi! More of a hot chocolate guy. But usually just water.
Thanks as usual to my editors Fuzzy, Cat, Slain, and Irony.
In my original plan, this and the last two chapters were plotted as a single one. Hah.
I could have cut this one in half but like hell am I leaving us in the granite caves again.
You have no comprehension of how sad I am that 'Answer' doesn't fit as the title of this chapter number.
Next time, the dawn of a new day and one hefty debrief.
See you later, and tell me what you think!
- Location
- Academy City
- Pronouns
- They
I guess moving to a new village is, in a sense, a lot like trading.
- Location
- Sweden
- Pronouns
- She/Her
good chapter, if anyone deserves to evolve it's def her. what an ordeal to overcome.
Archeo Lumiere
The Prince's Archivist
- Location
- Lumiose City, Kalos
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
TLD and Hyphen in one day? It's a Pokémas Miracle!!! The final rescue of the Abra colony, and Rena's evolution both made my heart soar with joy, and Astra realizing that she's an Elder now filled me with that special sort of schadenfreude, where you know that the embarrassed person should be feeling happy too.
What is TLD???
Coshiua
An Autistic Kyogre~!
- Location
- The Ocean
The first thing that I thought of when I noticed that Rena's transformation had granted her a new spoon was the "Lemma see what you have? A knife!" video. Which is fitting in a way considering how much power Rena now has, and what she could do with it if she was so inclined.
After Astra leaves to resume her journey, I do hope that she'll receives updates from Rena about the Abra. Especially when/if the first Abra hatchling progresses to the next stage, if it doesn't happen before she leaves.
After Astra leaves to resume her journey, I do hope that she'll receives updates from Rena about the Abra. Especially when/if the first Abra hatchling progresses to the next stage, if it doesn't happen before she leaves.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
@Dermonster
I'm legitimately crying, right now. Words can't express how wonderful it is to see a ray of hope like this pierce through the gloom.
I'm legitimately crying, right now. Words can't express how wonderful it is to see a ray of hope like this pierce through the gloom.
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Oh, and if anyone is curious, I listened to two songs during a certain section.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJdOtO10sWs
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFRY6fzEQqw
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJdOtO10sWs
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFRY6fzEQqw
I'm wondering if the spoon thing would boost the Kirlia's power/precision too, or if that's unique to the Abra line. I vaguely recall that some Pokemon lore had spoons somehow helping human psychics too, so it could make sense, but maybe it'd come at a cost of the Ralts line's Fairy power, or something asking those lines? Like concentrating on spoons lessens the other stuff they could be concentrating on?
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CV12Hornet
Riter.
- Location
- Tacoma, Washington
Absolutely peak. Nothing more needs to be said. What a fucking chapter.
DevilsAdvocate
Always follow the golden rule.
I really hope the massively increased number of caretakers, in the forms of Kirlia and Ralts (in a older sibling taking care of a younger one way), will help more of them to evolve soon from the increased mental stimulation, especially with how they are no longer Poisoned.
There are certainly going to be some logistical problems. The village has plenty of food, but a 300+ (or 250 something) sudden influx of mouths to feed is going to strain their current food supply. They will probably need to expand the area they hunt in, or increase farming, and most likely both.
Fortunately, the Abra have demonstrated an increadible advantage over the ralts line with their teleportation. So the previous ideas of Ralts hunters being teleported to bountiful, but very distant and hard to get to, hunting/fishing spots and back with the help of Abra is a possibility.
Should be relatively safe, so long as the places are dangerous because of how far away they are and the dangers in between. Rather than them being dangerous from stuff there. The Kirlia hunting will be able to keep an eye on the Abra, and tell them to telleport them back "Home" as soon as danger is suspected. Essentially what they likely already do, if they know how to teleport, but with a teleporting savant allowing them to get home without the exhausting and dangerous teleport chain that they would normally need to use.
Rena just by herself will be a massive help. Possibly by helping them find various "Distant but safe and with lots of stuff to gather/fish/hunt" places in the first place. In addition of helping teach the Kirlia how to best care for the Abra.
If she can learn Miracle Eye, that would allow her to act as a theoretical Dark Type detector. Helping her scout an area for otherwise undetectable dangers. Really helpful for trying to find new hunting spots.
Or she can just be a psychic powerhouse. There is probably a lot of generic, building/construction/farming stuff that she can help with. Especially with the Abra influx. They will need places to stay within the village after all.
Maybe even show Rena the whole barrier thing. Maybe she can't do anything, or maybe an Alakazams mind is better suited for understanding it? Won't know unless they try.
Also, hope they start building a small population of Kadabra, and then mass evolve them when they finally return to their ancestral home.
There are certainly going to be some logistical problems. The village has plenty of food, but a 300+ (or 250 something) sudden influx of mouths to feed is going to strain their current food supply. They will probably need to expand the area they hunt in, or increase farming, and most likely both.
Fortunately, the Abra have demonstrated an increadible advantage over the ralts line with their teleportation. So the previous ideas of Ralts hunters being teleported to bountiful, but very distant and hard to get to, hunting/fishing spots and back with the help of Abra is a possibility.
Should be relatively safe, so long as the places are dangerous because of how far away they are and the dangers in between. Rather than them being dangerous from stuff there. The Kirlia hunting will be able to keep an eye on the Abra, and tell them to telleport them back "Home" as soon as danger is suspected. Essentially what they likely already do, if they know how to teleport, but with a teleporting savant allowing them to get home without the exhausting and dangerous teleport chain that they would normally need to use.
Rena just by herself will be a massive help. Possibly by helping them find various "Distant but safe and with lots of stuff to gather/fish/hunt" places in the first place. In addition of helping teach the Kirlia how to best care for the Abra.
If she can learn Miracle Eye, that would allow her to act as a theoretical Dark Type detector. Helping her scout an area for otherwise undetectable dangers. Really helpful for trying to find new hunting spots.
Or she can just be a psychic powerhouse. There is probably a lot of generic, building/construction/farming stuff that she can help with. Especially with the Abra influx. They will need places to stay within the village after all.
Maybe even show Rena the whole barrier thing. Maybe she can't do anything, or maybe an Alakazams mind is better suited for understanding it? Won't know unless they try.
Also, hope they start building a small population of Kadabra, and then mass evolve them when they finally return to their ancestral home.
- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Also absolutely shipping Grandma with Grandpa, because I like the sound of that.
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
She's still probably somewhat handicapped compared to an Alakazam with both spoons, but having one is likely so vast an improvement she won't notice without someone to compare it to.
Enthusiast#117
This is not the Profile you are looking for
- Location
- United States
l've always thought it would make sense if trading evolutions are triggered in the wild by leaving your family home behind to strike out on your own and build something new.
As a sort of transition to final adulthood, the parallels to moving out of your parent's house seem applicable.
For a pokemon raised from the egg - or at least from an early age - by their first trainer, being traded sounds like it makes sense as an equivalent.
For Rena, she left the caves of her ancestors behind, and now can build something new with the Kirlia village.
*Look at first song*
I am happy to meet another Slay the Princess enjoyer.
It has been discussed earlier in the thread, but the Ralt's line equivalent to the spoon is their horn.
Right, but as it was mentioned that multiple spoons help the Kadabra focus more power, maybe picking up a silver spoon would help Astra focus her power in a different way? Maybe boost her teleportation?
Grandpa got that old person rizz.
Remember, the Fairy type doesn't exist in this story. Astra and her village are pure Psychic.
Remember, the Fairy type doesn't exist in this story. Astra and her village are pure Psychic.
- Location
- USA
I just thought about it, but a Fairy/Psychic Astra would probably feel about the same way about Aron as Psychic Astra feels about Poochyena, huh?
CV12Hornet
Riter.
- Location
- Tacoma, Washington
Well, the Ralts and Abra lines do share the same egg group…
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
The "please stop asking things I've already told you" energy of this scene is giving me shades of this:
(I'd say Astra should just pass out a Frequently Asked Questions sheet, but of course, she's the only Kirlia here who can read.
)Astra: I'm not old! I'm not olllllld!!!
...huh. I thought this was Echo herself for a moment, then thought it was related to Astra's violin/emotion-based music playing, but... hmm. Perhaps not...?
And just like that, all stage fright and anxiety instantly vanished. In the face of suddenly having a solution to a problem that has plagued her for 40 years, that's a fair reaction, but the switch was still amusing.
The stupid has entered Astra's head. It must be extracted. Operation psychic-assisted brain surgery is a-go. 🥄
Oh, there's little Jitterjaws. Was wondering what would happen to her. I'm sure she'll enjoy having access to basic utilities and better food variety as much as she will not enjoy suddenly being surrounded by thousands of other people, at all times. ^^;
Turns out that much like most people don't like being called old, they also don't tend to like being called heavy. Giant steel weight hanging off the back of one's head notwithstanding.
Yesssss, give us the grandpa/grandma romance. Do it.
Astra is lucky she doesn't seem to experience that special kind of embarrassment that comes from realizing that you've been calling someone the wrong name since you met them. Some of us aren't so lucky, I'm sure.
Heh, didn't people theorize about this before? Well hypothesized on their part, apparently. She got a new spoon! And ungarbled psychic transmissions! And enough height to look grandpa in the eye
Anyways, what a chapter! A village saved, a different village bolstered, and "second contact" so to speak. If Astra's village ever is discovered before Astra reaches her goal, the entire second species now living there should certainly at least help their case. I suppose next is Astra actually taking some time to relax while the village acclimates to its new inhabitants, followed by returning to Dewford for... discussions. Thrilled to see this chugging along so nicely. 🚂
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