[attr="class","euterpetop"]

[attr="class","euterpeline"]

[attr="class","euterpeicon"][attr="class","ion-leaf"]

[attr="class","euterpepost"]

Sometimes, it felt like the air could cut straight through her.[break][break]

The champion stood, arms folded, as the scene before her began behind its filtered screen; transparent and clouded glass, where observers could stand separated from those they loved.[break][break]

The surgery had begun.[break][break]

Small and white; they had extended the fairy's wings outward, letting the pokemon rest atop a emotionless, cold slate. She squinted to pierce the distance, unable to fill the gnawing hole in her gut as Tink's procedure began.[break][break]

Her nails sunk, seeking to burrow into her own flesh with twisting urgency.[break][break]

She had made it to Evergrande in time.[break][break]

Her other pokemon rested in their capsules, fully healed. They had not required extensive treatment to overcome their injuries.[break][break]

On a wall-mounted television, footage of the war played like static. The sight of a champion atop a legendary bleeding red like a stain to the mind, marring the land and her own standing as they beheld the truth.[break][break]

Bailey Cooper had cemented herself, now.[break][break]

Officials gave her a wide berth. Maybe they had seen the raw force, or maybe they had seen how her gaze continued to condense beneath a mountain of pressure that threatened to crystallize.[break][break]

Or, threatened to explode.[break][break]

Marks flared. While they ran black, there were moments where the heat would radiate, and she missed her cape of flames and desired their warmth.[break][break]

In the end, they only aggravated her shallow wounds... and reopened deeper ones, which bled in her silence.

[attr="class","euterpeline"]

[attr="class","euterpetag"]Noelle Lane

[attr="class","euterpenotes"]

. . .