it is the one voice now, without its echo, that pervades her mind. she is silent after its answer, still floating inches above the ground. poipole tugs at her hair as though to turn her, to join it in its rolling in the air. but she is bound, held taut, and the realization that she is being restrained makes the hair on the back of her neck rise.

doors snap closed and memories try their locks.

"you are the last contingency, but the living and breathing are not infallible. you are no machine and neither am i. you may be pokemon, but you are human too, and with it comes hubris. selfishness. desire." 

she looks softly upon the being. "his pride will be his undoing. do not let it become yours."

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

oh, how desperately she desires to test their connection, to know how delicate the extraction must be (if possible, if even possible). but sharing in fernando's strength is a safety in itself, something that she would dare not remove from it now. 

poipole makes a popping sound with its mouth and anya feels the weight of gravity come back around her. her feet touch the ground and she holds a hand out against her bike to steady herself. 

"and when you tire of purpose, when you seek to ask questions instead of searching for answers, know that i will be here to embrace you with open arms, my darling."

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

poipole attempts to wriggle, but its strength is feeble, nothing compared to that which holds it. anya looks upward, in awe, at the nonchalant display of power, while poipole spits and hisses and thrums with its alien anger. 

she raises a hand to her heart and there is a sadness in her cold, blue eyes. 

"the creator calls me anya. the people call me molly. but my dear, my son, my love, i am your rose."

rosalie monet, she thinks and with it are the echoes of memories long since shunted away. 'daddy's little rose.' soft, tender hands and ashen eyes a millennia older than her youth, smothered by wrongs and evils that should plague no one. the desert is hot on her tongue and she looks away.

"i will be here, always, when you need me."

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

this will be the truest thing she will ever say. this is the closest to happiness she will ever be. she has done the undoable, the unthinkable, the unknowable - folded lives over lives and manipulated creation. and here it is before her with thoughts and feelings and flesh and bone and heart, and it is so achingly beautiful. 

she will die for this creature - that must she knows. she will ache for it in lonely hours, though she does not know it, though she may never know it. 

she will love as only she knows how to love - painfully, cruelly, emptily.

"you have my heart, darling. know that if you ever have nowhere else to turn, i will be here."

FERNANDO SILPH

☉