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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]There he was! Whereas Isaac had wandered out into the light, almost reading Mt. Pyre's peak before better judgment sent him back, Ashley had descended further into the abyss. Fog and shadow swirled around him, to the point where even as he stood motionless on the battlefield, he was practically invisible.[break][break]

Isaac had merely adopted the darkness. Ash had been born in it, molded by it. And now he wore it like a second skin.[break][break]

But Isaac didn't notice at first. He was just overjoyed to see that Ash was . . . okay, no, okay was a huge stretch. But he was alive and he wasn't under attack and he was as safe as anyone could be in this mess of a war. "There you are," Isaac said, voice low to avoid jeopardizing his safe position. "I was so worri-"[break][break]

The voice he'd heard in return didn't have a shred of warmth or friendliness to it. It felt like an icicle right to Isaac's heart. In the darkness, he couldn't see how Ash's eyes wandered away from his. Maybe it was him taking his brother in arms at face value. Maybe it was his own guilty heart projecting. But as far as he could tell, Ash was staring right through his soul.[break][break]

Right. He deserved this, didn't he? They'd been separated in the chaos, and now Ash was paying the price. "Ash . . ." Isaac's voice trailed off. What had happened to them was horrible. He knew because he, too, felt horrible. Until Anna screwed his head back on, he was basically blinded by his own hatred and anguish. Even now, it lurked beneath the surface, threatening to emerge if a League official so much as looked at him funny.[break][break]

Ash didn't get that luxury, did he? He was alone. He was stewing in it, just as he stewed in the darkness.[break][break]

"Ash, I'm sorry. I tried to turn around. I really did. But Knuckles, she just kept running, and with that sniper if we even tried to stop I'd-" Was it an explanation? Or just an excuse? Who was Isaac apologizing for here? Ugh. He shook the ramble before it started. "What happened happened. But I'm here now. And I'm not gonna let what happened back there . . . any of it . . . happen again.[break][break]

"I promise."

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]"So what if I did?" Isaac said. "That doesn't mean I had to . . . that we should . . . that . . ."[break][break]

He didn't even know what he was trying to say. But Ash? He knew exactly what he meant.[break][break]

Isaac's jaw dropped. His eyes wavered in horror. The air left his body like he had been hit in the gut with a sledgehammer. "Ash . . ." he said, trying to understand where the hell any of this was coming from. Wasn't this the same man who said Pokemon were irreplaceable? That they should go out of their way to spend more time with the ones they loved?[break][break]

"How can you even say that?" he asked, the roaring winds of Mt. Pyre threatening to overwhelm his words entirely. "After what they did for us. After what they risked for us. After what they lost for us. They gave us everything. Everything! And you're going to blame them?"[break][break]

Bullet. How could anyone call the Starly weak? It was a fundamentally unfair fight. The sniper's rounds were almost as big as he was. If it died intact, it would have been a miracle. "We were fighting something we couldn't even see, something that wouldn't, that couldn't, pull its punches. We had no way of knowing. No way of preparing. And yet they were still so brave in the face of it all."[break][break]

Pluto. There were explosions, and then there were Explosions. When a move already took all of a Pokemon's energy to use, demanding more out of it threatened to destroy its very body. Ash had asked this of Pluto. And despite it spelling its end, Pluto obliged. paxton concordas had killed Bullet. But, as much as it hurt Isaac to accept, Ash had killed Pluto. "They were brave. They were loyal, until the very end. They did what we asked."[break][break]

And then it occurred to Isaac that Ash hadn't just meant his own Pokemon.[break][break]

Isaac fingers dug into the cut on his palm, a grip so hard that it threatened to tear his hand right open. His pupils narrowed as he saw his friend for what felt like the first time. Unyielding rage bubbled up from the pit of his gut, bile searing his insides. He thought back to what Amor Rose had told him about death. It was inevitable. Either it cut you down as you so desperately fled, or you met its eye and faced it as an equal.[break][break]

Kiryu had picked the latter. Even as a strange, disastrous agony overtook her body, she forced herself to stand. She practically set the mountain ablaze with her final dying roar. There was still a small, satisfied smile on her face, even as her movements slowed and her breathing stilled. Isaac still wanted to believe that it wasn't too late. He knew there just had to be a way to save her. But if he was wrong, at least he knew she had faced her final moments with strength.[break][break]

"How dare you," Isaac said. His voice wavered, as if it couldn't choose between a sob, a scream, and a whisper. "If anyone was the weak one here, it was me. Maybe if I wasn't, she wouldn't have needed to risk herself at all. Or maybe it could've been me instead. Like it was supposed to be."[break][break]

"But I'm still here, damnit! And that means I'm not leaving. Not without you."

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]That Isaac could say so much in defense of their Pokemon, and all Ashley could do was dismiss it all for some mere tautology . . . maybe that should've been the first sign that something was horribly wrong here. But if two things pissed Isaac off, it was dismissing what he had to say and treating the people he loved like shit.[break][break]

"The hell's gotten into you?" Isaac asked. He couldn't believe it was Ash of all people saying this. He was shocked by how Wrong it was. He was incensed by the betrayal. He couldn't tell if he wanted to grab Ash by the hand and pull him out of this war, or if he wanted to deck him right in the face for it.[break][break]

Weak this. Weak that. Their Pokemon were weak. Isaac was weak. Weak weak weak. At this point it didn't even sound like a word anymore. "You sure about that?" Isaac asked. "Cause for someone that's not gonna repeat himself again, you're sure doing that a lot. Weak. Leave. What, you forget how to say any other words or something?"[break][break]

They say chimpanzees smiled when they were afraid. Was that why Isaac was falling back on quips? Or was he hoping to jar his friend out of it, pointing out how ridiculous he was being right now? Or maybe, just maybe, he was indulging in catharsis. He couldn't even tell. Whenever he tried to examine himself, only static remained. He couldn't tell if in this moment he worried about Ash or hated him.[break][break]

"Maybe I'm weak. But at least I'm still strong enough to put one foot in front of the other. That's more than I could say for you right now." How long had Ash been standing there? It was almost as if he had been rooted to the ground. Would he be able to step away under his own power?[break][break]

Or was he going to have to be pushed?[break][break]

"I'm not going anywhere." Conviction hardened in Isaac's voice. As much as he was being a colossal asshole right now, Ash was his friend. Isaac refused to forget the promises that they had made to each other on the eve before the war. "So if you think you're such a tough guy, tell me; what're you gonna do about it if I don't?"

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]What-[break][break]

By the time Isaac processed that Ash was rushing at him, it was too late to dodge out of the way. The most he could do was desperately throw up a hand to block Ash's-[break][break]

Burned, ruined arm.[break][break]

The guard Isaac raised wasn't remotely close enough to block the punch. It was almost as if he pulled it short to the point of uselessness. Instead, Ash's fist connected clean with his face. He tried to hold his stance firm, the way Zev Harcourt had taught him, but it wasn't enough. The shift in his body weight caused his systematically shorn ankle to buckle, and Isaac fell into the dead grass.[break][break]

"What the fuck, man?"

Sanford flew in front of him, letting out an ominous howl. Its Growth swelled it up to an intimidating size, but such a fearsome presence barely lasted. In a flash of light, it faded, as if banished before it could even consider making good on its threat.[break][break]

Before the light could even disappear, Isaac shot forward like a bullet. It was a simple double leg takedown, one of the most basic things he could do from his position. Ash had the size and strength advantage, but that didn't mean he'd know what to do if taken off his base. Almost nobody did if they weren't prepared.[break][break]

In that way, grappling and war had a lot in common. You were confident. You were in control. And then the world was snatched away from you, and you couldn't feel your breath, and parts of you hurt that you didn't even know could hurt. All you could do was wonder what happened, and when it happened, and how it happened, and why it happened. Yet every moment you spend on your fear and your confusion and your pain was another piece of control you ceded to someone that was out to get you.[break][break]

If he was successful, he'd try to float over the mount and get Ashley into a side headlock. Control was the name of the game here, because the alternative was unthinkable. "Do you even hear yourself right now? Do you even know what you just said? Come on, man. This isn't you. None of this is!"[break][break]

The alternative was unthinkable.

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]With how close their heads were, Ashley's scream tore through Isaac's ears with enough force to shake his body to the core. Isaac flinched, his grip on Ash's neck almost slipping. He forced himself to hold on. He forced himself to hang in there. He could feel it. This was working. He was reaching him. He just had to hang on. He just had to keep trying.[break][break]

"No." Where Ashley's voice was loud and panicked, Isaac's was firm and unyielding. "I'm not shutting my mouth. I'm not going away. And I'm not leaving you behind, even if you're being a little asshole right now. We're partners, you hear me? And the day I turn my back on you is the day I d-"[break][break]

Isaac's world went white. And then it went black.[break][break]

The entire right side of his face had erupted into pain. It was so intense that his arm seized around Ashley's neck, enough to leave bruises and squeeze what little air he had right out of his throat. Now he was the only screaming in Ashley's ear. It was a horrid sound, thick with agony and wavering with pain, loud enough to shake the trees and ripple the fog before trailing off into mere echoes.[break][break]

Half of Isaac's vision returned to him as he hit the ground. His hand fumbled across his face, desperate to find where the other half had gone. A gash in his skull mask, stretching from cheek to forehead, answered that all too clearly. Nausea built in his gut as he ran his finger across the gash. Blood. Fresh blood.[break][break]

A part of him wanted to keep tracing along the gash. Yet the idea of feeling what had happened firsthand . . .[break][break]

He vomited into the bloodstained grass.[break][break]

How did he even get here, anyway? As he forced his vision away from his finger, he noticed that someone else had come to put Ash down for him. It was none other than Bongo, who had forced himself to new heights of power just to tear Ash away from him. A bloodied switchblade laid in the grass next to him, and he didn't even seem to emote, didn't even seem to react, as Bongo left his face pressed into the ground. It was as if he was little more than a lifeless ragdoll.[break][break]

Isaac tried to open his mouth to say something, but just moving his face caused the pain to erupt again, fresh and new. Briefly, Isaac found himself thankful that he had brought his mask with him. Has Ashley not needed to push through that first layer to make his strike . . .[break][break]

He turned to the Pokeball on the ground next to him. Sanford's. Of course. It was always Sanford, wasn't it? Against all odds, the ill-tempered Dhelmise had become the most reliable member of his team. For one last time, Isaac needed to count on it again. He pressed the release button on the Pokeball, a bloodstained anchor to match a bloodstained young man.[break][break]

"San . . . eye . . . please . . ." Isaac said, barely able to stagger the words out through the excruciating pain. To its credit, the Dhelmise responded instantly, twirling a tendril of seaweed to call forth the world's tiniest Whirlpool. Isaac reached for it, but to no avail. Instead, he ineffectually pawed at the space in front of him. He tried again, but ended up sticking his hand clean through the whirlpool instead. This was going to take some adjustment.[break][break]

Even for a spiteful spirit this was getting hard to watch. Sanford gave up, just guiding the whirlpool right into Isaac's palm. He crushed it in his hand, then splashed the resulting water onto his face. Once more, agony shot through his body, but it was better than infection.[break][break]

As he cleaned himself, Sanford's blooms once more began their Growth. However, rather than intimidate, this time their purpose was to protect. Isaac reached for a particularly thick clump of algae, wadding it into a little ball and sliding it over his eyehole. He then plucked a long ribbon of algae from beneath the Dhelmise, tying it around his head to keep the algae in place. Cleaning? Check. Pressure? Check. Pain relief? Oh, so, so not check.[break][break]

Isaac tried his hardest to force himself to stand. He could barely get himself propped up on a single arm. But progress was progress, right?

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]Pain and fury tore at Isaac's body like a whirlwind. Betrayal left his blood running cold through his veins. He wanted nothing more than to scream at Ashley, tell him to go fuck himself and stagger out of here the second he could actually stand. How dare he say what he said. How dare he do what he did. How dare he scar him for life twice in the span of five minutes, not just on his face but also on his heart.[break][break]

And then Ash started to speak.[break][break]

All of this talk of weakness was just a security blanket, tied around Ash until it choked his circulation and smothered his face. All of the demands to leave were just the desperate lashes of a broken man, afraid to face the one that he felt he had failed. He was parroting the only thing he knew, the only source of stability in his life, in a desperate attempt to cope with what he had done, what he had lost, how he had failed. And when he was pushed on it, when those protections started to crack, he didn't know how to respond.[break][break]

So instead, he broke.[break][break]

He lunged for the switchblade again. Isaac had the sinking suspicion that, this time, it wasn't meant for him. "No-!" Isaac shouted, but the pain shot up his face and forced him to stagger away. He was helpless here. He was useless here. He'd only be able to watch through a single, tear-stained eye.[break][break]

Bongo wasn't. Bongo refused to let it end like this. He rushed for Ash, grabbing an arm that felt nothing and bending it back until it felt everything. There was a crack. There was a scream. And then there was only silence. Ash was little more than a pitiful, crumpled mass on the ground, choking back tears and begging Isaac to stay.[break][break]

Isaac forced himself to his feet. He staggered over towards Ash. And then he sat by his side, softly running a hand through his hair. "I'm not going anywhere," he said, voice as faint and fragile as a pane of cracked glass. "Ever. I promise."[break][break]

Truth be told, Isaac had no idea how to feel. Ash had hurt him in ways he didn't even think were possible. But all of that hurt was just some desperate, fucked-up attempt at protecting him. He wasn't in his right mind. How could he be? War had torn open every old scar etched upon his brain.[break][break]

But it started before all of this, didn't it? It simply ruptured the wounds that had been caused when Rocket's talons sank back into him. Everything, from what it had asked of him to the mentality it tried to ingrain into him, had been a poison that lead up to this very moment.[break][break]

He wanted to say more. He had to. But that could all wait. Right now, he just needed Ash to know that he was here.

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