There used to be another town, a few years back. Not terribly far from here. Skyler had stood atop this very ship back then, and watched as the ocean swallowed it whole.

"Merlino and Temp, huh?"

It's poetic irony that finds her ready to defend again, and in possession of the creature which had caused it.

"We need to buy them some time," she agrees, casting a look towards the town. Conflict was already starting to spill outwards and Dewford stood in the warpath. 

Her finger hooks around one of Angelo's belt loops, eyes already darkened with the promise of violence, and brings him down for a salt-stained kiss.

As he takes to the skies, she's left with the memory of warmth and the weight of what is left unsaid. 

The Sotally Tober is a hulking behemoth of a warship, and unfortunately not fast enough to intercept the other two. Yet. Judging the distance, the captain barks orders to the rest of the crew, steps over the railing and disappears into the open maw of Dhelmise's Phantom Force.

While Angelo hovers above, Skyler emerges out on the ocean, dripping saltwater. Her skin flickers red, and clouds swirl ominously above, eating up sunlight through bruised purple.

The hint of ozone is their only warning before a powerful Thunder comes crashing down between the two groups. 

"Shouldn't you two be back in Sootopolis like good lil' Rockets?" Obedient, is what she doesn't say. Spineless. Grovelling.

She bares her teeth, and it is as much a call to war as the leviathan creeping closer to the surface.

angelo vestri , Cillian Quinn , Tempest Quinn

☉

Yes, she knows who he is. And she doesn't give a Rattata's ass about it.

Laughter cuts through the conversation, a harsh and discordant thing that bares its teeth with each ragged breath. Unlike the other Avatar, Skyler makes no effort to conceal her aggression. "Another empty promise? You should know better."

That's the thing in Rocket, isn't it? No matter how hard you climb, how far you reach, Skyler thinks, you'll always be beneath someone. 

And she'd experienced first-hand the limited scope of Cillian Quinn 's influence, hadn't she? Angelo had borne the brunt of it and nearly died in the process. And their contract had been made void by the Underboss' failure.

"I make a point not to negotiate with glorified grunts, Merlino."

Rain falls in earnest, pattering across the ocean surface like it wants back home. Lugia is nightmare made manifest through the malice of humankind, a guardian corrupted, her wide dominion stretched thin across many a sphere of influence.

Ebony wings stretch across the rapidly darkening sky, and Skyler's pulse rises in response to the Pressure, thundering against the hollow of her throat. 

A formidable opponent. Were they anywhere else but the ocean, Skyler would've at least made an attempt at caution - but here? Her patron's dominion?

(When the ocean rises to meet the legendary, it isn't as one of her charges.)

Skyler steps back into a black hole (Phantom Force) and out of sight, and her reappearance is preceded by the grating sound of Dhelmise's rusted chains - right atop Lugia's back. 

"Hi."

Skyler grins. The ocean swells, markings of infernal red alighting just under the surface. 

(It's as her enemy.)

angelo vestri , Cillian Quinn , Tempest Quinn

☉

Would people just fucking stop stabbing her?!

Steel slices into her abdomen, cold edges unfurling into a shock of white-hot pain bursting out of her throat in a swallowed scream. No matter how many times you've prepared yourself, nothing can stop the instant recoil, the abject refusal in too-wide eyes.

Skyler forces air down her throat, in out in out that's it one breath at a time, refocusing with a pained grunt. She isn't aware of grabbing the knife's handle - and Cillian Quinn 's hand with it. 

The taste of copper lingers at the back of her throat, then floods into her mouth. At the edges of her vision, the world turns darker. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. She knows these symptoms.

Lugia rolls in the air and Skyler holds onto Gavin like a lifeline. The knife buries itself deeper with the movement, and something dribbles down the corner of her mouth. 

Dhelmise fares better than its trainer, albeit only just so. The storm wrecks havoc on the ghost, seaweed tendrils withering away with unholy shrieks. But it wraps its chain around Lugia's serpentine-like body with the last of its strength, and a darkened shadow mingles with Lugia's and her Avatar's own.

Curse of the Drowned: tendrils of ghostly kelp strike nearby opponents' souls, temporarily turning them weak to water-type moves and disabling healing.

Skyler pulls Gavin towards her, and tries not to scream at the resulting agony crashing through her nerve endings. Her heartbeat echoes through her ears like distant wardrums. Pulling away far too quickly. And yet, any attempt to move away would reveal the STICKY GLOB gluing Skyler's and Gavin's hands together. 

"D'you still dislike the ocean?" Her smile is a bloody thing, and its viciousness fits Skyler all too well.

There's something nearly mischievous about the captain as she kicks away from Lugia and pulls Gavin down with her.

Towards the waves below.

angelo vestri , Cillian Quinn , Tempest Quinn

☉

Dhelmise is already unconscious when it hits the water, and Skyler isn't far behind. Darkness eats at the edges of her vision just as she's welcomed into the ocean's ever hungry embrace.

But at least she's taking Cillian Quinn down with her. The Sicky Glue is slow to dissolve, stretching further with Gavin's panicked efforts and ripping the knife from Skyler's torso in the process. She spasms, agony burning through her nerves endings as salt water floods into her wound and around necrotic flesh.

The knife disappears into the darkness below, another spoil for the uncaring depths.

The Glue dissolves, and Skyler reaches out to grab the Underboss' wrist, pretenaturally calm in contrast. The captain doesn't need to look down to see the wisp of poison floating out of her wound, the unnatural speed of sick tissue growing healthy or the sting of flesh knitting itself back together. The ocean is in her lungs, in her veins, in her soul.

Arceus' tits, that hurt like a motherfucker.

And it rises to meet the serpentine shape of a corrupted guardian as soon as she hits the water.

Ignoring the storm above the surface, Kyogre's sharp teeth seek the soft flesh of Lugia's neck. Infernal hues carve themselves across the leviathan's body as the ocean is brought into a violent frenzy by dozens of colossal, high-pitched beams.

The Origin Pulse rips through the swirling riptides as if they don't exist, a primordial force seeking to eject an impostor from its dominion.

Sinking deeper, Skyler is unaware of Tempest Quinn 's attempt to attack her in his husband's behalf, courtesy of angelo vestri . She's wholly unaware of the vision Angelo is showing Temp, or how she's about to make it worse.

And even if she knew, she probably would've done it regardless.

Her own markings flicker into existence, a mirror of Kyogre's. And from the abyss below comes a swirling vortex that catches both Skyler and Gavin in its grasp. Her grip on Gavin's flesh tightens, and they're sucked into the whirlpool's currents.

The ocean's surface rises impossibly far as the dark eats them up.

angelo vestri , Cillian Quinn , Tempest Quinn

☉