Time's endless march is punctuated by the drone of groggy rememberence. So little is made out in the flash bangs of attacks, as the queen's attention had sewn itself toward the onlookers, whose safety remained unsecured.

Only after the sun had set was relief bought and spent.

With one hand cradling her head, her body stirred back awake, rigid limbs oiled to life.

"Ollie?"

Discarded habits urged her lips to move one last time, calling out a name that once rung through her entire essence. One that was synonymous to her own reason for survival.

Realization then shocked her back. What had gotten over her? She retreated with a flurry of blinks, retracting not only her intertwined limbs, but her heart. Her memories.

"Is everyone alright?"

Her voice was a sputter of ash. All of her strength had been burnt away.

Wide oval eyes flitted from one familiar face to another, worry and relief flooding her in rushing waves, one after another.

Katherine Fairburne, Greyson Connors, Gunner Graves, paxton concordas, ollie morales, Melody Miro - they'd all made, as safe as she was.

These feelings were similarly spurred on by those more unfamiliar to her, like Callan Young and Michael Navidson, and those who shouldn't left her disgusted, like THEO BECKETT.

Her gaze rested on them a beat longer than it should have.

"We should go."

To who she was speaking to, there was no answer.

Only one thing was for certain: things were no longer the same as they once were.

The bond Shalin had shared with her Beedrill for over twenty years was unfathomably strong. So strong, in fact, that her aging body could feel the waves of disturbed air from where she was at. The first of her senses to go was her hearing; she had long since discarded her earplugs for not having needed them since she resigned to no longer riding her Pokémon. The abuses she had put her body through from riding what was not meant to be ridden had caught up to her, and the vibration that reached her from the Mega Beedrill's wings going all out was the last straw that broke the girl's back.

With her help, she had saved Galar, but at what cost? She would remain handicapped for the rest of her days there, unable to do what she loved most. Second went her vision as the world around her started to fade to white. All should could feel was the scratching of her Yanmega's feet. By the time her vision returned to her, she woke up to that same feeling. Flit aroused her, rain dripping from his wings. "Where am I..." she moaned, very quickly realizing her back pain was no more. As her blurred vision slowly returned to focus, a wide look of concern painted her face. "Alexei Ivanov , WHERE ARE YOU?!"

The Yanmega's wings were full of holes.

"Flit, what happened to you?!" she cried, standing as quickly as she could. There was no evidence of what caused the wounds, but they were unequivocally present. Had the whole thing been real? Taking her quiver off her shoulder, Shalin checked the inside of it, finding a single ICE SHARD arrowhead buried among her AVIAN ARROWS. It was an everlasting memory of the events of the alternate Galarian timeline she had been thrust into.

Shalin had learned many valuable lessons from her trip to Galar. First, she had heard of the reports of devastation from the Dawn of the Darkest Day. She breathed a sigh of relief that the worst the Prism Pokémon caused her was Flit's wing injuries, though they were serious. It beat watching her entire Pokémon team perish before her eyes. Necrozma was an enemy Shalin would no doubt have to face at a later date, and it was clearly holding back. As deadly as the prospect was, it was her sworn duty as a Ranger -- no, a League representative -- to put her life on the line to protect many others.

Second, her SYGNA SUIT's ability to withstand extreme motion very much had limits. The pinnacle of their bond let Shalin perform some truly superhuman acrobatic feats. Despite the sensory overload that came with it, the adrenaline rush that came with holding onto her Flygon's wing, or that of her Yanmega, Beedrill, or any other Pokémon that could madly vibrate in place in any way, just never got old. The faster the vibration, the greater her high became.

In the parallel history that was the Galar she had left, Shalin ran into the limit of her suit. Even the strongest bond possible, evidenced by her suit, wouldn't let her fully overcome the sheer power and speed of Flygon wings beating so fast their wingtips went supersonic. While it was an incredibly powerful weapon, every time she used it would eat into the functional lifespan of the suit -- and ultimately, her own. As strong as the allure of the unimaginable adrenaline rush from riding the fastest buzzing any Pokémon had to offer, it came with a steep price, and not one she was willing to pay simply to practice or for rote entertainment.

She had to use the power only when it was truly necessary.

A glint of a fragment of the shattered RUSTED SWORD caught her eye. Unable to reserve her curiosity, she scooped up a piece of it before withdrawing her injured Yanmega. Sending out her Flygon and mounting up -- most importantly, not on the wing this time -- she rode toward Petalburg Woods, the rain pounding against the red eye shields of her suit. It was rare she took naps, but today, it was perfectly warranted.

LONG-TERM INJURY

Shalin's YANMEGA has suffered a strong wing injury. Unbeknownst to her, these wounds are the same ones it suffered during the Armageddon at Postwick, transcending space and time. While these will heal with time and care, the recovery will be a long and slow process. The YANMEGA will suffer the below injuries as a result of the events of Goodbye, Galar:

• The YANMEGA can not fly.
• The YANMEGA can not use any moves that involve use of its wings.
• Physical attacks used against the YANMEGA have a greatly increased chance of landing a critical hit.

This injury can be removed after using the YANMEGA in at least five posts in each of three threads, at most one of which can be a Duo Wild or Solo Wild. This injury can also be removed no earlier than OCTOBER 8, 2023.