[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]Across ashen grey, vibrant green, and even crystal blue, Suicune ran without a single break in its stride. Despite its intense speeds and Isaac's haphazard seat, he was at no risk of falling off. In fact, he'd barely even been jostled. Were it not for the forest blurring at his sides and the northern winds tousling his hair, he'd swear he hadn't moved an inch.[break][break]

Panic welled in Isaac's gut as he was rolled into the surrounding pond. The chill shuddering through his body called to mind the gales that followed in Lugia's wake. The wetness pushing at the corners of his face reminded him of Cillian Quinn's Dhelmise, holding him beneath the water for a quick, merciless kill. Isaac began to thrash, arms flailing and eyes widen-[break][break]

Arms. Huh.[break][break]

Isaac looked at the arm that Cil had stomped into utter uselessness. It still hurt like all hell, but he could move it without screaming his head off. It was progress, accelerated as if by magic. He'd still need a cast and plenty of time to heal, surely, but it was easy to be thankful for the progeess.[break][break]

He took in deep, greedy breaths, no longer forced to take shallow gasps through a shattered windpipe. He ran his fingertips over flesh that had once been rubbed raw, only rows of pebbly scabs remaining. Pain still erupted through his gut whenever he moved, but the darkness creeping around his vision had been forced back. He was going to live.[break][break]

He was going to live![break][break]

Isaac laughed, no matter how painful it was, because how could he not? "Holy shit, I owe you-" he said, only to be cut off by a wheeze. Okay, some talking fine, lots of talking not. Mental note taken. "Thank you."[break][break]

It turned out that thanks may have needed to be plural. Another being descended from the treetops, a small, fairlylike creature that immediately brought Mesprit to mind. Before Isaac could ask who it was and what it was doing here, it softly pressed a berry to Isaac's lips. Its hands settled on his, and in that moment Isaac chose trust.[break][break]

His eye went wide, and his mind went oh so far.[break][break]

The fogs of Mt. Pyre rolled through Isaac's mind. This was where and when he'd lost a Pokemon he'd loved with all of his heart, all so a madman could grab for power at the edge of the apocalypse. At the time, it had seemed like the lesser of two evils. Now, Isaac wondered how he could have ever been so foolish.[break][break]

The twin pains of guilt and loss weighed heavy on his mind, but they had practically shattered Ashley Shepard. Isaac tried to reach him, both as a friend and as a foe, but it was to no avail. Phantom pains stabbed into Isaac's skull as he remembered where this road had taken him.[break][break]

Through his loss, Ash's disbelief shattered. Isaac had made his first sacrifice.[break][break]

Isaac was still raw, still hurting, still so woefully insufficient. The only thing stopping him from suffering his own mental break had been annalise henderson talking him out of a suicidal charge towards the Primal Point. Isaac would have given anything to help Ash as much as she'd helped him. Perhaps, in his own way, he had.[break][break]

From then on, friendship became brotherhood written in blood and Paldean food. Had Isaac let his pain rule him and abandoned Ash, he would be living in a vastly different world. Understanding and forgiveness protected a life Isaac knew he could never be without. From that day, Isaac refused to withold it from those who needed it most.[break][break]

Those like Eris Halla, who for crimes committed and crimes imagined was deemed worthy of death. The vision of her body, crumpled, burned, impaled, and tossed into a river, left a panic racing through Isaac's heart.[break][break]

Isaac set a hand atop his own stinger wound, wondering just how alike they looked.[break][break]

For all Isaac's focus on Rocket, the League had its own imperfections. Myopia. Nepotism. Corruption. These were allowed to flourish in a world where Rocket ran wild, their shadow twisting everything it touched and demanding the League give into its worst impulses to meet them as equals.[break][break]

It occurred to Isaac on that day that he didn't give a rat's ass about Rocket or the League. He cared about the little girl he carried so gingerly back to society, hating all the while how she'd gotten so swept up in this whole mess. He hated how so many of Hoenn's people, mighty and meek alike, shared in her pain.[break][break]

He wasn't alone in his thoughts. Remiel Calcifet. Michael Navidson. Caleb Harcourt. So many recognized this war for the farce it was. So many recognized the dangers of the League. Yet they, too, fought against Team Rocket, because the people of Hoenn were worth protecting far more than its League. How badly Isaac wished he had joined them before it was too late for him.[break][break]

By the time he'd realized the position he was in, Cil had realized it too. The thin line he walked had finally snapped. His wandering eye had finally been caught. In a mix of wrathful punishment and almost brotherly protection, Cil had given him one chance.[break][break]

Kill or be killed.[break][break]

Isaac hated that his saviors had to see him like this. There was no greater good being fought for or cosmic scale being balanced. There was no philosophy he could hide behind. There was simply cold, hard reality; either Isaac could end a life, or he could have his own ended. His answer came in the desperate, feverish sound of knife scraping on bone.[break][break]

It was a reality many a Rocket faced. Ruby Garcia had still carried the weight of her own first kill, its blackened chains forming cracks in her tough exterior. Ash, seeking satisfaction through vengeance, broke a second time, the pieces of which he was still fighting to pick back up.[break][break]

Kouji Matsubara had asked Isaac what to do with people who could only live by killing. Isaac, right now, was more interested in making things right for those who couldn't. Rocket would see good people broken into submission and obedience, forcing them to delve into heinous atrocity until it was all they knew. Killing didn't get easier if you did it once. You just grew numb to it as you accepted it was your reality, not noticing how it started to break you from within.[break][break]

This was the reality Zev Harcourt always tried to prepare him for. Cil may had given the test, but it was Zev that he had failed.[break][break]

If this was what it meant to be a failure of a Rocket, then let Isaac fail. Let him fail so hard that he could rise into something stronger, something better, something above the false dichotomy of fall in line or die in time. Let him once more become the King of the Aegis, that shining beacon who guides and protects the lost souls he loves so much.[break][break]

He does love them, after all. He didn't spend a year fighting a war he long stopped believing in out of mere cowardice or spite. He fought because he loved every single broken, hopeless, fearful friend he'd made along the way. He loved them all so much that no amount of doubt could stop him from taking up his shield against the single greatest threat looming over their heads, a monstrous machine that threatened them in mind, body, heart, and soul alike.[break][break]

For the sake of all Rockets, Isaac knew he had to stand against Team Rocket.

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[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]And just like that, he was back.[break][break]

Some people, when they watched a movie they'd already seen before, still found themselves getting sucked into it over and over again. No matter how many times they'd seen the same events unfold, they cheered their heroes on and gasped in shock and horror as their edforts proved wanting. It was as if, with turn of the wheel, they'd hoped things would go differently.[break][break]

As Isaac returned to a pain still fresh in his heart, how could he not understand how they felt?[break][break]

His past self's fingers grazed against Latias' feathers, and Isaac wanted to believe it'd all play out that little bit faster. He'd hold on a little tighter. Latias would take off a little faster. Eurydice's attack would come up ever so slightly short. Everything would be okay, and he'd be able to write this night off like the nightmare it was.[break][break]

Such a pity, then, that Isaac was instead given a front row seat to his own dissection.[break][break]

The comfort that Celebi and Suicune provided was no more. Instead, they stepped back, their expressions unreadable. Isaac wondered what they thought as they saw him pale, his skin as cold and clammy as the him being drowned before their very eyes. Goosebumps spread along his arms as he felt the Icy Winds brewing on the horizon. He couldn't just watch what was going on, but he couldn't bring himself to look away.[break][break]

His fists clenched. His eye sharpened. He stood as firm and strong as he possibly could despite the pain throbbing through his body. He looked at Echo's corpse, cradled gently in the crook of his good arm, and felt his fear give way to outrage. How dare Cillian Quinn put them through this hell? How dare Cil put him through this hell? In his wrath, Isaac's other hand wandered down to his belt, fully prepared to charge back into Hell and fight for his fate.[break][break]

The empty space his fingertips caressed gave a stark reminder of where that road lead.[break][break]

Practicality tempered the edge that temptation sharpened. Isaac had nothing to his name but a turncoat Genesect and his own broken down body. How the hell was he supposed to fight his fate like this? He wouldn't be the cavalry, swooping down to save the day in a dramatic show of fire and fury. He'd just be more meat for the grinder.[break][break]

If he was going go do this, he'd have to be smart about it. He didn't need to be some righteous avenger. He just needed to be the right man in the right place at the right time. He saw his chance as his past self beached onto the island, as sopping wet and terrified as a kitten in a rainstorm. Soon, he'd take Echo out. Soon, he'd try and teleport away. Soon, a single hit from a single Dhelmise would tear that hope away.[break][break]

If he could just stop that hit, maybe none of this would have to happen. He wouldn't be trapped in a onock-down, drag-out brawl against an army of darkness. He wouldn't be forced to hear his Pokemon be tortured, mutilated, and killed one by one. He wouldn't be left clinging to shreds of life as he escaped through the slimmest stroke of luck. They'd be alive and he'd be gone, all in no time at all.[break][break]

Time.[break][break]

Caleb Harcourt.[break][break]

Isaac was supposed to be a bug, easily squashed, before Cil's real prey could be secured. Instead, even Lugia had to keep its eye off of the skies to ensure he stayed down. If he wasn't there holding the line, what would happen to the man he'd tried so hard to save? Latios was fast, but the sky was Lugia's domain. None dared pass against its will.[break][break]

If Isaac walked the coward's path, a man who meant the world of him would die in his stead. If he faced his fate head on, he'd be throwing away the life his team had fought so hard to save. In either case, he'd be spitting on every sacrifice made along the way, both by him and by others. Who was he to be so callous? Who was he to throw away their choice just to fish for some mythical perfect ending?[break][break]

Isaac would never stop fighting for his future, but that was not a battle to be fought in the past.[break][break]

Instead, for the first time, he stood back to take it all in.[break][break]

What Isaac had seen before was mere flashes of a greater picture. Storms, shadows, and the haze of adrenaline meant he'd spent most of the battle fighting blind. Now, with the clarity offered by his companions, Isaac could finally bear witness to his own fate.[break][break]

He could see Buffaloman's incredible endurance, his body and spirit unbreakable even until the bitter end. It was only fitting that he faced death with the pride he faced life. It didn't surprise Isaac that he was the first to sacrifice himself. The Tauros wouldn't have had it any other way.[break][break]

What did surprise him was Pandora, harnessing Z-Power of her own volition to actually fell a member of Cil's army of darkness. Thst was Pandora in a nutshell, though. She was always full of surprises. He coulddn't help but pump his fist in a silent cheer, hoping that she'd feel the pride he had in her before her last moments came.[break][break]

He shuddered as, for the first time, he saw what had truly become of them. He stuck his arms out, one for Suicune and one for Celebi, and took a half step forward. Was it silly for a mortal to presume he could protect a legend? Perhaps. Yet the mere idea of them sharing this fate was unacceptable.[break][break]

Sanford's resourcefulness snapped him out of it. MUGEN was the pinnacle of Rocket engineering, and Sanford had not only outsmarted it but recaptured it. For a Pokemon who considered himself a tool, he had proven himself time and time again to be capable of so much more. A part of Isaac hoped that, as the dust settled, MUGEN would be able to learn a thing or two from him.[break][break]

Everyone else's demise had been for him, but the second Hearth stepped up to the plate Isaac knew things had changed. Instead, it was his beloved compsnions he'd given himself for. Isaac could finally appreciate the beauty of the Infernal Parade in full swing. With their bodies purified and their souls liberated, Isaac knew that Hearth had gotten the last laugh.[break][break]

Then came Echo.[break][break]

Buffaloman's stubbornness. Pandora's spontaneity. Sanford's resourcefulness. Hearth's kindness. All of these, and more, were embodied by Echo as he willed himself from the brink for that final, desperate escape. Isaac couldn't help but smile as he saw his hands, clutched tight to his wounded stomach, making small, repetitive gestures. Life Dew. Fucking brilliant. Of the many Pokemon he'd come to love, Echo had truly been one of the best.[break][break]

Isaac couldn't change their fates. However, with this new perspective, he could come to proper reckoning with them. The guilt at what he'd let them do would always linger, but it paled in comparison to his appreciation for what they'd choaen to do. He closed his eye, took a soft breath, and let himself internalize what they'd taught him in this final hour.[break][break]

"Thank you."

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[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]Buffaloman's fierce look as he bellowed out his defiant challenge.[break][break]

Pandora's wide-eyed shock at her best friend's demise.[break][break]

The compass atop Sanford's wheel spinning in contemplation as he prepared to seal MUGEN away.[break][break]

Hearth's wisdom beyond his years as he accepted what needed to be done.[break][break]

Echo's bangs flaring out into a Gardevoir's curls, his eye poking through for the first and final time.[break][break]

What happened here could never change, but it ran deeper than that. What happened here should never change. Those final connections with his Pokemon, the feelings of love and loss swelling within his heart, were important beyond belief. Celebi hadn't brought him here to tempt him, or to test him, or to try and goad him into breaking the great chain.[break][break]

It had brought Isaac here just to share in this brief, beautiful moment.[break][break]

As they returned to the pool, Isaac fell to his knees. His shoulders shook. Tears stung at his eye. His uniform jacket, torn, tattered, and worn to a pale grey, billowed in the waters around him. For a moment all he could do was sit there, tears of grief, tears of love, and tears of life's sheer enormity all fighting to see who would flow first.[break][break]

Celebi drifted back. Their time here had come to an end. With this last little loop, Isaac's connection to his past had been severed. Good riddance.[break][break]

For a brief moment, Isaac considered asking the legend one last favor. Caleb Harcourt was still fresh on his mind. Isaac couldn't imagine how much he had suffered. Did he land in such caring hands as he had? Or would he be forced to suffer in silence? If this strange fairy, a traveler through space and time, could reach him and make sure he was okay . . .[break][break]

Isaac knew it wasn't his place to ask. He knew Celebi's help, while enlightening for him, would probably feel like torture.[break][break]

Instead, he simply turned to face Celebi with a grateful eye and a weary smile. "I needed that. Thanks, buddy."[break][break]

As Isaac turned back to the waters, a gentle ripple began to distort his reflection. Then came another, and another, and another. Isaac followed the path of each ripple. The water now passing over his reflected cheek had come from the Suicune's footsteps, each gently falling atop the water's surface. Isaac looked up, his smile softening as he turned to meet the Suicune eye to eye.[break][break]

The silence of the forest was broken only by the sound of Isaac rising to his feet. It still hurt like all hell, but bar a wince across his features he refused to give into the pain. This was why he had been brought here, after all. He wasn't here to sit in some magic hot tub until he was all hale and hearty. He wasn't here to run away into the woods and become a forest hermit. He wasn't going to some pretty little princess for a glamrock leopard and a magic piece of garlic to babysit.[break][break]

Suicune lifted him out from his lowest point. Then, with a lowered head and a shining crest, he asked what came next.[break][break]

It was funny. Isaac had never met this Pokemon a day in his life. Now, between the empathy welled up in its eyes and the horrors they'd experienced together, he knew that he could trust it. If this Pokemon had seen him before, it had been from a distance, little more than a misty presence. Nevertheless, it bowed its head and beckoned him onwards, because it knew that it could trust him.[break][break]

"Yeah." Neither of them had said a world, and yet Isaac understood exactly what the Suicune was asking. He reached forward with an arm that had once been shattered, gently setting his palm against the the widest part of his crest. Cold shuddered through his body, and yet for once he didn't mind that fact. "Guess we've had enough of the past, huh?"[break][break]

"Now we're the ones to say what happens next."

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[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]The funny part was, Isaac expected everything to feel far more intense.[break][break]

Isaac knew the cold. Cillian Quinn had made damn well sure of that, buffeting him in blast after frigid blast of Icy Wind. With that so fresh in his mind, it was almost startling to realize that Suicune's crest had turned even colder. It was as if he was gently caressing the side of a glacier. More startling still was the fact that the biting pain that always followed the cold was nowhere to be found.[break][break]

Rejuvenation ebbed through Isaac's body. Though many of his wounds remained, the pain they caused him had become a distant memory. In its stead, he found an indescribable feeling. It was as if he had been parched for his entire life, only now knowing the cool refreshment the waters could provide. Power welled within him, yet he could barely feel its pull. Instead, he could only feel its presence nestle within his core, as calm as an underground hot spring.[break][break]

The waters, settled waist deep around Isaac, began to reject him. Second by second, breath by breath, as if he were lighter than air, they began to carry him upwards. Isaac didn't even realize it was happening at first. All he knew was that, as Suicune held his head high, his own body rose to meet him.[break][break]

When he finally looked down, he could see himself standing atop the water's surface.[break][break]

His eye widened in surprise. He thrust out his arms, trying to prepare himself for a fall that would never come. As shock stole his concentration, so, too, did it steal his power. Isaac stumbled forward, his feet half-dipped into the water. A cacophony of ripples flowed out their wake. A wry smile spread across Suicune's face at the sight; he had much to learn, but that was okay. It had much to teach.[break][break]

Perhaps, if this human kept surprising it, those roles would turn alongside the tides.[break][break]

The Suicune turned towards the forest, its expression taking a turn for the serious. It lowered its haunches, ribbon-like tails idly beckoning towards its new bondmate. For a second, the message seemed clear. Isaac took a step forward, prepared to ride the Suicune out of the grove just as he'd ridden it into here.[break][break]

That expectation meant he was in for a rude awakening when the Suicune tore away towards the treeline.[break][break]

"H-hey, wait a sec!" What else was there for Isaac to do but to run after the legend? At first his footsteps were shaky and unstable, kicking up large splashes of water in his wake. He'd never catch up to Suicune at this rate; either the waters would keep slowing him down, or he'd waste too much time trying to swim out from them. But when was the last time something being impossible stopped Isaac?[break][break]

With each step, his stance atop the water firmed up. With each step, less and less of the spring was displaced. With each step, Isaac felt himself growing faster, lighter, more unburdened. The feeling was intoxicating, and Isaac let himself surrender to it. By the time he'd gotten out from the sacred spring, he'd blown his old personal best out of the water. Nothing could stop him now![break][break]

Nothing but that tree.[break][break]

He was going far too fast to stop. With no other options, Isaac threw his arms up and braced himself for an impact that never came. "What the-?" he said, only to notice his voice was little more than a hollow echo that trailed behind him. The hands he held before his face were translucent, weaved together from air, mist, and the light of the aurora. Such was the lack of burden on Isaac that he'd left his very form behind.[break][break]

In this new state, it was easy for him to catch up with Suicune. The legend looked towards him without breaking its stride, simply acknowledging his presence with a nod. They traveled through the woods together, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, their tailwinds as intertwined as their hearts.[break][break]

Isaac felt the temptation to stop as soon as the first signs of decay came to mind. However, with a break shake of its head, Suicune spurred them onwards. No, their goal was far greater than tending to trimmings and plucking out mushrooms. Instead, they pushed themselves deeper, past where Pokemon and even man feared to tread. The soil had been reduced to a caustic slurry of black and orange mulch. Stunted trees twisted inwards as if attempting to impale themselves. Hastily abandoned dens littered the land, punctuated with flashes of yellowed bone.[break][break]

They'd come to the heart of darkness itself.[break][break]

Isaac skidded to a halt faster than he'd anticipated, his corporeal form leaving a skidding trail through the muck. Isaac lowered his mask off of his eyes, letting it hang around his nose and mouth to keep the toxic gas at bay. "Really did a number on this place . . ." he muttered, almost expecting to feel that familiar grudge come knocking once more.[break][break]

To his surprise, it never arrived. Every intrusion on his mind left mere ripples in its wake. In its stead came a focus as clear as crystal. Isaac knew he had been brought here for a reason. He was damn well sure he knew what that reason was. Now he simply needed to figure out what to do.[break][break]

An easy thought was revenge. Flow across the north wind, find those responsible for this disaster, and bring them to justice beneath his heel. Simple, right? There was just one problem with that. Revenge would do nothing to push back the tainted ground beneath his feet. It would just leave the Petalburg Woods to be nourished in blood.[break][break]

No. Isaac didn't want to bring more pain to these long-suffering lands. He wanted to take it all away, just as Suicune's purifying waters had taken away his.[break][break]

That's it![break][break]

Isaac walked forward to Suicune once more, setting a hand atop its crest. He refamiliarized himself with the cold of the northern winds; not bitter but refreshing, not biting but soothing, not destructive but preserving. Then, while the chill still lingered against his palm, he held his hand towards the sky.[break][break]

The air above Isaac began to chill. Mist rose from his outstretched palm, dancing higher and higher before settling into the form of a cloud. The cloud grew darker and thicker by the moment, casting a long shadow across the blighted lands below. All the while, it hung expectantly, as if waiting for Isaac's command.[break][break]

Isaac looked towards the cloud, looked towards his hand, and clenched it into a fist. At his will, soothing waters rained down from above. The blight seemed to part wherever the soothing drops fell. Was it trying to move away from the purification's reach, or was it simply being obliterated at a mere touch? Whatever the case may have been, Isaac didn't know and Isaac didn't care. All he cared about was making sure it was gone.[break][break]

Even after his efforts, he knew the woods wouldn't be the same. Where the miasma washed away, he was sure only barren, starved soils would remain. Perhaps, spared of its blight, the mulch and decay left behind could nourish them anew. That would remain to be seen, not by observation but by action. Isaac would come back to this place, again and again, just as he had in the past. With Springtide Storms, Overgrowth, and his Shaymin's blessings, he would see to it that the Petalburg Woods would return to their former glory.[break][break]

He was sure, in another lifetime, it would be what Elisabeth Fiorelli would have wanted.[break][break]

The center of the circle, where the heart of darkness had once beat, would be where he brought Echo to his final rest. He didn't have a shovel with him, but the loose soils would be easy enough to move aside by hand. Suicune wouldn't help. It knew that, for this one moment, it wasn't its place to. Instead, it would simply observe these sentimental rituals, a moment of silence provided for the one who liberated the Liberator.[break][break]

Atop Echo's grave, Isaac would plant the seeds from his Gracedia flower.

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