[attr="class","aurelie_body"]A low moan of relief escaped Aurelie's lips when Jack tenderly took her hand and sprayed a Burn Heal on her palm and fingers. She flashed a grateful smile at him and softly kissed him in quick thanks. Then her gratitude was only heightened when she heard the sizzle of his Chandelure's flames and whirled around just in time to see the Magearna coming toward them, before being felled by a blast of energy from the chandelier-shaped Pokemon.
"Truly, my knight with shining abs," she exclaimed, her eye sparkling with admiration and affection as she looked back at Jack and remembered what she'd called him when they first met.
"And a better man than I deserve."Watching Jack scoop up the second Magearna, Aurelie nodded in agreement when he suggested moving on after liberating the trapped Carbinks.
"You're right, we have no idea what else might be down here. Here, let me take one of those Magearnas," she offered, extending her arms to cradle it.
"No reason for you to be lugging around both of them the whole time" Motioning for her Steelix to scout ahead, Aurelie walked cautiously in the wake of her huge, serpentine Pokemon, letting it guide them past—or sometimes through—any obstacles it encountered. Curiously but thankfully, the tunnels ahead seemed empty of anything but scrap metal, empty machinery, and stilled, non-functional clockwork gears and cogs.
The last tunnel they explored sloped deeper underground, before ending unexpectedly in a rocky grotto wreathed in wisps of mist. Within the grotto's crystal-clear waters lay two glimmering, ruby-red gems shaped oddly like hearts. Strangely, even in the dim grotto, the gems shimmered and glowed as if with their own innate light.
As Aurelie and Jack came closer, a deep, flat voice—utterly inhuman, yet still a
voice all the same, the first they'd heard in this world besides their own—stopped them in their tracks.
"WHO DARES TO INTRUDE ON THIS ANCIENT PLACE? LEAVE NOW, YOU INSOLENT HUMANS, OR YOU WON'T LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO WISH THAT YOU HAD NEVER COME."To their shock, they saw the speaker emerge from the gloom: an enormous, mechanical Volcanion whose piercing eyes shone with sentience—and distrust. Aurelie caught her breath, stunned to see a Volcanion that could talk and interact with them, unlike the seemingly robotic ones they'd spotted aboveground. The huge Steam Pokemon stared coldly at them, before focusing on the Magearna they were each carrying.
Aurelie gasped aloud as she looked at the hearts in the water and then back at the Magearna as well.
"Those hearts in the water!" she exclaimed.
"I remember reading that Magearna have artificial souls housed in Soul-Hearts inside their bodies.
"These Magearna we met, though... They didn't act like they had souls, let alone that they could sense the pain or emotions of others. Are those hearts there...do they belong to them?"For a moment, there was silence as the Volcanion regarded them warily.
"PERHAPS," it stated at last, its resonant mental voice sounding almost melancholy now.
"WHAT ELSE DO YOU KNOW OF THE SOUL-HEARTS?""That...that they need, uh..." Aurelie's brow wrinkled with the effort of remembering, too caught up in her thoughts to notice the behemoth Volcanion coming nearer to them with a metallic creaking of its steam-powered limbs.
"They need life energy! That's how they were originally created, right?
"But here," she went on, starting in surprise when she saw how close the Volcanion had come and yet unable to stop herself from talking,
"I bet there's no life energy, is there? We haven't seen anything alive in this kingdom. Just bones and machines.""YES," the Volcanion said simply.
"THESE SOUL-HEARTS YOU SEE... THEY WEAKEN. THE LIFE-ENERGY IN THEM FLICKERS AND GROWS DIM. I HAVE TRIED TO REPAIR AND STRENGTHEN THEM, BUT I CAN ONLY DO...SO MUCH."For some reason, Aurelie's heart went out to the Volcanion, imagining the struggle and frustration that it must have gone through. As a craftswoman, she shuddered to think of having to take care of a work that was irreparably damaged, that she could barely maintain, but that she knew she was the only one that could help it at all. How long had the Volcanion been down here, watching and repairing those Soul-Hearts? As long as the Carbinks in their coal engines?
She thought frantically for anything that could offer life-energy, besides her and Jack's own bodies or their Pokemon. Suddenly, Aurelie remembered a lecture she'd heard as a child, visiting the sundial in Anistar City for the hundredth class trip.
"Infinity Energy, also known as life-energy, is derived from the life force of living beings like Pokemon. It can be harnessed into the ultimate weapon...or into Mega Stones.Thinking of Mega Stones, Aurelie rummaged in her inventory and fished out a Mega Shard, glittering with Infinity Energy. Her hands trembling, she offered it to the Volcanion.
"Take this," she said,
"either for yourself or for those hearts."The Volcanion regarded the Mega Shard in her hand with a long, steam-driven sigh emitting from the sides of its metallic maw. It opened its mouth and reached toward Aurelie's hand. She shivered, afraid that she was about to lose a limb for her guess...
But instead, it simply picked up the Mega Shard in its mouth.
"THIS WILL HELP," it said. And then, slowly, it added,
"THANK YOU. AND THOSE TWO MAGEARNA THAT YOU HAVE… I BELIEVE I CAN HELP THEM. PLACE THEM HERE."When they did, the Volcanion took the Soul-Hearts out of the pool of water and reached toward the Magearna. With a fierce jerk, it easily flicked open a hatch in their chests that Aurelie and Jack hadn't even seen.
As they watched in silent awe, the Volcanion installed one Soul-Heart into each Magearna. Almost at once, the doll-like Pokemon's eyes lit up again, this time a soft golden hue rather than the ominous blood-red of before.
"THEY LIVE AGAIN," the Volcanion pronounced.
"I HAVE GUARDED THEIR HEARTS AND SOULS AS MY DUTY FOR MANY DECADES, AND NOW, THEY HAVE BEEN RESTORED. PERHAPS NOW, THEY WILL REMEMBER. NOW, THEY MAY KNOW LOVE, AND JOY, AND LIFE AGAIN." With that, the Volcanion emitted another blast of steam and disappeared, the clanking of its metallic limbs fading into the silence.
Not knowing what else to do, Aurelie held out her arms again, this time toward the tottering Magearna now looking curiously about themselves with those golden eyes.
"Let me continue to repair and help you," she said gently, astonished by the Pokemon's beauty and workmanship, now that it seemed to have returned to life.
"Let us remind you of the souls that you were missing for so long."9zR8LPLZ[attr="class","aurelie_tag"]
jack wainwrightTL;DR:
- Prompt: Completed the SPECIAL HUNT:
AURELIE LEFEVRE will be able to encounter a VOLCANION that can speak. This is the same Volcanion that destroyed a humanmade tower and encountered Alexei Ivanov in an underwater cavern. You must win its trust in some way, for it is wary of humans due to an unknown reason, but perhaps related to the events that have transpired in this kingdom a long time ago.
It guards several SOUL-HEARTS that it is attempting to repair. It will manage to repair two Soul-Hearts by chance as it transfers some of its INFINITY ENERGY to them, shortening the Volcanion's life with each fix. The Volcanion is doing this in an attempt to find the MAGEARNA it had sworn to protect a long time ago, believing itself to be the last surviving "knight" of the royal guard.
Bringing two SOULLESS MAGEARNA to the Volcanion will allow your trainers to open a hatch on the Magearna's chest to install the Soul-Heart in order to grant it "life."
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