PMD: Overthrown Chapter Fifteen: Blind Part 2

”Both alive and dead until someone opens the box. Alive and dead. A fascinating observation.”

She didn’t know where she was. Only that it was bitterly cold. And that any prayers to Raikou were muffled underneath the evil of this place. They were here. Just like they always were in her dreams. They used to stand for a sign of comfort, of the times when they were with her as a family, but now they stood only for the complex feelings of unbearable longing and fierce hatred. The many nightmare tears she wept came from many different sources and fouts.

Her mother’s calm, glowing pink aura washed waves of peace and serenity over her even as the Espeon spat curses at her. Her father’s drawing presence, the overwhelming shadows threatened to crush her, yet he spoke words that quieted her racing mind and eased her aching soul. She never wanted to leave, yet felt repulsed and sickened at the very thought of being next to her parents.

She would have lost her breakfast had this strange dream allowed her the pleasure. But no, only the purple miasma that plagued her dreamscape would do for her prison. Like usual, she sat opposite her former guardians, glaring with tearful eyes as she struggled to contain the flurry of emotions that stormed her mind.

“Who are you? You are no daughter of ours. A true daughter does not turn her back on her family.” Kelly shook her head in disagreement, but her mouth was sealed shut. She could not tell which of her parents had made the statement, as the tone of the words melded into a single, unidentifiable drone.

“Words cannot save you of your sins, false-daughter. Even now, as you turn your back on us, you also turn your back on those you left us for. Those you call friends.” Her mother’s mouth was the one that moved, but the words where her father’s beyond any doubt. She didn’t know which one to pay attention too, much less why she was being controlled so heavily by what should have been figments of her imagination.

No! I am your daughter! I didn’t leave you! her thoughts screamed in an effort to broadcast what her voice could not. She wanted to scream, to cry out to them, to tell them it wasn’t true, but her mouth refused to open. Tears streamed down her face as her parent’s unloving stares pierced her.

“You are not ours. You do not deserve love. You leave everyone who cares for you.” Their voices once again combined into a hybrid tone, an evil voice that contained none of her father’s reassuring baritone, or her mother’s soft, lightness.

“You do not deserve the life we gifted you. You do not deserve the spirit we forged for you. You do not deserve the air we breathed into you at birth.” The despair was a mighty gale slamming down on her, crushing her. She wanted to scream that they were wrong, that the phantom silhouettes were liars, but the air was heavy and refused her breath.

“Get out! Go! Return to your lies! The poor excuse for an existence you now lead! Go!” Kelly couldn’t move, her feet were numb. Frozen to the floor, she endured the wrath heaped upon her by the Espeon and Umbreon pair.

No! No! Don’t make me leave! Don’t make me leave! Emotions rocked from side to side within her mind. Unsure of which feeling to hold on to, she made a mad attempt to clutch them all like she was drowning amid the roiling sea. Sadness, fury, happiness, confusion, helplessness all swirled around like a hellish wheel. Kelly squeezed her eyes shut as her head reached the maximum pressure.

“Kelly!”

A spark flared inside her reeling mind. A voice she thought had been extinguished forever. A familiar memory among the clashing tides of emotion. Unable to grasp the runaway thoughts, she clung to the voice as the madness ate away at her.
“Kelly? Kelly? Please, wake up. Come on, Kelly. We have to get out...”

A desire to leave and confront the sound she thought was lost filled her. Nothing else mattered, not the phantoms that tormented her slumber, not the emotions that warred over her brain, not even the paralysis that clenched her body in its numb claws.

“It’s me, Kelly, Leo. Please ... Please, wake up ... Wake up, Kelly! Please! Wake up!”  

It has to be a trick. It can’t be him. He’s ... Gone. I saw it, right? Even her own thoughts were questioning what she saw. She couldn’t trust them. There was no possible way that she could.

“Kelly! Please! Wake up! Wake up, Kelly!”

It is him! It might be impossible, but what’s there to lose in taking this chance? Nothing, that’s what. A spasm of pain ran through her tired body, causing involuntary sparks to jump from her fur. This dream would soon kill her, that much she knew for certain. It was far more potent this time around. Sleep was now a dangerous fiend stalking her every step.

Pain. It surged, breaking the floodgates and levies as it overran her body. She couldn’t stay here anymore. She had to escape, leave, flee somehow. It might have been a dream, but the struggle to get to her feet was as realistic as she could imagine on numb legs.

The world under her aching paws tilted and swayed. The purple mists converged on her as waves whipped up by the gale on the Stormy Sea. They invaded her panting mouth as she forced her uncooperating legs to run away from the consuming fog. Her lungs rejected the poisoning miasma, yet continued to breath it in, hungry for oxygen.  

Her parent’s cruel voices beat down on her ears as her legs collapsed from lack of air reaching their systems. The deep violet seemed to cover her as a smothering blanket of seething nightmares. They absorbed her, matting her fur, and clotting against her skin as she struggled to break free from its grasp.

Then, light. A glorious, clear blue enigma forced its way through the dead mist that crushed her body, mind, and soul. Something solid and cold materialized underneath her weakened feet and along her back. She was laying on her side on a bed of ice. Someone was over her, head pressed on her stomach, and the sounds of muffled crying came from it.

Her eyes instinctively flew open as she craned her stiff neck to look at who was the source of the crying. The world was blurred for several eternally long seconds, but soon her senses including sight, sound, and touch were returned to her as a gift by the Fates.

It was Leo. There was no doubt on the identity of the Charmeleon that currently whimpered into her fur. The light scar she could see on his chest and bright blue key hanging from his neck positively assured her of this. She willed her strained vocal cords to work to give some sign of life to her despairing friend. As her throat struggled to work, she focused on recovering movement in her limbs. Memories came back to her from before she went down. It had been an illusion, it had to have been. Leo hadn’t been killed in cold blood. Despite her reaction earlier, she knew now that it wasn’t real.

But he still came. He found me. Now, we’re going to get out of here. With gargantuan effort, she managed to raise her forearm and place it on Leo’s heaving shoulder. The result was immediate: he gasped and jerked his head up to look at her face. She saw that his normally blue eyes bore the red stains of recently shed tears. Confusion lined his face like the makeup the performers of the Silver City Theater wore.

She worked her mouth into a slight grin and tried to raise herself off the ground. She didn’t get far into her endeavor before she was slammed by his tight embrace. His claws wrapped around her neck and he drew close to her. Once again, Kelly didn’t know what to think. Once the initial shock of his action wore off, she managed to place her paw on his back and held it there.

“You’re ... You’re alright ... Thank God, you’re alright, Kelly ...” Leo hoarsely whispered as he unconsciously tightened his hold on her body. Kelly had no idea of what the Froslass had put him through during his journey down to her. She felt his claws caress her mane and she didn’t have the heart to tell him to let go.

“Y-yeah. I’m mostly alright. How did you get down here, Leo?” she asked softly as Leo continued to savor his joyous hug he wrapped her in. Her eyes widened as she looked up from his shoulder to see the very Froslass that kidnapped her furiously staring them down, a cloud of cold air fumed from her gritted, rotting mouth with every angered breath.

Leo didn’t answer, but turned his head around to face the demoness while retaining his hold on her. She was certain he saw the same thing she did: surrounding the shaking Froslass was an aura of glowing ice. Something else captured her attention in the dim, dead room. Far on the other side was a tongue of fire suspended in the air.

“You chose ... Poorly, Ignis.” The words carried a haunting spell that drove into her chest and sent a chill through her bones. Both Pokemon watched as the ancient abomination floated over the newly created abyss and held the flame in her hand. She cradled the fire for a moment, whispering words of unknown consequence to it before returning it to her right hand. Despite waking up from a comatose state, Kelly pieced together what was about to happen a few seconds too late to do anything about it.

“Quid pudor...” With that final comment, she clenched her fist together, extinguishing the small ball of fire in between her frozen, calloused skin. While still embracing her, Leo’s breath suddenly caught in his throat. Kelly felt his arms tighten around her and then suddenly fall loose as the Charmeleon collapsed to the ground.

Instinctively, Kelly pushed away the slight pains that dug into her ribs and desperately tried to coordinate her legs to run over to her partner. Ignoring the demonic force that screamed in tongues closing in on them, she placed her paws on the Leo’s convulsing body. His tail was barren, the porous tip cold and lifeless. It was common knowledge that the Char species’ flaming tails were their lifeblood, but never before had she seen one go out before her eyes.

Beneath her paws, Leo shivered, his body temperature dropping faster and faster with every passing second. There was no fire, no heat, or tinder in this icy necropolis. Nothing available for her to try and start a fire. No scarves, nothing to keep warm. No matter where she looked, there was only ice and the frozen statues that encircled the walls.

She wracked her brain over what she could possibly do. Had it been possible, she would have been sweating bullets as she looked over Leo’s quaking body. His eyes were squeezed shut, as if he was tormented in some sort of nightmare, but she vaguely remembered that her tutor had called it “Calor Mortem” and she knew she had to find some way to reignite it otherwise she would lose him. His heartbeat was slowing down to a crawl.

She didn’t know why the Froslass wasn’t already upon them, but she dared not look behind to find out the reason. Her paws gingerly ran over his arm and chest, trying to offer some sort of comfort while she ran through possibilities in her head. Then, in a flash of inspiration springing from her long-ago lessons in the studies of life from her tutor. With a deep breath, she directed the electrical currents that ran through her body and fur into her forearms.

Sparks flared before a single bolt of electricity jumped in between her outstretched paws and remained suspended there as she kept the current moving through her. Once she was certain that the current would not fail on her, she reached down and tightly grasped the cold tip of Leo’s tail. Volts of electricity surged from her into him, running up through his tail, and into his body.

Closing her eyes to concentrate on keeping the voltage under the lethal levels, she carefully fed him the volatile energy. She didn’t have to see him to know what was happening to her teammate. She could feel the artificial heat resonating from his tail as her power acted in place of a flame. Even though she was not touching his chest, she felt his heartbeat rise once again and his body begin to warm.

If her efforts were working, however, there was little physical evidence. Leo conscious self remained lost underneath the cold that clutched his soul. She knew he was alive, and that was enough for her to keep trying. Unfortunately, Dialga’s blessing of time ran dry for them as the demon appeared in the corner of her eye.

Kelly refused her the pleasure of a direct stare as she kept her attention focused on the slowly dying Charmeleon beneath her paws. When the horrible screeching started, she tried to block the sound. When the rumbling began underfoot, she stumbled as she attempted to keep her balance. However, when loveless wind, cold as Erebus, blew against her flank, she stood still.

It stung like salt on a fresh cut. The wind seemed not to whip around her, but bypass her fur and seep into her skin. Sparks involuntarily jumped between the raised spikes on her chilled back as she shivered. Her chest felt heavier, as if bricks were been strapped to it from the inside. White clouds of air puffed from her gasping lips as she tried to keep her focus on Leo. His temperature had again dropped considerably from the wind that burrowed into them.

Her legs went numb, her paws following shortly thereafter. She didn’t feel them wobble and collapse or her grip on Leo’s tail falter and drop as her body crashed down to the ground. She had no shield against the hard impact except for Leo. Her head landed on his still chest with no reaction from the currently-dying Charmeleon. Her own breaths were tied to his as they both began to let the wind freeze them from within. Kelly’s resolve to leave and escape was burdened by the need to save her fallen friend. She wouldn’t leave him. Not now.

Ice consolidated on her muzzle and began to encase her fur as her painfully numb ears heard the grating cackle from the Froslass. She felt the cold mass crawl over her skin and lock her in place. As much as she resisted, her body refused to move in the icy prison. The little fur that was unfrozen sparked and bristled against the cold, her final sign of defiance against her inevitable fate.

Earlier, she had wanted nothing more than to see Leo again and know he was alive. Now that her wish was granted, she wanted to die alone if it would guarantee Leo’s survival. Ever since she had confided in that one dawn back in the camp, she had tried to make sense of what she felt for him. He was her partner and friend, but some corner of her mind whispered that he was something more. It was because of those voices she had broken down earlier at the false image of his demise. If there was any doubt she cared for him, it had been tossed aside when she chose to freeze with him. And, if Erebus chose to take them, then so be it.

But she’s not getting us without a fight! her thoughts screamed as a final mental warcry as she few tufts of hair on her back surged with all the power she could muster from her unmoving limbs. The Froslass would have them both frozen in an act of defiance, not of fear and submission. The fire that Kelly knew burned within both of them would tear the Froslass apart every time she glanced at them in her vast collection. The ice had won. She couldn’t feel anything anymore.  

“Yes! That’s it! Defy the Fates! Fight for your right to exist! Your struggle has not been in vain, daughter of science!”

The darkness was sudden, more so than the ice. It appeared out of the inexistory realm in the corner of her eye and flared like a blot of ink on a blank parchment, flooding the room with its primal essence. The cavern of the damned shook and and the ice writhed as the anger of the darkness made its fury known. Through muffled by the ice that was suffocating her and Leo, she heard the Froslass scream as if the horrors of Erebus itself had appeared before her eyes. From somewhere far away, she heard the shouts of the voice she had been forced to forget. The one who had warned her during the police raid. Now, the demon raged against the demoness.

As suddenly as it happened, the supernatural ice melted away and left her gasping for newfound air. Tendrils of darkness helped coax the freezing substance from her body and guided the wind into her burning lungs. She could barely see what was happening: mist from the shattered ice hung in the cavern like still-raindrops, she swore she heard both the cries and calls of Jay and Noah from someplace in the cavern. If they were real or simply a conjuration she couldn’t tell as her mind spun from the whirlwind of activities.

“You are both alive. I arrived just in time, it seems. Now, let us close up this inane business and reignite poor Ignis.”</b>

Once her eyes recovered and the icy binds that sealed her dispelled, she saw the carnage that was occurring before her. Purple-tongued fire danced around the cavern in a swirling tango of hellish power and at the center of it all floated the purple Pokémon himself. He looked like something within an exaggerated painting in the imperial palace in the capital, with the fire shooting off against the avalanche of ice that tried to consume him. Kelly found herself enraptured by his hypnotically golden eyes even as one tongue slammed into the ground right next to her.

A claw grasped hers suddenly and pulled her shaking body down to the ground. Rather than screaming in shock, she was hushed as she realized that the Mismagius had kept good on his promise. Relief came over her as she knew that Leo was alive, though words eluded her, though she doubted they could have been heard over the whipping wind and constant flash of fire and ice in their duel.

Spears of ice materialized out of thin air around the flailing Froslass. Her white skin singed by the demonic heat that the Mismagius hurled at her in his rage. She had only seen the mysterious Pokémon a few times before, but he was never beyond the point of showing emotion beyond cold humor. Now, he shouted and cursed at the weakening Ice-type without restraint.

“We had an agreement, Ira! We had an agreement, you traitor! You bloodsoaked traitor!” His voice sounded like an eruption of a long-dormant volcano, eons of rage put to use against the faltering demoness.  Wind shrieked through the one-airtight cavern as the vaulted ceiling crumbled in on itself, flooding the forsaken catacomb with harsh blue light. The earth beneath her rumbled as the Froslass’s power finally broke with the roar of a million thunders.

As the Froslass, addressed as Ira, writhed in agony, Kelly’s attention was pulled from the spectacle as a black paw clasped her shoulder.

“You’re both alright! That’s amazing! For a few seconds, I thought you all were ... you know ... solidified. Anyways, let’s get you to your feet and get the hell out of here! Jay! Stop stumbling and come help!” Noah shouted as the Dewott shifted his satchel over his shoulder and heaved as Kelly felt him lift her up. Her legs were bruised, but not yet broken. She made no attempt to hide her cringe as she gingerly took a step away from the crumbling edge of ice. Beside her, Leo grunted in pain as Noah roughly tugged on his arm as he was lifted to his feet. Jay leaned against a wall, holding his eyes and appeared to be sobbing. Kelly immediately wanted to know what happened to her partner, but neither had the strength nor time to stagger over to him.

“It seems like I’m always dragging you to your feet, aren’t I?” Noah observed as he gave the Charmeleon a playful punch on the shoulder. Kelly truly wondered what was going through the Dewott’s odd mind that made him so casual even as the fire and ice from Erebus dueled in fantastic rage not twenty feet away from him.

Their reunion was interrupted, however, as the battle suddenly winked out of existence and all that was left on the platform of ice over the abyss was the fallen Ira and the Mismagius holding her down by some psychic force.

"Dimitte mihi, remitte mihi!" Kelly saw the Froslass being held against the ice, her rotting flesh crushed against the cold ground. Cracks spread along her face as the Mismagius only pushed down harder.

“You very nearly destroyed everything. Your lust for souls was one I was willing to overlook when I employed you, but the one time I order you to refrain from your activities, you defy me!”  The Mismagius screamed as an aura of violent mauve enshrouded his floating form. The four members of Team Salient fell silent while the enigma vented his rage.

"Dimitte mihi, remitte mihi!" Ira wailed, a cold, unforgettable noise that signaled utter despair. Kelly knew she would never be able to completely unhear her horrendous cry.

“It is far too late for forgiveness, Ira. Did you forgive any of the souls you trapped here? You may have frozen them solid, but their spirits still burn with desire for vengeance against you, Ira! For your crime, you will know their fury.”</b> With that statement, the earth seemed to heave. The ice-covered walls shook and cracked as the countless statues surrounding them rattled furiously on their rock stands. Kelly could not think of a time in her life where she was both amazed and terrified at the same exact time, yet she was.

The frozen Pokémon: a cowering Fearow, an elegant Milotic, an Arcanine frozen mid-roar, an enraged Houndoom, were just some of the individual species she could recognize among the shuddering sculptures. True to the Mismagius’s words, fire sparked in the eyes of each and every statue, casting the chamber in a bright orange hue that contrasted with the blue sunlight reflecting on the cracked ice. She wasn’t sure when she had huddled next to Leo or when Noah had done the same to her in fear, but she didn’t care. She only wanted the scene to end and escape this pit of death and fallen souls.

“Their fire will consume and destroy you! Death will be a fate too kind, Ira. Far too kind. Now, as your collection comes to life, it will take you and this dungeon to Erebus, and I take my leave with my charges. Good-bye, Ira,”</b> he said curtly, his anger once again locked away behind his cold persona as he floated over the abyss back to them. Ira tried to follow, but found herself bound by an ethereal chain about her neck. Her shackles glowing red with heat every time she struggled against them.

“Ignis! Ignis! Dimitte mihi, Ignis!” Next to her, Kelly saw Leo turn his head away as he attempted to ignore the Froslass’s tortured screams while the fires raging within the collection burst free of their hardened bindings. The scene was a combination of something that should have never been and warped powers of the supernatural. Both beautiful and terrible were the flaming spirits, taking the form of their hosts. At once the dead pantheon was transformed into a coliseum alive with beasts of fire. Their eyes now glowing bright blue as they wore skin of leaping orange flames.

Roars, squeaks, whinneys, and growls reverberated about the dome reminded the Jolteon of the mystery dungeons that surrounded her old home. She knew she was now within the presence of things that could not possibly exist in the world by any scientific reasoning.

“Come. We must return along the dark paths before the spirits burn away this realm from the world forever.”</b> And suddenly, everything went dark. Ira’s unholy screams were muffled as the spirits pounced from their ramparts and went about tearing every inch of her world apart with their jaws.

Kelly felt nothing but wind as the Mismagius carried them through the passage in between time and space. The darkness caressed her form with a comforting embrace that felt warm. Fatigue finally took its toll upon her aching body and she felt the desires of sleep pull on her eyes. The Mismagius, somehow carrying all four of them with his strange arms made of the night sky, gave her a reassuring smile.

“Rest, daughter of science. There are yet many hours to pass before we escape this crumbling dungeon. Sleep and gather your strength for the war that looms ahead, my dear.”</b>  

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End Chapter Fifteen