(A/N: Holy shit 50 chapters! Anyways back to torturing the boy)
The walk back home was quiet, aside from the occasional gunshot.
Collecting that much obsidian took… as long as he suspected. He went back on the va idea, as it was definitely faster to collect. It was sketchy as fuck and Joshua hated every second of it, but he was able to completely repce the bunker with obsidian in a few hours.
Annoying, yes. But there was a sense of stability and confidence in the strong bck material.
The pumpkins and berries were done growing, he took them, repnted a few of them, and continued on.
Sitting on his bed, in his basement (now called “the bunker” by chat), Joshua looks at the messages with slight nervousness in his heart.
It reminds him of when parents say “we need to talk”, or getting called to the principal's office.
“Alright, what's up?”
[StevenStoneOffical: I spoke with Palkia earlier.]
Joshua IMMEDIATELY perks up, standing up from bed despite not needing to.
“Really? What did he say?”
Excitement seemingly beaming from his words, Joshua watches the chat, eyes locked for specific names.
But why does he feel… nervous?
[Dr. Ambers: Hello Mr. Abrams]
Oh.
Oh no.
“Uh, hey Dr. Ambers. Why are you…”
[StevenStoneOffical: Joshua. Sit down.]
“What? Why?”
[StevenStoneOffical: Just please do it.]
Joshua stares at the message for a bit, unease creeping up his spine.
He slowly sits down.
[StevenStoneOffical: Joshua, I want you to take a deep breath. A deep, deep breath. I am going to post the transcript of the conversation between Palkia and I.]
[StevenStoneOffical: I just need you to stay calm.]
“Steven…”
[StevenStoneOffical: Joshua.]
Joshua opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. He pulls a gss bottle of water out of his inventory and takes a sip.
“...fine”
There's a pause, Joshua suspects it's simply taking a long time to type. Or… he doesn’t know.
Then, it appears.
[StevenStoneOffical:
Stone: “Palkia, I wish to speak with you”
Palkia: “WHAT DO YOU WANT… CHAMPION OF HOENN?”
Stone: “There is a man, his name is Joshua Abrams… ]
Joshua reads, his heart sinking further and further into his chest the further down he reads.
Dread. An ice cold feeling of pure dread freezes him like a harsh blizzard.
[Palkia: “THERE IS NO… CONNECTION. BETWEEN THE FRACTURE AND… THE HUMAN’S HOME…” ]
His mouth feels dry, his fingers hurt as they curl into a white knuckled death grip into his pants.
What? What do you mean? Did he read that wrong, how is there no connection?
What does that mean?
The further down he goes, he reaches… it.
His heart shatters.
[Palkia: “THERE IS… NOTHING LEFT TO CONNECT TO” ]
He stares at this message for a while.
“...”
A… long while. His head is swirling. Emotions untethered rampage through his mind like a broken dam.
It feels like hours of just staring.
Lying on his back now, his bnk eyes stare at the ceiling like a corpse. His thoughts swimming without mercy.
Confusion, what even is this? Is this some fucking joke?
Anger, who does that fucking Pokemon think he is? Who is he to say his home is gone?
His home is…
Sadness, does that mean mom and dad are… his home is…
Is there really…
…nothing left?
“...”
Joshua harshly wipes away the tears.
Bullshit.
Gritting his teeth, they threaten to crack. But he doesn't care.
He feels a heat in his eyes.
[Palkia: “THE… HUBRIS. OF MEN WITH… LARGE… WEAPONS” ]
Bull. Shit.
Bull. Fucking. Shit.
He starts to shake. The chat is saying something, but he doesn't care, he doesn't see them.
Joshua isn't dumb, he knows what a fucking nuke is. There was no nuke! Did they think we is dumb enough to not notice a fucking nuclear explosion going off?
Sure, he's been juggling the idea of this being the Afterlife, but you would THINK he would remember ONE SINGULAR THING about HIS OWN FUCKING “DEATH”!
BUT HE DOESN'T!
God, he is behaving like a child…
But his parents, his PARENTS, just died.
Control? Stability? Keeping a cool head?
His grip tightens further, with a shout he whips the bottle against the wall, shattering it into a thousand shards.
“FUCK OFF!”
He jumps up, heat raging in his body, mind clouded as his world twists and turns like cy.
But he doesn't care.
A part of his brain whispers. He's doing it again. He's losing it AGAIN.
Gain control, keep his focus, feel the ground beneath his feet but he DOESN'T CARE!
This whole time.
This WHOLE FUCKING TIME. He stomps around the bunker, hands gripping his hair.
This…
“My parents are dead…”
Joshua slumps down into himself.
“Oh God… my parents are dead…”
A sob croaks out of his throat.
“My… They're… FUCK!”
Joshua, though just barely, is able to grab on to the faded strings of his pragmatic mind, reigning himself into a less destructive state.
He sits down on his bed again, face in his hands, fists clenched as tears pour down his arms.
…
8PM
[Something is approaching]
Joshua's bnk eyes gze over the warning, silver buzzing against his chest.
He feels nothing.
Whether it be from his exhaustion, or his confidence in the wards…
He doesn't care.
He just…
He's done.
His rage feels fickle now, and he's run out of tears to shed.
Grief? A sense of mourning?
Is this what it's like? A parasitic feeling of hollowness that seems to sap away every ounce of energy he has?
His mind keeps going back, to the st time he's seen his mom.
The day he came here.
Her smile, the side hug she gave him before he left for work. That one mythical pie recipe she's convinced tastes good but never actually tried baking it.
Little bits of pieces, like details to a bigger whole.
[Dr. Ambers: What else?]
“She liked… western movies. Old, shitty western movies. She made me watch them back then… trying to indoctrinate me into her cowboy cult…”
He chuckles at that memory, even if it feels hollow.
“...in hindsight, I think she just wanted some interest for us to bond over…”
Dr. Ambers is… frankly, way too good at her job.
He's been on his back, talking to her for the past hour or so. It's been… releasing, in some way.
“Hubris of man with rge weapons… yeah, sounds about right…”
[Dr. Ambers: You don't seem surprised?]
He rubs a hand down his face.
“Doc, for the st eighty years it's been hammered into every kid that we are on the ‘cusp of annihition’. That some old fucker can push a button and then… boom, humanity is gone. Am I upset? Absolutely. Surprised? Not at all…”
[Dr. Ambers: Were you scared of them?]
“The same way I'm scared of getting hit by a bus when I walk outside but… sure”
These questions are helping, it keeps him distracted, keeps him GROUNDED.
[Dr. Ambers: What do you pn on doing now?]
“I…”
Joshua looks back up at the ceiling.
“...don't know”
He exhales through his mouth.
What does he even do now?
What's left?
For the briefest, briefest moment, a suggestion worms its way into the back of his mind. Whispering an idea that goes against his faith.
A way out.
A final way out.
*SLAM*
The bunker door sms open, startling Joshua into looking up and shoving the thought out of his mind.
He doesn't even notice that the door was ripped off its hinges.
“Jophiel?”
Jophiel stomps closer to him, tears running down her face and lips curled into a snarl.
Did she…
There's a glint in her eye, her horn ignites, but she snarls further and kicks the ground in frustration. A look of contemption goes across her face, before she makes her decision.
Then, she begins to GLOW.
Blinding, pure white light envelopes her form, shaping and morphing as it fkes off into a rotating sphere around her.
A swelling of power, a concentration of energy all focused on a single growing force. It burns his eyes, he's forced to look away.
The hoofsteps don't stop.
By the time Joshua uncovers his eyes from the harsh light, Jophiel stands right over him, changed, looking down at him with heartbroken eyes.
Pure white fur, like ivory in the sun glittering in the light like crystal shards. Her voluptuous mane and tail flows like it's alive, swirling in illuminescent shades of pastel pink and teal that seem to shift and contort like the cosmos, seemingly absorbing the life around it.
She stands taller, sporting near the 5’5 mark with powerful but lethe muscles compacted into an elegant, graceful frame.
A horn wrapped in a spiral of bck and white, crested in a sharp point.
Two wings rest on her back, crawling outwards with the same miasmatic shine as if made out of fme.
Joshua knows that some evolution lines are… odd, implications in the pokedex entries that don't line up with others.
Ninetales are something… more. Something divine, they live to be thousands of years old. For some reason, certain pokemon don't just become bigger or stronger, they become… more.
Jophiel has become… more. A figure of elegance and power. The unicorn, the alicorn, is something mythical, something divine.
Jophiel has changed on a fundamental level.
But…
Her eyes…
Her eyes are…
Her eyes are the same…
She looks down at him, not condescendingly, but with an emotion he's never seen so intensely on the mare. The plume of fur on her ankles sway as she steps uncertainty in pce.
Panic? Confusion? Sadness? Deep determination.
“Jophiel…”
Jophiel, now Rapidash, snaps her eyes back to him with barely contained rage behind them.
“Rapidash”
She brings her head forward.
Joshua… recognizes this gesture.
“Love, are you s-”
She pushes closer.
“Ra. Pi. Dash”
“...”
With practiced ease, even if he hasn't done it in a while, he brings his head in and touches foreheads with the unicorn.
He opens his mind.
And it becomes MORE.
…
Melding, blending, combining.
Joshua can feel his mind exposed, he can feel HER mind.
He can feel the link snapping into pce, her thoughts, her feelings, all exposing itself to him. But then he can… feel… her. The link trembles slightly.
But then it gets wider, and WIDER.
Thoughts, memories, feelings.
Joshua has his entire mind opened up to him, down to every crevice, every stray or impulsive thought is id out.
And in return, he can see… feel… is… Jophiel.
He can see himself, through her eyes. The feeling of her muscles tensing, the hooves against the ground, the… EXPANSIVENESS of psychic power that swirls around her.
He can feel the air in her lungs, the pull of her lips, her heart racing in her chest.
He has memories of Jophiel, being born in a breeder, and sold to a Pokecenter. He remembers her being put into a ball and then… nothing. The confusion, the panic, the calm analysis that came after, he remembers those feelings, HER feelings.
Just like her, he can feel… everything about the other, and it's like he's always had it. From the surface thoughts, to the deeper intrusive ones, to the primal feelings of lust, anger, and…
This isn't a link. This is something deeper.
Something more. Two separate entities, but… not.
Jophiel is opened up to him. Just as he is to her.
As he marvels at the exchange, a thought is pushed through the link, direct telepathic communication, instant exchange of words, intentions, and feelings in a single seamless flow, impossible to misunderstand.
(“YOU IDIOT!”)
Jophiel screams in his head.
(“HOW COULD YOU EVEN THINK SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!”)
Her mind is a storm, racing on worry and equal parts rage.
Her voice isn't monotone anymore, an elegant yet currently outraged feminine voice reverberates in his head. No more static, tone perfectly ced in her words.
(“YOU… YOU!... WHY? Why… would you think that?...”)
A part of her just wants to beat him up. She's that angry, but the anger is quickly subsumed by sheer worry and… love?
(“Are you seriously surprised?”)
“Just… kinda embarrassed to see it all..
id out”
(“I have not been subtle”)
“I'm not good at reading horse body nguage”
He hears a sigh. Jophiel shakes her head slightly. She's still pissed, but snapping at him won't solve anything.
(“I'm not happy, Beloved”)
“I… know that”
She steps even closer, eye to eye with him and staring into him.
(“Steven asked me to not interfere. To let that Doctor do her job. I thought it was foolish, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt”)
She chuffs.
(“But then… t-then I…”)
(“It's been h-hours and I heard…”)
Sadness starts to creep up again. Her anger fading into a slurry of fearful panic.
(“Please don't")
Her eyes turn soft, tears leaking as she nuzzles into his neck, sitting down and wrapping her wings around him.
(“Please…”)
“It…”
Joshua doesn't know what to say. He wraps his arms around the now much rger mare.
“I… won't. I won't. Just a bad thought, love”
(“Please don't”)
“I won't”
(“Don't think of it again”)
“I won't”
He can't promise that, but he'll try.
In response to that thought, she wraps her wings around him tighter, like he might disappear if she lets go.
(“Beloved…”)
“Yeah?”
(“I'm so sorry…”)
Tears still fall down onto his face, a lot are his own.
What is she… oh.
She saw his memories.
She knows that his…
“...”
He decides to let go.
Jophiel never heard a crying human before.
She doesn't like it.
