Chapter Text
The Center of Creation was a bit harder to get to than Marya had anticipated, and surprisingly, as Ebony led her and Lukas down the ridge of the alpha rhyperior's plateau, also a place in the Coronet Highlands she and Umi hadn't gone to back during the Highlands expedition.
If the eeriness of moving through frozen Time wasn't enough on the pre-summit plateau, then it was downright unnerving when skirting past a frozen alpha pokemon. Marya had stopped and stared at the alpha rhyperior when they were walking by it, having done the same for the alpha steelix. Both of the alpha pokemon that were suspended in their patrolling movements were replacements of the ones she'd captured back during the expedition, younger and more aggressive-looking than the old males she had taken down and captured for the Survey Corps. In the grayscale landscape, the crimson radiance of their eyes that signified their alpha distinction among their species remained the only part of them that was in color, watching Marya, Ebony, and Lukas as they passed by.
Were they conscious at all? Could they actually see them go by, trespassing through their precious territories among the onix and rhyhorns and chinglings that inhabited them? If Anna or Umi were here, she'd have someone to voice and discuss her questions with— no, no, she couldn't dwell on that right now. Marya turned away from the alpha rhyperior and caught up with the sorta-maybe friends undertaking her task with her.
Once they had been ferried to the grassy landing by Marya's togekiss, the three of them found themselves in a sea of petrified bronzong and Hisuian sneasels, high rocky cliffs on either side enclosing them. Further down the path, an alpha probopass hovered menacingly in front of a pair of decently-sized cave openings, its bright eyes seemingly fixated on Marya no matter the angle she stared at it from.
"Wait, this is it?" Lukas spoke first after he and Orion slid off Hyakinthos's back, Anna's umbreon Midnight hopping after him. Marya turned to him to see him glance around the grove with a surprised expression. "I think I came across this place during the expedition."
We call it Primeval Grove. Ebony signed to them both with a grin. Then, they pointed to the pair of caves just past the alpha probopass. Those caves are the Center of Creation.
Marya relayed her translation of their HSL to Lukas as she had been since they'd set out from the Galaxy Team camp earlier…. earlier that day? She couldn't even demarcate the passage of Time with periods of sleep anymore, the halting of all Time leaving her body and mind tired but with no sense of when to sleep. They had to have been traveling for almost twenty-four hours straight, but it could've also just been a few hours. At that point, did it even matter?
"This place is a lot easier to explore with that alpha frozen," Lukas commented as they approached one of the caves. From inside, Marya could see a faint orange glow, different from the Riftlight above and the glares of alphas, gods, and Umi. It was softer, a subtle gravity to it that almost felt like it was beckoning her closer, whisperings barely audible in the back of her head. "When I was poking around here with Noivern, we had to fight the alpha long enough to get past it and further into the grove."
Marya paused mid-step to eye Lukas as he and Midnight caught up, surprise riddling her. "You took on an alpha that strong all by yourself?"
Overt irritation was clear in Lukas's furrowed brow. "You really haven't been paying attention to the battle training, have you."
Marya stared up at him for a second. It was a statement, an accusation, not a question. "Was I supposed to?"
Lukas looked down at her for a prolonged moment before sighing, his shoulders slumping slightly. "It doesn't matter now, with Noivern gone… let's just get through this."
With that, he brushed past her and followed Ebony into the Center of Creation, a steadying hand on her nephew's back through the sling secured across his shoulders. Marya hesitated to trail after him for a second, exchanging a glance with her sister's umbreon. Midnight and his bright red eyes stared up at her flatly before he turned tail and padded after Lukas with his ears pinned back.
Aah, she had messed up right there, hadn't she? Marya grimaced at the realization. If she was still bungling social interactions like that, then there probably wasn't much hope for her to get any of this god-calming business right either, let alone getting Palkia out of Anna… no, no, she really needed to stop following those bunearies down their warrens.
The soft orange glow emanating from further into the caves tugged more insistently at the edges of her psyche. Marya took a deep breath and crossed from the grayscale darkness into the monochrome light, doubts still stirring in her chest.
The first thing she felt once inside the Center of Creation was warmth, like the sun against her skin on a temperate day in Opelucid City in the spring. Orange light coated the ceiling and curved walls as she ventured further in, emanating from a singular point deeper inside, the exaggerated silhouettes of Ebony and Lukas interrupting the luminescence. Marya paused to take a second and better quiet her discouraging thoughts when she noticed that the walls weren't a normal sort of craggy, but worked by human hands. Shallow shadows etched into the walls illuminated carvings that had long since lost their color and distinct shape, lacking the level of preservation that the Lake Guardian caves and several other sites were able to retain.
What love and care must've been put into these carvings. She didn't know what it was like to hold reverence for a godly pokemon, but whoever decorated a cave system named the Center of Creation must've. Marya passed her fingertips over the one closest to her gently, tracing what felt like a stylized representation of one of the Lake Guardians. All of this work, all of this reverence, only for it to be worn away by later neglect. Was this how the Follower felt a thousand years ago, being the sole acolyte of a god that'd been largely forgotten?
She wished Umi were there with her. At least then, she'd have someone to voice her thoughts to.
"Uh- Marya?"
Marya's head snapped toward the direction Lukas's voice had come from, the notable edge of panic shaking her from her thoughts. She hurried down the tunnel, following the increasing strength of the orange light, ignoring the way it murmured encouragingly to her, only to stop short when she rounded the corner.
Lukas and Ebony stood a little ways away from the source of the light, Lukas standing in front of Ebony with a twisted expression and a pokeball in one hand, his other shielding Orion and his sling. Ebony didn't look scared so much as nervous, their Celestica flute in hand. Both were directing their nervous hostility toward the three small entities floating in front of the large semi-exposed bulbous crystal structure embedded in the back wall of the cave, its numerous pustules glowing a cheerful reddish-orange.
Marya sighed at the sight of the Lake Guardians. Of course those three would show up again.
"Marya, do you know what these pokemon are?" Lukas all but snapped, his jaw taut.
She nodded lethargically as Azelf and Mesprit enthusiastically waved.
"Lukas, Ebony, meet the Lake Guardians."
~***~
"So the Not-Hero merged with Palkia after all…" Uxie trailed off thoughtfully as they hovered over Marya's shoulder, being no help whatsoever in the effort to extract what Lukas thought would be enough Primordial Ore to craft pokeballs with. The murmurings of the ore cluster had ceased the moment she'd started to tease them from the earth, not out of hostility toward her actions, but with a sense of happiness to finally be of use. She still wasn't sure what to make of it. "How fascinating."
Marya finished chipping away at the rim of a smaller piece of ore and pulled it from its centuries-long position in the earth before turning her ill-tempered glare upon the God of Knowledge. "What in the Twin Dragons' name do you mean by that?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Marya saw Lukas glance up at her with a curious, squinty look, his hands still dutifully knapping the ore she'd already dug out into workable pieces. He had her nephew nestled in a makeshift nest made of the Pearl Clan tunic he'd been wearing with Anna's umbreon, the two of them curled up a safe distance away from the campfire Ebony was busy coaxing to life. Azelf was perched on Ebony's dark brown curls, their gold eyes wide as they watched the fire-starting with an enraptured look. Meanwhile, Mesprit pawed through their pack of provisions with excitedly twitching tails.
Once Marya had gotten Lukas to recognize that these three were the same gods that helped her reforge the Red Chain and were probably there to assist again, the Lake Guardians' sudden appearance had been taken smoothly.
Lukas held Marya's eye contact for a second and mouthed something to her that she didn't feel like putting the energy into deciphering. Marya waved it away and focused her glare back on Uxie and their intrigued little smile.
"You gonna say something or what?" Marya hissed, just low enough that only Uxie could hear. Her team's pokeballs shuddered around her waist, undoubtedly sensing her agitation with the minor god. Both she and Lukas had opted to keep their pokemon contained during the pokeball crafting process, to minimize distractions. "Didn't you Know this was going to happen?"
"Very few events are set in stone, as you humans would say," Uxie replied coyly. Despite their eyes being closed, they seemed to sense Marya's deepening frown and continued. "I am the God of Knowledge, not God of the Future, Truth, or Reality. Knowledge in this instance is more of an awareness of likely paths and possibilities based on what has passed, and Knowing whether to nudge toward different outcomes."
Unease curled unpleasantly in Marya's stomach. She turned away from the god and started scraping away at the rough edges of another ore that looked to be the size Lukas wanted to work with. To her momentary relief, it seemed to be the last one in that size range that she could spot. "So it wasn't an inevitability that Anna would get possessed by Palkia?"
Uxie shook their head in her periphery, their voice soft in her head. "No, but Palkia getting what they wanted out of Dialga's conundrum seemed to be a highly likely outcome."
Getting what they wanted…? Marya shelved the thought for later and blew away some of the dust that had accumulated where she was digging. "And it's not inevitable that I'll succeed in calming Dialga?"
"No. Should you fail and get rent by Dialga's power over Time beyond the Progenitor's capacity to heal, the Progenitor has already arranged the birth of a failsafe to take your place."
The birth of a failsafe?
“Arceus came to me while I was comatose and told me that the kid is the key to us both existing two hundred and something years from now, so to preserve the timeline I have to make sure it lives,”
Bitterness swarmed up Marya's throat just as fast as Anna's flippant explanation of her pregnancy that day in the Pearl Clan hot springs came back to her. She craned her neck back to eye her sleepy little nephew, his head of dark, downy curls resting against Midnight's dozing flank and completely unaware of the utility of his existence to Arceus's plans. What would happen to him should she fail? Be raised by Palkia-Anna until Anna's body gave out from having a god inside her? Would Arceus try and manipulate Lukas and his life into grooming Orion into a third Celestica hero?
Another reminder that she couldn't afford to fail.
"I'm not letting that happen," Marya growled, the conviction settling in her chest and calcifying there. "He was already born to guarantee me, like fuck am I letting him replace me."
The last ore she needed fell freely into her palm. Somewhere behind her, Marya could feel Azelf's attention switch to her and burn.
"This outcome would be most favorable," Uxie mused with a purr to their voice in Marya's head. "Rearing the hatchling properly would require much effort on our end. It is more convenient to help you and this Craftsman reforge the Red Chain into your human capture device."
Marya snorted at that, her hackles flattening a little. Of course the gods were lazy like that. "Convenient, huh."
She dusted her knees off and uncrumpled herself from the kneeling position she'd been excavating in for Dragons-how long and gathered the last few ores she'd dug up in the crook of her arm, leaving the trowel and sharp stone she'd been using as an improvised pick by the cluster that was still intact. Her legs only felt a little numb as she stumbled over to Lukas and plopped herself down next to him, Uxie draping themself across her shoulders.
"Here's the last of the small ones," she murmured to avoid disturbing his work too much. Lukas paused after another strike of his knapping stone against the half-worked ore in his hands to eye them. "How many pokeballs will you be able to make from all of these?"
Lukas glanced at Uxie with a strange light in his eyes before responding. "With the amount of Red Chain pieces, just two. I need the extras to get the shape right first."
From Marya's shoulder, Uxie made a cute trilling noise, something excited and curious. Marya turned her head enough to eye the small god, but their voice was stubbornly silent in her head.
After poking at the new ores for another few seconds, Lukas resumed his work on the half-knapped one, methodically chipping it into a similar small bowl shape like the previous ones he'd done. The other attempts lay in a small pile between his knee and where Orion was napping, right next to the cloth bundle containing the Red Chain pieces. Marya watched him for a while, her hands fidgeting in her lap.
"Is there anything I ca-"
"No." Lukas cut her off firmly, his jawline tense. "I don't want to mess this up, and you said it yourself to Palkia and the Clan leaders that I'm the best of us at pokeball crafting. Just let me work, Marya."
Marya reeled back slightly, gathering her knees up to her chest. "Oh. Okay."
And with that, she was useless.
~***~
With not much else to do until it was time for the forging process, Marya wandered.
The Center of Creation wasn't one cave, but two, she found out. While she'd been poking around the tunnel that led to the Primordial Ore and taking rubbings of the better-defined wall carvings, Marya discovered another tunnel that led to the side instead of deeper into Mount Coronet. The tunnel hadn't been lit with the Primordial Ore's friendly light, so she'd let Hisuian zorua Ashtoreth out of her ball to see by her ectoplasmic glow, the pup excitedly prancing around her feet as they'd walked further in. Ashtoreth's glow didn't reveal any evidence of human handiwork on the walls, but the eventual dead-end they had reached did reveal a pair of partially-exposed fossils.
Marya's heart leaped at the sight. Finally, finally, something she could do that wasn't related to the grand mission Arceus had thrust upon her. She plopped herself down in front of the fossils and pulled out her makeshift ore-digging tools, immediately setting to work articulating them under Ashtoreth's ghostly light.
At first, it was peaceful, the groove of her hands moving methodically, the grains of dirt and dust and rock gently hitting the skin of her uninjured hand with each bit of fossilized bone exposed. Ashtoreth, after a time, climbed into her lap and fell asleep, her cold weight offering Marya a further sense of grounding.
Slowly, the large flat plain of one of the skulls came into full view, reminding her of a pokemon she'd sworn she'd seen during a space-time distortion. This was the sort of thing that Anna might be more interested in than Umi, discovering previously-unnamed prehistoric pokemon and not only preserving their fossils, but also capturing and recording them in the pokedex. Sure, she'd done a lot of excursions into the distortions whenever they'd pop up, but not with Anna—
Marya shook her head quickly, trying to bury the subway train of thought. She really needed to stop thinking about how much she missed her sister when what she needed to focus on was how to get Palkia out of her. It was hard to even think about it though, now that her initial rush of determination had petered out… if only Umi were he—
Marya shook her head again with a growl and shoved all those thoughts away. Why, why couldn't she just focus on something innocuous to pass the time until she had to redo the forging ceremony? Why couldn't she have a moment of peace to forget that a god was actively possessing her sister, that her girlfriend wasn't with her and was acting weird, that her nephew was born to replace her?
With shaking hands, Marya brushed dirt away from the flat-headed fossil's shattered eye socket, her skin prickly and uncomfortable against her clothes and the aching of her scar tissue clawing to the forefront of her addled mind. It mixed with every other little thing plaguing her at that moment, from her Hisuian decidueye's uncertain health status to how she was nothing but a tool to be used by the gods to her ever-present alienation from the people around her, everyone staring at her like the little useless zorua she wa- no, no!
Marya dropped her tools with another, more frustrated growl. She heard Ashtoreth whine and shift in her lap, but she couldn't bring herself to look at the pup, the visible reminder of how she had failed to protect her pokemon and her sister, trying to muster her Willpower to beat back her burgeoning, maddening emotions with a proverbial stick so she could keep functioning, keep moving until she fixed everything, because what else was she good for? What el—
Chiming, foreign laughter in her head made her spiraling thoughts screech to a halt.
"My, the catharsis I offered you in my trial really was wasted!" Mesprit's high-pitched, annoying voice rang. Marya twisted around to see the minor god floating behind her, illuminated by Ashtoreth's light and the subtle glow of their red forehead gem. Their gold eyes were squinted with pure, unadulterated amusement, more orange in the lighting, and their little paws didn't completely cover their curving grin. "It is not often that my hatchlings and I doubt in the Progenitor's plan, but one would think a Hero would Know better than to recklessly suppress their emotions."
Sparks of irritation caught on the dry kindling in her veins and spread like an unchecked wildfire after years of overgrowth. Marya didn't bother restraining her tongue, curling her lip at the God of Emotion as her eyes burned. "Can't you just leave me alone?!"
"Why would I do that?" Mesprit giggled, floating closer. "Even before the fall of the Celestica, rare was it that I met a human as damaged as you, let alone Chosen for greatness."
Marya flinched, damaged hitting her like a slap. "I'm- I'm not-"
But wasn't she?
If she wasn't a zorua masquerading as a person, then she was just a damaged, useless human who could never do anything right.
Marya untwisted herself and faced the fossils again, her whole body quivering as if she were afraid. The bitter, lonely tendrils that had been growing since the Rift reopened tightened around her lungs and heart, making her rasp for breath. Her sight was blurring as she tried to get her everything under control, but the stick she'd been using to hold it all back burned up before her eyes.
"Were you to face Dialga in this state, you truly would be torn apart," Mesprit commented idly. Marya felt the change in the air as the God of Emotion floated around her head in lazy, unbothered circles. "Such is the price for undervaluing my domain, I suppose."
Marya inhaled a trembling breath and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms, anything to chase the incoming tears away. In her lap, Ashtoreth was staring up at her with wide, glowing tangerine eyes full of concern. She gave her Hisuian zorua a timid pet over her head and down her little spine, her ghostly fur cold and staticky instead of its normal comforting fluff.
"Feels more like you're tryna tear me apart now," Marya grumbled weakly, allowing herself a sniffle. Her eyes still hurt, laden with her unshed tears, but at least she could respond.
"Oh, anything I can inflict will be nothing compared to what our older siblings are capable of~" Mesprit all but purred. The sound of it in her head sent a spike of nausea through Marya.
"What is this?" Marya tried to snap, but her voice had lost all strength, sounding and feeling more like a plea for mercy. "I'm… I'm the plaything for enough gods as-is, I don't need this rapidash-shit from you."
"How bold of you to spurn my assistance," the small god said wryly. "How else will you save the Not Hero from Palkia if you are torn apart by Dialga? How else will you prove yourself worthy of love and belonging with other humans if you fail to perform your divine tasks?"
Whatever response Marya could muster became lodged in her throat, full of thorns and reeking of the guilt for being alive. She whispered. "I- I don't-"
"You don't Know?" Mesprit's voice in her head hardened. "I ask not for Knowledge, but for Feeling. Share your Emotions with me, Second Hero. If you can Feel them and let them pass through you, then maybe you will have a chance for success."
What did that even mean? Marya bristled as she glanced up to glare at the god, only to catch their gaze. Godly golden irises gleamed in the red-tinted darkness, their pupils like pinpricks and their twin tails still as the God of Emotion waited for their demand to be met.
"I'm… I'm so tired," the words slipped out from between her lips like water. "I- I feel like I keep making everything worse."
Mesprit narrowed their eyes.
Bitter thorny vines dug into her throat, but the reward of the release of pressure behind her eyes spurred Marya forward. "I'm- my sister, Anna, I- I feel like her getting possessed by Palkia was my fault, like I didn't do enough to help her to avoid that fate. An- and everyone keeps looking to me like I have to solve everything because I ruined everything- and they're right, but I… I hate it-"
Saltiness trickled into the corners of her mouth. Marya felt her whole body shudder with a gross sob, scooping her zorua into her arms and holding her close to her chest as she curled in on herself. Dimly, she felt Ashtoreth lap at her quickly-falling tears. She kept trying to form more words, but they were leaving her tongue just as she reached for them, fueling the wracking sobs that reverberated through her bones and bubbled beneath her skin. Everything she'd been Feeling, been wanting to Feel but couldn't let herself do so, it all violently rejoiced in the theater of her mind, ripping and tearing at all the parts of herself that desperately wanted to stay intact. A particularly strong wail tore its way up her throat and burst forth as a pitying keen, muffled by Ashtoreth's thick fur.
She… she couldn't keep going like this.
"Wuh- why?" Marya bawled. Each blubbering word held the pain of Truth. "Why can't- can't I do anything right? Why can't I stop hurting the people I- I wanna protect? Why- why can't I belong with them?"
She raised her head to look Mesprit with desperate anger in her eyes and saw it reflected in the god's own. Mesprit smiled sadly.
"I am unsure how to answer your questions, Second Hero," regret tinged their voice. "But you are trying, yes?"
"It's… It's all I ever seem to be able to do," Marya mumbled thickly, looking down again. She took a shallow, hiccuping breath. "An- and nothing ever changes."
"Try breathing a little deeper."
Marya inhaled slowly, taking a deeper, more unsteady breath. Ashtoreth licked some tears off her cheek.
"I Feel like more has changed for you than you think," Mesprit mused softly. "The longer you let your Emotions fester untouched within you, the more blind you are to who and what is around you. Feeling these means they hold no power over you any longer than the moment they are Felt."
"All I ever do is feel them!" Marya snapped wetly.
"No, you linger on them!" Mesprit retorted quickly, their tails cracking the stagnant air like whips. "It is different. You stink of a lifetime of this rot. If you actually Felt your emotions, they would pass through you, and your wounds could actually heal. You would have the functioning you desire, the ability to move forward and fix things. Instead, you recycle all your past hurts through your head every time something happens to you, and you call it fuel for your Willpower. "
Marya grit her teeth, her chest seizing at the god's words. They couldn't be right, that couldn't be right- "No, I do-"
"You do," Mesprit cut her off sharply. They hovered closer, their bright golden eyes inches away from her tearful stare. "The more you prevent yourself from Feeling, the more ensnared you become by your darkest thoughts. You have trapped yourself in your head with the negative perceptions you have latched onto from those who have misunderstood you. If you truly wanted to fix everything, you must first untangle yourself from this rotten web you have constructed to protect yourself."
"I-"
"Then you're going to drive yourself crazy," Umi huffed in her mind's eye. The memory resurfaced in a brilliant flash— the night she couldn't sleep before she calmed Lady Arcanine and Umi leaving her after kissing her. The starlight had been bright that night on the beach, and the glow of Umi's crimson, godlike eyes had been entrancing. "A very good friend of mine once told me that if you keep all your thoughts and worries in your head, you'll be spinning more bad stories in there than there are constellations in the sky."
She hadn't wanted to listen at that time, refusing Umi's offer of help in calming Lady Arcanine later in the conversation. Now, she wondered if she still would've died seven times to Lady Arcanine's frenzy if she had let Umi help her, how the conversation would've gone if she hadn't rebuffed Umi's advice. Would Umi have stayed with her instead of ghost her for four months if she'd been involved in that calming?
A hitched breath fluttered up her choked throat before she could stop it. She was too aware now of the heavy weight of the rot in her chest and spreading through her body like a disease. The bitter hurt and anguish weren't pushing her forward now, empowering her to take frenzied Dialga on— it was keeping her curled up in a small cave with the fossilized skeletons of long-dead pokemon and having her wallow in her own sense of uselessness while Lukas and Ebony prepared for a battle they weren't even going to be fighting.
Maybe… maybe Umi was right, and Mesprit too.
Renewed tears welled up and over her cheeks, dampening her lashes as another bout of crying bubbled up from her chest. Marya ducked her head back down and pressed her face into Ashtoreth's cold fur, muffling another wail.
How long were the people who love her waiting for her to realize this?
"Yes, there it is," Mesprit purred. Marya was dimly aware of their weight curling up on her head as she screamed and cried into her Hisuian zorua's dampening coat, holding her close with her knees bundled up to her chest. In her head, she was hacking at the roots of her rotten sorrows with a knife, scraping away at the deepest parts with her fingers until they bled to unearth it all, frenzied in the pursuit of catharsis. "Let yourself grieve everything that has happened to you, and everything you have done. How you have been wronged can still be motivation for the Will, but only if you Feel it all in its entirety first. Do not run from what will eventually make you stronger. Feel it all until it has passed through you."
How would she feel when it was all done?
"This is not work to be done in a single instant," the God of Emotion cautioned, amusement returning to their purr. "This is a task that will take many years, if not the rest of your life. But for what comes next, this might be enough."
Marya kept swinging away, kept digging as her body shook, violent bursts of tears wracking her and seizing her lungs. She could barely breathe as she cried and screamed and mourned, as she forced every little instant of alienation, betrayal, and misunderstanding to face her and be put to the blade.
She could be better.
She could be better.
She will be better.
"And once it has passed through you, it will never have power over you again."
~***~
When Marya stumbled back into the Primordial Ore's warm light, she flinched at first, her eyes and cheeks raw from how much she'd cried. Ashtoreth trotted at her side as she slowly walked toward the campfire Ebony had set up, her limbs shaking a little and her stomach growling. She felt weak, her head clearer than it's been in ages, but also as light as the glow that bathed her and her companions.
The wounds were open again in her heart and she could feel their sting, but they were as clean as she could manage, the infection gone. It was enough for her to move, to function, to continue being the Second Hero of Celestica.
Marya squared her shoulders a little when Ebony spotted her and waved, Mesprit purring from their perch on her head.
She could do this now.
You okay? Ebony signed to her as Marya sat down next to them. Ashtoreth immediately claimed her spot in Marya's lap again, her fluffy tail wagging and her round eyes staring curiously at Orion in Ebony's. Marya didn't respond immediately, smiling a little at the sight of her nephew awake in the Sneasler apprentice's lap, squirming and gurgling as Azelf flitted their twin tails just out of the reach of his little grabby hands. Midnight watched the God of Willpower through half-lidded red eyes from where he rested against Ebony's crossed legs, his chin on their ankle.
"Not… not really," Marya answered Truthfully, her hands knotting in Ashtoreth's fur. She winced at the hoarseness of her own voice and gratefully accepted a stick of stantler jerky from Ebony. Marya tore a chunk off with her teeth before continuing. "I don't think I will be though until this is all sorted. How long was I gone?"
Long enough for Lukas to build that. Ebony gestured to across the cavern. Marya followed it and blinked, surprised. A yard or so from where she had mined the Primordial Ore, Lukas was finishing placing a fired-earth brick atop an organized pile of more bricks, his Hisuian typhlosion dozing behind him and Uxie draped across his bare shoulders. His black thermal undershirt seemed to have been discarded just like his Pearl Clan tunic had been while she'd been gone, leaving him just in a tight sarashi wrap and his pants as he toiled with the bricks.
She lingered on the sight of Uxie so comfortable with her sister's friend, her empty stomach twisting a little. How would Anna respond to Lukas getting Chosen after she'd rid her of Palkia?
"What're you doing?" Marya raised her voice a little to get his attention, echoing in the cavern. At the sound of her voice, Lukas's head reared up and he popped to his feet with a grin, the top of his head nearly brushing the cave ceiling. From where they rested across his broad shoulders, Uxie raised their head and turned her way with a pleased smile on their little mouth, the God of Knowledge's eyes ever-closed but still seeing.
"Marya! Good, you're back," Lukas said giddily. There was a strange light in his wine-colored eyes, not quite the reddish orange of the Primordial Ore, as he talked animatedly. "Uxie informed me that the easiest way to get the Red Chain pieces into the malleable shape is to superheat them, but we think Typhlosion's Flamethrower won't be enough to heat the crucible properly in the kiln. Doesn't your togekiss also know it?"
Marya didn't answer immediately, throwing a glare Uxie's way.
"Worry not, Second Hero," Uxie's soft voice floated into Marya's head, sounding like a glameow that'd just caught its dinner. "I am merely feeding the Craftsman forging knowledge to aid you. I have not Chosen him. The Knowledge he craves is too limited to warrant my favor."
The fact that Uxie acknowledged what Marya was worried about only made her stomach churn more, like the god had considered it.
Mesprit's little paws tapped the crown of her head.
Right. Uxie said they weren't going to Choose Lukas, so her anxiety wasn't worth holding onto. Marya took a deep breath and let the emotion slowly disentangle itself.
"Yeah, Kinthos can help." Marya answered with a steadier voice, her shoulders slumping a little. She palmed her togekiss's pokeball and gave it a toss into the air, letting him burst forth.
The first thing her massive togekiss did after shaking his feathers out was give her a full-body examination with gentle pokes of his beak and low, worried warbling in the back of his throat. Marya couldn't help but chuckle a little under Hyakinthos's attention, his soft feathers against her face further soothing her. Once he was satisfied, Hyakinthos stepped back and swung his large head around warily, surveying the new space he'd found himself in. It didn't take him long to determine that he did not like being in a cave system, if his puffed-up feathers and agitated steps weren't clear enough.
"I know bud, I know," Marya patted his flank tenderly. Hyakinthos trilled irritably. "All you gotta do is help Typhlosion heat that thing over there up and then you can have all the berries you want. Sound good?"
She pointed at Lukas's kiln as Lukas placed the last brick and stepped away. Hyakinthos stared at the structure and cocked his head. With careful steps of his big taloned feet around the campfire and his head low, Hyakinthos approached the kiln almost as if he were stalking it. Then, he glanced over at Lukas's typhlosion, who had raised her head with her small ears perked. The two pokemon had a brief conversation of rumbles and chirps before Hyakinthos looked back at Marya and nodded.
"Great!" Lukas beamed. He crouched next to the kiln, beckoning Hyakinthos and Typhlosion's attention to the small opening at the bottom. "See the hole here? I need both of you to aim Flamethrower here to heat what Uxie called the crucible-"
Uxie slipped off Lukas's shoulders as he continued to explain what he needed from the pair of pokemon, lazily floating their way over to Marya. She tried not to react too much when the God of Knowledge settled across her shoulders like a clingy purrloin, occupying her hands and mouth with eating more of her stantler jerky.
"Your defiance of Palkia to acquire this Craftman's help was a wise decision," the god murmured in her head, unbidden. "He took to the Knowledge I provided readily, and I have little doubt he will succeed in shaping this device."
"Will I still have to do anything like that reforging ceremony we'd done at Pastorium?" Marya asked quietly in between bites of jerky, her eyes glued to the ignition of bright twin streams of Flamethrower.
"Yes, we will need you and your song to fully complete the device."
Marya nodded just enough to not disturb Mesprit's perch on her head. She could feel that the god had curled up there fully, dozing. When she eyed Ebony and Orion, she found that Ebony had shifted to lay down with her baby nephew, the pair lulling to sleep with Midnight posturing as a sort of watchog, his ears pricked even as his eyes slipped closed. Only Azelf of that little group remained awake, their twin tails swishing jovially as they made their way over to Lukas. Part of Marya yearned to be able to sleep with them and let the unmoving hours pass by, but strangely, the exhaustion she'd been feeling before had dissipated.
She eyed the minor god lounging on her shoulder. "Uxie?"
"Yes, Hero?"
Marya hesitated slightly. "There's… whenever Palkia referred to Anna as their vessel, they kept specifying that she housed their mind, and they freaked out a little when I suggested trapping Dialga's mind in the pokeball Lukas is forging-"
She paused when Uxie made a startled trilling noise, the small god reacting so bodily that they almost fell off her shoulders. A second later, the sound of their shocked laughter filled her head. "What?"
"Oh this is very amusing!" Uxie exclaimed. Their twin tails thrashed against Marya's bicep in utter amusement. Marya stared at the God of Knowledge strangely as she waited for them to continue. It was the most she'd ever seen the god emote. "The arrogance and carelessness of our older siblings never fails to astound me!"
Marya's heartbeat quickened. "So there's something to that then? The entirety of Palkia isn't inside my sister?"
"If the whole of the God of Space were inside your hatchmate, she and all of Hisui would have perished on the spot from the full brunt of Palkia's power!" Uxie said, laughter still in their voice. "No, gods as big as Space, Time, and Reality cannot fit themselves within the confides of a terrestrial body nor walk the earth. Not in whole, at least."
Marya squinted at the fire crackling before her. "But they can separate their mind from their full body and do so?"
At that, Uxie was initially silent. Marya turned to eye the god again and found them facing her with their eyes ever so slightly open, slivers of gold getting absorbed by the surrounding orange light.
"Are you sure you wish to Know?"
Her heart hammered in her chest. Was this the key to getting Palkia out of her sister? She answered breathlessly, with conviction. "Yes."
Uxie's eyes flashed. They smiled, as if pleased. "Listen carefully, for the Knowledge I impart unto you is something even the Progenitor does not wish for humans to Know…"
~***~
Unearthly sparks flew when Lukas began to hammer the Red Chain pieces into their desired shape.
It was mesmerizing to witness— the amalgamated chunk of carmine rock that the Red Chain had melted into slowly, slowly being worked into a concave shape until Lukas's strength and workmanship. Marya and Ebony couldn't look away as they watched him work, the Lake Guardians all hovering around him and watching just as closely.
Chnk!
Chnk!
Chnk!
Lukas breathed steadily as he hammered on an unheard rhythm, sweat trickling down the side of his forehead and more beads forming along his arms and chest.
Chnk!
Chnk!
Chnk!
Marya didn't flinch at the loudness of his makeshift hammer against the stone, not anymore. Instead, her heart clenched at each strike, at each movement that brought her closer to the fulfillment of her own task. She'd long since returned Hyakinthos to his pokeball, her togekiss demanding to be put away as soon as he'd finished properly heating the kiln, but Ashtoreth remained in her lap, Lukas's typhlosion laying down beside her to join them all in watching her trainer.
Chnk!
Chnk!
Chnk!
At the point in the process they were in, it didn't feel right to speak, to disturb the atmosphere of creation. The only noise that seemed to be permitted was the subtle humming from the Lake Guardians, discordant with Lukas's hammering, but almost trance-inducing all the same.
Chnk!
Chnk!
Chnk!
The noise, the heat and the smoke from the kiln, the way their shadows danced across the cavern walls, the whisperings of the Primordial Ore that had resumed in her head, Marya sat and absorbed it all, absently letting Ashtoreth nibble on her fingers with her needle-sharp teeth.
Chnk!
Chnk!
Ch-unk!
Marya gasped as the bowl shape Lukas had been making split in two. She made to rise to her feet. "What did you do-"
"There's enough for two." Lukas's voice was strong despite the heaving of his chest. With the orange light of the remaining Primordial Ore behind him, he fixed Marya with his unyielding stare. "I can make two Primordial Balls. Just in case."
Marya's eyes widened as she caught his meaning. She glanced at Uxie and saw them smile at her knowingly.
They hadn't closed the connection with Lukas before speaking with her, Marya realized in that instant, or perhaps reopened it. They'd let Lukas overhear on purpose.
So that was their angle.
The other two Lake Guardians chirped and trilled in confusion, both of them floating closer to Uxie and eyeing them suspiciously as Lukas resumed his task. Uxie chirped back with a purr mixed in, their little gray paws assuaging. Mesprit and Azelf settled down with mixed expressions, separating and resuming their hovering around Lukas. With the Red Chain rock split in two, Lukas divided his attention between them, shaping them more and more into the familiar curvature of the half of a pokeball.
Chnk!
Chnk!
Chnk!
At some point, Lukas stopped and discarded his makeshift hammer, the worked rock falling from his grasp. Marya and Ebony tracked him as he walked hurriedly to where he had left the shaped ore pieces he'd worked on while the Red Chain pieces were firing and gathered them up, along with what looked like some premade hinges and clasps. He moved in a fervor, fitting all the pieces together with a lazer-focused expression, his white brows knitting together and his wine-colored eyes bright with the Primordial Ore's orange light.
Then, he stepped back from his makeshift workbench of fired-earth brick and looked to Uxie. "They're ready."
Uxie nodded and turned to Marya. "It is time once again, Hero. Lend us your song."
Marya took a deep breath. Gently, she placed Ashtoreth next to Ebony and her nephew before getting to her feet, unsteady from sitting for so long. She drew her Celestica flute from her satchel as she wobbily approached the workbench, her eyes glued to the strange pokeballs Lukas had crafted. The top halves were made of the Red Chain pieces and the bottoms were the Primordial Ore she had mined, the pair glittering ethereally in the ore's light. The whispering of the ore grew stronger as she arrived in front of the workbench, incomprehensible but beckoning just as warmly as it had when they had first arrived.
"Don't we need the Nobles for this too?" she asked Uxie quietly.
"Their visages are carved into the very walls," the god murmured back. At that, Marya whipped her head around, squinting at the worn carvings that decorated the walls surrounding them. She still couldn't distinguish anything distinct, so she'd just have to take their word for it. "Now, begin."
Marya nodded a little and raised her flute to her mouth.
She took a breath, focused on the Primordial Pokeballs, and began to play.
~***~
When they emerged from the Center of Creation, the only thing that had changed in their grayed-out world was that more of Dialga's gigantic head had breached the Rift, their luminous crimson eyes peeking over the awful tears in Reality and bathing everywhere their frenzied gaze looked in heart-wrenching red light.
Instead of trailing after Ebony like she had before, Marya led her little group back up to the Summit Camp, her footsteps steady and unfaltering despite the terrain. Adira loped at her side with Ashtoreth on her back, keeping up easily with her determined pace.
Thought the Lake Guardians had left them soon after the reforging was complete, Marya could still feel their presence around her, like their little paws were pressing against her back and urging her forward. Willpower was a steady drum in her chest, the attribute that came to her most naturally, keeping her legs moving as they climbed the cemetery slope of cheri berry trees.
Soon, everything would finally be okay.
Soon, she would have her sister and Umi back, and the Rift would be closed.
Soon, hopefully, her tasks for Arceus would be complete.
At the top of the slope, the figure of Warden Murdann greeted them.
"Yer back!" the older woman exclaimed with a wave. She clapped Ebony on the back as she accompanied them back to Summit Camp. "Ye got whit ye went there for?"
"Yes," Marya paused at the edge of the tents and pulled out one of the Primordial Balls. It ached a little to hold it in her hand as she presented it to Warden Murdann. "With this, I should be able to calm and capture Dialga."
Lady Sneasler's warden leaned in to inspect the pokeball before giving Marya a feral grin. "Seems worthy tae catch a god tae me. Palkia an' th' clan leaders are waitin' up at the temple tunnel."
Marya put the pokeball back in her satchel and looked up at their destination. The crown of Dialga's head seemed to have stalled in trying to breach the Rift, like a pokemon in labor struggling to pass an egg.
"Take us there." she ordered.
Warden Murdann's grin widened.
~***~
Dark stains of dried blood still littered the snow on the path to the Summit tunnel.
Marya breathed through the clenching of her stomach at the lingering horror of what had transpired the last time she'd been on this path, keeping her muscles moving. The closer they all got to the Summit, the more it felt like they were walking through waist-high water, Dialga's pressure raining down upon them all.
"Marya, you are here!" Lady Iceilia rushed toward her from the shadow of the tunnel entrance, Lord Azazel on her heels. Both Clan leaders were staring at her with what seemed like relief in their statures, Lady Iceilia reaching for her like she was going to hug her. "Your si- my Liege is waiting for you at the temple-"
Marya didn't waste time, giving them a nod as she picked up her pace and rushed past, calling Adira and Ashtoreth back into their balls as she went. She didn't pause as she darted through the tunnel clearing, too quick for the memories to catch up to her. When she stepped out of the tunnel and into the Rift's full, awful light, Dialga's frenzied screeching hit her like a brick wall, making her gasp. Marya slapped her hands over her ears and looked up at her destination.
Palkia-Anna was waiting for her at the edge of the broken platform.
"Welcome back, Hero." despite the wind and the pained screams of a frenzied god, Palkia-Anna's layered voice was crystal clear. "Do you have your contraption ready?"
"Yes!" Marya shouted back, taking a step forward. Just barely beneath the screeching, she could hear the sounds of her companions walking through the tunnel to join her. "What do I need to do now?!"
Palkia-Anna held out a hand, their crimson eyes bright. "Join me here."
Marya gritted her teeth and pushed forth. She couldn't afford to hesitate, not anymore.
When she reached her possessed sister's side, she kept her focus on them, even as her body shook and begged to cave under the sheer presence of the frenzied god above. Palkia-Anna wordlessly beckoned her to follow them. Wind and godly pain howled around them, pulling violently at their clothes and hair as they skirted past where one of Dialga's massive horns pierced the ruined temple and its speared pillars and found themselves standing directly under Dialga's infuriated gaze. Crimson bore into her like drills, stealing her breath and rooting her to where she stood the longer she stared back.
How in the names of the Twin Dragons was she supposed to calm and catch that?
Palkia-Anna snapped their fingers, diverting Marya's attention. They looked at her smugly, Anna's bobbed curls whipping wildly in the wind. From their fingers, glittery pink pokemon magic burst forth and spread across the ruined temple site in an expansive ripple before arching up and coalescing into a dome, encapsulating the temple and the Rift. Immediately, the wind cut off, leaving just the ever-present sound of Dialga's screeching. The full spectrum of color returned in a flash, making Marya blink rapidly to readjust.
"Are you ready?" they asked her.
Marya breathlessly nodded. Palkia-Anna grinned, wide and toothy, an edge of savageness to it that looked wrong on Anna's face.
"Witness now, Hero of my blessed bloodline," the God of Space intoned as they raised her sister's hands, glowing with more of their pink pokemon magic. Marya's gaze switched from them to the Rift and Dialga's head above, watching as a pinkish tear ripped straight across the Rift's burgeoning expanse and ripped open like a sneasel's claws through flesh, widening to encompass the furthest edges of the Rift. She looked back at her possessed sister just in time to see the vindictive glee in their eyes. "As I become the most powerful of the Progenitor's original children."
What?
Palkia-Anna closed their hands into fists with a shout. Marya whipped her head up and bore witness to Palkia's power snapping around what was visible of Dialga's giant head and cleaving clean through. She couldn't help but brush her fingers against her decapitation scar as Dialga shrieked, starry ichor raining down around them as Dialga's head disappeared and Palkia's dome forced the Rift back into its normal state. The ruined temple complex shuddered as something crash-landed on the altar platform in the back, bright and glittering gold.
What just-
"What just happened?!" Marya demanded, panic creeping up her spine. "What did you just do?"
"What else does it look like?" Palkia-Anna's grin remained. "I cut my hatchmate's head off. They should be manageable enough for you to calm in this state."
At the snap of their fingers, a small basket of balms appeared in Marya's arms. She yelped, just barely catching it.
"I have given you the aid the Progenitor requested of me," the God of Space said, taking a step back. "It is in your hands now. Good luck, Hero."
To Marya's surprise, they passed straight through the pinkish dome they'd made, joining the Clan leaders and the others just as they arrived at the dome's edge. Marya stared at their panicked expressions and mimed yelling, watching Lord Azazel attempt to push through the dome and get repelled. She couldn't hear them despite them being mere feet away. That was fine. One less distraction.
Something screeched at the opposite end of the temple.
Marya gave her friends a brave smile and turned away, taking another breath to steel her nerves. The gold thing waiting for her at the altar space was the same color as the frenzied Nobles.
At least what Palkia had done confirmed what Uxie had told her. She held that nugget of Knowledge up as her north star and walked forward to meet her fate.
As she approached, passing by the ruined statues of the Nobles, the bright golden light uncurled itself from its collapsed position on the altar platform and raised its head. The golden god looked less like the pictures of Dialga she'd seen in textbooks and more like some sort of Dialga-Arceus mashup, but she recognized the God of Time nonetheless. Marya stopped short of the platform and tied the small balm basket to her satchel belt, readying one in her palm.
Frenzied Dialga noticed her with a malicious, rumbling growl and lunged.