[Astral Harmony]

----- The Night of the End of Mission Two -----

The blade as well as the handle of the scythe was cold to the touch. It kind of made one's hand tingle to hold it, and Impact found it difficult to settle for one piece, but fought off the urge to take more. The scythe had lost nearly all of its powers, and it was as useless for killing as it would be as a paper cutter. The blade tip pulsed with ethereal light, and Impact was surprised to see that the blade tip actually grew and shrank steadily, like a beating heart.

The strange internal fluid Charlotte had harvested was was actually kind of the same. It didn't exactly move like Impact's scythe tip, but Charlotte could sense some pretty dark shit within this ooze. There seemed to be bolts of dark lightning jumping around inside of it, making the ooze jump around. There was life in there. Or unlife, no one could be sure.

The scythe handle that Pierce picked up didn't move along, but it was still unnaturally cold to the touch. Pierce studied it carefully now that he had time and decided that the cold feeling wasn't physical, more like a soul-deep chill. Well, it didn't hurt. The handle looked like it was made of wood, but closer inspection revealed it to be made of some other kind of material. Some kind of mineral that Pierce couldn't identify it.

Lola's face had been red since Renny hugged her. Shannon gave Renny a thumbs up, not trusting herself to say something that Garus and Evangaleen would make fun of her for.

----- Earlier the Next Morning -----

Lola's shoes clicked on the cold floor of the underground brig in the agency building. Even without military training, Lola halted in front of Harliette's cell and executed a right facing movement. Harliette seemed to be asleep, but Lola knew better. Both Harliette and Whitney had spent the whole morning talking to each other. Lola tried to hear it herself, but she was too exhausted and chances were that they didn't talk about Harliette's family.

"Samantha Phelps-" Lola began.
"Harliette," Harliette interrupted, sitting up and slinging her legs over the side of her cot.
"I see you haven't eaten what was offered. The food we serve here, even to prisoners, is a lot better than the stuff served at normal prisons."
"I'm counting calories," Harliette lied.
Lola sighed lightly. Harliette had always been in a bad mood whenever it came to Lola, to the point it would alter Harliette's appetite and level of energy. "You're nineteen now, aren't you? So why're-"
Harliette stood up suddenly and slammed her fist into the wall. Then she stared at Lola like she was about to do the same to her.
"I'd treat that injury, but I get the feeling you'd sooner accept a slow, painful death from me. Oh, but you did take that Full Restore I gave you."
"Whitney's life was in danger. I would accept help from anyone if it meant I could protect her."

This was the first time in a long time Lola had seen any kind of positive emotion from Harliette. She wanted to see more, but Lola had some more pressing questions. "It's been six years since that day."
"Tell me something," Harliette interrupted again. "Did you have an investigation conducted?"
"Into what?"
Harliette chuckled. "Into why mother might've commited suicide. What else?"
Lola could feel her rage boiling to the surface. "Why bother? You are the reason she left me and father."
Lola's younger sister by four years shrugged. "And what do you think I could do to make that happen? What do you think I could say? I was only a thirteen-year old girl, after all."
Lola stepped forward, then slowly drew a handgun and trained it on her sister. "Why don't you tell me?"
Harliette shrugged off the cold stare of the gun's barrel with a light shrug. "Isn't that a little dark for you? Mom always called you an angel in white, after all."
"Talk. Now."
Harliette grinned. "Oh, so now the lovely lady Lola puts some oomph into her threats. Fine, I'll tell you, but only on one condition."
"Name your condition."
"Whitney is no longer in the cell next to me. Did you already send her to prison?"
Lola lowered the gun. "No. She volunteered to join the agency. Wyatt's death made her undergo some kind of one-eighty, and now she wants nothing more than to help PATCA bring Faynoc and the Ruin Generals down."
"Then my condition is simple. Allow me to join the agency as well."
"Why?" Lola asked, but she already knew the answer.
"I'd honestly rather eat pieces of barbed wire than work alongside you, but Whitney is my best friend. I'd tear the world to pieces for her, and now that she's lost so much, I think I'm the only one who can protect her."

Lola put the gun on the ground. Harliette smiled. She knew her older sister didn't like weapons. "I will talk to Chief Rayleen. Rachel gave her a call this morning to make a report, only to discover that she and Dormond will be returning to the agency and service within a week. I cannot promise that you will be taken in. I can only promise that I will talk."
"I guess I'll just have to accept that. First, I'll start with a question. Remember when mother said you were her favorite daughter?"
"Yes. I honestly, truthfully didn't like it that she played favorites between the two of us."
"And do you remember when she did all those nice things for you and you alone?"
Lola lowered her head slightly. "She put me through nurse training, she gave me the best part in the school play since she taught there. She got me the best presents. I...hated it. I didn't understand, Samantha. I didn't understand why she treated us so differently. Our father thought the same way."
Harliette placed her hand on her ample bosom. "I reminded her of something, Lola. My existence was a constant source of pain and shame. I think she treated you far better because she was hoping I would just die or run away, and then she could forget about me, and what I represented."
Lola could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. "What...what happened, Samantha?"
Harliette began to pace, conscious of Lola's swelling sadness but unable to hold back what she felt needed to be said. "Almost twenty years ago, your father went to a surgeon's conference, didn't he?"
Lola tried to hold back the tears by talking about less emotional topics. "He told it was about how they might be able to splice human and Pokémon DNA."

Harliette stopped, then faced her sister with her whole body. "During that extensive overseas conference, your mother was...indiscreet. You see, your father...is not my father. I only found out about it when I was twelve."
"You were a Pokémon trainer, then."
Harliette nodded. "I was so angry at mother that I could nearly scream. I rode my bicycle all the way from this metropolis where I found out back to our home. Now that I think about it, I should've put some forethought behind it. But I was just a pissed off Pokémon trainer who hated my older half-sister and my mom so damn much. I took the evidence, a nice little stack of photos, and presented them to your dad. That very nice, shit...just went nuts. Your dad confronted mom in a fight so bad I thought they were going to bring their Pokémon into it."
Harliette could see that Lola was crying now, but it finally had to be exposed. "I lost it, Lola. I don't know how many times I tried to foolishly repent for it by commiting suicide. Then one night, on my thirteenth birthday, your mother...did something. Look."

Lola slowly raised her wet face to see the horizontal line on the front of Harliette's neck. She discarded it as nothing special when she saw Harliette again, but now it's significance came flooding out. "Had she been a half-inch closer with that kitchen knife, I wouldn't be alive today."
Lola lowered her head again. Harliette sighed. "The rest is pretty much as you know it. Our mother and I ran away from home in different directions, your mother to trust her soul to the afterlife, and me to just...I dunno, get away from all the pain. After all, I was the one who made your mother kill herself, and I don't know how your father would love me knowing what he knows now. I couldn't live that life anymore, nor could I have lived it if I kept it all a secret."
Lola's voice was weak. "Where is this evidence now?"
"Burned it all, so if you're asking for proof of mom's cheating, I can't provide shit. She is my mom too, after all. I didn't like seeing her like that, and those photos always brought it all back. What she did. What I did. Everything that made it all spiral out-of-control so fast."

Suddenly, there was a sound to Lola's right. Lola turned to see Rachel with a ring of key cards in her hand. "Rachel?"
Rachel dutifully slid the card to the cell. The electronic lock lit up with a green light and the wall of bars separating the long-separated sisters slid slowly to the side. Rachel pointed at Harliette with her head while looking at Lola. "You're not the only one who knows about healing. Go to her."
Lola didn't hide the tears anymore. She broke into a sprint and nearly collided into her sister, hugging her tightly and letting her eyes spill over with emotions Lola had been holding in for years. Normally cold, Lola's warm, wet embrace unlocked all of the horrible feelings Harliette concealed just behind her eyes and then she started to cry as well. Rachel looked on as the sisters held each other and cried out six years of pent up emotions.

----- One Week Later, In the Dahngrest Ruins -----

"God, I'm so damn bored!" Kirie yelled.
"Then why don't you use yourself to become part of a house!" Chizuru said.
Kirie picked up on Chizuru's absolutely terrible pun joke. "Chizuru, correct me if I'm wrong, but did you just say something that could get you seriously injured?"
Chizuru quickly held up her hands as though warding off an invisible attack. "Ah. No, I don't think I said anything. Anyways, food's ready, so please come and eat up while it's nice and hot."
"Hold, Chizu-chan," Tsubasa said. "Lady Shizuka has something to put out now that we're all here."
"But the food will get cold," Chizuru whimpered.

Shizuka stood up. "Don't worry, Chizuru. I promise it won't take long, okay?"
"Of course, on problem."
Shizuka looked out at the assembled Kimonos. Fujiko wasn't there in attendance, but since Fujiko pretty much did her own thing that somehow usually managed to help along things that the Kimonos were doing, Shizuka decided to ignore this disrespect. "Mika, please begin."
Mika stepped forward. "I've managed to decipher more of those murals."
"Seems like you're only getting it deciphered in bits 'n' pieces. What gives, Mika?"
Mika shrugged. "The major chunks of the ancient history here is written in various languages. I believe that a number of different people from different walks of life came here and wrote their interpretations of the things that happened way back when. Anyways, the latest stuff I've deciphered is pretty important, but I should also mention that it's not good news."
"Proceed," Shizuka said simply.
Mika nodded. "Those murals tell of a being called Primal Exist. Supposedly, Primal Exist is some kind of ultimate Pokémon that turned the normal animals of the world into the Pokémon that exist today."
"Why'd it do something like that?" Rio asked, now too curious about the story to fondle Kiyomi under her kimono. Kiyomi looked a little disappointed that Rio stopped, but didn't say anything.
"The murals don't say, but I imagine it was to get revenge on the humans of this world."
"Makes sense," Tsubasa said. "Humans often take nature and the creatures that dwell within it for granted. They carve up forests for wood, pollute lakes and oceans with garbage and waste, and kill animals for various reasons, mindless sport among them. A good way to tell humans to stop stuff like that would be to gift those poor, oppressed animals with lethal powers."
"I'll bet that was a surprise. You keep a pet spider at home and the next thing you know, some kind of unseen force mutates that spider and gives it the ability to turn concentrated sunlight into a flesh-eating laser beam. Fuckin' awesome."
"I get the feeling legendary Pokémon are exempt from this tale," Kiyomi chimed in.
"Whadaya mean, love?"
"Just look at a few and you'll see my point, Rio. Some of them originate in legends beyond time and space and even this very dimension. This Primal Exist may have created the Pokémon, but I highly doubt it was responsible for the creation of every Pokémon that exists today."
Mika nodded. "You preach to the choir, Kiyomi. The murals don't even mention legendary Pokémon, but I'm almost 100% certain that Kiyomi is correct in this. Anyways, the murals talk about stuff like how there were bitter wars between man and Pokémon before Pokémon came to rule their own hunk of the world even when humans countered with the technology of Pokéballs and whatnot, but the really important stuff is at the end, and it talks about the war between the legendary Pokémon and Ruin Pokémon."
"So out with it. What's the really important shit?"
"Try as they might, the legendary Pokémon couldn't defeat the Ruin Generals, but they did seal away Primal Being and the Ruin Pokémon. But they could only do with all of them. That's right. Every last Pokémon had to be present to finally strike them where it really hurt."

Tsubasa leaned against a wall covered in murals. "So we need every legendary Pokémon with us if we're going to defeat Primal Being and rid this world of Ruin Pokémon forever? That's kind of a tall order, isn't it?"
"Yes, but it's not impossible."
The Kimonos all turned to face Shizuka. "As of late, legendary Pokémon have flooded into Honmyr. It's like they can sense the weakening of the seal and the awakening of the Ruin Pokémon and their monstrous generals."
Tsubasa pulls out her Pokéball, containing the legendary dark and fire type, Cerbrapter. "Each of us have one, with Lady Shizuka possessing two."
"The Pokémon Advanced Tactics and Counterterrorism Agency has Registeel, Latios, Latias, and Shaymin. And they're good guys, so maybe we can get them to help us."
"They're investigating the Ruin Pokémon. Our paths will cross many times."
Rio pounded her fists together. "That bastard Reynold Faynoc has quite a bunch of them himself. I've been running reconaissance like Lady Shizuka ordered, and apparently this Faynoc guy is getting legendary Pokémon DNA directly from the source."
"Renny and Charlotte got their Latios and Latias from a Mew Pokébrid named Moera," Tsubasa mentioned. "This could mean that Faynoc has Mew as well. And he likely has several others."

"The other legendary Pokémon will reveal themselves in due time," Shizuka said confidently. "Tsubasa, you have things to report as well?"
"Three important things, my Lady." Tsubasa said, stepping towards the center of the large, empty room. "First, Ghost Ruin General Phantomere has been destroyed."
Kirie whistled. "Damn, you always get to be in the cool fights, Tsubasa. I wish I was there."
"There are plenty of Ruin Generals remaining. We will all get our fair share of these difficult fights. Next, you wouldn't believe who I discovered to be in this world."
Kirie's teeth clenched suddenly. "Let me guess. Dinner."
Tsubasa nodded. "Dinner the Overhuman has entered this world, most likely through the same gateway we entered. I don't think she'll be a problem, despite being impossibly powerful beyond all measure. After all, she's not an evil human, just...really, really powerful."
"Whatever Dinner ends up doing, let's hope she doesn't blow up the world we're trying to defend doing it. We may be able to get her assistance in the future, but right now, all we can do is try to ignore her."
"After she humiliated us less than three months ago?"
Rio laughed. "Well, if you think you can take her now, you're welcome to try. Just remember that all of us tried to defeat her and she kicked all of our asses."
"I'll...I'll get my revenge...somehow."

"The third thing," Tsubasa interrupted. "Is that I'm certain that forward military base is nearing completion."
"You weren't particularly smart there, Shizu." Kirie said. "I told you 'just send me and I'll deal with those humans trying to investigate these ruins' but you told me no."
"And I meant it," Shizuka said. "Our mission here is not to pick fights with humans. War with the military force in that base will be unavoidable, but I would like for this fragile peace to extend as long as it can."
"When they do try to bully their way in here, that's when you get to have fun, Kirie."
"Seriously?" Kirie looked excited.
"Remember how we do it, Kirie. When they send in their first waves, we brutally slaughter them as over-the-top as we possible can to demoralize the rest of the enemy force. That should delay further attacks and save many more lives."
Rio cracked her neck. "This may be the demon inside me, but I can never get over how fun it is to kill humans."
"This will rapidly become more difficult for us," Shizuka said, looking out over all the Kimonos. "Not only must we gather all the legendary Pokémon, but we must suppress all enemy forces trying to enter these ruins."
"Faynoc's going to be targeting PATCA rather quickly," Tsubasa warned the others. "Mostly because I'm certain he doesn't know where the hell we are. If we can keep our eyes on them, we may be able to find Millenium House."

"That's a good idea. Do you mind if I watch them for a while? I want to see how strong they are."
"You're asking us, Lady Shizuka? None of us mind at all. Oh, at least a few of them have more than a passing interest in Magatamas, so you should take Mika with you."
"I'll go as well," Kiyomi volunteered. "I haven't had much of a look at the technology of this world, and I've longed to get out of these damn ruins and see how this world is for myself."
"I have no problems with this. Do any of you?"
Kirie shook her head. "Not at all. Boy, I hope the military attacks us soon! With all of their soldiers at once! I've been dying to spill some blood and organs."
"And if you're going to spill blood and organs, then you should have a full and nourishing meal!"
"That's the best idea I've heard all morning," Tsubasa approved.

----- Three Weeks After the Conclusion of Mission Two, In the Millenium House -----

Two legendary Pokébrids entered the large candlelit chamber and kneeled on the red carpeting. "Beloved Father, we bring news," said the man clad in black.
Faynoc nodded.
Both Pokébrids kept their heads respectfully bowed. "Our investigations into the incident have told us much. Acolyte Whitney has betrayed your will and has elected to join with the Pokémon Advanced Tactics and Counterterrorism Agency. That mercenary Harliette has done the same."

Faynoc rose from his lavishly decorated throne. "Then let my decrees be made. You two, my trusted inner circle, The Light and The Dark, shall seek out these fools and annihilate them when they are best exposed. Make it seem like an accident when you do so. Every one of them and their legendary Pokémon must die or you will never be allowed to return. Are my decrees understandable?"
It was no question for a true servant of Reynold Faynoc. "Thine decree is well understood and shall be carried out as per your divine will, our Beloved Father."
Faynoc sat back down. "Very well, then. I expect mighty deeds. You are to take the Excelsior and Carrion squads with you. You are dismissed."
The Light and The Dark rose silently, turned on their heels, and exited as quietly and stately as they entered. Time to go kill some interlopers.