20 minutes before
Alex released Dash from his Poké Ball, the growhlite landing unsteadily on the battered deck. Dust still hung heavy in the air, cloaking them from view. Alex crouched down beside Aria, close enough that the smoke swallowed them both. He waited, making sure Charlotte couldn't see or hear, then reached into the air and swept his hand through the air. His fingers touched something, Watching him interact with things she couldn't see was always annoying, but over time she had grown accustomed to it.
"Aria," Alex said quietly, his voice low. "We'll buy you time."
Her head tilted, horns faintly humming. Through them, she felt the fear radiating from him. Before she could question it, Alex pulled something out of thin air. a LeppaBerry, its red yellow skin glowing faintly in the gloom. He pressed it into her hand.
"Here. Eat this while we talk. While we hold them off, use Double Team. As much as you can." He forced a grin, though she could still feel the churning of his fear. "That will be our chance to win! "
"I don't know what Rapidash's ability is," he went on, scratching at the back of his neck. "But if it's Flash Fire, then Dash and Oddy are both screwed. And that weird move it's been using…With it, it can counter everything we have."
The fear inside him flared sharper. Aria didn't answer with words. Instead, she leapt forward, wrapping her arms around him in a sudden, desperate hug. Alex stiffened at first, surprised, but the corners of his mouth softened into a smile. He gave her head a quick, gentle pat, then pushed himself back to his feet. The fear inside him had dimmed, just enough.
The dust thinned, spilling back to the deck, and Alex's eyes snapped to the battle. Dash was already pinned under Rapidash's hooves, flames smothering his body.
"Dash!" Alex shouted.
The little growhlite let out a strangled squeak, panic driving him to burst into fire, only for Rapidash's ghostly mane to devour it whole. Alex's jaw tightened. He turned back to Aria and locked eyes with her. One nod. That was all.
She didn't hesitate. Her body vanished in a shimmer, reappearing deep beneath the sea. Cold water wrapped around her as she sank to the ocean floor. Schools of Poliwag scattered, Tentacruel pulsed in the dark, and a trail of Magikarp darted past her. For a brief second she felt out of place, but then she closed her eyes and forced herself to focus.
Her body tensed. The first DoubleTeam split her image into two. Another pulse of light, and there were four. Then eight. Sixteen. Thirty two.
The ocean began to fill with her own face, her original body sitting cross legged on the seafloor, all identical, all straining. Each wave of multiplication cut into her like a blade. Her chest ached, but she pressed on.
Sixty four. One hundred twenty eight. Two hundred fifty six. Five hundred twelve.
Every new clone drained more of her essence, her health stretched thinner and thinner. Pain lanced through her ribs, through her mind, through the tips of her horns. The water around her shimmered with the distortion of her own power, thousands of Aria's swaying like a vast underwater forest.
By the time the last of her strength burned away, she was shaking violently. Her body crumpled, collapsing onto the ocean floor, bubbles slipping from her lips. Her clones numbered in the tens of thousands now. Atleast thirty thousand bodies sharing one life, one source. She had pushed herself far beyond what she had ever did.
Her chest heaved. Her horns throbbed. And for the first time, she wondered if she'd torn herself apart just to keep standing.
At that point, Aria had 76 points of HP, shared between more than a thousand flickering copies of herself.
She tried to stand up, but her legs gave way and she collapsed against the cold seafloor. Scarlet red eyes drifted upward, watching the newborn sunlight pierce through the water. The rays fractured into shards of rainbow, glittering above her, almost mocking her frailty.
The sun was climbing higher.
And then she felt it. A crushing pressure bearing down on the ship above.
Her twin sharp horns shaked violently, searing with pain. Waves of emotions spilled into her senses, not from many people, but from a single one wild, tangled, chaotic.
Fear. Rage. Disgust. Sadness. Anxiety. Panic. Worry. Nervousness. Helplessness. Resentment. Frustration. Confusion.
All of them, all at once, bursting from one soul. The torrent was so fierce that dozens of her copies flickered and vanished outright. Others dropped to their knees, unable to withstand the weight of emotions.
The original Aria gritted her teeth, her body trembling. Slowly, she forced herself to stand up. Her gaze locked onto her remaining doubles, and in that silent connection, she gave them a single nod.
They answered kindly.
Together, they surged upward, swimming toward the light. The sea boiled with their movement, their bodies climbing over one another like a living staircase. Tens, hundreds, then thousands rising, rising, higher.
When they broke the surface, their forms shimmered in unison, overlapping until they fused into a colossal wall of violet ghosts, stretching to sky. The copies layered themselves upon the original's will,
The sunlight struck against the ghost wall only to be swallowed by it.
What had once been golden morning light was consumed by a dark purple wall. A barrier born from Aria herself.
Her body screamed in pain. Her health, already scattered into fragments, bled thinner still with every heartbeat. But she held.
And beneath that shadow, the battlefield fell into twilight.
But all of a sudden all the clones stood frozen, trembling with shock and anger. The original Aria felt their emotions go through her, a thousand voices pressing into her skull, but she didn't understand the cause. Her body pulsed with strain as she gathered energy, then vanished in a shimmer of light. A pink trail lingered in the air as she reappeared above the deck, her purple hair whipping in the cold wind.
Her scarlet eyes swept across the ship. The people in black suits stared at the army of Arias with faces twisted in fear. Even Electivire and Wigglytuff had stopped fighting, their bodies tense, their eyes darting uneasily between the countless Kirlia.
But Aria didn't spare them more than a glance.
She drifted downward like a banshee, her feet barely brushing the deck as she fixed her gaze on the boy who was broken more than anyone else. Alex. His right arm was blackened with burns, his face smeared with blood. He looked like he had already died once and was still refusing to lie down.
Slowly, with a trembling effort, he lifted his left arm. His fingers brushed against her cheek. His touch was clumsy, weak, but warm.
"S-Sakura… what are you doing here?" he whispered with a shattered smile, his words slurred by exhaustion and pain.
Before Aria could respond, the bald man in the mask snapped his voice across the deck. "When I say go, we run as fast as we can. Understand?"
Charlotte blinked, confused. "Wha—"
"Just do as I say!" His voice cracked under the weight of panic, harsher this time. "Okay?"
Charlotte swallowed and nodded.
The man didn't wait. He turned, his eyes locking on Aria. For the briefest second, he froze. Her red gaze cut into him like knives, and a shiver crawled up his spine. Instinct took over, he stepped back, almost stumbling.
"Run!" he barked. He holded Charlotte's hand and bolted toward the exit.
Behind them, the sea of Arias turned in unison. Thirty thousand pairs of scarlet eyes followed, each one burning with rage.
Both Charlotte and the bald man leapt from the dock to the concrete floor of the port. The sea of Arias poured after them, a tide of scarlet eyes and pale forms, their rage almost palpable in the air.
"WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!" Charlotte screamed, her voice shrill with panic. They sprinted between stacked containers, taking a sharp turn. Some of the Arias slammed into the steel walls and vanished on impact, but the rest kept flowing forward, relentless.
The man's face stayed focused, though sweat clung to his brow. "Kirlia is a special Pokémon. It can sense people's emotions." His voice was breathless as they ran deeper into the maze of containers, boots pounding against concrete. An uneasy smile tugged at his lips. "That means… no hiding."
Charlotte's stomach dropped. Her face twisted with terror. "ARE WE GOING TO FUCKING DIE?!"
"I hope not," he muttered grimly.
They darted around another corner only to skid to a halt. Electivire stood waiting at the far end, its yellow body crackling with power, twin tails twitching like whips.
The man exhaled sharply, forcing a smirk. "Looks like it's not our time yet. Electivire use DISCHARGE!"
As Electivire swung its tails forward, both Charlotte and the man slid beneath its massive frame, hitting the ground hard before scrambling back to their feet. Electivire planted its tails into the concrete with a thunderous crack. Electricity burst outward, crawling like a living cage, frying every clone that dared to step too close. Dozens of Arias flickered out of existence in a single instant, leaving smoking trails behind.
The man bent over, clutching his knees to steady his breath, while Charlotte flicked her hair out of her face, forcing a smile. "Taking that Electivire from that puny Gym Leader was a good idea!"
The man straightened, shaking his head. "It wanted to come with us itself. We just… made that choice easier." Despite the chaos around them, a flicker of pride crossed his face. "Still, I'm glad we did."
Electivire's bolts snapped and hissed as the clones pressed from all sides. The Pokémon's breathing grew heavier, its arms tense, sweat gleaming on its striped skin.
"We don't have much time," the man said quickly. He pulled a phone from his pocket, pressing a number as they began to move again. "Doctor, we're at the location you said-" He stopped, anger flashing in his voice. "...Wait?! We don't even have a second to spare here!"
He didn't see it. Neither of them did.
Above them, several Arias had teleported into the sky, their bodies framed against the rising sun. Dark strings of ghostly energy tangled together, twisting into a single, pulsing sphere. A Hex.
It shot downward like a cannonball.
Charlotte and the man were too focused on the phone call to notice, but Electivire raised its head, eyes narrowing. With a roar, it slammed its fists together, summoning a torrent of electricity. The bolts lashed upward, colliding with the falling mass of ghostly energy. The impact detonated in a storm of black smoke and sparks, blowing a hole through the containers behind them.
Electivire rolled across the ground, its muscles twitching from the clash, before forcing itself back to its feet. Its chest rose and fell in heavy bursts as it lifted its head.
The electric wall was gone.
The army of Arias advanced once more, their expressions cold, eyes glowing red in unison.