The Solution

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The air felt still in the quiet room; it gave off an eerie vibe. The silence, the calm, the open space.... it was all such a big contrast to what'd just happened. That coupled with anticipation was almost enough to unnerve the psychotic, fractured mind of the glaceon in the room.... Almost. If it were Sova, it would have most certainly made him feel uneasy at the very least, but as stated earlier, the mind of the glaceon was fractured. There were two pieces, and the one currently in control was not going to be so easily intimidated by a mere room.

S.S. began to grin in anticipation nearing the center of the room. He could hardly restrain himself from carelessly dumping the contents of his bag to get at the music box and wind it up. Instead, he decided to lay down in the center of the room as he waited for the rest of his group to catch up. Maybe they needed a break.... but did he really care? He stuck his injured paw into his bag.... then paused for a moment. He didn't know quite how bad the little paw injury was since he'd been suppressing his pain reflex. He didn't know if he was making it worse, and he didn't know if it could take the stress of his constant romping around.

Of course, the pain was still there. He'd just been.... ignoring it. Suppressing it. He decided to really feel it for a moment, just to check, and.... well, it hurt. However, it mostly felt sore, not like it was about to break. Now the rest of his body was a different story! His entire body stung from some of the hits he and his weaker half - mostly said weaker half - had sustained. He felt a bit tired still despite having allowed himself to relax too, but that part wasn't news. He wasn't in the greatest shape in the world, but there it wasn't too severe as far as he could tell. Most of the injuries were minor, they just.... added up. The only major ones were the paw and a cut under his right eye that he could feel stinging despite it having been a while ago. This settled it; Sova had just passed out from exhaustion coupled with shock due to pain. Or.... well, was it really passing out?

Either way, all that mattered was that his body was still capable of fighting for him, which it was. He wasn't in perfect condition by any means, but after a short rest, he'd be capable of fighting just as well as usual. Although he still didn't know for sure whether any more fighting would be done or not. He very much wanted to find out, though, which led his thoughts back to the music box. His paw was already in the bag, so.... he just.... went right on ahead and pulled the box out. He stared down at the box, temptation to wind it up rising, but he resisted. Just a few more minutes and he'd be able to sate his desire.

It interested him so much, in fact, that he no longer cared about tormenting Jak.

(So, you guys wanna have a timeskip for a silent, awkward break, then wind the box up? Or just a few posts of chitchat? I'm hoping I'm not the only one who doesn't fancy spending a whole lot of time on this. Could just have this be a short, 4 post thread.)

Varda nodded happily as the dragon said he was fine. Well, okay, Jak was wounded, it was quite impossible to not see that, so he wasn't completely fine. But maybe taking into account how bad things could be? The Altaria was wounded and battered himself as well, but he could stand. He could walk. It hurt a bit, but he wasn't going to topple over anytime soon – unless he found a comfortable enough nest somewhere. Perhaps that was how Jak was feeling, too.
"Oh, um, I think I'm good too!" He chirped in response.

The bird glanced at the Glaceon who was currently walking… Somewhere, and that caused him to tilt his head questioningly. But at least he wasn't leaving yet and decided to stick to the area, just picking something off the floor. That was fine. They shouldn't be separated now, they all were in pretty bad shape and there might be some Pokémon that could ambush them… Maybe. All the Pokémon did seem to escape when they played the music box…

Varda turned to look at the ceiling. There was still a gaping hole in it, revealing the dark sky and clouds. They hadn't managed to fix that. But… But it was okay. They'd find something, eventually. The glue that would fix the cup that was the world. The Altaria was still unsure about what that would be, but he would have time to think about it. At least until they got back to the Guild!
"Um… Do you know who that guy was?" Varda asked, turning to look at the other two Pokémon.

Jak nodded in response, eventually looking towards the glaceon as it started to walk around picking up left over items it had been using within the battle. I wonder what is going through his mind… thought to himself. Despite his curiosity, he really didn’t want to have the ice fox any more upset than it currently was. He didn’t know S.S well enough to know whether or not he would attack out of anger. However, at this point he knew the glaceon enjoyed battling.

Jak then looked back towards Varda as he asked if they knew what the Pokémon was. The dark one that had left from what Jak could presume. In all honesty, he didn’t know though. “No clue… perhaps our bird friend would know, if the darkness hadn’t gotten too him completely… he started to sound like he was losing it.” Jak said in response, implying that maybe Xatu would know who this Pokémon was. However, even though they might want to learn more about this dark Pokémon. They had other Pokémon they needed to learn more about also. Who was this giratina?

Despite his attempts to ignore the conversation, S.S. managed to overhear the part about the bird. He assumed it was that nutty xatu who'd sent them to this place to wake up the lord of evil or whoever that was. It was odd to not know who or what the dark figure was, since Sova generally knew.... well, everything. However, his shared memories held nothing of the sort, aside from a single painting that somewhat resembled Edgy Darkguy. That didn't exactly tell him much, needless to say.

The fact that they'd been persuaded into coming here by the mad ravings of some dude entertained him. It hadn't even been his choice to come here, though he would have done so anyway, if only for entertainment. However, he certainly wouldn't have come out of trust.... Then again, maybe the others didn't trust the xatu; maybe they were truly just that desperate. The thought made the glaceon chuckle to himself as he went through the hole in the wall, back to his bag. Then, as he gazed upon the bag, he remembered one very important detail. The strap had been burned and snapped in two. Well, he supposed he - or rather Sova - could just get it properly repaired back in town, but for now, he needed a temporary solution.

Sure, he could probably tie the strap on his own if he really tried, but he didn't feel like doing such a thing. He spit the seed into the bag before speaking up: "Hey, pyro."
He approached the hole in the wall and looked back to the other side before speaking once more: "You gonna fix my bag? And where'd you put my spike?"
Technically, it was Sova's bag and Sova's spike, but he enjoyed them just as much and as such, he was not interested in losing either of them.

Varda let out a quiet hmm as he thought. No one seemed to recognize the strange Pokémon, not Jak and… Well, the Glaceon hadn't answered, but he felt like he would have had he known! It took him a while to understand who the bird friend Jak mentioned was, as the Altaria was a bird and a friend, but surely he couldn't be the bird friend mentioned! After all, he didn't know – and surely the dragon knew that, considering he had just wondered it earlier. After a moment of pondering, Varda came to the conclusion that the bird might have been that strange Pokémon back in town who had sent them here in the first place? He was pretty strange and talked in funny ways…

But that Pokémon knew things! Maybe he knew more, if they could make some sense out of it. There was so much they had to do, but the bird wasn't afraid. No, he was determined. They could fix the world. They would find the glue.

The Glaceon's voice snapped the Altaria out of his thoughts, making him look towards the sound. As oblivious as ever, he just smiled as he looked at the icy fox's head peeking at the from the hole, having no idea who this Pyro was. Neither of them was called Pyro, as far as he knew! They were Varda and Jak, so… The bird tilted his head and had like, no idea. No idea who was being talked to. But maybe they could help!

The spike. Last time Varda had seen it, Jak had… Ripped it out of his flesh. Where had it gone then? His memory was a bit fuzzy there. Perhaps he threw it somewhere? The lighting wasn't too great, but the spike was rather shiny. He was sure they could find it.
"Oh, I can look for it!" The bird offered cheerily and started to waddle around, his face close to the ground like some kind of dog Pokémon sniffing out a scent.

Jak remained where he was for a moment, thinking on what his next plan of action was going to bed. At the moment, his only idea was to either continue the journey with Varda and Sova/S.S or look for Noel at this point. He did sort of abandon her back in… That thought suddenly hit him, he had been in that previous room before with a completed music box. Noel probably had already went looking for him, or left at this point. She obviously wasn’t in that room still since he left, otherwise he would have seen her.

Jak turned towards S.S as he called him out. He seemed to be peeking through the hole in the wall that had formed during their battle. The ice type asked if he was going to fix its bag, and also wanted to know what he did with the spike. However, before Jak had responded. Varda jumped in and stated that he would look for the spike. The funny thing being that the bird probably didn’t realize it was behind him where he left it… on the ground.

Jak let out a light sigh as he walked back to pick up the spike. The spike, had a little bit of blood on it from when it was used, no longer having its shine that it previously had.

After picking up the spike, he then began to walk back towards the hole in the wall from which the ice type had been standing. He walked up to S.S and held the spike out in front of him, then dropped it. “heh… and the bag, I can hold for ya until we get it fixed… I don’t have anything to fix it.” he stated in a plain tone. He didn’t really mention any comment about the spike, as his gesture of dropping it should prove the point that he wasn’t pleased with it. It was true that he did complement its battling skill, but the spike was put back in his mind after it was mentioned.

S.S. sighed at the hopeless ball of fluff who acted more like a baby bird than a mighty dragon.  Surely, the thing about altaria being dragons was wrong?  Or perhaps this one was just.... slow?  Jak made an okay dragon, but Varda was certainly not what came to the glaceon's mind when he thought of a dragon.  He did his best to just ignore the odd display as the charizard quickly located and presented him with his spike.  Jak seemed just a tad bit displeased about having been shanked.  Odd.  The glaceon gave a slight smirk as he carefully picked the spike up by the end with one of his paws, staring at the blood on it.  He wondered what a charizard's blood tasted like.

"just tie...." he started up, but paused as he began to feel.... off.
It was a sort of dizziness, though it wasn't quite normal.  There was just something about seeing the bloodied spike so close that made him feel very out of it.  He wasn't afraid of blood; he'd seen far too much blood for that to just randomly make itself known now.  As he tried to figure out what was wrong, he moved his paw over to the bag to drop the spike in, when he suddenly collapsed with a slight moan.  It was incredibly abrupt, especially since he'd been absolutely fine mere moments prior.  In truth, he wasn't quite fine, though the injuries weren't enough to bring him down.

Sova, meanwhile, was a different story.  It just so happened that Sova had been brought back by the sight of a friend's blood, now that the situation was no longer too stressful for him.  Where S.S. could handle brutal punishment, Sova fell short.  He wasn't quite unconscious, but being suddenly thrown back into reality with searing pains and aches all over his body as well as severe exhaustion.... it was too much for him.  He had absolutely no clue what had happened, nor what was currently happening.  All he knew was that he wanted to sleep.... and that he seemed to be laying his head on his bag.  It was very uncomfortable.

Varda kept searching the floor for the spike, doing his best. He didn't know where to look, unlike Jak, so… It was no surprise that the large dragon-like Pokémon managed to find it first, just easily picking it off the floor and handing it over to the Glaceon. He bird noticed that, and raised his head.
"Oh, you found it!" He chirped happily at Jak before he started to run over to the pair – well, maybe it wasn't exactly running, as he was tired and kind of hurt… But his legs certainly moved fast enough to make it more than just a walk.

But by the time he made it there, the Glaceon was… Off, in some way. At first the Altaria didn't even really notice it, but by the time the Pokémon just toppled over and collapsed to the ground, it was obvious! Varda gasped and got closer.
"Oh, oh no! Are you alright? Sova?" The bird asked with worry staining his voice as he walked from one side to another and back again, bringing his head closer to the icy fox lying on the ground for a better look.

Jak stared at the ice type as he picked up the spike. Listening to what it started to say. However, only two words were said before he noticed the ice type starting to lose their balance. “Ay, you alright” Jak questioned as the ice type dropped the spike in the bag.

After the spike fell, Sova collapsed. Jak was a bit shocked, did he really do that much damage? “Hey! You alright?” he questioned once more when he noticed the fox wasn’t unconscious. Jak didn’t know that Sova was back at that moment. However, regardless of whether it was S.S or Sova, the fox was hurt and he was prepared to help in any way. Jak was ready to carry the fox back if he had to.

((Come on, Let em carry em hehehe))

Trying to figure out the extent of the apparent injuries was difficult, but the dazed glaceon didn't care to try, so that didn't matter. He didn't want to see if he could get up or try looking at himself, he just wanted to sleep. Then, as the haze in his mind began to clear, he suddenly realized he'd blacked out. He'd blacked out, yet before collapsing, he recalled standing. He tried to recall where he was, what the last thing he could clearly remember was, but he was stuck.... until his mind registered the two voices speaking to him. It took a moment for it to click, but it was Varda and Jak. He tried to jump up to see if they were both alright, but as soon as he opened his eyes and tried to lift himself off the ground, a wave of pain dropped him back to the ground with his eyes shut.

Well, they seemed worried about him, so surely, he hadn't hurt them? They'd likely have been upset if that were the case, or at least more hesitant.... right? Whatever had happened, he didn't want them to worry about him, but.... he wasn't sure he was up to the whole "walking" thing. He forced his eyes to open, and seeing the chateau helped jog his memory a bit. He recalled coming here to save the world, then going down in the middle of a fight. How ironic. Suddenly, he began to panic as he realized the other two must have seen the "other one," but that was quickly put to rest when he remembered both of them already knew. "I'm not dead, but I'd be better if I knew what happened.... Are you two alright?" he questioned from the ground.

Sova's voice was very different from that of S.S, enough to make it easy for anyone paying any attention to tell the difference. He kept his head on the ground as he spoke, unable to lift his neck from exhaustion. He'd been at his limit before passing out, and all that'd happened since then wasn't helping him recover. Unlike S.S, he was incapable of pushing himself past something like this. His adrenaline wasn't nearly as willing to cooperate when it was him in control, and he was incapable of suppressing pain.

(You gon' have to earn that right.)

Varda's concern was short-lived, his worried expression slowly shifting with the Glaceon's words. His beady little eyes opened as wide as they possibly could, his mouth opened and curled into an excited smile. The bird's whole body just perked up as he glowed with pure excitement. All it took was a few words. Few words that made it obvious that Sova was back to himself. Oh, this was a happy day indeed! The Glaceon had managed to overcome the, uh, whatever one would call it, and everything was fine again! One step closer to the glue, he was sure. This was what it took to fix the world!

"Oh, Sova!" The Altaria chirped in excitement and spread his wings, flapping as a sign of his happiness and not even attempting to try to lift his body off the ground,
"It's you, you're back!" Varda couldn't help but smile and bop up and down in his happiness, despite his injuries. And well, even though Sova was injured and in pain too, such things just couldn't be considered at the moment. It was too good!

"I'm fineee!" The bird continued with a happy chirp, sounding genuine. Then again, Varda most likely would sound the same in a similar situation if he had been beaten with sticks, scratched with the sharpest claws, plucked and set on fire. His decapitated head would be chirping its happy songs in the corner somewhere.


((Varda carried Sova once, does that mean he's worthy?!))

Jak glanced over towards the bird as it responded to the ice type’s question. When it came Jak’s turn to respond, he wasn’t going to lie… but wasn’t going to tell the whole thing either.

“I’ve had worse… and to answer your question. Uh… your friend was here. Hehe-“ the dragon responded before looking away for a moment. He wanted to mention the battle, but at the moment… it didn’t quite seem right to do so. Even if Jak were to not mention the fight. It was fairly obvious due to the dried up blood on his chest area, right where his injury was.

Jak didn’t want to mention the battle due to his friend having a lot of trouble of his own, especially with the potential damage his “friend” did. It didn’t seem right to mention it at the time. What was more important right now was getting out of this cursed place.

“I don’t think you will be getting up any time soon… even with the aid of berries.” he started once more, “We should also be getting out of this place… There isn’t much more we can do here as there is a whole new game in play other than what we thought.” Jak stated solemnly.

Language warning or something but you're a big boy you can handle it:

Jak was right, they needed to get out of here.  Sova knew what it meant if he couldn't walk on his own.  They needed to leave, and he got the feeling the others wouldn't be willing to just leave him, which only really left one thing.  He couldn't stand the thought of being such a burden that he had to be carried.  "And how about.... the other one?  Was he able to stand?" he questioned.
His tone held clear, open frustration toward the mere existence of S.S.


The dragon turned back towards Sova as he questioned about the "other one". "And if I were to answer yes?" Jak responded.

That settled it.

The glaceon fell silent, and after a moment more of just laying on the ground, he began to move.  He forced his legs to move and planted his paws on the ground, suppressing a pained whine.  He then began to force himself off the ground.  "You just did," he muttered as he forced himself off the ground.
If S.S. could stand in this condition, so could he.  Could he never live up to someone else using the exact same body as him?  He refused to live such a life.  However, it seemed the choice wasn't in his paws.

As the dragon noticed Sova's struggle to get up, it immediately went to approach him. "Just stop, I won't let you continue... he may have been able to stand, but it doesn't mean he did so without further harm." Jak stated in a somewhat firm tone.

If there was one thing Sova couldn't stand, no matter how good the intentions were, it was someone else telling him what to do, acting like he needed them, like they were better than him.  The bold dragon wouldn't let him get up if he wanted to?  Then he'd stop.... as soon as he died.  "Touch me, and...." he started, but as he looked toward the dragon, his voice became lost to him.
He recognized the wound from the spike.  It didn't look natural; nothing here had access to any kind of stabby attack as far as he knew.  So.... it had to have been him.  Or, not him, but still pretty much him.

(Varda's not worthy, he's just Varda. Varda surpasses worth.)

Varda was still made of smiles and happiness, nodding when Jak mentioned that Sova probably wouldn't be getting up any soon – or at least he shouldn't! Hurt Pokémon shouldn't be running around. Okay, Sova wasn't the only one hurt, but he… Definitely had suffered the most damage, here! That was what soured the bird's mood more, as his thoughts started to come back to reality. It was pretty serious, and the Glaceon didn't really look at all good. They had to get out of the dreary mansion soon and get some medical help! Last time, Varda had managed to get some help after his friend had been injured, but now… They were awfully deep in the mansion. Would any of the Pokémon here help them, or…

And despite his condition, the icy fox tried to get on his paws – and succeeded, somehow, forcing his body off the ground. Just like Jak, the Altaria was quick to act and take some steps closer to block Sova's path before he tried to walk off too far or something! Or, if the Pokémon would just collapse under his weight… Well, maybe they could try to catch him!

"Um, I think he's right!" The little bird chirped. The Glaceon was willing to try to protest when it came to Jak's words, but maybe he would listen to Varda a bit more. He certainly looked very concerned, the earlier smile gone from his face and replaced with worry. This was a sight he didn't like at all, seeing his friends hurt…

"And, um, we could try that," he offered meekly as a distraction, pointing one of his fluffy wings towards the large hole in the ceiling and the sky covered in dark clouds. It was impossible for Sova to get to a hole in the ceiling on his own, for sure – even if he was in perfect condition. But the bird and the dragon could fly! That had to be the fastest way out!


((How amazing.))

Jak listened to Sova start his empty threat, but it never really was finished. The ice type seemed to have noticed the wound on his chest, caked with dry blood, it was clearly visible. “Touch you and?...” he said, wanting to hear this false threat at this point. He knew the ice type couldn’t do anything in its current condition.

"I..." was the simple response of the glaceon.

“And before you ask… I am fine.” the fire type stated before looking at Varda. The bird had an idea that might be more convincing to Sova at this point. Stating that they could fly through the new hole that was in the roof. “You can fly… right sova?” he said with a slight smile. Of course the glaceon couldn’t fly.

There was a moment of silence before Sova responded, "I'd sooner see myself dead than under the will of others... but I've clearly put you two through enough grief already. Do whatever you want."

Jak remained silent as Sova spoke his mind about following orders. So that's why... Jak thought to himself. Jak finally made the connection that the ice type just didn't like heeding to a demand. "So... if it's orders you don't like... then how about a request?" Jak started, "Would you allow me to get you out of here?" Jak slowly questioned.

The joke, taunt, or whatever one wanted to call it was not lost on Sova. Could he fly? No, and despite the adaptive capabilities of eevee, he knew not of any of his kind who could fly. Vaporeon could traverse water, but there was no evolution that could grant an eevee wings. At least, not to his knowledge. It was honestly a bit odd, as that seemed like one of the biggest adaptive advantages one could have, yet the species most known for adapting couldn't adapt to fly. He very much wished it were so, if only so that he could make some kind of witty comment about it, but it was not, so he instead decided to just let it pass.

The other two really did seem to be fine. At least they hadn't been hurt too bad. However, he had to wonder how they'd hurt him so much, especially Varda.... No, he couldn't imagine Varda being willing to injure him, even if it was really someone else on the inside. Then he began to remember all of the fighting that he'd been through before blacking out.... Perhaps there'd been even more unnamed, unspecified fights even after he'd.... switched, which certainly explained why he was so beaten up. Surely, Jak had at least contributed to his injuries as well, and after his body had been thoroughly exhausted. After a bit of thought, it was no longer unclear how he'd ended up in this state.

Still, regardless of what he'd done or what condition he was in, he would not listen to an order from anyone. He knew the others were trying to pressure him into doing what they wanted. Jak was openly demanding it. Yet despite his burning desire to directly oppose an order, when he spoke, he couldn't make himself say so: "I'd sooner see myself dead than under the will of others.... but I've clearly put you two through enough grief already. Do whatever you want."
He expected to just be lifted off his paws by one of the two immediately upon giving in, and he wasn't looking forward to it. Not only was it humiliating, but it was also submissive. However, to his surprise, the dragon proceeded to change its wording, rather than just go through with it.

Suddenly, it all seemed a bit less unappealing and horrible. However, he still needed one more thing to be willing to go through with being CARRIED while he was capable of walking. Or, well, he was.... kind of capable of walking? He could stand, so he could probably walk. "Since you want to carry me so bad, I'll make you a deal. You can, but on the way back, you have to tell me what happened. You have to tell me what-" he began speaking, but suddenly stopped.

It was hard to say what came next.

"....What I did."