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Notes: Another Revolutionary Girl Utena reference, Chapter Thirteen's title refers to what the duelists are fighting for. It also refers to "power" in an energy sense; wasn't that what Chairman Rose sought?

Warnings for graphic depictions of violence, injuries.

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Raihan arranged for the stadium to be closed to the public before they made their way downstairs. Standing inside the lobby, Rose picked at his shirt collar and wondered if the police captain Raihan was speaking to was the same one who threatened him over the phone. He stayed near the back of the group.

"Rose."

He turned around. "Oleana," he said. "I have to apologize–"

She raised a hand to stop him. "Not now," she said. "When you said the explosion could destroy the building, was that the truth?"

Rose sighed. "You know me too well," he said, lowering his voice. "It was a conservative estimate. the energy Eternatus generated was far over the maximum reading on the equipment we had–it could have leveled the city, or worse." He frowned. "But it's already frightening enough. They don't need to know."

Oleana kept a neutral expression. "We built that equipment to account for Eternatus' power. It exceeded even that?"

"It exceeded everything, Oleana." Rose sighed. "I may have had better luck plucking a star from the sky for the region's energy needs."

"A star from the sky," she repeated. "Maybe…"

Rose raised an eyebrow. "You're not taking that seriously, are you?"

"No, Rose," Oleana said. "I'm just thinking."

Their conversation lapsed into silence. He looked for Acacius and spotted him in a conversation with Piers, who was less than enthusiastic about being spoken to. Rose decided not to interrupt.

"After today," Oleana said, "I think I'm going to take a vacation."

"Good," Rose said, distracted. "You deserve one."

"For so long, my life has revolved around you," she continued, "and now I don't know what to do. I need time to myself to figure out what I want to do now."

"Ah." Rose turned back to her. "Does that mean we have to go our separate ways?"

Oleana stared off into the distance. "I don't know," she said. "I… hope it doesn't. I care about you a great deal, Rose."

"Though I haven't shown it well, I care about you as well." Rose smiled. "Take all the time you need. I'm not going anywhere, should you choose to come back."

She met his gaze and smiled back. "I appreciate that."

"Hey!"

They looked up at Raihan's shout. Oleana's face returned to its neutral expression. "Are we all set?" she said, walking forward. "I'll open the elevator."

As they gathered around the elevator, Rose glanced down at his chest again. It hadn't stopped glowing for… it had to be over twelve hours. Was it really reacting to Eternatus? Part of him hoped that they wouldn't find Mable in the energy plant, or anywhere else; wouldn't it be better if she did as Gloria said and left them alone?

"Something's wrong," said Oleana.

"Something's what?" Leon stepped forward. "What's going on?"

"My access key isn't working." Oleana frowned at the door. "I can get it open, but it will take longer. Give me a few minutes."

Hop glanced at Leon. "Could she already be in there?" he asked.

"Couldn't be," Raihan said quickly. "There's been guards everywhere, there's security cameras, and we haven't heard anything out of the ordinary."

But Leon didn't look convinced. "We don't know much about this woman," he said, "only that she was a high-ranking scientist in Team Flare. We don't know what skills she has, what she knows, or what she had to do to attain that position. She could be a lot more dangerous than we expect."

"She still couldn't have gotten in the plant," Raihan countered.

"I hope you're right," said Leon.

Oleana successfully unlocked the elevator, and they all filed inside.

---

When the elevator doors opened, the first thing that hit them was the smell of blood.

Leon threw out an arm to stop Gloria from moving forward–though it didn't look like she wanted to. Rose saw a glimpse of his nightmare realm, the red haze overlaid on reality. He blinked. It dissipated.

"I'm going ahead," Leon whispered.

"Alone?" Raihan hissed back.

"I'll come right back. I'm just gonna see what's waiting for us."

He stepped out of the elevator before anyone could stop him. His footsteps sounded unnaturally loud in the corridor. Leon put his back to the wall and moved slowly, peering around the corner at the place where Eternatus had been held.

He stared for a long time.

Finally, he pulled back and crept back to the elevator.

"What did you see?" Gloria whispered.

Leon took a breath. "Eternatus is here," he said. "Looks like it's sleeping. Didn't see Mable, and not a body, either. Lots of blood, though."

Rose's stomach flipped. Acacius put a hand on his shoulder.

"That's good," Piers said cautiously. "Right? As long as Eternatus isn't hooked up to anything, we can put it back in its pokéball, and all's well that ends well."

"Easier said than done," Raihan said. "It's registered to the pokéball it was caught in. It won't go into any other ones."

"There's definitely ways to change a pokémon's registration without the ball."

Raihan shook his head. "We'd need a PC down here to do that, and I don't think there is one." He glanced at Oleana. "Is there?"

"No," said Oleana. "Can we get past it? The control room is at the end of the hall."

"It didn't notice me," Leon said. "We might be fine if we don't approach it, but we need to find the ball. What if Mable released Eternatus here and left with its pokéball?"

"Then we're screwed," said Piers.

"Oh my God," Gloria said. "Everyone calm down. It's not going to attack us on sight."

"You sure about that?" Hop asked. "I mean, you haven't trained with it that much…"

"But I have trained with it." Gloria crossed her arms. "And it recognizes me as its trainer. I could walk right up to it, I bet."

"You are not doing that," Leon said at once. "We need an actual plan."

The elevator doors attempted to close on them. Oleana put her foot in the gap to keep them open. "Let's hear one," she said.

Leon hissed air through his teeth. "Gloria's right," he said. "Eternatus knows she's its trainer, and she could keep it calm while we look for its pokéball. But," he continued just as Gloria opened her mouth, "if that blood is hers, Mable might have antagonized it until it attacked her. We don't know what state it's going to be in when it wakes up. Raihan, you'll have to go with her. And Gloria…"

He took one of his pokéballs and put it in her hand. "Rhyperior," he said when she looked at him. "He knows protect. Send him out if anything happens, alright?"

"You're not going out there?" Acacius said.

"I'll step in if things go south," Leon said, "but Eternatus doesn't like me very much."

"Ah."

Leon glanced at Rose. "I'm guessing that it won't like the chairman, either. Stay out of sight."

Rose tasted coppery bile in the back of his throat. "Understood," he said.

They swiftly went over the rest of the plan: Oleana would walk–"Don't run," Leon told her–to the control room while Gloria and Raihan approached Eternatus. Piers would stay at the elevator to make sure it was there if they needed to flee. Everyone else would be on standby, pokémon at the ready, in case they needed to battle Eternatus.

"Poison type, huh?" Acacius muttered. "Dammit. Why does everything have an advantage over grass types?"

"We might not have to fight it," Hop said. "I mean, if Gloria gets the pokéball, we're fine!"

"Yeah," Gloria said. "Let's hope so."

With everything decided, there was nothing left to do but put the plan into action.

Rose stayed near the back of the group, one hand on Copperajah's pokéball, the other held by Acacius in a tight, sweaty grip. He watched as Gloria, Raihan, and Oleana walked to the intersection, stopping just before they would be in Eternatus' line of sight.

"Here goes," Gloria said, and she stepped into the open. Raihan moved with her.

Gloria stared ahead, presumably at Eternatus, taking long, slow breaths. "It's still sleeping," she said in a quiet voice. "Should I wake it up?"

Raihan gestured to Oleana, who swiftly crossed the hall and continued down to the control room. Rose held his breath until she had opened the door and gone through.
He almost missed Raihan speaking. "Go ahead," he was saying to Gloria. "Better that than to just hope it stays asleep, right?"

"Right," said Gloria. She raised her voice. "Hello? Can you hear me?"

Eternatus stirred.

Rose couldn't see it, but he heard its body shifting, a low hum rising in volume as it began to wake. He squeezed his eyes shut. Behind his eyelids, he could still see the glow from his heart.

"Hey, buddy," Gloria said. "Um… sorry about giving you away, back there. Everything… okay?"

Eternatus growled. The sound sent chills down Rose's spine.

"Hey," Gloria said. "It's alright, okay? We just need to get you out of here, and we need your pokéball to do that. Do you, uhv"

"Not sure how much it understands you," Raihan whispered.

"I know, I know," Gloria hissed back, keeping her eyes on Eternatus. "It's not like other pokémon, I know. I've just got to say something."

She raised her voice. "We're going to come closer, now," she said. "You remember Raihan, right? He helped me train you, back in the stadium."

Leon waved at Raihan and mouthed something that Rose couldn't see from behind. Raihan gave him thumbs up as he and Gloria walked forward and out of sight.

Rose took a few harsh breaths through his nose. In front of him, Bede put a hand on his pokéballs, but Marnie grabbed his wrist. Acacius squeezed Rose's hand tighter.

They all went stiff when they heard Eternatus moving again. Gloria's voice grew louder. "Hey, hey, hey! Where are you going? Stay! Stay!"

Raihan shouted. "Incoming!"

Leon swore just as Eternatus rounded the corner.

Its body didn't fit in the hall. Its massive head peered at them, a low noise coming from within its throat. Bede yanked his hand out of Marnie's grip and grabbed one of his pokéballs, but Leon hissed at them: "No pokémon. Don't do anything to antagonize–oh, God."

Eternatus approached Leon. He stood stiff and straight as it brought its head to him, so close he could have reached out and touched it. After a few, tense seconds, Eternatus made another noise–almost a whine–and pulled back.

"Is everyone okay?" Gloria called out.

Rose had no idea how anyone was supposed to respond. All of them were terrified to speak.

Eternatus opened its mouth and groaned. To Rose, it almost sounded as if it was answering Gloria for them. Leon backed away, pushing Bede, Marnie, Rose, and Acacius further back down the hall.

"What?" said Gloria. "Is something wrong?"

The dragon made a noise like grinding rocks. It retreated away from them and looked back at Gloria, continuing its utterance.

Leon put his back to the wall and slowly slid to the floor. "I'm fine," he said at Marnie's worried noise. "Just… give me a sec."

"What the hell is Eternatus doing?" Bede whispered.

"I don't know, okay?" Leon said. "I'm just glad it's not angry."

"I don't understand," said Gloria. "Are you trying to say something?"

Eternatus let out a keening cry. Unbidden, Rose recalled Eternatus lying atop a pile of corpses. It had made the same sound in that dream.

The possibility that the dreams he was experiencing weren't just dreams sent a wave of vertigo over him. He staggered and would have fallen if Acacius hadn't held him up.

"I don't understand," Gloria said. "I don't understand! What's wrong?"

The lights went out just as the screaming started.

"Gloria!" Hop shouted, and he darted around Leon to run forward–only to freeze when Eternatus passed him, the dragon turning around in the cramped space and returning to the other room. The screaming continued, echoing down the dark halls.

Leon grabbed Hop by the shoulders. "Raihan, what's going on?" he called out. "Are you two okay?"

"We're fine!" Raihan shouted back. "Eternatus is going after something!"

"Someone's screaming!" Gloria cried. "Is that Mable?"

Rose's stomach flipped again.

Hop pulled out of Leon's grip and spun around to face him. "Are we going to hide behind a wall the entire time?" he snapped. "Eternatus already knows we're here!"
Leon shook his head. "Fine," he said, "just be careful! If Eternatus–"

Hop was running before he finished his sentence. Bede pushed past Leon to run after him, while Marnie, after looking back at Piers, stayed put. Leon glanced at her, then took a pokéball off his belt and ducked around the corner.

The screaming rose into a shriek. Eternatus' cry followed it. The floor trembled.

Rose didn't realize Acacius was trying to talk to him until he waved a hand in front of his face. "Hey," Acacius said when he got his attention, "what do we do now?"

"What can we do?" Rose said. "I thought we could help, somehow, but…."

Acacius let go of his hand and clapped it on his shoulder. "Frankly," he said, "if you want to hide here the whole time, I won't complain. But we can't help if we don't know what's going on."

His words cut through his panic, and Rose managed to find the calm in the eye of the storm. "You're right," he said. "It's… it's worse to not know what's happening."

He took Acacius' hand again and rounded the corner with him.

The confidence drained out of him.

Mable was on–was hovering a few feet above the remains of Eternatus' containment, a pink glow carrying her. She was clutching her head and breathing hard, a bloody hole ripped into her chest with a glowing core embedded where her heart should have been. Eternatus moved its head down towards her. She jerked away and shrieked again.

"What the hell!" Acacius yelped. "What happened to her?!"

Rose put a hand over his own chest. "She… she got what she wanted."

But what happened to Mable was not what she had envisioned, nor was it what happened to him. Mable writhed in midair, violently shaking her head back and forth, while Eternatus circled around her, keeping its distance.

A few pokémon stood with their trainers, but no one was moving to attack. Gloria had her inteleon out in front of her, standing with Hop's cinderace and Bede's hatterene. Leon's charizard kept a protective stance in front of him, its eyes on Eternatus, but the dragon was focused on Mable. Again, Eternatus reached for Mable, and again, she dodged its claws.

"I may have not known her that well," said Acacius, "but I really doubt this was what she wanted."

Raihan called out. "Leon! What's the plan?"

Leon ran a hand over his face. "We can't attack Eternatus, but I don't know what it's doing with Mable! If it wanted to attack her, why wouldn't it just use one of its moves?"

"Does she still have its pokéball?"

"Probably!"

"What was it like when it happened to you?" Acacius said.

Rose stared at him in alarm. "This isn't what happened to me!"

"No, but there's got to be some similarities, right?" Acacius shook his head. "If you had any insight…"

Upon getting his heart replaced, Rose's first recollection was of unimaginable pain.

Rose took a sharp breath. He didn't remember much of what happened after Eternatus attacked him, but he remembered being in agony, his body rejecting the foreign object even as it kept him alive. What happened to Mable may have been different… but she was clearly in pain.

He took a deep breath and stepped forward.

"Rose–"

He held up his hand and cut Acacius short. "I'm going to talk to her," said Rose. "Wait here."

He walked into the room proper, passing by a bewildered Leon. "Mable!" he called out. "I want to talk!"

Mable jerked her head up and met his eyes.

"You!" she yelled.

The aura around her swirled and coalesced into a bright light. Rose had half a second to shield his eyes before the beam hit him in the gut.

The blast shoved him backwards and knocked him down. Rose gasped and fell on his side. The beam only lasted a second or two, but it burned through his suit and left horrid welts on his skin–oh, never mind, they were healing over as he watched. Rose wheezed in pain and picked himself up. He couldn't breathe very well, but, well, he didn't need to.

Mable had one hand outstretched towards him. "You–you–" Her voice jumped up and down in pitch like it was glitching. "You did this to me!"

Rose held up his hands. "I'm not trying to fight," he said, keeping his voice calm. "I want to help."

"Liar!"

Eternatus reared back, but didn't move to attack, its eyes fixed on Mable. Rose pulled his own gaze away from it. "Mable," he said again, "I may be the only person who knows what you're going through. If you calm down, we can help you."

"This is your fault!" Mable twitched and pulled her hand back. "Just make it stop! Make it stop!"

She lashed out aimlessly, another beam shooting far above Rose's head and hitting the wall. He flinched at the impact.

Rose looked at Leon and lowered his voice. "We need to calm her down before she brings down the building."

"I thought turning off the power was supposed to stop that," Leon hissed back.

"Not that. The roof could collapse if she does enough damage." Rose glanced around the building. "Between her and Eternatus…"

Eternatus growled softly. Mable snapped her head up at the noise. "Get away from me!" she shouted, and thrust both her hands towards it.

The beam struck Eternatus' shoulder. Its cry shook the building. Eternatus fell down below the platform they stood on and crashed into the surrounding bulbs, shattered glass flying everywhere–a few large shards landed near them. Rose thought for a moment of how much money and labor the repairs would cost.

"She's fighting like a pokémon," said Hop. "Do you think she'll go in a pokéball?"

Before anyone could scold him for the ill-timed humor, Eternatus roared. It rose above them, the core in its chest glowing brighter, and launched itself at Mable. She wasn't able to dodge–it closed its jaws on her and smashed her body against the platform. 

Mable screamed and thrashed in its grip. The glow around her dissipated. Eternatus let out a muffled growl.

"Stop!"

Gloria ran towards Eternatus. It fixed its gaze on her and she slowed down, halting just in front of its head. Mable's screams faded to pained wheezes.

"Gloria!" Leon shouted. "Get away from it!"

She didn't acknowledge him. "Stop," she said again, her hands clenched into fists. "Let–let her go! You're supposed to be my pokémon, right? Listen to me!"

Leon swore and gestured to Charizard. They made it halfway to Gloria before Eternatus swiped at them. Its claws slammed Leon against his pokémon and sent them both tumbling to the ground, Charizard wrapping its arms and wings around Leon protectively.

"Stop!" Gloria screamed. "Just stop fighting! Let her go and just–just stop!"

Rose's vision blurred. For a moment, he was certain he saw a swamp of bodies covered in a red haze–but that was impossible. It was impossible. He was on the floor and it was solid, not soft and damp–his eyes were just tricking him. He didn't remember falling.

An ethereal song filled the room.

Rose sat up. His head nearly collided with Acacius, who pulled back from leaning over him just in time. "Are you okay?" Acacius said frantically. "What's happening?"

"I don't know," Rose said. "Why is Bede's hatterene singing?"

Hatterene stood at Bede's side, her hair appendage on her trainer's shoulder, her body's tiny arms outstretched towards Eternatus. Bede and and Hatterene slowly walked forward together as the song continued. Eternatus was silent as they approached it.

Acacius grabbed Rose's hand. "Oh my God," he said again. "Should he be doing that?"

No one was telling Bede not to. Leon had gotten back to his feet, with Hop and Raihan by his side, but none of them made any move to stop him. Gloria took a step back to allow Bede and Hatterene to go right up to Eternatus' head. Hatterene took her appendage off Bede and, slowly, gently, placed it on Eternatus.

Eternatus sighed and raised its head, dropping Mable as it did. She curled up in the fetal position and sobbed, making no move to get away. Hatterene's song ended.

"Oh my God, Bede," said Gloria. "What did you do?"

"Eternatus was trying to communicate," Bede said, "but there was a language barrier. I had Hatterene use telepathy to tell it to calm down. I think we can–ack!"

Gloria wrapped her arms around him and pressed her chin into his shoulder. Tears fell freely down her face as she sobbed, hugging Bede tight.

While Gloria and Bede embraced, Leon cautiously approached with Hop and Raihan. "Okay," he said, keeping his eyes on Eternatus. "We just need its pokéball, and then we can figure out… what else to do."

Mable didn't react when Leon plucked the familiar ultra ball off her belt. He turned it over in his hand, looked up at Eternatus, and held it up to it."

"Return," he said.

Eternatus reared back as the recall beam hit it. It dissolved into red light that was rapidly sucked into the pokéball. The enormous, overbearing presence faded.

Rose could breathe again.

Gloria pulled away from Bede. "That's it?" she said. "We can go home?"

"Not yet." Leon handed Eternatus' pokéball to her. Gloria took it in shaking hands. "We have to help Mable, like the chairman said."

Honestly, Rose had forgotten he had said that to her. He took a deep breath and stood up, Acacius standing with him. "Is she still conscious?" he asked. "If not…"

Leon crouched back above Mable's body. "Her chest healed over," he said. "Doesn't look like she's awake, but–"

Mable's body twitched. Leon jerked back. "Never mind, she's awake."

Mable slowly uncurled and sat up, her hand gripping the newly-grown flesh on her chest. Leon stood up straight.

"You don't look in pain anymore," he said. "What the hell did you do?"

"Hurts less," Mable said, not looking at him. "I feel… different."

"We'll take you to the hospital," Leon said, "and then you are going to a damned prison. Will you cooperate?"

Mable slowly shook her head. "Have I ever?" she said.

But she wasn't moving to do anything. She wasn't glowing anymore. Gloria's inteleon rejoined its trainer and stood in front of her, while Leon's charizard growled softly.

"Alright," Leon said. "Charizard, let's bring her in."

His pokémon snorted and moved to grab Mable. As soon as it put its claws on her, she spun around and raised her hand. Her chest pulsed with light.

The beam that shot from her hand was smaller than the previous ones, but it still sent Charizard staggering back. Mable backed away, breathing hard.

"That was harder," she said, looking down at her hand. "Why am I weaker?"

Rose instinctively grabbed a pokéball off his belt. "Copperajah–"

Mable's eyes fell on him. Before he could send out his pokémon, she raised her hand towards him–

"Rose!"

Something collided with his side. Rose hit the ground and was momentarily blinded by the light. Someone was shouting. Rose blinked rapidly to clear his vision.

His heart dropped.

Acacius' vest and shirt had a hole burned into it, and his chest was blistered and bleeding. He breathed hard, keeping himself up on one hand and knee, the other hand hovering over the wound. Rose caught him as he fell. "Acacius!"

Mable shouted. Rose looked up and saw her restrained by Charizard, her hands pinned behind her back. Her chest was still glowing, but she didn't move to attack. Without her hands, she must have no way to aim.

Acacius shifted in his grasp. "That hurt," he wheezed. "Oh, God. That hurt a lot."

"You're going to be okay," Rose said, despite knowing what the wound looked like. "You–you should have let it hit me, Acacius!"

"Ha!" Acacius gave him a pained smile. "Wasn't thinking. Instinct, I guess." The smile vanished. "Probably should have, though. Hard to breathe."

"That looks bad," Leon said. Rose hadn't noticed him crouching next to them. "You'll be fine as soon as we get out of here. Raihan–"

Acacius was still struggling to breathe. Rose's eyes fell on the wound again, at the burned and bloody skin, and was struck by cold realization: Acacius would not survive this.

The noise around him faded into static.

What could he do? Rose's heart only healed himself. He held Acacius close to his chest, feeling every pained gasp and shudder, but Acacius' wounds remained. What could he do? What could he–

His eyes fell on a piece of shattered glass on the floor; it must have been from the bulbs Eternatus hit. It was sharp and pointed, and nearly as long as his forearm.

An answer came to him.

"Leon," Rose said, keeping his voice steady.

"What?"

"I'm sorry," said Rose. "I'm afraid I must ask one last thing of you."

Leon looked to him in confusion, worry creasing his forehead. "What do you mean?"

Rose carefully lay Acacius back on the ground and picked up the glass shard. "What I need," he said, "is for you to make sure nobody interferes with what I'm about to do."

"And what are you going to do?"

"Please just promise."

Leon hesitated. "I promise," he said, "but seriously, what are you doing?"

Rose didn't answer. He stared at the glass in his hand and imagined a blade.

Acacius was mumbling something. "I don't want to die," he said. "I don't want to die, I don't want to die–"

"Don't worry," Rose said softly. "You won't have to."

And he plunged the shard into his own chest.