Another Day at Unity (23) (Patreon)

Aurora dissolved in front of her. The girl didn't transform the way Liz did so much as just faded around the edges, becoming less distinct until she hovered in the air, slightly lower than head level. Any higher and those wings would brush up against the ceiling.

"Mom is never wrong," Drake said, squeezing both hands into fists. "She can see into anyone's mind. She can look from across the city, if she knows what she's looking for. If she says you're a ditto—"

"She's wrong!" Liz said. She didn't often speak out loud, but this time she did, channeling the force of her enormous frustration into sound so loud it shook the building. Several small voices in the stairs squealed, then retreated in sudden fear. "She saw glimpses, while we took other forms, and our minds were less shielded. She could not see into our minds now."

"We're not ditto." Hayden took a single step away from Drake, back towards the doorway. "We should have this conversation somewhere else."

"So you can capture him?" the gallade demanded. He readied both blades, aiming sharply at Liz. Though he was still about a foot away, the pokémon did not react. She didn't even flinch.

"Keep your bullshit straight," Hayden snapped, annoyed. "If I'm a ditto, your son here will squish me like slime. Do you even know how they work?" She didn't wait for a response. "I do, since everyone thinks I’m my older sister. A ditto can't hold a mythical form for more than a few hours. A ditto can't copy their powers very well. And most importantly..."

She advanced up to Drake, close enough that her body brushed against his chest. "If you want to fight me, I don't want to do it here because of her." She gestured across the room. "If you try to kill me, this will get very dangerous for everyone else in the building. I won't hurt someone's mom by accident."

Drake glanced back in her direction, and his eyes narrowed. "I didn't say I was going to fight you. Last time someone tried to kill me, I squished them. Aurora and I don't want to do that again. You should leave."

She wilted. Those words cut far deeper than any blow. Liz and Hayden were ready to fight—if they could survive Fae, they could weather whatever an untrained dragon wanted to throw at them.

But could they really capture him against his will, and take him away from people depending on him?

Hayden dropped to her knees in front of him. Liz zipped over to her, landing on her shoulder and wrapping her tail back around her neck. "Before you send me away, you should know the real reason I'm here. Your mom is wrong about me, but..." She twitched, the foul smell finally reaching her nose. "Why is she poisoned?"

She shifted involuntarily, changing so fast that she barely even realized what she was doing. Hayden got older, adjusting her skirt to the lighter variety that Shaymin often wore, so she could feel the sun with more of her skin. Her hair spread around her, going leafy and green.

She shifted in place, holding Liz close against her breast. Though her confidence only grew, her vulnerability had also. She had lost her gracidea during that brief dip in the ocean, and not recovered it. The poor thing would probably be too wilted by now to work for her anyway.

Drake's anger softened, strained with sudden curiosity. That was nothing new for her, of course—Hayden often got reactions like that when she transformed for other mythicals.

"What are you now..." He reached for her daemon, then withdrew his hand just as quickly, seeming to realize what he was doing.

Hayden rose to her feet with new dignity. She was older than Drake by a few years now, and more mature. She would not be subject to his untainted desires when she had her own purpose. "My family are Shaymin. We don't need to be them to use the move we need. But the Shaymin ancestors trained us, and we... aren't sure it would be strong enough if we did it as ourselves."

She pushed him, directly into Drake this time, towards the other side of the room. "How long has she been like this? It should have killed her already."

The woman laughed, bitter and angry. Those laughs turned into pained coughs, spraying something black onto her hospital gown.

She was too weak to speak, but her daemon wasn't. "That's how you take him then? Loyal growlithe to the Great Families, Moonstone's servant. Or did Eon House finally decide to take Alto Mare for itself? They couldn't soil their own wings with the blood."

"What does she mean?" Drake demanded. He squeezed her wrist, and held on tight enough that it actually hurt. She would have to fight him if she wanted to reach the bed. "Tell me, Hayden. I'll kill you if you hurt her. I warned you once!"

She shook her head sharply. "I already told you. I'm no assassin. I would like to remove the poison from her bloodstream. But if I do, I would like a guarantee that I'm not going to have my throat cut while I recover. Seeing as I'll be... entirely helpless."

She whimpered, glancing weakly at the blade-armed gallade. "I can't say I was never warned this would happen."

"Remove the..." Drake looked between her and the hospital bed, then back again. "Mom is sick. Has been for the last few years. There's no treatment, it doesn't matter if you're a ditto or not."

Hayden took another step forward, dragging Drake with her. She wasn't just older, her Unity was far greater now. His strength could wilt and bruise her skin, but he would have to do more than that to stop her.

"No she isn't," Hayden repeated. "That stink in your nose is Sable Kiss, comes from the kebia berry. The great families use it on their enemies. Makes their executions... agonizing." She stopped after a few steps, tilting her face to the side. "If you don't want me to interfere, Father-in-law... now's the time to stop me!"

She spread her arms to both sides, waiting. But there was nothing—no touch on her mind, no hint that the mythical was watching.

"There, see?" She gestured across the room, directly over to the bed. "Miss, I don't have the skill to repair the damage already done. But I can remove the poison, and end the pain. Tell your son to let me, please. Nature does not offer torture, but mercy." In death, or life, she added privately.

"I see there is no preventing you," the woman thought, directly into her mind. Her telepathy was incredibly disciplined, though still limited by the strength of her daemon. Hayden let her, though she remained alert to any soft touch made beneath the surface. She would not have her thoughts robbed again. "Do you think killing me will break him?"

She glared back, past Drake. "I hope you'll stop accusing me of that in a few minutes."

"Lie all you wish. I know you came for my son. Eon House already sent their men, and they floated away into the ocean. You were only more insidious."

She shrugged. "I'm here to recruit your son for the Unity Academy, that's all. I'm not here to hurt him, or win him over for my house over others. When I finish with you, you'll see that."

She sat up. "Let her come, Drake. It is time for me to tell you something."

He released her arm, following her to the hospital bed. By the time they reached it, there were three people—Aurora appeared on Hayden's other side, watching Liz more than her.

Up close, the signs of Sable Kiss were even more obvious than the awful smell. Her veins were outlined in silver beneath her skin, forming a messy spiderweb of scars across her chest, arms, and neck. When they reached her head, it would mean her death.

"You never knew who I was running from, Drake. Why your father died, and how we ended up in Alto Mare. This child is... correct. If I am about to die, you deserve to know the truth."

She reached over to him, and squeezed his wrist. The effort obviously cost her, and pain flared through her. That was the whole point of the Sable Kiss, after all. Those who defied the great families were meant to die in agony.

"When things were better, I served our local lords. Not their cousins in Hoenn, Eon House. Sigurd and I were among the house Luster Praetorians. Your father and I served together, protecting the heir. But she didn't settle as an eon. Instead, you did."

Drake sagged against the metal rail, holding himself there with obvious difficulty. "You mean Lucia?" he asked. "Is that why I never saw her again?"

She nodded weakly. "We were commanded to kill you then, so the essence of the Eon guardians could pass again into Alto Mare and find its correct home in a new birth. We... refused. Your father died ensuring we could escape the palace. But the Sable Kiss... it was implanted when I first joined the house. They broke the vial without even seeing my face."

Hayden looked between them for a few seconds more. But Liz was less patient, and she hopped right down from her lap, onto an empty part of the mother's hospital bed. "You're not saying final goodbyes, miss. In about five minutes, you can tell him anything you want, and I won't even be conscious to overhear."

The mother released his wrist. "The Johto branch and the Mew have always been allies, Drake. This girl came to you by way of Lord Moonstone. When the family couldn't find me, he sent better tools. The mew have always been better at infiltration. But whatever happens next, I want you to live, Drake. Your father and I didn't give our lives for you and Aurora to surrender."

"Your mother is right to hate them," Hayden thought to him. "But she's wrong about me. I won't hurt her. I just wish I'd been here sooner. If I could've saved her spine... but I'm not strong enough to rebuild organs like that. If I tried, I would kill her."

All strength left his face. "I don't... she says..."

"The Great Families can be awful. Some of them are evil like you can't imagine. But not me. Just don't let her kill me while I'm out, please."

Hayden would wait no longer. She stepped sideways into the sunlight, gesturing at the blinds. They snapped off the wall completely, plunging Hayden into the full light of day. She didn't need sunlight to make this work, exactly. But just like being a shaymin, it felt important to the process in other ways.

"A long time ago there was a girl," Hayden began. "Only, she was old. A very old woman, who had known she would never leave her house again. That was okay, she agreed to stay behind. She lived for years and years, until all kinds of wonderful people had moved in. She had friends in the garden, she had friends to cook with her, she told stories by the fire.

"Until she saw her youngest grandchild fall off the roof. She wasn't flying yet, and landed badly. Her body broke, her daemon was crushed, and she bled on the rocks below."

There were no words to an attack, exactly. But this was more than the move pokémon might use. Hayden and Liz together were more than types and stats and status conditions.

It was about being in the right state of mind—feeling what her ancient ancestor once had. Her joy, then her heartbreak. It filled them to overflowing, even if this woman had shown them nothing but hostility.

"The first daughter was very old," Liz continued. She hopped up on the railing, carefully dodging past Drake and his mother, though not Aurora. She didn't seem to mind brushing against her fingers. But why should she?

"She would not endure for much longer anyway. In the single breath between life and death, she made a wish. Her father had gone away, but still he heard, and heard her last request."

Hayden pushed past Drake, feeling the strength build in her now. Power she rarely held, so strong it made her fingers shake. She took the stranger's hands, and spoke again. "As the color left her, the first daughter lifted her grandchild into her arms and whispered into her ear. While you are young, fly and dream and see the house I built. When you are weary and your bones ache, you will see me again. But not today."

Liz released the attack, filling the room with an overflowing onslaught of psychic power. Even Aurora retreated from the bed, shielding herself with both arms.

But Hayden barely saw that, because she was already falling. She managed to reach Liz, tucking the little pokémon into her dress even as sensation fled her.

She landed roughly on the floor, unconscious before she touched the ground.