Chapter Text
Felicia takes her party back from the Team Recorder, and takes out her Remote PC.
The PC prevents her from being able to take any Pokemon out with an INVALID USER notification.
Lucille sighs, and takes out her Pokegear.
Everyone other than Luna, Terra, and Caitlyn that she bothered to message has been replaced with [INVALID TRAINER ID].
Lucille: We need to talk to Terra. Now.
Tari: Why her?
Lucille: She'll be able to explain what happened more than Luna.
Lucille calls Terra on her Pokegear.
Terra immediately picks up.
Terra: u hef reached T3RR4R414'S VOICEMAEL. Plz leave message after the
A vine boom sounds out from the Pokegear.
lin: terra, we know it's you.
Terra: w8 wat
Terra's tone becomes more serious for a moment.
Terra: Alright. Come to the Nightclub. It'll be easier to explain what happened there.
Terra hangs up.
Lin shrugs.
A teleport pad opens up beside the Team Recorder.
Felicia walks onto it and warps away. Tari, Lucille, and Lin follow her.
They end up just outside the Charous Hall.
Felicia sends out her Hydreigon, and gets on to fly off. It immediately sends her down to the Nightclub before she can say anything.
lin: ...
i'll just walk.
Tari, Lucille, and Lin walk back through Victory Road.
They leave the entrance of the Charous Mine, and get to Labradoora.
Lucille walks in through the back door, and sees a heavily visually corrupted tileset.
Lucille: This isn't our Reborn.
Tari: At least we're still in Reborn. Third's gone.
They walk through the Labradorra Arena, and leave out the other side into Labradorra City.
The path through Calcenon is uneventful, other than Caitlyn stepping out of her house and seeming confused before walking back in.
Tari jumps down a ladder on Route 3 to skip going through Celestinine Mountain.
Lucille and Lin jump down after her.
They walk across Route 2 and into the Agate Circus.
Alistasia notices Tari.
ALISTASIA: Did you enjoy your gym battles here? Quite a show, aren't they?
Tari: ...nope.
Lin runs past the Agate Circus, and into Agate City.
Tari and Lucille rush after her, and see that Lin has already run down to the Route 1 gate when they get there.
Lin stops on the other side of the Route 1 gate.
Tari and Lucille catch up with her, and see her looking at a Tauros running in circles.
lin: ...the magic's gone.
Tari: Hey. Terra knows what happened. Wait till we're there.
lin: ...
Lin runs at the Tauros, and gets teleported down. The Tauros stays in ins position, running around in circles.
Tari shrugs, and does the same.
Lucille also does so.
Lin, Tari, and Lucille walk down the Grand Stairway, and down to the Nightclub, where Felicia is waiting.
Felicia: ...
Let's just find out.
Felicia walks into the Nightclub, and gets followed by her sisters and Lin.
Felicia walks into the main hall of the Nightclub with Lin.
Everyone other than the Seijiyas, Belroses, Luna, Terra, Elias, and Ace turn around to face Lin, and Arclight abruptly stops the music.
lin: uh... hi?
Everyone turns back to do what they were doing.
Saphira walks over to the bar. Zara does too.
Terra leaves her spot on the dancefloor, and follows Saphira over to the bar.
Tari: ...
Terra takes out a laptop when she sits down at the bar, and boots it up.
Tari and Lucille walk over to the bar, and Felicia walks over to talk to Luna with Lin.
Terra: Gimme a drink, bartender!
Elias facepalms, and throws a beer down the cleanly polished bar.
Terra catches it with her right hand, but plays a bottle shattiering noise when she does.
Lucille looks at Zara, and sees that she's back in her original, male, body.
Zara: Elias, what's the highest amount of alcohol you can give me without permanent liver damage being a possibility?
Elias: You shouldn't try to drown your sorrows like that.
Zara: I HATE IT HERE THOUGH!
...at least my voice doesn't sound like it did back then.
Elias notices Tari and Lucille.
Elias: So the Lord's will was carried out after all. Welcome back.
Lucille: It's good that some of you remember still.
I'll have a Bloody Mary.
Elias walks over to the rack, and starts mixing.
Tari notices that Terra's booting up a game.
Tari: What's this?
Terra: OWO
...
It's a cult classic MMO, you've probably never heard of it.
When the third expansion was about to drop, the developers got hacked and ended up losing control of the systems. It still runs though, and even better than it was before then. It's all up in the cloud or something.
Tari: Nice.
...What happened?
Terra: Hard reset. We ended up in a world where your actions didn't exist. Some of us still remember because we grasped the truth before the cycle got closed.
Terra's MMO loads up onto an archaic login screen, asking for her username and password. She types both of them in.
After logging in, it shows a level 256 War Cleric that looks exactly like Terra could in the game wearing gear that seems obviously hacked in.
Terra: The 3 admins are super chill. No jannies. One of them is barely ever active and only steps in when server turbulence occurs or someone tries hacking in gear.
Getting the mythical Baseball Bat of Bonking was worth it just for that boss fight alone, she let me keep my gear afterwards.
Tari: Nice.
Luna: Welcome back, and safe travels.
Felicia: ?
Luna: There's nothing left for you to do in this world other than leave.
I know that you don't like battles for the sake of battles.
Felicia: ...Fair point. Is Ritsu ok?
Luna: It should be. I still sense Alice's presence out there, somwhere.
...
Luna walks over to Terra.
Luna: Terra, can you do a player search for me?
Terra: sure bb, whomstvedvedvedve?
Luna: First name Alice, second name allcaps PLACEHOLDER.
Terra opens up the MMO's player search and types the names in.
The game crashes when she clicks Search.
Terra: ...
Luna: ...
Terra: Well that's never happened before.
Elias hands Lucille a Bloody Mary, and gives Zara a bottle of white wine.
Elias: Your drinks.
Zara: Thanks.
Saphira: Black coffee.
I'm glad that Charlotte and Laura still remember everything we've been through.
Elias turns on a kettle.
Tari: How was the calamity?
Saphira: We holed out in my gym for as long as we could. The terrain made for a great defense for our Pokemon, and Laura's helped us stay healthy through it.
...Then the walls vanished. It's a good thing that the world went white a few minutes later.
Where's your friend, the bot?
Lucille: We don't know.
Terra: its fine trust me.
Terra logs back into her game.
Her character walks down to a mailbox, and takes a box out of it.
The box immediately opens up and turns into a red orb with a note.
Terra: SWYgdGhpcy...
...
Luna walks over.
Luna: If this message reaches you, then we survived. For now.
Terra, who sent that?
Terra checks the return address on the box.
Terra: Uhhh.... Some girl called Lilith. The ball's from Hagewashi.
Luna facepalms.
Luna: That kettle's got enough water for 2 cups. Mind making me a coffee too?
Elias takes two mugs from the underside of the bar, and takes out a cafetiere with coffee grounds already placed into it.
Elias: Of course. I would not be a good father if I could not care for the daughter that I still have.
Luna: ...
Thanks.
Felicia: What's in the ball?
Terra's character takes the ball out, and observes it.
Terra: Oh, that's a Beastmaster egg. I went with Rawr Cleric so that I could use my hammer as much as I wanted, so there's got to be a reason why he traded it over.
The red orb hatches into a mechanical knight thats height reaches to Terra's waist.
Tari: I guess he wanted you to have it as a peeeet-
Felicia: That knight... That's literally the statue that was in my chamber.
Lucille takes a hearty sip from her Bloody Mary.
Lucille: This place is creeping me out now.
Let's just go.
Luna: I can take you over to the portal now, if you like.
Tari: We can fly over-
Luna: I said, I can take you over now, if you like.
Tari: ...I see.
With what happened to Fly, this'll be for the best. Let's go.
Luna, Tari, Lucille, Felicia, and Lin all disappear in an instant.
Luna reappears beisde a Golden Gate at the top of the Teknite Ridge.
lin: where did anna end up, anyway?
Luna: She's in a coma in her room in the Vanhanen Castle.
I'm not sure what she remembers of your existence, and I'd prefer to not have you around to find out.
Tari and Lucille walk through the Golden Gate.
Felicia: I'll find out a way to talk from the other side.
This world has a special place in my heart.
And that's not just because you're coming with us, Lin.
lin: hehehehehehe!
Luna bows to Felicia, and sends out her Honchkrow.
Luna: Until we meet again, "Champion".
Luna jumps on Honchkrow, and immediately flies away.
lin: i can come back right, mom?
Felicia: I'd wait till Luna tells us that Anna's off her justice high first.
Felicia hugs Lin, then both of them walk through the Golden Gate.
Tari and Lucille are waiting for Lin on the other side of the Gate.
In the distance, a large gear-shaped portal lies in front of the astral liquid in the middle of this part of the New World.
Lucille: This feels wrong.
lin: why?
Lucille: No real reason, it's just the fulfilling melancholy of completing a game.
It's just not the same without Box or Ivy.
lin: ...
Felicia walks across the immense meteor formation, and over to the portal.
Felicia: Kali'd better have a cuppa ready for us.
Tari laughs.
Tari: Yeah, let's go.
Tari, Lucille, and Lin walk over.
Tari jumps through the portal.
Lucille sighs, and jumps through after her.
Felicia: I'll sleep on the sofa while we're working on a room for you.
Lin jumps through the portal.
Felicia hesitates to jump through.
Felicia: ...
I know you're out there, J+ $jbpj.
Thanks for saving this world.
Felicia takes a step towads the portal, and jumps through.