Chapter Text
All the air had left Kieran's lungs when the Master Ball failed. His last shot at redemption, of being something, it broke apart in his hands. He couldn't do anything right. He'd failed to win Ogerpon, he couldn't stop Robin's righteous campaign from knocking him off his pedestal and now, he'd enraged the treasure buried within Area Zero. He watched as it changed forms, wielding more power than Kieran ever thought possible for a Pokémon, the light refracting off its enormous Tera Jewel bathing the room in rainbow light.
He struggled alongside Robin for a while, though it quickly became clear they weren't able to defeat it. Terapagos was too strong for them. All of their Pokemon fell to its rage, leaving them defenseless in the face of the ancient beast.
And it was looking at him.
His legs turned to jelly in the face of the beast's rage. It didn't look scared. It didn't even look that mad. It looked offended by the notion that someone like Kieran could ever hope to be its master. It looked irritated that a bug like him would even dare touch it. It had chosen Robin first, after all. To defy its wishes must have been a severe insult.
He didn't know why he insisted on staying, even when Robin gave him the opportunity to run. Maybe it was because he needed to finish what he started. Maybe he couldn't bear to leave her to that monster's rage. Maybe it was because he knew where he belonged.
Kieran had a fleeting thought that maybe he deserved what was coming to him. If he'd just shut up and known his place, then maybe he wouldn't have been on the wrong end of a Legendary Pokémon's fury. Maybe he would never have been Champion, but maybe he wouldn't have been so hated. Maybe he could've kept some of his friends, went back to school sad yet docile enough that no one would've just given up on him.
Maybe he'd have deserved some of Robin's kindness. Maybe he could've been her friend. Maybe he would've been more than just a nuisance to her. She wouldn't have had to flick him away like a speck of lint, or crush him under her foot because it was the only thing she could do to get through to him. Maybe they could've been on the same side.
He stared into the beam of light heading his way. He'd always wondered what death felt like, if it burned to leave one's body behind. He hoped it felt like falling into a dreamless sleep. He was so damn tired. Tired of fighting, tired of clinging to the faint hope that maybe he could redeem himself after everything he'd done. He just wanted to go home. He hoped it wouldn't hurt to find his way to where he belonged.
He never got the chance to find out.
It felt like an eternity waiting for the beam to strike him. By comparison, Terapagos' attack went by in the blink of an eye. The Tera Starstorm struck true in front of him, bathing Robin's limp body in a blinding white glow, and before he knew what had even happened, a deafening shockwave knocked him to the ground, hard.
Then, he was sprayed with blood. So, so much blood hit him in the face, hot and sticky and wrong and- And- And he could still feel his bones and-
He opened his eyes in time to see Robin's body hit the floor, blood gushing out from God knows where, everywhere. The cavern went dark, the Tera Jewel that had been illuminating it shattered in the wake of Robin's final attack, alongside every Tera Crystal that adorned the cave walls. The earth shook, the cavern beginning to cave in from the earthquake she'd unleashed. She'd defeated Terapagos with just one shockwave, sacrificing her own body to quell the beast. She'd stood in the way between him and freedom.
She'd always taken what should've been his.
"No no nonononono no no no no no-" he babbled incoherently, getting up on his scraped knees. He sprung into action before he even realized his body was moving, scrambling over to her, finding himself kneeling in a pool of her blood. He rolled Robin onto her back, finding a weak, slowing pulse. "No no no, you can't, you can't, you- You can't- Stop- Stop it, stop-" he begged, trying in vain to stop the bleeding yet her wounds went much too deep to clot. "Please, please- Please don't go- Please, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I love you, I'm sorry, don't go-"
"AGIAS!!" her kaiju bellowed, headbutting him square in the head. He didn't even notice that her kaiju had left its Poke Ball until it headbutted him to get his attention. He scooped up her body in his arms, finding strength he had no idea he possessed to lift her onto the kaiju's back.
"BRIAR!!!" he bellowed, the first thing he'd been able to hear since the shockwave had blown his eardrums. She'd been standing perfectly still in the ruins of her dream, staring at the weakened beast until he screamed at her. God, if she didn't climb aboard within the next two seconds, he was leaving her behind. She eventually made her first smart decision ever, and ran to her students, barely making it on before the kaiju took off on its own accord, not even requiring Kieran to pilot it.
He held her as tight as he could while hanging onto the kaiju, who'd taken flight out of the collapsing Underdepths, narrowly dodging the falling debris as the Zero Lab collapsed. It flew faster than Kieran had ever seen it, piercing the inappropriately fair blue sky in its haste to bring its beloved Trainer to safety.
"Please, please, please-" he droned on repeat under his breath, pleading for nothing in particular. He could feel her breath, barely there against his chest. That was the only thing keeping him going, knowing that she still had a chance to make it. She couldn't pay such a high price for him. She was only there because of him. He couldn't delude himself into thinking she didn't care about him or she was seeking glory, he'd known better ever since she'd sobbed on his doorstep. She did it, every little cut she'd inflicted on him, the lying and the ursurping and the suffocation, she did it all because she cared in her own clumsy way. She cared enough to willingly throw herself into danger for him and now she'd paid dearly for it. Because he'd forced her hand.
He never thought for a second she'd get caught up in his last stand. He'd been willing to accept the consequences of his failure, it was the only thing he had left. It was his only shot at salvation, and he'd failed once more. It felt almost logical. Three strikes and he's out. He didn't even blame Terapagos for exacting its revenge, it was merely the balance of things. A nice and neat ending to his campaign for power. He'd dug himself such a deep hole, sacrificed everything else in the pursuit of power, so the only way out was through. And if that way was blocked, then he'd only have got what he deserved when the Tera Starstorm blew him to pieces.
She made his nice and neat ending messy. He wanted her to wake up, in part to ask her what the hell she was thinking. She was so loved. She walked into the BB League Clubroom and instantly won them all over. And he couldn't even pretend she didn't deserve it. She was the hero of the story and he was the beast she slayed. She was supposed to get her happy ending, her prince and her kingdom, the universal adoration. He was supposed to get his just desserts, to pay for his sins and she just- She just-
It wasn't a fair trade. Her for him. The scales weren't balanced. She was worth too much. She was the Champion, she held the ogre, she had the love of so many and Kieran was nothing. She couldn't just die for him, that was simply wrong. What sense did that make, spilling the hero's blood to save the beast? Who would take that bargain, an empty and corrosive husk of a boy for her?
It felt like the world was tilted sideways, teetering on the edge of oblivion. If Terapagos had decided that only one could climb out of hell, then- Then it should've been her. It was only right. So she had to live, otherwise everything was just wrong.