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Frontier Town The Wanderin' Zera

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It had made a difference, some of his original black and white pelt was back. Still dirt-stained, sure, but far better than before.

Nova sighed, turquoise points dimming. "Do you think I'm making a mistake trusting him? People keep side-eyeing me over it. I don't exactly have a great track record with decision making."
 
"I don't really know who this Mewtwo is in the grand scheme of things, but..." Mhynt sighed. "As far as I'm concerned, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I'll worry about how he is later when Alexander is done. At least this 'Giovanni' person isn't actively corrupting people and turning Dungeons into his personal Voidlands..."
 
"Right." It was a pragmatic answer. Which, while not what Nova necessarily wanted to hear, was at least more in line with Mhynt's usual self.

"You said... Owen was about to rescue you back home," he whispered. "What do you... hope will happen if he succeeds?"
 
Mhynt tilted her head, then laughed a little. "I don't really know," she said. "Owen has a way of... shaking things up. And despite being plunged into so much darkness, he never... lost his light."

She paused her washing. The Grovyle seemed to be lost in thought.

"I envy that. So... seeing him the way he is now..." She sighed.
 
"Think of it like... returning the favor," Nova offered. A beat passed. "Preemptively returning the favor." He laughed nervously.

"Point is, though, you're going to keep fighting back home, right?"
 
"I am," Mhynt said. "I... I hope I am, at least. I don't know how much of this will carry with me, if any, but when I return, I have to fight back. I want to beat Alexander on his home turf. In his world. My world." She hopped onto Nova's back and started working on the upper parts of his flank.

"I hope you find a chance, too," Mhynt said. "Somehow. There's always somehow. That's something I imagine Owen would say, too."
 
"Always... somehow..."

Nova's turquoise parts dimmed. His claws dug into the dirt. "Right."

His cheek bolts turned once. Slow enough to hear the whir. "One last question then. Suppose you... knew there was one option... that had a chance of fixing things for everyone. But in that scenario... you don't get to see what happens if the world's fixed."

He sucked in a sharp breath. "You'd take that chance, right?"
 
"I've lived long enough," Mhynt said, nodding slowly. "But if it's the best chance, and if it's a way to make new lives avoid that kind of suffering...

"Of course I would."

Along his back, now. This felt easier for Mhynt.

"Now, I wouldn't do it unless I was out of options. Something as final as that isn't easy. But if all other venues have nothing at the end... Really, a chance is something you can give for others to turn into rippling opportunities. Even a chance has a certainty to affect someone, somewhere. Maybe even someone close."

The sides of his chest next.

"Owen... spoke to me about something, quietly, before we came here. And I could see in his eyes, and hear in his voice, a certain... resolve to atone for what he's done, no matter the cost it may force upon him. I think he's willing to give up a great deal to give the world another chance. I don't know if it's fair... and I don't think that price should be paid, myself. But he's ready." She sighed. "It's an option. And it sounds like you... may be short on those."
 
"One chance," Nova mumbled. "It's what I heard in my dreams. That there's... one chance. If I can endure in the shadows... until the right time. With the right person. Then I... can give him the tool that might be able to seal away the man who shadowed me in the first place."

Some void ash sprinkled to the ground around Nova's legs. "But if I'm that tool, then..."

Shaking his head, his voice trailed off.
 
"A seal only buys time," Mhynt said, "but sometimes, time is what people need the most of. I would know... The crisis my world is in now is because that extra time ran out. Or perhaps, it was scheduled to end here... I'm still not sure what the full plan was. In either case, though... perhaps you could provide that boon. It's bitter. But... if there is no other way, then perhaps you can take that chance."

She smiled slightly.

"Who knows? Those you help may have other ideas, too."
 
"Yeah..."

It was that same feeling like when he told Archie they could meet up again in the future after this was over. Well, maybe not quite as harsh. He hadn't lied this time.

"I'm sure they will." He shook himself out slowly. More void ash fell into the dirt. "It's like you said, though. Out of options. So, an eternal seal it is."
 
"Eternity for anything isn't very viable," Mhynt warned. "Things unseal. The term would be more... indefinite. But I wouldn't call it ideal." She frowned, hopping off of Nova to inspect other spots that needed a wipe-down.

"Seems a lot of us have obstacles back home to think about."
 
She'd gotten most of the areas... aside from his belly.

"I have... doubts, too," Nova said. "All I have is the word of the guy who's been talking to me. But there's a... sincerity to his voice. This... warmth." His turquoise eyes flickered. "That cuts through the shadows... even with their iron grip on me." He looked skyward. "I think his... meddling is what let Betel grab me in the first place."
 
"I see. A warm voice from afar..." Mhynt sighed. She seemed nostalgic.

"...When I was at my worst points, sometimes I could speak to a warm voice in the same way. Maybe we all have little guardians."

With a small smile, she noticed the spot she'd missed. "All right. Roll over. Let's finish this up."
 
"Maybe..." Nova brushed one foreleg against another. "Y'know, usually someone's gotta buy me dinner first before they tell me to roll over."
 
Mhynt tilted her head. "...Ah." She sighed. "Well, if that's the case, let's get unconventional. I'll buy you some dinner later. Maybe some..." She trailed off, inspecting Nova's body. "I have no idea what your diet is supposed to be. Berries wrapped in birdseed?"
 
Nova squinted. "I think you just offended, like, forty percent of me." He glanced back at his torso, then opened his beak and licked it. "This thing's made for meat. I can use all the elemental fangs."

The chimera slowly rolled over. "Oh. Huh. Really thought it would've been fine down there. I took the meteor to the head, not the stomach."

He blinked several times. "Which is another sentence of all time. Collecting 'em like they're trading cards now."
 
"I never understood trading cards," Mhynt said idly, starting to work on Nova's belly to finish off the cleaning. "You may have been hit from above, but the shockwave definitely kicked up all the ash from below. Any time you walk in the fields, you'd be surprised how much it all flows around you..."
 
"Th... there was a shockwave?" Nova squawked. "I thought it just kinda... kadunked me into the ground a bit."
 
"...That was... a kadunk to you," Mhynt remarked, frowning thoughtfully. "Well, at least you can be confident in your durability..."

Just like the ash on Nova was so durable, apparently. She continued working at it, feeling like she was making a bit of progress so he was more presentable.
 
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