[center][h3]Confession: Resentment III[/h3]
[b]Setting:[/b] Moon Mountain, Wintry Thursday Afternoon
Blazermate, Roxas & Co.
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1,169 (+2)[/center]

[color=gold]”AAAAH!”[/color]

Roxas’s cry was as sharp as it was sudden. He dropped to his knees, Keyblades vanishing as they clattered against the cave floor. He was doubled over, clutching his head and chest as his ears began to ring with familiar words…

[i]”Roxas isn’t the only one who was never meant to exist.”[/i]

[i]”And if I am a servant, then you should consider yourself a tool, at best.”[/i]

Roxas’s body began to violently thrash about as he fought and struggled to block out the stress and voices in his head. Even Turbo and Titan had now taken notice and were pausing their attacks to approach their beloved trainer. [color=gold]”NGAAAH!”[/color]

[i]”A Nobody doesn’t have a right to know. Nor does it even have a right to be.”[/i]

Even Scamp managed to pop out of his Poke Ball unprompted, and Boltund whined with worry as he nudged his nose against his trainer, unsure what was hurting him so deeply but wanting to comfort him anyway.

[i]”There’s no knowledge that has the power to change your fate.”[/i]

[i]”He holds half of Sora’s power within him. In the end, he’ll have to give it back.”[/i]

Tears streamed down Roxas’s cheeks as he thrashed in pain. [color=gold]”I hate you so much!”[/color] He suddenly cried out, though the object of that hatred and resentment was not currently present save for the painful memories being drudged up by his Meltdown.

[i]”It’s the fate of a Nobody.”[/i]

[color=0072bc]”Uuuh…”[/color] Blazermate said in confusion looking at Roxas go through his meltdown. She guessed this was one of those ‘stress’ enemies some of the other Seekers had talked about, giving a status she really couldn’t clear and all that. She guessed they had to get things going and try to kill this thing especially since she had no idea what was going on with Roxas. So while he was having his breakdown, and the Seething Sigh inflated one lung, Blazermate used the illusions she spawned with to distract the boss while she went in with her ubersaw and shield to get her ubercharge up again. 

It would only take a few hits with her ubersaw to get to the ubercharge she was looking at, using her shield arm to block the creature’s next attack as it had attacked and dispelled the illusions hurting it. And once she blocked the attack, she hit the creature’s main body point blank with a Medaforce beam, healing herself for all the damage she dealt to the creature. Even as she attacked, however, the abominator retaliated with Blind Fury. Unfortunately, the abomination retaliated attacks with Blind Fury, and though the Blind tokens went away during her ubersaw assault (and the new Combo token did nothing for now), the Block+ token reduced the Medaforce beam’s overall damage by 75%.

[color=gold]”NGAAAH!”[/color] Roxas’s body slowly began to float upward just off the ground. In his state of meltdown, he began to instinctively put everything into a desperate attack. [color=gold]”Me Heart belongs to ME!”[/color] He screamed as columns of searing Light began to rain down like thunderbolts all around him. His Limit Break struck in a mostly random pattern but the majority of the columns were focused on and around the Sigh. [color=gold]”GIVE ME STRENGTH!”[/color] He screamed, his voice coming out raw as the columns of Light all suddenly doubled in size, power and speed as he entered the Final Limit of this Magic Hour.

But then, as suddenly as it came out, the Limit Break came to an end. And the Sigh looked like it still had health to spare. But one stray column of Light close to the end of the attack had provided a vital bit of illumination that revealed a passage out. [color=gold]”T-That way!”[/color] Roxas said hoarsely, pointing toward the exit he’d spotted with one of his Keyblades and began to force himself to run that way. His Pokemon, confused and concerned, all moved to follow their trainer without question.

As the Seekers began to flee, the Seething Sigh -wounded by the Limit Break but very much alive- finally used Dying Light. In an instant the cave went pitch black again and Blazermate found herself hurtling away as if seized by the dark itself. Three points of Stress hit her all at once, which left her at an extremely dangerous nine out of ten. The bigger problem was her escape. While Roxas remembered where the exit passage was, Blazermate had definitely lost track of it in the tumult, and a final Sundering Exhalation was only seconds away.

[color=gold]”Return!”[/color] Roxas quickly recalled Scamp and Titan, leaving only Turbo whose back he immediately hopped on, [color=gold]”Hit the gas, Turbo, we gotta grab Blazermate!”[/color] Turbo’s wheels screeched as the Revavroom practically donutted into a sharp U-turn and zoomed back toward where Blazermate had been hit. Before she could even screech to a halt, Roxas hopped off and grabbed the Medabot, then jumped right back onto Turbo without missing a beat thanks to Flowmotion.

[color=gold]”Get us out of here, Turbo! Step on it!”[/color] The Revavroom didn’t need to be told twice, hitting the gas again and accelerating toward the escape route as fast her speed would carry them. Blazermate kept her healing beam attached to Roxas, holding her shield behind her as she saw the Sigh rearing for another attack as they made their way to escape.

Turbo zoomed through the exit, then made a hairpin right turn just in time to place the solid rock between her passengers and the Sundering Exhalation at their heels. A wall of gale-force wind burst out of the passage behind them, strong enough to send them hurtling hundreds of feet out into empty space if they got caught. The Seekers’ hearts were pounding, but with that abominable thing far too big to get out of its grotto in order to pursue them, they could finally let out sighs of their own and start licking their wounds. For whatever reason, the darkness that shrouded Moon Mountain seemed slightly more permeable, so they could make their way upward once more.

[color=0072bc]”I really hate these things that inflict stress. Why are they so common? Is that why people have such a hard time with some of these guardians and things?”[/color] Blazermate said, making sure to heal herself up first as they continued onwards having been able to get away from that creature.

[color=gold]”I… I dunno.”[/color] Roxas admitted, choosing to let Turbo continue carrying them for now until they caught up with the other Seekers, [color=gold]”But I don’t like ‘em either. That thing made me remember some of the worst moments of my life.”[/color] But now that the battle was over, and now that he’d gained some recovery from the Heal Beam, Roxas was finally starting to feel a bit better after his moment of meltdown in that fight. [color=gold]”Thanks for having my back in there, Blazermate.”[/color] As soon as he regained his MP he cast a quick Curaga to top off Blazermate, and from there they could focus on figuring out where everyone else went.