Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Hands of Creation

Chapter 37 - Body, Mind, and Spirit

The Grass Orb was silent.

Nobody dared move. The spirits didn't speak—they could only stare, petrified, at what they thought would be the end of their cozy corner of eternity. He was laying there—Gahi and Owen, fused together as one.

The only one moving was Star. The Mew floated over his unconscious body, inspecting every part of it.

"They're fused to the core," Star mumbled to herself. "I don't know if I can pull them apart without destroying everything we worked toward. It'd be from zero again..."

Gawen was unconscious. The battle itself was a strain on their body, the stress of the encounter on the mind, and the overexertion of their powers on the spirit. To be passed out in even the spirit world meant that they had fought to the very limit. To their fortune, that gave Star the opportunity to theorize on what she could do.

"What do you mean," Klent finally said, "by fused to the core? From zero?"

"This happened before," Star said, looking back. "When Demitri, Mispy, Gahi, and Owen all fused together for the first time, something went wrong. Nevren said they weren't ready—or something just wasn't calculated right. What do you expect? Four minds merging into one, seamlessly and without error? In your dreams. Even I would need a few tries..."

Klent moved forward, then stopped. "So... something went wrong to make them go berserk?"

"Yeah. And I'm trying to figure out why now. It's probably something really small that propagates throughout the system. Like an illness that spreads through the body. Ngh... The way Nevren had me solve it before was by forcing them apart. But that's like untying a knot by slicing it in half – you're going to have damaged rope. To do it right... you need a way to untie them and still have their minds intact afterward. Then, they don't have to heal the broken pieces of their selves..."

"I think I follow," Klent said slowly. "But, how would you do it?"

Star hesitated, looking the fused aura over. She shook her head. "Just give me a second."

"He's eventually going to wake up, isn't he?" Klent said worriedly.

"I know, I know—just—give me a second. I need to think." She rubbed her head, squeezing her temple. "I have to see what their spirits look like."

"Spirits? But we're already—"

"No," Star said. "Their literal spirit. Right now, this is a world of aura. But I have to... t-to open that up further."

Klent's eyes widened. "But that's... Star, doesn't that only happen beyond the aura sea? You don't just pull a spirit from—"

"I have to," Star said. "I just have to be careful."

She breathed in, then out, and brought a tiny paw forward, glowing with golden light. It trembled, but she inched it closer to the scaly Pokémon's chest. The shaking intensified and she jerked her hand away.

"I—I can do this! Stop staring at me!"

Klent flinched, as did the other spirits. They quickly looked down, shuffling where they stood.

"This isn't hard at all," Star said. "It's trivial, even. What's a single—I mean, what're two souls to a Creator? This is child's play." She held her paw against his chest again, trying to keep it from shaking. "Just draw the spirit out. Just draw it out a little."

A golden sphere emerged partway—just the top of the orb—from Gawen's rising and falling chest. It swirled, two currents twisting and turning around themselves to make up the single, unstable ball of light. Star winced—almost gagged—and took another steady breath. But then she felt something almost break loose and gasped, shoving it back into him. His whole body jolted, but remained unconscious, and Star pulled her hand away.