Chapter 31
The Passage Home

It was over, and I was finally glad at last there was one less nightmare we had to face. Despite our victory over Vorox and Tychal, he had injured us pretty badly. Still, at least we were still breathing, while the two of them were clearly dead.

That was when Vice and Blitz had arrived again, riding on Storm Gale's back. When the massive and rough-looking Pidgeot landed with her talons clanging on the metallic roof, she just looked surprised as the signs of carnage. And then, when Vice dismounted, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"No way... no way... holy...!" Vice muttered in total disbelief, "He's... you seriously just killed Vorox!?!?"

"Well, he sure ain't breathing from my angle," Blazewing remarked. "I dunno about you, but I don't think a giant scythe sticking in one's head really helps the cerebral cortex chug along."

"Oh damn..." Vice muttered again. "Oh damn... that Divine Prophecy thing... is that really true!? I thought it was crap before, but this... this right here might just make me a believer."

Blitz was just as shocked, looking at me like I somehow managed to turn myself into a Pikachu commando. I didn't boast or puff myself up about it, though. A little bit of bad luck or horrible timing would have been fatal for Blazewing or myself. Fighting this guy was no laughing matter either. He was practically still fighting even when dead.

"Holy cow, look at them..." The electric squirrel commented, side-stepping away from the pools of blood to avoid getting it on his white fur or on his giant tail. "Sure don't need to bother checking for a pulse with these two."

I still couldn't help but look at the cut Vorox had inflicted on me. It was still bleeding badly and a large patch of yellow fur had soaked up quite a bit of blood. I wasn't exactly sure if there was anything that could be used to patch it up, but I was beginning to worry if I was bleeding out. After blinking twice, I was feeling somewhat lightheaded and woozy, not sure if it was the result of seeing my own blood splattered all over the place.

"Yeah, that sure as hell ain't pretty," Vice told me, noticing the laceration I kept looking at. "Sit down, quit fussing around or else you're going to keep opening it up. We'll find someone to patch you up and get you out of here."

"Just... leave the rest to us," Blitz nodded. "We'll take care of the prisoners and transports. We already found a few that should be good."

I nodded, sighed, and decided to sit down and remain still while Vice and Blitz went back downstairs to take care of everything else. It was just Blazewing and I again, but for now, it seemed the Crimson Stars had given up on Macomb. They never were able to control the flames that ultimately destroyed almost the entire compound, and I could see in their haste and hubris, they didn't think such a fire would ever be started.

In the meantime, I felt so tired. After so much running, shooting, shouting, it was easy to just want to lay down and...

"Hey, no napping!" Blazewing told me, giving me a nudge with her clawed hand to wake me up. "Napping with a cut like that and you'll be waking up on a fluffy white cloud with a golden harp!"

That actually sounded... somewhat pleasant in a way after all I had been through, but she was right. I tried to force myself not to drift off like that again.

"Okay, I get it..." I nodded, sitting up to avoid dozing off. "But how are you holding up?"

Blazewing checked herself and it seemed like her cut wasn't slowing her down as much. But in a way, with considerations to body size, the cut I had was much worse than hers.

"Ah, it'll heal," She shrugged with a smile. "Yours will too, just hang in there."

I smiled as I looked back into her eyes.

In the meantime, there was something else that Vice said that was somewhat pecking at my mind. I wasn't sure if Blazewing was thinking the same thing, but had a chance to reflect on it, but I figured I'd ask.

"Hey, Blazewing," I told her, trying to get my mind off the pain for a while, "have you actually had a chance to read this "Divine Prophecy" thing they mentioned?"

She looked at me curiously, and I could tell she knew what I was getting at. With Vorox being dead and the Macomb mission seeming like it was almost a success against insane odds, it made me wonder... was it really coming true?

"I can't say I've actually read it," Blazewing shrugged. "But yeah, now that you mention it, it's got me wondering too."

However, before we got the chance to really talk about it, Vice had come back, accompanied by an Aromatisse. The puffy, pink and purple-colored bird-like fairy Pokémon was still in her prisoner uniform, consisting of a dirty, dark-yellow jumpsuit that had obviously seen better days. Meanwhile, she had been carrying a small, dirty-white pouch of first aid supplies she had probably fetched out of a nearby medical supply closet.

"Hey, her name's Saraxa," Vice told us, introducing us to the Aromatisse. "She seems to know-"

"No way...!" Saraxa gasped, suddenly shocked about Vorox's crumpled dead body before her. "This dead Scyther... is this...?!"

"Yeah, that's Vorox!" Vice laughed, mocking the dead Wind Striker commander. "What's left of him anyway. Juno and Blazewing actually finally managed to kill that prick and his damn Flygon."

She then looked at me and Blazewing very curiously, blinking twice.

"But..." Vice quickly added, "I can't say they were able to pull it off without a scratch. There's where you come in."

"They're... they're REAL!?" Saraxa exclaimed in surprise.

I then remembered these prisoners had yet to hear of our arrival. Saraxa still seemed very surprised, but I had to show her the gash that Vorox had inflicted. She stepped closer to get a better look at it, sizing up the wound with her black and ruby-colored eyes. She got a look at it from varying angles.

"Oh, Juno..." Saraxa told me sympathetically, quickly grabbing her medical supplies. "I... well, that's a pretty nasty gash, and I can honestly say you weren't too far off from needing a transfusion. But, even so, it's definitely not the worst kind of thing Vorox has ever inflicted on someone. Yeah, you two are done for the day. I definitely don't recommend doing anything until this heals."

I let out a tired sigh. I recognized some of the basic medical supplies like the bandages, but there were some ointments and sprays that I was unfamiliar with. After applying two series of spray ointments and healing creams, both of which stung painfully when applied, she wrapped everything in bandages, which was almost enough to cover my entire chest.

"Hey, you'll be fine," Saraxa assured me. "I just... can't believe it's really you! Juno and Blazewing, alive and real! And you killed Vorox!"

She then went ahead and helped Blazewing get patched up also. She seemed to be an expert at this, and when she was done binding the wounds with bandages, she seemed quite proud of her work.

"Thanks a million," I told her with a tired smile.

"Oh, it's an honor, General Juno!" She smiled with a firm Silver Rebellion salute.

"Hey, I'm only an Ensign at the moment," I told her with a light chuckle. "But thanks."

Shortly after, Blitz had soon arrived. I still felt the urge to want to help, but I didn't think that would do my cut any favors.

"They're ready to go," Blitz told the rest of us. "We finally managed to find enough VATs and transports to get everyone a ride. Juno, do you think... you can walk?"

"Yeah... I don't recommend he does that," Saraxa told him. "I can't suture him up until we get home and trying to get him to a transport would probably rip open his cut again. If Blazewing is okay with it, he'd be better off riding her."

"Ah yeah, I'm fine with that," Blazewing smiled with a wink. "Let's go, this place is history."

Carefully and gingerly, I climbed on Blazewing's back, strapped myself into her harness, and sighed. I wasn't sure if Jamac and Kamax would consider this improvised mess a success, but it at least didn't feel like a failure.

"Okay, see you back at base," I told the others with a smirk. "I think we've spent enough time here."

"Uh, yeah," Vice muttered, looking at the smoldering husks of what once were many factories and warehouses. "Seriously, don't bring me on a mission like this again. I usually don't get worried like that."

Blazewing soon took off, and as we left the rooftop, I looked down below to see the prisoners were being loaded onto the VATs and other armored transports that they had managed to acquire. Some of them were unequipped with weapons while others were in an unfinished state, but they could at least run. Only two of them looked like they were complete, just without the paint.

From above, I got a good view of how absolutely ruined Macomb was. It was no wonder why they had evacuated everyone out. Blazewing had to fly low because of all the smoke rising from the burnt building husks, rubble, and ruins. Only a few buildings remained standing, but everything was damaged in at least one way or another. I could tell the Crimson Stars never learned to not put all their eggs in one basket, but it seems like that's exactly what they did with this place.

"Man, what a mess," I told Blazewing, really not realizing just how much damage that fire had done to everything. "I honestly didn't think that a few inferno grenades would start something that would make it look like the whole place had been bombed."

"I dunno about you, but it looks so much better this way!" Blazewing laughed cheerfully. "Before, it was just a cesspool of ugly factories and warehouses, military bases and all that other junk. Now, it's a nice clean slate, open to infinite possibilities!"

"Somehow I don't think the Crimson Stars are going to think of it like that," I chucked along with her.

As we glided out of Macomb, the transports soon followed, rolling over and crushing whatever twisted remains of Macomb were left that got in their way. The VATs and what seemed like other armored personnel carrier prototypes were huge, metal behemoth trucks with tiny slits for windows to prevent entry of attacks but to allow at least some circulation. They also seemed pretty unstoppable, tearing through building remains like there was nothing to it. I wasn't sure if the Silver Rebellion would reverse engineer these things, but either way, they would definitely be of some use.

Once everyone was out of the city and loaded up, we began the journey back, leaving behind Macomb as nothing but a vast, ruined landscape of collapsed buildings that still had traces of fires scattered throughout the city, but by now, they were dying down having run out of fuel.

As we slowly lead the armored convoy through the wastelands, I had remembered about Alex. I was wondering if he really was part of this group, and if he was, what Pokémon he had become. I tried to see things from his perspective, but I could only imagine what he might be thinking. If he really was down there, he probably had no idea who Juno really was. Even so, he hadn't even seen Symarix yet!

I didn't know how I was going to try and go about finding Alex without looking like I was insane. Maybe... even if I didn't ever find out, it would be okay in the end.

Blazewing and I had plenty of casual conversations on the way home as the carriers traveled along the rugged, dusty, and arid wastelands. We couldn't fly nearly as fast due to the slow nature of the VATs and other armored carriers, but it did give us time to catch our breath. Here, the two of us were, completely out of ammo, my armor was gone, the both of us got cut up, but we survived, destroyed Macomb, and rescued the last of the prisoners. While there were casualties, I highly doubted anyone could ever expect an attack on this place to go without shedding a single drop of blood.

"Man, I wish these things could hurry up," Blazewing told me, noticing that once again, her hasty flying had to result in her stopping for a moment for them to catch up. "I'm not getting any younger here!"

"Tough, yes," I told her, looking at the heavy armor of these vehicles that looked like they could take tank shells and just keep on rolling. "Menacing, yes. Huge... definitely yes. But yeah, they're not much faster than a sleepy Snorlax."

After what felt like many hours and us nearly running out of things to talk about, we had arrived back at Symarix. It was a pretty welcome sight to see after what we had been through. For me, it was still hard to call the gleaming, metallic city truly "home," but for now, it was definitely the closest haven of comfort we had in Kivistal.

It wasn't long until we had arrived at the gated entrance, and the guards there instantly recognized me. They hadn't seen the transports yet as we had flown ahead to make sure they didn't start firing upon them thinking it was some kind of Crimson Stars attack.

Once we had landed, they instantly approached us. A Lucario dressed in Silver Rebellion body armor was accompanied by a Floatzel and a Pancham wearing the same gray and white armor, custom-fitted for their size.

"Juno?" The Lucario head guard asked me from besides the controls to open the gate. "You're back!? What happened? Where is everyone else?"

As I dismounted from Blazewing as she was hovering just a few inches above the dusty, arid ground, I looked up to the black and blue wolf Pokémon.

"We have a few... 'borrowed' transports coming in with prisoners from Macomb," I told the Lucario. "Give the word out not to open fire on them."

"Macomb?" he asked, looking shocked. "You went there and lived!?"

"Lived?" Blazewing asked, nearly laughing. "No, we totally got killed and decided to just come back from the dead. Yeah, the place is toast."

The Lucario nodded, a little bit bashful he asked such a question, but he understood what she was saying. He then gave the hand signal to send the message for the defense sentries to hold fire. As I looked behind me, I saw a small dust cloud kicking up from the distance, knowing they would be here soon.

Just one thing was on my mind that whole time as I saw the transports rolling in...

...I knew the Crimson Stars would seek brutal revenge for this.