Chapter 7

Quinn floated to the tree where Avery rested near death.

He no longer struggled to keep himself airborne or regulate his flight. After crossing what felt like half a continent, he would not lose his belief in his ability and drop out of the air.

All doubt could wait for when this treatment was done.

"Master is back!" Sirius bounded over, holding embers carefully in one hand. He had built a small fire with them for Avery, surrounded by river rocks. The fire type had done a better job making camp than Quinn himself would have. "Did you find help?"

"I hope so. Keep an eye out while I do this." He touched the fox's shoulder, then continued past him towards the tree.

Avery was still there, with a few fresh patches of dried vomit on the ground around her. From the look of the empty backpack, she'd been using it to transport drinking water from the river. But without proper camping supplies, they couldn't boil it. Was that even safe?

"Big cat is getting very sick," said another voice. Baast spread out on Avery's lap, occasionally brushing up against her chest with her cheek. "Much worse than before. I am… afraid."

"Me too." He floated over to Avery, looking up. "Not sure if you can hear me, but I found something. Just hold on a little longer, okay? I found another time traveler, and she gave me this. Said that… I told her to, in the future. Don't worry, I'll remember next time I see her."

Avery did not stir. Her breathing came short and shallow, bringing something sickly sweet on her breath. Blood dried around her lips, and all kinds of awful things solidified onto that once-white dress.

"Sorry about this in advance." He turned to the side. "Baast, can you cut her dress down for me? I need to put something in her heart, right… there."

The cat stood up on two legs, then stretched, exposing the claws on one narrow paw. "New fairy can help her?"

He gestured, and the box began to lift on its own, floating at head level beside him. It took some concentration, but less than he might've expected. Was it helping him?

It swung open, and a voice echoed out from inside. It sounded a little like the Pokémon around him, not speaking words in the strictest sense—but still making sounds he could understand.

"Firstborn bioderived emergency recovery treatment is primed," it said, in a gentle female voice. "Please be advised, individuals who have spent extensive intervals with inferior biotemplates should be kept near suspension tank when reconstituted. Substantial physical therapy and training may be required."

Quinn gestured, and the larger of the two vials zipped into his hand. The top glowed faintly blue, and something twisted within, exposing the tip of a sharp needle.

More voices came from it, mewing quietly from a little speaker in the box. "Biocatalyst must be administered into the pulmonary system. For templates without a pulmonary system, this emergency treatment cannot be used."

Well, her heart is still beating. How much longer that would be true, he couldn't exactly be sure. But he knew that Avery wasn't going to die in the dirt.

"You found a cat box," Baast said. "I hear them, but I don't feel them thinking. Where are they?"

He pointed at Avery's dress. "Cut it away, please. I don't feel…" Of all the things to be stupidly embarrassed about, modesty when he was trying to save her life should be at the bottom of that list. It remained stubbornly present even so.

The cat finally obeyed, tearing away the dress so it hung limply out of the way. I hope you won't be too mad at me. That sundress was so torn and dirty that it was probably beyond even a skilled tailor to save anyway.

Quinn took careful aim from below, then shoved the needle hard up against his friend's chest. The cold metal pierced her skin, then began to shake and vibrate with internal force. After a few seconds, a spring clicked, and the box spoke again.

"Immediately administer the second injection, or permanent brain damage will result."

Immediately? Quinn didn't have time to think, or to second-guess where exactly Avery needed the shot. He yanked, and the smaller needle flew into his fingers.

"Hold her forward," he instructed, nudging at her neck. "I need to stick this in back."

"Strange way of helping her, fairy. But I trust you. I know you wanted to be her mate. Would not hurt her."

Even you knew that? He winced, but didn't let the discomfort of it slow him down. Even embarrassment would have to take its turn.

He leaned Avery forward, enough that she started to fall—and the cat caught her, holding her with a faint blue shimmer around her arms. "Hurry up, fairy! I am much better at breaking things than healing them. Do I look like a male?"

He did hurry, pressing the little vial right into the back of her head. Another needle shot forward on its own, piercing the skin. It shook and vibrated for another few seconds.

"Degenerate bioform detected," the box said. "Requisite sapience—confirmed. Crew member #F9E31 registered. Recovery beacon engaged."

The needle clicked, withdrawing from Avery's neck. Quinn tossed it aside with the first, then eased Avery back into a sitting position.

"Significant damage to patient biotemplate. Recovery index reduced. Please remove all obstructing garments and monitor the patient for difficulty levitating or other signs of psionic degradation." The box dropped to the ground a few feet away, landing quietly in the dirt. Whether Quinn had dropped it, or it just fell on its own, he couldn't even say.

It didn't matter—he'd done what he could. The medical kit somehow knew what condition Avery was in, and even wanted to help.

"Hope Lane knew what she was talking about," Quinn muttered, landing in the dirt beside her leg. The box wanted them to remove Avery's clothes for some reason—but he would wait until that actually seemed necessary.

"Did you help her?" Baast approached him from Avery's other side, watching with her usual flat expression. "Those weren't berries or medicine. Made her bleed a little."

Quinn nodded hastily. This Pokémon wasn't just bigger than he was—a Meowstic was a dangerous creature in its own right, especially to someone who shouldn't be a Pokémon at all. If she thought Quinn wanted to hurt Avery, she could probably kill him.

"Special medicine," he said. "I don't know how it works. But I think I trust the one who gave it to me. She didn't have to help and she did anyway. Got me back here faster, even though I didn't ask. I don't remember how exactly."

The cat brushed up against Avery, near her face. "Big cat! Almost deaf! Can you hear me? Are you waking up yet?"

Avery spasmed. It wasn't just her face—every muscle contracted, sending her arms jerking up briefly and her body tilting sideways.

Baast caught her, while Sirius appeared from behind Quinn, watching with the same intensity.

"Was that a…" If Avery started having seizures, there wasn't anything Quinn could do about it. He shot over to the box, kicking it open to stare down at its contents. There were words printed on the inside, the same ones he had seen in that moonlit clearing.

Yet staring down at them did not grant any insight about what they meant. They were large blocks, letters of a language he had only seen in the oldest ruins. He could stare at them all night and not make sense of them.

Avery twitched again, this time more violently. She flopped forward, landing in a heap in front of the tree. Her body spasmed, and faint silvery lines appeared along her skin, tracing the path of her veins.

There was something in there, something Quinn felt more than he saw. A little like a living thing itself, though without a mind. It moved through Avery with purpose, wedging through capillaries and veins and arteries as it did… what?

"I don't like this!" Baast yelled, holding to Avery's shoulder on the other side. "Why is that happening?"

He didn't know, of course. Any answer he tried to give would probably mean even less to a Pokémon than it did to him. "Avery was dying, Baast. This is supposed to fix it. We just have to… be here for her until it finishes."

The cat gripped firmly to Avery's shoulders, struggling to get her onto her back in the dirt. "If you kill her, I'll… You get what you deserve!"

Did I? He floated up beside her face, sniffing there. There was still no sign of his friend waking up. But if she was about to suffer some experimental medical treatment, it might be better to keep her unconscious. He wouldn't want to be awake for surgery either.

He did see something strange then, strange enough to make him stop in the air and stare. Avery's shoulders seemed narrower than they had been a few moments before. Her ripped sundress slipped off easily, and the bra beneath no longer held her very well.

She can't be losing weight that fast.

She twitched a third time, her whole body spasming as though she'd just been struck with a defibrillator. She settled sharply back down, and the changes were even more pronounced this time—she was smaller!

Or the dress was bigger. Instead of ending at her knees, it reached nearly to her ankles now, billowing out around her with every little twitch.

"I don't understand…" he said, to no one. Baast wasn't going to be able to tell him the secrets of some… incongruous future technology. Had Lane brought this here from the far future?

It was the only explanation that made sense, though he hadn't bothered to ask. He didn't need to know much of anything, so long as Avery woke up.

She screamed then—silent, her mouth not moving. Somehow that only made it louder, deafening agony into his mind. "Help me, what's happening? What's happening? Help me, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!"

Baast stiffened, holding to one of Avery's wrists. She held down on Quinn's other side, pressing with all the strength her feline body had to keep her down. "Cat, it was the other! He brought metal, stuck it in you! I don't know what to do!"

But Avery made no reply. She screamed again, and threatened to throw herself right up into the air this time—but Quinn was ready.

If he could hold himself and keep from falling, if he could keep his tools steady, he could keep a struggling patient from tearing her body apart.

"Still!" He gestured, and her whole body glowed, holding sharply against the ground. The glow shimmered, getting faintly brighter and dimmer again along with his focus. But so long as he kept staring, she could not overpower him. "Don't move, you're hurting yourself. You have to let the treatment work."

Quinn was probably imagining it; but as he held her, it seemed as though the trees were moving too. Vines lifted from the dirt, constricting around her. Anything to help keep Avery still.

Quinn glared at the cat across from him, expression just as focused. "Baast, don't interfere. I don't know what this is—but I know if we didn't do this, she would die. We will wait."

He spoke with such confidence and authority that the cat looked away, lowering her head in sudden deference. He felt the fear from her, unlike anything he had seen from the cat before.

Avery was going to live through this. If he didn't, Quinn no longer cared. What he had broken, he would fix, no matter what tried to stop him.

Quinn watched for a long time. Baast retreated from him, cowering away behind the nearest tree. She remained close enough to watch what he was doing, and maybe try to stop him if he put her trainer at risk.

But Quinn didn't do that. He did nothing at all, other than occasionally holding Avery still when more spasms racked her body, and trickling her a little water when he thought she would take it.

But it was instantly clear that what he saw was no simple treatment for radiation poisoning—something else was happening to her, and any other healing was incidental.

Soon enough, he saw exactly why the instructions ordered a removal of everything she was wearing. Before his eyes was among the most horrifying things he had ever seen—her limbs gathered and clung together, skin melting and fusing into a sort of cocoon.

Baast no longer threatened him after that, watching with as much horror as he felt. Quinn didn’t have to hold her down, as fleshy tendrils emerged from the sides of the skin-colored sack, binding it to the nearest tree and holding it steady.

Something moved and pulsed within, silent except for the occasional outburst of telepathy from inside. Avery never made a sign that she could hear what they said, or to react in any way to their presence there. Maybe she was in too much pain to notice.

Quinn tried talking to her anyway. He told her he was sorry—told her about what he'd seen while looking for help, and gave his reasons for trusting Lane's treatment.

Only now he saw the horrifying impact of that trust. How was transforming a person into a pulsing, fleshy sack somehow saving them?

The answer came near dawn, loud enough that it startled Quinn suddenly into waking again. He twitched, then lifted his head sharply out of his lap. Something was happening nearby, loud enough to make his antennae turn faintly towards them.

He looked sideways, and saw. Something was fighting, tearing its way free of the cocoon that had once been a person. The surface tore and bled like flesh, birthing its contents damp and mewling into the cold morning air.

That's her. He wasn't sure how he knew it, but Quinn felt with absolute certainty, overcoming the powerful disgust. A tiny limb reached out, damp with foul liquid. It strained, tugging the rest of a little body along behind it.

Quinn was there when she emerged. Instead of plummeting several body lengths to the floor, he caught the slime-covered pokemon with his mind, rotating her slowly in the air to face him.

He knew this pokemon, from the soft pink fur pressed down with blood and mucus to the long tail, trailing a bulb at the end. She was so small, a kitten small enough to hold in his arms if he wanted.

More importantly, her eyes were open. "Quinn?" she mewed, her voice as tiny and pathetic as she looked. "What happened to me?"

He pulled her in close for a hug, careful not to crush that delicate body. He didn't care how disgusting it got him. "Avery! How do you feel?"

She pressed close, tiny body shivering against him. When she did speak it was out loud, just as he had. "Gross. Like I just had… the worst experience of my whole life."

"Yeah. I think you did."