GBU -- Support System

With each passing moment he could feel his trance slip.

When he’d found himself first entering his state of zen, it was almost as if he’d been submerged in cool, still water. The world around him slowed and softened to a comfortable stillness - sounds were less grating, the bursts of energy less jarring. It was like something had unlocked within him, filling him with renewed energy and new knowledge.

Among this new knowledge was the whispered revelation that he could use his fire for not just burning his opponents but healing his comrades, and as soon as the pair of hushed voices inside him explained this he put his palms against his wounded teammate and brought her back to consciousness. Though the sight of his new cleansing fire was unfamiliar it did not worry him; neither did his teammate’s lack of gratitude for his services. These things were not important, and in his current place it was the important things he sought.

When the dark one was summoned, a part of him worried - a part of him that had been silent once the trance had overcome him. However, the rest of him said yes, this was cause for concern, that fear was an acceptable feeling as long as it turned him to seek more knowledge. His foe was dark and terrible and struck fear into the hearts of those he fought beside. He would do what he could to restore some semblance of balance and unity to them.

An Umbreon shielding him and a number of other adventurers asked him to heal a Cherrim, which he did without question. Unlike with his Noivern teammate, unconscious and brought back to her senses, the Cherrim was awake and fighting to be let back into the fray. He settled down long enough for the cool blue flame to refresh and awaken him, and in that moment of contact the trance twisted, warping as an unfamiliar consciousness became a part of it and snapped around in his mind like a bowstring coming undone.

The Cherrim had felt it too, though to him it had been less of a disruption and more of a moment of clarity, sparking plans in his mind to use this form of connection as a way to communicate with the rest of the adventurers.

The plan was for the best, but a selfish part of him almost hoped it wouldn’t pan out.

Once the other minds had left his, he could settle back into his zen state once more, but with each passing moment, each time he laid his healing hands on a wounded teammate, each telepathic message sent, it became harder and harder to find and take hold of his center. Like cracks forming fractals on glass, each added bit of stress forcing the cracks to feather and spread across his mind.

The twin voices that had answered his prayer faded more and more, silencing completely after he sent another wash of blue fire over the Cherrim’s sword-wielding teammate. He was acutely aware of the worry Faye felt, and as that sensation echoed within him, he realized how much of himself he had lost - or returned to.
There was no longer that soft-spoken conscience within him that told him not to worry. The sounds around him were deafening, explosions and roars and the sharp crack of thunder as the first Pokemon he’d healed lept from what remained of a statue, screaming and diving blindly at their foe as electricity snapped around her like sharp golden flames.

The light of it was blinding, forcing him to cover his eyes, and the smell of the verdant swamp that had erupted around them all was cloying and heavy in his lungs. The ground shook, bits and pieces of stone clattering against newly sprouted roots and splashing into pools.

Someone limped to him, wincing and asking for him to heal their wounds, but when he reached out his hands shook like dead leaves in a windstorm and the healing fire never came.

He gasped as if he had never breathed before, and the world erupted back into a stark reality around him.