I am once again writing ridiculously self-indulgent pokémon fanfiction

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Maxie kneeled down, having visibly grown more sluggish and fatigued as the battle dragged on. His usual confidence was gone, desperation setting in alongside a fierce anger, directed at both his opponent and at himself. His camerupt lie motionless on the ground before him, unable to battle, and Archie could tell by the way he tapped his finger in frustration on the top of his pokéball that he was out of pokémon—he'd lost, and he knew it. Maxie called back his fainted camerupt and bared his teeth, dragging himself back to his feet in a defeated, slouched stance. "Not so great now, are you, Maxie?" Archie taunted, calling back his own pokémon, satisfied with the results of the conflict. "Can't even win when it's your own life on the line, can you?"

"Impressive," the woman, Sird, cooed behind them with a wicked grin, "but don't get cocky just yet, you're far from finished. Eternity is not earned merely from a pokémon battle."

Archie paused for a second at her words, realizing what he still had to do, but regained his composure as he watched the way Maxie swayed and grimaced. Maxie wasn't going to win either way, and Eternity would only prolong the already-weakened state he was in. If Sird was to be believed, the effects of the orbs would destroy them both; their bodies were unable to handle the power they had held when the ancient pokémon took control of them, and it was killing them from the inside out. Maxie wielded both orbs, and it was clearly taking its toll on him faster than it was on Archie. He moved slowly, carefully, as if he were fighting against himself for motion.

Archie knew exactly what he had to do to earn the suit of armor.

He convinced himself it was the only course of action left, the only thing either of them could do. I'd be putting him out of his misery, he thought, though the idea made him feel sick. Before he could even process it, the sword, Instant, was in his hand—and it felt good in his grasp. Natural, almost. Sird hadn't made a move to stop him from taking it like he'd expected, merely watching with a devilish smile, like she had wanted him to do it.

Maxie stared openly at him, stunned but defenseless, and could only watch as Archie gritted his teeth and pointed the blade towards him. "Archie, please," he pleaded, sweat running down the side of his face as he met Archie's cold stare with desperate eyes, "you don't have to do this."

"Oh, Maxie, you and I both know that I do." Archie didn't leave room for a response, leaning into the impact and using his body weight to drive the blade deeper until his face was mere inches from Maxie's. He didn't think before he closed the gap and pressed his lips against his, though Maxie made no move to return it. The sword slipped from his hand, the hilt jutting from Maxie's chest as he pulled back, the taste of blood on his tongue. Maxie stumbled backwards, his eyes wide and jaw slack, but vanished in a flash of bright, blinding light before he hit the ground.

Behind him, Archie could have sworn he heard Sird laughing.

--

Guile, Archie thought to himself, trying out the name and turning over his arm in front of him, as if to get used to the feel of the armor. Sird was right, it felt...comfortable, almost like it had been made specifically for him. He considered how Maxie compared to him and concluded it wouldn't have fit, it couldn't have.

Maxie...Archie gritted his teeth again and moved towards the ground where the sword had fallen to retrieve it. He was almost more disturbed by the lack of a scene than he would have been by one's presence—but the ground held no blood, no body, no evidence. Instant was all that remained of the event, blade-down in the dirt with its tassel hung limp at its side.

Odd, he didn't remember the sword having a tassel when he'd wielded it.

He knelt down and wrapped his hand around the hilt, ready to pry it from the ground, but the tassel sprung up in a sudden, swift motion and wrapped around his arm, digging at the edges of his armor as if it were trying to get underneath. He stumbled backwards, jerking his arm away and sending the sword flying a few feet from him. It seemed to pause in the air, catching itself, then turned, tassel raised like an outstretched hand. Archie stared, trying to process the sudden animated quality of the sword. It was alive. "That woman didn't give me a sword at all," he mumbled, watching it hang in the air, "Instant is a pokémon."

It didn't look like any pokémon he could recognize, leading him to believe it wasn't native to Hoenn at all. Sird must have brought it from another region, he figured. He tried to work out its typing, deciding definitely on steel and tentatively on fighting. At least, it certainly seemed to want to fight, its hand-like tassel batting at his visor and attempting to flip it up. He swatted and caught the tassel in his hand, throwing it back to get it away from his face.

He fumbled for a pokéball and tossed out his sharpedo, deciding his only course of action was to battle and catch the sword pokémon for himself. This only seemed to annoy Instant more, the sword ignoring his pokémon and swinging towards Archie himself, clanging against his armor furiously. He blocked the assault by ordering his sharpedo to use aqua jet, but the water seemed to merely deflect off the surface of the sword and hit sharpedo with its own attack instead. Archie blinked, remembering how Sird had described the sword to them. The ability to reflect attacks back to their senders; that must be the pokémon itself's ability. He was even more determined to catch it now—now this was a pokémon he could battle with! He ignored its persistent attempts to fight with him and pulled out an ultra ball, hastily tossing it while Instant was distracted, leaving it unable to deflect it. Archie stepped on the top of the ball as it hit the ground, holding it shut, and grinned when he heard it click with a successful catch. He'd have to do something about its temper, but for now he was just content that the pokémon was his, and that he couldn't lose a battle so long as it couldn't be hit.

--

Taming the sword pokémon proved...difficult. Archie was growing increasingly frustrated with its antics; Instant refused to listen to him, and it attacked him more often than it attacked other pokémon. Even worse, he couldn't wield it as a sword, the pokémon wrapping its tassel around his arm and digging at his armor any time he took the hilt in his hand, making it impossible to control. It had thrown off the soothe bell he'd tried to give it and refused any berries he offered it (did it even have a mouth, though?), and it seemed adamant in its disliking towards him. How he had wielded it so easily before, he didn't know. His only glimmer of success was that it followed him, never attempting to escape, though that may have just been because it was still trying to fight him.

Deciding training was a lost cause, he set up camp along one of the routes outside of town and tried to consider his next course of action. Instant, annoyed at being ignored, hit him over the head with its tassel to try and rile him again. Disinterested in a fight, Archie held up the ultra ball in his hand and grimaced. "Hit me again, and I'll put you back in your ball."

Instant raised its tassel again, then hesitated and glanced at the ultra ball before dropping it. Archie considered calling it back anyway, just to keep it from bothering him, but decided against it. He wanted it to like him, or at the very least respect him, and he figured catching it had only upset it worse. It had understood his words, though, and that intrigued him. Pushing his luck, he asked bluntly, "Why do you hate me?"

Instant narrowed its eye and turned to the dirt path of the route, dragging its tassel across the ground until it had written out a word.

MAXIE.

Archie gawked at the letters, then turned and stared, puzzled, at the pokémon. As if to drive home the point, Instant pointed at the word, then at itself. "Maxie," Archie said, dumbstruck, "I didn't—I mean—I had no choice—"

Instant—no, Maxie—only glared at him. Archie slid up his visor and sighed, looking him over. Not a fighting type, he corrected in his head, but a ghost type. Maxie's ghost. The thought made his blood run cold. In hindsight, the tassel was patterned just like Maxie's coat, almost like it had been cut straight from the fabric. And he hadn't noticed it before because it hadn't been there before—Instant only became a pokémon when Maxie's soul possessed it.
...Archie didn't like to think about it.

"I...get that you aren't very happy with me," Archie tried to choose his words carefully, "but I really need you to cooperate with me here, Max. We do better when we work together, not against each other."

Maxie scowled and hit him over the head again.

"Right, right, I deserve that." Archie slid his visor back down over his face. "But you're not accomplishing much just by bothering me. All I'm asking is that you stop fighting me and start working with me. As a team."

Maxie hesitated, then took the ultra ball Archie had been holding and tossed it behind him, glaring at it distastefully.

Archie held up his empty hands, understanding. "I won't put you back in a pokéball unless I absolutely have to, alright? I trust that you won't try to run away—'cause if you do, you'll probably just end up getting caught by some bratty ten-year-old kid and shoved in a computer."

Maxie's tassel swung indignantly at the thought, as if the concept of being put in a computer had disrespected him. Archie had said it with a laugh, but the sudden realization of how many ghost types had once been people made his stomach feel sick. Even just looking at the sword pokémon that had once been Maxie made him feel uneasy. Is that all there is? He thought, discomforted, an afterlife stuck taking commands from whatever bozo you end up getting caught by? Stuck being a pet? "Hey Maxie?" Archie grimaced a little, half amused and half embarrassed, "I'm sorry I put a soothe bell on you."

Maxie hit him over the head again.