In the nothing of before was born the Original One. Into this endless dark, He sent His Light, scouring the void until but a mote of Shadow remained. He chose for Himself the name Arceus, and unto this new Light the Original One brought three children.
When one is awakened by the words "are you alright," it's generally a good sign that something has gone very, very wrong. The best response, then, is to remain calm and attempt to quickly and clearly provide your rescuer with as much helpful information as possible. In my case, it would have been best to let said rescuer know that, no, I was not alright, that I had apparently been unconscious for an unknown length of time, and that it felt as though my brain was trying to pound its way out of my skull.
Instead, being the genius that I am, I immediately sat bolt upright, glanced around in a panic for a moment, then promptly collapsed back onto the damp earth, clutching my forehead as the aforementioned headache punished me for my insolence.
"I'll take that as a no, then," continued the soft, feminine voice. "Just a moment, I think I've got something here that'll help." Having somehow managed to force my eyes open against my brain's protests, I watched as my rescuer, a wiry-looking absol, dug through the small black pouch she had set beside her.
"Here we go," she said, fishing something out of her bag before tossing it towards me. I like to think I almost caught it. "Dried persim berry," she stated as I eyed the shriveled pink object resting in the grass. "Mostly carry them for fighting off psychics, but it should help the head-"
I needed no further encouragement. Biting into the dried husk, I promptly gagged at the berry's surprisingly bitter flavor. Still, if it could kill my headache, I didn't care how bad it tasted. After what seemed like a small eternity, the pounding in my skull had subsided to a blissfully mild throbbing.
"Thanks," I sighed, mentally debating the merits of worshiping this absol as some kind of berry goddess as I shakily rose to my feet. "I needed that."
"It's what I'm here for," she replied, slinging her bag back over her shoulder. Eyeing me for a moment, she continued, "No offense, but you look like you just lost an argument with a few dozen angry steelix. What happened?"
Good question. "I don't know," I began, "All I remember is this… roaring, like the world was falling apart. But before that…"
Before that, nothing. My memory was gone.
My memory was gone.
The next thing I knew, I was lying on the damp earth again, the absol standing over me with an expression of concern on her face. Fortunately, the persim berry seemed to be keeping my headache from worsening. Enjoy the little things, I suppose.
"Whoa, take it easy, pal," the absol said as I laid on the ground, quietly watching the night sky spin above me. After a few moments, I felt steady enough to sit upright once more, and used the opportunity to take stock of my surroundings.
I was sitting on the bank of a river that cut through a forest, flanked on both sides by dense walls of vegetation. Some distance to my left was a small dirt path that quickly vanished into the trees, while to my right the river stretched in a gentle outward curve, its ends hidden from sight. It was late at night, and the full moon shone bright in the sky above us, its light reflected with crystal clarity from the water's smooth surface.
It was peaceful. Tranquil. Almost enough to keep me from panicking.
"What in Arceus name happened to you?"
The absol's question snapped me out of my reverie. "I can't remember," I began, fighting to keep the fear out of my voice. "I can't remember anything. It's like… the memories just aren't there. It's... blank." I was shaking.
Stay calm, deep breaths. Relax. I'd apparently been beaten to within an inch of my life. I was in a strange place, with no idea who I was or how I'd gotten there. I needed to stay calm, figure out what I could do, find some way to-
My train of thought was interrupted as the absol struck me on the head with the back of her paw. I blinked in surprise. "I'm not having you pass out on me again," she stated flatly. "It's late, and I don't feel like hauling some unconscious nutcase of a pokémon back to the Guild just because he couldn't keep it together."
I rose to my feet, seething with cold fury. "I'm sorry that my little identity crisis is inconveniencing you," I snapped. "I'm tired, it feels like there's a rhydon trying to ram its way out of my skull, and I can't remember anything past a few minutes ago." The air around me seemed to hum with energy, and the entire clearing grew a shade darker. "Forgive me if I'm a little disoriented."
The absol fell into a half-crouch, evidently ready and able to fight. After eyeing me for a moment, she relaxed, grinning. "Glad to see I got you on your feet."
She was right. I was standing again, the world had stopped spinning, and my headache had subdued enough that I could freely contemplate murder. Eventually, I decided that glaring quietly was probably a better solution than killing my rescuer, who was too busy laughing quietly to herself to notice.
"Don't give me that look," she said, stifling her laughter. "It worked, didn't it?"
"Injury, amnesia, and now I have to deal with an absol who's too smart for her own good?" I sighed, chuckling softly. "Thanks, I guess. I owe you one."
"Two, actually," she deadpanned. "That persim berry was expensive." Seeing my glare, she shot me another grin.
"Let's shoot for three then," I replied. "I don't suppose you've got something for memory loss in that bag?" It was worth a try.
"Can't say I do, sorry," the absol shrugged. "But I may know someone who can help. There's an explorer's guild in Shimmerlake Village, just up the road from here. Guildmaster Torterra's the wisest pokémon I know - if anyone can figure out what happened to you, it's her."
I nodded. "Sounds like a plan, then. When can we see her?"
"Never, I'm afraid," came a new voice, directly behind me. "You're coming with me."
I whirled around in surprise, only to be knocked flat on my back as a blast of dark energy struck me squarely in the chest. The attack itself didn't hurt too badly, but it had caught me completely off guard. By the time I managed to regain my footing, the mysterious pokémon was already on the move.
His next target was the absol, whom he pummeled with a flurry of strikes. However, she had a moment's more warning than I, and used it to roll away from the assailant and evade the worst of the damage. Leaping back into the fray, the two rapidly exchanged blows, though neither was able to gain a significant advantage. I rushed forward ready to help defend my rescuer, only to stop myself short on impulse.
Charging in headfirst wouldn't help. I needed to observe the situation, find a weakness, and exploit it. So I watched.
The assailant was a gengar, and a large one at that. He moved with the practiced ease of someone used to battle, and seemed to be well aware of the risk posed by the absol's superior agility. He fought aggressively, never giving her the chance to do more than simply evade his attacks. As he moved, he seemed to blur, suddenly appearing just slightly off to one side or the other to evade an attack or deliver a blow. Despite his focus on the absol, he kept a wary eye on my position, and used his wraith-like agility to keep the absol between the two of us. Any attack launched at him would risk hitting my rescuer.
He was clever, talented, and carried himself with the subtle arrogance of one who is in his element and knows it all too well. He was too alert - a conventional attack would be easily evaded, assuming it didn't strike the absol…
Strike the absol.
Acting on pure instinct, I spread my arms wide, calling the dark aura of energy into being around me once more. I had only one shot to make this work. The gengar, seeing my impending attack, moved to ensure the absol was between himself and me… exactly like I wanted him to.
"Absol, jump!" I shouted, unleashing a pulse of dark force directly at her. Hearing me, she threw herself at the gengar, claws wreathed in shadowy power. My attack struck immediately afterwards, hurling her directly at our assailant. The dark pulse would hurt the spectral gengar much more than it would harm her, and, when combined with the force of her own attack, should have been enough to knock the mysterious pokémon out cold while she sailed through his incorporeal form, relatively unharmed.
'Should have' being the important words there.
The attack hit the absol, launching her towards the ghost pokémon… and they collided. She rammed into our supposedly-insubstantial assailant, sending both tumbling towards the forest's edge. After a few moments the absol rose, battered but still able to fight. Surprisingly, the gengar did the same.
Something was off. Gengar are ghosts. Attacks like the ones the absol and I had just hit him with were devastating to them. Ghosts don't just shrug off a combined attack like that… and they certainly don't collide with another pokémon mid-air unless they wanted to. There was no reason for their attacker to let that happen… unless he couldn't stop it.
I rushed forward, taking advantage of the supposed gengar's disorientation to close the distance. As I charged, I felt a surge of power flooding my limbs, filling me with deadly speed. Normally, What I had planned would pass right through a ghost. I was willing to bet our enigmatic friend would react differently.
The mysterious pokémon rose to his feet, noticing me as I reached him. It was too late. At that moment, I tested my new theory in the best way I could think of:
I punched him in the face.
To my partial surprise, the attack hit. The 'gengar' stumbled backwards before slamming into a nearby tree. As I watched, his form seemed to flicker and distort, fading away to reveal a scrawny and battered zoroark.
The zoroark blinked in confusion as his illusion faded. Realizing his disguise had failed, a look of horror spread across his face.
"I don't…" the zoroark gasped between breaths. "How did you-"
He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence. The absol darted out, lashing at him with shadow-shrouded claws. The zoroark stumbled, but before she could finish him off, a bright flash of light tore through the clearing. When my vision returned, the mysterious zoroark was gone, leaving nothing but myself and a furious-looking absol.
"That little…" she snarled, claws still smoldering with dark power, ""I'm going to kill him! Hiding behind an illusion like that, attacking us at random, and- GAH!"
She began taking her rage out on a nearby tree. After watching her for a minute or so, I decided she had calmed enough that my questions wouldn't be answered with a shadow claw to the face. Hopefully. "Do you have any idea who that guy was?"
"Yeah, me and half of Shimmerlake knew him!" She fumed quietly for another moment before continuing with a sigh. "That Zoroark used to live outside of town with Elder Marowak," she explained. "The two lived together for as long as I can remember. I spoke to him a few times, even. Kept mostly to himself, but he seemed friendly enough."
The absol snarled and took another swipe at the unfortunate tree, then began pacing back and forth along the bank of the river. "He had us all fooled. A few months back, he and the Elder both just vanished. Few days after that, a local psychic spotted him raiding a warehouse on the edge of town, trying to hide behind an illusion. He's been causing trouble ever since, and nobody can track him down."
I frowned. The zoroark had been a formidable opponent. If his performance during our battle was any indication of his skill, it was no surprise he'd evaded capture so easily. "And I'd be willing to bet he's keeping the Elder as a last-ditch bargaining chip."
"Yeah. Marowak was always good to the village… being some nutty zoroark's hostage is a poor reward for all he's done for us." The absol sighed. "But, that's not important right now. We need to get to the Guild so I can report this and you can see if the Guildmaster knows who you are."
I blinked in surprise. In the aftermath of the fight, I'd completely forgotten my own predicament. I still had no idea who I was or what had happened to bring me here. An existential crisis just doesn't seem all that important when a notorious outlaw is trying to rip your face off, apparently. I chuckled quietly at the thought.
Hearing my laughter, the absol eyed me warily. "You aren't going crazy on me, are you? I mean, crazier than you already are?"
I shot her a halfhearted glare. "Not that I know of. So, are you going to take me to this Guild of yours, or are we just going to stand here and question my sanity all night?"
"Oh, believe me, nobody's questioning your sanity." Motioning for me to follow, she strode quickly towards the small dirt path that skirted the forest's edge. "Come on. This road leads to Shimmerlake Village and the Guild. Bit of a walk, so we'd better get started."
I actually managed to keep up with the absol for the first few minutes, at which point the world started spinning again. Seeing my discomfort, she slowed her pace, and we traveled in silence for several minutes more before she spoke again.
"You know, the whole 'quietly brooding on your thoughts' thing is getting old fast. You actually thinking about something, or are you just messing with me?"
"Can't it be both?" I replied. The absol chuckled, and a moment later I continued. "It's just… fighting like that felt familiar. Like I'd done that before. I was thinking it might help me figure out who I was."
"Maybe you were some big-shot explorer," she offered. "If that's the case, don't expect me to let you skip out on refunding me for that persim berry. Plus interest."
"I thought saving your hide back there meant we were even."
"'Saving my hide?'" she asked incredulously, "I wasn't aware a dark pulse to the back was considered 'saving.' I'll have to remember that one." After a moment of quiet laughter, she added. "You know, I never did tell you my name. It's Artemis."
"Artemis?" I inquired. "My memory's not exactly the best, but that strikes me as a strange name for an absol."
"Yeah, well, my parents were strange," she retorted. "Don't get me started. So, what about you? You remember your name, at least?"
"My name?" I thought for a minute. Name, name, what is my… ah. I remembered something after all.
I smiled, comforted at the thought.
"My name is Darkrai."