Note (01/07/17): This is an updated version of Spectrum, as I wanted to improve it after the criticism I got. Some reviews might appear outdated.

Disclaimer: A part of how life works is that I do not own Pokémon.


Some days, Xerneas felt that the world was an endless stream of death, greed, and destruction, and most of all, unfairness. Corrupted governors reigned over regions that held myriads of criminals. Innocents died everyday, and it was not just the fault of Death himself. People (and sometimes pokémon too) sat miserably on cold, uncomfortable streets, devoid of food in their bodies and money in their pockets. The poor stayed poor while the rich got richer. Karma felt like a fairytale, a dream that was conjured up in one's sleep and was never forgotten, regardless of how unrealistic it was, like a magikarp slaying a god. These were days where his "Reshiram side" took over, when he accepted the cruel truth that was the world's injustice.

But some days, a feeling called "faith" would invade his billion year old mind, when he denied the inequity of the world. He would hold firmly onto the things that were known as "hopes" and "dreams". When he would strive to make a difference, no matter how impossible it seemed. When he would enjoy and remember the little things in life, because the little things mattered just as much as the big things. This was his "Zekrom side", when ideals lingered in his head, and the world seemed just a little bit better.

Other days, Xerneas would take neither side. The truth made everything a trillion times more depressing, and depression was a feeling that he did not enjoy. Sunny days would seem cloudy, the smell of flowers and chatter of wild pokémon would lose their charm, music would sound like an endless dull drone, and the giving of life would feel like condemning an individual to the torture that is the world.

However, ideals were just wishful thoughts. Just that. An ideal world would be impossible to create (not to mention a world of lies), even for the most powerful and knowledgeable being. Each vision of an ideal world differed from the last. The ideal world of a seviper would be one without zangoose, and vice versa for the other group of pokémon. Having every single living being agree on the same image of an ideal world would be unfeasible.

Xerneas watched. Out of sight, he would watch the world as he gave life, like a sigilyph patrolling an ancient city, but without the tenseness that came with it.

One thing he paid attention to over thousands of years was human politics, surprisingly. Humans would sometimes kill off leaders they didn't like. Both the leaders and assassins were either labelled "heroes" or "villains" by each person.

Xerneas thought that the labelling of individuals was silly. An "evil" leader would usually believe that they are leading their people to greatness, and an "evil" assassin would often believe that the death of that leader would be for the greater good. Whether someone was immoral or just was entirely based on perspective. One would never be "good" or "bad" on pure fact, because the world was not just black and white.

Xerneas sometimes felt foolish. He was the embodiment of life and he had only realized those facts a few thousand years ago, when human society started to develop more. There was normally no need to label things as bad or good in the hundreds of millions of years before humans started appearing and becoming more intelligent. Xerneas only had to worry about giving life to have the world sustain itself, to make the plants grow while the pokémon gave birth to other pokémon.

New Year's Eve had come quickly, more quickly than Xerneas realized. Dialga had a way with making time pass that fast. All the legendary and mythical pokémon were "invited" (it was a mandatory party) to the New Year's party at the Hall of Origin, just like every year on every holiday hosted by the god of the pokémon world himself.

As Xerneas trudged through the snowy landscapes of Sinnoh on his way to the Spear Pillar, he reflected on the past year.

Many evil groups of criminals had popped up. Except that they weren't evil, and nor were they good. Whether they were criminals or not was a matter of opinion, because the law wasn't based on fact. Laws were shaped around opinions on what is okay and what is not okay to do.

After a long electoral campaign in Unova, a new president had been elected. There was both outrage and joy at the occurrence. Some believed that the new president would make Unova an amazing country with his proficiency, while others believed that he was terrible, incompetent, and would lead Unova to ruin after thousands of years of growth.

A numerous amount of disasters, natural and unnatural, had occurred. Depending on who you asked, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Some people would call it a good year. Others would call it a bad year. In the earlier days of human advancement, Xerneas would've chosen one of those. But in present day, Xerneas swept those options off the table and called it a "colourful year", because a year, day, person, event, or anything can't just be described as black or white.

Life is a spectrum of colours, like Xerneas's antlers or Ho-oh's wings, as it is many things. People (and pokémon too) will view an assortment of colours differently from others just like they would view life differently from others.

Ultimately, life is not black or white or grey or red. It is not green or indigo or pink or yellow. Neither is it orange or violet or brown or gold. Life is all of those colours, among others, mixed together in a spectrum.