Umm… this is my shot at a short, angst one shot. Raikou and Latias.
It does contain a great amount of gore and death, so be warned.
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Never had Latias seen such a pitiful sight as the one that lay before her.
The once-powerful body of the thunder god lay broken and bleeding in the dust before her. Just by looking at the blood splattered yellow pelt, you could see the places where ribs had been shattered and had broken the skin. The tiger's breaths came in shallow, ragged gasps as his crimson eyes spilled over with pain.
Oh god. Oh no. Please, not Raikou. Not my friend. She pulled back her down-covered ears, golden eyes wide in fear as she gazed at the broken body. The wind howled around her, frigid and cruel, but that was not what made her cold. She was even impervious to the warmth of her mate as he wrapped a soft grey arm around her.
When she turned to meet his eyes, she saw that the crimson pools were tainted with fear and pain.
The eyes of all those around her were the same also. Even the toughest legend had a gaze filled with heart wrenching sorrow.
Suicune was the worst. Tears flowed freely down her soft blue muzzle, which was open to show her short fangs as she sobbed for her counterpart. "You… You bastards!" she howled, her usually smooth, elegant voice crackling with pain. "My counterpart! What have you done?" Entei approached her, muscles sliding about under his thick brown pelt. He nuzzled his counterpart with his short muzzle. "It's going to be okay, Sui," He whispered in a voice just as cracked as hers. "Raikou will be fine."
Suicune looked up at him and sniffed, her eyes full of doubt. Latias couldn't blame her; it was apparent to everyone that Raikou had been broken beyond repair.
Even the tiger herself seemed to know this. He made no attempt to get up; but lay still as the blood pouring from his many wounds covered the ground. Slowly, he raised her eyes to meet Latias'. Aside from pain, his eyes burned with some other emotion both familiar and foreign to Latias, for she had seen it before, just not in the eyes of Raikou. The little feathered dragon felt unable to move.
Through a mouth that poured with black, sticky blood that originated from his bleeding and beaten internal organs, some of which oozed from the many tears in his body, he called to Latias.
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I'd lost count of the times I'd cursed him for what he'd done to me.
I shouldn't have, really. It wasn't ultimately his fault that I felt this way. Arceus is just my creator; he doesn't look after affairs of the heart. But he seemed the easiest to blame at the time, when it all came crashing down.
And now, as I fought off the comforting dark storm so I could tell her how I really felt, I realised that nobody was to blame aside from me.
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Her goldenrod eyes became questioning. Why does she want me of all the Legends? And Raikou did want her there. His eyes were filled with pleading, even more intense than the haze of pain that grazed their crimson depths.
"Go on," Encouraged the soft voice of Latios in her ear. "Let him have this last wish." She turned around to take in the feathered dragon's soft grey face and mournful crimson eyes, and then sighed. Raikou had been a good friend, always making her laugh when she felt down. She at least owed him this.
Wincing under the scrutinizing gaze of her fellow legends, she hovered forwards. Raikou watched her all the while, still with that strange look in his eyes. When she came close enough, Raikou began to speak, his voice choppy and wheezing.
"I have s-something I ne-need to tell y-you, and y-you won't l-ike it…" Raikou trailed off, and began to cough, hacking up blood and saliva. Latias narrowed her eyes and winced, wanting to pull away from the disgusting sight but knowing that this was the last few moments she had with her friend.
So she took Raikou's blood-soaked paw in her hand, and stared him straight in the eyes soulfully. "Tell me. I'm ready."
Raikou's eyes rolled back into his head, as he lapsed in consciousness.
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Everything was dark, aside from her. Dark patterns and shadows coiled around my world, suffocating me and making me feel sick to my stomach, but she was a bright beacon of white and red light. Her warm butterscotch eyes were filled with love as she spiralled throught the night sky, lighting it all up.
She drew near to me, her warmth seething every inch of my battered and broken body. The tightening feeling on my chest disappeared.
She made it all go away.
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"Raikou?"
A slight look of euphoria had taken over the tiger's ravaged features. His panting had slowed, and his mouth curved into a slight smile.
"I love you, Latias." The brief moment of happiness appear to have restored Raikou's ability to speak normally.
Latias felt tears bubble up in her eyes; she gripped her friend's paw tighter with one hand as she used the other to wipe the salty liquid away. "I love you too. You've been… more than the friend I could ask of you."
Raikou's gaze turned slightly sour, and he broke away from Latias' gaze for a moment. "No, you d-don't un-understand…"
Latias eyes widened all of a sudden. "Oh!" The tiger loved her, as in really loved her!
Of course he does…Latios showed her a thousand montages of images featuring her and Raikou, most of which showed Raikou wearing that strange expression that Latias now identified as love.
Raikou nodded weakly. "I-it's true. E-every moment-t I've had w-with you has been a ble-blessing…"
And then his ragged breathing stopped. His ravaged body stopped twinging, and his eyes glazed over.
He was dead.
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She left my side, and began to spiral throught the smoke, clearing a passage for me to pass through. The light on the other side was blinding, beckoning.
"Thankyou," I whispered, pressing my nose against her face for the last time. It didn't matter that it wasn't really her, that she was probably in some other place, grieving my loss with the others. It looked like her, and felt like her and that was all that mattered now.
I entered the swirling white portal and felt her light cover me as I ascended to watch over her, taking comfort in the fact that one day she would really join me, and I would be waiting.
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OMGZ! RAIKOU'S IN POKE HEAVEN!
This is a one-off though; Raikou remains very much alive in all of my future fics.
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