Hello, DeltaShock16 here with a one-shot of Darkrai and Cresselia!
Rated T for language.
Disclaimer: If the ownership of Pokémon was like an actual Pokémon, I'd never catch it.
Hall of Legendaries
I stared at the tower, my mind focused on the task. Nothing could possibly waver my concentration. My entire being was focused, and with a cautious hand…..I pulled out the wooden block.
For a second, the tower remained upright, but then tumbled down in a disarray of blocks.
"…..damn it."
"Haha! Get owned Darkrai!" crowed my opponent, a slender pink, blue and yellow floating Pokémon that went by the name of Cresselia.
I grumbled as I swept the board clean after Cresselia's complete and utter destruction of me at Jenga and destroyed what little self-dignity I had left.
"Why Arceus, why? You decide to tell the legendaries to get to know your partners better over the next day, okay. I can deal with that. I'd be perfectly fine with a chat over some sandwiches or something, but noo, you said we had to do something that….what'd you say…'helps you really understand each other.' Yeah, all I've learned about Cresselia is that she has way too much time on her hands to have mastered all these games…" I silently complained, adding the discarded game to the mountains of others she had beaten me at. Chess, checkers, even backgammon! Who in the world still plays backgammon besides old people?
"So…..Darkrai, what next?" asked Cresselia with a wide grin. "How about some chess again? I'll let you take my queen this time."
"Haha, someone's feeling funny today, isn't she?"
"Nope! I'm feeling rather….winning."
It didn't take a genius to figure out her challenge. However, it did take a Darkrai and a Palkia to.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I said, waving her off and starting to float away.
"Dude, play her again at something! She can't quote Charlie Sheen and get away with it unscathed!" whispered Palkia as he walked by with Dialga.
"What? Who's Charlie Sheen?" I asked, perplexed while Cresselia continued her incessant grinning. It was beginning to annoy me….
"…please tell me you are not serious," deadpanned Palkia
"About what? Not knowing who that is?"
"YES! He's just, like, the greatest, coolest, winningest-"
"Palkia, I don't care about how you're hot for Charlie Sheen. But if you don't hurry up, I'm dragging you the rest of the way down!" yelled Dialga from the front.
"Pfft, yeah right. There's no way you can move me! I'm the master of spa- Whoa!" yelped Palkia as Dialga pulled him to the ground and stepped on his back. I snickered as Dialga straddled him and pulled his head close to hers.
"Now here Palky, when I got into this relationship, I warned you that I'd be willing to take possibly measures to make you listen to me since you decided you don't want to listen to anyone. So, would you like to listen to me now, or would you like to do this the hard way?" said Dialga.
"Is that a challenge?" asked Palkia (quite stupidly in my mind). I shook my head furiously, but he didn't seem to catch it. Yet somehow he was surprised when Dialga got up and dragged him out the door.
"Tell my family I love them!" cried Palkia as his voice slowly faded into the distance. I sighed at his behavior, but I perked up after hearing a 'thump' and Palkia complaining "I was kidding! Geez!"
"Sassy…." Cresselia murmured next to me.
"Sassy? More like scary!" I corrected, glancing to see if she had noticed me saying that. Thank Arceus she didn't.
"Really now? HEY, DIALGA! DARKRAI HAS SOMETH-"
"Cresselia, shut up!" I hissed as I covered her mouth with my hand.
"Mmmph mmm phmmmph," she mumbled back.
"No! If you do that, I swear I'll- AW GROSS!"
I recoiled and attempted to wipe my hand of her saliva as she innocently looked at me, with that Arceus-damned smile she's had on her face so much today.
"That's terrible!" I complained. "And underhanded!"
"So, basically how you've attempted to play at every single game we've had today?"
Somewhere in the mountains of Johto
"Hey, you guys feel that?" asked Entei.
"Feel what?" asked Suicune. Raikou showed a questioning glance as well.
"It's weird, I felt some strange tingling. It felt oddly similar to a burn…."
"Ouch! That kinda hurt my feelings…."
"Oh I'm sorry Darkrai. Do you want a hug?" asked Cresselia, extending her arms.
"Not from you!" I said as I turned away from her and sat down huffing.
"Fine…" she said as I heard her fly away. I sighed and closed my eyes, preparing to lie down when-
"SURPRISE HUG!"
"Wha-"
I wasn't able to say anything at first due to the fact that Cresselia may have been inadvertently crushing my windpipe with her hug. As it slightly loosened, I was able to speak.
"Cresselia, get off!" I yelled as my face flushed red.
"Never!" she retorted as she continued to squeeze me.
Meanwhile, Lugia and his wife came across us, and Lugia began snickering while his wife reminisced.
"Ah, to be young and in love!" she fondly said.
"I'm not young! I'm almost as old as you two!" I protested. I blushed again when I remembered the second part. "And I'm not in love; she's just attempting to squeeze my inner organs out of me!"
"That's a good idea!" responded Cresselia, using her psychic powers to hug me harder.
"Did…..anyone….ever…..tell you…you're a…..horrible Pokémon?" I gasped.
"Well, not often," she pondered. "But it's happened. Of course, that was before I did this!"
And all of a sudden, she released me and kissed me on my cheek.
"Wha- The heck was that?" I asked as I blushed and attempted to look away.
"That's like my 'get out of jail free' card! You know, like in that game we were playing earlier that you were so bad at? Oh wait, that was all of them…"
Mountains of Johto
"Wait! There it is again! You feel it?"
"What is it Entei? I'm not feeling anything! Suicune, you feeling anything?"
The Aurora Pokémon shook her head, and Entei sighed with annoyance. What was that burning feeling?
"Haha, two today Cresselia, you're on fire," I muttered as I thought. "Wait, I won one! It was the one with the ships and the coordinates!"
"You mean Battleship?"
"Yes! That one!"
"The goal of that game was to knock out the ships, not find them by hitting every single dot around them," she deadpanned.
"…...well it's not like I'm the god of games, so I'm not expected to do that well anyways!"
Arceus strolled into the room. "Actually, you are now," he said as he walked back out amidst my staring.
"Damn."
"So, what do you want to do now?" asked Cresselia.
"Huh. I don't know…. Maybe we could see Mew."
We left the games behind for future players and walked to Mew's room, where I peeked in for the pink Pokémon.
"Hey Mew, you wanna go do something with me and Cresselia?" I asked.
"Sorry guys, but you have an assignment. Seems like someone in Canalave is messing with the nightmares again," said a pink Pokémon who I recognized as Mew. "I'm assigning you two to discover the causes and since Canalave is mostly under your dual jurisdiction, hopefully apprehend the nightmare causers and force them to desist from their activities."
Needless to say, I was quite surprised at the seriousness Mew showed while she talked to us.
"What's up with the attitude Mew?" I asked. Mentally, I slapped myself in the face. I was going to regret that one.
She shrugged. "I was bored."
I motioned for her to continue with my hand. She repeated, "I was bored."
Cresselia floated dumfounded, first by the fact that Mew of all Pokémon was bored, and second at my face after realizing the same fact, which she took great pleasure in talking about to me later.
But that's a story for another time.
"Haha, look at your face Darkrai!" Mew laughed. Cresselia snapped out of her reverie to glance at me and began giggling too before I regained control of my senses.
Okay, I guess it's a story for right now.
Anyways….where was I? Oh yeah, assignment, Mew, Cresselia, Canalave. Go team!
It was midday when Cresselia and I traveled to Canalave from the Hall almost immediately after Mew left, and once we arrived, we saw the town in sorry shape. People blearily standing, only half-conscious while they stumbled around. Officers yawning as they leaned on their Growlithes. The Pokémon all falling asleep at some point, but just as soon waking up crying out in fear and releasing attacks.
"Whoo….this doesn't look too good does it?" I whispered.
"No it doesn't Darky, no it doesn't," my counterpart responded.
"Yeah, well- wait, what'd you call me?"
"Darky, why?"
"Well that's kind of weird!"
"Well you're kind of weird, so it's fitting."
Some days I really hate her and her logic.
"Well Cress, let's scout around town and see if we can figure out what's going on here."
She responded with a nod and wink and flew off the other direction. I blushed slightly (Why was I blushing? Go away blush.) and turned the other way, sinking into the shadows. I remembered how those idiots a few months ago decided to make a machine that created nightmares, and how they'd scammed everyone by making fake Lunar Wings to keep the nightmares away. Cresselia was pissed for weeks, I'll tell you that! She was like Giratina on a good day! Mind you, Giratina is one eternally PMS-ing Pokémon, but seriously? Is there any reason for her to be that mad?
Wait, I'm getting distracted again. Where was I? Oh yes, the idiots. Well, they were stopped by a group of kids with that boy who seemed to be everywhere with a Legendary. I mean I've seen the boy there, I've heard from the others how he was all over the continents helping them or in my case, tried to help me resolve all that sexual tension between Palkia and Dialga during that fight they had in Alamos Town. They still refuse to admit that that was the reason, but both Cresselia and I know I'm right.
However, that didn't give them any reason to try to kill me or tear the fabric of time and space apart though.
I decided to check the place those people from last time had set up their machine. It would be absolutely ridiculous if they were still there, the same exact place as last time, and expect not to get caught again. I turned the corner and glanced inside the tent, and…..lo behold, they were there again, with their infernal machine and their "Lunar Wings".
"We's gonna make so much moneys off these chumps James!" said the Meowth.
"Yes, I know we can do it this time! We may have been bad last time, but everyone knows the bigger and more expensive a machine is, it has to be perfect! Right Jessie?" cried the purple-haired man James (or female. I could never discern that from the guy's actions).
"Right! We'll have it all!" yelled the girl Jessie, their red-haired (and frankly unattractive) companion. "Fame!"
"Fortune!"
"Executive bathroom privileges!"
"Woooooooooobuffet!" said their Wobuffet, who always managed to escape his ball no matter what.
Well these fools weren't gonna get away with it if I had anything to do with it! Stepping out of the shadows, I cupped my hands and prepared a Shadow Ball to fling at their machine and end this stupid assignment when all of a sudden Cresselia came out of nowhere and accidentally bumped into me.
"Whoa!" I yelped as my Shadow Ball released itself into the roof of the tent and punctured a hole through. The trio and Wobuffet inside the tent glanced up at the hole, and then frantically turned to the direction it came from, and saw me and Cresselia.
"Oh crap! Darkrai and Cresselia!" the Meowth cried.
"No, it's Lugia and Ho-Oh. Who do you think it is?" said Jessie, slapping the back of his head.
"Lugia and Ho-Oh? Where?" asked James. It took all the self-control I could muster to not fling him into space. It only took the span of a second for Jessie to reach him and slap him too. "Ow!"
I glanced to my left and saw a sight I usually don't see and usually attempt to avoid. Cresselia floated in midair, a hard expression on her face and a determined air about her. From experience, there are only two things I've learned that can arouse that look from her. Number one: She's really, really, really angry at someone, and two: She's in heat.
I'm not sure which one is worse to be the receiving end on.
Cresselia soared over to the bickering trio and let out a Psychic blast, enough to stun herd of Tauros into stopping. Thank Arceus he made me a Dark-type.
Cresselia telepathically spoke to them, yelling "Didn't you learn your lesson last time?"
"Yes we did!" said Jessie triumphantly, pulling out a remote with a switch on it. Flicking it, she dived out of the way while returning Wobuffet as James and Meowth proceeded to do the same.
The machine behind them slowly contorted and formed into a sort of portal, with darkness swirling in the middle and oozing….nightmare.
"Not only is this a nightmare machine, but we got the added upgrade of it being a Pokémon catcher!"
"Yep! Just flick the switch and a Pokémon'll get swept up in there like food into my belly!" said Meowth.
"Wha- Oh no, oh no…"
To my horror, I saw Cresselia frantically attempt to escape the vortex opened by the machine, but slowly lose footing and begin to float backwards. I leapt forward and grabbed her hand, and pulled tight. Looking into her eyes, I saw her fear and attempted to comfort her by pulling harder. But I felt myself moving towards the vortex as well, and Cresselia glanced up at me again, with something else in her eyes.
"No…NO! Don't do it!"
"I'm sorry Darkrai, but this is the only way to save you…"
And with that, she released my hands. I tumbled backwards and crashed into the wall dazedly as I saw Cresselia dragged backwards into the vortex and heard her scream "I love you Da-"
And she was gone. The portal faded away with a slow whine, and the trio got up and smirked.
"Well, we finally captured a Legendary! Calls for a celebration!" said James before I pinned him against the wall with my fist.
"What did you do?" I hissed.
"Wha- What?" he gasped, slowly turning blue.
"What. Did. You. Do. To. Cresselia?" I said, gritting my teeth.
"I don't know….." he said, his face fading of color.
"Then you are of no use to me." I said bluntly as I held him higher, his air supply slowly being cut off and his organs beginning to fail.
Then I heard a voice in the back of my mind. "Don't do this Darkrai…please. Don't do something you'll regret just because of me."
The voice….it was Cresselia.
I released my grip and the man fell to the ground, stock-still. I felt his neck and felt a slow pulse of blood. He'd live, sadly.
Meanwhile, the girl and Meowth were attempting to sneak out of the tent before tendrils of darkness surrounded them and pulled them back to me.
"Talk." It wasn't a suggestion. It was a command, and I wanted answers.
"We don't have to tell you anything," Jessie sneered. Meowth nodded his approval as well.
"Well your choice….remember, they don't call me the god of nightmares for nothing…" I whispered as I flew around them.
"We still ain't gonna tell you nothing!" cried the Meowth defiantly. The girl however began sweating slightly.
"Your call."
I'm not sure how I do it, but somehow I'm able to reach into a being's mind and pull out their worst fears, formulating it into a nightmare. For the girl, I found a memory of another female, Cassidy, and decided to make her the most popular celebrity in the world while Jessie floundered with her braces on the bottom of the chain. For the defiant Meowth, I created a scene where the Persian he hated became second-in-command of Team Rocket, and he was demoted to janitor of the base. Then, I had darkness swallow him up and terrify him with apparitions of death and destruction.
The Meowth was defiant after all.
I banished the nightmares and forced the two upright again.
"Are you willing to talk n-"
"YES WE'RE WILLING TO TALK JUST MAKE IT STOP!" screamed Jessie.
"No….no…leave me alone! Back away! Please!" sobbed the Meowth. Seems my nightmare hasn't faded completely yet for him. Oops.
"What is this machine?" I asked Jessie.
"It's a nightmare creator like our old one, but this one came with a Pokémon catcher. The Pokémon supposedly were sent to a place with unimaginable horrors to help tame unwilling Pokémon and make them more obedient to their masters."
I gaped at her explanation. "You bastards! Where the hell did you find this Arceus-damned machine?"
She shrugged. "Ebay."
I angrily knocked over a nearby chair and looked at her. "If I broke this apart, would Cresselia come back out?"
"I'm not sure…" I glared at her. "I'm not! All I know is that Pokémon have to be manually retrieved by another Pokémon, preferably a Dark-type. But the machine's temperamental and unstable. We've never actually captured a Pokémon with it."
I thrust my Shadow Ball filled hand at her.
"And we never will again!"
I dismissed the ball and floated towards her. "Open the portal again. I'm going in to find Cresselia."
"Not that I'm objecting, but like I said, the portal is highly unstable. It may be impossible to re-open it once it's been closed. Is that a risk you're willing to take for another Pokémon?" Jessie asked.
I glared at her. "Cresselia's not just a Pokémon. She's one of my friends. And you will open this portal and stay here to open it again once I signal you, or I will hunt you down for the rest of your pathetic, miserable lives and make you wish you were dead a hundred times over."
She gulped. "Okay boss…I'll open the portal."
I readied myself as I saw the darkness slowly swirl in the portal again. Maybe it was the nervousness, or the sheer danger that lay ahead, but there was only one thought that was in my head.
"I guess it's true…. You don't know what you really have until it's gone."
The portal opened and I flew into the void, preparing to do whatever it took. As the world faded to black, another thought penetrated my slowly diminishing mind-
"Cresselia….I'll find you…"
As color bled back into the world, I groaned as my eyes were burned by the light. Wait, light?
Once I could see, I stared all around me. I was surrounded by grass of all things. I was in a meadow, with flowers and Pidgeys and Starlys and everything. It was…peaceful.
"Why in Arceus' name is this place so peaceful?" I mused as I glanced around my surroundings again. I saw a town in the distance and decided to go there for some answers hopefully. Soaring over the grasses, I felt odd. Why would this place be so peaceful, yet the portal was a window of darkness? It didn't make sense.
As I touched down in the town, I saw dozens of Pokémon from every region bustling about, chatting and exchanging gifts or other items.
"What…?"
I approached the nearest Pokémon, a Cubone and asked "What exactly is this place?"
The Cubone responded "Well, you're in the most serene place in existence! We like to call it Pax, or "peace.""
That was absolute madness. There was no way this was a peaceful place. It must be an illusion! It must be!
But even I was beginning to lose my conviction. "It can't be too bad, can it? Sure, it's a little too peaceful, but what's the problem with that?"
I even began forgetting the reason I had come along. But things like that don't fade too easily, and I turned back towards the Cubone, who grunted angrily before smiling.
Eerie.
"Have you seen a pink yellow and blue Pokémon flying around here?" I asked.
"Nope! Now good-bye!"
And he walked away from me. As he walked away, I deemed him suspicious, and decided to follow him. Once again I melded into the shadows and followed him into the dark confines of a warehouse in the town. I floated to the ceiling and hid there while the Cubone sat patiently.
I almost left when I heard a crashing noise and a familiar scream. Cresselia!
Flailing about, she was dragged into the room by a Nidoking and Nidoqueen, who placed her in front of…what? I couldn't see what it was.
It began to speak. I didn't understand it, but it seemed to be guttural and baritone grunts and sounds. Suddenly though, I was beginning to forget why I was there….I was forgetting the strangeness of the situation… I was forgetting who I was.
I had almost forgotten everything when I glanced at Cresselia and one of my few remaining memories triggered the rest, and they came rushing back. I gasped slightly and prayed none of them had heard that. But as I glanced down, I realized that when I had dispelled whatever was attempting to make me forget everything, it also dispelled the illusion I was in.
Cresselia still floated there, but she was surrounded by beasts and monsters of all shapes and sizes. There was one formed of black fire, with blades surrounding its arms and darkness oozing from its mouth. There was another winged creature, with Crobat-like wings and fire dribbling from its eyes and ears as it laughed insanely. And the Cubone I saw earlier became a towering creature, with bones surrounding its chest and its body deformed, skin hanging off and its arms massive and torn.
I stared in horror as whoever the thing I couldn't see raised a clawed hand towards Cresselia, intending to make her one of them.
Hell no.
I yelled as I formed one of the biggest Shadow Balls I've ever formed, and threw it at the ground of the creatures. They shrieked in pain and terror as they were cast away by the sheer power of the ball and shimmered out of existence, and I rushed towards Cresselia, tackling her before she was touched. However, although she wasn't touched…I was.
"Ahh!" I screamed as the finger reached my head, and I felt pain blossom across my head, my mind blanking and my consciousness fading…I could feel my mind being destroyed by this being…
"Well this is it…I took a risk and lost…" I thought forlornly.
Strangely, the pain seemed to fade away, and I could begin to see clearly again, but I was still in the same room. Oh no, is this where I go when I die? I don't want to go here!
That notion was instantly dispelled by the sight of Cresselia fighting the being….Giratina?
The Giratina look-alike instantly read my mind and chuckled darkly, saying "I am not the one you call Giratina…I am her cast-off, her prototype."
Instinctively, I knew that neither I nor Cresselia could take this thing down.
"Cresselia, let's go!" I yelled as I prepared Dark Void. I knew it wouldn't kill the damn thing, but it could hold it off long enough for us to get to the portal.
Cresselia glanced at me and shook her head. "No, go! I'm gonna hold him off! I'll keep hi-"
Tendrils of darkness swirled around her before pulling her towards me, and I glared at her and said "No. Not this time. Now go! I'll catch up!"
Cresselia nodded with tears in her eyes and rushed out of the warehouse. I turned back to my opponent, who laughed darkly at me. "You love the Chosen one, don't you?"
"Maybe….but Chosen?" I asked confusedly, although cautiously charging my Dark Void.
"The ones chosen by Arceus to remain. We here-"she waved her appendage around the room "-are the misfits. We are the cast-offs. We are Arceus' mistakes of Legendaries."
"No…no! You lie!" I bellowed as I released the Dark Void. As darkness enveloped the look-alike, I dashed out the doorway and grabbed Cresselia, yelling "We're out of here!"
Hopefully Meowth was still asleep, as I sent a message into his nightmares to tell Jessie she had to open the portal.
Cresselia screamed, "Where are we going?"
"We're leaving! The portal's opening, and we're getting out of this Arceus-forsaken place!"
"Okay!"
As we flew towards the portal, I could see it open in the distance, swirling darkness again. However, someone else could see it too.
The Giratina look-alike flapped after us, slowly gaining speed. As we reached the portal, there were only about 500 feet between us.
"GO!" I yelled to Cresselia as she stood beside me. "GO INSIDE!"
"NOT WITHOUT YOU I'M NOT!"
"CRESSELIA, I NEED YOU TO GO! I'LL TRY TO KEEP HER OFF!"
"I'M NOT GOING WITHOUT YOU! I WON'T BE ABLE TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU! I LO-"
She didn't finish her sentence as I turned and pushed her into the portal. It may have been the last thing I ever did, but that was a risk I was willing to take if it kept her safe.
I guess I did love her.
As the portal slowly closed, the Giratina thing stalked closer to me, hissing and waiting for me to slip up to go for the kill. I closed my eyes and concentrated, knowing that this may be my final stand. As I flashed them open however, the look-alike simply dropped her claws and arms and motioned for me to leave.
"What? Just like that?" I asked.
"Leave me please. My bitter rage against the world was because I thought Arceus had cast us off as worthless wretches incapable of being worthy in his eyes . But seeing you and the other chosen, it showed me that I was a worthless wretch. I might never be capable of love, but you are. Even if redemption isn't at hand for me, there's no reason I shouldn't change."
"But-"
"Leave."
I nodded as I charged into the portal just before it winked out of existence. The being I left behind sighed. That may have been its only chance at revenge, but after seeing the chosen's love…well, the revenge was replaced by a deep sorrow. Its lies to the black chosen about how they were in Pax hurt her deeper than she thought. They weren't there because they were misfits. They were there because each in some point of their existence attempted to kill Arceus and seize power. She had been a form of Giratina, a sort of prototype of the now existent one. Arceus had fallen for her hard, and she had intended to take advantage of that. But Arceus eventually saw through her web of lies, and with regret in his eyes, he banished her to Pax, cynically named for being the exact opposite of peace. She realized as she saw Darkrai and Cresselia that she had actually fallen for Arceus as well, but her craving for power had kept her from realizing it. And so she sat, knowing she would never truly be able to tell Arceus how she felt, and how Arceus would never listen to her anyways. As a tear dripped onto the ground, her head bent, she cried.
"I'm sorry Arceus…. I'm sorry."
Hurtling through the portal finally ended with a resounding 'Crash' and my aching head. But pain meant I was alive. And if I was alive….
"DARKRAI!"
I whipped my head around and found myself trapped underneath Cresselia again.
"Ouch Cress, you wanna get off me?"
She looked at me in the eye and slapped me across the face. "Ow!" I yelled.
"That's for making me go in front of you and putting my life ahead of yours!" she shrieked.
"But-"She cut me off by pressing her mouth to mine, and I managed to forget what I was going to say-"that's for saving my life."
"Bluh….." was all I managed to say.
"Awww…" cooed Jessie and oddly enough, James, while Meowth shuddered. I dispelled the nightmares from him, and he ceased shuddering, but ran to a nearby bush to retch violently. The trio then turned tail and ran away.
Cresselia came up behind me and put an arm around my shoulder asking, "Shouldn't we go after them?"
I shook my head. "No…everyone deserves a chance at redemption." I pulled her close to me and hugged her, nuzzling her head as she squealed cutely.
"I love you Darky…." she mumbled in my ear.
"I love you too Cress…"
And as we flew back to the Hall together, I reminisced about how that day had begun so innocently; a simple decision by Arceus to make counterparts work together led to us playing games, which ultimately led to this moment.
So was it worth the risk?
I looked towards the Pokémon flying in my arms and kissed her again. She sighed in happiness as she moved closer to me.
Yes.
Well, that's it. Read and Review please!