They're all dead.
How could this have happened?
Why am I the only one to escape?
What is left for me now?
These are the thoughts running through the last one's mind. Its planet is gone. Destroyed. And every single one of its kind is gone forever. Lost in the destruction that had become of its home.
Of course, this happened many thousands of years ago. So much time has past since the loss of the last one's home. Somehow safe inside this hunk of rock… This prison. It had survived purely out of luck.
What of the others? What became of them? Did they feel pain as I do now? Or was it so sudden that there was no time to even imagine pain?
Wondering… Pondering… It is the only thing the last one knows. Drifting endlessly through out the infinite reaches of space. There's nothing else to do. No one else to do anything else with.
Not even a host to use… To reproduce… To recover from the disaster of the lost planet.
Oh, how the last one longs for a host… any organism with which it could inject its DNA into. It could rebuild everything that had been lost. A single cell would have sufficed to create hundreds… No, thousands.
But everything was dead. The last one knew it. It had been that way for thousands of years. Why would it change now?
What was I before now? How did I assemble into the intelligence am?
The last one had had a consciousness for a long time. But it hadn't always been that way. It had slowly grown from something that shouldn't even be considered alive. Its entire original purpose was to reproduce. It had come from an exact DNA replica of its predecessor. As soon as it had come into existence, it had only one instruction.
Find a new cell. Inject DNA. Reproduce. Exhaust the cell. Repeat.
Such simple instructions… Yet they are the only thing I wish I could follow now. If only… I had more of my kind. If only there were more.
A single cell! That's all the last one needed so badly. One cell could change everything. The most insignificant glimmer of life could be enough to begin a new cycle.
Yet there is nothing. Nothing has been. Nothing ever will be. Life is nonexistent. That will never change.
The last one opened its eyes and looked into its past. Time regressing… Returning to the original point. The last one's rock… No longer a rock. Part of a planet.
Home.
Teeming with life. Everything had purpose. Every difference unique. All life important. Such great potential.
The last one came into existence, once again. As it always did when it saw its past. A replica of its predecessor. Using a cell to reproduce.
So many of the last one's kind! So many! And they continued to multiply!
Yet… We are nothing alike, them and I. I may have once been so simplistic… So small. I may have been with others of my kind. But I was incapable of life. I may have had purpose… But I was never alive.
It was true. The last one had only been gifted with consciousness after many years of being alone. Many years after the planet's destruction.
It had started so simply. As a tiny speck of existence that didn't even live. But there had been no way for the last one to carry out its duty of reproduction. The only traces of cells had been of those that had died long, long ago.
The last one had searched for cells for so long. It had travelled all over its rock. Forever searching… Never finding. Its journey continued… Changing it. It began to live after so many failed searches.
It began to feed itself off of the rock. If larger, the last one could cover more ground in a search. It could only grow using this non-living material, however. It needed a cell in order to truly reproduce. It grew, searched, grew, searched.
It found a stone different from all the rest of the rock. It seemed to be full of life. Yet there were no cells. But it had the power of life directly attached to the rock. The virus became reliant on the life giving stone. 3 points. Center of life, of power. The more it grew, the more it had room for mutations.
The last one had tried every possible combination its DNA was gifted with. It cycled through millions… billions… Trillions of possible chances for making life in the form of a cell.
But a virus isn't meant to be alive.
It had reached the end of every combination. It had attempted every single possible chance at life it knew how to make.
They had all failed.
The virus that was the last one hadn't known what to do. It had tried expanding. It had tried mutating. It had tried to replicate its prey. It had used the life filled stone to search for life. All in the search for a single cell.
They had all failed.
What do you do when you reach the end of the instructions, and you still haven't been able to complete the first step?
You improvise.
Making a cell out of rocks simply wouldn't work. But cells were part of bodies. Bodies were made of minerals. The rock had minerals.
If you can't make the details, you try the big picture.
So it began to devour more of the rock's interior then ever before. It nested on the life-filled, 3 pointed stone as its source of expansion. The virus had instructions in its DNA for how bodies resembled. It had made reproduction more efficient back when the last one's kind was still on the planet, alive.
Only they never were alive to begin with. I am more alive then they ever were.
The virus made itself into an artificial body. Composed of only pure elements. No cells… But with a body, cells could be made, could they not?
There was the fatal error in the virus' reasoning. Cells come from preexisting cells. But the virus didn't know where the original cell had come from. Life must have had origin from some non living thing, right?
Unless life has simply always existed in one form or another.
Either way, the virus didn't know how to make a cell from elements.
It tried its best to replicate a body. Instead of blood, it had carbon. Instead of a heart, a pressurized jewel. Eyes developed over a long amount of time, hard as glass.
But the most important thing to a body is a brain. The core processor to give reasoning to the system.
The virus had never had anything akin to a brain before. Even the 3 pointed stone gave no intelligence… Just pure life force. The virus had instructions for what brains were like, but too much of the brain was… alive to be replicated.
Triggers were the next best option. An "on" and "off" to decide things and to confirm and deny. A whole system of them. Made out of magnetic elements to switch back and forth.
And the more it had room to make its magnetic brain, the more comprehension the virus gained.
At first, it only attempted thinking of ways to obtain a cell. But it soon gained the ability to think of two things at once. A second compartment… But for processing what?
More ways to find a cell.
Slowly, more intelligence. More ideas. More comprehension.
The last one sat there, nearly idle, absorbing more elements to make more compartments for its growing brain. Soon, there were so many compartments. So many different processors to think of how to find new cells.
But every idea… Every theory… Ended in failure. More processors will give more ideas. Processors were the focus. The more processors, the higher chance of success.
Every thought. Every thought was a failure. Nothing was alive. No cells would ever come from non living things.
When one of its processors gave this result to the last one, it stopped. No cells would ever come.
No cells. Ever.
The next thought was, what's next?
The last one devoted all processors to answering that question.
After so much processing of every idea about the rock, there wasn't much to give back to the last one in answer to its question. Every time a processor would come back to the consciousness of the last one to tell it that it had failed in finding an answer, it once more asked the question: What's next?
Processor 1. Failed. What's next?
Processor 63. Failed. What's next?
Processor 1024. Failed. What's next?
What's next?
Every processor screamed it at the last one's consciousness. What's next?
What's next?
What's next?
The last one decided to change focus. Don't look in the present for answers about the future. Look in the past. Review everything that had ever happened to the last one. Stop asking about what's next until every moment had been reviewed.
The processors set out to work.
They couldn't remember much from before they had been created to process.
The life filled stone gave feelings to the last one. Remember what it feels like to be near life. To feel life, it seemed to say.
The last one shared the feelings with its processors. It told them to examine its DNA. To look for the feeling of life that the 3 pointed stone gave off.
Return to the beginning.
The last one gained the ability to truly see. To see the past in great detail. From a perspective it had never imagined until now. Its processors gave the last one eyes in its mind.
It could see everything that had ever happened to it. From its birth to its current situation.
It learned of how it had gotten to where it was in the first place.
Great rocks flying through space… Flying by at such a quick pace that they pierced the sky of the last one's home planet and fell to earth.
The last one watched as its virus self descended into the earth to look for more cells. It had been expelled from the body of its original host. Mere luck had allowed it to land away from life. Life was within inches of where it had landed, but as a virus that didn't comprehend anything, it simply bore into the depths of the first thing it had landed on. It dug deep, just so happening to go a path that allowed it to avoid life. It had been so close to its goal! How had its past self failed when it had been so close to a cell?
But what mattered was the result. After the virus had bored deep into the earth, the rocks from space crashed into the planet. They burned the sky before they even struck, incinerating everything. Life dying quickly. Farther from the point of descent, life could feel the heat of the great meteor. The meteor finally landed. It destroyed everything. The planet was engulfed in flames. The oceans burned. The plants died. All living creatures, killed by the deadly and decisive strike.
Yet the virus had been so deep, so protected, that even the world shattering power of the meteor hadn't wiped it from existence. It simply acted as a propulsion.
The meteor strike shifted the planet so quickly that the rock the last one had known its entire existence was flung into the depths of space. Flung away from the rest of the dead planet. It didn't matter. The virus wouldn't have anything left to use as a host. Everything had already been killed.
The last one watched as it grew from seemingly nothing into the form it now had. It had taken so long to mutate and grow.
And now, here it was. Back at the point it had started to watch its history. One of its processors gave the last one a calculation.
You watched the course of your entire existence in real time. Now, you are twice as old as you had been before you started to watch.
In other words, there was no point in watching any further. The fact that the last one was still watching anything meant that nothing drastic had changed in all the time it had taken to reach this point of its existence.
The last one cancelled its memory viewing. So that is how it had happened. How life had begun, and how it had ended. It had learned things it hadn't known before. Like how to use its jewel heart to create light.
It lit up the interior of the meteor and for the first time, saw it with its actual eyes. It looked so blank and hollow compared to the life from its home planet. In its effort to continually expand, the last one had absorbed the minerals around the life filled, three pointed stone. It was almost a perfect sphere of space. Something the last one hadn't noticed was that the stone seemed to float in the center of the rock. It hadn't seemed to be important. Somehow, the stone centered the rocks gravity.
The last one rose from the stone. It hadn't moved for half its existence. Half its existence had been to rewatch the first part of its existence. It hadn't been moving for so long.
The last one had gained a sense of time. It now had a processor devoted to keeping track of time, even in the darkness of the rock it was in. It tracked the time that had passed and had a sense of how long it had taken. The last one had become thousands of years old.
The last one didn't need any of its processors to ask itself the question again.
What's next?
The last one looked around its rock once more. It moved through the air instead of crawling along the surface of the rock like it had done as a virus. Its processors could calculate the physics of movement. The energy that could allow it to fly around, held within the jewel in its center. Gleaned from the life filled stone. Infinite energy. Infinite potential. Never ending.
The last one began to further its mind even further then before. It thought up better ways to create processors. More efficient. Take up less space.
It began to see the structure of everything. It could analyze more and more. Faster and faster. How these objects related directly to it.
Soon the last one knew so much about how non-living things worked that it could use its most advanced processors to move objects. Physical touch and connection was no longer required. All that was needed was will power. Imitating life.
The last one imitated the movement of life through pieces of stone and rock. Moving around, following patterns. That was life, was it not?
It continued to aimlessly amuse itself with movement of everything around it. But there was nothing to be gained from this. There still was no life. No cells. No host. Only it and the rocks.
And the life filled stone.
The last one developed a connection with the stone. It gave the last one the feeling of life. Remember what life was like. Feel life. Know what it is. Feel where it is.
Yet, through all this time, years and years passing endlessly with nothing left to do, the last one only remembered what could have been. It pursued unanswerable questions.
How could this have happened?
Why am I the only one to have escaped?
Is this worth it? Will I ever find a host? Will anything ever change?
And what's next?
Drifting aimlessly. Forever floating. Always traveling, never arriving. No final destination. Wanting a cell. Wanting to reproduce. Continue the cycle.
Never getting anything.
Years and years, passing by. Time doesn't matter, thought the last one, I continue on forever. Time is just a measurement to be given to eternity. Trying to measure forever. It wasn't possible. Every moment so like the ones before. So like the many to come. Continual existence. More time passing; continual existence.
Years and years. Forever and ever.
Yet suddenly, the life filled stone changes.
It gives off light. It feels warmer. Different somehow. The last one feels what it feels.
Life. Life is returned. It is close. I can return to life.
The three pointed stone wanted to get to life. It could feel where it was. But it had no way to change course.
Life. Life is returned. It is close. But it is getting farther away.
But the last one could change that. The last one felt the direction of the feelings. The stone acted as a guide. The last one's mind reached out and pulled the rock towards the life.
The last one: I can change course. I can change eternity. I can regain life.
The three pointed stone: We are returning. Life is returning. It is closer. Returning to life.
Traveling towards life. Soon, everything would change. Soon, the last one would have life once again. A cell to reproduce. To restore those that had been destroyed. The last one was almost there.
Finally, the torment is over. I can fulfill my purpose. I can live. I can know what it means to live.
The three pointed stone grew brighter and brighter. Drawing closer to life. Arriving at life.
It would be there soon.
So close. So close to life. Closer then it had ever been. Except as a virus. But a virus has no feelings. It has no thoughts. But now, the last one was no longer a virus. It was restoration. It was reproduction. It was the beginning of a new cycle.
But then, just before it could reach life… Life attacked.
The last one's rock was shattered. Everything it had ever known, destroyed, in an instant. The glow of the stone… Killed. Dead. Empty.
The life that had attacked… Watched. The last one felt emotion. It had learned enough from the 3 pointed stone to know that whatever had destroyed its rock… Was happy. It felt joy.
The life had killed the only thing the last one had ever known. And the life was happy.
The last one tried to draw the rocks back in. To reform. It clung to the dead 3 pointed stone. It dragged it quickly, trying to return the rocks to the points of the stone. Return to your original form! Return to me!
But the rocks were too small. To insignificant now. Compared to the size they had added up to, they were now so small that they were useless.
The last one felt the happiness of the life that had destroyed its home.
But it did not share it.
The last one felt anger. Rage.
Life… I want to regain life. And you take it from me…?
(Begin Deoxys battle music)
The last one released the dead stone. It could do nothing more. It moved its limbs out from around the stone.
I will regain life. You cannot stop me.
The last one forced the 3 pointed stone apart with its mind.
Life! Behold my power! I shall fight for life, even if I must take life to receive it!
The last one propelled itself forward at blinding speed. It would destroy this Emerald life. It would fight this creature encased in protective gear. It would destroy them.
Then I will finally have life!
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Ruby was the Hoenn League champion. He had filled many pages of the Pokédex. He had fought against evil organizations trying to destroy the world. He had even just caught Rayquaza.
He knew he had to destroy the meteoroid that was dooming Earth. Zinnia had left it up to him.
And Rayquaza's power had done it. The meteorite was destroyed. Earth was saved. Happiness overwhelmed him. He had saved the Earth!
But there was a triangle… In the center of the meteorite. No… Not a triangle. Zinnia had told him: Delta. The power of Rayquaza. The middle ground between Alpha and Omega.
And… From behind Delta… Limbs… Twisting around each other. Delta burst into pieces.
A Pokémon! It was behind this!
And now it was time for battle.
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Deoxys: #211 in the Hoenn Pokédex; #386 in the National Pokédex.
"The DNA of a space virus underwent mutation upon exposure to a laser beam and resulted in Deoxys. The crystalline organ on this Pokémon's chest appears to be its brain."
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Authors note: I thought about what it must have taken for Deoxys to become what it did. And I am disagreeing with the Pokédex on purpose. Yes, it says laser beam, but that could just be what Earth scientists believed caused its mutation. The Pokédex is often right when it comes to legends and Pokémon involving Earth... But Deoxys is from space. It has no real connection to Earth. Which is why I am saying that the scientists are a bit wrong this time.
I just thought of why Deoxys would change the course of the meteoroid, why it would attack you so fiercely… What gave it its power. I related the Delta stone Deoxys emerged from behind to a Mega Stone and Infinity Energy that the president of Devon Corporation mentions. Since viruses are not even alive to begin with, I thought that what happens in this story made sense. He hadn't been "alive" by our definition, so he didn't require anything to keep energy. It also explains why it has no mouth: it has no need to eat, only absorb.
What happens to Deoxys after its caught by our hero? Does it try to reproduce, only realizing that it is now so similar to other life that reproducing through use of a cell is now impossible? Does it become part of a battle team to take on other Trainers? Does it fight other replicas of itself through use of Link Cables? Link Cables that connect Alternate Universes together… Where there is a different hero (or heroine) that is also the Hoenn League champion, but has a different team, has had different battles, has fundamentally the same experience of saving the world from the meteoroid… But has made different decisions?
It is really up to each of you. What did you do with Deoxys? Did you consider what it had gone through to even get close to Earth? Did Deoxys realize it was about to destroy the Earth, in a similar fashion to how a meteor had destroyed its own original planet?
It's quite a bit to think about.
I hope you enjoyed this!