Shadows of Pokémon

Prologue: What Dice Has To Do With Everything

I

Gold

I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind

I left my body laying somewhere in the sands of time

I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon

I feel there is nothing I can do

3 Doors Down; "Kryptonite"

It was a dark and stormy night. The clouds from Port Olivine were sweeping over Ecruteak to have one last good cry before they fell apart. Something big and golden was watching as they rumbled overhead, lightning tearing underneath in long, white veins. She could feel the wind hissing off her feathers. She didn't understand why the rest of the world thought she was so warm and filled with fire. Inside, her heart barely had the desire to pulse every once and a while, just enough to keep her blood sluggishly circulating. The flames that ran through her veins, burning with rage and hate, were all that was keeping her alive. She lifted her head, feeling the dark throb wrack through her body. She could feel the earth aching far away, hungry and neglected. The strain that had been building up for years was catching up to the cold barrier that had been built. It wouldn't hold, and she knew it. She couldn't ignore the rushing sound pounding in her head any more. It was happening again. Soon she would be dead and, one way or another, things would be settled. Nailed down and bolted, just to make sure. There would be no stalemate this time.

For now, there was just the storm, and the shelter she had on the tin roof. She closed her eyes, settling into herself. Something tugged at her mind.

"I can feel her. She's returned to the tower."

Her red eyes snapped open, narrowing angrily. There was that damn human was trying to reach her again. She used to find him amusing. He tried so hard to train himself, struggling with all sorts of dangerous meditation to tune into the tempest of ghosts that haunted Ecruteak, even being so bold as to try and make contact with her, something that few pokemon could accomplish, never mind humans. He thought so highly of himself, this human who called himself a gym leader. When she dropped in, she would wait on the roof until he noticed and frantically rushed to see her. Then, after he had ran up all those steps and she could hear his strained breathing, she would fly away so fast that it left him confused and mentally ill. She would feel his confusion for miles and it was the funniest thing she had ever seen in…well, eons. He had also made her feel stupid, which no one, no human she still wanted to think about had ever done. She hadn't noticed that he was improving, that he had finally managed to tap into an absurd swell of something inside him that she hadn't seen, like her senses just didn't exist, until it not only found its way under her nose, but it had crawled up it and into her as well.

He had reached her before he was even in the tower. He had finally seen her, and she had seen him. He had gotten into her head and they were staring at each other for only a minute. He was frightened, she was terrified. His eyes were so wide and so young, she had let herself be hypnotized. He was so familiar, she remembered when she had eyes like that, in that time before when there was blood in her veins and she had wanted her heart to beat.

In the end, it had been that Gengar of his that broke the link, jealous that his master had shared that kind of a bond with a pokemon other than him. She had flown away in such a rage when she realized what had happened and what he, the human, had done. She had spent a week fuming. She could only imagine how long he had spent recovering from that one glimpse into her soul. Even worse, she cared. She couldn't even have fun tormenting him for fear that he would get too close again. Like it would make the inevitable only arrive quicker.

She just wasn't in the mood to torment him tonight, anyway. He was heading over to the Tin Tower, the rain soaking his exhausted body. He wasn't alone. As always, he was accompanied by one of the most sadistic ghost pokemon she had ever seen. Sometimes she wondered if he even realized how demonic his companion was, because she was sure normal humans would have been scared out of their wits to even be seen noticed by one, never mind allow one to freely live in their house. The monstrous Gengar could have easily taken possession of the human, slowly pulling out the human's soul and replacing it with his own ghostly self, but the two had somehow reached an unearthly compromise and together they trafficked the supernatural activity of Ecruteak. She could hear the Gengar, through the contact she had with him.

Not tonight.

"Yes."

I need…I need to eat tonight…not with her around…I can't…it's not…oh, gods, what'll I do?

She forced herself to ignore them. If the Gengar couldn't restrain himself, that wasn't her problem. She hoped he would catch an illness from the rain that would cause him weeks of prolonged suffering.

One bad thing, into another, she saw something else, a small pink glow just above the black silhouettes of the blustering trees. That did it. She was on her feet, fire running through her feathers as she saw the light float effortlessly over the strong wind of the storm. She felt rage boiling in her, fire burning, anger swelling in her chest. She would burst, she would break, she would fall to the earth in a flaming heap, sweeping aside the storm and turning the world to ash in one smooth blaze. She shrieked in frustration, her throat burning. Rain began to fall, small, cool drops hissing as they ran down her feathers. The pink still remained, continuing on its journey, unfazed by her tantrum and utterly uninterested. It was still here, like her, only it didn't care. It didn't have any obligation to the coming tempest, but it would be dragged into it all the same. It might die along with her, or maybe it would survive and remain untainted. The humans had a word for it. Some called it free of all sin, but when she figured out what that meant to them, after centuries of watching, she doubted it. They had no idea how it mocked them and anything else that had stumbled into existence. Alive or dead, it would be happy. And she hated it for that. She wanted it to die, even if it wouldn't make any difference.

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