Ch 2: The Annual Meeting

Still Darkrai's POV

Much too soon for my liking, the morning came. From my cave, for I had stayed awake all night after having a nightmare, I watched the sun rise, its light staining the clouds and sky around it crimson, gold and violet. It really was a beautiful sight, but I didn't have the heart to enjoy it.

Heaving a sigh, I dragged myself very reluctantly off the mossy floor of my cave, and out of its mouth. The few patches of grass on the ground of the island were adorned with sparkling dew like miniscule diamonds illuminated by the sunrise, and the trees stood tall and regal towards the sun, completing the tranquil morning scene.

After contemplating the surroundings for a moment, I began speeding across the sparkling ocean in the direction of Mt Coronet. After a few minutes, I looked back. New Moon Island was just a faint dot in the distance now. To the left, there was a similar dot, Full Moon Island. No yellow, blue and magenta dot was streaking from there, which evidently meant that Cresselia had not set out yet.

That was good. It meant I didn't have to endure more insults and looks of disgust than necessary, earlier than necessary. Cresselia, my counterpart was depicted as a benevolent, wise and gentle Pokémon in the legends, and while this was mostly true, she had a tongue of poisoned, barbed wire when it came to me. Taking every chance to insult me, scorn me, and call me evil was to her immense pleasure. At least she didn't physically attack me like so many others. She wasn't that kind of Pokémon.

I turned back to the task ahead: getting to Spear Pillar. I could see the brown tip of a mountain on the horizon, undoubtedly Mt Coronet. I sped up, the wind rushing past me in a swirl, making the twin black ribbons of smoke on my shoulders and single white ribbon resembling hair on my head flow behind me in long streamers. It was exhilarating, flying this high in the crisp, undisturbed morning air, nothing but the wide, deep indigo expanse of ocean and just-beginning-to-turn-blue sky all around me. Closing my eyes, I lost myself in this sensation.

Before long, I was flying over the Sinnoh Region. Cities, forests and lakes sprawled out like an aerial-view map below me. Everything was just waking up, still having the sleepy, peaceful silence of the night. In a few hours' time, the region would be as busy as ever, humans populating the streets and route, Pokémon chattering noisily to each other on treetops, or locked in battle.

Reaching Mt Coronet, I landed lightly in front of the shining golden marble staircase that led up to the Hall of Origin. I walked forward to the barrier that blocked the staircase from all but the legendaries and a few chosen humans. I waited as the barrier bathed me in white light. When my identity as a legendary was verified, the light faded and the barrier rippled around me as I passed through and continued up the stairs.

The Hall of Origin was probably the most amazing piece of architecture in the world, obviously because the architect was the Original One Herself. It was made of marble were between white and gold, and gave off an iridescent, but not blinding glow of the same colour. Huge arches and columns adorned with intricate stone swirls and carvings of various legends spanned the ceiling and walls. Doorways lined across the walls led to other sections of the divine building. At the far end was a raised podium shining brighter than anything else, where Arceus stood in meetings. Tendrils of pure golden energy danced around the edges.

Arceus gave me a quiet nod as I entered, acknowledging my presence. Respectfully, I said my greetings to Her, bowing my head and leaving through one of the doorways to my designated quarters for this year's meeting.

Arceus was one of the only legendaries who were kind to me, but She didn't really count, since She was our Creator, our Mother, so was kind to every living creature in this earth. She knew my suffering, my pain, the way the others treated me, and my true nature, but did not interfere, as the personal problems of legendaries and the problems between them were not for Her to deal with. I would not have allowed myself to trouble Her with such a trivial matter (to Her, at least) anyway.

It looked like no other legendary had arrived yet, so I had a few hours of peace. My form glowed with white light, and when it subsided, I was in my gijinka form. All legendary Pokémon had gijinka forms, which were humanoid forms that still resembled their Pokémon forms in terms of colour, clothes, eyes and hair.

I chose to appear as a young boy of ten years old. My hair, while still pure white, was short and ever so slightly spiky, hanging in bangs around my face. My right eye was covered with one of those bangs, as in my Pokémon form, and my left eye was still the same bright blue. My skin was very pale, and I wore a t-shirt that was entirely black, except for zigzags of jagged red around the collar. My pants were black and knee-length, purposely torn and ripped in places. My sneakers were black and red. (A/N: Emo Darkrai FTW!)

I crossed the room to the king-sized bed draped in a silk cover and soft cotton blankets, as had been provided for all the legendaries' quarters, and lay down, sighing and enjoying the morning stillness. Unfortunately, this didn't last long as my ears picked up squeals and high-pitched laughter from the main hall, signifying the arrival of Mew and co. Groaning, I turned over so my back faced the door. Soon after, the legendaries came one by one, noisily enunciating their arrivals with heated arguments, hyperactive laughter, and stomping footsteps. Doors slammed open and shut around me as the legendaries found their quarters.

When all the legendaries had arrived, Arceus called in Her calm, yet powerful voice for us to gather in front of Her and commence the meeting.

Dragging my feet, I slowly shuffled into the hall. The other legendaries had already formed an orderly congregation in front of Arceus' podium, and I was the last to shuffle into the very back row, next to Giratina, who grimaced wryly at me.

"Greetings, my children." Arceus said in a voice that seemed to reverberate around the hall without being loud. "This year, we are gathered for another..."

I had zoned out a few words past the first sentence. Arceus gave the same introductory speech each year, and most of us have probably memorised it by heart now. The legendaries were required to report what had happened in their domain in the past year, which you would think would be slightly of interest, but actually is far from that.

Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos had gotten into a huge, island destroying fight again, Lugia had almost gotten herself killed trying to stop them, some evil human had devastated one of Celebi's many forests, Mew and Mewtwo were pissed off at each other, Latios had gotten himself killed defending a town, then come back to life again, a Lucario saved the Tree of Beginning, yada yada yada... it was the same every year...

After the meeting was dismissed, the legendaries dispersed into groups, chatting over punch, cocktails or champagne, sitting around tables that had magically appeared in the once-empty-of-furniture hall. Sighing again, I sat down at a smaller table with only one seat, letting my mind wander away from where my body was.

Suddenly, I was snapped back to the real world by incessant, high-pitched voices in my ears. Rolling my eyes, I turned around to face several hyperactive blurs flying in circles around me.

"We want to play hide-and-seek but we need one more person!" Jirachi squealed as she spun past me.

"We've asked everyone but they all said no!" Mew chipped in. "You're the only person we haven't asked yet!"

Heaving my third? fourth? sigh for the day (I really needed to stop sighing), I said, "Sorry, but no. I'm not in the mood for that today."

"AWWWWWWWW!" The tiny, fast-moving blurs all squealed. "But we REEEAAAALLY want to play hide-and-seek!"

"No, I told you, I'm really not in the mood for that today."

"PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!" They yelled right in my ear.

Beginning to lose my patience, I raised my voice slightly, and said, "For the third time, no. I can't play with you today, so it'd be better for you to go ask someone else!"

Mewtwo turned his head to face us, suddenly interested, as a chance for him to attack me had appeared.

"Darkrai, don't be so mean to the kids! Why are you near them anyway? Innocent kids like that can't be tainted by your evil! How many more people are you planning to terrorise?" He sneered.

"No, that's –" Celebi began, but was interrupted by Rayquaza, who was also one of my regular attackers.

"For the love of Arceus, Darkrai, can't you just lay off torturing innocents for one second? I can't believe such an evil, soulless monster exists in our world!" She snarled.

I stood up slowly, my bangs covering my eyes, and quietly said, "I wasn't going to do anything to them. I was just declining their offer of including me in their game."

"Oh, now he's playing innocent!" Deoxys smirked, stepping up to join Mewtwo and Rayquaza.

The more aggressive legendaries were forming a circle around me, with no gaps for escape. Hatred shone in their eyes, and by the look of their stances, they were charging up attacks.

I tensed. This wasn't good...