Major thanks to Jakayrta for this chapter.
Night had descended upon the barren land of Orre; Lugia's shadow seamlessly melded into the darkness. He periodically turned his sights to the heavens and back to the ground. To him, it seemed as though every grain of sand was paired with a star in the night sky.
Lugia felt that he had left the sea to enter two oceans: one of stars and darkness and one of sand and shadows. Towers of stone jutted out of the earth like jagged fangs, randomly piercing the desolate wasteland. The moon overhead cast a watery light giving the rocks and sand a light grey tint not unlike that of the sterile lunar plains.
Lugia couldn't help but worry for the fates of his son and his mate, hoping that no harm had come to them. The thoughts continued to echo in Lugia's mind, to the point where he tried to distract himself with other thoughts. As he looked to the ground he couldn't help but wonder.
Brother…did you hate me so much that you exiled yourself to this place? You traded the sea for this desert, for the sole purpose of not having to be near an ocean that contained my existence. It's been years since I've seen him. I can only hope that his rage towards me has lessened. Lugia thought as he reached the side of a mountain, the vibrant green foliage like a beacon in the desolate night.
Lugia closed his eyes, feeling the presence of weathered souls, sleeping soundly in their dwellings. Trees embraced the open air, their roots extending past the earth and hanging off the edges. A river of water ran through the village and pooled around it, the roar of water from the waterfall masked the sounds of his arrival.
He swooped down, bowing his head as not to hit the wooden bridge above him. A stream was flowed from the gaping dark maw of what seemed like a cave, where the walls were roots from the towering tree above. Lugia made his way through the darkness, barely having enough room to move as he maneuvered through the roots that weaved themselves through the tunnel.
Eventually, Lugia made his way out onto a stone pathway with a column on the center of a cog-like stone platform. An emerald glow radiated from the column, sitting upon it was Celebi. Her baby blue eyes, bordered by black rings stared expectantly at Lugia; the only sign she gave of acknowledging Lugia's presence was the slight flutter of her short, transparent wings. He was going to open his mouth to speak but Celebi had already started speaking.
"I've been expecting you," Celebi said, surprising Lugia.
"You have?" Lugia replied with equal surprise.
"Yes." Celebi said. "Well, actually we've technically had this conversation before," she hastily added.
"How is that-" Lugia's words died on his lips as Celebi spoke.
"I can travel through time."
"Then…we've already spoken?"
Celebi nodded.
"You know everything that I am going to say?" Lugia asked.
Celebi nodded again, giving a curt and sheepish smile.
"Then…will you join us?"
Celebi stared at him for a long time, finally closing her eyes before shaking her head.
Lugia's eyes widened; he was struck dumb by her gesture. Finally, he willed his vocal cords to speak. "Y…You sympathize with Ho-oh!?" he asked, his voice neutral but a slight accusing tone was evident.
Celebit shook her head. "No. I won't be participating in this war," she replied simply.
"For what reason?" Lugia roared back.
"I've never appeared in times of war and I do not plan to start now. I travel through time, but I'm not permitted to play a role in major events where I would be able to alter the course of history. Because, as you can see-"
A golden portal appeared to the left of Celebi, still seated on the stone column. Another Celebi appeared beside her.
"-This is me from an hour ago-" the Celebi from the golden portal said.
Another golden portal appeared from the right of Celebi.
"-And this is me in an hour" said the Celebi to the right.
"As you can see, I can come from any time," said the Celebi from the present.
"Even if I were to die-," said the future Celebi.
"I would still live, and as long as an earlier version of myself exists in time" the past Celebi added.
"I could summon a hundred versions of myself with my with my future selves knowing about this moment and coming to my aid. My future selves could also go into the past and alert the 'me' from the past of my current situation. With the dampeners removed, Psychic types are some of the strongest types on the planet now. So as you can see, it would be easy to change the course of history with a psychic army made up of myself. With our combined psychic attacks, we could easily overpower Ho-oh and Mewtwo," Celebi said
The future and past Celebis returned to their times through the golden portals that reopened behind them.
"The only reason I stayed here was to tell you that I was leaving and a few other things as well," Celebi said.
"Such as?" Lugia growled. He knew he was defeated.
"I'll save you the grief of experiencing for yourself that your little legendary alliance won't stop Ho-oh, he will not be dissuaded. War is coming to this planet, and there is nothing that you can do to stop it."
Lugia flinched; every one of her revelations felt like Giga Impact after Giga Impact. Celebi gave a pitying stare and paused, giving a sigh and continued speaking; Lugia's head remained bowed in defeat.
"I've…taken the liberty of telling the other legendaries you haven't spoken to, the ones that will join you, to head over to the Tree of Beginning. I can also tell you the location of your brother a few hours from now," Celebi said.
Lugia raised his head, grateful for the help, but unable to shake away the feeling that he had already lost. Celebi's words had dashed any hopes he'd had of avoiding war against Ho-oh. The best he could do was to prepare for the war that was already upon the world and mitigate the damage as best he could. As surely as the sun rose, as surely as the tides ebbed, this war will drown the world in blood.
"Is there anything else that you can do to help us?" Lugia begged.
"I've already done you a lot of favors…but I can do two more things for you. I can save two creatures: a Pokémon and a human," Celebi said.
"Which ones?"
Celebi paused, staring off into the sky as if she were watching something. Within a few seconds she turned her sights back to Lugia.
"You'll see…in time. By now the past and future version of myself will have already saved them. They aren't important enough that they could change the outcome of this war, but they will help. Just know that if they are to die again in this war, then that is to be their fate," Celebi said.
"Will I ever know who it is that you saved?" Lugia asked.
"Probably not."
Lugia sighed. Celebi's cryptic answers were starting to irritate him. "Do…Do you know the outcome of this war?" he asked.
Celebi stared off into space again, the stars staring back at her. After a few minutes, which felt like an eternity to Lugia, she spoke.
"…Yes," Celebi replied softly, her gaze still fixed on the starry night sky.
Celebi's eyes eventually tore away from the starry heavens and now rested on Lugia. She gave a weak smile and a golden portal appeared just below Celebi's dangling legs. She slipped off her stone seat with ease, falling into the portal feet first. Just before she completely passed through the portal, Celebi quickly spilled the future whereabouts of Lugia's brother. Lugia watched helplessly as Celebi disappeared before his eyes; the green glow around the column dimmed and flickered out in her absence.
Dawn had broken through the veil of night, sunlight washing over the sand like a flood. The sun illuminated the floor's features, revealing the arid and cracked floor that was hidden by nightfall. The ground appeared so infertile that Lugia couldn't help but wonder how anything could have survived these harsh conditions.
Lugia was already beginning to feel the waves of heat at the daybreak. Although finding his brother at night would have been more difficult, he was already wishing for the night's cool embrace. Celebi's parting words had left Lugia a lot to think about as well as a lot to worry about.
He gazed down the now empty root tunnel and spotted a dark speck in the distance. He sped out of the root tunnel, heading for the speck. As he drew closer, he recognized it as the broken down vehicle that the humans referred to as a steam engine. At first, its presence seemed random; a rusted steam engine out in the middle of the wasteland and miles away from any tracks. But as Lugia drew closer and closed his eyes, he sensed the presence of several humans taking shelter from the heat inside the metal monster. People came and went as they pleased, revealing that this was no home, but a rest stop for weary travelers to eat, rest, be entertained, and restock before returning to their travels.
Lugia was too high up for anyone to see him as he pushed forward through the sky. If Celebi was right - which Lugia suspected she was - then he would find his brother if he continued to fly past the wrecked locomotive. As he flew, Lugia turned and flew upside-down, letting the sun hit his underside as his back cooled.
Could my brother have willingly lived under these conditions? Lugia thought, switching positions as soon as one side became cool and the other too hot.
As soon as his thought ended, Lugia noticed a silver speck in the distance. Had he not been sensing for a presence, he might have missed it. He opened his eyes, the silver almost blending seamlessly into the cerulean sky that carried no shading clouds.
Lugia flapped his wings even faster to catch up with what could've possibly been his brother; the gusts rocked the steam engine far behind him. As Lugia drew closer, the features of the silver figure became clear and Lugia suddenly felt as if he were looking into a mirror. His brother turned to see what was coming up behind him, his eyes widened instantly in shock and gradually narrowed into a hard glare.
Lugia's heart began to beat faster as he felt nervous about what would happen next, seeing as he had not seen his brother in years. His brother's enraged and quivering eyes rested on him for only a few seconds before rapidly turning away from him. The distance between them grew larger as Lugia's brother increased in speed, dismissing Lugia as if he were another mirage fabricated by the heat of the wasteland.
"Brother! Wait!" Lugia cried out.
At the mention of the first word, Lugia's brother whirled around quickly and scowled at Lugia.
"Do not refer to me as your brother. You are dead to me and I have ceased to see you as my brother for years now!" Lugia's brother spat.
"I'm sorry to hear that bro…then…what do I call you?" Lugia asked
"Do what you want, I don't care. What do I owe this visit?" Lugia's brother said, his voice dripping with venom.
Lugia hesitated, planning his next words carefully. "I wanted to know if you were all right. Yesterday, Ho-oh did something that caused all the Pokémon on the planet to go into a frenzy," Lugia said. He hoped that his brother didn't sense that he was concealing something more. Technically, Lugia was telling the truth.
"You lie. Not once in all these years have you even bothered to come this far to look for me! It's a little too late to see if I am all right! You were off by a few years. No…you want something?" Lugia's brother said mockingly. "Something from me? Isn't that right? Please tell me if I'm getting warmer. Oh, let me guess…" Lugia's brother said with a smirk. His voice still carried the icy, mocking tone from before. "You intend to take back the creation orb that you used to create me!" he shouted, his voice switching from icy and mocking to outright hateful.
"Never! I would never take away your right to exist and live in this world" Lugia replied. He was not only repulsed but shocked at the very idea that his own brother thought so low of him.
"YOU NEVER CONSIDERED MY RIGHTS WHEN YOU USED THE LAST ORB FOR YOURSELF!" Lugia's brother screamed. Razor-edged winds began to stir around him; the scimitars of wind threatened to tear the landscape asunder.
Lugia had no counter argument. He stayed silent and looked away in shame.
"How is your little brat, eh? Must be nice being a father and all? But I wouldn't know what that feels like, now would I?" Lugia's brother spat. Every word oozed venom and hatred.
Lugia looked up and stared into his brother's eyes, pained to feel the resentment that filled them and gazed back at him. He opened his mouth to speak, but his brother cut him off.
"Don't bother. I know what you're going to say and I don't want to hear it. Stop wasting my time and say what you wanted to tell me in the first place. You've already ruined my day. Hell, I want to congratulate you for doing a good job ruining the life you gave me," Lugia's brother said. Each word stung Lugia like so many Pin Missiles. "To be honest, I wouldn't mind you unmaking me. At least I wouldn't exist and have to be reminded how shitty my life was and will be!" he said bitterly.
Lugia was silent, feeling guilty for all the sorrow he had caused his brother. Now more than ever he wanted to take away all of his suffering and see him happy, even if it meant that he had to shoulder those hardships. His brother was right; he had not shown any signs that he had cared for his brother's well being until now. He had only heard rumors of the horrors his brother had suffered while he stayed in the Orre region, unsure whether or not any of them were true.
Lugia's brother's patience was already worn thin, unwilling to bear the silence and being in the same region as his brother.
"You have ten seconds to tell me whatever it is you want to tell me and for me to listen to it," Lugia's brother said, already turning around to fly away from the area.
Lugia started, then stopped before starting once more while feebly chasing after his brother who was already making the distance between them longer and longer. He quickly realized that his brother would not give him any more time to speak other than now.
"I…I need your help. Ho-oh is declaring war against the humans and he's gathering many strong Pokémon to join his cause. I can't stand by and let this happen so I'm gathering many powerful Pokémon who sympathize with my cause and are willing to fight against this with me in the upcoming war. Having you with us would greatly improve our chances of stopping Ho-oh," Lugia said.
Lugia's brother suddenly stopped and turned in his direction with a disapproving frown. "I knew it. You would never have come to look for me unless you needed me for something. Typical," he growled.
"Don't you understand!? Ho-oh is planning on wiping out the entire human race. He's planning a mass genocide. That frenzy he caused every Pokémon has made them all stronger. Strong enough to allow them all to kill a human being or each another!" Lugia cried.
From the expression on his brother's face, Lugia felt that the last sentence had finally gotten through to him.
"Mass genocide?" Lugia's brother repeated softly, as if the word had finally sunk in.
"Yes, on all the humans. Good or bad, he plans to wipe them all off the face of the Earth," Lugia explained.
Lugia's brother thought back to the voice in his head that he had heard the day before in the midst of his pained tantrum. At first he thought that it was shadow version of himself coming back to haunt him, so he disregarded it. If anything, it made him scared to think that the darkness inside him was coming back.
When he awoke, he felt more powerful and that all of his senses had been heightened. He felt that if any of these changes were signs of the shadow version of himself making a comeback, he would rejected them all. He wasn't sure if it was even possible to revert back into Shadow Lugia, but he had never thought it possible to convert into a shadow anything in the first place.
"Where's this Ho-oh?" Lugia's brother asked, bold determination stood where anger once rested.
"I know what you plan to do, but you cannot go face him alone. I tried and out of mercy alone, he let me live. The Pokémon allied with him already are too powerful to take on unless we unite and combine our strengths against him," Lugia said.
"You know what I plan to do? YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME! How could you know, we haven't seen each other in years. While you were playing 'Guardian of the Sea' and father and husband, I was tortured to the point where I had no emotions and began attacking humans!" Lugia's brother roared.
"I'm sorry that-"
"Don't give me that shit! You're not actually sorry and I don't want to hear it from you! You've made assumptions without even actually knowing what I plan to do!" Lugia's brother said, chuckling near the end.
Lugia's eyes widened in horror. He could only get out a single word. "..No!" he said. He gulped. "N…No! You can't!" shouted.
"You can't tell me what I can and cannot do! But yes. I can and I will join Ho-oh!" Lugia's brother said.
"If this is out of spite, I implore that you reconsider. Let us settle this here with-"
"SPITE! Ha! Is that what you think this is? Does it even register in the brain of yours that I might possibly agree with what Ho-oh is trying to do? This has nothing to do with spite! Humans captured me and tortured me and then I was caught again and purified until I was eventually released. In the end, the suffering that the humans have caused me outweighs the good that was done. What happened to me I do not wish on any other Pokémon, and yet the humans attempted to do it to several! It's this kind of thing that merits the destruction of the human race! They were asking for it! If there were no humans in the first place, I might have lived my life here peacefully without the scars to show for what I lived through!" At this point Lugia's brother was screaming madly. He chuckled coldly at the end of his rant.
"But there...that look on your face is priceless and almost makes up for you ruining my day. That face tells me so many things, like how you feel so betrayed and are in such disbelief of my actions. Yet, could you really have expected anything less, after what's been done to me? Your judgment and reasoning has been clouded by that feeble optimism! You thought I would join you because of our supposed kinship, because I'm your brother?" Lugia's brother said. His voice carried so much hatred and revulsion that it almost brought tears to Lugia's eyes which only served to please Lugia's brother even further.
Lugia had no words for what was happening, his saddened visage continued to stare at his brother.
Lugia's brother smirked and began to leave in the direction where his brother had come from. He had only made as far as a few meters when Lugia turned and called out to him.
"Wait, you can't do this!" Lugia shouted.
"I can and I will! This Ho-oh seems to have the right idea, and if I do join him, what will you do about it? Will you fight me? Kill me? Unmake me by taking back your creation orb? If you do that I'll just be one less thorn in your side, and the best part of me no longer existing is that I wouldn't have to see you anymore!" Lugia's brother spat.
"You don't mean that…you can't mean that…broth-" Lugia never finished that sentence. His brother's wing slammed into his face, sending his body flying through several pillars of stone. Rows of the top halves of the stone structures slid off the crumbling bases, kicking up clouds of dust.
"I told you not to call me 'brother'. Don't assume you know anything about me, because you don't!" Lugia's brother said, turning away from the scene of destruction and continuing down the path towards Ho-oh. Lugia suddenly appeared above his brother, his body glowing.
Lugia's brother sensed Lugia's presence but couldn't see where he was. With Sky Attack, Lugia had pinpointed his brother's blind spot and dove in to strike. The blow sent Lugia's brother plummeting through the air towards the ground. With a single flap, he stopped only inches from the ground. Waves of sand carried by the wind were being flew in all directions. Tiny shadows dotted the floor around Lugia's brother.
Lugia's brother burst upward, the levitated stones from Lugia's Ancientpower that were surrounding him colliding where he was only an instant ago. A torrent of water from his brother's Hydro Pump nearly punched a hole through Lugia had he not dodged in time.
Lugia's brother followed Lugia with his eyes, turning a shade of purple. Sensing what his brother intended to do, Lugia spun around rapidly. Gales of wind swirled around Lugia's body, creating a tornado that carried the surrounding sand and hid him from sight. Extrasensory was deadly for the sole reason that it made the target's body extremely sensitive to light, touch, smell, taste, and hearing to the point where it became a blinding pain.
The brief seconds of protection that Lugia had within the sandstorm allowed him to think. His brother did not know all the details on the creation orb that was used to make him. Technically Lugia could take back the creation orb, but there was a catch that his brother was not aware of; Lugia was planning to keep it that way. To take it back, he would need the willing consent of his brother. It was that or killing him.
Lugia soared up the tunnel of wind, his brother at the mouth of the vortex already waiting for him. Both of them flapped their wings, from outside a bulbous pocket of air enlarged within the tornado until it burst and sent the swirling airborne sand raining across the desert. Lugia's eyes burned as the grains of sand ground at his eyes, trapped behind the fleshy barriers that were his eyelids. If he found any pleasure, it was that his brother was probably feeling the same sensation. At the cost of his own sight, he had made it so that his brother's vision was also compromised. Now his brother would be unable to do Extrasensory.
They were not completely blind; they could use their psychic abilities to get a feeling for their surroundings and each other's presence. The two of them circled each other before facing off with several meters between them. With all the strength in their wings they beat against the air and launched it at each other.
The sea of sand swirled around them, tsunamis of sand rolled across the wastes. Wind alone toppled the great stone structures that jutted out of the ground. Eventually a giant cyclone of sand enveloped the scene of battle. From miles away, others watched the spectacle of the spinning column of desert, daring not to approach the grinding sand barrier.
Within the eye of the maelstrom, neither Legendary allowed themselves to be moved by the other's gales. The frantic flapping of their wings ended; the walls of sand gradually grinding to a halt and shifting back to the ground. Both Lugias opened their mouths simultaneously and prepared their ultimate attacks.
An Aeroblast erupted from each maw, bridging the distance between the silver legendaries in an instant. A spherical shockwave caused the ground around them to cave into an immense crater. Both Lugias were sent tumbling through the air, gritting their teeth as the force of their attack's collision shook them to the bone.
The steam engine, once rooted to the dry earth beneath it, tumbled across the desert, accompanied by the screams of the people inside. Stone structures were shaken down to rubble; the surging spray of sand capable of killing something upon impact. Deep cracks like a Spinarak's web marked the crumbled crater where the Aeroblasts connected a mile above the earth.
Lugia managed to right himself, sensing that his brother had done the same. He waited for his brother to make the next move, but nothing happened. The silence made him nervous. He felt like his brother was plotting something. Then, against all of Lugia's expectations, his brother turned and continued on his way towards the ocean in hopes of finding Ho-oh.
All of this he could psychically sense from where he floated. He quickly flew in pursuit of his brother, making sure to keep his distance in order to be able to dodge or counter anything his brother could suddenly throw at him. Suddenly, Lugia's brother stopped, speaking out loud without so much as looking at Lugia.
"What do you plan to do? Fight me until I die? We're evenly matched. If this goes on any longer we'll both end up dying. Are you sure you want to keep fighting now?" Lugia's brother asked, motioning towards the overturned steam engine below.
Lugia sensed the injured humans crawling out of it and onto to the sand. The sand was stained red with the blows they sustained within the tumbling vehicle.
He's using the humans as an excuse to get away Lugia thought. He knew that if they fought now, above the humans, there would be deaths.
"If you really want me to join you so badly… then you should up the ante," Lugia's brother suggested.
"What do you want?" Lugia asked.
"Why, the very thing you denied me all those years ago,"
Lugia simply gawked at his brother's request, knowing instantly what he wanted. What was being asked of him was something that he could not even begin to consider.
"YOU WANT ME TO GIVE YOU MY MATE!?" Lugia bellowed.
"No, more. I want you to kill your child as well. Maybe then you'll have a just taste of the suffering I went through," Lugia's brother added.
"You ask the impossible."
"I ask for what should have been my right. Instead of giving me a mate of my own with the last creation orb, you decided to give your own mate the ability to procreate. I know it's pointless to ask for your mate, you created her to love you but not me, which is why if I ever had her, I would kill her in front of you and make you watch," Lugia's brother replied.
There was a moment of silence, the humans below them rested on their backs, seeing the architects of the destruction witnessed only moments ago.
"You may agree with Ho-oh's goal, but his methods are twisted. He's used one of his creation orbs to essentially rob the free will of a Pokémon," Lugia said, making one last desperate attempt to dissuade his brother from joining Ho-oh, hoping that the mention of Ho-oh's action would disgust his brother and change his mind about Ho-oh.
"Hmph…no different than what you did with your mate, creating her to love you. No chance to decide for herself who she wanted to be with. I'd rather ally myself with Ho-oh than be with you. If we fight again, we'll kill each other in the process unless I have help, and from what you've told me, I think I'm on the winning side, while you have your mate and your son," Lugia's brother said, flying off as fast as he could.
Lugia used Recover, healing his burning eyes and bruises. By the time he was done, his brother was already long gone and too far away to follow. Nothing could shake the feeling that he had utterly failed in his own mission. The future for humans was not looking bright as Ho-oh was getting the upper hand. Lugia could only hope that his son and mate had fared better on the tasks he had assigned to them.
Finally, it's been a while since I've written a fight. It's short but it was still a fight worthy of legendaries.
