2.4. guardians of sealed space.

part iv

linda's p.o.v.

"Stay still," Mew chastised when he tried to sit up. He grumbled under his breath but obeyed, which was so out of place funny that Linda stopped to stare. Koko, on the other hand, laughed.

"What's so damn funny?"

"You take orders from a little pink embryo," Mel explained with a snicker. Giratina growled but Mew stopped him with a look.

"Little pink embryo?" she repeated, tilting her head to the side and widening her bright blue eyes. Linda was slow to catch the pink glow and only looked over when Mel started shouting. He was hanging upside-down by an invisible hold, flailing his arms madly. Linda tried pulling him down with Koko's help but Mew's Psychic was impossible to overpower.

"And you two call me mean," Giratina muttered, shaking his head.

"Because you are!" Mew said before Mel could speak. "Nice people don't threaten to end the lives of innocent children!"

"Innocent?" he repeated, eyes wide and mouth guards wide open.

"How does she know?" Koko asked. "She can read your mind too?"

"Of course she—it can. We're not immune to each other's abilities…however much we wish to be," he said dismally, ignoring Mew slapping his guards in protest. To be fair, her tiny paws against his massive body was probably like wind on a boulder.

"Mew, can you please put my brother down?"

"Yeah, please?" he echoed not as sincerely, his face turning red from all the blood rushing into it.

"I suggest you hold him there until his head explodes," Giratina advised. "It would make him fifteen times more bearable." Mew ignored him, slowly righting Mel and letting his feet hit the ground. He fell back against Linda for a moment to catch his breath.

"Zygarde damn near exploded your head," he muttered. Giratina growled, shifting until he was half-righted.

"You're just the right size for me to eat now," he warned, pressing forward. Mel simultaneously moved behind Linda. "I'll finish the business that pidgeotto started— Ow!" He stopped mid-step, eyes winced with pain.

"Your fault," Mew chastised, tapping him on the head. He turned away but didn't respond.

"I can tell you lost," Mel said, "but what happened to Zygarde? You killed him?" Linda tensed at the thought. Mel, catching it, took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

"I wish," he lamented before catching himself. "I mean, no, but I was close."

"Close is in horseshoes, buddy, and this isn't a rodeo. What I'm guessing you're trying to say is I got my ass kicked and couldn't do a thing about it." Giratina eyed him like he was the bane of all existence but didn't say a word. Koko tugged his pants in warning but he continued anyway, a wry smile growing on his face. "And even after it's said and done, you can't admit that you were Zygarde's plaything. Maybe you should be a little more fucking humble, Giratina."

"Stop it!" Linda snapped, causing both of them to fall silent. She glared at Mel until he finally decided to look ashamed before turning to Giratina and Mew. She wrung her hands anxiously for a moment, debating her words, before she finally managed to speak. "You said before…that you were looking for the cause of the anomalies…and if you found it, you'd kill it…"

"I said maybe," he corrected. Mew gave him an unreadable look but didn't intervene.

"Then… Then if I say that I'm—"

"The source? If you say that you're the source, will I kill you, is what you're asking?" She nodded, holding her breath. He sighed and shook his head slowly. "To be completely frank with you, I do not have adequate energy to deal with this—all of this." He dropped his head to the ground, closing his eyes with another sigh. "Even if I wanted to kill you—which I do not want to do, considering you're the more bearable of the set—I couldn't. Mew wouldn't either, at least I think she wouldn't."

"Think?" Mew echoed, offended. He snorted but didn't speak.

"He likes you better," Mel muttered. "He likes you better. I don't even know how to feel about that. It's just baffling, offensive, creepy— I don't know what to say." Linda didn't respond, still staring at Giratina. He didn't look like he was sleeping, but he didn't continue the conversation.

"Killing you would be the easiest way," Mew said after a moment. "There are other ways though."

"Please, Mew, any other way." She slowly floated forward, causing Linda to freeze up, and she stopped a little bit away. Mew reached out slowly and touched her forehead. Warmth blossomed out from beneath her paw and Linda leaned into the touch.

"Your mind…" she muttered thoughtfully. "The minor energy you have isn't yours. It may just be a side-effect of some event. Whatever the case, they can be removed entirely."

"Gone? I won't be able to talk with Pokémon anymore?"

"If you ask me, that's a pretty sweet deal that you should jump on," Giratina said. "That, or I could eat your brother and call it a damn day. I like that option better." He clicked his mouth guards and grinned when Mel jumped at the sound.

"You won't be eating anyone. Stop torturing this poor little boy," Mew reprimanded, glaring daggers at him. "And you should be resting to begin with! You're not going to get better like this."

"Humph," he complained. "Out here playing nursemaid to me… Don't you have better things to do? Like cozy up in that reserved spot with Arceus?" Mew tilted her head, confused, then she blinked in understanding.

"Golden child," she mumbled. "I'm not a 'golden child.'"

"Whatever. The sooner that I'm better and this whole fucking anomaly shit is over and done with, the sooner I can rend space and return to the Distortion World. I am so entirely fed up with this stupid world I can't stand it."

"I think the problem here is that the world is fed up with you," Mel said dryly, but there was a sort of desperation beneath his words, like he absolutely had to poke at Giratina or else something bad would happen. Well, something bad had already happened—maybe it was him coping. "And the world turned you into this shredded tuna heap that we see now." Giratina didn't respond immediately, then he moved way quicker than any of them expected, and in a second he was face-to-face with Mel. He was so huge that his mouth guards could easily crush Mel's torso.

"Being hated is something you're good at sympathizing with, huh?" he growled, causing Mel to shake and go completely colorless. His mouth opened automatically but nothing came out but a weak whimper. The growl continued in his chest and even Mew froze for a moment. More fluid leaked from his cuts as he moved forward, and it occurred to Linda that it was his blood. "I'm going to—"

Stop it! Mew's voice rang through their minds as the whole area was filled with a pink aura on every surface down to the tiny grains of dirt. The two of them shot apart in a second; Giratina crashed into the cave bodily, curling in on himself reflexively, and Mel slammed into Linda's front, making her fall on her back. Koko went over and licked her hand, then Mel's when she confirmed that she was okay. I can't just send you anywhere, not until you're healed, she said to Giratina as he rolled over with a groan, but you have officially gotten on my bad side.

"Mew has a bad side?" Mel said dazedly. He looked okay, then he started muttering something about cotton candy vanilluxe.

"You've already fractured my last good ribs," Giratina carped. "What else can you break that isn't already broken?" She didn't answer, but that pink glow remained when she turned back to them. Linda flinched at the intense look in her eyes.

"I can't carry Giratina around, not when he's this conspicuous, so we have to retrieve his vessel first."

"You mean Orville?" She stared before realization hit her. "He's not here?" Mew shook her head.

"He was lost in Kalos. Most likely, he's in a hospital right now."

"And you're just going to drag him away to force Giratina into again?"

"There isn't a choice in the matter. The time it would take to recover another vessel is indeterminate, and it's time that we don't have. You'll stay with him," Mew said to Linda.

"My sister is not staying with that vicious beast," Mel protested, finally focusing on them.

"Between her and you, I believe that she is less likely to be eaten."

"Why do you need me anyway? You're Mew."

"So you two don't kill each other!" she said with finality, and in the next second they were gone. No noise, no visuals, just silence. Linda watched Giratina apprehensively as he shook himself out, regarding her with passive eyes.

"You've got a problem?" he demanded. Koko started growling, where Linda calmed her by resting a hand against her side. "I'm not going to kill you or anything," he said in a lower voice. "Not in this condition. I'd most likely end up killing myself."

"I wouldn't let you anyway," Koko said, finally sitting down and eyeing Giratina dangerously.

"Like I'm scared of a little flaming rat." She growled. "Actually, I don't think I've seen you use fire yet," he continued, smirking. "Can you even?"

"Koko, stop, don't attack him," Linda said, picking her up and setting her on her lap. She settled on her jeans and stared daggers into a nearby plant instead. Giratina burst into laughter that shook the ground beneath them.

"This is fucking hilarious!" he exclaimed. "A fire-type that can't even use fire… I think I might break my last few ribs!" Linda let him laugh, even though Koko complained and asked for permission to attack three times. "Okay, okay, I'm fine," he said after a few minutes, still smiling. "Can I ask why?"

"When I first found her, Mel had bad asthma, so she couldn't use any fire and risk him having an attack from the smoke. She never learned how to use it then." He listened with a surprisingly stoic expression.

"You sacrifice a lot for that brother of yours," he said.

"What's wrong with protecting family?" she demanded, running her fingers through Koko's warm fur. Giratina sighed.

"Did you ever wonder how you found a growlithe? It's because arcanine abandon their young early, to fend for themselves and develop their instincts. Otherwise, a growlithe won't ever learn how dangerous nature is until the appointed time has long passed. No matter the maternal feelings of the other, she knows this, and she accordingly releases her cubs," Giratina said matter-of-factly. "Not doing so means that they end up as predator fodder and the mother is so distraught that she, too, gets killed. Get what I'm saying?"

"It's not like that…"

"Alright, then tell me what it's like." Linda had no comment, which Giratina picked up on immediately. "But what do I know, huh? It's not like I have a burden to drag around the rest of my life."

"He's not a burden!" she protested.

"My mistake. The definition must have changed since I last came to this world. Is it not still 'that which is borne with difficulty?'"

"He's… He's…"

"Your precious little porcelain brother?" he mocked. "Or would you rather I talked about your charity case of a growlithe?" Koko snarled, which he ignored. "You are one of the better examples of humanity, Linda. No, seriously, you've a better soul than half of my so-called family. Don't waste it."

"It's not a burden to take care of Mel," she said tersely. "It never was. And Koko is my friend, not a burden either. I help them because I want to."

"What a prodigious little angel you are. Not everyone needs help, little princess. Worry about yourself some more."

"Linda?" Koko asked worriedly when she went silent, nudging her stomach.

"Sorry, Koko, I'm just—" A ripping sound cut between them, like space itself was tearing apart, then a distorted mass of blue energy exploded against the stone. Linda and Koko were both thrown backwards from the ensuing wind and smoke, and she felt something hard and jagged stab into her back as she collided with the cliff. She fell forward onto her stomach and was frozen as blood soaked through her top and ran down her arm.

"I can't ever catch a damn break, can I?" Giratina complained as the smoke cleared. Linda saw Mel sprawled across the stone, a bloodied Mew half-thrown from his arms, and a few feet away was a lucario, but it looked a little…odd. She didn't have time to narrow down the difference before it pulled back its arms and launched another Aura Sphere. With a loud groan Giratina threw a Shadow Ball. The two attacks collided in an explosion of energy that burned across her skin like fire. Fire—Koko. Linda looked around and saw her lying on her side a bit away, but she could barely move. "You're not getting at them and especially not at Mew," he growled. "Not while I'm alive."

"You being alive is the issue here," the Lucario snapped back. "Because you're alive, my owner barely is." His owner… Orville. He must have meant Orville. Giratina had the same idea.

"That pitiful human is who you're fighting for? I feel sorry for you." Giratina crawled from his hole, shaking himself out and clicking his mouth guards menacingly. Lucario looked him up and down.

"Damaged. This will be easy."

"That's what you think," he snarled even as more blood ran from his wounds. He wasn't going to make it, and whether or not he knew that fact, Linda did. She forced herself up to her knees despite the pain, watching her blood trace a new path down her arm.

"Koko… Get up, Koko." Koko rolled to her feet, shaking herself out before she saw Linda. She trotted over and licked her hand worriedly. Linda gently pushed her away. "Koko, you have to fight," she said, pointing at the Lucario. Koko followed her finger and growled a little.

"I don't want to," she said, looking back at Linda. "You have to get to a hospital." Linda shivered as another rush of pain ran through her.

"No, not yet. You have to fight. Please."

"I don't want you to die."

"I won't. I'll be fine." Will I? "Please." She stared at Linda for a long time, then a growl caught their attention. Lucario formed another Aura Sphere while Giratina recoiled, trying and failing to make another Shadow Ball. Koko hesitated for just a second before running forward.

"Blow into pieces, you killer!" Lucario shouted, launching it. Koko jumped between them, and before the attack connected she smacked it with Iron Tail, launching the ball off course and into a massive rock formation, which promptly burst into pebbles. Koko's lips were pulled to expose her teeth, her fur raised like quills. Linda had never seen her like that before, and it was frightening.

"You hurt Linda," she snarled, eyes burning. "I'm going to rip you to shreds."