Song- Close and Open, Demons and the Dead
Characters- Courtney primarily. Archie and the player are mentioned and Steven and Wallace are hanging around too
Interactions- None of note
Warnings- Character death and the end of the world
This song's another interesting one. There's a lot of different translations around and they're all totally different. I went with the F2nd official one mostly. It also has a lot of different interpretations. I see it as being about an orphan who's cast off by their community and makes friends with the yokai who help them enact revenge.
This story's a sequel to knife (chapter 3) although you don't necessarily need to have read that one to understand this one.
In the ruins of Sootopolis City, few signs of life remained. Hardly a soul had made it out of that place alive, once the monstrosity that was Primal Groudon had emerged from the Cave of Origin and begun its destruction. Standing on charred wreckage, the cause of it all simply laughed.
The world had whited out when she'd been forced to make her choice. The clattering of the knife to the ground brought Courtney back momentarily. She'd done what she'd had to do. But what was she meant to do now?
A calm, assertive voice in the back of her mind told her that she had to keep going. She had to finish their plans, for Maxie's sake if nothing else. She had to carry on.
She looked towards Maxie first, dragging his lifeless body the short distance onto the couch and turning him onto his side, to make it more difficult to tell that he wasn't simply sleeping. She snapped the Key Stone from his glasses, sensing that she could need it. Her eyes cast over the Red Orb, now lying on the broken table. She pocketed it quickly and moved on. Maxie's Pokémon joined her own.
Her trusted Camerupt would never have told of the things she'd done, and Courtney knew she'd never return Tabitha to his room any other way. Once they'd made it there, she left him in bed, envious of how peaceful and calm he looked.
On her way to meeting the grunts carrying out the maintenance on the submarine, she disposed of the knife down one of the tubes of magma that criss-crossed their base. In time, the heat would melt everything away.
The team waiting there seemed confused to see her, and she struggled to think of an easy lie.
"Leader Maxie is not well. I will go to the Seafloor Cavern. It is best not to disturb him." She eventually explained.
They accepted this without question, and not even the intervention of that meddling trainer prevented their team from getting on its way. Alone, Courtney started to doubt if she'd done the right thing. If someone were to trespass into Maxie's room… She wondered about the uproar that would be caused. But it was too late now. She had to bring their plans to fruition.
Seafloor Cavern was desolate and did nothing to soothe her mind. The grunts set about standing guard while Courtney made her way into the back of the cave, coming face to face with the beast that slept in magma inside. Her hand ghosted over the orb that she held in her pocket, and she felt a jolt pass through her, as if energised.
It was then that the leader of Team Aqua chose to put in an appearance. Filled with a sense of anger at how close she had come only to be interrupted, Courtney fought the man with great malice. He fell easily enough now that she had a Mega Evolving Pokémon on her side, and before long she was once more ready to awaken the super-ancient Pokémon.
That child appeared once again in the nick of time, but Courtney wasn't going to let them get in her way anymore. Even the younger trainer's apparent victory wasn't enough to stop her as she raised the Red Orb high and brought Groudon out of its slumber.
It was at this point that the influence of the orb became fully known. But by the time Courtney was aware of it, it was too late to fight its corrupting influence. In her haste, she had forgotten Tabitha's words about the reason for Maxie's condition at her own peril.
She fled from the scene as Groudon burst through the surface of the sea and made its way towards Sootopolis. She ignored the voices of her grunts on the surface warning her of the overwhelming power that was greater than anticipated. She ignored Archie and that child and that pretty boy Champion as they tried to call her back, tried to call her out for what she'd done.
Courtney didn't care for them or for what became of the world. She travelled to where she knew Groudon would be- the Cave of Origin. The guardians tried to stop her, but in her current state they were no match for her. Before Hoenn's protectors could even gather outside the door, she had slipped inside.
The core of the region was filled with an inexplicable power that charged the entire area. Somehow, the meddling child managed to join them even here. Courtney refused to let that trainer even attempt to stop Groudon. This was all she had left. Nobody else was left to support her, to care for her. They had all given their lives for this plan… It would not be in vain!
That trainer met their end before too long. Their Pokémon may have won the trainer battle, but Courtney and Groudon won the war. Soon, the Pokémon's Primal Reversion was completed, and it reached its full power.
Those that waited outside the Cave of Origin had no idea what was awaiting them as Primal Groudon burst to the surface once again. Trainers sent out their Pokémon and prepared for battle, but by now the Legendary Pokémon was far too powerful and it defeated all opponents with ease.
The sun continued to shine down with a blinding vengeance as Courtney's attention moved to the trainers who had tried to stop them, determined that they wouldn't get away with their actions. Or at all.
Without Pokémon to protect them, humans put up little resistance. It took no time at all for the entire settlement to be decimated. Courtney didn't care. Couldn't care. She'd already lost everything she had ever cared about. She'd already lost herself. The warped version of her own psyche could only be excited at the prospect of the world burning in fire. It would end. All of it.
As the sun continued to shine on a day that would never end, and the first of many cities stood in ruins, Courtney could only laugh.