Part 7.75: The Lost Fict
Memory Phases 0 and 1
Now, for a little bit, the complex story of that weird place we encountered Nephi in is gonna have some attention.
I don't own Pokémon.
Secany
"Close your eyes!" he told me again.
Eyes?
"It's chosen you! Your its master now! So long as you have it, you need to close your eyes! That's the only way to wield that kind of power.
Trust me. Please. I know who created it."
…
The sound of a secondhand rumbling, echoing in a vast space.
The space was blanketed in white fog. Still water surrounded an islet of opalescent sand. A headstone encompassed by colorless flowers of wide variety sat in the center of the sandy islet, ominous, at a delicate slant as to face the foggy sky. The waters were without much depth, and two narrow bridges of sand divided said waters, connected to the islet. They seemed to disappear into the mist, providing new immediate clue as to their length. Buried within the shallow waters were Crossblades, each at their own tilt, some straight, some buried at the hilts and not the blades. With each vision that flew me by, the Crossblades shifted slightly, as if used or disrupted in some way unseen.
These visions swarmed me. Figures and voices, rumbling and deafening wind all played together. I was afraid. My chest ached with the pain of my sheathed Cross, but I wanted to pull it out in a last ditch effort to escape the dreams. They were never-ending.
All Crossblades within the strange realm started to vanish, one by one, either fading into the white or crumbling to dust, falling over into the water and dissipating.
Memory Phase – 0
No more Crossblades remained but one wielded by a bond-haired human girl, its hilt's strange thorny rose vine coiled around her arm to keep in bound to her, squeezing her. My nose wasn't doing so well here – was that girl actually a boy? She seemed familiar somehow, but... it didn't matter.
I couldn't see the blond human's face. Her sword-shaped Crossblade was dripping with red, the white sand soaking up a deep cherry hue. Lines of the fluid rolled down the blade like veins pumping life into it.
Another blond human was there. This one was much younger, definitely a boy, and with a grievous wound to his stomach. His hands were clenched, whimpers loud, wanting so dearly to hold both scared hands over the wound. Jaw wide and eyes wider, he threw his head up to the Crossblade wielder, then down to his open chest again, the shiny eye-wear on his nose flinging into the bloodied sand, that same red color dripping from his wound like a fountain. The vision of these human figures only lasted long enough for me to absorb the sheer volume of fear on the young boy's face.
White mist took them back into nothing, swirling, faint highlights of the boy's blood mixing into the swirl of white sand, a clock rumbling by the second somewhere. In the place of the boy and the feminine human, there were new figures. One held the same Crossblade as the human before her, small, adorned in a white gown, white hair, gray skin, and long, hanging ears. In the place of the young human boy wasn't one, but three figures – fragments, yet wholesome. One of them was Aza, the other Azabell, the third a smoky phantom of a Flux. It shook me, but it disappeared into a deafening 'fuzz' the longer I looked at it. None of the others appeared to notice its actions, vanishing in the static haze like that. The static was so loud that it felt like it cut into me.
The Bell was at Azabell's neck, but it looked unfamiliar on his blue, furry body. Whereas it should've looked iconic, it appeared a foreign object calling a new body home. With a wide-eyed expression of terror, Azabell was watching the gray-skinned entity. She spoke to him.
"You are mine." she hummed. Not a moment later, all that was left standing before her was an espeon, fur white as the sand, paws blue, tiny shining orbs fixed to the tips of his ears and oddly shaped tail. The espeon's head bowed before her, showing no fear, but a respect that gave even me, a glaceon, chills so intense that I felt my body tremble.
It went quiet. Gentle ticking of secondhands. Clockwork spoke over the silence.
"I would sooner have you then those other creatures," said the lady, her amused voice slicing through the mist. "All you want is to live, yes? Then, I will be your beacon, and your life will see fruition."
…
Memory Phase – 1
Now, there was nothing but pinks and whites mixing. The ticking of the clock was still somewhere above, but I couldn't see the sand, the headstone, or the water. There were voices, both belonging to females. I knew one of them.
"What's that? Hello?" the familiar voice rang over the clocks. Celebi, I thought. Celebi was here? Did she try to come here at one point? Why could I not see her? All I could see was a mingling of pinks.
"Who... are you...?" another girl's voice came, albeit quieter, cynical.
"There's actually somebody here?! H-hey! You don't belong here! Why-"
"Show yourself!" the other growled. "I don't have the patience for mystery. Show me your face!"
"Easy, easy! I'm not the bad guy. I'm just...!" Celebi paused. The pink 'dust' appeared to settle into the ground, a pool of the stuff forming, flowing over an invisible edge. "I'm just a time traveler. I didn't expect anybody else to be here. I have a mission that needs doing."
"A time traveler? Mission? Oh, Ancients, where have I ended up now?" asked the unfamiliar girl.
"What's... your name? Maybe I can help you. You really shouldn't be here." Celebi stated.
"Mars. I'm Glitra Mars."
"Mars, then," Celebi sighed. "I'm not sure where you are right now. Follow my voice, and I'll tell you how to get out of this place. I can... I-I can find you a body."
Hesitation in Celebi's voice. Guilt shone with a green tint through the pink puddle.
"A body? Are you saying I've...-"
"N-n-no no no! You're not dead or anything. You're just in a world where... um... nobody can perceive you. We gotta make 'em perceive you! I can't promise they'll like you too much for that, but... I can promise you a body."
"I don't understand. If I don't have a body, then Symbi Solacea..." she stopped, indication of objection in her voice, short grunts and sighs. "No way. I'm still here... Hey, I've told you my name. What's yours?"
"I'm Celebi," she said. "Umm, we're not fully constituted yet, so we'll have trouble seeing each other until we get our bodies. I can explain a little bit on the way."
"On the way to where?"
"The human world below."
…
