Dedication: This fic is for Lightning-Strike. Lightning-Strike is a talented, cool author here, whose user id is 141533. This is her Christmas fic, especially for her! ^!^ Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, L-S!
A/N: All Pokémon speech is translated, unless otherwise indicated. Review thank-yous at the end of the chapter.
Light of a Dark Black Night
10: Petition
Touchwood and Shadowgleam said it together: "Let's go!"
The swim wasn't hard this time, in the sparkling water. Touchwood used Surf halfway across, and whether the water had especially revitalised him, or whether the lake's power amplified the attack's effect, the three Pokémon were washed across the rest of the distance by Touchwood's single Surf move.
They landed gently on the shore, Touchwood chuckling privately at the ride. Shadowgleam looked around. The island's shore was pebbly, with shelves of bare rock at its edges, trees above.
They started towards one of these shelves.
There was a blaze of light - a flash, Shadowgleam edited her thinking, a moving flash. She made herself remember that moving brightness's direction, and spun around to follow its trajectory. There on a rock, facing them, was a Pikachu, and as she turned towards it, it shocked her, a pain that lasted until Shadowgleam, startled, whipped her tail down and jumped just a little up, so that her tail grounded her.
The assailant's electricity died back and the two electric rodents stared at each other, panting.
"Go back!" cried the Pikachu. "You have no place here!"
"Our business," said Shadowgleam, "is with Mewtwo."
If she had hesitated before she spoke the name - well, only Glimmer would catch it.
This infuriated the Pikachu. "I am his sentry."
"May we pass you?"
"I won't allow you to."
"Oh?" Shadowgleam's tail rose so that its tip pointed over her shoulder, although where it curved it nearly touched the ground. She ignored Touchwood's doubtful look, and Glimmer's frown.
The Pikachu pounced.
But Shadowgleam had seen that he would, and leapt sideways, her tail flipping over to the opposite shoulder.
She made the choice to fight, and yet she heeded Glimmer's warning. She dodged and flipped at first, rather than land a blow before one was landed on her. Pity, really - she needed few of the tricks she'd practised, and the Pikachu was no audience, so her choreography was practical, not exceptional.
But the rising anger in the Pikachu's face scared her.
It turned almost to hate, and before it could, Shadowgleam hit him with Swift and knocked him back twenty feet.
"I am not mocking you," Shadowgleam said.
"You have no right!" he snarled, picking himself up. I hit him hard and well.
"No right to what?" she challenged.
"To make your entrance by force!"
"You attacked me."
He rocked back, glaring at her.
"I'm standing sentry... It's my right and my job to keep strangers out."
"Well, what if they fight back, what if they win?"
"They will be defeated by others of us. Do you think we wouldn't defend our home?"
"Did you think I wouldn't defend myself if you leapt at me?"
"You were being rude, Shadowgleam," Touchwood pointed out.
"So were you," Shadowgleam told the Pikachu. She sighed, and sat down on the rocky shore.
"You haven't been trained to fight," she said, with a less aggressive tone pattern. "How can you defend the island against others who do know fighting skills?"
"Mewtwo takes care of attacks," the Pikachu said.
Glimmer was frowning. "Wait," she interrupted. "Before we continue, as visitors to your shore, let us introduce ourselves: I am Glimmer, she is Shadowgleam, and he is Touchwood."
The timing of this confused Shadowgleam, but the Pikachu nodded slightly.
"You said Mewtwo takes care of attacks?" Shadowgleam continued. "I've heard that he is a powerful Legendary."
The Pikachu nodded. "He created all of us. We are clones as he is, with his taint of human machines but without his taint of humanity. We are his people."
"But he's the only one who fights?" Touchwood continued. Shadowgleam didn't understand the bit about clones, and she suspected that Touchwood hadn't either.
"We fight for peace," the Pikachu replied, tiny claws curling inwards. "He fights for peace."
"Why don't you train yourself to fight, if you can't?" the Raichu asked.
"For the sake of peace." And Shadowgleam stopped that line of questioning, although she wanted to prove her suspicions that the Pikachu wished he could fight, and was restless under Mewtwo's promise of protection, and had reason to be restless.
The Pikachu's statements were tense, and the others on the beach were tense too. Shadowgleam felt delayed.
"Why can't we see Mewtwo?" she asked. No hesitation that time.
"Why do you want to see him?" the Pikachu countered.
"I have a favour to ask," the Raichu replied.
The Pikachu frowned, and Shadowgleam wondered despairingly if they'd ever get past him. But another Pokémon appeared at the top of the rock. "Meooow," he called to Pikachu, who turned, commanding, "Stay."
v v v
"You almost blundered there," Glimmer said. "These two are Mewtwo's favourites among his people. I wouldn't anger either of them."
"Glimmer, why all this mystery?" Touchwood asked. Of course, it would be Touchwood who raised the issue. "How do you know?"
"My past," said Glimmer, shrugging. "I've been here before."
Mewtwo's lieutenants came back to the group. "Mewtwo will see you today," the Pikachu called. "And welcome again, Glimmer. Now I recognise your name."
v v v
The other two let Shadowgleam go first. The Meowth and Pikachu brought them up the rocks and up a dim stairway, which seemed unusually human-like to Shadowgleam, although it had no hand rails.
They passed caves that resembled rooms - in what seemed to be a strangely natural castle. The stone was smooth, with no jagged or jutting edges, but not very regular - it had bumps and dips in it, and the height of the tunnel varied.
When light began to gleam above them, Shadowgleam knew they were almost at the top, and considered her words.
And then they reached the top, and went around a corner. And down a step, into a room, a huge room, flooded with daylight from square openings in the stone. Mewtwo waited for them there.
Shadowgleam recognised the Legendary because it was Pokémon instinct to do so. And she also noticed his cool, distant expression, and his odd combination of cat and human - his expression was less mysterious than a Legendary's usually was, for the calculations in his eyes were human. They were slightly narrowed, in a human expression. The human-ness of Mewtwo reminded Shadowgleam of Gavin - and so her first response was of wariness and recognition.
Mewtwo was a strange creature. He had no real human features, but could not have been a cat. He stood like a human, on long feet, with back legs like those of creatures who need to pounce. His tail was held out to the side. Chin slightly down, he looked at them. He was taller than them, but not much taller than Glimmer. He looked at her. Have you a lesson to teach me, again? he asked, in words composed of meaning, not language, that didn't have an echo, because they didn't have a sound. They rang in Shadowgleam's head.
"My friend would like to learn something from you, Manchild," said Glimmer.
That is not a name I prefer. Nor have you the authority to use it, replied Mewtwo. His rebuke was not angry but absent. He turned to the other two. Touchwood pointed, with a timid gesture, to Shadowgleam.
State your request, and why I must grant it.
v v v
Shadowgleam stepped forward, letting her tail fall into a position that mirrored the Legendary's. "I have lost a friend," she said carefully, wondering as she did, Will he hear me call him that? "He is a human, and I was separated from him. I would like to know where he is, and the explanation for his actions."
Mewtwo turned away, towards the windows. An uncontrolled spark jumped from one of Shadowgleam's cheek sacs to the other. Mewtwo had given a gesture of rejection.
But Glimmer nudged her, and sparked her, saying in a way that Mewtwo couldn't hear, Keep talking.
Shadowgleam continued, trying to explain Gavin and herself. It was stupid to lie to a Legendary but she tried to argue for herself without making herself sound pathetic, or Gavin sound like a Typical Abandoning Human. She wasn't doing very well. Touchwood kept up a kind of running commentary of frowns and nods.
Mewtwo was a statue, turned towards the clear, bright western sky.
Then he turned back to them.
It hurts him when I think of him, he accused, staring at Shadowgleam. She stared back, surprised that he would be angry at her now, unable to look away.
Lightning-Strike: FINALLY! :)
Miss Black Dragon: The formal name for Mewtwo is now Manchild. Is that okay? Yes, Gavin has a teddybear. :D
Pikacar/Marle: Here you go! Have some chocolate, too, and some pens that work. Would you tell me when you update? Now I'm back at school, I find it harder to keep track at ff.net.
Carter Tachikawa: Well, here's more. Hopefully, even more will follow - soon enough. Hopefully. Congratulations on the work you've been doing on your own stories. Sorry, I haven't given Shadowgleam any answers - but I HAVE given her the opportunity to ask a question.