"You can either willingly merge into me, or be assimilated by force," Dimia said, her voice brimming with powerful authority. "Either way, by the time the sun sets upon this realm, you will be a part of me."
This couldn't be right. This couldn't be happening. Not even a few moments ago, Glace had just left the Cinder's guild and was waiting for the Torchic's return. Everything had been fine. She was slowly accepting the hardships that were to come from assimilating her other selves. She was doing everything she was supposed to under Giratina's guidance and collecting the last few fragments before meeting up with Jera again. She had always thought she'd be the last fragment standing at the end of the day, the last one to keep their physical form and autonomy, even as memories and personalities of her other selves consumed her mind and stripped away all her individuality.
And yet, here stood one of her other selves, telling her she would not be the last fragment standing. Her borrowed time had finally run out and now Dimia would take Glace's place as the proactive fragment.
The Weavile backpedaled, feeling her heart thud painfully in her chest. For once she desperately yearned for Sonata and Yore's words, if only so she wouldn't be alone in her escalating panic, but she couldn't hear them. Her mind had become disturbingly silent, as though their voices had been extinguished.
"You can't," Glace said weakly. "I… I don't want to go…"
"I'm afraid I don't have an option," Dimia said plainly. "If I don't assimilate you now, my kingdom will fall. Even if we become Keeper of Realms once more, we cannot restore the kingdom once it has been destroyed. You cannot undo the damage of collided universes."
That didn't sound right. Glace always thought that they could undo all the damage from the collapsing universes after becoming Keeper of Realms again. It sounded reasonable, considering they were basically a god. She waited to see if Giratina would remark on this, whether to confirm her presumption or mock her for thinking something so stupid, but he never said a word. He kept unusually silent, if he was even there. Glace didn't even know if she could feel his presence anymore, along with her other selves. It was as though they had all been plucked out of her mind.
This didn't make any sense. Why couldn't she hear anyone in her mind talking? Where had they all gone? Why was she alone the one time she desperately needed their help?
"You're wrong," Glace said, finally realizing she was on her own now. "We can fix your world after we all merge together. It's not irreversible."
"Actually, it is," Dimia corrected curtly. "Never once in my visions have I seen my kingdom after it has been destroyed by the collapsing dimensions. It is always removed from my visions, permanently erased from existence."
"Dimia, please," Glace begged, hating how weak her voice sounded but knowing she had no other choice. "Don't do this. There has to be at least one timeline where your kingdom is fine and you don't have to assimilate me now. Please, I'm not ready to go yet. I'm not ready to be assimilated."
"I've gazed through more timelines than you could ever comprehend," Dimia said curtly. "This is the only way to save my home if you truly only have found four fragments."
"Well wait, I've actually found five fragments!" Glace cried. "I was waiting for her to show up when you found me…"
"Was it Cinder?" Dimia asked blandly.
"Yeah, it was her," Glace said quickly. "I was waiting in front of her guild."
Glace waited for the Braixen's eyes to flash with that strange light, to see through a myriad of futures. However, Dimia's eyes remained cold. Dimia sighed as she shook her head.
"That doesn't change anything, seeing as how you have not assimilated her nor met her," Dimia said simply. "Now enough talk, Glace. I tire of your prattle. Will you willingly merge with me, or will I need to assimilate you by force?"
Glace couldn't answer the question, but she didn't need to. Dimia could read her with just one look. The Braixen huffed as she pointed her wand skyward.
"R'luh mg'nglui llll c'," she chanted in that awful, guttural language.
A white fireball erupted from the wand's point and darted into the sky. It soared higher and higher, nearly touching the clouds, before erupting into eight smaller flames. Each of the flames crashed back down around the two Pokémon before towering back into the sky once again, now as a giant wall of shimmering, ethereal light. Before Glace knew it, she and Dimia were trapped in a magic dome.
The Weavile ran to the edge of the dome and slashed it, but was pushed back by an invisible shockwave the moments her claws touched the surface. She tried to dig under, but found that the barrier went beneath the ground too. The barrier was a complete sphere with no exit.
"Don't bother trying to call for help either," Dimia said with a twirl of her wand. "I've locked us in a space between dimensions. No one can hear or see us."
The Briaxen adjusted the circlet upon her head before jabbing her wand in Glace's direction. She chanted another spell in that uncanny language before a blue flame shot out of the branch and flew straight at the Weavile. Glace leapt out of the way just as the fire smacked into the barrier, exploding with a brilliant light.
"I pity you, I honestly do," Dimia said as she watched the Weavile straighten herself back up. "If I had any other choice, I'd spare you. But unfortunately, my kingdom's safety comes before the well-being of us fragments."
This time she launched a volley of fireballs at the Weavile. Glace sped around the edge of the barrier as the flames flew at her, narrowly missing Glace before crashing into the wall. The heat from the explosions seared her feathers, turning her once beautiful crimson plumage a horrendous smoky black.
Glace knew this was hopeless. She couldn't run forever in this small space and eventually, she'd slow down just enough to be set ablaze by an incoming fireball. As an ice-type, it would only take one hit for her to go down. One hit, and then as the fire ate away at her flesh, Dimia would assimilate her, forever wiping the Weavile from existence.
She needed to fight back, that was the only way she had a chance of escaping. Glace needed to strike back and assimilate Dimia instead. She didn't like the thought of doing it, but what other choice did she have? This was the only way to continue existing, at least until she had found the last fragment.
The Weavile darted away from one last fireball, then sprang towards Dimia. Glace's chances of overpowering the Braixen were low with the type disadvantage, but she had to try. Besides, she had won her fair amount of fights against fire-types in the past. One just needed to remember that they were as vulnerable as any other Pokémon and could be defeated all the same. The only difference was that you needed to be wary of their fire.
Within seconds, Glace closed in on the Braixen and lashed out with her claws. They cut deep into the Braixen's fur and flesh, creating deep lines across Dimia's torso. The Braixen shrieked as she swung her wand at the Weavile, but Glace retreated back before the attack could connect. Dimia clutched her now bleeding chest with her free hand and shot the Weavile a harsh glare.
"You want to make this harder on yourself? Fine then," she growled. "R'luh shuggog."
No sooner did Dimia chant those words did the world flip upside-down. Suddenly the grass beneath Glace's feet was above her head, and she fell toward a now grounded sky. She grasped for the tree that had been brought into this pocket dimension with them, desperate to snag a branch. When she got a good hold on one of the branches, she quickly pulled herself back up and found Dimia standing on the ceiling, as though gravity didn't affect her. The upside-down Braixen pointed her wand at her chest and spoke another spell, causing white, worm-like strings to emerge from her flesh and stitch the bloody wound back together.
Glace spit out a flurry of ice shards at Dimia, but she retaliated with a blazing fireball. The moment the flames and ice met, they canceled one another out and created a cloud of white smoke. With a ginger twirl of her wand, Dimia blew the haze away.
"There is no point in fighting this," Dimia said as she walked along the grass, drawing closer to the Weavile. "You are no match for me. Even if we dismiss the elemental advantage I have over you, you have no means to counter my magic. Your assimilation is inevitable."
"I'm not ready to be assimilated yet," Glace told her with a dark frown. "I wanted to be the last fragment to remain. If it means having to take you down for that to happen, then I'll do it."
"Oh, so that's what this is about," Dimia said. "You understand you are living on borrowed time, but you want the most borrowed time of us all."
The Braixen waved her wand and spoke another incantation, causing the world to tilt back into its original position. Glace plummeted back into the ground at the sudden shift of gravity. She coughed up dirt as she got back to her feet, ignoring the aching in her bones.
"Understand, if the timelines would have allowed it, I would let you go free or perhaps let you assimilate me instead," Dimia said earnestly. "I know the fate that awaits the fragments that assimilate the most of our kind. I know how truly warped our minds become, how we can no longer discern our own thoughts and memories from the ones we consumed. Quite frankly, it's a rather gruesome fate I would never wish upon my greatest enemies."
She flicked her wand again and spoke the awful words, and the world tilted at her command. This time, it didn't flip all the way upside-down. It instead tilted ninety degrees so that when Glace fell once again, the sky and the ground watched her from either side. She plummeted toward nothingness, toward the invisible barrier of this pocket world.
This time there was nothing to grasp, and Glace smashed into the barrier full speed. She let out a hoarse cry as a terrible ache filled her body. Though none of her bones were broken, she couldn't right herself up. She was stuck there at the bottom of the world, Dimia watching her from above.
"Regretfully, none of the timelines promise that," Dimia then said. "I must be the last fragment in existence in order for my kingdom to remain safe. I must accept that upon assimilating you, I will slowly lose myself."
"You… You don't want this," Glace said feebly. "You won't remember who you are anymore… you'll forget about your kingdom before you know it."
"I'm aware," Dimia said solemnly. "However, I care more about my kingdom than I do my own well-being. If it means that my kingdom will be safe from the calamity encompassing the multiverse… then I will gladly lose my very soul."
Glace saw the dedication in the Braixen's eyes just then. Unlike Glace, who carried out her mission by coaxing from her other selves, Dimia had something deeper than that. She had an obligation, a deeply set loyalty and love for her home that would never falter. If Dimia had to destroy all the other universes in existence in order to save her own… she undoubtedly would. The steadfast glimmer in Dimia's eyes said this all to Glace.
It was at that moment that Glace knew she would never win against Dimia.
The Braixen flipped the world back to its original state, flinging Glace back down. Though she struggled, softening her landing proved futile. She crashed into the dirt, finally snapping every bone in her body. Glace moaned as burning, awful pain filled her entire being. Flashes of red and black darted across her vision. She couldn't even move, lest the lights and the pain spike, bringing her more agony. Glace could do nothing as Dimia approached her, betraying no pity in her eyes. Dimia knelt down before the defeated Weavile.
"What a sad fate," Dimia sighed. "Though I've seen you as you are now many times, the sight is never any less gruesome."
Glace couldn't say anything. Her tongue wasn't working anymore. All she could do was spit out the blood pooling in her mouth. She wanted to shoot Dimia a hateful glare, but she couldn't either. She was in too much pain to do anything, and so tired. So very tired.
"I know this isn't the fate you had hoped for, but I can promise that I will find the other fragments and prevent the demise of as many universes as I can," Dimia spoke. "I do not intend to hide away after this is said and done. One way or another, Keeper of Realms will be reborn through my actions. Take comfort in that at least, my other self."
The Braixen placed her hand upon Glace's forehead. Upon feeling her touch, Glace's vision blurred. Dimia's face became a sea of yellow and orange, shifting softly with a soft humming sound. Glace reached up for the sifting colors, but found that she couldn't touch it. Her claw went right through the colorful, ethereal swirls, as though they were drifting clouds.
Why is this happening to me… Why am I being assimilated?
Because you weren't strong enough, that's why.
Glace saw his face in the hazy colors now. She saw him as that eyeless Sableye, that wretched creature that had vanished when she needed him most.
Why didn't you help me? Why did you leave me when I needed you most?
There is nothing I could have done to help you. Giving you the silence of mind was the best I could offer.
That's a lie! You could have helped me! You're a god, you could have done more than keep everyone in my head quiet. You could have made it so Dimia's magic didn't work on me. But you did nothing! You let this happen to me!
Hmmm yes I suppose I could have helped you, now that you say that. However, I saw no reason to help you beyond offering you silence. If you cannot fend off another spawn on your own, then perhaps you do not deserve my help. Perhaps you deserve to be assimilated and forever erased from existence if you're that weak.
Glace's blood boiled. She slashed at his face, but of course, it did nothing. He wasn't really in the colors before her; he was only projecting himself onto them through her eyes.
It didn't matter anyway. She could no longer see his face before her. Shapes and colors were all she could see. She could no longer find meaning in anything around her. She could barely register her own thoughts.
Goodbye, Glace, my dear, sweet child. You were fun to play with. You weren't quite as enthralling as Ker is… but you proved to be amusing in your own way.
He left her for the last time, just as the shapes and colors all around Glace merged together in a soothing orange light.
GET BACK HERE! GIRATINA!
Shapes and colors was all she could feel.
DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE DON'T LEA-
The last of Glace disappeared from reality and seeped inside of Dimia. The Braixen braced herself as tiny whispers entered her mind, muttering gibberish. She knew this would happen; she had seen it all too much in her visions. And worse yet, she knew these voices wouldn't stay whispers for long.
The Braixen took in a few deep breaths, vainly calmingly her fluttering heart as she sat beneath the lone tree of the pocket dimension. She grasped her ear tufts tight in her fists as she kept breathing in and out, waiting for the inevitable. She hoped that it wouldn't be nearly as bad as it seemed in her visions.
A dull ache filled her head, worsening with every heartbeat. She felt her other selves creeping in from the dark corners of her mind. She felt their presences, their essence, their souls coming forth and becoming her.
A million memories flooded into her vision, drowning her in the lives of her the others. She kept taking deep breaths as each and every vision forced themselves upon her, relentless in their assault.
"You can always count on me, Downfall! I'll always fulfill my mission, even if you send me to The Master's castle itself! Not even The Watchers could ever stop me!"
"What did you do that made you so good at being a sentry, anyway? Was there anything you did as a Pidove that made you like this?"
"Glace, you know that you were one of my best students, correct? You know that I honestly hoped you would take my place after I died, don't you?"
"Why do I work so hard? Oh well that's easy! It's because I actually want to see what the night sky looks like when it's not full of Watchers! I've heard it looks beautiful. Plus it'd be nice to fly without having to worry that I'd go insane just from a Watcher touching me. I like being sane, I'll have you know."
"Day in and day out you're always standing atop that tower? You never get bored huh? Well good on you. I know I couldn't stand it."
"You are one of the strongest and craftiest Weavile here; I never want you to forget that. You can catch on to every lesson faster than everyone else, your ability to adapt to sudden changes in any circumstances is unparalleled, and you have an actual desire to learn and be a better Weavile. I can honestly see you succeeding me in another life. But you have one problem that'll never let that be a reality in this life, and it's something I now realize I can't fix, no matter how much I try to teach you. I don't even think you can fix it."
"Hey… I um… I'm going to go away for a while. I don't know when I'll be back so… can you do me a favor? Can you make sure that Downfall isn't too sad? Yeah I know, it's a lot to ask but… you know how much he means to me."
"Maybe I should go with that Weavile despite her talk sounding inane… I'm not truly happy being a sentry no matter how much I delude myself. Perhaps I will lose my body, but I could be an explorer like I always wanted to this way. I think I would like that."
As these memories flashed, one right after another, Dimia felt her other selves. She felt their essence solidify in her mind and make their presences known to her. She saw them in her mind's eye as the Pokémon they once were, lingering in the darkness like wayward phantoms.
This wasn't supposed to happen… I wasn't supposed to be assimilated yet… Oh gods, why did this happen?
Glace, calm down… it's not so bad, really. I never minded being in your head after I met you! I mean sure, I miss flying sometimes and I miss eating… but I got over it!
This isn't right! Giratina said he'd give me more time! He lied to me!
Please, settle down. Causing a fuss won't make her listen to you.
Shut up! I didn't ask to be assimilated! I didn't come in here willingly like you two! I was forced here!
The three's voices morphed into an irritating cacophony of babble. The Braixen could no longer tell what any of them were saying anymore. It was all messy gibberish that scraped at Dimia's sanity like nails on a chalkboard. Her head pounded as the noise bounced around the walls of her skull, worsening her headache with every second.
Worst yet, she could no longer see the three within her mind. Their memories flooded her vision once again, snatching her away from reality and flinging her back into that hellish loop she had only momentarily escaped from.
"Whiteouts are dangerous. The very first Whiteout in my clan attacked one of his pack mates when they were on a hunt together. Slashed him right across the face and made him go blind in one eye. And his reason for doing that? It was because his pack mate wouldn't share a portion of a Glaceon that they had just killed."
"Get out of my house. I never want to see you again."
"Oh stop it, Moxie! I don't have a crush on Downfall! So what if I get flustered around him and think he's the most amazing Pokémon ever? So does everyone else! Everyone here has a crush on him if you ask me!"
"All those Sneasel could have died because of you, Glace. You let this happen because you didn't listen when Éclair told you he wasn't comfortable stealing eggs. You didn't listen when Verglas said his leg hurt. You didn't listen when Noir said she had never climbed a tree that high before. You didn't listen to any of them. There were countless others you refused to listen to on other hunts as well from what I've heard."
"I told myself that I wouldn't continue collecting the fragments unless I made an effort to find the meaning behind all of it. There is no reason to continue finding the others if I don't understand why I am even doing it. I'd rather not blindly believe and follow someone."
"You can say what you want, but in the end, I do want to know why I am doing all of this. I want to know who I was and why I'm the one stopping all of the dimensions from collapsing on each other."
"You were told to assimilate all of the Yog-Sothoth fragments. You knew that all of you would eventually become one being at one point. You should have realized that the merging of minds was a process, not something instantaneous."
"You still understand so little, Yog-Sothoth spawn. Despite everything you've seen and everything I've said to you… your narrative still remains unchanged."
Dimia had enough. With trembling paws, she reached for her wand and pressed the tip to her temple.
"Mgephai lloig ng mgah'ehye ahagl ah ulnah," she muttered under her shaky breath.
The voices raging in her head slowly settled down into a soft hum. The memories that tormented her also let Dimia be, allowing her back into a peaceful reality. This spell would only work temporarily and would need to be cast again and again every time the voices reemerged, but she would take this momentary respite.
She released a long sigh as she slumped against the tree and waved her wand, removing the barrier around the pocket dimension. Now everything had returned to its rightful place in reality, no longer serving as a battle ground between two fragments.
Though she could no longer hear the voices of her other selves or see their memories, she could still feel them within her mind. She felt them weighing down upon her and thumping softly against her cranium. Whether she liked it or not, those three were now a part of her and making their memories hers and her memories theirs. She was no longer just Dimia.
Even still, she wanted to hold onto some semblance of individuality, if for her own sanity.
My name is Dimia. I am the All-Seer of Mgn'ghft Kingdom. I do not know who my blood Mother and Father were. I was adopted into the royal family because of my gift. Mother is Queen Dione, Charizard of the Syha'hnah Kingdom. She was brought into the family to be wed to my Father, King Brutus, Aggron of the Mgn'ghft Kingdom. They have one child. His name is Milo. We do not speak much to each other.
Yes, that sounded right. That lined up with her memories. Her other selves' memories may try to invade her own and make efforts to replace them, but as long as she repeated her mantra, she would be fine. She would remember who she really was and hopefully stave off depersonalization. Hopefully she could still mostly be herself until the very end.
The Braixen rose to her feet and looked around. The sun had begun to set now. Cinder would be coming back soon. At least, that's what Glace's memories told her. At sunset, the guild Pokémon tended to return from their daily missions and have supper with their guildmates. All Dimia needed to do was wait. Wait, and use her gift as an aid.
Dimia looked into the future to find her answer. She saw into the immediate future where the Torchic entered the guild just as the sun was to set over the horizon. She was a strange Torchic, one that had pricklier feathers than a normal Torchic ought to. Yet, considering how this dimension was filled with such odd Pokémon, that wasn't been surprising.
The vision ended just as quickly as it started, and Dimia found herself back in the present. The Braixen adjusted the circlet fastened around her head before settling her wand back into her bushy tail. What would she do now, she wondered. Would she try to convince Cinder to merge with her? Or should she instead forcefully assimilate Cinder?
She peered into the future once again, this time into two branching timelines distinguished by her choices. In one, she saw what happened when she spoke to Cinder inside the guild and tried swaying her to save the multiverse. It went about as well as she expected with the Torchic stating she was insane and refusing to come with. Immediately following that, Dimia found herself visiting her home dimension to find it no longer existed. It had been decimated, destroyed, wiped from existence upon colliding with another dimension.
In the other branching timeline, she saw what happened when she assimilated Cinder after she came back to the guild and fell asleep. Dimia saw how Cinder's teammates wouldn't even know the Torchic would be gone until the next morning. Dimia saw herself leave behind the dimension shortly after all was said and done and seek out Caran. When Dimia gazed further down that timeline, she found her home was still intact, still safe and sound from the dimensional tears that were slowly destroying everything in existence.
It was obvious what decision she had to make then. She felt a small pang in her heart at the thought of so ruthlessly tearing Cinder away from her life, but she had no other choice. Besides, no matter what any of the fragments thought, they all had to go one way or another. Their lives were never theirs to begin with. They were always destined to leave behind everything and save the multiverse.
With her heart steadfast in this conviction, the Braixen patiently waited for Cinder, ready to carry out her destiny.