A/N: THIS IS AN OC STORY. IF THIS DOES NOT APPEAL TO YOU, PLEASE WAIT UNTIL CHAPTER 13 IS PUBLISHED. THANK YOU AN ENJOY! ^.^
"I can't thank you enough enough for this." V said, holding Starlights hands. "Even on such short notice..."
"Oh, it's fine." she rolled her dark violet eyes, smiling. "Nysa-Eon gets lonely and she was so excited to have Celina."
"I'm glad she remembered her." V sighed.
"Seems you've been busy though." Starlight said, watching as Aini chased Iri through the living room. "A little boy too? And last I saw Aini, she was only two!"
"Aini, Iri! Behave!" V scolded lightly as they nearly knocked over a lamp on a table. They chirped an apology, then continued running around. "Are you sure Eclipse is okay with this?"
"He'll deal with it." Starlight said with her hands on her hips. They both heard the cry of a honchcrow outside. "Well speak of the devil, guess who's home." Starlight said, glancing out the window then turning back to V. "I'd get going before Eclipse makes you carry your kids home."
"Heh, yeah." V said, glancing at the window and seeing it had gone dark out. "My husbands probably worried." she turned. "Kids! I'm leaving!"
Cue the rumble of little footsteps. The three children all appeared, donned in their pajama's, Nysa-Eon shyly peeking around the corner in her nightgown and pikachu hoodie, amber eyes curious. When V met her gaze, she squeaked, and hid behind the corner.
"Bye, Mama!" Iri said, hugging her legs.
"Safe trip!" Celina wished. Aini stood off to the side with her arms crossed, pale blue eyes shaded with her bangs.
"Aini?" V asked.
"I'm not crying!" she snapped. V rolled her eyes, giving her a pat on the head, then hugging her.
"Be good for Starlight, okay?"
Aini nodded, wiping her eyes as V waved goodbye, walking out the door. They barely heard the sounds of her Altaria and their fathers Archeops as they flew away.
Just as she left, a man with light purple hair walked in, one eye black and the other covered with an eyepatch. He glanced at the door, then back to Starlight.
"Who was that?" he asked. He glanced at the three kids in the foyer. "Who are these kids?"
Starlight rolled her eyes. "This is Celina, Aini, and Iri." she pointed to each one with their names. Eclipse narrowed his eye at Celina.
"You're the girl who played with Eon." Eclipse stated. Celina nodded shyly.
"Hi." she said.
"Daddy!" Nysa-Eon suddenly burst into the room, latching her arms around Eclipse, her pikachu hoodie falling down, revealing a head of short, raven purple hair. A flabébé drifted behind her. "Hi!"
"Hey, Eon." his cold look suddenly going warm. "Having friends over?"
"Yeah." she nodded, stepping back and pulling her hoodie up.
"They're staying for a couple days."
"Days?" Eclipse asked.
"Yeah, as a favor for their mother. She never really gets out much, so I assumed I'd help out."
"You always assume things, Star."
"Well, she really needed help! She couldn't find another babysitter!" Starlight defended vehemently. Eclipse sighed.
"I never said it was a bad idea." he glanced at the four kids, Celina having dragged Nysa-Eon back to a checkers game. "Just... discuss it with me next time."
"It was last minute." Starlight replied. Eclipse simply sighed, shaking his head at her attitude.
"Miss Starlight?" she blinked at Iri, holding a large book in his hands. "Celina's to shy to ask for a story."
"A story?" Starlight asked. Iri nodded.
"Mama tells us really good stories! She told us Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella, but... it was different!"
"Different?"
"She replaced Belle with Blue and the Beast with Green and called it The Monster and the Thief!" Celina suddenly exclaimed. "And Cinderella with Yellow and Prince Charming with Red! She called that one Cinder-Yellow!"
"That was a stupid name." she heard Aini yell.
"No it wasn't!" Celina cried back. "It was really, really romantic!"
Starlight almost immediately caught on, taking the large book and smiling.
"Nysa-Eon!" she exclaimed, shouting up the stairs. "I'm going to tell you all the story of how your father and I met!"
The little girl practically flew down the stairs.
o.0.o.0.o
Starlight and the Kidnapper
Once upon a Pokéball, in deep winter, there was an army of seemingly emotionless soldiers standing on the edge of a kingdom. This looming threat called for the king to battle, and as he and his army of men and pokémon surged into the army, they hardly fought back, simply stared straight ahead with a stoic expressions on their faces, no matter how many fatal blows were dealt.
Needless to say, the blank-faced army was defeated quickly.
"Why would they not fight back?" one soldier wondered, nudging one of the dead soldiers with his foot. The king shook his head.
"All that matters is that the threat is gone."
"Sire!" someone shouted. The king turned to see three soldiers standing around a barred carriage, obviously used for prisoners. "They have a prisoner." The king glanced at his other soldiers, then signaled for them to open the carriage. Forcing the chains apart with their weapons.
Once the doors creaked open, the king glanced about, only seeing a pile of rags. Squinting his eyes, he opened the door wider, and saw a small, dirtied and scratched foot with shackles around the ankle flinch away from the light, as if afraid that it would burn. The king blinked, seeing small hands done up in chains peeking from beneath the rags. Slowly, he reached out and pulled the cloth off, revealing a young, ten-year-old tan-skinned boy with matted and greasy black hair falling to his shoulders, blue eyes flicking nervously around at the new faces. It was obvious from his clothes and lack of shoes that he came from a poorer village, maybe even the ghetto.
"A boy...?" the king murmured. "What would an army want with a small boy?" he glanced at him again, and saw a Drowzee with a chain around it's neck, standing protectively in front of the boy.
It suddenly clicked in the kings mind. The boy was a pokésoul.
In this world, there are beings called pokésouls. It is an odd occurrence in which a human infant is born at the exact same time a pokémon hatches. They share a mind, powers, and have an unbreakable bond made at birth. Being without the other is often described as being incomplete, a half needing to find it's other to be a whole.
Considering that this child was a pokésoul, the king understood why an army would take him captive. Any sort of pokésoul was useful to any army due to their powers.
"You don't need to fear us, lad." the king said gently. "Were you kidnapped?"
He nodded, not daring to speak.
"Where are your parents?"
"My mother died of the plague and my father was hung for witchcraft." he said.
Immediately the king felt bad for the boy. He would have thought that, by now, death penalties for magic would have been old news, a forgotten piece of history. Apparently not.
"Your name?"
"Razan." he muttered, bowing his head. "That's Drowzee."
Said pokémon hummed it's name.
The king kept his gaze on the boy. The poor child probably had no where else to go, and he's always wanted a child of his own...
"Worry not, Razan." the king said, waving for one of his soldiers to find the keys. "I will take you home and raise you as if you were my own."
o.0.o.0.o
At nearly the same time, a woman admiring the fallen snow in her village. She wasn't a queen or a noble, but rather, the wife of a baker. She was taking a little stroll through the town when she saw a rose blooming in defiance of the cold. Marveled by its violet color, she reached out to pluck the rose, knowing her three-year-old daughter at home would be just as amazed by the color.
As reached for the stem, she pricked her finger on the thorns, causing three small drops of blood to fall to the white snow below her feet.
Bringing the finger do her lips, the woman glanced at the rose again.
"If only," she murmured, finally plucking the rose from her stem. "I had a second daughter as beautiful as my first and just as strong as this rose."
Just as she had wished, a young baby girl was born that year, taking after traits almost exactly like her elder sister, Millennium, with raven black hair and bright violet eyes, but a shade lighter than her sister's. Named after the stars that twinkled overhead on the night of her birth, the baby was named Starlight.
But Starlight was not simply known for being beautiful. She was also well known for being a Pokésoul. When a Ralts appeared at their doorstep one day, the connection could almost immediately be seen between the toddler and the pokémon.
The next few years were wonderful for Starlight and her family. Their bakery flourished and a set of twins were brought into the family, bearing the brown hair and hazel eyes of their father and being named Luna and Sunny. Starlight showed to be an exceptionally powerful Pokésoul, seeming to grow more lovely, like a rose, every year. And while her beauty and power seemed to flourish, the girl had a single flaw.
She was not, in any way, ambitious.
She didn't want to leave her home or see anything outside of the village, despite her astounding beauty and talent as a psychic pokésoul. One could say, even, that she was lazy.
Starlight Sūta had the ability to go far in life, but she simply chose the easy path of staying home and working in her father's bakery.
o.0.o.0.o
It had been six years since Razan was adopted by the king. His Drowzee had evolved into a Hypno, and his powers had become so strong that he could simply brainwash a person with a simple tap to the forehead, whereas before, it took him days upon days of concentration and laying immobile to control someone. Sure, pokésouls had an abundance of powers, but most concentrate on a single ability they could obtain. For example, a fire soul is able to summon fire, but they could work on manipulating the element or even breathe fire, if they wanted to.
But as a psychic pokésoul, and with being able to bend the mind with enough effort, he decided to put his time into not only his shields, barriers, and attacks, but also on his brainwashing ability.
Which is exactly what he had to do to brainwash those townspeople all those years ago. True, he ended up sleeping for a duration of the fighting simply to keep his grip, but having them stand there like statues was easier than having them fight back.
He stared thoughtfully at the mirror in front of him.
"Shall we, Hypno?" he asked.
"No one is stopping you." Hypno seemed to smirk. Razan stood in front of the mirror.
"Slave in the magic mirror," he chanted, summoning the enslaved spirit. "Come from the farthest space. Through wind and darkness, I summon thee! Speak! Let me see thy face."
A moment of silence.
"That rhyme is so stupid." Hypno stated casually as flames appeared behind the glass.
"It's not my fault that's the only known way to summon the spirit." Razan scowled, watching as the fire faded, revealing the blank face of the trapped spirit.
"What would you like to know, milord?" the face asked.
"Who-"
"Uh-uh." the mirror chastised. "Rhyme."
Razan furrowed his brow in irritation.
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the most powerful pokésoul of them all?" he said, not even bothering to hide his irritation.
A moment of silence.
"I see no one more powerful than you, milord." the mirror answered. Razan smirked.
"Good," he turned to Hypno. "Hypno, come. We've got some work to do."
o.0.o.0.o
"Star! Starlight!" the six-year-old looked up, seeing her older sister running towards her.
"Millie?" she asked, unable to say her full name. The nine-year-old steered her towards the house, dragging her inside the shop. It was pretty empty, as the rush hour had passed in the morning
"Mom! Dad!" Millennium cried out. "Something big happened in the capital!"
"What?" her father asked, not really paying much mind while taking out a tray of cookies and placing them on the counter to cool. After all, 'something big' could range from a friend going to visit or a new cookie available in the the bakers shop. As he turned his back, Starlight's childish instincts for sweets took over and she reached up for the tray, only to her her mother gently smack her hand away.
"Those are hot, Starlight." she chastised. "You can have one later, when they're cool."
"Mama, the King and Queen are dead!" Millennium blurted out.
A heavy silence fell over the room. Starlight didn't quite understand what was going on, so she reached up for the cookies again, only to burn her hand as the flesh came into contact with the hot pan. She cried out at the red welt growing on her hand, immediately beginning to cry.
Her mother kneeled down, pressing her lips to the welt in comfort for her daughter, then turned to her husband.
"Go out and see if a messenger is coming through." she said. Her husband nodded grimly, hurrying out of the shop as Starlight's mother continue to comfort her daughter.
o.0.o.0.o
"So it's really true..." Starlight listened to her mother trail off. The little girl had stayed up past her bedtime in order to sneak some more cookies, only to accidentally walk in on her mother and father having a conversation with each other at the dinner table, candlelight flickering on their faces.
"Mommy and Daddy usually don't ever hide anything from us." Starlight thought, knowing full well that her Ralts in her arms could hear her in her mind.
"Sometimes adults don't wanna say stuff to little kids." Ralts responded knowingly.
"I don't really see the problem with it." Starlight listened, finding it funny that she thought the same thing, her father speaking this time. "If in the chance that the king died, the queen would rule over until she remarried. In the chance that both died, their child or nearest advisor would take over."
"But they have no children. And their advisor is but a crippled old man. He can't rule a kingdom."
"But there is Razan."
"The court isn't going to put him in power." her mother sighed. "You know what they think of him."
"They have to put him to power." her father sounded hopeful at that. "He's a smart lad. He comes from a poor village, and he know's what it's like to starve, to be sick without medicine. He knows the suffering common folk go through that nobility would never understand."
"But the fact that he may be a ghetto child is one of the bigger reason why the court doesn't want him in power."
Her father fell silent at that.
"He cares about poorer villages like our own." he whispered. "And if anything else, the king would have wanted him to be his successor should anything happen to him. With him in power, things wouldn't be so hard. The homeless population would go down. Kids wouldn't be starving in city streets."
"But we know how nobility feels about Pokésouls." her mother said quietly. "How they think they're monsters and unnatural, not deserving of basic human rights, how executions need to be done to remain 'normal'. Would they let a 'monster take the throne?"
"What's so bad about being a soul?" Starlight asked, coming in the doorway. Her father pushed his chair back, a cross look on his face.
"It's bad to eavesdrop, Starlight." he said sternly. Starlight bowed her head, Ralts with an equally guilty look, then glanced up again.
"Mommy, what's so bad about being a Pokésoul?" she asked again, recalling her mother saying 'monster'. "I'm not a monster because I don't hide under the beds, and I'm not ugly with horns and scales and a big potato nose!" she wiped her eyes with a fist as tears welled up. She didn't know why she was crying, but she suddenly felt it necessary to cry. "I'm not a monster because of that!" she paused. "Right?"
"Star..." her mother trailed off, hugging the child to comfort her. "Do you remember last year, when Razan came to our village with that nobles girl?"
Starlight nodded with a sour look, remembering the event quite clearly. The girl was very beautiful, dressed like a princess, standing with a kind smile on her face as the village children gathered around her, telling her things about them like how old they were or how many teeth they lost, letting them touch her expensive dress and look at her pretty jewelry. She even let some girls braid her golden hair.
"I'm five years old and I'm a Pokésoul!" she exclaimed proudly, her Ralts standing equally proud. Her words came out a little funny, what with her loosing her front teeth but a week earlier, but her message got across.
The noble stared at her for a really long time. Her kind smile slowly morphed into a very angry look, suddenly staring in disdain as Starlight happily felt the material of her skirt, trying to memorize the patterns.
Then the woman kicked her. Not a nudge to get her to back off, or an accidental leg spasm, but a full on kick to the stomach, forcing Starlight to the ground.
She heard a round of screams from the kids around her, parents gasping in alarm. Ralts was gripping her arm as she curled into a wailing ball, trying to figure out why she had been kicked.
"Shut up, you disrespectful brat!" the girl screeched, raising a fist, the rings on her fingers now looking less like pretty accessories and more like jeweled weapons.
Starlight shuddered, shaking off the memory.
"She was scary." Starlight whispered.
"Well, a lot of rich people don't like Pokésouls."
"Why?"
"Because they just don't." her mother said softly. Starlight blinked.
"I don't get it." she stated, pouting slightly.
"And you won't," her father shook his head. "Not until you're older."
Starlight pouted at that, then looked at her parents.
"I really like Prince Razan!" she said happily. "He's a psychic Pokésoul just like me! I hope he becomes king!"
o.0.o.0.o
In a years time, Razan did become king. While some people were happy with his reign, others were not. For three years into his reign, he had a certain someone assassinated. That certain someone was, like him, a psychic Pokésoul, a Musharna as her partner.
Not even her partner was left alive.
So as an eleven-year-old boy with lavender colored hair stood over the wreckage of his burned and smoldering home, an eyepatch over his right eye and a shiny zorua, that he essentially ignored, by his side, he clenched his small fists. He heard his father wailing over the burned corpses, covered by a sheet, and as much as he had disdain for the man, the cries sent pangs into his heart.
The boy began wheezing, each choked breath coming with a growing burning sensation behind his eyes.
He had heard that Razan was assassinating powerful psychic souls, but he never thought that his own mother would suddenly become a target for the young kings wrath.
Suddenly, tears fell from both his good, visible eye and his covered, cursed one.
"I curse the day you became king, Razan." he hissed, keeping his head bowed. "I will kill you and avenge my mother, or my names not Eclipse."
o.0.o.0.o
"Mom, why're you stopping?!" Nysa-Eon cried out in disdain. "This is better than the original! Keep going!"
"Because it's past your bedtime." Starlight said, shutting the book.
"I have a feeling this is going to be a lot better than the original Snow White." Iri whispered to Aini. Aini sat passive, seeming neither satisfied or unhappy with the story.
"Don't worry." Starlight grinned. "We'll tell the next part tomorrow."
o.0.o.0.o
I said in the last chapter that I was writing this, and a lot of you seemed to only catch Soulsilvershipping at the end...
These are my OCs, Starlight and Eclipse, in celebration of KiwiWizards publication of Pokésouls Academy. Read Pokésouls, as it's a really, really good story.
Amy47101 signing off! ^.^