Tearing the Fabric

Sorrow was too gentle a word. Grief couldn't capture the magnitude. Anguish fell short of describing the pain inherent with witnessing the elimination of her son at the whim of mere animals taking the shape of writing characters. Tilly found herself unable to walk and the image of her son—her legacy—burned into her eyes. What grave misfortune follows those with great destinies!

"You beasts," she uttered in the direction of the unown, floating throughout the room as if nothing happened. "Foul demons!" Her cry caught the attention of every variety of unown. All eyes trained on her and all movement was halted within the walls of the temple save for the sounds of her bellowing.

With tears streaking her makeup and rendering her with a terrible visage, she shouted, "That was my son! You destroyed my son!" She stumbled into the room, her gait uncertain and weak. "He was a strong boy with limitless potential. He used to sit on the throne and pretend he was the ruler." Her knees buckled as she hit the floor, still weeping.

"He so looked up to his father. He stood present at every major declaration, every ceremony, every battle. Oh, he loved the battles. His father was weak-hearted and merciful, but he knew how to command pokémon. He instilled that capacity in my son—that love for a good show of strength. Yet he was still such a sensitive boy. He always knew how to talk to the staff and the peasants. He was destined to be a king among men. The empire would have flourished at his feet. International leaders would have groveled beneath his strength and admired his cunning.

"But tradition dictated he would forever be stuck in the shadow of his half-brother. All through the fluke of being born second! A boy with the world at his fingertips must seize the opportunity and eliminate the one obstacle. That's why Oliver suggested a plot to murder Usimare and lay the blame on Jomon. I couldn't turn down the opportunity. It was the only way for Penta to achieve his heritage. Maybe I shouldn't have accepted."

Tilly slumped against the wall and buried her face in her hands. "My son!" Her voice broke as she uttered one last time, "You killed my son."

In utter silence, the unown hovered above the floor, drooping with the level of Tilly's emotion. Her grief became theirs. Their white eyes fell to blue, and then suddenly their color rushed to purple. The unown began orbiting Tilly's body, drifting around on all sides of her. Their power turned the very air purple.

"What is this feeling?" she asked as the air tinged her skin. "Will you kill me, too?"

The feeling within her was not pain, however. She felt greater comfort than before. Her emotions felt supported and her body felt warm. Her sorrow was still there, but she suddenly felt a great pang of guilt, and along with it a desire to make things right.

"You wish to apologize? How?"

The feeling of power welled up inside Tilly. She felt a sudden connection to the unown. As if their motion acted as a battery providing her with mainlined energy, she could almost hear the words form inside her mind. These strange creatures were combining their power to grant her a wish. She could bring Penta back to life with a single wish.

Lifting her head and inhaling as much of the purple air as she could muster, Tilly spoke, "Give me power. All of it."

The instantaneous transfer of power at that level created an explosion that shook the temple and spread to the sky beyond. The orange twilight was replaced by purple night, simply radiating energy from the temple. Tilly rose to her feet without effort; she simply hovered upright. Power made her lighter than air. The darkness of the unlit temple turned bright to her eyes. She lacked nothing, and every whim was hers now. Instead of wasting her wish on a son who needed her guidance for every decision, she obtained power far beyond what her husband once possessed. The Johto region was too small a goal now: The entire world was at her fingertips. By closing her eyes, she felt the presences, the emotions, and the histories of every life form within the continent. All awaited the rule of one undisputed as herself.

Stepping out of the temple and into the purple night she created, Tilly was greeted by Jared.

"Are you safe, Empress?" he asked, groveling in front of her. He'd seen the explosion and wondered if the pokémon of the temple removed her just as viciously as they had Penta.

"You bore me," Tilly said. She held her hand in front of her and slowly closed her fingers across her palm. As her fingers drew closer, purple energy surrounding Tilly drew inward, focusing at her core. With her hand clenched, the energy became tight and painful in her chest. The instant the pain grew too great, she released her fist and allowed the energy within her to disperse from her body in one quick burst aimed toward Jared. The career samurai was enveloped by a black shroud, which lifted him centimeters above the ground and inflicted unbearable pain for the brief moment before he exploded.

Tilly merely smiled at the sight. Having power herself was so much more fulfilling than obtaining it through her husband or her son. In exchange for her son's life, this was a fair trade.

"Now to bring forth a son worthy of rule," she declared to no one, and yet to everyone. She held out her hand again toward the open land in front of the temple. A black, circular shadow appeared along the surface of the clay, and from it emerged a shadow of a horned, serpentine entity with six wings and eyes shining of a pink hue, enough to pierce a man's soul with a single gaze.

"Go introduce yourself to the people, Penta," Tilly spoke to the shadow. "Frighten them and terrorize them but do not destroy the city fully. This kingdom without subjects will be only a goddess in a field."

The shadow burst from the ground into the air, solidifying and taking a more distinct form as it traveled. Using her new lighter-than-air power, Tilly rose into the air and drifted away from the temple.

"Here's the plan," the Professor said as the Temple of Alph came into view. "We head inside, find the Griseous leak, and reverse the flow using the sonic screwdriver. Giratina and the unown will be drawn back into their home dimension, and simple as that, the problem is solved."

Only meters from the temple entrance, a shadow reached across the field, thin at first but suddenly expanding across the field.

"Run!" the Professor shouted immediately. Claire was quick to notice the shadow and, without knowing its purpose or effect, to assume danger was attached to it. The instant Claire stepped out of the shadow, the ground erupted into a field of spikes and blades formed from shadows, all missing Claire's leg by only centimeters.

"Is everyone alright?" the Professor asked, taking a quick headcount.

"Ah, the Professor," came an ominous tone from the mountainside. Tilly stood there, adorned in dark clothing and producing a thick air about her body. With the low valley offering Claire minimal protection and the skyscraping mountain in front of her, Tilly stood not on solid ground but in the air directly in front of the rock face.

Jomon asked incredulously, "Tilly?"

"Well if it isn't the emperor proper," she spoke with a condescending tone. "I thought you were locked up in the dungeon."

"How is she flying?" Claire asked, unconcerned with much else.

"Griseous particles," the Professor answered as he scanned with the sonic screwdriver. "She's not actually flying. Her body resides in another dimension—the same dimension Giratina and the unown came from. What we see is a spiritual representation of her body in this dimension. As she moves through the landscape of the other dimension, we perceive it as flying. It's a bit complicated. Suffice it to say this is not the same woman you met the other day."

"Noted. And for the record, that didn't sound too complicated."

"Enough!" Tilly commanded. "Your antics may have captured my husband's heart, but I have little patience for your humor. There is no place for you in my new empire."

Claire didn't like the sound of that. "How does this fit into the plan?"

The Professor answered in a way that made everything sound like one sentence: "Never mind. Forget the plan. The plan's rubbish. I was making it up as we went."

"You're not good at escape plans?"

"I'm good at talking," he insisted. Suddenly his eyes widened and a smile peeked from his face. Looking up to Tilly, he asked, "How did you convince the unown to give you their power?"

Tilly scoffed. "Those creatures in the temple? It turns out, disgusting as they are with one eye and no body, they have their uses. Penta beseeched them to serve him as all pokémon should, but they rebelled and killed him." Claire gasped at the thought of unown killing a man, but the Professor showed no signs of astonishment. "Monopolizing on their guilt, I obtained their power as a show of remorse. Now we are all connected."

"And you draw from them like a wireless battery," the Professor accepted. "But why was Penta asking the unown for help? With the conspiracy in place, he was already set to take the throne and rule the empire."

"You know as well as I do," Tilly explained, "he was not suited to rule. He was immature and short-tempered. Those creatures came from another world. Perhaps they could have given him clarity and wisdom beyond the ages. But events have unfolded in greater ways than I ever dreamed." She brought her fingers together and then spread them slowly, producing a swirling mass of shadow energy between them.

"Of course," the Professor realized. "This was never about your son. It was about your personal lust for power. Women in this society hardly have rights better than property, but they do receive specials favors through relationships with powerful men. Marrying the emperor wasn't enough; that is why you initiated the plot against Alph."

Affirming the premise, Tilly said, "A man can have many wives, but he will only ever have one mother. And now, all the power in the world rests in my hands. Penta!" Just when Claire thought Tilly went crazy, calling for her dead son, a shadow passed by overhead and Giratina landed heavily on the mountainside behind her. With the giant serpent crashed down, the mountain seemed to collapse and rocks began to tumble. One especially large boulder cracked into the roof of the temple, crumbling the elaborate architecture.

"This does not look safe," Jomon confessed gently. "What I wouldn't give for the protection of a rhydon right now."

With that thought, Claire dropped a pokéball. A flash of light produced a pokémon like a dragonfly, much smaller in stature than Giratina but still larger than the humans facing Giratina's wrath. Somewhat serpentine in his appearance, the flygon was one-third the length and one-seventh the girth of his opponent. Physics alone dictated the outcome of any potential confrontation.

"What are you doing?" the Professor asked Claire.

She shrugged. "Making it up as I go."

Tilly began to laugh at the size difference between combatants and the mere notion of anyone thinking they could escape her omnipotence. "Kill them."

Giratina leaned back to suck in air, and then it lunged forward and released a stream of yellow fire to incinerate the party. Thinking quickly for one who rarely battles, Claire asked Indy to use Protect. As the bug-like eyes shone, an enhanced wall of wind picked up in front of the group. When the fire contacted the wall, it dispersed in all directions across the wall but never penetrated, dissipating the fire and protecting the party.

"You think that little bug can protect you from my son reborn?" Tilly mocked.

"Not consecutively," Claire muttered. Protect was a sort of clutch move that could exhaust Indy if she asked it of him many more times. She needed to distract Giratina from the group and save Indy's energy for more deserving situations. "Take flight, Indy," she requested of the flygon. "This battle will need to be aerial."

Indy hopped into the air and began fluttering his wings rapidly like a hummingbird. He started by hovering just above the ground, even though it meant kicking sand up in everyone's faces. It would have taken too long to gain altitude with wings fluttering like that. But once he started moving horizontally, he was able to rise more easily with an upward swoop. Within moments, he gained the high ground over Giratina.

"Go kill that thing," Tilly requested. Giratina took off from the cliff with a massive downdraft that crumbled more of the mountain and smashed into more of the temple. It flew much more easily than Indy, almost like floating by willpower—very ghostly in appearance. Giratina flew straight toward Indy with open jaws, ready to devour the smaller creature. Indy narrowly slipped away, but the wake brought on by Giratina's speed toppled Indy and threatened to drop him from the sky.

"Use Dragonbreath!" Claire called. Luckily, limited mobility also meant Indy could regain his mobility more quickly. He somersaulted in the air and turned to face Giratina, releasing a stream of yellow fire from his belly. The fire caught Giratina's tail as the massive body turned in the air, but it didn't seem to cause much damage overall.

"It's a ghost-type," the Professor said to Claire. "Dragon and ghost. Giratina is. Use dragon and dark moves to hurt it."

"What are you prattling about?" Tilly asked.

"Nothing you would know about," the Professor called back. After all, it would be another twelve hundred years before Professor Linnaeus began to classify all known pokémon by elemental attribute. To Claire again, he said, "Remember, you can use dragon attacks to hurt Giratina, but its dragon attacks are also effective against Indy. He will need to avoid being hit."

"Wait, the key to winning is not to get hit?" Claire countered. "Now shut up and let me battle. I don't do this a lot so I'm a little out of practice. Use Dragon Claw!"

Giratina emitted a purple gust that assaulted Indy and shoved him backward through the air. Indy weathered the attack and began to move toward Giratina when the ghostly dragon increased its speed drastically and became invisible.

"Drop, Indy!"

The flygon stopped fluttering its wings and dropped from its position like a stone. The fall moved him out of Giratina's flight path enough to avoid a direct hit, but he was still clipped by the speeding dragon's claws. Protected as he was by scales, no blood was drawn from Indy, though a section of scales were still peeled from the base of his neck. Acting through the pain, Indy clung to Giratina's underbelly and drilled the claws of his right arm straight through Giratina's hardened skin.

"Yes! Nice hit!" Claire shouted. "Now use Hyper Beam!"

Indy aimed for the open wound on Giratina's belly with open mouth and the energy of his core charging. Giratina swooped up suddenly, hoping to shake the flygon clinging to its underside. It was unsuccessful. Indy successfully unleashed a Hyper Beam attack inside Giratina's belly.

The pain of the attack caused Giratina to lurch sharply; combined with the exhaustion Indy felt from such a powerful attack, Giratina dislodged the unwelcome hitchhiker. Indy seemed to float in the air for just a moment when Giratina slammed its heavy tail across the smaller pokémon and hurled it to the ground, too stunned to respond. Claire shrieked with vicarious shock when Indy slammed onto the ground. Giratina followed close behind. Seconds before it landed on top of Indy, Claire withdrew her flygon into his pokéball.

"You fought well, Indy," she whispered to the pokéball. But the pain he caused Giratina wasn't enough to stop the mighty dragon from quaking the ground when it slammed down.

Suddenly the beast's form began to shift. Its streaming wings merged into two much heavier wings. The spikes along its body shifted into feet as portions of the tail's mass bulked into legs. Still relatively serpentine in appearance, the dragon possessed six legs and wings wide enough to block out the moon. The hole in its chest appeared to seal over enough to stop the bleeding.

"Nice try with your little bug," Tilly mocked, "but my son is stronger than you ever imagined." She looked at Giratina and motioned toward Claire and the Professor. "Kill them now."

As Giratina drew in another breath, the Professor asked, "Does the sudowoodo know Protect?"

"No."

"I was afraid of that."

With the energy growing in Giratina's belly, the ground began to quake violently. Too violently. The mountain avalanched and Claire and the Professor fell to the ground. The reaction was more than a single breath from Giratina could cause.

Before Giratina could attack, a large, stony-gray pokémon with a massive horn on its snout slammed into Giratina's side, followed closely by two more nearly identical pokémon. The three of them bulldozed Giratina, which caused its breath attack to falter and burst within its belly.

Suddenly Jomon rejoined Claire and helped her to her feet.

"Where'd you go?" she asked him.

"For reinforcements," he replied. "The Rhydon Unit is here."