"Well," Giratina, the shadowy material falling from him like mist from a ice-capped mountain, growls rumbling deep from within as he spoke, "You two look very lively." I didn't like the way he said "lively". Trying to appear undaunted by his imposing, threatening gaze, his eyes shining bright red under the darkness of his crown-like growth, I stood in front of Aurora, staring sharply up at him. To my surprise, Giratina began to emit "huh, huh" noises, growls still laid into each breath of noise.
I realized he was laughing – was that a good thing?
"I like you already," The Lord of the Dead chuckled, the sound waves of his voice vibrating through me in a low, deep drone, "But hey, relax – there already has been death of significance today. I don't feel like adding another for today's round-up - yet." I felt my strength falter – Dhenalix. Aurora shook behind me, holding my arm. I began to wonder if Giratina really minded his messenger's death, or would carelessly call for a new one. The tone of his voice didn't sound to impressive to me at all – it almost drawled lazily now that I thought about it. What kind of pokemon was he?
"Giratina?" Aurora whimpered from behind me.
"Speak up girl – I can't hear you!" The Legendary barked, a roar entwined with his speech, causing her to jump and shake violently. I glared at him, disappointed with the way this deity, one that was revered so respectfully by all, he acted.
"Can you stop growling?" I snapped, and realized my mistake. Even though I was starting to become impatient with the pokemon, it is foolish to make them cross – especially when he is the deity of the dead. I was expecting him to bend his thick head down and snap my body in his mighty jaws, and I stood stiffly, preparing for it. However, Giratina merely looked up at the sky, seeming to ponder the question thoughtfully.
"I don't think I could if I tried," he answered sincerely and simply, growls laying underneath. Aurora, who had finally found her voice again, called up to the mighty Giratina.
"What are you going to do about Dhenalix?" she said, conflicted between fear and bravery. Giratina's glowing red eyes flicked in her direction, his facial adornments gleaming in the sun. Aurora shook, and I squeezed her arm to comfort her. As she started to calm down, the deity examined her carefully with his expressionless stare. However, only his eyes revealed any emotion at all, if he had any. They were shining bright and red, that dimmed and lightened in luminosity. A rumble similar to distant thunder echoed from his throat.
"You two are an interesting bunch," he muttered, growling at the same time, "why are you afraid?" I was appalled – he was a Legendary, he was a powerful Legendary, and he was the Lord of the Dead. According to ancient fables, he had the power to end life as we know it whenever he felt like. If that was correct, he could easily sap the life from me quicker than I could blink. And for some reason, he was asking why we were afraid.
"What do you mean by that, Giratina sir?" A voice called out behind me with loudness and clarity. Mandite approached boldly, holding his backpack on his head. Giratina's red eyes flicked down to see the little warrior, and he began to chuckle.
"I've heard stories about you in your world," he remarked good-nature-ly, "You are Mandite – more widely known as Meta Knight." I blinked in surprise – Mandite had never mentioned ever holding a special title. I looked to him, and he shyly looked away; he was a child after all, and I suppose he wasn't used to using his famed name.
"Out of all people, I thought you would know why I am surprised by these two's fear of me," the deity rumbled on, "Hasn't any others challenged you with fights, thinking that they could beat you on their first try?" Mandite stared back up at Giratina, his yellow eyes fading into an emerald green.
"Plenty of times," he answered, "but they have a right to not fear me – I'm not that great..." Giratina barked, a soft roar issuing from him causing us to jump – save Mandite.
"Many fear you, and revere you, for you are new," Giratina stated, "But ever since the humans have coincided with trained and leveled pokemon, they have lost that respect for me – for ALL Legendaries alike." The deity's lazy drawl was quickly sharpening with an enraged edge to it. Maybe I had thought wrong about how he was a clumsy, mindless fool of a Legendary. Only Mandite calmly listened, understanding this feeling Giratina had, his frustration.
"I have had many trainers come to me, and attack at me with all they got, thrown Master Balls with all their might, and pull so many tricks in order to attempt encasing me withing their collection," the deity growled angrily, his eyes blazing so that they were almost white from their luminosity, "And it's not just me – everyday every Legendary has been attacked at at least once in the same manner. It's a miracle that all of us have managed to keep in our boat of freedom. If there was any alien species I wanted to exterminate, it's them."
"Humans came in through the portals I have carefully constructed once I had found out there were other worlds and dimensions," Giratina shook his head regretfully, "And that lead to the wilderness's demise. The destruction of many kingdoms of great royal families. In the air, charizards, pidgeots, flygons, dragonite, salamence, staraptors, xatu, skamory, aerodactyls dominated as supreme over all lower air clans; in the sea were kingdoms of milotic, dewgong, lapras, wailords, empoleon, floatzel, vaporeon, kingdra; and on land were some of the greatest of individuals ever to walk on all regions, coming from the foremost and important terrestrial tribes of pokemon - the nidokings and nidoqueens, the ninetale, the arcanine, the rapidash, the flareon, jolteon, umbreon, espeon, leafeon, glaceon, typhlosions, feraligatr, houndooms, stantlers, tyranitars, mightyena, manectrics, luxrays, garchomps, absols, and the lucarios." Giratina closed his eyes, perhaps from sorrow, perhaps thinking about the ancient times when pokemon had ruled.
"Long ago, we had lived in harmony, in peace, in balance, an equilibrium. Even with the many monarchs laying around and Legendaries on top of that, we had been fair and good to all, no matter what kind of pokemon they were." Giratina continued in a wistful, growling tone, "There was mutual respect for one another – no one dared to attack others for many years."
"Of course, like everything except for us old farts, doesn't last for a long time," the deity chuckled, sounding like rolling thunder, "Those centuries was a blip in time for me, as one of the oldest of the Legendaries. I had too soon discovered that there were more worlds with new mysteries and wonders – I was so keen on exploring, as the only one asides Arceus with this dimension-hopping ability. I went, and then kept going back over and over again. At first I had only used temporary slices in the membrane between our world and others, but as I picked out favorite spots, I built permanent portals so I didn't have to use as much energy to create the temporary ones."
"And it cost me the many lives of the great families," Giratina groaned, "Many of the royal bloodline has died out in too many of the families from human invasion. Now, there are only specimens from a few of all the great monarchs – I'm lucky enough to have seen three of them already." The Legendary's eyes glowed keenly, glancing at Aurora.
"I have known Dhenalix, the last of the Greater Absols, and Tyyakkuvh of the Flygons – at least he has a brother. And out of all of these families, after the Code of One, there is a last lucario royale." I frowned – I knew the Code of One all too well. It was the code where a lucario family was only permitted one child. Long ago, before the humans ever arrived, a king and queen had many children. But eventually, the queen had died, some say she had too many riolu. No one knows why she could die that way, but the king took it. Grieving for his mate, he passed the Code of One. And ever since, lucarios held that code in honor of the good queen who had passed early in her life. So, I had to agree with Giratina that somehow a lucario of royal descent still lived, since the family only had one child each generation.
"Long ago, no one forgot the Legendaries' leniency – the many powers we possessed and the warnings along with it has died with the ancient world of pokemon." Giratina rumbled, "And now the humans, not knowing of this, are set to capture us – one of these days, we are going to blow our tops and then that will be the end of this world." I have heard stories about these special, rarely known powers. Giratina had one that would take life away in a breath, and Shaymin that would give reap life from death. If Dialga wished too, he could make the time freeze, slow down, or speed up. Palkia could warp entire cities to various points of space, control them, and eliminate them. Darkrai could send the entire world into complete darkness, filling everyone else with perpetual nightmare. Uxie would take away knowledge, Mesprit emotions, and Azelf willpower. The water type Legendaries had the power to drown all of the regions, the fire type to set them aglow, the ground type to rock them to pieces, the electric type to throw storms, the ice type to freeze them, and so many more devastating results right in their own ability. If all of them became tired of humans trying to snare them into their captivity, then the pokemon world would indeed wreak havoc.
"Lucario," Giratina roared, "I would have taken Mandite personally back to his home, where he belongs, but there was much to do – understand?" I gazed up into his eyes, which glowed nearly white. My view of the Legendary completely changed – for all Legendaries. No longer I blamed Giratina for not taking the responsibility with direct force.
"There has been many disturbances throughout all of the worlds that neighbor ours," he explained, his voice growling deeply, "There will be a time when all of our worlds will be under the same threat – that threat has begun already. I had started preparing for this time, by reviving other warriors in other worlds, like the ones on planets called Bryyo and Elysia. At the same time, Mandite had dropped into ours. His time here wasn't supposed to be then, and he needed to escorted back to his homeland before anything too terrible happened."
"All of us are preparing to meet this challenge," the deity promised, "but all this time, we are being struck at by the greedy." The three of us, looking up at the tall, majestic figure, nodded, understanding.
"All humans aren't all bad, right?" Mandite called up to him, "There was a guy called Ivan," Giratina's eyes light up brightly again.
"Yes – people such as Ivan, Cynthia, and the great gym leaders and numerous common pokemon trainers of all regions with kind and knowledgeable souls," he rumbled, "The Legendaries are indebted to them, so we reward those who had been significantly helpful to us – Ivan had once found a hurt Raikou, at the mercy of even a swipe of a standard pokeball. Ivan could have had all of Raikou's power with the flick of a wrist – but what did he do? That boy nursed Raikou to full health, faithfully bringing him oran berries, food, and medical supplies. In return, Raikou granted Ivan the last egg of the Alpha Luxrays, one that had never hatched until it rested in Ivan's gracing arms. So not only Ivan had saved Raikou's freedom, he allowed another cherished life to start – so he is entrusted with Aruku."
"Years before that, a young Cynthia had came across Groudon, and they fought. They fought long and hard – to the point where Groudon had fallen through a great pit, and was stuck in a tight position. Here was another Legendary at mercy – but Cynthia allowed Groudon to go free. In return, she now holds one of the remaining Dominant Garchomp." Giratina nodded, "Yes, we know about these kind of people, and we are grateful that such people do exist."
"Then why don't you kill the ones who nag you?" Mandite asked, "Then people will have that sort of respect so that they won't bother you again?" The Legendary's eyes casted into shadow, and narrowed.
"All of us wish we could," he sighed, "but we made a pact that we would only use our greatest talents for when the time comes – when armies will stretch from world to world, and when all hope has been lost." When armies will stretch from world to world... That sounded like Sir Aaron's war except on a much greater scale, and chills ran up my arms. Aurora shook, and I wrapped an arm around her.
"But you have the power to snuff out life and rally an army of the dead," I said, "couldn't you easily take armies down?" Giratina's eyes only grew darker.
"You haven't seen the superpowers of the other worlds," he hissed ominously, "they have just as much power as I – or even all Legendaries." My blood froze. Something more powerful than all of the Legendaries? But the Legendaries were the utmost powerful thing alive in this world – Giratina could control death, so how could anything be possible greater? I looked to Mandite, who caught my eye. Gazing at me with those luminous, amber orbs, I could tell he knew how I felt.
"Lucario," he said wearily, "it may be hard for you to understand, because you have lived all of your life so far holding the Legendaries as the most powerful beings ever – but there are some things that are... Potentially more dangerous." I looked back and forth between the two, feeling helpless already.
"The war won't fully take place until many years, if I estimate correctly," the little warrior continued, "and we will be ready by then – don't worry." Something in the way how he said it, and the way how he looked at me with a firm gaze, assured me that all was not lost. It gave me confidence for the time in the future, whenever that will come. Aurora too had stopped quivering.
"But what are you going to do about Dhenalix?" Aurora asked, reminding Giratina about his first question. He blinked, the topic rapidly changing from preparing for a great war to the simplicity of a friend's death. Finally, after making sense of the question, the deity bowed his head.
"We will honor him the same way as we have done with all worthy beings," he growled, "Palkia will hang a constellation of him alongside with his fathers and forefathers. You will see him at dusk – his favorite time of day." The rest of us nodded, feeling that was an appropriate way to honor the great absol, hung in the sky so his family could look out and see him every time when the sun goes down. He will be remembered, and his murderer will remain my forever enemy. Which reminded me of something peculiar. When Darkrai and Mewtwo took away his unconscious body, they left him alive instead of killing him.
"Bruno was captured earlier," I pointed out, and the deity nodded.
"So I saw," he agreed.
"But why is he still kept alive?" I asked. Giratina growled, now sounding similar to an earthquake rocking the ground – the sound waves sure did shake it.
"While Bruno was in the pokemon world, he has been making his own little army," the Legendary rumbled darkly, "an army of pokemon and humans. Its not that little actually – there are hundreds of missing pokemon and people, and only Bruno knows where they are. We want him to show us where they are, and THEN I will kill him, like this!" Giratina stretched his thick neck back, opening his mouth. With a jerk forward, a flaming ball of purple substance shot from his throat and crashed into a nearby tree. Immediately, the tree burst into violet flames, withering all the way to the ground, the column of peculiar fire growing smaller. A second later, the fire had died, leaving no trace of the tree. I stared.
"A fire that fuels on life, burning until it has taken all life it engulfs." he growled, "It's one of my secret techniques that I hide from humans today." A fire that kept burning till an organism has completely have been rid of life. I could only imagine how long that violet flame would burn if he had set a forest on fire with it – even more horrible, if he had set a city with it. This frightened me greatly – once you were touched by the flame, you were doomed to die. Pleased with the terrified looks on our faces, Giratina settled back, and growled in content. But that content wasn't to last long.
"Giratina!" a rushed, heavily breathing pokemon zoomed towards us, flying through the air. Giratina raised his crowned head, and frowned, seeing his fellow Legendary.
"Darkrai?" he asked, bewildered. I squinted my eyes, recognized the shadowy profile. Darkrai stopped before Giratina's side, hovering at his head level – there was frustration and panic evident in his eyes. Wasn't he supposed to be with Bruno? What happened?
"Someone attacked us with a pokemon equipped with one of those headbands that increases power by – what was it? Oh, that's right – rage. And Bruno was conscious at the time, so we tried flying away, but..." Darkrai panted, "But we were still followed closely. I tried holding them off, but... Bruno..." Darkrai didn't need to finish the sentence so that we could know what had happened. I already could guess, with a definite sickening feeling striking me in the gut.
"I told you they were getting better," Giratina warned, oblivious to Darkrai's implications, "I told you that the humans are getting better, didn't I? Now that have those hilarious head band crap – you should have punched them off or something!" Darkrai's bright blue eyes glared impatiently at the Lord of the Dead.
"Bruno escaped," he said flatly. Now Giratina heard the depressing message, and he threw his head back in rage, roaring deep from his belly. I held my paws over Aurora's ears, and we cringed, the deafening volume causing the ground beneath our feet to shake. In the distance, I could see an avalanche crash down from the top of a snowy mountain's peak.
"THAT'S THE SECOND TIME, DARKRAI!!!" Giratina continued to roar. Darkrai continued to gaze at him with a miserable expression.
"I know," he acknowledged in a blunt tone. Calming down, the Lord of the Dead swung his great head to look down upon the three of us, still wincing from the pain in our ears – except Mandite, for he lacked them. His red eyes brightened, looking over us.
"I would open that portal over there if Bruno was still in captive and Mandite could go home," he said, growls rumbling from his throat, "but since he is not, I have to let it remain sealed, for the safety of your world, Mandite." The young warrior nodded, shifting the backpack upon his head to a more comfortable position, tapping the side of his mask. I frowned, however. Then, after all these months we find a portal only to be told we couldn't use it. What are we going to do now?
"How is Mandite going to get home?" Aurora inquired. The two Legendaries looked down upon her.
"Go back to the beach beyond Dhenalix's place," Giratina commanded, "Remember? Now go there – I will meet you three and create a temporary portal for Mandite." I nodded, knowing where that such beach was, glad to know that Mandite was going home, but sad at the same time. Darkrai began to float away, knowing he had a job to do.
"Now, I have some business to attend to," Giratina growled, noticing Darkrai's departure, "and if we don't meet under the time of war, then I'll see you in hell." His eyes flashed brightly, almost as if they were smiling at us, as his smoky gray wings started to fold over his massive body, the shadowy material spreading rapidly. Soon, Giratina was wrapped in his own cocoon, which writhed with his body. The wrapping split into three segments on each side, each tipped with a scarlet spike, and unraveled to reveal a long, serpentine, new form of Giratina. Yellow spines protruded from his sides, and his belly was lit with bands of glowing red lights. The armor upon his back clashed together, his body no longer land bound. Giratina lurched forward in his new lithe body, swooping over our heads, turning around in a fancy loop before rocketing up into the sky, disappearing from sight.
I tore my eyes from the blue yonder, and they fixed upon Mandite's yellow ones.
"Well," the young warrior exclaimed, "what are we waiting for?"
Although this chapter is stinkiest of all of the ones I have written for this story, I had to put in Giratina's rambling. It is important when coming to understanding my stories' big picture.
And someone is probably going to come and shoot me. Yes, I have warped the perspective of Legendary pokemon to that extent, and I like it that way. I feel that they need to be respected more, instead of being captured. And I feel that they must be even more powerful than in the games - otherwise, how can you call them Legendary?
Anyways, that's my darned opinion about Legendaries.