A/N: ... PSYCHE! This note's gonna be at the bottom. (Continued after the chapter.)
'This may not have been the best way to do this...' I thought, attempting to ignore the constant chatter that had filled the Hall of Origin. The thought struck me as ironic, actually - the Legend given rule over time itself, finally becoming impatient. But I had expected it; calling a meeting of all the Legendary Pokémon for the sole purpose of explaining that our efforts had come to nothing was bound to cause some amount of chaos.
That aside, those members of the 'council' that did arrive... well, they were far outnumbered by those who did not. With yet another quick glance around the designated meeting hall, the surprisingly low number in the room was made apparent yet again: Latias had survived, which relieved me - we would need some childish behavior to lighten the mood throughout all of this, without Mew's... borderline insanity. Her brother, however, had not - she would only say that he made her leave, before forcing herself not to cry.
Among the rest were Rayquaza and Groudon, however Kyogre was ominously absent. Regigigas made its way here as well, along with surprisingly Lugia with his trio intact... if extremely shaken. Ho-Oh was missing, which left the two remaining members of her trio - Raikou and Entei - without somebody to immediately turn to. Thankfully the Lake Guardians Azelf, Uxie and Mesprit made it as well, though the latter hadn't spoken once since their arrival; that was worrying, to say the least.
Finally, I knew Darkrai, Mew and Mewtwo to have survived; the former two I had sensed strangely nearby - relatively speaking, of course - and the latter was simply too stubborn to fall to something as simple as the 'end of the world'. And then there was Palkia and myself; I no longer counted our renegade sibling among the council, not when I saw what she was doing. Palkia, however... was doing badly. She managed to subtly shift the Hall of Origins across the already frayed dimensional barrier - as well as keep it intact to begin with - but I knew she was coming to her limits.
"Dialga: Current orders? Creator out of contact; undetermined what to do." That mechanical 'voice' could only belong to Regigigas - any human or average Pokemon would only hear rapid, bass-toned beeps, but we had always been able to understand one another out of sheer necessity. I turned to look down at the master golem and let out a sigh. Its question reminded me of something I had yet to tell everyone, and it was a subject that I knew would have to be approached eventually.
"… No orders, however I have a further announcement." I replied finally - I quite honestly hated what I was about to be forced to explain. The golem, apparently interpreting that as a command for order, stomped the ground once... hard. Everyone came to nearly a literal screeching halt, looking wide-eyed at Regigigas, who simply took one large step to the side and out of my line of sight. After a moment, I had to let out another sigh before starting. "I have... incredibly grave news for all of you."
As their attention was on me anyway, I continued. "I do not enjoy crushing any hopes of... higher assistance, but it will not be coming. Lord Arceus will not be coming to repair this... we are on our own." I knew before I even began what the reaction would be, and so was not surprised when Latias flew over to me with a question.
"A-are you... what do you mean? H-he's not..."
The hall was so silent I could hear the spatial material shifting as everyone waited for me to answer. The Eon dragon's almost broken look made me close my own eyes before I could respond. The stoic Legend that I was, I will admit that my voice wavered ever so slightly as I uttered a quiet "Gone... yes." The silence reigned for a few more seconds before everyone began shouting at once.
"What do we do now?!" "Condition: Panicked." "What could've done that?" "We're going to die..."
I forced myself not to roar for order - they were allowed their moment of panic, as seemingly counterproductive as it may have been. Instead I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and waited; one... two... three...
"Shut up, already!" I allowed myself a wry, half-hearted smile - only my sister would be that blunt. I did not need to see her to know how degenerated she must have looked; the collective gasps around me gave me a good idea. However, it did not prepare me for the actual state she was in when I turned my head, and my short-lived smile faded immediately.
Palkia's once white armor had turned a rust-like brown, entire sections cracked so densely that it seemed horribly natural. The vibrant pink orbs normally set in her shoulders were a dead grey, and she was using a pillar of the Hall's material to hold herself up. And despite this, her red eyes were just as sharp as ever - the only thing that hadn't fallen to decay.
After a few moments of silence save for a brief coughing fit from my sister, Palkia turned to me. "So Arceus is done with... you're sure about that, brother?" I nodded once, genuinely glad for her arrival. She seemed to think for a moment, then nodded herself. "We'll have to... make it ourselves, then. Did it before-" Another sickened cough interrupted her, but it was shaken off quickly. "We did it before... we can do it again."
Everyone's attention was now on my counterpart - and I quickly realized that was the point. As old as we all were, something this... apocalyptic hadn't happened for millennia. She knew as well as I that our world was already dying or dead, nothing was changing that. Nobody would truly listen to me - I was known to be... shall I say 'distant', and sometimes 'uncaring' due to my particular task. Her, however...
"There's nothing we can do now." she said finally, forcing herself to stand more upright, leaning less on the supporting pillar. "Nothing but wait. It's against what... almost all of us should be doing, but..." A flash of light nearly blinded me - and presumably everyone else - and I suddenly felt somehow more tension in the hall than there already was. When the flash faded, standing in the center of the massive room was Mewtwo.
More important, however, were the two beside him; a human in a long white coat, and... 'A Pokémon, surely... but I have never seen its like before.' It resembled many of the Eevee evolutionary forms, but none close enough to be identified.
Mewtwo gave a mock-bow, as usual, but his face lacked the stability he usually had - he was concerned about something. "Have I interrupted something?" he asked, just as sarcastic as he always was with us. Nobody responded, but the human looked around at all of us, opening and closing his mouth without saying anything before finally managing.
"What... huh?!"
Quite abruptly, he simply went limp on the floor - presumably overwhelmed by seeing so many 'Legendary' Pokémon at once. 'Fantastic...' I thought, shaking my head - I knew Mewtwo enjoyed making a... disrupting entrance, but this was ridiculous. Speaking of the experiment...
"I resent that." He shot me a cold glare, which I responded to with absolute indifference, as always. Looking around, the glare faded as Mewtwo nodded slowly. "You told them, then. Good - it will make things go smoother if you can all get over this quickly. However, I do have something to add to your troubles." He looked down at the mysteriously unknown Pokémon standing beside him, looking around in awe, and sighed. "I believe we may have a hybrid to worry about."
-Real World: ?-
"Sir, the nation's military forces are most definitely alert to Giratina's activities. We've noticed several instances of the Renegade Pokémon encountering their forces... and wiping them aside." The report made me smile - that was exactly what I had been hoping for.
"And the transmitter is still working?"
I saw the 'Admin' - Weevil, that was his name - nod once. "It is less effective than directly chaining the Legend, but it's projecting the Red Chain's power well enough, sir." I could hear his hesitation before he continued. "However... the world's instability may prove a problem."
That made me less than content. "I have planned for the eventual merging - how will this be an issue?" I did not need to raise my voice; even those highest in rank - below myself, obviously - knew never to irritate me.
However, to this 'Weevil's' credit, his voice did not so much as waver. "Due to... some unforeseen events just before the dimensional collapse, certain Legendary Pokémon have made their way here. Among them, we have detected signs of Palkia's presence. There is the distinct possibility that it may attempt to stabilize this world in absence of its own - and discover that the destabilization is intentional."
"WHAT!?" I simply couldn't stop myself from shouting - of all things I'd expected, that was not among them. But just as quickly as it came, I pushed my anger down; there would be time to release it later, and not on somebody important. "Very well... this will require some attention. I take it there are no further surprises?"
This time, Weevil's voice did shake slightly. "O-one, sir... we have located an energy much like what you were looking for. However... it seems to be active - bound to something, and definitely active."
Perhaps to his surprise, I began to laugh; not a mirthful one, no... this was a malice-filled laugh. "That is excellent. Absolutely wonderful, in fact... redirect the Renegade. Whatever object holds this power, I want it brought to me - intact, I must add. No excessive force."
He nodded quickly, retreating through the door. As soon as it had slid shut I looked off to the right, at a glinting, predatory pair of eyes in the darkness. "You will have your fun soon. When my world is complete... you will be granted free reign over its lands." The eyes narrowed, but I saw a light in them that I understood - anticipation. He craved his hunt as I craved my rule... and soon we would both have our goals met.
"…as expected, Eulacid."
Nothing frightened me - I was above such a debilitating emotion by now. But his nearly hissing voice... I was a ruler, a manipulator; he was a killer. He spoke like he was always thinking about how best to end your life. The voice fit him perfectly... and it unnerved me.
-Real World: Tree of Beginning-
It was... not what I expected, being in Mew's presence. The legends had placed her as carefree, yes - but also with the wisdom that came with being as old as Pokémon themselves. And as I watched her bouncing between pink psychic 'bubbles', I couldn't help but think that wisdom had to be well hidden. To be perfectly honest, she acted very like a child - she hadn't stopped asking everyone to play with her since Darkrai's 'spar' with Ghost.
"Aurora, come ooon! It's your turn to play!"
As strange as it was, I couldn't help but smile - with everything going on, that she could focus on simple games was refreshing. "Alright, I'm coming. What are we playing, Lady Mew?" … that is a sentence I never thought I would say.
"Aw, Lady Mew sounds so... boring! It's just Mew. And we're playing... TAG!" Before I could react she had flown up to me, tapped me on the head with her tail, and flown off again.
"Oh, no you don't..." I muttered, launching myself after her. Of course, she was not going to make it easy - leading me out of the main 'room' and through the absolute maze of tunnels throughout the tree made it so that I nearly lost her several times.
For what seemed like the hundredth time, I saw Mew's pink tail flick past a corner. This time, however, I heard her 'call' back "Come on, hurry up! I've gotta show you this!"
'Show me something? I thought we were simply playing a game.' I thought, not letting myself slow down. In fact, I poured on more speed - if Mew had simply asked me to play so that she could show me something... it was unnecessary, but also likely important. As I chased her farther and farther, I began to hear a low droning sound - I'd heard it before, in fact.
"Unown..."
It sounded like there were hundreds of them, but surely that was simply an echo. 'I will have to find... out...' I rounded the last corner, and found that I... shockingly was not far off. This last corridor ended in a chamber larger than the one we'd come from, and floating around the middle was an absolutely massive swarm of the rune-like Unown. 'There... are hundreds of them...' I realized, slowly walking into the chamber.
More interesting was what took up the entire center of the room - a huge pillar-like shard, made entirely of smooth blue crystal. It was the same crystal that could be found throughout the tree, except this 'shard' was giving off an almost... living glow.
"Well, of course it is, silly!" Mew said with a giggle, appearing next to me out of nowhere. "It's the Tree's root! Well... sort of; it's really just a big glowy crystal, but I drop it into the ground and POOF - the Tree lives there." Her perpetually happy attitude faded, leaving a worried one in its place. "But... it won't survive long without being in the ground somewhere. My friends are trying, but the Tree's still dying. …oh, that rhymed!"
I didn't know whether to 'face-paw' as Dave would call it, or if I should do... anything, actually. So I settled for a question. "Why... are you showing me this?"
Mew looked at me blankly for a moment, and I almost thought that she didn't know why. "Well, because I need your help - and Dave's too! Especially him; he's important if we all like breathing... and I do!" She idly did a flip in the air before continuing. "My friends gave him something, and it can help! I just wanted to tell you too, because I need you to- do you feel that?"
At first, there was nothing. But when even the droning of the Unown quieted, I could feel something... something horrifyingly familiar. "Oh, Arceus no..." Just to be sure, I closed my eyes to search for any hostile 'feeling' auras... and saw the flicker of a large angry red aura heading not towards Mew and myself, but... "David!" Without even saying anything else, I poured everything I could into speeding back the way we'd came.
'It's still faster... if they get harmed because I wasn't there...' I was vaguely aware of Mew following me as best she could, but that was essentially unimportant. I never opened my eyes - the Aurasight was my only way of tracking the way back, of tracking Giratina.
Not five minutes passed before I came to a sliding halt in the chamber I was searching for, and the sight I was seeing absolutely shocked me. Giratina was not the same six-legged monster we'd encountered before - now it was flying; a long, serpentine form with six shadowy tendrils protruding from its back. The 'ribcage' bands were now almost like claws, and ten gold-tipped spikes were spaced across its sides.
And David - both of them - were fighting it. My trainer was doing everything possible to distract the Legend, literally resorting to throwing seemingly endless items from his backpack. I could barely see Ghost, dashing from one side of Giratina to the other and landing shallow cuts each time. But Dave, of course he would do something reckless... he was literally trying to fight the Pokémon!
That blade of his was sweeping through the air, obviously out of reach of the Legendary Pokémon, but somehow it seemed to make it stay back. Then I noticed something trailing behind each swing of the sword - a faint blue light, vanishing as quickly as I could see it. 'What... is that?'
"Ya damn dragon, get down here! You had no problem killing my family - why not me, huh?!" Dave shouted, pointing the sword at Giratina. I had never heard him so angry... he was out of his mind! If he actually got the Legend's attention, he would be torn apart.
'And I am still standing here, why!?' Immediately, I burst into action myself - we were going to fight Giratina, and we were going to win. I formed my Aura staff exactly as I had before, but as I was running at the dragon-like Legendary I noticed one final, strange thing - I was holding a sword. A blue sword, much like Dave's own... and I was furious.
A/N: Alright - first off, cliffhanger is cliff...hanging... I'll stop now. I have something to ask you readers after this... somewhat all-over-the-place chapter: Actually, three things. One: That mysterious individual (really just a pair of eyes and a voice...) is a character that I am undetermined on, as to whether I want him to be 'normal' (read: not a hybrid) or not. So, my question is this - should he, in fact, be a hybrid of sorts? By this I mean either of two Pokemon, or -theoretically- a Pokemon and a human. Either way, these hybrids will not exactly become common - in fact, I have no plans for any more - but they will be somewhat important. But because I'm starting to lose track of my own questions, here's a better-ordered version:
One: Should this character be a hybrid?
Two: If yes, tell me what two Pokemon (or one Pokemon and human) you think should be used - at least one has to be something that makes sense to be -very- predatory.
Three: Any name ideas you may have for this character - 'designations' also count, such as XD-001 (Shadow Lugia, if anyone remembers).
And with those questions, I leave you! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and can't wait to see what responses I get from this.