Author's Note: Well, this chapter certainly took a long time to write. I'm going to admit straight off the bat that this really was a struggle to write with a lot of revisions, and even now as I'm publishing, it still has a lot of clunkiness that I'm not sure how to solve yet. Maybe I'll be able to later! Right now, I'm more concerned about making sure it's done for the time being and just out there. Thank you for the reviews, especially the suggestions and concerns that were brought up. I read them all, and tries to incorporate what I thought would help the most while still trying to stick to my original vision.
Anyway, enjoy the update! Happy reading!
EDIT: Holy canolies, I am SO sorry for the horrible formatting. Hopefully it's not too hard to read! Apologies again!
Chapter Two
Snowpoint received, on average, about 49.5 feet of snow every year, and it wasn't uncommon to have at least one to two feet of snow on the ground on any given day. Depending on the weather, the snow could either be a rock solid sheet of ice, making the small town look like a frozen wasteland, or be as fluffy and soft as a pile of new pillows. Thankfully when Peregrine landed in front of the International Police station, the clouds had just dumped about two feet of fresh powder onto the ground that morning and had yet to make up its mind what it really wanted to do besides be snow.
He blasted it all away in his hard landing, snow flying up in a great cloud around him as he skidded to a halt, and nearly buried himself up to his hips in the icy ground. Not wasting a moment to recover, he stumbled up to the station's front door, and hammered on it with his fist until he heard someone shouting within.
"Keep your parka on, I'm comin'! Jeez-!"
He continued to knock until the door was ripped open, Nefertiti standing in the doorway and looking like she was ready to shake whoever was trying to break the door down. Her giant mane of navy blue hair with a single zig-zag streak of yellow blew in the wind that rushed into the station. Her expression switched to shock as she saw him standing in the cold.
"Peregrine?! I thought you were stationed in Johto!" she said, too dumbfounded by his sudden appearance to let him in.
The Togekiss shivering where he stood despite the heavy clothes he was wearing, icicles hanging from the side of his face and the corners of his mouth.
"I-I-I was!" he gasped. "B-b-big problem-! Sp-Spear Pillar-! Gotta g-get-!"
He suddenly sneezed, interrupting himself. The luxray grabbed him and pulled him inside, not giving him a chance to protests.
"Good grief, get inside! You're going to freeze to death!"
She slammed the door shut, and then ushered Peregrine into the small kitchen off the entry way. She gestured for him to sit down, but he refused to sit in the offered seat, instead making a beeline for the electric kettle that was steaming on the counter. He started to try to make himself a cup of tea, but his hands were shaking so badly, the mug he grabbed vibrated out of his grasp. Nerfertiti quickly pushed him out of the way, and started making him a cup of hot cocoa, picking up one of the many single serve packets out of the bowl next to the kettle.
"Alright, what's all this about a big problem and Spear Pillar?" she asked as she dumped the packet into the mug. She glanced back to see him intently trying to warm his hands while bouncing in place. "I thought you were doing an escort thing at the Ruins of Alph."
"I-I was-! Am!" he said, shaking the ice out of his hair. He stopped his frantic efforts to warm up to take the cup of cocoa Nefertiti was shoving at him. "But then Giratina showed up! We have to get to Spear Pillar temple now and warn them!"
He paused in his moving to wrap both hands around the hot mug, and blew on the fresh cocoa. Nefertiti had frozen where she was at the mention of Giratina, going still when he took the mug from her. She was a native of northern Sinnoh, and knew the legends of the region by heart. Of all the myths, the dark story of Giratina was one she had had hoped would never come true. She turned around to brace herself on the counter, looking down and trying to process what they were going to have to do.
"Where's Loki?" Peregrine said, oblivious to her reaction. He was more concerned with doing everything Clara had told him to do, and then finding out where she was and if she was okay.
"We need to start calling everyone in the nearest stations, but we also need people at Spear Pillar now. Can you or him come with me up to the temple?"
Without thinking, he started to chug the steaming cocoa as if was just a cup of water, his mind otherwise occupied. He nearly choked, the cocoa scalding his throat, but compared to how cold the rest of him felt, it was almost a welcome feeling. He glanced up from looking into the bottom of the mug when Nefertiti didn't answer him right away. Her face was paralyzed by a mixture of shock and terror at his questions instead of the blank look of shock.
"Loki's not here," she said weakly. "He's in Solace Town! It's just me out here today!"
This time Peregrine did choke, cocoa spraying up around his face as he coughed.
"That backwater farmstand?!" he wheezed. "What's he doing there?! All stations need at least two people in them, you know that!"
"It was an emergency!" she said, throwing up her hands and starting to pace. She ran her hands through her hair, the action fluffing up the cloud more than it already was.
"You remember all those bodies they found at the Lost Tower? The undocumented mass grave?"
Peregrine nodded, recalling the report that had been passed through the ranks a few months ago. The graveyard tower just before Solace Town had created quite the fuss when a walled up room had been discovered by accident during refurbishing, and dozens of remains had been found in unmarked coffins. Forensics had been able to determine that the people who had been buried had most likely been horribly tortured and then buried alive at least 100 years ago. Though from the grainy pictures of the coffins, it most likely wasn't easy to guess about the buried alive part. He hadn't been comfortable in enclosed spaces for weeks after reading the report.
"They found more," Nefertiti continued, leaning back against the counter and gripping the edge. "And they're newer, probably not even twenty or thirty years old. The worst thing is that it looks like there's a trail that goes all the way to Kalos."
Peregrine stared at her in stunned silence, going still for the first time since he had arrived. Considering he had seen a legendary being burst back into existence, he would have been hard pressed to say that the discovery of what was most likely a serial killer, one that was probably still active and loose, was the worst news he had gotten all day. The amount of death that could happen in one day was starting to overwhelm him. He dropped the mug on the kitchen island, and ran his hands over his face, groaning.
"Ohhh, back-flippin' Lugia…" he murmured, trying to think of what to do. He looked at her, his hands open for suggestions in front of him.
"So… What do we do? You can't just abandon your post here, but there's no way I can stall Giratina on my own at Spear Pillar while people evacuate. I'll get flattened faster then you can say Olivine City Cafe pancakes."
Nefertiti opened her mouth, ready to protest that he would just have to go and do it himself, they were racing against a legendary killer that could travel through shadows and they had already wasted enough time, when her red and yellow eyes lit up.
"What day is it?!" she said suddenly, looking around at the walls for the calendar. "Saturday? It's Saturday, right?!"
It took Peregrine a second to answer, thrown off by the drastic change in topic.
"I, uh. Yeah, it's Saturday…?"
Nefertiti grabbed him again, snagging his scarf and pulling, and dragged him back into the entry hall. He was beginning to wonder why he wore his scarf in the first place; it certainly wasn't for protection from the elements since all it seemed to do was give people a way to drag him around. She let him go right before the door and grabbed her coat from the coat rack.
"Ite comes down to the town every Saturday for groceries! If we hurry, we can catch him before he leaves!" she said, pulling it on. She threw a pair of gloves and a hat to Peregrine, and then started to zip herself up.
He quickly stuffed the hat on his head and followed her as she bounded out the door.
"W-wait a second!" he said as he jogged to keep up with her. He had forgotten how fast she moved. It had been at least a year since he had spent any length of time with the luxray that wasn't a quarterly meeting, and there wasn't much to do besides sit and listen to Ra lecture at all of them about cases and policy changes.
"You're telling me that Palkia comes down here every week to get food? Don't they have, like, attendants or helpers or people who work for them to do that?"
Somehow the idea of a legendary dropping down from their sacred mountain just to pick up milk and eggs struck him as extremely strange. You could see Ho-Oh's attendants, brightly colored Kimono Girls, wandering Ecruteak whenever their mistress needed something as mundane as a new hairbrush on any day of the week. But Ite the Palkia, lord of space and creator of constellations, walking around a grocery store and testing the produce for freshness? That was just too weird.
Nefertiti laughed at him, leading the way down the salted sidewalks.
"Attendants? Are you kidding me?" She gestured up towards the mountain that loomed over the town. "They live up in the middle of nowhere! The Mt. Coronet mountain range gets freakin' three to four feet of new snow every day, sometimes five, on each different peak! You think they're really gonna make some poor normal folk live up there just so they have somebody else to make their bed and get their groceries?"
She shook her head, and urged for the togekiss to walk faster despite his inexperience with the icy walkways. He was already falling behind by a foot, and they didn't have time to pick their way over every frozen puddle.
"Ite and Nara don't make anyone live up there who doesn't have to. They have two mamoswine guys who guard the temple, and Hana, that's it. They don't even live in the temple anymore, they have a house half way up the mountain over here." she explained. The grocery store was only another block away, she could see the glowing neon sign above a few snow covered houses.
Peregrine perked up at a name he didn't recognize. "Hana? Who's Hana?"
They walked up to the doors, and Nefertiti swung the entrance open, holding it out for him to follow her inside.
"The last Shaymin alive." she said, and Peregrine's dropped jaw nearly got caught in the closing door. "Now, come on, he's probably in check out right now! Hurry!"
It was dark. But not the cold, deep darkness like when clouds cover the moon, and you're in the middle of a great forest, far away from any kind of light that you don't know if you're standing anymore or floating out in a black sea instead. It was a comforting darkness, the kind right before the sun bursts over the horizon and brings a new day with it. There was a promise of light. It was warm too, like sitting in a favorite chair with a soft blanket and the temperature is just right enough to tempt you into taking a beautiful nap and wake up feeling refreshed and new.
"Thank you, Amaterasu, Mother to Us All, for the beauty of this planet. Thank you for flowers…"
That gratitude, the sincerity of it, was what had called her forth into being. She wasn't sure if she had always been there, waiting in a strange limbo in the then barren land of Floraroma Valley, or whether the gratitude for nature had somehow been strong enough to create the spark needed to make her.
That was what she liked to meditate on when Ite or Nara had her sit with them at the temple for meditation, focusing on the memory of that warm darkness and trying to search for what could have been there before it. So far she hadn't been able to find an answer, but returning to that comfortable state of existence was nice while she thought over other things.
Hana was crouched in the snow, her mind wandering everywhere while her hands were busy packing snow into snowballs. The town twinkled like a tangle of fairy lights down in the valley below. She had been waiting for Ite to come back from grocery shopping, but he was taking a little bit longer than usual, and sitting around inside had started to get boring.
She remembered when she had been younger, when they had moved from the temple entirely, and asking why they had come so close to the snowy town and hadn't just moved south to be near Hearthome or Eterna City. Her guardians had told her there were too many people in the large cities. Snowpoint's tiny population was less overwhelming.
Living farther north gave them the opportunity to pick and choose when they wanted to be around normal folks, but she often suspected it was to keep her away from others more than anything. She had always noticed how nervous Nara would get when she accompanied her on shopping trips or how the Dialga started to pace when Ite would send her out on errands by herself. It was like they were afraid she would fall into some imaginary blackhole and never come back.
It used to make her angry, but around the time she turned 19, she started to appreciate her secluded home. She could pretty much do anything she want without drawing attention to herself (she had figured out by the time she was 10 that people had a tendency to stare at her), and she knew everyone in Snowpoint. Everyone in the tiny town treated her just as normally as the next person.
She could zip down to the bookstore, say hi to Loki and Nefertiti at the International Police station, grab some icecream and be back by nightfall without anyone exclaiming over her appearance or asking for a photograph. She was glad she was old enough to know now that Ite and Nara had moved somewhere so tiny and remote to make sure she could have a normal life like any other child growing up in Sinnoh.
At the moment, it was just her on the side of the mountain. Ite was taking his sweet time at the grocery store while Nara was off at the temple to do some routine cleaning and meditating. Or whatever it was that she and her brother did in the sacred rooms of the temple, she wasn't entirely sure. She was just glad for the small instance of peace and quiet before they were both back under the same roof and chaos would eventually erupt.
Ite the Palkia, lord of space and elder brother, and Nara the Dialga, lady of time and younger sister, could squabble better than a pack of geese chasing after the last breadcrumb. She was amazed she had grown up as normally as she had considering they found a way to fight about nearly everything under the sun when either of them got into a mood. They had once argued about the correct way to pronounce caramel for a week.
It wasn't always a disaster though, which she was grateful for, and loved it when they worked together to teach her something new or create a new meal for all of them to enjoy. The fights came and went in waves, and had rarely been over anything very serious. She had the suspicion that for anything concerning her or any other important issues, they kept the arguments away from her for her own peace of mind.
She stood up and stretched; she was starting to feel restless again. Maybe she could beat Ite up the mountain and meet him in Snowpoint. Or maybe she could go and see what Loki and Nefertiti were up to; the luxray was always fun to talk with. She usually had a story and an ample amount of hot chocolate with marshmallows at her disposal to keep her happy with.
It was one of those days where she was looking for an excuse to get out and about.
She perked up as she heard the familiar sound of Ite arriving back on the mountain, his strange portals opening and closing sounded like water going down a drain and being ran through a static filter. She quickly jumped up, grabbing her new pile of snowballs, and dove behind the nearest snowbank with a view of the front door. She waited until the Palkia appeared right in front of it, his arms full of groceries, and the whirl of pink and black from the portal disappeared into the snow beneath him. She started throwing the snowballs as fast as she could, flinging them in twos and threes. They flew towards Ite's back, about a second from hitting their mark, when another black hole appeared and swallowed them up.
Hana jumped up from her hiding spot. "Hey, no fair! That's chea- AUGH-!"
The snowballs were suddenly dumped on her, the black hole appearing right above her head, and covering her in snow. She shook herself, trying to get all the ice and snow out from the neck of her coat, and then looked up as Ite stood over her.
"It's not cheating if the other person should know better," he rumbled, smiling at her massive pout. He ruffled her green hair with a giant hand, getting some of the latent ice out and then held a grocery bag to her.
"C'mon, help me get these inside and put away."
Hana sighed, and begrudgingly took two of the bags from him. "One of these days, I am totally gonna get you," she said, scrunching her nose up at him. He flipped her hair over her head with a chuckle.
"Whatever you say, kiddo,"
"Ugh!"
She followed him into the house, half-heartedly grumbling about her backfired prank, and set the bags down on top of the kitchen table. Ite easily set the rest of the bags he had onto the kitchen floor behind her. She swore that he liked to show off how much he could carry, taking off with as much as he could from the store like he always did. It wasn't like he was going to hurt himself, at least, Ite was huge compared to most people. Tall, broad-shouldered and frighteningly intimidating, he had terrified her when she had first met him.
She had refused to leave the International Police officer's side, peeking out from behind her legs when she had brought her to them, until Ite's stone-like face cracked into a smile and his red eyes lit up with kindness. She couldn't really remember what her impression of Nara had been except for the swish of her robes and some faint sniffling; Ite would explain later that they had been happy tears, not sad or scary ones.
Hana started taking things out of the bags and setting them on the table, sorting perishables and non-perishables into piles so they would be easy to hand to Ite, who always organized the refrigerator when he brought home groceries. He poked his head down the hall that lead to the living room, and then went to the refrigerator to start his routine.
"Nara isn't back yet?" he asked, glancing back at her with a small hint of confusion as he knelt down in front of the fridge.
Hana shook her head, handing him a bag of juicing oranges.
"No… She said she wanted to deep clean the main prayer room, or something. I don't really remember, but she was going on about really cleaning something," she said. She stole a few grapes from the bag before handing it over to him.
"What? I told her- hey, wash those before you eat them. - I told her I'd take care of that, she's gonna kill herself trying to move all those statues around," Ite's voice echoed slightly as he bent half into the appliance. He held a hand out, waiting for her to hand him something else.
Hana shrugged as she tossed the unwashed grapes in her mouth, and then started rummaging through the sack of apples the Palkia had bought, trying to find a particularly tasty looking one for herself. She gave a hum of approval as she found one, and quickly took a bite before handing the rest to him.
"I dunno, if she does, she can just backtrack before she hurt herself," she said with a mouth full of apple, careful not to spray bits everywhere. "Ooh, strawberries! These are just for me, right?"
Ite finally got out of the refrigerator, and swept the two bags of groceries out of her reach.
"Alright, you little monster, how about you run and grab Nara? Before you eat everything I just bought!" he said. He looked from her to the box of strawberries in her hands, and quickly grabbed it before she could break into it.
Hana laughed, trying not to look too happy for being able to successfully pester her way out of a chore. If it had been Nara, she wouldn't have cared at all that she kept stealing small snacks, but she knew it drove Ite up the wall. She wasn't even allowed in the kitchen anymore when he was on a canning rampage; the last time he had made salsa, she must have stolen two jars worth of peppers.
"Yeah, I can do that," she said, working on trying to finish her apple as quickly as she could. Her pink eyes sparkled as she realized what she could do if he was sending her to grab Nara.
"Oh, wait! Does that mean I get to use one of the Gracidea flowers?!"
She bounced on her toes, hopefully clasping her hands together and already thinking of ways to twist his arm. Ite paused in putting things away, glancing at her with a worried look. He eyed the clouds out the window, and then looked to her, as if trying to weigh the future weather and the Shaymin's tiny body against each other. The snow had cleared for the rest of the day as far as he knew; it was clear skies from Snowpoint all the way to Eterna City. Hana was still bouncing.
"...I suppose you do need the practice," he admitted, and she gasped as if he had told her she had won the lottery instead. He spoke quickly as she ran off to her room to get her flying gear. "But have Nara teleport you back home! Or at least have her fly with you back, I don't want you flying by yourself in case the weather turns nasty!" He called after her, following her to the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the bedrooms.
Hana came back in record time, hopping on one foot as she shoved her boots back on. Her usual dress had been quickly discarded for shirt, pants, and a thick coat along with a red scarf tied at her neck and the sash that was used to keep the Gracidea flower in place.
"Did you hear me about the teleporting?" Ite fretted, following her into the living room where they grew the Gracidea bush near the window. Nara kept the small bush immaculate, watering and trimming it dutifully for when they needed them to have a flying lesson with their rare charge.
Hana was stuffing her short green hair into two mini-buns on the top of her head.
"Yes, yes, I did, don't worry! It's not like I haven't done this before!" she said. She bent down to inspect the flowers. The small, pale pink buds spread open as she passed her fingers over them, releasing a calming scent into the room.
Ite inhaled, trying to keep his worries from making him change his mind and teleport her to the temple instead. Nara always insisted that they teleport where they needed to go, restricting Hana to flying under their combined supervision or to lessons. The Shaymin was a natural though, more graceful in the air then she ever was on the ground, and could fly circles around him. He wanted her to start flying more independently, and even though he could feel Nara staring him down hundreds of miles away, he knew the only way to see how she would do is if they went behind Nara's back. Besides, this would make things easier. He could start dinner, Hana would be occupied and bouncing for days, and, on top of it all, he wouldn't get yelled at for interrupting Nara's cleaning. Everything would be fine.
Hana sniffed the flowers, trying to find the right one that called for her to use it. She knew she could just pick whichever one she wanted, but something always pinged in the back of her mind, telling her to find the one that smelled best instead. She was able to pick out the sweet, sparkling scent of the 'right' flower, and picked a bloom that looked as if it was threatening to wilt on the spot if it wasn't plucked immediately.
She fastened the flower to the sash tied around her waist, and felt the rush of power wash through her, as if a spring breeze had suddenly flown past her and took her with it. She giggled, unable to hold back her excitement, and spun in place, already beginning to hover just the slightest.
"Okay! I'm ready to go get her!" she said, zipping past Ite and zooming out the door.
The Palkia had to fight off several horrible visions of her falling to her death or crashing into the side of the mountain as he quickly followed her outside into the snow.
"Call me when you get there! Or have Nara call me when you get there! And go straight to the temple, no crazy side trips!" he said. He was beginning to have the sinking feeling that Nara was finally going to find a way to murder him when they got back from the temple. Maybe she'd shove his head into the dirty dishwater and hold him there when he wasn't looking after dinner.
Hana spun around, hovering above the snow, and looked at him, eye-level and arms folded.
"I will, I will, I promise! But I mean, like..." she trailed off, the excitement on her face disappearing as she started to look a little worried herself. "Are you sure you're alright with this? You can just fly with me if you are, you seem kind of freaked out."
Ite was hardly ever this nervous about anything; Nara was the one who always fretted and followed her around like a mother hen. She almost wondered if something was going on that he wasn't telling her, or maybe sensed something that was making him uneasy. It didn't feel as if anything was different or wrong though. She wondered where this sudden burst of anxiety had come from on his end.
Ite opened and closed his mouth in indecision, watching her face to try and gauge how she really felt about the situation. He almost wanted to take her up on the offer, but at the same time, knew she was going to have to start flying on her own soon. She wasn't a child anymore, and his original suggestion to her flying by herself was to test her independence without Nara getting in the way. He didn't like going behind his sister's back, but in his opinion, her constant hovering was starting to get in the way of Hana's growth. She needed space to really learn how to some things. The unexplicable panic he was experiencing was throwing him off, and he took a moment to close his eyes and take a deep breath before answering her. He was getting worked up for no reason.
"No, it's… It's alright, really." he said, giving her a strained smile. "I think I'm just getting a taste of what Nara probably thinks when you run off on your own. I guess someone has to freak out for her when she's not around to do it, y'know? "
Hana giggled, unable to stop herself from laughing at the comparison. It made him smile more confidently, the action less strained on his face.
"I really do want you to do this on your own," he continued. "We can't always be with you, and it needs to start at some point. It'll be harder with Nara around, so we need to take this chance while we've got it. It's just tough letting you go..." He reached to straighten her sash, smoothing the wrinkles and making sure the Gracidea flower was secured.
Hana stood still, and let him fuss over her. "No, I get it, it's okay," she said. "I mean, yeah, flying solo is really dangerous, so it's okay if you worry, but you taught me everything and then some. I think I'll be alright." She took her glasses off, and swapped them out for a pair of goggles, tucking her glasses deep within her coat. "And if anything happens, I'll find a place to land and call you. Just like you taught me."
Ite finally let out a breath of relief, happy to hear something so sober from her. Hana was bright, optimistic, and an horribly opportunistic prankster, but could surprise him and his sister with her good judgment. Her instincts had yet to lead her wrong, and he could feel an inkling of pride start in him at how she voiced her good decisions before she left.
"That's my girl," he said, trying not to beam too much at her.
She flashed Ite a huge smile. "See you soon!" she said, and then took a running start off the summit.
She took off, leaping into the air, and zooming away into the sky. Ite stood and watched until she became a red speck in the sky. After five minutes of looking at the empty blue sky, he headed back into the house.
He almost wished he had some magic way of watching her fly, to make sure she would be fine. Instead, he would have to occupy himself with making dinner to try and calm his active mind and check his phone every two minutes even though it wasn't on silent. He had to have faith in her, and this was how it would have to start. With a lot of second guessing, half-realized panic, and the faint warmth of pride that he and his sister had been able to raise such a smart young lady. If Nara didn't kill him, or ground Hana forever, the next step would be including her with these things. It would be alright.
About forty minutes later, when he had finished chopping all the vegetables for the stew and was contemplating calling Hana to make sure she had gotten to the temple, he thought he heard the screech of brakes being applied way too soon outside the house. Before he could even look out a window to check, someone was banging on the front door.
He quickly opened it to find a breathless togekiss and Nefertiti looking as if she had seen a ghost. The luxray's truck was still running in the front yard.
"We've got a problem!" she gasped. "Where's Nara and Hana?!"
Nara took a deep breath as she exited the Chamber of Time, walking out into the quiet, dimly lit hallway of the temple, having decided to attend to her duties instead of deep cleaning the main prayer room like she had originally intended. Something had begun tugging on her, the urge stronger each time she tried to ignore it and start cleaning, and pushed her towards the chamber with a growing sense of anxiety. She hadn't found anything unusual in her meditations though; the flow of time was progressing forward like it always had. The small patches of unknown drifted around in their usual spots. She had been surprised to see that one had shifted abruptly to the present when it had been far away in the distant future the last time she had checked, which did worry her a little. The world didn't seem as if it was falling apart around her though even if she could feel part of her brain insisting that it was.
She searched through her robes as she walked, feeling through the thick fabric to locate her phone and call Ite and ask him to check the news, or call Nerfertiti to see if anything was going on that they weren't aware of yet. The last bit of unknown space and time that had suddenly moved forward had been when the ancient Kyogre and Groudon had awoken all by themselves in Hoenn, and the last thing they needed was another potential disaster so soon. If more and more legendaries kept having hissy fits like they were, she wasn't sure how long the rest of the mundane world was going to put up with it. There was only so much chaos regular people could take.
She finally found her phone at the same time she walked into the main hallway. She shivered as a blast of cold air shot past her, making her pause for a moment in confusion. The only way the cold from outside could get in would be if someone had walked into the temple. The doors were bolted shut, and Tyga and Larry would have met her outside the chamber if they had met someone outside.
She hurried down the hall, passing the thick wooden columns that lined the main hallway.
She saw the glint of pale blue and silver armor between the columns, and felt her stomach drop. Nara ran into the entry hall, and stopped short as she looked down at the guards, the two massive mamoswine who had withstood blizzards and arctic blasts to protect and look after the temple, flung across the floor like broken toys. Snow had started to creep into the hall, delicate strings floating over the floor and around whoever was standing directly in front of the dying light of the setting sun.
Nara shaded her eyes, gripping her phone with a determined strength not to lose it if she had to run and call for help. Ite could be there in an instant to help her apprehend whoever had the strength to knock out the guards. She squinted, trying to make out more then the glint of golden hair that floated in the door.
The phone dropped from her hand, her breath catching in her throat as red eyes, just like hers, looked up from staring at the fallen guards. Nara trembled where she stood, trying to find her voice as her sister stared at her from a spot she had thought she would never see her in again.
"Y… Yumi..."
She almost choked on the whisper, taking a step forward. She blinked, trying to fight the tears that wanted to come, and raised her arms without thinking, as if to grab her and make sure she was real. It broke her heart to see her beautiful sister as she was now; dirty, dressed in rags and face as cold as the snow around her bare feet. She remembered her as radiant, hair gleaming as to rival the sun, and red eyes sparkling with intelligence. What stood in the door was a ragged shadow.
"Is that really you, Yumi?" she said, almost afraid to believe it. The woman in front of her flinched at the sound of her name. Nara waited to see what she would do, the shock slowly wearing off, and replaced by wariness.
"Did you forget me so quickly?" Yumi's voice was sharp and cold, cutting all the hopeful feelings out of her. There was nothing in it except anger, and Nara suddenly thought that dropping her phone may have been a very bad idea.
The memories were coming back, being dug up by the look of contempt on her older sister's face. Yumi broke her stare to look at the columns, running a hand down the polished wood.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you did, you were so young after all…" she continued, stepping further into the temple. Her face changed as she looked up into the rafters, expression softening as her hand slipped from the column. She walked over the guard like a pile of rotting wood.
"This place hasn't changed at all…"
"Why are you here?"
Nara had backed away to where she had originally been, trying to carefully edge herself close enough to swipe up her phone and run.
Yumi turned her gaze back towards her, her eyes smoldering like coals in the dark. The sun had slipped behind the mountain range, the temple going dark except for a few lone candles placed in holders about the entry way. Nara was trying to think of ways to flood the temple with light; Yumi had always had a hard time with dealing with bright places after dark. She was suddenly grateful for the barrage of candles that were placed in the entry room behind her.
She didn't want to admit to herself that she was having to use all the things she remembered her sister hated to try and protect herself. She didn't want to be doing this, not to Yumi. She could feel the need to fight, the instinct to lash out first to protect herself deep down inside her, but the overwhelming sense of guilt was eating it up.
"I live here," Yumi said, starting to advance down the hall at an intimidating pace. Nara continued to backpedal. "Or did you forget that too?"
Nara sucked in a shaky breath, holding back tears again. "Yumi, please-"
"PLEASE?!"
Yumi finally erupted, the dam holding back her rage bursting at her younger sister's plea. It was her turn to flinch, remembering the way she had screamed as their mother passed judgment on her older sister. Her own pleas, begging and crying, falling on deaf ears. She had pressed the memories down deep, buried under the thousands of years she had been alive, and trying to forget there had once been three of them, not just two.
"DON'T YOU SAY THAT TO ME!" the Giratina roared. The temple groaned, the columns creeking as her presence became heavy, her anger pressing down on everything around her.
"HOW LONG DID SHE MAKE ME BEG?! HOW LONG DID YOU JUST STAND THERE, DOING NOTHING?! HOW LONG?!"
"I was a child!" Nara protested, finally stopping and standing her ground. She stood at the end of the hall, blocking the way into the main room. The candles flickered weakly around her.
"SO WAS I!" Yumi stopped in the middle of the hall, teeth bared in a snarl.
Nara braced herself for the worst, spreading her feet to at least give herself a small chance.
When it came to Ite, she would fight him tooth and nail, but when faced with her older sister, she would rather she let her tear her to pieces. It was what she and Ite deserved after abandoning her to the will of their mother.
"Yumi-! Don't do this! I don't want to fight you!" She begged again, hoping that she could see the pain on her face.
If she did, the blind hatred in her eyes didn't reflect it. The temple groaned again, the shadows stretching towards her sister and widening the hallway with the darkness.
"Neither would I!"
The snarl started in front of her and swung around to the side of her face, and Nara barely ducked the swipe of claws coming out of the darkness at her. Yumi had disappeared from the hallway, the shadows writhing across the floor, and had jumped out next to her. Nara grabbed her phone up from the ground, and ran, fleeing from the entrance hall. She could feel the shadows grabbing at her ankles as she tried to hit the right buttons to get a hold of Ite. She skidded around one of the heavy oak columns, grabbing a hold of it and swinging herself around, and barely avoided the rush of darkness careening into her. Yumi crashed into the line of candles that welcomed people into the temple with a screech of pain, batting at her clothes to stop any flames and dash hot wax off of her skin. Nara took that as her cue to run towards the inner parts of the temple.
If she could get back to the Chamber of Time, she could barricade herself in using the wards. The room was only meant for her; Yumi could rage and tear the temple down from the column up but she would never be able to break through the doors.
"NAAAAARAAAAA!"
She felt her heart jump into her throat at the enraged howl. Nara put the phone to her ear, racing through the halls and turning lights on as she went. The only thing that could stop her sister besides her speed was light. She could hear the Giratina tearing after her, the ringing of Ite's phone on the other barely audible over the popping of lightbulbs and the crash of wood being ripped apart.
Nara dove around another corner, running towards the room at the other end of the hall. She could see the pale blue light of the time flow peeking out from underneath the double doors. She just had to get there, and everything would be fine, it would be alright. The phone finally clicked on the other end.
"Ite-!"
"You know what to do! BEEP!"
"MOTHER-! ITE, YOU ASS, ANSWER YOUR DAMN PHONE- AH-!"
Claws sank themselves into her ankles, and she was yanked backwards, phone clattering to the floor. She struggled to stop herself, hands glowing blue as she summoned daggers, and stabbed them into the floor. She held onto them with all her might for one terrifying second as the claws pulled with monster strength, feeling like they'd rather rip her feet off then let go. They suddenly stopped, only for Yumi to appear in front of her, the hall darkening as her shadows swarmed the end of it.
Nara scrambled to get up, but her sister grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face into the floor. The daggers fell from her hands as Yumi dragged her up onto her feet, only to punch her back down. She kicked her across the floor with a snarl before descending on her again.
"FOR FIVE THOUSAND YEARS, I WAS TRAPPED IN THAT HELLHOLE!" she roared, kicking and hitting her all the way to the opposite end of the hall. She moved too fast for Nara to even think about reacting; their difference in speed had completely changed.
She picked her sister up by the front of her robe, and slammed her into the wall, lifting her to eye level. Nara peered at her, blood flowing freely from her face. One of her eyes had already started to swell shut. If Yumi was feeling any pity towards her, she couldn't see it at all, and she doubted she ever would.
"Do you want to know what it was like there?" Yumi hissed, her grip on her robe tightened so the fabric started to twist around her throat. Her red eyes shot straight through her, teeth bared.
"There's no air. No light. Nothing but an endless void of destruction."
She slammed her hand against the space next to her head, the shadows around them suddenly gathering underneath it and twisting into a wavering pool in the wood. Yumi leaned in, nose nearly touching her beaten sister's.
"The only thing you can do is think about how it all went wrong!"
Nara choked, trying to suck in a breath of terror as she recognized the mass of wriggling black that shined on the surface like a dark lake under her sister's free hand. Her sense of survival came roaring back to life, and she struggled against the arm that held her above the floor, kicking and clawing at Yumi's grip. She could hear her phone buzzing somewhere down the hall.
"LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!"
Yumi lifted her up over the blackhole. Nara sank her teeth into her wrist, but the only thing it seemed to do was make her tighten her grip. She could feel the cold biting into her back, the darkness yawning wide open behind her. The ends of her hair started to freeze.
"Nara!"
The world froze at the sound of another person's voice. Nara looked beyond her sister and saw Hana in her flying gear, apprehensive and confused, looking like she was going to make a run for it at any second. The fear she had felt for her own life was nothing compared to the terror that struck her now.
"HANA RUN!"
Nara lunged forward, trying to grab her sister's face, trying to grab anything, hands glowing blue with power. But it was too late. Yumi had turned to look at who had spoken at the same time Nara had, and promptly dropped her sister. Nara crumpled despite herself, still clawing at her sister, and threw herself forward to try and grab her legs. Her broken body rebelled against her will, making her slow and hiss with pain.
Hana watched as the woman with the golden hair suddenly disappeared, vanishing in a strange dark smoke, and then reappeared inches away from her. She gasped, frozen where she was as she looked up at red eyes that looked just like Ite's and Nara, but were cold and far away like stars. She wanted to move, to run like Nara had screamed for her to do, as the woman bent down to look into her face. Her black and red eyes were wide, like she couldn't believe what she was seeing, and then glimmered with… It almost looked like pain, like it hurt to look at her. Hana could feel her heart hammering in her chest as they stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, the pain in the other woman's eyes softening into something else. The numb feeling in her legs that had started when she had first looked at her began to ebb.
Hana jumped as the woman lifted a hand, and barely touched her face, her cold fingers grazing against her cheek.
"I thought you were all gone…" she whispered, and Hana's chest twisted at the pain and gratitude in her voice, completely different from the rage she had seen earlier. Who was this woman?
Footsteps coming from the entrance of the temple broke the spell, the woman's head snapping up and everything Hana had just seen on her face disappearing in an instant, replaced by anger and fear. She vanished again, melting into black smoke, and leaving Hana staring at an empty space where she had been. She stood there for a moment, trying to understand what had just happened, until she noticed Nara struggling to get up from the floor.
"Nara!" She gasped, running to her. She slipped on the floor, catching herself on the wall, and looked down. The dark, hardwood floor was slick with blood. Hana looked up to her guardian, fear turning over in her gut as she saw her face, her nose dripping profusely and the small patches of unbroken skin starting to turn shades of red. Nara tried to let go of the wall, attempting to move on her own, but stumbled. Hana caught her, trying to hold her upright as best as she could.
"Nara, are you okay? Who was that? What on earth happened here?!" She burst out, unable to stop herself.
She looked back down the hall, and saw Ite running towards them, followed by Nefertiti and a rather winded looking togekiss. Nara finally straightened herself up, trying to gently lean on her for support and looked at her with exhausted eyes.
"That was my sister."