should really copy and paste the note at this point but this fic has little sketches to go along with it. to see them, go to my tumblr (golby-moon) or read the ao3 version of this fic under the same name, which has the images embedded right into the fic
(3,917 words)
Something changes after that. A lot of the joy of the journey, already greatly lessened since Cas' disappearance, is gone, a weird foreboding emptiness in its place. Dean can't stop thinking about what Naomi said, about how she knows not only who Cas is, but also where Cas is when nobody else does, when the chances of finding Cas seem to get smaller and smaller by the day.
From her words, he can only guess Cas is in the Ultra Space or wherever Naomi and Crowley disappeared to, but the only one able to even open wormholes is Jack, and, well… And anyway, Dean's not exactly jumping to trust her or anything, considering she's done nothing but lie and try to manipulate them since they met her. Also that whole thing where she thinks Cas isn't capable of love or whatever was just…weird; he might not be the most openly emotional guy, but that doesn't mean Cas doesn't feel stuff.
The whole thing leaves a bad taste in Dean's mouth, but there's not much they can really do about it beyond continuing to press forward. Before they left Ethereal Paradise, Anna caught up to them to give them a flute with a little sun on it and told them that when both the Sun Flute and the Moon Flute are played together, they can call some Legendary Pokemon, but only on the top of the Altar of the Sunne.
Sam's a nerd about the whole thing, of course (Dean would think he's sick or something if he weren't geeking out), but Dean can only think about Cas and his safety. When he's not thinking about Cas, he's thinking about Jack, who has yet to move or make a sound since he changed forms. Jack's tucked safely in the bag beside Pyukumuku and Ribombee again, the pair watching over Jack the way Cas used to watch over Dean himself before he was kidnapped.
(Turns out Jack is really heavy in this form, though he can sort of be…pushed around in the air and will be light as a feather. Trying to actually pick him up and hold him, however, is all but impossible without something to transport him in, like he's nothing more than a freshly hatched Goldeen given away in a plastic bag.)
It's…hard, just moving forward without Cas, not really knowing where he is and having less of a clue how to get there. Dean misses Cas more and more by the hour as anything and everything he sees reminds him of the dorky little guy that's become his best friend over the years. With this time alone has come some revelations, and Dean resolves that if…no, when he gets Cas back, he's gonna tell him how he feels.
Until then, he…he endures and tries to focus on the task at hand, hoping the Legendary Pokemon they're supposed to be summoning will be able to yank somebody out of the Ultra Space when they really have no idea what Pokemon they'll even be summoning, which is just the perfect recipe for disaster.
Who knows? Maybe if they get screwed over badly enough, Jack will wake up long enough to teleport them away, just like old times…
They go to Poni Island via boat in which Sam obsesses over the Moon Flute, which Anna said is from Exeggutor Island, where all sorts of super tall Exeggutor who have gained a Dragon typing alongside a long neck live. Dean, for one, is glad they don't have to make a stop there, though they do quickly run through the trials on Poni Island, if only to bulk up a little more before they summon the Legendary Pokemon.
By the time they finally get through all the trials and are on their way to the Altar, Dean's more than ready to just stop somewhere to get his four hours in. Of course, this is when they're jumped by a bunch of Team Smoke grunts, who look pretty spooked about something even through their battles and petty threats to find out where Crowley is, each unbelieving when they say Crowley jumped through a magic portal to an alternative dimension and has since disappeared.
"Guys, for the hundredth time, we have no idea where your ringleader is," Dean snaps to the, like, twenty grunts surrounding them, each asking the same few questions on replay. It's beyond annoying, especially considering he and Sam had already defeated them all and they still won't go away. "You want answers, go raid Ethereal Paradise."
Sam shoots him a look for that, but Dean ignores it. As far as he's concerned, Ethereal Paradise isn't worth the space it takes up, not if it purposefully exploits Pokemon while pretending to be a sanctuary for them. Not if it's responsible for taking Cas away.
Three of the grunts simultaneously open their mouths, but before anyone can say anything, none other than Meg comes up, a Bisharp at her side. "All right, that's enough. I'll take it from here."
One of the grunts scoffs. "Great, the traitor is here to save us all."
"You don't even like Crowley," another says.
"Does anyone?"
"Who needs Crowley, anyway?" a grunt with flaming red hair asks. "He's gone, so that means the throne's open, and I have my heart set on it."
"Ah, go to Helltown, Abaddon," Meg replies. "Crowley's only useful because he knows Bobby and Bobby knows Rufus, which means less cops snooping around Helltown."
Sam and Dean exchange a look and Sam asks, "Bobby knows Crowley?"
"More than that—Crowley has a picture of him and Bobby kissing," one of the grunts informs with a wicked grin. "That's the ammo of the century right there."
Dean grimaces, hoping someone was very drunk when that happened. Either way, that does explain why Rufus doesn't want to lift a finger as far as flushing Team Smoke out of the area goes. He can't help but wonder if Rufus knows, or if Bobby just threatened him with one thing or another to keep anything from happening to Team Smoke, as per Crowley's agenda. Crowley said he's into sales, but Dean didn't think he meant selling other people's secrets and blackmailing whatever poor bastard he gets his claws into.
"Meg, since you're pretending you're sane," (Sam shoots him a bitchface for that one), "could you please tell your little swarm of flies to go pound salt? We're kind of busy here."
"Sure. As soon as you tell us where Crowley went," Meg returns easily. "Crowley may be incompetent, but it's only a matter of time before word gets out that he's missing, and Lilith didn't have any of the same perks."
"Look, just like we told your goons about two hundred times, we don't know where he is. He went to Ethereal Paradise, jumped in this weird wormhole, and disappeared with Naomi." He raises his eyebrows and gestures for her to move. "Can we go now?"
"I still say he's lying," one of the grunts mutters.
"If I was lying, don't you think I'd come up with a story that actually makes sense?" No one says anything, so Dean scowls. "Fine, you caught me. Crowley's actually making out with Bobby right now and I wanted to give them some privacy."
Sam gawks at him, but strangely enough, that seems to pacify the grunts, who look more disgusted than pissed now. A few more falsified details that make Dean himself puke in his mouth scares off most of the grunts, though Meg still lingers all annoyingly casually, even daring to try to pet Sam's Lycanroc, who quickly growls at her and makes her hand freeze midair as she reconsiders.
"So, you here to stop us, too?"
Meg scoffs. "Please. You have far too many Fire types for my comfort." Behind her, Bisharp shifts uncomfortably, eyeing Salandit, who's on Dean's shoulder and wastes no time in zeroing in on the Bisharp and licking its chops. "I'm just here to ask that you bring that miserable moron back before Rufus gets on us."
"Oh, is that all?"
Sam elbows him and cuts in with a nod. "How about this: you call off Team Smoke and we'll see what we can do?"
"Like I can control those morons," Meg replies, which is about as close to an agreement as one can get from her. Either way, she gets the rest of the Team Smoke grunts to move out of the way already, so Dean's more or less satisfied.
When they're finally on their merry way to the Altar, Sam clears his throat. "So…Crowley and Bobby?"
Dean grimaces. "Dude, please, I'm trying to keep my lunch down."
"I mean, yeah, me too." It's quiet for all of five blissful seconds before Sam says, "I wonder how that might've happened, though. Do you think Bobby knew who Crowley was? Or maybe they were drunk or something?"
"Why are we discussing this?"
"Aren't you curious?"
"Not that curious!"
Yeah, it's a long walk, and that's before they get to the massive staircase that climbs up into the sky where they're supposedly supposed to play the flutes. At the top of the stairs, Dean can feel the strong sun beating down on the back of his neck, like it personally dropped down a few inches from the sky just to cook him alive, which may or may not be a good thing in this case since this is the Altar of the Sunne.
Either way, he and Sam stand on the centerpiece side by side as Sam hands him the Sun Flute, making him frown. "Uh…am I supposed to know how to play this thing?"
"I don't know. I watched some videos of how to play a flute online, but I don't think we have to play it…well, necessarily," Sam explains, holding the Moon Flute. "I don't think we're even supposed to play a specific song. Just the sound is supposed to summon the Legendary Pokemon."
"That's another thing—just what is this Legendary Pokemon, anyway? Is it closer to Arceus or Bidoof?"
"That…wasn't specified either."
Dean shifts uncomfortably, not liking all the unknowns here, but trusts Sam enough to lift the Sun Flute up to his mouth when Sam goes to play the Moon Flute. Neither of them have even touched a flute before, but somehow, they both instinctively play the same song in perfect sync, the song even sounding…pretty good.
When the song ends, nothing immediately happens, and Sam has them stand on the weird platforms in the water and try again. Just like before, the song that comes out isn't half bad, but when they finish this time, the ground immediately starts shaking and water goes from the area around their platforms up the stone mural above them, looping around and making the giant sun in the middle light up.
A rainbow-colored beam spits out the center of the sun in a way that reminds Dean of the move Aurora Beam, though he can only really pay attention to that for about two seconds before his bag starts moving. He holds onto it more tightly, trying to comfort the Pokemon inside despite having no clue what's happening, and that's when Jack comes flying out and circles around the rainbow beam before bursting into an array of colors himself.
It takes Dean far too long to realize Jack's evolving, but in his defense, evolution is usually a bit more…subdued, for which he's glad because he thinks he would've popped an aneurysm by now if all of his Pokemon evolved like this. Jack, ignorant of everyone's panic, just drops to the ground in a new form not unlike a Pyroar, though Dean instinctively knows Jack's powers go way beyond a Pyroar's.
Jack, instead of running off now that he's…massive and able to move again, stands there and waits for him and Sam to approach. "Jack?" Sam calls quietly, and Dean watches as Jack wastes no time in nuzzling into Sam's tentatively outstretched hand.
"Man. Cas wasn't kidding when he said you were special, huh?" Dean mutters, carefully reaching towards Jack's huge eight-pointed mane, smiling when Jack presses into his hand. "What are you, anyway?"
"Solgaleo!" Jack roars out almost in response, making Dean wonder not for the first time how much human speech Jack understands. It's…admittedly kind of weird to think of Jack as being all that brainy, especially when he's got his tongue sticking out like that.
Sam's face does that thing it does when he thinks something is interesting. "Solgaleo? That's— Is Jack the Legendary Pokemon?"
Dean stares at Jack for a long moment, taking in all of his new form's huge mane and strong body and…dopey expression, before he shrugs. "Looks like he's still just Jack to me."
"Sol!"
"Hey, uh, Jack?" The Solgaleo's massive head turns to him, and Dean does his best not to waver, hoping Jack can still be bribed with nougat. "Might not be a great time to ask, but could you take us to that Ultra Space thing everybody's talking about? Apparently, the Legendary Pokemon is supposed to be able to do that, and, well…"
Jack tilts his head a little, and Dean's heart physically aches with how much the small movement reminds him of Cas, who he misses more and more by the hour. The idea that Cas is even within reach is almost too much to think about, but at the same time, the idea that they finally have a way to possibly get Cas back…
Dean steels himself and finishes in a harsh whisper, "Cas is in the Ultra Space, and I can't do this without him. I need to get him back. And if there's any possibility that you're the one that can do that, please try, Jack."
His voice cracks at multiple points in his request and he can't even remember the last time he unironically used the word 'please,' but Dean doesn't even care, not when Jack stands and straightens and shakes out his fur before facing the giant stone sun mural above them, his eyes and the galaxies within them falling closed.
Before they can do much more than stand and watch Jack concentrate on the sun mural, a huge Ultra Wormhole opens in front of them and out falls Crowley, looking pale and spooked despite being unconscious. Following Crowley out is another one of those white jellyfish-like Pokemon like Dean had seen back at Ethereal Paradise.
Dean instinctively flinches back, and that's before the jellyfish Pokemon comes towards him and spontaneously changes from a Pokemon to Naomi, her form flickering back into something human as she says, "You boys need to run. There's something in there, something beyond our understanding. It's a monster!"
"Hey, no offense, but you're not exactly in the best light yourself right now," Dean replies, edging on hysterical. "What the hell did you just do?"
"There's no time for that," Naomi hisses. "You should be worrying about—"
A loud grinding growl of a call cuts her off, and suddenly, something huge and dark and…geometric is shimmying out of the Ultra Wormhole like one of those 'proof Meowth are liquid' videos, only a whole lot less objectively cute and really kind of terrifying. If Crowley and whatever the hell Naomi is falling from the wormhole freaked him out, this thing just gave him a freakin' heart attack.
"Necrozma," Naomi breathes, though Dean barely hears her.
Its…eyes seem to zero in on Jack immediately, making Dean grit his teeth, though any attempt to step in front of the Legendary Pokemon is more or less rebuffed as Jack seems intent on protecting them for a change. Dean huffs in frustration and looks to Sam for backup, only to see him uneasily having Lycanroc drag Crowley's unconscious body away by the collar, Naomi having apparently disappeared sometime between her weird warning and this spiky…thing appearing.
"What the hell?" he mutters, feeling somewhat abandoned, only to startle when the weird spiky Pokemon comes hurtling forward and Jack jumps up to dig his claws into its ugly, geometric face. "Jack!"
Maybe he should feel embarrassed about his outburst, as Jack's clearly pretty strong if the way he's volleying attack after attack and meeting hit for hit is anything to go by. But he just feels dangerously protective, anxious as he watches the fight carry on in the air before they go up and up and up—
—and something slams down on the stone between him and Sam, bringing a huge cloud of dust up from the newly cracked stone, and there's probably some sort of law they just committed by breaking a sacred Alolan artifact-place or something, but Dean can't even think about that as his eyes frantically trace the sight before him.
That weird sharp-edged Pokemon is clinging to every available inch of Jack, its claws digging into Jack's head and back, pushing harder and harder and deeper and deeper until there's a huge burst of light and suddenly, Jack's even bigger than before with huge dark claws coming out either side of his…back(?) and spikes jutting up everywhere and he's also weirdly yellow now for some reason and Dean's just…
He's pretty sure he blacks out for a second, somewhere in between the fused Pokemon turning to look at them and dozens of Ultra Wormholes springing up out of nowhere and forming in bursts of light like fireworks, only a whole lot less enjoyable and fun and everything. No, this is pretty terrifying, and the dark, unfamiliar look in not-Jack's eyes isn't helping things.
"What the hell?" he whispers, nervous eyes jumping from one unknown to another, ultimately settling on Sam, whose hands are already inching towards a PokeBall. Instead of trying to catch Jack, however, as Dean's 90% sure Cas never caught him, Sam calls out Growlithe. "Dude, what are you doing?"
"It's part Steel type," Sam simply replies, making Dean blink.
"Fire and Steel?"
"No, Psychic and Steel."
"Wait, why? It's supposed to represent the sun, isn't it?" Dean asks incredulously, but Sam just shrugs, making him frown. Since Jack and his parasitic friend with all the jagged edges starts attacking, Dean takes his brother's word for it and sends out Marowak. "What's the plan?"
"Hit it and hope it lets Jack go?"
Dean's lips thin, expression solemn, but he reluctantly accepts Sam's plan. Together, they unleash attack after attack on Solgaleo/Necrozma until the fused Pokemon staggers, clearly on the brink of fainting. Sam throws a PokeBall, but it bounces right off the Pokemon, eliminating that particular thread of hope (though really, Dean's not sure if Necrozma would be trapped in the same PokeBall or if it'd just…peel off like an aged sticker and start wreaking havoc again, so maybe it's for the best that that didn't work).
Before they can try any other bright ideas, Salandit, who switched in after Marowak fainted, lashes out when the fused Pokemon gets too close and makes Solgaleo/Necrozma faint. Or at least, it looks like it faints, though it only drops for a second before standing back up and growling into the air, loud enough to have everyone in the surrounding area slamming their hands over their ears.
Dark waves of…something come off of the Pokemon, almost fluid in how they seem to surround the Pokemon's body before branching out and infecting the air around them. The sky blackens more and more by the second as Solgaleo/Necrozma melts into the ground through another Ultra Wormhole, disappearing before their eyes.
Within seconds, it's over, the only evidence anything happened at all being the once-blue sky now marred a sickly dark grey, like it's about to thunderstorm when it had just been sunny less than a minute ago.
"What just happened?" Sam whispers, and for the first time, Dean doesn't have an answer. He can only stare at the spot Jack had just disappeared, feeling like in some way, he's losing Cas all over again.
He was supposed to protect Jack. That had been what could be Cas' dying wish, and he failed, and now Jack is being hijacked by some spiky Pokemon nobody's ever even heard of before (except Naomi, apparently, but they can't trust her anyway) and Dean…Dean doesn't have a clue what to do about any of it. He doesn't even know what he'd tell Cas if he were here, if their only way of getting to him hadn't just vanished into the ground a minute ago.
"Well, if you boys are done wallowing, I believe you have a rampant Pokemon to catch," Crowley pipes up, standing there calmly like he hadn't just been conked out and/or hiding away from all of the action.
Dean bristles, spitting out, "What's it to you?"
"I think it's in my best interest if all of Alola isn't destroyed by a giant ball of energy-absorbing hatred," comes Crowley's sharp reply, and maybe he is being honest, but between his usual lying and the fact that he apparently works hand-in-hand with Naomi, Dean's not exactly rushing to trust him. "Is that a good enough answer for you, Skwovet? Can we get back to how to stop these things?"
Skwovet? He does not look like a Skwovet. Maybe something cool, like a Garchomp or something, if he had to choose… "Yeah, sure. And we go about that how?"
"Well, obviously, you and Stantler here need to go find sun's incarnate and have it bring you to wherever Lucifer sulked off to—preferably before the entire region is plunged into eternal darkness."
"Lucifer?" Sam repeats slowly. "You mean, uh, Necrozma?"
"And what makes you think that thing isn't still fused to Jack?"
Crowley rolls his eyes. "Please. 'Jack' is nothing but a battery to Lucifer, and creating a wormhole into another world probably used all that energy up." Sam and Dean exchange a look, both equally confused about…whatever it is that Crowley's trying to say. Finally, the leader of Team Smoke snaps, "Go to the Lake of the Moone, on Ula'ula Island. Surely you two can't screw that up, can you?"
After imparting his weird words of wisdom, Crowley storms off, hopefully off to go deal with his very annoying underlings in Team Smoke, as they really are nothing but a pain in the ass. With any luck, word of Crowley's absence already got around and Bobby revoked whatever's stopping Rufus from wiping Team Smoke off the map once and for all.
Until then, with nothing else to go on, they head to Poni Island's beach, where they Mantine Surf (Dean with his own Mantine and Sam with a rental, though Dean can't help but wonder what kind of a nut decided to keep the Mantine Surf business up and running with all the recent events) to Ula'ula Beach. He enjoys the surfing, but his mind is still clouded with worry about Cas, Jack, and now all of Alola, which definitely takes some of the joy out of it.
It's…probably night by that point, though it's kind of hard to tell since the entire world is dark now, so they stop and rest for the night. Dean spends most of the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep as visions about the entire world ending decide to play in his head like some sort of post-apocalyptic horror movie.
He doesn't know what the future holds, but he can only hope that it won't be anything like his dreams—just like he can only hope Cas is a part of it.