Surprised nobody’s said this yet. Imagine going into the Mega Darkrai fight and pulling out the trusty leaf whistle and playing Oracion from The Rise of Darkrai on it in front of it. In this essay I will break every last one of you with this thought.
Actually it felt wrong just to leave it at that.
It’s probably not easy to get a moment to start with it likely thrashing and attacking about, right? But should you find one moment where you have an opening, you begin to play the tune. A story you heard from many moons ago told you that this song was used to quell ancient legendary Pokemon from ravage. You remember hearing about a sacrificial hero in Darkrai who bought time for the song to be used. Maybe the battle has turned out to be much more than you could have possibly prepared for, what with its first “phase” of the fight wearing you and your teammate’s pokemon down considerably.
Much like how Oracion means “prayer”, and you have to wonder if that’s in a tongue you don’t know, you’re praying for a miracle. To save yourself, your teammates, and to save Darkrai.
You bank on a chance you’ve been given with no guarantee. The notes play themselves, like there’s an instinct you have to recall the song. Even your teammates look at you. The gaze saying they not only know what you’re doing, but think you’re crazy for doing it. This isn’t a movie you can break into song about. And that’s why Oracion is special. Because it’s not a movie. It’s real magic. A carefully concocted melody with all the right frequencies to hit even the most enraged of legendaries once deaf ears.
What does the Darkrai do? It… flinches. The Mega Evolved behemoth of a Pokémon’s once trembling body, for the first time since the beginning of the trifle, stiffens. It locks up once the song is audible to its own ears. And a dream world does not care what is logical. Like clockwork, it makes its own rules. The melody ripples through the dark, boreal sky like a speaker. The once shrill sounds of the odd air fading. All there is is you, a song, a Darkrai, and a prayer you’re begging not to be proven stupid for believing in.
You don’t know if it’s stopped because it’s listening, or because you’re the new target. But you don’t stop. Your better judgement is telling you it’s not true. Then again, this is still all a nightmare and nothing of a nightmare is supposed to be logical.
And as you play, the Rogue Mega Darkrai closes in. Its tendrils undulate, tilting back with its motions as it comes closer. But rather than, say, ramming you like the idiot you are, or blasting you to sleep… it’s tall body arches above you. It’s ever glowing gaze of it’s eldritch eye piercing like a blinding light in a dark night. It doesn’t move once it stares down your direction. Is it debating? Judging? Listening?
Have your prayers actually been answered?
The bright hot pink glow is the only illumination over you in the dark husk of a Newmoon Nightmare. It focuses you not like a laser, but a spotlight. But as you play the song, the pink hues fade, darkening. The true head of the beast emerges as the collar opens up. The tangled legs unravel and its tendrils drop with a slow drift. There is no malice in its expression. It focuses on you. On your song. And in the wake of what was sure to be a demise for everyone in this clearing with you tonight, the fates rewrite themselves.
The Rogue Mega Darkrai hears your prayer. And you notice tears well. Its body convulses lightly with the first cry, a frightened trill escaping. The pain of its state has not eased, but its mind is not aggressive. Like a pied piper to a small child, you’ve poised it. And rather than throw it in a river, you’ve thrown it a rope.
Tears swell under its eye, each fallen drip rippling in the thin layer of damp over the gravel you stand on. The undulating tendrils, once slumped, circle you in a contactless embrace once its body settles into the ground alongside you. It no longer stands above you. It sits at your level, now one-to-one.
Once the song meets its end, it remains low and at your front. Its mindlessly petrified eye doesn’t once turn away. Soft sounds like hiccups escape it. The hypnotically iridescent sheen of mega evolution shines brighter with trust than rage. The Darkrai, once isolated and crying out for a voice, finally assured that a response was always awaiting it. It just… took some time to get here.
You stuff the leaf into your satchel, looking back at the beast beyond your front. With a heavy heart you approach, placing a palm against the creature’s forehead. The Rogue Mega Darkrai’s eye closes. You swear you feel it shift like it’s pressing itself closer into your hand— into its savior’s hand. Your team stays back, hesitant to make any sudden movements.
And then, the most relieving sight imaginable. The energy that once plagued it, once tore it apart from the inside out, the mega energy, simmers down, slowly dissolving away until the Darkrai shrinks. Weakened as it begins to descent back into itself, it collapses to the dirt against the typically hidden stilt-like legs. But your hand goes down with it as its arms only have the strength to pull your hand like it’s quietly begging you not to take your hand away from it. The touch it’s afraid to lose, lest it remember this is just a dream, too.
You kneel down to the Darkrai. Maybe it can’t do much more than weep. But between its gracious cries of relief and humiliation, words are discernible.
“…Th…a…nk… you…”
Maybe you’re not the one who was praying for Darkrai to listen. Maybe Darkrai was the one praying for you to hear.
