#lavaridge

[juxtaposedpunk]

[gym-leaders-in-the-making-blog]

Finally! I made it to Fallarbor. I found the Move Tutor. I have a spare Heartscale. Ezri finally can learn Magical Leaf!

Or so I thought. It's not on the list of moves she can relearn... But my Dex App told me, Kirlia were able to learn Magical Leaf in Gen 3.

Take a closer look to a website.

Are you kidding me?! This only is true for Fire Red and Leaf Green!? Not Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald!?

And to think I made Ezri wait to level up, wait to evolve! Fuck this crap, man. Get wrecked, Seviper.

On a funnier side note, Kirlia goes from Confusion directly to Psychic. No Psybeam inbetween.

I even encountered one of these. It was tempting, since it was a psychic type with ground immunity, but my team was pretty much layed out by then and neither Solrock nor Lunatone were on it. You can blame Tate and Liza for that.

Stupid double gym battle.

I reached Lavaridge after an rather unpleasant encounter with Team Magma on the volcano. It didn't impact my journey much, so without further ado: the gym battle of Lavaridge.

I didn't expect much resistance, because I only have two Pokémon by now and they're accordingly over leveled.

So this was the expected outcome. I had Moshu Shi as backup but didn't need her.

But now it was finally time for me to get a third Pokémon for my team. Because now I could travel into the desert.

Where I met this adorable guy! Another psychic type with ground immunity, but this time actually useful.

Next stop, dad. Time to stomp that loser.

[r0ulotte]

Flannery!!!

[alloftimeandspacetosee]

Deal to Save a Life

This is where possibly my all-time favourite AU splits off from main! I may only have written two pieces for it, but! It’s far more faithful to Jay’s character therefore

 So it’s this piece here except the deal goes a little bit differently

~

I sit on the roof of Lavaridge's pokécentre and swing my legs back and forth over the guttering, waiting in the dead of night. You’d think after the night we’d just had, I’d be able to sleep but no. Of course not.

So here I am. Thinking.

I did the right thing.

<Don’t be so sure of that>

What. I sigh, looking up.  “Can’t I just have a quiet night? Haven’t I earned that?”

<Your night has been far from quiet>

“I meant from now on.” I rub at my face, groaning, and when I look up I am no longer on the centre’s roof but a golden hall with no end.

I stand up, feeling something like feathers prickling down my arms, where the extended marks of my tattoos lie.

<The Night Child is alive> Dialga appears first, blue steel and intimidation, looming large over me. <You have failed>

“I don’t call saving lives failing.”

<Our chosen rarely do> Palkia appears beside her brother, claws flexing as if she wanted to grab me.

“One, I’m not your chosen.” I hold up my finger. “And two, I’m so glad we all have that sense.” I probably can’t summon my weapons here, although it would be a comfort.

I wonder how many guardians there have been before me.

<We had thought, perhaps, that you would not wish to ruin your… friend’s life with this horrific mistake>

“Ex...cuse me?” I frown. “What horrific mistake? Allowing myself to be marked by you?”

<Allowing the Night Child to survive. You have no idea of the horrors you have unleashed>

“Ah. Yes. Because killing a newborn is such the better option.” I roll my eyes.

<A new line has been started. Where are our new guardians?>

“Your – what?” I squint at them, tilting my head. “I’m sorry, have I failed and been dropped because I refused to kill my friend’s child?”

<The Night Child is young, and will grow stronger than her mother. You will grow old and weak>

“So...” I know exactly where they’re going with this but… they’re going to have to spell it out. I am tired and done with their meddling.

And like hell I was going to have kids.

<We need guardians, Little One. A new line>

“Not from here you’re not.”

<Then we will choose new guardians. Who will do as we say>

“The AllFather chose me for this task. Who would do it any better?”

<You cannot be what we need>

I growl and flex arms that become wings, taking my purer form. Articuno’s blessing, that had feathered out the marks along my arms. “I will be. I will be what this line needs. Giratina will not rise, so long as I am alive.”

<And how long will you be alive?>

<Humans do not last long>

I meet their eyes, hovering on their level. “You are the lord of time, Dialga. I’m sure you can fix that. Or is even that beyond your ken?”

Silence.

I… may have gone too far.

Then Pialka laughs, head tipping back. The sound is like earthquake, like shock waves.

I ride them, buffeted back.

<You don’t know what you ask> Dialga is unmoved.

“You want a guardian. I’d rather my friend and her family stayed alive and safe.”

<You will stay with them?>

“Until the last Giratina blessed Fyra dies.” I nod, not looking away from Dialga’s gaze. “I will be what they need, as I will be what you want. What Arceus chose me for.”

The hall ripples as I say his name.

Palkia quietens in an instant, and the hall echoes with the silence.

“Because I was chosen by Him, wasn’t I? Out of all the potential candidates that your kind picked out, He chose me.”

Dialga shifts his head in a slight movement. <Then our guardian for this line you will be>

<For all the good you think you’ll do> Palkia is significantly more bitter.

For the length of their family, I think I’ll do quite a lot.” I dip my head. “Thank you. For listening.”

<Such manners>

I land again and sit down again, knowing how the end must go. “Your will be done.”

<No, Little One… this time, yours>

Gold light swirls around me and I close my eyes against its brightness. When I open them again, I am back on the roof of the centre and the wind is dusting early blossoms through the air.

“Jay?”

I blink, looking down at my hands. A silvered feather lies there, and doesn’t disappear as I let go the rest of them. It glimmers softly in the starlight.

“Is… everything alright?”

“Jayden.” I place his voice. “Yes. Everything’s… fine.”

He sits beside me. “Are you sure? The night you’ve had...”

“It ranks amongst the weirdest nights I’ve spent.” I nod, turning the feather over.

There’s writing etched into it, stars too dim to see it by.

Lifting my right hand, I call fire to my fingertips.

Jayden watches it, then notices the feather. “Where did you get that?”

“The old ones.” I squint, the fire steadying enough for me to read it. “‘Whatever they need’.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a promise.” I tuck it into my pocket and let the fire wisp out.

Vulpix appears, skittering along the roof, to land herself on her back in my lap.

I rub at her belly and she pants, reaching to lick my hand.

Jayden hesitates. Probably waiting for me to elaborate.

I don’t. Not tonight. Instead I close my eyes and lean into his shoulder. I know him, knew well enough that some day he would ask the question. I couldn’t say yes, not now. Not when I’d made this promise.

“Til death do us part,” I whisper, too low for anyone else to hear.

[alloftimeandspacetosee]

Battle of the Guardians

We’re just... going through all iterations of Nyx’s Night lmao

 This AU is one where... ok, it’s no longer fully accurate to what it should be, but I can’t be bothered editing it that much right now. But basically, Sparrow is marked for Palkia and survives, which means here that Jay is just Dialga. (she should just be Arceus, and someone else brought in for Dialga, but here we are)

 Joanna and Sparrow never got on, so this fight gets just a little bit more complicated lmao

~

Behind me, Sparrow was dealing his cards out for the fiftieth game of patience. He’d invited me to play with him earlier, but I had no time for it. No patience. I watched the town below us, leaning against a tree. The festival was still going on, though the eclipse was over. The sun was beginning to set now.

Sparrow sighed. “We could always go down? I could do with a drink.”

But with Sparrow, one drink always turned into more. And I didn’t think I could deal with a drunk Rogue tonight. Soise curled up above my head, in the tree. Brith was leaning against a branch in the background, just there. Vulp was away with the pack, and Sesser was back with Jayden. She’d be safer there. So would he. He didn’t even know half of what was going on out here… I think I’d rather he than Sparrow were here, but at least Sparrow had the power to help.

“And I’d rather we stayed up here… at least we can see what’s happening.”

He nodded as I turned back towards him, and reached into his bag. “Just as well–”

“Sparrow. We can’t afford to be distracted today.”

He sighed and dropped his hand, nodding. “So when does it happen?”

I shrugged and then froze. Soise had tensed in the trees above me. Something was happening.

I spun back to look down at the town. Soise hissed, digging her claws into the branch. Someone came from the centre, called people.

“Alex,” Brith whispered.

“The child’s been taken,” I said.

Sparrow stood up. “Better get going, then.”

I nodded – and grabbed his sleeve as he started past me.

“If you want to help find the child, we’d best join the groups heading out.”

“Don’t bother. I know where she’ll be.” I turned away from the town and started towards the volcano.

Sparrow shrugged and followed after me.

And then he crashed into me as I stopped, startled by someone’s sudden appearance in front of me.

“Alex? You were quick.”

Soise growls in the trees above me, but I don’t pay her much heed. She’s always tended to keep a careful berth of Alex.

“We’re looking as well, alright?” I try to move past him. “Up towards the volcano rim.”

He moved, almost snarled as he stood in my way, not letting me past.

“Hey, chill man.” Sparrow laughed. “We’re doing what we can – shouldn’t you be searching?”

I shook my head and tilted it, peering at Alex. This wasn’t like him.

“Blue–” Brith started, shaking her head.

But Soise snarled this time, and cannoned past us into Alex’s chest. He stumbled backwards and wasn’t Alex any more, only a creature with black fur and rusted red mane. A zoroark.

“Soise!” I can’t really see her in its grip, but it’s struggling with something.

“Go! Blue, get to the volcano!” Soise yelled with my voice and Sparrow tensed at my back, because he’d never heard her speak before.

The zoroark flung her away and she crashed into a tree, whimpering. Brith stepped forward and punched at the zoroark, moving fast. It moved faster, and her spikes are imbedded in a tree trunk.

“Get moving!” It was Soise, but not as I knew her. This was a zoroark, blue streaks through her mane. Fighting back the other one.

“Come on. They’ve got this.” Sparrow grabbed my hand and tugged me on. “Don’t you want to be at the volcano right about now?”

I nodded and then pulled my hand from his, running beside him as we head for the rim.

We’re late. I can feel it. But we can’t be too late, can’t.

I sped up, as only I could. Sparrow’s left behind somewhere, and I could hear him cursing. And then howling overrode all that, roaring. Something’s in pain, fighting. I burst through the last of the trees and onto the top, taking everything in at a glance.

A beast, a morphing beast is being attacked by pokémon and is losing. It makes me dizzy to look at it, something makes me want to leave it there… but I can’t. I raise my head and howl, calling the pack. Calling the attack.

And then I run, because I’ve seen this before and I am late, far later than what I saw. And there’s the potion’s master, that woman – that Fothya, holding something… the child.

I stumble, fall over the edge of the volcano because I don’t notice it, too busy being caught up in the scene on the other side. And of course I shriek, because I’m startled and it’s a bloody volcano, I’ll be killed by the heat before I even get near the lava. Except I’m not, somehow, and I’m sure I’ve changed shape because I’m hovering – no, flying on the updrafts of hot air, because I’m higher than the volcano, higher than everything and it feels amazing, far better than flying on Lapwing except so much worse because there’s nothing between me and the land.

For a moment, I almost forget everything. But then things screech below me and I look down, so far down, to see my pack attacking the pokémon, the creature free to lunge at Fothya – and she topples, overbalanced and I know the child’s with her because the creature is keening already, screeching and roaring and I dive in response, my only thought to save the child, catch her before the lava.

It’s fast, so fast. Controlled falling, like when I jump from Lap’s back with Jayden, over the sea, over the ship and trusting to them to catch us – but this time it’s me that’s doing the catching, for the first time and I don’t quite know if I’ll manage. But I do, I catch Fothya by the collar in my feet – they’re more like talons, and my arms are feathered and more like wings, so not really got for grabbing things – and reach down to pull the child from her grasp, finding my arms detach from the wings enough to do that. I must look a right sight.

Though… probably not as bad as Joanna. She’s the creature, and of course I knew this because it’s the only thing that makes sense, but it’s so different knowing opposed to seeing.

Fothya struggles in my grasp and I frown down at her. Holding her in my foot is interesting, but getting painful. So I drop her, and something cracks. She lands on the edge of the volcano, and claws sprout from Joanna’s forepaw – one of them, anyway – to latch onto her, not letting her fall.

“Give her to me.” She’s looking up at me now, eyes almost burning in the darkness.

I flinch back. Although it sounds like Joanna, it’s… not. It’s Giratina. And something wakes inside me, something stronger than just the sense I had earlier – it snarls and tries to take control of me.

<Demon-spawn> He hisses in my head, and feathers fall from my free arm as it reaches for a weapon I never knew I had.

“No,” I snarl, forcing it to stop.

The trees bend behind us, something creaking as it makes its way towards us. We turn. A hulking creature, dark coloured – almost black for the most part, but I can see hints of silver and green – bursts out of them, the trees bending out of its way. Wings behind it, almost like that – that Zekrom, from Unova – they don’t look like they can fold, just there for decoration. Except then they shimmer silver and flex, and of course he can fly because nothing here is just for show.

My pokémon back off, dragging Fothya’s with them. Joanna and I exchange a glance – almost joined in this – and she hisses at… it.

“You have her, my brother.” It speaks, looking to me.

And I put it together. Zekrom for the wings and colour – electric – Shaymin for the mane down his back – grass – and Palkia for the control, the silver armour coating. Sparrow. And he’s not really in control, he can’t be. Because I’m not–

“Of course I do,” I find myself hissing. “I was fast enough to catch her.”

“And why you didn’t let them fall?”

Joanna hisses, Fothya’s body falling from her claws into the volcano as she turns to me. “Let me have her.”

I step back, blue feathered wings catching the updraft before she can properly reach out. They can’t have her. No one – she has to be safe. This is my task.

Below me I hear roars – neither of the other two are particularly happy, apparently.

<They will follow. Why do you run? The volcano was best for what you should do>

“Because what I should do is not what you want,” I mutter through gritted teeth, looking for somewhere to land. Looking for somewhere I can put the child safely, because I don’t trust even myself to keep her. She’s squealing in my arm, screaming, but it’s muted. I can’t hear much… Dialga’s doing, no doubt.

<You hold the NightChild. Do you want Giratina to have a hold in this world?>

“Of course I don’t.”

<Then kill it>

He’s not exactly high on the power of persuasion, but there’s something… maybe he is right. Maybe I should just kill her… that was what I was here for, wasn’t it?

I shook my head, cursed and landed in a clearing – badly. Stumbling, I crashed into a tree with my shoulder, shattering the bark and dropping feathers.

“The fuck? Dude – harpy thing – whatever – damn, we have strange things in the forest the night.”

I spin, covering the child with a wing. Determined to protect it – her – until I’ve done what I had to. My other hand drives down to a weapon – still haven’t seen what it is, don’t want to see what it is – and I fight against it, struggling.

“Bit of a struggle there… need some help?” Someone steps out of the shadows of the trees, still blending in.

“Soise?” I force the question out, still not quite getting the hang of her new form.

“Nice, huh?” She spins, grinning.

I wince as Dialga barrages my mind, hand moving for the sword. The child squalls, and I can’t really do anything to soothe her – not that I know how.

“Dammit – wait… you’re Blue.” Soise blinks. “Are you a zoroark now?”

“Eh… no.” I shake my head. “Sorry. Soise. Not in the mood.”

“Right you are.” She flicks an ear up, looking around. “People are coming.”

<What are you waiting for?>

“Take it – her!” I try to hold out the child. “Please. Get her safe.”

Soise takes the child, a million questions written across her face.

I can hear them breaking through the forest now, not hiding their sounds.

“Go!” I push her away. “Get her safe.”

Soise bounds out of view, rustling into the treetops mere seconds before – holy shit. I know it’s Sparrow and Joanna only because we’re the only ones who can do this sort of thing around here. But Joanna’s morphing spines, pincers, huge fangs and whiplash razor tongues as she fights against Sparrow, who’s on all fours not out of tiredness but out of form change – more of an animal, less human but still with those wings, still with that crackling aura of electricity around him. And they’re fighting. Fighting to the death and I know I can’t do much to stop them and –

<Why should you try to stop them? Help my sister> Dialga jerks me forward, a glittering sword arcing through the air as he manipulates my arm, sending it thudding into Joanna’s side.

She howls, bending over on herself to tug it away, trying to dislodge my grip but I have more strength than before, more strength than I had ever believed possible, even with all the sailing.

Sparrow takes the chance to attack from her other side, vines whipping through the air to bind her jaws shut, electricity coursing across them.

“No!” I pull my sword away, shaking.

Joanna – no Giratina’s in control there – cuffs me away and I fall, landing badly on my wings. I screech in pain, but they’ve turned back towards each other, evidently knowing I’m no threat.

<Attack now, while our sister has it distracted>

 “Your sister is Sparrow,” I gasp, pushing myself to my feet slowly, using the sword as leverage. “And ‘it’ is my best friend. I will not attack.”

Sparrow yells and I look up to see him thrown back, crashing into a tree with vines whipping around him – black and green, some tangling him up, the others reaching to cushion his fall.

“Stop!” I screech, hoping they hear me.

Hoping that Joanna and Sparrow can hear me, not just the legendaries. Dialga laughing in my head tells me it’s all but pointless – they’ve never liked each other much, so I doubt they’d do all that much to stop.

Sky take it all. I stab the sword into the ground and raise my arms, watching the wings bend forward to meld back into them. And then I push my hands forward, closing my eyes. Please let this work.

I feel water drench my arms, my feathers, and open my eyes to see water flow down past my arms to become ice, snow and form an altaria with just that slight hint of articuno as it raises its wings, screeching. They still don’t stop, and now Sparrow is back on his feet – all four of them – and the vines are whipping around him, trying to trap Joanna but she’s burning them away and retaliating with tentacles of her own, far more vicious ‘cause they’re lined with teeth it looks like.

The altaria dives between them and screeches and I throw water across both of them, following it up with a gust of wind. At that, they stop. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve successfully frozen them, or if they’re just startled.

“Will you – just – stop?”

“Why, brother?” Sparrow hisses.

“Shut up. I am not your brother, Sparrow. You don’t even have one.”

“Oh, but I do… brother.” His eyes are glowing pink through a faceplate of silver and green, and the crystal – are those flowers?

“Where is my NightChild?” Joanna interrupts, sides growing bigger.

“She’s–”

“Not here, can’t you tell?” Sparrow interrupts, cackling madly.

“No–”

Sparrow springs forward.

I leap forward to try and knock him off course, and the altaria screeches as Joanna exhales fire, a persian appearing to smash into its outspread wings, collapsing into Sparrow behind them.

“You should know by now, fire beats ice,” Giratina purrs.

“Ahuh?” I grin. “Why d’you hate coming to Snowpoint so much, then?”

“Because – that fecking snow! So much of it!”

For a moment, she’s pure Joanna and I laugh – but it’s a mistake, because Giratina takes the opportunity to smash me away and I screech, feeling something in my wing shatter.

Sparrow roars and vines whip past me, slamming and slashing at Joanna’s body, pushing her away from me. I move out of the way, arms disconnecting from my wings as I run for the sword.

I need to get them to stop. I can’t get them to stop. I have to get them to stop.

I grab my sword and skid to a halt, bouncing into the air to kick off the tree and dive back towards them, getting a small bit of haphazard flight in before I crash into them once more.

“You really have the most interesting way of joining fights, my brother!”

“Shut up,” I grunt, slicing indiscriminately at vines and tentacles alike, pushing them away from each other.

Claws catch in my broken wing and I yell, flooding water along its length to push Joanna away, freezing it still. That should hold it.

Sparrow pushes me to the side almost gently before bashing into Joanna, rearing up to strike at her with fancy looking boots.

What the hell did he think – I needed looking after? Hell no!

I screech at him and push him down to the floor, flaring my one good wing as an extra measure. He whimpers, looking up.

“Why, brother?”

“Because I am not your brother.”

Dialga rages in my head, but it’s easier to ignore him.

Joanna roars behind me and I spin to deflect her attack, my arm getting caught between her teeth. That should really have me screaming, but… it doesn’t really hurt. I can feel pressure – but there. Armour, silver and blue, coating my arm. Thanks, Dialga.

I meet Joanna’s eyes and I see Giratina, but she’s in there. And I can feel her strength, know she can  break through this armour with just a bit more pressure. But she doesn’t. I just get thrown to the side again, crashing into a tree and tumbling to the ground in a heap.

Sparrow roars and presumably gets up to attack Joanna again. Dialga hisses inside my head and I move, but not by my will. I feel the wings practically disappear as armour becomes more of me, all of me. A shield on my right arm, a sword in my left. He’s taking more control and I can’t do much to stop him because I’m so dazed – but still I try, and all that happens is a blue film descends over my eyes, and I’m even more detached from the battle.

Above their battle – my form joins in, wielding the sword expertly against Joanna – a faint red persian sits, getting a stronger red all the time. And a yellow vigiroth… that must be Sparrow. It was strong – and when the persian appeared, it had attacked.

The persian hisses at it, batting it away. Seemingly less prone to attacking.

“Stop it!” I screech, flying to claw at its face, forcing it away. “There is no need.”

It hulks down, almost whining.

“Jay?”

I turn to the persian. “Joanna.”

“And that’s Sparrow.”

I nod. “We can’t–”

“What’s happening?” Sparrow speaks, cutting across me. “I’ve been watching… it’s so weird. How much did you let me drink?”

I snort. “You haven’t drunk anything, Sparrow. This is – kinda what we were marked for.”

“Ah… we’re supposed to kill that child.”

Joanna roars and leaps for him, and I dive between them.

“No!” I screech as her claws land in my wings. “No we are not.”

“But – that’s what they said.” Sparrow tenses up, watching us.

Joanna disengages her claws, licking at them. “They’re wrong.”

“But–”

“Sparrow, no matter who she’s marked for – she’s only a child. She doesn’t deserve it.”

“But–”

“You think we’ll just let her open the way for Giratina?” Joanna snarls. “Have some faith.”

He snarls back and I shriek, spreading ice around the place. “Grow up, Sparrow!”

He sighs and sits down. “So what can we do? This – where is this place, anyway? And – fuck, why are you pokémon?”

“Only just noticed?” Joanna licks a paw. “You’re perceptive.”

Sparrow bristled at that, and I shot him a glare. Now was definitely not the time.

“We’re in the soul realm. We’re safe enough… as long as our bodies aren’t killed.”

“We’ll have to go back,” I say quietly. “We can’t leave them there.”

“You guys go back,” Joanna says. “No point in me… I can’t – she’s dead.”

“What about Alex?” Sparrow snorts. “You’re just going to let him deal alone?”

“She’s not dead, Joanna.” I ignore Sparrow. It seems to be the best decision. “Trust me. She’s safe.”

“But – we’ll kill each other.” She looks up, staring at Sparrow.

“No. You won’t.” I look between both of them. “Take control, dammit. I can’t be the only one to be able to do that.”

Joanna nods, standing up.

Sparrow sighs, going limp. “I don’t think I can. She – everything she says, it makes sense. Maybe I should just give up. It’d be easier if it were just you two.”

“Maybe–”

“Sparrow, don’t you dare give up,” I snarl at him, cutting across Joanna. “You were chosen, you are strong enough.”

He looks up at me, and I can see the hopelessness in his eyes. “You think so?”

“Yep.” I nod. “Now get down there and prove me right, dammit.” I smirk. “I hate being wrong.”

He nods and stands up. “I’ll do my best, then.”

“Joanna?” I look to her.

“She’s alive?”

“And safe.” I nod.

“Then I’m going back. And – I’ll try to stop him.”

Good. And I have the control… if they’re having difficult, I will stop them myself. I raise my wings, spiralling around them.

“Let’s get going, then.”

I dive, and Joanna runs on one side of me, Sparrow on the other. It feels so… so right. There’s a flash – an instant of seeing us all as humans, all just as we were supposed to be – and then everything darkened, back into the shadows of the forest.

Sparrow and Joanna clash in front of me and I whirl, sword blocking a tentacle as it reaches for my neck. Joanna is the first to try and fall back, tentacles falling back into her, drawing up into a more humanoid form. Sparrow lunges and stumbles and I can see him struggling, fighting.

“Why don’t we end this?” Giratina hisses, and I whirl to watch her, stepping between her and Sparrow.

“It has ended.”

He thumps into the ground, sending me stumbling backwards into Sparrow and the vines whip around, protecting me from anything he might throw out. Giratina-Joanna rears up, snarling. Fists becoming huge stone paws, aiming to crush us.

“Joanna – it’s me – Alex!” He rushes between us, holding out his hands. “Stop… you need to stop!”

Her paws thud into the ground on either side of him, and he keeps his place, placing a hand under her eye.

Sparrow growls behind me and I twist in the vines to face him, catching his eyes.

“Don’t. It’s over.”

<Are you so sure?>

“Yes.”

Sparrow can see me, I know. And he’s fighting, because the vines drop and fall limp, returning to the forest.

<You think you’re so strong> Dialga whirls me about without warning, drawing the sword in my free hand, slashing for Alex’s defenceless back.

No!

I try to stop it, try to deflect it any other way but I am powerless before his full strength and I can only watch in horror at the shimmering blade of ice as it – as it –

Vines catch the blade and wrench it to the side, throwing me off balance. They’re not Joanna’s because she’s collapsed in Alex’s arms, human again. Neither of them have noticed, I think.

“You said the fight was over,” Sparrow says quietly, and the vines disappear.

I look up from where I’ve been thrown to see him shedding black wings, silver and blue armour and that green helmet. Just his usual marks remain, creeping around his neck and shoulders, visible at the edges of his shirtsleeves and collar. He holds out a hand to me, offering to help me up.

<So. We shall let you have this win… but do not expect us to be so understanding next time> Dialga takes his leave of me, hissing through my head.

Feathers litter the ground around me as I revert back to normal, losing my wings and my armour. I take Sparrow’s hand, letting him pull me up.

“Damn.” He grins. “A night with you is pretty eventful, huh?”

“Welcome to Lavaridge.” I start to laugh, and just can’t stop.

[alloftimeandspacetosee]

One Task

This is a fun AU, mostly because I get to write even more morally obscure than they are in standard lmao. I haven’t written much of it, despite that (by which I mean. there is this piece and one and a half roleplays lmao)

 Again, it’s Nyx’s Night, but Jay is the Giratina blessed and actually out to kill Nyx bc she’s Dialga’s new Guardian

~

He left the nurse lying between the bed and the wall of the room she’d been cleaning. The body he had didn’t hold enough mass for him to fully copy the nurse’s form, but that was only if he obeyed the rules of this world. By the time he reached the door, it looked exactly like the nurse he’d left behind.

No one stopped him as he strode through the corridors, heading towards her room. They had been in there earlier, and the corridors leading to it reeked of dragons and fire.

This would be easy.

The mother was asleep, flat on her back on the bed. The father was propped up in a chair, similarly nodding.

When he picked up the child, the father blinked and looked up.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, just a quick check up.” He made the face smile disarmingly. “It shouldn’t take too long. Sorry to disturb you.”

Alex frowned. “I thought all the checks had been made.”

“We forgot one,” he trilled, and turned for the door. “I shan’t keep her long.”

“Alright…”

He left the room and closed the door, heading down the least used corridors to the back exit. The exit the dead were taken through.

He met no one, and stepped into the calm night with a sigh. “Soon,” he promised the child in his arms. “Soon it will all be over. Nothing will stand in my way.”

The forest was quiet and empty of people. The path to the volcano was clear, and even the pack of ill-bred curs kept out of his way.

Ahead, the forest was clearing, and he picked up his pace. Soon he would be at the volcano and it would all–

A woman stepped from the trees before him and stood in his ways, crossing her arms. “Having a nice walk, are you?” She had a strong Sinnoan accent, and a vicious scar curved across her face.

“Of course I am, Jay.” He smiled, eyes flickering to look for an escape route. “Just up to the volcano and back.”

“With the cub as well?” She nodded to the child in his arms.

“Well, she was beginning to squeal, and her parents were sleeping, so I thought it best to let them sleep and calm her down myself.”

“Admirable, I’m sure.” The woman stepped forward, unfolding her arms. “But she seems fine enough now, so shall I take her back? Let you get on with your walk?”

“Oh, no, she’s no bother.” He took a step back, towards the shadows. “You should go and rest as well, you’ve been up far longer than they.”

“Doctor’s orders, is it?” She smiled humourlessly, and her fingers turned to claws.

He leapt to the side and rolled, distorting out armour to protect himself.

The illusion about the zoroark faded and she snarled, sprinting after him.

The child woke and began to squall as he backed up and began to dart through the trees, still heading for the volcano’s rim.

Behind him, the zoroark cursed as he spread out bat-like wings and leapt for the air. She howled, and a burnt orange dragon roared in to grapple with him.

A long, mankey-like tail lashed out to catch the child as she fell, wrapping her into his back as he distorted claws to rip at the dragon, hissing in disgust.

The dragon was bearing him to the ground with her greater weight, and so he dropped to loosen her claws, and dived into the trees to swing through the branches there. They weren’t following, and there was the volcano, and there–

There was the lucario, slamming a fist into his chest.

He reeled back and snarled, teeth pointed as he distorted away from the kindly nurse, back to the body’s original features. The scarred face and dark hair of the woman Soise had been pretending to be.

“Blue, stop this.” Brith stood over him, fists ready.

Soise joined her, and something flickered in the night.

He pulled the body to its feet, laughing. “She’s sleeping, Burnt one. I’ll pass the message on when she wakes.”

Soise circled and he turned to keep an eye on her. The child – strapped to his back, between the immense bat-like wings – hadn’t stopped squalling.

Soise grinned and reached out her claws to him.

Too late he recognised the flickering feel of an illusion, and screamed as the stretched tentacle-tail holding the child was slashed and she pulled free.

Soise jumped away with a bark of triumph as he lurched and stumbled to his knees, face first into the volcano.

He windmilled, feeling the heat rise and lick at his face, and then was steadied as someone grabbed at the coat he was wearing.

“Soise, get the child to safety.” The lucario pulled him up and to the side, so he wasn’t in threat of falling to his death.

“Aye, Brith.” And the illusionist left, taking with it the squealing child.

Something was coming. Something big.

He twisted out of the coat and hit the ground like a snake, coiling away to stand upright once more – or on two legs, at least, but hunched over like a vigiroth and growing the scales of a dragon as the wings became mist-like, mere impressions against the sky.

Brith leapt to the side and out of the way as the guardian came barrelling into view.

“Where is she?” she roared, armour cycling through blue, pink, and red. “What have you done with her?”

“Joanna!” Brith called. “She is–”

“Do I look like I have her anymore?” He raised himself to his host’s full height and spread his arms out. “She is gone from this place.” Not the place he would have chosen, perhaps, but… “What will you do, siblings mine?”

The Guardian stood taller than he, glaring down at him. A thin metal whip coiled through one hand and her other was grasping at the air.

“Joanna,” Brith said again, holding out a paw. “She’s safe, I promise you-”

“Safe in death,” he cackled, to all intents relaxed as he stood with the volcano at his back and scales upon his skin. “I have saved the world from your ilk. They do not need you.”

The Guardian roared and lashed out her whip.

Brith leapt clear, hitting the dirt and rolling back to her feet.

Giratina pushed backwards, raising his right arm to block as his wings became more than mist, holding his weight, crackling with ice at every beat.

The whip curled about his arm and lashed tight. The Guardian set her feet and reeled him in like a fish. “If you have let harm come to her...”

“You bred her to bring harm to me,” Giratina hissed, an ice of knife forming in his hidden left hand. “I, who have no children of my own. I, who am alone in this world. You bred your Guardian first, and expect me to do nothing?”

“We know you,” the Guardian replied, her eyes narrowed. “You will spawn eventually, and we would be ready.” She held Giratina’s host by the throat, high enough that his feet didn’t touch the ground, his right arm still tangled in her whip.

“Is that what the future holds?” Giratina laughed. “Is that what comes, in time?” He stabbed her side, stretching his arm to impossible lengths to find a crack in the armour, in under the shoulder. “There is space for us all here,” he hissed, as the Guardian recoiled, dropping him.

The Guardian roared as Giratina hit the ground and rolled away, shedding his skin like a snake and keeping low, blending in with the ground.

Brith stamped the ground in front of him, backing him up. “You will give me back my captain.”

“Or what, Reho?” Giratina drew himself up, snake-like. “You’ll take her down?” He formed his body back to the woman she wanted. “You’ll stop me?” He turned up his right hand and fire danced there.

Brith curled her fists and brought them up. “She will understand.”

“Understand what, Reho? That you took the opportunity to beat her to a pulp?” Giratina spread his arms. “Here she is, Reho. Take your best shot.”

Brith lashed out a fist into his chest, striking his solar plexus faster than he could see. “My name,” she hissed, grabbing his shoulder, “Is Brith Khar.”

Giratina gasped for breath, reforming.

Thuddering steps behind them, and the whip lashed out and caught him by the foot, hoisting him into the air.

“Tell me, sibling, why I shouldn’t just drop you?” The Guardian hung him over the volcano.

His coat hung down past his ears, being pulled by the weight of everything in its pockets. Giratina held still, arms slightly outstretched so it wouldn’t fall off entirely.

“I believe they might have something to say about that.” He pointed past the Guardian.

Brith stood at the head of the pack of curs, swablu on her shoulder and vulpix at her feet.

“Will you stand in the way of justice?” The Guardian’s voice rumbled, barely giving the lucario a glance.

“If it were justice? I would not.” Brith took several steps forward, almost to the edge of the volcano. “But this isn’t, Joanna, and you know it.”

“Just as you know, little pup, that it is not Joanna that you speak to. What do you know of the justice of legendaries?”

Brith’s ears were pressed back, almost as low as her aura sensors. Giratina licked his lips and smiled, rotating the ankle he was held by.

“Do tell us, Reho,” he called. “Whyever would you stand between the gods and their rightful prey?” Giratina counted the pack, narrowing his eyes as he realised that one was missing. That he couldn’t feel any illusion about the volcano.

“Because your child lives, Joanna. Because we have her safe and they want you to kill Blue for nothing.”

“I dropped her into the volcano,” Giratina said, flashing his teeth. “This very volcano you hold me over. How fitting would it be, for my corpse to melt with it?”

The Guardian shook her head. “I will not be swayed. She is dead, she is dead-”

Brith raised her fists. “That is my Captain. I cannot let you-”

The arcanine cut Brith off with a furious baying growl, leaping to attack the Guardian. She’s followed by the luxray, by the whole pack.

Giratina was flung to the side, released from the whip, as the Guardian turned to fend them off. The swablu followed him as he crashed into the ground, rolling to a halt.

He spat out dirt mixed with blood and pushed himself upright, grinning. As he stood, the swablu landed on his shoulder. “Joining us, are you?”

She cheeped and pecked at his earlobe.

“Don’t you-” He flapped her away.

The swablu fluttered from his shoulder and plucked strands of his hair.

“Stop that.” He watched the Guardian fend off the pack as he backed into the forest, swiping at the swablu.

Time to find the runt.

As he ran, he smoothed down his form, becoming small and sinuous and fast. The swablu darted above him, not letting him out of her sight. As she cheeped again, something tugged inside him. She was waking.

Giratina hissed at the swablu, leaping up to bat a pawful of sharp claws at her, trying to fend it away.

Find the spawn.

He focused on that. If he could only find that zoroark, kill the child, then he could relinquish control. That was all he had to do.

If only that swablu would stop singing!

He snarled and leapt for it again, forming wings in an instant as it burst out of range amongst the branches.

There was an almighty crashing through the trees, and that whip lashed out as it cut through them like they were nothing, like they were only paper. It snapped around Giratina’s waist just as he tore feathers from the swablu’s tail, and smacked him into the ground so hard he saw stars.

Then the Guardian loomed over him and he was trapped.

“Joanna...” he coughed out the name, forcing the body back to its original shape. “Please. I didn’t mean to, I couldn’t help it, I was weak-”

The Guardian backhanded him across the face with her free hand and his whole body snapped to the side with the force of it.

#

I am cold I am cold I am cold

I was in Lavaridge I should not be cold but I feel naked and alone and cold. I open my eyes to an ashen forest, to shades of grey that paint a horrifying picture.

I am dead, I am watching Joanna-as-Guardian loom over my corpse, her whip about my waist and her fist about my throat.

She has killed me. I lift my hands to my throat, as if I can feel the imprint of her fingers still there, and find that my fingers are shorter, caught up in a sleeve that feels as though it’s one of those hats with the long pockets, hanging down from about my ears.

Oh. I had always wondered what my avatar would be.

And now I am a mere ghost, tied to Giratina still. He uses my body, because it hasn’t realised I’ve died. Or maybe that makes it easier for him, a shell that he can inhabit without interference from me (he wriggles free, snake-like, and twists onto the Guardian’s back, onto Joanna’s back, using his length to choke her in turn).

I’ve fucked up, I’ve failed. But then I failed the minute I let him in, really, so-

“Jay?”

I spin about and see a persian padding towards me, glowing red. It looks... it feels like... “Joanna?” I glance down again. Her body is still fighting – they're standing separate, and the Guardian is raising that whip. Giratina has nothing in his hands but the beginning shards of ice. “Did I – did he kill you, too?”

“What?” She pauses, sitting upright and coiling her tail around her feet. “No, this is... this is the spirit plane. This is where we Elders come to seek guidance, think things through... find out a person’s avatar.” She tilts her head, considering my form. “A froslass, huh...”

“I’m not – I shouldn’t be here, then.” I drift back. “I’m not an Elder, I failed to keep him at bay.”

“You-” Joanna snorts. “You fulfilled his duty well enough.” She bares her teeth. “Maybe this is where the dead go.” She seems to be growing bigger, going a deeper fire-like red as it flickers at her outline. Her claws are out and she crouches as if to pounce. “Did she cry?”

I pull back. “Did - who?”

“My daughter.” She leaps at me. “When you dropped her.”

“I didn’t-” I sweep out of the way, narrowly avoiding being skewered.

“Say it was Giratina all you want, Jay, but it’s just an excuse! You could have fought back, you could have saved her-” She turns on a paw and lashes out, fangs bared.

Below us, the legendaries fight in the remnants of our bodies, neither of us looking like we should.

“I didn’t-”

“You keep hiding, and then you turn up now and you just – you let him kill her.”

“She isn’t dead!” I yell back, and everything seems to freeze.

Joanna is hanging before me, mid-pounce. Below, the fight has paused with Giratina perched in a tree and the Guardian pulling back her arm to snap out the whip again.

It feels like there is ice in the air, like it could snow. A sudden cold snap. Did I do that?

“She isn’t dead,” I repeat, voice soft. “Soise got her away. I haven’t seen her in – a while. She probably got her to Alex.” I have a... a sense of it, even though I remember nothing of this night. I don’t remember past nightfall. But the child is safe, I’m sure of it.

Joanna bares her teeth. “How do you know?”

“Because he’s still here, he’s still fighting.” I point down, at Giratina. “If she were dead, he would have left me.” And you would’ve killed me. The thought hangs, unspoken. I’m not sure if she’s aware of it.

The fiery glow about her tames and, in the way of this strange plane, she pads down to the same level as me and sits again, tail coiled about her feet. “She’s still alive.”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t kill her.”

“It wasn’t - yes.”

Below us, the whip crashes into the branch that Giratina had been sitting in; he’s leapt, spreading bat-like wings formed between his limbs, and is gliding down between the trees.

Joanna flinches at the crash and looks down. “We should... we should get back in there and stop them.”

“Yeah.” I glance down. “Yeah, you should.”

They've levelled trees in their fight, a whole swathe of the forest.

“Jay?”

“Go on.” I gesture for her to... I don’t know. Take her body back. “You can stop the fight, you can... stop him.”

“While you – what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know how to go back, and I can’t-”

“Are you saying I should kill you?” Joanna bared her teeth, tensing her shoulders. “Don’t be an idiot.”

“If you kill him, he will come back but it will take time. I am weak, Joanna, he has too much a foothold.” I shake my head. “If you – make it quick. I will follow him down, and he will not harm you or yours.”

Joanna lashes her tail, shaking her head. “No. No! There has to be another way.”

“There isn’t. I don’t see one, and – well, I’m a ghost anyway.” I force a small laugh. It'll be good to rest.

“Don’t you dare, Jay! Don’t you dare!”

“You have to go. You have a kid, and you have Alex, and you have a town to look after.” I drift backwards.

Joanna looks down, at the fight, and then back up at me. “Don’t you give up now, you bastard!” She leaps for me, as if to pull me down with her.

I pull out of the way and she falls, back down into her body.

“Jay!” She twists, running for her body, controlling her descent. “Jay!”

Then she is gone and I am alone.

I settle back to watch as the Guardian halts its advance. As Joanna takes control, the armour flashes and shifts and becomes redder, more like the earth and ash of her home than the pristine silver metals of Dialga and Palkia.

Giratina perches, liepard like, in a tree and hisses at her.

She holds a hand out, talking to him. Her whip at her other side, lowered.

“You’re really going to just give up, huh.”

“What else can I – Brith?” I twist around.

She’s sitting there, dimly lined in blue, paws on her knees and eyes shut tight.

“How are you-”

“Aura, dumbass. I don’t have much time. Get your arse back to us.”

”Brith, I can’t-”

“You’re going to give up that easily?” She cracks open an eye, glowing red with the effort. “Coward.”

I flinch back. “He’s too strong, I’ve never been able to fight him-”

“You call yourself the Nightgale? You’re a legend in your own lifetime for battling.”

“I stand at the side and tell you what to do! I’ve never lifted a fist, I don’t have the strength-”

“This isn’t about physical strength.”

“Oh, because I have so much mental strength.” I scoff. “He wouldn’t have been able to get in at all if I weren’t weak.”

“And you listen to him. Great.” Brith shakes her head. “Crystallise, Captain! I felt you freeze the fight. You can do this, I know it.”

“How-”

“Set your teeth into it and pull.” Brith bares her own teeth. “Do it for us, for the pack, for the crew, for the wide-open sea for all I care but do not give up now.”

Below, Giratina leaps at Joanna and she’s slow to react. He takes her to the ground and stands over her, a monstrous sneasel-lycanroc hybrid.

“Or will you let him kill your friend?”

“This isn’t-”

Brith gasps and disappears.

I stare about wildly for her, but I am alone. I am alone, and Giratina has the upperhand below.

And I can’t - but I have to. I have to, I can’t let this...

This is all my fault. If I play him at his game, then maybe...

I flee downwards. #

Everything is hot and heavy and oh it hurts and nothing is in the right place and-

<Oh, hello little night-thing> Giratina laughs as I join him. <Awake, are we?>

Joanna pants under us, her armour cracked and sliding. I meet her gaze, but I do not think she sees me there.

<Will you make the kill with me?>

I let a growl build, and feel it throbbing like an engine in our body. I can control some things.

“Joanna?”

“Stay back, Alex,” Soise warns.

Joanna flicks her head to the side, where Alex stands with Soise at his side. She pushes against us, one last desperate struggle.

As Giratina laughs, I seize one of our back feet and shorten it, pulling it back into our mass. Overbalance, we fall over and roll away.

<Oh, you have teeth> He sounds almost proud and I hate it.

He recovers quickly enough, and we each twist our body for control, growing and shrinking limbs and fur and scales and feathers, but although this has never been my strong suit, he’s tired from the fight and I know my avatar. I have a core strength I didn’t before, and – as I form a choker of black stones about our neck and slowly tighten it – I am not afraid to die. Not now.

<The Guardian-child will cause difficulties for you later, you know. If we stop them both now, there will be no one to stop us> He’s drawing back, because he’s never liked a straight fight between the two of us. <Be seeing you, little night-thing>

I face-plant the grass as he leaves, my body mine again. I loosen off the choker and it folds back into the collar of my coat as I take in choking breaths.

“Blue.” Soise’s paw, on my shoulder.

I want to pull away from her, but I barely have the strength. Everything aches like I’ve never known it to. Nothing feels broken, but everything is stretched thin.

“Jay?” Joanna calls, from across the clearing. “Is she-”

”She’s still alive,” Soise answers. “She’s just...”

Vulp noses at my face, licking my cheek.

“We should get them back to the centre,” says Brith, sounding exhausted.

“What happened to you?” Soise stands.

“Nothing much. Just a little chat.”

“Fuck me, Brith, is that why you don’t talk so much?”

Brith laughs. “Get Jay up. Arc and I can take her.”

Soise pulls me upright, swinging one of my arms around her neck.

I get my feet under me and stand, shakily. “I’m not... your mane is really soft.” I rest my face in it.

“I use your conditioner.” She grins.

“Jay.”

I peer past Soise to see Joanna, sitting against a tree with Alex beside her. Something in her arms.

The child. She’s still... she’s safe.

“I’m glad you didn’t give up.”

Alex helps her to her feet, with the help of her pokemon; Flare is at her back, low and offering her a ride back to town.

I nod, too exhausted to say anything. This is hardly the end of it, I know it.

Soise pushes me towards Arc and Brith helps me on. I am safe there. They will not let me fall.

They have never let me fall, and I... it is time I returned the favour. It is time I did... so much more.

As Arc pads after Flare, with the pack around us, I drift back into the darkness of sleep.

[alloftimeandspacetosee]

Yuletide Warnings

Hey look, it’s seasonal! How fun

 This was written as a gift for cowriter#1 a while back, who wanted me to like... use A Christmas Carol as a basis for something or other. Also with added music (and she still couldn’t recognise her own characters properly, like she told me that Teenagers song was the sound she had for their band? and she still got confused?)

 Anyway. Alluding to what might have been, had things not gone the way they did

could’ve been the superior AU ngl

#

  Jay sat back against the intricate webbing of rope and material that they’d strung up between the ropes of the foresail and half closed her eyes, right leg swinging down beside the figurehead below her. Upon her left rested a closed cup, delicately balanced on her knee with her hand only loosely clasping it. They were in warm waters, and thus she wore only her light linen jacket over her clothes, despite the setting sun to her side.

Adjusting to the ship’s motion was second nature at this point, an easy rhythm that was the backdrop to every part of their life at sea. With their birds calling overhead as they circled, the water lapping at the wooden sides beneath her, it was peaceful enough to doze off.

Which was near enough what Jay was doing. Turning her head slightly – to avoid the full glare of the sun – she yawned and settled herself more comfortably.

Something tugged, gently, at her hanging leg, and she shook it off.

“Back off, Soise,” she murmured.

The clawing came back, more insistent as it tugged at her trouser leg. As it brushed against her bare foot, it was cold and clammy… but not wet.

“Soise, I swear to–” Jay growled and, catching at her cup before it fell, leant forward to glare down at the culprit.

The creature clinging to the side of the ship – hanging from the figurehead by one hand, the other digging into the slats – was a very convincing human shape, and if she didn’t know Soise, she might have believed it.

But she did know Soise, and she knew that the bearer of that particular face was dead.

“Little bit macabre, Soise,” she said, sitting back.

The assumed player of the prank didn’t reply, and Jay wasted no more thought on it as she got comfortable once more.

The wind rattled up through the ropes, setting them all to thumping like drum beats against the side of the ship, against any piece of wood they could reach.

When Jay next opened her eyes, Sparrow – or Soise’s illusion of Sparrow, rather – stood before her, balanced on the bowsprit.

He stared down at her, and she stared up – and through – him. He was only passingly translucent, though there wasn’t much beyond him to see but the sky, softly clouding over. He was dressed in much the same clothes as he had always dressed in, though pink washed silver scales freckled his skin, and his hair seemed… less fluffy than it had been.

Clearly Soise’s idea of a joke, for she had pictures enough of Sparrow amongst her books for the zoroark to copy.

“What are you doing? Go bother someone else, Soise.”

“Ask me who I was.”

Jay hesitated at that, for the voice was undeniably Sparrow’s, but Soise had never met him to mimic his voice.

Deciding to humour her, for the moment, she asked the question told her.

“In life I was your partner guardian, Sparrow Feyar.”

“Sparrow never believed in all that.”

“And yet here I am.”

“Yeah, I’m fairly sure he didn’t believe in ghosts either. At least, not the human kind.”

“Trust in this, BlueJay Nightingale–”

How long had it been, since anyone had called her that!

“For I am the ghost of your partner guardian, Sparrow Feyar, and I have a message for you.” He raised his arms, and Jay caught sight of the chains about his wrists and forearms that ran back and down into the ocean.

“What’s with the chains?”

“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the illusion. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?”

Jay tilted her head to examine it better. “Uhh little bit, ye–”

“Or would you know,” he continued, as if she hadn’t started to speak, “The weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, eight years ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!”

Jay frowned. “Is… it my life? Because boy has that been full since you died. Stands to reason I’d pick up more baggage.” This was too weird even for Soise. She didn’t go in for guilt trips, or… whatever this was.

“I cannot tell you what I would. A very little more is all permitted to me.” He spoke as if from a script, for this was not the Sparrow talking that Jay would know. “I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere.”

“Oh, you travel too, now?” Jay tilted her head. “There’s such a lot to see, isn’t there?”

“No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse.”

Jay rolled her eyes. “Your failings have stayed with you, I see.”

“That is no light part of my penance,” said Sparrow, moaning. “I am here tonight to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Jay.”

“I don’t intend to die as you have. I may be guilty of many things, but a death in the dark will not be one of them.”

“You will be haunted,” resumed Sparrow, staring beyond her and through the ship, “By Three Spirits.”

Jay narrowed her eyes. “What kind of bullshit have themselves thought up now? I’ve already agreed to their ridiculous demands, so I can do without.”

“Without their visits,” said the ghost, “You cannot hope to shun the path I tread.” For emphasis, he rattled his scale chains. “Expect the first tomorrow, when the bell tolls One.”

“At least there’s forewarning for this one.” Jay folded her arms.

Sparrow took a step back along the bowsprit. “Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. The third upon the next night when the last stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate.”

“And of course they’re dragging this out.” Jay rolled her eyes. “Just come all at once, why don’t you?”

Sparrow ignored her biting words, backing up until he balanced upon the very tip of the wooden spar. “Look to see me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us!”

And, stepping back again, he faded away into the sea with barely a splash.

Jay stared after him for a while, then shook her head and grasped a rope to swing around onto the deck of the ship, again snatching up her cup before it fell. Though there was liquid still within it, it had gone cold, and so she tossed it out over the side of the ship to spatter across the ocean’s surface.

In speaking with the ghost – or apparition, or whatever that may have been – the sky had fallen dark about them, and the lanterns had been lit to see their way by.

“Did I not let you all go home for yule?” Jay collared the crew member she found, though there should be none but her pokemon and Jayden about.

“Aye you did, cap’n.” He tugged his hat. “But I don’t exactly have a family to go back to, see, so I stayed on.”

Jay nodded slowly. “I… see. Search out Soise for me then, will you?”

He hesitated and nodded. “She’s up top, I think.” He gestured towards the rigging.

“Send her to the cabin.” Jay walked on, then stopped. “And join us yourself, for meals. You shouldn’t be eating alone.”

“Thank ‘ee, cap’n.” He tugged his hat and grinned, scrambling up the rigging.

#

Jay slept badly, as she had since leaving home near nine years before. Rather than lying sleepless in the bed she now shared with Jayden, she slipped out and up onto the deck.

Up on the bridge, Arc was sprawled on her side with the smaller of the pokemon pressed in amongst her fur. Ray was curled nearby, as was Yen and Lap.

Jayden’s birds were perched in amongst the ropes and railings, along with Gar’aq and Khoreo. Even Brith and Soise were out of sight, and thus the deck was silent.

They bobbed on the waves, sails reefed and anchor lowered, in the cool night air.

Jay stood before the wheel and turned, gazing up at the star-speckled sky. She knew these constellations – had charts mapping them – but they were in odd places, for the time of year. But then here – south of Unova, circling in quiet waters – was not usually where she spent this time.

Dressed in nothing more than her summer pyjamas – this latitude, this longitude were warmer even than Lavaridge, for the time of year – she rocked back on her heel and spun, almost – but not quite – dancing with herself. Her hair, tied back in a rough plait before bed, tangled loose in careful spirals as she rocked with the ship.

There were no bells to toll the hour out here, not even a ship’s bell to call the crew. The owners – the builders – of this ship had not seen fit to add one, despite their wish to have it historically accurate.

Historically accurate only in look above decks, for below was a pleasure ship pure and simple, with every modern convenience – or modern at the time of its building – known to man.

Yet even without there being a bell aboard, Jay distinctly heard the echoing gong of an ages old bell that rang out across the sea.

Turning, in her not-quite-dance, she stumbled and stepped back as she found herself face to face with an apparition.

Now this one Soise could also not have created without difficulty, for she had never seen the old elder of Lavaridge alive, and Jay certainly never kept pictures of him. Around Lavaridge, there were pictures that she might have studied, but not well enough to pick out every detail in his oddly smoothed face, the luvdisc shoal tattoo on his ankle – Jay wasn’t even sure if she’d known about that one.

He lifted his hand up to point at her, and the Groudon marks on the back of it were as clear as if he’d only just got them. “I knew you were trouble when you walked in,” he sang.

Jay stared at him. “That song came out after you died.”

“Now I’m lying in the cold hard ground!” He threw his head back. “Oh!”

Jay rolled her eyes and turned towards the steps. “We threw your body to the fire.”

“Jay.” The sudden seriousness in his soft voice had her stopped, almost midstep. “I am the ghost of yuletide past.”

“You would be the first of these visits.” Jay folded her arms as she turned. “The legendaries have a cruel humour t’be using your face.”

Mirember offered her his hand. “Walk with me.”

Jay narrowed her eyes and looked pointedly about the ship. “Not far t’be walking, is it?”

Mirember took hold of her arm and stepped to the edge of the ship.

Jay found herself pulled with him, this spirit far more physical than she would have thought. “See if you drop me in that I will not be impressed.”

“Bear but a touch of my hand there,” said Mirember, laying it upon Jay’s heart, “And you shall be upheld in more than this!”

Jay pulled back from him, frowning. “What the–”

In a blinking, they were standing knee deep in snow, surrounded by trees. It was snowing, thick and fast, around them.

“I… know this place.” Jay frowned, squinting through the snow as she held a hand up to shield her eyes. “This is–”

A young girl, dull blonde hair flying loose above her unbuttoned jacket, ran past them and farther into the forest.

Jay looked to Mirember and narrowed her eyes. “No. Really?”

Mirember gestured as if for her to follow the child.

Jay started to do so and then hesitated, shaking her head. “I remember fine enough what happens next.” She turned to the spirit. “Why do you show me this?”

Mirember, in life, was much given to enigma when it came to telling Jay anything, and it seemed death had not changed that. With a conjurer’s wave of his arm, their surroundings changed to stand them outside a house that Jay knew very well.

The snow fell thickly yet, but not enough to soften the slamming of the door as a teenager bulled out of the house and into the snow blanketed town.

“Jay! Jay, get back here!”

Jay blinked, recognising her mother as she had been years before. Fewer lines, fewer grey hairs. “This is the year before I left,” she said, as if Mirember needed an explanation. “We argued again, over my future.” She laughed, rubbing her arms. “As if either of us knew what would happen!”

When she looked again, they were in the temple and it was thick with light and warmth and people. They hovered in the rafters and looked down at the high altar, where the younger Jay stood with her flute, piping in the ceremony. In front was Alyss, her hair glittering red and green in celebration of the year’s end.

“I was terrified, standing there,” Jay said. “Didn’t have a clue why she would want me.” She glanced at Mirember again. “Are you going to tell me what all this is in aid of?”

Mirember gestured again, and the scenery changes to Lavaridge, where a huge fire burns in the middle of the town and people dance in a clearing made from snow.

Jay herself – she knows where to look for this one, this year wasn’t so very long ago – is sitting on the roof of the town hall, flute held in one hand as she watches the festivities below.

“You only join in grudgingly, do you not?” Mirember spoke, for the first time in what seems like an age. “This is not a celebration you enjoy.”

Jay wrinkled her nose. “I think you’re misinterpreting a little bit.” As she blinked, their location changed and she was shifting on the deck of her ship once more. Looking around, she snorted, rolling her eyes. “Of course.”

Mirember has disappeared, leaving her alone.

Stepping across to Arc’s pile, she settled down against the pokemon and closed her eyes.

#

The second night, Jay didn’t exactly bother trying to sleep. Jayden has guessed that there is something wrong afoot, but he doesn’t ask. That isn’t his way.

Their solitary deckhand – possibly fearful of the reputation built up around Jay (the NightGale, the traveller with no purpose, defeater of leagues, scourge of the eager pokémon trainer) – kept his head down and to his tasks.

It would be hopeless to explain, in any case. Maybe Brith would understand, but Jay knows this strange scenario to be entirely hers.

So it is that on the second night, she is waiting high in the ‘krow’s nest, leaning on her forearms and staring south into the black sky.

The sea has been empty, these past few days. There are islands to the south – she knows there are, they’re on the maps – but they are hard to find and she has met no one that has been to them.

Maybe there’s an air of discovery about the trip, because Jay likes to know what she can.

When the ghostly bell tolled out across the sea, Jay looked up and about for the next of the spirits.

Not in the ‘krow’s nest with her, nor – it appears – on the ship below.

She was almost to turning her head up to the sky – for ghosts, it seems, are not bound by physical laws and so could well appear from above – when a raucous bout of laughter sounded out right beside her, and she jumped near out of her skin.

When she landed, Jay was no longer on her ship but in the great town hall of Lavaridge, where a great feast was already in progress and the tree in the centre of the hall was almost bowed at the tip for the weight of its decorations. It looked to have been grown in the hall itself, too big for the door with its limbs all spread out.

“Looks like a fun time, right?” said the ghost from beside her, and Jay stared and stared again.

“What?” The ghost laughed, glancing down at herself as if to make sure her dress and cloak were still in place and properly gaudily decorated.

“You aren’t even dead!” said Jay to the spirit of her best friend.

“Yeah, odd that.” Joanna laughed again.

Jay stared in consternation at her, but upon receiving no further elaboration, sighed and shook her head. “Fine. What we here for?”

“Because you aren’t and it’s truly terrible!” Joanna flung her hands to the air. “Whatever were you thinking, running off to sea and leaving us behind?”

“I’ve been around Lavaridge too often these past years?” Jay shrugged. “It was time for a change.”

On the floor below a band had struck up, and Joanna – the real Joanna – was dancing with Freak as Alex watched on before being pulled in by Dot.

Jay smiled as she watched them. “I am glad that they are happy,” she said, spotting Venus sitting beside the cradle that no doubt held the young Nyx.

“You are glad they celebrate without you?”

“It’d be a rum deal if they only celebrated with me.” Jay frowned. “I’m rarely there.”

With the yowling of a cat – Jay recognised Venus, though the noise came from somewhere under Joanna’s crimson cloak – their surroundings changed once more.

Now they stood in the doorway to Jay’s own family home, where her sister was cuddled on the couch with a man that Jay only fleetingly recognised as her long-time boyfriend. Their parents were on the other couch, and the radio was on in the background to pipe yule tunes into the warmth of their home.

And yet – despite the decorations, and the company, and the warmth – all three that were related to Jay were despondent.

“If only she were to come home,” Joy said. “Or even a letter, to let us know how she was doing and that she was thinking of us.” She hesitated. “Or even – or even let us know where she is, so that we can send our gifts.”

Jay frowned, and turned to the ghost of her friend. “I sent them gifts, and a letter. A huge letter.” She thought back over the action. She was sure she had, anyway.

“Perhaps waylaid in the post, to the wrong address.” Joanna shrugged. “Better to deliver them by hand, don’t you think? Better to be there?”

“If you’re thinking to guilt trip me,” Jay said dryly, “You might want to try harder. I sent ‘em care of Alyss, since ‘Snowpoint Temple’ is passing hard to mistake for anywhere else.”

Joanna hesitated and stared at her.

The doorbell rang.

“See?” Jay smirked.

“Nope!” Joanna grabbed her arm. “No, nu-uh, nope! I’m busy showing you how terrible a friend you are!”

The room dissolved around them as Molly stood to get the door.

“Now, I have one last – oh there you are, Venus!” Joanna bent down to stroke the persian as she slunk out from underneath her cloak. “Wait – don’t you go anywhere, Jay! Don’t!”

Jay held up her hands. “It’s you that’s fading away.”

“Please, won’t you wait? Won’t you stay?” Joanna reached out for Jay, starting to sing. “At least until the sun goes down.”

Jay groaned. “Please just – put me back on my ship.”

Joanna sighed in disgust. “You are heartless.”

Jay smirked, and she was back on her ship.

#

When the last of the spirits came for her, Jay was in the main cabin, feet up on the table and a glass in her hand as she stared out the dark windows. It was the night before yule proper, and she was musing over the prospect of not actually doing anything for it.

Sesser was asleep on her perch in the corner, and Vulp was curled up in her lap.

She was thinking on these spirits, these visits, and wondering just what their purpose was. It was hardly clear through what they were showing her, but at least – at least there was only one left.

And perhaps then, she would like to think, she could get a good night’s sleep. But that was never going to happen.

Peculiarly childish giggles echoed around the cabin rather than the usual – usual! Was this something she was already so used to? – gonging bell and Jay looked up, peering about in the sudden gloom.

A figure appeared, wearing a worn dark blue trench coat and a peaked cap to shadow over their face.

Jay snorted. “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world,” she drawled, running a fingertip around the rim of her mug. “What can I do you for?”

The figure stepped nearer, and Jay frowned as she recognised the coat. It was dark blue, lightly patterned, and worn with scorch marks and ragged hems, salt stains and faded patches. The pockets were frayed, holes through in the corners.

And Jay knew it. “But – that’s mine! I lost that years ago!”

“We didn’t steal it!” The voice was not an adult’s, and didn’t come from under the hat but rather somewhere in the middle of the buttoned up coat.

Jay narrowed her eyes at the spirit. “Hm.”

“You’re missing the point.” The spirit stepped forward, and this time Jay noticed its unsteady tottering. “We have things to show you!”

Jay placed Vulp carefully on the table and swung to her feet. “Show me, then.”

“We don’t have enough time.” The spirit reached out and grabbed Jay’s arm, long coat sleeve getting in the way and flopping around.

The hand was child sized, barely big enough to fit over half Jay’s forearm. The power behind it was enough, though, and she stumbled forward as the ship broke apart and reformed into a darkened beach where cliffs loomed up above them.

A child, dusty brown skin and fly away black hair, ran across the beach, her face contorted in earnest concentration.

Jay, not knowing this child, stepped back as if to get out of her way, but the child ran straight through her anyway.

The spirit laughed. “You don’t exist like that here.”

Wings overhead has Jay looking up to see a harpy-like figure diving to catch the child.

Shrieks, a splash, then full blown laughter and giggles.

Jay turned again to the sea, seeing the harpy on its back, the child scooped up in its blue-feathered arms as the waves crashed around them.

“Sickening,” the spirit said, taking hold of Jay once more. “Truly sickening.”

Heavy, thumping beats reverberated about them to bright, strobing lights. They were surrounded by bodies, rubbing up against each other with no regard for personal space.

On the stage, front and centre, was a woman with flared, colour changing wings and a rat tail that flicked back and forth in time with the swaying of her hips.

Jay glanced at the spirit beside her as it raised her up over the crowds. “That’s never Phoe.”

“No, not your little phoenyx, raised from the ashes.” The spirit laughed.

“You’re never gonna fit in much kid,” the woman sang out. “But if you’re troubled and hurt, what you got under your shirt,” She runs her hands up her body, swaying from side to side as the crowd roared in delight, her wings strobing through hot, sensual red to an angrier colour, “Will make them pay for the things that they did!” She smirked, winking.

“Why… are we here?” Jay glanced at the spirit. “You can’t tell me there’s something here my actions have screwed up.”

Before she had quite finished speaking, the blue feathered harpy from the last scene swooped down from the rafters, tackling a person down from climbing onto the stage. Glittering pink crystals sharpened into knives fall from their jacket as they landed, the harpy on top.

“Ok, but who is that?”

“Whups, moving on!” The spirit laughed and grabbed her arm.

As the scene blurred again, Jay glanced at the tottering spirit and tugged her arm as if to free it.

The spirit tottered and then fell, the coat falling open to reveal–

“You have got to be kidding me.” Jay let her breath go in a dismissive, sharp gasp as two children fell free from the trench coat. “Skies above!”

The children – identical in every respect, including clothing and hair styles – looked up at her from their knees and grinned.

Jay shook her head. “The fuck.”

“You have to uphold your deal,” one of them said.

Jay rolled her eyes. “Is that all you’ve been wanting to tell me? Holy shit.”

“You’ve been hesitant! Nothing’s happening!” One of them stood, stamping her foot.

“I want to exist properly!” The other wailed.

Jay blinked and stared at them. “What?”

The two of them exchanged a look.

“Whups!” The other one laughed and grabbed her sister’s arm. “Time to go!”

“What?” Jay stared at them as they ran, dancing around each other and throwing acrobatic shapes.

“So long, farewell, auf wedersehen, goodbye!” they carolled, turning to wave once more. “Adieu, adieu, and do enjoy your Yu-el!”

The fogging cleared, and Jay was back in the cabin, standing. “What.”

Vulp whined, looking up from where she was curled up on the table.

Jay reached across and stroked her, scratching behind her ears. “It’s been a weird set of nights.”

[alloftimeandspacetosee]

Capture the Flag, Part3

And here’s the end, folks! I remember this being incredibly satisfying to write lmao

 Is that because some of my favourite characters are in the Wild Cards? maybe

[1] [2] [3]

~

Diana was waiting for her, curled into the side of the tree and out of sight of the path.

"Are they gone?" Arlette whispered.

The furret nodded, uncurling to reach out and lick Arlette's nose.

Arlette carefully climbed out of the bush and turned to seal the rift closed. "Now, let's see the damage..." She adjusted her bandana, pulling free a stray bud that must have been pulled off the younger bush, and looked around.

Kera bounded along a branch towards her and let out a plaintive cry.

"Where's Ax?"

Kera's ears lowered.

"Captured?"

Kera nodded.

"Alright. Stay here, both of you," Arlette said, and froze time.

She strolled down towards the town hall, where Nyx was standing on the steps, her arms folded and looking very satisfied with herself. Aurora's half of their team was sitting on the ground below her, arms loosely tied behind them with their own bandanas.

"Well, that's just... honestly." Arlette shook her head.

Circling back around, she passed Arthur and Ryun and Keone leading her team back towards the hall, all of them a bit worse for wear after their chase through the forest.

Arlette jogged back to where she'd left Kera and Diana, and let time start again. "Hoo, boy." She rested her hand against the tree, squeezing her eyes shut. "Really takes it out of you. Ok. Hm. Looks like we need an intervention."

With Kera in the trees above her and Diana circling behind her, Arlette walked further into the forest, looking for signs pointing towards the third group.

They couldn't be too far in.

Kera growled ahead of her, and Arlette looked up to see a bundle hanging down from a branch just off the path; yellow feathers tied about with red thread.

"Guess that's them." Arlette reached up to it, and saw another one beyond it, off the path.

Diana pressed against her ankles and whined.

"Gotta take that chance," she murmured, and stepped off the path once more.

The bundles led her to an empty clearing with only a moss-covered mound in the centre of it.

Kera was growling softly, but she hadn't stopped since they'd left the path. Diana was cautious as well, running this way and that.

Arlette took a breath and stepped into the clearing, walking almost up to the moss-covered mound before she stopped and clasped her hands behind her back to wait. She closed her eyes, tilting her head back a little.

Leaves rustled in the biggest tree opposite her.

“I request aid.” She opened her eyes, flicking her gaze from side to side.

For a moment, nothing but the wind rustling around the branches and bushes of the forest.

Then Kite dropped into view, resplendent in sharp yellow feathers, electricity sparking around ver. “The Wild Cards are listening.”

Arlette smirked. "So here's how it stands; my crew is captured. I'm the only one left standing, but I don't think this is how it ends."

"No?" Kite examined vis fingers, tipped with electric yellow nails. "We may have made an agreement already, pirate."

"You might have." Arlette nodded. "But I don't think that's true."

"Well, aren't you confident."

Arlette grinned. "It's all I have left."

"And you wear it so well," Kite said. "What do we say? Help the last of the pirates?"

"Luck be with them," Onni said, stepping into the clearing.

"As are we." Blair and Saundra spoke in tandem, coming from opposite sides.

"Should be good for a laugh," Lyra said. "How much of an entrance would you like?"

One by one, the rest of the third team came into the clearing.

"Oh, I have a good idea for one." Arlette grinned. "If you don't mind a suggestion."

"We're all ears," Onni replied, matching her grin.

#

Arlette appeared in the middle of the town and stood with more weight on her left leg, arms folded against her stomach.

The flag still hung, limp from the pole they’d put up the night before. On the ground before the hall knelt her whole team, facing its doors.

Nyx and Zlata seated on the steps, leaning against the door with their eyes half closed. Warren was leaning against the wall beside Nyx. He noticed her first and nudged Nyx with a foot, giving a warning sort of shout.

The rest of their team appeared between buildings, around statues, effectively surrounding Arlette no matter which direction along the ground she looked.

On the ground in front of her, her own team shifted to look around, murmuring quietly.

Arlette tapped her left hand three times in quick succession against her right side, eyes straying imperceptibly towards the roof of the hall for a flickered glance.

“A bit bold.” Zlata frowned, standing up and brushing down her team shirt.

“Are you giving yourself up?” Nyx’s voice was light, a mischievous smile forming on her face.

“Oh, no.” Arlette smirked. “I still have an Ace up my sleeve.”

A piercing call shattered the quiet of the dusty town, and the Wild Cards sprang down from the rooftops and to distraction, with Kite calling the charge from on top of the hall.

Onni swung down from the roof of the hall, kicking forward to land and tap free the pirates knelt on the ground, meeting Arlette coming the other way.

Aurora sprang to her feet, pulling her sister out of the way of a lunge from Nyx, who had shifted towards a more wolfen form. “You took your time.”

“Yeah, I got caught up with things.” Arlette shrugged.

“You’re missing an earring.” Aurora chanced a quick glance at her sister as they dived away from Nyx, who was intent on chasing them down.

“Focus. Flag?” Arlette threw herself out of the way and tumbled across her back, bounding back to her feet.

“Got it.” Aurora threw herself the other way and brought her hands down, disappearing through a crack. She reappeared in the air above the flag, slapping a hand out to catch the flag pole.

She bounced under it and twisted her body up, hooking her legs over the pole and holding her weight by them as she untied the rope.

“Hohen-!” Warren looked up. “Stop her!”

The Ho-oh, circling above, folded in his wings to drop towards Aurora.

Aurora unhooked the rope and let herself fall, tugging the flag free with her.

Keone lunged forward, either to catch Aurora or the flag as they both fell. “They’ve not won yet-”

Arlette launched herself forward, finding the energy to freeze time one last time, and kicked off the side of the town hall as she let time start again. “Parkour!” she yelled, tumbling in front of Keone to grab the flag and go sprawling across the ground in a tight roll, coming to a halt by the feet of Ruth’s nidoking.

“I think that’s ours, don’t you?” Ruth leant over her pokemon’s head.

“Oh, certainly.” Lyra joined her on her tyranitar.

“So, if you don’t mind handing it over-” Trixie extended her hand from the back of her feraligatr.

“After all, the wild cards won it for you,” Onni strolled over to offer Arlette a hand up.

Aurora soared over Onni’s head. “Nope!” She crashed into her sister and they went bowling through a rift she opened under Arlette, sending them across into their team, the momentum knocking most of them over like bowling pins.

“Fuck, Aurora.” Arlette laughed, pushing her off. “I got the flag, you don’t need to kill me for it.”

Ax laughed, offering her a hand. “Where did you go?” Kera scrambled back onto her shoulder.

“You disappeared in the forest,” Alestair said. “When they caught the rest of us.”

Arlette grinned and held the flag aloft, flicking it out. “Does it matter? We won!”

“Oh, boo.” Lyra pouted, rolling onto her back. “Fine, we’ll give you that.”

“Since it’s your birthday,” Trixie said.

“Only because of that.” Ruth nodded.

“Good enough.” Aurora shrugged.

Alestair hoisted Arlette onto his shoulders. “Pirates reign supreme! Avast, ye cowering dogs!”

Ceana laughed, doing the same for Aurora, and the rest of their team surrounded them in a cheering mass.

“Hey - hey!” Arlette spread her arms for balance, the flag flapping around her.

“Alright!” Soise yelled, opening the door of the hall. “Food’s out! Leave your feuds at the door!”

Alestair let Arlette down, laughing. “Come on.”

“I am starving,” Arlette said. “Like damn.”

“Time travel takes it out of you?” Aurora asked, still on Ceana’s shoulders. “Damn, you’ve really been working out.”

“Give Alestair something to work against,” Ceana replied, flexing.

“You have no idea – hey, Phoe!” Arlette jogged over to meet her. “Can I... d’you remember, when you were well younger, meeting someone out in the forest?”

Nyx stared at her. “I'd almost forgotten, but you... you’re really dressed almost exactly like I remember her.”

Arlette unhooked her remaining earring. “You can have the pair, if you like. If you’ve still got the other.”

Nyx stared at the earring in her hands. “You’re - you – that was you?”

Arlette shrugged. “I hope it helped.”

“It... it did.” Nyx curled her hand around the earring. “Thank you.”

“Any time.” Arlette nudged her shoulder. “C’mon, let’s get some food. You can tell me why you were out in the woods, if you like.”

Nyx tucked the earring into a small pouch in the satchel over her shoulder. “Maybe.”