Savior

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The wind is howling outside the windows with unusual fury. It feels like it's been years since last night (if the sleep in my eyes is any evidence) yet the sky outside reveals little more than dawn. The people about town are sparse, holding onto their coats and hats with bright red fingers. The wind begins hissing from under the window pane, where the old-fashioned locks rattle and the wooden boards creak.

"We need to get going." I say.

Usually this is met with reluctant groaning or outright denial but Minerva shoots to her paws and everyone else follows, fixing me with intent gazes.

"Okay then," I continue, swinging my bag over my head. I feel a little gross stepping out of bed in the same clothes I fell asleep in but hey, I feel grosser knowing that the end of the world as I know it is at hand because of my mistakes.

Admittedly it's been that way since before we started but moving the deadline up has a way of bringing it to the forefront of my mind. I have pancakes for breakfast, ordering as many as I damn well please and passing them around the table. There's no one else in the hotel buffet- not a good sign, ever- but the food is passable if not downright good. They have an excessive amount of maple syrup at each table and I empty the whole thing. Minerva in particular likes smothering it on the poor, overladen griddle cakes.

When we're done, we head out and I pull out the Pokegear, leading the team south out of the town. Fuschia City is too small to have real suburbs, and once you get out of the claustrophobic main city blocks there's long driveways and houses wedged into the woods before there's nothing at all. The lack of people is made uncannier by the lack of Pokemon. Occasionally a Spearow chirps in the trees, proudly proclaiming this patch of territory for their own, but nothing comes down to aggress us.

The team takes up a brisk pace and I find I'm almost running even though we're not going anywhere in a hurry. The amount of time we'll save by rushing everywhere is unfortunately minimal, but... every second counts.

"Get on my back," offers Minerva.

"You couldn't hold her." Reginae snaps. "You're still injured."

Minerva grimaces. "Yeah? Well her two puny human legs are slowing us up. What do you suggest we do?"

"I could hold her. If we're trying to negate travel time, someone's going to need to hold Hycanith, too. Since she's lighter, you can take her." Reginae suggests.

The idea of doing less work brings another round of furious offense to Minerva's face, but though her hackles are raised she just mutters, "Bright idea, pansy."

We pass through an unmanned gate (also not a good sign- what's with everyone today? Is this Red's doing?) and onto the route following, which looks to be in even less favorable condition. There's no one there and the trees overhead loom over us judgmentally, as if asking: What are you even standing around for? Get out of here.

Worse still, it's a complete and utter dead end. The trees are thick and the cavalcade of rock at the end is thicker. I have no clue what happened here, but there's safety tape everywhere.

"There's nothing here." I say, getting up from Reginae. I double-check my Pokegear to make sure I wasn't hallucinating the whole thing, but there's our destination. I explain, "According to the map, there's supposed to be a water route through here to Cinnabar." I swear.

There was, once... and I wouldn't say there's nothing here. From atop the rocks leaps Suicune, the lithe Legendary watching us all with poise. Its purple mane blows out like the Aurora Borealis behind it, flickering with color, and its crest is sharp and gleaming. The legendary beast's muzzle draws back into a snarl more terrifying snarl than anything Minerva or Fang could master.

Where is the anomaly? it asks.

I withdraw Ethan in the grassy area behind us. His entry is so much faster and less painstaking than before. His eyes shoot open and he looks around, confused. The leftover panic subsides and he steadies himself, coming face to face with Suicune itself.

I know you. Ethan states. Lugia knows you.

You are Lugia. Suicune continues, the air growing cold around it. A ball of white light shines in its open mouth, and if you hold any allegiance to them or their values, you will take comfort in knowing that your end is at hand.

Before I can react, a ball of fire cuts through the air, cutting off Suicune's Ice Beam before it hits Ethan. Crest blazing, a certain owl alights in front of me. "You don't get to make that decision." Ten says, spreading his wings out wide in front of Ethan and I.

And who are you to stop me? The legendaries made you and your trainer everything you are and yet you persist in endangering us and our plans. Even the Lugia, who now has access to all worlds and all times, still can not see the bigger picture as he continues to cling onto the feeble shreds of his humanity. Do you not see that you pose a danger to all worlds now?

I've never seen Ten this angry. "No, Red does. As for 'the legendaries', 'the legendaries' have proven time and time again they don't care about any of us unless we're relevant to their plans. Why should we matter, when there are thousands of worlds just like this one? Does that justify it to you, Suicune? Does that justify letting us fail, time and time again? Letting all these irrelevant universes be blasted to shreds? Does the one time you were kind enough to let us pass over, terrified and scarred, make up for hundreds of times you watched us slide from existence and into the void?"

You are misguided.

"We were hardly guided at all." I admit.

"In two months, Red's going to put a knife to the multiverse, and then you're in the same position we've been in for timeline after timeline. You can't afford to sit by so you've decided that hey, since we don't want to actually assuage the threat ourselves, we can at least get rid of whatever 'cause' we can pin it on. Make it look like we tried. Well, you didn't. You didn't try at all."

The anomaly is not our fault nor our problem. It was a discrepancy in the timeline caused by Ashley's entrance- in fact, it was our belief that such an occurrence might create an ultimate weapon to be used against Red.

"You let this happen to Ethan." I realize.

Ethan trembles behind me. It's taking all my mental energy to restrain him, to hold onto those last human bits of reason so he doesn't blast the clearing to non-existence.

Ten continues, "He's not a lab Rattata you can euthanize as soon as it turns out it can't do what you want as fast as you want it to. He's part of our family and if you want him, you're going to have to take us all down first."

Hycanith bares her bone, twirling it on high, and Reginae, Minerva, and Fang stand ready in the wings.

One on one. Suicune replies.

"What?" I ask.

If you want my assistance, prove to me that you are strong enough to fight Red. Prove to me you are worthy of being saved.

This is bollocks, Ten thinks to me, lapsing into that angry fake accent, but he's still the one who steps forwards. "Do your worst."

Suicune moves so fast that it's gone by the time I blink. It rounds on Ten, who soars straight up, and Suicune's tails blow in the wind as it twists its head, manipulating up a gale. Ten uses it to fly to the side. Suicune blasts rapid-fire beams of ice at Ten, not missing a second, but he's already up again.

He can't keep this up alone. He has enough bulk to weather a few attacks but dodging all Suicune's is going to tire him out just as fast as taking them to the face would.

Time to take action.

I tap into Ten, holding our golden bond taut, and I feel elation and terror rush through me as the true brutality of this fight and Ten's intense will to win both press in on me. We fly upwards together, flapping our wings and letting the winds take us for sweet seconds of relief, then when Suicune begins yanking us around again with gusts of air we let them guide us back to earth, staying low and staying calm, before accelerating with a Fly-boosted flap and scoring a hit right across Suicune's face. Our talons clatter against its crest, our sheer power scratching the strange stone that I believed impenetrable, and Suicune bleeds.

Are those... antlers? I never thought about it before.

So you fight together, Suicune says, I admit that this does not go against my previous request for a one on one battle. Though I am also willing to admit that I least hoped to fight you, Ten. Do you not understand what we've done for you through all these years, all these lifetimes? Why must you stand in our way?
We're so close that this gust sends us skidding back against the ground. I feel Ten struggling against me, not out of malice but rather embarrassment. What is it? You can tell me anything. I promise. On one hand, Suicune's managed to distract us, but the need to know seizes me. This could be a key to my past. Our past. Why shouldn't I...

You've hidden so much. Suicune says.

Ten's voice, not mine, comes from our mouth. "I've told her enough. I've not hidden from the truth."

What is this, then, but convenient avoidance? If you're ready to put this past behind you, then you must first be ready to give it up.

Ten sighs. I feel it shake us, but I'm a little more preoccupied with the blast of bright white light streaking through the air. We duck under one Ice Beam, which hits our crest with an awful chilling sensation, and lift our wings to jump over another.

We can't keep this up. We fly higher and higher, trying to outrun the inevitable, wheeling in circles as Suicune fires an array of Ice Beams behind us. The air grows chill and frost clings to our wings but we keep climbing, hoping for some kind of miracle. There's nothing else to hope for. The sky may be limitless but there's nowhere else to go.

Another Ice Beam cuts the air like lightning, like Red's hole in reality itself, and strikes us right in the heart. The pain is every bit as intense as that fatal Horn Drill that day in Blackthorn, and I feel a silent dread fill my entire body- our lungs, our wings, our mind- and we fall out of the sky. The blueness above us is a familiar sensation from other deaths, other skies, and Ten clings on harder than ever as his body locks up and my mind begins to withdraw from it in panic.

Don't leave me. Ten begs.

I won't. I promise. I won't.

Okay. Ten says. Then we're going to be fine.

Dark patches roll into our vision like storms rolling over the horizon, and we disappear.

***

I can't feel my body.

I'm watching myself, small and messy-haired, outside of my house back in New Bark. I'm much too young to be a Trainer, and yet there's a Pokedex clutched tight against my chest, next to what looks to be a walking stick with one edge sharpened into a point. As I take in my new surroundings, which I seem to be unable to interact with, I notice that Elm's window is cracked open. There are two Pokedexes lying on the desk, where they usually sit when new trainers come to get them, but from the arrangement it's clear that there was supposed to be one more on the far right.

Oh, past Ashley, you sneaky cheat.

Disconcerting as the sudden change in scenery, my inability to do much of anything like this, and the absolute calm I now feel is one important realization- these aren't my memories. "What's this?" I ask no one in particular. My words ripple across the fabricated reality like a rock thrown into a calm pond.

From the edge of the woods of New Bark pops a Hoothoot with ginger feathers, big red eyes, and an overall messy demeanor.

Us. answers a voice.

The two misfits sprint out of the town, with the Hoothoot struggling to keep speed with the adrenaline-filled ten year old Ashley. Once they're free, the two of them share a good laugh in the wilderness. Tiny Ashley shows off her stick, swinging it around at the tall grass, and the Hoothoot flares up its tiny wings.

We made it pretty far for two kids with no ID, no permission, no formal starter, and nothing but each other and some dumb luck.

The scene shifts to Celebi's shrine. Tiny Ashley, a few inches taller and her hair like a matted carpet against her back, kneels before the legendary's wooden edifice. She's holding a Hoothoot in her arms, the same Hoothoot, and he groans softly, poison damage wracking his body. The sounds the Hoothoot makes are sickening but even worse are the pitiful cries of the small girl.

"Don't leave me. You're my last Pokemon. I don't want to lose you. I don't want to go home." She holds him tighter. Overhead, the sky goes dark, and tiny Ashley begins hyperventilating. Tears run over her face as her Hoothoot gives out, its breathing still and its body limp. Tiny Ashley's stick, which is plunged into the ground close to the shrine, bends over. "Please. Please come back. I need you."

We didn't know about the game.

"What did I do?" asks Tiny Ashley. The world goes dark around her, with the darkness encroaching on all sides. "What did I do?"

As Red's darkness sweeps over the land, a single, final brand of sunshine falls upon the body of the Hoothoot while the great bird of myth descends through the cover of darkness and into the fray. The Hoothoot awakens as Tiny Ashley falls into darkness, growing still as death, unaware of her own failure. Fire crosses the sky and in the light of the legendary battle between Ho-Oh and Red's darkness, the Hoothoot's feathers glimmer crimson. The firebird falls from the skies not far from the shrine and the memory begins peeling away, burning like Ho-Oh's flames. I see the Hoothoot hop up to the firebird, but I can't hear anything it says. All the words do nothing but stir the memory's surface further and further, rippling it until the image is almost unrecognizable.

But I volunteered to play. I made a deal.

I played again, and again, and again.

I couldn't win.

And now I'm coming to the end of that deal... I don't want to burn out, Ashley, but more importantly?

I don't want to say good-bye to you again. To them.

I don't think that I can.

***

We burst back into consciousness, still falling, and fire spreads across the tips of our wings. Above, the sunshine angles down on us as we spiral into a plume of flame, glowing in what seems like a full spectrum, and with the might of Ho-Oh's fire and a dozen lifetimes we buffett our wings, sending forth a full, glorious star of Sacred Fire. Suicune's eyes widen as it is immersed in the flames, which run over its whole body. Suicune lifts its crest into it, summons water and tries to extinguish the flames, but all it does is fill the air with a heavy mist. The whole arena sizzles with a thick hissing noise and when it's cleared, Suicune stands unprepared before us.

We land, and with both our voices announce, "We are not backing down, Suicune. We will fight for our teammates and this world."

Suicune's front paws buckle and it bows before us.

I return to my own body, ebbing out of Ten, and the fire eases off of his wings. I lob a Pokeball at Suicune (respectfully) and the defeated beast doesn't even thrash in its new enclosure. When I pick up the Poke Ball and throw it again, Suicune stands infuriated before us. Its angry scowl is almost hilarious.

You are in violation of multiple kinds of law now, Suicune warns me.

"What, too many legendaries? Sorry to break it to you, this TEAM is legendary."

"Get 'em, Ashley!" calls Fang from the sidelines. "Hey Minerva, did you see that? Now that was a roast."

I was referring more to it being illegal to have seven Pokemon on hand at once. 

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