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Hikari’s breathing was shallow. Try as she might, she could not stop the uncontrollable trembling in her body, leaning though she was against a floating stone that resisted all force put upon it. She had shifted her right hand thrice now, up from her hand, to her forearm, and now to her shoulder, squeezing futilely in hopes that it would somehow stop the slow, inexorable spread of the strange purple pestilence that crept up her left arm. Every centimeter it crawled forward, every fork it generated, every pulsing flash of the curious light that ran beneath her flesh alongside the pathogen sent waves of blinding pain through her body.
And still she struggled to navigate this cursed plane where gravity followed no logic, and storms of swirling purple electricity faded nearly into nonexistence before exploding out once again with a loud crackle. There was no sky, no ground, and no sense of direction here. She had entered the plane of the truly Other - the land the Renegade called home.
She would die here.
As she dove heavily off the grassy surface that floated perpendicular to the nearby patch of gravel and dirt, she felt the gravity that tugged her feet down towards the green below her violently shift mid-leap to pull her stomach first down towards the new ground. She tried with all her might to swing her legs down beneath her to meet the new law of “down” this floating piece of land followed. It almost worked, but she instead slammed knees first into the gravel, lurching forward onto her stomach and rolling over several times before coming to a stop on her back.
She fought back the tears blinking her eyes, choked down a sob and sniffled. There was still so much more insanity to traverse if she hoped to catch up to Akagi. She could see the madman diving from platform to platform, somewhere ahead of her, growing ever closer to something . Whatever that something was, she was not sure, but her finely tuned sense of intuition told her it was not good.
And by now, her intuition had ceased to steer her wrong. How many mistakes had it really taken? Just one - agreeing to continue the League challenge right when she’d thought she would withdraw. But Shirona had been persuasive. The Champion of the Sinnoh League was so certain Hikari would do great things.
She got to her feet, wincing and looked down at her flashing purple fingers. Well, two mistakes. She had misjudged a single jump - but only barely. And now she was paying the price for grazing the very tip of her index finger against one of those exploding purple anomalies. Tears rolled down Hikari’s cheeks and she swallowed hard. She’d never been in pain like this before, and she’d been sucker-punched by a toxicroak that had decided the squishy human was easier to deal with than the garchomp it’d be fighting.
A shout of strained triumph met her ears, and sounded eerily close in this plane where space made little sense. She snapped her eyes up towards the nonexistent horizon and felt them go wide. The Renegade. And somewhere below it, a small figure staring up at it. Instinct took over, and she ran as fast as her searing injury allowed towards the island the two occupied. She hopped from one floating, oddly angled patch of ground to another as fast as her legs could carry her, sometimes stumbling, sometimes landing correctly and other times crashed down onto the soil, rock or stone and struggling to her feet once more. It was excruciating, and as her feet slammed heavily into the stone that comprised the platform where Akagi stood, she could taste copper in her mouth. The purple tendrils had snaked almost completely up her upper arm now.
“Akagi! Stop!” she shouted, running up to him. The man turned to face her, a wild fire in his eyes. The sleeve on his right arm had burned completely away, revealing flesh that had become entirely purple and was now glowing steadily. A red chain was wound around his hand and halfway up his forearm, the rest dangling down and wound several times around a curious, smoking orb, roughly cut and a pale yellow in color. He swung the orb in a wide circle several times, and as he did, the red chain began to glow.
Hikari threw a pokeball forward, producing an empoleon which let out a long squawk as it materialized. In turn, Akagi knocked a ball from his belt to the ground, issuing forth a weavile that sprung forward and immediately engaged the penguin. “Deal with it,” Akagi called after him.
Giratina let out a low, curious croon and turned its attention to Hikari. A voice spoke clearly in her head as much as it did around her. You are not well, child of Elsewhere. It was a feminine voice, though possessed of a very curious quality not unlike the static of a poorly tuned radio. It filled her chest and bounded around in her bosom as if she were an empty vessel. For a moment, it made the pain in her arm subside. The Renegade turned her attention back to Akagi and let out a very low growl. Nor is this one, though his sickness extends beyond the cruel unmaking of this land.
Beneath the looming god, Hikari’s empoleon and Akagi’s weavile were locked in a fierce fight, though the pokemon paid the exchange of long jets of highly pressurized water and flurry of icicles no mind. The battle did exactly what Hikari expected Akagi wanted it to do, however, as every time she attempted to close the distance, his weavile would immediately toss several sharp icicles at her with such force they cracked the stone beneath. Empoleon moved to close the gap and deliver a blow to the weavile’s head with a sharpened wing. The pokemon was too fast for him however, and ducked beneath the incoming attack, scampered behind him and lunged forward, one clawed hand pulled back and primed to drive into the penguin’s back. Empoleon only just managed to deflect the incoming attack with his other armored wing, though the deflection was sloppy, and the shining line of feathers on his wing betrayed a fresh, deep cut.
“You could have simply stayed back in your world and awaited a new beginning with the others,” Akagi shouted at Hikari. He turned to face Giratina and held the chain and attached orb high in the air. “But if you want to witness creation, I will not deny you.” He pointed with his free hand at Giratina, looming above the two and shouted, “You will bend, Giratina, and you shall unmake!”
Akagi’s chest was heaving and it occurred to Hikari just how battered the man was. The wild fire of his eyes did not extend to the pallid complexion of his face, the shaking in his arms, or his wobbling legs. He was likely in as much pain as she was.
When the Renegade spoke once more, it was to both of them. Her static-like voice echoed all around them, You are unwell. Unwell beyond my capacity to cure. The Renegade’s eyes narrowed as she lowered herself in space to see eye to eye with Akagi. But I can halt your immediate end, little one.
The man’s chest continued to heave as he stared down the goddess of unmaking, before finally in deadly whisper, he said, “We shall unmake and begin anew. Obey me, as the other wardens did.” He swung the orb once around his head and then tossed it at Giratina. The chain seemed to extend rather than unwind itself from his forearm, and allowed the strange orb to strike the center of the Renegade’s forehead. A flash of light exploded from the point of impact, bringing with it a rush of wind that knocked Akagi and Hikari over, and disrupted the melee between their pokemon.
Hikari did not know what to expect, but “nothing” was not what she had in mind. As her eyes recovered from the blinding flash, Giratina continued to float before them, the chain and attached orb floating before her, surrounded by a soft purple glow. She turned her red eyes down on Akagi and growled.
This is not your place to make demands.
Akagi stared back at the Renegade, slack-jawed. “How could you-” He shook his head in disbelief. “OBEY ME,” he screamed.
You do not understand the Will of the one your kind calls “Renegade.” A low rumble filled the air as Giratina continued to speak, and the stone platform they stood on began to rumble. And so you must be made to understand forevermore. At this, Giratina faded into the infinite black behind her and left the four of them in silence, save the loud thunk and soft rattle of the orb and chain hitting the ground.
Akagi looked around, his breathing now thoroughly ragged, and coughed twice. “RETURN TO MY SIDE, GIRATINA. YOU-” A loud rumble shook the stone the four of them stood upon with such force that Hikari feared it would crumble completely apart.
Giratina faded back into existence, her long black wings glowing a dull purple and brought two of them down - one each for Akagi and his weavile. The red talon that tipped them cut diagonally across the two of them, though instead of producing a wound, instead it looked as if a part of them had been simply wiped away. Akagi’s eyes went wide, much like his weavile’s, and though his mouth moved, no sound came from it.
And all at once, the trainer and his pokemon dissolved into motes of dull lilac.
Hikari felt her knees go out at this display, and she stared up at Giratina, her eyes wide with fear. The intense pain in her arm and the winding tendrils of purple now sneaking up her shoulder seemed so very far away from her as she watched Akagi and his weavile alike blink one last time as their bodies dissolved. And it remained as such when she saw the Renegade turn her focus down onto her.
You understand, don’t you, little one?
The trainer’s mouth opened but no sound came out. She settled for a quiet squeak and nodded. In reality, she did not, but it seemed unwise to disagree.
Giratina’s imperious gaze softened, and she lowered herself down to Hikari’s level. You do not, but still you say so. I can see it. Yes, I can see that you are not here to shackle entropy itself. You fought that foolish what-was to ensure that the forward march of creation and destruction remained unimpaired. The two of you. She shifted her focus to her empoleon. The penguin shuddered and squawked once, earning him a laugh from the Renegade.
You are all so curious. Her eyes focused on Hikari’s ailing arm. And so fragile. Her voice was gentle in Hikari’s head and in her chest, more befitting of an old grandmother than the goddess of annihilation. A long black wing came to life with a purple glow and reached towards her. Hikari felt her entire body begin to shake as the red talon at the tip of the wing reached out to touch her arm, but the instant it made contact the incredible pain in her arm vanished. She looked down at her arm in disbelief - the snaking purple scars that wound up her arm remained, but they had ceased their inexorable climb up her body and left no lingering discomfort.
So incredibly temporary. Though now a bit less so than you were a moment ago. Alas. The voice all around and within Hikari was almost mournful. Giratina’s many wings fanned out behind her and they all began to glow a dull yellow. A distant rumbling filled the air, and a long and thin platform of rock, gravel and grass rose up from the infinite nothing around them and created a gentle incline back to the portal that had vomited Hikari in this strange plane.
And now, your time here has come to a close. I have provided you with safe passage home, little one. Use it, and ensure mockeries do not find their way here again - if they desire a natural end, that is. At this, the red chain wrapped around the orb burst into brilliant emerald flames before collapsing into pure white ash and then the orb itself rose up into the air and tossed itself gently at Hikari, who caught it instinctively.
Its safety falls to you now, Keeper. Giratina gave Hikari something that resembled a sad smile and then dissolved into the void behind her.
Hikari stared down at the strange orb for a moment before tucking it away in her pack and turning her attention to the forking, snaking purple scars on her left arm. The pain had not returned. Her thoughts shifted abruptly to Shirona, who was still on the other side of the portal home, nursing several injuries she swore up and down were not “mortal.” She set off up the path. They had better not have been - Hikari was going to kill her for making her brave this strange land alone.