Work Text:
|| —— { I } —— ||
The snowstorm shows no sign of stopping.
She wanders through the snowfields, cold feet crunching on the snow below. The dark crimson sky looms over the icelands.
It’s not fair. I did everything I was supposed to. Why…
Each slowflake feels like knives slashing across her face. Her entire body aches, the cold bites, yet she walks, and walks, and walks.
Outsider, he said. Never one of them, he told her. Exiled, after risking her life time after time helping them. You are not to return until you find a way to fix the sky. She thought she had earned something through her hard labor. We do not welcome you. She was merely a tool. Disposable once they got everything they wanted out of her. They never saw her as family.
Her vision blur, the tears freeze immediately as they roll down her cheeks. She raises her arm with difficulty to wipe it off. Crying is not an option in this situation.
The wind howls louder and louder, pushing against her tired body. Walking becomes more and more difficult with every step, as if led was strapped onto her legs. Faint cries ring out from the pokeballs hanging off her waist, but she is too numb to hear anything other than her own uneven breath and heartbeat.
She feels her surroundings darken, something is attacking, but her body is too slow to react. A strong force strikes her from behind, she falls onto the snow with a thud. In the corner of her eyes, she sees floating figures, laughing and slowly approaching. Their faces morph into the townspeople as memories flash before her eyes.
We should’ve never let you in. The guards said firmly. How could you... Dagero shakes his head. Look at what you’ve caused. Choy looked down at her in disappointment. Trusting you in our team was a mistake. You don’t belong here. You are to leave. Get out.
Outsider!
Out…sider…!
out…
…
She forces herself up with her arms yet to no avail, her frostbitten limbs give in and she collapses once again. Her pokeballs shake, but she has no more strength to move. The storm is burying her as the ghosts of the icelands approach. She lays there, on the reddened snow, helplessly, hopelessly, holding onto her last breath.
Help me… Someone…
Ever so faintly, she hears one of their pokeballs burst open. The blurred silhouette of her partner spreading his wings comes into her sight, a loud hooting is the last thing she hears before everything turns to black.
|| —— { II } —— ||
The Snowstorm might go on for a little longer.
She wakes, with her mind barely conscious and memories blurred, everything is hazy as she tries to take in her surroundings. She doesn’t know how long she slept.
Something’s wrong. The cold of the snow and wind should hurt, yet it doesn’t. She should be dead falling asleep in a blizzard, yet she’s conscious. Her arms don't ache anymore as she supports herself up to a half sit. She feels… light.
Faint, hazy memories resurface.
As her senses slowly return to her, she opens her eyes properly. The faint smell of iron suddenly hits her nose, she turns to see her partner decidueye, hunching still over her own unmoving corpse, broken wings spread to protect her from harm, buried in a thin layer of snow. Red icicles hang off the feathers. Next to the bodies, she sees all of her pokeballs, all snapped open. Her head jolts up to see the surroundings tattered after an intense battle. The white snow tainted with red and black. Bloody remnants of wild pokemon and her partners scattered across the field.
She frantically gathers all the pokeballs in and rushes to each of her partners, one after the other, shaking off the thin layer of snow and pressing the button against their broken and frozen bodies, hoping they’d respond and return. Yet none did.
All six of them fended off hostile pokemon, hoard after hoard. They gave their lives to protect their unconscious human, but their efforts end in vain.
She slumps down onto the snow in front of their Decidueye, hugging his cold body. Her sobbing is drowned by the howling winds. All of the sadness, hatred and anger arise along with their memories of the exile, the betrayal and the pain she went through. Her emotions overtake her, change her. The barely conscious wisp grows into a resentful spirit full of malice. A shriek of anguish and grief echoes through the icelands.
|| —— { III } —— ||
Dawn breaks. The sky lights up. The snow reflects the color, painting the icelands in an eerie red.
Four figures travel across the snowfields, following Lord Ursaluna’s lead, their footsteps trailing behind them.
“This is absurd.” Kamado scoffs, his armor clinging with his movements.
“You sent a child into the wilderness, under an unstable circumstance like this, then forbade our clans to help.” Irida exclaims, “You practically sentenced her to death!”
“This child you speak of caused this disaster!”
“There is no proof of that.” Adaman says coldly.
“Then prove the opposite.” Kamado replies in an equally cold tone.
“She risked her life multiple times to help all of us, and this is how you repay her?!” Adaman yells, trying his best to suppress the urge to punch this man in the face.
“Then she—”
“Commander, clan leaders, forgive my rudeness, but I don’t think it’s the best idea to argue right now…” Rei intervenes, his red scarf trail in the wind behind him. “We came to find Akari, not to bicker in a blizzard.”
Kamado swallows the words on his tongue. The four of them walk on in silence.
Lord Ursaluna raises his head, he runs ahead and calls for the four to follow. He has found something. They hurry to him, arriving at what seems to be an empty spot on the fields.
“There’s nothing here, your Lord must have made a mistake.” Kamado turns around, about to walk away.
“His sense of smell is superb, there couldn’t have been a mistake.” Irida stops him.
“But does this mean…” Rei’s voice trembles, he doesn't finish his sentence, as he turns to see Ursaluna sit down in behind what he has unearthed from the snow. He winces and lowered his head in grief. There in front of him, Akari’s decidueye with his wings spread out over the girl, protecting her even in death. The remains of the rest of her party must be near.
Irida, Adaman and Rei rush up to them, holding onto the slim chance of their friend being alive still. But they are too late, she’s long gone. Kamado stands behind in silence, he’s shocked, even if he had thought of the possibility, he thought it’d fix the disaster. But it didn’t. The sky isn’t fixed, nothing is.
Suddenly, Lord Usaluna roars out, he seems to have sensed something and runs towards it. The leaders rush up, following the Noble as they vanish into the snowstorm.
Rei is about to follow, but hears something behind him. He turns around and sees a ghostly figure on top of his commander, clawing at him while he struggles to hold her off. With a powerful kick to her abdomen, she tumbles back and uses the momentum to flip back on her feet.
Rei recognizes the attacker, “Akari?” he calls out, but she doesn’t answer and merely looks at him briefly, before glaring at Kamado in the back, fixing her gaze on him.
She has changed. Her skin has turned white, along with her hair, red tips flow in the air not unlike one of a zorua. Dark tear marks frame her yellow, glowing eyes. Her hands grew sharp with claws. A pendant made from decidueyes feather hangs off her waist. Tattered clothes flatter in the wind.
No time is given for Kamado to send out his pokemon as she lunges towards her target once more.
|| —— { IV } —— ||
The snowstorm is about to end.
She rests a little ways away from the fields in a small cave, gently petting the zorua on her lap. Two more zoruas lie beside her. They found her in the fields and brought her here.
One of them yelps quietly, signaling her at something. She glances up and spots the group lead by Lord Ursaluna approaching the place where she collapsed. They’ve come before she’s gone to find them. She stands up and hops down the small cliff, the three zoruas follow suit. Their white fur hides them in the blizzard.
“The one in black armor, right?” One of them asks quietly. She nods in response. Her hand reaches for her pendant, stroking the feather.
“We’ll distract the Noble, lure him away.”
“And the rest we’ll leave to you.”
Her fists tighten, sharp nails dig into her palms, black blood trickles down her hand. She feels a light bump on her left hand, “Relax… We’re with you.”
She takes a deep breath. The Noble has shovelled the snow off her deceased partner. The three zoruas already went ahead, she circles from behind.
Hatred takes over, red is all she sees as she lurks closer and closer towards the man clad in armor. Her companions already lured three of them deeper into the storm. Her prey stands with only the boy.
She lunges, bringing the man onto the ground. He holds her claws off and kicks her. She tumbles back and rolls onto her feet. The boy said something, was it her name? She doesn’t remember. It doesn’t matter.
She dashes towards him once more, both claws striking. One slash connects, blood splashes onto the snow. Four bloody streaks now drawn over his face.
The boy sends out his pikachu, he surrounds himself with thunder waves and charges at her. She evades the paralyzing thunder with a roll to the side as her shadow extends, striking pikachu from below. Before he could react, the shadow sneaks behind him and strikes again, and again. The pikachu faints. The boy recalls him. He’s panicking.
She feels the ground shake as a snorlax is released from his pokeball. He charges at her, headbutting her with psychic energy covering him. She dodges to the side, but unable to evade the attack as the impact sends her rolling back in the snow.
The man is saying something to the boy. They seem to be arguing about something.
She staggers up, the snorlax looms over her. A few broken ribs, but what does that bother a ghost? The surroundings darken as she unleashes her bitter malice with an ear piercing shriek, targeting not the snorlax, but the man behind him.
The boy and the man are both caught off guard. With no time to avoid the attack, the malice surrounds the man and burns him with a freezing cold, he screams in agony, before passing out, falling into the snow. Ghostly energy lingers on his skin. The boy kneels down next to him, rummaging through his satchel in total panic.
A sharp whistle cuts through the storm, turquoise vines crack the air like whips, striking her from behind. She hisses and jolts around to see a familiar man in black, commanding his partner tangrowth with mastery like no one else. The Noble, along with the other two who left earlier stand behind him. He’s saying something to her…
Vines sneak behind her while she’s lost in thoughts and trap her in a tight grip. She struggles, the heavy feeling of drowsiness hits her as the tangrowth releases a full power sleep powder through her vines. Though her effort to keep awake, her eyes close as her body gives in. The vines loosen, she feels herself falling into someone's arms.
“…I’m sorry, Miss Akari.”
The snowstorm has ended