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Eve is the destruction pokemon Yveltal.
She was born with the ability to absorb the life force of (kill) all the living. Pokemon. Humans. Plants. And it’s the only way Yveltals can survive. Since Eve can remember, she herself only took the life force of plants. Maybe that’s what made her much smaller and weaker than her siblings, who took the life from whatever pokemon or human they found. Who started killing each other one day, because if too many Yveltals are alive at the same time, they could wipe out the world.
Maybe it was because Eve was weak and weird to them, they didn’t attack her first and she fled. She’s too afraid of getting near other pokemon and humans, because sometimes she absorbs life force from plants without meaning too. So she flies around the regions, aimless and lonely. Until she finds another Yveltal.
This Yveltal is huge. He’s resting in a mountain crater, wings and tail wrapped up around his body. Eve flies down. She hesitates to wake him, fearing he’ll kill her for being an Yveltal. He wakes up on his own. His wings uncurl enough that one of his blue eyes blazes out from the shadows.
“I want help controlling my life absorbing power,” Eve says. “I never want to take life force from humans and pokemon, but I can’t control my powers yet.”
The Yveltal stares. And stares. Then he slowly uncurls both wings and his tail and stretches to his full terrifying height. “Have you never taken life force from pokemon and humans?”
Eve shakes her head. “Never. My siblings did.”
The Yveltal leans down so that his sharp horns and beak nearly graze her. “Did your siblings kill each other?”
“They were killing each other. I couldn’t stop them. I ran away,” Eve says.
“You shouldn’t have stopped them,” the Yveltal says. “If too many Yveltals exist, the world will perish. Not that I care about the world, but if the world dies I die as well.”
“I care about the world, and all the humans and pokemon in it,” Eve says. “That’s why I have to control my powers.”
“You’re asking me to teach you?” the Yveltal says.
“Please,” Eve says.
She expects the Yveltal to say no. Or make her ask again. “All right. I will teach you,” he says instead.
Yveltal brings her to a field of tiny plants with pale blue flowers. “Start here. These plants live only days. They wilt at the least of their life force taken.” Yveltal holds out one of his clawed wings. Red glows from the tips. The flowers immediately tip over. “Sleep by them every night, and you’ll know if and how much life force you take unconsciously in sleep.”
Yveltal brings her to a grassland next. “Keep absorbing from plants. Do it every day, not only when you need the energy. You will get better at controlling and stopping yourself from taking energy on accident.”
“Thank you,” Eve says. Yveltal simply shrugs.
One day Eve asks Yveltal, “Why have Yveltals killed whole forests and towns at once?”
Yveltal peers down at her. “If Yveltals are near to death, they must sleep one thousand years. To handle the long slumber, they must absorb enough life. You know if I absorb the life of a human whose health gave them seventy-five years and a tree with sixty years, I gain one hundred thirty-five years of lifespan? If I’m to sleep one thousand years and also have enough energy to survive upon waking, I must absorb well over one thousand years worth of life.”
Eve slumps. That’s so much life energy. So many deaths. “But why don’t you only absorb plants? And why don’t you stop at only a little over one thousand years?”
“I assume you don’t know since you’ve never tried it, but human and pokemon energy is different than plants. It’s fuller and grants more power, even if the years of life are the same,” Yveltal says. “But that’s not all. When an Yveltal is brought to death, they cannot waste time picking whose life force they consume nor can they absorb too little or they will die. It’s for survival. It’s not always from malice.”
“But, but, it’s cruel,” Eve says.
Yveltal stares at the sky. “So is it better that I let myself die? Since my life is worth less because I have to kill? Because there is only one of me?”
“No. No, that’s not right. All life is important.” Eve shakes her head. “I, I just want to live carefully and never have to kill humans and pokemon to survive.”
“That,” Yveltal says, “sounds like something you only wish upon the Ho-Oh.” He doesn’t tell her to stop wishing for it though.
One day Eve asks Yveltal, “Why didn’t you kill me?”
Yveltal is standing on a cliff, wings splayed to catch the wind, not to absorb life force. He turns at her question and folds his wings. “When I first met you?” he asks. Eve nods. “I planned to, and would have killed you, had you been a usual Yveltal. Before you came, the only other Yveltal near me was one in the next region in their thousand-year slumber. But you are like no other Yveltal. All this time you’ve refused to take life force of anything but plants. So I have no reason to harm you.”
“So if I began to behave like a normal Yveltal…and started killing humans and pokemon…would you kill me?” Eve asks.
Yveltal shifts his eyes for a moment before shutting them and saying, “Yes.”
“I’m glad,” Eve says. Yveltal opens his eyes, a questioning tilt to his head. “Because I never want to kill others, and I want to be stopped if I do.”
Yveltal is quiet for a bit. He finally says, “You said all life is important. Even mine as an Yveltal.”
“It is. But I can choose for my own life, and I would rather die than kill,” Eve says. Yveltal says nothing to that.
Eve is finally able to control her powers. “I’m going to befriend humans and pokemon!” she says.
“You’re an Yveltal. They will hate you,” Yveltal says.
Eve lifts her head to stare right up at him. “I can show them not all Yveltals want to hurt them. I’m sure I can be friends with them if I try my best.”
Yveltal stares very hard at her. And then he spreads both wings. He curls up his tail. Red glows. And the life wrenches right from Eve’s soul. It’s terrifying. It’s painful. She’s going to die. She’s—
Yveltal stops. He folds his wings. Eve trembles on the ground. “W-Why…” she chokes.
“I only took a few years. Absorb a tree and you will have those years back,” Yveltal says quietly. He narrows his eyes and clacks his beak. “Listen, small Yveltal. That’s what dying feels like. That’s what real fear of death feels like. And that’s what the humans and pokemon feel when they see Yveltal.”
It’s the cruelest way Yveltal has ever shown her a truth.
Eve still wants to befriend humans and other pokemon. Yveltal tells her to do as she wishes, so long as she knows how they'll treat her.
Eve plans to leave today and find a town. “What will you do when I leave?” she asks Yveltal.
Yveltal curls up at the center of the crater she first met him in. “Sleep. I am not a greedy Yveltal that wanders earth taking whatever it wants. Rest assured, and do as you please, small Yveltal.”
“Thank you, Yveltal. For everything.” Yveltal shrugs and dips his head. Eve staggers out of the crater. Her wings are heavy and her chest heavier. “Yveltal…” I wish I didn’t have to leave you. She looks over her shoulder. “If I become a killer…you’ll kill me, right?”
“Of course.” Yveltal opens his sapphire eyes. They shimmer. He quickly wraps himself with his wings and tail in his deep-sleep position.
“Good.” Eve lifts her wings. She flies straight into the sky and away.
She doesn’t hear Yveltal, who opens his eyes once more and murmurs, “And I’ll wish upon the Ho-Oh for you. Stay the way you are forever and find friends, Eve.”