It's finally time! The second exquisite corpse that was written in reverse order! The first author was the one who determined where the story ended, and the next author had to write the events leading up to it, and so on, until the final author wrote the beginning. Each author only got to see the first two sentences of the next part of the story! For ease of reading, the parts are listed here insequential order, so the first part was the last part that was written. Here's the list of participants in case you want to guess who wrote each part! Thanks to everyone who participated!
He crested the stairs, and the cavern opened up again, into yet another battleground. This one, though...
"There's light," he said, gasping both from exertion and from relief. There was an exit at the far end of one wall. A reprieve from the darkness. And, just maybe, the Pokémon League.
"Is that you, Brendan?" came a timid voice from the gloom.
"Huh?"
Zachary squinted at the kid loitering by the exit. He was a young one. Couldn't be more than thirteen at the most, surely. Looked more like a ten year old. He coughed awkwardly. "No, my name's Zachary. Were you expecting someone in particular?"
Closing the distance between himself and the kid, Zachary wondered for a second if he was some lost tagalong. With his leaf-green hair and stem-thin limbs, he looked like a weed clinging onto life, not a potential League challenger. But surely not, right? It had been nothing but top notch trainers the entire way so far.
"I guess so," said the kid. "My friend is sure to turn up eventually. They're stronger than anyone else I've ever battled, so I know I'll meet him soon if I wait here. Something about the way you approached... It reminded me of him."
Zachary chuckled. "I suppose there's a certain swagger that the strongest trainers pick up after a while. Or rather, the best trainers stand tall with confidence. That's it, right?"
The kid nodded. This close, Zachary could see a bright smile on his face. "Yes. That's it. I think I can tell when a trainer trusts their pokémon completely... I can tell you have a partner with you who you know you can count on. That's where my friend's strength comes from. That's where your strength comes from, too, right?"
"Huh. That's pretty astute for a kid your age."
Zachary grinned. He had a good feeling about this kid. What was one more match, before the League?
"You're exactly right," he admitted. "My partner, my ace teammate, is my gardevoir. She's been with me since the very first day of my journey."
The kid's little hands clenched into fists of balled excitement. "Your partner is a gardevoir? No way! Mine too!"
Well, that would explain the kid's remarkable perceptiveness. Gardevoir trainers weren't all that common, but every last one Zachary had met... They'd all had a certain intense empathy. As did he.
Chances like this didn't come around all that often. He ought to take it, no matter how close the League was.
“What do you say to a pokemon battle - your gardevoir versus mine?” Zachary asked. “Should be fun to compare battle styles, don’t you think?”
Gemmina rubbed their chin in thought. The idea was tempting, indeed. However…
“I’m not sure I see the point of it,” they admitted. “I mean, by the time all is said and done nothing we’re about to do matters. This passage of the exquisite corpse is going to be completely self-contained.”
Zachary blinked. His eyes narrowed as he tried to comprehend the stranger’s words. “...What are you going on about?”
“I mean, think about it. Our fight probably won’t have any weight on the narrative. All that matters is that we make sure we connect to the next part.” They made a sweeping gesture with their hand, gesturing to some nebulous thing that Zachary couldn’t see.
“Dude, are you alright?” Zachary took a slow step forward. His gardevoir placed a hand on his shoulder, warning him to stop. “You weren’t acting like this before.”
“You’re right. And if I’m not mistaken, my name Wasn’t Gemmina before, either.”
“Yes it was! You told me so when…” Zachary trailed off. When did Gemmina tell him their name. Was it just a few minutes ago? Was it months ago? Did they even tell him? He couldn’t remember.
He shook his head and took an uneasy step back. “Okay, this is getting weird.”
Gemmina stepped forward, clapping a hand on Zachary’s other shoulder. “Look, you want to figure out whats going on? Then give me a hand.”
They took a step back and waved their gardevoir over. “Okay Guardie, start making a shadow ball, the biggest one you got. And you, Zachary, have your gardevoir start charging a focus blast, alright?”
Zachary hesitantly agreed. As Guardie began forming a roiling ball of dark, volatile energy, his own began charging the signature pale yellow sphere of a focus blast
“I really hope you have a good reason for this…”
“Come on, put more power into it!” Gemmina cheered, pumping a fist in the air. “I want this explosion to blow so many plot holes in this story, nobody will be able to find the common link between the parts!”
At once, the attacks were launched at each other.
The explosion was as big as it was deafening.
Zachary, Gemmina, and their respective Gardevoirs fell to the ground, covering their heads. Zachary prayed to whatever Gods there were that they wouldn't get struck with any debris. They were hundreds of feet from the steps that led up to the Team Galactic HQ, but a blast that large would send things flying for miles.
Gemmina tried to yell out to Zachary, but found that her voice was buried under the lingering rumble of the boom. She reached a shaky hand up to her earpiece, her finger instinctively roving to the power button. She could just barely hear the sound of her link powering up over the ringing in her ears.
What was that?! she asked frantically.
It was a long moment before Zachary replied. He had to work up the nerve to get his body to move; to get his brain working. By the time he was able to turn on his own link, the rumbling had died down. All that could be heard was the sound of the Veilstone residents screaming in absolute panic.
I don't know, he said. I thought...I thought we'd taken them down.
Guys! Zachary's Gardevoir shouted through the link. Look!
The two trainers hesitantly raised their heads, only to find that it was suddenly...night time? The sunny day they'd walked back in to had completely vanished; not a beam of sunlight to be seen. It didn't make any sense.
"H...how?!" Gemmina sputtered outloud. "This doesn't make any sense!"
It wasn’t long before Zachary and Gemmina realized what had darkened the sun: A dark, crystalline creature.
“What is that thing? It seems… otherworldly,” Gemmina’s Gardevoir whispered over their link.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Gemmina thought back.
Zachary raised a fist into the air. “We gotta fight it!”
“Gemmina, tell him he’s insane for me, please.”
“Zach, you’re insane.”
Zachary crossed his arms, looking annoyed. “Well, someone has to do it. And nobody else is going to, because we’re the protagonists!”
Gemmina was confused. “We’re the... what?”
“I’m sure he doesn’t mean that literally.”
Zachary reached to his belt for a ball, but he came up with nothing. “Oh, uhh, I think I left my team at camp, though. How about we just… come back tomorrow. That’ll be long enough to prepare, don’t you think?”
Sighing, Gemmina turned around, and the three headed back to the place they’d set up camp.
Back at camp, Zachary was tasked with letting out his and Gemmina’s teams for some exercise, while she and her Gardevoir made soup with what forage they had left. The fire crackled gently as it heated the broth to a boil.
Yet, Gemmina’s mind wasn’t on the cooking: On the walk home, she’d sensed Gardevoir was intentionally keeping some of her thoughts away from their mental link. Gemmina wasn’t used to having her partner hide things from her before, and wasn’t sure what an appropriate way to broach the subject was.
“So,” Gemmina mused, “what do you think our odds are of pulling this off?”
“I don’t know. You don’t know, and you’re well aware of the fact my sapience comes from sharing in your brain, I don’t know why you seem to think I would know any better.”
Gemmina narrowed her eyes. It was a very evasive answer, of course she understood how having a Gardevoir linked to her head worked, that hadn’t been what she was asking about…
“That’s all?”
Gemmina sensed nervousness across their link. Gardevoir got up and mixed some tubers into the soup before answering. “I… I think everything will be okay, in the end. I just… don’t know what it’s going to cost for us to get there.”
She suspected that wasn’t the full answer, but she decided she wouldn’t force the issue. She trusted that, if her partner didn’t want to talk about it, there was good reason not to.
The two let the soup cook wordlessly for a few minutes before either spoke up again.
“Battles of the future aside… I am feeling nostalgic. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind sharing some of your memories of our earlier times together with me again?”
Gemmina obliged, but she couldn’t help but shake the feeling that it was an odd request…
She thought back to the farm she’d grown up on. Their herds of Miltank had been getting harassed by the wild Houndoom population, so her father had set out some traps.
When Gemmina had gone out that morning, she’d heard whimpering coming from the woods. It was too soft a sound to be coming from a Houndoor, much less a Houndoom. Her dad had told her not to worry, but just like she’d feared, something else had got caught.
A little Ralts had fallen into a Houndoom-sized steel leg trap, locking its teeth onto their torso. They had small iron burns on their hands, from what Gemmina assumed was from trying to pry it off. She pulled the release on the trap and saw the burns from the teeth were worse.
Gemmina rushed the Ralts back to their house. She called for her dad as she searched for a bottle of moomoo milk, so the little Ralts could have something reinvigorating to drink.
“I know I’ve said this before,” Gardevoir thought, interrupting the reverie, “but I am ever so grateful it was you that found me. Not everyone would have put as much time and effort into making sure I recovered as you did.”
“I’m glad I found you as well. I can’t imagine what life would be like without sharing my head with someone. It’s nice having someone who just gets you. I don’t know how other people go without it. I imagine it must be lonely…”
“I can’t imagine it, either. I mean, I need a host, of course, but even if it was someone else… I can’t imagine myself being as happy with Zachary, for example. Or with a nonhuman... I wouldn’t even have the ability to speak. I suppose I take the speech circuits of your brain for granted. So… Thank you. For everything.”
After they’d slept for what, by their best sunless approximation, was about a night, the group emerged and began to prepare for the goal they’d chosen: To fight the crystalline monster that had stolen the sun’s light.
Gemmina and Zachary switched on their lanterns, casting an eerie light over the path. The importance of the task ahead made the forest feel even more insidious, like the shadows were watching them, looking to see what woe would follow should they falter.
They tracked the creature down from where they’d spotted it yesterday, back to a cave. IT wasn’t hard to follow, something of its size does not tread the earth without leaving a mark.
Zachary’s hand shot to his belt, releasing his Arcanine. Gardevoir stepped forward as Gemmina’s partner. A Flare Blitz lit up the cave as Arcanine barrelled into their target. Flecks of black dust flew up into the air as they collided.
Breaking away the layer of black impurity revealed the crystal beneath it to be glowing with light.
“Give us back our sunlight!” Zachary demanded.
In response, a beam of concentrated light washed over his Arcanine. With a single attack, the emergency recall on his ball triggered, placing Arcanine in medical stasis.
Gemmina stared with awestruck horror. “Shit.”
“Yes,” Gardevoir agreed, “We need to get out of here while we still have the chance.”
The two turned and fled. Zachary got the message, and followed after.
Unfortunately, the crystal dragon was not content to let bygones be bygones. It followed, prismatic beams of light scorching the greenery around it. The flickering firelight illuminated the chase. Long, flickering shadows danced at the edges of their vision as they ran…
They were edging closer to the edge of the woods. The ran past a route station, too much further and they would lead it straight to densely-populated areas. They needed to stop this, somehow… But Zachray and Gemmina had no idea what they could do.
“I think there’s only one way out of this. Thank you, Gemmina, for everything…”
Zachary and Gemmina stared in horror as the gardevoir floated high above the treetops, the black hole distorting the sky behind her. Tendrils of psychic energy emanated from her slender body, crushing trees, dismantling buildings, and scattering Pokemon. The citizens of Salem shrieked as her powers overtook each of them, either physically lifting them into the air or mentally assaulting them. Next to Gemmina, Zachary tensed as Astrid’s eyes glanced at them, full of guilt.
“You—you always told us that everything would work out, that the town of Salem wouldn’t fall! You said we were safe!” Gemmina cried.
“Yeah, well,” the kadabra said haltingly as she stared in horror at the incoming gardevoir, “You could have… y’know…” But the words died in Astrid’s mouth as she watched the black hole and rip and distort the air above their heads, rending the blue sky with an unearthly aura.
The sunflora spied the sack in Astrid’s hand and noticed a gleam of gold poke out from the burlap.
“Is that—gold? Are you going to try and bribe your way through? Astrid, you know they’re going to kill us all, no matter what—”
“Don’t waste your breath, Gemmina,” Zachary snarled. The ponyta glared daggers at Astrid. “She knows exactly what’s going to happen—she always did. You know the future, Astrid! You knew we would trust whatever you said—you said there was no more need to follow Temple Law, that we could live our lives however we wanted, and that Salem would always prosper. But this whole time, you knew that the kingdom of Eterna was going to conquer us in just a few months!”
“I didn’t want it to happen!” Astrid burst out. Gemmina and Zachary reeled as an invisible force pushed them; a wave of psychic energy flattened the grass around the kadabra and her eyes turned bright purple. “I never wanted Salem to be destroyed, and I never wanted any of us to get captured or killed!”
“Then why did you lie?” Gemmina implored. “We could have prepared!”
“I just wanted to live my life happily—I wanted everyone to be happy! I didn’t want us to spend our last days uselessly worrying about pleasing the gods of the Temple and following their strict rules—”
“Is that why you plundered it, stole the Temple gold, and are going to try and bribe your way through now?” Zachary asked. “You preached to us in the name of Arceus and Mew, telling us things they never told you, and now you steal from their temple to save your own skin while our city falls! This wasn’t about the rest of us, Astrid, you only ever cared about yourself!”
The black hole was very close—the gardevoir hovered ever nearer to them, her white dress billowing out as glowing red tendrils crept from her eyes. All around them, Gemmina and Zachary heard screams as Pokemon tore through the forest in desperation. A buzz reverberated through Gemmina’s head—her petals vibrated. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zachary flinch and his teeth chatter as he stared angrily up at their incoming attacker.
The blackness blotted out the sunlight; the blue sky was gone. The gardevoir cast her scarlet gaze down on the three Pokemon standing before her. A glittering helm of gold encircled her face as waves of energy pulsed from her body, riveting the air and dissolving trees and buildings. Astrid threw herself onto the grass, holding out the sack.
“Please, O Mistress of Eterna, spare me! I have gifts for you—gold! Silver! Whatever you want—make me your slave! Just do not take my life, I beg you!”
The kadabra scrunched her eyes shut and pressed her face to the ground as she sniveled and shook. Gemmina and Zachary gazed up at the queen. The blood in Gemmina’s veins had turned to ice; all of her senses were blotted out as she took in the sight of Eterna’s monarch floating before them. The sunflora could do little more than listen as the gardevoir spoke.
“Very well,” her voice echoed and reverberated through the open air. “You are no longer a citizen of Salem. You belong to Eterna. Your name is now Hananiah. This is your new home. From this day forward, you serve me, and me alone.”
The kadabra lifted herself shakily—Gemmina saw relief shining in her cowardly eyes.
“Yes! Thank you, my Queen! Anything you want—anything at all! I will do it—always!”
Getting to her feet, Astrid began to scurry away into the looming void before them. Gemmina saw veins of red in the sky, growing from a single point in the distance.
“Wait! Astrid!” she called. But she might as well have said nothing, for the kadabra didn’t answer. She only hastened on, in to the red-and-black distortion.
“And you two.”
Gemmina and Zachary looked up at the gardevoir as she spoke to them. The psychic energy was so strong—the grass fluttered, and a wind constantly blew the tops of the trees. Zachary’s fire flickered and sputtered. Gemmina wrapped her leafy arms around herself as she gazed upward in horror.
“You will live in my kingdom, as well. Your names are now Belteshazzar and Enheduanna. You will have no other gods before me.”
Shaking, Gemmina began to comply. What could she do? The Queen of Eterna could end her life in an instant. Home was gone. The world was being sucked into this alien vortex. There was nothing left.
The sunflora took a few steps forward when she noticed that Zachary was not following. The ponyta remained standing where he was, looking determinedly up at the gardevoir. If he was afraid, it was overshadowed by his disdain and stubbornness.
“I don’t answer to you!”
The gardevoir’s red gaze rested on him. The tendrils of light from her eyes grew more brightly; Gemmina recoiled as the psychic energy pressed down on her, filling her brain with a hum. Around her, she saw other Pokemon from Salem walk past fallen tree trunks and dilapidated buildings, into the void that was now their home. She lingered, looking back frightfully as Zachary and the monarch squared off against each other.
“Do you not realize that I control your life now?” she said coldly. “I decide when and how you will die. Everything that happens to you from now on is within my power. Now, you will join us in Eterna, or your life ends here.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Zachary shot back. “I have served Arceus and Mew—I always have, and they will protect me! They have the power to rescue me from you! And even if they do not choose to protect my life this day, I know my spirit is safe in their hands. You may be able to end me here, but once I am dead, you have no more control.”
Gemmina was flattened by the wave of energy; her thin body was pressed into the grass. She unsteadily raised herself to her feet—she felt herself drawn to the center of Eterna, as though an invisible string wrapped around her body and pulled her forward.
How could it have come to this? She didn’t want to belong to Eterna—she wanted to be in Salem! She wanted to visit Ruth’s fruit market, and sit in the Sunkern Fields, and explore the neighboring woods with Zachary! She wanted to visit Town Square with her sister, Naomi, and listen to Astrid telling them about a prosperous kingdom that would never fall—that the kingdom of peace was alive in this very moment! And in her mind’s eye, she saw Astrid standing at the fountain, proclaiming Good News to all.
“Arceus spoke to me in my dreams!” the kadabra gleefully called. “The good harvest will last! The wine output can double—and don’t set aside any for Temple offerings! The gods have decided that we deserve to keep it for ourselves, and that we can continue the Feast of Booths for another seven weeks!”
A cheer went up at the sound, but it quickly died in Gemmina’s ears. The memories of Astrid embittered her heart. And now, they were destined to live together in a world that the kadabra saw no need to warn others about, a world that every citizen of Salem was meekly complying to—except one.
In spite of Gemmina’s fear, she gave one last glance back at her friend.
The ponyta was floating in the air, upheld by the gardevoir’s power as she glared eye-level at him. His flames, though they fluttered, burned with an intensity and strength Gemmina had never seen before. His body was crumpling: the gardevoir’s power was physically crushing him. But his eyes shone with an interior light that only made the queen’s rage grow.
“Feel this pain, Belteshazzar!” she roared. “Are you still unafraid of what I can do to you?”
As his joints bent and limbs curled inwards, Zachary’s shining eyes met hers with an unwavering peace.
“My name is Zachary.”
It was then, when Zachary flopped into the tall grass with an empty holler, that Gemmina understood what the ponyta meant when he warned her about false prophets. With a grave look on her face, she followed—ready to take on whatever the nightmare realm held in store for them.
Gemmina was seized by a wave of regret as she delved further into the grass. Its strands strangled her limbs, obfuscating her vision, as if it had a mind of its own.
“Zachary! It’s too dangerous here! We overestimated our abilities!” she cried. “Come back, PLEASE!” But there was no response.
Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. The little eevee had been her first pokémon, he’d been so excited to go on this journey—even convincing poor, cowardly Gemmina to go with him. “Think of the treasures, think of the fame and glory,” he would say with an infectious enthusiasm. When Gemmina responded with skepticism, Zachary giggled and said, “Gengar wouldn’t lie about this, right? Come on! Let’s go!”
Gemmina sank deeper and deeper into the grass. It must’ve been twice her height by now and there was still no sign of Zachary.
~Kehehehehe~ It’s always the young ones who allow themselves to be so willingly consumed.
Gemmina lept in shock at the strange voice. “Who… Who’s there!”
Nobody of importance, girl. Hurry along, you have an eevee to find, don’t you? Kehehehe!
“You know where he went?”
Of course? Would you like to know? He’s down there.
A bottomless chasm opened before Gemmina. It would’ve swallowed her whole had she not scrambled back in time. Its walls were splattered with dried blood. On the edges of the walls, she noticed a small tuft of Zachary’s ruff clinging to a protruding rock.
Don’t be shy. He’s down there safe and souououound. The Voice distorted as Gemmina edged closer to the edge to get a better look. Whyhyhy dononononon’ttttttt youououou joioioioioioioion himimimimimimim?
A blast of air sent Gemmina hurling over the edge at a terrifying rate. In less than a second, the light from the surface faded, leaving her in darkness.
In a pit with no bottom, Gemmina could only fall, and fall, and fall into the everlasting abyss.
Thousand Roads Exquisite Corpse 2021
Reverse Corpse II
"Nearly there," Zachary whispered – to himself, and to his partner in her pokéball – as he climbed what felt like the thousandth set of stairs hewn into the rock of Victory Road. "Can't be far now. Can't be far."Reverse Corpse II
He crested the stairs, and the cavern opened up again, into yet another battleground. This one, though...
"There's light," he said, gasping both from exertion and from relief. There was an exit at the far end of one wall. A reprieve from the darkness. And, just maybe, the Pokémon League.
"Is that you, Brendan?" came a timid voice from the gloom.
"Huh?"
Zachary squinted at the kid loitering by the exit. He was a young one. Couldn't be more than thirteen at the most, surely. Looked more like a ten year old. He coughed awkwardly. "No, my name's Zachary. Were you expecting someone in particular?"
Closing the distance between himself and the kid, Zachary wondered for a second if he was some lost tagalong. With his leaf-green hair and stem-thin limbs, he looked like a weed clinging onto life, not a potential League challenger. But surely not, right? It had been nothing but top notch trainers the entire way so far.
"I guess so," said the kid. "My friend is sure to turn up eventually. They're stronger than anyone else I've ever battled, so I know I'll meet him soon if I wait here. Something about the way you approached... It reminded me of him."
Zachary chuckled. "I suppose there's a certain swagger that the strongest trainers pick up after a while. Or rather, the best trainers stand tall with confidence. That's it, right?"
The kid nodded. This close, Zachary could see a bright smile on his face. "Yes. That's it. I think I can tell when a trainer trusts their pokémon completely... I can tell you have a partner with you who you know you can count on. That's where my friend's strength comes from. That's where your strength comes from, too, right?"
"Huh. That's pretty astute for a kid your age."
Zachary grinned. He had a good feeling about this kid. What was one more match, before the League?
"You're exactly right," he admitted. "My partner, my ace teammate, is my gardevoir. She's been with me since the very first day of my journey."
The kid's little hands clenched into fists of balled excitement. "Your partner is a gardevoir? No way! Mine too!"
Well, that would explain the kid's remarkable perceptiveness. Gardevoir trainers weren't all that common, but every last one Zachary had met... They'd all had a certain intense empathy. As did he.
Chances like this didn't come around all that often. He ought to take it, no matter how close the League was.
unrepentantAuthor
“What do you say to a pokemon battle - your gardevoir versus mine?” Zachary asked. “Should be fun to compare battle styles, don’t you think?”
Gemmina rubbed their chin in thought. The idea was tempting, indeed. However…
“I’m not sure I see the point of it,” they admitted. “I mean, by the time all is said and done nothing we’re about to do matters. This passage of the exquisite corpse is going to be completely self-contained.”
Zachary blinked. His eyes narrowed as he tried to comprehend the stranger’s words. “...What are you going on about?”
“I mean, think about it. Our fight probably won’t have any weight on the narrative. All that matters is that we make sure we connect to the next part.” They made a sweeping gesture with their hand, gesturing to some nebulous thing that Zachary couldn’t see.
“Dude, are you alright?” Zachary took a slow step forward. His gardevoir placed a hand on his shoulder, warning him to stop. “You weren’t acting like this before.”
“You’re right. And if I’m not mistaken, my name Wasn’t Gemmina before, either.”
“Yes it was! You told me so when…” Zachary trailed off. When did Gemmina tell him their name. Was it just a few minutes ago? Was it months ago? Did they even tell him? He couldn’t remember.
He shook his head and took an uneasy step back. “Okay, this is getting weird.”
Gemmina stepped forward, clapping a hand on Zachary’s other shoulder. “Look, you want to figure out whats going on? Then give me a hand.”
They took a step back and waved their gardevoir over. “Okay Guardie, start making a shadow ball, the biggest one you got. And you, Zachary, have your gardevoir start charging a focus blast, alright?”
Zachary hesitantly agreed. As Guardie began forming a roiling ball of dark, volatile energy, his own began charging the signature pale yellow sphere of a focus blast
“I really hope you have a good reason for this…”
“Come on, put more power into it!” Gemmina cheered, pumping a fist in the air. “I want this explosion to blow so many plot holes in this story, nobody will be able to find the common link between the parts!”
At once, the attacks were launched at each other.
windskull
The explosion was as big as it was deafening.
Zachary, Gemmina, and their respective Gardevoirs fell to the ground, covering their heads. Zachary prayed to whatever Gods there were that they wouldn't get struck with any debris. They were hundreds of feet from the steps that led up to the Team Galactic HQ, but a blast that large would send things flying for miles.
Gemmina tried to yell out to Zachary, but found that her voice was buried under the lingering rumble of the boom. She reached a shaky hand up to her earpiece, her finger instinctively roving to the power button. She could just barely hear the sound of her link powering up over the ringing in her ears.
What was that?! she asked frantically.
It was a long moment before Zachary replied. He had to work up the nerve to get his body to move; to get his brain working. By the time he was able to turn on his own link, the rumbling had died down. All that could be heard was the sound of the Veilstone residents screaming in absolute panic.
I don't know, he said. I thought...I thought we'd taken them down.
Guys! Zachary's Gardevoir shouted through the link. Look!
The two trainers hesitantly raised their heads, only to find that it was suddenly...night time? The sunny day they'd walked back in to had completely vanished; not a beam of sunlight to be seen. It didn't make any sense.
"H...how?!" Gemmina sputtered outloud. "This doesn't make any sense!"
Sinderella
It wasn’t long before Zachary and Gemmina realized what had darkened the sun: A dark, crystalline creature.
“What is that thing? It seems… otherworldly,” Gemmina’s Gardevoir whispered over their link.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Gemmina thought back.
Zachary raised a fist into the air. “We gotta fight it!”
“Gemmina, tell him he’s insane for me, please.”
“Zach, you’re insane.”
Zachary crossed his arms, looking annoyed. “Well, someone has to do it. And nobody else is going to, because we’re the protagonists!”
Gemmina was confused. “We’re the... what?”
“I’m sure he doesn’t mean that literally.”
Zachary reached to his belt for a ball, but he came up with nothing. “Oh, uhh, I think I left my team at camp, though. How about we just… come back tomorrow. That’ll be long enough to prepare, don’t you think?”
Sighing, Gemmina turned around, and the three headed back to the place they’d set up camp.
Yet, Gemmina’s mind wasn’t on the cooking: On the walk home, she’d sensed Gardevoir was intentionally keeping some of her thoughts away from their mental link. Gemmina wasn’t used to having her partner hide things from her before, and wasn’t sure what an appropriate way to broach the subject was.
“So,” Gemmina mused, “what do you think our odds are of pulling this off?”
“I don’t know. You don’t know, and you’re well aware of the fact my sapience comes from sharing in your brain, I don’t know why you seem to think I would know any better.”
Gemmina narrowed her eyes. It was a very evasive answer, of course she understood how having a Gardevoir linked to her head worked, that hadn’t been what she was asking about…
“That’s all?”
Gemmina sensed nervousness across their link. Gardevoir got up and mixed some tubers into the soup before answering. “I… I think everything will be okay, in the end. I just… don’t know what it’s going to cost for us to get there.”
She suspected that wasn’t the full answer, but she decided she wouldn’t force the issue. She trusted that, if her partner didn’t want to talk about it, there was good reason not to.
The two let the soup cook wordlessly for a few minutes before either spoke up again.
“Battles of the future aside… I am feeling nostalgic. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind sharing some of your memories of our earlier times together with me again?”
Gemmina obliged, but she couldn’t help but shake the feeling that it was an odd request…
When Gemmina had gone out that morning, she’d heard whimpering coming from the woods. It was too soft a sound to be coming from a Houndoor, much less a Houndoom. Her dad had told her not to worry, but just like she’d feared, something else had got caught.
A little Ralts had fallen into a Houndoom-sized steel leg trap, locking its teeth onto their torso. They had small iron burns on their hands, from what Gemmina assumed was from trying to pry it off. She pulled the release on the trap and saw the burns from the teeth were worse.
Gemmina rushed the Ralts back to their house. She called for her dad as she searched for a bottle of moomoo milk, so the little Ralts could have something reinvigorating to drink.
“I know I’ve said this before,” Gardevoir thought, interrupting the reverie, “but I am ever so grateful it was you that found me. Not everyone would have put as much time and effort into making sure I recovered as you did.”
“I’m glad I found you as well. I can’t imagine what life would be like without sharing my head with someone. It’s nice having someone who just gets you. I don’t know how other people go without it. I imagine it must be lonely…”
“I can’t imagine it, either. I mean, I need a host, of course, but even if it was someone else… I can’t imagine myself being as happy with Zachary, for example. Or with a nonhuman... I wouldn’t even have the ability to speak. I suppose I take the speech circuits of your brain for granted. So… Thank you. For everything.”
Gemmina and Zachary switched on their lanterns, casting an eerie light over the path. The importance of the task ahead made the forest feel even more insidious, like the shadows were watching them, looking to see what woe would follow should they falter.
They tracked the creature down from where they’d spotted it yesterday, back to a cave. IT wasn’t hard to follow, something of its size does not tread the earth without leaving a mark.
Zachary’s hand shot to his belt, releasing his Arcanine. Gardevoir stepped forward as Gemmina’s partner. A Flare Blitz lit up the cave as Arcanine barrelled into their target. Flecks of black dust flew up into the air as they collided.
Breaking away the layer of black impurity revealed the crystal beneath it to be glowing with light.
“Give us back our sunlight!” Zachary demanded.
In response, a beam of concentrated light washed over his Arcanine. With a single attack, the emergency recall on his ball triggered, placing Arcanine in medical stasis.
Gemmina stared with awestruck horror. “Shit.”
“Yes,” Gardevoir agreed, “We need to get out of here while we still have the chance.”
The two turned and fled. Zachary got the message, and followed after.
Unfortunately, the crystal dragon was not content to let bygones be bygones. It followed, prismatic beams of light scorching the greenery around it. The flickering firelight illuminated the chase. Long, flickering shadows danced at the edges of their vision as they ran…
They were edging closer to the edge of the woods. The ran past a route station, too much further and they would lead it straight to densely-populated areas. They needed to stop this, somehow… But Zachray and Gemmina had no idea what they could do.
“I think there’s only one way out of this. Thank you, Gemmina, for everything…”
Shiny Phantump
Zachary and Gemmina stared in horror as the gardevoir floated high above the treetops, the black hole distorting the sky behind her. Tendrils of psychic energy emanated from her slender body, crushing trees, dismantling buildings, and scattering Pokemon. The citizens of Salem shrieked as her powers overtook each of them, either physically lifting them into the air or mentally assaulting them. Next to Gemmina, Zachary tensed as Astrid’s eyes glanced at them, full of guilt.
“You—you always told us that everything would work out, that the town of Salem wouldn’t fall! You said we were safe!” Gemmina cried.
“Yeah, well,” the kadabra said haltingly as she stared in horror at the incoming gardevoir, “You could have… y’know…” But the words died in Astrid’s mouth as she watched the black hole and rip and distort the air above their heads, rending the blue sky with an unearthly aura.
The sunflora spied the sack in Astrid’s hand and noticed a gleam of gold poke out from the burlap.
“Is that—gold? Are you going to try and bribe your way through? Astrid, you know they’re going to kill us all, no matter what—”
“Don’t waste your breath, Gemmina,” Zachary snarled. The ponyta glared daggers at Astrid. “She knows exactly what’s going to happen—she always did. You know the future, Astrid! You knew we would trust whatever you said—you said there was no more need to follow Temple Law, that we could live our lives however we wanted, and that Salem would always prosper. But this whole time, you knew that the kingdom of Eterna was going to conquer us in just a few months!”
“I didn’t want it to happen!” Astrid burst out. Gemmina and Zachary reeled as an invisible force pushed them; a wave of psychic energy flattened the grass around the kadabra and her eyes turned bright purple. “I never wanted Salem to be destroyed, and I never wanted any of us to get captured or killed!”
“Then why did you lie?” Gemmina implored. “We could have prepared!”
“I just wanted to live my life happily—I wanted everyone to be happy! I didn’t want us to spend our last days uselessly worrying about pleasing the gods of the Temple and following their strict rules—”
“Is that why you plundered it, stole the Temple gold, and are going to try and bribe your way through now?” Zachary asked. “You preached to us in the name of Arceus and Mew, telling us things they never told you, and now you steal from their temple to save your own skin while our city falls! This wasn’t about the rest of us, Astrid, you only ever cared about yourself!”
The black hole was very close—the gardevoir hovered ever nearer to them, her white dress billowing out as glowing red tendrils crept from her eyes. All around them, Gemmina and Zachary heard screams as Pokemon tore through the forest in desperation. A buzz reverberated through Gemmina’s head—her petals vibrated. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zachary flinch and his teeth chatter as he stared angrily up at their incoming attacker.
The blackness blotted out the sunlight; the blue sky was gone. The gardevoir cast her scarlet gaze down on the three Pokemon standing before her. A glittering helm of gold encircled her face as waves of energy pulsed from her body, riveting the air and dissolving trees and buildings. Astrid threw herself onto the grass, holding out the sack.
“Please, O Mistress of Eterna, spare me! I have gifts for you—gold! Silver! Whatever you want—make me your slave! Just do not take my life, I beg you!”
The kadabra scrunched her eyes shut and pressed her face to the ground as she sniveled and shook. Gemmina and Zachary gazed up at the queen. The blood in Gemmina’s veins had turned to ice; all of her senses were blotted out as she took in the sight of Eterna’s monarch floating before them. The sunflora could do little more than listen as the gardevoir spoke.
“Very well,” her voice echoed and reverberated through the open air. “You are no longer a citizen of Salem. You belong to Eterna. Your name is now Hananiah. This is your new home. From this day forward, you serve me, and me alone.”
The kadabra lifted herself shakily—Gemmina saw relief shining in her cowardly eyes.
“Yes! Thank you, my Queen! Anything you want—anything at all! I will do it—always!”
Getting to her feet, Astrid began to scurry away into the looming void before them. Gemmina saw veins of red in the sky, growing from a single point in the distance.
“Wait! Astrid!” she called. But she might as well have said nothing, for the kadabra didn’t answer. She only hastened on, in to the red-and-black distortion.
“And you two.”
Gemmina and Zachary looked up at the gardevoir as she spoke to them. The psychic energy was so strong—the grass fluttered, and a wind constantly blew the tops of the trees. Zachary’s fire flickered and sputtered. Gemmina wrapped her leafy arms around herself as she gazed upward in horror.
“You will live in my kingdom, as well. Your names are now Belteshazzar and Enheduanna. You will have no other gods before me.”
Shaking, Gemmina began to comply. What could she do? The Queen of Eterna could end her life in an instant. Home was gone. The world was being sucked into this alien vortex. There was nothing left.
The sunflora took a few steps forward when she noticed that Zachary was not following. The ponyta remained standing where he was, looking determinedly up at the gardevoir. If he was afraid, it was overshadowed by his disdain and stubbornness.
“I don’t answer to you!”
The gardevoir’s red gaze rested on him. The tendrils of light from her eyes grew more brightly; Gemmina recoiled as the psychic energy pressed down on her, filling her brain with a hum. Around her, she saw other Pokemon from Salem walk past fallen tree trunks and dilapidated buildings, into the void that was now their home. She lingered, looking back frightfully as Zachary and the monarch squared off against each other.
“Do you not realize that I control your life now?” she said coldly. “I decide when and how you will die. Everything that happens to you from now on is within my power. Now, you will join us in Eterna, or your life ends here.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Zachary shot back. “I have served Arceus and Mew—I always have, and they will protect me! They have the power to rescue me from you! And even if they do not choose to protect my life this day, I know my spirit is safe in their hands. You may be able to end me here, but once I am dead, you have no more control.”
Gemmina was flattened by the wave of energy; her thin body was pressed into the grass. She unsteadily raised herself to her feet—she felt herself drawn to the center of Eterna, as though an invisible string wrapped around her body and pulled her forward.
How could it have come to this? She didn’t want to belong to Eterna—she wanted to be in Salem! She wanted to visit Ruth’s fruit market, and sit in the Sunkern Fields, and explore the neighboring woods with Zachary! She wanted to visit Town Square with her sister, Naomi, and listen to Astrid telling them about a prosperous kingdom that would never fall—that the kingdom of peace was alive in this very moment! And in her mind’s eye, she saw Astrid standing at the fountain, proclaiming Good News to all.
“Arceus spoke to me in my dreams!” the kadabra gleefully called. “The good harvest will last! The wine output can double—and don’t set aside any for Temple offerings! The gods have decided that we deserve to keep it for ourselves, and that we can continue the Feast of Booths for another seven weeks!”
A cheer went up at the sound, but it quickly died in Gemmina’s ears. The memories of Astrid embittered her heart. And now, they were destined to live together in a world that the kadabra saw no need to warn others about, a world that every citizen of Salem was meekly complying to—except one.
In spite of Gemmina’s fear, she gave one last glance back at her friend.
The ponyta was floating in the air, upheld by the gardevoir’s power as she glared eye-level at him. His flames, though they fluttered, burned with an intensity and strength Gemmina had never seen before. His body was crumpling: the gardevoir’s power was physically crushing him. But his eyes shone with an interior light that only made the queen’s rage grow.
“Feel this pain, Belteshazzar!” she roared. “Are you still unafraid of what I can do to you?”
As his joints bent and limbs curled inwards, Zachary’s shining eyes met hers with an unwavering peace.
“My name is Zachary.”
Starlight Aurate
It was then, when Zachary flopped into the tall grass with an empty holler, that Gemmina understood what the ponyta meant when he warned her about false prophets. With a grave look on her face, she followed—ready to take on whatever the nightmare realm held in store for them.
Gemmina was seized by a wave of regret as she delved further into the grass. Its strands strangled her limbs, obfuscating her vision, as if it had a mind of its own.
“Zachary! It’s too dangerous here! We overestimated our abilities!” she cried. “Come back, PLEASE!” But there was no response.
Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. The little eevee had been her first pokémon, he’d been so excited to go on this journey—even convincing poor, cowardly Gemmina to go with him. “Think of the treasures, think of the fame and glory,” he would say with an infectious enthusiasm. When Gemmina responded with skepticism, Zachary giggled and said, “Gengar wouldn’t lie about this, right? Come on! Let’s go!”
Gemmina sank deeper and deeper into the grass. It must’ve been twice her height by now and there was still no sign of Zachary.
~Kehehehehe~ It’s always the young ones who allow themselves to be so willingly consumed.
Gemmina lept in shock at the strange voice. “Who… Who’s there!”
Nobody of importance, girl. Hurry along, you have an eevee to find, don’t you? Kehehehe!
“You know where he went?”
Of course? Would you like to know? He’s down there.
A bottomless chasm opened before Gemmina. It would’ve swallowed her whole had she not scrambled back in time. Its walls were splattered with dried blood. On the edges of the walls, she noticed a small tuft of Zachary’s ruff clinging to a protruding rock.
Don’t be shy. He’s down there safe and souououound. The Voice distorted as Gemmina edged closer to the edge to get a better look. Whyhyhy dononononon’ttttttt youououou joioioioioioioion himimimimimimim?
A blast of air sent Gemmina hurling over the edge at a terrifying rate. In less than a second, the light from the surface faded, leaving her in darkness.
In a pit with no bottom, Gemmina could only fall, and fall, and fall into the everlasting abyss.
Inkedust