I put it on AO3 but then I took it down because it’s a random near-end chapter in a story I should really actually write, but I randomly had inspiration for a goofy edgy late-story chapter so. I will repost it here just so it’s somewhere.
This is my Pokemon fanfic, the Legends Arceus chapter, which occurs shortly after I move permanently to Unova with MY HUSBAND LOOKER. This is near the end of that chapter of the story.
The pain turned into numbness. The strength left her legs. Beneath her quivering knees, the ground of the place she knew as Spear Pillar was cold and unforgiving.
Her arms were locked around her body, desperate to hold it all together. The gashes all blended together like the blood staining her coat a darker red.
"Don't you remember me...?" She asked pathetically, her voice drowned by the wind. She tried to smile up at the great beast before her, into its piercing red eyes. "Or maybe, you don't know me yet."
Giratina roared. It glanced at the four unconscious Pokemon around the tiny human, all defeated so easily. Especially that Luxray. It felt something like triumph at the thought - the human's pathetic, terrified face as her Pokemon was torn from her, thrown into another rift. Just like the one above them now. The one that led--
Just as it was about to surge toward the human for a final time, Giratina paused. It thought. The rift it had opened... it led to somewhere important. Didn't it? It remembered the pain as Volo forced it to tear open the sky, but it used as much defiance as it could muster to choose where to open a rift...
To a place where it could hear a familiar voice. A familiar, kind voice.
Nuke's attention was on the ground. Time didn't mean much to her anymore, and she was mostly waiting for Giratina to eviscerate her. She wondered how quick it would be, and thought about what a failure she'd be considered back home.
Back home.
Well, they'd never find her. No one in this world knew her. Her Pokemon were all unconscious, with Kamuy possibly erased from existence, and that Zoroark somewhere far, far away. Everyone she'd ever known was in another world, another time.
This time, no one was coming to save her.
Using what felt like the last of her strength, she met Giratina's eyes once more.
And it remembered.
Giratina lived in a world where neither time nor space applied. Everything that had happened to it, in the past or the future, could be found in its memories if it searched hard enough. And then, staring down at the woman in the red jacket, a memory surfaced.
It had seen her face before, in its world. And it had been in just as much pain, being dragged out by a terrible human.
But this human was not the one hurting it. This human, it realized, was the one who had approached it as it lay, defeated, and placed her hand upon its head. The human in the red jacket was the one who had uttered the words,
"It's okay. No one is going to hurt you anymore."
It settled. The great tendrils on its back lowered, and it visibly relaxed. Its eyes focused on the human on the ground, bleeding and suffering, just like it had been.
Giratina wanted to go to her, and speak those same words.
But it heard its name from somewhere behind, and a terrible pain struck through it. That man, and whatever power he wielded - he was using it again, and Giratina lost itself. Its mind became a swirl of torment and pain, and it could only feel a need to destroy everything in front of it.
When its gaze fell on the injured human, all its sympathy had vanished.
It rushed forward with a screech.
In Jubilife Village, every door slammed shut, accented by screams of terror. The people fled wherever they could from the massive beast that stalked down the street, turning an angled muzzle this way and that. Surely, they all thought, the omen the broken sky foretold had finally arrived.
She certainly felt too big for the town - she was nearly as tall as some of the buildings. And she was used to humans running from her in fear. But none of the running humans were the one she was looking for. Quietly she sniffed the air.
Across town, her senses told her. She picked up her pace and wound up in a more open area. There were strange lines drawn on the ground, and she cocked her head at them.
"Get inside, Ingo!" A voice called. A tall woman was hiding mostly inside the doorway to a large building. "What are you doing!? That Zoroark will kill you!"
Zoroark. She knew that word - it was what humans called her. But she didn't plan to kill anyone. Her yellow and red eyes turned and looked in the direction the woman was shouting.
There was a man standing there, looking at her. Not running. He was where the scent had led, and he was not the human she was looking for. But...
"Ingo!!"
She knew that name. Carefully she approached the man, though he didn't seem afraid of her. He was tall for a human, but she still towered over him. When she reached him, she looked down at him curiously.
He was staring up. "Oh," he said calmly. "It's just Shirka."
"What!?" The frantic red-haired woman called, even farther in the door now.
The man called Ingo reached out his hand. "This is Nuke's Zoroark. She called her Shirka."
The Zoroark who had been called Shirka smiled at the human. Yes, that was the name she was called. And she liked the name. She wished she could ask the man...
"Are you looking for Nuke?"
Her ears pricked and she mimicked a human action - nodding.
Ingo frowned more deeply, and grabbed the brim of his hat. "I'm afraid she's no longer here. She mentioned something about Mt. Coronet. She's trying to stop whatever terrible thing is happening..."
Shirka growled deeply. Something wasn't right. As soon as the sky had changed colors, she knew something had gone terribly wrong. Though Nuke had released her back into the wild some time ago, since her initial capture, her long-frozen heart had been stirring. She didn't like the feeling of being separated from Nuke, and the changing world urged her to find her again.
As much as she could, Shirka tried to convey her sense of urgency to Ingo. She had lived long - longer than any human in Hisui - and something in the depth of her scarred soul was very uneasy.
You smell like her, she wanted to say, though she couldn't speak the humans' language. I can smell her on you, I know your name from her. You're important to her. She smiles when she speaks of you.
Ingo couldn't hear words, but he somehow understood. She wanted his help. But he sighed. "I can't move as fast as you can. You'll get to her first, but I'll follow you."
Shirka opened her mouth wide in a toothy grin. The human got it! That made two whole humans in her entire life who had understood her, in a way. She yipped and nodded again, then got down on all fours. Now eye-level with Ingo, she pushed her head forward and gently touched under his chin. An instinct she had first felt with Nuke.
He chuckled, but had to steady himself. "I'm not sure you know how big you are compared to us." For the first time in several days, he smiled. Carefully he lifted his hand again, and placed it on Shirka's head. "Nuke was right, you are very sweet."
She pulled away and regained her serious look, then stood to nearly her full height.
"Of course," Ingo said, straightening himself. "No more delays. I'll prepare my things and be right after you. Go along, then."
Shirka liked this human. He was serious, but his silver eyes were bright and friendly. In just a short time, she understood why Nuke mentioned him so much, with such fondness. It hurt her just a bit to turn away from him, but she had a mission. After glancing up to the sky and the peak of Mt. Coronet on the horizon, she tore off through the town.
Ingo's gaze followed the Zoroark's, and he frowned again. "I do hope she's alright." He believed in her, even if his memories weren't fully restored, but there was something bothering him. Like an intuition, even though he never believed in such things before.
Did he?
Though he couldn't be sure of anything, he hurried to pack for his journey to the mountain.
