Child of Thorns - A Pokemon Sinnoh Reimagining

Attacking the clan of Lorekeepers was not my most heinous crime, though it was the one which should have made me realize just how low I'd fallen.

My mentors. My second family. Those who had taught me everything I knew and more; even they were but kindle for my wrath.

Regardless, I'd gotten from them what I needed. The location of Spear Pillar. My land's most ancient temple, hidden from all but those who'd sworn to protect it.

The place of my eventual downfall.

Niss was nowhere to be seen, and Barry was really starting to freak out.

"S-she ran past that corner… I think," said Candice, out of breath, knees buckled, hands resting atop them. "I…"

"We'll find her," assured Maylene. "She couldn't have run off too far. Girl's in even worse shape than you, babe."

Neither of them laughed. Barry stood still, back to the Gym leaders, staring ahead at the misty white covering the entirety of the empty street, wind and hail pouring from above in strong bursts, making it difficult to see past the next corner. A blizzard was coming. After Niss' sudden escape, Candice had told all spectators to head back home immediately and wait out the storm.

And yet, something in her face told Barry that the blizzard was the least of her worries.

Barry closed his eyes, letting his breath leave his mouth. He could hear it in the wind. Feel it. Without even needing to flare his eyes gold, a gale of emotions swirled around him, crashing into him. He bit his lower lip. Zoning on other people's emotions wasn't something he looked forward to, he'd always considered it terribly rude, but he felt like this wasn't the time for niceties. Not when the emotions of the two Gym leaders were so illuminating.

Apprehension. Fear. Eagerness. Guilt. That last one was the more interesting, and it was why he finally turned around to face its source. The moment his gaze fell on them, both of them tensed up.

"What was that?" he asked, voice thin. "Niss just… shook your hand and then ran away like she'd seen a ghost. And you two know why."

Maylene opened her mouth but Barry cut her off immediately.

"Don't lie to me."

His voice stilled the wind for a moment. Maylene and Candice gasped, as though something had forcefully taken the breath from their lungs, and their eyes went wide in surprise. Only then Barry felt the light behind his eyes flare up.

The moment passed. With the roar of the upcoming blizzard falling around them once more, it was hard to make out Maylene's whisper.

"It's true. You're one of them." She let out a dry chuckle, full of disbelief. "And… that means Inyssa is too."

"One of them?" Barry snapped at her. "What does that m–?"

"Barry, listen to me."

Candice stepped forward, lips drawn into a thin line. Her tensed posture made it clear whatever she was about to say, she didn't want to say it, but she probably knew she was past the point of no return.

"It's… this is all very complicated." Barry grit his teeth, but she continued before he could say anything. "And we don't have much time. Everyone in Snowpoint is in danger."

"But why!?" he snapped, throwing both hands down. "What's going on?"

"I… promise I'll tell you, but Inyssa needs to hear it too. First, we have to find her."

Candice let out a sigh and closed her eyes, as though preparing herself for an unpleasant task. From this close Barry could see clearly the bags under her eyes. The paleness and lines marking her face betrayed the exhaustion the Gym leader must have been feeling at the moment.

"And… I think I know where she might be."

She turned on her feet, looking up toward the south, toward the tall, dark needle-like building in the distance. Barry frowned. That was weird; from this far away, and with the hail raging more and more powerfully, the ruined tower shouldn't have been visible at all.

Candice's eyes flashed for a fraction of a second. A faded pink. Her nose scrunched up and her lips stretched into a thin line. Resignation was carried from her to Barry in a gust of wind.

"Yes, I suspected so," she whispered to no one. "Come on, we have to get there before things go badly."

Inyssa's breath had vanished somewhere in between opening the iron gate leading to the tower's highest floor and laying eyes on what hid inside, and it hadn't come back since.

"Dear goodness… What have they done to you?"

Whatever twisted emotion was reflected in Uxie's voice, Inyssa felt it too. The room looked almost identical as in the memory she'd seen when Candice's hand had touched her own. A large, circular chamber of ancient stone, moss and shrubs covering it in its entirety, a wet, unpleasant cold permeating everything, the dust and grime floating through the air framed by the single beam of moonlight falling from the window near the ceiling. There was only one difference.

Two legends shared the room with her.

Darkrai and Cresselia, the Lunar Duo, were tied to the opposite wall with a multitude of chains made of pure shadow, curling tendrils of darkness licking at their outlines, devouring what little light fell upon them. Only the latter seemed conscious.

"Oh spare me the pity, dear. I doubt you or any of your siblings have any right to judge, considering the position you're all in."

Every hair on Inyssa's body stood on end at the sound of her voice. It was the most pleasant sound she'd ever heard; cool like a summer night, soft like velvet, sweet like honey. For a short moment all she could think about was that she wanted to hear it again.

However, the state of the legendary Pokemon's body brought her back to reality. She did not look in the slightest like she sounded. Inyssa had spent most of her childhood reading old fairy tales and legends, and what she remembered of the mythical Cresselia couldn't have been further from what she was seeing right now.

Stories talked about the warm, shining aura which flowed outwards from her body, easing the minds of all around her, in clear contrast with her partner's dark energy of annihilation. However, both were absent. The legends before her looked pale, colorless. The crescent wings surrounding Cresselia's body didn't flow like water nor shimmered like the moon as stories told, but were simply folded onto her body as though she didn't have the energy to lift them up. And Darkrai…

"I…I thought…" Her voice came out soft, shaking. "When I saw Shadi…"

"Oh, he is with her, in spirit," Cresselia spoke into her mind, weak laughter in her voice. "Clever turn of phrase, although I mean it literally. You carry some of him with you, do you not?"

Inyssa shook her head weakly. "What… what do you mean?"

"…You poor thing. You don't even know, do you?"

"Know what?" she asked, lower lip trembling. "What's going o–?"

The gate flew open behind her. Inyssa turned in a flash, eyes flaring gold as she moved a hand to her belt.

"Niss!"

Her hand froze. Barry stood at the sill of the gate, one hand raised hesitantly toward her, expression full of worry. Behind him, Candice and Maylene stared silently.

"Niss… hey, it's okay." He approached with careful steps, lips quirking up into a pale, nervous smile. "Let's calm down and… and…"

Inyssa would've laughed at any other time. His gaze moved up and behind her for a second, where the legendary Pokemon were chained, before he looked down again, and froze. He did a double take, and then his eyes went wide like saucers.

"Yeah," she whispered. "What was that about calming down?"

"What… the hell?" He must have really been shocked as to forget to censor himself, thought Inyssa. "Are those…?"

"Yes, we are."

Barry jumped at the sound of Cresselia's voice, his hair seeming to poof and stand up on its ends. For a few seconds, his eyes glowed golden. Mesprit had probably noticed the situation too.

"What we are not, dear, are zoo exhibits. So I would kindly appreciate it if you all stopped gawking at us like slack-jawed Mudbray."

It took a moment for Barry to wipe the look off his face, and by then he seemed to have regained his speech.

"Cresselia… And Darkrai," he whispered under his breath. "But I thought… Didn't Shadi…?"

"Yeah."

Inyssa glared to the side, toward the Gym leaders still standing under the gate's sill, looking as though they wanted the floor to swallow them.

"I think we deserve an explanation."

Candice swallowed, hands pressed against each other over her stomach. For the first time since they'd met, she didn't meet Inyssa's harsh tone with an icy glare of her own, and instead looked away.

"I… can explain," she finally said, taking a step forward. "But… Inyssa, believe me, this is really not the time. We are all in danger. If we could move somewhere el–"

There was a click as Inyssa took Steven's Pokeball from her belt and raised it toward Candice, gaze golden and unyielding.

"I think we're past that," she said. "You're going to talk, or this is going to get ugly real fast."

"Escalating the situation does not seem like the correct choice," Uxie said in her mind. "Don't you think you should calm down and listen to what they have to say?"

But she ignored it.

Maylene stepped forward and raised a hand in between them and Candice, her other one hovering over the balls on her belt. Her expression was a warning.

"Dawn, believe me. You don't want to do this."

"Oh, don't I?" asked Inyssa, feigning surprise. "That's news to me."

"Inyssa…" Candice began to speak.

"I'm with Niss." Barry stepped forward too, grabbing a ball from his belt. He didn't look as resolved as Inyssa nor Maylene, but it was something. "I don't know what's going on and I don't wanna fight anyone, but I'm pretty sick of everyone hiding things from us." He let out a breath. "Besides, you can't tell us this doesn't look really bad for you two."

A few seconds of silence stretched into what felt like much longer, the two pair of trainers standing still like stone, muscles tense and eyes wide, expectant. Inyssa locked her jaw, forcing her expression not to falter. She didn't want to do this. But she'd be damned if she let any kind of uncertainty show in her face.

Finally, it was Candice who looked away first. Her gaze moved up toward Cresselia, and for a moment it looked as though she were pleading silently.

Her eyes flashed pink. Then she let out a sigh and let her shoulders drop, eyes closing. She looked so tired.

"Fine. I'll tell you everything." She cringed at that, like it hurt to say. "I wanted to wait until you were both safe but… now that the Meowth is out of the bag, it's the least you deserve, Inyssa."

The tension in the room dropped slightly. Their postures relaxed, though Inyssa did not drop the Pokeball in her hand.

"What do you mean 'until you were both safe'?" she asked.

"Yeah, just a few seconds ago you said we were all in danger," followed Barry. "Danger of what?"

Candice looked down, her fingers pressing against each other more strongly than before. She took a deep breath, nodding to herself. Then, when she looked up, the pink light behind her eyes shone again.

"I… have bonded with Cresselia," she said with difficulty. "Just as you two have bonded with the siblings of the lakes. And… just as your sister has bonded with Darkrai."

Inyssa's expression froze in her face. She heard Barry gasp next to her, but she couldn't quite summon up that level of surprise. Because deep down… deep down, she felt like she'd known. Or at least, she'd heavily suspected.

Then why…?

"What's with the chains then?" she asked, cutting off her own thoughts. "Unhappy with the deal? And here I thought we were being shitty roommates to our own legendary Pokemon."

Her lips curled up, but there was no joy or humor in her smile. Candice didn't seem amused either.

"I would wipe that smile off your face if I were you, dear." Cresselia's voice rang through the air, sending a chill down Inyssa's spine. "Otherwise, the truth will wipe it off for you."

Inyssa turned sharply. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh give me a f–" She heard Maylene inhale sharply, and saw her close her eyes when she turned toward her. "Think for a second, Dawn. It means Candice wasn't the one who chained them up!"

"That's… right," said the Gym leader, eyes narrowing. "It was your sister... Shadi, who did this."

It shouldn't have come as such a shock. Inyssa's mind felt like it froze for a few breaths, eyes staring blankly ahead. But no, this wasn't bad. Of course she'd already known, from the moment she'd seen that memory. It just… It just wasn't the whole truth. Of course.

"Inyssa…"

She ignored Uxie's voice, too busy racking her brain to make sense of all of this, or at least so she thought. In reality, what she was looking for was something else.

"That… makes sense with what I saw," she finally said, voice forcefully steady. "In the memory, when we touched hands. She was…" A cold feeling, a shiver. No, that wasn't right. "You… were threatened not to tell anyone the truth."

Candice blinked, eyes slightly wider. She looked as though she hadn't been expecting Inyssa to react so calmly to her declaration.

"Yes, that's right," she nodded. "There wasn't much I could do, not when she'd practically taken my whole town as well as Cresselia hostage."

Barry gulped, shaking his head. "That's… awful. Why'd she… I mean, how could she even do all this?" He gesticulated back toward the chained up legendary Pokemon. "And… why?"

Exhaustion clung to every inch of Candice's face as she sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Even with Maylene at her side, holding her, she looked just about ready to collapse.

"Because this tower is in the exact middle of town."

Even Inyssa perked up at that, narrowing her eyes in confusion. She wanted to open her mouth to ask, but her throat felt sandpaper dry at the moment, for some reason.

"Inyssa."

She shook her head strongly, shushing Uxie away. Not now.

"What's that have to do with this?" asked Barry."

"It has to do with our powers, dear." Cresselia's voice contained a tinge of exasperation. "Surely you've heard the stories."

"Your…" Barry frowned with that expression he had whenever he thought really hard about something. "Oh! You mean like… that aura that you two have? For sleeping?"

For the first time since entering the room, a shadow of a smile crept up Candice's lips. "That is… one way of putting it."

"Unlike my dear friends, the siblings of the lake, we cannot fully control our own power," explained Cresselia, pausing every few words, pain and exhaustion clinging to her voice. "It pours from us like a fountain. All in our vicinity will feel the urge to sleep, a feeling which exacerbates the closest they are to us."

"And if you do fall asleep, you'll either have blissful dreams or terrible nightmares, depending on which of the two's presence you're in," said Candice.

"Yes. Such is the way we survive. The way we… feed, you might say." Something like a sigh whistled through the air, sending a blissful shiver down Inyssa's spine. God, why was her voice so… like that? "Unfortunately, our continued existence depends on said method of feeding. We might be ageless but, unlike many of our legendary peers, we are quite mortal."

"Oh," said Barry. "I'm… sorry? Being mortal sucks. And…"

He stopped, suddenly tilting his head to the side, probably thinking of the same thing Inyssa just did.

"Wait… we're right next to you two, and I'm not feeling sleepy at all," he said. "Niss, are you sleepy?"

"What?" She came back to reality with a jolt, her face even paler than usual. "I… yeah, but no more than usual."

Barry nodded to himself. "Is it because we're bonded with Mesprit and Uxie? No, but then…" He looked toward the Gym leaders. "Then you'd be sleepy, Maylene."

Maylene looked like she was struggling not to roll her eyes. "Yes, Barry. That's… a good observation."

"It's because they cancel each other out."

All the attention in the room turned toward Inyssa, and she had to stop herself from wincing at it. She hadn't meant to say that out loud. Hadn't meant to freeze right after, knees locked and hands pressed together so tightly the fingers had turned marble white in an attempt to stop them from shaking. But she had to say something. They were all looking at her.

"The… aura of these two," she said. "It makes sense from the stories and myths I've read. Darkrai and Cresselia are constantly taking turns to flee from each other through the night sky, right? It's… an eternal dance between the two." She swallowed. "To represent the dark and light sides of the moon constantly changing. It makes sense that their aura would cancel out in each other's presence. Otherwise it'd defeat the point of the chase… right?"

Maylene and Candice exchanged a strange look, after which the latter looked at Inyssa and nodded. She looked… nervous, for some reason.

"Yes, that's… exactly right," she said. "That's why we couldn't do anything in the first place. That's why…

"That is why I chose to let myself be chained up next to my partner."

Barry gasped. He turned toward Cresselia with wide eyes, his expression exactly what Inyssa had expected from him.

"What? Why would you do that?" he asked.

"Heh. Come on Barry, it's really not that hard."

Everyone seemed surprised at the sudden jovial tone of Inyssa's voice. She took a step forward and dug her hands into her pockets, a relaxed, easy smile forming on her lips.

It was all good now. She'd finally managed to make sense of it all.

"From what they said, I assume Darkrai was chained here first. What do you think would happen if they just left him here?" she asked. "His aura would extend to pretty much all of Snowpoint, and everyone's minds would slowly unravel from the constant nightmares they'd be subjected to every night."

Realization dawned on Barry, in that particularly cute way it did where his mouth formed an O and his eyes went wide.

"That makes sense! So… you let yourself be chained up next to him to make sure that doesn't happen!" he exclaimed, turning toward Cresselia. "But… wait. I thought you said–"

"That they needed to feed from humans in order to survive?" asked Inyssa. "Yeah, something tells me they both found a way around that problem. Right, Candice?"

The Gym leader frowned at that, looking somewhat uncomfortable. "I…"

"You offered yourself to save Cresselia," declared Inyssa. "It's why you were in that memory I saw. You knew she'd most likely die if she were left alone here, so you bonded with her. You don't suffer from insomnia. You just let Cresselia feed from you in order to keep her alive."

If Inyssa's sudden satisfied tone hadn't irritated the Gym leader, then the little smile she formed as she finished explaining her theory definitely did. Candice parted her lips with a grim look on her face, but stopped herself. Taking a second to breathe, she closed her eyes and unclenched her fists.

"No wonder I couldn't fully bring myself to like you; you speak just like Shadi. I can't look at you without seeing her." She huffed, then looked up at Inyssa. "Yes… that is what happened. It's not the first time someone has taken advantage of my… proclivity to help others."

"It'll be the last, though."

Maylene put herself in between Candice and them, fingers curled into fists and the muscles on her arms tensed like iron bars.

"I'm not gonna beat around the bush, Dawn. Your sister's coming for you," she said, frowning. "She told Candice to keep you here until she arrived, but since we refused, I'm guessing she's also coming for us… as well as this entire town."

"That's why we wanted to move you somewhere safe," added Candice. "Right now she can't enter the town because she carries Darkrai with her, and the moon is on Cresselia's side. But that changes tonight." She pointed up at the hole in the ceiling, through which a single beam of moonlight fell into the room. "We have an hour, at most."

A wave of silence followed her declaration, so heavy that even the furious rushing of the wind and hail outside seemed to dim. All four trainers stood still for a moment, until Barry spoke.

"Well… sorry, but that's not happening." He took a step forward, folding his arms. "There's no way we're gonna endanger a bunch of innocent people and just… run. We're staying, and we're fighting."

For all the heat and confidence in his voice, for the little gesture at the end where he raised his fist and smile, there was something oddly… unnatural about his statement. As though he were forcing himself to say those words. His eyes hadn't flashed golden, also.

Inyssa chose to ignore it.

"He's right," she said. "We'll help in whatever way we can."

Again, Maylene and Candice exchanged a puzzling look and said nothing for a lot longer than the situation accounted for. When the latter spoke, there was worry in her voice.

"Inyssa, you're… taking this a lot better than I expected," she said, tone hesitant. "Considering the circumstances, I thought…"

"What circumstances?" she interrupted her. "I'm not giving Uxie up, and we have to protect the people of this town. There's nothing else to it. We have to stop this."

The Gym leaders both let out a tiny sigh, seemingly of relief, at the sound of that. That is, until Inyssa spoke again.

"… We have to stop Darkrai."

The sudden lightness in the atmosphere immediately dropped.