Child of Thorns - A Pokemon Sinnoh Reimagining

There was this one time in Inyssa's life, not long after she'd been released from the hospital following her… mistake. She'd been encouraged by Barry and Palmer to get out a bit more. Stretch her legs, feel the wind and sun in her skin, all that stuff that occasionally made her feel alive, if only for a few moments. She'd accepted, reluctant. Of course, in the state she was in she couldn't be left to wander alone, so the two of them accompanied her, turning the whole day into something of a hike through the foggy forest west of Twinleaf.

She'd had to stop every few minutes to drink and regain her breath, worryingly out of shape as she was, but even so, she was having fun. That shadow, that fog in her mind still hung over her. It rested heavy on her shoulders, making her muscles feel weak, her blood cold as it ran through her veins. She'd been told it was a symptom of what she'd done to herself the past few months. Had been told to recover, to give herself time to heal, but that didn't make it any less irritating.

It happened about an hour into their hike. Barry and Palmer had stopped for the first time to get some water while she wandered around, step by slow step. The physical fatigue was starting to get to her. She felt lightheaded, the air she breathed thinner in her lungs. She kept walking without realizing, her conscious mind drifting farther and farther away from her.

As her consciousness waned and her vision blurred, somewhere in the back of her mind, Inyssa realized she was starting to dissociate. But that was as far as she could think. She couldn't stop it, couldn't do anything except keep walking, because it just made sense to do so. Walking was good. Barry and Palmer had told her it was good. Even if every step pushed her farther and farther away from herself, until she could swear she was walking a few feet behind her body.

Then, she saw it. Squinting through the fog and past the many pine trees blocking her path, there was a drop. It wasn't very deep. Only a small hill, overlooking a running creek about seven or eight feet below. For some reason, the sound of running water attracted her like a Venomoth to a flame. She shambled forward, intending to stand at the edge and look below.

But she was farther than she thought. The Inyssa in front of her stepped over the edge, and she was pulled forward, like two magnets colliding against each other.

It was the strangest, most terrifying feeling. The sudden awareness. The sharpness of reality crashing against her with every impact of her body against the sloped cliff face, then the searing cold and pain as she fell into the creek, submerging deep under water.

It was all too bright, too sharp. The pain, the cold, the fear of death as she was carried by the rapid waters. Even more so, compared to the hazy dissociation of only a few seconds before, the contrast unlike anything she'd ever felt before.

Inyssa still remembered that feeling. It was hazy and distant before, time and newer pains having pushed it to the back of her mind. But now, she was sure she would remember it for the rest of her life.

Because it returned, swiftly and in full force, as she stepped into the endless darkness.

She recognized it instantly, as though it'd never left her. Before her feet even touched solid ground, before she opened her eyes and saw that horrifying world of decay she'd only gotten a glimpse of before, that feeling returned. It wasn't nearly as sudden, as overwhelming. It fell on her shoulders gently, enveloping her, more a creeping, chilly dread than a sudden pull.

And, unlike the first time, the feeling did not go away. It remained there, burning in the back of her mind, even as she finally opened her eyes and a much bigger, more intense fear crashed against her like a hammer.

"What… what is this?"

"Shit. We really just threw ourselves to the deep end, huh?"

Even with Metchi and Barry's voices beside her, Inyssa could barely will herself back to reality, back within herself. At the sight before her, she almost…

"Y… yeah…"

Unconsciously, her hand moved to grasp Barry's, and that touch, that warmth against hers was enough to keep her in place. This was no time for weakness. She was the only one out of the three who'd gotten a glimpse of this place before seeing it first-hand, so she had to act the part. She had to act strong.

Even if endless death and decay stood before her and all around her, eager to swallow them whole.

It… really was a stunning sight. She had to squint, had to look away every few seconds, aware that if she spent too much time staring into that abyss, she would lose herself.

It made them feel dizzy, such an impossible sight too much for their brains to process.

Inyssa forced herself to look down, to the one concrete thing nearby. They were standing upon something. A platform, a… torn-up piece of rock and ground the size of a small room, like a shard of Mt. Coronet that had separated from the mountain as a whole. It didn't fall, even if it was suspended on nothing. It simply floated there, and the only reason she realized it was drifting was due to everything else around them, moving across nothing

There were no horizons, no end to the space around them. No matter what direction they looked in, there was always more. Further darkness and decay, spreading endlessly. What could have passed as the sky was nothing but a swirling vortex of darkness and purple mist bleeding into eternity, scattered throughout with… fragments. Fragments of places, landmarks, buildings, anything that was big enough to still retain its shape after so much erosion.

There were so many of them as well, even amidst the endless horizon. They floated aimlessly, slowly being bled out, eroded by the black sun in the horizon. Cities, empires, monuments… everything that humanity had ever built or accomplished lay before them, rotting, like dismembered chunks of flesh from their legacy's corpse.

"Is that…?" Barry frowned, looking into the distance. "Some of those buildings…"

"Yeah. I recognize some of the landscapes," Metchi whispered. "That big chunk of white rock is from Sootopolis, I'm sure. And those big shards of chargestone…"

"There's bits of Mt. Coronet all over too," Inyssa observed. "And bits of old monuments like Relic Castle or Lavender Tower."

Metchi let out an incredulous laugh. "That doesn't make any sense. Why would they be… here?"

The answer came to Inyssa before she could stop it, Uxie's powers acting up on their own as a shard of pain smacked against her mind like an arrow. She winced, grabbing at her temple.

"This place must exist outside of time and space, like Turnback Cave," she said. "Entropy is inevitable. Sooner or later, all that exists will end up here. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if we found buildings or structures that looked all weird and futuristic if we kept looking."

Not that she advocated for such a thing, of course. She could barely keep herself together by staring at the floor. Uxie's power flickered on and off behind her eyes, all angry and defiant, wanting to prove wrong the notion that there was something that it couldn't comprehend in its entirety. She had to hold it in by the reigns. If her previous experience had been any indication, the power would try to take all of this place in, and drive her insane in the process.

"That's… fucking harrowing," Metchi muttered, more to herself than anyone else.

"So everything will disappear someday…"

Suddenly, the other two felt much less intrigued by the floating ruins all around them, now aware of what they represented. They probably feared what they would find if they kept looking.

"Yeah," said Inyssa. "And we're gonna be dead someday too, so what?"

There was silence for a moment. Then, Metchi turned to look at her and nodded.

"Right. No point getting all mopey and existential," she said with a smile. "We're on a pretty tight time limit last I checked, and I promised to bring you both back home safe, so come on."

Metchi's words were like a contagious warmth. Inyssa felt it in her chest, then outwards as it enveloped her like a mantle of light. Suddenly, the weight and oppressiveness of the world around them felt lessened.

Barry felt the same. He spoke with a renewed burst of confidence. "Fantina said we could last a few minutes here! We gotta find Shadi quick and be ready for when the portal opens."

"Right. She made it sound like it wouldn't be hard to find her," said Metchi. "She's in the heart of this place, right? That… Giratina, or something?"

It took Inyssa a few seconds to answer. Not because she had to think about it, but because she was preparing herself, taking a deep breath and containing Uxie's power before looking up again.

"Yeah, and we don't have to go looking for it. It's right there."

Barry and Metchi followed her gaze, and she could almost feel as that familiar shiver wracked through their bodies.

There was… admittedly, one end here, one horizon. It hovered over this world much as the sun did in theirs, only it was empty and black and all-encompassing. It was the source of the decay itself. The portal to actual nothingness, from which no soul or matter could return from.

The black sun hovered impossibly massive in the horizon, and it was staring at them with eyes of cold, dispassionate red.

"What the fuck?" Metchi breathed out, taking a sudden step back.

"Gh…" Barry couldn't even manage that, his voice vanishing with a single choked gasp.

But Inyssa held her gaze against that of the inky blackness above them, fearful yet determined. She'd faced this before, even if only in a vision. And she knew that if she shied back from something like this, she'd have no chance of bringing Shadi back.

"We are here for you, Giratina…" Her voice was neither hushed nor loud, as though she expected it to hear her perfectly. "You took something that wasn't yet yours, and we've come to get it back. I hope you understand."

The black sun reacted to her words. Shifting, squirming, inky blackness bleeding out of it in curls of mist. Soon, the other two realized it wasn't a sun at all. They didn't know why they'd thought that before; it's not like it was circular. It had no discernible shape, no understandable dimensions. It was but a hole in reality, an absence larger than all that existed, burning through the edge of the universe itself.

And said nothingness moved at Inyssa's words. From the sides of that massive shape, two long, thin protrusions burst outwards, wavy and black with spikes of crimson jutting out of the undersides. They looked just like the wings of darkness Shadi had manifested in her battle against her and Mars. The same wings she'd seen in the vision Fantina had showed her. As such, she knew what to expect.

"Don't panic, but it'll come down to us now."

"Wh–?"

The entity batted its wings and fell upon them with impossible speed, as though it intended to swallow them whole.

"Sh-F-fuck!"

"Ghaah!"

It was a sight like that of the sun coming down, bursting and bleeding on top of them. Its shape thinned as it plummeted down the endless sky, coiling around the mass of land they stood on like an Arbok cornering its prey. From that up close, Inyssa could make out its body more clearly. It was long and serpentine, dozens of inky tentacles protruding out of its length with sharp crimson tips at the end. Before, they'd been joined together in the shape of massive wings, but now they trailed behind its body as it flew.

After a few seconds of circling around them, observing them, its flight slowed, and they realized that its once endless shape had shrunk down considerably. It was still larger than Mt. Coronet was tall, extending for miles and miles, but at least now they could get a bare glimpse of its dimensions without losing their mind. Inyssa furrowed her brows. Had it done that out of consideration?

She looked around, and the answer seemed to be yes. The way its body was coiled around the platform made it so she couldn't see anything past it. They were surrounded by it on all sides, only nothingness meeting their gaze. This made it a lot easier for her. She could finally open her eyes fully without Uxie's powers acting up.

"Thank you…" she whispered, smiling up at the being. "That is very kind of you."

Behind her, both Metchi and Barry sat with their hands against the ground, having fallen on their butts after such a terrifying sight. The two exchanged a look, probably wondering the same thing. Why hadn't she reacted the same way?

Before, Inyssa would've said it was because she'd already experienced this before, but that was not it. In all honesty, she didn't feel the least bit intimidated by the being before her. Even if it was the pure, infinite distillation of entropy and decay, something inside her felt… comfortable in its presence. Calm.

That must be why Sanbica came to me with that proposal back in Pastoria, she thought. Maybe I would have made a good Eight Stigma.

There was a shift in the darkness around them, and Giratina's head lowered itself toward the edge of the floating platform, its burning red eyes framed by intricate golden protrusions the color of bright amber. It looked like a mix between a mask and a crown. Sharp ribs of the same color could be seen wrapped around its length, protruding out sharply in the form of spikes the lower they went. They were the only part of the being that wasn't made of shadows, and they almost looked to be made of the same material as the Griseous Orb Sanbica had shown her.

Inyssa shook her head. No, that was probably a matter for later. Now…

"I… I-I can't even m-move…" Barry muttered behind her, voice shaking. "I-it feels like…"

"Like my body's gonna come apart at any second," Metchi finished, voice thin and weak. "H-how the hell are you so calm, pipsqueak?"

Despite not feeling it herself, thanks to Mesprit's powers shining through Barry, she could experience a pale imitation of what he and Metchi were going through. She didn't blame them for reacting like that. It was a nauseous, terrible feeling, as though every atom in his body and every ounce of his Spirit were being pulled toward that wall of nothingness, called by a powerful magnetic force.

Only the light of the siblings protected them from that fate. Inyssa knew Giratina was holding back, but if said power ran out, there was nothing it could do. Their bodies and souls would be absorbed, torn apart until not a single scrap remained, all that they were lost for eternity.

Even more reason to hurry things along.

"Giratina won't do anything to us," she said. "It knows why we're here, and I'm sure it wants to get rid of Shadi as much as we want to bring her back."

Barry and Metchi quickly pushed themselves to their feet, shaken, eyes wide like those of a Hoothoot. Her implication had not gone unnoticed.

"Wait…" Metchi frowned. "Then…"

Barry gulped. "You're saying that Shadi is… inside that thing?"

"That's right," said Inyssa, not turning to look at them. "It'll open a path toward her if we ask. I don't know how I know, I just… do." She shrugged. "Must be Uxie's powers, or maybe…"

She left the sentence hanging, lost in thought. Then, after a few seconds of staring at Giratina's eyes, she shook her head and looked over her shoulder. There was an impassive yet determined look on her face.

"Anyway, guess I better get going, huh?" she smiled. "I'll trust you both to hold down the fort until I'm back."

Silence stretched for a few moments, as the two processed her words a few times, probably thinking they'd heard her wrong.

"What are you…?" Barry frowned, but a second later his eyes flew wide. "N-no! There's no way…!"

"You're fucking high if you think we're letting you go there alone!" Metchi intercepted, having reached the same conclusion. "I'm coming with you."

Inyssa sighed. She figured they might react like this.

"We don't have time to argue," she said. "I'm the only one who can bring her back, and I need you two to stay here, to be my beacons."

Their reactions were understandable. Metchi stomped at the floor angrily and Barry strode forward with desperate speed, grabbing at Inyssa's hand, as though he was fearful she'd disappear if he didn't hold her.

"I'm not leaving you again! And especially not with her!" Barry complained. "I'm… never there for you when you need me. I don't wanna make that mistake again."

"And I didn't come here just to sit on my ass," Metchi argued. "I promised your mom and Fantina that I would bring you back safe, and to hell with the fucking world if I can't keep that promise!"

Inyssa smiled at them. Warmly, honestly, feeling a sting behind her eyes completely unrelated to Uxie's power. These two…

"You're such an idiot, it's lovely," she told Barry. "You've always been there for me, even if it wasn't in person. What do you think I always fought to come back to, if not you?"

That answer stunned Barry. He leaned back, eyes wide, out of words.

"I'm… broken, in some ways. I know that. And because of that, sometimes it's hard for me to remember why it's worth it to keep going. When the stormy days come, I seem to forget what the warmth of the sun felt like," she explained, looking from Barry to Metchi, and then back to him. "But even if I can't rely on my memories of better times, I can rely on you. On the both of you."

Metchi seemed taken aback as well by those words, and Barry could only whisper out her name back.

"Niss…"

"I know… what I'm going to face. Not only Shadi, but that twisted darkness that's always been inside me, urging me to… give up. To let go," she said. "But that's why I need you two here. To my eyes, you two shine like the sun. I need you to be a beacon in the horizon, to light the way back so I don't get lost. I need you to be the reason I choose to come back… because I know I might not be able to do it on my own."

She gripped Barry's hand hard, one last time, before letting go. His arm fell down to his side, and he looked down at it with a mix of shock and fear, only to then look up back at her, those emotions exacerbated tenfold. Metchi's expression wasn't much different.

"Besides, if I fail… we're all doomed anyways, aren't we?" she said with a smile. "So please… trust me, and I'll trust in you to bring me back."

"B-but…"

"You… you self-sacrificing piece of shit," Metchi muttered, half angry, half fearful. "You better fucking come back if you know what's good for you. And if you don't. I'll blast through that fucking thing and get you out myself, get it?"

The easiest smile found its way to Inyssa's lips, as it usually did when dealing with Metchi. She would never admit it out loud, but she'd really come to see her as the big sister she'd always wished she had.

And as for Barry…

"It's okay. I promise I'll come back," she said, looking straight into his eyes. "I've got that promise to keep, right? Of our future travels and… everything else."

Tears started to form on Barry's eyes, but he blinked them away quickly and gave a decisive nod, hands balling into fists. He forced himself to smile, even if his real feelings were flowing outwards from him.

"Y-yeah. Don't think you can snake out of being my rival just yet."

Inyssa breathed out a laugh. "I'd never dream of it."

Then, reluctantly, she looked away, turning around toward Giratina once more. The being looked at her, expectant, completely impassive. Yet she could feel a simple, gentle kindness underneath it all.

Inyssa raised her hand, and pressed it against the nothingness that made its body. The light enveloping her shivered and shifted, but it didn't break. And as she pushed, she started being swallowed up by it.

"Please… take me to my sister," she whispered to Giratina, closing her eyes. "Take me to Shadi Dawn."

And with that prayer, she threw herself forward, disappearing into the heart of entropy.