In Progress Gnosia Stella Coronae (PG-13)

Summary: Rebecca is a young woman leading a (somewhat) ordinary life, when she’s caught up in a game of legendary pokémon politics. Scared and confused, all she wants is for her and everyone else to get out of this alive.

If you review this, I promise to review one of your fanfictions. Mostly I'm just desperate to get attention on this.

Contents:
Chapter One - introduction (this post)
Chapter Two - exposition
Chapter Three - hesitation
Chapter Four - intervention
Chapter Five - complication (in progress)

Unnecessary disclaimer: If I owned Pokémon, there would be less sea.

Chapter One - introduction

The dream was a confusing one, as dreams usually are. She was aware of a golden feather, shattered glass, someone holding her and trying to explain something she couldn't understand, then suddenly she was shoved backwards and sent falling towards a great heat, just as someone in the real world pulled her out of bed.

She woke with a jolt the moment she hit the floor and could not suppress a cry of surprise. Disoriented, she rubbed her eyes and tried to recall the dream when it still burned brightly in her memory, but it quickly faded and she only knew that she had dreamed and it had been strange.

"Good morning, Rebecca!" her friend said all-too-cheerfully. "You did say you would come with me to Fallarbor, right?"

Rebecca had not said anything like this recently and her friend knew this very well, but she knew from experience that she was going to be dragged out of the hideout no matter what she said and it was best to go along with it. "Fine," she mumbled, picking herself off the floor. The arm she landed on was throbbing; she had no doubt it would bruise. "Keep it down. You'll wake up the others."

"No I won't," the sandy-haired girl replied. "The only others here are Deena, who can sleep through an earthquake, and Morgan, who is not actually asleep and just lies awake in bed all day."

"Fuck off, Rachel," snapped a girl a few beds over. "There's nothing else to do anymore in this god-forsaken hellhole."

"You do realize that this is the same thing you've always done, right?" Rachel said. "Lie in bed all day until someone comes in and yells at you? The only difference now is that you have an excuse."

Morgan fired something back and while Rachel was busy arguing, Rebecca glanced at her watch and found that it was nearly ten thirty. Damn, she really was sleeping late these days.

She glanced at the foot of her bed and noticed that her skarmory was somehow still asleep. She rubbed his crest and he stirred and blinked his eyes open. "Good morning, little guy."

The steel bird glared at her, ruffling his feathers with the sound of metal on metal. Although he was small for his species, he hated being reminded of it, whether it was his trainer doing the reminding or not.

"Okay, fine, good morning big guy. Is that better?"

He clacked his beak and pulled at her long black hair. Rebecca yelped and pushed him to the floor, and the clatter his talons made on the stone distracted Rachel from her argument.

"Right," she said, turning towards Rebecca as Morgan retreated under her blankets. "Do you need help getting ready? Because that's what it looks like."

"No I'm fine," she said. "You haven't been giving me much of a chance to get ready, that's all."

"You had enough time to start getting dressed at least." Before she had a chance to argue back, Rachel kneeled down and grabbed Rebecca's old trainers' bag and started rummaging through it.

"Hey!" Rebecca tried to grab it back and failed, as Rachel simply walked back a few steps out of her reach. "God damn it, you can't just mess with my stuff whenever you want to!"

"I can when you're being too slow," Rachel replied, tossing her a pair of jeans, a purple shirt and her bag. "Now get dressed. I'm giving you five minutes until I leave without you."

"Do you honestly think I can get ready in five minutes?" Rebecca yelled at her as she walked away. "You know I never said I wanted to go! Rachel!"

"It's no good yelling at her when she's not in the room, little lady," came Morgan's muffled voice. "Now shut up and let the rest of us sleep."

Rebecca managed to restrain herself from throwing her comb at her and instead attempted untangling the knots in her hair. "Little lady" was her unfortunate nickname ever since she came to the team, since when she joined she was both one of the younger members, being sixteen, and squeamish at the mere sight of blood. Although she was eighteen now and mostly gotten over the squeamish part, names tend to stick and she had to put up with it.

After watching her struggle with her hair for a minute or so, Skarmory pulled at her sleeve and gestured at the clock.

"Yes, I know," she said impatiently. "But you know she won't really leave without us. I could wait half an hour and she would still wait. I know you haven't been outside for a while, but you can wait a few minutes, can't you?"

He glared at her and squatted down to tear at a red jacket that had fallen out of her bag. She snatched it up before he could make any more holes in it. "Stop taking out your anger on my clothes, please! I've already had to replace this twice and this one is already torn!" Fuming, Rebecca stuffed it into her bag with the rest of her uniform. Skarmory clacked his back again and turned his back to her.

He can't possibly still be angry at me, Rebecca thought to herself while gathering up her clothes. I joined Team Magma two goddamn years ago, he needs to get over it.

Skarmory, although her first pokémon and her most trusted, did not seem to understand when she tried to explain that what Team Magma was doing was good and right. The world needed more land, it would be better. When that argument was met with scorn, she had tried again, saying that at the very least they needed to stop the other team, who wanted more sea for God-knows-what reason. He didn't want them to win, did he?

He thought both teams Aqua and Magma groups of very silly people who had very silly ideas and could not understand why his trainer wanted to be one of those very silly people. He did still trust her, accepting that she could do very silly things sometimes, but refused to go near any of the other members unless it involved harming them in some way. She called him overprotective, but he knew she needed to be protected from all the very silly people, because sometimes they could do horribly serious things.

NEXT

Chapter Two - exposition

Rebecca, as usual, ignored Rachel's time limit, and usually, Rachel was okay with this. This time, however, the grunt stuck on guard duty was an ex-boyfriend she was still angry at, and she stood as far away from his possible and stared down the passage, desperately hoping he wouldn't talk to her. Rebecca could not come sooner.

"So, uh, are you and Rebecca going to Fallarbor again?"

Rachel winced. "Of course not," she said, refusing to look at him. "We're going to Sootopolis. Jeez, Mark."

"Right." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "What, can't I talk to you anymore?"

"No. I still hate you, remember?"

"After this long? I -- look, I said I was sorry, didn't I?"

"You said yourself that you didn't think you did anything wrong. So your 'sorry' doesn't mean much of anything, does it?"

"Well, I --" Mark raised his hands in defeat. "Fine, you're right, I'm wrong, can I at least say one thing?"

"What?"

"If you're walking to Fallarbor, or Sootopolis or wherever, won't you be gone the whole day?"

"Probably. That sort of the point."

"Well, what if there's a debriefing while you're gone?"

Rachel snorted and turned away to look down the hall, to see Rebecca running down towards them.

"Hi!" she said, smiling. "I'm here!"

"You're ten minutes late," Rachel snapped. Normally she wouldn't be so short with her, but being in close proximity to Mark gave her a temper. "What took you so long?"

"Skarmory wouldn't get in his pokéball."

"And it took you ten minutes to get him in?"

"Yes."

"Okay then. Alright, let's get out of here!"

"Wait a second," Mark said. "The door's been sticking lately, so --"

"Oh, just open it."

He rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine."

Mark pressed a rusted metal button, and the boulder shuddered and slowly ground towards the side until it was halfway open, where it stuck and refused to move, and no amount of kicking and swearing could make it budge.

"Stupid piece of shit." He kicked it a final time and sighed. "I'm going to have to get someone to fix it again. Did you see Ken on your way up here?"

"No. I don't even know if he's still at this base." Rachel stepped back and studied the narrow opening. "Rebecca, I think you can fit, you're pretty small. And I might be able to get through afterwards. Come on, give it a shot."

"Are you sure?" Rebecca stood beside her and frowned. "I mean, maybe me, but..."

"Yep! Let's go!"

Realizing that Rachel was impatient to get out of there, Rebecca managed to squeeze herself through the opening, with only mild discomforted when she scraped her already sore arm. Then it was Rachel's turn, and, with some help, they were both on the other side.

"Okay!" Rachel said cheerfully. "Bye Mark! We'll probably be back in a few hours, two or three maybe. Good luck with the door!"

"Yes," he said absentmindedly. "Damn it, if Ken's not here I'm going to have to fix this myself."

"Come on," Rachel said to Rebecca. "Let's get out of here."

They left Team Magma's base behind, carefully picking their way down the rocky slope of Mount Chimney, while all around them ash fell from the sky.

--

Their walk was uneventful, to a point. They didn't see any pokémon trainers on the road, even when they were out of range of the falling ash. and the only thing out of the ordinary that happened at first was that Rebecca saw a flicker of something in a puddle and stopped to look.

Rachel walked a few more steps before realizing this and looking back. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Rebecca said, looking up. "I just thought I saw something. It was probably just a leaf, I guess."

"Alright, then. Let's keep going."

After that, whenever she saw a flicker of something out of the corner of her eye, she ignored it.

After another while of walking, a puddle blocked the road.

"Damn it," Rachel said. "I knew this would happen after all the rain we had last night."

"Oh, it's not that bad," Rebecca said. "If we go around this way, it's pretty dry."

"I guess so." Rachel shrugged and followed Rebecca, who was already picking her way over the mud.

This time, they both saw the ripples spread over the surface of the puddle. Rachel glanced at it briefly. Rebecca glanced at it and kept looking, because she couldn't couldn't help but feel that there was something off about it.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" Rachel said when Rebecca had stopped again, still staring at the puddle. "Nothing happened while you were getting ready, right?"

"No," Rebecca said, keeping her eyes on the puddle. "It's just... I think there's something wrong with the puddle."

"You think there's what?"

"Yeah, I know it sounds stupid, but... I really think we should get away!"

Then she froze, still staring.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Get away from the puddle," Rebecca said, backing away.

"What? Why?" Normally, she trusted Rebecca, but this? She had to be a little skeptical. This was a puddle, one that didn't even look deep enough to hold a magikarp or something. Rachel glanced at it. Ok, so there was something there, but... "Rebecca, it's just a reflection."

"Please, trust me! Get away from it!"

"It's just an ordinary puddle," Rachel said, and then very abruptly it wasn't.

The blast of air that came from it hit Rachel hard enough to make her stumble, and Rebecca grabbed her hand and ran. Rachel looked back long enough to see a vortex rising from the water and something big and dark writhing inside it, and then they were in the woods and she had to focus on where she was putting her feet.

Behind them, something screeched a long, horrible screech, and Rebecca pulled her down behind a rock. Rachel fell on top of her and they both lay down in the mud, listening as something crashed through the forest behind them. They both held there breath when it came near, but then it went past, and they let out a sigh of relief.

Once it was gone, and all was silent, Rachel finally dared to speak. "What was that thing?"

"It..." Rebecca took a deep breath. "Giratina. It's a legendary pokémon. It lives in an alternate dimension. Back when I lived in Sinnoh, there was a scientist who actually went in there. He wrote a paper on it, that's how I know."

"Okay. A legendary pokémon! That's great! What did it want with us?"

"Nothing, I don't think. We were probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Are you sure?" God, how could she be so calm? Now that the experience was over, Rebecca seemed to be back to her old self, while Rachel was still trembling. "What if it was after us?"

"If it had wanted us, it would have followed us. There's no way it wouldn't have heard us."

"Oh, well, good. Or not good. God, I don't know." Rachel leaned back and sighed. "Is it... violent? I mean, if we run into it again, is it going to attack us on sight?"

"I don't know. It's supposed to be territorial, but we're not in it's territory... look, if it had wanted to attack us, we'd be dead, violent or not. It's a legendary pokémon, for God's sake! And not one of the nicer ones, either. It was supposed to be the god of death, I think. I mean, in myths. The paper didn't say that. It called the myths 'hogwash', actually."

"Right. Hogwash." Rachel gripped the ground and tried to get her trembling under control. It didn't work. "I don't hear anything. Do you think it's gone?"

"Yeah, probably. Let's go back to base. I don't feel safe going to Fallarbor with it around."

Rebecca stood up and out of nowhere a black wing fell and pinned her to the ground.

Rebecca screamed. Rachel was too shocked to do anything but stare. Giratina was a huge basilisk of a creature, with a golden beak and crest, and red-clawed wings. Rachel's first instinct was to run, but it had Rebecca, and before she could do anything it cuffed her with its free wing and knocked her down. Rebecca yelled something, Rachel tried to get up but Giratina hit her again and she heard it fly into the air.

Rachel sat up.

Giratina was gone, taking Rebecca with it. She was suddenly aware of her shoulder hurting; she touched it gingerly and it was wet with blood. She realized then she needed to get back to the hideout and stood up.

She was hardly aware of what she was doing, she was so in shock. She followed the wreckage of trees that Giratina had left behind until she reached the main road, then she kept walking towards Mount Chimney. Her side was aching and she wanted nothing more than to sit down and rest, but she was dimly aware of the fact that her shoulder was bleeding a lot and if she sat down she might never stand up. So she forced herself to keep walking, until she was struggling up the slope of the mountain and she saw the fake boulder that marked the door of their base. When she reached it, she was exhausted and her shoulder was killing her and she barely had the strength to pound on the door.

"Rachel? Is that you?" came Mark's voice.

"Yes! Open the door!" she shouted.

"No need to yell like that, I'm just surprised you're back so soon --"

"I don't have time for this! I'm bleeding to death out here!"

"You're what?"

It had to be Mark, she thought. Out of all the people who had to be guarding the door today, it had to be Mark. "Shut up! Let me in!"

"The door's still jammed, I can't! Look --" The door made a grinding noise and didn't move. "Are you seriously --"

"Yes, the fucking god of death tore my shoulder open and I am seriously bleeding to death!"

"The what -- okay, I'm going to get someone to help, just hang in there, okay?"

"Just break the damn thing open, you have a camerupt, don't you? Damn it, Mark! If I die out here it's all your fault!"

No answer; he had already gone. Rachel swore at the door, sat down against the rock, and passed out.

PREVIOUS -- NEXT

Chapter Three - hesitation

"The god of death? Are you sure that's what she said?"

"Yes, sir. She couldn't have been serious, but something did hurt her badly enough to send her to the hospital, and Rebecca still hasn't come back."

"Right. You can go now."

Mark stood up, nodded, then turned around and left. Tabitha sighed. "Well, that tells us absolutely nothing. We already knew all that."

Maxie buried his face in his hands and, once again, went over all the bad decisions in his life that had led him to this moment. It had been eight years since he had ended up founding Team Magma, and it was every bit of a mistake as it had been the first year. He hadn't wanted to be leader, but there hadn't been anyone else fit for the job. Not that he thought he was fit for the job either, but seeing as he was the one who organized the whole thing, he might as well lead it too.

There. There it was, bad decision number one. Now he was responsible for the hundred or so members that were left after the Groudon incident, and one of them had just gone missing.

"I'd like to blame it on Team Aqua, or any other trainer that has a beef with us, but they weren't in uniform, so that can't be it," he said, looking back up. "Which means it was either a random attack by someone, or a particularly strong wild pokémon. In either case, the other girl might be lying out there bleeding to death. You did send someone out to look for her, right?"

Tabitha nodded. "Morgan. She should be back soon. They weren't gone long enough to have gotten very far, sir."

"Don't call me sir. It's bad enough hearing it from everyone else like a broken record, and with you it's worse because I know you do it deliberately."

Despite the situation, Tabitha cracked a smile. "Yes, sir."

"Oh my God." Maxie shook his head. "Fine, do what you want. That's what everyone else is doing. Wasn't this all because these two decided to go out on a walk to Fallarbor? Damn, I need a drink."

"I really wouldn't suggest that, sir."

"What else am I supposed to do, then? We've sent out everyone, there's nothing to do but wait until the girl that's in the hospital wakes up, or we find the one that went missing." He frowned. "This god of death business, though... that worries me."

"How so?"

"People don't joke around when their shoulder's been torn open. If she wasn't being serious, then why? And if she was being serious, what happened to make her talk about a god? Which means we have another problem to worry about."

"Maxie, I'm not sure I understand."

"Tabitha. The only thing I can think of that could be called a god is a legendary pokémon. We've learned not to fuck around with legendary pokémon. If one really did attack these girls, what are we supposed to do if it comes back? Are we going to risk people's lives to protect two girls, one of which might already be dead?"

--

Rebecca was screaming.

She had been struggling, too, but once the ground disappeared and she found herself staring into an unimaginably vast abyss, she stopped, but she couldn't help the screaming.

Giratina, unmoved, continued his gliding through the world, never once stopping or slowing.

She didn't know how long it was until she couldn't scream and started sobbing instead. Her throat was hoarse and sore and her head was pounding from being held at an upside-down angle for so long and God, she thought she was going to die.

But he hadn't hurt her yet. Rebecca wiped her tears away and tried to compose herself, as terrified as she was. He hadn't hurt her yet. Maybe she would be ok.

Not like Rachel, she thought. She hadn't been able to see what was going on very well, but as she had struggled in Giratina's grip, she had seen blood. And then they were gone, and the last thing Rebecca saw of Rachel was her bleeding. This brought on another round of sobbing that she couldn't control.

"Why me?" she tried to yell, but her voice was so hoarse that it came out as a whisper. "What are you going to do to me?"

Giratina said nothing. She hadn't expected it to.

She must have blacked out after that, because the next thing she knew, she was falling.

Before she could react she had hit the ground hard, and for a moment all she could do was lie there, winded by the impact. Then she scrambled to her feet, eyes searching for where Giratina had gone.

She didn't have to wonder long. Giratina circled above her, glaring down at her in its long, sinuous form. Rebecca froze, unable to do anything but stare back at it. It had changed, she realized, now that they were in its world.

After what seemed like an eternity, Giratina screeched, and flew away. Rebecca watched its from disappear into the distance, then her legs failed her.

"Why me?" she whispered, lying on her side. "Why me?"

She hadn't done anything wrong. Nothing that would justify a legendary pokémon kidnapping her to do God-knows-what with. Her body ached from the fall and all she wanted to do was lie there and cry.

No. Stay calm, she told herself. You're not going to die here. You know about this place. Not a lot, but more than most everyone else. Maybe you can get out of here.

Rebecca sat up and the sheer impossibility of the land around her made her dizzy, and she has to lie down again. It's ok, she thought, staring at the blades of grass in front of her face. I can just lie here and think for a while until I'm ready to deal with this.

So instead, she thought back to the article. It had been such a long time since she had read it, but it had made such a big impact on her hometown that it had stuck with her.

A scientist and his assistant had been researching an odd phenomenon that was supposedly linked to Giratina, the article said. This led to the discovery of an entire world linked to their own. Right there in Gracidea Valley! Her dad had been so excited to show her, Rebecca remembered. She wondered if she'd ever see him again.

It proved to be very difficult entering the Reverse World, as the two were only able to once they discovered an area stemming from a point near Veilstone City where the border between the real world and the Reverse World was thinner, and occasionally a portal would open on its own. But these were few and far between, and often the portals would be too small for them to go through, so they were usually left to following through the portals Giratina left behind. Otherwise, it was impossible to get into -- or out of -- the Reverse World. And Hoenn was miles and miles away from Veilstone.

But it wasn't hopeless. Rebecca took a deep breath. If she could find Giratina again, or wait for it to come back, and then just... hide somewhere, she could wait for it to make a portal, and leave through there. It was a long shot, but it was all she had. Unless she wanted to wait and see what it had in store for her.

Rebecca thought she would remember these blades of grass for the rest of her life, with their exact pattern and shape and size, so that if she ever saw their mirror in the real world she would recognize them. Part of her wanted to give up and just lie here forever, and to not face the utter strangeness of the Reverse World, but she knew that she couldn't do that. Even so, she felt so scared and alone that it felt like there was nothing she could do, except to just lie there and wait to die. Was that what Giratina wanted?

But she wasn't alone, she realized. Her pokémon were with her.

She reached down to her belt to make sure, and yes, they were still there. Relief swept over her, and for once, she believed that she would have a chance to live. This gave her hope, and she gathered her courage and sat up.

The sight around her made her dizzy again, but she forced herself to look. All around her were tall, hourglass-shaped spires of land and trees and /ice/ -- where was she that there was ice? -- all mirrored upside-down on top of each other, blending together to a point where the halves of the hourglass met. The sky was a deep blue, patterned with crystalline purple patches that looked almost like windows into yet another world. Everything hung in the air with no regards to gravity, and as she looked up at a forest of upside-down trees, Rebecca felt like she was going to fall of the small platform of land she was on.

Her own island of land was tiny; just a patch of grass and dirt hanging in the air. Clearly, Giratina didn't want her going anywhere.

Carefully, she took out a pokéball. The sound it made as it released her pokémon made her tense, but Giratina didn't show up, so it must have been out of earshot. Quickly, before he could react, she grabbed Skarmory's beak and held it shut so he couldn't make a sound.

"Shh," she hissed as he let out a muffled squawk and flapped his wings. "Shh! You've got to be quiet! I'll explain everything to you, okay?"

Skarmory swiveled his head around and stared at her. Rebecca smiled weakly in response. Then he folded his wings and she took her hands off his beak.

"Okay," she said as he turned his head left and right, taking stock of the situation. "This is what's going on."

Rebecca explained as much as she could, from her and Rachel's walk to the strange ripples in the puddles and everything she knew about Giratina and the Reverse World. "It must have been following us," she said. "I don't know why, and I don't know what it wants with me, but we need to get out of here before it comes back. Can you hold my weight?"

Skarmory cocked his head. Maybe.

"Can you hold my weight if it means life or death?"

Skarmory cocked his head again, looked at her, then nodded.

"Thank you." Rebecca wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. "Thank you! God, I don't know what's going on or how we're going to get out of here, but we're gonna be alright, okay?"

Skarmory rested his head on her shoulder and Rebecca felt her eyes tear up. She quickly wiped them dry; she had cried enough already. "Okay," she said, standing up. "Let's go."

They separated. Skarmory walked to the edge with Rebecca following him behind. Once there, Rebecca scanned the area for a place to land.

"There," she said, pointing down at an outcropping a little ways away. "Try to head there. Then maybe we can find a way out of here."

Skarmory nodded again as flapped his wings once, which Rebecca took as her signal to get on.

He staggered under her weight, and for a moment she thought it wasn't going to work, but then he regained his balance and flew.

The next moment, they dropped like a stone.

Don't scream, Rebecca told herself, clinging tightly as Skarmory frantically tried to slow their descent. Skarmory can handle this. Stay calm.

Skarmory managed to turn the fall into a downward glide towards the outcropping. Rebecca's hair blew in her face, but she didn't dare let go to brush it away. We're going too fast, she realized with horror, but an instant before they hit, Skarmory angled up, and they swooped past just in time. He evened out, and Rebecca let out the breath she had been holding. See? We're okay. We're o --

They crashed.

There was a horrible crack and Rebecca was thrown off Skarmory's back, skidding across the ground. Immediately, she got to her feet, wincing at the pain. "Skarmory! Skarmory, are you alright?"

Skarmory was a few feet away from her, hopping on one foot and flapping his wings. She ran to him. "Oh God, are you okay? Your foot -- you're hurt --"

She crouched down next to him, putting a hand on his back. He stopped hopping and held out his foot. Rebecca inhaled sharply. "It's broken. Oh God, I'm so sorry, this is all my fault!"

Don't cry. You've done enough crying. Stay calm.

She leaned forward and examined his leg. It was clearly bent at an odd angle, but the skin wasn't broken. That was... good? She wasn't sure. She could try to set it, but she didn't know how to go about doing that, and if she did something wrong, it would only make things worse.

"I'm putting you back in your pokéball," she said. "Don't argue with me!" she said sharply as he shook his head. "You're hurt, and you're not gonna get any less hurt until we get you somewhere you can be healed, and I don't know when that'll be!"

Skarmory squawked at her and backed away. "This isn't an argument! I'm sorry, Skarmory, but I'm not letting you get hurt anymore."

She grabbed his pokéball and recalled him in one quick motion. Once he had vanished in a flare of red light, Rebecca put the ball back on her belt and stood up. There was a narrow opening near her, she noticed, that, once she squeezed through, led to a cave big enough to hide her for a while. She went as far back as she could, then sat down with a sigh.

There. She could rest there for a while, and then keep going. Rebecca acutely felt the aches from the falls she had taken, and realized just how exhausted she was. She could rest a while, she thought, hugging her knees to her chest. If the only way she could get out was through a portal made by Giratina, then she would have to wait for it to come back and make one. The thought of facing it again made her shudder.

You're never going to get out of here, a voice inside her said. Why would Giratina make a portal for you, when it's got you right where it wants you?

She ignored it. She was going to be okay. She had to.

PREVIOUS -- NEXT

Chapter Four - intervention

Rachel was going to hurt someone.

After she woke up, she had to explain to Deena what had happened, who had managed to wake up in time to be with her at the hospital. Then she had to make up a story to tell the hospital explaining how she cut her shoulder open, and when she was finally back at base, she had to explain everything over again. Now she was finally sitting in her leader's office, only to be told that they might not be able to rescue Rebecca.

"This isn't because I want to leave her," Maxie said, while Rachel fumed in her seat. "But if what you've said is true, then how do you propose we go into an alternate dimension?"

"You could at least try!" she shouted. "How about, I don't know, going to look! Maybe there's a portal left open or something!"

"We already sent someone," Tabitha said. Rachel wanted to punch him. Hell, she wanted to strangle them both. Inside her head, she was very vividly picturing knocking Tabitha out, choking her leader to death, and going off to rescue Rebecca herself. In her anger, this seemed a very sensible plan. "Morgan reported signs of a very large pokémon that had --"

"I already told you that!"

"Look," Maxie said, "I know you're angry. I'd be angry too, if I were in your situation." He wasn't even looking at her, dammit. He kept glancing over at Tabitha. "But this thing tried to kill you already*--"

"It's a legendary pokémon, if it wanted to kill me, I would be dead!"

"So then why did it attack you?"

"Because..." Rachel found she couldn't actually think of a reason why. "How am I supposed to know?" she said loudly.

"It wanted to stop you from interfering. It still could've killed you, even by accident. If we go and interfere some more, it might decide to make sure we stop interfering for good. We need to proceed with caution to make sure we don't lose any more people."

"Any more people?" Rachel said in disbelief. "What the fuck are you talking about? Rebecca's not dead, we haven't lost her, unless --"

Realization hit her like a punch to the gut. "You think she's dead. You're leaving her for dead."

"We're not leaving her until we know for sure one way or the other," Maxie said.

"You're leaving her for dead." Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. Rebecca wasn't dead. Rebecca wasn't dead. Rebecca wasn't --

"You have to understand that there's a possibility that Giratina killed her."

Something snapped.

"She's not dead!" Rachel yelled. "If Giratina was going to kill her, it would've done it there! She's alive, probably wondering where we are --"

"And if she's --"

"Shut up!" she screamed. "Giratina could be doing God-knows-what with her and you're just sitting on your ass!"

"Rachel," Tabitha said, stepping forward, "if you would just calm down --"

"My best friend was just kidnapped by some Sinnoh god-pokémon and you're telling me to calm down?" Rachel slammed her fists on the table and stood up. "Go back to sucking our leader's dick, you piece of shit! Fuck you! Fuck both of you!"

She turned and left while both Maxie and Tabitha were too stunned to react, shoving the heavy metal door open right into Morgan's face.

"Morgan?" Rachel said in shock as the girl stumbled backwards with a stream of curses. "And Deena, and... oh my fucking God!"

The small group of grunts, caught in their eavesdropping, had the decency to look embarrassed.

Rachel slammed the door shut, leaving Maxie and Tabitha alone in the room. A moment later, it opened again, and one of the grunts poked her head in.

"Um," she said. "Sorry?"

Maxie slumped face down on the desk. Tabitha looked down at him worriedly. "Maxie? Are you ok?"

"That went as well as could be expected," he muttered.

The grunt quietly closed the door again and left to join the rest of her group, who had followed Rachel back to the girl's bunks.

--

Deena knocked on the door. "Rachel? Are you okay?"

"Go to hell!" came the muffled shout. Deena sighed and looked down, her hair falling in front of her face. Lifting a hand to brush it aside, she stepped back from the door and turned to the others.

"I don't know what to do, guys," she said.

"She can't stay in there forever," Morgan muttered. "All my stuff's in there." She sighed, rubbing her nose, and looked over their little group. Deena was looking at her like she was expected to come up with some sort of plan, while the other two grunts -- Derek and Leo, two ordinary guys who Morgan hung out with sometimes -- just stared at the door with a worried expression. And then there was Mark, who tagged along because... Morgan didn't actually know why he was here. She didn't really know him much at all, only that he and Rachel had dated briefly and it had ended badly.

"Hey," she said to him. "Aren't you supposed to be on guard duty?"

He started and stared at her. "Well, yeah, but --"

Morgan waved him away. "Shoo. I don't know much about you and Rachel's relationship drama, but I don't think you being here is going to help at all. So shoo."

Mark glared at her, stuck his hands in his pockets, and stalked away. Morgan heard him say, "What did I even do?" before he turned the corner and was out of sight.

Once that was dealt with, Morgan clapped her hands together. "Wish me luck, 'cause I'm going in.

Deena frowned. "You're just going to walk right in there?"

"Well, yeah! You have any better ideas?"

"Well, no, but she's really upset right now. Maybe it would be better to wait until she's feeling better?"

"Deena, her best friend was just kidnapped by some super-powerful legendary pokémon, she's not going to feel any better for days. I'm going in."

Deena made a face, but moved out of the way. Morgan rolled up her sleeves and opened the door.

Rachel was lying on her bed face down on a pillow. Morgan walked over and sat down beside her. "Hey."

"Go to hell," said Rachel in a muffled voice.

"I'm not going anywhere. Look." Morgan sighed. "I know you're upset, but lying here isn't going to change anything."

Rachel said something into the pillow that Morgan couldn't make out. "Girl, I didn't understand a word of that."

Rachel lifted her head up and glared at her. "What else can I do? He's leaving her for dead! He even said it himself! I'm never going to see her again!"

"Okay, first, I heard most of that conversation and I don't think he said that," said Morgan. "Second, does that mean you're just going to leave her too?"

Rachel's voice raised in pitch. "Don't you dare*--"

"The little lady's my friend too, you know. I mean... jeez, I'm just making you angrier, aren't I. What I'm trying to say is that I want to go out and look for Rebecca ourselves."

Rachel fell back down on the pillow.

"Okay, what the fuck? I thought that was what you wanted!" Morgan resisted the urge to scream in frustration -- something that Rachel wouldn't take well, most likely -- and instead put a hand on Rachel's shoulder. "What's going on here?"

Rachel said nothing, and Morgan felt her trembling. She was crying.

"Oh," Morgan said. "Shit. Um."

She looked down at her skirt and sighed again. "Look, it's okay if --"

"It's not okay!" Rachel yelled into the pillow. "You can't do anything! I couldn't do anything! Giratina just grabbed her, knocked me down, and -- we can't do anything!"

She sobbed. Morgan didn't know what to do.

"Look," she said. "This team is a fucking mess."

Rachel's crying quieted.

"It is," Morgan continued. "We're only sticking around because Team Aqua apparently didn't disband when they were supposed to. But we haven't heard anything from them in months, there hasn't been a debriefing in just as long, and we've even stopped doing role call. We're shit. We're really shit. If Team Aqua is still around to fight us, they'd wipe us out in no time."

She took a deep breath. "We're still a team, though. I mean, I've heard of what goes down in Kanto -- Team Rocket actually kills people, for God's sake -- but us? We tried to do good. I mean, we kind of fucked up spectacularly along the way, but we tried. Sort of. You're one of the ones who believes that expanding the land would actually be beneficial to everyone so I won't say anything more about that."

She heard Rachel snort, and Morgan smiled. Good, she was listening, at least.

"Anyway, um, that kind of got away from me a bit. Sorry. You know how it is, I try to say one thing and end up going on a tangent into some other thing. We're a team. We should help our teammates. And even after seeing what that thing did, I still want to try and help Rebecca. So come on. Get up and let's go."

Rachel lifted her head up, her eyes damp with tears. "You're not gonna quit, are you?" she said.

"No," Morgan said. "I'm not."

Rachel sighed and sat up slowly. "Maxie's right, you know," she said. "Even if we do find Giratina, it'll probably just kill us."

"Then if we do find Giratina, we run like hell."

"I'm not supposed to do anything that stresses out my shoulder."

"Then don't run in a way that does that, moron!" Morgan playfully shoved her. Rachel pushed her hand away.

"Come on," Morgan said. "Let's go."

She took her arm and pulled her out of bed. Rachel wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Sorry."

"You've got no reason to be sorry. This is hard for everyone, but Rebecca's your best friend. It's okay. Really.

Rachel nodded. "Yeah, okay. Let's go."

--

First, Morgan had to explain to the rest of the group what the plan was.

"Morgan, you made it sound like everyone was ready to go," said Rachel, frowning.

"Yeah, and everyone is." Morgan gave them a look that dared them to suggest otherwise. "There's nothing stopping any of you from going out now, right?"

"I can't," Deena said, taking a step back. "I'm sorry, I just can't. I'm too scared."

"Fine," said Morgan. "Fine. We can go without you. Four people is enough, right? No one else's planning to skip out on us, are they?"

She gave a pointed look at Derek and Leo. They looked at each other, then back at Morgan and Rachel. Rachel stood with her hand on her shoulder, looking down to the side and not meeting anyone in the eye. Morgan had her hands on her hips and was glaring at them.

"Okay," Derek said. Leo shrugged.

"I barely even know you two," Rachel said. "Why are you doing this?"

Leo spoke up this time. "We're a team, right? This is what teams should do."

Morgan stared at him. "Did you overhear me or something? Rachel, I swear I didn't plan this. I mean, it would be great if I had, but I didn't."

For the first time since Giratina attacked, Rachel smiled.

--

The puddle was still there. Derek scoffed when Rachel pointed it out -- "That thing came from a puddle?" -- but Morgan hit him and he shut up. The path Giratina had made through the forest was obvious; there were huge footprints in the ground and branches broken off from trees. As the four of them picked their way over the wreckage, the sun started to set, and after a brief discussion between them, they came to the realization that none of them had a flashlight.

"I have my pokénav," Leo said, rummaging around in his pocket.

"A pokénav?" Morgan snorted. "Where the hell did you get a pokénav? Don't those things cost, like, triple our salary?"

"I stole it. From my brother. Long story." Leo flipped it open and a weak beam of light barely illuminated the ground in front of them. "Okay, this is pretty shit."

"We're here," Rachel said.

Morgan glanced at her, then around them. In the dying light, all she could make out was a boulder and more footprints. "Are you sure?"

Rachel nodded. "Yeah. The path goes on because it -- it passed us, then I guess it came back." She was trembling; Morgan put a hand on her shoulder, but she pushed it away. "But -- we hid behind that rock. I guess it was stupid to think that it would just ignore us."

"Rachel," said Morgan.

Rachel ignored her. "What are we going to do?" she said. "We're here, but... what are we supposed to do? How are we going to find Rebecca if we don't know where to go or what to do?"

Congratulations, a voice said, echoing inside their heads. You've passed the test!

Everyone froze. There was a moment of silence where they all frantically looked around, searching for whoever or whatever had spoken, until Morgan spoke.

"What the hell was that?" she shouted.

"Telepathy," Derek said, his voice shaking. "Probably a psychic pokémon."

"Okay," she said. "Great. What the hell is a psychic pokémon doing here?"

"I think we should get out of here," said Leo.

Don't be stupid, the voice said again, and a flash of light briefly illuminated the area.

The pokémon that hovered in front of them once the light cleared was small and blue-grey, with a large, cyan cone-shaped head that had two earlike protrusions on either side of its face. A red gem gleamed in its forehead, it and the two gems in its tails catching the light of the setting sun, and deep gold eyes surveyed the group, a frown forming on its face.

Not an "it," the voice said, and this time they all knew where it came from, though the pokémon's mouth did not move. A "fae." Just like you two are "he" and you two are "she," I am "fae." Do not make me repeat it, even though I know I will have to because humans are imbeciles.

"Hey," said Derek, and he was about to say more until Morgan elbowed him sharply.

"How did you know what we were thinking?" she said. "Can you read minds?"

Only vaguely, said the pokémon. I know you would like to be called "Morgan" and "she" and I know what your intent is in coming here, but little more. By the way, you just confirmed you did indeed think of me as an it. That's very rude, you know, unless that is what someone would like to be called. I would like to say I am disappointed, but I've come to expect this from humans.

"You're Azelf," said Rachel.

The group turned to look at her, including the pokémon, who smiled and clapped faer hands. Excellent! I was expecting everyone in Hoenn to be more dim-witted than usual, but it seems I am wrong! Yes, I am Azelf, the bringer of willpower. Thank you for recognizing me!

"You're a legendary pokémon," Rachel said, taking a step forward. "But... you're not like Giratina. You're not going to hurt us. Do you know where Rebecca is?"

Yes, said Azelf, and I have been waiting here for someone to come looking for her. You are her friends, I presume. I already presumed, and no one disagreed with me, so I presume I was right.

"Well, yeah," said Morgan. "So do you know what's going on? Is Rebecca in danger? What test did we pass?"

One question at a time, please. But I did not mention that previously, so you are forgiven this once. Azelf frowned and put a hand to faer face, seemingly deep in thought. Yes, I do know what is going on. No, Rebecca is not particularly in danger. Giratina will not kill her, at least, and I don't think they have any reason to harm her. The test I mentioned was not a test of you personally, but rather a test of the organization you are a part of. I was waiting to see whether they would send a party to retrieve a lost member, and you did! They even sent one of their commanders!

Fae smiled brightly at the group. They looked at each other nervously.

"Um," Leo said, "I think you're confused. None of us here is a commander."

"And they didn't send anyone," Rachel said bitterly. "They were going to leave her to die."

That's strange, Azelf said. Who is that, then?

Fae pointed behind them. They all turned to look.

Tabitha stood there, leaning against a tree and panting, dressed in his full Team Magma uniform. His hood had fallen down and his hair was disheveled, and he looked like he had ran all the way here from their base. Morgan yelped. "How long have you been there!"

"I just... got here," he said between gasps. "Came to... fetch you... before you idiots got yourselves killed! What the hell is going on?"

See? Azelf said. He came to retrieve you! So maybe you did not technically pass the test but I do not hold humans to very high standards so I will let it count. Shall we go rescue your friend, now?

Nobody answered. Rachel opened her mouth, then closed it and turned to Tabitha. He stared at them all in disbelief.

"Oh, so I'm in charge now?" he said. "That wasn't what you thought before."

"You're our commander," Derek said. "What should we do?"

Tabitha straightened up and pulled his hood back over his head. "We need to tell Maxie what's going on," he said. "After that --"

"Fuck that," Rachel said. "We have a legendary pokémon on our side now! Azelf, let's go."

Thank you, fae said, and the gem on faer forehead flashed.

PREVIOUS -- NEXT

Hello there! Since I am not really qualified to give extremely detailed criticism of your writing, I will gloss over some things that I think are important and maybe highlight a few specific stuffs that I see.

1) "Gnosia Stella Coronae" -- I'm nitpicking, I guess, but I don't recognise gnosia as being Latin. I'm assuming you're going for "knowledge" (Greek is gnosis, transliterated), and I'd use Latin notitia. If you'd like me to suggest a Latin title, provide me what you would like it to say, and I'll give it my best shot. Don't trust Google Translate.

2) As far as chapters go, these are pretty short. I guess it's entirely arbitrary - if you wanted to, you could have a novel consisting of 300 chapters - but it's a little inconvenient. You have a terse writing style, so I'd suggest trying to cover a LOT more action in each chapter, or include more about the character's surroundings, et cetera. If this isn't possible, try writing an outline of your plot and think of ways to add more interesting bits in order to make it longer. (Like character development! Yay! Because 2D characters are boring.)

3) I would consider going over each chapter again and consider your use of punctuation. Not that it's bad, but I think there's improvement to be made stylistically, like with commas and whatnot.

In short, I think there is a lot of room for development in each chapter. I think you could really make the story come to life - it's an interesting premise - but as of now, it just feels a little empty. Sparse.

On the other hand, so far I like your characterisation of Azelf (and use of non-binary pronouns, though "fae" is a little awkward IMHO). Good luck!!

Thank you for reviewing! Although I'm not planning on revising the earlier chapters until the story is complete (I did that when I first started writing it a few years ago, and it just held everything up and I ended up not working on it for a long time), I'll definitely keep your advice in mind for later chapters.

One note on the title – it's actually really arbitrary, it comes from the name of the brightest star in the Corona Borealis constellation. Honestly, it should be changed, but I haven't come up with anything better, and at least it vaguely relates to the story.