• Welcome to The Cave of Dragonflies forums, where the smallest bugs live alongside the strongest dragons.

    Guests are not able to post messages or even read certain areas of the forums. Now, that's boring, don't you think? Registration, on the other hand, is simple, completely free of charge, and does not require you to give out any personal information at all. As soon as you register, you can take part in some of the happy fun things at the forums such as posting messages, voting in polls, sending private messages to people and being told that this is where we drink tea and eat cod.

    Of course I'm not forcing you to do anything if you don't want to, but seriously, what have you got to lose? Five seconds of your life?

Mewtwo's Lair

Reader mode
"Yes, it's all worth it to me!" insisted Grace, trying to stand a little taller. "I think life would be boring if you only looked out for yourself. Looking out for others fills me with happiness because you never know when the actions of someone else could change your life, or another's. Sometimes it's not a good change, but that's when you can lean on people you trust and love to help you through it."
 
"And what happens when they die?!" Owen suddenly snapped, tail lashing on the ground. Dark ink spattered where he'd struck like his body was constantly bleeding its void ichor. "What happens when they go against you when you least expect, when they pull everything from you the moment you don't go their way? When someone else takes them instead, and suddenly you're alone again? Is THAT worth it?!"
 
Grace yelped and scrambled back, her gaze snapping to Red and back to Owen, as if she was trying to figure out when and if Red would step in.

Was she in danger? Did she leave? Was Owen going to attack?

Those questions fired through her mind, making her suck in a breath while she tried to collect herself. "I-- Um--" she tried, her mind desperately trying to find something to say.

Just what had Owen been through...?

"Maybe there's... a misunderstanding...?" Grace tried again. "Maybe you can get them back! Or, uh, maybe there's a part of the story you're missing...!"

But she didn't know. Grace didn't know what he'd faced. She just had to hope something stuck.
 
"Look at you," Owen hissed like Grace was some desperate feral. "Clinging to that hope like it matters. Hope does nothing. The world... only answers to strength. Power in numbers... only matters if you can control them."

Owen sat straight, glancing at Red as if he recognized he couldn't act out directly while in his presence.

"Anything else will hold you back in the end."
 
"No," said Grace, shaking her head. "My hope isn't wrong."

With quick focus, she channelled the Radiance she was growing ever-familiar with. It sat in her paw, innocent, pure and bright in contrast to Owen's voided form. "This is a small part of my hope. It works at its best when I believe that things will work out, or when I'm very eager to help. I know it sounds a little corny, but it's the bonds I've made that give me that hope, and that's not something I can fake. My bonds are real, or they wouldn't shine this brightly while I'm a world away."
 
Owen stared at the strange light, and then reached toward the light with his great, darkened claws. It was like a challenge, bringing his Shadows toward the light.

"Just how strong is your 'hope' against someone already 'lost'?" he said, grasping at Grace's outstretched limb. He was cold.
 
She didn't want to waver.

No. It was more like... she couldn't.

With Owen reaching for her Radiance, she remembered what Giovanni had said earlier. There was doubt that Owen could properly be purified with Radiance alone. It could kill him.

But she wanted so badly to help him. There had to be a way.

Grace was sure that what was in her palm wouldn't be enough to truly harm him. Her hope for Owen made her Radiance glow a little brighter, and she had to suck in a breath to try and clear the Radiant 'buzz' starting to form in her mind. There was no room for fear, and she couldn't lose focus.

Owen was cold, and so she focused on the warmth of the Radiance in her paw. "It helped you once before," she replied softly. "Do you... remember? When you were a Charmeleon?"
 
The Radiance sizzled against Owen's hand and Grace would feel her own get... wetter. Some of Owen's blood was seeping into her feathers from contact. It didn't sting... but it certainly felt like something was happening.

Though it didn't seem very good for Owen. Yet he refused to let go. Now, Grace couldn't let go.

"I do," said the Charizard with a deep, grave voice. "And I know that I am too far gone, now. Do you think... I want this?" he asked as spiderwebs of Radiance flowed through his arm, creating black, bloody fissures that dripped onto the ground, leaving tar-like stains with every drop. "But it's all I can think. I can barely contain it... without their help." He looked at Red, then back at Grace.
 
Her eyes widened as she felt the Shadowy blood slowly wet her feathers.

This was bad, wasn't it? The more Owen interacted with her Radiance, the more it was hurting him. Shouldn't she stop chanelling her Radiance? She couldn't even pull away.

"There has to be a way!" she cried, trying not to pull her arm away just yet-- she had to try and remain calm. "We can't leave you like this, Owen! Even if we can't fix your body, maybe we can still heal the Shadows inside and-- and just keep them outside!"
 
"And why should you bother?" Owen said in another low, growling voice. The Radiance flowed through his veins and fissured his shoulder. Red was starting to look concerned--but not for Grace. "So many other things to worry about, and you're focused all this effort on me... And for what?"

He squeezed harder, trying to get a rise out of Grace. Trying to get more Radiance.

Was he doing this on purpose...?

"Why waste that time on me?"
 
"Because I--"

She saw what the Radiance was doing to him. What she was doing to him. If Grace didn't stop now, she was worried she'd actually cause harm to him.

Grace gasped, and quickly shut off the Radiance in her palm, trying to stifle the slowly rising panic. The togetic struggled to muster the watery orb of her life dew in that same instant, but she was now trying to splash that onto Owen instead of hurting him further. "Because I've always wanted to save people," she answered firmly, eyes narrowing as she tried to see if it was helping him at all. "And-- And I thought that you didn't want to be like this. Just like all the other Pokemon I've seen here that have been suffering from Shadows already. I want to be able to help those that are forcibly corrupted."

And she didn't want to fail.

Never again.
 
The more Grace spoke to Owen, the more it seemed that everything he was saying contradicted itself. A maelstrom of emotions that snuffed out logic, thinking only in the moment while contorting everything into that instant to be an insurmountable wall of darkness.

When Grace stopped, Owen looked disappointed. Deeper than before.

He finally let go, staring at his hand as the last bits of Radiance sizzled in his arm, snapping like water on a campfire.

"You should have pressed it to my heart."
 
"Huh? Why?" she asked, her attention snapping back up to his face. "But wouldn't that..."

Grace trailed off, frowning at Owen. "Wouldn't that kill you...?"
 
To that, Owen provided no verbal answer. He only stared at Grace with a strange mixture of hatred and desperation, longing and fear. His eyes were feral and hungry, but the pupils behind the glow were more visible than ever.
 
And with that brought a new wave of anxiety.

Did she do something wrong? What if she did something worse, or undid any progress they might have done with Owen?

She inhaled, still unable to pull away. "I don't want to kill you," she said softly. "I don't want to show you too much Radiance... not yet. I'm not ready to give up on you. I want to help you get better... and then... maybe we can be friends...?"
 
More silence as the void Charizard stared into and through Grace. Finally, he found the strength to pull away. He held the little can that Nova had scribbled a message onto, staring at it like his one last possession. Red eased up, accepting some aspect of the outcome.

"Think what you want," Owen said. "Just don't waste your time on me. There's... no point."
 
Grace rubbed her now free arm, landing on the floor to give her wings a break as she did. "Who said anything about wasting my time?" she asked, frowning. "There has to be a way to help you. I mean... what if there's someone else out there like you? I wouldn't want to abandon them just because it's difficult."
 
"Kill them, too," Owen said dismissively. "Do you think any of them have hope to wait it out?" His tail flicked, staring at the scrawled message again. "...What if Alexander is the same way?"
 
If he was holding that message close to him... did that mean Owen had a tiny bit of hope left? Was it something Grace could help him grasp?

"I don't know Alexander very well..." she admitted, looking uncomfortable. "Maybe we can cure him, too, but with what Mhynt has said and what I've heard he's done here? It... sounds like the Shadows haven't changed him too much."
 
Owen said nothing in reply again as the silence returned. It sank in, Owen's tail crackling. finally, he closed his eyes.

"...You really think it's not too late," he finally said. For a moment, his tail's fire had a flicker of orange... but that was all. "...Go. I'm tired. Maybe we can play another game... later."
 
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom