WARNING: Spoilers for the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers postgame.
And here I am, staring at the children who have ruined me.
A human from a future long gone, and a Pokemon from a present that shouldn't be. Here they stand -- here, in front of me! -- making a fool of me while my own kin stands in front of them, watching me with disappointment. Here I am, watching every other plot I have created fail, every thread I have woven unravel before my very eyes.
Here I am, wounded, with almost nothing left that could save me.
Almost nothing left. Almost. The word repeats in my ringing ears.
"C-Cresselia... Don't you remember...?"
And there I was, in a time immemorial, standing side by side with her.
"AND IT IS TO YOU ALL THAT I GIVE THIS GREAT DUTY."
Dialga stood proudly atop the Temporal Pinnacle that day, releasing a triumphant roar that rippled through time itself as pieces of the altar behind him cracked and seperated. Six stone gears had been freed from a prison behind him. Six brilliant blue gears, one for the each of us.
There I was, watching these treasures be passed to their new guardians.
One by one.
"TO THE GUARDIANS OF THE LAKES, WHO REPRESENT THE SPIRIT, I GRANT THESE GEARS. DO NOT WAVER IN THE FACE OF THOSE WHO WOULD SEEK TO BRING THEM HARM."
Three gears, one for each of them. It must have been an honor to have their great kindness to Dialga repaid.
"TO DITTO, WHO REPRESENTS THE BODY, I GRANT ONE GEAR. PROTECT IT WITH YOUR LIFE, AND WITH THE LIVES OF YOUR DESCENDANTS."
One gear for unlikely Ditto. That Dialga would choose a mortal -- and an aberration of nature, at that! -- to guard something so impossibly valuable must have proven an immense trust in this Pokemon.
"TO CRESSELIA, WHO REPRESENTS THE DREAMS OF ALL POKEMON, I GRANT A GEAR. MAY YOU NEVER HAVE TO RETURN WITH IT AGAIN."
One gear for my sister, my dearest sister. I was proud of her, watching her float forward and accept this responsibility with reverence. She had always been the one the others loved, who they looked to for guidance.
Who they looked to for hope.
And here I am, pulling myself up with the remaining strength I have.
Almost nothing meant I still had one final backup plan. I feel my claws begin to dance, in a way they haven't in so many decades. I feel every nerve in my body catch fire, as I stand again with renewed vigor and raise a hand in front of me.
Here I am, looking at the three who dared to defy me.
I will have to break one final promise.
"I said you... cannot catch me!"
And there I was, being granted the final Gear as everyone else watched.
"AND TO DARKRAI, WHO I HAVE TAUGHT WELL, WHO HAS GIVEN ME MORE THAN I COULD EVER ASK FOR IN RETURN, AND WHO REPRESENTS THE MIND. FOR YOU, I GRANT THIS FINAL GEAR."
I looked surprised at the time. Dialga had believed in me like no other Pokemon had, had come to care for me, had come to see me as his own. It was only thanks to him that I had been able to temper the darkness within me... and now I was given a chance to repay his kindness in turn.
"For... for me? Dialga, I... I didn't realize you'd thought of me so highly."
Dialga looked almost perplexed at my stunned reaction.
"DARKRAI... YOU SEEM UNSURE. PERHAPS THIS IS NOT YOUR BURDEN TO BEAR, THEN?"
"What? No, no, it's just... this seems so important..."
I shook my head. "I'm just surprised, is all."
"YOU ARE THE SOURCE OF MY PRIDE, DARKRAI, AND THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS BEEN TAUGHT EVERYTHING I KNOW. I BELIEVE IN YOUR CAPABILITIES."
Dialga smiled -- he smiled! the big guy never smiles! -- down at me, and I looked up at him.
"Thank you. I'll... I'll guard it. With everything I have."
And here I am, pulling at the strings of the world as Dialga had taught me to all those years ago.
I can feel the world behind me tear apart, air rushing into the gash cut into the fabric of reality. If I can't bring the present to ruin, perhaps I can cast myself adrift in the sea of time and start fresh.
"Hey! What is that!?"
The Pokemon child that saved the world can't help but react with surprise at a sight they must have seen time and time and time again. Their partner, the human, whispers what it is to the child, the only person they can really trust. What it must be like, to believe in someone like that.
"This dimensional hole may take me to the future... or the past. Even I don't know where it will lead me..."
Here I am, glancing at the hole I have torn. This was where I would start again, in a world that could not stop me.
... So why do I feel a pang of regret?
And there I was, basking in the heat of the Time Gear's chamber, at the heart of Dark Crater.
"... Enter the Hidden Land only in case of emergency... never open a Dimensional Hole for selfish reasons... keep the Gear secret... keep the Gear safe..."
I turned the Gear over and over in my hand. I was growing restless, and the darkness had begun to creep into my thoughts again. Every waking hour I spent was attempting to hold my craving for despair back. I couldn't lose myself, not yet, not now. I couldn't bring this world down, not when everyone I loved lived in it.
"Don't you want to keep everyone safe and happy?"
A voice. My voice, ringing in my head.
"... I..."
"Everyone would be safe forever if you brought time to a halt. There would be no more conflict, no more threat... Everyone would finally be happy forever."
"N- no! No, I can't, not like this..."
"All you need is to let me in."
And in a moment of weakness, I did. I let that inner voice take the reins.
I felt myself tear my way into the Hidden Land, vision hazy and Time Gear in hand. I felt my body pull itself to the Rainbow Stoneship, took it to Temporal Tower, climbed those endless stairs that were all too familiar.
For the first time in ages, I looked at Dialga in his infinite majesty.
"DEAREST DARKRAI, WHAT HAS HAPPENED? WHY HAVE YOU COME HERE?"
I felt the endless rage flow into the Time Gear I had clutched in my hand. I felt my claws tearing into Dialga and knocking him aside as I shoved the Gear into the top slot of the altar. I felt a voice that wasn't my own ring through me, speaking to the being that had taken me in all those years ago out of an immense kindness.
"I will create a planet where the sun will never rise. I will not allow time to continue."
"DARKRAI..."
He looked at me, eyes full only with concern.
"... I AM TRULY SORRY. WHEREVER YOU ARE IN THERE... I HAVE FAILED YOU MORE THAN WORDS COULD DESCRIBE."
There I was, turning to Dialga, feeling my own voice speak for the first time since leaving Dark Crater as the barrier between me and this monster which was consuming me sapped away into nothing.
"Don't be. The world of darkness will be wonderful."
And here I am, standing before the dimensional hole, realizing what I have done.
My voice grows distant, almost hazy, as if something is speaking for me.
"I've failed only in this time. I will simply plunge the world into darkness in another time."
My body carries itself to the portal, to the protestation of the three who came here to stop my plans. I feel almost like a passenger in my own body as an all-too-familiar voice rings through my head once again.
"Too bad for you. I can slip away through time with just one step. You cannot catch me."
Here I am, every fiber of my being trying to fight against the force that has been puppeteering me for all these years, the force that has been watching and waiting as the destruction of everything was nigh.
"Finally, in the end... it ends in my ultimate victory!"
And there I was, standing atop the tower, a battered Dialga before me.
"YOU... YOU... GROOOOOOHHHHHH!!!!"
Dialga let off a Roar of Time, tearing the core of the Rainbow Stoneship from its hull and casting me from the Hidden Land. The planet's paralysis would be ensured if only I could take care of the other Gears...
And there I was, standing before Cresselia.
She backed away, shocked and worried.
"Darkrai... how could you...?"
"I don't need to prove myself to you." Every step I took felt more my own as I lashed out against her, sealing her into the realm of dreams where she would last as long as my darkness spread through the world.
And there I was, appearing to Dialga's brother in his dreams, in the guise of my sister.
"AND MY BROTHER HAS GONE MAD!? THIS CANNOT STAND!!"
"I would not approach him, Palkia. He is too far gone... I am truly sorry." I decieved him with an ease that surprised even me. What a fool. Palkia would believe anything my sister said, just like everyone else had.
And there I was, watching the prevention of the planet's paralysis.
And there I was, weaving the seeds of doubt into the minds of the heroes who had prevented it.
... And here I am, watching myself attempt to commit another atrocity, in another time, in another place.
For the first time in an eternity, I am afraid. Every inch of who I used to be -- who I am -- is afraid that the force controlling me will simply pull me back into itself and continue to act, destroying everything I loved eons ago.
I feel a shaking run through me, run through space itself. A commanding presence that could rend space itself.
"I WON'T ALLOW THAT!"
"Wh- what!?"
Me and the voice in my head say this in unison. I speak in relief, the voice in shock.
"Y-you're..."
Palkia. The only being who could stop me from sending myself through time and doing this again.
The only one I could trust to save me, even if he didn't know he was.
"YOU WILL PAY A GRAVE PRICE FOR EXPANDING THE DISTORTION OF SPACE, DARKRAI! THIS IS A STRIKE FOR JUSTICE!"
Every part of me tenses up in preparation.
Three.
"TAKE"
Two.
"THIS!"
One.
As my body panics and leaps into the tear, I feel reality itself beginning to unravel.
Everything crumbles away, and my memories begin to unwind and spool away into the vast nothingness.
As I feel my very being fade away into the distance, I can't help but feel something for the first time in an eternity.
Here I am, my back on the warm beach sand, quietly dozing off with a relief I cannot place.
made by gull with fury and vigor. may or may not be updated, so view at your own risk.