Chapter Text
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……
It’s cold here.
Dark, too. Pitch black surrounded her, engulfed her, threatened to swallow them whole. They were floating in the darkness — or… No, they were falling. She didn’t know how she could be so certain, but they knew she was falling. There was nothing to indicate as such. No light, no sound, not even wind. Maybe not even air. Just unending darkness in every direction, and her, floating — falling — through it all.
Though there was nothing around, the familiar and heavy weight of anxiety settled itself in their chest. Though… It didn’t feel right, didn’t feel like her normal worries. It felt so much heavier, like it was pressing her down, down, down. Heavy enough that it made her feel sick to their stomach. It was joined quickly by a stinging in the back of their throat, the familiar heat that came before tears. She… Didn’t want to be crying. They were already tired enough as it was, and her head hurt, and… And they were falling.
A ball of bright, golden light whizzed past her, continuing up and up and up until it was hardly a speck in the distance. A few moments later, another light followed. Then another. Then another and two more, the time between the lights shrinking the longer she fell — definitely falling, now they were certain. She was facing up, whatever up meant. Watching the lights grow smaller and smaller as they shot past her. Though they got within inches of her, the lights never hit her in any way — not that knowing that put her mind at ease in any regard. As the lights increased in frequency, all she could do was pray the pattern continued. They weren’t sure how long had passed since she began to fall, though she figured it must’ve been some time now — she was practically surrounded by golden light. The orbs were coming at such a high frequency that they essentially merged into solid walls of bright.
They weren’t sure how, or how she even knew what had happened, but she was facing down now, whatever down meant. Watching the lights shoot towards her was considerably more anxiety-inducing than watching them pass. They never hit her, though. Every time one got close, she would flinch and brace for an impact that never came. However, worse than the lights shooting towards her was what they were coming from — below her was an expanse of brightness, golden light so luminous it scanned as white, the source of all the orbs shooting towards and past her.
And it was growing closer by the moment.
The weight in their chest wasn’t mere anxiety, they realised — it was fear. She was scared. Scared of falling, scared of whatever lie below her. And terrified of hitting it.
She tried to move, but their limbs wouldn’t react — they couldn’t even feel their body, they realised, their head hurt far too much. The only sensation she could feel was cold, ice running through their veins as they stared at the expanse of white below her. Moving wouldn’t work, then. No way to run. The fear was all-encompassing now, enough that she tried to scream, but their voice failed. Nothing, no sound, nothing. She couldn’t do anything. Again they tried to scream, or cry, or something, but when they opened their mouth it was as though all the air was sucked out of their body. Pain shot through them — a spike of pain against her head, sudden and piercing, like she’d been shot. Combined with it was the searing in her lungs from failed attempts at breathing in a vacuum. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe.
She was falling.
She was dying.
She didn’t know if the two were different.
The vast expanse of light below her only grew closer as she struggled to move, struggled to breathe. No matter how much she fought, they only continued to fall, further and further down. She knew that what was below them was the end. Knew that the moment they made contact with the white void below her, it would be over. There was nothing she could do but accept it — and she couldn’t even do that properly. She kept fighting, fighting to move, fighting to feel their body enough to control it. Fighting to breathe, fighting their pain. But no amount of fighting saved them from their fate — it didn’t even prolong it. If anything it felt like she was falling faster. When the light felt close enough that impact must’ve only been moments away, she squeezed her eyes shut as tight as she could, though light still seeped through. Please. Please. Please.
…
…… Nothing. There was no impact, there was —
Airi.
She flinched at the sudden voice and opened her eyes again, expecting to be met with overwhelming light. Instead, there was… A figure, in front of her. Crafted of the golden light she had seen before. It was absolutely massive, towering over her, making them feel as though they were hardly a speck. She couldn’t make out most of the details of the creature except for the red of its eyes, staring down at her. The rest of it was blurry and abstract, bright light fuzzing the edges of its form. She opened her mouth to speak, but again their voice failed. Though, this time, their failure didn’t come with any pain — in fact, their pain had faded entirely.
Airi , the voice came again. It didn’t come from in front of her, like they were expecting, instead it… Felt as though it came from everywhere, surrounded them completely, resonating deep inside their head. Still they knew that it was the creature before them speaking. It was looking at them while it said the name. Was that her name, then? She couldn’t remember. It must’ve been, it felt… Familiar.
The being gave them little time to ponder it any longer. It is well that thou art here. I have hidden thee beyond both time and space for thy protection as thou recovered. Art thou well? The beast tipped its head a little to the side, as though curious.
… Well? She didn’t really understand the question. But… Well, she didn’t hurt anymore, at the least. They just felt… Heavy. Tired and strange. Was that well? She didn’t know. They couldn’t remember ever feeling better, so it must’ve been. They nodded, despite their uncertainty.
Excellent, the creature replied, then thou art prepared for the tasks that lie ahead. The being of light stepped towards her, the space around it rippling as though disturbed. It leaned its head down to her eye level, staring directly into their eyes — into their very soul, it felt like. I am that which humans call Arceus. I assign thee a task, one that I expect thou to be the most capable fit. It straightened its neck, looking down at her once more. In front of her, light shimmered and collected into a ball, becoming more and more solid — Airi glanced up at the creature and back down at the light before she saw it start to fall. Alarmed, she grabbed at it.
The shape solidified in their hands, forming a small, white, rectangular object. There were pointier bits at the top and bottom, and a strange wheel-like shape on the back, but she couldn’t really make out further details — too blurry, details fading together into a vaguely white block. Even with her addled vision, she recognized it to be some sort of phone, which only confused them further. They weren’t too sure what that even meant. She knew the word but not the meaning, not really. She looked back up at Arceus, confused and desperate for clarification, but to her horror, the light that made up the beast was beginning to disperse. Light started pouring from its form, like it was… Dissolving. She almost tried to move again, to step towards it in her worry, but the voice came again, Airi, stopping her before she could even realise whether they could move. Seek out all pokémon, and thou shalt find me once more.
The light pouring out of Arceus’s dissolving form shot toward Airi, blinding her. Desperately she squeezed her eyes shut as the light encircled her — too bright… She didn’t really feel cold anymore.
She didn’t feel anything at all, really.
art done by: cyli