#lmk if you want to see the first draft. it's impressively bad. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

oblonger · 1 month

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I took a bit of liberty with the mechanics at play, ones I'm sure @sincerely-sofie didn't intend for. But I think it would work better with them.

Ark is adrift...

Dust billowed across the trail as Ark silently made his way to Caveward Village to restock on supplies. He kept his eyes locked to the ground, ashamed.

In the distance, he could hear someone's grunts of effort. He looked up to see a Machoke dragging the unconscious body of a midnight-purple skinned Magmar towards the cliff's edge, near the gate of the cave before tossing the Pokemon over.

Ark quietly repeated to himself that the Pokemon would be okay. That they would heal any damage they would take on the way down.

Ark suppressed the nausea he felt as his mind unwillingly conjured forth a memory of watching a shadow Pokemon regenerate a lost limb for the first time.

The Machoke noticed Ark as he approached, relaxing the tension he showed once he recognized him as an ally. He knocked on the gate that reached to the top of the cave entrance.

After a moment to ensure that it wasn't a fluke, the gates were opened by two more guards stationed inside.

No words were exchanged as Ark made his way inside. Anything Ark needed to say was evident in the fact that he was returning alone.

Ark longingly took in the scene in front of him as the gates were shut.

Of the last remaining stronghold on the Grass Continent.

During his time here, the elderly of the village described how it looked before the Shadow Virus took over.

He pictured children safely playing on the rock ground, cushioned by the thick, lush moss that covered the entire floor of the cave like a carpet.

He thought of how the cave looked with vines crawling down from the ceiling, blooming with multicolored flowers when they were in season.

He reminisced of the starstruck way they described the cave looking during the night, when the moonlight shone through a large hole in the top of the mountain, giving the naturally shiny rock walls an ethereal glitter.

Comparing the scene in his head to how it looked now was downright depressing.

The moss on the floor was entirely gone. Replaced with hardened clay, scrap wood and sheets of metal to ensure that shadow Pokemon that could dig wouldn't be able to get in.

Any water that could be spared was used for rations. All across the walls, the vines were dried and wilted. making the lifeless cave even more dismally colorless.

The hole in the ceiling had been plugged with an excess of wooden planks, to be sure that any Shadow Pokemon that could fly wouldn't be able to enter in from that way. The only light in the cave now was coming from the many campfires that dotted the ground floor.

Ark wishes he could travel back in time so he could see the cave for himself in it's full glory.

Ark began making his way to the food pantry. The only other building that wasn't torn down for parts was being used as hospital for the injured. Everyone that wasn't working in either or needing recovery were outside. Surrounding one of the many campfires to keep themselves occupied and distracted from the current situation.

Everyone looked miserable.

Ark made mental notes on the people he passed by. It was disconcerting that the people he didn't recognize got fewer each time he returned.

Ark obtained his supplies from the pantry workers before making his way back towards the entrance. He didn't need to rest, he needed to look for more survivors.

"Ark?" A voice asked as he was passing by one of the campfires. He turned to face her. He didn't recognize the face, but the voice was familiar to him.

"Lyra?" he asked.

The Gardevoir's scarred, battle-hardened face lit up with a childlike joy.

"Ark!" she shouted, scrambling to get up and hug him, taking care not to jab him in the stomach with her chest horn.

"It's been so long!" she exclaimed. It certainly had. Last he recalled she was a Kirlia going out with a large group to search for survivors. Being declared dead after two weeks without anyone returning.

That happened a few years ago.

"It's so good to see you again!" She continued. "How have you been?"

"I have been doing well!" Ark replied, lying to her face. He'd been grasping at ever-thinning threads of hope for so long that he felt that at any moment they would snap, and he would plummet into the deepest pit of eternal despair.

"I'm so glad to hear that!" Lyra joyfully replied. Ark was unsure if she believed him or if she didn't want to pry.

She pulled back a little to look at him. "I can't say I've been doing good…" she said, her expression crestfallen. Before perking right back up again. "But look! I evolved!"

She pulled away from him and did a little twirl for him to see her fully. She wasn't entirely wrong. She did evolve. But it was clear that it happened far to early. Her gown that all Gardevoir have was stiff, and shorter than it should have been. Her horns from when she was a Kirlia stuck out slightly from the top of her head, and the horn on her chest wasn't as pronounced as it should have been.

Ark grimly thought of what kind of circumstances would have forced the young child to mature so quickly.

"I'm so relieved to see you again." Ark said. Forcing away any thoughts of how she reminded him of Twig.

Lyra grinned. "I am too! Come on! sit down! we have so much to catch up on!" she exclaimed as she sat down near the fire.

Ark obliged. It had been so long since he'd seen any friends, and he was terrified of making any more. Besides, searching for more survivors was yielding fewer and worse results each time. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't just selfishly doing it to keep himself sane.

"I'd love to. Firstly, I must inquire, who's this?" Ark was so preoccupied with reuniting with Lyra that he'd failed to notice the Munchlax that sat near the fire up until now. She jumped a bit when Ark had mentioned her, snapping her out of her focused studying of an incomplete map.

"O-oh! Um, my-my name's Claire. Uh, Your name is Ark right?" She nervously adjusted her glasses and fidgeted with the cracked explorer badge attached to the loose, lime-green bandana around her neck. Next to her on the ground was a satchel, overflowing with rolled up maps, quills and sealed ink bottles. A cartographer perhaps?

Ark nodded in response.

"Oh! Well, um. Thanks. Uh- I mean, it's nice to meet you!"

Ark wasn't sure of if her nervousness was because she found him intimidating, or if she was like this normally.

Ark turned back to face Lyra. "So, how did you two meet?" He asked.

Lyra was about to begin when Claire spoke up. "I-I can tell him."

Lyra looked at her with concern. "Are you sure?" She asked.

Claire took a breath with slight shakiness. "Yeah." She responded.

Lyra leaned back a bit as Claire began, not taking her eyes off her.

"Uh- so basically a few months ago Axel and I. -Uh, my explorer partner." She quickly added

"We-, we were hiding in a cave system when we were ambushed."

"He- he saved my life, but he got infected in the attack." She paused. Taking in a shaky breath.

"I tried to help him, but he practically dragged me out of the cave, looking for someone to take me…" Claire took a moment to breathe. "We found Lyra a few hours before he turned. A-, And I've been with her ever since."

Ark gave her a slow nod. "My deepest condolences. I'm truly sorry that occurred to you."

Claire wiped away the few tears that were running down her face while staring at the fire. "Th-Thanks. Not your fault though."

Ark knew that was true, but he still wished he could believe her.

The three sat in contemplative silence for a few minutes.

"W-well, what about you?" Claire asked Ark, breaking the silence. Before raising her hands into a defensive position. "I-if it's not too much to ask of course!"

Ark shook his head. "Not at all." he responded. He was about to tell her the story that Lyra knew, of how he met Twig, and their journey together. Before Ark realized that Lyra didn't actually know who Ark was. All she knew is that he was that weird guy that her hero was head-over-heels for.

Ark inhaled and exhaled deeply before looking at Lyra. "You deserve to know the truth about me." he said, leaving Lyra looking at him with utter confusion.

For the next few hours, Ark gave them an abridged retelling of his history with Cresselia, his plan to end the world, how Twig stopped him, his journey with her, how they fell in love. Everything. Leaving out some of the more sensitive details of course. Things that Twig would have wanted to tell them herself.

He ended his recounting right before he spoke of when Celebi, overflowing with despair, told him that the grief was too much, and that she was never going to return to this timeline.

They didn't need to know that this world was well and truly doomed.

Both Lyra and Claire never once interrupted. Lyra stared at Ark with unease, and subdued fear. Claire much the same, but also with a strange sense of awe he didn't expect from either of them, much less her.

As uncomfortable as bringing up his past evils made him, it felt… Cathartic to finally tell someone else after holding it in for so long.

"I-… Wow. I never even thought…" Lyra muttered, at a loss for words.

Claire stopped looking at Ark and began staring at the fire, brow furrowed from being deep in thought.

No doubt thinking of how awful he was.

"I apologize that I had concealed my past from you Lyra." Ark replied.

Lyra didn't know how to respond. She saw Claire staring at the fire from the corner of her eye.

"Is everything okay Claire?" She asked.

Claire slowly shook her head. "No…" she responded. There wasn't any contempt in her voice. Rather it sounded like deep pondering.

"Just, Something about Ark's story is bothering me."

Ark felt puzzled. "My story would disturb most anyone that would hear of it." he stated.

Claire shook her head again. "No. No not that evil stuff you did... W- Well, yeah that was bad. But i-it's something else."

Ark looked at Lyra with a stumped expression. "Pray tell, what about my history do you find to be more distressing than my attempts to bring the world to it's end?"

Claire hummed in thought. "Well, it's about Dialga."

Ark felt further confused by that, but didn't say anything.

"It's just." She continued. "The thing with how Dialga went primal. Focusing on only one thing, Getting very aggressive and paranoid…"

Claire looked up at them with an expression that was equal parts uneasy and perplexed. "Doesn't that sound exactly like the Shadow Virus?"

Both Ark and Lyra flinched at the question.

He… He hadn't considered the similarities to the infection and what he did to Dialga…

It almost made sense.

"Well, kinda. But that wasn't the same." Lyra responded. Speaking aloud the thoughts Ark had.

Claire looked back down at the ground, rubbing the explorer badge between her fingers.

"But Dialga is a Legend. Made by the Thousand Arms." She muttered. More so saying it aloud to herself than to Lyra.

"What if it's a matter of willpower?" She asked, looking back up at them. "A legend would have a lot more willpower than a mortal. I think if the same thing happened to a mortal, they would lose their mind a lot faster. If not instantly…"

Ark wanted to believe her theory, but Twig had the strongest will out of anyone he could think of. Ark believed her willpower, when pushed to it's limits, rivaled that of Azelf or even Arceus herself. And yet, she still was turned into that awful parody of her.

Ark made his thoughts of Twig having an unshakable will in the face of danger known. Claire pondered more on what he said, her face even more thoughtful each time she fell silent.

In a strange way, he could feel that she was enjoying this. He didn't want to assume, but he suspected that she loved asking questions, and was starved of subjects to think so deeply on.

Claire looked at him sympathetically "Did she see anyone turn before she got infected?"

Ark's heart skipped a beat. He distinctly remembers how distraught she was over watching someone turn into that… Thing. Back when the outbreak had started, when it's nature was still unknown.

If that person had a weaker willpower than her, which they most certainly did, then she would think that she could be turned just like them, and she wouldn't have tried to hold out as long as she could have…

Ark slowly nodded. It was gradually becoming harder for him to reject her theory.

Claire stared at the fire again. A passion in her eyes that he hadn't seen before.

"If it is like what happened to Dialga, then why would it be infectious through biting?" Lyra asked.

Claire's body language indicated that she was a little annoyed that Lyra had interrupted her thinking, before giving her question the consideration it needed.

"I don't know…" Claire slowly responded. "But Ark never said that Dialga tried or did bite anyone right?"

Both Ark and Lyra sat there in stunned silence. The image of a legend as regal as Dialga, even in such a primal state, stooping so low as to bite someone seemed wrong to him… But she was right. He never did bite anyone. He still had some semblance of sentience all throughout his primal form. Ark shook his head.

Claire stared at the fire again. It seeming to burn a little brighter each time she did.

"Well, then we don't know if it never was infectious. So if what I'm thinking is true. And the Shadow Virus really is the same as what happened to Dialga…" Claire looked up at them. "Then that means this virus can be cured."

Ark recoiled at the words. It felt so… Wrong. He didn't want to believe her. His hope is what got him here in the first place. He had hoped he could help those that were infected in the past and it got Kip killed.

His mind fled at the thought that this could be cured. He searched for any response that could kill this theory at the root.

He couldn't. But he did find a reason to not try.

"Even if this blight could be cured, where would we commence? Dialga wasn't fixed simply by besting him in combat, and it's clear that the same applies to these monsters."

Both Lyra and Claire fell quiet. It felt awful. There wasn't any other way of putting it. But it was satisfying in an odd way. Ark couldn't stand to have this hope of-

"The Lake Guardians!" Lyra suddenly shouted. Startling both Ark and Claire. "If anyone would know something about an infection that overwrites someones memories, emotions and will, it would be them!"

Ark could feel the walls he'd built up within himself crumbling.

He can't- He cannot have this.

He doesn't deserve to have this.

He needs it to not be true.

Ark used his powers to reach out to the Lake Guardians telepathically. Silently praying that they wouldn't respond. Or that they were dead, or infected or something.

…Nothing.

They didn't respond.

Ark could feel those last threads of hope break beneath his fingers. He was being swallowed into a darkness that was both unknown, and felt like his home.

He'd accepted this would happen years ago.

it was better this way.

...Then he felt a presence.

It was only for a brief second, but he heard the Lake Guardians try to respond to him.

They were out there weak, but alive.

"They're out there." He said out loud. Complete disbelief at what was happening to him.

A memory he had desperately avoided for the last several years forced it's way to the front of his mind.

(Ark slowly backed away from where Kip, Twig, and Grovyle slept, in the front room of Twig's house. With an act of will, as simple as moving his arm, they began to slowly awake from the sleep he'd put them in.

They slowly took in their surrounding's when Twig noticed his presence. She rushed forward at him. Wildly slashing and biting at the air in front of her, stopped only by the chains he'd forced himself to put on her. Kip and Grovyle followed suite. All of them, desperately trying to reach him. Not to embrace him, but to infect him. Watching them hurt him beyond words.

But what hurt more was staring deep into their blood red eyes and seeing… Nothing.

No malice. No pleasure. No sorrow, fear, disgust or apprehension.

There was nothing behind their eyes. No indication whatsoever that they were in there. Running purely on instinct. Just like a monster from a mystery dungeon.

But it was them.

It used to be them.

Ark wept bitterly within himself. Mourning the people he loves. When suddenly he heard cracking. He stopped and looked up to see Kip's exertion pulling the chains out of the ground.

He'd underestimated Kip's strength.

Again.

Suddenly the base of the chains were torn out of the ground. Kip launched himself forward with the intent of tearing Ark apart with his teeth.

Ark melted into the shadows to avoid the attack. He couldn't stand to watch them anymore. He rushed out through the gap of the ajar front door, retreating into the woods.

He was forced, in the worst way possible, to accept that the family he loves so much was gone.)

Ark, of his own volition, recalled his memories of Twig that he had shamefully tried to repress.

How she would laugh at her own jokes.

How she would visibly relax when a stranger left them in a room together.

The way she would try to defend the Legend of Nightmares from attacks sent his way.

The way she smiled at him in the mornings.

The way he felt when she kissed him for the first time, several months before the start of the outbreak.

He looked down at his arm. Staring at the unfinished wedding band Twig had been making for him, covered in scratches and scorch marks. The only thing she took with her when she went to isolate herself.

"Ark?" Lyra asked with deep concern.

Ark realized that, for the first time in centuries, tears were freely falling down his face.

That cold, meager flame within Ark's chest that fueled his sense of purpose for years was now a raging wildfire.

He hadn't felt this drive, this ferocious determination ever since he tried to get his revenge all those years ago…

No. This was greater than that.

There was nothing of his he wouldn't sacrifice to see Twig's smile again.

Ark clenched his fists so tight he could squeeze blood from a stone.

"We're doing it." Ark growled. Startling the two Pokemon in front of him.

He looked up at them, his icy cold gaze burning brighter and hotter than the fire in front of him.

"We will rid the world of this infection and save everyone."

#fanfic of a fanfic #Shadow Virus Au #the present is a gift fanart #lmk if you want to see the first draft. it's impressively bad.

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