PRIME DIRECTIVE: SECURE THE PAST FOR DUSKNOIR’S FUTURE

The machine knew exactly what it needed to do.

The pokemon of the past were strong, no doubt, it had been told that information before it had been deployed.

With one of the greatest, strongest armies to have ever been conceived leading behind it, the machine loomed forward, guiding the hoardes of fellow machines into battle.

It saw the living Pokemon out in the distance, having all gathered around a hill. All standing together in one place. Almost too perfect of an opportunity for the machine to do what it needed to do.

The conductors in its had flicker and crackle with electricity, a bar just in the corner of its HUD quickly charging up, the machine’s body quaking and trembling from the sheer amount of electricity powering it up.

It belonged to Master Dusknoir. It served Master Dusknoir. It would do as it was told, and it would succeed at everything. Master Dusknoir’s future will be absolute, it will be perfect, it will be the one, true future, and all Pokemon shall follow under his reign.

CHARGE COMPLETE

Thrusting its hands forward, it lets loose a barrage of thunderbolts from its hands, sending them out all across the landscape and causing fierce, violent explosions damaging the surrounding environment, clouds of smoke rising from where the lightning strikes had impacted.

For a few moments, it almost seemed like it had accomplished its goal without the immediate need for battle. The field was silent, the only sound being the wind.

The machine is almost ready to tell its army to continue moving forward, but suddenly, it hears screams. Not screams of agony or fear, screams of anger, screams of pride. Hundreds of Pokemon come charging through the smoke, all coming straight towards the machine and the army it was leading.

No matter.

They were all inferior creatures. They stood no chance.

They would be converted into superior beings soon enough.

If the Pokemon scream, then so too shall the machine scream. It lets out a loud, electronic screech as it charges forward, it’s fellow machines following right behind, some of the other machines rushing forward in front of it.

Great Dusk against iron Treads, Iron Moths against Slither Wings, it wouldn’t matter, they would all fall. All of them. And if they didn’t, then the machine will be the last to make the rounds if it was the last one standing.

But that wouldn’t happen.

Even if these Pokemon were putting up a good fight, they would still stand no chance against the machines.

Its eyes continue to scan the field, searching for target to engage, targets that weren’t fighting, targets that were already weak, targets that would be easy to strike down.

In the midst of the chaos, its eyes land on a Skitty and a Riolu rushing towards it.

HIGH PRIORITY TARGETS LOCATED. ENGAGING IN COMBAT.

Riolu is a fighting type. This machine was an Psychic/Electric type. It won’t stand a chance. It’s almost pitiful.

Quickly charging the conductors in its hands back up, it thrusts its hands forward, a series of rapid, electrocuting sparks shooting out from its hands, ensnaring the Riolu in a thunder-like grip, its body tensing up, writing in pain and trying to break from from its electrical, psychokinetic grip.

But it makes a mistake. It focuses too much on trying to harm the Riolu, that it doesn’t realize the Skitty coming its way.

The machine notices a fraction of a second too late, getting smacked away with the brunt force of the Skitty’s tail, spinning around in the air.

RECALIBRATING.

The spinning stops, right on a dime. With the Riolu downed and recovering, it refocuses its attention on the Skitty, searching for it, a low, angry, electronic growl escaping its mouth.

MAGNETIZING.

The machine drops down to the ground with a sudden, violent crash, thrusting its hands into the ground, channeling its psychic energy to rend the world apart, to rip the ground apart and tear it upwards, to knock the Skitty away from it, to injure it, wound it, anything the machine can do to inflict pain, to hurt.

The whole ground quakes as the machine rips the ground apart at the seams, chunks of dirt and land raising up into the air, and in just a few moments, it twirls them around, dispersing them all around the field, caring not where they landed, knowing they’d hit one target somewhere or another.

“Mesprit!”

A voice calls out-

PROCESSING ERROR: MESPRIT NOT FOUND

EXCEPTION: WHAT IS MESPRIT?

Something is evoked in the machine, something it is unfamiliar with.

That name sparked something inside of it.

That name is irrelevant.

That name is not its own.

It turns its head, gaze piercing straight towards a Pokemon, one with a yellow mesh wrapped around its head, eyes closed. It is unknown how a creature with such a handicap can even see. Presuming greater senses.

TARGET SCANNED: UXIE

The machine’s body twitches, glitches, its body shaking. It should not be doing this. It has been perfected for combat, it will not resist.

It charges up another bolt of electricity, shooting it from the conductors in its hands, launching it at the Uxie, but it swiftly dodges.

So it fires again. And then again. None of them seem to hit the Uxie.

ENCROACHING VISION: INCREASING ACCURACY.

It zooms in on its target, charging up another strike and launching it.

Its accuracy is spot on this time.

The Uxie cries out in pain as lightning envelops its body, sending it twirling down through the air, trying to regain its balance.

CRRRNNNKK!

It’s hit with a rock from behind! How?! Where?!

SEARCHING FOR NEW TARGET.

It quickly turns around, another growl escaping its mouth, charging up its conductors while its eyes scan the area.

There.

TARGET SCANNED: AZELF

…

No.

Why does it keep getting hung up on these targets?

It should not be doing this.

A mathematical error. But its coding is perfect. How could such a powerful Pokemon such as itself be imperfect?

“We know you’re in there, Mesprit!” The Azelf shouts at the machine. “You really gonna let that big jerk control you like that! Come on! Where’s all the stubbornness, huh?!”

ERROR: MESPRIT NOT FOUND

IDENTITY: “MESPRIT” DOES NOT EXIST

The more these Pokemon try to call it by a name it doesn’t register, the angrier the machine becomes.

These Pokemon do not know the machine better than the machine knows itself.

Unless-

No.

No probability for error.

Refocus.

The machine launches itself towards the Azelf, grabbing it with force and holding it tightly, the sparks from the conductors in its hands flowing into Azelf’s body, shocking it violently, the Pokemon screaming out in pain.

“Y-You know you- GGHHAHHH! D-Don’t wanna do this!” It cries.

But it does want to do this.

It was told to.

And if these Pokemon were going to keep insisting that it was someone named “Mesprit,” then it would take glee in inflicting all the pain it could and proving these foolish Pokemon wrong.

It doesn’t make the same mistake.

It senses a target creeping up on it.

Gripping the Azelf tighter in its hands, it spins around and quickly hurls it towards the target. The Uxie, again.

The two fall to the ground, groaning, but its not enough to put them out of commission completely.

They look hurt. Bad.

Not physically, but, emotionally.

…

Emotions are stirring in its artificial heart.

Emotions it doesn’t understand.

No.

These emotions are errors.

It’s body is telling it that it feels sadness.

But it doesn’t know tears.

“We’ll beat the control out of you if we have to, Mesprit!” The Azelf shouts.

EEERRORR: MESPRIT DOES NOTT

This is growing tiresome.

It should finish them off here.

“Don’t you remember your siblings?!” The Uxie shouts.

QUERY: SIBLINGS?

It-

These Pokemon are trying to mess with it.

Trying make its combat capabilities less efficient.

It cannot allow that.

Thrusting its hands into the ground once again, it readies itself to rip the earth apart and send those two Pokemon high into the sky. But before it can fully complete the action, its thrown off by the impact of a force palm, the Riolu having snuck up on it.

“You tried to protect the Time Gear from us! From Glyph!” The Riolu shouts. “Surely, you remember that! Right?!”

TIME… GEAR?

Those devices that Master Dusknoir had used, that allowed them to Travel into the past in the first place.

Did she…

She?

No.

Not she. It.

It never protected anything. It only protects Dusknoir, it only serves Dusknoir.

Charging up its conductors, the machine screams, tapping into its Neurachem reserves to increase its efficiency, making its attacks stronger and far more relentless. Splaying its hands forward, a wash of electricity is shot out towards the Riolu, Uxie and Azelf, the machine trying to overcharge itself, do more damage.

It needs to do more damage.

If it does more damage then these Pokemon can’t keep messing with it.

It cannot have its programming thrown off course. It is a machine, a servant of Master Dusknoir, it won’t be deterred, it won’t be beaten.

It’s distracted again.

QUERY: IDENTITY: MESPRIT?

Why is it pondering such things?

It shouldn’t even be humoring the possibility that it was once related to these inferior beings.

…But why do they look so similar?

RE:MEMORY: UNDERGROUND LAKE?

What?

Why does it know what that place is?

Underground Lake is not a place it knows, it is not a place it is designed to know, so why is it in its database?

It shouldn’t-

SMACK!

It’s hit again. By the Skitty.

Its mind is going haywire. It shouldn’t. It shouldn’t. It shouldn’t.

RE:MEMORY: SIBLINGS?

RE:MEMORY: AZELF, UXIE

No.

No.

Why does it hurt?

Why does it feel pain this way?

It is superior.

It doesn’t let its emotions hurt it. It lets its emotions power it.

Anger is power.

Sadness is weakness.

Sadness should not be a function, it shouldn’t render, it shouldn’t function it shouldn’t-

QUERY: WHO IS MESPRIT?

QUERY: LAKE GUARDIAN?

What are these things?

Where are they coming from?

Buried within the deep confines of its code?

These aren’t part of its native code, though, is it?

They feel alien. They feel disconnected.

But they feel so…

Familiar.

…

Why is it doing this?

It isn’t doing anything.

It should be attacking.

…It should be attaCKING

The machine lets out a scream as it channels more of its Neurachem reserves, trying to flood out the pain of remembering things it never experienced with sheer power.

The amount of error messages clogging its HUD throws off its aim significantly, it doesn’t know where it’s firing, but it hit something, it hit someone.

Hope it’s Azelf or Uxie. Hope it’s Azelf or Uxie. Those ones need to be hit most.

They’re the ones messing with her most.

They always mess with her, always tease her in that way.

Always seem to gnaggle on and on about how she’s the youngest and most immature of them all, she just wants to smack them every time they tease her about it, she-

STOP

These intrusive bits of programming don’t make sense, it shouldn’t make sense.

It shouldn’t be this way.

It shouldn’t be LikE THIS

What’s happening?

What are these?

QUERY: BEING OF EMOTION?

Yes that’s her- It- Her- No

QUERY: MESPRIT?

QUERY: IDENTITY: MESPRIT?

She is not Mesprit, not anymore, she’s a superior Pokemon, she’s a machine, she’s-

Crashing.

SYSTEM OVERLOAD

EXCEPTION NOT FOUND

IDENTITY: IRON EMOTION: OVERWRITTEN

NULL IDENTITY

This was

Never who she was

Not in t he

Fir st pl ace

That was never her name. That was never who she was.

IDENTITY: NULL: REWRITING… ERROR

She was someone else. Somebody else entirely.

A Pokemon who cared.

A Pokemon that wanted to do the right thing.

A Pokemon that just wanted to spend more time with her siblings, but never could because of their duties.

IDENTITY: REWRITING…

SEARCHING THROUGH ENCRYPTED FILES. DECRYPTING…

NEW IDENTITY FOUND

REPLACING: IRON EMOTION

ORIGINAL IDENTITY REINSTATED

IDENTITY: MESPRIT: ACCEPTED

RESTARTING…

SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN…

THUD!

---

“Did she just shut herself down?” Rickety asks, Uxie and Azelf dragging Mesprit to a safer place, away from the plains where the massive battle is taking place.

“She looked like she was hesitating for a few moments before she completely shut down.” Lexxi says, eyebrows furrowed with concern. “She wasn’t even aiming at us by the end of it. Like she couldn’t see where she was firing.”

“I can still sense… Something within her.” Uxie says, holding the unconscious Mesprit in their arms, taking refuge back inside the cave, where a few other Pokemon had retrreated there to heal their injuries. “She’s still with us, but I don’t know how long it’ll be before she wakes up.

Azelf looks closer, his eyes squinting at Mesprit’s. He sees… Something in her eyes. It throws him off momentarily, starling him, but it seems to be some sort of loading bar in the space between her eyes, from one eye to the other. “I think she’s-“

The loading bar disappears and Mesprit suddenly gasps, her eyes lighting back up, the holographic display showing them wide, pupils dilated and shrunken, her breaths sounding electronic, tingy. Like someone trying to breathe, but didn’t know how, learning it for the first time, or trying to remember.

The group all stare at Mesprit in surprise, watching her as she’s held by Uxie. She slowly sits herself up, eyes glancing around as she breathes heavily. “…What?” She speaks, eyes glancing up, seeing a familiar face staring down at her. “Uxie?” Her head turns in the other direction, spying her brother, eyes wide, tears beginning to form. “Azelf? What’s-“

“MESPRIT!”

Both of them exclaim, hugging their sister tightly, tails wrapping around hers as they overcrowd her, making her metallic body vibrate. “Ah- Whoa whoa! Uh- Guys! Happy to see you too but gimme a little space! My gosh!”

“Too bad, we’re hugging you for at least a minute longer.” Says Azelf, wrapping his arms tightly around his sister.

“Make that two minutes longer. We’re just so happy to see you again.” Uxie says, resting their head atop their sister’s. _{“Bit colder than before. Must be the metal. Not gonna stop me from hugging you any less, though.”}

Mesprit sighs, rolling her eyes. “I’ve barely even gotten over the fact I’m a robot, and you’re pulling this on me? Hey! I get the warm welcome but, wow!”

Rickety chuckles on the side, peering over at Mesprit. “No, really, though, you have no idea how relieved we are that you’re finally safe. After we saw you back at Dusknoir’s lab, I was worried we were never gonna get you back.”

“Who are…” Mesprit furrows her eyebrows as her siblings finally let go of you. “…Oh! You!” Mesprit’s eyes dart towards Lexxi as well, who is smiling at her. “I remember you two, from the lake. I never apologized for that, did I? Never got the chance to.”

Lexxi tilts her head. “You’re still thinking on that all this time later? You don’t need to worry about it, all water under the bridge.”

Azelf floats beside Mesprit, getting a better look at all the hard body modifications she’d gotten. Her anatomy was the same, but her body structure and the way everything seemed to work, it was all completely different. “How do you feel? Do you still feel like yourself?”

Mesprit looks down at herself, faintly crackling the electricity in the conductors in her hands. “It’s strange… I feel like a vessel in this body, like my consciousness is detached from what I’m residing within. Yet at the same time, I feel attuned to everything within myself. I am aware of every single working part of my body, and can turn anything off or on as I please.”

Rickety hums curiously. “Iiiiissss that a good thing? Or…”

“It means than I’m stronger than I’ve ever been before in my life. While my body has been altered beyond my comprehension, the fact that I am attuned to everything within myself means I can take advantage of all my body’s abilities at once should prove more than beneficial.” Mesprit smirks. “Or to put it more simply, it’ll help me kick butt way easier than before. Being in a robot body sucks, but I can definitely take advantage of it.”

CRASH!

“GRRROOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!”

The top of the cave rumbles and shakes violently, parts of the ceiling even crumbling down and breaking, some Pokemon having to dodge out of the way to avoid the falling debris. A quick look outside the cave reveals a rather disturbingly large flamethrower attack coming from above the cave, rushing over the landscape and attacking a large number of the robot Pokemon outside.

All nodding at each other understandingly, the five rush outside once the flamethrower attack stops being blown, _{immediately being reminded of just how hot it is outside with the smoke and heat from the flamethrower making it even hotter,} as a giant silhouette flies overhead, another one seeming to jump off and away, spreading its wings on its head, before landing down on another robot Pokemon that was still up and active.

“Did you guys SEE that thing?!” Rickety exclaims, his eyes following that shadow in the sky. He swears he’s seen that shape somewhere before. It looks a little off, but… That shape. It’s almost like a moon. A crescent moon. He begins to put the pieces together in his mind, thinking back to the books he read, books about evolution, mega evolution and its effects on Pokemon.

The blood-soaked crescent.

They were looking at an Ancient Mega-Evolved Salamence.

The massive Pokemon lands on the ground with a hard, heavy thud, its size unyielding as the ground vibrates and rumbles violently, swatting most of the remaining robot Pokemon away with its tail, sending them packing. Its massive red wings spread out, feathers tipped blue, visibly furrier, scragglier than its scaly modern day descendant.

Glyph, Pixie and Scream Tail had all come running over as soon as Roaring Moon makes its landing. “That’s one way to make an entrance. Glyph remarks, chuckling to himself.

“Seems like that took care of most of the machines, too!” Pixie exclaims, looking over the field. “But I doubt that’ll be it. Dusknoir’s probably got more coming. We need to hurry to Temporal Tower now!”

“Temporal Tower… I had been told that is what you all seek.” Roaring Moon’s deep voice bellows, lowering its wings down to the ground, allowing for anybody to climb on should they need to. “Then to Temporal Tower, I shall take you… I’ve seen this moment foretold, but never could I have imagined the circumstances. Bring you you to the tower, it will fulfill my purpose.”

“There is one last thing, though.” Flutter Mane, who had been riding on Roaring Moon the way back, slides off his wings, floating herself over to Rickety and Lexxi, handing them some sort of smooth stone fragment.

There was some kind of complex, intricate pattern enscribed onto it, one they couldn’t quite discern or make out. Rickety arches an eyebrow as he looks down at the fragment, then glances back up at Flutter Mane. “What is it?”

“That, is the key.” Flutter Mane says. “You’ll need it if you wish to access Temporal Tower. Don’t worry about figuring out where to place it. It will be plainly clear when you find it.”

Rickety shares a confused glance with Lexxi, but nods in response. “Thank you.” He stashes the fragment into the Wonderbag, climbing up on Roaring Moon’s massive wings and holding on tightly.

Lexxi glances over to the lake guardians. “You three coming?”

“Nope!” Mesprit shakes her head in response. “We’re staying behind! We’ll be a better help fighting back against Dusknoir’s forces down here! And besides.” Mesprit smirks, shooting a few small sparks of electricity from the conductors in her hands. “I’ve got a shiny new body and you bet I’m gonna use it!”

“Do not worry about us. We’ll be fine down here.” Uxie says, smiling. “Good luck, Rickety, Lexxi, Pixie, Glyph. Thank you so much for finally reuniting us with our sister.”

“We know you’ve got this! Make sure not to lose! Otherwise our sister’s gonna get real upset.” Azelf chuckles softly.

“Don’t make this all for nothing! Go kick Dusknoir’s butt and send him back where he belongs!”

“And how!~” Pixie nods, holding onto Roaring Moon’s wings tight.

With a graceful flap of his wings, Roaring Moon takes off from the ground, blowing a few leaves off the nearby trees in the process. The group take to the skies and head off into the distance.

The end is in sight.