*Music: Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe – Limitless Power
When the two ran back down expecting to find the dungeon they’d just been in, they encountered nothing but a sloping path leading down as it curved and weaved. The distortion that usually encompassed the atmosphere was no longer, it had been as if the dungeon had collapsed in seconds.
But that wasn’t in the thoughts of the Pokemon running desperately from the lights that gained, they’d created some distance; the lights weren’t as fast as they’d liked, but the two of them were pretty sure that the entirety of that hill was completely evaporated even as they made their way down carefully.
“I’m pretty sure… that this… is what happened to the others…!” Sanvu called out, as he ran slowly. He unfortunately was not used to having to move this fast as a Snivy, and wasn’t quite aware that a Snivy’s most efficient method of running was completely different to a human’s, combined with his lack of stamina from the prior battle, it made for a particularly slow jog for the poor thing, forcing Pachuku to run at a pace much slower than he’d like if only so then Sanvu didn’t lose sight of him.
“Don’t worry about that!” Pachuku called out, “Keep running, faster!”
Both of them would steal glances up the winding path. There had been miniature platforms; likely upon which the ‘floors’ of the dungeon that had used to be here had rested itself on. They weaved left and right, the lights from above slowly creeping down as they descended, the golden hue as menacing as a sun as it approached its invisible boarded maw towards the rest of the world.
Down and down they went, Pachuku going as fast and as slow as he could while Sanvu huffed to catch up. Both of them were beginning to wane; the stress from the prior battle was beginning to make its mark, but Sanvu wouldn’t let these thoughts entertain him. For both of them, they were united in one single notion; getting home before they were absorbed by the lights to warn Mentage of its fate.
There was a moment or two where they could feign relief, but for the most part, it was endlessly running down as Sanvu was almost taken back to his first couple days due to the fact he’d never properly run like this and needed basic help. Pachuku would cry out, but in their frazzled state, neither of them made sense to one another, and so it continued.
At points, the ground would continue cracking, and heaving, making it more difficult. It would trip both of them, and while Sanvu could recover due to the ground moving not being a problem for him, Pachuku wouldn’t often take longer to recover because it jiggled up his insides and made him dizzy.
Yet still they continued, for if they didn’t, they would follow Crobat’s fate, and the fate of all of their friends that they suspected the lights had taken a hold of.
It was the bottom of the dungeon, to the point that Sanvu was wheezing. The lights were still crawling down the mountain, but his body gave out; he flopped forward onto the grass. Pachuku saw this, and desperately sought to rouse him.
“Sanvu! SANVU! We’re not done yet!” he said as a massive vibrating shock wave blew through the air above them, the grey clouds above them swirling enough that what they had once seen of portions of the blue sky had begun being obscured. Sanvu willed himself to move, but found he couldn’t.
“Sanvu! You can’t rest now, they’re right there!” Pachuku wailed, to which Sanvu could only weakly grumble.
~~
“I’m… trying… I’m… too tired…” he croaked, willing his limbs to move but found that he couldn’t. Anything so then he could get up and run, but nothing came.
Eventually, another shockwave blew out; creating an explosion in their ears, and voices began to echo from the sky itself.
“Don’t give up…” one called out.
*Music: Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon – Don’t Give Up
Another called the same.
Pachuku stopped for a moment to take it all in, Sanvu himself still holding onto enough consciousness to listen in himself, the lights, while still approaching, had slowed to a crawl, stopping several metres up the mountain, their pace slowing, but not entirely stopping.
As the voices from above and all around reverberated through the sky the same message, over and over, the same words, different intonations, pitches.
And they all sounded natural, as if they were coming from all the Pokemon of the world, both inside and out.
All repeating the same mantra: Don’t give up.
It was a couple of seconds later that Sanvu regained some of his breath, still a bit shallow from his awe, at wondering who exactly was telling them to not give up. He couldn’t even entirely be sure it was them they were saying it to, but both felt a renewed sense of vigor, the strength returning to the both of them as Sanvu finally picked himself up, the lights still closing in, but their strength slower.
“C-Can we…” Pachuku whispered, the voices continuing irrespective of his comments. Sanvu nodded.
~~
“Yeah, we can go now.”
“And run properly, you silly human,” Pachuku joked, as he took off, Sanvu finally realising what he meant, dipping in the only way a Snivy could; arms out like an airplane, his body flat to the ground, the way that created less air resistance for him.
A less serious individual might refer to it as a ‘Naruto run,’ despite that Sanvu wouldn’t have any idea what that would mean, even on the best of days.
*Music: Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon – Second Dark Matter Battle
And thus, the chase continued as the lights now began to emanate not only from the mountain, but the surrounding trees of the forest, the sky above the closed in trees now brimming with that same light as the trees themselves were eroded once more into that same light that engulfed the mountain, only its base being visible if either of the Pokemon sneaked a glance back, which neither of them dared.
The sky was practically ablaze with the light, though neither of them could be certain if it was because the sky itself was being eaten or because of the millions of light particles that evaporated into the sky, taking rock, leaves, bark, grass, none were excluded from its reign of destruction.
Yet still they ran, the renewed vigor coursing through each of them as the voices in the sky continued to provide them with power, a power that both of them needed to run, run and run, for even the slightest of chance of living through this powerful wave of destruction.
Halfway along the line they blaze as their own trail, both of them encountered that same sign that they’d met upon coming here, the sign completely blank, where once directions had been to Mentage, now stood a slab of blank wood, as if to taunt them.
“C’mon! We’ve gotta warn them! Even if this’ll get them too!” Pachuku cried out, running onward, as Sanvu came to the only conclusion he could come to.
‘It isn’t… just this world that’s not real.’
‘No… Pachuku… I… none of us are real… not even anyone in town…’
‘We’re all just… Dark Matter… it just wants to destroy us so it can destroy the world…’
‘If… that’s all we are…. then I have to… I have to… accept that.’
‘I have to accept that that is who I am.’
He stared at his arm, panting, with determination, at the very least, he wouldn’t keep Pachuku waiting for however long their limited existence would allow. He would promise his friend that much.
He continued running, following the winding path back to Mindscape, losing sight of Pachuku’s tail multiple times as the squirrel only sometimes looked back to ensure that his friend was following.
It was a few minutes later, as he panted, that he began to feel something strange. There were a lot of strange sensations today; he wouldn’t have been able to get up without the visceral power of the chorus of “Don’t give up” permeating the sky for one, but this one was slightly different than even that.
He felt for a second as if something had changed in his head, forcing him to trip forward. Pachuku had heard, running back to he could check in on his friend. The lights still slowly illuminated the path behind them, proceeding at a slowed rate, but still closing in. None would even be able to see a mountain, if they hadn’t travelled enough of a distance from it so much that its base would virtually be invisible to them if they had even stayed.
Sanvu felt strange heat coursing through his body for a second, not unlike the visions from Elevated Forest, but slightly different in how it felt distilled, weaker, and how it fizzled out after a few seconds. His vision itself didn’t change, he still saw Pachuku and the lights glowing in the air, and there was no dizziness that wasn’t otherwise apparent from the rapid loss of stamina he’d forcibly depleted from their circumstances both from the earlier battle and their current situation.
He eventually picked himself up, wondering what the hell that even was, before they resumed running, the path was closing in on Mentage, and they began to see the tops of buildings. The lights surrounding the forest still were visible even from this distance, but eventually they’d run enough distance that they’d be able to see the buildings not even just from a distance.
Both were almost completely totalled when they found themselves at Mindscape’s entrance, Mentage Town looking no worse for wear itself, the lights, however, still visible from even their small vantage point, no matter which direction they turned, while no building looked to be affected yet, their presence couldn’t yet be ignored by anyone as they glimmered around the sky in all directions, regardless which way anyone would face.
Yet the town was quiet save for the panting of the two Pokemon who noticed Mindscape’s open door, in all its literal definitions of the word; the box quite literally had a hole and where the doors used to be stood the inside room of Mindscape itself.
Both could only run in when they saw Didra herself standing there, clutching her head. The voices in the sky began to fade out as they did.
*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Pianta Parlor
They ran in, and all the parties in the room, of which there were only three, visibly recoiled, Sanvu and Pachuku at the state of Mindscape; and Didra at their presence. The entrance to Mindscape was all they could see; the hallways that had lead in front of them and to each of their left and rights weren’t there anymore, as if they’d been filled in, the building of Mindscape was a literal box with an open cut door; the only room in the entire building was the room they were standing in. It was unnatural, eerie, but also terrifying. That is, if any of them had any energy left to actually show it.
Didra was afraid herself, but it seemed more like her face grew distant the more she looked at them. Both of them were anticipating something quite different than what she eventually ended up saying.
“Where’ve… you been?” she inquired. She sounded as if she was uncertain, as if she were a mother looking for a lost child ready to burst into tears.
“On your… mission… Didra…” Pachuku panted out, Sanvu opting to stand in front of him, silently commanding with his eyes to shut up, to which Didra interrupted them before Pachuku could continue.
“I don’t… remember sending you on any mission…” she started, with that same uncertain voice, her hands still clutching her head. It looked as if she were barely standing. “I was… worried sick for your well-being! I didn’t know where you were, so I checked your house and neither you were there and I feared for all of our well-being… don’t do that again, will you?”
Sanvu glared silently, side-eyeing Pachuku to remain the same, who luckily didn’t object. It seemed exorbitantly clear to both of them; she’d completely totally lost it.
“Whatever, you can come tomorrow for your next mission. Wherever you’ve been, you need to rest. Have a good night.” She turned back, continuing to clutch her head as they made their way out the open door, the lights permeating their visible horizons.
After the two had created enough distance from Mindscape, Sanvu loudly, as much as he could muster because of his exhaustion from running, managed to make out his demands.
“We’re leaving. Mindscape…. doesn’t deserve our help anymore, especially if this… world… is collapsing… without anyone giving a damn whether it actually matters or not,” he seethed at Pachuku before devolving into a hacking fit, the squirrel propping his friend up the best he possibly could with his tail.
“Yeah, no, I agree, but… let’s try and recuperate… some of our energy… tonight, alright? We spent however long getting here… let’s leave tomorrow, okay?” Pachuku offered, which prompted Sanvu to nod profusely.
“Yeah, yeah… makes sense. Thought for a second there you believed her nonsense.”
“N-No, you’re right, she’s totally bonkers now. Not saying that cause of her, saying that cause of you,” he clarified as they waddled slowly to their house that for the moment was still untouched by the distant lights. “Can’t get anywhere if we’re exhausted.”
“Well… let’s make our last night here worth it, eh?” Sanvu pleaded, to which Pachuku could only affirm the same.
~~
The night seemed to descend over the town much quicker, the running that both of them having performed having taken up most of the day, their recovery spent recuperating their strength so they could prepare to do the same thing tomorrow.
The lights only glowed brighter and brighter as both of them knew they were growing closer, but neither of them had the strength to continue. Those voices they’d heard had also vanished, their presence no longer filling the sky with their various intonations.
Pachuku had packed absolutely everything necessary that he could fit in a bag in a bag ready to go for the next day, the only thing impossible for him to bring being the bed that Keelee had once used.
He could only frown, because he didn’t entirely want to forget her, but he figured, as long as he was with Sanvu, he’d keep her spirit alive, one way or the other.
Slowly, Pachuku would praise Sanvu for actually listening to him and Sanvu would finally feel more confident after the fact, though, not confident enough to tell Pachuku the facts he’d assumed from the disappearance of everyone’s memories and that of the town’s.
Crobat had to have been telling some truth; this world was being recorded by some other entity. For what purpose, not even Crobat knew, that was Dark Matter’s job. They’d fulfilled their purpose, and now it was being destroyed.
And yet still, he kept Pachuku’s spirits high, because he couldn’t bear to tell his little friend that neither of them would likely make it out of this.
As they snuggled together for what Sanvu believed to be the final time, he gave Pachuku a look with multiple emotions. Sadness, joy, fear. It all bled through as he watched the squirrel coil himself in anticipation of the next day.
“Whatever it takes…” he whispered to himself ‘to make him happy, in his final moments…’
*Music: Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon – A Bad Feeling That Won’t Go Away
It was quiet.
Sanvu awoke, eyes pinned on that blank landscape. Where there once was a tree, now stood nothing but dirt, gravel, and a sky that looked filled with stars. There was a mild humidity to the place, and a smell of burning, of perhaps smoke, or fire.
And up in that sky… were images.
High up in the sky, visible as if he were staring through the surface of something, in full clarity, he saw the angry eyes of a visibly exhausted panting Fennekin, with a green scarf wrapped around its neck, as it glared towards the visible mirror with a malice. He could see embers manifesting from the fangs of the fox’s open mouth, as it looked to have either been using moves, or to be in the process of using yet another.
Standing next to him, to the right was a Pikachu, who also wore that same green scarf.
‘Daniel… Sparky….’
Sparky appeared to be saying something. At one point, he appeared to giggle, as the voice made its way through.
“Come on, it’s not that hard to get!” he giggled, as Daniel stared at him with an almost incredulous look.
“All of us were born in this universe, Dark Matter, you, me, everyone!” he side-eyed Daniel before bringing his eyes directly back at the mirror, to which Sanvu was also privy to.
“Everyone had a bit of jealousy and hate in them, sure, but, that’s just one side of you. It can’t be denied, or brushed away, because it’s a part of us! It’s just a side of you!”
Sanvu briefly figured he heard the words “I am a sphere, I have no sides,” which almost got the lizard to burst out laughing himself. The Pikachu simply ignored this strange little quip, if he had even heard it.
“Yeah, well, it’s still a part of all of us! So with that said, I’m perfectly fine with you being around! I’m perfectly okay with you, Dark Matter, even if you’re negativity itself, that doesn’t matter; you’re just part of who we are!”
Then he saw Sparky’s face grow determined looking at him with vigor. Daniel’s face had started to creep up into a smile as the Pikachu shouted, “And I… accept you!”
He saw the Pikachu ram into something that the mirror was showing, and Sanvu felt some kind of tremor. The pain of waking started to take him, as only four words echoed through the sky, with seemingly no indication of anything but harmony, with no discordance, only a singular voice said:
“Thank… you… no… regrets….”
~~
*Music: Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon – Universe 3
When Sanvu awoke the following morning, there was no remaining lethargy, but he’d briefly felt as if the sleep he’d had wasn’t nearly as long as he’d thought it was. He stole a glance out the door-
There was no door.
He picked himself up, taking care not to wake Pachuku, but the shifts he made on the top of the comfortable mattress had started to rouse the squirrel, but he didn’t go back to check.
The lights had completely taken the trees now, and were beginning to creep onto the top of Mentage’s buildings. He briefly thought Pachuku had blown the door before they came home in their exhaustion, but quickly shook that thought out as he went to wake the Electric-type.
“Pachuku, get up, now, we’ve gotta get going,” Sanvu shook as he hurriedly spoke. Pachuku moaned weakly for a moment before regaining enough consciousness to grunt an agreement to Sanvu, not even commenting on the fact his door had been demolished during the night.
Both of them curled around the rightward path, eventually coming to the entrance of Mindscape’s left, noticing the sign that usually read “Mentage Town” on its other side was also a blank slab of wood. Nothing inside Mindscape was visible from the front door, but neither of them expected that they wanted to stay anyways to find out why.
Pachuku encouraged Sanvu to follow him upwards an inclining path that lead to a cliff that overlooked the whole town that miraculously wasn’t as afflicted with the golden lights yet.
From this point, it was a little easier to see; the golden lights were but two-tree’s length away from covering the ground that lead to their hometown. Neither of them could really vocalise what they were really feeling, the only thing they knew was that they had to get away.
Another oddity, though hardly unexpected for either of the two at this point, was that despite the town was seconds away from dissipating into the ether, not a single individual was crying out, or talking about it. They were the literal definition of NPCs, as if they were just part of a video game, and these critters were just cattle lining up for the slaughter.
The reverberating internal screams of anguish only existed in the Minders, where anybody else, nobody else, would experience any emotion that rationally made any sense for a situation like this.
It was simple; Mindscape had failed.
So they gave it one last silent look before the Snivy and the Pachirisu walked away from it, bidding it the only farewell they could afford it; silently vanishing, because they were outliers in a world of fools.
So they walked for several more minutes and hours, through a plain, through to the trees, to another plain.
It was this second plain where things began getting tricky, perhaps impossible.
All around them, in every direction they looked, the yellow light looked to want to engulf them. The ground didn’t even exist, the fog merely taking its place the moment a wisp of the ground evaporated into mid-air.
“Can we… stop it…?” Pachuku whispered, “Okay, use your moves, I’ll use mine, aim there,” Pachuku pointed, “Ready, go!”
Pachuku Discharged, and Sanvu used Leaf Tornado, but these attacks were merely absorbed by the encroaching barrier, forcing both of them to run back the way they came, finding their way back at Mentage again, the trees completely gone, and now the ground itself was the meal for the light that virtually razed the world to pieces.
~~
Pachuku began to hyper-ventilate, his body collapsing on the ground. Sanvu could only sigh sadly, as Pachuku began to degrade.
“W-What’ll… what’ll we do?! Is… is there no way out of this?!” Pachuku whined, as his breathing continued to escalate, “S-Sanvu! What’ll we-“ he noticed his face, marked grim by his closed eyes and his head hung low.
*Music: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky – In the Morning Sun
“I’m… I’m sorry…” he managed to make out after a while to which Pachuku stared at him, eyes growing wet.
“What do you mean, you’re sorry?!”
“I know it’s hard to believe, but… I came to this conclusion yesterday… after Crobat told us, do you remember…?”
“What, but…. you don’t actually believe that this world is fake, do you?”
“I do. That’s what yesterday’s dream told me, it’s what everything’s been saying, from the way everyone’s acting, to the weird signs… and it’s not just this world.”
He stared directly at Pachuku with solemn eyes, “Neither of us… no one we knew… none of us are real. There’s a whole outer world… Pachuku… they just defeated Dark Matter, you see.”
Pachuku’s eyes continued to water as the Snivy continued. “We have to die so they can live on in peace. So that Dark Matter doesn’t threaten their world… ever again. That’s why this is being erased… Dark Matter is no longer… as are we.”
“That… came from your dreams?” Pachuku was beginning to blubber, the tears streaming down his face.
“Yup, I saw them. Daniel, Sparky. They defeated Dark Matter. Because negativity is a part of every Pokemon in that world…” He turned, gesturing his arm towards the disintegrating town, the buildings beginning to be razed to the ground. “This was a store for all of it, and now, it’s being destroyed to save the Pokemon of that world.”
He turned to Pachuku. “Neither of us were ever real, and… I’m sorry… but I couldn’t tell you sooner, because I cared about you.”
The dam broke.
The squirrel cried and cried as he wailed into Sanvu’s chest, Sanvu himself hardly accepting it himself. He had somewhat of a feeling that he may not be entirely right, but given how much of his thoughts were influenced by Dark Matter, he couldn’t be assured of how many of these thoughts were actually his own.
Sanvu himself was too exhausted to cry, and thus let himself be the sponge, his chest soaking up all the fizzly tears that Pachuku produced incessantly. He looked up, only to see the sun of that particular morning, high in the sky as it shone its last rays of warmth onto this fake world they once called home. Eventually, as Pachuku’s wails and heaves grew softer, he finally managed to make out words.
“I… I didn’t… I don’t ever want to believe… that none of us… were ever real…” he sobbed, burying his face in Sanvu’s chest. “And… I still don’t care…”
Another round of tears as the squirrel wailed another time before continuing. “I don’t care whether… my life was fake… or that you were never human… I don’t CARE!” he bawled.
“I don’t care… what ‘purpose’ we were meant to fulfill… because I never had purpose! Not until… I met Keelee… but especially… not before I met you…” the Electric-type wailed, continued to sigh and rasp his every last droplet out.
“I n-never… had such a friend… until y-you came along… So I don’t care what h-happens… you just… I need… you need… to know…” Pachuku blubbered, eventually petering out as Sanvu could only stroke his shoulders.
“I… feel the same,” he replied, softly, with all the empathy he could muster, despite being unable to produce tears in this moment, if only so he could join Pachuku in accepting their demise. “I had…. nothing, until you showed up… I just… yeah…” he trailed off, continuing to stroke Pachuku rhythmically, for any sense of security in their grim situation.
The lights continued to approach, as they began to close in on the field the two stood in, Sanvu stole a glance back to the town, much of the half of Mindscape and the path leading to it were now nothing but fog, as Pachuku continued bawling, the lights forming a path around every angle.
“S-Sanvu….” Pachuku sobbed, “Please… even after we… disappear… die… from this place… I… I…” he almost didn’t make it out, until he stared directly at Sanvu’s face, his tear-stained eyes doing little to hide his fear, “I’ll… never forget you… s-so… I… you… will-“
“Of course,” Sanvu interjected, “I feel the same… I wouldn’t want to forget you, either.” He spoke sincerely, with no hint of lying, which put Pachuku back in his chest again, as Sanvu softly continued. “I couldn’t have asked for a better friend, all things considered, especially considering the kind of place this is, I couldn’t be more grateful to have found purpose in being your friend,” he exacted, before sniffling himself, still unable to produce tears, but the explosion of his friend was beginning to grow on him. “You know… I’m sorry, because I failed. I promised you we would make it out because I was stubborn enough to believe that, and I hate it. I hate that we failed,” he seethed, his head turned away so as to not face Pachuku, who wasn’t looking but was indeed listening. “But… there’s nothing we can do, so… there’s nothing that I can say that would go back on it. So… I’m sorry. However much you believe that… that’s up to you.”
The rasps of Pachuku continued as the lights continued to close in, the ground evaporating. Only Sanvu kept his eyes open, eventually Pachuku, though he still breathed, remained unmoving, his eyes squinted shut, clearly anticipating the end despite saying naught but a word.
Sanvu continued to watch, idly wondering where it was all the disappeared plants, people and things were going to go, what they were going to do. He imagined oblivion, and the endless darkness that would follow, his breath hitching at points, feeling the onset of fear.
But he’d accepted that.
Just as he’d accepted that he’d never get his memories back, because they were embedded in the soul of this world he stood in.
Just as he accepted that he’d never become a human again, or that he would go home ever again.
Just as he accepted that he would never find out about himself… or Pachuku… or anyone or anything they knew; because all of them, every last one of them, were simulations being run through a projector, run for the purposes of something unknown, being destroyed by the Pokemon of the outside world, who desperately craved their world to be saved.
From Pokemon being turned into stone… from Pokemon being transformed into nothing… to thoughts of destruction that would run rampant for purposes that no one knew of, not even Sanvu himself, for those didn’t matter in this moment.
The lights crept closer and closer, so as to affirm his thoughts the further and further closer they came. Neither of the two spoke a word, nothing spoke a word, it was the silence of a world’s evaporation; only the shared mental space of creatures that wouldn’t be able to properly realise who one another really were.
~~
And so the destruction continued. Soon even their own house joined in the engulfing, the visible spectrum of light now was purely enough as much to create a white haze, as if the clouds themselves were no longer a thing by themselves.
Soon enough, it would be impossible to keep their eyes open as they remained staunchly still, clutching each other for dear life as they awaited the end’s approach. Pachuku’s eyes remained shut; as he still remained face nuzzling into Sanvu, either desperate for the other’s touch, right up until the very end.
It wasn’t long before Mentage itself wasn’t even visible… just the ever encroaching fog amongst those golden lights as they zeroed in on their target, demolishing all in sight to get to that point.
And soon… it was only light. Not even Sanvu could bear to watch anymore, not just for his own sake, but because it was physically impossible.
However much his statements held true… would be for those who believed in them to be true to truly push the boundaries of what belief really means.
For while the projection faded… and the fake world was destroyed… nor did that mean that Dark Matter was over…
Or that anything that had transpired here… would remain in this world, without ever permeating to the ‘real’ ‘outside’ world that any of them had only received brief glimpses of.
No, it wouldn’t ever be over. The world wouldn’t let it be over.
But it wouldn’t come without its side effects.
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