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Letters That Will Never Be Read: To My Best Friend
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Dear V
Hey, it's been a while since I've written to you, or even got the chance. Things have been really hectic around here ever since we started producing Entercards. I was pretty skimpy on the details of them in my last letter, but you would be over the moon if you knew what they could do. Seriously, I think you'd start jumping around for real. But to be honest, a lot of the credit in the design should go to you. After all, you made the theories I put to the test.
I guess they weren't all useless wastes of Projection Crystals like Cobalion thought, huh?
Anyway, everything else has been pretty smooth all things considered, besides some weird group of Pokemon showing up randomly. You're probably wondering if Zeraora is still being a jerk to the others, and yeah, he kinda is. It's like, he doesn't even have a shrine or any duties given to him and he thinks he's so high and mighty! Oh, but the others have been improving a lot. When we first started, you and I knew none of them were that invested, but now they're almost always working, never leaving the station. They're really devoted to the cause, and I can't blame them.
Yeah, I know what you're thinking; many are just worried that their shrines could be taken over by those shadows. But I think some of them really do want to help the other commoner Pokemon, and I really do want to help myself. It sucks. We've never really had a chance to mend ties between us and the commoners, and I think this project can be the bridge for that, y'know? Other Legendaries have already seen our progress and decided to join us, so who's to say we can't unite all Legendaries to help?
And guess what? I met Zygarde a month ago. Yeah, the Zygarde; the same one who was around during Arceus' time. Turns out he doesn't hide and meditate in his cave for all eternity like you said, heh. But he was pretty scary to see, or even talk to, and he has so many different forms he turns into on a whim. Thankfully, he wasn't there to shut us down (trust me, I think he could if he wanted to), but he instead told me a lot of helpful things and advice. Right now, I'm following his words, because it's looking like this whole project is much bigger in scope than realized before.
Oh, how am I doing? Well, I've been finding out how difficult it is to run an entire station of Legendaries almost by yourself every day. I know, right? Dialga has changed a lot since we first started the projection, and he's practically become my assistant (even though he's dozens of years older than me). Even when things become hard and I get frustrated or depressed, he's always there to say some motivational retort that's frustrating to hear itself. I guess this is what growing up is like, with how much responsibility is now on my shoulders.
They say I'm a grown woman now, V, but I was only hatched twenty years ago - and you just a couple before that. You already know that I was never the model Legendary, never the professional Mew that my parents were. You aren't either, and I think that's why we hit it off so well. Do you remember when we met? In the Shaymin Village out in the fields where all the Gracidea flowers were blooming and the sun was shining, near that river. It's still clear as day in my mind, like it was yesterday.
All of us Legendaries were there for duties and other stuff, but you and I definitely weren't.
I still smile when I remember all those things we did; like when we pranked Rayquaza and made him think a meteor was gonna hit the earth. Or when I used Transform on us both so we could go see the royal festival in Celestic and hang out. You remember when we first tried that frozen Moomoo Milk treat shaped like a Vannilite there? I swear I could still remember the taste. Legendaries never made sweets like that. I got in trouble with the other Legendaries because I was neglecting my own shrine just to spend time with you. We did lots of things we weren't supposed to, even if it felt right to do. Stuff that's regular to any other Pokemon, but was special to us. I look back on those memories and feel like they were the best times of my life, and it's weird to think since I'm still so young.
Do you ever look back on your own moments in the past and just want to relive them over and over? I do. Every time I go to sleep in this dark and creepy place, my only thoughts are about the past - the ones with you. Dialga said I shouldn't linger so much, but why can't I? He hasn't lost someone so special to him like I have. When my parents passed, I only had you to cry to, to depend on for support, and you promised then and there to never leave me.
I guess you unintentionally broke that promise.
We had a lot planned for the future, didn't we? I truly dreamed of escaping from my Legendary duties so we could explore the world, experience it for what it was. We could really help the Pokemon of the world and not just sneer at them like the others. And then when we had everything figured out, we could settle down and have a child.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Yeah, you got me to finally admit it. I didn't know how you would react if I told you, but I gave it a lot of thought, and I really do believe I could do it with you by my side. I think you would've agreed, and I would be so happy inside. All these Pokemon around me telling me to move on, to let go, and maybe you would say the same, but I can't. Really, there is no one that is truer and more closer to my heart than you, and you're gone, because of how much you cared for this world and other Pokemon.
Zygarde told me about things relating to the world's past, and the animosity between us Legendaries and common Pokemon. About how the appearance of the ley lines (I heard you call those lines this in one of your theory crystals) correlates to the disappearance of Arceus. All of this goes so deeper than we realized, and the world is truly at stake here. I was told to find old shrines across Celestic and recover artifacts from them. We know the source of the ley lines now - the earth's core - and thinking about what Zygarde said, those artifacts would be the key to destroying the ley lines for good.
V, when we first gathered some Legendaries up to investigate that shadow over Celestial Mountain, I would've never thought it would lead to this. We were still just kids, ones that didn't know what they were getting into. With all these shadows popping up across the world now, and this responsibility to lead the station on my shoulders, it's getting to me. Maybe shirking my duties all those years ago has finally caught up with me. I don't sleep that much anymore; I don't smile as much as I used to, or pull any jokes or pranks, and I almost dread waking up everyday when there's so much to do.
I'm not a leader or a researcher. You are. You were smart, brave, and willing to do so much for the project. If you were still around, you would press on through all this pressure to reach that thing you cared a lot for - victory. But I'm ashamed to admit to the others or even myself that victory isn't what's been on my mind the most. It was finding you. I've researched so intensely and went through that shadow that formed over you so many times, but no trace of you was found. I couldn't accept it at that time, so I continued to search to this day. And even when this station is preparing itself to confront the ley lines, a part of me is frightened at the idea that we will never see it realized. You ask why? Well, it's because of something out of my control.
I'm dying. All of us are slowly dying in the station.
You're shocked, I know, but I believe it's true. It wasn't until I was coughing up blood to grasp how much danger we were all in. I figured out there's an illness sweeping across the Grit Region of Celestic, and countless villages have been wiped out completely or abandoned as Pokemon fled the region. Even the soldiers of the king have stopped coming here to deliver supplies. Celestic's king, he never told us anything, or even warned us. Everyone in the station has been infected, and are none the wiser to reality, except me.
I grow more sick and weak by the day, sometimes never leaving my bed as I lie to my Legendaries and tell them that I'm just tired. They'll soon experience the same symptoms that I do, and panic will set in. I don't know what to do then, or what to tell them, and if the project will even survive when our lives are in jeopardy. I'm finding it difficult to accept the truth that we might not even make it long enough to stop the ley lines, or an even worse truth that I'm still struggling to accept.
That you're dead. Gone forever. And I'm only writing to myself.
I hoped one day that I could give these letters to you if I found you again. But if my death really is unavoidable, then maybe I could still see you again. I'm scared, V. Scared of my own death, scared of what the others will do when they find out, and scared of what the fate of the world will be if we don't succeed. I don't know wha
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Blood splattered on the laid out paper as Mew coughed violently, her tiny chest wheezing as her sickness reanimated to life. She dropped the quill in her paw and nearly curled up on her chair, the pain swelling in her stomach feeling like hot needles were poking her. Eventually, when the discomfort aching her body ceased, she looked back at the letter she was writing.
Red and black were mixed together. Her blood had soaked the page, staining it and combining with the still wet ink. She attempted to wipe off the scarlet blotches with a paw, only for the page to be muddled with a mess of colors. She knew it was ruined forever now. With a raspy sigh, she sat back in her chair, moving moments later to open a bottom drawer in the desk and retrieve numerous amounts of papers with ink writing on them - all of her letters to Victini. She piled them on top of the ruined letter, weakly holding out a paw over them.
Orange flames erupted from her paw as the papers ignited instantly. She watched the flames grow, listening to the crackles of it as her work was destroyed in front of her. She could not stop the tears from coming. They flowed from her like waterfalls, unable to break the gaze with the blaze. She eventually set the fire out with a Water Pulse, leaving nothing but ashes and lingering cinders of her words to no one.
Mew then flew away from the desk, wiping her tears away as she floated over to a nearby dresser. She hastily opened it and took out a Projection Crystal from the many that were neatly placed inside with the names and dates listed beneath them. The plucked crystal was then set down and its indentation immediately pressed, unleashing its bubble of energy and holographic figures. When the crystal finished constructing its perfect recording, a memory began to play, along with the sound of a voice.
"Hey, Mew! Good 'ole V here! Making another entry in my little theories about the shadows. If Cobalion complains again, tell him we can't save those Drilbur miners if we're banging rocks all day! Anyway, what I wanted to say in my last entry was..."
Mew's sunken and puffy eyes were glued to the familiar figure in the soothing memory, hearing him talk but never listening to what he said, for she memorized all of his words already.
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Author's Notes: Surprise! Hope you enjoyed this second LTWNBR. And if you want to help me out, please consider voting in this new poll I have created about the direction of the story so far. Tell me how you feel about it, whether you like it or dislike it. Link to that below!
strawpoll.com/polls/eNg6R0QO8gA