#crystal is getting both whumpcember AND winter whumperland prompts

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A Monster of His Own Making (M(T)PJ: Ditto Defect)

Whumpcember 2022 Day 10

Whumpcember Prompt Masterlist

Prompt: "I won't leave you."

Word Count: Four scenes of ~250 words each, 1k total

This is a part of a personal Pokémon Fanfiction series, My (Twisted) Pokémon Journey, and is looking at a part of a story that I haven't gotten to and put out there yet, Ditto Defect, but have MANY ideas for. This is a short little overview through a secondary POV character, N. It's set in Unova with Team Plasma as the antagonists, though I have a nice little OC antagonist so I don't have to struggle with too many canon characters. 

My (Twisted) Pokémon Journey Masterlist

This short is from N’s POV, multiple moments in the story that went wrong as he’s trying to do what he thinks is right and best, actively being ruined by Team Plasma and concerning the main POV character, Crystal. Enjoy!

🙞 🙟 🙝 🙜

N sat with Crystal in Nimbasa City's Rondez-View Ferris wheel. He recognized her eyes – the defensive, scared look. Even as she pushed it down, he almost could see it all the more clearly. What makes you so afraid?

He knew that nearly having her Luxray stolen must be weighing on her mind, but that wasn't all. Her Pokémon knew it, too, he could see how protective of their trainer they were. He had noticed their distrusting stares, their silence and rigidity when he was around.

He just wanted to promise that he wouldn't leave her to her fear. Revealing his role as King of Team Plasma was meant to be comforting, reassuring, something positive and beneficial. He could tell that her Pokémon cared deeply for her, and her for them. This wasn't an example of a bad trainer. Maybe he could help her, and she could help him free abused Pokémon. If she loves them so much, surely—

But she only distrusted him more, once he revealed his secret and learned of hers. Their brief time wandering around Castelia City and Nimbasa City didn't matter. She saw him as a threat to her safety, saw Team Plasma as a threat to her Pokémon. You’re so concerned with what happens to everyone else after you're caught by them. But not about what happens to you. After Team Plasma's actions at the Castelia City Pokémon Center, N couldn't really blame her. But he wished that she wouldn't compare him to them. 

🙞 🙟 🙝 🙜 

Per last order. P2 Lab.

N could only think about the message. He'd wanted to help her, but instead all this turned out to be his fault... Them finding her was his fault, and his failure to put an end to the P2 Laboratory. 

He sat in his room at N Castle. He thought of the Pokémon he had been given to care for throughout his childhood and adolescence. In another time, he could almost imagine Crystal here. He wasn't sure what form she had, or what age she could have come here as, but he could almost imagine hearing a conversation between her and Ghetsis, or maybe the Shadow Triad, or soothing a scared Pokémon, all just out of sight. In another, better time, she could have learned of his purpose, their purpose, and they could free Pokémon from people forever.

But in reality, she was the one he had to free.

N let the anger come. He felt it, then took a breath to compose himself. He wouldn't just let them use her. He promised he wouldn't let them use her as a weapon, he wouldn't leave her to that fate that the Genesect had. It was time to make good on that promise. He would go to the P2 Laboratory himself.

He would burn it to the ground if he had to.

🙞 🙟 🙝 🙜

N watched, through his own eyes, as the Team Plasma members detained the paralyzed amalgamation of an Alolan Ninetales and Vaporeon – That's Crystal, not some creature – and he couldn't do a thing about it. All he could do, as the king of Team Plasma, was promise her, I won't leave you to this fate, and hope that he could keep the promise.

Her eyes found him, as someone with a syringe approached her, and he saw the snarl start on her face – before it laxed, and then her eyes closed. She had tried fighting to keep them open, but even a shape-shifter like her couldn't fight poison and sedatives.

He kept his composure as they entered the underground portion of the P2 Laboratory. He played his part, acted as they expected him to, but he was stuck on how Crystal was taking the repercussions for his mistakes. I really meant it. I meant to protect you. But I didn't think I had to protect you from my own people. He watched them, detached, as they dragged her soaking and unconscious body away, tangled in the net and the blue Frillish that clung to her, the heavy and limp Vaporeon tail leaving a streak of water behind them.

He couldn't follow them then, but he knew that he'd find her in the observation laboratory. He had to make his presence known, and make them believe he was willing to help them – whatever their goals were for using Crystal. For the greater good of Pokémon, he thought bitterly. 

🙞 🙟 🙝 🙜

He stared, blankly, in shock at the creature that had once been a friend. The distrust that he had accepted was replaced by hostility and snarling. Her dark fur, no longer snow-white, couldn't have been a choice of her own. Even the Vaporeon leg and tail had a strange, ash-like hue.

Something glowed a molten orange in her mane. Some kind of crystal, or stone. He could see a collar of sorts under the chains that didn't let her venture far from the back wall.

"I guess I have to fix this before it gets worse," N told her, guilty. "What are they doing to you?"

Crystal just snarled at him, as if she were feral. More feral than anything he had seen, since—

Those Pokémon, he realized. Fifteen years ago. Those dark Pokémon. It took so long for them to return to normal... He didn't remember how they were calmed, he just remembered that they had been cured.

"How do I help you? How do I sooth you?" N asked Crystal, not expecting an answer. He could see the pain in her angry eyes.

Then he remembered. She mentioned going to sleep to some music she collected from her travels. They never said that they had her stuff. But why would they?

"I'm going to find your music, and then you'll start recovering. I'll be back. I won't leave you here."