Prompt 143. - Memorial
For the 200 fic challenge at apokalyptisch
TITLE: (Dying) Alone
AUTHOR: Minder, minderwritesit
FANDOM(S): pokedressing, surrogaterealm
CHARACTER(S): Theo, Adrian (Carys, Geechisu, mentions of other Surrogates).
PROMPT: 143. Memorial. Inspired partially by Letty's fic, What happens when all the world is a lie?
RECIPIENT: silverstilletto
RATING: PG
WARNINGS: Light violence, descriptions of blood & injuries, death.
SPOILERS?: Well, if/when the Big Damn Surrogate-fight happens, there's a possibility it might go something like this. (But probably not.)
PREVIEW/SUMMARY: Fragments from the final battle. "They're both dead, but Adrian still has to breathe."
WORD COUNT: 727
Adrian lives, and Theo dies.
That’s how it has to be.
-
They say time slows down to a stop when you’re dying, but Theo thinks it’s a lie. Everything is racing at a million miles an hour.
It’s his last battle. Theo knows this before it begins, because while his battered body can handle a lot of things, he is the last line of defense standing before the man that they all want to kill so badly. Too many surrogates. Too many pokémon.
He’s shouting orders to his scattered team in a frenzy, trying to distract two trainers at once, anything to buy Geechisu more time. Carys had been there too, at the start, pleading with him to change his mind before it was too late-but now she’s busy somewhere else, probably fighting N. Probably winning against N. But they have to try.
Adrian is there too, standing stock-still on the battlefield with that same horrified look on his face as when Carys told him everything, told him the truth. He’s not moving to help one side or the other-he’s not moving. If Theo had the time had the energy had the choice he’d seize his best friend and take him somewhere else, away from this. Adrian doesn’t need to fight. But it’s too late to get him out of here, because now Theo is trapped in the prison he built with his own devotion.
And now Adrian is going to have to watch him die. And there’s nothing either of them can do.
-
They say time slows down to a stop when you’re dying, but Theo thinks it’s a lie.
Thirty-four minutes into the battle, this is what happens:
His Magneton finally faints. Theo moves to grab his pokéball to recall it, but suddenly his legs give out-his vision blurs; he can’t see anything. Stumbling to his knees from dizziness, he doesn’t notice the blue-haired girl he’s been fighting suddenly screaming to the other Surrogates that she’s got one, she’s got an opening.
At the same time, he sees the silhouette of an approaching pokémon, the one that finally knocked out his Magneton.
He can hear Geechisu trying to flee, finding himself cut off on all sides.
Theo can suddenly hear Adrian’s voice shouting his name, recognize Carys’ distant scream of terror without seeing either of them.
The blue-haired girl (what’s her number? her name?) calls her attack, and even before the words have completely left her mouth Theo’s world becomes nothing but agony.
He’s dying, but-the fast beat of his heart, the sounds in his ears, the energy in the air-Theo’s never felt so alive.
-
Theo’s dead, and Adrian’s not.
It was always going to be like that, but-but nobody told him. Nobody told Adrian anything until it was too late, and now he’s shattered beyond repair.
“We made it,” Cary’s gasps, stumbling toward him, and Adrian realizes with a kind of numb horror that one of her arms is a mangled, bloody mess, snapped at the elbow. A pokémon did that. “Adrian, it’s over. We’re free.”
“'e’s dead,” Adrian mumbles, staring blankly into the space ahead of him. Turning away from her. “Th-Theo’s dead.”
A pause. “I know,” she says, her voice small, but before she can continue another voice interrupts.
“Good riddance,” Lilith hisses, clutching her bleeding abdomen from her position bleeding on the ground. “Do you have any idea what he was trying to do to us? Wake up. He was working for that monster. He died a monster.”
Something in Adrian goes cold. He looks at Carys first-she won’t meet his eyes, tears slipping down her face as she stares at the ground. The other Surrogates around them turn away when he looks at them or ignore him completely. Tending to their own wounds. They don’t care. They don’t care that one of his friends is dead. That his life is upside-down. That everything he did was for nothing, that his parents are long gone, that he doesn’t even know who he is anymore.
“He wasn’-he wasn’ a bad person!” Adrian screams, whirling around to look at each of them in turn. “He wasn’ evil! He was my friend! Th’ hell’s wrong with all of you-”
“Adrian, Adrian,” Carys murmers, voice cracking.
He sobs brokenly and presses his face into his hands.
TITLE: (Dying) Alone
AUTHOR: Minder, minderwritesit
FANDOM(S): pokedressing, surrogaterealm
CHARACTER(S): Theo, Adrian (Carys, Geechisu, mentions of other Surrogates).
PROMPT: 143. Memorial. Inspired partially by Letty's fic, What happens when all the world is a lie?
RECIPIENT: silverstilletto
RATING: PG
WARNINGS: Light violence, descriptions of blood & injuries, death.
SPOILERS?: Well, if/when the Big Damn Surrogate-fight happens, there's a possibility it might go something like this. (But probably not.)
PREVIEW/SUMMARY: Fragments from the final battle. "They're both dead, but Adrian still has to breathe."
WORD COUNT: 727
Adrian lives, and Theo dies.
That’s how it has to be.
-
They say time slows down to a stop when you’re dying, but Theo thinks it’s a lie. Everything is racing at a million miles an hour.
It’s his last battle. Theo knows this before it begins, because while his battered body can handle a lot of things, he is the last line of defense standing before the man that they all want to kill so badly. Too many surrogates. Too many pokémon.
He’s shouting orders to his scattered team in a frenzy, trying to distract two trainers at once, anything to buy Geechisu more time. Carys had been there too, at the start, pleading with him to change his mind before it was too late-but now she’s busy somewhere else, probably fighting N. Probably winning against N. But they have to try.
Adrian is there too, standing stock-still on the battlefield with that same horrified look on his face as when Carys told him everything, told him the truth. He’s not moving to help one side or the other-he’s not moving. If Theo had the time had the energy had the choice he’d seize his best friend and take him somewhere else, away from this. Adrian doesn’t need to fight. But it’s too late to get him out of here, because now Theo is trapped in the prison he built with his own devotion.
And now Adrian is going to have to watch him die. And there’s nothing either of them can do.
-
They say time slows down to a stop when you’re dying, but Theo thinks it’s a lie.
Thirty-four minutes into the battle, this is what happens:
His Magneton finally faints. Theo moves to grab his pokéball to recall it, but suddenly his legs give out-his vision blurs; he can’t see anything. Stumbling to his knees from dizziness, he doesn’t notice the blue-haired girl he’s been fighting suddenly screaming to the other Surrogates that she’s got one, she’s got an opening.
At the same time, he sees the silhouette of an approaching pokémon, the one that finally knocked out his Magneton.
He can hear Geechisu trying to flee, finding himself cut off on all sides.
Theo can suddenly hear Adrian’s voice shouting his name, recognize Carys’ distant scream of terror without seeing either of them.
The blue-haired girl (what’s her number? her name?) calls her attack, and even before the words have completely left her mouth Theo’s world becomes nothing but agony.
He’s dying, but-the fast beat of his heart, the sounds in his ears, the energy in the air-Theo’s never felt so alive.
-
Theo’s dead, and Adrian’s not.
It was always going to be like that, but-but nobody told him. Nobody told Adrian anything until it was too late, and now he’s shattered beyond repair.
“We made it,” Cary’s gasps, stumbling toward him, and Adrian realizes with a kind of numb horror that one of her arms is a mangled, bloody mess, snapped at the elbow. A pokémon did that. “Adrian, it’s over. We’re free.”
“'e’s dead,” Adrian mumbles, staring blankly into the space ahead of him. Turning away from her. “Th-Theo’s dead.”
A pause. “I know,” she says, her voice small, but before she can continue another voice interrupts.
“Good riddance,” Lilith hisses, clutching her bleeding abdomen from her position bleeding on the ground. “Do you have any idea what he was trying to do to us? Wake up. He was working for that monster. He died a monster.”
Something in Adrian goes cold. He looks at Carys first-she won’t meet his eyes, tears slipping down her face as she stares at the ground. The other Surrogates around them turn away when he looks at them or ignore him completely. Tending to their own wounds. They don’t care. They don’t care that one of his friends is dead. That his life is upside-down. That everything he did was for nothing, that his parents are long gone, that he doesn’t even know who he is anymore.
“He wasn’-he wasn’ a bad person!” Adrian screams, whirling around to look at each of them in turn. “He wasn’ evil! He was my friend! Th’ hell’s wrong with all of you-”
“Adrian, Adrian,” Carys murmers, voice cracking.
He sobs brokenly and presses his face into his hands.