Title: Shrine
Author: Shadow/Phantomness
Pairing: Championshipping (Lance x Ash/Red)
Fandom: Pokémon
Theme: #4, Church
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Warnings: AU, Character deaths, OC, shonen-ai

When it all comes down to it, things are blurry. He remembers the rain pouring down from above and turning a green field into churning mud, remembers pokémon falling and dying and tears running down his face as he fights his way to the front, remembers calling for the power in his heart and forming the Legendary Sword as he strikes down the enemy.

But that’s the worst part, because even though he managed to call the power, it was the lives of the others who paid his fee.

He thinks of the ones who are dead. Charlotte, who drowned trying to bring them information, Lance, who took the Hyper Beam for him and shattered, Koga and Aya, who stayed behind to defend their base as the others escaped, Sabrina and Karen, driven insane into quick death trying to read the minds of distant pokémon to divine their future, Morty and Will, who lost their souls trying to cross the barriers of life and death to call for aid from Houen…

He is the only one left.

So after the people rebuild, he makes a shrine, a beautiful shrine, of polished marble, and the pokémon dig deep into the earth and bring gems, emerald and ruby and sapphire, gold and silver, and they help. They build a monument to all the ones who have fallen in battle to bring freedom.

And one morning, the high priestess finds Red dead as well, lying between the statues of his lover and his sister.

After their deaths, the legends spread, about the Lords and Ladies who fought the great army, the Lord of Dragons and the Lady of Flame, and the Legendary Hero, the Chosen One. They also speak of their followers, the Lesser Lords and Ladies, of the Mind and the Darkness and the Spirits, so many fallen…

But while they speak, the Lord of Dragons holds the Chosen One close, and they live in the Realm outside of Time and watch the world they have created blossom.

And they are content.

End Fic

Completed 9/15/06

More fanon, squee!