📚The Bridge People No Longer Cross

Diana is contacted to try and find answers, and her new travel companion may be the one to help her find them.

Characters: Arael, Diana, Carnation

Warnings: N/A

Wordcount: 2,051

Vibe: the MYSTERY…………

something more lore related! pieces of past writings are sort of coming together here 👀 oooooh spooky

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“Didn’t you… get aggressively chased out last time, though?”

Diana’s tone wasn’t one of confidence.

“Yeah, and we were also sworn enemies back then. Things change!” Arael huffed in response.

“I wouldn’t quite say we were enemies, but…”

It’d been a week since Isa’s aunt was attacked and left clinging to life.

Up until that point, Isa and her newfound friend Beck were just playing an amateurish game of paranormal investigation… but whatever was going was far more serious, and even moreso sinister.

Still, Diana was none the wiser to it all, and was quite surprised when Isa called her out of the blue.

She had spent the better part of her last 2 years of highschool crushing on her, and figured they’d probably never meet again after Isa moved to the Craterlands.

The two weren’t exactly the closest of friends, but… Isa did know that Diana was smart, and that Diana was particularly smart with the subject of anomalies.

With Isa’s aunt out of commission, Diana was her best shot at… anything.

When the call arrived, Diana coincidentally had a new companion trailing her as well.

Arael initially approached Diana to apologize. Her destructive outburst that Diana had to face was a mess of its own – and though words would never be enough, Arael wanted to try and do right.

Diana thought it’d just be that.

But it didn’t take long for Arael to come back, this time… worried.

Arael’s aunt, a woman named Daichi, was the ambassador and captain of the Craterland’s cosmonaut program.

A little over two months prior, after a strange impact allegedly from the inverted sea above, Daichi had been joined by a strange new co-captain named Id.

…Arael didn’t need to be in tune with anomalous wavelengths to pick up that Id was anything but good news. She was worried about her aunt, to say the least of it.

And the pieces started to come together.

Diana was, admittedly, absolutely terrified. She didn’t have the power to stand up to an entity that had only been described as a malevolent powerhouse. In the past, she’d had her friends, but…

Dory was busy catching up on work.

Hajime was preparing for his master’s thesis.

Dokuro was always too flaky unless Dory was dragging him around.

Yukarin was… somewhere.

That’s when Arael made the offer.

Diana was hesitant, but figured she didn’t have much else of a choice.

Which… led to the present.

Between Diana and Arael’s families that included beings of divinity, nobody could think of what could possibly be afoot.

Logically, a being powerful enough to scare the likes of Tonantzintla and Arael could only be the Skymother herself… but Skymother was kind, and preoccupied elsewhere.

In a different dimension level of elsewhere.

It was a dead end, at least until Arael got the ‘bright idea’ of… venturing into the Deepwoods of the Ultra Forest.

Yes, it was dark, and dangerous… but because of that, it was untouched. It was the most common source of pre Darkest Day relics.

And to Arael, she figured maybe they had to dig deeper than any living being would know.

Even though Diana was a bit resistant to the idea, she eventually gave in when she started thinking of the logistics.

The Deepwoods were dangerous, yes… but regardless of the fact that Arael had gotten chased out when the two last met there, Diana was able venture there fine with her friends – and Arael was easily more powerful than them combined.

Besides… the train ride there was usually nice. With everything going on right now in Diana’s life, she could probably use the break.

While Diana had expected Arael to be chatty during the train ride, she was surprised to find that she fell asleep pretty quickly. So, Diana was left to stare out the window at the passing scenery to herself.

Diana eventually had to shake Arael awake upon arrival, and in return was given a yelp that scared everyone else in the train car.

Arael didn’t seem to care, but Diana wanted to hide her face away for the entire time the two made their way over to the outskirts of the Deepwoods.

It was familiar signage – maintained and mostly cleaned from moss, but still worn enough that one could tell they’d been there for a while.

STOP.

Prevent your death. Go no farther.

It was ominous, to say the least. Even with someone as powerful as Arael… Diana would be lying to herself to think she wasn’t anxious.

Arael didn’t even break her stride though, and Diana quickly had to scamper up to her after she had been looking over the warnings.

Deeper, darker… the trees grew denser, and the light beaming through the canopy dimmed out.

At a certain point, Arael snapped the fingers of her large clawed hand and summoned an orb of light to illuminate their surroundings.

“I… I know it helps with seeing things, but is such a harsh light a good idea, you think…?” Diana asked, her voice hushed.

“Pft, if anything is attracted by it, I’ll just blast em to bits! Easy peasy.” Arael replied.

…Arael’s response didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

Diana was doing her best to tread quietly as she continued, though every crunch on grass and leaves below her feet had her on edge.

As the duo continued on, Diana ended up subconsciously looking around for anything interesting sticking out of the ground a lot less, and began drifting closer to Arael – and eventually, bumped into her.

The two stumbled, and eventually tripped over eachother – crashing to the ground with a loud snapping of twigs. Arael lost ‘hold’ of her orb of light, and the two were plunged into darkness.

“Shit! Fuck! Damn it!” Arael exclaimed loudly, spooked by the sudden collision and change of lighting.

“Ah, be quiet!” Diana mumbled, before starting to feel around.

“Where did you go?”

Arael promptly summoned up another orb of light, though this one was smaller – only illuminating Diana and herself to allow them to get their bearings.

But after Arael’s eyes adjusted and her gaze drifted around past Diana’s face… another face was definitely the last thing she wanted to see.

Diana’s stomach dropped when she saw Arael’s expression become horrified – knowing that there was definitely, absolutely something behind her that shouldn’t be there.

Though the pause was only a few seconds, the mutual horror felt like it went on for forever. At least, until…

“Boo.”

The duo both let out a shriek, and Arael released a loose laser – which, thankfully, didn’t hit anything but a nearby tree – which it set alight.

The burning tree and groundcover provided a bit more light, and as Diana and Arael clung to each other, they could more clearly see… the culprit.

“Bwahaha, oh MAN! You should totally see the LOOK of your faces right now! That was priceless!!”

…It was a woman. She looked older than Diana and Arael, but likely wasn’t older than her 30’s. Though, on closer investigation… she showed very clear signs of being an android. From her visible circuitry to partially eroded ‘skin’ showing a more robotic joint on her knee, there was no doubting it.

But… why would an android be out here?

“HEY, FUCK YOU!!” Arael shouted, pointing an accusatory finger.

“You better have an explanation, or I’m blasting your fuckin’ ass into scrap metal!!”

“Arael!! Calm down!” Diana cried, as she pulled Aral back a bit from their still interlinked arms.

“Hey, more like, what’s YOUR explanation, huh?!” the android woman huffed.

“I mean, you look more than old enough to read, right?! Didn’t you see the signs??”

“You got five more seconds until I obliterate you, unless you stop screwing around!” Arael growled in response, her clawed hand poised in a shooting position and beginning to crackle with energy.

“Man, geez, alright! Stop it!! I understand you’re not normal dumbass teens, ok?!” the android said.

Arael’s claw stopped gathering energy.

“You’re a lot deeper in than any stupid troublemakers could ever get… which is why I even found you two.” The android explained.

“My name is Carnation. I’m, er… the ‘goddess’ enshrined in a nearby shrine here.”

“Goddess?” Arael asked, her expression shifting from anger to confusion.

“You’re an android though, right?”

“Well, yeah, of course I am!” Carnation groaned.

“Look – follow me to the shrine, and we can talk more, kay? I don’t like to stand out here too long…”

Diana and Arael glanced over at each other, and then back to Carnation before nodding.

Whatever they’d wandered into, it certainly was… something. But whether it would be a lead or not, time could only tell.

The walk to the shrine was fairly short – and the building didn’t seem to look like a shrine at all. It was a concrete structure, with a heavily overgrown exterior.

Carnation entered a combination on a keypad once the group approached, and a mechanical access door opened up.

The inside of the ‘shrine’ didn’t look like much of a shrine either. If anything, it resembled some kind of research facility, if not… a dated one. In fact, Diana didn’t think she’d seen any of the technology in it before.

Past the ‘lobby’, the group made it into a room that reflected Carnation’s appeared tastes a bit more – being, it was very… pink.

There, carnation collapsed into a pink shag-furred beanbag, and motioned for Diana and Arael to take a seat on a nearby couch.

And so, Carnation explained…

She was an android from before the Darkest Day. This ‘shrine’ was the facility she was kept in, until she was deactivated in a rush during the apocalyptic chaos.

However, she’d been rediscovered by a small group of people, who reactivated her and acted as her ‘shrinekeepers’.

“They’re, uh, out right now, they’re not here all the time.” Carnation nodded.

“But I don’t think they’d mind visitors that seem to know what they’re doing, or whatevs.”

Diana nodded.

“From before the Darkest Day though… how… how far does your, er, memory go back? We came out here looking to find clues about something a bit like that.”

“Hmm…” Carnation hummed, resting her chin on her hand.

“It’s pretty spotty, but maybe I’ve got something? Just ask.”

“Well…” Diana said with an inhale.

“Arael and I are looking for information on… some kind of… powerful, divine entity. But… one that’s NOT the Skymother or Necrozma. We’ve looked everywhere, so this was kind of our last resort.”

“Huh, that’s a loaded question, alright…” Carnation mumbled.

“It’s worth a shot though, if you kids came… all the way out here to try and find answers. Give me a sec!”

Before either Arael or Diana could say much, Carnation’s body suddenly went limp, and she appeared to begin emitting a very robotic processing noise.

It was offputting to witness, so Arael and Diana sort of just sat in silence for the five or so minutes that Carnation was ‘out’.

When Carnation came back, her body robotically twitched a bit before she shook it off and sat upright again – with a smile.

“You’re like, not gonna believe this… I think I actually had something that I think could be useful!!”

“Wait, seriously?!” Arael replied.

“Yeah, at least, maybe? It’s just a photograph of an old mural… I think our printer here is still broken, but I can describe it!”

“I mean, if that’s the best you can do…” Arael said with a shrug.

So, Carnation started…

It’s a photograph of an old-looking mural, featuring two figures. On one side, a figure recognizable as The Skymother can be seen. She is backed by many smaller figures, huddled behind her.

On the opposing side, there’s a shadow-black figure with many eyes – it appears that The Skymother is using her power to send this figure into the sea above.

“What does… the shadow guy look like? Like in more detail?” Arael asked, her tone filled with nervous anticipation.

“Well I mean, they’ve got ears and a tail?” Carnation answered.

“…What kind? Detail, c’mon!!”

“Alright, chillax!!” Carnation huffed.

“Hmm… it’s a bit abstract, but it’d say… foxlike?”

Foxlike…

Arael paused, and as Diana looked over to her, the expression on her face told her everything she needed to know.

That whoever was in this mural…

Must be the mastermind.